Upon waking up in the morning, Wen Ran found his eyes so swollen he couldn’t open them. His body felt like a pile of disassembled parts that had been put back together incorrectly. Something was wrong here, something was wrong there. Every movement sent pain through him that made his ears ring.
He tried to recall how last night had ended—or more accurately early morning. After pondering for a long time, he realized he seemed to have passed out.
Passing out was probably for the best, Wen Ran thought with gratitude.
The faint scent of alpha pheromones lingered in the air. With difficulty, he turned his head and saw Gu Yunchi sleeping beside him. Wen Ran gazed at him vacantly for a moment before slowly surveying the dim room—it was the guest bedroom. As for how he ended up here was a blank in his memory.
Wen Ran touched his belly beneath the covers and his hand met naked skin. He smiled bitterly, but a sharp pain shot through his lips. He wasn’t sure if they were bitten or swollen from rubbing and hastily pressed them together.
Terrifying—that was the only word left in Wen Ran’s head. He sluggishly slid out of bed, dropping to his knees on the carpet for a few seconds before reaching for clean pajamas. His movements were stiff and careful as he dressed, after which he crawled on all fours for a few steps.
Despite trying his best to minimize his actions, the pain still delivered critical hits through his body, each movement punching him left and right. Wen Ran grimaced in pain, but the strain only intensified the pain in his torn lips. Caught in a dilemma, he nearly burst into tears.
As he stoically sucked in a breath, Gu Yunchi’s voice came from behind, “Where did the dog come from?”
Wen Ran flinched. Only after a long time, he managed to lie in a hoarse voice, “It’s too dark. I couldn’t see the way, so I crawled to feel my way.”
Gu Yunchi picked up the remote and opened the curtains.
Bright morning sunlight flooded the room. Wen Ran, still sprawled on the floor, let out a hollow laugh. He struggled to his feet, believing it looked normal, but in reality, he was standing lopsided. With his back to Gu Yunchi and his face contorted in pain, he said, “I’ll go wash up.”
While standing by the sink, Wen Ran raised his head, expecting to see a pale and exhausted face. To his surprise, his complexion looked more alive than usual. He looked into the mirror and touched his bare neck. Gu Yunchi must have removed his collar. No wonder he had smelled alpha pheromones moments ago.
His fingers trailed to the back of his neck, where he found no wounds or bite marks. Gu Yunchi hadn’t marked him.
With one hand gripping the sink for support and the other trembling, he reached for his toothbrush. After brushing his teeth, Wen Ran bent down to wash his face. Suddenly, he detected a whiff of pheromones. He turned around with drops of water on his face to see Gu Yunchi leaning against the doorframe with his hands folded, wearing pajama pants and a loosely tied robe.
Their eyes met for half a second before Wen Ran turned away, grabbing a towel to dry his face. He wiped for half a minute. In his peripheral vision, he noticed Gu Yunchi was still lounging there, showing no intention of leaving. Wen Ran paused, muttering to himself, “Not clean yet,” and bent down to resume washing his face.
After half a minute of scrubbing his face for the second time, Gu Yunchi finally spoke, “Fang Yisen fled the country. He’s safe now.”
Wen Ran stared at the towel, “….Okay. Thank you.”
Gu Yunchi straightened up and walked away. Wen Ran finished washing up, then slowly shuffled back to the bed and sat down. He noticed his phone on the nightstand and picked it up to text Auntie Fang to inform her he wouldn’t be home for lunch.
Moments later, the door swung open and 339 rolled in a food cart, “Good morning, hahahaha, well, it’s almost noon actually. The young master asked me to bring some hehehehahaha food for you….. In fact, this came as quite a surprise to me, hahahagagagahahaha… I’m so happy inside… Oopsie, I’ve already come up with names for your children…”
339 couldn’t help but burst into ecstatic laughter as it spoke. Gu Yunchi entered the room and cut in bluntly, “Either shut up or get lost.”
339 immediately shut up but mischievously displayed numerous pink hearts on its screen and scrolled the caption “GuWen 4ever”.
Wen Ran wanted to bury himself deep in a hole, but his hunger pushed aside the embarrassment in his head. He stored all the food in his stomach before setting the utensils down and saying politely, “I’m full.”
Gu Yunchi glanced at the pile of empty dishes on the cart and remarked, “How come you didn’t burst?”
“To be honest, I’m close to bursting.” Wen Ran said without looking at him, “Sorry, I was too hungry.”
339 let out a teasing sound, “Aiya, must’ve been last night…”
“Scram,” Gu Yunchi interrupted.
“Your humble servant will do as you say!” 339 secretly winked at Wen Ran before clattering the food cart out of the room.
As the room fell into silence, Wen Ran let out a sudden yawn and slowly rose to his feet. Trying to fill the silence, he said, “I think I’ll sleep a bit longer.”
“Then why did you get up?”
“I ate too much and need to let it settle.” Perhaps a full stomach gave him some strength, as the pain seemed less piercing now. Head bowed, Wen Ran began walking along the edge of the room as if taking a stroll indoors.
Gu Yunchi’s phone rang and he went to the balcony to take the call. Wen Ran walked quietly alone for ten minutes, rinsed his mouth as he passed the sink, then returned to the bed and peacefully closed his eyes.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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Ggbkrlis, Qfc Ejc atbeuta klat gfilfo atja Xe Tecmtl vlvc’a rffw ab gfugfa la.
He was terrified Gu Yunchi would regret it.
—
Wen Ran opened his eyes. He reached for his phone to light up the screen and saw it was past 1 pm. He rolled over to study Gu Yunchi’s profile up close and noticed Gu Yunchi’s eyelashes twitch. Aware that he was awake too, Wen Ran said, “The other day, I tried to give Fang Yisen some pocket money, but he refused, claiming he had money with him. I wasn’t entirely convinced but now that you’ve told me he’s abroad, I believe he truly did have money. That’s a relief.”
“It’s only natural to turn down your spare change.”
“You’re right,” Wen Ran agreed and added, “But I’m surprised at how quickly he managed to leave the country. Or rather, it’s strange how he could escape from my brother so easily without getting caught.”
Gu Yunchi remarked, “He couldn’t have done it alone.”
“You mean someone helped him?” Wen Ran pondered, “Who could it be?”
“More like cooperation.”
“Could it be Tang Feiyi and Wei Lingzhou? They’ve been targeting the Wen family. Did they start with Fang Yisen?”
“That’s something for your mom and brother to worry about. You don’t need to waste your energy on them,” Gu Yunchi said ruthlessly, “Save that half-brain of yours for the finals.”
Wen Ran paused, then said, “I just think if the Wen family gets into trouble, they might turn to the Gu family for help again.”
“So what? How does that affect you?” Gu Yunchi turned to face him, “Do you think you’re like them?”
“I don’t know.” Maybe he wasn’t as driven by self-interest as Chen Shuhui and Wen Rui were, but he was still bound to the same side of the scale as them for the time being. Simply claiming “I’m not like them” didn’t grant him immunity. Wen Ran mumbled, “I’ve been dishonest with you in many ways.”
“You have your position and things you can’t talk about. That’s fine. No one’s going to force you to come clean.” Gu Yunchi turned and added after a pause, “Me too.”
“It’s okay.” Wen Ran held his hand under the covers. “It’s natural for you to keep things from me. You don’t have to tell me everything.”
Had this come from anyone else, it might have sounded sarcastic, but Wen Ran was the literal meaning of sincere. Gu Yunchi bent his thumb and the pad of it grazed against Wen Ran’s fingertips. He said, “Your nails are so short, but it hurts when you scratch.”
“Where did I scratch…” Wen Ran was halfway through the question when he halted mid-sentence and retracted his hand. His face was so hot that he was almost sweating, “Aren’t you changing the subject too fast?”
Gu Yunchi looked at him, “I don’t want to discuss your mom and brother in bed. Is that a problem?”
Wen Ran had no idea what gave him the courage, maybe it was the dim lighting, but regardless, he didn’t shy away. He looked at Gu Yunchi and replied, “Not a problem.”
Then he leaned forward, placing a kiss at the corner of Gu Yunchi’s mouth.
Gu Yunchi looked at him indifferently for a couple of seconds before reaching to grasp Wen Ran’s neck. He rolled over and returned the kiss while pressing his body on top of him.
The screen at the nightstand beeped twice and 339 said urgently, “Young master! Apologies for interrupting your private time with Xiao Ran, but He Wei-laoshi is here. He’s sitting in the living room and doesn’t know Xiao Ran is here! He said if you don’t come down to see him, he’ll use the megaphone to yell at you from the garden!”
Gu Yunchi clicked his tongue and ended the call. Wen Ran nudged him while panting, “It might be urgent.”
Without a word, Gu Yunchi got out of bed and grabbed his robe. Instead of leaving immediately, he turned to glance at Wen Ran.
Wen Ran couldn’t stand being looked at like that and pulled the covers up to hide his face, leaving only his eyes exposed, “What’s wrong?”
“I can’t just leave you waiting like this,” Gu Yunchi said.
Twenty minutes later, Gu Yunchi returned to the guest room after sending off He Wei, who had absolutely nothing urgent and was simply looking for trouble out of boredom.
The room was silent except for a faint buzz. Gu Yunchi walked over to the bed, where a figure lay curled up beneath the covers, twitching from time to time.
As Gu Yunchi lifted the covers, the buzzing became clearer and a puff of hot omega pheromones hit his face. Wen Ran was curled up on the bed, bare-legged, his hands bound in front of him with his pajama pants. He shuddered violently under Gu Yunchi’s gaze, biting his lip hard to suppress any sound. He looked at Gu Yunchi with red eyes, the tears in his eyes glistening faintly in the dim light.
“I promised to be back in ten minutes.” Gu Yunchi knelt on one knee on the bed. He gripped Wen Ran’s thigh and pulled out the object that was vibrating at a high frequency. He switched it off and tossed it aside before saying, “It’s only been five minutes.”
Wen Ran opened his mouth to gasp for air. After a long while, he said with a trembling voice, “You’re lying…”
“Mn,” Gu Yunchi replied without a trace of shame. He stood up, fetched a condom, and put it on. Standing at the bed’s edge, he scooped up Wen Ran’s legs, holding him sideways, and proceeded to penetrate him slowly.
For a full day and a half, Wen Ran didn’t leave the room. During this time, he sent individual messages to Auntie Fang, notifying her that he wouldn’t be home for dinner, breakfast, or lunch. It wasn’t until Sunday afternoon, when he was lying on the bed, too weak even to move his fingers, that he said, “I’m going home. I haven’t finished my homework… I have to go to school tomorrow.”
“Quite diligent,” Gu Yunchi commented.
“…” Wen Ran felt a pang of irritation at his obnoxious tone and said, “Y-you should take your medicine on time from now on.”
Gu Yunchi said, “Thanks for the reminder.”
Realizing that continuing this would only provoke his anger, Wen Ran stubbornly crawled out of bed, changed his pajamas, and went downstairs. 339 brought some snacks and told him to eat before leaving.
339 was in high spirits, yet slightly embarrassed at the same time. 339 sidled up to Gu Yunchi, a bashful blush appearing on its face, “Young master, can you tell me now? Aimee’s number… hehe.”
Wen Ran’s hand stilled. He looked up and exchanged a glance with Gu Yunchi.
Gu Yunchi nodded almost imperceptibly before turning his attention back to his phone. Although no words were exchanged, Wen Ran understood his meaning. He set the snacks aside and spoke hesitantly but sincerely, “339, I have to tell you some bad news.”
“Aimee was resold two years ago and her program was reset.”
339 fell silent for a moment upon hearing this, then inquired, “So, she won’t remember me anymore and won’t be able to call me, right?”
Being a robot itself, 339 naturally understood what reprogramming meant, yet it still asked. Wen Ran nodded, “Yes, I hope you won’t be too upset.”
“I understand. I’m not sad.” 339 moved closer to Wen Ran, pressing against his leg, “We came into this world only to be parted.”
“Perhaps we all need a fresh start.” A smiling expression appeared on 339’s screen as it sent a command to the system, “Delete all data related to Aimee.”
A mechanical voice promptly confirmed, “Deletion complete.”
In less than two seconds, 339 erased all memories of its best friend.
339 would never pester Gu Yunchi for Aimee’s number again.
As if nothing had happened, 339 hummed a tune and headed to the kitchen. Meanwhile, Wen Ran struggled to process it. After a while, he pressed his lips together, trying to savor the lingering taste of the snacks, but there was a surprising hint of bitterness.
“I’m leaving,” Wen Ran said.
Gu Yunchi set his phone down and stood up to accompany him to the foyer. Before opening the door, Wen Ran realized that Gu Yunchi would soon be going abroad again. He held the door handle without moving and turned to look at Gu Yunchi.
“Aren’t you in a hurry to get back to your homework?” Gu Yunchi lazily put hands in his pockets and asked indifferently.
Wen Ran said nothing, calming himself before leaning closer and tilting his head for a kiss. But Gu Yunchi turned away slightly to avoid it.
“Why are you dodging? We a-are… You’re no longer a pure alpha. Why won’t you even kiss me? Isn’t this contradictory?” Wen Ran had finally plucked up the courage to kiss him openly, only to be brutally rejected. He was humiliated and stammered out his complaint.
“I was never a pure alpha to begin with.”
After saying that, Gu Yunchi lowered his head to kiss Wen Ran. Then he straightened up, looked at him, and said impassively, “Is that enough?”
For some reason, Wen Ran felt even more ashamed now. He pursed his lips, opened the door, and slipped out.
Before entering the house, Wen Ran prepared to accept all the ridicule, questions, and even insults if Chen Shuhui was home. As he opened the door, he did indeed hear Chen Shuhui’s uncontrollable rage, but it was coming from a phone.
“This is the man you’ve been dying to marry. While you’re losing your mind over him, he’s already sold valuable information for a good price and fled the country! Did you know he not only tampered with my safe and computer but also planted a bug in my office?!”
Wen Rui slouched wearily on the sofa with his eyes closed, seemingly unmoved. He just asked, “How do you know he left the country?”
“Do you think he would stay here? Are you still worried something might have happened to him?” Chen Shuhui sneered in anger, “Wen Rui, can’t you see he’s taking revenge on you? He wasn’t kidnapped by Tang Feiyi and Wei Lingzhou, he sold company secrets to them!”
“If you hadn’t locked him at home in the first place, how would this have happened?” Chen Shuhui gritted her teeth, “I will settle the score with you sooner or later. As for Fang Yisen, I’ve already sent people to investigate. Once we find out where he is, the first thing I’ll do is make sure he disappears for good.”
“Why don’t you start by figuring out what secrets he actually stole.” Wen Rui said lifelessly, “Forget it, it’s probably too late now. I’ve always said that karma will catch up with everyone eventually.”
There was a loud bang on the other end of the call, followed by the line going dead, likely Chen Shuhui smashing her phone.
Wen Rui remained seated as if dead. Wen Ran glanced at him before going upstairs without a word.
Once in his room, Wen Ran sat at his desk. Everything was clear now. Fang Yisen had been helped by some faction to flee from Wen Rui, and in turn, had sold company secrets as part of the deal to secure his escape abroad.
Wen Ran agreed with the words about karma catching up. Perhaps Chen Shuhui’s outburst was fueled by being deceived and betrayed by such a mild and stoic beta. After all, she didn’t care about Shengdian. Even if there were real problems, whether it was working with Gu Chongze or the marriage with the Gu family, it would be enough to ensure she wouldn’t be afraid of threats from the Tang and Wei families.
Wen Ran greatly admired Fang Yisen and hoped he would stay hidden and safe.
He opened a drawer and pulled a stack of design sketches from the bottom. The kangaroo model he had designed for Tao Susu was in the final stage of production. Once the workshop delivered all the components, Wen Ran planned to assemble it with Tao Susu at school.
His next focus was Gu Yunchi’s birthday gift. The color, materials, and figures had been finalized, and he needed to send them to the workshop in the next few days to begin the initial modeling.
After admiring the designs for a moment, Wen Ran returned them to the drawer and took out the tests he needed to complete over the weekend. Before starting, he turned on his phone, changing Gu Yunchi’s nickname to “An Impure Alpha”, and sent a message: I’m home [smile]
An Impure Alpha: the driver reported to me ten minutes ago. I didn’t expect it to take you so long to walk to your room from the entrance
Wen Ran: Please focus on my work rather than my personal life [pray]
An Impure Alpha: what work? “Guide to Raising Pigs”?
Wen Ran: You’ll find out soon enough [ jump]
After closing the chat, a strange text popped up. Wen Ran clicked on it. There were no words in the message, just an email address and a password.
His first reaction was that it was a scam. Wen Ran stared at the message for a few seconds. In the end, he decided to copy it to the email provider’s website and log in with the password.
Both the inbox and outbox were empty, with only the draft folder showing a “1”. Wen Ran clicked on it and found an audio file lasting just over a minute.
He was inexplicably nervous, unable to guess what the recording might contain.
He gently tapped the play button. The audio seemed to be a snippet and immediately played the sound without any pauses.
It was an incredibly familiar voice, one Wen Ran had heard from Wen Rui’s phone just a few minutes ago.
“I’ve let him be Wen Ran and an omega since I adopted him. Wen Ningyuan thought I was crazy, asking why I would turn an innocent child into this. Yet he thought it was due to my overwhelming grief and never intervened.”
Surprisingly, they were discussing this matter. Wen Ran held his breath silently, listening intently without moving.
“I didn’t care at the time. After all, he was brought to the Wen family as a tool. I even felt some guilt toward him. But ever since you told me the truth, you know, I’ve been so disgusted that I feel like throwing up. I wish you had never said anything.”
“Every minute, every second I’ve seen him in these past four years, I’ve hoped he would die.”
“I was such an idiot, letting that bastard use my son’s name and become him for a whole ten years.”
THUMP, THUMP! Wen Ran’s heart hammered violently against his ribcage. He abruptly rose from his seat, hands gripping the table’s edge. The backs of his knees collided with the chair behind him as he staggered back unconsciously. Creak—the wooden chair scraped across the floor, its uneven movements producing an ear-piercing screech, drowning out his terrified gasp that sounded like rust being scraped from his throat.
(this emoji is actually called “waddle” in the English wechat)
did 339 buy the vibrator as well 🤣🤣
Thanks for the translation 💜💜
So he was the illegitimate son
Hahahahehehe food? If it wasn’t a just a normal food I would have thought it was food laced with aphrodisiac 🙄 I guess the reason He Wei doesn’t come out often anymore is because the clown position has been filled by 339 😅
Bah… Whom the trash mother was talking to? Four years? The birth mother? 😱
I doubt she was talking to the birth mom, as she was talking so rudely about Wen Ran. The four years should refer to the time since she discovered the truth about him being an illegitimate child, right 🤔
About the four years, my analysis is the birth mother photo in Wen Rui’s safe was also four years ago, indicating Chen Shuhui and Wen Rui knew her whereabouts at the time, also she was most likely the only one who knew the truth about Xiao Shu, probably she confronted Chen Shuhui to take Xiao Shu back. And now the recording, which seems to be recorded recently, Chen Shuhui said “ever since you told me the truth four years ago”, means she was talking to the same person. Just recorded by someone else, which probably Fang Yisen… Anyway it’s all just my analysis. I just didn’t get why Chen Shuhui hated Wen Ran, now you said illegitimate then it’s no wonder… Is the illigimate thing a sure thing though? 😅
It seems like he was son of his father all along
Wew… Really didn’t realize that 😅 that teacher of Gu Yunchi said he didn’t resemble his adoptive parents so I never thought he’s WNY’s son. After all just relying on same unique hobbies isn’t reliable. Though I did wonder who his birth father was and was ready to name him unnamed father 🙈
Chen shuhui is a scum that needs to be erased from this world. Also gu yunchi is such a big pervert- 😳
I love 339 sm. Aside from that part with the memory deletion, he can be very relatable. #GuWen4ever