Chapter 3#

Early the next morning, Man Yu received a divorce agreement from Sheng Lin. It was a result he had expected, yet it came faster than he had expected.

From the first day he married Sheng Lin, he had been anxious and uneasy, feeling that one day Sheng Lin would divorce him.

Sheng Lin didn’t like him, looked down on him, and even loathed him.

It was like the sword of Damocles hanging over his head had finally fallen. Besides fear, unease, and sadness, Man Yu also felt a long sigh of relief that this day had finally come.

The wound on his face had been simply bandaged. Originally only the lower half of his face was exposed; now half of that lower half was covered by gauze too. Even he found it somewhat ridiculous.

Sheng Lin seemed more agitated than usual. He tossed the agreement at him, smoked three cigarettes in a row, and only then calmed down a little. He glanced at him once, then impatiently shifted his gaze away: “Stop pretending. I didn’t use any force when I pushed you. You’re not an Omega, so how could you be that fragile?

Don’t think that just because you’ve wrapped up your face, I’ll pity you and not divorce you. Hurry up and sign the agreement. You’ll leave with nothing. You’ve been enjoying the Sheng family’s halo for three years; that’s already more than you deserve. Don’t even dream of getting any of my property.”

On the huge sofa, Sheng Lin sat at the east end and Man Yu at the west, the two of them at opposite ends. Man Yu endured the discomfort brought by the tobacco smoke and shrank himself into a quail. He had no idea how to handle this kind of scene; after all, it was his first time receiving a divorce agreement. Maybe next time, the time after that, and the time after that, he’d be a little more experienced—but right now, the most important thing was that he had to find a way to resolve this one again.

Whenever someone got angry, he got scared. And when he got scared, not only did his mind freeze, his tongue froze too, and his stutter became worse. Sheng Lin shouted at him and told him to get over here. Man Yu didn’t dare look at him and only apologized over and over: “S-sorry… don’t divorce me, is—is that okay? Sorry…”

If he divorced Sheng Lin, the first people to be disappointed in him would be his parents.

He was not his parents’ only child, nor their most beloved child.

He didn’t want to go back to the past, back to when his parents couldn’t see him, nor did he want to see his parents’ disappointed eyes as they said to him, Man Yu, why are you so useless? If we’d known, we shouldn’t have given birth to you.

Sheng Lin looked at him in shock. In three years of marriage to Man Yu, he had never heard a single “no” from his mouth—and now he had heard one.

A sudden fire ignited in his heart. That anger turned him into a balloon that was being inflated more and more, nearly about to burst him.

Hating Man Yu was simply a matter of course. Talking to this kind of person gave him the powerless feeling of punching cotton. No matter how you pointed at his nose and insulted him, or shouted and yelled, Man Yu would only use that stammering, pitiful tone to say “sorry.” This was simply cold violence against him!

Lu Yinbing’s return to the country already had him on pins and needles, and he still had to waste time on a piece of goods like Man Yu. Sheng Lin was going mad.

Like a manic patient, he smashed everything within reach, and after venting, he pointed at Man Yu’s nose and cursed: “Not divorce? Man Yu, who the hell do you think you are, daring to refuse me? Whether you want to or not, this marriage is getting divorced—you’ll divorce even if you have to, and you’ll divorce even if you don’t!”

Man Yu hurriedly swore: “I—I won’t disturb, disturb you. Please, please…”

The moment Sheng Lin heard this damn stutterer speak, he got furious. Not caring about anything else, he didn’t want to entangle himself with him any longer. He stepped forward, grabbed Man Yu’s wrist, and dragged him outward: “Your very existence has already made me lose all face. Now that Lu Yinbing is back, if he finds out I married someone like you, I’ll never be able to hold my head up in front of him for the rest of my life!”

Man Yu clung desperately to a corner of the sofa, but Sheng Lin still dragged him over.

Sheng Lin found it a little hard to believe. Even though Man Yu was resisting with all his strength, the veins on the back of his hand straining, he was still so light—Sheng Lin could pull him over with a casual tug? Could it be that his being knocked over with a casual push normally wasn’t an act?

His tone was no longer so fierce. He shoved a pen into Man Yu’s hand and urged him: “Hurry up and sign and put your fingerprint on it.”

Afraid that Man Yu would run away, Sheng Lin kept one hand on Man Yu’s shoulder. Man Yu mustered his courage and, like a plaster, took the opportunity to cling to him, crying and begging: “Husband, husband, please… please, don’t divorce me, don’t divorce me…”

Man Yu rarely called Sheng Lin “husband” so weakly. His voice was very soft, as if his throat held a pool of tears. Sheng Lin was momentarily stunned by it.

“I—I can do any… anything, husband…” Taking advantage of the chaos, Man Yu tremblingly undid two or three of his own buttons, then, shaking all over, reached to unfasten Sheng Lin’s belt. “Husband, don’t—don’t divorce me…”

He was very light, with little flesh on his body, but still rather soft. He had an indescribable fragrance about him, different from the pheromones of any Omega Sheng Lin had slept with. His opened collar haphazardly exposed delicate, snow-white skin.

It seemed like the first time Sheng Lin had seen him cry too. His soft hair was messy, half-covering and half-revealing one tear-reddened eye. He raised it to look at Sheng Lin, yet timidly avoided meeting his gaze. Tears dripped down along his sharp chin and pattered onto the back of Sheng Lin’s hand, slightly cool.

The other half flowed into the gauze, comically pitiful.

Sheng Lin’s breathing grew heavy. Man Yu was flustered and clumsy. Before he had even unfastened Sheng Lin’s belt, he had first felt the change. It was no less than feeling hope. His emotions—fear, shyness, excitement, shame, and sorrow—twined together.

Maybe, maybe he wasn’t completely unattractive to Sheng Lin after all. But did he really have to use this method to keep his own husband?

How utterly self-degrading…

Along with desire came disgust. Sheng Lin couldn’t accept that he had actually gotten hard for a Beta like Man Yu. Not one of his past bed partners had been anything but beautiful, delicate, soft, clingy, generous, and cheerful Omegas. It was bad enough that Man Yu was a Beta, but he was also the gray, dusty sort of Beta who always trembled and shrank into a corner like a mouse—a good-for-nothing! A slug whose complete face he had never even seen to this day!

Actually, all of Man Yu’s fragility was probably fake. It was nothing but an attempt to win his sympathy. Look at him—now he was even trying to seduce him.

But for some unknown reason, he didn’t push Man Yu away. Instead, while feeling disgusted, he let Man Yu’s cool, slender fingers fumble about.

With a click, the buckle of the belt was finally opened. At the same time, Sheng Lin’s phone rang.

He finally seemed to wake from a dream and pushed Man Yu away.

Man Yu sat on the carpet in a daze. Tears had soaked the soft black hair in front of his forehead, making it stick clammily to the tip of his nose. He watched Sheng Lin answer the phone. Sheng Lin responded to the person a few times, and after hanging up, he gave Man Yu a cold glance and said: “Can’t you live without a man? So utterly cheap.”

That glance carried thick disgust, as if he had seen something filthy and nauseating.

The whole house returned to its former dead silence. Apart from the faint lingering smell of tobacco and the divorce agreement on the table already bearing Sheng Lin’s signature, there was nothing to prove that Sheng Lin had ever come back to this home.

On the other end of the call was Sheng Lin’s friend Gao Yuyang, who was arranging a welcome-back dinner for Lu Yinbing. Man Yu clearly glimpsed how, when Sheng Lin heard Lu Yinbing’s name, his pupils involuntarily contracted and his whole body trembled with nervousness—a person completely different from the one who faced him.

Man Yu covered his face and lowered his head to his knees. Recalling that look and that sentence from when Sheng Lin left, an immense sense of humiliation drowned him. Covering his face, he quickly signed his own name on the agreement. Tears fell drop by drop onto it, blurring the black ink until the handwriting became indistinct.

He suddenly convulsed, as if going mad, reached out, crumpled the already signed paper into a ball, and slumped over the table.

It clearly hadn’t been like this the first time he met Sheng Lin. He had been cornered in the restroom, and Sheng Lin happened to pass by and told them not to make things difficult for him.

That was the first time his heart had beaten so fast. The second time they met, he was lucky enough to be chosen by Madam Sheng as Sheng Lin’s spouse. Marrying the person he liked—it really was a pie falling from the sky.

Sheng Lin was very good. He just didn’t like him and treated him badly—that was all.

Not being liked was a common thing. Man Yu sat quietly on the floor for a while, and his mood calmed down a great deal. He smoothed out the agreement that he had crumpled in a moment of agitation and hid it back in the corner of the wardrobe in his room. He didn’t want to divorce. He still wanted to try a little harder.

His mother sent him a message asking him to come home for a visit. He replied with a sticker of a little dog wagging its tail and nodding.

Man Yu lifted his hair and looked at his red, swollen eyes in the mirror. He hesitated for a moment, then put down the ice he had prepared for a cold compress, rubbed his eyes, took a detour to the farmers’ market to buy some fruit, and went home.

The owners of the fruit stall were a chubby middle-aged couple whose eyes disappeared when they smiled.

The stall’s fan was turned up high, blowing Man Yu’s hair into a mess and revealing a pair of eyes even more swollen than walnuts. The owner had his palm-leaf fan tucked at his waist. After weighing the fruit for him, he let out an “Aiya” and asked with concern: “Young man, is your eye inflamed? And your face is injured too? Summer weather is dry, and injuries don’t heal easily. Be careful, so your wound doesn’t get infected.”

The owner’s wife enthusiastically poured him a paper cup of her home-brewed herbal tea: “Here, drink it, drink it. It’ll bring down your internal heat.”

Man Yu didn’t know how to reply with words of gratitude, so he could only force a stiff smile at them.

There was just over three thousand left in his bank card, money he had saved during the few years he’d worked. The Sheng family wouldn’t spend money on him, and his parents still had to subsidize his aunt’s medical expenses, so things weren’t easy for them either.

He gripped his phone tightly, and in the end still bought two extra bunches of grapes from this couple.

There were four siblings in Man Yu’s family. His eldest brother, Man Jin, was seven years older than him, an Alpha, and currently managed the family company. Man Yu was second; below him were a pair of twin siblings two years younger than him—his younger brother Man Mi and younger sister Man Tang—both Omegas.

Man Yu’s parents were fairly well educated. In response to the AO talent policy, they stayed and settled in the capital. Seven years after their eldest son was born, once their careers had stabilized, they welcomed their second child with full expectation.

They had originally thought it would be best if it were a daughter, so they’d have both a son and a daughter and everything would be perfect. But when the child was born, it was another son. They were slightly disappointed, but this son was as delicate and pretty as a girl, which gave them some comfort. They named him Man Yu, hoping he would be a considerate Omega.

Accidents always came faster than plans. Man Yu had just turned one when Xu Lan unexpectedly became pregnant. The examination showed it was twins. She really couldn’t bear to abort them, so she gritted her teeth and kept them.

After ten months of pregnancy, she gave birth to a pair of twins, a boy and a girl—it nearly made both families wild with joy.

Problems followed. Even with a nanny, four children were too much to handle. Man Jin was already in elementary school; they couldn’t very well send him back to the countryside. Besides, a nine-year-old child could more or less take care of himself and wouldn’t take too much effort.

The two little ones were still nursing and couldn’t be away from their parents; sending them back would make them even more worried. After thinking it over and over, the only one they could send home was the second child.

Later, during the financial crisis, Xu Lan lost her job and their income plummeted. Man Yu’s return to the capital was postponed again and again. Later still, his grandparents passed away, and Man Yu moved to live with his aunt. It wasn’t until he was fifteen, when his aunt developed Alzheimer’s disease, that he returned to live with his parents, and his aunt was sent to a sanatorium in the capital.

In recent years, the Man family’s circumstances had improved, and they had taken out a loan to buy a small villa on the outskirts of the capital.

“Man Yu, you’re here. Come in, quick.” Xu Lan looked even younger than she had three years ago. Smiling, she motioned to the disposable slippers she had prepared for him and told him to put them on. She glanced at the fruit the nanny had taken over and frowned slightly. “We don’t eat this kind of fruit at home. You know that. Don’t keep buying things for the house. Aunt Zhang, take it with you when you leave tonight.”

Aunt Zhang glanced at Man Yu. He didn’t argue back at all; he just quietly changed into the slippers and came in. Of the four children in the Man family, this second one was the most honest and obedient.

There was a pile of delivery packages at the entrance. Man Yu reached out to tidy them, but Xu Lan stopped him: “Don’t touch them, don’t touch them. Those are Mimi’s and Tangtang’s things. If you break them, they’ll get angry again and make a huge fuss—those two little ancestors!”

Man Yu awkwardly withdrew his hand, said sorry, and then asked: “Mom, h-how have you, you all been recently? Dad’s blood sugar…”

“Don’t talk about that. Drink the medicine first.”

Xu Lan handed him a bowl of dark brown medicinal decoction and gently stroked his shoulder: “How have things been between you and A-Lin lately? I asked the doctor for you. Your differentiation failed back then, your glands atrophied, and your reproductive cavity closed, but you still have an advantage over ordinary Betas. This medicine can help you get pregnant. Try it.”

Man Yu downed it without even frowning, which made Xu Lan beam with joy. His father, Man Jiang, was holding a newspaper and gave him a sidelong glance, which counted as greeting him.

Seeing them happy, Man Yu also forced a smile.

Xu Lan pried the answer she wanted out of Man Yu’s hesitant words, and her eyes lit up: “Aiya, AOs are all animals ruled by pheromones. You don’t have pheromones, yet he still reacted to you—that means there’s hope. If you ask me, you’re just too delicate and can’t endure hardship. Your dad and I walked out of a small town and have now made it to a villa in the capital, raising the four of you. The hardships we’ve endured and the face we’ve lost are not something you could compare to.”

Man Yu clenched his hands, lowered his head, and answered yes, yes.

“Who cares who he likes? Just hold on and refuse to divorce. No matter how good the singing birds and swallows outside are, they’re only hotels. You’re the home. As long as you have the title and a child, no one can shake you.”

“It’s not that Mom is putting you down, Man Yu. You’re not as smart and steady as your eldest brother, nor as likable as your younger brother and sister. You have no job, you’ve been out of touch with society for so long, your personality isn’t good, and you’re getting older. If you really get divorced—tsk tsk—who would want someone divorced like you? Even if you looked again, you wouldn’t find anyone better than the Sheng family. When it comes to being a person, you have to know your own weight. Don’t aim too high.”

Man Jiang adjusted his glasses and finally spoke in agreement, lowering his voice in the manner of a very majestic patriarch: “Your mother is right. A person is most valuable when he knows himself. Don’t even think about competing with that young master Lu. What do you have that could compare to him? When the time comes and you offend someone, won’t it drag the family in too?”

Xu Lan spoke softly, her warm palm stroking his soft hair: “Man Yu, Xiaoyu, Mom and Dad are doing this for your own good. Don’t mind that our words sound harsh. You’re our child—how could we ever harm you? Mom and Dad just want each of you to live well and have happy marriages. Listen to Mom, okay? Mom knows you’re the most sensible, the most considerate, and have the best temper. Be a little more patient with A-Lin. Sooner or later he’ll see how good you are.”

Man Yu was soothed by his mother’s fragrant touch. Even though some of her words made him sad, he still craved the warmth of his mother’s palm and craved this happy scene of a family of six enjoying themselves together. As long as everyone was happy, that was enough.

He carefully leaned a little toward Xu Lan, gently bumped his head against her palm, and obediently nodded again.

……

Lu Yinbing—who could tentatively be considered Man Yu’s romantic rival—was currently rewatching the documentary of his own funeral.

He didn’t just want to watch it himself; he also forced everyone in the Lu family, from top to bottom, to watch it with him. In the entire projection room, everyone’s breathing was as light as could be. Apart from the chaotic voices in the recording, there was only Lu Yinbing’s laughter.

“How interesting. Why aren’t you laughing?” As if he had just noticed the silence in the room, he propped his long legs up, leaned back in the leather seat, supported his temple, and questioned everyone present with a smile.

His narrow, long eyes tilted upward, reflecting a shimmering blue light—no less than soul-stealing will-o’-the-wisps to everyone in the Lu family. Not a single person his gaze swept over failed to cooperate and show a smile, not even his father and stepmother.

“You’re smiling so boringly.”

The corners of his mouth lifted in a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. He looked away, and his gaze suddenly locked onto a corner of the screen.

A figure holding a black umbrella, dressed in a white shirt and black trousers, with a belt cinching a slender waist. That day it had been windy and rainy; when the wind blew, the shirt stuck to the body, outlining a thin frame.

Lu Yinbing’s smile faded. He paused, rewound, and watched several times over, but still couldn’t see what this person looked like. The person had made himself small and tiny, slipping into the back where the camera couldn’t capture him.