Chà Chà Novel

The Parched Land — Chapter 35

Fu Baiqi opened the door to a dark apartment. His expression was as cold as it had been at work, perhaps even colder.

He was a little hungry.

Fang Fengzhi used to finish work earlier than he did. At this hour, dinner would ordinarily have been ready.

Now he was alone.

Fu Baiqi pulled out a chair and sank into it, leaning wearily against the back. After idly browsing his phone, he opened his conversation with Fang Fengzhi.

The last message was more than a month old.

The Omega had sent him nothing since.

He scrolled upward, but there was little to see. Only three or four messages remained. Usually, he deleted Fang Fengzhi’s messages without reading them.

Perhaps he was simply bored. Looking at those few lines now, he found them strangely insufficient.

He closed the conversation and ordered food.

Once that was done, he had nothing else to do with his phone. He stared at it aimlessly before returning to the same conversation.

His fingers even typed a few words.

But Fu Baiqi did not send them.

Perhaps Fang Fengzhi was sulking. Since their last conversation about divorce, he had stopped contacting him.

Whatever anyone might have said to Fang Fengzhi, Fu Baiqi had neither the energy to explain nor the inclination to soothe him.

Some time apart would do them both good.

Then he found himself thinking that Fang Fengzhi was not so bad, really.

At least he did not make trouble.

But he had been away for too long. Fu Baiqi did not know whether he was staying with a friend or had returned to his hometown.

He knew where Fang Fengzhi worked. Going there to look for him, however, was out of the question.

The mark he had left last time had probably faded by now.

For some reason, the thought of a married Omega outside alone, without a mark, made him worry that something might happen.

A rare impulse stirred. He unlocked his phone and was about to call when the doorbell rang.

His food had arrived.

He accepted the bag from the delivery worker.

“Thank you.”

The interruption brought him back to himself.

For a while, he stood in the doorway, staring at his darkened phone without unlocking it.

A few seconds later, he put it into his pocket.

His neighbor was returning from work. Seeing him at the door, she greeted him.

“Mr. Fu, ordering dinner tonight?”

“Yes.”

He nodded politely and closed the door.

The bag had looked like a meal for one.

Was he eating alone?

Xu Meng wondered as she walked toward her apartment. It had indeed been a long time since she had seen Fang Fengzhi.

The elevator chimed behind her.

She suddenly stopped.

The tall man she had encountered that day—and the sleeping Omega in his arms—returned to her mind.

The next morning, Fu Baiqi arrived at work with dark circles beneath his eyes.

Even after drinking the coffee his assistant brought him, he still felt sluggish. On his way to get another cup, he happened upon Min Zhi speaking with a director.

As he passed, the Omega scent entwined with Min Zhi’s pheromones sent a faint shiver through him.

A soothing sensation spread through his body.

He paused for a second, then continued as though nothing had happened.

The scent on Min Zhi had faded considerably, but it still left him vaguely unsettled.

Perhaps it was because it resembled Fang Fengzhi’s pheromones so closely. Somehow, it gave him the feeling of being betrayed.

As though his own spouse were with someone else.

He forced his gaze forward and dismissed the absurd thought.

Min Zhi noticed Fu Baiqi passing from the corner of his eye but did not look up.

After exchanging a few more words with Director Zhang, he returned to his office.

Following lunch, he went to discuss a proposal with the director, only to discover that he was not at the company.

Director Zhang rarely went home at midday. He usually ate in the cafeteria, rested briefly in the lounge, and returned to work.

Min Zhi casually asked an intern nearby, “Where did Director Zhang go?”

“Oh, I think his spouse came to see him. They went out for lunch and haven’t returned.”

“His spouse?”

“Weren’t they getting divorced?”

The intern seemed surprised that Min Zhi knew about it.

“Well… they reconciled last month.”

Min Zhi nodded, but he did not leave.

After standing there for a moment, he asked, “I remember hearing that his spouse had an affair. Was that true?”

The intern was new. With Min Zhi looking just as serious while discussing gossip as he did while discussing work, it was impossible to tell what he intended.

The intern could only answer honestly.

“From what I heard, yes. Apparently, the director was hardly ever home, and their relationship grew distant. That was how it happened. But they talked everything through afterward and made up.”

Encouraged by Min Zhi’s attentive silence, the intern continued.

“It makes sense, really. An affair is only about trying something new. How could it compare with years of marriage?”

For some reason, Min Zhi frowned slightly.

His expression seemed to darken, though it was difficult to distinguish from his usual reserve.

Even the inexperienced intern knew better than to continue.

Min Zhi glanced over, his eyes calm and unreadable.

Without another word, he took the documents back to his office.

The folder landed heavily on his desk.

He took out a cigarette and lit it. In those few seconds, every movement seemed edged with tension.

He drew in a slow breath.

Then, abruptly, he grew calm.

He returned home later than usual that evening.

The lights in the villa were off.

As he entered, his gaze instinctively went to the sofa.

Fang Fengzhi often sat there with his laptop. When Min Zhi came home, he would glance over, and their eyes would meet.

They always looked away quickly, exchanged a few polite words, and then Min Zhi went upstairs alone.

He would not come down again.

Tonight, he was too late.

Fang Fengzhi was no longer there.

Min Zhi stared at the sofa for a while, then slowly approached and sat where Fang Fengzhi usually sat.

There was nothing different about it.

Only a faint trace of chamomile.

He lowered his head and remained still for a long time.

His phone suddenly vibrated.

He unlocked it and stood, intending to go upstairs, when a door opened above him. Someone emerged, footsteps slightly heavy.

Min Zhi did not move.

Soon, a dim figure appeared at the top of the stairs.

Only the entryway light was on. The rest of the villa lay in shadow.

Fang Fengzhi had descended a few steps when he noticed the man below.

He startled.

At the same moment, a familiar scent reached him.

He paused for a second.

Then he turned and hurried back toward his room.

A sudden, loud noise sounded behind him.

Cold sweat broke over Fang Fengzhi’s skin. All he could think was that he needed to get back to his room and shut the door.

Before he could leave the stairs, a force pulled him backward.

His already sluggish body could not resist.

After a moment of confusion, he found himself against the wall, the man’s arm barring his way.

Min Zhi’s voice was cool.

“Why are you running?”

Fang Fengzhi’s heart pounded.

Lately, at this hour every night, the lack of Min Zhi’s pheromones left him hot and uncomfortable.

He had intended to get some ice to cool himself before Min Zhi returned.

Instead, he had encountered him halfway downstairs.

Very little good could come of meeting like this.

He held his breath.

“I was just going back to get something.”

It was not a convincing lie.

Min Zhi stared at him.

Fang Fengzhi looked away.

An unfamiliar emotion rose inside Min Zhi.

It was not quite anger, nor merely irritation.

Only a distress he could not put into words.

Very little had ever troubled him this way. The last time had been years ago, when his first business venture failed.

And now this.

He remembered what the intern had said at lunch.

Perhaps that was when the feeling began.

He had always despised such things. Whether it was the unfaithful spouse or the person intruding upon a marriage, he found the behavior repulsive.

Yet at that moment, he had wondered whether the lover of Director Zhang’s spouse had genuine feelings.

If so, did that person deserve any sympathy?

The thought shamed him.

His own false compassion disgusted him.

He was merely making excuses for himself.

A selfish, contemptible excuse.

Because Fang Fengzhi would eventually return to his husband.

And Min Zhi was only the man who had helped him through one heat.

In the years ahead, Fang Fengzhi and Fu Baiqi would share countless such occasions.

Min Zhi felt a sorrow unlike any he had known.

“Mr. Min, I think I should go back…”

He did not move.

He did not want to let him leave like this.

Only then did he fully register Fang Fengzhi’s unusually high temperature and the strong chamomile scent rising from him.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“What?”

At last, Fang Fengzhi looked up. In the dim light, his eyes were difficult to read.

“If you need pheromones, you can ask me.”

He said it so readily, as though he had not been the one creating the distance between them these past few days.

Fang Fengzhi frowned.

He did not understand what Min Zhi wanted.

Then Min Zhi kissed him.

His eyes widened.

This time, instead of yielding, he pushed Min Zhi away.

Min Zhi moved back slightly.

He did not immediately resist. He was frustrated by his own impulsiveness, yet at the same time he wanted to hold the Omega tightly, to kiss him, to keep him in his arms.

There was almost none of his scent left on Fang Fengzhi.

He felt him slipping away.

Just like last time.

Perhaps one day he would return to the villa and find Fang Fengzhi gone. Even the last lingering trace of chamomile would have vanished.

Nothing would remain.

He would go back to someone else.

The thought drove Min Zhi forward.

Once again, he held Fang Fengzhi against the wall.

Fang Fengzhi’s hands remained between them. At first, he still meant to resist.

Then their eyes met.

That same gaze again.

Lucid and clear, yet filled with complicated emotions and an unmistakable unease.

He heard the Enigma apologize as kisses touched his eyelids, his cheeks, his nose, and finally his lips.

People were full of contradictions.

He could not understand what Min Zhi was thinking.

Lost as he was, his body gradually relaxed beneath the familiar reassurance of his marker’s pheromones.

Fang Fengzhi sighed inwardly.

In the end, his hand caught the fabric at Min Zhi’s waist.