Chapter 19: Just a Dream

When Jiang ChengLi woke up, he found that he wasn’t lying in his familiar bed. He was also being held in someone’s arms. It was pitch black in front of him, but the omega’s pheromones fit inch by inch to his side and made him feel pleasant from the inside out.

Jiang ChengLi slowly crawled out of the quilt. He thought it was another charming dream, but ended up seeing an omega’s warm and well-behaved sleeping face.

Near at hand.

The little ice dragon sat in the nest, doubted life for a moment, then lowered his head and bit his tail.

It hurt.

This was not a dream.

Jiang ChengLi dazedly recalled what happened yesterday.

These days Shi Yu’s mood was not quite right. He’d wanted to poke around the omega’s mood, but then he got hurt, went to the school doctor’s room, his pheromones went out of control, he fell asleep…and here he was.

“…”

Really, this must be a dream!

Shi Yu felt something move under the covers and opened his eyes in a daze. The little ice dragon he picked up yesterday was still in his arms. He breathed a sigh of relief. “Awake from your nap?”

Jiang ChengLi, “…”

He moved his tail slowly and looked at the sleepy omega.

Shi Yu noticed that the little ice dragon seemed to be in better spirits than yesterday. “I picked you up and took you home. Don’t worry, I won’t send you to the institute…You’re mine.”

Jiang ChengLi: …Was this really the expressionless Shi Yu from school?

Shi Yu finished, felt a little embarrassed and touched the tip of his nose before he lifted the blanket. “Are you hungry? I’ll get you something to eat.”

Today was Saturday. Zhong Tan had to go to an internship program organized by his school and was not home in the morning. Shi Yu washed up, then used his own cup to put cold water on the table and grabbed the little ice dragon, “You drink some water first. I’ll go make breakfast…”

After saying that he froze again. Could dragons eat human food?

He hesitated for a moment and turned back. “Do you eat eggs?”

Jiang ChengLi could see the caution in the omega’s eyes and he hiked his dragon tail.

Meaning: I can eat.

Shi Yu sprung on him and softly rubbed the little dragon’s tail with his fingertips.

Jiang ChengLi drank some water, then turned back to inspect Shi Yu’s territory, rather like a new king patrolling the mountain.

Shi Yu’s room was relatively small. Except for the bed and desk there was nothing else, only a hanger behind the door with a few pieces of clothing. Cold and clear, but all his smell.

Finally the little ice dragon’s eyes fell on a box on the corner of the desk.

The dragon’s instinct told Jiang ChengLi that there was something he would like hidden inside. With his white wings slightly raised, he easily landed on the desk and pulled the lid off the box with his tail.

Inside was a pile of shiny glass crystals and broken diamonds.

He carefully picked up a blue glass with his front paws. It was crystal clear in the light and glowing with a luminous blue light. Not valuable, but beautiful.

It seemed better looking than the sapphire hidden in his safe room at home.

The little ice dragon put it down and touched a necklace.

The chain was missing a section but it had tiny diamonds in the middle surrounded by silver inlay. Jiang ChengLi took a look at it. It wasn’t much, but worth some money.

Shi Yu left the Lian family and was living only on scholarships and savings, but he had collected so many shiny things…Maybe it was his way of saving money. He seemed to be really fond of dragons.

“Do you… like it?” Shi Yu was still wearing his apron. Originally he wanted to quietly look to see if his little baby was still there, but didn’t expect his long accumulated gifts to be found.

The little ice dragon’s tail was tucked behind it, its blue eyes gazed at him.

Shi Yu sat down on his knees and poured out the entire contents of the box.

“My ability is limited. I can’t collect very many good gems. This is what I can get right now. If you don’t mind, I will work hard in the future and buy you more and better looking ones.”

The words were sincere. Not like coaxing and persuasion, but more like…some kind of prayer.

Jiang ChengLi never knew that Shi Yu was like this in private. The cold senior, who was pursued by school girls, was worried that he would not like the gems he prepared.

Shi Yu was a little nervous, like a boy who had confessed his love and was waiting for a reply. His hand fumbled and he was overwhelmed as he dropped a slip of paper.

He looked down and realized that it was the note slipped to him by the younger sister in the library yesterday. There was a sound from the kitchen. Shi Yu remembered he was still frying eggs and ran out in a hurry.

The little ice dragon stood in the pile of cheap gems for a while, raised its wings and flew up, landing on the small note. Then, crumpling the note into a ball, he threw it into the trash can nearby.

He hated that piece of paper.

After lunch, Shi Yu physically verified what it meant to keep an eye on the dragon and waste his sleep. Jiang ChengLi was planning to slip away when he wasn’t paying attention, but he didn’t expect the man to be poking around himself like a sensing machine.

Not to take pictures or record video, but a moment to touch a small corner, a moment to touch the tail.

Jiang ChengLi didn’t know Shi Yu was so sticky about dragons.

“I don’t come from this world.” Shi Yu used a soft cotton cloth to make a nest and piled all the shiny crystals he had collected on it. “I transmigrated…I died in my last life when I was seventeen.”

The little ice dragon who was waiting for a chance to escape slowly turned around and looked at the young man in front of him.

Shi Yu’s eyebrows were relaxed, as if he wasn’t saying anything important, “I also saw a dragon when I was a child. Like you, he was covered in snow white scales. I made a contract with him.”

Shi Yu lowered his eyes. The contract seal was at the end of his collarbone in two arcs. Shi Yu had heard of parallel time and space theory and he knew that this body belonged to his own self in a different time and space.

The destiny was the same. They would both perish at seventeen. Somehow, something went wrong… and he transmigrated.

“It’s just a pity I hadn’t had a chance to see a dragon yet here.” Shi Yu was a bit despondent. “Then when I came to this world, I also differentiated into an omega.”

Shi Yu lowered his eyes to find the little ice dragon had leaned against the back of his hand. A pair of beautiful blue eyes stared at him.

Or probed with questions.

I guess he couldn’t understand it.

Shi Yu realized that what he said was a bit absurd. Embarrassed, he touched the tip of his nose. “I’m remembering old things.” Then he touched the little ice dragon. “And you? Why are you in this world? Where is your family?”

The little ice dragon just looked at him and didn’t say anything.

Shi Yu, however, seemed to suddenly understand something. He picked up a pen and paper. “If you’re leaving, remember to leave me a note…At least let me believe that it’s not a dream.”

The little ice dragon suddenly moved and followed the back of Shi Yu’s hand, picking up his jacket. Shi Yu put it on his shoulder and felt the little one suddenly wrap its tail around his neck. He was tickled and dodged slightly.

Before Shi Yu knew what the little ice dragon was trying to do, he suddenly felt like his throat was slippery with cool ice.

A strange itchy feeling burst from his glands and throughout his body. He instantly lost his strength and his eyelids also became very sleepy.

The pheromones were as cold as winter but quite gentle, like thin frost falling on every inch of skin.

It was hypnotically soothing.

Shi Yu’s consciousness was disconnected and he fell on the table.

When he woke up again, it was late afternoon.

Zhong Tan came home and found Shi Yu sleeping on his back in his room, only covered with a thin blanket. The omega was delicate and weak, so Zhong Tan woke him up, fearing that he would catch a cold. Shi Yu awoke in a fog, glanced at Zhong Tan, then suddenly turned around and started rummaging.

Zhong Tan was startled. After several inquiries Shi Yu sat on the bed in a dazed state and whispered, “Nothing…I just had a bad dream.”

“Look how anxious you are…You didn’t dream that there was something under the bed did you?” Zhong Tan peered at the door and flicked his eyes around. “Ge, don’t scare me…”

Shi Yu shook his head, looked at the blank paper on the table, and whispered, “It’s just a dream.”

“Young master is back.” The butler opened the door with a bright smile and moved aside.

Jiang ChengLi, wearing a mask and looking weary, stepped through the door and saw Jiang Jing was sitting in the living room and was teasing his cat.

When he saw the person had come back, Jiang Jing slowly put down the cat teasing stick and asked, “Do you feel better after being stained by the omega’s pheromones all night?”

Jiang ChengLi’s eyes darkened slightly. “Why didn’t you bring me back?” When he was unconscious, he heard Jiang Jing speak to Shi Yu in the library.

“Since it has been determined that the omega’s pheromones only affect you, it is safe to stay with him.” Jiang Jing said frankly. “You see? Aren’t you recovered now?”

When its master returned, the little white cat left Jiang Jing who had been teasing him and ran to Jiang ChengLi’s feet to wrap around his ankles. Jiang ChengLi gave in a little and reached out to pet its head. “So, what’s the solution to my pheromones going out of control?”

“There is only one way…knot your mate.”

Jiang ChengLi’s movement removing the mask paused slightly. 

“If my data analysis is correct, a single knot formation can help you control yourself for three to five years. With the increase in the number of intimate contacts, the time will become longer and longer.” Jiang Jing sighed. “But this is not the best choice. After all, that young student, Shi, is not yet an adult. So for now you will have to get close to him and use his pheromones to inhibit yourself about once a week.”

Jiang Jing was from the Academy of Sciences, one of the most internationally renowned alpha institutes. He had been rigorously testing all of Jiang ChengLi’s body data since he was a child. He watched him develop and differentiate into a dominant alpha. He also witnessed him lose control at every point.

Jiang ChengLi’s eyes were slightly sunken. The jacket on his body still possessed a fine deep sea fragrance.

Yesterday night was the best sleep he had in the last month.

“Now that the only antidote is that omega…What do you think about Shi Yu?”