Chapter 57

Jiang Zhihuo walked out of the hospital completely dazed.

He didn’t need to be hospitalized, but the doctor’s words kept playing on a loop in his mind. His hand was trembling as he reached to open the car door.

He never really felt the reality of secondary differentiation into an omega. At most, he thought it just meant taking inhibitors now and then, nothing else. But when the doctor told him that a reproductive cavity was developing inside him, he suddenly realized he’d overlooked something crucial.

Jiang Zhihuo touched his lower abdomen and finally understood the ultimate difference between alphas and omegas.

—Omegas can get pregnant!

It was Sunday, no school. Li Muhe drove over to take Jiang Zhihuo home. He was about to ask where Yan Mu lived, but Jiang Zhihuo answered for him, “Just help move everything to my place.”

They got out of the car downstairs. Jiang Zhihuo tugged Yan Mu along and helped him carry his suitcase. He told Li Muhe, “Li-ge, I’m heading up first. I’m a bit all over the place today. I’ll come find you once I’ve sorted things out.”

Li Muhe gave him a gentle smile and said, “Alright.”

Yan Mu nodded at him too.

He really didn’t know what to say to Li Muhe. The scene from last night—seeing Li Muhe gripping Jiang Zhihuo’s hand in the hospital—was still too much. And when he thought about how it was Li Muhe who had been by Xiao Zhou’s side all these years, his whole body ached with jealousy.

However, he couldn’t really show those emotions, not in front of Jiang Zhihuo and Li Muhe, so he only nodded.

Li Muhe didn’t say much either. He just said, “Go on up.”

He didn’t drive away immediately, simply sat in the car watching their figures disappear into the stairwell.

After leaving the ward earlier, the doctor had spoken to him privately.

Li Muhe had always known about Jiang Zhihuo’s secondary differentiation since Jiang Zhihuo told him. Yet he didn’t know that on the very first day of it, Xiao Huo had been marked by an alpha and had to rely on that alpha’s pheromones to suppress his estrus.

Once the doctor confirmed his status as a family member and told him about it, Li Muhe’s whole chest tightened. His first reaction was to drag out whoever had marked Xiao Huo and beat the hell out of them. And Xiao Huo too—how could he not tell him something this important?

“And then?!” Li Muhe’s tone turned anxious.

“Don’t be angry. That alpha boy’s been very responsible, and hasn’t disappeared, brings him to the hospital every time. He’s the one you saw earlier. If you want to beat him up, do it at home. Fighting in the hospital’s only making trouble.” The doctor joked, clearly picking up on Li Muhe’s mood. Then he added, “Everything’s fine now. A to O cases are special. The mark will fade on its own, no lasting effects. Nothing to worry about.”

Thereafter, the doctor also gave a brief explanation about the reproductive cavity. Since Li Muhe was listed as family—even though he was a beta—it was his duty to inform him.

Omegas and alphas had different sexual traits. Male omegas didn’t have a uterus; they developed a reproductive cavity slowly after secondary differentiation.

“As for now, the abdominal pain is normal. It’s an external symptom of the reproductive cavity forming. Medicine doesn’t help with this. Ideally, an alpha’s pheromones would act as a soothing agent. Otherwise, they’ll have to endure the pain. We discussed this with him earlier—nothing serious. No need to worry too much.”

Li Muhe let out a long sigh.

The sky was a brilliant blue. Fallen parasol leaves covered the street. The old neighborhood buildings were uneven in height. Up ahead, a long graffiti wall stood, splashed with layers of color, appearing chaotic and lively.

Every time he saw streets like this, he remembered the day he found Jiang Zhihuo.

They had lived together for many years. They’d first met in an old neighborhood very much like this one.

It was the end of the year. Li Hao had been sent for an inspection, and Li Muhe, bored at home, had tagged along. Not long after they arrived, they saw a little boy show up to report a case. He wore nothing but a thin sweatshirt.

He was very young, small, and skinny.

A child this young saying he wanted to file a police report wasn’t something to be taken lightly, but the officer at the desk thought he was fooling around and asked, “Does your dad know you’re here to file a report?”

The child calmly replied, “He doesn’t.”

Then he lifted his sleeves and pant legs, revealing bruises. He even had a medical report and audio evidence.

He pointed at the recording as it played. “That’s my dad.”

The officer replayed the audio again and again. He was only in charge of intake and had to record the case to pass it up. Seeing his hesitation, the boy frowned and asked, “Is the evidence not enough? I can go back and try to get a video next time. Will that work?”

That was when Li Hao walked over.

He was in uniform, and the junior officer immediately recognized his rank and stood up straight.

Li Hao said, “No need to report this. Leave it to me; I heard everything.”

Li Hao went in to deal with it and left the boy in Li Muhe’s care. It was January, right before Chinese New Year. The weather was freezing, and the boy’s face was purple from the cold, his lips deathly pale.

Li Muhe took off his own down jacket and wrapped it around the child. The boy, who had been cold-faced the whole time, froze for a second, then looked up and gave him a soft, sweet smile. “Thank you, gege.”

The attitude shift was huge, and Li Muhe quietly made a mental note of it.

A few years later, after they had lived together for some time, Li Muhe asked Jiang Zhihuo about that moment.

Jiang Zhihuo rubbed his nose, too embarrassed to say.

Li Muhe was pulling freshly fried pork out of the oil, setting it on a plate to cool. “You better tell me. If you don’t, I’m not giving you any.”

Jiang Zhihuo hesitated for a long time. The fried pork smelled amazing. He tried to reach for some with his chopsticks, but Li Muhe blocked him over and over. Just watching but not being allowed to eat was torture, so he gave in and said, “I was cold back then. You gave me clothes; I obviously wasn’t going to say no. But who knew if you’d take it back later? If I acted soft and a little cute, you’d feel too bad to take it back.”

Li Muhe laughed and called him a scheming little brat.

However, he also knew that a child with calculated behavior only existed because his biological father had treated him terribly. It was born out of suffering.

That’s why Li Muhe spoiled him like a real little brother, and Xiao Huo treated him like a real big brother.

Jiang Zhihuo didn’t like school. He started doing part-time jobs while still young, and his very first payment was all spent on buying gifts for Li-ge. Big things, small things—whenever something happened, even spotting a new candy shop on the street, he’d buy the very first piece to give to his brother.

That was all he was now—just a big brother.

Li Muhe had been there the day Jiang Zhihuo differentiated into an alpha.

The alpha differentiation process was painful, followed by about three days of a susceptible period. One could either endure it out in a hospital room or lock oneself in at home.

At the time, Li Muhe could only wait outside the door.

There was nothing he could do. He couldn’t even smell Xiao Huo’s pheromones. All he could do was sit outside, listening to him cry out in pain behind the door.

He went in once when Jiang Zhihuo passed out. His hands were clutching his shoulder tightly, and that’s when Li Muhe saw the tattoo there, something Jiang Zhihuo had gotten without telling him. A half seashell.

Before leaving for university, Li Muhe had once asked Jiang Zhihuo what his pheromone smelled like.

It had been a similarly bright blue day. The two of them were sitting in a field of grass, with a long white fence behind them.

Jiang Zhihuo may have released a little of it, but Li Muhe couldn’t smell it.

He sniffed his hand, then tried again. The report said it smelled like liquor, but he couldn’t describe it himself. 

“Hard to describe your own,” Hee had said. “I’ll ask someone else next time and tell you then.”

Jiang Zhihuo hadn’t thought much of it when he said it, only answering a casual question. However, Li Muhe thought about it. He knew he would never be the ‘someone else’ who could smell it.

He had thought too much already. He didn’t want to think anymore. He released the handbrake, stepped on the accelerator, and the car sped off, kicking up dust and two fallen leaves.

Jiang Zhihuo poured two glasses of water. One for Yan Mu and one for himself, which he drank with shaking hands.

It was Yan Mu’s first time here.

Last time, he’d only walked him to the building. He hadn’t come up.

It was a rundown little room, the rent barely even half of Yan Mu’s, but it was clean and nicely arranged. The bed was neatly made, a faux fur rug lay beside it, and a low tea table held a computer and a few open practice books.

After finishing his water, Jiang Zhihuo flipped the glass upside down on the table and took several deep breaths.

The news about growing a reproductive cavity was really messing with his head.

It was just a new organ developing, but it gave him this illusion that he was actually pregnant—whenever his stomach ached, it felt like the baby was being naughty and kicking.

Right after that thought, the pain returned. Jiang Zhihuo’s face twisted gradually with pain. Noticing his expression, Yan Mu released his pheromones, fresh like rainwater, and the pain eased almost instantly.

“Want to stay at my place for a while?” Yan Mu asked.

“Ah?” Jiang Zhihuo blinked. “You want to live together?”

“I do.” Yan Mu was direct. He didn’t pull back his pheromones either. This way, Jiang Zhihuo would feel more at ease. “Or I can move here.”

It was a tempting offer. Back when he first moved back, Jiang Zhihuo had missed Yan Mu’s Simmons mattress for days.

But things were complicated right now.

Fu Xiuwang had already handed over his business card, and he promised to help him find his ‘ideal’ connections. He couldn’t drag Yan-ge into this mess.

After thinking for a bit, Jiang Zhihuo still refused. “No.”

He gave a vague excuse without saying no outright. “Not for now.”

Yan Mu didn’t push further. He simply said, “Then come to me when it hurts.”

This time, using pheromones as a calming agent didn’t require any physical contact; a bit of release from Yan Mu was enough to make Jiang Zhihuo feel much better.

So lately, after class, Jiang Zhihuo liked to go find Yan Mu. He didn’t do anything; he simply stole Xie Qiu’s chair and sat beside him.

The forum had more and more CP photos. Those still shipping MuHuo were screaming non-stop. However, Class 4 had gotten used to it. At first it was surprising, but later they solely rolled their eyes—

Tch. These damn lovebirds. Feeding us dog food again!

Jiang Zhihuo was never one to remain motionless. In Class 4, a class full of top students, everyone stayed glued to their seats solving problems between classes. Unless you were bursting for the restroom, whoever got up first ‘lost.’ The front row would be upset if they solved one less big problem than the back row.

Yet, once Jiang Zhihuo joined in, he dragged the whole class along. Added them all as friends and formed a team to play games. Not too often, only one round a day, about fifteen minutes. With Huo-ge‘s skills, he’d drive and crush the enemy team under his wheels. Super satisfying.

The class that used to be all dead-eyed study machines was finally starting to show some of the youthful energy high schoolers were supposed to have.

These days, Li Muhe was also busy. A new project had started, and his mentor was going full throttle, moving the whole team to Lincheng. Li Muhe was cooped up in the lab all day. Occasionally, when he had half a day off, he’d make snacks at home and deliver them to Jiang Zhihuo.

They were little treats—nougat, cookies, yogurt-covered dates, sweet things that could last a few days.

Of course, Li Muhe couldn’t always do deliveries. Jiang Zhihuo would sometimes order takeout for the lab. It wasn’t as clean or delicious as Li-ge‘s handmade stuff, but it was the thought that counted—between brothers, it wasn’t about gain, it was about heart.

Once, while delivering food, Li Muhe ran into Yan Mu. The two exchanged a glance. Yan Mu greeted him with a “Li-ge,” and Li Muhe smiled, handed the food over, and then hurried off. Yan Mu stayed expressionless on the surface, but the moment the door closed, he pulled Jiang Zhihuo into a tighter hug and released a wave of pheromones, marking his territory, as if he wouldn’t feel better until every inch of the boy in his arms smelled like him.

That’s how life had been lately. Sometimes, omegas really couldn’t do without alphas. When the pain in his belly got unbearable, just a hug from Yan-ge made it so much better.

That day during PE, halfway through a basketball game, Jiang Zhihuo suddenly quit. Yan Mu saw him, set aside the workbook he’d been doing, and followed him into the equipment room.

The equipment room was empty. Jiang Zhihuo leaned against Yan Mu’s shoulder, and Yan Mu held him close. The pose felt too passive for Jiang Zhihuo; being protected like this wasn’t his style. Huo-ge had grown up wild for eighteen years and never had anyone shield him like this. Honestly, if anyone found out, he’d die of embarrassment.

But his stomach hurt so bad he felt like fainting. Who cared about pride anymore? Screw that.

He was already used to kissing before and nearly leaned in more than once. A hug? Smelling pheromones? That was child’s play compared to that. Couldn’t even be called flirting.

They didn’t talk. They just stayed like that, leaning on each other. The faint pheromones brought a calming comfort, and in the quiet equipment room, the only sound left was the rhythm of two hearts beating.

Aside from his part-time job at the bar, Jiang Zhihuo mostly stayed at school. That weekend, he and Yan Mu went to the hospital again.

Li Muhe called while they were waiting outside the consultation room. As soon as he heard Jiang Zhihuo say he was at the hospital, he got worried.

“Did something happen again?” Li Muhe asked. “I’ll take time off and come over.”

“It’s fine,” Jiang Zhihuo said. “A follow-up check.”

Only then did Li Muhe finally let out a breath of relief.

There really wasn’t anything serious. They did a scan, and the doctor even outlined the faint shape of the newly formed reproductive cavity; it was just starting to take shape.

Inside the red circle was a blurry, barely visible form. Looking at it made Jiang Zhihuo feel kind of awkward.

The doctor had seen it all; nothing fazed him. “A heads-up, now that the reproductive cavity is forming, it means you might start going into estrus.”

“The latest from the Capital Hospital is that estrus in these cases is unpredictable; there’s no telling when it’ll happen. And your current inhibitors might not be effective for estrus symptoms. I’ll prescribe a few that are specifically for that. Try them when the time comes…”

The doctor didn’t finish his sentence, and Jiang Zhihuo asked, “What if those don’t work?”

There was no one else in the room. The nurse had been sent out by the doctor. Only Yan Mu, Jiang Zhihuo, and the doctor were left.

The doctor began explaining the basics to Jiang Zhihuo, who was somewhere between alpha and omega. “There are three ways to handle an omega’s estrus. First are inhibitors. If you don’t want to use those, you can isolate yourself in a ward and wait it out. And if you don’t want that…”

The doctor cleared his throat. “Then just find an alpha. I don’t need to explain the rest, do I?”