Chapter Thirty-Seven

Ye Ci leaned over, squeezing his fingers and twisting them.

There was a soft, powdery feeling between the fingertips.

He was still confused, but had a gut feeling that something was going wrong. His face was suddenly burning hot, and he clutched the back of his neck as he stood straight on the ground, the revolving lantern of life projecting in his mind……

Fortunately, Huo Tinglan was still asleep.

After another half a minute, he swallowed his saliva, leaned over to lift a corner of the sheet and slowly pulled it.

If his technique was light and careful enough, then maybe it could be pulled out without alerting Huo-shushu.

The idea was sound, but unfortunately, before it could be implemented, Huo Tinglan suddenly turned over. He opened his eyes without warning and stared straight at Ye Ci. His tone was wide awake when he opened his mouth, as if he hadn’t slept: “What’s the matter, baby?”

Primal instincts of vigilance enabled advanced Alphas to recover energy quickly through short, light sleep. The higher the gland level, the more prone they were to sleep light and wake up easily.

Besides, the fishy-sweet vanilla scent was so strong that it could clog the nose, and it was not hard to wake up.

“N-nothing!” Ye Ci almost jumped at his unexpected and sudden stare. “You go to sleep, I’m going……to the bathroom.”

What was with Huo-shushu’s sleep patterns……no, why was he so alert?!

Huo Tinglan turned around and turned on the light. Propping up his upper body with his elbows leaning on the pillow, his heavy eyes swept over him. He smiled and said teasingly: “Why is there a sweet scent? Did juice spill?”

“Ah, en.” Ye Ci was stunned for a moment. Heart pounding, he babbled nonsense, “I wasn’t, wasn’t careful.”

“Why are you eating in the dark in the middle of the night?” Huo Tinglan looked at Ye Ci tenderly, and slowly said with concern, “Did you not get enough to eat at dinner? Are you hungry?”

“I was very full at dinner,” Ye Ci rambled. “That isn’t why……it’s easy to get hungry when, when the body is growing.”

“Oh.” Huo Tinglan was silent for a moment, thinking, then smiled as he reproached affectionately, “You also spilled a pair of pants……be careful next time.”

Ye Ci’s eyes went blank, and he tried his best to suppress the impulse to jump out the window and end it once and for all.

Huo Tinglan remained calm and composed: “Next time you get a midnight snack……bring me one?”

“I, I’ll bring you one next time.” Ye Ci nodded indiscriminately.

“What juice did you drink?”

“S-strawberry.”

“Where did you get it?”

“The, the kitchen refrigerator.”

“You know where the kitchen is?”

His tone was surprised.

“……….”

Seeing that the little gentleman was so ashamed that he would answer indiscriminately when asked, Huo Tinglan teased him for a long time and said a lot of nonsense.

His needs as an Alpha were chronically unmet. In addition to losing his spouse and finding him again, his lover was too young and his glands weren’t fully developed, so he could always see but never eat……psychologically, it was inevitable that there would be some serious illnesses.

With symptoms such as bullying children. The more obedient they were, the happier he was to bully them.

Ye Ci: “……….”

He had thought Huo-shushu was going to rescue him and give him a way out.

In the end, it was going more and more wrong……

Only when he saw that Ye Ci was about to be harassed into a coma did Huo Tinglan mercifully withdraw his supernatural powers. After digging out the replacement clothes, sheets, and other items from the cabinet, Ye Ci retreated to the bathroom.

After tidying up in a hurry, Huo Tinglan couldn’t help it and cornered Ye Ci, puncturing the paper window to give him a few words of “popular science.” 

In short, it was……

Very thorough.

“Can you stop, stop talking about this, Huo-shushu……” Ye Ci drooped his head. His face was so red that he could boil an egg on it, and he was so embarrassed that he could cry.

It wasn’t just the glands on the back of his neck. He had thoroughly turned into an Omega.

However, Huo Tinglan managed to speak in a sincere tone, and with half a smile, he kept talking to him.

In order to make Huo Tinglan shut up temporarily, Ye Ci wanted to cry but had no tears as he agreed to the next thing – – 

Regarding his lack of education in some respects.

In fact, there was no time to delay. Before their relationship had settled, there were some things that even Huo Tinglan felt would burn his lips, and he couldn’t teach them if he wanted to. Now he could finally teach generously.

“……So it’s settled? We won’t talk about it today, and I’ll talk to you slowly when we go back.” Huo Tinglan gave an innocent smile and put the blame on others again. “You didn’t even read the popular science textbook I gave you earlier. I would have rather taught you personally, but I was afraid you would be too thin-skinned and misunderstand that I was taking advantage of you……It’s just in time for summer vacation, and when we go back in two days, there will be one forty minute class per day until the book is finished. Do you think this arrangement will work?”

“Fine, it’s all……fine.”

“Then, when will you have time……to go to the hospital to check?” Huo Tinglan pointed at Ye Ci’s stomach.

How could Ye Ci dare say no? Only hoping that Huo-shushu would stop quickly, he said whatever he had to say.

Huo Tinglan was satisfied and let him go to sleep.

. . . . . . 

The next day.

Ye Ci didn’t want to let summer vacation wear down his fighting spirit too much, so he still woke up as early as when he was in school and took advantage of the morning, when he was most clear-headed, to memorize ancient Chinese and English words for a while, and then went to have breakfast.

After breakfast, he went back to his room to quiz himself. Too much pressure could be counterproductive, and he would be at loose ends. According to Huo Tinglan’s guidance, he formulated a study schedule and rested every day when his goals were completed, which could be regarded as recharging for the coming year.

Huo Tinglan said that after today’s task was completed, he would take him to have fun. There was a horse farm near the old house, where horses could be ridden, and a shooting gallery nearby, where you could play with guns. In the end, he had a playful heart and was full of motivation to learn, so he completed the task nearly an hour earlier than the expected time and looked for someone after putting down his pen. Huo Tinglan wasn’t in the room where they slept last night, and he didn’t message back right away, so he just asked the random auntie who was cleaning the room. She said that the other party was drinking tea in the tea room on the second floor. He didn’t think much about it and went directly to find him, but before he could knock on the door, he heard Lin Yao’s soft voice coming from the tea room.

“……After all, he is your husband and you’re the head of the Huo family. He will more or less attend some occasions with you in the future, and it’s not good to open one’s mouth and speak poorly……”

It turned out to be about his stuttering.

What Lin Yao said was not unreasonable, and her words were also tactful, but Huo Tinglan still defended him. There was a smile in his voice, almost mischievous: “It’s not easy for him to speak, but he still has me. I will be my husband’s spokesperson, all the same……”

“Aiya,” Lin Yao teased him with a smile, “I know that Xiao Ci is the flesh and blood of your heart and you won’t listen to half a sentence that doesn’t please your ears.” She was not in a hurry, and persuaded slowly, “I know you are afraid that he will think you dislike him for not being good enough, and that his self-esteem will be hurt. I understand, and that’s why I’m talking with you and not him. This is not an urgent matter, I just wanted to remind you.”

“I know you meant well.” Huo Tinglan smiled and lightly changed the subject, no longer speaking with Lin Yao about it.

He knew the cause of Ye Ci’s language barrier.

In the previous life, it was only in the second year after their marriage that Ye Ci completely let his guard down and confided those things to him.

How it was because of Ye Hongjun’s ex-husband, Ye Ci’s stepfather, a low-level Alpha.

This person was in love with Ye Hongjun for more than half a year before they got married, and had always been taciturn and honest, gentle and sincere, treating mother and son with utmost obedience and meticulousness. Ye Hongjun mistakenly thought that she and her child had found support for the rest of their lives.

However, after a few months of marriage, that scumbag gradually tore off his disguise in front of the mother and son.

He had quite serious violent tendencies.

And that personality flaw was compounded when he became addicted to drugs.

Maybe he used it to justify the outpouring of violence, or just to spice up the monotonous brutality – but outside of the regular punching and kicking, from time to time, he would also torture the seven-year-old Ye Ci in the name of “reciting texts.”

Of course, the items to be recited were not limited to textbooks for the lower grades of elementary school. In order to deliberately make things difficult for him, the stepfather sometimes even found some difficult and obscure classical Chinese.

In the process of reciting, if little Ye Ci misidentified a character, omitted something, or stumbled……

This would lead to beatings.

If Ye Hongjun went to stop him, they would be beaten together.

For little Ye Ci, “reciting texts” was synonymous with fear during those days of purgatory.

And the act of “talking” was often accompanied by sudden and severe beatings.

During that time, little Ye Ci often went to school with injuries all over his body, his thin little arms and legs covered with blue and purple bruises. During the dog days of summer, the tiny little kid was all wrapped up in long shirts and trousers, otherwise there would be no way to see other people.

Ye Honjun had been desperately trying to protect her child, but there was a huge gap in physical strength between her and an Alpha. The marriage process was difficult and long, with obstacles everywhere, and even after the divorce was successfully adjudicated, she was constantly harassed. Until that poisonous worm was imprisoned for drug trafficking, and died suddenly of a drug overdose several years after being released. The days of mother and son completely returned to peace.

Unfortunately, this tranquility came too late.

After being abused for a period of time, little Ye Ci gradually realized that when he was speaking normally, he would often suffer from nervousness, anxiety, and other emotions that lead to obstacles such as cold sweats and his mind going blank, as if he was being forced to “recite texts.” The tension and anxiety caused by this deepened in turn, exacerbating the problem……and just like that, a vicious cycle was created.

After growing up, Ye Ci, who had differentiated into an A-level Alpha, had the ability to protect himself. He gradually no longer flinched or felt fear when thinking of his stepfather, but a speech impediment could be deeply entrenched and difficult to remove.

To effectively correct Ye Ci’s stuttering, psychological treatment was an unavoidable hurdle.

Some victims with sensitive self-esteem tended to conceal this type of violence and abuse, and Huo Tinglan wasn’t sure if the current Ye Ci was willing to reveal this old scar in front of a therapist.

Therefore, until Ye Ci took the initiative to ask him for help, he would never put any pressure on him.

……

The tea room fell silent.

Ye Ci didn’t dare to stay any longer, and was about to retreat on tiptoe, when the cell phone in his pocket suddenly rang.

– – Huo Tinglan had sent him a message back.

The corridor was quiet in the afternoon. Even Lin Yao could hear the sound clearly, and it couldn’t escape the ears of a top Alpha.

Huo Tinglan hurried out of the tea room. After Ye Ci slipped a few steps away, he knew he couldn’t escape and stopped in embarrassment in a corner.

“Still learning how to eavesdrop?” Huo Tinglan first teased in a spry tone to show that he didn’t mind. Then he pressed the wall beside Ye Ci and caged him in with his arms, watching his expression.

Seeing that Ye Ci’s face was turning red and he didn’t look like his dignity had been hurt, he was relieved and tentatively asked: “What did you hear? Tell me.”

Ye Ci hesitated briefly, and raised his eyes. Those eyes were calm, and there wasn’t the slightest trace of the painful struggle when baring a scar, only candidness and a soft, kitten-like dependence.

“Huo-shushu, in fact, I want to, to fix it myself,” Ye Ci said with slight shyness.

“Baby, why are you so good……’ Huo Tinglan smiled softly. Fearing that he might be putting on a brave face, he thought about it and said lightly, “You don’t have to think about things like attending events with me. You are my husband, and no one can force you to do things you don’t like, to go where you don’t want to go, or say what you don’t want to say……understand?”

“It’s, it’s alright.” Ye Ci shook his head, and his expression did not seem to be fake. “I also never, never mentioned correcting it because I can’t remember speaking more than, than a few words to people before. But……” He took a step forward, wrapped his arms around Huo Tinglan’s slim waist, and tilted his head to rest his face on his shoulder.

From this angle, Huo Tinglan couldn’t see his expression, but he could hear it.

“I just hope that, that in the future……I can talk to you without barriers.”

There was a smile in his tone.