Did he understand?

Jing Ning was sure, but Sui Yuesheng, a bit confused, thought for a moment before nodding.

He should understand.

In Sui Yuesheng’s memory, the small Tao Fengche was almost like a little angel with a halo and wings. Although occasionally a bit troublesome, he had a natural healing ability, almost like a warm, glowing little sun.

Sui Yuesheng had been struggling in the mire, and facing this ray of light piercing through the darkness, he couldn’t help but want to approach, yet feared being burned… even more afraid that he might taint Tao Fengche with his own darkness, eventually dragging them both into a hopeless situation.

So he always felt it was better to keep his distance, to simply watch from afar and know that he was doing well.

Unfortunately, the Fates’ spinning wheel turned and turned, and countless coincidences came together. He found himself back on this familiar yet strange land, seeing the person who had grown up so much.

Though he was in the rebellious phase of youth and occasionally spoke in ways that made one wish to give him a good beating, he was warmer than before most of the time.

Sui Yuesheng finally nodded with difficulty: “Alright.”

Jing Ning let out a sigh of relief. Afraid that Sui Yuesheng might get stuck in a dead end, he quickly changed the subject: “Your schedule has been chaotic lately. Is your pheromone still stable?”

Since returning to the country, Sui Yuesheng had not managed to ensure eight hours of sleep, and with the recent pheromone leakage incident, Jing Ning had been anxious, fearing that one day the headlines across the entire country would be something like “Tao Family Leader In Heat On The Spot, Real Gender Revealed to be Omega.” This anxiety peaked after receiving Sui Yuesheng’s call for emotional support tonight—

Perhaps soon, Sui Yuesheng’s pheromone might no longer be manageable with medication alone.

This thought kept turning in Jing Ning’s mind, but he didn’t know how to broach the subject with Sui Yuesheng.

—Should he just tell him directly: If you want to keep your pheromone concealed and pretend to be a mundane, harmless beta who is never controlled by pheromones, you should quickly find a highly compatible alpha to sleep with, preferably develop into a steady partner, let him give you a temporary mark, then inject and take medication appropriately…?

But given Sui Yuesheng’s personality and strong pride, asking him to sleep with an alpha to suppress his pheromones would be akin to asking him to die.

To Sui Yuesheng, this would be sheer humiliation.

From what Jing Ning knew of him, if he dared to say such a thing, Sui Yuesheng would react in one of two ways—either he would think Jing Ning was overreacting and overly fussy, or he would believe Jing Ning had lost his mind.

Jing Ning had hinted many times, said what needed to be said until he was almost hoarse, but Sui Yuesheng remained unmoved, treating all this as background noise.

Now, besides letting Sui Yuesheng learn the hard way and realize the seriousness of the issue, Jing Ning couldn’t think of any other way.

…God bless that Sui Yuesheng still carried medication and a gun.

Jing Ning silently prayed.

Sui Yuesheng had no idea what Jing Ning was contemplating. The topic had shifted so quickly that he almost couldn’t keep up with Jing Ning’s train of thought and answered somewhat blankly, “Everything is normal.”

Except for the incident caused by intense exercise earlier, there hadn’t been any issues over the years, and he had always followed medical advice and taken his medication on time.

“That’s good.” Jing Ning felt a weight lift off his shoulders and quickly said, “It’s getting late. You should go to bed. If you can’t sleep, you can take a bit of melatonin, but it’s better to avoid sleep aids.”

“I know, I haven’t taken melatonin for a while.” Sui Yuesheng suddenly became serious, “Regular use of sleep aids can lead to dependency and is not good for your health. Xiao Che gives me warm milk every night now, which is quite effective.”

Jing Ning: “…”

In all those years, I repeatedly advised you to be careful with sleep aids to avoid addiction, but you never listened!

Jing Ning would never forget Sui Yuesheng’s dismissive expression back then.

…And why did that sentence sound so strange?

It seemed the emphasis was on the latter part of the sentence, and it even sounded a bit boastful…?

So having a younger brother is impressive!

Just now he was on the phone “complaining,” and now he’s showing off?!

Jing Ning muttered to himself, feeling that if Sui Yuesheng kept this up, he might end up with half-gray hair.

The unaging director sighed and said earnestly, “Then quickly finish your milk and go to bed. Good night.”

“Okay.” Sui Yuesheng didn’t say more. After moving the phone away from his ear, he pressed the hang-up button.

The milk in the cup had already been finished during his medication, with not a drop left. Only a lingering sweet and rich aftertaste remained in his mouth. Sui Yuesheng smacked his lips, and for a moment, even hesitated to rinse his mouth.

But he eventually used his remarkable self-discipline to force himself into the bathroom, brushing his teeth meticulously and using mouthwash carefully. After turning minty-fresh, he went to bed and quickly fell asleep.

…

School was starting on Wednesday. Early Tuesday morning, Tao Fengche completed the handover of his work to the new researchers at the institute, obtained his internship certificate from Jing Ning, and went home before noon.

Thanks to Tao Fengche occasionally sending homework answers over the summer, Wang Yuan managed to finish his homework ahead of time for the first time ever, instead of burning the midnight oil two days before school started. He felt quite accomplished, a real turn of fortune.

Upon hearing that Tao Fengche was home, Wang Yuan quickly sent a message, sincerely inviting him to join him for some gaming to relax and commemorate the gone summer.

After a busy summer, sitting in a classroom reading was clearly much more stable and satisfying compared to working at the institute and handling firearms. Tao Fengche, about to return to being a simple student, spent less than half a minute considering and agreed happily, then opened his game software.

Just a way to balance work and relaxation, he thought.

But he didn’t expect that playing would make him lose track of time until nearly ten at night. When Sui Yuesheng came to check on summer homework after finishing an international meeting, Tao Fengche belatedly realized he had even forgotten to go to the gym today.

…People really shouldn’t indulge themselves. Stupid games, ruining my youth!

Tao Fengche lamented internally, feeling inexplicably guilty in front of Sui Yuesheng, even avoiding eye contact and lowering his head as he pushed his completed homework one by one to Sui Yuesheng, completely in a submissive stance, as if he had grown fluffy ears that would fold down in embarrassment.

But Sui Yuesheng didn’t think there was anything wrong with Tao Fengche occasionally playing a game—having seen more extreme behaviors in his overseas study years, Tao Fengche was already quite well-behaved.

He pretended not to see the quickly closed game page, checked Tao Fengche’s homework one by one, signed the internship certificate with flourish, and asked, “How was your internship certificate handled before? Does it need the Tao family’s official seal, or is my personal seal sufficient?”

It was as if he was ready to call Assistant Zhou over immediately to have the document stamped at the company if Tao Fengche just nodded.

“No need, no need.” Tao Fengche quickly waved his hand, “I’m interning at the research institute, and their seal plus Director Jing’s signature will suffice. No need to take it back to the headquarters.”

Besides, getting the company’s seal and the chairman’s personal seal would seem too extravagant…

Tao Fengche silently complained.

“Alright.” Sui Yuesheng, unfamiliar with the procedures and standards of domestic schools, didn’t mind Tao Fengche’s refusal. After recalling his schedule for tomorrow, he suddenly asked, “Do you need me to take you to school tomorrow?”

“Ah—?!”

Tao Fengche, sitting at his desk while Sui Yuesheng stood beside him, turned his head in surprise with such force that he almost twisted his neck.

He struggled to control his facial muscles to avoid showing an ugly expression in front of Sui Yuesheng.

“You’re starting your senior year and it’s the first day of school. I thought I’d take you.”

Sui Yuesheng’s tone was calm, and his expression gave no clue to his feelings. Only the omitted subject in the last sentence gave Tao Fengche a glimpse of his mood.

…Sui Yuesheng is nervous.

The words of refusal were on the tip of his tongue, but now he couldn’t say them.

Why would I need a ride? I’m not a first-grader who needs a parent to drop me off. Even my old man never did that… Tao Fengche thought to himself, but couldn’t help feeling pleased at the idea of “Sui Yuesheng taking him to school.”

Tao Fengche had indeed never been in a relationship, but that didn’t mean he was completely ignorant about the basic aspects of being in one.

Setting aside the suggestive glances and words from betas and omegas, with someone like Wang Yuan, a warm-hearted alpha with a wide social circle, Tao Fengche simply couldn’t avoid it.

He had been forced to learn a lot of “knowledge” — things like couple avatars, changing social media background photos to each other’s pictures, having lunch together, holding hands to and from school…

Even though he attended an international high school where students were either wealthy or influential, dating usually involved just a few things like these.

And now, with Sui Yuesheng saying he would take him to school, Tao Fengche believed that if he asked, even without making it explicit, Sui Yuesheng would find time, no matter how busy he was, and would actively offer to pick him up after school.

The little devil in his heart was blushing, flapping its wings in the air, even performing some difficult aerial stunts. Tao Fengche forcefully pressed it down and pretended to be considerate: “Wouldn’t this be too much of a burden on your work?”