At the clinic, the evening atmosphere felt less like a medical facility and more like the interior of a pressure cooker. The sterile scent of antiseptic was masked by the thick, heavy tension radiating from everyone inside.
Haoran was busy mechanically reorganizing the medicine cabinet, but his hands were trembling slightly, and his eyes kept darting toward the front door with obsessive frequency.
"You're going to burn a hole right through that wood if you keep staring at it," Sihan remarked. He was leaning against the reception desk, casually tossing a stress ball into the air, though his own movements lacked their usual grace.
"I'm not staring," Haoran lied, his voice a low, distracted rumble as he accidentally placed a bottle of saline in the wrong section.
"Right. And I'm just an Alpha who suddenly lost his ability to sense a room's mood?" Sihan snorted, catching the ball with a sharp thud. "Even Yichen looks like he's one minute away from pacing a trench into the floorboards."
"He's been gone for far too long," Haoran muttered, biting his lip hard. His brow was deeply furrowed, and he checked his watch for the third time in ten minutes. "It's already night time."
Yichen, who had been sitting in the corner seemingly occupied with his phone, suddenly perked his head up. His presence was like a dark cloud looming over the furniture.
"Why don't you just call him?" Yichen asked, his voice cutting through the silence with a sharp edge.
"I tried. His phone is off," Haoran said, his worry finally bleeding into his tone.
"He probably just went wandering around again to clear his head, or maybe he's actually stuck with some overtime at the office," Sihan offered, though even he sounded like he was struggling to believe his own reassuring words.
Haoran looked up at the wall clock, the ticking sound suddenly feeling much louder than before. "He should have been back by now. He was very specific—he said it was an urgent matter at work and that he'd be right back. It's been so long, there's no way his boss would make him work at this hour."
"Should we go find him?" Sihan asked.
Without another word, Yichen stood up exuding an aura of a predatory wolf and reached for his jacket.
"Where exactly do you think you're going?" Sihan asked, straightening up.
"To find that headache," Yichen replied, his voice a low, dangerous vibration that made the glass jars on the shelves rattle. "Before he does something incredibly stupid and gets himself killed."
_____________
Qixian was only two blocks away from the clinic when the first sign of trouble appeared, shattering the fragile silence of the night.
A silver SUV, one he hadn't paid any attention to earlier, suddenly swerved across both lanes directly in front of him, forcing him to slam on his brakes. His tires screeched violently against the asphalt, and the acrid smell of burnt rubber instantly filled the cabin.
"What the—?!" Qixian gasped, his heart leaping into his throat as he gripped the steering wheel until his knuckles turned white.
Before he could even think to shift into reverse, a second car—a sleek black sedan—roared up from behind and boxed him in. The doors of the SUV flew open, and four men in dark suits stepped out. They doesn't look like a common street thugs, because the way they moved with the disciplined and merciless is probably a high-tier private security.
'Jin Rou's men,' Qixian realized not long after, his blood turning to ice. 'That little shit—fucking bastard, he actually found me?'
Thinking fast, Qixian spotted a narrow opening and pulled into an alleyway that served as a shortcut far from the clinic's rear entrance. He killed the engine, the silence of the car suddenly feeling too small and suffocating. He leaned his head back against the headrest for a split second and closed his eyes, trying to steady his breathing.
Thump.
A heavy weight hit the roof of the car, shaking the entire frame. Qixian's eyes snapped open. Before he could reach for the door handle to make a run for it, the driver's side window shattered inward with a deafening spray of glass.
"Found you, Second Young Master," a raspy voice whispered.
Glass showered Qixian's lap like a scattered sharp diamonds. A hand reached through the opening, grabbing the front of his shirt and hauling him toward the broken frame. Qixian's medical training and instinct for survival kicked in—he grabbed the intruder's wrist, twisting it with enough force to dislocate a joint while slamming his elbow into the attacker's forearm.
"Let go!" Qixian hissed, his voice sharp despite the rising tide of panic.
He kicked the door open with both feet, sending the man stumbling back into the brick wall. Qixian scrambled out, the glass crunching under his boots. There were many of them now—Jin Rou's elite private security, the kind of men who didn't care about "accidents" or collateral damage.
Knowing he couldn't take them all on foot, Qixian dove back into the car, hit the accelerator, and took a screeching turn, speeding away from the alley. The SUV and the sedan immediately roared after him, the sound of engines echoing like predators in the night.
"The eldest young master wants a word, actually he was so furious mentioning your name!" the lead man shouted from the pursuing vehicle as they pulled alongside him. He brandished a collapsible baton. "He said if you don't come quietly, we should just bring back your hands so you can never perform surgery again."
Qixian's blood turned to liquid fire. The Red Serum, fueled by the sudden spike in terror and adrenaline, began to hum in his ears like a swarm of angry bees. His vision blurred at the edges, and a sharp floral scent began to leak from his skin, overpowering the suppressants.
"You're going to have to kill me first!" Qixian growled, pulling a dangerous U-turn to try and shake them of, his car making a loud screeching sound.
Another car suddenly appeared in front of him, driving head-on to force a collision. Qixian dodged at the last second, his movements blurred by desperate speed. He slammed on the brakes, causing the man who had leaped onto his roof to roll off and hit the pavement. But as he tried to accelerate again, he was hit by a PIT maneuver that sent his car move to the left uncontrollably until it slammed into a concrete barrier.
He crawled out of the wreckage, but he was one man against this three trained professionals who caught up with the speed of his car. His body, already pushed to its limit by the "backflow" of his pheromones and the previous night's strain, began to fail him.
The second man swung his baton. Qixian blocked with his forearm, and a sickening crack echoed through the empty road. He gasped, his arm going completely numb as he stumbled back against the ruins of his car.
"Stay down, brat," the leader sneered, raising his own weapon. He began to smash the remains of the car to ensure Qixian was trapped and helpless.
'Ah, I was caught, still, I'm thankful, thank goodness...' Qixian thought as his vision began to fade into black. 'The others at the clinic... they're too far to hear this. They won't find this road... it's the opposite way from the one Yichen uses, he won't be in danger because me, but I guess I won't be able to shake off their worry...'
A faint smile touched Qixian's lips as he slumped against the tire and fell unconscious.