Pain Fetish

Fu Ge almost staggered towards Fu Qingnian’s grave, but slipped midway, flopping into the muddy water filled with small stones.

Qi Han’s heart was gripped so tightly that every ounce of his flesh and blood throbbed with the dull pain, but he didn’t dare to approach in the end.

It was a disgrace to harm a man’s son and then go to see the father. He had no face to appear in front of Fu Qingnian, so he could only stand behind Fu Ge and keep him company in silence.

The young Beta didn’t call him, nor did he call Ah Jue. When he was sad to the extreme or happy to the extreme, he was unexpectedly calm, and this time it was the case.

The rain had just stopped and the tombstone was still wet.

Fu Ge moved over on his knees, first taking off his coat and carefully draping it over his father’s grave, and then hugged the cold stone slab.

“Dad, I’m sorry I’m late… how have you been all these years?”

If you thought about it, you’d know it was not good. No matter how much Qi Han struggled to repair, Fu Ge could see how shabby this barren mountain was and how rudimentary the tomb was.

A person who was so powerful and dazzling when he was alive was hastily buried in a mountain nook not to see any sunlight after his death, and no one paid respects to him during Qingming.

Fu Ge didn’t dare to think deeply; tears filled his eyes, and he blinked them away. His smile was more unsightly than crying, “Don’t worry, I have been… all these years… everything is fine…”

“Grown up safe and sound, tall, fat, started a family and started a business, have a very good lover and a lovely and brave child.”

“I just miss you so much, especially… If you were still there, wouldn’t those things never happen, wouldn’t they never dare to treat me like that…”

No one could tell him the answer, but fortunately, the old things had been let go.

The dead are like golden laurels, and the living can’t chase after them, let alone shed tears. It is a great unfiliality to seize the hearts of the elders in vain, so that people cannot go to reincarnation in peace.

So, hugging the tombstone and talking for a long time, Fu Ge reported his happiness but not his sorrow, from winning first place for the class newspaper when he was seven years old to almost getting lost when he accompanied Ah Jue out yesterday, everything, but not a word about the five years of gloom and suffocation. 

He only looked back at Qi Han before leaving.

The Alpha immediately smiled, thinking Fu Ge was going to walk back, and started moving, but he saw Fu Ge turn his head back once more.

He froze again.

“He’s the one who found you. Do you remember him?”

Fu Ge said with a wry smile, “Since I was eighteen years old, I begged you many times to take him away.”

When people are cornered, they always place their hopes on ghosts and spirits or their parents who have passed away. In those five years, what the desperate young Beta said the most to his father in his dreams was: please help me kill him.

“I regret it, and don’t be angry with him anymore, okay?” Fu Ge squatted down, pressed his forehead to Fu Qingnian’s name and murmured: “Don’t take him away, leave him to me…”

—We have suffered too much and been hurt too many times. If you haven’t gone far, bless us for the rest of our lives.

He knelt in front of the tomb until the early hours of the morning, and Qi Han waited with him until the early hours of the morning. When Fu Ge got up, he was unsteady on his feet, took two steps and crashed into Qi Han’s arms.

“I spoke to Dad for you.”

The Alpha was stunned for two seconds, “What?”

Fu Ge laughed softly: “I said, you are my lover and are going to live with me for the rest of your life, so no matter what he has seen, he shouldn’t blame you.”

Qi Han’s eyes turned red in an instant, and his heart suddenly turned into a rose squeezed by an invisible hand. He was stunned for a long time, then bowed his head and kissed Fu Ge’s forehead, “Gege, I swear I will try my best to be good to you in this life.”

Fu Ge couldn’t stand for long. He had too many mood swings, knelt down for half the night, and so he fell asleep after saying a few words.

Qi Han picked him up and bowed deeply to Fu Qingnian’s tomb before leaving the mountain nook.

He asked people to set up a few tents at the foot of the mountain next to the fishing village, and called Qi Chuan’s team over, guessing that Fu Ge would want to move the grave of his father and making preparations in advance.

It was noon the next day when Qi Chuan arrived. The expedition team was busy outside the tent, with several fishermen selling them freshly caught fish.

Ah Jue was so excited to see so many new things; he was playing with a squid and the moment before was still showing off in front of Qi Chuan: “Look, Uncle! This fish is ugly!”

The next moment, he was sprayed with ink all over his face.

His innocent smile was covered with pitch-black ink, revealing only a mouthful of crooked little white teeth. He sniffled. “Oh oh oh, Uncle, I’m blind…”

Qi Chuan laughed heartily, pushing away his little head to keep him from coming over to hug him and documenting this historic moment with photos from all angles before washing the child’s face.

Ah Jue bared his little white teeth and said, fuming, that Uncle was immoral and irritating.

“Bao’er, where are your dads?”

The child snorted and turned his head, facing Qi Chuan with the back of his head, refusing to communicate.

“Okay, little ancestor, tell me, and I’ll give you candy, okay?”

Ah Jue blinked and pointed to the tent: “Inside.”

“Still inside at this hour?” Qi Chuan didn’t want to disturb anyone’s good deeds and asked, “Do you know what they’re doing?”

Ah Jue’s big, sly eyes blinked twice, and he categorically said: “Have a meeting!”

So Qi Chuan relaxed and stuck his head into the tent boldly: “Xiao Ge—”

In the next second, he saw Qi Han let go of Fu Ge’s lips, quickly pull up the quilt to block the person in his arms, and the rich Enigma pheromone rushed into Qi Chuan’s face: “Get out!”

Qi Chuan: “Okay.”

He was beaten up for no reason, and when he turned his head, he saw that the culprit was about to “abscond with the money”. Qi Chuan went up and grabbed him, “Dare to run away?”

As soon as the words left his mouth, he was sprayed with ink by the squid in Ah Jue’s hand.

Qi Chuan: “…”

Ah Jue: “???”

Good will be rewarded and evil will be rewarded; such a good squid.

There was a lot of noise outside the tent, and the charming atmosphere inside the tent was also scattered.

Qi Han pressed his naked upper body against Fu Ge’s, rubbing the top of his head with his big hands. Soon after waking up, his voice was still husky: “Still sleepy?”

Fu Ge shrank in his arms, his face flushed from sleep, blinked his eyes and looked very well-behaved, “No, if we don’t go out, they will all think we’re doing something.”

What could they do on this wild mountain? Qi Han just gave him a good morning kiss as usual and was caught on the spot.

“Don’t mind them.” He stifled a laugh, embraced Fu Ge’s shoulders and made him lie on his side, then hugged him from behind and raised his hand to cover his eyes to block the light, “Go to sleep, let me give you some pheromones.”

The sleeping bag was warm, and the chest behind him was even warmer. Fu Ge’s whole body was wrapped in the Alpha pheromones, and it was hard not to fall asleep.

He drifted off to sleep and slept until twelve o’clock, woken by the smell of food.

When in Rome, do as Romans do. They had a whole fish feast for lunch.

Chopped pepper fish heads, pepper yudu (a dish made from the swim bladder of fish), squirrel mandarin fish, steamed fish with soy sauce, sashimi, fish with pickled vegetables… An extremely abundant table was set, and Qi Chuan took Ah Jue to eat a bit of everything. Fu Ge didn’t like fish, so Qi Han personally cooked for him.

“This is delicious.” The little Beta was obediently gnawing on the chicken wings, and when he raised his head, he was fed a chopstick of fried mountain treasure (a dish from pork, mushrooms and vermicelli). His mouth was stuffed full and bulging, so he could only frown and chew on both sides, like a little hamster.

Qi Han liked this look so much that he fed him bite by bite, and he also touched his stomach while feeding, “How can you eat but your belly doesn’t bulge?”

Fu Ge muttered inarticulately: “It’s already bulging, I’m running out of room for my chicken wings …”

“You like it so much, is it better than what I cook?” He thought Fu Ge didn’t know that he had cooked the dishes and deliberately teased him.

The little Beta glanced at him askance and drawled: “Yes, it’s especially delicious, I really like it— silly you, I know it’s your cooking without having to taste it.”

Qi Han was smug: “Is it that obvious?”

Fu Ge rolled his eyes; nonsense, if it wasn’t him, who else would have put the chicken wings into a heart shape?

The smile at the corner of Qi Han’s lips could hardly be hidden, and he picked a piece of fish that was cleaned of all bones to feed him: “This nourishes the body very well. It is a local specialty. It’s very clean, I promise it’s not fishy at all. You can taste it.”

“No, I don’t like it.”

Fu Ge simply refused and didn’t even look at it. He didn’t like to eat fish, and he usually bought it for Qi Han to eat.

“Just a little bit, if you taste the fishy smell, just spit it out?” Qi Han brought it to his mouth and held his hand underneath, whispering: “I heard them say that this fish is very good for that place. If you take a bite, I will give you a reward.”

Fu Ge’s cheeks flushed, “What reward?”

Qi Han thought for a while, “I’ll give you a million to buy French fries.”

Fu Ge cooperated with a “wow”, leaned over and took a small bite. His face immediately changed, and he pursed his lips, aggrieved, looking at Qi Han and trying not to vomit.

“Still fishy?”

“I said I don’t like it…”

There was no way to deal with this ancestor. Qi Han stretched out his hand and let him spit it out into his palm, “Squeamish baby, it’s really hard to coax you to eat something.”

“You said I can choose what to eat and what not to eat.”

The fish was cooked for two hours but Fu Ge didn’t eat a bite, and Qi Han was not sad either. After such a long time the baby finally developed a temper and became a picky eater. Qi Han couldn’t be happier.

He didn’t want Fu Ge to force himself to accommodate anyone anymore, not even him.

After eating, Qi Chuan took his people to investigate the terrain around the tomb. Fu Ge said he wanted to go for a walk in the mountains and see the place where his father had stayed for so many years.

Qi Han saw that his ankles had been cut several times by the thorny stems of grass, took his hand and immediately forbade him to walk by himself, “Come here, I’ll carry you.”

“No need, I’ll avoid them— hey!”

Before Fu Ge could finish his sentence, he was picked up, and the people of the expedition team burst into laughter and whistled at them.

“Brother Qi is so good to Sister-in-law!”

“That’s right, President Qi knows how to love his wife!”

“Did you see the separate chicken wing pot? Mr. Fu doesn’t eat fish, and there is nothing else in the village. Brother Qi specially took us to the mountains to find a pheasant. My God, that bird is so clever, it took a lot of effort to catch it!”

As they were all talking about it, Fu Ge blushed and patted Qi Han on the shoulder, “Let me down!”

The Alpha smiled at him: “Shy baby, so embarrassed.”

Behind them, an elderly fisherman smiled very kindly, holding his big belly, “It’s good to love your wife. Men who love their wives in our village are all rich and prosperous.”

“Is that so?” Qi Han smiled when he heard the words: “Then my lover is going to make a fortune.”

The old fisherman was a little puzzled: “How come?”

Qi Han put Fu Ge down, bent over and leaned on Fu Ge’s shoulder like a bird, rubbing against him shamelessly: “You can’t tell it but I’m his wife, and he is the master of me and our family!”

As soon as these words came out, the group of people heckled even more excitedly, and their whistles sounded louder.

The tips of the little Beta’s ears turned red. He lowered his head and pushed Qi Han’s big head away, muttering angrily: “You are shameless again…”

Qi Han was not embarrassed at all, “Well, I’m shameless, I want you.”

The hills after the rain were full of spring, and the fresh green looked washed with water, but there were too many thorny plants on the road.

At first, Qi Han let Fu Ge avoid them walking by himself, but immediately picked him up when they arrived at a place where there was no one.

As if his energy couldn’t be used up, he loved to carry Fu Ge around wherever he was and didn’t want him to go by himself for half a step.

“I thought gege would be sad today.” Qi Han stopped by a smooth stone, sat up by himself and let Fu Ge sit in his arms.

Fu Ge smiled, “After so many years, the sadness has long passed. It’s a good thing to find my father. I can’t be happier.”

As he said that, he grabbed Qi Han’s hand and found many small wounds on his palm, all from when he rushed down the hill.

His heart felt sour, and he buried his face in Qi Han’s palm and kissed it lightly, “Thank you, Mr. Bear Cub, for your hard work.”

“Only ‘thank you’?”

“There is also ‘like you’. Love you, love you so much.”

Qi Han was overjoyed, wrapped his arms around Fu Ge and rubbed his chin against the top of his head, “I missed you so much these days, charge me up.”

“Why have you lost weight again?” He said with certainty touching Fu Ge’s shoulder.

Fu Ge hummed and expressed his love without hesitation: “You are not here, I can’t eat well.”

Qi Han imitated his tone: “Do you need me so much? Can’t I leave for a while?”

“Yes, I need you. You are my sunshine and my nourishment.”

Qi Han’s heart was about to be melted by him; he pecked and kissed Fu Ge’s lips, holding him tighter and tighter, “Good boy, hug me well.”

He took something out of his pocket and handed it to Fu Ge. It was two barley candies that he had eaten in Litang.

“Have you had a craving lately?”

Fu Ge’s eyes lit up: “Where did you get them?”

“Don’t you like to eat those? I asked someone to buy them over there and mail them over. There is a large package.” As he said that, he peeled off a piece of candy but didn’t give it to Fu Ge, pressing his forehead against Fu Ge’s and saying, “Baby, shall I feed you? Give me a kiss.”

The little Beta felt numb and tingling all over, and obediently let him put his hand into his clothes, “Be careful not to bite the candy, there are walnuts in it.”

“Okay.” Qi Han put the candy in his mouth, hugged him and kissed him fiercely: “If you don’t want me to bite the candy, be good and let me bite you.”