Perhaps heat made people sentimental, or perhaps Pei Yumian had never before received such single-minded favor.
Looking at He Qingye’s handsome face, Pei Yumian suddenly asked:
“What if I weren’t your wife?”
He Qingye frantically waved his hands at the camera.
“Impossible. My wife could only ever be you. If it weren’t you, I wouldn’t marry anyone.”
Pei Yumian knew perfectly well those words came from the eighteen-year-old He Qingye, but he still could not stop his heart from stirring.
If only the He Qingye who married him back then had been this eighteen-year-old version…
Realizing what he was thinking, Pei Yumian gave a bitter smile. He covered the camera and said to He Qingye:
“I’m tired. I’m going to rest. Don’t forget to take your medicine and exercise.”
He Qingye nodded in obvious disappointment.
“Then rest, Wife.”
Pei Yumian ended the video. The phone screen automatically went dark, and he looked at his own reflection in it before covering his face.
He should not think like that. The fact that He Qingye had selected him for an arranged marriage was already an enormous favor. He had no right to hope for anything more.
He only needed to take good care of He Qingye during this period of amnesia and preserve the He family’s dignity.
Then, once He Qingye recovered, whether they divorced or continued as a married couple only in name, he could still go on living with a clear conscience.
It was just that the room suddenly seemed so empty that he could hear even the sound of his own breathing.
Pei Yumian’s depression lasted only a little while. After comforting himself, he stood, pushed the cart outside, and went to the bathroom to wash up.
Modern suppressants caused almost no harm to omegas anymore, but they still had mild side effects such as increased sleepiness and overthinking. Compared with losing control of themselves during heat, omegas had long since accepted those effects.
Pei Yumian only remembered this before falling asleep. So it was not that he was indulging in wishful thinking. It had to be the suppressant’s side effects making him overthink things.
With that thought, Pei Yumian fell asleep.
In the middle of the night, Pei Yumian woke from the heat. Panting, he pushed away the blanket.
The bedroom had once again filled with the sweet-and-sour scent of grapefruit. Pei Yumian got out of bed and staggered into the bathroom.
Standing beneath the shower, Pei Yumian braced one hand against the wall and bit his lower lip. Perhaps because this heat had arrived too suddenly, the suppressant had not worked quite as well and had left behind some physiological reactions.
Under the warm water, Pei Yumian slowly soothed the grapefruit blossom.
After the flower bloomed, it withered again and disappeared with the flowing water.
The next second, threads of tingling numbness spread through his body. Pei Yumian’s legs weakened, and he nearly fell, but fortunately he managed to keep himself upright against the wall.
He Qingye’s face suddenly appeared in Pei Yumian’s mind. If only He Qingye were here right now.
As he waited for himself to recover completely, Pei Yumian despised himself. He Qingye had merely taken a little care of him, and now he was thinking of the man at a time like this.
After everything was dealt with, Pei Yumian was wide awake instead. He sat on a high stool by the window and watched the moon through the glass.
After staring until his eyes grew sore, Pei Yumian changed his sheets and duvet cover, then went back to sleep.
The next morning, no one disturbed him. Pei Yumian slept until he woke naturally. There were none of the embarrassing reactions from the night before, so the suppressant’s effects were still stable after all.
Only after washing up did Pei Yumian turn on his phone and check his messages. First, he told Qin You about his physical condition, then asked how Xiaopang was doing.
Qin You: [Rest properly. Don’t worry about Qingye.]
[Xiaopang… don’t worry. I can handle him.]
After living with Qin You for three years, Pei Yumian was completely familiar with her way of speaking.
The moment she said that, Pei Yumian knew Xiaopang had caused trouble again. He silently added two offenses to Xiaopang’s mental ledger, planning to settle them one by one when the child came back.
After leaving Qin You’s chat, Pei Yumian finally noticed the red ellipsis above his message thread with He Qingye.
He did not notice the slight curve of his own lips. With one tap, He Qingye’s messages appeared in front of him.
They were all over the place: starting with He Qingye being unable to sleep last night, moving to what he had dreamed about, and then to wishing Pei Yumian good morning.
After that came what breakfast he had made for Pei Yumian and questions about when Pei Yumian would wake up.
He Qingye’s final message read:
[Wife, I miss you so much. We haven’t seen each other for eleven hours and thirty-two minutes.]
Pei Yumian checked the time. After confirming it was not He Qingye’s rehabilitation session, he directly started a video call.
This time it rang a few seconds longer. Just as Pei Yumian began to think He Qingye might be busy, He Qingye’s handsome face suddenly appeared on screen.
“Wife, you’re awake!”
Pei Yumian noticed something smeared across He Qingye’s face.
“What’s on your face?”
He Qingye smiled freely and reached up to wipe it away, only to smear more of it across his face. Giving up, he simply turned the camera around, his voice full of pride.
“Wife, look! I wrapped these dumplings myself. They’re about to go into the pot.”
Pei Yumian had not felt particularly hungry a moment ago, but after seeing the misshapen dumplings on the counter, he suddenly realized he really was hungry.
“Okay. I’ll wait for your dumplings.”
The camera turned again, and He Qingye’s smiling face reappeared before Pei Yumian.
Feeling the seriousness in He Qingye’s gaze, Pei Yumian suddenly did not know what to say and instinctively tried to escape.
“Let’s hang up for now.”
He Qingye’s expression changed dramatically and he hurried to stop him.
“No, no, no, Wife. I got up early just to learn how to cook. For the sake of all that effort, let me look at you a little longer, okay?”
Embarrassed, Pei Yumian pressed his lips together. His ears felt hot.
“What’s there to look at?”
He Qingye’s expression turned serious as he stared intently at Pei Yumian.
“You’re beautiful. My wife is the most beautiful.”
After hearing that answer, Pei Yumian felt the heat in his ears spread across his face. Not wanting He Qingye to notice, he hurriedly ended the call, then sent a message.
[Hurry up and cook the dumplings. I’m hungry.]
He Qingye replied with a cheeky sticker.
[As you command, Wife.jpg]
Pei Yumian stared at the sticker, then finally pressed and held the screen and saved the message.
Once He Qingye recovered his memories, if he ever made Pei Yumian angry, Pei Yumian would pull out this sticker and embarrass him with it.
A little over ten minutes later, He Qingye sent another message.
[Wife! Dumplings delivered. Please enjoy!]
Pei Yumian replied only with [Mm], then rather eagerly opened the door and pulled the little serving cart inside.
The dumplings were oddly shaped, but they smelled wonderful. Beside them was a small dish of vinegar.
Full of anticipation, Pei Yumian carried the plate to the table and began enjoying the result of several hours of He Qingye’s work.
They were not as delicious as the nanny’s, but for some inexplicable reason Pei Yumian felt deeply satisfied. In the end, he actually finished the entire large plate.
Out of respect for the cook, Pei Yumian took a photo of the empty plate and sent it to He Qingye.
[Photo]
[It was delicious. Thank you for your hard work.]
Before Pei Yumian could even leave the chat window, He Qingye’s reply arrived.
[If Wife likes it, it’s my honor!]
[So can I have a little reward~]
He Qingye had cooked two meals in a row, both things Pei Yumian liked. Pei Yumian felt he really did deserve a reward, so he typed back:
[What reward do you want?]
He Qingye: [I want to keep a video call with you open all the time, even while we sleep.]
Pei Yumian did not understand how that counted as a reward. But since he had already decided to give He Qingye one, naturally whatever He Qingye wanted, Pei Yumian would give.
Pei Yumian tapped the video-call button, and He Qingye’s face appeared.
He Qingye’s cheeks were bulging. Pei Yumian realized he was eating too.
Pei Yumian did not rush to speak. Only after He Qingye swallowed did he say:
“Let the nanny cook dinner tonight.”
He Qingye’s happy expression immediately collapsed.
“Wife, what’s wrong? You didn’t like it?”
Pei Yumian could not understand why the eighteen-year-old He Qingye was so obsessed with cooking for him. It was only a heat, not an illness.
Pei Yumian patiently explained:
“Cooking is tiring. I want you to take care of your own body first.”
A smile returned to He Qingye’s face.
“That’s nothing. It won’t tire me out. I think I might be a cooking genius. The moment I step into the kitchen, I feel like I can make any dish easily.”
Pei Yumian formed a bold suspicion. Perhaps He Qingye was not a cooking genius at all. Perhaps sometime after age eighteen, he had genuinely learned how to cook.
But the He Qingye from back then had looked as if ordinary worldly life itself could not touch him. How could a man like that ever have gone into a kitchen?
Pei Yumian pushed the thought away, praised He Qingye a couple of times for being a cooking genius, and let the matter pass.
Having received approval, He Qingye’s confidence soared. He immediately decided he would cook Pei Yumian a grand meal.
Pei Yumian looked at him, wanting to laugh but not daring to, and finally could only urge He Qingye to hurry up and eat.
He Qingye ate three large plates of dumplings before stopping. During the meal, Pei Yumian endured countless looks from him. It made Pei Yumian feel as if he were a side dish for He Qingye’s dumplings.
Look at him once, eat two dumplings.
Pei Yumian wondered whether Xiaopang and He Qingye had driven something wrong with his brain. How could he even imagine something like that?
After finishing and putting his plate away, He Qingye remained in the dining room and continued chatting with Pei Yumian.
“Wife, how many days does your heat usually take to end?”
Pei Yumian frowned slightly.
“It varies. Last time it ended after three days.”
An ordinary omega’s heat lasted at least five days, sometimes seven. Three days was clearly abnormal.
He Qingye asked nervously:
“Wife, is something wrong with your heat? Is it serious?”
Looking at the tension on He Qingye’s face, the last trace of irritation in Pei Yumian’s heart disappeared completely.
As his husband, He Qingye would have to learn about this sooner or later, so Pei Yumian calmly explained the reason.
“After I gave birth to Xiaopang, my heats became a little irregular. But it’s nothing serious.”
He Qingye’s expression became even more severe.
“How is that not serious? What did the doctor say? Do you need medicine?”
It was the same stern expression, yet Pei Yumian realized he no longer connected this eighteen-year-old He Qingye with the later He Qingye at all.
Pei Yumian shifted position and continued:
“The doctor said an alpha’s pheromones are more effective than medication.”
He Qingye’s face darkened.
“It’s all my fault. If I hadn’t…”
He Qingye had always believed the car accident itself had damaged his gland. After doctors discovered his amnesia, they had advised against telling him the truth, in case the psychological burden interfered with his recovery.
There had indeed been similar cases. An alpha who learned that pheromones had been forcibly extracted from his gland became unable to secrete pheromones normally ever again.
Seeing He Qingye blame himself now, Pei Yumian hesitated over whether he should tell him the truth.
Before Pei Yumian could decide, a familiar burning heat spread from his lower abdomen throughout his body. His cheeks flushed crimson, and he instinctively bit his lower lip to stop himself from making any shameful sound.
He Qingye’s self-reproach immediately turned to panic. He even started running upstairs.
“Wife? What’s wrong?! I’m coming right now!”
Pei Yumian hurriedly shouted:
“Don’t come up!”
The instant the words left his mouth, Pei Yumian regretted them. He had not expected his voice to become like this at such a moment. It was clearly a refusal, yet it sounded like a seductive, spoiled plea. It was unbearable.
He Qingye stopped. His breathing grew heavier.
“Wife?”
On the screen, Pei Yumian’s cheeks were flushed and his eyes glistened with moisture.
He Qingye’s Adam’s apple moved up and down.
“Wife, let me help you, okay?
