“You’re discharged?”

The duty nurse nodded: “Yes, the transfer paperwork was completed last night.”

Zhou Shiyi thanked the nurse, took the fruit basket, and headed up to the third floor.

Grandmother Zhou looked surprised to see him: “Why are you here? Come, sit down.”

“I had nothing going on at noon, so I came by to see you.”

Seeing Grandma Zhou look puzzled at the fruit basket, Zhou Shiyi explained, “I have a classmate who was also in the hospital. I was going to check on him, but I heard he was already discharged.”

Grandma Zhou asked, “Is your classmate all right then?”

Zhou Shiyi shook his head, “I’m not sure.”

Gu Sheng sat on the hospital bed, watching the raindrops outside the window.

He didn’t turn his head when he heard the door open.

Seeing him like that, Gu Yuan went over helplessly and closed the window.

“It’s raining outside—why didn’t you close the window?”

Gu Sheng turned back to look at his older brother and lowered his eyes.

After a night of emergency treatment and with transfer followed by overnight testing, Gu Sheng’s face was deathly pale, and most notably, his eyes looked like a stagnant pool.

They had now been transferred to City A.

Last night they called Dr. Li, who said that leaving a familiar environment might help a little.

No one knew when Gu Sheng’s psychological illness had begun, but he had grown up in City H and rarely left home, so coming to City A could at least change his mood.

But the Gu family had no idea that Gu Sheng’s time in City A wasn’t limited to tagging along with them when they came for business — he’d actually lived in City A for seven or eight years.

You could say he knew City A better than his own eldest brother did.

But that was all from a previous life.

In his last life, when he was filling out college applications, some strange force led him to choose B University. His grades had always been good, and he performed exceptionally on the college entrance exams, so he smoothly got into B University.

There, he and Zhou Shiyi were college roommates for four years.

When Zhou Shiyi saw him appear in the dorm, his first expression was surprise, then an inscrutable look—he still hasn’t understood that look he gave him.

Their college years were uneventful; Zhou Shiyi seemed to exist apart from his world, focused on his own things.

Although they shared the same dorm, they were merely acquaintances who’d nod at each other.

They each had their own things to do.

Gu Sheng busied himself making friends, joining clubs and the student council, and worked hard to fit into university life, competing on the same stage as those privileged elites.

Zhou Shiyi, on the other hand, treated the dorm like a hotel, only coming back to rest when it was time to sleep.

When he returned to the dorm, Zhou Shiyi was already asleep early; by the time he woke up, Zhou Shiyi had already gone out for a run.

Later the two of them got busier and busier; sometimes they wouldn’t see each other for ten days or even half a month.

In his freshman year, Zhou Shiyi had joined the biology lab at their university, working under a leading authority. As his talent gained recognition, his achievements became more and more remarkable, and he spent less and less time back in the dorm.

On the day of graduation, he saw Zhou Shiyi for the first time in ages.

Zhou Shiyi was wearing his cap and gown, taking photos with his roommates.

The dorms at University B were four-person rooms; besides Gu Sheng, who was studying finance, the other three were all from the biology department.

They had lived under the same roof as Zhou Shiyi for four years and grew increasingly admiring of him.

“Sheng-ge, come on, help me take a photo with the great god.”

A roommate handed his phone to Gu Sheng, and Gu Sheng took a picture for them.

Zhou Shiyi might not know it, but he’s a well-known prodigy among this cohort.

Although many people had never met him, Zhou Shiyi had already become a living legend. While others were still anxious about their futures, Zhou had secured a guaranteed postgraduate placement under that eminent master and become the professor’s final disciple.

Gu Sheng took a group photo of them, and Zhou Shiyi nodded at him.

Seeing the two of them standing together in that awkward half-way way, their roommate suggested the four of them take a photo together.

“Sheng-ge, Dashen, even though you two aren’t in the same major or the same class, you did at least live together for four years—how do you not even have a single photo together? Come on, let me take one for you.”

Yes, even though they had been roommates for four years, the other two roommates didn’t know that he and Zhou Shiyi had actually been classmates for three of those years.

Seeing Zhou Shiyi acting like he wanted to distance himself from him, refusing to admit they were high school classmates, Gu Sheng felt a bit sulky—if you won’t speak to me, why should I speak to you?

Later on, Gu Sheng regretted it somewhat. Whenever the roommates mentioned Zhou Shiyi and noticed Gu Sheng was around, they’d lower their voices.

His roommate thought he had a bad relationship with Zhou Shiyi.

In reality they had never been close to begin with, because they’d never spent much time together—always keeping to a level of acquaintance without familiarity.

If he spoke up now to say they were actually high school classmates, it would only confirm the rumors that the two of them didn’t get along.

Zhou Shiyi agreed as well; in the end Gu Sheng put that photo and the graduation-day picture into a single folder that was never opened again.

He never could have imagined that the next time he’d see Zhou Shiyi would be under those circumstances.

They pressed him down onto the hospital bed like an animal, strapped him with restraints, and brought him before Zhou Shiyi.

At that time Zhou Shiyi was wearing a white coat and a mask, a pair of gold-rimmed glasses perched on his nose, looking genteel, but his demeanor was very cold.

When he saw Gu Sheng, Zhou Shiyi recognized him too; a flash of surprise crossed his eyes, but he quickly regained his composure and had people push Gu Sheng into the laboratory.

The memories after that are still fragmented, but Gu Sheng can now recall the feeling he had when he saw Zhou Shiyi again — that shame seeping from his bones, and the despair over his own situation.

Was he pitying me? It could be anyone, just not him—Zhou Shiyi!

Why did our relationship turn out like this?

Gu Sheng suddenly began to struggle on the hospital bed. Because he had been so quiet, none of them were on guard, and he really managed to wrench himself free from the restraints.

A few people couldn’t hold him down; at that moment Zhou Shiyi came over, pinned his head to the ground facing downward, his hands like cast iron, impossible to move.

He only heard Zhou Shiyi’s voice, very cold and calm; he said, “Sedative.”

As the sedative entered his body, Gu Sheng lost the strength to struggle. Before losing consciousness, he heard Zhou Shiyi’s voice: “Push him into the lab. I’ll experiment on him myself — an experimental sample.”

While Gu Sheng was losing consciousness, it was as if the time the two of them had spent together flashed past like a revolving lantern.

He remembered back in high school, when he had also saved Zhou Shiyi.

Zhou Shiyi didn’t bring him breakfast for a while to curry favor; he did it, as in this life, to repay Gu Sheng for stepping in to help.

Later the two of them suddenly cooled off, and Gu Sheng was a little caught off guard. But at that time he seemed easy to get along with; in truth he was always proud, and because he never lacked friends, within a few days he had simply pushed Zhou Shiyi out of his mind.

When did he start to notice him? Probably after the banquet.

That time, what happened last night happened again.

His older brother, in that accident, was beaten into critical condition while protecting an omega; he lay in a hospital bed and recuperated for three months before he recovered.

As for him, because he hadn’t yet gone through his first rut, he was least affected.

When Zhou Shiyi found him, he hadn’t been seriously harmed—just glandular heat that made his steps unsteady—and an omega threw herself at him, smothering him in her arms. Hit by a high concentration of an omega’s pheromones, Gu Sheng entered a pseudo-rut.

It was his first time experiencing it and he felt helpless; Zhou Shiyi came over with suppressants, soothed him, and put a pheromone-blocking patch on him.

He opened his eyes groggy and saw, beneath the gas mask, Zhou Shiyi’s gaze—liquid and springlike—making him wish that look would stay on him forever.

He rested at home for three days, then bounced back to life and went to school.

When he arrived at school with a secret excitement and expectation, Zhou Shiyi’s attitude was undoubtedly a bucket of cold water, dousing him from head to toe and extinguishing all the enthusiasm he had for becoming friends with Zhou Shiyi.

From then on, he and Zhou Shiyi were like strangers; although they were classmates, the two hardly spoke to each other.

Since childhood, Gu Sheng had been unusually sensitive to people’s emotions; he could sense Zhou Shiyi’s rejection of him.

This rejection wasn’t directed at him as a person, but rather that Zhou didn’t want to have much to do with Gu Sheng.

They had been drifting along like that, so why did it turn into that?

After graduating from university, they each went their separate ways.

The discomfort of just entering the workforce and the joy of making new friends had long pushed those matters to the back of his mind.

Until he was shoved in front of Zhou Shiyi and became one of the experimental subjects under his control.

The person who caused trouble at the banquet had already been identified.

It was the work of an extremist organization composed entirely of betas.

They launched multiple attacks targeting alphas and omegas, with the slogan that alphas and omegas should be made their slaves again.

Extract all their pheromones, cut out their glands, so alphas and omegas can’t trample on them.

The members of this extremist organization were beyond what people could imagine; they came from all corners of the country and had representatives in various industries and fields.

Among them were no shortages of talents from various fields.

Gu Sheng lay on the hospital bed, feeling a bit cold; Zhou Shiyi was a beta too.

If he remembered correctly, Zhou Shiyi had studied in university how to collect pheromones and apply them to real life.

So, was Zhou Shiyi also a member of that organization?

Gu Sheng closed his eyes, unable to understand how things between them had come to that point.

From beginning to end, Zhou Shiyi had shown that he didn’t like to have much contact with alphas; all his behavior, in hindsight, was treating Gu Sheng as prey, an experimental subject.

Gu Sheng clenched his fists so hard the smooth, manicured nails dug into his palms and drew blood.

Gu Yuan watched the blood welling in Gu Sheng’s palm stain the clean, white duvet cover, frowned, and pried Gu Sheng’s hand open.

But unexpectedly, Gu Sheng reacted violently and shoved Gu Yuan away.

In pain and despair he cried out, “Don’t touch me!”

Gu Yuan was stunned. He knew Gu Sheng suffered from severe post-traumatic stress disorder, but Gu Sheng had always hidden it from them, trying hard to appear normal around them. This was the first time he faced Gu Sheng’s other side directly.

Gu Sheng struggled frantically, ripping the IV drips from his hands; the needle embedded in the back of his hand began to bleed back, leaving the ward in utter disarray.

The nurse heard the commotion, rushed into the room, and began assessing the situation.

When Gu Sheng saw the nurse’s uniform, his pupils constricted, and he wanted to leap down from the hospital bed.

Held in Gu Yuan’s one arm.

Gu Jinyan came in too. There wasn’t time to say much; she immediately went over to help Gu Yuan, pinning Gu Sheng down on the bed.

“Ahhh.” Gu Sheng flailed like an injured little animal, struggling the whole time. His pupils were dilated, his expression numb and fatalistic. He was saying something, but no one could make out the words.

“What’s happening?” While holding down the frenzied Gu Sheng, Gu Jinyan stole a moment to ask Gu Yuan.

One of Gu Yuan’s hands was still hung at his neck; he couldn’t hold Gu Sheng down properly. “I don’t know either. He just went like this all of a sudden.”

The last few people teamed up, held Gu Sheng down, and gave him an injection. Under the drug’s effect, Gu Sheng gradually calmed down.

Gu Sheng kept his eyes fixed hard on the door, staring at something unknown.

Finally, under the influence of the drug, Gu Sheng slowly closed his eyes, but a tear slipped from the corner of his eye.