Chapter 136: I’VE REVIEWED THE INITIAL REPORT

Guiying didn’t respond.

He kept his face buried in his arms and Liuxian stood where he was, not pushing, waiting for Haiyan to come.

The park was quiet around them, just the sound of the evening settling in and a couple of kids somewhere in the distance, and after a while Guiying lifted his head slightly without looking at Liuxian.

"You said from now on Zhang Wei will handle meetings with Omegas," he said.

"Yes," Liuxian said.

"That’s not because of me right?"

"It is."

Guiying was quiet for a moment. "I don’t want you changing how you work because of my feelings."

Guiying sighed, now that he had calmed down he felt stupid.

He should have given that man a dirty slap and told him to stay away from his man.

Instead of running away, he trusted Liuxian but he guessed the shock of it made him run away.

"I shouldn’t have ran away, I feel so stupid now.."

-_-

Liuxian raised a brow, what was he going on about?

"I should have beaten him up!"

Liuxian laughed, he wasn’t expecting Guiying to say that.

"In times like this, you should hug me and replace his pheromones with yours, I should smell of no one else but you.." Liuxian smiled, he didn’t mind that Guiying was angry was happy that meant he liked him enough to care.

Guiying gave him a smile, but he didn’t make a move to wash the foreign pheromones off Liuxian that was his cross to carry.

"You should get rid of those pheromones, then we can talk. For now I’ll see you at home."

Guiying stood up from the bench, stretching slightly. He checked the time, he needed to call Arang and check on the children as well join the meeting so they could discuss with the child services representative.

Currently it was past four, so he still had time to shower and take a nap. The meeting was at six, he had received the notification seconds ago, which was why he stood up.

Guiying texted Haiyan to come pick up, but he was already outside the park.

"I’ll see you at home, you should finish up at work, I must have disrupted somethings.."

Liuxian figured it was best not to say anything and wait until he was smelling of Omega pheromones.

He kept his hands in his pocket and walked Guiying to the car.

After he had gotten in, he turned to Haiyan and tapped the window. Haiyan quickly pulled the window down and waited for Liuxian to speak.

"Drive safely.."

After that he stepped back, giving Haiyan the chance to drive past him.

Once the car was out of sight, he let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding.

This couldn’t have gone more wrong.

And he couldn’t wait to give Zhang Wei a piece of his mind.

Guiying pushed open the front door and Old Li appeared from the kitchen before he’d even taken his shoes off.

"You’re back! Have you eaten? You look thin, come here let me look at you——"

"Uncle Li I’m fine," Guiying said, stepping out of his shoes.

"Fine he says." Old Li turned to Wang Chengli who was already crossing the entrance hall with the composed efficiency of a man who had been waiting. "Does he look fine to you?"

Wang Chengli looked at Guiying with the expression of someone who had already assessed the situation and had several things to say about it. "Welcome back Master Xue. A few things while you were out — the art room humidifier arrived and has been installed, your package from TongShu came in and I’ve left it in your room."

"Thank you Uncle Wang," Guiying said.

"Also," Old Li said, reappearing with a bowl, "you’ll eat something before you sleep——"

"I’ll come down after my shower," Guiying said, already moving toward the stairs. "I promise."

Old Li pointed at him with the bowl. "I’m holding you to that."

Guiying took the stairs before anyone could add anything else.

He got to his room and everything came off immediately — the wig first, then the contacts, the makeup wiped away with practiced efficiency — and he went straight into the shower because he was too tired to fill the tub, he’d sleep in it.

He came out, pulled on something warm, ran through his skincare quickly and dropped into bed.

He checked his phone.

5:30.

Thirty minutes before the meeting. He had enough time to call Arang and check on the children.

He found Arang’s number and called.

She picked up on the third ring. "It’s Tang XiaoYu," Guiying said. "Just checking in, how are the kids?"

"Fed and settled," Arang said. "Yilin helped clean up after, the little one’s asleep on my couch. They’re fine."

"Good. We’ll be having a meeting with one of the child services representatives tonight, things should start moving from there."

"Alright," Arang said, and that was the end of it.

Guiying hung up and set his phone on his chest, staring at the ceiling for a moment before closing his eyes.

He could now rest them for a little while.

Sleep pulled him under fast.

He didn’t dream, or if he did nothing stayed with him, and when the alarm went off at 5:55 it pulled him back from somewhere deep and warm. He lay there for a second blinking at the ceiling before his brain caught up with what day it was and what needed doing.

He sat up, pushed his hair back, reached for his laptop and opened the Zoom link, joining with thirty seconds to spare, his face still slightly creased from the pillow.

Bai Feng was already on, crisp and composed like it was the middle of the day. Liang Xueyi was there too, and the child services representative, a Beta woman in her forties named Liu Yan, joined exactly on the hour.

"Thank you all for making time this evening," Liu Yan said, opening a folder in front of her. "I’ve reviewed the initial report and I’d like to go through what happens next."

Guiying reached for his notebook. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

"Thank you all for making time this evening," Liu Yan said, opening a folder in front of her. "I’ve reviewed the initial report filed today. Before we discuss next steps I want to confirm what was observed during the visit. Can someone walk me through what you found when you arrived?"