ABPTA Chapter 8

008

Yu Lan had mixed feelings but had calmed down by the time he ran to the hallway.

He felt as if he was being a little too awkward.

It shouldn’t be like this.

Yu Lan told himself in his heart.

If the reaction is too strong, Mr Shao will notice something.

He wiped little Mars’s paws and Liu Yu pulled his dad in to secretly ask, “How did it go? Was Mr Shao’s blind date successful?”

In the next second, they heard Uncle Liu coughed and he called out, “Mr Shao.”

Yu Lan’s movements stopped.

He heard footsteps, passing behind him and into the house. The mere passing pulled his heartstrings.

After a moment of silence, Liu Yu lightly leaned in and dryly laughed. “I almost got caught.”

“Speaking of which,” Liu Yu quickly became excited again, “Contact information-”

“Yu Lan.” A man’s deep voice came from inside the house.

Yu Lan heard a voice, stood up, and in the window, where the man was loosening his collar, he glanced at him and said, “Come in to eat.”

……

There wasn’t a single meal on the table yet.

Aunty Jiang, who was trying to quietly pull Uncle Liu to gossip, was very embarrassed when she heard the this and hurried back to the kitchen to cook.

Liu Yu grabbed his hair in frustration and followed suit, standing up a little bitter.
He didn’t go into the villa much, after all, this was Mr Shao’s place and his family lived in another part of the estate.

He said quite reluctantly, “Then, Yu Lan, how about you give me your contact information when you’re free afterwards.”
“I got it,” Yu Lan said helplessly, “Then, I’ll get going first?”
Liu Yu reluctantly waved his hand a little, his eyes glued to Yu Lan’s back until he entered the house.

And then he caught the man’s eye.

Liu Yu was stunned.

The dark-haired man’s gaze was calm, seemingly no different than usual, but after looking at Liu Yu for a few seconds, the man averted his eyes and turned to walk away.

This gaze… hiss.

Liu Yu touched his arm.
He was an alpha just like Mr Shao, but there were strengths and weaknesses in alphas. Mr Shao was definitely the stronger alpha and when he wanted to put pressure on others, it was easy to do so. Just a look was enough to make the other alpha wary of him and avoid him.
Liu Yu had lived in this villa with his father for five years and although he hadn’t had much contact with the man, he had never felt this kind of pressure at this moment before.

Throwing him a look like this just now, does that mean…

A thought surfaced in Liu Yu’s mind.

He was instantly lost.

Could it be? Didn’t dad say they weren’t like that?
But they don’t look like that either???

The sweet little omega he had a hard time encountering?!

*

Yu Lan had no idea about Liu Yu freaking out.

Since Aunty Jiang had not finished preparing dinner yet, Yu Lan went to the second floor to shower. When he came out of the shower, he found the man leaning against the balcony on the second floor, with a cigarette between his fingers, smoke curling up in the air.

Noticing Yu Lan, he tilted his head and faintly said, “Did you have a good time with Uncle Liu’s son?”

There was a towel over Yu Lan’s head and he hadn’t dried his hair yet, wet black strands clinging to his cheeks.

Hearing this, he stopped and said, “En, it was okay.”

Although today was only the second time they met, Liu Yu was so enthusiastic that it would be difficult to not have a good time.

Shao Mingyu was silent for a second, then said, “Come here.”

“…” Yu Lan obediently walked over.

There was an ashtray on the balcony railing with a cigarette butt already in it. It was obvious that the man had been here for a while.

The man lifted the towel off his head and asked, “Why did you come out without blow-drying your hair?”
“The weather is hot, it’ll be dry in a little while…” Actually, Yu Lan didn’t have the habit of blow-drying his hair.

The man gently combed¹ through his hair with his fingers and said, “You’ll get sick. Remember to blow-dry your hair later.”

“Okay.” Yu Lan lowered his head.

Mr Shao was too gentle.

Remembering the thoughts circling in his head on the way back just now, he hesitated and looked up. “Mr Shao.”

The man gently gazed at him. “Hm?”

Such a look made Yu Lan’s heart tremble, but his thoughts were firmer. He gritted his teeth and said, “I want to talk about the temporary mark.”

Shao Mingyu paused, lowered his hand, took a drag on his cigarette and slowly exhaled, “What do you want to say?”

Yu Lan felt that Mr Shao probably helped him because he knew that he was temporarily unable to accept other alpha’s temporary marks, but he couldn’t rely on Mr Shao’s help forever.

Mr Shao’s world…. was big and complicated. As an omega that obviously had nothing to do with him, but had his pheromones, Yu Lan didn’t know how much trouble it would cause him.

As in today’s situation. If he had a temporary mark on him, it would have been an awkward scene.

And from what Liu Yu said, this wasn’t the first time that Mr Shao’s family had arranged something similar and there will definitely be more in the future.

Of course, Yu Lan knew that the most important thing was because of himself.

Temporary marks, infused with the alphas pheromones. It’s as if the whole person belonged to the other.
Yu Lan didn’t know if he could bear this kind of treatment from Mr Shao and he didn’t dare indulge himself.

The man’s eyes were dark and he couldn’t see what he was thinking about. Yu Lan’s voice was dry, “Mr Shao, I think… I should still be able to try to accept other alphas temporary marks because it’s not good to keep bothering you-”

Shao Mingyu narrowed his eyes and asked, “So who do you intend to ask?”

Yu Lan was stunned, a bit stuck, then looked both ways and said somewhat shamefully, “I, I think Liu Yu is quite nice. If he’s willing, I-”

The man twirled his cigarette.

Seeing this action, Yu Lan subconsciously quietened down, feeling as if the atmosphere seemed… a bit wrong?

He lowered his head, then heard the man’s voice slowly resound, “You’re afraid of causing me trouble, but not afraid of causing trouble for others?”

Yu Lan, “…”
Yu Lan was left speechless.

After a moment of silence between them, Yu Lan felt like a child who had done something wrong, waiting for his elders to criticize him, feeling uneasy.

And Shao Mingyu endured certain not-so-appropriate emotions in his heart and looked at the youth in front of him.

Feeling helpless, ashamed and crimson from the tips of his ears to his neck.

Couldn’t stand being teased and sensitive.

Shao Mingyu’s eyes wandered over Yu Lan for a moment and suddenly said, “Is this related to our conversation that morning?”

“What?” Yu Lan was at a loss.

Shao Mingyu said, “I mean the morning after the temporary mark.”

Yu Lan suddenly thought back to that morning and his heart skipped a beat, shaking his head to deny. “No, it has nothing to do with that. I’m just afraid of causing you trouble-”

His whole body tensed up.

Shao Mingyu hesitated and said, “I didn’t mean anything else that day, I was just afraid that you would be affected.”
In fact, he had already regretted making that statement that morning.
With that, he watched Yu Lan’s reaction inquiringly.

Yu Lan was a little ashamed and lied, “…I did get a little affected, but now I understand and I can clearly tell them apart, Mr Shao.”

Shao Mingyu was silent and there was an unexplainable feeling in his heart.

Thinking over, he asked again, “Have you felt anything recently?”

“What?” Yu Lan was dazed.

“Your body,” Shao Mingyu said, “Have you not felt anything?”

Yu Lan’s face flushed.

…He was talking about when he went into estrus.

Amazingly enough, probably because he was well taken care of by Mr Shao, he hadn’t gone into estrus since his last temporary mark. But the doctor had also said that his estrus period was still erratic and that there may be no movement at the moment, but one day might come quickly and violently.

Yu Lan involuntarily touched the back of his neck and whispered, “En… I don’t really feel anything. I should be fine.”

A strange sensation rose to his chest instead as he glanced at the movement of the youth touching the back of his neck.
Shao Mingyu couldn’t help but want to take another cigarette out, but at the thought of the person in front of him, he stopped moving.

There was some itching in his heart, but it had to be endured. Between one thing and another, he had realised that something had indeed changed completely.

Sighing, he closed his eyes and looked at the young man in front of him again. His gaze was already different.

“Yu Lan, you aren’t troubling me at all².”

Hearing the man’s words, Yu Lan was stunned.

“Who I want to mark is my own business and has nothing to do with anyone else,” Shao Mingyu deliberated, “What happened today will not happen again. If I say that, with it dispel your worries?”

Yu Lan opened his mouth.

He kept his head down and at this moment, the man stretched out his hand to lift his chin, looked at him and said, “Or do you hate me?”

Yu Lan instantly shook his head. “I don’t!”

Hearing these words, Shao Mingyu’s eyes finally eased up.

He whispered, “Then stop thinking about it.”

With a shudder and a subconscious attempt to lower his head, the man cupped his chin to keep him from moving and chuckled softly, “Why do you always like to keep your head down?”

Yu Lan was made to blush again. Retreating wasn’t an option, nor was staying. The places touched by Mr Shao seemed as if there were sparks bursting with a “pop”, making his whole body flushed.

Shao Mingyu was a little surprised and lowly chuckled. “Do you become shy so easily?”

“…” Yu Lan was about to faint from shame. “… Mr Shao!”

Shao Mingyu laughed and finally released his hand, letting him go.

It was only then that Yu Lan felt alive, looking at the man with angry eyes for the first time.

Yet this look seemed to make the man more delighted.

Mr Shao!!!
Yu Lan yelled meaninglessly in his mind, but in reality, he kept his lips tightly pursed, not daring to make a sound, only staring at the other with his dark blue eyes and showing signs of his cheeks bulging a bit.

This childish behaviour made Shao Mingyu want to tease him.

He said, “Ah Lan.”

“…” Yu Lan, who got called this nickname by the man for the first time, weakly said, “…What?”

The man gently asked in a low voice, “Then we’ll go back to how we were before, okay?”

Yu Lan took a deep breath, his fingertips trembling.

He nodded.

The man straightened up and took a step towards him.

The sun was setting while the man’s reflection covered the entirety of Yu Lan.

It was as if he had fallen into a man’s embrace.

The man slowly said, “Unless one day you hate me and don’t want me anywhere near you, then tell me, otherwise, about your temporary mark- I’ll be responsible.”

At that moment, the alpha’s strong pheromones came. Yu Lan’s heart seemed to be grasped violently, his head “buzzing” and becoming hot.

He knew that day wouldn’t come.

The mind-set that obviously was very difficult to construct was completely crushed at this moment and he couldn’t bear to look at it.
Yu Lan couldn’t even pick it up if he wanted to and thought to himself, forget it! If I like him then I like him. If I like him more and more then so be it!

I can’t resist at all, what can I do?

This was his first encounter with love and he was inexperienced and caught off guard. At the moment, his mind was blank, unable to think of any way to deal with it.

The only thought that came to mind was- take one step at a time.

He will continue to grow and strive to be able to live on his own as soon as possible.
The days of being next to Mr Shao won’t last long, so just… count each day that passes.

I’ll wait until the day I leave this villa to figure out how to digest my feelings.

Yu Lan’s shoulders slackened at this thought.

Shao Mingyu noticed the change in Yu Lan and although he didn’t know what the youth was thinking about, he didn’t move a muscle.

And right after that, he saw Yu Lan raise his eyes.

He stalled.

The youth’s eyes were so soft that even the dark blue seemed to have become warm.

Shao Mingyu’s throat became dry.

For a moment, the feeling in his mind became stronger, making him want to do something.

Twirling his fingertips and before he could move, not far away from the stairs there, Aunty Jiang came up and shouted, “Sir, Ah Lan, food is ready.”

Yu Lan turned his head and obediently responded, “Okay!”

When he(YL) turned around again, he(YL) was still looking at him(SMY) with that soft gaze.

So sweet.

The thought popped into Shao Mingyu’s head.

“Mr Shao, are you eating?” Yu Lan weakly asked.

“Mn.” Shao Mingyu’s Adam’s apple rolled and tried to rub Yu Lan’s head, but it was wet and wasn’t very nice to touch, so he helplessly said, “Next time, remember to blow-dry your hair.”

“Oh…” Mr Shao was so obsessed with blow-drying hair.

After taking a few steps, he heard the man beside him say, “…Also, Uncle Liu’s son is about to start school. He should still have homework to do so try not to disturb him.”

“?” Yu Lan still obediently responded, “Oh, okay.”

The author has something to say:

Liu Yu: I was set up.

Unedited

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1. Here it says 男人轻捻着他的发丝 which translates to “The man gently twists his hair”. The 捻着 part can also mean “twirl in fingers” and I don’t think either of them make sense so I changed to to combing his har with his fingers. Please do tell me if there is an alternate translation that makes sense.
2. SMY says 不存在所谓的麻不麻烦 which translates to “There’s no such thing as trouble” and that doesn’t not fit in at all so I translated it to “you aren’t troubling me at all” because that fits in with the context more lol.

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lmao i am on holidays FINALLY HAHA

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Shallotnoodle

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