Evil Love Appears chapter 48

Xu Jiale and Fu Xiaoyu hugged for a long time.

In all rationality, they both knew that the early spring night was still quite cold, and hugging like this at the doorstep wasn’t the best idea. However, with neither of them willing to speak, the embrace seemed never-ending.

Xu Jiale had been suppressing his cough, but he couldn’t hold back any longer. He pushed Fu Xiaoyu away a bit, turned around, and started coughing heavily inside the house.

“Fu Xiaoyu,” he said in between coughs, “you should go back home. Are you not working tomorrow?”

“I am,” Fu Xiaoyu replied, still mindful of his job. However, he couldn’t help but add, “Xu Jiale, how about I stay and take care of you tonight?”

“No need. I’m fine, just need some rest,” Xu Jiale instinctively shook his head.

Throughout his life, he was quite resilient to minor injuries, never really taking scrapes and bruises seriously. But when it came to colds and fever, it was the worst for him. The more uncomfortable he felt, the more he resisted seeing a doctor. He would just tough it out by taking medicine. This behavior made it seem like he didn’t take a cold seriously to others, and as time passed, he became less and less inclined to explain. He’d just deal with it on his own.

So, the words “take care” made him hesitate for a moment.

“Do you have any medicine?” Fu Xiaoyu asked, “Throat lozenges, cephalosporin, and fever-reducing patches?”

With his face buried in Xu Jiale’s chest, when he lifted his head, his nose was red from being pressed against Xu Jiale. He looked into Xu Jiale’s eyes, filled with both care and reluctance.

“I need to buy some,” Xu Jiale smiled, his head feeling heavy.

“Shall I go get it for you?” Fu Xiaoyu asked as he was getting up to leave.

“Wait,” Xu Jiale said hoarsely. “Fu Xiaoyu, let’s go together. I could use some fresh air.”

“Sure,” Fu Xiaoyu smiled instantly.

The two of them walked together along the roadside towards the opposite block. As they crossed the street, Fu Xiaoyu secretly reached out and held Xu Jiale’s hand.

“Hey,” Xu Jiale, though his throat was hoarse, couldn’t help but smile. He playfully withdrew his hand and said, “Can we hold hands on the first day of you pursuing me?”

Fu Xiaoyu was silent for a moment. His limited experience in pursuing someone, forced him to take Xu Jiale’s question seriously.

Could they really not hold hands yet?

But after just about three seconds, Xu Jiale nonchalantly grabbed his hand again.

Neither of them spoke. One looked to the left, and the other to the right, but their fingers were tightly intertwined.

On the way, Xu Jiale felt lightheaded. The solid road felt like walking on clouds, and even the traffic lights blinked like neon lights. This simple and unpretentious street felt like dancing at a disco.

He couldn’t completely attribute this symptom to the fever. Fever doesn’t make you feel like you’re 18 again overnight.

Fu Xiaoyu picked out Yinqiao tablets, cephalosporin, and lozenges for Xu Jiale. When Xu Jiale saw these items, he couldn’t help but chuckle lightly.

Fu Xiaoyu knew why he was laughing and explained as he took out his phone to make a payment, “You bought these for me when I went to Germany, and they worked really well.”

“I know,” Xu Jiale said with some pride.

As he said this, he noticed that Fu Xiaoyu had changed his phone’s wallpaper to a picture of Xia’an lying on the floor with her belly exposed and couldn’t help but lean over to take a closer look.

But at that moment, a message arrived on Fu Xiaoyu’s WeChat.

Wen Huaixuan: Fu Xiaoyu, your new profile picture is quite charming. Do you smoke?

Xu Jiale never had the habit of looking at other people’s phones, but he was surprised to see the WeChat message directly displayed on the screen. He instinctively leaned back a little to maintain a polite distance.

But unexpectedly, just a glance and he couldn’t get this WeChat message out of his head.

Who is Wen Huaixuan?

And why was he paying such close attention to Fu Xiaoyu’s profile picture?

Xu Jiale squinted his eyes.

“Fu Xiaoyu, you have a WeChat message.”

He saw that Fu Xiaoyu was still in the process of making the payment and casually reminded him.

“I saw it,” Fu Xiaoyu said, unfazed, and explained, “I’ve been set up on a blind date by my family, and this message is from him.”

“Oh,” Xu Jiale opened a bottle of mineral water and took a big sip. “Introduced by your family, huh? Then, don’t you need to meet him in person?”

Xu Jiale, poor acting.

He was acting poorly not in terms of tactics – after all, his nonchalant behavior was impeccable. He was acting poorly in terms of strategy.

Clearly, he was the one being pursued, yet he was like a groundhog digging around the topic of Fu Xiaoyu’s prospective date. It was not cool.

“I won’t meet him,” Fu Xiaoyu answered straightforwardly. After a pause, he continued, “I’m pursuing you, so why waste time meeting someone else?”

Waste of time.

Xu Jiale couldn’t help but smile slightly; but this good feeling lasted for about three seconds.

He stood in front of the glass door of the pharmacy, where his current image was vaguely reflected—

A few strands of hair sticking up on top of his head, and the half of his hoodie’s hood flipped onto his shoulder.

He couldn’t help but move his face closer, making his bright red nose and the blue-stubbled chin more distinct. His face seemed a bit swollen because he had slept too much.

Xu Jiale suddenly felt a sense of depression in his heart.

As experienced as he was in love, he was unfamiliar with being pursued.

You see, omegas often express their interest subtly – a glance or a few hints. Xu Jiale was never afraid of embarrassment or making the first move, and if he was interested, he wouldn’t let the omega take the risk of confessing first.

It was precisely because of this that this was indeed the first time he had been formally and directly pursued.

Damn it.

Why did it have to be today, and why did he have to be pursued on his most disheveled, unattractive day?

Fu Xiaoyu didn’t sense Xu Jiale’s inner turmoil.

When they were about to leave, he took Xu Jiale’s hand of his own accord, escorted the alpha back home, and when standing at the door, he started to hesitate.

“Xu Jiale…”

He moved closer, thanks to his tall stature, and could easily get near Xu Jiale’s lips.

Fu Xiaoyu’s attempt to kiss him resembled Xia’an’s, pouncing directly on Xu Jiale’s face, almost as if he wanted to hold Xu Jiale down with his claws.

“Fu Xiaoyu, don’t.”

Xu Jiale firmly stepped back, not just because he was worried about infection this time—

Damn it, he absolutely didn’t want to kiss Fu Xiaoyu at a time when he felt so pathetic. Maybe it was because of his sudden change in status as the pursued one; he suddenly felt a sense of pressure.

“Then… I’ll head back.” Fu Xiaoyu descended two steps, then turned back abruptly. “Xu Jiale, I’ll bring you breakfast tomorrow morning.”

Fu Xiaoyu didn’t seem discouraged because he couldn’t get a kiss. It was more accurate to say that he found pleasure in this kind of interaction, his eyes bright and excited as he planned for tomorrow.

“Don’t overdo it,” Xu Jiale couldn’t help but scold him. “I can order takeout myself.”

“I won’t overdo it. Don’t order, wait for me—I’ll call you tomorrow morning.”

Indeed, Xu Jiale almost forgot. The fully recovered Fu Xiaoyu was an omega with boundless energy and determination.

After taking the medicine that night, Xu Jiale slept soundly. He needed to get better quickly, and this thought was urgent, almost viciously so.

He set his alarm for 8 o’clock the next morning. As soon as it rang, he got up, took his medicine, checked his temperature, and found it to be 37.1 degrees. He finally breathed a sigh of relief.

He was in a much better condition than the previous night. He drank two glasses of water and then played his “Magic Red” collection from iTunes through the speakers, starting from “This Love” and going all the way to “Sugar.”

While humming along, he took a thorough shower.

Afterwards, he carefully dried his hair and shaved off the stubble that had grown. He even applied cucumber-scented aftershave and admired himself in the mirror.

When he was all ready, he received a call from Fu Xiaoyu: “I’ll be at your place in five minutes. I just fed Xia’an before leaving. By the way, you didn’t order breakfast, did you?”

“No,” Xu Jiale replied briefly, his voice still a bit hoarse, but his condition strangely improved.

When he hung up the phone, he saw his phone’s wallpaper and was suddenly stunned—

It was a smiling picture of Jin Chu.

During recent times, he had actually thought about Jin Chu very little.

He had missed Jin Chu’s calls while he was in Vietnam due to his busyness. Later, he thought something was wrong with Nanyi and inquired, but when he found out everything was fine, he didn’t contact Jin Chu again.

Perhaps it was precisely because he thought about Jin Chu so rarely that even when he unlocked his phone, he didn’t transfer the significance of this photo to his brain.

Why did he still have Jin Chu as his wallpaper?

After the divorce, he hadn’t even asked himself this question, so absurdly he realized it just now.

Xu Jiale held his phone and took a deep breath.

Until this moment, he still couldn’t figure out what last night meant for his 30-year-old life.

But happiness was rare, so much so that he was lost in it after just one night.

He opened his album, flipped through the photos that Fu Xiaoyu had sent him, and paused at the one where Xia’an was trying to lick his nose with her tongue.

He still remembered that day, standing under the scorching sun in Vietnam, receiving this photo from Fu Xiaoyu. It was so adorable that he even stood still in the middle of the road for a while.

So much so that his professor had to pat his shoulder and ask him with concern, “Gale, are you okay?”

He remembered raising his phone at the time and couldn’t restrain himself from saying, “My kitty is just too fucking cute.”

Xu Jiale smiled and set this picture as his new wallpaper and screensaver.

At the same time, the doorbell rang—

Fu Xiaoyu had arrived.