Bai Long was chased out by a pillow Lu Yue threw at her. Covering her head as she ran, she wasn’t paying attention to where she was going and collided right into Liang Shen outside.
“What happened? Why is he so angry with you?”
Liang Shen had been friends with Lu Yue for years and understood his temperament all too well.
Though Lu Yue wasn’t the most patient person, he wasn’t one to lash out without reason—especially since he had agreed to let Bai Long give him a temporary mark.
Even if her technique was clumsy or the mark’s effect was poor, he wouldn’t explode like this without cause.
Not only was Liang Shen present, but the bodyguards in black were also still standing guard nearby.
Bai Long couldn’t exactly explain what had just happened in front of so many people.
Liang Shen wasn’t a fool. He could clearly see the girl’s hesitation.
So he led her to the stairwell. Because Bai Long’s pheromones were too strong,
He took a few steps back, maintaining a safe distance.
“Now there’s no one else around. Can you tell me what exactly happened between you two inside?”
“…Nothing much. I might have said something wrong and upset him.”
She carefully chose her words, giving him a rough outline of what had happened.
“Honestly, I know 30,000 for a single mark is already a great deal for me. But you never mentioned that price included… that as well.”
Bai Long paused here. Seeing Liang Shen fall into an odd silence, she thought he was also disappointed in her.
Anxious inside, she was terrified the money she had just secured might slip away.
“Dr. Liang, you can’t just go back on your word. I’m just recovering from a serious illness—I can’t take this kind of stress. Even if my after-sales service wasn’t up to par, I still completed the mark. Besides, you never mentioned anything about this beforehand.”
“How about this—since both sides have some responsibility, let’s compromise for fairness. You don’t hold my mistake against me, and I’ll give you a twelve percent discount.”
Without waiting for Liang Shen’s response, Bai Long pulled out her phone, opened the calculator, and started tapping away.
“Thirty thousand, minus twelve percent—you can just pay me twenty-six thousand seven hundred forty.”
“…”
Suddenly, Liang Shen understood why Lu Yue had been so furious.
To be honest, if he were an Omega, he might have thrown a punch instead of a pillow.
After patiently listening to Bai Long, he couldn’t help but sigh.
“Don’t worry, you’ll get your money. But next time you give him a temporary mark, don’t act like this again. He has a bad temper—if you push him too far, you’ll be the one suffering.”
“Huh? My skills are that bad… and there’s going to be a next time?”
Bai Long recalled how intense Lu Yue’s reaction had been when she marked him—he’d seemed in so much pain, he nearly tore the bedsheet.
“Let’s just forget it. Even though I really do need the money, I feel guilty accepting payment. I’m inexperienced, and earlier I hurt him so badly he couldn’t even stand steadily.”
“He couldn’t stand steadily?”
“Exactly. Forget standing—he was in so much pain he couldn’t muster any strength at all.”
In her mind, marking should be a pleasant, comfortable experience.
But Lu Yue clearly looked miserable. Not only did he seem on the verge of crying out several times, but he even bit his lip so hard in an attempt to endure the pain that a line of blood beads formed.
Thinking of this, Bai Long frowned slightly. Preoccupied with her own thoughts, she didn’t pay much attention to the stunned expression on the man’s face across from her.
“Anyway, it looked pretty serious. You should wait outside a bit longer, at least until his pheromones settle down, before going in to check on him.”
As she spoke, she glanced toward the ward out of the corner of her eye, relaxing only when she sensed his pheromones inside had stabilized somewhat.
Then she waved at Liang Shen, who was still lost in thought, and headed straight downstairs, leaving decisively and cleanly—completely unaffected by Lu Yue’s lingering pheromones.
The man stood frozen in place for a long moment, watching Bai Long’s back disappear completely from view before he finally looked away.
But… that’s an S-rank Omega. How could this girl have no reaction at all?
And she said Lu Yue was so weak and unsteady after the mark that he couldn’t even stand?
Could she just be making this up?
Even if Lu Yue had been suppressing his heats for a long time and had damaged his glands from overusing inhibitors, his pheromones shouldn’t be that weak, right?
Liang Shen remained in a daze for a long time, only snapping out of it when he received a message from Lu Yue telling him to come inside.
He barely managed to pull his scattered thoughts together.
The ward Lu Yue was staying in wasn’t an ordinary VIP room—it was specifically designed for Omegas whose inhibitors had failed during their heats.
Not only could it effectively block most pheromones from leaking out, but it also allowed them to dissipate quickly.
When Liang Shen pushed the door open, the once-intense pheromones in the air had faded considerably. Not only was the faint scent of white cedar still present,
But upon closer attention, a subtle, sweet strawberry note could also be detected.
The man had just washed up in the bathroom. He was clean and refreshed, his clothes neatly pressed without a single wrinkle.
He looked fresh, yet his expression was stormy, and the atmosphere around him felt heavy with pressure.
“Are you certain her rank is below B?”
Liang Shen had initially thought Bai Long might have exaggerated earlier, but seeing Lu Yue like this, he began to believe her account.
Instead of answering Lu Yue right away, he first released his own pheromones to sense the lingering traces of Bai Long’s scent in the air.
Strawberry-scented—sweet yet surprisingly overbearing.
“I only gave an estimate. After all, she just underwent enhancement, and her pheromones haven’t stabilized yet. Her exact rank won’t be clear until we retest in a month or two.”
Even with just this small trace of pheromones, Liang Shen still felt an inexplicable sense of pressure.
He was inwardly quite surprised.
“But judging by this, regardless of anything else, her mental energy level likely isn’t low.”
As soon as Liang Shen finished speaking, the man sitting on the bed furrowed his brows even tighter.
The moonlight outside was like frost, making him appear even colder and more distant.
This kind of situation was indeed rare. Generally, an Alpha with a rank below average wouldn’t reach A-level no matter how much enhancement they underwent afterward.
At the same rank, Alpha metrics tend to be slightly higher than Omega metrics, with mental energy suppression often being even more intense than physical dominance.
Even an A-rank Alpha could suppress an S-rank Omega during marking.
Realizing this, the anger Lu Yue had been holding back finally reached its peak.
“Damn it, are you trying to get me killed?!”
“I asked you to find an Alpha for a temporary mark, not to push me into a pit of fire! Do you have any idea how overbearing that girl’s pheromones are? If I hadn’t held on by sheer will, I would’ve damn near begged her to take me right there!”
“…”
Unlike other Omegas, Lu Yue had grown up playing with a group of Alphas and had always been rough around the edges.
Normally, he could keep it under control, but once he lost his temper, he had no filter—obscenities just spilled out without a second thought.
Liang Shen knew it was his own fault.
From the moment Lu Yue came of age until now, the reason he endured every heat without marking was precisely because he refused to be suppressed by an Alpha stronger than himself.
And yet, after struggling on his own for nearly a decade, he had finally been cornered—and by his own friend’s doing.
It was only natural for him to react so strongly, for his emotions to spiral like this.
“…Calm down first. I admit it was my oversight, but who could’ve predicted we’d run into that one-in-ten-thousand enhancement probability?”
Liang Shen spoke softly, trying to soothe Lu Yue’s agitation, while also getting up to pour him a glass of warm water.
“Actually, I don’t think things are as bad as you’re making them out to be. Bai Long did mark you, but she didn’t take advantage of you, did she? Think about it—an Alpha and an Omega alone together in a room, and nothing happened. That alone tells you the situation isn’t that severe.”
“What are you implying? Are you mocking me for having such low charm that I couldn’t even keep a young girl interested?”
“…”
Good grief, he’s so mad he’s literally comparing himself to a male escort now.
Seeing the man was still fuming, Liang Shen knew better than to provoke him further. He waited a moment before explaining calmly.
“You misunderstood. I’m not saying you lack charm. It’s probably just that the girl is too young and hasn’t fully awakened to those instincts yet. You don’t need to take it to heart.”
“What I mean is, even though Bai Long’s mental energy exceeds expectations, at least she didn’t take advantage of you while you were vulnerable. Things haven’t reached an irreversible point.”
By “irreversible point,” he meant a full mark.
Initially, Liang Shen had miscalculated Bai Long’s post-enhancement rank, which was why he allowed her to enter the ward alone. Even though he waited outside afterward, worried something might go wrong during the marking…
If Bai Long had lost control like other Alphas and forced herself on Lu Yue,
Even if he had heard commotion inside, he couldn’t have barged in during an Omega’s heat.
Liang Shen fell silent at this point, letting the implication hang in the air.
Beside him, the man who had been furious just a moment earlier also realized this and began to calm down.
It wasn’t just Lu Yue—Liang Shen himself felt a chill of hindsight fear.
After a long silence, Liang Shen slowly let out a soft breath.
“So as long as it isn’t a deep mark, it’s not a big deal. If you’re not satisfied with her, you can look for another Alpha after the dependency period ends.”
Perhaps influenced by Bai Long’s recent mark, when Lu Yue heard Liang Shen suggest finding another Alpha later, a strange irritation rose in his chest.
The two were close, and Lu Yue’s reaction didn’t escape Liang Shen’s notice.
“You’re not willing?”
Lu Yue, his thoughts laid bare, pressed his thin lips together and—for once—lowered his gaze, avoiding the other man’s eyes.
“…It’s not that I’m unwilling. It’s just… for now, I can’t easily find another Alpha with compatible pheromones who’s also… manageable. A high school student who hasn’t entered society yet should be easier to handle. I guess… I’ll make do for now.”
Liang Shen had expected Lu Yue to be furious about being so thoroughly suppressed by a girl who had just come of age. Given his temperament, he thought Lu Yue would end the arrangement right after the mark.
Unexpectedly, after being starved for nearly thirty years, Lu Yue seemed to have developed a taste for it after just this one experience.
Liang Shen didn’t call him out on his contradictory words, but hearing that Lu Yue wanted to continue a long-term arrangement with Bai Long made him hesitate.
“Sure, you’re willing, but she might not be.”
“Huh? She’s unwilling? Why would she be unwilling?! I’m an S-rank Omega, and I’m practically loaded with money! If I haven’t complained about her, what right does she have to complain about me?!”
Lu Yue exploded again, so angry he wanted to storm over right then and demand an explanation from Bai Long.
“Lu Yue, calm down first. You’re only so fixated on her right now because the dependency period hasn’t passed yet. Don’t let her pheromones cloud your judgment.”
A freshly marked Omega’s emotions are highly unstable and require an Alpha’s presence and reassurance to settle.
And Bai Long wasn’t here. Without her pheromones, Lu Yue’s emotions couldn’t find stability.
Lu Yue understood this logically, but emotionally, he still felt deeply aggrieved knowing Bai Long didn’t want to continue marking him.
“…It’s all your fault.”
“If you hadn’t brought her here, I wouldn’t have to suffer like this. If I’d known the dependency period would be so unbearable, I would’ve just gritted my teeth and endured the heat on my own.”
He buried his face in the pillow, his voice muffled and thick with a nasal tone.
“Wuwu… what do I do now? She just left, and I already miss her so much I can’t stand it.”