“And I have to tell you, I have never had an Omega.”
“I don’t know what Xie Wang said, but that was just a blind date arranged by the family, just going through the motions.”
Xie Qing’s sudden heart-to-heart made Chen Yufeng’s alarm bells ring loudly. He bit the rim of his cup and let out an “oh.”
“I am a relatively traditional person,” Xie Qing continued. “Even a temporary mark requires dating first.”
“Ah.”
Chen Yufeng cleared his throat and let his gaze drift elsewhere.
“What about you?” Xie Qing tossed the question back to him, not letting him dodge it.
Chen Yufeng mumbled and hummed for a long time before abruptly standing up, attempting to change the subject, “Let’s go to the hospital first.”
Xie Qing didn’t give him a chance to run away, reaching out and grabbing his wrist.
“Get me a change of clothes.”
“Also, I told you not to regret it, and don’t listen to Yan Mingzhe about not taking a temporary mark seriously.”
Xie Qing let go of his hand after speaking.
“Got it, got it, let me think!”
Chen Yufeng spoke at a rapid pace and walked toward the bedroom in a hurry.
Drawing on Xie Qing’s usual dressing style, Chen Yufeng found him a short-sleeved shirt that he had only worn once because it was too plain. It was pure white without a single pattern, looking like a semi-finished product, and he didn’t even know why he bought it back then. For pants, he picked one of his few pairs of black long trousers, which featured vertical white stripes running down both sides of the legs.
“Here, make do with these.” Chen Yufeng handed him the clothes, his gaze falling on Xie Qing’s collarbone. The white shirt was slightly open, revealing a few red marks. Chen Yufeng’s thoughts surged, and the scene of Xie Qing holding onto him tightly without letting go last night resurfaced in his mind. At the time, he hadn’t felt anything was wrong. Thinking about it now, everything felt wrong. He had actually let someone casually give him a temporary mark, and it was on the very night of his differentiation. And this person was his roommate’s older brother!
Xie Qing had followed him into the bedroom while he was looking for clothes. Chen Yufeng’s first routine every morning was to open the curtains and windows to embrace nature.
“Help me close the curtains, thanks.”
Xie Qing flipped through the clothes and instinctively ordered him around.
Chen Yufeng thought: Fine, fine. As long as he doesn’t talk about the matter of the temporary mark, being a babysitter is fine too.
He closed the curtains and prepared to leave the bedroom to give Xie Qing some space. When he turned around, the white shirt had already been discarded by the bedside, and Xie Qing was holding the short-sleeved shirt, seemingly trying to figure out the front and back. In a sudden burst of excitement, Chen Yufeng banged his lower leg directly against the corner of the bed, accompanied by a soft gasp and a dull thud.
Hearing the sound, Xie Qing turned his head and approached while holding the shirt.
“You cut off the tag? Can’t tell the front from the back?” Xie Qing asked doubtfully. “This is your house, are you really that unfamiliar with your own bed?”
Chen Yufeng’s gaze uncontrollably drifted to Xie Qing’s body. The person standing before him had a straight posture, smooth muscle lines, and well-defined contours. Blue-green veins were distributed beneath the skin, disappearing into the black trousers he hadn’t changed out of yet. The belt buckle had already sprung open, hanging loosely around his waist.
“Is it good-looking?” Xie Qing asked with a smile. “Now that you’ve finished looking, want to check the front and back?”
“Cough!”
Chen Yufeng forced himself to snap out of it, though his peripheral vision still kept darting over.
“It looks pretty good,” he commented softly, stepping forward to take the clothes. Chen Yufeng’s first habit when wearing clothes was to cut off the tags. His other clothes had patterns, making them easy to tell apart. For this one, he had to hold it level from top to bottom and compare it to figure out which side was which.
“Like this.” Chen Yufeng handed it to him with the front side facing up.
Xie Qing didn’t take it immediately, his gesture seeming to say: Put it on for me.
Chen Yufeng couldn’t bear it any longer and threw the clothes onto him.
“At least wait until after my birthday! I didn’t say I wouldn’t take responsibility, plus you’re the one who marked me, not the other way around.”
“And you don’t even like me, do you? Why do we have to date?”
Xie Qing slipped the shirt on, not only unangered but even laughing out loud.
“To be honest, I don’t dislike you either. Help me handle my mom.”
Unbothered by anyone else, he unzipped his pants while continuing to speak, “You’ve helped Xie Wang so many times, can you help me too?”
“I know you’re very warm-hearted.”
Xie Qing thought: Since you helped my brother, you have to help me too, okay?
Chen Yufeng was momentarily flattered into feeling a bit embarrassed to refuse. Plus, with Xie Qing uninhibitedly pinching the waistband of his trousers ready to pull them down, Chen Yufeng hurriedly turned to the side.
“Fine, fine, fine! Can you wait until I go out to change your pants? An isolated Alpha and a solitary Omega, can you please have some gender awareness?”
With that, Chen Yufeng immediately walked out and slammed the door shut hard. At the moment the door slammed shut, Xie Qing raised an eyebrow and pulled a satisfied smile.
“Doctor, is there still hope for me?”
Chen Yufeng clutched a strand of his white hair, letting out a worried sigh. It was only after getting out of the car at the hospital that Xie Qing noticed patches of his hair had turned white, and upon careful observation, the two of them noticed it was still spreading over time.
“As for your condition, how should I put it, it’s not a major issue, but it’s too rare. This is the first time I’ve ever seen someone’s differentiation cause a sharp drop in H-type hormones.”
“Tsk, this is so magical.”
The doctor was the same one from last time, and he called his students over again. A bunch of people gathered around Chen Yufeng’s test report to discuss it, with some even finding time to sigh in amazement.
“Still, it looks pretty good. Silver-white, standard equipment for handsome guys.”
Translated into regular language, the conclusion was: differentiation combined with a temporary mark led to abnormal hormone secretion in the body, resulting in hormonal imbalance. In short, Chen Yufeng’s hair, which originally looked dark or greenish under the sun, would all turn white in the near future. And it was completely natural and pollution-free, never fading in color.
“Isn’t this just getting white hair at a young age?” Chen Yufeng depressedly grabbed a few handfuls of his hair.
“No, it’s silver-white,” Xie Qing said, lifting a strand. “It’s pretty cool.”
“If you don’t like it, you can dye it when you have time.”
Chen Yufeng let out an “en,” considered to have accepted the proposal. Overall, the test results were good, and the gland growth was normal. The alcohol allergy was also real. Chen Yufeng was allergic to esters and alcohols that produced alcoholic scents. This meant that whether it was alcohol to drink or strong liquor pheromones, he was allergic to all of them. However, his symptoms were relatively mild, with the specific manifestation being only skin flushing.
The doctor gave some more precautions and told him to keep a cheerful mood, and finally declared that Chen Yufeng had become a normal and complete Omega.
Chen Yufeng ruffled his hair, which seemed to have turned a bit whiter right before his eyes. Could this even be considered normal?
The moment they sat in the car and the sunlight poured in, Chen Yufeng suddenly felt that Xie Qing was truly dutiful and responsible. He took him to the hospital and even treated him to lunch along the way. And now they were heading back to school to complete the withdrawal procedures for the dormitory. While the two of them were at the hospital, Fu Yuan called to check up on Chen Yufeng and mentioned that he had urged along the application process. Now they just needed to go sign it, done in triplicate. As for the dormitory bed on campus, it would still be retained since the tuition fee covered the relevant costs.
Chen Yufeng sat in the passenger seat, feigning sleep. He was thinking about how to explain to Xie Wang the deeply ingrained brandy pheromone scent on his body. A temporary mark was equivalent to a brief declaration of ownership. The pheromone residue duration was about five days, and anyone within a meter, except Betas, could sense it. A normal Alpha would automatically stay away from an Omega carrying another Alpha’s pheromones.
Xie Qing drove his black yet flashy Audi R8, shuttling through the campus. Wherever Chen Yufeng said to go, he went, with no complaints throughout the entire trip. Even work calls were answered just to push back various meeting times.
Chen Yufeng thought: Is he trying to seduce me? Acting so gentle!