Shen Dai felt a sharp pain like he was pricked by a thorn. But he didn’t even show it. He pretended like nothing had happened and continued to tie Qu Moyu’s tie.

Qu Moyu looked in the mirror and straightened his clothes: “Take a good rest in the morning. You can ask the driver to take you to the company after lunch.”

“Okay.”

Qu Moyu stroked Shen Dai’s hair: “I will take you on a vacation at the end of the year. Is there any place you want to go?”

Shen Dai shook his head: “The teacher wants me to go to South Africa when I have time to inspect a new mine, which may help with my thesis.”

“My employees work so hard. I, as the boss, should feel relieved.” Qu Moyu lowered his head, kissed Shen Dai’s glands lightly, and inhaled the smell of the white flower from the smooth skin on the back of Shen Dai’s neck. The smell made him relaxed and happy. “But I want you to accompany me more.”

“But I....”

Qu Moyu smiled and said, “We’ll talk more about it at the end of the year.”

Qu Moyu walked to the door and Shen Dai got himself ready to go back to work. Today, his back was sore so he couldn’t ride a bike. He will have to take a taxi— every time Qu Moyu gets out of control in bed, he will have a hard time the next day.

In the taxi, he accidentally received a friend request on WeChat, whose profile picture shows that it is You Baiyue. He doesn’t know why You Baiyue added him on WeChat and he is too lazy to think about it. So he just ignores the request.

In the afternoon, a phone call from an unknown number came in.

Because of frequent house inspections some time ago, he received many calls from real estate agents. He usually hung up on unfamiliar calls, but the number persisted calling for the third time, so he had to answer.

Before Shen Dai opened his mouth, a clear and pleasant voice came from there: “Hello, dear brother, why didn’t you accept my request. So cold?”

It’s You Baiyue..

Shen Dai looked at the busy colleagues in the laboratory, took the phone and went to the stairwell: “I thought it was an online avatar used by an imposter.”

“Don’t pretend. I clearly wrote who I am. You did it on purpose.”

Shen Dai said calmly, “There are a lot of imposters lately.”

“Wow, as an omega, you really aren’t cute at all.”

“I’m sorry, what’s the matter? I’m at work now.”

“Today is my birthday. I’m going to have a party tonight. You come and play.”

“I have to work overtime lately. I really can’t find time. I wish you a happy birthday.” Shen Dai was amused by You Baiyue’s watchful eyes. Just because of a surveillance video that did not have any substantive tone being released, You Baiyue was already like this. Such a big reaction demonstrates that people really care about what is going on online. What else does he want\ to do in front of him? Of course he won’t go, not only because he doesn’t want to see Qu Moyu and You Baiyue wearing each other’s birthday gifts. But also because he doesn’t want to participate in You Baiyue’s self-righteous ‘competition’.

Cheng Zimei said that he doesn’t have that kind of ‘ability’. And yes he does not have that kind of ‘ability’ at all. His ability lies in being able to compete with most alphas in professional competition, not in competing with most omegas for alpha’s attention.

He saw what happened to his biological omega father with his own eyes. He was an omega with excellent family background, appearance, and education. But he completely gave up self-construction, pinned all his hopes on love and being loved, and destroyed a good life one after another in the name of love. For the scum who plundered his sexual value, in the end, there was nothing left except for the burden of a child that ‘should not have been born’.

That’s a path that many omegas have voluntarily or forced to choose. But it is a path that he will never take.

No matter how much he likes Qu Moyu, he won’t let himself fall into a meaningless trap.

You Baiyue gave a light ‘scoff’: “I asked Brother Yu to bring you here, but he refused, and I didn’t invite you either. Do you hate me?”

“No, we’re just unfamiliar with one another. I believe you don’t lack anything by not having a friend like me to attend anyway.”

“But we are not friends, we are brothers.” You Baiyue sighed, “The matter of the previous generation is the matter of the previous generation. We are brothers to one another, shouldn’t we establish a good relationship?”

Shen Dai was stunned. For a moment, he felt a little soft-hearted. But he quickly woke up. If You Baiyue really needed his brother, he wouldn’t just remember it now. But he really didn’t need it. “I don’t think it’s necessary, we will become strangers again soon.” ..after he completed the contract.

You Baiyue was silent for a moment: “You accept my request first, or I will keep harassing you.”

Shen Dai said helplessly: “Okay.” It seemed that Young Master You wouldn’t have a good birthday without showing it off to him.

Cheng Zimei scolded You Baiyue for a long time, but kept following his news, wondering which celebrities and internet celebrities he invited to his birthday party.

“Come on, the other prince gave him a car. This boyfriend is generous enough.” Cheng Zimei quickly swiped her finger on the screen, “Haha many people are scolding him, saying why he didn’t show his boyfriend’s gifts first.”

Shen Dai interrupted her: “Is the experimental data of p203 completed yet?”

Cheng Zimei shook her head smugly: “Of course it’s completed, I’m just having fun while I’m resting.”

Shen Dai couldn’t help but bother her: “Our junior sister just said that there seems to be a problem with the filter press. Go and check it out for her.”

Cheng Zimei gave a ‘hmm’. She then got up and left with a dissatisfied look on her face.

Shen Dai was burying his head writing the materials he had when he suddenly caught sight of a shadow out of the corner of his eye. When he looked up, it was Zhou Lan.

“Senior Brother Shen.” Zhou Lan said with a smile, “I have finished all the work you gave me. I’m waiting for your response.”

“Okay, thank you. I’ll get back to you later. I need to get some materials first.” After Shen Dai finished speaking, seeing that Zhou Lan didn’t mean to leave, he had a vague suspicion in his heart.

“Senior Brother Shen..” Zhou Lan was a little shy and a little restrained, “Did you know that the Ministry of Space and the University of Geosciences are holding an exhibition recently? Not only that there are many mines that we have not seen, but also meteorites being exhibited. My friend has internal tickets where we can go earlier than scheduled to avoid crowds. I think Senior Brother Shen should be interested.”

Shen Dai paused: “Recently? I’m sorry, you also know that I’m stuck with my thesis at the moment and I may not have the time.”

“If you are stuck, it might be more inspirational to go to see the exhibition.” Zhou Lan’s eyes were bright, with unconcealed expectations, he explained, “I have several tickets, and I want to invite Senior Brother Shen. We can also go with Senior Sister Cheng, Xiaoyang and the others. Is this Saturday okay?”

Shen Dai breathed a sigh of relief: “Okay, then it sounds good. You can arrange it and then choose a place to eat nearby. It’s been a long time since our laboratory had dinner together.” The teacher handed the laboratory to him, but he was not good at management. He often forgets to maintain human relations, which is also not good.

When he got home in the evening, he saw that You Baiyue had added several posts on his WeChat ‘Moments’. Today is his 24th birthday. It was a grand event. There are many familiar celebrities in the group photo. The gifts are piled up like a hill.

There is a photo of You Baiyue standing between Qu Moyu and Qu Chengchen, holding one’s arm in one of their hands, smiling like a flower. The two S-class alphas looked even more handsome. This photo can undoubtedly cause enough heated topics. You Baiyue knows how to use his resources to maximise his advantages.

And the Qu family brothers are also willing to cooperate with him. How can this kind of favour be obtained by ordinary people?

Shen Dai swiped his finger upwards and flipped through the content of You Baiyue’s Moments. He was completely a carefree little princess who had only luxury and pleasure in his life. Meanwhile, Shen Dai’s own circle of friends are almost all from reposted industry and academic-related content, which is as dull as ever.

It is not surprising that Qu Moyu would like You Baiyue. Love is mutual attraction. Marriage is value matching. And You Baiyue has everything that meets Qu Moyu’s requirements for a proper wife.

Shen Dai threw his handphone aside, not knowing how to feel.

At this time, he heard the sound of a car. It was Qu Moyu. It was Qu Moyu who had come back after attending You Baiyue’s birthday banquet. He must still have that tie around his neck. He is very familiar with the sound of the engine of this Phantom. He, who has never paid attention to the car before, can actually distinguish the car by sound only, just because he had listened to it too many times. It is almost like Pavlov’s bell. Once the eardrum is triggered, no matter what he was doing at the time, he would run to the window, tore a slit in the curtain, and took a peek.

At this moment, he also sat up from the bed, but he didn’t walk to the window reflexively, He just turned off his light decisively.

For the first time, he didn’t want to peek a look at Qu Moyu.

On Saturday, a group of people from the laboratory visited the astronomy and geology exhibition together. In fact, there are not many people who will want to see this kind of exhibition. Only them, the people who studied their fields, will feel that the stones that look like a mess have an indescribable charm.

Zhou Lan’s attentiveness towards Shen Dai was obvious. Everyone could see it, but because of Shen Dai’s identity, they didn’t dare to push him towards Shen Dai.

Cheng Zimei was also happy to see it happen, and deliberately set everyone away, trying to keep the two of them alone.

Shen Dai was looking at a display and when he turned around, he found that only him and Zhou Lan were left. Zhou Lan handed a mineral water bottle that had been unscrewed to Shen Dai: “Brother, drink some water, are you tired? Do you want to take a break?”

Shen Dai knew that it was impossible to rely on Cheng Zimei to help him to block this guy. He looked at the young and healthy boy in front of him and was worried. He said, “I’m not tired. Where are the others?”

“I don’t know. Maybe they’ve gone to the toilet.” Zhou Lan looked very happy. “Senior brother, look. This commentary is not so eloquent. Is it a literal translation from English? It’s too careless.”

Shen Dai also leaned over to read the commentary, the font was a bit small so their heads almost touched one another.

When the tip of his hair touched the other’s tip of the hair, they could smell each other’s pheromones. Although Zhou Lan couldn’t tell what the exact smell was, he could smell the warm and pleasant smell of Shen Dai’s pheromone. Shen Dai quickly took a step back. Zhou Lan was also startled but his expression revealed a little bit of joy.

Zhou Lan asked shyly, “What is that smell? The smell of Senior Brother Shen’s pheromone is light, but it smells good.”

Shen Dai said blankly, “I’m going to the toilet.”

???

Next update: 2022.04.14

???

*Translator’s Note: I switched all ‘SCI’ to thesis for easier understanding.

Pavlov’s bell is a conditioning experiment. I learnt about it in Psychology class before. In the experiment, a bell is rung to signal food is being served to a dog. This is repeated over and over. Until even when there’s no food, even hearing the sound of the bell will make the dog associate it to food and will salivate.

I’m afraid if Qu Moyu is the next Shao Qun (from ‘Sissy’). Sigh.. I don’t even know why I like reading all this dog-blood so much T.T!

“No matter how much he likes Qu Moyu, he won’t let himself fall into a meaningless trap”.. Sad to say, he will fall into such a trap. -K