The two of them were still dawdling as they headed upstairs. The moment the elevator doors opened, a cell phone ringtone cut through the air.
Xie Qing answered it. Whatever the person on the other end said, his entire demeanor suddenly tightened.
“Lock the door from the inside and stay in the restroom. I am heading over right now.” As he spoke, he was patting his pockets for something.
Seeming to confirm that the item was still there, Chen Yunfeng clearly noticed his pace pick up.
Because the voice on the other end was too muffled, Chen Yunfeng could not identify who was calling.
However, they were currently on the fifth floor, and Xie Qing was obviously searching for the location of the restrooms.
“Over here.” Chen Yunfeng reached out, grabbed his arm, and pointed toward the directional sign. “Did something happen to Xie Wang?”
Xie Qing followed his momentum, quickening his pace as he walked, and let out a low grunt of affirmation.
“He was provoked into a heat cycle. He is in the restroom right now.”
Chen Yunfeng was left speechless. All of his knowledge regarding these matters came straight from health class.
He could only follow behind Xie Qing in silence.
The scent of pheromones in the restroom was chaotic. The moment Chen Yunfeng stepped closer, he caught at least three distinct odors.
Fruity, floral, and woody scents were tangled together.
A crowd of onlookers had formed a circle, muttering under their breaths that anyone who released pheromones in a public place was a moron.
Xie Qing suddenly stopped in his tracks, his expression shifting slightly.
He took two steps backward, colliding directly with Chen Yunfeng, who was looking around.
Suddenly, a warm, approximately 10ml, sealed transparent vial of a medical injection was shoved into Chen Yunfeng’s hand.
Xie Qing explained, “There is another Omega in there besides Xie Wang. I feel a bit sick to my stomach. You go.”
As soon as he finished speaking, he gave Chen Yunfeng’s back a push, taking another few steps backward himself.
“Ah, fine.”
Clutching the vial, Chen Yunfeng walked quickly into the restroom.
The first thing he saw was an Omega being pinned against the sink.
Chen Yunfeng’s gaze instantly narrowed. What the hell was going on here? Did they not have money to rent a room?
The pheromones were overflowing everywhere.
Was instinct really this difficult to control? Could they not hold on until they found a suitable place?
Subconsciously wanting to use his sense of smell to locate someone, Chen Yunfeng turned his back to the two of them and called out toward the stalls, “Xie Wang, what scent are you?”
No one answered. Only a faint sound came from the very last stall.
The door was completely unlocked, standing open a crack.
Chen Yunfeng quickly blocked the entrance of the stall, trying to pass the inhibitor inside. “Can you manage on your own?”
Xie Wang let out a muffled grunt of affirmation and took the item from his hand.
For a moment, Chen Yunfeng had no idea where to cast his eyes.
About five minutes passed.
The marking by that pair diagonally off to the side had finally ended. The Omega’s entire face was flushed red.
The Omega suddenly began to struggle, his voice coming in broken snatches, sounding quite foul.
“You fucking tricked me! How dare you?”
“Get lost! I am just going to pretend I was bitten by a stray dog.”
“Put away that disgusting pheromone of yours. If I don’t sue you, my last name is not Yan!”
“I have a witness!”
As he spoke, the Omega raised a hand and pointed straight at Chen Yunfeng.
Chen Yunfeng, who had been standing to the side with a blank look in his eyes, thought, Wait, no, you guys doing this makes things very awkward for me!
“Hey, you over there! Who told you to come in?” The Alpha was struggling to control the person beside him, his movements extremely rough.
He cast a disdainful look at Chen Yunfeng, and the moment he opened his mouth, his tone felt entirely wrong.
Chen Yunfeng glanced around the room, feeling as though he had just heard some massive joke.
“What? Did you build this toilet? Did you invest in it, or did you build it with your own two hands?”
“You! Get the fuck out of here right now, or I’ll mark you along with him.” Seeing that he was losing the argument, the Alpha raised his volume.
Slap.
A very sharp slap, but it wasn’t dealt by Chen Yunfeng, even though he had been thinking about doing it.
It came from the Omega who had been tightly gripped the entire time.
Only then did Chen Yunfeng realize something was wrong. This Omega didn’t seem very willing to be marked at all.
In an instant, Chen Yunfeng felt as though his heart had been pierced.
A prick of guilt.
If he had been just a little faster, could he have stopped this Omega from being marked?
If he had noticed something was amiss sooner, could the marking have been halted midway?
Chen Yunfeng suddenly did not know what to say. After a long moment, he managed only a single sentence: “Sorry for being late.”
The Omega swept the damp bangs away from his forehead, looking entirely unbothered. “No need to apologize. I should be thanking you instead.”
“Luckily you were here. It scared him enough that he could only pull off a temporary mark. Bastard!”
Bang.
The stall door behind him swung open. Xie Wang had put quite a bit of force into it.
Inhibitors had virtually no buffer period; once injected, they took effect immediately. He now looked no different than usual.
Wearing a rare, stony expression, Xie Wang stared unblinkingly at the Alpha.
“Releasing inducing pheromones in a public place is a crime. Does this Alpha have even an ounce of common sense?”
At that moment, Chen Yunfeng finally believed that he and Xie Qing were full brothers.
They looked especially alike when they wore cold faces.
Xie Wang stepped forward, grabbed the Omega, who was slightly taller than himself, and pulled him behind his back to protect him.
“It’s just hard on my big brother, having to constantly call a cab for trash like you.”
Understanding the hint, Chen Yunfeng pulled out his phone and sent Xie Qing a text message: Call the police now.
He had assumed that under these circumstances, the Alpha would at least rein it in.
Instead, the man suddenly began releasing suppressing pheromones, affecting both Chen Yunfeng and the others nearby.
With a sticky, predatory look in his eyes, the man closed the restroom door and stepped closer, inch by inch.
“All three of you look pretty good. My pheromones are on the stronger side; as long as you keep your mouths shut, I can help you out during your heat cycles from now on.”
Chen Yunfeng immediately turned sideways to look at Xie Wang and the Omega.
Both of their conditions were deteriorating rapidly. He muttered, “I’ll make the first move. Hopefully you remember to tip me, because I’m broke.”
Without waiting for either of them to answer, Chen Yunfeng strode forward, shifted his weight, and lashed out with a right kick.
The pheromones in the restroom were so chaotic that the Alpha hadn’t noticed Chen Yunfeng lacked a pheromone signature entirely.
He had simply assumed Chen Yunfeng was weak.
Struck by the sudden, violent kick, the Alpha could only scramble to dodge, trying his best to minimize the damage.
Chen Yunfeng’s previous devil-may-care expression vanished, replaced by a grim seriousness as he delivered another kick.
Driven backward, the Alpha retreated all the way from the back of the room toward the door.
After taking at least three kicks, he was beaten into complete submission, left with zero room to fight back.
It was his first time ever being placed on the defensive like this.
The Alpha wanted to beg for mercy, but his pride wouldn’t allow it.
Just as Chen Yunfeng threw out another kick, the restroom door was violently shoved open from the outside.
It had only cracked open an inch.
Consequently, the Alpha, sent flying by Chen Yunfeng’s kick, crashed straight into the door.
At the threshold, Xie Qing was struggling to draw a clean breath.
The door that had been kicked open was slammed shut from the inside once again.
“Get out here!” Xie Qing pressed his throbbing temples.
He shouted into the restroom, “Keep fighting like this, and your persona is going to shift from a helpful, warm-hearted classmate delivering an inhibitor into a violent thug disturbing the peace.”
Hearing his words, Chen Yunfeng pulled back his fist, which was still suspended mid-air before it could land.
He pressed one hand against the Alpha’s gland, as if he were ready to crush it at a moment’s notice, and hauled the man aside.
With his other hand, he pulled the door open, hooked his chin, and motioned for Xie Wang to take the Omega outside first.
Security arrived shortly after, and the crowd was dispersed.
Pheromone-clearing spray was deployed across the entire floor as if it were free.
The miscellaneous scents dissipated rapidly.
“Still want to go eat?” Chen Yunfeng washed his hands at the sink, shaking the water droplets off as he asked.
Xie Qing yanked Xie Wang over and inspected him thoroughly from head to toe.
Then, his gaze landed on Chen Yunfeng.
A smear of blood mixed with water droplets was sliding down his skin. Xie Qing stepped forward in two strides.
He grabbed Chen Yunfeng’s wrist and flipped his arm over. “Your arm is cut.”
“Hiss.”
Chen Yunfeng quickly jerked his arm back, enduring the sting as he bantered, “I gave too much for your little brother. How do you plan to repay me?”
Xie Qing pulled a tissue from his pocket and wiped away the blood and water on his arm.
Throughout the process, Chen Yunfeng froze entirely in place, forgetting how to breathe.
“Did you not check your horoscope for bloodshed today before stepping out?”
Feigning ignorance of his reaction, Xie Qing didn’t forget to deliver a verbal jab. “Also, your self-proclaimed suave pickup lines are honestly a bit cringe.”
“Too intentional. Practice more.”
With that, he stuffed the damp ball of tissue straight into Chen Yunfeng’s hand.
Xie Qing had been standing extremely close when he delivered that last line, his warm breath brushing against the edge of Chen Yunfeng’s ear.
Blood rushed to his head in an instant.
Pulling back his hand to grip the crumpled tissue, Chen Yunfeng muttered in frustration, “I’m heading back. I’m done playing with you guys.”
Xie Qing glanced at his ear, pulled out his phone, and tapped the screen a few times.
Buzz.
“Check WeChat,” Xie Qing reminded him.
Still sulking, Chen Yunfeng sluggishly opened the app.
The next second, he decided that his horizons had perhaps been far too narrow.
He was more than willing to run himself ragged for Xie Wang!