Ch.104 – One-way Passage

At that moment, Xia Wennan saw Ming Qin take a deep breath, his thin chest puffing up, irrepressible rage visible in his brows and the corners of his eyes.
He thought that Ming Qin was going to get angry, but to his surprise, Ming Qin only breathed in and out a few times, holding in his emotions, before turning around and leaving the room.

Xia Wennan drew a chair over, sat down, and stared at Ming Sichen.

Ming Sichen returned his stare.

Xia Wennan sighed and asked, “I’m right, aren’t I?”

Ming Sichen gave no response other than a tiny flicker of his lashes.

“I’ll take your lack of a reaction as a yes,” said Xia Wennan.
He then took a minute to wait for Ming Sichen to respond, but upon seeing nothing still, he continued, “After my car accident, someone informed me that there were traces of sleeping pills in my blood.
It looked like someone wanted to harm me.
Was that someone you?”

Ming Sichen’s gaze shifted away from Xia Wennan’s face; he stared fixedly at the ceiling.

Xia Wennan bent over and propped his face on his hand, the position bringing him nearer to Ming Sichen.
“So it was you,” he said softly, as if speaking directly into Ming Sichen’s ear.
“I did initially wonder how you could’ve drugged me that day, but then I figured that you had Aunt Zhang on your side, and since Aunt Zhang can drug your little brother, she can definitely drug me too.
I also tried to reason why you’d want me dead.
Because I didn’t die in that car accident and only lost my memory, you didn’t bother with me again until recently, when I pretended that I’d regained them, and then you had someone try to kill me.
But it seems like you didn’t want me dead at all; you were just afraid of me remembering.
What was it that I knew? That you assumed Siyan’s identity?”

Ming Sichen appeared as if he was staring at nothing.

“Why didn’t you just kill Ming Siyan right after the gland transplant surgery?” enquired Xia Wennan.
“Why did you drag it out for so long, when it caused you so much trouble?”

Ming Sichen’s whole body trembled.

Xia Wennan rubbed his brow.
“Because you didn’t have the heart to do it, did you? After all, he is your twin brother.
You couldn’t bring yourself to kill him two years ago, and two years later, knowing that you were about to be exposed, you still couldn’t do it.
Plus, after killing Siyan, you’d also have to kill me.
But despite everything you’d done, Lu Huaiye still didn’t love you.
He’d rather love Ming Siyan, who’s lost his glands.”

Tears rolled down the corners of Ming Sichen’s eyes.
He closed his eyes, but the tears continued to pour out, overflowing and wetting the pillow.

Xia Wennan said, “Look, we’re betas.
When we’re cut off from the world of pheromones, we can only use our imagination to understand the relationship between alphas and omegas.
That’s not our world.
For something purely in your head, you were naive to think that Lu Huaiye would fall for you just because you had glands, just because you had pheromones.”

Ming Sichen’s whole body shook as he wept.

Xia Wennan dabbed at his tears with a finger, and suddenly thought: These tears are bitter.
He rubbed the tears between his fingertips, then said, “You know that beta perfume I’m currently working on? I’ve always wondered—what does love smell like to a beta? Aside from sourness and bitterness, isn’t there only sweetness left? I’ve just realised it’s not.
These scents should be a combination of violent bursts.
Aside from sour and bitter, there’s tangy and pungent, just like the blood you and I spilled last night.” Xia Wennan paused.
His lips curved into a shallow smile.
“But privately I still hope that the lingering scent at the end is sweet.
Perhaps, this isn’t applicable to your love, but it is the scent of mine.”

After he finished speaking, Xia Wennan stood up, took a deep breath, and said, “Rest up.
I’ll come back when you’re able to speak.” He then added, after a brief pause, “I hope Siyan can return safely.”

Xia Wennan made to leave, but before he could turn, he felt a hand around his wrist and looked down to see Ming Sichen’s grip.

Ming Sichen pointed to the bedside table, where a pen and paper lay.

Xia Wennan handed them to him.

Ming Sichen laid down, and the sounds of pen scratches filled the room as Ming Sichen wrote on the paper in an extremely difficult position.

Ming Siyan was found by the police and sent back to the hospital the next morning, and the alpha who abducted him was apprehended.
After two more days, Aunt Zhang came forward and confessed to drugging Xia Wennan and feeding Ming Siyan psychotropic drugs on Ming Sichen’s orders.

Ming Sichen had written a lengthy letter in which he explained everything he’d done, including how he’d tricked Ming Siyan into accompanying him on a trip to Southeast Asia for a short vacation and staged a car accident in order to obtain Ming Siyan’s glands for transplant.

Ming Siyan’s initial injuries were so severe that Ming Sichen assumed he wouldn’t make it, but to his surprise, Ming Siyan survived, only to lose consciousness as a result of a serious brain injury.

Ming Qin entrusted Ming Siyan to Aunt Zhang, a woman who had adored the Ming family’s only beta son, Ming Sichen, since the twins’ childhood.
Ming Sichen had told Aunt Zhang everything, then asked her to assist him in keeping a close eye on Ming Siyan.

Ming Siyan’s tenacity exceeded everyone’s expectations, as he progressed from being incognisant to gradually recognising the people around him.
Ming Sichen noticed that Xia Wennan was privately in contact with Ming Siyan around that time; he was always restless, unsure of how much Xia Wennan actually knew, and in the end, he decided that he couldn’t just let Xia Wennan be.

Ming Sichen’s current situation appeared to be the result of his ruthlessness falling short—he was easily shaken at every turn, cutting grass without removing its roots; but if he hadn’t been greedy, he wouldn’t be where he was today.
Maybe, if not Lu Huaiye, he would’ve been able to find someone to love who loved him back, whether they were an alpha or a beta.

At the end of his letter, he expressed his desire to return Ming Siyan’s glands.
However, the doctors determined that the glands had already been damaged to some extent, and if he insisted on a second transplant, there was a good chance that they would lose their original function.

As the other party involved, Ming Siyan, was temporarily unable to make his own decisions, Ming Qin made it for him, deciding that Ming Sichen would keep the gland and not undergo a second transplant.

Xia Wennan underwent a cranial CT scan, accompanied by Ming Luchuan and Lin Shuqiu, who confirmed that the previous night’s head injury had only resulted in a minor contusion.
Following a simple treatment, he was quickly discharged.

Ming Luchuan was supposed to take Xia Wennan home to rest, but the latter refused, and when they left the hospital, he went straight back to the lab without getting so much as a change of clothes.

The decisive image of Ming Sichen attempting suicide filled every corner of his mind.
It was the final piece of his beta perfume puzzle—a desperate love on the brink of despair.
Because it was difficult to express, one expressed, it was reckless and all-consuming.

Xia Wennan forbade Ming Luchuan from accompanying him this time, and when Ming Luchuan was finally allowed to enter the lab after two days, Xia Wennan presented a scent strip under the man’s nose.

The smell took Ming Luchuan by surprise.
“It’s a very unique smell,” he said.

Xia Wennan’s eyes were flushed, but they twinkled brightly.
“Its name is Trees and Flowers,” he explained to Ming Luchuan.

Ming Luchuan gently waved the scent strip under his nose and asked, “Is it related to Xishui Hall?”

Xia Wennan smiled, and recited, “Entering an ancient temple in the early morning, the rising sun shines through the high forest.
A winding mountain path leads to the Buddhist hall, hidden deep in the midst of trees and flowers.”

There should always be a path that leads to the depths of an ancient temple.

☆ ☆ ☆