🍒Chapter 38:He is a Pure Romantic Fool

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Shen Shuyi had never been strong-willed. After being tossed and turned on the hotel bed by Xie Chen Zhou all night, he finally resolved with some pain that he needed to start readjusting his plans again.

He realized that if he executed his plans alone, it would not be enough. His personal strength was too small, and there were too many places where he needed Xie Chen Zhou’s cooperation.

After talking with Uncle Qian, Shen Shuyi felt even more certain that he should choose to trust Xie Chen Zhou a little more.

The next day, Shen Shuyi went to find Shen Shuhan in his room.

Shen Shuhan was still furious that his younger brother had gone behind his back with such a huge matter. He had locked himself in his room ever since yesterday, refusing to come out, not even to watch the race.

But Shen Shuyi suspected that he was really just hiding away to enjoy the infinity pool in peace.

Sure enough, after Shen Shuyi knocked for a while, Shen Shuhan finally opened the door, wrapped tightly in a bathrobe. His face was stern, but his bare calves sticking out were still dripping wet.

“What do you want?!” Shen Shuhan barked, glaring. “I do not have such a useless younger brother.”

Shen Shuyi gave a flattering smile. “Third Brother, you like the brand GVEN, right? I went on their official website and bought you a bracelet. See if you like it?”

He pulled out his phone as he spoke.

In truth, Shen Shuyi’s heart ached. The purchase had almost emptied out all the savings he had managed to put aside since starting his internship. But compared to what he needed Shen Shuhan’s help with next, this was nothing.

As expected, when Shen Shuhan saw the freshly placed order on his phone, his expression shifted from wary to skeptical. “Where did you get that much money?”

Shen Shuyi had always been frugal and disliked asking the family for money. It was not that Shen Shuhan was unwilling to give him money, he just felt it was unnecessary. His younger brother had his pride, and Shen Shuhan did not want to show too much concern, especially since he still blamed himself for losing track of Shuyi that one time when they were children.

Now that his brother was grown, Shen Shuhan preferred to maintain a not-too-close, not-too-distant relationship. It felt just right.

But this troublesome brother still made him worry endlessly. No matter how much he wanted to stand aside, he could not.

Shen Shuyi explained, “I used all my internship savings. I still have fifty thousand left in my card. I originally wanted to save it for graduate school. I did the math… graduate exams and a PhD cost a lot. I am not as smart as you, or Big Brother, or Second Sister. If I want to walk the path I want in the future, it will cost me more, so I had thought of working while studying. I have no grand ambitions, I just hope that when people mention me, they will not say I am Shen Shuhan’s brother and bring you shame…”

Shen Shuhan’s frown deepened. He raised his hand. “Stop. What are you actually trying to say?”

Shen Shuyi gave a small smile. “I think… I really do like Mr. Xie. But you were right. If things keep going this way, I will always be stuck with this false gland. I do not blame him. I believe he never truly wanted to affect me or turn me into an Omega. What happened last time was just an accident. But neither of us has any self-control. So I want… I want to leave him. But I also want to trust him once. Can you help me?”

Shen Shuhan stared at him in shock.

After meeting Uncle Qian, Shen Shuyi had learned more about Xie Chen Zhou’s past. What he heard gave him a deeper understanding.

Xie Chen Zhou’s mother was an Enigma, just like him. She disguised her pheromones as those of an Omega and deliberately approached his father. Her stunning beauty only made it easier to ensnare him.

It was the same tactic Xie Chen Zhou had once used on Shen Shuyi: suppressing, disguising, presenting herself as gentle, demure, like a traditional Omega. Even though her height and strength made her more like an Alpha, Xie’s father believed she was special.

He married her.

But like Third Brother had said, any miracle that falls into your lap is just a trap. After marriage, her disguise cracked.

She revealed overwhelming possessiveness. After marking him, she imprisoned him, even forcing him to bear a child.

Ten months, trapped at home, until Xie Chen Zhou was born.

His father, once a public figure, lost face completely. His chances of being heir were gone. He was furious.

Xie’s mother told him she could help him regain his position, if only he would stay with her and raise their son together.

He refused, calling her insane.

He could not stand being locked up. He was an Alpha. To him, life meant banquets, socializing, embracing delicate Omegas outside. Not being trapped at home like this. Now he had lost everything, and worse, had been forced to give birth to a child. An Alpha giving birth…it was unheard of!

Their conflict was irreconcilable. They fought constantly. No one spared a thought for the baby in the crib.

Xie’s mother believed his father had deceived her with false promises. His father told her, “What does love matter? When you were an Omega, I could love you. But now you are an Enigma, a madwoman who forced me to give birth to a little madman. How could I love you? It was all fake, only a lunatic would believe it.”

From then on, she truly went mad.

Shen Shuyi had asked Uncle Qian if his father had ever really loved her. Uncle Qian said perhaps once. But when deception was exposed, love meant nothing.

They tormented each other until only hatred remained.

His father eventually escaped.

Because his mother let him go.

Yes, because she could not bear to see him destroy himself in chains and hunger. She turned a blind eye and he ran.

Later, he returned with people, and locked her in a mental hospital. He never visited again.

This was the story Uncle Qian told Shen Shuyi. He had been there the whole time.

After his father escaped, Xie’s mother told Uncle Qian, “We Enigmas are like this. Controlling, obsessive. I fear Chen Zhou will end up like me. But my strength is failing. I may not live long. I cannot protect him.”

And she was right.

For years, Uncle Qian kept this secret. Xie Chen Zhou never trusted him enough to hear it, and perhaps never trusted himself either.

Enigmas rarely lived long. Their obsession consumed them.

Xie Chen Zhou had once told Uncle Qian: because only Uncle Qian knew his real nature, he allowed him to stay in his house. But if one day he hurt his partner the way his mother had hurt his father, he wanted Uncle Qian to stop him by calling the police, by locking him up, even by killing him if necessary.

At the time, Uncle Qian thought he was only preparing for a hypothetical future. He did not realize Chen Zhou already had someone he liked.

He had liked Shen Shuyi for a long time.

Uncle Qian said so, and Shen Shuyi believed him, though he did not know when those feelings began.

“Master never felt much identity with his gender,” Uncle Qian had once told him. “When he was small, before his father abandoned him, he asked me: why was he an Enigma? If his glands were removed, could he become a normal Beta? I told him no, removing them would kill him. He never spoke of it again.”

Shen Shuyi asked, “Does he know it was his mother who let his father escape?”

Uncle Qian answered, “He does not. He always believed his father broke free himself.”

Hearing all this, Shen Shuyi could not help but wonder.

Was Chen Zhou always in pain? Setting traps for him, trying to bind him, trying to make him an Omega… yet at the same time fearing that the tragedy of his parents would repeat between them.

That was why he restrained himself, why he was conflicted, why he quietly took contraceptives every day.

But taking them daily was dangerous.

Shen Shuyi thought of himself as foolishly softhearted. Even after hearing all these terrifying things about Enigmas, his heart was still full of sympathy, pity, and the desire to save Chen Zhou.

Maybe it was that naïve “rescue the fallen” mindset of an Alpha. Maybe it was simply that he was a hopeless romantic.

Even Shen Shuhan was exasperated with him. “He turned you into that, and I have not demanded you divorce him already. Yet you still want to do more for him?”

Shen Shuyi said, “I want to borrow money from you to study abroad. I will disappear from his world for a while. When my false gland fades, I will come back. Can you help me?”

Shen Shuhan was stunned.

📌Notice from Cherry (translator): 📌 

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