Side Effects
An S-rank Alpha taking a fancy to a Beta was quite a strange tale.
A favored child of heaven like Lu Mengzheng—possessing great skill, a high military rank, good looks, and a prominent family background—the high-quality Omegas wishing to marry him could probably form a line stretching from the New Asia Republic all the way to Jasu.
Who would have thought he could be involved with a Beta who completely lacked pheromone attraction? One could only wonder who was so charming as to make all Betas proud.
However, the union of an S-rank Alpha and a Beta was practically a complete waste of top-tier genetics. Male Betas were incapable of bearing children; if female, given that Lu Mengzheng called this Beta an idiot, even if they actually had a child, averaging out the two didn’t sound like it would yield a particularly bright kid.
Would Major Lu’s father, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, ever agree to this?
The more Qi Ying thought about it, the more fascinating he found the whole thing.
“What’s this Beta’s name? Is he one of your New Asia people?”
Lu Mengzheng fell silent for a moment, then suddenly raised his head to look up at the sky: “Rain…”
“Rain?”
“It’s raining…”
“…”
The prisoner was completely immersed in his own fantasy world, unable to extricate himself. Qi Ying let out a sigh and tried to hoist Lu Mengzheng up, but the Alpha pointed east and struck west, utterly uncooperative.
“Go lie on the bed.”
Still not going.
“Tsk, it’s better to lie on the bed and watch the rain. Just imagine it—the pitter-patter of rain, caressing your face like a moisturizing spray. How romantic! You have to give it a try!”
The last few words were spoken through gritted teeth as Qi Ying struggled to prop Lu Mengzheng up. The Alpha stopped resisting, merely hanging his head as he was dragged forward. He’s so damn heavy, like a lump of mud that couldn’t be plastered onto a wall, leaving Qi Ying huffing and puffing from the exertion.
“Alright, you’re at your prime viewing spot.”
Qi Ying guided Lu Mengzheng to sit on the edge of the bed. The “mud” put zero effort into supporting himself and slumped straight down with a thud. Qi Ying had no time to react; dragged down with him, his upper body fell over, flopping entirely onto Lu Mengzheng, his cheek making intimate contact with Lu Mengzheng’s chest muscles.
Qi Ying took advantage of the situation, yet still couldn’t help wanting to curse. Just as he opened his mouth, Lu Mengzheng raised an arm and pointed at the ceiling: “It looks better from here.”
Getting angry at a fool was a waste of time. Qi Ying let out a helpless sigh, flipped over, and lay flat on his back right next to Lu Mengzheng’s head, looking up at the plain white ceiling as well. There was nothing there—in fact, it was so starkly white it felt somewhat eerie.
Yet he knew that in Lu Mengzheng’s world, a rain he couldn’t forget was currently falling up there. He kept him company and watched for a while.
“Mm, the rain is really heavy.”
“Is it?” Lu Mengzheng’s gaze was fixed straight ahead.
After a while, Qi Ying saw Lu Mengzheng raise both arms, tip-to-tip with his ten fingers, forming a small house-like roof that cast a triangular shadow over both of their faces. “We can share an umbrella.”
“…”
Why was his heart beating faster than when he was sitting on Lu Mengzheng’s lap earlier?
This drug wasn’t a suppressant—it was an aphrodisiac, wasn’t it? Otherwise, why would he be playing the fool along with the prisoner?
Qi Ying shoved Lu Mengzheng’s arms away, sat up in one quick motion, and looked down at him sternly.
“Lu Mengzheng, let me ask you: if the rain is fake and you die from a drug overdose, what then?”
Lu Mengzheng went quiet for a moment: “I would still hold the umbrella for you.”
“Psychopath!”
Qi Ying flipped off the bed, tossed the blanket over Lu Mengzheng, turned on his heel, and walked out.
The first thing Qi Ying did upon exiting the containment cell was to contact the second lieutenant to demand a more detailed drug instruction manual.
It seemed Lu Mengzheng wasn’t in serious danger, but how to get him back to reality from his world of hallucinations a bit faster was still worth looking into.
The second lieutenant had probably been asleep; his tone was quite impatient when he answered the communicator: “Are you out of your mind? It hasn’t even hit the market yet, where would a manual come from? What on earth happened?”
Upon learning that Lu Mengzheng was experiencing an overdose, the baby-faced lieutenant calmly provided a plain and simple line of thought—give him plenty of hot water to drink to speed up metabolism.
Unlocking the bite guard and setting it aside, Qi Ying held up the cup, staring at Lu Mengzheng’s lips resting on the rim as they opened and closed to drink the water.
The first glass, a toast to myself.
Tricked here by the military, inexplicably turning from a sweet-and-kind warehouse administrator into an Alpha keeper.
The second glass, a toast to myself.
Terrible luck at work; a squeaky-clean Beta having to tend to an Alpha’s heat, getting groped all over.
The third glass, a toast to…
Lu Mengzheng spilled the water.
Qi Ying ran to grab a few tissues to wipe Lu Mengzheng down—his chin, Adam’s apple, collarbone. As for the lower areas that had been spilled on… forget it, show some restraint, no wiping there.
They say if you’re going to find a partner, find someone handsome—even if he accidentally ended up paralyzed, serving him would be a bit more enjoyable. Qi Ying felt he was good to go again.
After tossing and turning for half the night, Lu Mengzheng finally grew sleepy. He fell asleep on the bed. With his eyes closed, the contours of his facial structure softened considerably, his hands crossed over his abdomen in a standard soldier’s sleeping posture. If not for the steady sound of his breathing, he looked as peaceful as if he were already in a coffin.
Only then did Qi Ying remember he should have brought his phone inside earlier to record Lu Mengzheng’s foolish state. Next time the guy acted all high and mighty again, he could play it for him on loop and mock him in passing.
Qi Ying sized up the “corpse” for a moment. His basic info card showed he was young and healthy, 23 years old, with a hard-to-define hybrid scent of pheromones recorded as roughly similar to vegetable-tanned leather.
Qi Ying felt that for an Alpha like Lu Mengzheng, his pheromone certainly wouldn’t be cheap industrial leather—it would be high-end luxury leather at the very least, most likely enriched with warm animal fat notes and a dry, woody botanical aroma. Leaning in close beneath Lu Mengzheng’s earlobe, he took a sniff—it was closer to the gland there, but as a Beta, he still came up with nothing. He guessed it might be similar to his favorite leather glasses case: a bit raw in tone, a bit aggressive, capable of giving plain things texture.
He held the small piece of leather hanging around his neck up to his nose and sniffed it.
Could Lu Mengzheng smell like this?
Qi Ying suddenly felt a bit perverted, like a creep.
Ah, so annoying. His head started aching again.
Feeling flustered and irritated, he stood up, swaying groggily with sleepiness as he left.
Lu Mengzheng hadn’t slept this deeply in a very long time. With no other Alpha’s pheromones keeping him on guard, he gave up all resistance, letting his consciousness drift with the tide.
A rainy day. Holy Covenant High School dismissed classes unusually early.
The driver coming to pick him up hadn’t been notified, so if he couldn’t get home on his own, he’d have to stay at school for another hour.
He hadn’t brought an umbrella, but the rain wasn’t heavy. Other students cheerfully rushed into the curtain of rain, splashing water, intending to use this unexpected hour to go shopping or play video games across from the school.
Lu Mengzheng, however, stood under the eaves of the school building, pulling his body tight with a defensive look, avoiding getting wet by the rain that occasionally blew in. He knew he was like a freak, but he truly hated the rain.
His father said that the scent of the pheromones on him would turn unpleasant on rainy days. So he feared that after getting soaked in the rain, that scent would become damp and even harder to dissipate.
“Hey, need an umbrella?”
Lu Mengzheng’s shoulder was patted. He turned his head and saw a boy with fluffy curly wool-like hair. His school uniform tie was loosely tied around his neck, a lollipop dangling from his mouth, his backpack slung over one shoulder. When he smiled, his eyes curved warmly and enthusiastically—if one ignored the small Band-Aid between the corner of his eye and his cheekbone.
“Oh, you’re that Lu-whatever…”
“Lu Mengzheng.”
“Right, Lu Mengzheng.” Inserting one hand into his trousers pocket, he offered a transparent umbrella with the other. “If you want an umbrella, take this.”
“You’re not using it?”
“What’s there to use an umbrella for in a light rain like this?”
Lu Mengzheng went quiet for a moment, taking a step back away from him.
The curly-haired boy took another step closer, leaning intimately against his shoulder: “Oh, but if you want to use it, go ahead. I didn’t mean anything bad about you.”
Lu Mengzheng looked at him with knit brows: “Don’t you find my pheromones unpleasant?”
The curly-haired boy pulled the lollipop out of his mouth—a wet, translucent orange ball of candy.
“Not at all. I’m a Beta, I can’t smell your pheromones. To me, you’re all the same.”
Lu Mengzheng froze.
The curly-haired boy laughed, stylishly shoving the umbrella into his palm: “Besides, hiding won’t do any good anyway. Pheromones are just like this rain—even if you hold an umbrella, you can’t completely block them out. Just don’t pay attention to it.”
Lu Mengzheng gripped the handle of the umbrella. Before the word “thanks” could leave his teeth, it was drowned out by the sound of the curly-haired boy stepping into the water with a splash.
The boy with the woolly curls shouted loudly with a smile: “Bye-bye—”
Lu Mengzheng woke up.
Waking up at an inopportune time, he didn’t open his eyes, but instead raised an arm to cover his eyelids as light began to seep through.
In truth, after he grew up, he came to understand that finding his pheromones unpleasant was merely a normal phenomenon of physiological repulsion between S-rank Alphas. As his father, Lu Chongyuan clearly knew this, yet still used it to suppress him—he was utterly in the wrong.
There was no refuting that his father disliked him; an insurmountable gap lay between them in the form of a mother who had died in childbirth. His guilt was innate, born into his very blood.
Thus, Lu Mengzheng still disliked the rain. Yet at this precise moment, he wished it would fall just a little longer.
It wasn’t until lunch was delivered the next day that the prisoner and warden held their first conversation regarding last night’s mishap.
“I won’t give you any more medication. You took a shot in the early morning, so from now on, we must strictly adhere to the 24-hour limit. Depending on the situation, though, I might add a regular suppressant for you in the evening.” Leaning against the communicator, Qi Ying stifled a laugh as he said, “Do you even remember what you did last night when you overdosed?”
With his back against the door, Lu Mengzheng’s voice was still somewhat weak: “Pressed you against the wall?”
Instantly recalling the scene, Qi Ying’s face flushed bright red: “…Not that! What happened after!”
“Rummaged through your pockets.”
“No, even later than that!”
Lu Mengzheng answered, “I don’t know.”
“You don’t know, right? Haha.” Qi Ying winked and pulled faces, filling the communicator with the excited popping of his breath against the mic. “Last night you acted as if you’d eaten poisonous mushrooms—rambling about rain and umbrellas and stuff. Do you like a Beta?”
“…”
Lu Mengzheng had completely blacked out; he couldn’t remember a thing.
To be honest, though he had been around the warden for a few days, their interaction was strictly limited to communicator calls. Every time the warden entered to give him a shot, it was pitch-black. They had indeed scuffled twice, allowing him to estimate that this Beta was well-proportioned, fairly tall, and had two eyes and a mouth—yet he had never seen his full face. Could he really have confessed all this to someone whose face he had never even seen?
Qi Ying immediately followed up with gossip: “What’s his name? Is he from New Asia?”
Lu Mengzheng didn’t want to continue the conversation. Leaving the door, he picked up the food tray and walked toward the dining table, his tone turning cold: “What does it have to do with you?”
“Hey, look at you saying that…” Qi Ying tsksed twice. “I’m a Beta too.”
Lu Mengzheng raised an eyebrow: “So? Should I love the crow for the sake of the house?”
“…That’s not what I mean. I’m just curious… purely curious. What’s so good about Betas? Why do you like Betas? Betas don’t even have pheromones.”
“Pheromone attraction is merely the lowest level of physical instinct.” Lu Mengzheng set down the meal tray. “A human’s higher emotions should transcend such instincts.”
Qi Ying froze for a moment, not expecting him to say that. As a Beta, this was the first time he had ever heard such a perspective.
He let out a couple of dry laughs: “Haha, your emotions sure are elevated. But when your instincts take over, do you just lay with a Beta then? Without an Omega’s pheromones to soothe you, a heat period can be fatal—don’t you know that?”
Lu Mengzheng picked up his chopsticks and lowered his gaze, appearing not to care: “If I die, so be it.”