Chapter 49: How Dare Pei Jiqing Abandon Him Again

After hearing what Pei Jiqing was saying, Chen Huixing pressed against him. He was drunk and looked half-conscious. "Why can you do it, but I can't?"

The alcohol burned through his blood, boiling with a searing obsession. Every word was laced with resentment and grievance, like a blunt knife cutting through flesh, the pain slow and sharp. "

Can you do what?

" "Cheating?"

Pei Jiqing found it absurd.

He stared at the reddened corners of Chen Huixing's eyes, tinged with drunkenness and paranoia, like an unsolvable dilemma.

If Chen Huixing was convinced he was cheating, why was she entangled with him now?

Their train of thought was like two parallel lines that would never intersect: one stubborn in questioning, the other silent in exhaustion.

Pei Jiqing was truly exhausted, so exhausted that even arguing seemed unnecessary.

Pei Jiqing's voice seemed to drift from far away: "Chen Huixing, am I really that intolerable to you?" Chen Huixing

remained silent, his lips taut with tension, neither admitting nor denying.

Pei Jiqing lifted his hand to push him away, about to leave, but Chen Huixing tugged him back with such force that he practically crushed him. Chen Huixing pressed him tightly into his arms, his chest heaving violently. "Pei Jiqing, what do you want me to say? You've smiled at them like that so many times, so happy, right? Have you ever considered my feelings?"

Smiling like that?

Pei Jiqing couldn't remember how he'd smiled. Perhaps it was just politeness, perhaps just habit, but in Shen Huixing's eyes, it was evidence of infidelity.

Pei Jiqing spoke: "Do you really think... our marriage needs to continue?"

Chen Huixing's breath was choked, as if something was stuck in his throat. After a long pause, he managed to utter, "What else? What about the child?"

The child.

Yes, they had a child.

Pei Jiqing's tone was eerily calm. "Child? You could actually have other children."

Chen Huixing froze. "What did you say?"

"I mean," Pei Jiqing looked him straight in the eye, "you could find an omega and have a child who truly resembles you."

Chen Huixing's breath hitched. "... Pei Jiqing, do you know what you're talking about?"

Pei Jiqing suddenly smiled, a sting in his smile. "It feels good to be so well-matched, right? Doesn't he find comforting?" Chen

Huixing stared at him intently, only to find that Pei Jiqing's eyes held neither jealousy nor anger, only a chilling sneer.

At that moment, Chen Huixing suddenly realized the utter folly of Yan Zhen's plan.

He had tried it so many times, but the result was always the same—Pei Jiqing didn't love him, never had.

Perhaps he was simply too gullible.

Chen Huixing stood up, the air thick with alcohol, a chilling stillness. They stood face to face, neither of them speaking.

Chen Huixing couldn't remember when this suffocating silence had settled between them.

Cen Yuean had fulfilled his promise. The last order given by the commander-in-chief was for Chen Huixing to personally transfer Pei Jiqing to the front lines.

It was pheromone contamination again. The tragic scene of the bloodbath in the lower city was still vivid in his mind, and now it was about to happen again.

Pei Jiqing called Chen Huixing for the first time since his business trip in recent years.

Chen Huixing's fingers tightened slightly around the communicator, and his Adam's apple rolled unconsciously: "...Ahem, what's wrong? How's home?"

He felt that he was already a little unskilled. Pei Jiqing had called him many times in the past, and his subordinates had told him to cater to the Omega.

Pei Jiqing's voice came from the receiver: "You must take care of yourself. Swords have no eyes."

Chen Huixing wanted to say that this was not the era of cold weapons, so how could swords have no eyes? But the words turned into a simple: "Okay." "

Chen Huixing," Pei Jiqing paused, his voice a little softer, "don't do those things when you come back. It's too dangerous."

Chen Huixing opened his mouth, but finally squeezed out a single sound: "...Yeah."

Pei Jiqing called his daughter over again.

After hanging up, Chen Huixing was still a bit lost in thought.

The night was dark, and the border wind swept through the camp, carrying fine sand.

A distant bonfire shone brightly in the darkness, its sparks crackling and exploding like scattered stars.

Chen Huixing saw a family of five sitting around the fire—the Alpha father roasting potatoes with branches, the mother humming an old folk song, and the three half-grown children holding hands, spinning barefoot in the sand. The youngest Omega girl stumbled into her mother's arms, giggling with grass dust on her hair.

This was the border of the Asian Union, a place of poverty and complexity. A businessman named Lian Ze had built his own black market empire here.

Chen Huixing stood at the cordon, the cigarette between his fingers burning the filter without even noticing.

The firelight flickered in his usually fierce eyes, and he half-dreamed that his Omega was probably playing with his daughter with building blocks at this moment. The little girl had been making crooked castles lately and insisted on waiting for him to return to fix them.

Chen Huixing suddenly remembered the hasty hug before leaving - his daughter opened her arms and hugged him like a baby bird, while Pei Jiqing symbolically stayed in his arms for only half a second, and the pheromone was so faint that it was almost inaudible.

He should have hugged him properly.

Chen Huixing was a little distracted when he saw the family dancing around the bonfire at the border.

Liang Yi was studying scriptures at the stone table in the mountain courtyard. When he heard footsteps, he slowly looked up.

"What's wrong, my child?" Liang Yi put down the brush and folded his hands on his knees.

He noticed that Pei Jiqing had some dark spots under his eyes and his shirt was a little wrinkled. He looked a little haggard. This child always cared about his appearance the most.

Pei Jiqing stood three steps away, and then he bowed to Liang Yi.

Liang Yi took two quick steps, quickly scrambling to reach Pei Jiqing and helped him to his feet. "Jiqing, what are you doing?"

"Dad, I'm sorry," he said, his voice neither soft nor loud, but loud enough to reach Liang Yi's ears. "I can't stay with Shen Huixing anymore."

"Did he do something stupid to you again?"

Pei Jiqing suddenly knelt, his knees banging hard on the cold stone. He lowered his head. He had only ever knelt before his mother in his life, but Liang Yi was still family. "No... I'm a liar. I've lied to you about so many... so many things."

The mountain breeze suddenly grew bitter, sweeping up fallen leaves.

Pei Jiqing began to unravel the lies he had woven. He spoke of the deliberate closeness he had shown Shen Huixing when they first met, the calculations behind the engagement, and every moment he had worn a mask over the years.

Every word was like a knife, slicing through him.

His vanity, his pretenses, his life story.

Liang Yi quickly helped him up and listened quietly, frowning when Pei Jiqing spoke of the lies about his past.

Liang Yi felt complicated for a moment: "Does Huixing know all this?"

Pei Jiqing nodded slightly.

Liang Yi looked deeply at Pei Jiqing. "Jiqing, I've always been on your side. Huixing has so many flaws, it's hard for most people to accept... It must be hard for him to accept this truth."

After all, he had deceived someone else's son.

"I'm sorry, Dad." Pei Jiqing's fingertips unconsciously stroked the wrinkles on his sleeve.

Liang Yi began, "He's always been an emotionally reserved child. His status as an S-rank Alpha made him feel like he was trapped in a glass case, under constant surveillance. His father was a soldier, and he believed that rules were more important than family..."

A hint of pain flashed in Liang Yi's eyes. "Sometimes I think he was born without some kind of emotion, so precocious that it was heartbreaking. Until he met you... I saw him as a real person for the first time."

Memories suddenly flooded back.

Liang Yi thought back to those years in the white corridor. Other S-rank Alpha children were always able to leave early, the others were pampered, but only Chen Huixing had to complete all the training. Such a small child, his back straight, sweat soaking through his uniform, but he didn't say a word.

He was so distressed that he almost rushed in, but his husband stopped him: "This is what an S-class Alpha must go through. If you are soft-hearted now, you will cause him to self-destruct in the future."

The tea on the stone table had already gone cold, with fine dust floating on the surface. Liang Yi suddenly realized that after so many years, the lonely figure of the child was still engraved in his eyes, and it never faded.

"So he knew everything later?" Liang Yi's voice was a little tense.

Pei Jiqing nodded silently.

Liang Yi smiled bitterly: "No wonder he has changed so much in the past few years."

The yard was eerily quiet.

Liang Yi suddenly grabbed Pei Jiqing's hand: "Is there really no way?"

Pei Jiqing's tears suddenly fell. He would rather Liang Yi scolded him, because such tenderness made him feel more uncomfortable.

"We will only hurt each other if we are together." Pei Jiqing's voice trembled, "Dad, I did love him, but now..."

He remembered Chen Huixing's recent gloomy eyes and violent temper.

"The conflict between us is irreconcilable. He's become so extreme now, I'm even worried he'll do something irreversible."

Pei Jiqing confided in Chen Huixing's recent involvement in smuggling. The overheard conversations lingered in his mind like a venomous snake, preventing him from watching him fall into the abyss.

Liang Yi was silent for a long time, and finally sighed softly: "It would be nice if you could take Zhizhi out for a walk to relax."

When Chen Huixing stepped into the house, he was surprised to see Liang Yi sitting upright in the living room. He called out "Dad" and was about to turn and go upstairs.

"Jiqing isn't upstairs." Liang Yi's voice was like a bucket of cold water.

Chen Huixing's steps suddenly stopped. He turned and walked over to Liang Yi, his Adam's apple rolling: "Where did they go?"

Liang Yi slowly stood up and suddenly raised her hand to slap him loudly.

"Chen Huixing, is this what your father taught you?" Liang Yi's voice trembled, "Nepotism, sheltering smugglers?" Chen

Huixing's face turned to one side, but an inexplicable panic surged in his heart: "Where is Pei Jiqing?"

"Gone." These two simple words hit Shen Huixing's chest like a sledgehammer.

A familiar, huge feeling of loss instantly engulfed Chen Huixing, as if he was back to the evening many years ago when he was left alone in the training ground and when he returned home a few years ago to see everything was empty.

How dare Pei Jiqing abandon him again.