ACBAM 7: Hospital

Zhou Ruolai was a female omega, while Dr. Liu was a female beta.

As everyone knew, betas were the least sensitive to pheromones. In most cases, when an alpha or omega was in their susceptible or heat period, betas couldn’t smell their pheromones at all.

That was why, even though Dr. Liu had just been in a sealed room with Su Shijin, she hadn’t noticed at all that he was in heat.

Omegas themselves weren’t very sensitive to their own pheromones either. It wasn’t until Zhou Ruolai pointed it out that Su Shijin belatedly raised a hand to press against the gland at the back of his neck.

Even through the suppressor patch, the gland felt hot. He could clearly feel the warmth and the swelling curve beneath his palm.

It seemed like he was entering heat, but something about it didn’t quite feel the same.

In the past, whenever Su Shijin went into heat, the physical sensations were always obvious. Most of the time, he could sense it immediately and would administer a suppressant right away.

But today, even when his pheromones were already leaking out and was noticed by someone else, he still barely felt anything.

He only felt a slight rise in body temperature, like he was coming down with a fever.

That sensation had been there since the morning, so Su Shijin hadn’t paid much attention to it.

“Thanks for the reminder.”

Worried that his pheromones might spread uncontrollably, Su Shijin thanked Zhou Ruolai and went to retrieve the suppressant he had brought with him that morning from the pocket of his coat in the locker room.

Suppressants were more effective than suppressant patches.

Suppressant patches were a kind of medicated patch used by omegas and alphas in daily life.

They were inexpensive, easy to carry and apply, and when placed over the gland, they effectively prevented pheromones from leaking.

Suppressants, on the other hand, were medications used during an omega’s heat or an alpha’s susceptible period.

Omegas in heat and alphas in a susceptible state both experienced an intense mating drive—almost an uncontrollable instinct.

At times like that, if there was no partner or someone to apply a temporary mark, using a suppressant was the best option.

It could suppress the body’s and the gland’s instinctive craving to be bitten to almost nothing.

After getting the injection, Su Shijin felt the heat and throbbing in the gland at the back of his neck slowly subside, and for a moment, he genuinely believed suppressants were the greatest invention in the world.

Still, today’s heat had come on rather inexplicably. Su Shijin decided that once the little toy poodle’s surgery was done, he would stop by the ER to get checked out.

After the injection, once his gland had calmed down and he was sure there would be no more pheromone leakage, Su Shijin finally stepped out of the locker room.

By then, Dr. Liu had changed too. Dressed in green scrubs, she stood at the consultation room door, speaking with Zhou Ruolai.

Both of their expressions looked furious, clearly in the middle of a heated conversation.

The moment Dr. Liu saw Su Shijin, her anger seemed to hit a new peak. She grabbed his arm and said furiously, “Do you have any idea what just happened?”

Su Shijin was briefly stunned. “No.”

Dr. Liu: …

That one word nearly blew out her entire wave of fury.

But the moment she recalled what had just happened, the fire surged back up. “Just now, that owner of the toy poodle, didn’t she say she was going out to make a call?”

“Well, guess what—she didn’t call anyone. She just straight-up left!”

Su Shijin’s brow furrowed slightly. “Did anyone try calling her?”

“We did. Ran Tian called her,” Zhou Ruolai was fuming. “The woman said we can go ahead and treat the dog if we want—she doesn’t want it anymore. She didn’t even pay the exam fee and just dumped the dog here. What, does she think the hospital is guaranteed to take care of it no matter what?”

…

In his three years on the job, this was indeed the first time Su Shijin had encountered something like this.

It wasn’t that people had never been unable to afford treatment for an injured pet but in the cases Su Shijin had seen, the owners would at least try to negotiate with the hospital about paying in installments.

Cases like this, where the owner just outright gave it up…

How could anyone be so heartless?

Su Shijin looked over at the little toy poodle lying on the exam table in the consultation room. It was trembling pitifully from the pain, its small paws curled tightly in front of it, shivering with every little twitch.

Whimpering sounds came from its throat, and its round, dark eyes looked as if they were brimming with tears.

It couldn’t move and couldn’t speak.

But Su Shijin felt that it wanted to live.

He had always been soft-hearted when it came to animals. Just as Dr. Liu was about to call the police—at the very least to get the woman to pay the exam fee—Su Shijin reached out to stop her.

“I’ll cover the exam and treatment costs. Let’s save it,” he said.

Dr. Liu felt a wave of frustration lodge in her chest, stuck halfway up and halfway down.

It wasn’t that she didn’t know Su Shijin meant well. Plenty of young people new to the profession, when faced with abandoned kittens or puppies, had all had the urge to pay out of pocket to save them.

She herself had done it once. Back when she had just started, she saw a little dog pitifully abandoned by its owner and, unable to bear it, ignored everyone’s objections and spent three months of her own salary to save it.

You save it—then what?

Then the owner shows up, insisting over and over that it’s their pet and demanding to take it back

When Dr. Liu asked them to pay the treatment fees, the person said, “You’re the one who decided to treat it. I never agreed to spend any money. Besides, who’s to say my dog wouldn’t have survived without treatment? You acted on your own so why should I be responsible?”

Although that case was eventually resolved through legal means, the memory of it still left Dr. Liu feeling disgusted whenever she thought about it.

And the thing is, once it happens once, it’ll happen again.

The moment you open that door, people who don’t want to pay for treatment will just dump their pets at the hospital and leave. Are they supposed to rescue every single one?

This is an animal hospital—not an animal shelter.

So when faced with Su Shijin’s offer, Dr. Liu’s expression clearly showed her disapproval.

Worried that he wouldn’t listen, she told him the story of what she had gone through. Zhou Ruolai, standing nearby, was outraged just hearing it. “I can’t believe there are people like that.”

Dr. Liu, however, kept her eyes on Su Shijin. “I know you’re soft-hearted and want to save the dog. I want to save it too. No matter what the owner’s like, the dog is innocent.”

“But if you save this one, what about the next one that comes in tomorrow? And the next after that?”

“What if this owner comes back later demanding to take the dog?”

“If every person who doesn’t want to spend money just dumps their dog at our hospital, are you going to save them all?”

The hospital wasn’t opposed to free treatment but that was only for stray cats and dogs, or dogs owned by the homeless who truly couldn’t afford care. In those cases, the hospital would sometimes lower fees or treat them for free.

Once treated, the strays would be handed over to animal rescue organizations to find them a new home or take them in.

After all, this was a hospital.

And in any hospital, kindness and empathy were the most dangerous things to have.

Su Shijin knew she was right and that she was just thinking of him, not wanting him to pay out of his own pocket.

In the eyes of his colleagues, Su Shijin was just an ordinary doctor earning a hospital salary.

No matter how talented he was, his pay was still that fixed amount.

“Leave this to me,” Dr. Liu said. “I’ll report it to the boss and see if we can get the owner to come in and sign a waiver of ownership. Then the hospital can pay for treatment and help the dog find a new owner.” She glanced at the little dog on the table and clicked her tongue. “Poor thing. Zhou Ruolai, keep an eye on it. I’m going to contact the boss.”

Even as she said that, Dr. Liu didn’t think the director would actually approve free treatment.

After all, the dog wasn’t ownerless, and the hospital wasn’t a charity.

Most people who dump their pets at the hospital are banking on the assumption that the hospital won’t abandon a life.

Later on, they just find someone else to help them adopt the dog back under a different name.

And if the hospital doesn’t treat it? Then they come crying, accusing the hospital of being heartless executioners for letting a pet die without helping.

A kind of twisted moral blackmail, completely disconnected from logic.

Dr. Liu glanced at Su Shijin and thought he looked exactly like the kind of person who could be guilt-tripped by moral pressure. He absolutely couldn’t be allowed to get involved in this.

As she walked off with her phone, Su Shijin blinked, then looked down and quietly sent a message to a certain boss.

“Dr. Su,” Zhou Ruolai called to him.

Su Shijin looked up at her. “Hmm?”

Zhou Ruolai hesitated for a moment, then asked softly, “If no one’s willing to pay for its treatment, and the hospital decides not to treat it either… will it be euthanized?”

Even though the owner had been infuriating, when faced with the little dog’s eyes, Zhou Ruolai couldn’t help but soften. “…It’s not the dog’s fault it was abandoned.”

Just then, Su Shijin’s phone vibrated with a reply.

After reading the message, he looked up and said, “No. Unless the animal is too ill to be treated, our hospital won’t euthanize it.”

That was a rule set from the day the hospital was founded. None of the veterinary staff had the authority to perform euthanasia unless the owner couldn’t bear to see the pet suffer and made the request themselves.

The dog abandoned at the hospital by its owner was the first case Su Shijin had encountered since coming here, but even so, they still didn’t have the right to euthanize it.

“It’ll be saved, don’t worry,” Su Shijin said.

Zhou Ruolai assumed he meant that if the hospital wouldn’t cover the treatment, he would pay for it himself. In that case, she figured she could chip in a bit too to help out.

But the result turned out to be quite unexpected. Dr. Liu returned from her call looking radiant, her face full of barely contained excitement. “The boss said he just happened to be looking for a puppy and hadn’t gotten one yet. He thinks this little dog is meant to be—so yes, we’re saving it. He’ll cover the cost.”

“As for the legal issues with the original owner, the boss will handle that through a lawyer. There won’t be any problems.”

Seeing Zhou Ruolai and Dr. Liu so overjoyed, Su Shijin couldn’t help but let a faint smile tug at the corner of his lips. “Then let’s prepare for surgery.”

Dr. Liu immediately got to work on the pre-op procedures.

By the time Su Shijin followed her into the operating room and came back out, it was already past ten at night.

The surgery had gone smoothly. The little toy poodle was still under anesthesia, and to ensure a quiet recovery, the inpatient vet placed him in a separate VIP ward for small dogs.

As a thank-you, Dr. Liu offered to treat Su Shijin to a late-night snack, but he turned her down with a faint smile, saying he had something to do and wanted to head home early.

Dr. Liu didn’t push him.

After changing back into his own clothes in the locker room, Su Shijin grabbed his car keys and got in his car.

He did have something to do but it wasn’t going home early. He headed to the nearest hospital and registered for an emergency consultation and a quick checkup.

There were many reasons an omega’s heat could arrive irregularly. Su Shijin wanted to figure out what had triggered his heat today—he hated the feeling of losing control.

The results were unexpected.

The young doctor, wearing glasses, looked at the report and asked, “Have you had any contact with an alpha recently?”

He phrased it gently, but Su Shijin understood what he meant. He shook his head. “No physical contact.”

The young doctor let out a curious little hum. “Then have you been exposed to an alpha’s pheromones?”

Su Shijin paused, then suddenly remembered the faint scent of alcohol on his clothes.

A smell he couldn’t place earlier now seemed to have a clear source—

It was Gu Weiyang’s scent.