What's Wrong with This Alpha? - Chapter 86

Chapter 86 – Sleeping Beauty

“Was that intentional?” Duan Yi straightened up, glancing sideways at Sheng Yunze and their two sons.

The three of them wore innocent expressions.

Duan Yi’s Tetris player’s occupational hazard kicked in, “Could you guys not stand so close together? I keep thinking you’re going to disappear if you line up like that.”

On the way home, heavy snow began to fall. Though Duan Yi had lived in the north for over a decade since getting married, he still got excited every time he saw the thick, feathery snowflakes.

Before it even got dark, he dragged Sheng Yunze outside for a snowball fight. Sheng Yunze initially refused, finding the activity too childish—he actually wanted to go back inside and play with the Lego set he’d bought that day.

Suddenly remembering something, Duan Yi retrieved his drone from the house and brought it to the yard. After attaching a camera, he flew it high above the courtyard, capturing a 360-degree view of the scene and showing it to Sheng Yunze.

Sheng Yunze was first assaulted by Duan Yi’s incessant chatter, then pelted with two snowballs.

He genuinely didn’t want to play, but he couldn’t withstand Duan Yi’s relentless barrage. The constant pelting finally ignited his competitive spirit.

Duan Yi had brought this on himself. Sheng Yunze was fiercely competitive; once he got serious, he refused to lose to anyone—even his own boyfriend—not even in a snowball fight.

A snowball rolled down Duan Yi’s neck, freezing him so badly he jumped up and down on the spot.

Laughing and shouting, he cried, “Sheng Yunze! I’m freezing to death!”

Sheng Yunze pulled him close, grabbing his collar. “Let me see where it went.”

Duan Yi groaned dramatically. “It melted! It’s definitely all melted inside. Are you even human? Seriously, how could you do that to me? Are we really dating?!”

Sheng Yunze reached in and pulled out the snowball. It had barely touched Duan Yi through two layers of wool sweaters—he was just being dramatic.

Sheng Ming and Sheng Xi, intimidated by the vast difference in skill between their parents, stayed out of the snowball fight.

Auntie Sheng had prepared two small buckets and shovels for them, marked off a patch of snow, and left them under the nanny’s supervision. The two children happily built snowmen in their designated area.

When Duan Yi had had enough playing, he went to patrol his sons’ territory.

He found Sheng Ming and Sheng Xi had built four snowmen with the nanny’s help.

The two larger ones represented him and Sheng Yunze.

The two smaller snowmen were identical, clearly representing themselves.

Duan Yi feigned offense. “Why don’t I have any eyes?”

Sheng Xi found two buttons in the house and used them as eyes for Duan Yi’s snowman.

Duan Yi remained dissatisfied. “I still don’t think this face is handsome enough. I’m going to fix it.”

He not only modified his own snowman but also Sheng Yunze’s. He plucked a plum blossom from the courtyard and pinned it to Sheng Yunze’s snowman.

Sheng Yunze sneered and retaliated without hesitation, drawing a pig’s snout on Duan Yi’s snowman. He went even further, piling snow on Duan Yi’s snowman to emphasize how “fat” it was.

Duan Yi, of course, couldn’t let this stand. He bared his teeth and claws, leaping onto Sheng Yunze to fight him.

Sheng Yunze knew Duan Yi’s amateurish martial arts skills inside and out. In an instant, he had Duan Yi pinned against the door, completely immobilized.

Duan Yi began squawking wildly, calling for backup, “Sheng Ming, help me! Help me!”

Sheng Ming and Sheng Xi exchanged glances, then dropped their snow shovels and pounced on Sheng Yunze’s legs, each grabbing one and rocking back and forth on the ground.

Sheng Yunze was torn between laughter and exasperation, while Duan Yi smirked triumphantly. But then he grew worried about the children sitting on the cold ground and quickly scooped them up, one in each arm.

Duan Yi chuckled, “You guys are pretty loyal after all…”

Sheng Xi, nestled in his arms, was shaking with laughter, burying his face in Duan Yi’s chest one moment and stealing glances at Sheng Yunze the next, as if fearing a sudden retaliation.

Just as Duan Yi was about to speak, he noticed Sheng Xi’s arm flickering, almost transparent.

For a split second, Duan Yi thought he’d imagined it.

He nervously grabbed Sheng Xi’s arm, startling the younger man.

Sheng Yunze glanced over, “What’s wrong?”

Duan Yi’s face paled instantly. After a moment, he regained his composure, looking somewhat lost. “Nothing, it’s nothing.”

Maybe I just imagined it.

How could a perfectly healthy person suddenly turn transparent?

Duan Yi’s heart pounded violently, refusing to calm down even as he went to bed. Throughout the night, he kept waking up with a start, reaching out to touch Sheng Xi’s sleeping form on the bed, needing to confirm he was still there.

Sheng Yunze noticed Duan Yi’s unusual behavior and wanted to ask what was wrong. But Duan Yi looked unwilling to talk. When Sheng Yunze tried to ask, he only shook his head, unsure how to explain.

Fortunately, Duan Yi’s spirits gradually returned to normal over the next few days.

He spent New Year’s Eve and the first day of the Lunar New Year at the Duan family home. At midnight, he video-called Sheng Yunze and chatted briefly with Sheng Ming and Sheng Xi.

The two children received numerous red envelopes during their visit. Sheng Yunze also gave them red envelopes and transferred a sum of money to Duan Yi, remembering to send his boyfriend a New Year’s gift as well.

Sheng Yunze often transferred money to Duan Yi via WeChat, sometimes five thousand yuan, and over ten thousand yuan during holidays or special occasions. Since Duan Yi had enough pocket money, he didn’t use Sheng Yunze’s transfers and instead saved them in a separate bank account.

Duan Yi received a steady stream of New Year’s greetings from friends.

Jiang Wangshu had become a soulless New Year’s greeting machine. Apart from personally typing “Happy New Year” to Nan Yi and Duan Yi, all his other messages were mass-sent.

Speaking of which, Duan Yi’s own New Year’s message was also mass-sent, and he accidentally included Sheng Yunze’s number in the group. Sheng Yunze called him immediately, dripping with sarcasm, and demanded that he rewrite an 800-character personalized greeting just for him.

On New Year’s Eve, Sheng Yunze was in a particularly ceremonial mood, lounging with his legs crossed and whispering devilishly over the phone to Duan Yi, reminding him, “Your eighteenth birthday is just around the corner… ahhh!”

Duan Yi might as well have tied a “Victory” headband around his head.

The table was covered in exam papers, each one glaringly blank. Math, Chinese, English, humanities, and six thick winter break workbooks—not a single character written in any of them.

Duan Yi’s pen flew across the page, practically sparking against the paper.

Between sobs, he grumbled, “Why is there so much winter break homework?!”

Sheng Yunze retorted dryly, “Why didn’t you think about why you brought it all to Beijing in the first place, only to leave it untouched?”

He added, genuinely puzzled, “If you weren’t going to do it, why even bring it?”

Duan Yi continued to write through his tears. “What do you know? It’s a high school trend—clean in, clean out. We don’t bring the papers themselves; we bring the heavy, comforting weight of security!”

Sheng Xi, meanwhile, copied English vocabulary words for Duan Yi, piping up in his childish voice, “Mommy, stop arguing and hurry up with your work!”

“You’re making your son write your exam papers for you? Isn’t that embarrassing enough?” Sheng Yunze asked.

“How am I supposed to finish all this?!” Duan Yi protested, his face flushing. He stubbornly insisted, “Besides, this is about educating them! It’s preschool education!”

Sheng Ming was helping Duan Yi with his physics exam, though he couldn’t actually solve the problems. He was simply copying the multiple-choice answers (A, B, C) from the paper his father had already completed.

Sheng Ming tilted his head innocently and asked, “Mommy, why is Daddy’s homework finished, but yours isn’t?”

Duan Yi’s face burned. “Don’t ask.”

Top students and academic underachievers truly lived in different worlds.

Duan Yi suddenly glared at Sheng Yunze, indignant. “When did you even do these exams? Why didn’t you tell me you were secretly working on them? Now I’m stuck catching up all by myself!”

Sheng Yunze chuckled. “Even if I had told you, you wouldn’t have wanted to do them anyway.”

Seeing Sheng Yunze’s neatly completed stack of exams, Duan Yi seethed with envy. “What kind of brain and speed do you have? You finished all these exams in just seven days?!”

Sheng Yunze declared matter-of-factly, “I just copied the winter break homework.”

Duan Yi was stunned. “Copied?”

Sheng Yunze rolled his eyes. “Copied the answer key. Why waste my time doing such pointless busywork when I could just copy it?”

Duan Yi: “Holy crap, even straight-A students copy answer keys! Xibao, you copied the wrong word! You copied the essay you’re supposed to memorize for the National College Entrance Examination!”

Sheng Yunze facepalmed.

Who else would be like Duan Yi?

Rushing to finish his homework on the last day of winter break, with his whole family helping him copy?

Even making his two sons, who aren’t even in elementary school yet, copy it too? Does he ever set a good example?

Sheng Yunze picked up Sheng Xi, flicked his nose, and turned to Sheng Ming. “You two were real troopers today. Is there anything you want? Just name it, and if it’s within my power, I’ll make it happen!”

Sheng Xi snuggled into his arms. “I want to eat.”

Duan Yi, who was also hungry, nodded. “What do you want? Anything goes today. How about Thai food?”

Sheng Xi buried his face in Duan Yi’s chest. “I want to eat the food you make.”

Duan Yi’s heart skipped a beat. “But my cooking isn’t very good,” he said.

Sheng Xi nuzzled against Duan Yi’s chest, his voice a little whiny. “I want to eat it…”

Duan Yi found the two children particularly clingy today.

Actually, Sheng Xi wanted to cling to Sheng Yunze more, but his brother had been acting strangely since morning. The two of them had woken up early, slowly crawled onto Duan Yi’s bed, and each wrapped an arm around him before falling back asleep.

Just like the day they first arrived, the children were small but surprisingly strong, clinging to Duan Yi as if afraid he might vanish into thin air.

When they returned south, Sheng Xi insisted on taking the snowman family of four with them. Since the large one couldn’t be moved, he made four tiny versions, bought a small refrigerator with great seriousness, and had Sheng Yunze bring it back home. The little fridge now stood in their house.

Duan Yi felt a growing unease. The more Sheng Xi clung to him, the stronger this unsettling feeling became.

Suppressing this inexplicable anxiety, Duan Yi carried Sheng Xi as they walked, saying, “What do you want to eat? Let’s go to the supermarket to buy groceries first, okay?”

Sheng Xi mumbled a sullen “Mm,” while Sheng Ming silently tugged at his sleeve, urging him forward.

Sheng Yunze crouched down and lifted Sheng Ming into his arms, whispering soothingly, “Cheer up, okay?”

Sheng Ming looked at him, his eyes—so much like his father’s—quickly filling with tears.

Sheng Yunze kissed his forehead. “Didn’t you promise Dad you wouldn’t make him sad?”

Sheng Ming’s voice choked with emotion as he gradually pulled away from Duan Yi, finally daring to ask in a small voice, “Daddy… will you really come back?”

Sheng Yunze: “When have I ever lied to you? Be good.”

Sheng Ming: “But I want to go with you. I don’t want to leave with my brother first.”

Sheng Yunze repeated himself, but this time his voice carried a hint of reluctance and helplessness. “Be good, sweetie.”

Sheng Ming rubbed his eyes roughly with his arm, then wrapped his arms around Sheng Yunze’s shoulders, burying his face in his chest and silently weeping.

“Uncle He said Brother and I can only stay here for seven days.”

Sheng Yunze remembered Sheng Xi telling him this on their fourth day here.

Today was their last day.

Duan Yi, who had somehow procured a shopping cart, asked, “What do you want to eat, Sheng Xi? How about sweet and sour pork ribs?”

Sweet and sour pork ribs and potatoes were favorites of both Sheng Ming and Sheng Xi.

Duan Yi himself preferred creamy mushroom and pea noodles, as well as egg noodles.

But whenever he went out with Sheng Ming and Sheng Xi, he usually avoided buying his own favorites, and dinner was always tailored to what the kids liked.

Sheng Xi paused for a moment, then quickly regained his composure, kicking his little legs in Duan Yi’s arms. “I want egg noodles!”

Duan Yi raised an eyebrow in surprise. “Didn’t you used to hate egg noodles?”

Sheng Xi: “I like them now!”

He proceeded to rattle off a long list of dishes, all of Duan Yi’s favorites.

“Are you sure you want all this? Do you really like carrots?”

Sheng Xi wrinkled his nose. “Forget the carrots. Daddy doesn’t like them.”

Duan Yi: “Your dad is even pickier than you!”

That evening, after returning home, Duan Yi settled Sheng Ming and Sheng Xi in the living room before heading into the kitchen.

Duan Ji Huai and Xiaoduan Mom were attending a charity gala hosted by the municipal government and weren’t expected back that night.

The villa was empty except for the nanny and the housekeeper. Duan Yi, who disliked washing vegetables and preferred to skip the prep work, asked Auntie Chen to help him. Auntie Chen, who doted on him, was always eager to lend a hand, even without being asked.

Sheng Xi sat on the sofa, engrossed in a fairy tale book.

For some reason, Duan Yi felt like spending extra time with the children today. He squeezed next to Sheng Xi and pulled him into his lap. “What are you reading? Can you even read?”

Sheng Xi held up the book high. “Sleeping Beauty!”

“Do you understand it?” Duan Yi asked.

Sheng Xi shook his head. “I can’t read a lot of the words.”

Duan Yi couldn’t help feeling a little smug. He took the book, his heart softening. “I’ll read it to you.”

He cleared his throat and continued from the last paragraph Sheng Xi had been reading:

“The princess greeted her politely. ‘Hello! What are you doing?'”

“‘Spinning,’ the old woman replied, nodding. ‘This little thing is so much fun to turn!’ The princess reached out to try spinning herself, but the moment she touched the spindle, she collapsed to the ground, unconscious. The wicked curse had come true.”

“But the princess didn’t die. She simply lay there, fast asleep.”

Sheng Ming, sitting on Duan Yi’s other side, listened intently before suddenly asking, “Is the princess dead?”

“No, she’s not,” Duan Yi corrected his son. “The princess is just asleep.”

Sheng Xi chimed in, “Just asleep? But with her eyes closed, she looks just like she’s dead.”

“But the princess is still breathing,” Duan Yi explained.

“Uncle He said we can only visit once a month. Does the prince also only see the princess once a month?”

Duan Yi realized Sheng Xi was likely describing an intensive care unit—a huge glass window, visits restricted to once a month, and a critical care setting.

Where did my son see an ICU?

Both children were perfectly healthy and had never suffered any serious illnesses, only occasional fevers. They had no possible exposure to such a place.

Maybe he saw it on TV, Duan Yi reassured himself, answering Sheng Ming, “The prince doesn’t visit the princess once a month. He finds her asleep after a hundred years and wakes her with a kiss.”

Sheng Xi tilted his head. “How long is a hundred years?”

“A very, very long time,” Duan Yi replied. “By then, I’ll probably be too old to walk.”

Sheng Xi let out a choked sob. “What’s wrong?” Duan Yi asked.

Sheng Xi swallowed his tears and asked, “Couldn’t the prince come sooner?”

Duan Yi hesitated for a moment. “…I suppose he could.”

Sensing how much Sheng Xi cared about the story, he instinctively lied.

Sheng Xi: “Can my brother and I be the princes?”

Duan Yi chuckled, both amused and touched. “Of course! You’re both princes, okay?”

Sheng Xi climbed into Duan Yi’s arms, stood on tiptoe, and gave him a light, butterfly-soft kiss on the lips. It was a kiss filled with cautious hope, like a person in despair grasping at a single firefly. “I kissed you. Will you wake up now?”

Duan Yi patted his head. “I’m not Sleeping Beauty.”

Sheng Xi: “But you were asleep.”

His voice trembled with tears, tugging at Duan Yi’s heart. Feeling a pang of sadness, Duan Yi could only pat his back awkwardly.

“I’ll go make you both some food.”

As Duan Yi stood up, the two children unexpectedly clung to him.

“Will you wake up? Like the prince waking the princess?” Sheng Xi persisted.

Duan Yi nodded. “Yes, I will.”

He smiled and pointed to his lips. “Didn’t you just kiss me?”

Sheng Ming tugged at his clothes. “Mommy, what does it look like when someone’s asleep?”

Duan Yi: “Their eyes are closed.”

Sheng Ming: “…Like they’re dead, right?”

Duan Yi felt an inexplicable surge of panic. Sheng Ming clung to his leg, his chubby cheek pressed against him. “She just looks like she’s dead, but she’s really just sleeping. Mommy, don’t be scared.”

Duan Yi’s Adam’s apple bobbed. “I’m… not scared of anything.”

Sheng Ming released his grip, pulled Sheng Xi onto the sofa, and looked at Duan Yi with forced composure. “Go make dinner, Mommy.”

Finally realizing what was happening, Duan Yi turned to Sheng Yunze in confusion.

Sheng Yunze gently embraced him. “Go to the kitchen. I’ll handle things here.”

“I…” Duan Yi stammered.

Sheng Yunze’s voice was calm but firm. “You know what to do, Duan Yi.”

At those words, something seemed to snap within Duan Yi. Like a puppet with its strings cut, he turned and walked mechanically into the kitchen, his back to them.

Sheng Xi’s composure finally shattered. The moment Duan Yi stepped into the kitchen and the door closed, he leaped off the sofa and stumbled toward the kitchen.

Sheng Yunze immediately crouched down and scooped Sheng Xi into his arms. Too young to understand how to process grief, the boy wailed uncontrollably, screaming Duan Yi’s name and struggling to escape Sheng Yunze’s embrace, flailing his arms and legs in a desperate attempt to reach Duan Yi.

Unfortunately, his hands were so small. Held in Sheng Yunze’s arms, he flailed his arms through the air, grasping only at empty space. “I don’t want to leave… I want Mommy… Waaah… Daddy, let me go…”

As the commotion outside gradually faded, Duan Yi could hear less and less.

He could still hear Sheng Yunze’s soothing voice and the sounds of the two children crying themselves to exhaustion.

Auntie Chen, the nanny, grew concerned about Duan Yi. She watched him lean against the door, looking utterly lost, as if his soul had vanished with the departing figures.

“Xiaoduan… are you alright?”

Duan Yi shook his head, reassuring her not to worry.

But his heart felt like it was being clenched in a fist, suffocating him and causing him to double over in pain.

He slid down the kitchen door, squatting on the floor for a long time, his face buried in his arms, his mind completely consumed by the cries of Sheng Xi and Sheng Ming.

Then, in an instant, silence fell outside, as if… everything had vanished.

Duan Yi’s pupils dilated, and his heart stopped for a split second.

He knew some things were inevitable, beyond human control.

He should have realized it sooner.

When Sheng Xi insisted on bringing home the snowman representing their family of four.

When Sheng Xi only ordered his favorite dishes at dinner.

The child had known all along he wouldn’t be able to eat, so he only chose what his father liked.

He should have realized…

They weren’t from this world.

Auntie Chen hesitated. “Should I still make the noodles?”

Duan Yi felt the world fall silent. He heard his own voice echoing from a distance, hollow and unrecognizable. “…Make them.”

The aroma of egg noodles wafted from the kitchen.

Sheng Yunze opened the kitchen door as Duan Yi emerged with the noodles, acting as if nothing had happened.

The living room was empty except for the debris on the floor.

His shoulders began to tremble violently, but he didn’t stop eating. He shoveled the noodles into his mouth, his face buried in the bowl.

Duan Yi had never tasted such bitterness in egg noodles. Each sip of broth twisted his heart into a mangled mess, the pain so intense he couldn’t breathe.