Chapter 26: HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN EATING LIKE THIS

Doctor Gu’s eyes moved to Guiying with the same unhurried ease. He looked at him for a moment, the particular assessing look of a doctor taking in a patient without making it feel clinical, and then he smiled, easy and genuine.

"Sit down," he said, gesturing at the chair across the desk. "Both of you, if you want. Or just him." He glanced at Liuxian. "You can stand in the corner looking intimidating if you prefer. You are good at that."

"I will sit," Liuxian said flatly.

Doctor Gu looked entirely unbothered and turned his attention to Guiying. "So. Little Xian dragged you here without much warning I assume?"

Guiying glanced at Liuxian.

"Something like that," he said.

Doctor Gu picked up his pen. "Pheromone charts, heat recovery checkup. Anything else I should know about before we start?"

Guiying looked at him.

He had not expected to like a doctor this quickly. In his experience doctors were either cold and efficient or warm in the performed way of people who had been trained to seem approachable. Doctor Gu was neither. He was simply present, easy, and apparently entirely comfortable with the fact that his cousin had walked into his office unannounced with a husband he had never mentioned.

"Sleep paralysis," Guiying said. "It happened once, three days ago. Before the heat started."

Doctor Gu nodded. "How long did it last?"

"I do not know. Long enough."

"First time?"

"Yes," Guiying said.

Doctor Gu wrote something down. "Any known triggers? Stress, trauma, disrupted sleep patterns?"

Guiying was quiet for a moment.

"Stress," he said simply.

Doctor Gu looked at him briefly, nodded once, and wrote something else down without pushing further.

"We will look at everything," he said. "Pheromones, heat recovery, sleep patterns. Give me an hour." He stood, unfolding himself from the chair to his full height, which was considerable. He looked at Liuxian over Guiying’s head. "You can wait outside."

Liuxian looked at him.

"Outside, Little Xian," Doctor Gu said pleasantly.

Liuxian stood, looked at Guiying once, and walked out.

Doctor Gu watched the door close. Then he looked back at Guiying with that same easy, unhurried expression.

"He worries," he said. "He just does it very quietly so nobody notices." He picked up a chart from the drawer and set it on the desk. "Alright. Let us start from the beginning."

The checkup took the better part of an hour.

Doctor Gu worked through it methodically and without rushing, moving from one thing to the next with the unhurried efficiency of someone who was thorough by nature rather than by effort. He took blood, checked Guiying’s pheromone levels, ran through the standard Omega health markers, and asked questions in an easy, conversational way that made them feel less like a clinical intake and more like a discussion.

The pheromone results came back first.

Doctor Gu looked at them, then at Guiying, then back at the results.

"Your levels are elevated," he said. "Significantly."

"I just finished my heat," Guiying said.

"That accounts for some of it." Doctor Gu set the results down. "The rest is environmental. You are living in close proximity to a high class dominant Alpha." He glanced toward the door briefly. "Your body is responding to that. It is not dangerous, just elevated. It should regulate over time as you adjust to the environment."

Guiying nodded.

"Your heat cycle," Doctor Gu continued, pulling up a chart. "Tell me about it. Frequency, duration, intensity."

Guiying thought about it. "Irregular. It has always been irregular. Duration varies, this one was three days. Intensity varies too, this one was worse than usual."

"Worse how?"

"More intense than anything I have had before."

Doctor Gu made a note. "The proximity to a dominant Alpha would account for the increased intensity. As for the irregularity, without a consistent pattern to work from I cannot give you a reliable prediction window." He set the pen down. "What I can tell you is that your Dew Cycle, when it comes, will be your highest fertility window. Four days, clear discharge, no pain in most cases. Given your irregular heat cycle your Dew Cycle will likely be equally unpredictable." He looked at Guiying directly. "If pregnancy is not something you are planning for in the immediate future I would strongly recommend consistent suppressants. Not just during heat."

Guiying absorbed that.

"Noted," he said.

Doctor Gu moved on without ceremony, shifting to the general health portion of the checkup with the same unhurried ease. He checked Guiying’s weight, his blood pressure, his reflexes, ran his hands along his spine and his joints with practiced attention, and asked questions about sleep, appetite, and energy levels.

Then he was quiet for a moment, looking at the accumulated results on his desk.

Guiying waited.

"Your weight is low," Doctor Gu said finally. "Not critically, but low enough to be concerning. Your iron levels are also below where they should be, and your vitamin D is deficient." He looked up. "How long have you been eating like this?"

Guiying looked at his hands. "A long time."

Doctor Gu did not push for specifics. "We will address that. I am going to put you on a supplement regimen and I want you to eat properly, not occasionally, consistently." He paused. "I also want to talk about your sleep paralysis."

"You already wrote it down," Guiying said.

"I wrote down that it happened," Doctor Gu said. "I want to talk about why." He leaned back slightly in his chair, the white coat falling open at the front, and looked at Guiying with the same easy, unhurried expression he had worn since the beginning. "Sleep paralysis in otherwise healthy individuals is almost always stress or trauma related. You said stress when I asked. I am not going to push you on the details. But I want you to know that it will keep happening if the underlying cause is not addressed."

Guiying said nothing.

"I am not suggesting therapy in the mandatory sense," Doctor Gu continued. "I am suggesting that whatever you are carrying, you consider not carrying all of it alone." He picked up his pen and began writing out a prescription.

"Supplements, consistent suppressants, proper nutrition, and as much sleep as your body asks for." He tore the prescription from the pad and slid it across the desk. "Any questions?"

Guiying picked up the prescription and looked at it.

"The malnutrition," he said. "How long will it take to correct it?"

"Depends on how consistently you follow the regimen," Doctor Gu said. "Three to six months if you are serious about it." He stood, unfolding himself to his full height. "You are not in bad shape overall. Your body is resilient. It clearly has to be." He said it without inflection, as a simple observation, and crossed to the door. "I will send Little Xian back in."

He opened the door and leaned against the frame.

"Little Xian," he called down the corridor.