Determined to push Shen Hui to his absolute limit…
“Mhm.”
His words were filled with deep affection, yet the kiss that descended upon him was utterly overbearing. The tip of his tongue pried open his lips and teeth without a shred of hesitation, as if biting down on a prey’s throat.
Shen Hui tilted his head hard to the side in an attempt to dodge, but his jaw was gripped by Yan Jiu, forcing his mouth open and leaving him to passively endure the alpha’s nearly tyrannical kiss.
The smacking sounds of intertwining lips and tongues drowned out all other noise. The suffocation of having all his air stolen caused spots of darkness to dance before Shen Hui’s eyes, his tongue left numb from being licked and sucked, and his lips swollen and congested with blood.
Every plea for mercy was blocked back down his throat. His body was once again dominated by the omega’s heat, leaving him devoid even of the strength to raise a hand in protest.
Yet what caused Shen Hui even greater panic was how his body gradually yielded to the omega’s domination, responding against his very will.
Sweat, tears, and everything else, Shen Hui felt as though his entire being had been thoroughly ravaged until drenched through.
Noticing Shen Hui’s response, the alpha intensified his movements. The half-opened shirt was twisted directly into a rope to bind his disobedient hands.
“Yan Jiu! It hurts, let go!” Shen Hui struggled ceaselessly. “Yan Jiu!”
An alpha in the throes of heat was utterly incapable of listening. In his desperation, catching sight of the shackles on his wrist, Shen Hui glared toward the observation room. “Gu Yu! Electric shock!”
Yet the observation room’s glass had already closed off its perspective the moment he was pinned, adhering strictly to the principle of averting one’s eyes from impropriety.
Gu Yu wanted to check on what was happening, but was yanked right back by Professor Zhao. “Averting the eyes from impropriety, what do you think you’re doing?”
Anxious, Gu Yu demanded, “I should be asking you what you think you’re doing! Yan Jiu is currently suffering a combined episode of heat and mania; he’s going to kill Shen Hui!”
“He won’t.” Professor Zhao stared fixedly at a set of data on the display screen, watching the percentage climb rapidly from zero.
“What is this?” Gu Yu turned to look.
“The resonance rate between Shen Hui and the boss.” Professor Zhao stared unblinkingly at the data. “Although I’m not clear on what’s actually wrong with his body, I can confirm that his omega traits were also catalyzed by medication, and he’s still a semi-finished product.”
Gu Yu: …
Watching the continuously climbing resonance rate, he experienced a sudden epiphany. The reason the resonance rate had been zero just moments before was because Shen Hui possessed virtually no pheromones when outside of heat, and his pheromones could only be coaxed out by Yan Jiu.
Rather than calling this serum a semi-finished product, it was more like a companion byproduct of the No. 01 serum.
Formidable physical resilience, a suppressed sanity, and the ability to soothe others under control…
That fear resembling Pandora’s box made Gu Yu break out in goosebumps of sheer horror, leaving him to pray only that he was overthinking things.
Though looking on the bright side, if Professor Zhao’s theory genuinely held true, Shen Hui wouldn’t need to undergo gland excision and face a life shortened to just three years.
As long as the resonance rate could also reach one hundred percent. Professor Zhao chanted silently in his heart.
Time ticked by second by second. Half an hour later, however, that percentage abruptly plummeted from 95% right back down to 0.
The two men instinctively looked toward the confinement room. What on earth had happened?!
Then they heard Shen Hui’s teeth-gritting voice ring out: “Open the door!”
Exchanging glances, the two pressed the open button. They found Shen Hui with disheveled hair, red-rimmed eye corners, and swollen, blood-congested lips. His bare upper body was a horrifying sight, and the trousers he had managed to salvage were missing their belt, with large patches of suspicious white fluid lingering on his hands.
Shen Hui’s questioning gaze pierced straight through them like flying daggers, leaving the two feeling far too guilty to meet his eyes as they fumbled about in panic.
With his arms sore and his body drained of strength, Shen Hui couldn’t be bothered to settle scores with them right now. Wearing a cold face, he strode past the two toward the adjacent medical room to take a shower. “Get me a clean set of clothes.”
Nodding in hurried assent, Professor Zhao went to check on Yan Jiu inside the confinement room.
The man had already passed out completely, his neck still pierced by the emptied pheromone injector.
The two exchanged glances, then simultaneously shrunk their necks back.
An hour later, Yan Jiu was transferred to the special care ward. Judging from the real-time monitoring data, the mania index had slowly dropped to 80% under the influence of the pheromones.
Shen Hui frowned slightly. “Why is it still this high?”
Accustomed to the situation, Professor Zhao explained, “Pheromone injection is only a temporary delaying tactic. To completely suppress the pheromones, the two of them need to spend at least three heats together to achieve complete bonding, and furthermore, the omega cannot leave his side long-term afterward.”
Only after speaking did he realize he had said the wrong thing, instinctively checking Shen Hui’s expression.
Though Shen Hui wore little expression on his face, his mind involuntarily recalled Yan Jiu’s immensely proud male capital from just moments before.
An alpha in a manic phase was almost entirely governed by instinct, driven immediately to fully possess the omega before him.
Shen Hui’s entire body had felt as though it were melting, his normally clear-headed brain baked into paste. The omega’s heat even made him parched and hollow, causing his body to actively cater to Yan Jiu’s movements.
It wasn’t until the metal buckle of the belt made a faint sound upon hitting the floor that Shen Hui’s sanity returned in an instant. Summoning strength from some unknown source of cosmic energy, he broke free from the restraints on his wrist and delivered a resounding slap.
Slap.
Yan Jiu’s head was knocked sideways, a swollen red handprint instantly blooming across his cheek.
“Yan Jiu! Snap out of it and look at where this is!” Shen Hui sternly rebuked, hoping to seize the opportunity to retreat back to a safe zone.
Yet, in the very second before he could escape, he was yanked back down beneath Yan Jiu by his ankle.
That scorching gaze locked relentlessly onto Shen Hui, his muscles tensed to their absolute limit like a coiled wolf king ready to pounce at any second to tear his prey apart and swallow them whole, ensuring no one else could ever covet them.
At such a moment, any movement would only enrage the alpha. Holding his breath, Shen Hui maintained a calm and gentle expression, staring fixedly into those burning, violent eyes while slowly releasing a cooling wave of soothing pheromones.
A few seconds felt as long as a century.
A glimmer of sanity flickered within Yan Jiu’s deep, icy pupils, and he lifted his head slightly to grant Shen Hui a sliver of breathing room.
“Why are you here?” Yan Jiu asked in a low, husky voice, gently pecking the corner of Shen Hui’s lips.
Seeing him regain consciousness, Shen Hui went limp on the floor, letting out a sigh of relief.
It seemed the mania had been successfully suppressed.
“Get off first.” Shen Hui attempted to push the man away and sit up, but Yan Jiu remained completely motionless, the five fingers gripping his wrist acting like scorching shackles without the slightest intention of loosening.
What was even more fatal was his gaze; dark, fathomless depths rolled with an eerie, penetrating brilliance, resembling a beast unwilling to let go of its prey.
Slowing his breath, Shen Hui attempted to soothe Yan Jiu: “You’re sick, let go of me first. I’ll go call a doctor.”
“Mhm.” Though Yan Jiu agreed readily enough with his words, he showed no intention of letting go, lowering his head to rub against Shen Hui’s sweat-dampened temples. “It hurts.”
He guided Shen Hui’s hand to touch the wound on his flank.
That was the defensive measure Shen Hui had inflicted in the abandoned building to prevent him from relapsing into violence; it wouldn’t strike a vital organ but would render him temporarily immobile.
By now, it had healed down to nothing more than a faint white scar.
Pressing his lips tightly together, Shen Hui remained speechless.
Yan Jiu had long since figured out his weakness for a soft heart, rubbing inch by inch against his lips. “Every electric shock hurt just as much, like dying once.”
“I’m sorry.” Shen Hui wretchedly turned his head away to avoid Yan Jiu’s feigned pitiful appearance.
Of course he knew Yan Jiu was playing cute to win pity, and that the moment he showed the slightest sign of yielding, he would be devoured whole. Yet Yan Jiu had indeed endured those trials.
Ultimately, reason won out as he gritted his teeth and spoke: “No, you already have a matched omega. Mhm!”
Shen Hui stiffened abruptly, instinctively pressing down on the back of Yan Jiu’s meddling hand, completely powerless to stop his malicious actions.
“It’s not saying that.” Like exposing a little secret beneath Shen Hui’s sturdy disguise, Yan Jiu blissfully kissed Shen Hui’s lips. “It likes me very much.”
The scorching pheromones and Shen Hui’s awakened glands resonated with one another, infusing even his exhaled breath with Yan Jiu’s scent. Struggling backward to escape Yan Jiu’s confinement, he was instead supported at the neck and flipped over to sit squarely atop him.
“No, no.” Shen Hui’s eye corners turned red under the pressure, his cheeks and eyes drenched, his slender neck lacking the strength to support him as he slumped limply into the crook of Yan Jiu’s neck, his rapid panting flushing a patch of skin raw.
Yet Yan Jiu paid no heed, growing even more outrageous as he was determined to push Shen Hui to his absolute limit.
The next second, the needle tip of a pheromone injector pressed against Yan Jiu’s neck. Resting in the crook of his neck, Shen Hui lacked even the strength to lift his head, his voice trembling while his hand holding the injector remained perfectly steady.
“Let go, put me down.”
In a flash, the injector hit the floor. Shen Hui collapsed entirely, his pupils contracting, his fingertips tingling with numbness.
Even driven to such an extent, his body remained taut, his fingers unconsciously clutching tightly at the corner of Yan Jiu’s collar.
He refused.
Virtually all of Yan Jiu’s remaining sanity was funneled into restraint. Letting out a long breath, he bit down on Shen Hui’s ear and murmured:
“I’m willing to wait for you, but I must collect some reward first.”
Before Shen Hui could even process his meaning, his hands were forcibly gripped.
As for how Shen Hui’s palms later became rubbed raw from friction, and how he took advantage of a lapse in attention to plunge a needle of pheromones straight in, that was a story for another time.
Gu Yu finished his phone call with the hospital and turned back to look at Shen Hui.
“The hospital side is all set. Are you certain you still want to go through with the gland excision surgery?”
Shen Hui was still lost in thought, so Gu Yu raised his volume.
“Shen Hui?”
“Ancestor!”
“Huh?” Shen Hui snapped back to attention and looked toward him. “What is it?”
Gu Yu: …
The head physician had no choice but to repeat himself, carefully observing Shen Hui’s expression.
In truth, he didn’t approve of Shen Hui undergoing gland excision. Since it was already established that Yan Jiu and he could mutually treat each other, what did it matter if a 100% matched omega stood between them? At worst they could just break up in the future, and he might even walk away with half of Yan Jiu’s fortune.
To his surprise, Shen Hui’s attitude remained resolute: “Do it.”
Gu Yu: …
“No, there is clearly a better treatment plan available right now! What on earth are you stubbornly insisting on?!”
Driven to near-explosion by frustration, Gu Yu felt an urge to pop open Shen Hui’s skull to see what sort of remnant historical ideology was stashed away inside his brain.
Remaining silent, Shen Hui offered no reply.
“Just send me back to Uncle Yang’s place first. I’m going to go bid them farewell.”
Feeling as though he had punched a solid boulder, leaving the rock unscathed while he himself was about to break, Gu Yu grew furious, plopping down onto a chair with a huff. “Since you care so little about your own body, if you’re so capable, walk back by yourself!”
Shen Hui showed no intention of forcing the issue, actually nodding in agreement before turning around and walking away on his own.
“You!” Enraged to the point of steaming from all seven orifices, Gu Yu hollered directly at Shen Hui’s retreating back: “I am cutting ties with you! Whether you live or die is none of my damn business!”
The head physician was fuming to the point of swearing aloud.
Consequently, his flying spittle happened to spray full in the face of Professor Zhao, who was just walking in. “Ah?”
Scowling, Gu Yu muttered, “I wasn’t talking about you.”
Glancing back at Shen Hui’s solitary figure, Professor Zhao asked with predictable certainty, “He still chose to undergo the gland surgery?”
Gu Yu nodded.
“I suppose he still can’t let go of young master Chen.” Professor Zhao wore a complex expression. “Perhaps he truly is the tribulation of his lifetime.”
Hearing this, Gu Yu looked somewhat bewildered. “Didn’t he despise Chen Shenzhi to the bone ages ago?”
“Haven’t you ever heard the saying? The deeper the love, the deeper the hate. Without love, where would hate even come from?”