My husband
Si Qi was already awake when the morning sun shone through the gauze curtains into the bedroom. He turned his head to look at Shao Wei beside him—he slept in a proper position, his hands folded on his abdomen, like a silent statue. Only the slight rise and fall of his chest confirmed that he was a living person.
Si Qi got up quietly and did not go for his morning run as usual. Instead, he walked towards the kitchen. The housekeeper was visibly stunned when he saw him.
"What do you need, sir?"
"Breakfast." Si Qi rolled up his sleeves, "I'll make it."
Half an hour later, when Shao Wei followed the aroma of coffee into the restaurant, he saw this scene: Si Qi standing at the counter, his white shirt sleeves rolled up to his elbows, revealing his sturdy forearms. On the table were two fried eggs, bacon, toast, and a small bowl of fresh blueberries.
Shao Wei stopped at the door, frowning slightly. This was the first time in six months that Si Qi didn't go directly to the company after his morning run, but instead made breakfast.
"Sit down." Si Qi said without looking up, pushing the coffee across the table. "Yours, no sugar."
Shao Wei slowly walked to the table and sat down, his eyes wandering between the cup of coffee and the blueberries. He remembered that he had never told Si Qi that he liked blueberries, let alone his habit of drinking coffee without sugar.
"What are your plans for today?" Si Qi asked, his tone softer than usual.
Shao Wei raised his eyes. "It's the usual schedule. Go to the foundation in the morning, and go back to the company in the afternoon to deal with the quarterly report."
"I send you."
This made Shao Wei's fingers pause on the coffee cup. He took a sip of coffee. It was indeed unsweetened, and the bitterness was just right.
"No, I have a driver."
"I want to give it to you." Si Qi insisted, his eyes falling on Shao Wei's wrist - he was wearing a watch there today, which tightly covered the scars.
Breakfast ended in silence, but the atmosphere was different from usual. When Si Qi picked up the car keys, Shao Wei did not refuse.
The car's interior was small and intimate. Shao Wei sat in the passenger seat, his profile gilded by the morning light. Si Qi noticed that the shadow cast by his eyelashes trembled slightly with the speed of the car.
"What are you looking at?" Shao Wei suddenly asked.
Si Qi then realized that he had been staring at her for too long. He turned his gaze away and said, "You have very long eyelashes."
Shao Wei was visibly stunned. This was the first time he had heard Si Qi comment on his appearance. He turned his head to look out the window, his ears slightly red.
Si Qi stopped the car in front of the foundation building but didn't unlock the door immediately. He turned to Shao Wei and asked, "What time will it end?"
"Around three in the afternoon."
"I'll pick you up."
Shao Wei finally couldn't help it: "Why is it like this all of a sudden?"
Si Qi tapped his fingers on the steering wheel: "What?"
"Send me home, pick me up, make breakfast." Shao Wei's voice was soft, but every word was clearly audible. "None of this is in our agreement."
Si Qi suddenly leaned in close, close enough to smell the faint scent of cedar on Shao Wei. He saw Shao Wei's pupils dilate slightly and his breathing became rapid - this was the instinctive reaction of an Alpha when faced with the approach of one of their kind, but there seemed to be something else mixed in.
"I want to add some terms," Si Qi said, then stepped back and unlocked the car door. "See you at three."
Watching Shao Wei walk into the building, Si Qi called his assistant. "I want all of Shao Wei's medical records, especially the psychiatric records. Also, check all the doctors he's been in contact with over the past five years."
After hanging up, Si Qi didn't leave immediately. He turned on the car computer and pulled up information about the Shaw Foundation. This charitable organization, which primarily supports mental health, was founded by Shaw, but rarely mentioned publicly. Browsing through recent grants, Si Qi paused at a youth crisis intervention program—the project description prominently stated, "Based on the founder's personal experience."
At noon, Si Qi appeared at the café across from the foundation building. He chose a window seat with a perfect view of the foundation's main entrance. An hour later, Shao Wei emerged alone, not calling for a driver, but walking to a small bookstore a few blocks away.
Si Qi followed.
The bookstore was quiet, with few customers. Shao Wei walked to the literature section with familiarity, took down a poetry collection, and flipped through it. Si Qi, hiding behind a bookshelf, watched Shao Wei's slender fingers gently stroke the pages, his eyes focused and gentle, a stark contrast to his usual indifference.
When Shao Wei took the selected book to check out, the clerk greeted him with a smile: "Mr. Shao, are you here to buy poetry again? Who are you giving it to this time?"
"Look for yourself." Shao Wei rarely smiled, and that smile made Si Qi's heart tremble.
"Do you like the book 'Silent River' that you bought last time, Mr. Smith?"
Shao Wei's smile disappeared: "He doesn't know."
Si Qi froze in place. He remembered that Shao Wei had indeed given him a book for his birthday last month, but he had thrown it in the corner of the study without even unpacking it.
After leaving the bookstore, Shao Wei didn't return to the foundation, but instead went to a nearby clinic. Si Qi looked at the clinic's sign—"Lin's Psychological Clinic"—and his eyes darkened. He waited in the car for forty minutes until Shao Wei emerged, his face even paler than when he entered.
At three o'clock sharp, Si Qi's car stopped at the entrance of the foundation. When Shao Wei got in the car, Si Qi smelled a faint smell of disinfectant.
"Going to the company or going home?" Si Qi asked.
"Company." Shao Wei fastened his seatbelt. "I haven't finished reading the quarterly report yet."
Si Qi nodded and started the car. On the way, he asked casually, "Where did you go at noon?"
Shao Wei's fingers tightened slightly: "Dealing with some personal matters."
“Is the poetry collection good?”
The air in the car froze instantly. Shao Wei turned to look at Si Qi, a flash of panic in his eyes: "Are you following me?"
"Just concerned." Si Qi parked the car in front of the Shaw Brothers Enterprise Building. "Can you lend me 'Silent River' to watch tonight?"
Shao Wei didn't answer and got out of the car. Si Qi looked at his straight back and knew that he was angry.
At nine o'clock in the evening, when Si Qi returned home, Shao Wei had not yet returned. The housekeeper said that Mr. Shao had called and said he had to work overtime. Si Qi went to the study and found the neglected poetry collection. He opened the title page and saw Shao Wei's thin handwriting on it: "To Si Qi, may your river finally have an echo."
He sat in Committee Member Shao's usual seat and read the entire collection of poetry, page by page. When he reached the line, "My silent love is like an unsent letter, yellowing in a drawer," his cell phone rang. It was the security director of Shaw Enterprises.
"Mr. Si, Mr. Shao is still in the office, but he doesn't seem to be in good condition."
Si Qi immediately stood up: "What do you mean?"
"He has locked himself in his office all afternoon. The lights are on, but no one answers. We are worried..."
Si Qi hung up before he could finish. Twenty minutes later, he rushed into Committee Member Shao's office. The lights were on, but no one was there. The door to the lounge was ajar, and the faint sound of running water could be heard from inside.
"Shao Wei?" Si Qi pushed open the door, and the scene before him made his blood freeze instantly -
Shao Wei leaned against the sink, bleeding from a fresh wound on his left wrist, his right hand still clutching a box cutter. His face was pale, his eyes unfocused, and the cuffs of his white shirt were soaked with blood.
"You're here." Shao Wei's voice was as light as a feather. "Sorry for dirtying the floor."
Si Qi rushed forward, snatched the box cutter and tossed it aside. He then ripped off his tie and tied it tightly around Shao Wei's wrist. Blood quickly soaked through the tie, and Si Qi took off his shirt, ripped it into strips, and bandaged it.
"Why?" Si Qi's voice was hoarse and not like his own.
Shao Wei's eyes drifted towards the desk, and Si Qi followed his gaze - there were financial statements spread out on the desk, and next to it was a letter from the Shaw family, which clearly asked Shao Wei to agree to a sex change operation in order to "give birth to a qualified heir" for the two families.
"Have they been forcing you like this?" Si Qi picked up Shao Wei and carried him horizontally, his voice filled with uncontrollable anger.
Shao Wei felt as light as a fallen leaf in his arms: "It doesn't matter anymore... Life is meaningless anyway..."
"Shut up!" Si Qi growled, "I won't let you die, do you hear me? You're mine!"
On the way to the hospital, Shao Wei's consciousness slipped in and out. Si Qi, one hand on the steering wheel and the other firmly pressing on his wound, kept talking to him: "I've finished reading that poetry collection and I love it. Especially the poem on page 37. You're right, my river finally has an echo."
Shao Wei smiled faintly: "You... didn't even see..."
"I saw it, really." Si Qi ran a red light. "I'll make you blueberry muffins tomorrow morning. Don't you like blueberries? I'll remember that."
"How... did you know..."
"At the family gathering last week, you took the blueberry tart three times but only ate one piece. You were secretly picking out the blueberries and eating them, thinking no one noticed." Si Qi's voice softened. "I noticed it, Shao Wei. I noticed a lot of things."
The lights in the emergency room were glaring and cold. As the doctor wheeled Shao Wei into the treatment room, Si Qi was stopped outside. He slid down against the wall and sat on the floor, his hands still stained with Shao Wei's blood.
The phone rang again. It was Shao Wei's father.
"Siqi, I heard that you sent Shao Wei to the hospital? He tried to commit suicide again? This kid has been—"
"Shut up." Si Qi interrupted coldly, "If you dare to force him to undergo any surgery again, I will bankrupt Shaw Enterprises within a week. If you don't believe me, try it."
After hanging up, Si Qi called his lawyer and said, "I want to amend my will and transfer all my personal property and shares to Shao Wei's name. Also, prepare a divorce agreement."
The lawyer was shocked: "You want a divorce?"
"No," Si Qi said, looking at the lights in the treatment room. "I want him to know that if he dies, I will lose everything. This is the only thing he cares about - he doesn't want to let anyone down, even if it's a marriage of convenience."
Two hours later, the doctor came out and told Si Qi that the wound was not deep and there was no danger to his life, but the patient was very weak and his immunity had been weakened due to long-term use of antidepressants and inhibitors.
"He needs rest, and more importantly," the doctor hesitated, "he needs a reason to live."
In the ward, Shao Wei lay on the pale sheets, his wrist wrapped in thick gauze. Si Qi sat beside the bed, gently holding his uninjured hand.
"I found your diary." Si Qi whispered, "It's in the secret compartment of your study drawer."
Shao Wei's fingers trembled slightly, but he did not withdraw.
"So you've liked me for five years." Si Qi continued, "Since that business competition in college. I didn't know my father was the judge, and you thought I won based on my own strength."
A tear rolled down Shao Wei's eye.
"I also know that you agreed to this marriage because you heard that my father wanted to arrange an Omega marriage for me." Si Qi wiped away the tear with his thumb, "You thought that at least this way you could be closer to me."
Shao Wei finally opened his eyes and said in a hoarse voice: "Why... do you say this..."
Si Qi leaned over and placed a light kiss on Shao Wei's pale lips: "Because I'm going to start pursuing you, Shao Wei. True pursuit is not an agreement, not an obligation. I want you to live, live for me."
Shao Wei's pupils dilated slightly, as if he had heard the most incredible words in the world.
"Page 56 of 'Silent River,'" Si Qi read softly, "'If one day you look back at me, please don't be surprised at how long I've been waiting.' I can't wait any longer, Shao Wei, I want you to know now."
The moonlight outside the window shone on the hospital bed, and the pheromones of the two Alphas intertwined in the air, no longer a confrontation, but a fusion. Si Qi knew that this pursuit of her husband had just begun, but he had plenty of patience—at least longer than the five years Shao Wei had waited for him.
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