Lunch on set was not luxurious, but it was filling and balanced. There was fish, eggs, dairy, and meat, all in the right portions.
Jiang Qing had just picked up a soft-boiled egg with her chopsticks when a strong milky scent hit her nose. It was not the kind that came from packaged milk. It smelled more like thick, creamy milk candy.
Then came a flood of other scents: passion fruit, sea salt, rum, lemon tea. All of them rushed into her nose at once.
This scent seemed familiar.
Before she could figure it out, a crew member at her table jumped up with their lunchbox and shouted as they ran outside, “Run! Someone’s Omega is going into heat.”
Omega pheromones spread like an invisible net across the entire dining hall. Jiang Qing grabbed her unopened milk and called for He Shu to follow her.
But when she turned, He Shu was heading straight into the crowd instead of away from it. Her steps were hurried, and her eyes looked dazed and hungry for something. She was clearly drawn toward the source of the scent.
Jiang Qing grabbed her quickly.
“Sister He Shu, are you okay? Wake up.”
He Shu did not respond, so Jiang Qing had to drag her out by force.
She was not the only Alpha affected. Many others were caught off guard by the pheromones, though most still had enough willpower to help those who had lost control.
In the courtyard just outside the dining area, the air was already full of Alphas.
The early autumn wind blew into their lungs, washing away the lingering scent of pheromones and clearing their minds.
He Shu slowly returned to her senses.
She took several deep breaths and said, “Thank you. If you hadn’t helped, I would have been in serious trouble. Who was that Omega? How could they be so careless and forget their suppressant?”
Omegas had fixed heat cycles each month. Taking a suppressant in advance could stop symptoms from appearing.
But if they skipped the dose and went into heat in a public place, it could trigger a chain reaction of heat among other Omegas and cause Alphas to lose control or have pheromone surges.
This created serious problems for public safety.
“Who knows. The important thing is that you’re alright,” Jiang Qing said.
There was a noticeable edge in her voice. She sounded tense, even to herself.
“Why are you so upset?” He Shu asked, confused.
A sharp pain stabbed at the base of Jiang Qing’s neck, like her gland had been stuffed full of pressure. Her skin was burning, her nerves restless.
She pressed her knuckles to the spot and rubbed in firm circles.
Her voice came low and strained. “Sorry, Sister He Shu. I just have a splitting headache and I feel really on edge.”
“You are having a pheromone surge,” said an Alpha nearby. “I can smell it from here.”
She stepped back quickly until she was out of range of Jiang Qing’s intense, agitated pheromones.
He Shu took another breath and finally noticed it too. The scent was strong and sharp.
“Control it. This is too much,” she said, her voice tight.
Alphas naturally rejected each other’s pheromones. Even if the scent was sweet like flowers in spring, it still overwhelmed others.
Jiang Qing closed her eyes and tried to calm her mind. She focused hard on suppressing the restless energy inside her.
It did not work.
Frustrated, she let out a slow breath. “I can’t. I can’t pull it back.”
She looked around at the others. “Does anyone have a blocker?”
Everyone shook their heads.
Who brings a blocker to lunch?
“My black purse is in your makeup room,” He Shu said. “There are a few doses in it. Go grab one.”
“Got it,” Jiang Qing replied.
The makeup room was closer than the hotel. If she hurried, she could manage.
She just had to hold out a little longer.
On the way, Jiang Qing kept trying to control her scent, but nothing worked.
Fortunately, she did not run into any more Alphas or Omegas.
She was almost at the makeup room when she suddenly stopped.
The sharp pain in her gland vanished. The pressure in her bloodstream eased, and her body felt calm again. Her pheromones finally settled down.
She did not know if it was because the Omega’s pheromones had faded from the air or because of something else entirely.
Either way, she no longer needed the blocker.
She turned to go back but heard a faint rustling sound coming from just ahead.
Someone was there.
She took a few quiet steps forward and saw that the door to the makeup room was slightly open.
Inside, someone stood with her back turned. Her pale shoulders and arms were exposed under the soft light. She was facing the sofa, doing something Jiang Qing could not see.
There was a small red mole behind her ear. A very familiar one.
Jiang Qing froze.
A few weeks earlier, Song Qin Ning had contacted Dr. Li again about her ongoing pheromone imbalance. She had already tried every medication available. The only option left was to run her profile through the national ABO compatibility database again.
This time, the results were different.
Unlike the previous disappointing reports, this time the system returned a high match.
She received the compatibility report right away.
It listed basic information about the Alpha who was highly compatible with her.
Because Omegas were considered a protected group, the government allowed them certain privileges.
All registered Omega citizens had the right to access the compatibility database. If there was a high match, they were given the Alpha’s contact information and basic details.
However, Alphas were not legally required to help an Omega during heat. It was completely voluntary.
Who would her match be?
The paper was thin, and she could already see some of the bold black print through it.
She had always felt troubled by her heat episodes. But now, a new feeling rose inside her. Worry.
Would someone really be willing to help a stranger through something so intimate?
There were many ways to help an Omega manage heat. They all fell under the category of intimate contact.
The deeper the contact, the better the Omega’s body would respond.
This included hand-holding, hugging, kissing, temporary marking, and permanent bonding.
After two minutes of silence, Song Qin Ning finally opened the report.
Name: Jiang Qing
Gender: Female Alpha
Age: 25
Beneath that were Jiang Qing’s phone number and address.
Every line, every piece of information, matched the person she already knew.
Although Song Qin Ning had suspected it might be Jiang Qing all along, every time that thought tried to take root, she had forced herself to push it back.
She had buried it like a seed, refusing to let it grow.
They had been sworn enemies in the past. Things may have softened a little now, mostly because Jiang Qing had stopped targeting her, but no matter how she looked at it, Song Qin Ning could not imagine them as a highly compatible soul mate pair.
Yet the black and white report directly denied her assumptions.
It left Song Qin Ning, who had originally planned to handle the situation with money, completely silent.
She had never thought Jiang Qing was the generous or understanding type. There was no way she would agree to help, which made the report feel meaningless.
Still, the money wasn’t wasted. At least now she knew the source of her pheromone imbalance.
She might not be able to ask Jiang Qing for help, but she could at least avoid her.
What Song Qin Ning had not expected was the side effect that came with the report.
At some point, she had begun to pay closer attention to the Alpha’s presence. Even the slightest accidental touch made her more sensitive than usual. Her heart would race, and her body would grow warm.
She could no longer look directly at an Alpha’s face.
After joining the crew, she held herself together out of professionalism. She tolerated the physical contact required for scenes with Jiang Qing.
But when no one else was around, the worsening symptoms of her heat became harder and harder to ignore. It felt like she was constantly trapped in a state of aching desire.
Her mind would go blank, filled with only one thought.
She needed the Alpha’s pheromones.
That morning, after finishing yet another scene with Jiang Qing, the symptoms surged again.
This time, Song Qin Ning could no longer hold back.
She was going to “borrow” a bit of Jiang Qing’s pheromones.
Just a little would be enough.
During the lunch break, when everyone else was away, she went to Jiang Qing’s makeup room.
The moment she stepped inside, she was surrounded by the Alpha’s scent.
It was sweet and warm, comforting in a way that made her body feel like it was floating.
But it wasn’t enough.
She had held back for too long.
Her eyes quickly found the jacket draped over the back of the sofa, and she walked straight toward it.
I’ll just take one breath.
She picked up the jacket, and the fabric made a soft rustling sound against the sofa.
But she didn’t hear it.
All her attention was fixed on the light scent of pheromones clinging to the fabric.
The Alpha’s scent felt like a gentle hand, slowly calming the chaos in her body.
She let herself sink into the feeling.
Until the door creaked behind her.
She turned around and locked eyes with the Alpha, whose face showed a mix of shock and disbelief.