Chapter 23

Chapter 23

The first half of Li Xi's parents' story wasn't hard to guess, but the second half took Ying Zhiyu somewhat by surprise.

The first part was about a wealthy, powerful, and dashing Alpha who set his sights on an international supermodel Omega.

Under Li Songqian's relentless pursuit, pheromone seduction, and financial onslaught, the Omega unsurprisingly succumbed to his advances.

They fell deeply in love, quickly got pregnant, left the industry, and married.

If the story had only the first half, it would be a perfect Cinderella-meets-prince fairytale ending.

Unfortunately, life is not a fairytale.

But the story also had a second half.

After marriage, Li Xi's mother, Gan Ruyuan, discovered by accident that Li Songqian had deceived her.

It turned out their pheromone compatibility was extremely low.

Li Songqian had used an illegal "inducer" to create the illusion of "high pheromone compatibility" for Gan Ruyuan.

As the successor to a world-leading pheromone conglomerate, it was no surprise that Li Songqian possessed something explicitly government-banned.

This was the first blow Li Xi's Omega mother sustained after marriage.

Gan Ruyuan wasn't concerned about whether their pheromone compatibility was high or not; what she cared about was her husband's deception and the fact that their marriage began with a lie.

Moreover, after the deception was uncovered, Li Songqian's reaction was dismissive—he didn't think he had done anything wrong.

He believed it was nothing more than a harmless, well-intentioned lie.

Their attempts to talk it out failed, and a rift formed between them.

The foundation of "trust," the most crucial element in a marriage, became unstable, planting the seeds for the second incident that would deal a devastating blow to their relationship.

After carrying the pregnancy to term and giving birth, Li Xi's mother encountered someone who had once humiliated her at the full-month celebration for Li Xi and Li Yue.

The fashion industry is not a pure land—its dark side is rife with corruption.

Before rising to the international stage, Li Xi's mother had also faced the industry's underbelly.

It was a painful memory she couldn't bear to touch, yet at her children's full-month celebration, she came face-to-face with one of her tormentors.

That person turned out to be a friend of Li Songqian's.

That night, Li Xi's mother had a heated argument with Li Songqian. Gan Ruyuan suspected that Li Songqian might have been involved in those past wrongdoings.

Although Li Songqian denied it, even if he wasn't a direct participant, he had at least played a role in enabling the abuse behind the scenes.

Those so-called "elites" of high society did not see ordinary people as human beings. The struggles and sufferings of ordinary people meant nothing to them—they were merely pawns in their games.

Gan Ruyuan could not accept that her husband was such a person.

Li Xi said in a flat, emotionless tone, "She found Li Songqian disgusting, and by association, probably Li Yue and me as well."

Unable to endure the repeated blows, Gan Ruyuan's postpartum recovery was poor.

Her postpartum depression worsened.

When Li Xi and Li Yue were not yet two years old, while Li Songqian was away on business, Gan Ruyuan jumped into the swimming pool and never resurfaced.

"She took off her health-monitoring bracelet, but if it's removed for more than ten minutes, it automatically sends an alert."

"So she didn't die immediately. The rescue team found her quickly, and she was in intensive care for forty-eight hours before being declared brain dead."

Ying Zhiyu initially thought Li Xi might resist talking about these things.

But when he asked, Li Xi recounted the entire story without showing much emotion.

Li Xi looked at Ying Zhiyu, "I found this out after I became an adult, through an outside private investigator. But after learning the truth, I did nothing—just continued studying, returned to the country, joined the Group..."

"And now, I'm even preparing to join the board."

He twisted his lips into a mocking, self-deprecating smile.

Ying Zhiyu gently squeezed Li Xi's knuckles, simply looking at him softly without saying a word.

However, after a while, Li Xi seemed unable to bear Ying Zhiyu's gaze.

He lowered his eyes and calmly dissected his own feelings, "Do you think I'm cold-blooded? I don't feel sad, nor angry."

Ying Zhiyu continued stroking the back of Li Xi's hand.

"No, this isn't cold-blooded," he said to him.

Li Xi's Omega mother died when he and Li Yue were not yet two years old. Li Xi didn't learn about the events of that year until he was eighteen, by which time his worldview was already formed and solidified.

First, he had no emotional bond with his Omega mother due to lack of time together.

Second, having been born into such a privileged environment, Li Xi's perspective and feelings about things were inevitably different from his mother's.

As for being cold-blooded...

If he were truly cold-blooded and indifferent, Li Xi wouldn't have become estranged from Li Songqian.

If he truly wanted to vie for the family fortune and ultimately take control of the LI Group, Li Xi could have continued maintaining a facade of filial piety, which would have been more likely to win his Alpha father's favor than the current standoffishness.

After spending more time together, Ying Zhiyu realized he could easily read Li Xi's moods.

For example, although Li Xi usually appeared expressionless, when he lowered his eyes, unwilling to meet his gaze, or when his jaw tightened, leaving only a cold profile, Ying Zhiyu knew that their Third Prince Li was in a foul mood.

At this moment, Li Xi was in low spirits, and Ying Zhiyu admitted he was partly to blame.

If he hadn't asked, it wouldn't have brought up bad memories.

So Ying Zhiyu playfully asked, "How should I comfort our Prince Xi?"

He teased him again with the online nickname.

Li Xi glared at him.

Ying Zhiyu leaned in, crowding into Li Xi's space, "Your Highness, got any suggestions?"

The Alpha bent down facing him, and because he got too close, his hair brushed against Li Xi's chin.

It tickled a little.

Li Xi's eyelashes fluttered lightly as he finally looked up at Ying Zhiyu, gazing for a long while. Ying Zhiyu noticed that Li Xi seemed to be staring fixedly at the top of his head.

Ying Zhiyu: ?

What? Was there something on his head?

He reached up and touched it himself but felt nothing.

In the blink of an eye, Li Xi had already averted his gaze again.

Only this time... it felt somewhat deliberate.

Ying Zhiyu thought for a moment and tentatively asked, "Want to touch it?"

The fingertips at Li Xi's side curled uncontrollably, a flicker of light passing through his eyes.

Ying Zhiyu raised an eyebrow, tilting his head, and pressed further, "Want to feel it?"

And so, their esteemed Your Highness Li Xi finally deigned to raise his hand.

Ever since Ying Zhiyu's mother patted his head, he had wanted to ruffle this 140-IQ head.

-

On Monday, Ying Zhiyu returned to school.

This week, his doctoral advisor, Academician Xia Xianru, was taking Ying Zhiyu to attend an academic symposium on genetics.

Ying Zhiyu explained the situation to Li Xi over the phone in advance.

Li Xi asked Ying Zhiyu, "Should I send an assistant with you?"

Ying Zhiyu found it amusing: "I am the assistant myself."

What are PhD students if not workhorses for their advisors?

There's no logic in an assistant accompanying their boss on a business trip and then bringing along another assistant for themselves.

They arrived in Shenzhen, the host city of the symposium, a day early. Ying Zhiyu and his advisor went straight to the reserved hotel.

Xia Xianru is now a leading figure in the domestic biological sciences and had no reason to share a hotel room with anyone else.

Another faculty member from the School of Biology at Biomedical University attending the conference was named Ma Congya.

As it happened, she was the same teacher who, due to unforeseen circumstances, was stranded abroad during last semester's finals and had Ying Zhiyu help draft the undergraduate bio-genetics exam.

Ma Congya had brought her daughter along to the conference.

Her daughter is a freshman in the School of Foreign Languages at Biomedical University this year. It was said that due to health reasons, she didn’t participate in military training, so she came to Shenzhen with her mother.

Both mother and daughter are Omegas and naturally shared a room.

Ying Zhiyu also had a double room to himself.

At 7 p.m., after settling in at the hotel, Ying Zhiyu first let Li Xi know he had arrived safely.

Li Xi was probably busy and didn’t reply.

Xia Xianru called Ying Zhiyu to go together to the hotel restaurant downstairs for dinner.

Ying Zhiyu had just taken a shower and didn’t have time to dry his hair, rushing out the door.

Before leaving, he noticed that the built-in charging port by the hotel bed seemed faulty. His phone had been charging for a long time but was still showing a red low-battery warning.

Ying Zhiyu didn’t have time to deal with it, so he unplugged it and took his nearly dead phone down in the elevator.

When they reached the hotel restaurant, Teacher Ma Congya and her daughter were also there.

The four of them sat at one table, with Ying Zhiyu sitting to the right of Ma Congya's daughter.

"Senior Ying, did you wash your hair?" Ma Congya's daughter noticed Ying Zhiyu's hair was still wet and asked quietly.

Ying Zhiyu murmured "Mm," answering politely, "Yes."

The girl reminded him, "The air conditioning here is set quite low. Senior, be careful not to catch a cold."

Ying Zhiyu just shook his head and said, "It's fine."

Then he focused on cutting his steak.

At the table, the advisors were discussing issues related to the Shenzhen academic symposium.

Ma Congya said, "AO differentiation is becoming more and more unpredictable nowadays."

Back when biological science was underdeveloped, it was widely believed that AO unions would inevitably produce AO offspring. However, with rapid social development, whether due to genetic changes or other reasons, more and more cases have emerged where Alpha and Omega unions still produce Beta children.

Later, the biological community proposed that high pheromone compatibility in AO unions was necessary to ensure Alpha and Omega offspring, but this theory still has exceptions.

Ying Zhiyu listened quietly on the side. The issues the advisors discussed were indeed valid.

For example, Li Xi's twin sister, Li Yue, is a case in point. Both parents are standard AO, but Li Xi differentiated into an Omega while Li Yue is a Beta.

If Li Songqian and Gan Ruyuan's union involved artificial interference with inducers, creating a deviation, then consider the eldest sister of the Li Xi generation in the Li family, Li Qin, and her Omega. Despite being a high-compatibility Alpha and Omega union, they still had three children, all Betas.

The advisors ate while discussing.

Ma Congya's daughter didn’t quite understand and, perhaps feeling bored, started chatting with Ying Zhiyu again.

"Senior, do you know any seniors or fellow students from our School of Foreign Languages?"

The young girl worriedly said, "I’ve heard the School of Foreign Languages has many cliques and is particularly cliquey."

"I didn’t participate in military training due to special circumstances, so I feel like I can’t integrate at all. Once classes start, they’ll all be friends who’ve shared experiences, and I’ll just seem like an outsider."

Ying Zhiyu thought that when it comes to cliques, there isn’t really a distinction between which school has more or fewer. Where there are people, there will be drama.

It’s just that the School of Foreign Languages, due to the nature of its program, has a higher proportion of Omega students. And where there are more Omegas, there tends to be more attention, hence such rumors.

However, since Ma Congya's daughter asked, Ying Zhiyu did think of someone.

Previously, Ying Zhiyu’s roommate Xu Kuo’s girlfriend, Ni Lu, was from the School of Foreign Languages. Ying Zhiyu had met Ni Lu a few times and, through her, got to know their class president.

And that class president happened to be the vice president of the School of Foreign Languages student union.

Ying Zhiyu suggested: "During freshman military training, student associations from each college conduct patrols and manage logistics. If you’re feeling well enough, I could try to help you get involved by helping out handing out water or something similar? You might get to know people faster that way."

The girl perked up: "Really?"

Ying Zhiyu nodded: "If you're interested, I can give you her contact—"

Before he could finish, his mentor called out: "Zhiyu."

Ying Zhiyu looked up: "Yes, Professor?"

Xia Xianru asked: "What are your thoughts?"

Although Ying Zhiyu was talking with Ma Congya's daughter moments earlier, he had been paying attention to both and hadn't missed the discussion among the mentors.

In fact, the reason modern biological genetics places such importance on researching and analyzing the differentiation of Alphas and Omegas boils down to the unique characteristics of these two sexes within the ABO three-sex system.

For example, Alphas generally have tall and strong physiques, with the highest levels of physical strength and energy among the three sexes.

Although Omega heats can be troublesome, scientific research indicates that the existence of these cycles actually helps extend lifespans—Omegas have the longest average lifespan among the ABO sexes.

In contrast, Betas don’t stand out as much in various aspects compared to Alphas and Omegas.

There’s no clear shortcoming, but across various fields in society, the top performers are predominantly Alphas and Omegas.

As for differentiation research, Ying Zhiyu’s main focus in his past life at the National Academy of Biological Sciences was on this very topic, and he had already made some headway.

Ying Zhiyu had his own academic perspective. Now that he was married to Li Xi, he wasn’t afraid to share his thoughts.

"I believe the mystery of AO differentiation isn't just about genetic inheritance and pheromone compatibility—it could also be related to the relationship quality between Alpha and Omega partners, or even mood-related hormonal shifts in Omegas during pregnancy."

At the same time, in a private hospital in the capital, Li Xi sat up from the examination bed.

Qin Baoyan was Li Xi's personal physician.

While reviewing the printout in her hand, she remarked casually, "Your pheromone levels spiked significantly during this heat cycle. I jumped when the alarm went off in the middle of the night."

Li Xi pursed his lips: "So, is there any issue with the examination?"

Qin Baoyan shook her head: "Nothing wrong, your health has always been stable."

After hearing the conclusion, Li Xi put on his clothes and prepared to leave.

Qin Baoyan almost laughed at his casualness. Having been friends with Li Xi for many years, she leaned against the examination table and crossed her arms, reminding him: "Did you use contraception?"

"Typically, such significant pheromone fluctuations during a heat cycle also affect hormone levels—it's a sign of physical arousal. Omegas are very likely to get pregnant during this time."