Chapter 3: Has he marked you already?

After six years away, Xu Lin had finally returned home. Little Fatty and Shitou took the lead in organizing a welcome banquet for him that evening.

With a single phone call, they summoned their friends. Around eight grown men bustled over from all corners of District Thirteen, lugging supplies with them. These were the same kids who used to follow Xu Lin around getting into trouble back in the day, but now they had all grown up into respectable young men.

They set up two tables pushed together in Pu Sha’s courtyard, bought barbecue and beer, and gathered around in a circle.

Little Fatty took a few gulps of beer and complained, “Too bad we couldn’t get everyone together today. It would’ve been way more lively if Dalong and the others were here.”

Xu Lin asked, “Are they all doing well?”

Shitou gnawed the meat off a skewer with his teeth, mumbling as he chewed, “They’re doing great. Dalong went to District Ten a few years ago to work. I think he’s at some auto factory. It’s dirty work, but the pay’s pretty good. He says he’s saving up money to come back and get married. It cracks me up—I’ve never seen him work that hard in my life!”

“I bet he’s just getting anxious seeing everyone else get married and have kids!”

“Hey, Little Fatty, Shitou, don’t just talk about others. Look at yourselves. Out of all of us here, you two and Dalong are the only ones still single. Get on it!”

“Pfft, what’s the big deal? We’re four golden bachelors now!” Little Fatty slung his arm around Xu Lin’s neck. “Our Xiao Lin-ge isn’t married either. If he’s not in a rush, why should we be? Am I right, Xiao Lin-ge?”

Xu Lin paused for a moment, his hand tightening involuntarily around his beer glass. After a beat, he pulled up the corners of his mouth and smiled. “That’s right.”

“How can you compare yourselves to Xiao Lin-ge? If he wanted to find someone, it’d be way easier for him than for you two! One of you’s a steamed bun and the other’s a bullfrog, hahaha!!!”

“Hey! Looking for a beating, are you? What did you just say?!”

Xu Lin watched these familiar faces in silence.

They were the same as before, yet somehow, not quite the same.

They still had that rowdy, boisterous energy. Whenever this group got together, they could raise the roof. But their appearances had completely shed their childishness; they had become steady adults.

Six years. Such a long, long time.

“Teacher! Come eat with us! What are you busy with?” Shitou yelled towards the house. “If you don’t come soon, Little Fatty will eat all the meat!”

“Coming.” Pu Sha walked out of the house carrying two plates—one of freshly stir-fried greens and one of cut fruit.

He set the plates on the table. A spot had been saved for him right next to Xu Lin, so Pu Sha naturally sat down beside him.

“Don’t just eat meat, you guys. Eat some vegetables too.

“Don’t drink too much.

“Don’t mix your drinks. If you get drunk, how are you going to get home later?”

Pu Sha was a natural worrier. As soon as he sat down, he started fussing over everyone. The people at the table were used to it and laughed as they acknowledged his words. Almost all of them had grown up listening to his nagging.

Xu Lin had too.

Pu Sha was their teacher. But to Xu Lin, he was even more than that—a benefactor whose kindness was as heavy as a mountain.

When Xu Lin was a child, wandering the streets with nowhere to go, Pu Sha had taken him in. He gave him food and clothing, taught him to read and write.

He was like a father and an elder brother combined. He was Xu Lin’s only family.

After finishing his round of instructions, Pu Sha produced a small box of washed strawberries like a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat and pushed it in front of Xu Lin.

“I bought these for you. Try them.”

Seeing Xu Lin staring at the strawberries without moving, Pu Sha said again, “Why aren’t you eating? They’re very sweet.”

Little Fatty, watching from the side, grinned and started teasing: “Teacher is so biased! Why don’t we get any strawberries?”

Someone else chimed in, “That’s right, that’s right! Are we only good enough for melons and grapes?”

They said this jokingly, all smiles. No one actually tried to take the strawberries from in front of Xu Lin.

Strawberries were very expensive in District Thirteen, but also very sweet. Every Chinese New Year in the past, Pu Sha would buy a box home, using the holiday as an excuse, and give one to each of the little birds under his care. Xu Lin loved them; he could savor a single strawberry for a long time.

Six years ago, when Xu Lin left home, Pu Sha had bought him a box—a whole pile of big, plump strawberries, stacked like a small mountain. But Xu Lin hadn’t even gotten to taste a single one before they were thrown away.

That suppressed regret had haunted him for six full years. Now, it finally seemed like he could let it go.

Xu Lin picked one up and took a bite. The sweetness was just as he remembered.

With his head bowed, he quietly and meticulously finished the entire box of strawberries. Pu Sha sat beside him, watching him eat with a gentle smile.

In this noisy, almost dilapidated little courtyard, Xu Lin felt as if he had finally grasped something he had lost and found again.

Suddenly, something seemed to lodge in his throat, making it hard to breathe. His eyes burned with heat. Before he could lose his composure, he rested his head on Pu Sha’s shoulder, acting spoiled just like he did as a child, “Thank you, Dad.”

Pu Sha said, “Don’t call me that.”

“Then thank you, Mom.”

As soon as he said it, the whole table of people started chiming in, calling Pu Sha “Mom” and “Dad” one after another, until Pu Sha’s head was spinning.

Pu Sha sighed and flicked Xu Lin’s forehead. “Look at you. The moment you’re back, they’re all following your lead and calling me nonsense.”

After several rounds of drinks, everyone was pretty much done. They lay sprawled out all over Pu Sha’s courtyard, either passed out or resting.

Seeing them like this, Pu Sha knew none of them would be going home tonight. He resignedly grabbed blankets and covered each of them one by one.

Xu Lin had also drunk quite a bit during the meal. Combined with not having rested well on his journey back, the alcohol hit him hard, and he drifted off to sleep, his head resting on the table.

When Pu Sha came around behind him to drape a jacket over him, his movements froze. The smile slowly faded from his face.

He saw a small square corner peeking out from under Xu Lin’s collar.

A wave of inexplicable unease instantly washed over him.

With trembling hands, he gently pulled back Xu Lin’s collar. When he saw what was there, his eyes flew wide open.

On the back of Xu Lin’s neck was an inhibitor patch.

That was something only omegas used. But Xu Lin… Xu Lin was clearly—

Xu Lin wasn’t sleeping deeply. Sensing an unusual touch at the back of his neck, the lingering pain ingrained in his very bones surged through his limbs like a tidal wave. Without thinking, he raised his hand to cover his nape and shot to his feet, his face displaying naked fear and alarm, looking as if he were facing a great enemy.

It was as if he had experienced this countless times before.

It was purely a physical instinct. When his eyes met Pu Sha’s stunned gaze, Xu Lin finally came back to his senses.

He was home now.

Those nightmares were all in the past.

But… Pu Sha had found out.

After coming back, Xu Lin had found an opportunity to change into a high-collared shirt specifically to hide this. He hadn’t wanted anyone to know.

Especially Pu Sha.

“…” Pu Sha was silent for a long time, reading the truth from Xu Lin’s reaction. His lips parted and closed several times before he could finally form the question, “What happened?

“Xu Lin, what happened? Why are you…”

Xu Lin clenched his jaw so tightly his lips wouldn’t part.

He couldn’t say it.

Pu Sha noticed his left hand hanging at his side. He caught a glimpse of something and his ears started ringing—the base of Xu Lin’s ring finger had a ring of skin slightly lighter than the surrounding area.

That was a mark left only by wearing a ring for a long time.

Xu Lin silently withdrew his hand, hiding it behind his back.

Pu Sha’s Adam’s apple bobbed. A terrifying suspicion suddenly arose in his mind. His breathing quickened, and he could barely stand. “You… you said you found a job in the main city for these six years. Were you lying to me?”

Xu Lin didn’t speak and couldn’t meet his eyes. In this state, Pu Sha could only take it as a tacit admission.

He was frantic, wanting to ask more, but he glanced at the people sprawled on the ground and temporarily held back. This wasn’t the place for a proper conversation.

Nervously, he pulled Xu Lin over to the flower wall of the courtyard. Here, no one would hear their conversation.

“Be honest with me.” He grabbed Xu Lin’s shoulders urgently. “What exactly happened to you in Danshi?

“Say something. Xu Lin?

“I’m begging you, tell me. Do you want me to live in fear forever?

“Xu Lin!”

Xu Lin’s lips trembled slightly. After a long moment, under Pu Sha’s relentless urging, he seemed to relent.

He sat down on a wicker chair by the stone table, lowered his head, and tore off the inhibitor patch on his neck.

The back of his neck was fully exposed to Pu Sha’s view.

The moment Pu Sha saw it clearly, his pupils constricted.

Xu Lin’s originally smooth nape was now slightly raised and flushed, indicating that an ABO gland had grown there. And on that gland lay several overlapping, horrifyingly deep teeth marks.

It was clear the person who had bitten him had done so with immense force, repeatedly and obsessively sinking their teeth into the same spot, as if trying to bite straight through the gland hidden beneath the skin.

Pu Sha’s legs gave way. He collapsed, deflated, into the chair opposite Xu Lin.

He and Xu Lin looked at each other. Xu Lin said nothing, silently reapplying the inhibitor patch.

In the night breeze, the croaking of frogs in the distant fields rose and fell. The leaves on the roadside trees rustled. The irritating chirping of cicadas wove through the sounds, tugging at Pu Sha’s already frayed nerves.

They sat in silence for a long time before Pu Sha finally broke it.

“Who did this?”

“…” Xu Lin shook his head, refusing to say.

Pu Sha pressed his hands to his forehead, utterly exhausted.

A beta without a gland could never be marked, no matter how many times they were bitten. They also wouldn’t be affected by an alpha’s pheromones or be transformed into an alpha or omega.

But Xu Lin was different from an ordinary Beta.

There was a long-atrophied gland in the back of Xu Lin’s neck. As a child, before his body’s glands could mature, this one had withered away.

A seed whose root had been destroyed, long dead—no matter how much water or fertilizer was applied, it could never grow another inch.

Yet somehow, impossibly, it had.

Pu Sha could probably understand why the bite marks on Xu Lin’s neck were so deep. The person who bit him must have known this principle as well and had failed countless times before. But they had stubbornly persisted, refusing to give up.

And in the end, they succeeded.

This was not something an ordinary person could achieve.

To forcibly turn Xu Lin from a Beta into an Omega—the person who bit him could only be a high-grade S-class Alpha. Or perhaps they had used some other, even more brutal, unknown methods.

Danshi was huge. There were so many alphas Xu Lin knew and didn’t know. Unless Xu Lin volunteered the information, that secret would rot in his stomach alone.

Just thinking about how he had known nothing, how Xu Lin had suffered alone for six years, made Pu Sha’s heart ache with a dull, throbbing pain.

Pu Sha pulled him into a pained embrace.

He wanted to touch the wound on Xu Lin’s nape, but he raised his hand and couldn’t bring himself to do it. He could only lower it again.

“Did you come back because of this?”

Xu Lin shook his head against his shoulder. “Many things. This is just… one of them,” he said. “Teacher, don’t tell anyone.”

Pu Sha’s heart felt as if it were being twisted by a knife. He gently patted Xu Lin’s back, soothing him. “Alright. Alright. I won’t let anyone know.”

Pu Sha was filled with regret. He was a beta. Everyone passed out in the courtyard was a beta. They couldn’t smell pheromones, so naturally, they hadn’t noticed anything unusual about Xu Lin the moment he returned.

Pu Sha’s voice trembled as he asked, “Has that person… already marked you?”

If Xu Lin had been marked, he would be doomed to be led around by that alpha for life, never able to escape the person who hurt him. That would surely be a disgrace to Xu Lin—why else would he refuse to speak of that person?

He couldn’t let Xu Lin fall back into that person’s hands. If Xu Lin was willing, he would take him to get a mark removal surgery. Even if it was expensive, he would find a way.

He wouldn’t let anyone restrict Xu Lin’s freedom.

But to his surprise, Xu Lin said, “He can’t mark me.”

“What?”

“His compatibility with me is only 43.2 percent.” Xu Lin smiled, his tone almost gleeful. He said softly, “Our glands are completely incompatible. Just smelling my pheromones causes him unbearable pain.”

Xu Lin’s fingers clenched the hem of Pu Sha’s shirt, gripping that small piece of fabric tightly. His eyes were filled with the long-suppressed ferocity and hatred he held inside.

“How could I possibly accept him again and let him mark me?

“I only find him disgusting.”

After all his scheming, everything Ji Jixuan had done to him was nothing but an over-obsessive waste of effort.

Xu Lin had indeed lied to Pu Sha.

His six years in Danshi hadn’t been spent working—they had been spent in marriage.

Six years ago, he and Ji Jixuan had held a wedding with no flowers, no applause, no exposure to the light of day, and known to no one—if that could even be called a wedding.

The story between him and Ji Jixuan was too long, too long for Xu Lin to know where to begin.

A long, long time ago, their relationship hadn’t been nearly as bad as it was now. If they had parted amicably, they could have preserved some good memories. But those memories, so precious to Xu Lin, had been nothing but Ji Jixuan’s elaborate deception from start to finish.

He had let himself be swept away by temporary pleasure, indulging hopelessly, letting himself be played for a fool.