Chapter 11

NINE HOURS LATER.

Shao You finally woke up. Hua Yong was there by his side.

Of course he was.

Always had been.

Hua Yong’s eyes snapped open just about the time Shao You stirred. Followed by a low guttural whimper.

He was at his side in seconds. Shao You’s eyes snapped up to his, an unreadable expression settled in its depths.

No words.

His eyes roamed the room instead, realization passing through his face. He was in an hospital.

“You’re awake.” Hua Yong said, voice barely above a whisper.

And Shao You looked at him again but remained quiet, struggling to get himself up.

Hua Yong hooked a hand around him, easing him up to a sitting position. His hand stayed there, on his waist, as he took the narrow space left beside Shao You.

“How are you feeling?” he asked, in a soft tone.

The alpha groaned in response, jutting his body forward in a long coming stretch. Must have felt good— his frown disappeared.

Replaced by a poker face.

Or at least, a terrible attempt at it.

He paused, humming a non committal response. “What happened? Did I faint?”

Hua Yong’s chest tightened at the question.

His eyes traced Shao You’s features, watching for any minute sign of discomfort.

There was none.

All that remained of Shao You’s stress was the extreme paleness that would rival a corpse. Other than that, he seemed fine.

Breathed fine.

And that was all he needed to know.

Hua Yong’s hands reached for his before he could stop himself. Or second guess anymore. He took them, turning them in his palm. He nodded. “Yes. The doctor said it’s because you’ve been stressed.”

“Oh.” Shao You muttered, eyes darting away to the walls instead. His cheeks burned.

Hua Yong wanted to tell him there was nothing to be embarrassed about.

But knowing Shao You, that would turn him a shade pinkier than the shade in his cheeks. And aggressive.

So he chose the much assuring option. Action they say, is louder than words.

Hua Yong edged closer, hands trailing up Shao You’s biceps. Up his shoulders. Palmed the back of his neck, tugging him closer.

‘Til their faces were just inches away from touching.

‘Til the others pheromones was all each could smell.

A sharp inhale of breath, and it wasn’t Hua Yong’s.

He tapped a finger against the side of his neck. Slow. Soft. Like he was something he could break. Shao You blinked. Once. Twice. His throat bobbed.”You need to take care of yourself more, Shao You.” It wasn’t a suggestion. “Please.”

His hands were warm against Shao You’s body. Like fire to ice.

And Shao You subconsciously leaned into his touch. His own hands found the hem of Hua Yong’s shirt and clutched onto it.

Silence followed.

Not awkward. Not heavy.

Just…there.

And even when Hua Yong tried his best to look under control, the chaos in his soul was jarring. His heart threatened to beat out of his chest.

Loud. In his ears. He knew Shao You could hear it.

Didn’t care.

He was happy.

Happy that Shao You didn’t pull away.

Even happier he was awake.

Because he didn’t know how long he could have gone without-without losing his damn mind if his alpha continued to lie there like that.

Dead quiet. Pale. Unconscious.

He was first to break the silence. “I’m still not sure. Let me get the doctor.”

Shao You met his eyes before shaking his head. “It’s fine.” he uttered, fiddling with the sheets.

Hua Yong narrowed his eyes. “I wasn’t asking.”

Soft. Yet firm enough to render Shao You speechless.

He could compromise with a lot of things. With Shao You. But never his health.

His life.

Not when the last nine hours had almost killed him.

Physically. Mentally. Emotionally. He felt like he was lying there with Shao You.

And no amount of assurance from the doctors could calm him.

Maybe he looked okay now. But he didn’t when Shao You’s eyes were closed.

Nonetheless, he pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind as he got up to go. But before he could pull away, Shao You’s hand found his arm, tugging him back down.

Hua Yong stopped, turning his head. He looked down at the fingers hooked on his arm and then up at Shao You.

The alpha did not look away. Met his gaze with the same intensity as he rose.

Both confused.

Both curious.

But for different reasons.

Hua Yong met him.

The silence was deafening. So that their breaths was the only sound in the space.

“Where do I know you, mm?”

Hua Yong froze. And all of a sudden his heart started beating loud in his chest.

Like that day twelve years.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

Shao You hummed. His fingers found Hua Yong’s face, traced the line along Hua Yong’s jaw while not breaking eye contact.

Each second was unnerving for the enigma.

Something was happening, and he had no idea what.

While Shao You continued his silent scrutiny on him, Hua Yong remained unmoving. Seemed calm and composed on the outside but deep down on the inside, his heart was in his throat.

At every touch. The feel of Shao You’s hands on his skin. The way the places he touched burned after. The genuine innocence in his eyes as they scanned his face.

The smell of him so close to him. Orange blossom, musk and the faint tinge of the hospital.

He watched Shao You’s mouth open and close again. Like he was unsure what his senses picked up on.

Or maybe he couldn’t believe it.

Hua Yong didn’t know he was holding his breath until Shao You’s hands dropped from his face at once.

He saw the exact moment the switch flipped in the alpha’s head. A subtle flash in his eyes.

Shao You frowned. “You.” He breathed.

Tone devoid of any accusation just pure disbelief. And wonder.

And this time around, Hua Yong knew his lonely pinning of twelve years had come to an end.

______________________________

RECAP

That day, Hua Yong had just returned from abroad where he was in a boarding school for his parent’s death anniversary.

After the death of his parents, the young boy who was only five by then was flown out by his grandmother to live in the US.

He would only be flown back in during his parents anniversary as their only child. Then be sent back immediately after.

Hua Yong met Shao You the third time. When one of his cousins was forced to take him along to his library study and he managed to get lost in the huge edifice.

The older boy, even when he mistook him for a mere omega had been warm and kind to him.

None of which he had experienced in a long while.

Maybe that was why he became obsessed with him. And then later when he was old enough to understand, realized it was love.

Growing up, Hua Yong had been known to be quite unique. Not in a good way. In a way that pushed people away from him. Everyone in his family was on guard around him and he understood that influenced their decision to keep him away.

He wasn’t just any normal child. He was smart. Super fast. Unkind. He enjoyed being by himself. Alone.

Away from anyone and everyone.

The only people he could tolerate were his own parents.

And even they might have been able to take only so much cause they died. As if telling him to deal with his shenanigans alone.

Everything went downhill after that. No one was willing to put anymore effort into him.

So what if he was having a bad day? What if he was being bullied at school? What if he couldn’t sleep because there was something under his bed?

He was Hua Yong. He had to suck it up.

Which is why when Shao You met him and didn’t seem to mind his frown. Or his monotonous answers. Or even his indifference, it left a bigger mark on him.

Left him wanting more of whatever that was. Care? Affection? Kindness?

He itched for more.

But then he made a mistake and left right when the older boy finished treating his wound.

It wasn’t a well thought out decision. He hadn’t meant to do that at all. He just got up and left. Ran.

To the eight year old boy, his heart had started beating for the first time and that must have scared him.

Prior to that encounter, his heart had just been that. A heart. Beating at the normal pace. Nothing special.

It just stopped beating when his parents died.

So when it started pounding in his chest that day, he knew something major had occured. Thought something was wrong with him.

That maybe he was getting sick.

So he ran. Ran as fast as his tiny legs could take him.

Found his cousin and demanded to be sent to a hospital.

They didn’t. Nor could he ran forever.

Because the next day, and the next one after that, he was there. Back there at the library hoping to see the older boy again. But he never came back.

Each second morphed into minute then minute into hours until he would drag himself back home.

This went on for a week.

Soon, it was time for him to go back abroad.

Hua Yong was devastated.

He hadn’t found the boy he was looking for yet. How was he going to find him now when he was going so far away again?

Would he never see him again?

And that was the very first time he revolted. First time he ever voiced out his disapproval on decisions made for him.

But there was little he could do as a child.

One thing became clear then. He couldn’t do anything while he was that young and inexperienced.

That was it. The turning point of everything.

Because he had made his decision. A decision that would completely influence the rest of his life. He would remain abroad, study hard and when he was old enough he would go back to Jianghu and find him.

He didn’t care how long that was going to take. He was going to see that face again.

And that was exactly what he did.

He studied his ass off, bagged several awards, made a few business investments, secured connections and came back to Jianghu. Somewhere in those years, he differentiated into a very rare dynamic.

So rare he had to keep it a secret or risk being chained and used as lab rat. An enigma.

Hua Yong was just 16 by then.

Then he launched a search for the boy from years ago with each and every resource at his disposal. Money, connection, he left no stone unturned. He wasn’t going to wait around and hope for fate to decide to make them meet again.

Those were for amateurs.

Took him one more year but finally, he had what he wanted.

A name, a dynamic, a class to the face that had stayed in his mind for years.

Soon the name Sheng Shao You filled his lips. His head. His pictures filled his room. And his thoughts filled his head.

There was no escaping him.

His ruts was spent in a room plastered with the alpha’s faces, duplicates of his pheromones and shirts with his scent.

Which led him to the inevitable truth : he needed Shao You to live.

Hua Yong spent the next three years watching after what was his. He knew everything. Each and every movement of the oblivious alpha who went about his days without a clue.

His favourite food. His favourite place. Who he was dating. The enigma knew everything.

And even when he wanted to skin anyone who dared lay on finger on his Sheng Shao You, he knew the alpha was going to be his in the end.

So he lingered in the shadows. Patient. Waiting. Planning his big entrance.

Hua Yong took over HUA CORP when he was just eighteen years. He inherited his parents old company from his deceased grandmother and bumped it up up to a multimillion dollar conglomerate. Then positioned himself as the uncrowned king of Jianghu.

Even when no one really knew of his identity.

And all the while he did this, only one name was at the back of his mind. The only reason he was doing all this in the first place.

Sheng Shao You.

He was going to be the best. The top of the top. Be so exceptional that Shao You would have no choice but to fall in his arms when they met again.

No matter how long that was going to take.

His chance came in the guise of Sheng Fang’s bad decisions. When the old man gambled fifty years of his family’s legacy on greed.

His initial thought had been to help the company before the bankruptcy. Save Shao You the later tears and embarrassment of seeing his once respectable father behind bars.

But what good would that have been to him?

What guarantee did he have that the proud alpha would fall into his arms after? It would have ended up benefiting the shrewd old man instead and then Hua Yong would have no other option than to fall back into the shadows in the end.

So he decided he needed to find Shao You at his lowest. When he would have no choice but to accept him. Sick. He knew that. But what chances did he have at success otherwise?

It was okay. Shao You could sink a little now. But before he sank, right before he could disappear under the weight of everything, Hua Yong would appear. And make it better.

He would give him anything. Everything. All he had and more.

He would treat him right.

The moment Sheng Fang biotech filed for bankruptcy, HUA CORP was right at the forefront as the highest bidder. Acquired majority ownership of the crippling establishment from even greedier shareholders who would rather secure their investments or lose everything with the decaying company.

However all this was done under wraps. For a while, no one knew of the other side of the takeover. He was going to reveal himself at the first meeting.

But everything changed the day Sheng Fang was put in federal detention. Shao You had driven out of his home in a bad state. One that clenched at his heart strings.

So per usual, he followed in his own car. There. Ready to step in if anything was to happen.

And something did happen. Shao You ended up at a bar when he wasn’t a drinker.

Hua Yong’s brain short circuited when he heard it. Maybe he’d misguaged the entire situation.

He sat in the backseat of his car in the dark alleys behind while Chang Yu reported everything to him over the phone from inside the bar.

He didn’t bother to step in yet. Shao You would be fine, he mused.

It was okay when he had only one drink. Okay when he had another one. Still okay when he had a third and a fourth.

Yet the moment it was reported to him that his alpha shed a tear, it was over.

“Fuck it,” he breathed, jumping out of the car and running to him.

And when he stopped in the doorway of the bar, glancing at Shao You holding a glass to his lips at the counter, the tears reflecting the dim, coloured lights of the bar, he understood it then.

That he was doomed.

There wasn’t anything he wasn’t going to do for him.

And if he took one more step forward, there was no going back.

He took a step.

______________________________

RECOGNITION PASSED HIS features.

Shao You inched his face close, hands cupping the sides of Hua Yong’s. He rested his forehead against his, taking shallow breaths.

Then a long, deep exhale. As if he was relieved.

Hua Yong’s brows creased in confusion. He naturally had a lot of things in control and knew everything.

But this time around it seemed he didn’t know what was running through the alpha’s mind and that scared him on what was coming next.

What was happening?

But Shao You’s lip tipped up in a small smirk. His fingers rubbed gently on Hua Yong’s cheek.

Soft. Deliberate. Sending a tingle down the enigma’s spine.

His breath fanned his lips when he spoke. “You silly, silly boy.” Shao You murmured.

Hua Yong blinked. Staring down at him through wide eyes.

Confusion wrecked him speechless in more ways than one.

Shao You’s eyes shot open.

“I thought you’d never show up” he muttered.

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OMG OMG OMG. Don’t you just love a plot twist?! Like hell yeah. Flip the tension.

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