Xie Qing’s phone was still glowing brightly, so Chen Yunfeng stretched out his arm and picked it up from under the seat.
Yan Mingzhe was still talking, so Chen Yunfeng simply pressed the speakerphone button.
“Could it be that you already have an Omega? If so, then that’s really not appropriate. I was just making a suggestion anyway.”
“Hey, are you still listening?”
Chen Yunfeng slumped back in his seat. “It’s me. He went outside.”
“The question you just asked is also what I wanted to ask.”
Yan Mingzhe let out an oh and began asking about Chen Yunfeng’s current state.
“I’m okay for now, but I probably won’t be okay for more than five minutes.”
He gave a self-deprecating laugh and glanced outside. Xie Qing was standing about five meters away.
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The lighting in the underground parking garage was very dim, making it impossible to see what Xie Qing was doing.
Chen Yunfeng closed his eyes and thought with careless indifference: Forget it, let’s keep it this way. We aren’t even that close, and I shouldn’t be a bother.
It wasn’t the first time he had been left behind anyway; dammit, there was no need to be so overly sentimental.
Yan Mingzhe was still instructing him to take a few extra days off to prevent his secondary rut from immediately following his late-blooming differentiation.
Chen Yunfeng listened attentively at first, but gradually, he began to lose the ability to hear clearly.
The ringing in his ears started up again, and a sharp, stinging pain radiated from the back of his neck, feeling as though it were growing at a rapid, agonizing rate and pulling painfully at his skin.
He had no idea when Yan Mingzhe hung up the phone.
The pain grew so intense that Chen Yunfeng gradually lost consciousness. The temperature inside the car, which had originally been quite warm, began to grow cold.
His vision gradually went dark, until even the outlines of light and shadow could no longer be clearly distinguished.
Suddenly, a gust of wind swept past his body, which was slicked with cold sweat. The chill briefly brought him back to clarity.
“You won’t regret this,” Xie Qing said in a deep voice.
The car door on Chen Yunfeng’s side was pulled open.
A simple white button-down shirt paired with black trousers.
The collar of the shirt was wrinkled, and the cuffs were crumpled as well.
Xie Qing had probably never looked this disheveled in his life.
It was impossible to tell which side his bangs, swept in a three-seventy part across his forehead, were originally parted from.
They were tangled together in a messy knot, with several longer strands resting against his eyelashes.
Xie Qing lowered his gaze, one hand bracing against the door frame, and helped unbuckle the seatbelt.
Chen Yunfeng’s entire body was pulled forward.
Immediately afterward, Xie Qing abruptly lowered his head.
“Ah…”
Chen Yunfeng, who had been on the verge of losing consciousness, gave a violent start.
His heartbeat was exceptionally fierce and rapid.
The left side of Chen Yunfeng’s chest pressed right against Xie Qing’s shoulder, making it impossible to tell whose heartbeat was whose.
Gradually, they synchronized.
The pain dissipated, and his consciousness slowly drifted back.
Beside his ear was the sound of Xie Qing’s restrained breathing.
Within half a meter, the scent of brandy was overwhelmingly potent.
He suddenly remembered that he was allergic to alcohol.
He didn’t know if pheromones counted as alcohol, but he was still a little scared.
Chen Yunfeng reached out and gave Xie Qing a gentle push.
“Don’t move,” Xie Qing muttered vaguely. “Just a little more.”
Chen Yunfeng was stunned by his low, hoarse voice. After a long silence, he managed to say, “I’m allergic to alcohol.”
Temporary marking complete. ×
Xie Qing maintained this posture, which was uncomfortable for both of them.
The arm he had laid horizontally beneath Chen Yunfeng’s neck supported him as much as possible.
When he pulled away, Xie Qing gave a lingering, reluctant lick.
The person sitting there shuddered violently.
He helped Chen Yunfeng sit up straight and closed the car door on that side.
He walked around and got into the driver’s seat.
The interior of the car was once again enveloped in the soothing pheromone scent of brandy.
The scent blocker could finally perform its proper function.
“I’m taking you back,” Xie Qing said. “Tomorrow morning, I’ll pick you up to go to the hospital for another check-up.”
Tonight’s hospital trip really had been wasted for nothing.
Xie Qing earnestly straightened his clothes and fastened his seatbelt.
“Older brother.”
Chen Yunfeng stared at him and called out casually.
Without even sparing him a glance, Xie Qing stepped on the gas and shot forward.
He reprimanded without looking back, “Next time, don’t randomly call out pet names while I’m driving.”
Chen Yunfeng didn’t speak; he just stared at him quietly the whole time.
No one knew what Xie Qing had been thinking while standing alone in the underground parking garage.
He had flipped the scent blocker over and over in his hands, thinking that if he sprayed it, Chen Yunfeng wouldn’t be able to smell his comforting pheromones.
And if he didn’t spray it, Chen Yunfeng kept leaning in close to him.
From that tiny bottle of scent blocker, his thoughts drifted to Chen Yunfeng misunderstanding his situation of having two Omegas a day.
In reality, it was because his family was utterly devoted to finding him an Omega with a high pheromone compatibility match.
That was why there were matchmaking sessions arranged for him every single day.
Most of the Omegas he met were normal, but there were always a few who liked to play tricks.
Some would forget to reapply their scent blockers, while others would forget to take their suppressants.
They would all show up carrying faint traces of pheromones.
After experiencing this too many times, Xie Qing began to feel a deep-seated repulsion.
To the extent that his very first reaction upon smelling an Omega’s pheromones wasn’t a natural attraction, but rather nausea.
Chen Yunfeng was different. His unintentional actions always managed to stir something within him.
Even though he had previously complained that Chen Yunfeng’s flirting skills were terrible, Xie Qing still couldn’t help but pay attention to him.
However, he kept telling himself that he only paid a few extra glances because Chen Yunfeng treated Xie Wang well.
Yet just now in the car, Xie Qing clearly felt that he genuinely couldn’t stay in there any longer.
It wasn’t just the urge to mark him; there were other things as well, bringing even stronger desires.
Xie Qing had developed a terror of being controlled by his own instincts.
That was why he had hurriedly rushed out of the car, afraid of causing irreversible consequences.
Xie Qing had stood in the quiet, deep night, contemplating the feasibility of a temporary marking.
He wondered if Chen Yunfeng really didn’t care which random Alpha it was.
Actually, Xie Qing’s gaze had never left that car. Strictly speaking, it had never left the passenger seat.
There was a light on inside the car. He patted his pocket and realized that in his hasty exit, he had left his phone inside the vehicle.
It wasn’t until that light dimmed and he could no longer make out even a trace of Chen Yunfeng’s silhouette that he stopped.
Xie Qing put the scent blocker away and strode back toward the passenger side.
And that was how the scene from earlier had come to be.
Temporary marking.
The Next Morning
When Chen Yunfeng woke up, he immediately felt like he was running a fever; his face felt scorching hot.
He stumbled out of his bedroom, intending to go to the bathroom to check the mirror.
“Ah!”
The person sitting on the living room sofa startled him into letting out a direct shriek.
“You’re finally awake,” Xie Qing said, leaning back lazily against the sofa. “Get yourself cleaned up and let’s head to the hospital. You really did catch an allergy.”
With that, he pressed his fingers against the bridge of his nose, looking slightly fatigued.
“You…” Chen Yunfeng looked around the room and noticed the window was wide open. “Did you climb in through the window?”
Xie Qing’s movement to stand up froze mid-motion. “It looks like late-blooming differentiation really does make people dumber. I need to let my classmates who research this field know. Make a note of it, papers can actually be written in this direction.”
Chen Yunfeng: ???
Without dwelling on those words, he hurried to the bathroom to inspect his condition.
After a full night’s sleep, every single bone in his body felt as though it had been forcefully broken and reassembled.
It was both aching and sore.
“What the hell!”
A cry echoed from the bathroom. “Did you have to bite this damn deep?”
“And you still accused me of being frivolous?”
“You turn around and sink your teeth in this viciously. Are you a dog or what?”
“No wonder my face is as red as a monkey’s butt right now!”
“I told you I’m allergic to alcohol!”
Faced with Chen Yunfeng’s barrage of complaints, Xie Qing had no choice but to take them all in.
There was simply no room for him to argue back.
He pulled out his phone, sent a message to Xie Wang, and casually unpinned Xie Wang’s chat from the top of his messages.
The only chat pinned to the top of WeChat was now Chen Yunfeng’s.
He had set it that way the last time Chen Yunfeng used his phone to message Xie Wang, and he had simply been too lazy to ever remove it.
Chen Yunfeng changed his clothes and sat on the sofa, eating the breakfast Xie Qing had bought at some unknown hour.
It was lukewarm, with just a hint of chill remaining.
Too lazy to heat it up, he found it a bit dry and choking as he ate.
“Once your condition stabilizes, I’ll take you to meet my mother.”
“Cough, cough, cough!”
Chen Yunfeng genuinely choked, coughing as if his lungs were about to fly out.
Xie Qing frowned, turning his face sideways to look at him. “You wouldn’t be planning to take a free ride off me and run, would you?”