Chà Chà Novel

Yi Heng’s legs were so long that they occupied nearly all the space between his chair and the desk.

With nowhere left to stand, Gu Yan had little choice but to reluctantly part his legs and settle himself across Yi Heng’s lap.

Whatever sleepiness he’d felt earlier vanished without a trace.

His mind was now unusually alert, and his body trembled faintly at Yi Heng’s closeness.

There was a natural difference in build between Alphas and Omegas.

Yi Heng could completely envelop Gu Yan within his arms, concealing him so thoroughly that someone looking from behind wouldn’t even be able to see him.

Gu Yan had never really noticed that before.

Today, however, he was experiencing it firsthand.

He hesitated for a moment before calling softly, with a hint of uncertainty,

“…Yi Heng?”

Something flickered in Yi Heng’s eyes.

He leaned back slightly, keeping Gu Yan enclosed within his embrace, and continued turning through the documents on his desk.

“Let me finish reading this last little bit, and then we’ll go to bed. All right?”

The position left Gu Yan pressed almost completely against him.

He could feel every breath Yi Heng took, every steady beat of his heart.

Even the faint vibrations of his vocal cords when he spoke were unmistakably clear.

Gu Yan bit his lower lip and urged him quietly,

“Mm… Then hurry up…”

He really didn’t want to remain in this position for too long.

After all, a certain part of an Alpha’s anatomy was making its presence rather difficult to ignore.

The study was quiet except for the soft rustling of paper as Yi Heng turned the pages.

The curtains hadn’t been drawn.

Through the windows, countless lights from the homes outside glittered clearly in the night.

Being held in Yi Heng’s arms gave Gu Yan an overwhelming sense of security.

The familiar fragrance of pheromones surrounded him, so pleasant that his eyes narrowed contentedly, making him resemble a lazy cat basking in affection.

But after sitting there for a while, the position began to feel increasingly awkward.

They were both men in their twenties, after all.

Gu Yan would honestly rather turn around than continue sitting face-to-face in Yi Heng’s arms like a little child.

When on earth was he going to finish…?

He shifted restlessly.

Then, after thinking for a moment, he came up with a random excuse.

“Maybe I should get down. I’m pretty heavy, you know.”

“…”

It was quite possibly the most ridiculous thing Yi Heng had heard all year.

As though determined to prove him wrong, he wrapped a single arm around Gu Yan’s waist.

Gu Yan was so slender that his build was almost comparable to a girl’s.

“You’re not heavy.”

In fact, he was light enough for Yi Heng to lift with just one arm.

“But… couldn’t I wait for you in the bedroom?”

Gu Yan refused to give up.

He moved his legs slightly, trying to stand.

Yi Heng answered without hesitation.

“No.”

Yi Heng was being particularly unreasonable tonight.

No matter what excuse Gu Yan came up with, he refused to let him leave.

Eventually, Gu Yan talked until his mouth was dry.

Growing tired, he placed both hands against Yi Heng’s shoulders and prepared to climb down directly.

Fortunately, Yi Heng didn’t stop him this time.

Gu Yan had barely straightened up, completely unaware that danger was quietly approaching.

“Do you want some water? I’ll go get you—Ah!”

Before he could finish, a hand suddenly caught his shoulder and pulled him forward.

His face came into abrupt contact with the documents scattered across the desk.

The tip of his nose brushed against the paper, and the faint smell of printing ink filled his senses.

Then a sudden chill touched the back of his neck.

A body considerably heavier than his own leaned over him from behind.

“W-What’s wrong?”

Gu Yan stammered.

His instincts warned him that whatever was about to happen might be more than he could handle.

But Yi Heng had him restrained with a grip that was neither painfully tight nor loose enough to escape.

There was nowhere for him to go.

Yi Heng pressed the bridge of his nose against the warmth of Gu Yan’s nape.

With one hand, he swept the inconvenient pen holder off the desk, sending it clattering to the floor.

“Yanyan…”

“My mark has faded. May I mark you again?”

It was unmistakably phrased as a question.

Yet coming from Yi Heng, it sounded almost like a statement.

Gu Yan reached out, fumbling across the smooth surface of the desk in search of something to hold on to.

There was nothing.

As realization slowly dawned, he struggled to turn his head far enough to look back at Yi Heng.

“Are you still jealous?”

“No.”

“Then why are you still—Ah!”

Gu Yan hadn’t finished speaking when sharp canine teeth suddenly pierced deeply into the gland at the back of his neck.

A startling rush of pain mingled with intense sensation drew a sharp gasp from his lips.

His eyes widened.

Involuntary tears immediately welled up, spilling over before he could hold them back.

And he still claimed he wasn’t jealous!

Then what on earth was he doing?!

Gu Yan struggled a few times, but his efforts were as futile as a tiny mayfly trying to shake an enormous tree.

His hand brushed against the documents beneath him.

Instinctively, he wanted to grab hold of something, but he was afraid of tearing the papers.

Yi Heng noticed his trembling fingers.

He reached for Gu Yan’s hand, slowly threading his fingers through the spaces between Gu Yan’s, then clasped them tightly together.

Their fingers intertwined.

In a daze, Gu Yan felt the strength gradually drain from his body.

The Alpha pheromones completely enveloped his gland, sending overwhelming sensations through his nerves.

“Mm… It’s too much… C-Can we wait until next time to mark me again…?”

Gu Yan pleaded softly.

Yi Heng’s bite lasted much longer than usual this time.

The gland at the back of Gu Yan’s neck had nearly gone numb.

But in the next instant, Gu Yan found his wrists bound behind his back with a necktie.

No matter how he twisted or struggled, he couldn’t loosen it.

“What’s this? Take it off… This feels so strange!”

Panic crept into Gu Yan’s voice, and his legs began resisting almost instinctively.

Yi Heng leaned close to his ear.

“Don’t be afraid.”

Before long, even the documents on the desk had scattered across the floor.

Neither of them paid any attention.

The intensity of their closeness left Gu Yan struggling to form a complete sentence, his breathing broken by helpless, intermittent sobs.

“…Enough… Hah!”

His head tipped back abruptly before he bent forward again, resting his forehead against the cool surface of the desk.

His occasional protests did little to slow what followed.

The pajamas he’d only just washed that day ended up dirty again.

That night, Yi Heng and Gu Yan reached the deepest level of intimacy and bonding between an Alpha and an Omega, far beyond the temporary marks they’d shared before.

At times, pain and instinctive fear made Gu Yan want to pull away.

Yi Heng held him close and coaxed him in a gentle voice.

“Be good. It’ll feel better in a little while.”

Yet despite the tenderness in his voice, his actions remained firm and unyielding.

That night, Yi Heng completed the permanent marking.

Gu Yan felt as though he’d lost half his life.

His entire body ached terribly, especially around his waist and hips, as though he’d been split in two.

Fortunately, neither of them was in heat at the time.

Yi Heng arranged for Gu Yan to take a day off from school.

By the third day, when Gu Yan finally returned to campus, his eyes were still red and swollen.

He wrapped himself up so thoroughly that barely any skin was visible.

Even as he walked, he felt as though his soul were still floating somewhere behind him.

It had to be said that Yi Heng’s method was remarkably straightforward and rather forceful.

Although he later found his own behavior somewhat childish, there was no denying that it had been effective.

With such powerful Alpha pheromones surrounding Gu Yan, none of the young Alphas at school dared entertain romantic thoughts about him anymore.

It was much like natural selection in the animal kingdom.

Only the strongest, most capable males earned the right to choose a mate.

After Yi Cen’s suicide, there was no longer anyone to cover up the things he and Gu Chengjing had done.

One scandal after another came to light.

The scope of their crimes was enormous, and the assets involved were so substantial that even if Gu Chengjing lost his entire fortune, he still wouldn’t be able to pay the compensation owed.

The court ordered the confiscation of the properties registered under his name.

The day before the Gu family residence was officially sealed, Gu Yan returned alone to collect the belongings left behind by the original owner and Zhao Qingtong.

Shen Yan had lived in that house for more than a decade.

During those years, she’d erased almost every trace of Zhao Qingtong’s existence.

Even the original owner’s belongings had been reduced to a few scattered odds and ends.

It was almost as though Shen Yan had been the rightful mistress of the house all along.

And Zhao Qingtong and her son had merely been strangers living under someone else’s roof.

Gu Yan carefully sorted through what remained, packing the original owner’s belongings into a large box to take away.

Yi Heng had wanted to accompany him and help.

But when Gu Yan learned that Yi Heng had a meeting that afternoon, he insisted on going alone.

While casually flipping through some dusty books on a shelf, a photograph slipped free and fluttered to the floor.

Gu Yan bent down to pick it up.

The faint crease between his brows slowly relaxed.

It was a photograph of Zhao Qingtong.

Judging by the scene, it had probably been taken on the day she graduated from university.

The picture had faded slightly, its colors washed pale from spending so many years tucked between the pages of a book.

But perhaps that was precisely what had saved it from Shen Yan’s destructive hands.

Gu Yan studied the woman standing beside Zhao Qingtong, one arm resting casually across her shoulder.

It didn’t take long for him to recognize her.

She was the same woman he’d encountered at the cemetery not long ago.

In her younger days, she’d possessed a strikingly confident, spirited appearance.

Her hair was tied back in a simple ponytail, and her smile was radiant with youthful energy.

Gu Yan considered the photograph for a moment.

Then he carefully put it away.

Rather than placing it in the box with the other miscellaneous belongings, he slipped it gently into his pocket for safekeeping.

A few days later, Gu Yan asked someone to look into the woman’s whereabouts and eventually discovered where she worked.

It turned out that she owned a café.

When Gu Yan arrived, she was sitting at a computer, adjusting the volume of the music playing throughout the shop.

“Welcome.”

The woman brushed her hair back.

But the moment her eyes met Gu Yan’s, her expression went briefly blank, as though every thought in her mind had suddenly come to a halt.

Gu Yan invited her to sit with him by the window.

When she saw the photograph he gently slid across the table, a faint light flickered in her dark brown eyes.

“Is this… for me?”

She looked nervous.

She wanted to reach for it, yet couldn’t quite bring herself to do so.

Gu Yan understood what she was afraid of.

She feared that the feelings she’d never been able to put into words might finally be exposed.

So before she could make her decision, he spoke gently.

“Yes. There aren’t many photographs of my mother left. I’ve carefully kept all the others.”

“But this particular picture of the two of you is special. I think it belongs with you…”

“And I believe my mother would have wanted you to have it, too.”

The woman’s hand trembled around her coffee cup.

Something in her expression softened.

Her fingertips pressed against the side of the cup, rubbing it unconsciously, gripping so tightly that they turned pale.

“Thank you. I’ll treasure it and take very good care of it.”

A genuine smile spread across her face.

For a fleeting moment, it was almost as though she’d returned to those distant years of youth, when her heart had been easily stirred and she’d still been quick to blush.

Only now, everything she felt was entirely different.

She thanked Gu Yan from the bottom of her heart.

She looked truly happy.

Yet after Gu Yan left the café, she remained sitting by the window, staring silently at the photograph.

Slowly, she extended a finger toward it, as though she wanted to caress the youthful face captured in the image.

But the distance between them was no longer merely one of time.

They were separated by space as well, by worlds that could never meet again.

No matter how far she reached, she could never touch her.

“Xiao Tong…”

Ever since that night of overwhelming intimacy in the study, Gu Yan had felt unusually drained.

He wasn’t just losing focus during meals.

He even found himself growing sleepy in class.

Assuming that he’d simply spent too much time indoors without getting enough exercise, he decided to find an opportunity to invite Wang Zhiliang and the others out.

But after asking two or three times, Wang Zhiliang always seemed to have an excuse.

Either something had come up at home, or some cute girl had asked him out.

Eventually, he even had the nerve to claim that he needed to study!

As time went on, Gu Yan couldn’t help growing suspicious.

Gradually, he began noticing a pattern.

Wang Zhiliang seemed to be deliberately avoiding him.

One day, Wang Zhiliang and Yi Feng made plans to visit Old Boys Billiards Club.

The two of them quietly conspired to sneak out in the middle of class.

Unfortunately, Gu Yan caught them red-handed.

“Hey, where do you two think you’re going?”

Gu Yan hooked a finger into the back of Wang Zhiliang’s collar, preventing him from skipping class.

Wang Zhiliang reacted as though some terrible disaster had just occurred.

He hurriedly and respectfully removed Gu Yan’s hand from his collar.

“Nowhere! We’re just going to the bathroom.”

Gu Yan wasn’t convinced.

“Class just started.”

Wang Zhiliang pursed his lips and shot Yi Feng a pleading look.

Yi Feng was equally troubled.

Gu Yan was just like his older brother.

Neither of them was easy to fool.

After scratching his head for quite some time, Yi Feng decided that avoiding Gu Yan forever wasn’t a practical solution.

He simply told Wang Zhiliang to come clean.

As it turned out, Gu Yan’s entire body was saturated with Yi Heng’s pheromones.

Ordinary people couldn’t sense them.

But whenever another Alpha came close, the overwhelming, arrogantly dominant scent would hit them so hard that they felt dizzy.

“Besides, you’re a married man now. I think we should probably keep a little distance between us.”

Wang Zhiliang muttered under his breath, sounding distinctly lacking in confidence.

He wanted to hang out with Gu Yan, too.

But he was genuinely a little scared of Yi Heng!

Gu Yan stared at him expressionlessly.

“I moved in with Yi Heng. I didn’t get sent to prison.”

The complicated expressions on Wang Zhiliang’s and Yi Feng’s faces only stirred his rebellious streak.

Gu Yan fixed them with a serious look.

“You two are planning to sneak out and have fun right now, aren’t you?”

Wang Zhiliang stammered.

Finally, under Gu Yan’s unwavering stare, he reluctantly admitted,

“Yes…”

Gu Yan immediately began packing up his things.

“I’m coming with you.”

His familiar, practiced movements and utterly calm expression left Wang Zhiliang and Yi Feng staring at him in disbelief.

The three of them successfully slipped out through the back entrance.

Only then did Wang Zhiliang’s mouth fall open in astonishment.

Gu Yan swung his backpack over one shoulder and raised an eyebrow.

“What’s wrong? Come on, let’s go.”

Wang Zhiliang scratched his head.

“I thought you’d turned over a new leaf and would never hang out and fool around with us like this again.”

Gu Yan couldn’t wait to breathe the fresh air beyond the university gates.

He strode ahead of the others, casually borrowing one of the original owner’s glorious past achievements to make his point.

“Have you forgotten who used to lead the way whenever we skipped class? I still remember the basics, you know.”

Old Boys Billiards Club had undergone a complete renovation.

The first floor was no longer the shabby, rundown internet café it had once been.

The space had been expanded and transformed into a small boxing gym.

Several new billiards tables had also been added upstairs.

Meanwhile, the police had thoroughly cleared out the local troublemakers who used to loiter around the neighborhood.

As a result, business along the entire street had gradually begun to flourish.

What had once been a rather rough, uninviting area now carried a touch of warmth and the lively charm of everyday life.

Yi Feng had invited several other friends as well.

They were all tall, well-built young men.

And every single one of them was an Alpha.

By now, Gu Yan had become something of a celebrity among Kyoto’s upper-class circles.

Practically everyone knew who he was.

Naturally, the others playing with him were inclined to give him a little leeway.

Gu Yan leaned over the billiards table.

With a single turn at the table, he cleared every remaining ball.

As expected, a change of scenery every now and then really could make someone feel completely revitalized.

At that moment, Gu Yan felt wonderfully refreshed, both physically and mentally.

The exhaustion and persistent drowsiness that had been troubling him earlier had vanished without a trace.

“That was impressive!”

A buzz-cut Alpha called out in admiration.

His billiards skills were roughly on par with Gu Yan’s.

But the moment he approached, the powerful scent of cold fir surrounding Gu Yan forced him to retreat two steps.

“Thanks.”

Gu Yan returned his cue to the rack and tilted his head back to take a few drinks of water.

Alphas were naturally competitive.

Young Alphas, especially those brimming with energy and confidence, were rarely willing to admit defeat.

They were always eager to challenge someone stronger, to test their own abilities against those at the top.

The buzz-cut young man steadied himself and rolled his neck.

A slightly wicked, challenging smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.

“Hey, do you know how to box?”

Gu Yan turned to look at him.

The young man immediately extended an invitation.

“Want to head downstairs and spar for a bit?”

“Don’t worry. I’m very gentle with Omegas.”

Yi Feng, who had been chatting with his friends some distance away, heard those words.

He practically teleported across the room.

With an expression of absolute righteousness, he firmly objected.

“No way!”

“If you want to fight, fight me! Don’t even think about going after him.”

The buzz-cut Alpha looked thoroughly unimpressed.

“How many times have we fought already? You can’t even beat me. Where’s the fun in that?”

“I know he’s your brother’s husband. We’re just going to exchange a few moves. It’s not like I’m actually going to hurt him.”

Yi Feng refused to budge.

“Still no!”

His parents had repeatedly warned him that whenever they were out, he absolutely had to protect Gu Yan.

If Gu Yan so much as bumped into something or got injured, causing the wedding to be delayed or disrupted…

Forget Yi Heng.

His parents would skin him alive before his older brother even got the chance!

Unfortunately, the buzz-cut Alpha had no intention of backing down.

He began making a few careless, provocative remarks.

“What, is he really that delicate?”

Yi Feng clicked his tongue irritably.

“Tch!”

The atmosphere between them grew tense, as though the slightest spark could ignite an explosion.

Neither was willing to give an inch.

Just as the situation seemed ready to escalate, Gu Yan calmly set down his water bottle.

He lifted his chin slightly and spoke with complete composure.

“Fine. Let’s fight.”

Lately, Gu Yan had been feeling strangely unsettled.

For no apparent reason, he would suddenly become irritable and restless, as though a simmering frustration were trapped somewhere inside him with no way to escape.

And now, someone had conveniently offered him a challenge.

It was exactly the kind of outlet he needed.

Wasn’t it just a fight with an Alpha?

He had plenty of experience with that.