Chapter Text
I woke up with a pounding head “Why is the sun so bright?”
I looked on the side and Gao Tu was sprawled next to me. We were in bathrobes.
“What the hell did we do last night?”
And then everything hit me like a bullet.
A-Yong had to go to Japan for a business conference regarding the expansion of X-Holdings but it coincided with our trip to Disneyland. Hua Sheng didn't throw a fit like a normal 7 year old but he did stop talking to me and A-Yong for 2 days straight.
Hua Yong felt he would be fine by himself but I felt distraught. He was just a 7 year old boy. I remembered all the broken promises my Dad used to make.
I was helping A-Yong pack his bag when I felt a pair of arms around my waist and a soothing Orchid scent mixed with the air. I tilted my head a bit to the left as I felt A-Yong kiss my gland and then nuzzle my neck “Who do I have to kill to get that sad look out of your eyes?”
I smiled and said “You can't kill that person.”
A-Yong turned me around and said with his hands on my waist and with a raised eyebrow “Is that distrust I am hearing?”
“No Baobao. It's just you can't kill your own flesh and blood now, can you?” I said, encircling my arms around his shoulders and pulling him towards me.
Realization dawned on him as he understood what I was talking about. “He will get over it, Shaoyou. We can't just give into all his demands just like that. He has to start getting responsible now.”
“I know that. But he is just a 7 year old boy and before he grows up I don't want him to grow up. We both had absent and dead parents and had a ton of siblings to compete for love and attention which we didn't get by the way. I don't want that to happen to him, that's all.” I said looking into his eyes.
He smiled and said "He is an intelligent kid who knows how much we love him. There has not been a day where we are not there for him. I will talk to him. I am sure he will understand.”
I nodded and hugged him.
He tightened his hold on me and whispered in my ear “You know even I am sad and distraught since I am leaving you for an entire week. Don't you feel bad for me.”
I bit his ear and whispered back “So why don't you do something about it.”
He captured my lips in a searing kiss and backed me on the bed until I was lying down. Clothes were shed and we made love the entire night to the point that my legs felt like jelly and it was difficult for me to get up in the morning to see him off.
When I got up to see A-Yong off I saw Peanut also waiting for me.
He just hugged my waist and said “Sorry Baba.”
I patted his head and looked at A-Yong who was smiling at me. He came close and kissed Peanut's head. He then kissed me and murmured on my lips “Bye Shaoyou. Miss me. I know I will.” and left with Chang Yu in tow.
My psycho husband.
But after Hua Yong left, Peanut still looked a bit gloomy and was not smiling much and I wanted to cheer him up. I knew Wenlang went with A-Yong so I called Gao Tu.
In the years, me and Gao Tu had formed a good bond. He had become not only a good friend but a trusted confidant too. I admired his resilience and his ability to call people out on shit when needed. We also had one thing in common. We both birthed our boys.
So while I was getting ready to go to the office I dialled his number.
“Mr. Sheng. How are you?” Gao Tu's soft voice came through. He just couldn't let go of the habit of calling me Mr. Sheng just like A-Yong. God knows the kind of things I had to do to make him call me by my name.
“I am doing good. Just a quick question. Are you free for the weekend?” I said, correcting the knot of my tie in the mirror.
“I am. Wenlang has gone to Japan with Mr. Hua and I have delegated the load to the rest of the assistant group so I am free.” Gao Tu replied.
“Great! So how would you feel to spend the weekend starting from tomorrow night till Monday morning in the penthouse of X-Hotel with the kids. I am burnt out too and would like to have some time to myself. I am sure you need some me time too. So what do you say?” I said, taking the blazer in my arms and walking to the car.
“Sounds like a great plan. How about me and Lele meet you and Peanut at your place and go from there.” Gao Tu said.
“Perfect. Just reach by 7 pm and then we will leave. See you tomorrow.” I said sitting in the car.
Gao Tu said “See you tomorrow.”
The weekend was off to a great start.
We had a good Friday night with kids enjoying a movie and good hearty dinner.
Saturday morning was spent playing in the pool with the kids and then going to a gaming zone. We had a late dinner.
After which the kids went to bed, me and Gao Tu went for massages and then spent the rest of the night just drinking on the poolside and chatting about anything and everything. I was lying on the poolside lounger and Gao Tu was lying on the lounger adjacent to me. He was humming a song under his breath. A faint sage smell was there in the air. Gao Tu's pheromones. I smiled to myself knowing the trust he had in me to let himself loose. I felt very calm and comfortable.
I checked the time and it was a little past 2 am. It must be after 3 am in Japan so A-Yong must be asleep but I decided to give it a try. If he doesn't pick in 3 rings I will hang up.
I dialled and I was about to hang up after the third ring but then I heard the call connect and A-Yong's honeydew voice “Why are you not sleeping Mr. Sheng?”
“I could ask the same question Mr. Hua.” I said, closing my eyes.
He chuckled and then replied “The meeting ran late and then the representatives wanted to go out for a drink. So it dragged a bit late. Me and Wenlang just reached our room.”
“Hmmm. I am missing you A-Yong.” I hummed.
I heard a sharp breath on the other end and then in a soft voice he said “You have no idea how much I miss you Baobao.”
“I can imagine.” I said in a breathy voice.
There was a comfortable silence which followed and then I heard him after a moment “You are with Gao Tu right? Can you do a video call? Wenlang wants to talk too. Gao Tu is not picking his phone.”
“I guess he left it in the room. 1 second.” I switched the call to video and put it on speaker.
In a moment I could see A-Yong and Wenlang's face. They must have reached their room.
I waved and then pulled Gao Tu's lounger near me so that he was visible too. To get a proper look I made space and Gao Tu sat next to me.
“Wenlang!” Gao Tu shouted, waving at the camera.
Wenlang smiled and waved back “Are you having a good time A-Tu? How are the kids?”
“Kids are asleep and we are enjoying ourselves.” He said and then hiccupped.
Wenlang laughed and Gao Tu smiled and said “I miss you.”
“I am missing you too. We are trying to wrap this soon. Maybe we will be done before schedule.” Wenlang said, looking at A-Yong.
A-Yong nodded and then said “We won't disturb your fun time anymore. So enjoy it. But please drink some water in between. I can feel you two getting totally drunk in some time.”
I nodded and then disconnected the call.
I got up and sat down near the pool with my feet dangling in the water.
Looking at the full moon made me miss A-Yong so much “A-Yong is so beautiful. Right Gao Tu?”
Gao Tu, who was filling our glasses, nodded.
So I continued “A-Yong looks like the moon. Minus the craters. His porcelain skin is as white as the moon and his black silky hair is like the night sky around the moon.”
“You are drunk Mr. Sheng and you are spinning too now.” Gao Tu slurred sitting next to me and then laid down with his head on my lap.
“I am not drunk.” I said, grabbing a fistful of his hair trying to prove my point.
“You are waxing poetry on Mr. Hua and also trying to bald me which proves my point.” He said fixing his askew glasses on his nose.
I looked at my hand clutching his hair and let go but started patting him like a puppy “I think I am drunk A-Tu.”
He nodded vigorously which made his glasses slip down his nose again. He looked like a puppy. I always wanted to have a pet.
“I wanted a horse when I was growing up, you know. I once went to a farm and saw the horses. They looked so majestic and regal and yet so gentle. Just like my A-Yong.” I said looking at the moon in the sky.
He looked at me with half open eyes and slurred “I wanted to have a gecko.”
I scrunched my nose and asked “Because it looks like Wenlang?”
“They look cute when they smile. My Wenlang also looks cute when he smiles. But my Wenlang is more handsome than a gecko. So please don't compare him to a gecko.” Gao Tu said.
I made an ok sign and then we were silent for some time.
The night air felt cool and refreshing. Although there were guards outside their room, me and Gao Tu were still checking the CCTV for the kids room once every hour just to make sure they were sleeping.
A-Yong and Shen Wenlang loved the kids a lot. But the bond I had with Peanut or Gao Tu had with Lele was different. We had birthed them. We knew them before they came into existence. We could feel them when no one could.
I almost died giving birth to him.
I looked back at the hotel and the large X on the top of it. This was where..
I looked down at Gao Tu and for the first time I wanted to tell someone. Someone who would understand.
“Gao Tu, Can I tell you a secret?” I asked, leaning back on my hands.
“Sure.” Gao Tu said.
“I lost my virginity in this hotel.” I said looking at the sky.
“What??” Gao Tu got up and looked at me like I had grown 2 heads.
“Geez! Thank you for not over reacting.” I said moving my feet in the pool.
He looked like he was processing the information and then murmured “We are truly meant to be friends.”
“What?” I said not understanding the context.
“Since we are on the topic of virginity and you shared such an important aspect of your life, I should come clean too. Same here.” He said in a low tone.
“Same here?” I was still confused.
“I lost my virginity here too.” He huffed and sat upright next to me dipping his feet in the water too.
“What?” I shouted almost splashing Gao Tu in the process.
“Geez! Thank you for not over reacting.” Gao Tu mocked me and I laughed.
“Let me guess. It was the day I met you guys at X-Hotel and me and Wenlang were fighting, right?” I said.
“Hmmmm” Gao Tu hummed and didn't say anything.
“It must have hurt.” I asked already knowing the answer.
Gao Tu got dead silent. I shouldn't have asked. I was about to change the subject when he said in a low tone “It did. When you go through something like this, it kind of leaves a mark on your psyche. I have loved him my entire life Mr. Sheng and love makes you do stupid things. I pretended to be a beta just to be with him and deliberately harmed myself in the process. That day at X-hotel I know he lost control. But I couldn't forget the way he treated me like some sex doll. I still thought that maybe the next day he would have some amount of feeling to what happened. But his hateful words confirmed what I feared. I could never be his mate. And that hurt like hell. And then I found out I was pregnant.”
I put my left arm around him and he laid his head on my shoulder.
“That's why you ran away.” I confirmed.
He nodded “I knew he would hate me and ask me to abort so I made the choice. I chose my baby.”
“It was the right choice. You know A-Yong tried to talk Wenlang into going after you so many times. He even called him an ass.” I said laughing.
Gao Tu laughed and replied “Mr. Hua did me a service. Those 3 years changed Wenlang. He finally figured out his feelings for me and I am thankful that he came around. We could finally be a family. He loves me and Lele so much that sometimes I think that I am dreaming. All my sufferings came to an end and I am living a good life with the man of my dreams.”
I took the whiskey and handed Gao Tu his wine and said “Cheers to that.”
We clinked our glasses and downed the rest.
We were sitting in a comfortable silence when he asked, extending his hand and dragging the table holding liquor towards him “What about you? You must have been devastated when you got to know the true identity of Mr. Hua.”
I had not planned on talking about it ever but it felt like a weight on my heart and who could understand it better than Gao Tu. So I nodded. "That day the earthquake struck in Jianghu. I got to know that day that he was not an omega and the same person who forced himself upon me. But I couldn't even get mad at him because he literally came in harm's way to save me. I was enraged and felt so wronged. Only when I saw the amount of blood on my hands that it finally dawned on me that his condition was bad. My anger and love for him were fighting a tug of war in my head.”
“You didn't think to break it up with him?” Gao Tu asked curiously.
“Oh I did! I had decided to just steer clear of him and avoid him but I underestimated his feelings for me. He turned into such a nuisance. He started sending me flowers - orchids that too. Then came handwritten letters. Then he himself started showing up unannounced. He put his life at risk twice to save me. Almost got killed once. Then those huge ass billboard displays came asking me to get married on all the major buildings in both Jianghu and P-country. I got so embarrassed. But it did make me feel special and wanted. I had never felt like that. My reputation increased 10 fold for scoring the owner of X-Holdings as my mate. Even my father was proud.” I laughed remembering it.
Gao Tu laughed filling my glass with whiskey.
“But do you know the real reason I forgave A-Yong?” I asked him.
Gao Tu just looked at me.
“Because no one in this whole world could love me like he does. A-Yong was an illegitimate child with no mother and 13 siblings to fight for his rights. He didn't know any form of love. The only thing he learnt in his life came from his father. That was to get what he wanted by any means. By hook or by crook. On the other hand as an S class alpha I was taught to be the provider. I could never depend on anyone. I was a proud, cold and aloof person who just used omegas for relief. Until Hua Yong came into my life.” I said downing the contents of the glass in one go.
“He is something else isn't he?” Gao Tu said, drinking from his glasses.
“A- Tu, he has loved me from afar for 15 years before acting on it. He had such intense ruts but he never touched anyone because he only wanted me. He used to chain himself to the bed on the top floor of this hotel which was specially designed to contain him because he had a mating disorder. He didn't want to force himself on me. But that day we were both not aware of each other's presence and I accidentally went to the top floor and he sensed my pheromones. And well rest is history. I still can't forgive him for that but I decided to focus on what's important. And now I can't imagine my life without him. Peanut is my baby and I love him a lot. But A-Yong is my everything. He is my reason to live.” I said, drinking directly from the bottle.
Gao Tu got up and made me stand. Then he filled both our glasses and shouted “This is to your obsessed and my possessed .. no possessive mate. To Hua Yong and Wenlang”
I laughed and we clinked our glasses and dunked it in one go.
But we didn't estimate how near we were standing to the edge of the pool.
Gao Tu lost his footing and while trying to find purchase held on to my arm. I couldn't react fast enough and before we knew we both fell into the pool.
We came up for air and then looked at each other. We looked like a pair of wet dogs. Before we knew we were laughing our hearts out and racing each other in the pool.
We did not notice that the video call was still connected.