Chapter 88

The scene before his eyes was far too overwhelming.

The moment the pheromones hit, Yan Mu’s mind went completely blank. He didn’t even notice his breathing had quickened as he rushed into the room in a state of urgency.

The instant he made contact with Jiang Zhihuo, both of their heartbeats paused for a beat.

It felt as though the air around them had been abruptly sucked away, leaving behind an uncanny stillness. Only the sounds of breathing and heartbeat remained in their ears. The pulse, the rush of blood—everything became intensely clear. In that split second, it was as if a heavy blow had struck his back, a roar surged through his ears, and his very soul seemed ready to break free with a furious scream.

It was a feeling he had never known before—

It felt like instinct, yet something that surpassed instinct. What he touched seemed to be the other person, but also felt like himself, like a shattered puzzle piece finally finding its perfect match. The comfort was beyond description, and the sensation that rose from within defied all words.

“Yan-ge.”

Jiang Zhihuo’s consciousness was nearly consumed by that strange feeling. He wrapped his arms around Yan Mu’s neck and leaned in for a kiss.

Their skin burned with heat. Amid emotions too tangled to describe, they kissed, their thoughts melting into each other, even their breath searing with intensity.

At a certain moment, the sound of firecrackers echoed from outside the door.

As the old year passed and the new one arrived, the neighbor next door set off a string of firecrackers using a metal bucket at their doorstep. The crackling burst through two closed doors, pierced the eardrums, and jolted their senses back to a moment of clarity.

“This is… estrus period?” Yan Mu looked up. His breath was unsteady, and his gaze on Jiang Zhihuo was slightly unfocused.

Yan Mu had been present during several follow-up checkups. The doctor had warned them that after the second differentiation formed the reproductive cavity, an estrus might occur.

“S-sorry, Yan-ge…” Jiang Zhihuo leaned onto Yan Mu’s shoulder, his fingers clutching his sleeve, leaving behind deep creases. He no longer knew how to speak. Only a sliver of awareness remained, and every word trembled. “I didn’t say… I didn’t know how to say it…”

An A-to-O’s estrus period was different from that of a regular omega. Inhibitors had no effect. The drug prescribed by the doctor could only suppress the sensations of the early stage.

Jiang Zhihuo was still speaking in broken words, but Yan Mu couldn’t make out a single word.

He couldn’t hear.

The gland was right in front of him. The omega’s pheromones were completely unrestrained and surged toward him without hesitation.

His five senses were no longer functioning. His brain felt frozen, like it had been sealed in ice for ten thousand years, unable to think, incapable of forming a thought, unable to react to anything happening outside.

Yan Mu recalled the day Jiang Zhihuo first began his secondary differentiation, in that narrow alley.

It was the same state.

He believed he was clear-headed, but his body, his movements, even the rhythm of his pulse and breath were telling him otherwise—no, you are not clear-headed. You want to mark this omega.

It was a susceptibility period.

The heater in the room hadn’t been turned on in time. Both of them wore only thin loungewear. They should have felt cold, yet instead, they felt hot, stiflingly so.

An alpha in a susceptibility period was dangerous. Yan Mu knew this all too well. He forced himself to cling to a thread of clarity and pushed Jiang Zhihuo forward. “No, Xiao Zhou.”

“What do you mean no?!” Jiang Zhihuo was already delirious. His body churned violently inside, every part of him in agony. He couldn’t endure it anymore.

So Jiang Zhihuo pushed Yan Mu down onto the bed, narrowed his eyes, and with visible effort, retrieved something from the bottom of the wardrobe. He tossed the things he had prepared two weeks earlier onto Yan Mu.

The plastic bag wasn’t sealed properly, and its contents spilled across the bed with a rustle.

Jiang Zhihuo had completely lost all strength. He allowed instinct to take control of his body, and just before he entirely lost consciousness, he heard himself say to Yan Mu, “I’m letting you bite me, don’t bite your hand.”

What happened afterward was already unclear. An estrus could strip a person of reason and memory.

Only faint and hazy impressions remained.

His eyes were damp, his vision clouded with mist. His mind was blank, like a television filled with static. It was dense, flickering, and burning in every inch.

At one point, Jiang Zhihuo regained consciousness.

His face was buried in the pillow.

He turned his head. The light was off, and the room was shrouded in dim, ambiguous shadow, making it impossible to see any expression clearly. With heavy breathing, he saw Yan-ge with his back arched, gripping his wrist, the lines of tense muscle faintly visible in the hazy darkness.

……

The next morning.

Jiang Zhihuo opened his eyes, lying on his side, staring blankly at the curtain.

The light was held back behind the fabric, though a single ray slipped in through a narrow gap.

He remained in that position for quite a while.

For no other reason than that he couldn’t move.

His back was in incredible pain.

When turning over, it felt as if his entire body were being torn apart—

What the hell??

It didn’t even hurt that much yesterday.

Why does it hurt this badly now?

Is there seriously a delayed effect??

In truth, Jiang Zhihuo no longer remembered anything that had happened afterward. His waist was sore, his legs were weak, and his backside ached. After calming down for a while, he noticed a twitching pain in the flesh at the back of his neck.

He reached up and touched the back of his neck.

The gland itself was perfectly fine, but beside it was a bite mark, with a thin scab of blood forming over it.

Jiang Zhihuo: “……”

The gland was extremely delicate, easily torn by an alpha’s bite. Sometimes, even the lightest touch of a canine tooth could leave a cut.

But the skin beside the gland was merely ordinary.

How could normal skin be that easy to bite through?

Just how much force did it take to bite hard enough to draw blood?

Bast*rd!!

Jiang Zhihuo wanted to kick Yan Mu, but the moment he tried to turn over, a sharp pain shot through him from behind. He had no choice but to clutch his waist and lie back on his side.

Jiang Zhihuo: “……”

The movement woke Yan Mu. His first reaction upon opening his eyes was to check on Jiang Zhihuo’s condition.

Yan Mu asked, “Are you okay??”

“……” Jiang Zhihuo’s expression darkened. “Not really.”

Yan Mu immediately reached for the ointment on the nightstand and carefully lifted the blanket.

Jiang Zhihuo had bought that ointment himself, so he naturally knew what it was for. The cap was already open. Yan Mu had clearly used it the night before.

“……” Jiang Zhihuo felt he had lost all dignity. He lay face down on the bed, buried himself in the pillow, and pretended to be dead.

Yan Mu lifted the hem of Jiang Zhihuo’s shirt and draped it over his waist. His hand froze for a moment.

Lying facedown, the curve of his waist sank slightly. There were a few visible finger marks pressed into the skin at his waist and hips.

Yan Mu averted his gaze, not allowing himself to look again. He applied the ointment for Jiang Zhihuo. “I’m sorry, I was wrong.”

His voice was soft and low, carrying a trace of grievance, like a child confessing a mistake.

The God of Learning Yan had taken the initiative to lower his head, his tone tender and gentle. Jiang Zhihuo’s heart completely melted.

The urge to kick Yan Mu earlier had only been because he bit his neck. It had nothing to do with anything else. In addition, from another perspective, Jiang Zhihuo wasn’t entirely blameless. He truly hadn’t told Yan Mu in time, and it wasn’t fair to let Yan Mu bear the burden alone.

A voice came from under the pillow. “It was my fault. I didn’t tell you sooner.”

“My fault. I didn’t hold back,” Yan Mu said.

Jiang Zhihuo: “What does it have to do with you? It’s this damned second differentiation of mine.”

“It was me.” Yan Mu paused. “You blacked out afterward.”

What? Blacked out?

Damn, was it that intense?

He had blacked out and still thought it was his own fault?

Jiang Zhihuo curled one leg back. “Then it’s obviously your fault. Apologize to me, bast*rd!”

……

The ointment did have some effect. After a short while, the pain in his lower back eased. Jiang Zhihuo got up to wash up, and by then, Yan Mu had already made breakfast. It wasn’t store-bought. He had fried sunny-side-up eggs himself, shredded some celery, and prepared a bowl of sweet ginkgo soup.

A standard breakfast for the first day of the New Year.

Yan Mu had even placed a cushion on the chair Jiang Zhihuo usually sat in.

“……”

Right in front of Yan Mu, Jiang Zhihuo tossed the cushion onto the sofa with a blank expression.

Ridiculous.

The school bully Jiang had roamed the streets for years. He got xx-ed and had already applied the ointment. Does he even need a cushion?

He sat down boldly and decisively on the chair.

Two seconds later, his expression froze. “Yan-ge, bring me that cushion.”

“Mhm.”

Jiang Zhihuo clearly saw the corners of Yan Mu’s mouth twitch upward, then quickly drop back down.

“Don’t laugh! You’re breaking your character!” Jiang Zhihuo reminded him.

“Alright.”

With his lower body stiff and unmoving, Jiang Zhihuo finished breakfast, then stood for over ten minutes. Yan Mu, completely unscathed, was given the task of tidying the room. Jiang Zhihuo lay sprawled on the sofa, contacting the doctor.

For the doctor, xx was one of the standard treatments for managing estrus symptoms. But for Jiang Zhihuo, it wasn’t. So the doctor didn’t ask directly about what had happened the night before and instead guided him through the conversation step by step.

“Any soreness all over, fatigue, chest pain?”

“A bit.”

“Night sweats? Tinnitus? Rapid breathing?”

“Had them last night, not anymore now.”

“Is the back of your neck still hot?”

“Still hot, but much better.”

“Fever?”

“Mhm, low-grade fever. I just measured. It was thirty-seven point five degrees.”

The doctor asked about other aspects as well, and Jiang Zhihuo answered each one in detail. After recording everything, the doctor said, “Based on your description, everything seems normal. Nothing to worry about.”

“But one thing—an ordinary omega’s estrus usually lasts three to seven days. For an A-to-O, it’s slightly shorter, about two days. Don’t go out for the next two days. Report your condition twice a day, and come to the hospital once the fever has subsided.”

As the call ended, Yan Mu happened to walk in from the balcony. The washing machine was humming in the background.

Yan Mu had changed the sheets. Yesterday’s set was a complete mess and thoroughly soiled. After cleaning up the bed and floor, he opened the room’s windows and door for ventilation, then went downstairs to throw out the trash.

The doctor had instructed him not to go out, so for the next two days, Jiang Zhihuo stayed at Yan Mu’s place like a salted fish, doing nothing, simply lying on the bed or the sofa.

On the second day, the estrus symptoms returned during the day. Yan Mu couldn’t withstand it. He did not react to any other omega’s pheromones, but only the scent of Jiang Zhihuo alone was enough to trigger his susceptibility period.

This time it happened in daylight. With the experience from the first time, both of them were much clearer-headed. The indescribable feeling that came with touch surprised them. It was overwhelmingly pleasant. In that one moment, all senses vanished, and they were entirely immersed in it.

Precisely because he was clear-headed, Jiang Zhihuo could feel Yan Mu’s instinctive alpha desire. He wanted to mark him.

However, he didn’t. Every time he reached boldly toward the back of the neck, he would shift away at the last moment and bite the small patch of skin beside the gland.

Even during his susceptibility period, the straight-A student Yan still held firmly to his bottom line.

If he marked this time, there would be no turning back. It couldn’t be washed away, and it would no longer fade over time like before. The omega would be bound to this alpha for life.

That kind of decision should be made by an omega in a normal state, not by an alpha in the middle of susceptibility.

So the scab that had barely formed for a day was bitten open once more, the bite mark deepening again.

……

After dinner, Jiang Zhihuo lay on the sofa, catching up on last weekend’s episode of Pick  U 101.

For the first public performance stage, Yun Xiaoxu had chosen a fast-paced song. His teammates were all heavyweights; one had already debuted, one was a top-level vocalist, and two were veteran returnees with plenty of stage experience. Yet this little trainee, Yun Xiaoxu, didn’t fall behind in the slightest.

At the ending pose, he gave a slight curl of his lips toward the camera. His expression and presence were flawlessly controlled. A flood of ‘aaahhhh’ rolled across the screen in the live comments.

At the end, the weekly rankings were revealed. Yun Xiaoxu had climbed a few spots again, edging closer to debut.

When watching audition shows, Jiang Zhihuo always kept the live comments on. He couldn’t recognize most of the faces anyway, and half the fun came from reading the comments’ sarcasm and jokes.

Each ranking page stayed on screen for about ten seconds. Jiang Zhihuo didn’t bother skipping through. At that moment, Yan Mu walked over with a plate of sliced fruit. Jiang Zhihuo casually picked up a piece of apple and popped it into his mouth. As he turned his head toward the screen, his eyes caught a few unpleasant comments.

[No way, Yun Xiaoxu managed to surpass my fave with this??]

[Someone with a shady past like that can still join a talent show? And rank this high? Are his fans blind?]

[So now looks equal justice, and facial features equal morals, ah?]

The comments flashed by quickly, not many, and they all seemed to be from the same person, soon drowned out by a flood of screaming groundhogs.

Jiang Zhihuo took note of it, popped a piece of Hami melon into his mouth, and asked casually, “A shady past? Yun Xiaoxu has a shady past? Yan-ge, do you know anything?”

Yan Mu shook his head.

After he had moved away back then, he hadn’t followed Yun Xiaoxu anymore.

As they spoke, Yan Mu picked up the thermometer gun from the side and pressed it lightly against the back of Jiang Zhihuo’s hand with a soft beep.

Thirty-six point three degrees.

“The fever’s gone.”