Chapter 59: Estrus Season // Pei Jiqing, open the door! I'm at the door...

Xu Ze's words completely ignited the fire in Chen Huixing's eyes, the provocative words cutting through his nerves like a knife.

No one can touch him—the moment this thought exploded in his mind, his fist had already slammed into Xu Ze's face. With the dull thud of bone against flesh, Xu Ze stumbled back, a glaring red at the corner of his lips.

Pei Jiqing's eyes widened. He held onto Xu Ze, then looked up at Chen Huixing. "You're crazy!"

"Pei Jiqing," Chen Huixing's voice was horribly hoarse. "If you had gone with him today..."

"What? You want to kill me again? I know, Chen Huixing, you can do it."

Chen Huixing's hand, hanging by his side, suddenly trembled convulsively. "...I'm not."

"Chen Huixing, we're divorced. Do you understand what divorce means? We have nothing to do with each other now except for our children! You have no right to point fingers at anyone around me. If I tell you to get out, you have to get out!"

"Accept reality. From now on, you'll live with your power."

Pei Jiqing supported Xu Ze as they walked towards his home. Chen Huixing stood there, watching Pei Jiqing's back without a second's pause.

The surroundings were eerily quiet. Chen Huixing slowly crouched down, left alone like an abandoned dog.

Xu Ze's tooth was loosened, and Pei Jiqing treated it briefly. He covered his mouth, forced a smile, and told Pei Jiqing to leave, saying he would go to the hospital tomorrow morning.

Pei Jiqing had no choice but to go home. Zhizhi

had already fallen asleep, her face looking remarkably peaceful, her eyelashes casting a subtle shadow on her face. Pei Jiqing finished his shower and couldn't help but pour himself a glass of wine, the amber liquid swishing in the glass. Sister Zhang tiptoed over and told him to go to bed early.

Pei Jiqing nodded and said he understood. His phone suddenly lit up, and a message from Xu Ze popped up, blaming himself for a conflict he shouldn't have had to bear.

He suddenly realized how different Xu Ze and Shen Huixing were—one was worried about causing trouble for him even when he was injured, while the other always asserted his power with his fists.

He once found Shen Huixing's ruthlessness charming, but now just thinking of him made his temples throb.

For several days, Shen Huixing's figure disappeared from Pei Jiqing's sight.

The fighting situation at the front was tense, and working all night long in the military headquarters had almost become a daily routine. Chen Huixing went to the front line again .

Pei Jiqing began to acquiesce to Xu Ze's occasional dependence. He couldn't help but care about his tooth that was loosened by Chen Huixing. Xu Ze said soothingly: "It has been dealt with. This price is very worthwhile."

Pei Jiqing did not respond. He knew that he was not ready to start another relationship. The scab on his heart was too fresh and would bleed if touched lightly.

Xu Ze said there was no rush and stood at just the right distance.

Mu Xinbai asked Pei Jiqing to take their two children out for a trip.

The four of them, who were once inseparable, were now strangers, and the two who were at loggerheads back then were now holding hands.

Mu Xinbai blurted out the word "sister-in-law". There was no barrier between them.

At lunchtime, Shen Xinze rushed in. He started a business after leaving the police station. He sat down opposite Pei Jiqing and called her "sister-in-law".

Pei Jiqing helplessly corrected him, "I'm divorced from your brother."

Chen Xinze nonchalantly replied, "Then you can call me brother, too. My biological brother never even looked me in the eye. You always stopped him from beating me up before."

Pei Jiqing chuckled, "If he hears that, you'll get beaten again."

Chen Xinze replied, "He'll only be so powerful for a few more years. When I'm his age, we'll see who gets beaten." He

laughed himself, a father after all. The beatings he endured in those years were now a joke.

"Sister-in-law, you don't know. He's had a terrible time these days."

Of course, Pei Jiqing had heard about it. The video of Cen Yuean publicly throwing his military badge and accusing Chen Huixing of years of oppression went viral. While everyone knew how Cen Yuean got his commanding position, a mere figurehead for years, public opinion still ignited like wildfire. Furthermore, several branches of the Shen family were suddenly under investigation, with Chen Huixing personally sending them to the Supervisory Office.

"Serves him right," Pei Jiqing remarked.

Shen Xinze said, "Actually... my brother really wasn't the one who ordered the smuggling of the cargo ship. The Shen family is already busy with their legitimate business, but someone chose to walk into someone's trap..."

"Dad has checked it out. My brother just doesn't want to admit that he was wrong and can't control people. He's been like this since he was a child. He's conceited and proud. Recently, he's been like this. It would have been better if those people withdrew in time, but my brother just watched them get deeper and deeper into trouble, and then abandoned them completely like pawns. It's terrible."

Pei Jiqing remembered that what he saw was indeed the cargo ship contract. He didn't believe that Shen Huixing didn't find out later, but was just too lazy to care, or didn't have the energy to care, and didn't stop him even if he wanted to die.

Mu Xinbai saw that Pei Jiqing looked unhappy and coughed lightly. Shen Xinze immediately raised his hands: "Okay, I'll shut up and eat." Shen Xinze

then picked up Zhizhi and said: "Baby, you seem to have grown taller."

After dinner, Shen Xinze lifted Zhizhi up and said: "Has our Zhizhi grown taller again?"

He smiled and rubbed the child's face with the tip of his nose. Zhizhi stretched out her little hand to grab the ends of his hair, her eyes sparkling: "Uncle, I want to be as tall as you!"

"Of course." Shen Xinze spun Zhizhi around, and his peripheral vision caught a glimpse of Mu Xinbai's slightly shining eyes.

He had long wanted a daughter, but Mu Xinbai was afraid of his son's troubles and had never given in. Now, looking at Zhizhi's well-behaved appearance, Mu Xinbai's mouth unconsciously raised the corners of his mouth.

As Chen Xinze walked away, each holding a child, Mu Xinbai suddenly said, "Brother Pei, you smell... of pheromones."

Pei Jiqing instinctively touched the gland: "Is it noticeable?"

"A little faint." Mu Xinbai glanced at the children playing nearby. "Is your last injury... healed?"

Pei Jiqing said, "...I might be going into heat."

No wonder he'd been feeling restless lately.

Mu Xinbai immediately dragged him toward the parking lot: "Let Xinze take care of the kids. Let's go to the Central Hospital now."

So they went.

Chen Huixing's bad luck had been right: his estrus was approaching.

Pei Jiqing told Mu Xinbai, "Keep it a secret."

He took three days off and booked a suite in a downtown hotel. The heavy curtains were drawn tightly, and the central air conditioning vents emitted a faint hum.

Pei Jiqing lay in bed, staring at the ceiling in a trance, his recently shattered memories slowly but relentlessly reassembling.

For example, when passing a famous French restaurant, Pei Jiqing would recall the image of Chen Huixing slicing a steak, his slender fingers gripping the silver knife. Back then, he would instinctively accept the glass of red wine offered, propping his chin up, and flirting with him under the table.

These images seemed to be on repeat, replaying in his mind every few hours, making Pei Jiqing irritated.

He hated this feeling; it meant he'd be thinking of Chen Huixing almost constantly.

Pei Jiqing loathed this constant reminder. When he brushed his teeth in the morning, the water droplets on the mirror would transform into the silhouette of Chen Huixing. It felt like twenty-four hours had been shattered into countless fragments, each holding a few moments of memory.

When he first returned to Ling City, his thoughts were clear. There were too many things in life to face, and hiding would have seemed hypocritical.

But when memories flooded over his rationale, those supposedly solid defenses began to crumble.

His glands had been eroded by the transformation agent, and the aftereffect of cleaning the mark was that Pei Jiqing had been unable to smell any pheromones for a long time. Now, with the onset of estrus, all his senses were suddenly amplified tenfold, and the blood beneath his skin seemed to be boiling.

Before, with Chen Huixing's mark, he could still presentably attend meetings during late estrus.

The aura of an S-rank Alpha was like an invisible armor, keeping other aspirants at bay.

Now, this body felt like a mollusk stripped of its shell; even the unfamiliar pheromone in the elevator made his knees weak.

Pei Jiqing lined up the inhibitors and soothing potions. The low-quality inhibitors he'd used during his first estrus after puberty had caused him so much trouble. Since then, his glands had been like a poorly connected circuit, sometimes working well, sometimes not.

After returning to the Pei family, he could barely get through those lukewarm estrus periods with the help of medication.

Until he was marked by Chen Huixing. The Alpha's pheromones were like a powerful repair agent, plumping up his dried-up glands again. In the years after their marriage, their susceptible periods and estrus gradually synchronized.

The scar on the gland still felt a little bumpy, and Pei Jiqing wasn't sure how much function it had recovered.

It was Omegas' nature to desire Alphas, and his empty glands seemed to be longing for something, but he knew better than to mention that he couldn't rely on anyone anymore.

He chose a hotel near the river, and as he swiped his card to enter, he belatedly remembered that Chen Huixing had hugged him from behind in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows here on their wedding anniversary one year.

Pei Jiqing turned the air conditioner down to the lowest setting.

On the first day, there was only a vague feeling of heat, as if a fire was slowly flowing in the blood vessels. Pei Jiqing was still able to stay awake, and even ordered room service and meals?

On the second day, the situation took a sharp turn for the worse. The high fever was like a tide that overflowed the embankment of reason. He curled up in the messy sheets, and the disassembled tools were scattered all over the floor

. He injected himself with an inhibitor before lazily leaning against the bed, and then chose a mild one. The phone vibrated wildly at this time, and Chen Huixing picked up

the phone. "Who are you checking into a room with?" The voice on the other end of the phone was hoarse.

Pei Jiqing suddenly bumped the bedside table maliciously, allowing those ambiguous sounds to be amplified through the microphone, the sound of water was sticky, the breathing was broken, and it was mixed with deliberately suppressed sobs.

"None of your business!" Pei Jiqing's voice was thick with lust. He bit his wrist and closed his eyes. "Can't you hear me? I'm busy going through estrus with someone. Don't contact me."

The breathing on the other end of the line suddenly became heavy. Pei Jiqing was about to hang up when he heard a knock on the door. It wasn't from the receiver, but from the suite's door lock.

Chen Huixing's voice came from the phone and outside the door at the same time, with the unique distortion of electronic equipment: "Pei Jiqing, open the door! I'm outside."