Ye Ci leaned over, pursed his fingers and twisted them.
A powdery feeling similar to mutton fat came from between the fingertips.
He was still confused, but he had a hunch that something was going wrong. His face suddenly felt hot, and he stood straight on the ground, holding the back of his neck. The revolving lantern of his life played in his mind...
Fortunately, Huo Tinglan was still asleep.
Another half a minute later, he swallowed, leaned over, lifted a corner and pulled it slowly.
If you are gentle and careful enough, you might be able to get the order out without alerting Uncle Huo.
The idea was great, but before he could implement it, Huo Tinglan suddenly turned over and opened his eyes without warning. He looked straight at Ye Ci and spoke in a sober tone as if he had never slept: "What's wrong, baby?"
The primitive vigilance instinct enables high-level alphas to quickly restore their energy through shallow and short sleep. The higher the level of the gland, the more inclined they are to shallow sleep and easy awakening.
Besides, the sweet and fishy smell of vanilla was so strong that it choked my nose, and it was hard not to wake up.
"No, nothing!" Ye Ci almost jumped up because of his sudden stare, "You go to sleep, sleep, I'm going to... the bathroom."
Why is Uncle Huo so sleepy... No, why is he so alert?!
Huo Tinglan turned around and turned on the light. He propped up his upper body with his elbows on the pillow, lowered his eyes and glanced at him. He sneered and said teasingly, "Why is there a sweet smell? Did the juice spill?"
"Ah, yeah." Ye Ci was stunned, his heart pounding, and he babbled along with the words, "I didn't, accidentally."
"Why are you eating in the dark in the middle of the night?" Huo Tinglan looked at Ye Ci tenderly and asked with concern, "You didn't have enough dinner, are you hungry?"
"I had dinner and I was quite full." Ye Ci was incoherent. "I am... growing up now. I am prone to being hungry."
"Oh." Huo Tinglan was silent for a moment, as if thinking about something. He smiled slightly and scolded affectionately, "You even spilled it all over your pants... Be more careful next time."
Ye Ci's eyes were empty, and he tried his best to suppress the urge to jump out of the window and end it all.
Huo Tinglan was calm and composed: "Next time when we have supper... take me with you?"
"Next, I'll take you next time." Ye Ci nodded randomly.
"What kind of juice did you drink?"
"Grass, strawberry."
"Where did you get it from?"
"… Um, kitchen ice, in the refrigerator."
"Do you know where the kitchen is?"
A tone of surprise.
"… "
Seeing that the young gentleman was so ashamed that he gave random answers to all the questions, Huo Tinglan, with no humanity at all, teased him for a long time and told him a lot of jokes.
His alpha needs have not been met for a long time. In addition, after being widowed, he found his lover again, but his lover was too immature and his glands were not fully developed. He could only see but not eat...
Psychologically, it is inevitable that some serious illnesses will occur.
The symptoms are that they like to bully children, and the more obedient the children are, the more they enjoy bullying.
Ye Ci: “…”
I thought Uncle Huo was going to help him out and give him a way out.
The result is getting more and more wrong...
Seeing that Ye Ci was about to pass out from the teasing, Huo Tinglan mercifully withdrew his magical powers, took out some replacement clothes, sheets and other items from the cupboard, and let Ye Ci go to the bathroom.
After cleaning up the mess, Huo Tinglan couldn't hold back any longer, so he pushed Ye Ci into the corner, poked a hole in the window paper, and gave him a few simple "popular science" words.
In short, it is…
"It will grow well soon."
“Can we please stop talking about this for now, Uncle Huo…” Ye Ci hung his head, his face red enough to fry an egg, and he was so ashamed that his voice turned so red that it almost sounded like tears.
It's not just the gland behind his neck, he has completely turned into an oga.
But Huo Tinglan controlled his tone and spoke in a serious and earnest manner, with a half-smile on his face, as he kept talking to him.
In order to make Huo Tinglan shut up temporarily, Ye Ci agreed to the next thing with tears in his eyes -
About his education being lacking in some way.
In fact, it has been urgent for a long time. Before the relationship was settled, even Huo Tinglan found some things too hot to say and couldn't teach even if he wanted to. Now he can finally teach openly.
"... Is that settled? I won't talk about it today. I'll tell you slowly when I get back." Huo Tinglan smiled innocently and passed the blame on to others again. "You didn't even read the popular science book I gave you before. I wanted to teach you in person, but I was afraid that you were too shy and would misunderstand that I was taking advantage of you... I have time during the summer vacation. When I go back in two days, I'll have one class a day, and each class will last for 40 minutes until I finish the book. Is this arrangement okay with you?"
"Okay, all... all is fine."
"Then, when will you have time... to go to the hospital for a check-up?" Huo Tinglan glanced at Ye Ci's belly meaningfully.
Ye Ci didn't dare to say no. He just hoped that Uncle Huo would stop immediately and agreed to whatever he said.
Huo Tinglan was satisfied, so he let him go to sleep.
…
The next day.
Ye Ci didn't want to let the holiday wear down his morale, so he got up early like he did in school, and used the most alert time in the morning to memorize ancient Chinese texts and English words before going to have breakfast.
After breakfast, he went back to his room to do his homework. Too much pressure would have the opposite effect, so he had to relax. He made a study schedule based on Huo Tinglan's guidance, and took a break after completing his daily goals, which was also a way to recharge himself for the coming year.
Huo Tinglan said that after completing the task today, he would accompany him to play around. There is a horse farm near the old house where he can ride horses, and there is a shooting range nearby where he can play with guns. He is playful after all, and he is very enthusiastic about learning. He completed the task nearly an hour earlier than expected, and put down his pen and went to find someone excitedly. Huo Tinglan was not in the room where they rested last night, and the message was not replied immediately, so he just asked a cleaning lady. The other party said that Mr. Huo was drinking tea in the tea room on the second floor. He didn't think much about it and went there directly. As a result, before he could knock on the door, he heard Lin Yao's soft voice coming from the tea room.
"... After all, he is the husband of you, the head of the Huo family. In the future, he will have to accompany you to attend some occasions. If he speaks incoherently, it will not be good..."
It turned out that he was talking about his stuttering.
Lin Yao's words made sense, and her words were tactful, but Huo Tinglan still defended her, with a smile in her voice, almost like she was playing tricks: "If he can't speak clearly, don't you still have me? I'll be my husband's spokesperson, the same..."
"Oh," Lin Yao teased him with a smile, "I know Xiao Ci is the apple of your eye. You can't stand hearing anything he doesn't like." She advised slowly and calmly, "I know you're afraid that he'll think you despise him for not being good enough, and that his self-esteem will be hurt. I understand, so I'm talking to you instead of him. This isn't an urgent matter. I'm just reminding you."
"I know you mean well." Huo Tinglan smiled and changed the subject casually, no longer talking about this with Lin Yao.
He knew the cause of Ye Ci's language communication barrier.
In the previous life, Ye Ci finally let down his guard and confided those things to him in the second year after marriage.
That was Ye Hongjun’s ex-husband, Ye Ci’s stepfather, a low-level alpha.
This man had been in love with Ye Hongjun for more than half a year before they got married. He had always behaved in a taciturn, honest, gentle and kind manner, and was very obedient and attentive to both mother and child, which made Ye Hongjun mistakenly believe that she and her child had found a support for the rest of their lives.
However, a few months after the marriage, the scumbag gradually tore off his disguise in front of the mother and son.
He has a serious tendency towards violence.
This personality defect became doubly serious when he became addicted to drugs.
Perhaps in order to justify venting violence, or simply to add some fun to the monotonous violence, in addition to the usual beatings and kicks, he would occasionally torture Xiao Ye Ci, who was only seven years old at the time, in the name of "reciting the text".
The passages to be recited were of course not limited to lower-grade elementary school textbooks. In order to deliberately make things difficult for students, my stepfather would sometimes even find some difficult and obscure classical Chinese texts.
While Xiao Ye Ci was reciting, he made mistakes, missed words, and stumbled...
They will all be severely beaten.
If Ye Hongjun tried to stop them, he would be beaten as well.
For Xiao Yeci, "memorizing the text" was synonymous with fear during those purgatory-like days.
The act of "speaking" was often accompanied by sudden and severe beatings.
During that period, Xiao Ye Ci often went to school with injuries all over his body. His thin arms and legs were covered with blue and purple bruises. The tiny child had to wear long clothes and long pants during the hottest days of summer, otherwise he would not be able to see anyone.
Ye Hongjun had been trying her best to protect her child, but the physical gap between her and the alpha was huge, and the divorce process was difficult and long, with obstacles everywhere. Even after the successful divorce judgment, she was still harassed. It was not until the drug addict went to jail to raise money to sell drugs to support his addiction, and died suddenly of an overdose of drugs after being released from prison several years later, that the life of mother and son finally returned to peace.
Unfortunately, this peace came too late.
After being abused for a period of time, Xiao Yeci gradually realized that when he spoke normally, he would often break out in cold sweats and his mind would go blank due to nervousness and anxiety, as if he was being forced to "recite a text". The nervousness and anxiety caused by this problem also deepened and aggravated the problem... In this way, a vicious cycle was formed.
After growing up, Ye Ci differentiated into an A-level alpha and possessed the ability to protect himself. He gradually stopped feeling fear and shrinking when thinking of his stepfather. However, the communication barrier problem was already deeply rooted and difficult to eradicate.
To effectively correct Ye Ci’s stuttering, psychological treatment is a hurdle that cannot be avoided.
Some victims with sensitive self-esteem would tend to conceal this kind of violence and abuse. Huo Tinglan was not sure whether Ye Ci was willing to reveal this old scar in front of the psychotherapist.
Therefore, he would never put any pressure on him before Ye Ci took the initiative to seek help from him.
…
The tea room fell silent.
Ye Ci didn't dare to stay any longer and was about to leave on tiptoe when the cell phone in his trouser pocket suddenly rang.
—Huo Tinglan replied to his message.
The corridor was quiet in the afternoon, and even Lin Yao could hear the sound clearly, let alone the ears of the high-level alpha.
Huo Tinglan walked out of the tea room quickly. After Ye Ci took a few steps, he realized that he could not escape, so he stopped awkwardly and was blocked in the corner.
"Have you learned to eavesdrop?" Huo Tinglan first teased in a light-hearted tone to show that he didn't mind, then he pressed the wall behind Ye Ci and confined him with his arms, looking at his expression.
Seeing Ye Ci's face flushed, and it didn't look like his dignity was hurt, he finally felt relieved and slowly asked tentatively: "What did you hear? Tell me."
Ye Ci hesitated briefly, then looked up with a calm gaze. There was no trace of the painful struggle when the scars were peeled off, only honesty and a soft dependence like a kitten.
"Uncle Huo, actually, I also want to correct myself." Ye Ci spoke with a little embarrassment.
"Baby, why are you so good..." Huo Tinglan smiled gently. Fearing that he would show off, he considered it and said lightly, "You don't have to worry about attending occasions. You are my husband. No one can force you to do something you don't like. Don't go where you don't want to go, and don't say what you don't want to say... Do you understand?"
"It has nothing to do with this." Ye Ci shook his head, his expression not pretending, "I have never mentioned the correction, and it's also because... I used to talk to people very few words all day, so I can't think of it. But..." He took a step forward, put his arms around Huo Tinglan's thin waist, tilted his head and put his face on his shoulder.
From this angle, Huo Tinglan couldn't see his expression, but he could hear it.
"I just hope that in the future I can... talk to you more without any obstacles."
That was a smiling tone.
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