ACBAM 33: Cute

The omega’s words were both sincere and painfully honest. Gu Weiyang rubbed his chest over his aching heart. Seeing that he didn’t want to elaborate on what memory had come to mind, Gu Weiyang wisely chose not to press him.

He still wanted Su Shijin to go back first. “You’ve already stayed with me for a long time, and I’m fine now. It’s better to have someone take you home.”

Su Shijin hesitated. “But when you lose control, it seems like you calm down a lot if I’m here.”

That was true.

But Gu Weiyang calming down didn’t mean he wasn’t in pain at the time.

It was just that hearing Su Shijin’s voice helped soothe his agitation, and when he looked at him, he instinctively held himself back, afraid that any sudden movement might scare him away.

In that state, Gu Weiyang could actually hear what Su Shijin was saying. His brain just worked very slowly, and most of his reactions were purely instinctive. It was only after he regained clarity that he could recall what he had done earlier.

But his body was still in a state of pheromone imbalance. Otherwise, the doctors and nurses wouldn’t have kept him restrained. They didn’t loosen the straitjacket just because he appeared calm.

After all, the pheromone monitors in the room were constantly tracking the concentration of alpha pheromones. Whether he was truly calm and stable wasn’t judged by what could be seen with the naked eye, but by the data from the machines.

Although Gu Weiyang couldn’t bear for Su Shijin to leave, the fact that he came to see him and even stayed by his side for so long already made Gu Weiyang feel incredibly fortunate.

“Still, you should go back for now. You know how I’m doing, so don’t come see me tomorrow or the day after,” Gu Weiyang said, worried about his injury. He really didn’t feel at ease letting Su Shijin travel such a long way back and forth on his own. Afraid Su Shijin might overthink it, he quickly added, “It’s absolutely not that I don’t want you to come. When I woke up and the first person I saw was you, I was really happy.”

“I just don’t want you to see me when I’m out of control. And besides, your ankle’s injured so you should really focus on healing.”

At that, Gu Weiyang looked a bit apologetic. “It’s my fault for going into heat at such a bad time. You’re the one who’s injured and in the hospital, and not only can I not take care of you, I even made you come all this way to see me.”

Su Shijin quickly waved his hand. “No, you can’t blame yourself for this. The injury was my own fault to begin with.”

But with things as they were, it seemed there was no longer a need for him to stay at Gu Weiyang’s place. “I’ll go back to my own place for the next few days. After you’re discharged, we can talk about whether we should keep living separately.”

The compatibility between them was too high and when one of them entered a susceptible or heat period, even being in separate rooms wasn’t enough to prevent it from affecting the other.

Su Shijin could still remember how he nearly lost control while sitting on the floor last night, and it made him uneasy about the two of them living under the same roof.

Gu Weiyang immediately sat up straight, wanting to ask him to stay.

But the one who had lost control and affected the other last night had been him. Gu Weiyang’s lips moved slightly, then he sank back against the pillow with a hint of dejection.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t uphold what was written in the agreement. I should’ve stayed elsewhere during my susceptible period, but I stayed home and ended up affecting you.” Gu Weiyang lowered his head, his tall figure somehow giving off a pitiful air.

“It’s not that. I know you didn’t do it on purpose—no one wants to lose control,” Su Shijin said, trying to comfort him. “It’s just… if there’s a risk like this, we need to make a decision early.”

After much hesitation, Su Shijin still didn’t want to rush into helping Gu Weiyang through his susceptible period. The psychological shadow wasn’t something that could be dispelled in just a few days of being together. No matter how well Gu Weiyang had treated him these past few days, when it came to the matter of marking, Su Shijin still instinctively put up his defenses, keeping the alpha at a guarded distance.

Gu Weiyang’s susceptible period was unstable, and to Su Shijin, that was like a ticking time bomb.

There was no telling which day he might suddenly be affected by Gu Weiyang’s pheromones and end up being marked by him.

Gu Weiyang bit his lip, feeling he still needed to fight for this. “Yesterday was definitely my misjudgment. I thought that if I took suppressants and stayed in my room, it wouldn’t affect you but I didn’t expect to lose control.”

“But now that we know I have this issue, next time I sense my susceptible period approaching, I’ll check into the hospital right away. I won’t stay at home and affect you, okay?”

Su Shijin lowered his gaze, falling silent in thought.

After a moment, he asked, “Can you really promise that?”

Gu Weiyang immediately replied, “I can! Once I’m discharged, I’ll hire a few security guards to stay in the back staff quarters. If there’s any sign of me losing control during a susceptible period, they’ll take me to the hospital right away. I swear I won’t let it affect you.”

Su Shijin let out a quiet laugh. “You don’t really have to go that far. I’m actually willing to trust you.”

But being willing to trust and truly believing—there was still a subtle difference between the two.

Still, with Gu Weiyang having said all that, it didn’t seem appropriate for Su Shijin to insist on living separately after the wedding.

On top of that, if Gu Weiyang’s family suddenly showed up and found out they weren’t living together, the authenticity of their marriage would easily be called into question.

Not to mention, Su Shijin also needed to keep up the act for his own family.

After much hesitation, Su Shijin leaned back in his chair and looked at Gu Weiyang, who was staring at him without letting up. With a helpless sigh, he gave in. “Alright, I’ll trust you one more time but for the next few days, I’ll still go back to my own place. It’s a good chance to pack up what I need for the move. Once you’re out of the hospital, I’ll move in. Is that okay?”

A flash of joy flickered in Gu Weiyang’s eyes. He had thought living together was completely off the table—he hadn’t expected there was still a chance!

Trying to maintain his composure, he gave a light cough to suppress his excitement and nodded. “Of course. If you’re moving things, wait until I’m discharged, I’ll come help you.”

Su Shijin gave a gentle smile. “Alright.”

—

While he was still clear-headed, Gu Weiyang took the opportunity to get his phone back from the nurse and called a driver to take Su Shijin home.

But since it was still early, only around two in the afternoon, Su Shijin asked the driver to drop him off at Anshi first.

The receptionist, Ran Tian, looked a bit surprised when she saw Su Shijin return. “Dr. Su, didn’t you take the afternoon off?”

“It’s all taken care of,” Su Shijin nodded to her and headed to the locker room to change.

Ran Tian couldn’t help but admire Dr. Su’s dedication to his work. She whispered to Tian Yaping, “If it were me taking the afternoon off, I’d go straight home and lie down once everything was settled. There’s no way I’d come back to work the same day.”

Tian Yaping laughed and gave her a light pat. “That’s exactly why Dr. Su’s already a senior physician at such a young age.”

Ran Tian thought about it and realized that Yaping-jie was right.

There weren’t many patients scheduled for the afternoon, and no surgeries lined up either. The doctors on day shift could handle everything just fine.

After changing, Su Shijin saw that there wasn’t anything that needed his attention for the time being, so he wheeled himself over to the inpatient department.

Access to the animal inpatient area required both a passcode and a fingerprint scan, to prevent unauthorized personnel from accidentally entering.

When Su Shijin entered, the inpatient doctor happened to be holding a bottle of medication, getting ready to administer eye drops to a British Blue with conjunctivitis.

“Dr. Su,” the inpatient doctor greeted him upon seeing him come in.

Su Shijin nodded in response, his gaze falling on the medical chart hanging outside the cat’s cage. He glanced at it. “Conjunctivitis?” Footnote: Commonly known as pinkeye. It’s an inflammation or infection of the conjunctiva, the thin and transparent layer of tissue that lines the inside of the eyelid.

“Yeah.” The inpatient doctor opened the cage, gently blocking the little blue cat that was trying to leap out, then firmly grasped the scruff of its neck. “Bacterial infection. They’ve got other cats at home too, and the owner was worried they wouldn’t be able to manage it properly, so they left it here for a while. Once it’s mostly recovered, they’ll take it back.”

As the inpatient doctor spoke, he skillfully applied the eye drops to the cat’s eyes.

The little blue cat let out a couple of soft meows, and as soon as the doctor finished and let go, it immediately squinted its infected eye and shrank back into the corner of the cage, watching the people outside with wary eyes.

Even though it squinted its teary eye and looked on with full alertness, all Su Shijin could see on its little face was the word “pitiful.”

The inpatient doctor put the eye drops away and asked, “Dr. Su, are you here to see Mengya?”

A question mark practically popped up above Su Shijin’s head. “Mengya?”

“Oh, the little toy poodle,” the inpatient doctor explained, realizing Dr. Su might not know its new name. “Boss He gave it a new name. She said that now that it’s in her hands, it’s like a fresh start, like a little sprout growing again.”

Su Shijin let out an “ah,” then said, “That’s nice. It sounds good.”

Mengya was still in the same VIP kennel as before, lying inside with its back facing out, fast asleep. Even when he heard movement, he didn’t stir.

The patient in the neighboring kennel, a little Bichon, perked up at the sound and trotted to the front of its cage, barking a few times.

Su Shijin raised a finger to his lips in a shushing gesture. The Bichon tilted its head at him, its short little tail wagging wildly as it panted excitedly, tongue lolling out.

Su Shijin glanced at Mengya, who was still facing away with its backside toward him, and asked curiously, “Does it always sleep with its butt facing out like that?”

The inpatient doctor replied, “Not usually. Most of the time it’s clawing at the cage, wanting to come out. But if we don’t let it, it gets mad and turns its butt toward us.”

“Oh,” Su Shijin nodded in understanding. He reached a finger through the bars and poked its rear. “So it’s throwing a little tantrum right now?”

Mengya kept his head buried inside the kennel but tilted it back and let out a series of “awoo awoo awoo” sounds. It was hard to tell if he was angry or just annoyed with Su Shijin for bothering him.

Su Shijin let out a soft laugh and gave him another poke. “Are you scolding me?”

Mengya still didn’t turn his head, keeping his rear pointed at him while letting out a series of “awoo woof awoo” sounds from inside the cage.

Annoyed by the prodding, he finally lifted his front half and sat upright with his back still facing Su Shijin, throwing his head back and howling, “Awoo awoo!”

His cries were loud enough to carry through the door into the neighboring canine ward, where the other dogs immediately grew restless and started howling in response: “Awooooo—”

Even though they’re dogs, they all seem to have the traits of wolves.

“Alright, I’ll stop teasing you. Don’t bark anymore,” Su Shijin quickly comforted Mengya, worried that too many barking dogs might scare the hospitalized cats.

Mengya kept barking for a bit, but when he saw the person behind him had stopped poking him, he finally turned his head to glance at him.

Because of the way he was positioned, the little toy poodle’s eyes showed a bit of the whites, and paired with his scrunched-up face, he gave off an air of arrogant disdain for all things.

Su Shijin was almost amused to laughter by that expression and couldn’t help pulling out his phone to take a photo.

He used to share pictures of the little animals at the hospital with Jian Lexin, because although Jian Lexin loved dogs, he was allergic to dog fur. So the only way he could enjoy them was by looking at photos, like quenching thirst by imagining plums.

But when he unlocked his phone, the first thing he saw was Gu Weiyang’s chat window.

In the morning, he was worried that if Gu Weiyang woke up and messaged him, he might not see it right away. Just in case, he had pinned the conversation to the top.

Su Shijin’s fingertips slid lightly across the screen, unsure whether Mr. Gu was awake right now.

After a moment of hesitation, Su Shijin tentatively sent the puppy’s photo to Gu Weiyang, typing: [Look at that expression.]

The next second, Su Shijin’s phone chimed—Gu Weiyang had replied: [Cute.]

Attached image: dog_thinks_it’s_great.jpg