Qiu Sui returned to the dorm a bit early. His fingers gripping the suitcase handle had already gone numb from the cold, and when he let go, a dull ache throbbed through his knuckles.
He hadn’t taken much from the dorm back then, so the room’s setup remained just as it was—except now it held even more things than when he’d lived alone. The two of them often napped there together, so the space was filled with traces of their shared life.
Just stepping inside pulled at those mundane memories involuntarily. Qiu Sui’s breathing grew labored.
His phone buzzed intermittently in his pocket with messages, but he had no mood to check them—or rather, he could already guess who they were from.
The emotions gradually awakening spread through his body bit by bit. Qiu Sui leaned his back against the door, his eyes dry and blinking hard. He could barely handle the emotional drop from the sudden turn of events.
He stayed there recovering for a few minutes before slowly straightening up. He grabbed the AC remote from the desk and turned on the heater.
The machine’s low hum brought some life to the quiet room. Qiu Sui stiffly bent down to start packing the suitcase.
His bookshelf held a few textbooks that weren’t his. The wardrobe had several oversized coats and sweaters added to it, and scattered items on the desk didn’t belong to him either.
Qiu Sui lowered his gaze and packed away all those extra things one by one. He pulled Shen Zhixiao’s dorm keycard from a drawer, intending to bundle up his belongings and return them across the hall, when he heard a knock at the door.
His nerves tensed sharply. He stared at the closed door, his heart squeezing in an indescribable way. His fingers twitched in place for several seconds before he finally pulled it open.
A stranger stood there, holding a bag somewhat awkwardly as he greeted him. “Hello, your breakfast.”
Without giving Qiu Sui time to respond, the guy handed over the bag and hurried off.
The delivery bag was labeled with the A710 dorm number and a string of confirmation phone digits.
Shen Zhixiao’s number.
Qiu Sui’s eyelashes trembled. He finally pulled out his phone to check the messages.
Shen Zhixiao: Baby, can you reply once you get to school?
…
Shen Zhixiao: I ordered breakfast delivered to the dorm. Baby, remember to eat on time.
Shen Zhixiao: Sorry, baby. I won’t message you and bother you anymore.
…
Shen Zhixiao: Baby, my Susceptible Period came early. I can’t go to the hospital right now. Can I get my wounds checked in a few days? Sorry…
Several minutes had passed since that last message.
Qiu Sui set the packaging bag on the table. He didn’t reply to Shen Zhixiao’s WeChat. Instead, he opened up his Alipay, transferred the breakfast money directly, and then headed out with Shen Zhixiao’s stuff.
After returning everything to the dorm across the hall, he finally messaged Shen Zhixiao back. He snapped a photo of the items and sent it over, slowly typing out a line.
Qiu Sui: Your things are back in your dorm. I’ll give the keycard to Wen Heng at noon. I’ll reimburse your medical fees later too. That’s it. We’re breaking up.
No response came from the other side after he sent it, but Qiu Sui knew Shen Zhixiao would see it.
He numbly exited the chat and opened the monitoring app. Seeing rows of glaring red numbers, his eyelashes fluttered. He slid across the screen to unlock the Neck Ring’s password, unbound the account, and canceled all the linked accounts tied to Shen Zhixiao one by one.
Once done, Qiu Sui gripped his phone tightly and tilted his head back, eyes open wide to steady his emotions.
Telling Shen Zhixiao they needed a break had just been empty words to placate him temporarily.
There was nothing left to talk about. Shen Zhixiao was the perverted Alpha he’d been hunting all along. He’d thought he’d escaped, but he’d been trapped in his web the whole time.
Shen Zhixiao had so many chances to come clean. He could’ve confessed when Qiu Sui wanted to catch the pervert and share a hotel room. He could’ve at the hospital when his Susceptible Period worsened. Even when Qiu Sui asked about his Pheromones’ scent… but he’d chosen to hide and lie every time.
Liar…
Qiu Sui gasped for a few breaths, enveloped by the stuffy warmth. It took a long while before he slowly got up to eat breakfast.
He hadn’t slept well the night before, so he lacked energy during classes that day and had a bit of a headache too.
From sending that breakup message in the morning until evening, Shen Zhixiao’s WeChat stayed silent. Qiu Sui didn’t know if it was the Susceptible Period keeping him from seeing it or if he was accepting it. He assumed the latter.
He hadn’t told Qiu Shun or Qiao Keren about the breakup yet. Qiu Sui didn’t know how to phrase it. He didn’t even know how to tell his mom and dad.
Curled up in bed, he scrolled the family group chat and saw his mom asking about New Year’s plans. Only then did he realize it was just over a week until January.
Winter break started in late January—he could go home soon.
The thought lifted his mood a little, but remembering his promise to bring Shen Zhixiao home for the holiday sank it again.
Qiu Sui tossed and turned in bed, a bit regretting not beating Shen Zhixiao again that morning. Their relationship had been so public; the fallout was huge now.
The more he thought, the less he could sleep. Luckily, tomorrow was the weekend—no classes. He opened comics and anime he hadn’t touched in ages, planning to stay up and distract himself.
It worked well. Watching anime, Qiu Sui eventually dozed off in a haze. When he woke in the morning, his phone had shut down after playing videos half the night.
His head foggy, he got up to wash up. Back in the room, the phone was charged and on, the screen crammed with notifications. Shen Zhixiao’s WeChat was still silent.
Of course. With his Susceptible Period that bad, what could he reply? If he can even read it, that’s something.
Qiu Sui thought mockingly.
He had no desire to go out or eat much, but he still ordered takeout. He crawled back into bed and stared blankly at his phone screen. The comics he’d enjoyed last night held no appeal now.
Qiu Sui cycled through all his usual apps, piling up a row of background tabs, but nothing caught his interest.
He rarely felt this way. Closing his eyes to ease it, he hated the emptiness. Finally, he pulled out his laptop and dove into finishing his end-of-term assignments.
With work to do, his mind severed all other connections, focused solely on the screen with no stray thoughts—until the takeout arrived at the door.
Unusually, grinding assignments became his way to unwind.
His fingers trembled faintly from too much typing. He told the delivery guy to leave it at the door, then sat zoning out on the bed for a bit before slowly getting up to fetch it.
He’d just yanked the door open when a tall figure by the door startled him.
The Alpha who should have been in his Susceptible Period was standing right there. Qiu Sui gripped the door handle and instinctively stepped back half a pace, staring intently. His first thought was that the guy had wandered out in his cycle.
But he quickly saw no signs of Susceptible Period symptoms on him. Shock turned to surging rage. Before Shen Zhixiao could even lower his head and speak softly, Qiu Sui’s fist was already clenched and slamming furiously toward his jaw.
The Alpha was caught off guard by the move. His right cheek jerked sharply with the punch, his body staggering back as he instinctively shielded the takeout in his hands.
“You’re lying to me again.” Qiu Sui’s tightened fist trembled uncontrollably. The emotions pent up since yesterday erupted out of control.
Shen Zhixiao’s head buzzed from the hit, intense pain radiating from his right cheek and tugging at every nerve. It took several seconds to process what Qiu Sui meant.
Wincing through the pain, he looked at Qiu Sui and shook his head frantically. “I didn’t, baby. I… I took a Potent Inhibitor yesterday. I only came to find you after I got better this morning. I didn’t lie…”
“Don’t call me that.” Qiu Sui gripped the door handle tight, his breathing unsteady as he cut him off. “We’re broken up.”
Shen Zhixiao’s expression crumbled into defeat and fragility at those words. He shuffled two steps toward Qiu Sui uncontrollably, fingers shaking as if to touch him, but retreated under his warning glare.
His shoulders slumped powerlessly, like an abandoned big dog—disheveled and helpless, rooted in place. His usually neat hair hung messily over his forehead, a bruise blooming red and blue on his right cheek. His eyes gazing at Qiu Sui brimmed with pleading. “No, don’t break up, okay? Baby, punish me however you want—just don’t break up. I really, really like you. I was too stupid before. I didn’t know the right way to express it. I was wrong…”
Just days ago, they’d been tenderly kissing in bed, looking forward to winter break and meeting each other’s families—everything so perfect. Now the Alpha he loved was the same pervert who’d harassed him. Qiu Sui had never felt his heart squeezed so sour and painful.
He silently shifted his gaze from those damp eyes, lowering his lashes to stare at the bag in Shen Zhixiao’s hand. Holding back his emotions, he said lowly, “Give me back the takeout.”
The Alpha clutched the bag like his last shred of hope, unwilling to let go. Thinking of something, he hurriedly pulled out his phone, unlocked the screen, and held it out humbly to Qiu Sui, his voice hoarse and choked. “I… I really didn’t deceive you, baby. I talked to the head of R&D. Extract the Pheromones, make it into perfume, then confess—I really never planned to hide it from you forever.”
The screen showed chat logs from over half a month ago between Shen Zhixiao and the R&D team.
Qiu Sui pulled his gaze away, his expression still utterly indifferent, unmoved. “Give it back.”
Shen Zhixiao’s final thread of hope shattered. His heart plummeted into an ice pit, his body going rigid.
He gripped his phone tightly, vision blurring as he looked at Qiu Sui. His throat felt blocked, unable to make a sound. After several ragged breaths, he slowly handed over the bag, his voice breaking. “To-tonight… I’ll bring you dinner, okay? Too much takeout isn’t good…”
What answered him was a harsh slam of the door. The gust of cold wind hit the Alpha like icy needles, stabbing with sharp pain.
He stared blankly at the door for several seconds, unable to react. Finally, dejectedly, he touched the door handle Qiu Sui had gripped and slowly walked back across the hall.
Qiu Sui had ordered a big portion of his favorite dumplings, but his already weak appetite from waking up had faded even more. Still, he silently ate over half before pulling out the laptop again to distract himself.
That afternoon, Shen Zhixiao really showed up with homemade dinner and knocked. Qiu Sui’s hard-won emotional balance shattered at the sound of his voice. Unable to hold back, he yelled at the door, “Get lost!”
The Alpha outside went quiet fast. He carefully sent a message.
Liar: Xiao Sui, can I leave the food at the door?
You have to remember to eat…
Shen Zhixiao hadn’t finished typing the second line when the door flew open. Qiu Sui glared furiously at him and swung another fist at his left cheek. A passing Alpha carrying shopping bags nearby jumped in fright, stumbling back several steps in shock.
” I told you to get…” Noticing the stranger, Qiu Sui froze, gritting his teeth and lowering his voice. “Take your food and fuck off. Don’t bother me.”
He slammed the door shut and retreated inside.
Shen Zhixiao stood frozen at the door, turning his bruised face to glance at the other Alpha, who awkwardly clutched his bags and hurried past.
Only after the stranger was gone did Shen Zhixiao slowly lean against the door. He knocked lightly and said humbly in a small voice, “Xiao Sui, he’s gone. You can come out and keep hitting me…”
