Chapter 27

Chapter 27

Last night was truly exhausting. How could a top-tier Alpha have such incredible stamina? He went at it for over an hour straight.

When he woke up this morning, his arms were sore, and even picking things up was a bit of a struggle.

There were no classes in the morning, so he could sleep in until he naturally woke up. When he got up, the space beside him had long gone cold—the person who had fallen asleep with him last night had been gone for a while.

Su Xingze shook out his hands, got dressed, and went downstairs. The breakfast that had been prepared was already cold. Aunt Zhang saw him come downstairs and hurried to reheat it.

After drinking half a glass of milk, Su Xingze asked, "Aunt Zhang, did Xiaolu go to the company?"

Aunt Zhang thought for a moment. She didn't remember Lu Xingwen leaving the courtyard this morning, and Assistant Yin didn't seem to have come downstairs either—though he had picked up breakfast once.

She knew the villa had a hidden room. She'd been there before when delivering meals, but it was better not to let Xiaoze know about it now. An Alpha in the middle of a pheromone surge was far too dangerous.

Aunt Zhang replied, "Mr. Lu went out early this morning. Not sure if he went to the company."

After saying that, she kept muttering to herself, "Lord have mercy, what a tragedy..."

"Alright." Su Xingze couldn't muster much interest and grabbed his stuff to head to school.

The food festival for the school sports meet had been open for a few days. He'd mentioned it last night, and Xiaolu had agreed to go with him, though no specific day was set.

Since Xiaolu was at work, Su Xingze didn't feel like going to class, and wandering around alone was too boring. So he made plans with Fu Yao to hit up the food festival first.

The two met at the entrance of the food festival street. Fu Yao was still wrapped up tight. The moment he saw Su Xingze, he started complaining: "That Ying Ying is seriously weird. Yesterday I felt like my mind was trapped—I tried to fight it but couldn't break free. Once I stopped fighting, I blacked out, and when I came to, I was already home."

Before dawn, Lu Xingwen had someone take Fu Yao home to keep any rumors from spreading.

"Sounds like a split personality thing," Su Xingze analyzed. "As long as you don't see him, you probably won't have an episode."

At least he hadn't done any of that dumb stuff on purpose. Fu Yao walked over to a stall and picked out several items. "Eh, forget it. It is what it is. Let's just eat first. I haven't eaten a thing since last night—I'm about to die of hunger."

Fu Yao bought a serving of the soft, sticky rolled cake (lǘdǎgǔn), ate a third of it, then curiously offered one to Su Xingze and asked, "Don't you think this lǘdǎgǔn is not just sweet, but also a bit rich and greasy?"

Su Xingze took a bite and replied, "Aren't all these desserts sweet and greasy?"

"It's different." Fu Yao leaned in and whispered, "Xingze-ge, when's your heat cycle?"

Most Omegas go into heat once every three months. Some have it more frequently—once a month. Of course, there are also those who go into heat every six months or once a year.

Su Xingze had never gone into heat before. He had no clue when his would hit. He answered honestly, "I don't know either."

Omegas were the rarest secondary gender—even rarer than Alphas. The number of registered Omegas at Zeda University was probably under a hundred.

But his gland had been damaged. Would he even go into heat anymore?

"You keep browsing—I'm gonna head home and have the family doctor take a look at me." Just to be safe, he decided to skip his afternoon classes. An Omega's heat was no joke.

Su Xingze had never gone through one, but he knew that during heat, an Omega might be locked in their room for three days and nights at the very least—or at worst, end up hospitalized in isolation.

If this really was heat, with this many people at the festival—including plenty of Alphas—it'd be way too dangerous.

Su Xingze headed home, and Fu Yao didn't want to be alone either, so he had his driver come get him too.

As soon as Su Xingze got home, he crashed. In the afternoon, Assistant Yin checked him over and confirmed multiple times that everything was fine—it wasn't a sign of impending heat. It was probably another Omega at the festival who was close to heat and giving off pheromones.

When Assistant Yin reported this to the boss in the hidden room, the boss made him run the checks several more times.

Lu Xingwen's pheromone buildup was severely excessive. With all the Omega pheromones he'd been exposed to lately, his own pheromones had gone haywire, and he was already showing early signs of a rut.

As a top-tier Alpha, the gentler approach was isolation—letting the excess pheromones dissipate on their own. But that process could take up to half a month.

The fast and brutal method was direct extraction: inject a calming agent into the gland, then draw the fluid out with a syringe.

An Alpha's gland was incredibly sensitive. Even the tiniest injury was agonizing, let alone having a syringe stuck in to draw out gland fluid.

"I promised him I'd go to the school sports meet with him." Lu Xingwen lay in bed. His gland had already been drained three times today, and it was already red and swollen. Assistant Yin had no idea where to stick the needle next.

Love—what a killer. Better to stay single like him. At least he'd never suffer for love.

Luckily, the gland fluid extraction didn't cause any lasting damage—it just hurt like hell. Otherwise, Assistant Yin would never have agreed to it.

He had tomorrow off—the boss had promised him that much. After Assistant Yin finished everything and checked the lady's condition once more to make sure she was fine, he came back to the hidden room one last time to stress: "Don't go out tonight, no matter what. Wait till tomorrow morning, and then you can go on your date with the missus."

Lu Xingwen nodded. "Mm."

Assistant Yin left. But why wouldn't his right eye stop twitching? Every single time he got time off, he had a bad feeling something huge was about to go down!

*

Su Xingze didn't sleep well that night. He felt hot, but when he took his temperature, there was no fever. His whole body felt heavy. When he finally woke up, it was already ten—he'd missed his morning classes again.

No classes meant no chance of running into Ying Ying. Silver lining, at least. Last night he'd been dying of thirst, downing over a dozen glasses of water, and he was still parched this morning.

When he ran out of water in his room early in the morning, he went downstairs to get more and ran into Aunt Zhang, who was already up cooking. She found him some cold medicine and also made him pear syrup soup.

Su Xingze had caught colds before, but this time felt different. It didn't seem like a cold at all—his throat didn't hurt, his nose wasn't stuffy, he was just hot and incredibly thirsty.

When he came downstairs, Lu Xingwen had already finished breakfast. He was dressed impeccably—from his hair to his outfit, every detail was polished—and was looking at him with a smile.

That sight nearly made Su Xingze's heart skip a beat. His heartbeat quickened bit by bit. How could Xiaolu look even better after just one day apart?

Where had he gone to get this makeover?

Lu Xingwen certainly wasn't going to mention that Hu Mingze had specially styled him this morning. He hadn't even eaten breakfast for fear of ruining the look, and had been sitting here for over two hours after it was done.

After finishing breakfast, Su Xingze headed to the food festival with the ridiculously handsome Xiaolu.

Originally, Hu Mingze had offered to style Su Xingze too, but he wasn't feeling well today. Aside from eating and drinking, he didn't want to do anything else, so he'd declined.

Su Xingze went stall by stall from the start of the street, buying one of everything—especially the new items. Lu Xingwen followed behind, handing things to him, and he just ate.

He was so hungry. Thirsty in the morning, hungry in the afternoon—hungry enough to eat a whole cow.

Su Xingze's cheeks puffed out like a hamster's as he mumbled with his mouth full, "So good. Street food is the best."

"Eat up. If you can't finish, I'll eat the rest." Lu Xingwen's hands were nearly full, but he still went to the next stall and ordered a serving of grilled cold noodles.

Su Xingze swallowed two octopus balls. "I've already taken bites, so there's my saliva on them. I saw online that people say you have a thing about cleanliness. Saliva is direct contact, you know. Wanting to share food with me that much—does that mean you like me?"

"I..." Was he being too obvious? Had he been found out? Would his Chen Chen accept him, or reject him?

Su Xingze opened wide and devoured a whole chicken leg in one bite. "Don't worry, I get it. With our relationship, how could I doubt you? I'm just teasing you. You look so serious, I can't help it. We came out to have fun together—you're standing there like a statue. Anyone would think you're here for a fashion shoot."

Lu Xingwen laughed in exasperation. This was the classic case of casting pearls before swine. He'd been showing off like a peacock in full display, and the other party was just a dense egg.

He bit into Su Xingze's last octopus ball and grinned darkly. "Eat. If you don't finish the whole street today, I'm dragging you back for tutoring on your college courses."

"No way." Su Xingze grabbed Lu Xingwen's arm pitifully. He knew how fast top-tier Alphas could learn, and he knew Lu Xingwen picked up everything quickly and was an excellent teacher. But he wasn't!

He knew nothing about acting class. For others, performing meant bringing a character to life; for him, all he could offer was a beautiful shell devoid of a soul.

Su Xingze suggested, "How about this—one day I'll take you to the Su family, tear that scumbag stepmother a new one, get my bike back, and then take you for a ride?"

Lu Xingwen had zero interest in teaching him acting, so he just played along, smiling, "You got a license?"

He loved bikes, but he'd been a minor before, so he'd only ridden at special tracks or on closed courses. Now that he was legal, he still didn't have a license to ride on the street.

"I'll get it in a few months," Su Xingze said. "I remember your department has a game this afternoon—wanna go check it out?"

He really didn't want to go to the performing arts department. What if he ran into someone he didn't want to see? That'd be bad luck.

The econ students saw the legendary big shot and practically wanted to swarm him, but Lu Xingwen's stare was too scary, so they stopped about ten feet away.

Su Xingze only remembered when he saw the department sign that econ was a liberal arts major. Xiaolu had originally studied science like him, yet he'd used his science knowledge to crush the liberal arts exam and get into Zeda!

As expected, top-tier Alphas were freaks of nature!

That weird heat and feverish feeling crept up again. Su Xingze cleared his throat and asked in a low voice, "Xiaolu, can you grab me two bottles of ice water? I'm dying of thirst."

"Yeah, hold on." Lu Xingwen stood up, looked around at the crowd, and told them, "You can talk to him. Omegas are fine, Betas are okay, but Alphas better stay away. If I smell any Alpha pheromones on him..."

"Yeah, yeah—we were roommates freshman year, how could you not trust us? Go." They weren't about to ask for trouble. Top-tier Alphas were no joke, and Lu Xingwen held grudges. They'd gotten burned enough back then.

The econ department had over three hundred students, but only two Omegas—two sisters—who hurried over when they heard Omegas could talk, helping everyone ask the questions they were curious about.

The two sisters dressed alike, though the older one was more playful and the younger was calmer. They introduced themselves.

The older sister, Jiang Tao, asked, "Are you Su Xingze?"

Su Xingze, bored anyway, replied, "Infamous and notorious—yours truly."

Jiang Zhi asked, curious, "You don't seem like the type to be blind. How'd you end up falling for that idiot Ying Ying?"

"Yeah, I was blind." No matter what, he had chased after Ying Ying for a few years. Though he'd come to his senses now, everyone knew about his past. "But I don't like him anymore. My eyes are fixed now."

Everyone around them laughed. They'd only heard rumors before, but now seeing him in person, the legendary figure was actually pretty chill—nothing like the gossip said.

Jiang Tao revealed, "My family invests in Ying Ying's stuff. He's wild on set—falls for everyone he sees, never turns anyone down, and I've heard he even messes around with Alphas. Once when I visited, he hit the director, ranting like a psycho that he was the male lead, the Child of Destiny, and that we were all NPCs. Isn't he a total idiot?"

Male lead? Child of Destiny? If Su Xingze hadn't seen Ying Ying's weirdness with his own eyes, he'd be laughing his ass off right now. But if what he said was true, was fate blind? In a perfectly good world, luck was on a damn idiot!

"...Why aren't you laughing? You just don't like to laugh or what?" Jiang Tao asked.

It was because he didn't dare to laugh. He'd thought it was some supernatural thing, but now it had escalated to fate itself. Was this still the modern world he was living in?

"Thanks for the info. I'll buy you a cake sometime," Su Xingze said.

Jiang Tao had no idea what Su Xingze was thanking her for, but she agreed without hesitation. Then she noticed something was off and took a deep sniff. "...Jiang Zhi, do you smell how sickeningly sweet the air is? And there's a hint of melon seeds."

Jiang Zhi nodded. "I noticed it the second I came over."

They both looked at Su Xingze simultaneously.

Su Xingze was confused. "I've checked at least ten times. My heat isn't due."

"That's weird." Jiang Tao warned carefully, "Let's head to the isolation room. It's sports day today, and there are tons of Alphas on the field. Jiang Zhi and I just had our heats, so he's the only Omega around. Let's protect him just to be safe."

"Okay." Su Xingze also felt something was very wrong—everything had been weird since last night—but why did the checks show nothing at all?

Jiang Zhi also lowered her voice. "The scent seems to be getting stronger. Anyway, get to isolation now. We'll send your Alpha over later."

The isolation room had spare water and compressed biscuits. After the door closed, Su Xingze drank a bottle of water and lay on the bed messing with his phone.

This water was weird—why was he so hot after drinking it?

Su Xingze opened his collar, and after a moment, just took his shirt off completely. He chugged two more big bottles of water.

The area around his gland was slightly warm, and because of the wound, it ached faintly. He covered his gland, lying on the bed, panting hard. His eyes seemed veiled in mist, unable to see anything clearly.

Things got worse. The thing between his legs stirred, pressing against his thigh, leaking fluid eagerly.

Su Xingze's breathing changed, becoming sticky and sweet, just like the pheromones in the air.

Jiang Tao and Jiang Zhi hadn't gone far when they also smelled the change in the air. Jiang Tao's face darkened. "Zhi Zhi, you smell that?"

"Mm-hmm." Jiang Zhi nodded. "This isn't a heat—it's a second differentiation. The later an Omega differentiates, the higher-grade their pheromones, and the more likely they are to go through a second differentiation."

Jiang Tao: "With this intensity, he's probably differentiating into a top-tier Omega. Let's quickly find security to evacuate the crowd and get all the Alphas out of here."

Jiang Zhi agreed. "Okay."

They ran into Lu Xingwen on their way. He'd also sensed something wrong and rushed over. But by then, Su Xingze had already started differentiating, and the isolation room could only hold ordinary Omega pheromones—it couldn't hold back a top-tier Omega's.

The scent on the field kept getting stronger. Some Alphas who could control themselves left quickly; others had to be dragged away. And of course, there were those drawn by the sweet pheromones, bold enough to try to snatch the Omega.

Lu Xingwen stood guard at the door and called Assistant Yin: "Call 911. Have the hospital send the rescue helicopter."

Assistant Yin tried to protest: "I'm off today..."

Lu Xingwen: "A hundred grand."

Assistant Yin: "Boss, don't worry. I'll get it done. I'll be there in fifteen minutes."

The isolation room here wouldn't cut it—they had to get to the hospital ASAP.

Over fifty Alphas had gathered around, but because of Lu Xingwen, none had made a move yet.

Lu Xingwen released some of his pheromones, threatening, "Get the hell out."

Hit by the Alpha pheromones, they all snapped back to their senses. The splitting headaches brought them to their knees, but they still wouldn't back down. As Alphas, they'd been spoiled since childhood—how could they heed another Alpha's challenge?

They stepped forward a few more steps and said, "He's not your Omega! Just a cheap O releasing pheromones whenever he feels like it!"

Lu Xingwen stopped holding back and let out all his pheromones.

Every Alpha around collapsed instantly, foaming at the mouth, eyes rolling into the back of their heads. Lu Xingwen sneered coldly, "You brought this on yourselves."

He walked in, scooped Su Xingze into his arms, and wrapped him completely in his own pheromones. Any Alpha who dared come close would be knocked out by the overwhelming scent.

Within four hundred meters, the only pheromones Su Xingze could sense were Lu Xingwen's, along with his own heart pounding like it might burst out of his chest. He opened his eyes, his voice dripping with sweetness: "Xiaolu, I feel so bad."

His pale hand grabbed another, bigger one and pressed it against his lower body, whining, "Help me, please. It hurts so much. My heart's beating so fast. Why do you smell so good?"

==========Author's Note:==========

Hey everyone, I'm going paid tomorrow. I'll be giving out red envelopes in the comments. Thank you all for sticking with me from the first chapter until now. Love you guys.