“Professor Xiao, is your heat about to hit?” Yu Siyuan asked him.
Although Xiao Shuqing had been under the weather lately due to his underlying gland issues, and a bottle or two of alcohol had left his head throbbing uncomfortably, he was merely unwell, not actually drunk. He was still a long way from being so incapacitated that he wouldn’t even recognize his own heat.
He lifted his arm to sniff his sleeve, only to discover that the fabric was indeed tinged with a faint, subtle floral scent. Omegas were inherently less sensitive to the pheromones of their own kind, and because this fragrance was exceptionally light, Xiao Shuqing wouldn’t have noticed it at all if Yu Siyuan hadn’t pointed it out.
“This isn’t my pheromone. Mine is green plum scented, nowhere near this delicate or fresh,” he stated candidly. “I ran into an Omega while taking Saisa out for a walk tonight. I must have accidentally brushed against them.”
The younger man blinked, his gaze stealing a fleeting glance at the back of Xiao Shuqing’s neck before quickly darting away in self-conscious avoidance. “Ah, oh, I see.”
Yu Siyuan had never discussed pheromones with anyone before, let alone with an Omega. He stammered for a good while before finally managed to pivot: “Your self-control is incredible, Professor Xiao. It feels like your pheromones have never leaked out before.”
The older man merely brushed his fingers against the back of his neck, letting out a soft, self-mocking chuckle. “It’s likely due to purely physical reasons. It’s been a very long time since I’ve had to actively control my pheromones.”
As a twenty-nine-year-old Omega, his glands had already largely stopped producing pheromones three years ago. Even during his heats—which should have been a time of overwhelming, turbulent desire—he only experienced a mild stirring of arousal, and his pheromones remained pitifully scarce.
Yet, he detested that state of being nonetheless.
He detested the feeling of standing out on the street, where even with a scent-blocking patch securely in place, he would still face the predatory, lingering glares of Alphas—as though they might transform into ravenous beasts at any given second.
Consequently, he resorted to administering suppressants with frantic intensity.
If one injection didn’t suffice, he took two; if two failed, he took three. He would keep going until not a single trace of his pheromones could escape.
As for the “phenomenal self-control” Yu Siyuan had praised, he hadn’t expended an ounce of effort on it. It was simply that his glands themselves had already endured far too much trauma.
However, the young man supporting his weight beside him evidently failed to grasp the underlying implication, merely nodding along in a daze. “So that’s how it is.”
“Yes.” Xiao Shuqing curled his lips into a faint smile. “Why did you work so late tonight?”
“I was keeping an eye on the project. It goes live tomorrow, so I wanted to wait until the final round of testing concluded before heading back, just in case any issues cropped up.”
“No wonder.”
“Yeah.”
With the brief pleasantries exhausted, the conversation stalled.
The air between them grew stagnant. Yu Siyuan was not naturally talkative, and given Xiao Shuqing’s current dizziness, he lacked the energy to manufacture small talk just to keep him company.
And so, the quiet hallway echoed only with the uneven rhythm of their footsteps, one trailing closely behind the other.
Upon reaching the bedroom door, Xiao Shuqing brushed his long hair back, offering a lazy wave of his hand. “Go ahead and take your shower. I’m going to rest for a moment, then wash up and head to bed. Do you have to work overtime tomorrow as well?”
“Yes, the project launches tomorrow, so there are meetings and performance monitoring. But everything should run smoothly. I should be back before ten o’clock.”
Xiao Shuqing yawned lazily as he stepped across the threshold. “It doesn’t matter what time you get back. It wouldn’t even matter if you didn’t come back at all.”
With that, he closed the door, leaving the young man frozen outside with an expression that shifted from utter bewilderment to profound shock.
The next day, Thursday.
He had no classes today, meaning he could afford to head into the office later than usual. However, the merciless combination of his internal biological clock and his aching glands still roused him at exactly a quarter past six in the morning.
The man smoothed down his tangled, long hair and sat up in bed.
The moment his feet touched the floor, a sharp wave of vertigo washed over him.
Resting his wrist against his throbbing temple, he waited for the room to stop spinning before finally stepping out of his bedroom.
The weather today was magnificent; the sun had already crested the horizon, and the breeze drifting through the window carried a pleasant, comforting warmth.
Hearing his movement, the large dog immediately bounded over, its tail wagging like a metronome. Without barking or making a fuss, it simply nudged its heavy body repeatedly against his legs.
Calculating the days, Yu Siyuan had been living here for over two weeks now. In the beginning, Saisa would let out sharp, excited barks the moment he saw Xiao Shuqing emerge in the morning, invariably waking the sleeping little Alpha in the guest room.
The boy would stumble out while rubbing his eyes, asking sleepily, “Professor Xiao, you’re awake? What time is it?” On several occasions, the hair at the back of his head had been sticking up in comical tufts.
However, after the large dog had received a few stern reprimands, it had never barked early in the morning again.
Staring down at the intensely expectant eyes of his massive pet, Xiao Shuqing squatted down in resignation, gently massaging the thick fur around its neck. “Dad isn’t feeling well today. I’ll take you out to play this evening instead.”
He then reached over and activated the robotic vacuum cleaner. “Go play with the robot first.”
It was a thoroughly perfunctory distraction.
Yet, almost the exact instant the robotic vacuum chimed to life, the door to the secondary bedroom swung open.
The young man emerged clad in deep blue silk pajamas. It was a fabric designed to look mature and luxurious, yet on his frame, it made him look like an innocent, sheltered little prince from some hidden castle.
In particular, the pajamas appeared to have been purchased a size too large; the hems of his trousers pooled around his heels, threatening to trip him up if he wasn’t careful. Shuffling forward in his house slippers, he looked remarkably small and compact.
“Why are you up so early?” The older man asked, his half-closed eyes tracking the boy’s movement as he spoke in a lazy, sleep-deprived drawl.
Thanks to last night’s residual buzz and a lack of proper rest, his voice was distinctly raspy.
The boy initially marched toward him with hurried steps, but altered his trajectory midway to duck into the bathroom instead.
A moment later, he reemerged, holding a piece of Xiao Shuqing’s clothing aloft as he stood before him with a remarkably fierce, confrontational stance.
Xiao Shuqing: “?”
If his memory served him correctly, that particular shirt was supposed to be inside the washing machine? He had worn it just yesterday and left it to be laundered. What was the meaning of pulling it out now?
“Professor Xiao, would you mind taking a breath of this?” The boy held out the shirt, the corners of his eyes and lips downturned in an expression of acute, profound grievance.
Moreover, now that the boy was standing in close proximity, Xiao Shuqing noticed that his eyes were shot through with prominent red streaks, as though he had been up agonizing the entire night.
Xiao Shuqing grew increasingly bewildered.
He hesitantly accepted the garment, bringing it to his nose to take a careful sniff. Aside from the faint floral scent he had detected the previous evening, there didn’t seem to be any unusual odors.
“It only carries a tiny hint of that Omega’s pheromones from yesterday. What’s wrong with it?”
That single sentence shattered whatever restraint the boy had left, driving him into absolute exasperation.
The young Alpha’s fists tightened firmly at his sides, his eyes flushing a sharp red as he hurled one accusation after another:
“Professor Xiao, I am an Alpha—an Alpha who is exceptionally sensitive to Omega pheromones! Why must you handle me with such blatant dishonesty!”
“The mating pheromones on this are incredibly potent! It’s already morning, yet I can still clearly smell them screaming ‘Big Brother’ within the scent profile! Professor Xiao, do you simply assume that because I don’t have a partner and possess no interest in Omegas, I must be a complete fool regarding these matters?”
Xiao Shuqing: “?”
He desperately wanted to say: You aren’t the fool here; the one who’s foolish seems to be me. His own perception of pheromones had degenerated to a truly appalling degree.
Suppressing the throbbing ache in his temples, he attempted to clarify the situation. “I didn’t lie to you. It really was just a chance encounter with an Omega yesterday. We played with Saisa for a little while, and then they kept badgering me for my WeChat. After I declined, I brought Saisa straight home.”
Yet, the young man standing opposite him remained entirely unsatisfied.
His lips remained tightly puckered, his long eyelashes casting downward shadows. He didn’t utter another word, but every line of his posture screamed a single message: I am thoroughly upset.
The older man let out a helpless sigh, gently grasping the boy’s sleeve to tug him closer. “What’s wrong? You still don’t believe me? Well, I’m out of ideas then. It’s not like I can make Saisa talk to corroborate my story.”
The little Alpha bit his lip, turning his head to glare at Saisa.
The large dog was currently entirely occupied, chasing the robotic vacuum cleaner in anxious, tight circles because the machine moved far too slowly for its liking.
After a long pause, the boy finally spoke up, his voice heavy with grievance:
“You claim it was just a chance encounter with an Omega, which is why the scent rubbed off on you. But last night, after I finished my shower and opened the washing machine, an incredibly dense wave of mating pheromones hit me directly.”
“It was clearly that potent, yet you downplayed it so easily. Is it because I am merely a partner in a marriage of convenience, so you feel you don’t even need to expend any effort to properly placate me, Professor Xiao?”
“Furthermore, when you don’t feel like walking the dog in the morning, you at least know to activate the robotic vacuum to placate Saisa.”
By the time he reached the end of his grievance, he arrived at a definitive conclusion: “I’m not even as important to you as the dog.”
His eyes, already bloodshot from pulling an all-nighter, flushed an even deeper shade of red.
Xiao Shuqing: “?”
The initial misunderstanding was admittedly his fault, but how on earth did the boy extrapolate that he was “not even as important as the dog”?
Yet, the young man genuinely sounded heartbroken. Xiao Shuqing could only chalk it up to an incredibly unfortunate series of coincidences.
Since he was the one who had inadvertently caused this mess, he could only muster up his remaining patience to explain:
“I really didn’t do it on purpose. My perception of pheromones is practically nonexistent, so I honestly didn’t notice a thing. He did call me ‘Big Brother’ at the time, but as for your claim that he embedded that phrase into his mating pheromones? I completely missed that too.”
“We’ve been living together for a while now, so you should know what kind of person I am. If I had known that person was using Omega mating pheromones, what would be my motive for bringing that clothing back for you to smell? To trigger a reactive heat in you? If that happened, wouldn’t I be the one who ends up suffering the consequences?”
Hearing the phrase “wouldn’t I be the one who ends up suffering the consequences,” the young man’s defensive posture finally began to soften.
Perhaps his mind had wandered to other implications, as a faint blush crept up his cheeks.
Then, he voiced a low, quiet protest: “Last night, I had to exert so much energy just to keep myself under control. I barely slept at all.”
His voice was sweet and soft.
It carried a subtle, delicate trace of coddled vulnerability.
If it weren’t for the strict boundary between Alphas and Omegas, Xiao Shuqing might have instinctively pulled the boy into his arms to comfort him.
“Yesterday, I only mentioned that I had to work overtime and would be back a bit late, and you straight up told me not to come back at all. Yet, you turned around and brought Omega mating pheromones into our home. Professor Xiao, how could you be so unfair?”
The accusation caught Xiao Shuqing entirely off guard.
“When did I ever tell you not to come back—?”
Mid-sentence, the realization suddenly struck him. Last night, he had indeed tossed out a casual remark: It doesn’t matter what time you get back. It wouldn’t even matter if you didn’t come back at all.
No wonder the boy’s expression had turned so incredibly grim last night.
And no wonder he looked so thoroughly aggrieved today.
With all these misunderstandings piling up one after another, even Xiao Shuqing began to feel like he was being a massive jerk.
He immediately tugged the boy a fraction closer. “What I meant was that you’re welcome back at any hour, not that I was locking you out.”
Having clarified that, he couldn’t resist gently pinching the boy’s puffed-out cheek. “Aren’t you supposed to have dinner with your senior and the others tonight? I accidentally caught a glimpse of your WeChat notifications the other day. I was worried you well, that you wouldn’t be able to enjoy yourself fully if you felt rushed. What on earth is going on in that head of yours, hm? As if I’d bar you from entering the house just because you worked late. Student Yu Siyuan, aren’t you painting me out to be a bit too malicious here?”
He had intended it as a lighthearted tease to clear the air, but he hadn’t anticipated the reaction.
The young Alpha, whose eyes were already rimmed with red, blinked once—and a flurry of heavy tears came splashing down his face.
Crap. He had managed to tease the kid into tears again!
Xiao Shuqing hurriedly took both of the boy’s arms, guiding him to stand securely between his knees as he sat.
Cupping the incredibly soft face in his hands, he offered frantic words of comfort:
“I was only teasing you. Why are you still feeling so wronged, hm? I apologize to you. I promise I’ll never say anything like that again, alright?”
“Don’t cry anymore. Be good.”
The little Alpha clutched a fistful of Xiao Shuqing’s sleeve, sniffing softly as he spoke in a thick, muffled voice: “I was so incredibly sad last night.”