I Have To Love【Abo】 Chapter 9
byPink Face Takes the Stage
Sunday morning, Xie Qiao sat early at the dining table waiting for Su Tai. Su Tai had just finished his run and showered, his hair still slightly damp, carrying the moist scent of shower gel. He hadn’t applied a Suppressant Patch, so his Alpha Pheromones weren’t intense.
Xie Qiao watched him sit down, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “Why didn’t you dry your hair? You’ll catch a cold.”
The indoor central air conditioning maintained a comfortable temperature of 25 degrees Celsius; he wouldn’t catch a cold. Moreover, an alpha’s robust physique meant they rarely got sick easily.
Su Tai sat down, scanned the table, and said, “I won’t. Why haven’t you eaten?”
“Waiting for you.”
The crab roe soup dumplings, fruit, and congee on the table were untouched. Su Tai tested the temperature of the congee—it was still warm—and placed it in front of Xie Qiao.
“Eat quickly.”
Xie Qiao picked up his chopsticks, taking a bite and then looking at Su Tai.
In his youth, Su Tai loved racing cars on suburban highways, indulging in drinking and partying—doing everything rebellious he could, short of breaking the law, just to infuriate his father. Now, the man who maintained such excellent habits showed no trace of having done such things.
Alphas seemed to possess an inherent sense of oppression, and S-Class Alphas even more so. The favored son of heaven, sitting high on his pedestal, was eating just like a mortal. Xie Qiao shook his head, feeling his thoughts had wandered. What nonsense was this? People die if they don’t eat.
“Is something wrong?”
Xie Qiao gasped, snapping back to attention. Noticing Su Tai’s gaze, he hesitantly replied, “Brother, are you free today?”
“I am, why?”
“Well… I found a boxing coach. Can you drive me there?”
Su Tai didn’t know what Xie Qiao was planning; he never proactively suggested things like this. Could it be that the younger he got, the clingier he became?
He had recently heard reports from the marketing department saying that a portion of adults now needed to be coddled like children, and children needed to be treated like adults. Perhaps his adult younger brother was the same.
Su Tai teased, “You’re this old, and you still need a parent to drop you off?”
Xie Qiao stammered, “No… I just wanted you to take me. If it’s inconvenient, forget it.”
Su Tai picked up his phone to reply to a message. Xie Qiao leaned forward and then pulled back. “Whose message are you replying to?”
“Informing my date that I have to take the kid at home to school today.” Su Tai curled his lips. “I haven’t stood someone up much before.”
Su Tai was extremely conscious of time. In business, if a client was one minute late, he would walk away. In his rules, punctuality was the most basic morality and one of the standards for judging a person’s sense of responsibility.
Xie Qiao’s face felt hot. He drank a mouthful of hot congee, which made him even warmer. “Am I more important than your date?”
Su Tai raised an eyebrow. “What foolishness are you talking about?”
Xie Qiao pursed his lips and looked at Su Tai. His features were handsome and sharp, with sword-like eyebrows extending to his temples. His deep eyes held a slightly frivolous, appraising look, conveying an indescribable sense of wild abandon.
“…Won’t your friend be angry?”
“She has no right to be angry,” Su Tai answered casually, continuing his meal.
The weather was nice today. The autumn sun lacked heat. Su Tai wore a black mock-neck undershirt, a light-colored striped shirt, and crisp trousers, standing straight by Xie Qiao’s bedroom door, waiting for him.
Su Tai had essentially bought all of Xie Qiao’s clothes. A twenty-year-old youth looked clean and sharp no matter what he wore, especially since Xie Qiao had been a beauty since childhood.
Su Tai stared for a moment, lost in thought. Xie Qiao called out to him, “Brother, should I wear a scarf?”
“Check the weather forecast. If the temperature drops when you come out, put it on,” Su Tai said. “I’ll wait for you downstairs.”
Su Tai had barely walked two steps when Xie Qiao rushed out with a scarf and followed him.
Xie Qiao got into the car with Su Tai. He remembered clearly that after the second parent-teacher conference in his first year of high school, the cars Su Tai used for the meetings became increasingly expensive. Xie Qiao was even gossiped about because of the cars, people wondering just how rich his family was.
Once, he couldn’t help but ask Su Tai. He still clearly remembered Su Tai’s answer: “To give you face.”
Later, he learned that parents also engaged in implicit comparison, looking at what car, clothes, and watch a parent wore, just like adolescents. At that time, Su Tai had already taken over the group. Xie Qiao never imagined that his brother, who dominated the business world, would compete with others for his sake.
Driving, Su Tai remarked, “I didn’t expect that even after you went to university, I could still experience the feeling of dropping a kid off at school.”
A kid. His brother was 31. Most people his age were married with children, yet he was still playing the field, with no one to settle him down. But as the heir of the Hengling Group, he would have to marry and have children sooner or later. Even if he didn’t want to, the elders in the family would make him want to.
Xie Qiao asked, “Do you like children?”
Su Tai had been teasing him about the drop-off, but Xie Qiao missed the point. “It’s alright. I’ll have them eventually.”
“Oh.”
The Porsche drove up to the entrance of a boxing gym. Su Tai pulled into the parking lot and stopped.
Xie Qiao unbuckled his seatbelt. “I’m leaving.”
Su Tai turned off the engine and got out with him. They saw a three-story building with a gray and white standard sports architecture exterior. Next to it, a convenience store and a coffee shop were open for business. Plane tree leaves swirled in the autumn wind on the street.
Su Tai said, “I’ll go in with you to take a look.”
“Then it really will be like dropping a kid off at school. You don’t have to.”
“You flirted with me to bring you here. Don’t you want me to check things out for you?” Su Tai smiled. “Let’s go, stop standing around foolishly.”
Xie Qiao did want him to go up and see. He liked the way Su Tai meticulously cared for him.
In the reception room, the coach greeted Su Tai. Su Tai learned about all aspects: the coach had good experience, having trained members of the national team, and during the conversation, he praised Xie Qiao’s talent.
Su Tai felt proud of the coach’s praise for Xie Qiao while also marveling at Xie Qiao’s ability to handle things.
As they were leaving, he remembered something important. “A’Qiao, did you buy all your gear?”
Xie Qiao nodded. “I bought everything.”
“Alright then. Call me if anything happens. I’m leaving now.”
Xie Qiao stood up next to the coach, his gaze following Su Tai. “Drive safely.”
Su Tai walked out and realized this place was quite far from the city center. He would have to arrange for someone to pick Xie Qiao up when his class finished.
He got into the car, but before he could start the engine, his phone rang.
The caller was none other than his father, the man with whom he shared half his bloodline.
Su Tai looked at the screen, leaning back in his seat. “Father.”
Su Kun, Su Tai’s alpha father, was only 50 this year. A person working a normal job would still have over a decade until retirement, but due to gross negligence, he had been removed from his position and now lived a life free of worry.
The alpha was used to being in charge and couldn’t shake his commanding tone. “Come back tomorrow.”
“Is there something going on?” Since his omega father passed away, Su Tai had been extremely dissatisfied with his father. If he hadn’t been so unfaithful, how could his father have been angered into sickness and death?
But father and son were father and son, and people weren’t strictly black or white.
The alpha on the other end was displeased. “What kind of tone is that? Does a father need a reason to call his son?”
“Tomorrow is Monday, I’m very busy.” Su Tai tried to fob off his father like he was fooling a ghost. “What is it?”
“It’s your old man’s fiftieth birthday tomorrow. Are you, his only son, not coming?” Su Kun scolded on the other end. “Other people’s sons take the initiative to organize things. Only you need your old man to personally invite you.”
He was furious. The father and son could start arguing over half a sentence. Su Tai held the phone away, waiting for him to calm down before continuing, “What time?”
“Do you treat me like your subordinate?”
“Haven’t you gotten used to it after all these years?”
They were two powder kegs. Everyone said he was cut from the same cloth as his alpha father. Su Tai was unwilling to admit it, but blood and genetics didn’t lie.
He had inherited half of his father’s temper and disposition.
Su Kun stopped himself from cursing, and his tone softened. Perhaps he had learned self-regulation over the years. “Bring Xie Qiao too.”
“Why bring him?” Su Tai frowned. “Aren’t you the one who least wants to see him?”
“Just bring him if I tell you to.”
Su Tai immediately felt something was wrong. His father had no regard for Xie Qiao. It was only because of Xie Renqing that he had agreed to let Xie Qiao enter the Su family back then. After the two registered their marriage, Xie Qiao naturally became part of the Su family registry, yet they hadn’t exchanged more than three sentences in all these years.
“What are you planning?” Su Tai guarded Xie Qiao like a protective parent.
“I’ve raised him all these years, after all. What could I be planning by having him attend my birthday banquet?” Su Kun countered unhappily. After a moment of silence, his tone softened. “A’Tai, don’t take on so much responsibility. He’s not your biological brother, nor is he your child, and… forget it. Just bring him. The family doesn’t lack an extra pair of chopsticks.”
The alpha’s pause left Su Tai silent. “Got it.”
Hanging up, Su Tai lit a cigarette, gazing into the distance without focus or emotion. He took a few drags, extinguished the cigarette, and started the car to drive back.