Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Lan Yexing’s head throbbed, a dizzying mix of secondhand smoke and rose perfume. He struggled to process the system’s words when, eyes wide, he suddenly toppled forward, hitting the ground with a soft thud.

It was then he understood: the dizziness he’d felt earlier wasn't imagined. He was genuinely allergic to those pheromones!

Dazed, Lan Yexing lay sprawled face down. He vaguely heard someone hurrying past, then, after a moment, felt a poke on his arm. A voice, anxious and flustered, asked, "You're my roommate, right? W-what's wrong? S-should I help you to bed first, or go find the dorm supervisor and school doctor?"

Lan Yexing gritted his teeth, his long eyelashes fluttering involuntarily. With his last shred of consciousness, he rasped, "First… open… the… window… for… ventilation."

Then his head lolled to the side, and he completely lost consciousness.

***

At ten o’clock that night, Lan Yexing slowly regained awareness, lying in his bed.

The interior of this aristocratic school’s dormitory was as opulent as he’d imagined, bearing no resemblance to the student dorms he remembered. Chandeliers and the four corners of the ceiling, as far as the eye could see, were adorned with intricate, symmetrical ancient patterns.

The green-paned French window now stood open, its pure white curtains swaying in the night breeze. Beyond lay a shallow balcony, typical of Baroque architecture.

The dormitory was a two-person room with wooden floors and an en-suite bathroom. It was furnished with wooden beds, wardrobes, desks, and other furniture, effectively dividing the living space equally down a central line. A slender young man sat on the chair by Lan Yexing’s side, staring at him nervously: "Y-you're awake? Are you alright?"

Even with all the windows open for ventilation, the strange scent of secondhand smoke mixed with roses still lingered. Lan Yexing rubbed his temples, sat up halfway, and calmly, gently scrutinized the other.

Under his gaze, the young man grew visibly uneasy, lowering his head. "I'm sorry. I-I just called him here for a temporary mark. I didn't expect him to... want to mark me completely."

The young man's neck flushed crimson with shame. "I'm truly sorry for causing you trouble. I won't let him come to the dorm again."

He did admire the man, and their relationship was indeed intimate and ambiguous. That’s why, when his estrus period arrived, he hadn't used an inhibitor but instead called the man here.

He wasn't so naive as to believe someone of that man’s status would consider him a lover. He simply wanted to spend as much time with him as possible, to indulge his infatuation.

However, for an omega, being completely marked by an alpha meant surrendering one's entire life. No matter how much he liked the other person, the thought still filled him with dread.

If his roommate hadn't happened to return and faint, and if that man didn't despise trouble, he truly would have...

The young man lowered his head further, momentarily speechless.

Lan Yexing had no concept of "marking" and no intention of delving into others' affairs. Recalling what the system had said before he fainted, and finding it inconvenient to ask the system directly now, he asked the young man, "Who was that person just now?"

The young man paused, then replied, "Yuan Ye, from the second year of the Business School. His mental power is pheromone control... He's a very famous alpha here, with a profound family background..."

Lan Yexing was slightly taken aback: *Mental power*... a new term the system hadn't mentioned.

Still lost in his emotions, the young man murmured, head bowed, "I really like him..."

Lan Yexing collected himself, thought for a moment, and kindly offered a warning: "From what just happened, he doesn't seem like a good person." Besides, that guy was trying to pursue Qiao You even though he already had a lover.

A bitter smile touched the young man's lips: "I know..."

Lan Yexing said no more. He tentatively asked a second question: "What about you? What's your name? What's your mental power?" As he spoke, he extended his hand. "My name is Lan Yexing."

The young man, flattered, shook his hand. "I-I'm Jiang Xiaozhou. Since we live together, I must be in the same department and year as you. It's nice to meet you!"

He then smiled helplessly: "As for mental power, don't joke with me. Only the descendants of nobles possess mental power. How could someone from such an ordinary background like me have it?"

Lan Yexing: *Nobles? So this thing is passed down through blood?*

Jiang Xiaozhou returned to his own desk to do his work, not pressing for more information. He then got up to take a shower.

***

After showering, Lan Yexing changed into his pajamas and tossed the uniform he’d worn only once into the laundry basket. He also changed all his bedsheets and bedding.

Even though most of the pheromone scent had dissipated, and even though Jiang Xiaozhou, who had used an inhibitor, only carried a faint rose fragrance, Lan Yexing still felt that the secondhand smoke and rose scent had deeply permeated him and his bed. He simply couldn't tolerate sleeping amidst those smells.

Once everything was done, Lan Yexing sat at his desk and opened a notebook.

It contained the information he had gathered since arriving in this world.

Three days ago, he’d woken up in that villa with a watch containing a system on his wrist. His last memory was of a car accident in his own world.

The system told him that a spatial distortion had formed before the impact of the car accident, so he wasn't injured but instead transported to a completely different world.

The system explained the concepts of alpha, omega, and the least numerous beta in this alternate world, then informed him that his mission here was to enter a university and prevent anyone from pursuing a beta named Qiao You. A year later, Qiao You's fated lover would enroll, and by then, Lan Yexing's mission would be complete.

Money, identity, and experience were all prepared for him. Lan Yexing was now the son of a nouveau riche wool merchant from out of town, admitted to Xingdu University this year. Due to illness, he had delayed his enrollment until a month after school started. The villa was also an asset prepared for him by his family.

The system guaranteed his identity would be absolutely flawless, and he could enroll at any time.

Lan Yexing asked, "What happens if I don't do the mission?"

System: "If Qiao You's fated lover, who appears a year later, doesn't get Qiao You, this world will be destroyed, and the host, unable to return to the original world, will die with it."

Lan Yexing, from a materialist world, completely failed to comprehend or imagine such an illogical situation, just as he couldn't understand how a car accident could cause a spatial distortion and transport him to another world.

System: "Host can think of this world as a book, and Qiao You is the protagonist. Your mission is simply to help the protagonist Qiao You and his fated lover meet and achieve a happy ending. Wouldn't that be easier to understand?"

"Qiao You and his fated lover will find happiness together, and the world won't be destroyed after their union. After that, I will disappear, and the host can live freely in this new world. Isn't that perfect for everyone?"

Lan Yexing pouted: *It still didn't explain why the protagonist being with someone was related to whether the world would be destroyed or not, come on!*

And—

Lan Yexing pointed out the contradictory loophole: "If the person who appears in the future is destined to be the protagonist's lover, and they are destined to be together, why would I still need to prevent others from pursuing Qiao You?"

System: "Except for the fated one who will appear in the future, all other pursuers have ulterior motives towards Qiao You. So, the host's mission is essentially to protect Qiao You from falling for bad people. It's a very righteous mission."

Lan Yexing said "Oh" and then asked, "What if I still refuse this mission? Will you eliminate me?"

System: "No. The host will not suffer any harm from me."

It repeated what it had said before, that if that person didn't get Qiao You, the host would die with the world.

Lan Yexing was silent for a moment, then asked one last question: "What about you? What is your essence? Who created you?"

*Who is the mastermind behind you?*

The system's voice remained mechanical and indifferent, as if programmed in advance, replying, "I am the system, existing to prevent this world from being destroyed."

So Lan Yexing knew he wouldn't get any more information from the system.

Lan Yexing wasn't angry. He simply spent a day calmly and leisurely exploring this new world before accepting the system's mission and reporting to Xingdu University.

He wasn't moved by the righteousness of protecting the protagonist. He merely wanted to gather more information through action to uncover truths he couldn't logically deduce and explore the possibility of returning to his original world.

And incidentally—he neither fully believed that this world would be destroyed nor fully disbelieved it. But with that lingering doubt, he couldn't truly be carefree and ignore everything. After all, no matter what world he was in, he wanted to live well.

***

Countless thoughts flashed through his mind. Lan Yexing flipped through the two or three pages he had already written in his notebook, then wrote "Mental Power" on a new page.

He spent a long time searching on his phone and concluded: it was a special, non-lethal ability, passed down through blood. In modern, technologically advanced society, most of these abilities had become useless. Most ordinary people regarded mental power merely as a symbol of lineage, meaning those with it must have had noble ancestors.

All available information indicated that these abilities had no impact on society.

And ordinary people toiled daily for their livelihoods. Even if they witnessed someone demonstrating mental power, at most, it would be treated as after-dinner gossip, followed by a curious question like, "Hey, tell me, what kind of family was your ancestor from? What famous people came out of it? How did you end up working with us?"—after all, there were many so-called collateral descendants of nobles, and it was highly possible for them to become ordinary people.

But judging by Jiang Xiaozhou's reaction to Yuan Ye, Yuan Ye clearly didn't seem like the kind of noble descendant who had fallen in status.

Thinking of this, Lan Yexing turned a page and wrote, "Pursuer Yuan Ye, alpha, pheromone-based mental power, pheromone suspected to be secondhand smoke, second-year student in the Business School."

After a moment's thought, he added a note: "Questionable character."

The system had said that Qiao You was also a second-year student in the Business School, so he and Yuan Ye were classmates.

And the surname Yuan...

Lan Yexing's pen tip unconsciously tapped, and his delicate brows furrowed slightly: *Could it be a coincidence?*

He had inadvertently seen in the news before enrolling that Yuan's Bio and another biopharmaceutical company were the two largest inhibitor research and production manufacturers in this world.

After neatly recording this information, Lan Yexing closed his notebook, took out his phone, and pulled up his class schedule:

For some reason, the system had prepared a freshman identity for him in the Department of Literature, and his classes had already been pre-selected.

In this school, in addition to public compulsory courses, professional compulsory courses offered within the department, and professional elective courses, students could also freely choose general elective courses offered by other departments across majors to fulfill credit requirements.

Perhaps to facilitate the mission, almost all of his general elective courses were from the Business School, and even the required sports activity he chose was Qiao You's favorite, soccer.

Tomorrow at eight in the morning was a compulsory professional course in the Department of Literature, and at four in the afternoon was physical education.

It had been a month since school started, and he was just beginning classes. He truly hoped he could keep up with these liberal arts and business courses that he wasn't interested in and found very difficult, at least to pass—after all, failing in college would lead to a lot of unnecessary trouble.

He had just finished preparing the textbooks he would need for tomorrow when suddenly, the watch on his wrist lit up.

With Jiang Xiaozhou present, the system couldn't speak directly. Instead, it displayed the mission as scrolling text on the illuminated screen:

"Tomorrow at 8 AM, Qiao You, a second-year student from the Business School, will audit two lectures on classical poetry, a compulsory course in the Department of Literature, which features a poet he is interested in. His classmate Yuan Ye will come to audit the class with him and will sit next to Qiao You to pursue him. Please prevent this event from happening."

Lan Yexing: "..." *Is this why the system chose the Department of Literature for him?*

Just then, Jiang Xiaozhou's phone rang at the other desk, and he went to the restroom to answer it. Lan Yexing took the opportunity to ask the system, "Do you know where Qiao You sits?"

System: "The last row, far right."

Lan Yexing nodded: *That makes it easy. He just needs to arrive early and take the seat to Qiao You's left.*

Then he asked, "Is Yuan Ye from the Yuan family? What is the manifestation of his mental power?"

System: "He is an illegitimate child of the Yuan family. His pheromone-based mental power is very weak, at most only affecting one omega."

Lan Yexing: "Why didn't you mention mental power before when explaining?"

System: "The system has significant flaws. It forgot."

Lan Yexing: "..."

The system seemed to realize its error, adding in that indifferent mechanical voice, "I will try my best to learn and upgrade."

Lan Yexing sighed helplessly: "Then good luck."

With that, he stopped dwelling on it. After saying goodnight to the other person, he went straight to bed. Before sleeping, he set a silent electric shock alarm on his watch—a new feature he had discovered.

***

At six o'clock the next morning, Lan Yexing was woken by the system's mild electric shock. He opened his eyes, with faint dark circles under them.

He sat up halfway and rubbed his messy, soft black hair, sighing softly: *This quilt isn't soft enough, it's uncomfortable to sleep on. He needs to go out of school during the holidays to pick a good quilt.*

Just then, the crisp calls of cuckoos and hobbies came from outside the window. He straightened his slender neck and tilted his head back to look out through the half-open checkered window.

The soft hair on the young man's forehead was disheveled, completely revealing his beautiful, somewhat sharp light-colored eyes: It was autumn now, and the hazy light with thin mist had streamed in through the sheer white curtains. Layers of green mixed with golden yellow and deep red cascaded into his vision through the curtain gaps. He smelled the damp, fresh scent of plants in the air.

The natural scenery here was so similar to his original world.

Lan Yexing watched for a while, then came back to his senses. Still sleepy, he got out of bed, took another set of new uniforms, including a shirt clip, and quietly went to the bathroom—this university was truly strange; even daily attire had requirements.

After quickly washing up and changing, it was only 6:15 AM, and his roommate was still asleep.

Lan Yexing put the textbooks and tablet he would need today into his canvas bag and quietly left the dorm.

***

To secure a seat early, Lan Yexing didn't go to the cafeteria for breakfast. After casually buying milk and bread, he walked to the Humanities College buildings not far from the dormitory.

Today's specialized class was in the main building of the Department of Literature, a rather beautiful and magnificent three-story tower-shaped building located on a large lawn, with a heavily carved and ornate arched bell tower at the very top.

Lan Yexing soon arrived at an empty, small tiered classroom on the second floor. It was still early, and he was indeed the first student to arrive: *Hmm, today's task was accomplished.*

He slowly walked to the last row, sat down, casually placed his bread and milk beside him, and then comfortably rested his head on his arms to catch up on sleep.

Outside the window, several tall, lush red maple trees swayed in the wind, their layers of maple leaves as vibrant as fire.

Half of the young man's body was covered in the light, swaying shadows of the leaves. The exposed section of his tender, slender neck glowed white in the morning light and shadows. His slender, fair wrist unconsciously brushed against something, and the unopened bread and milk beside his hand were nudged onto the adjacent desk, as if breakfast had been thoughtfully prepared specifically for the person next to him.

Before long, clear footsteps echoed in the quiet classroom, and someone gracefully took a seat.

Lan Yexing suddenly caught a whiff of an extremely fresh and clean lime scent.