Chapter 76

The title was beyond anything he could parse, so he had no idea what was inside. Wen Ran's eyes went wide. "What's this? Which omega is it for?"

"Who else but you?" Tao Susu threw BDH-339 a shush gesture, pulled the whole file out, and flipped it open with a thud.

"It's a plan from seven years ago. I know this agency—think of it as a high-end butler service. Solves everything for you, arranges everything." Tao Susu waved Song Shuangang over to sit beside them and look. "Long table of contents. Everything you could need. Term is ten years."

It was the first time Wen Ran had felt anxious about not being able to see clearly. He lowered his head, flipped a page back and forth between his fingers, brow pinched. "What does it mean? Is this a plan made for me? What's the point?"

"Of course it's so you can live carefree!" Tao Susu said, then caught on herself. "Oh—Gu Yunchi was planning to go to military school back then, right? With this file, even when he's not around, you'd still be taken care of properly."

"From the day he entered military school, ten years out—that's exactly the most critical stretch of a soldier's career." Song Shuangang added, flipping to an addendum. "It also says here that if he dies in service during that period, the contract extends indefinitely. Until you pass."

Tao Susu translated for Wen Ran: "Meaning if Gu Yunchi dies, this file keeps you set for life. Never have to worry about food or shelter."

His first reaction was that he didn't want to hear that kind of hypothetical. But saying so to Tao Susu and Song Shuangang was pointless. Wen Ran pressed his lips tight, thinking: he should grab Gu Yunchi by the collar and tell him not to talk like that, not to write anything that unlucky into any plan.

"Also." Song Shuangang pointed at another addendum. "Four years from now—when he graduates military school and you two get married—this program won't be affected by the marriage. It'll keep serving you. And every property, car, and fund in the file is your pre-marital personal property. No one but you has any right to use it."

Tao Susu went, "Whoa." "So this plan also includes a pre-nup."

Most of what they said, Wen Ran wasn't really taking in. His thoughts had stalled the moment he heard the word "married." Tao Susu and Song Shuangang kept trading lines back and forth, analyzing for a long while, before Wen Ran, dazed, finally asked in a slow, slightly thick voice: "What do you mean, if we get married after he graduates?"

"Let me make something clear. There's no 'if.'" Tao Susu told him, certain. "The file means: the moment Gu Yunchi graduates, he marries you. Immediately. Mandatory. Absolutely."

"…Really?" His fingers twisted tight together. Wen Ran's expression was lost. He didn't know who he was asking.

Really? Didn't Gu Yunchi say he couldn't marry him? Wasn't the Engagement fake? Didn't he go to military school specifically to avoid building a marriage?

His chest felt stuffed full of dead knots—one here, one there, none of them untangleable. Suddenly Wen Ran stood up. His breathing quickened. He stared at the blur of the living room and said to no one: "I—I want to call him—"

"Young master's home!" BDH-339 suddenly shouted, delighted.

Hearing this terrible news, Tao Susu quickly closed the project book and, with a whoosh, stuffed it back into BDH-339's data compartment. BDH-339 let out an 'ugh' of a dry heave from the jab.

The moment Gu Yunchi walked in, he saw Tao Susu and Song Shuangang sitting ramrod-straight, plus Wen Ran standing in front of the sofa like a meerkat on sentry duty, eyes wide, staring straight at him.

"Um…" Tao Susu tugged Wen Ran's hand and stood. "We're heading out. We'll come visit you at the Hospital when you have your surgery in a couple days."

Before Wen Ran could answer, the two of them crossed the living room toward the entryway. Gu Yunchi stood with arms folded against the wall, still in his military uniform, cool and appraising. It made Tao Susu inexplicably nervous—having just glimpsed, in that file, the unspoken care this Alpha had put in—guilt-ridden, like a thief. She gave a polite smile. "Long time no see, Lieutenant Colonel Gu. Goodbye, Lieutenant Colonel Gu."

Song Shuangang, by comparison, was calmer. He gave Gu Yunchi a small nod of acknowledgment.

After they left, Gu Yunchi straightened up. "Your friend's face looks like she just stole five million."

"No. Absolutely not." Wen Ran denied on reflex. Several seconds passed. Then, out of nowhere, he blurted loudly, "Go do your thing. You just got out of a meeting, you've got tons to handle. Go do your thing."

Gu Yunchi looked at him for a moment. Didn't ask if he'd taken the wrong pills. Just "mm"-ed and headed for the elevator.

Hearing the elevator doors close, Wen Ran finally came back to himself. He turned, fumbled for BDH-339, face nearly pressed against its screen. "BDH-339, help me search for the most expensive, best-view restaurant in Capital City."

"On it!" BDH-339 delivered results in one second. "Found it! 360° Top-Floor Revolving Restaurant, panoramic Capital City nightscape, average spend 10k+. How about it!"

"Oh?" Wen Ran calmed down a little. Scratched his cheek. "Anything a little cheaper?"

"How much cheaper? 8k or 6k?"

Wen Ran said quietly, "Around five hundred."

In the study, after about half an hour of paperwork, Gu Yunchi heard a knock. He put down his pen. "It's not locked."

The door cracked open slowly. Wen Ran blinked, unable to find a focal point, and squeezed in. BDH-339 got shut outside.

Wen Ran leaned back against the door, both hands stuffed in his sleeves, like he'd worked up a lot of courage. "Are you free tonight? I want to take you to dinner… Last time, I promised I would."

Gu Yunchi propped his face on one hand and looked at him. "Nothing under five thousand per person."

"Mm-hm." Wen Ran nodded vaguely. "I know. Don't worry. About that."

He turned and opened the door, backing out as he squeezed through. "Then I'll go get ready. Change clothes." He also said, "I'm really looking forward to having dinner with you."

The door clicked shut softly, sealing BDH-339's nonstop "Is it a date? Does that mean date?!" outside.

Gu Yunchi was still staring at the door, index finger tapping the desk in an idle rhythm, when his communicator rang. He reached for it.

"Lieutenant Colonel Gu, hello. This is the Army Affairs Management Department. Regarding the inquiry you made last time—we looked into it. At the time, due to conditions, the donation destinations and details for fallen soldiers' estates were recorded manually, and some information was lost. We'll need more time to pull it up specifically."

"Understood. Thanks for the trouble."

Six in the evening. Wen Ran, bundled up in layers, climbed into the passenger seat, buckled himself in, expression serious, ready for deployment. Gu Yunchi closed his door for him and went around to the driver's side.

The navigation system showed the first destination BDH-339 had set. Gu Yunchi asked, "League Industrial and Commercial Bank?"

"Mm." Wen Ran nodded. "I'm going to pull out some cash. For dinner."

So it really was going to be five thousand a head. Gu Yunchi started the car. "Big spender, Li."

Ten-some minutes later they pulled up outside an ATM. Gu Yunchi got out and opened the door for Wen Ran. Wen Ran stayed close to his side as he walked, even though he couldn't see clearly, glancing around warily. Then he darted into the booth and pulled Gu Yunchi in after him to read the screen for him.

Gu Yunchi watched Wen Ran carefully pull out a bankbook and remembered the photos his bodyguards used to send of Wen Ran at the ATM—pictures that looked like he was about to crack the machine open and rob it. He'd always blamed the bodyguards' photography. Turns out it was a hundred percent accurate.

"Please select your withdrawal amount."

Wen Ran tugged Gu Yunchi's sleeve. "Pick a thousand."

Gu Yunchi: ?

He asked, "Sure that's enough?"

"It's enough." Wen Ran said. "I—I brought some cash on me too. Together it's enough."

Shwa-shwa-shwa. The machine pushed out a thin stack of bills. Wen Ran grabbed it, stared, counted three times, then folded it neatly into the inside pocket of his padded coat. "All good. Let's go."

Back in the car, navigation loaded the next destination and auto-popped the restaurant's intro, voice bright with ad energy: "One Water Starlight Fusion Restaurant, riverfront floor-to-ceiling windows, full Capital City nightscape, grand opening, private rooms from just 666 yuan minimum spend—"

Gu Yunchi, hand on the wheel, glanced at Wen Ran. Wen Ran pretended he hadn't heard a thing, gazing out the window, enjoying the blurry view.

At the restaurant, Wen Ran gave the Mobile Phone number he'd used to reserve. The server led them to a private room, gushed about how this room had the best view in the house, then asked Wen Ran: "Mr. Li, shall we go with the 688 set menu?"

Wen Ran, both hands in his coat pockets, put on a calm front. "Yes, yes."

The two sat facing each other in chairs by the floor-to-ceiling window. Wen Ran looked outside—seemed like he could make out a big stretch of neon lights. A little unsure, he asked Gu Yunchi, "How is it? Can we really enjoy the intoxicating nightscape?"

"Mm." Gu Yunchi, to his credit, didn't say anything harsh. "Nice view."

The location and atmosphere were decent. Probably because it had just opened and today was a weekday, there weren't many customers. You could imagine how long Wen Ran and BDH-339 had to search to find a place with this kind of value.

"Good." Wen Ran smiled, as if he could see a beautiful nightscape too.

Food came fast and tasted decent. Wen Ran ate a lot—because Gu Yunchi, like some kind of zookeeper, kept putting food in his bowl. When he was stuffed, Wen Ran put down his utensils and stood. "I need to digest."

He started pacing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, pressing his face to the glass to peer into the distance, then turning back to look at Gu Yunchi. The whole thing went on for several minutes.

Gu Yunchi sat patiently. He could feel that Wen Ran had been acting strange since the afternoon—the whole person wound up tight, serious, solemn, wanting to say something but holding back. Of course he couldn't push or call it out. He had to wait for Wen Ran to find his own moment to speak.

And that second had finally arrived. The moment Wen Ran had decided was right.

He turned around, back to the window, and looked at Gu Yunchi with those eyes that couldn't see clearly but were utterly direct. "Gu Yunchi. Why did you choose military school back then?"

"To prepare for the Military Headquarters' large-scale succession change. Not just the Gu Family—the Lu Family also planned to establish a power base in the military. Because whether it's my grandfather or the chairman, on the surface neither of them can reach into military affairs. Only the next generation can break that ground." Gu Yunchi tossed out the high-sounding reason, then casually denied it. "But none of that's my business."

"I just wanted to get something completely under my own control."

"So when you told me we couldn't get married—you were warning me."

Gu Yunchi didn't answer. Which counted as agreement. But that warning hadn't been only for Wen Ran. It had been for himself too.

"I asked you what university you were going to and you didn't tell me. Were you never planning to?" Wen Ran's voice was low. He could already understand it—the camp he belonged to meant Gu Yunchi had to hide things from him. If the secret of Gu Yunchi going to military school leaked, it was the same as announcing he'd given up being Boqing Group's heir. Gu Chongze and Chen Shuhui's plan would stop with it, never to be exposed.

"I was planning to." That line from the old phone call—"there's stuff I want to tell you when the time comes"—wasn't a lie. Gu Yunchi paused. "Just didn't get the chance."

"Then…" Wen Ran pressed his lips together and asked the question that had been gnawing at him for years. "You chose military school—not to dodge the marriage, right?"

Why he'd never been able to let this go—the issue wasn't military school itself. It was what it represented. Whether it really was, as Chen Shuhui said, that Gu Yunchi had figured out his counter-move from the start, and Wen Ran was just a dose of medicine to cure him.

Gu Yunchi stood up, walked over to stand in front of Wen Ran, and told him: "If I didn't want to get married, I wouldn't have gone through all that trouble."

"That's true." Wen Ran's shoulders loosened. He sniffed, looked up, and smiled. "You know, when you were in that coma seven years ago, Chen Shuhui came to tell me your illness had been cured by the Permanent Mark. She also told me you'd already been planning to go to military school."

A faint hiss—like a small current shooting through his nerves. Gu Yunchi stared at the glittering nightscape outside the window, frozen. His mind, for once, went blank.

Wen Ran had already known, back when he was in the coma?

Knowing before leaving, and knowing after leaving—those were two completely different things.

"She called me useless dregs. I thought about it and figured she was probably right. Your illness was cured, you could go to military school, so I should go too." Wen Ran kept talking, oblivious. "That's why after I survived I didn't go find you. Because I figured I wasn't useful to you anymore. Showing up would just be awkward."

His throat tightened, blocked. In that instant, Gu Yunchi fully understood why, on the night they reunited, Wen Ran had reacted to the idea of marriage with disbelief and fierce resistance. Because in Wen Ran's eyes, the Gu Family had only ever used his Pheromone and his compatibility. Once they were done with him, they'd thrown him away like trash to fend for himself.

Marriage—whether seven years ago or seven years later—was just too absurd a proposal for Wen Ran.

He'd actually been told about military school before leaving—and mocked as useless dregs. Gu Yunchi thought of that last phone call. Wen Ran's calm, desperate voice. The way he didn't look back.

So among the countless hands that pushed Wen Ran into that death trap—was there one of his?

Gu Yunchi, you're free. I'm happy for you.

What kind of feeling had it taken to say those parting words?

"But today—today I found some things, and I started wondering if maybe there was some kind of misunderstanding—"

Wen Ran kept talking, seeming happy. Gu Yunchi watched those eyes. Knowing they couldn't see his expression, he still raised a hand and covered them. Wen Ran shut up at once.

Until this conversation, Gu Yunchi had assumed Wen Ran was asking him to dinner because he was afraid the surgery might go wrong and he wouldn't get to keep his promise. But actually Wen Ran was just happy. This omega looked simple on the surface, but sometimes it took a little effort to really understand him.

His other arm wrapped around Wen Ran's waist. Gu Yunchi held him with one hand, lowered his head, and buried his face in the side of Wen Ran's neck.

"I'm sorry."

Wen Ran froze.

Last night he'd dreamed of Gu Yunchi saying sorry. Waking up had already felt like a shock. He never expected to actually hear it in person, right now.

Outside the massive floor-to-ceiling window, cold night wind scraped past the neon-lit buildings, producing a low moan. Wen Ran, a little at a loss, hugged Gu Yunchi and patted his back.

Then a fear he'd never felt before started rising inside him—he'd only just gotten a real answer, something he wanted to hold onto tight, and he hadn't even had time to feel what it was like to have it, and now he had to face a surgery with an unknown outcome.

Wen Ran blinked inside Gu Yunchi's palm, chin resting on his shoulder, and said: "Gu Yunchi, I'm suddenly really scared of dying now."