Zhou Younan stood alone before the towering arched doors of the grand hall, and to say he wasn’t nervous would have been a lie.
Even though Zhou Mo had promised to protect Luoluo, Zhou Younan still couldn’t rest easy leaving him in the Zhou household for long. He had to get him out of there as soon as possible.
He would make Wei Qing take the capsule. He would survive. Then he would find a chance to escape and take Luoluo with him.
They would run far away, disappear together.
The success of his plan hinged on one thing: getting Wei Qing to swallow that capsule. Failure was not an option.
“Let’s welcome the next newcomer!” The old marshal’s voice carried out from inside the hall.
The heavy doors opened slowly, a blinding light spilling out into the corridor.
Zhou Younan took a cautious step forward, then another, and entered the hall.
The place was packed. Marshal Wang had said he’d invited several old friends to liven up the atmosphere. Zhou Younan, however, wished he hadn’t, because the more people there were, the harder it would be to slip Wei Qing the drug unnoticed.
Suppressing the tension rising in his chest, Zhou Younan walked through the warm applause and swept his gaze across the room, searching for his target, Wei Qing.
He spotted him almost instantly.
A head of golden hair, long and gleaming under the chandelier light, made him stand out effortlessly.
Wei Qing sat lazily in a corner, one leg crossed over the other, an air of calm dominance about him.
Dressed in a black military uniform accented with silver, his left ear adorned with a tricolor earring of red, yellow, and blue, a symbol of the groom’s identity and a silken sash draped over his shoulder, he looked every inch the man of power he was.
Yet even such formality couldn’t hide the dangerous gleam beneath his eyes, a faint bluish hue at the edge of his irises, sharp as a blade.
Half-hidden in the shadows of the curtain, he watched Zhou Younan quietly, lips curled into a faint, unreadable smile.
Their gazes met.
A sharp crack rang out, the wineglass in Wei Qing’s hand shattered between his fingers.
A show of dominance?
Zhou Younan’s heart trembled violently.
It was their very first meeting, yet Wei Qing already showed such hostility, so much that he crushed a glass with his bare hand.
What a terrifying man.
Still, no matter how Wei Qing felt about him, Zhou Younan had no choice but to face him head-on tonight.
In front of countless watching eyes, Zhou Younan forced his steps forward, toward the man who frightened him, who despised him, who, within minutes, would officially become his husband.
With every step, he couldn’t help wondering how his life had led him to this point.
There were many reasons, his foolish trust in the Zhou family, Zhou An’s existence, his failed attempt to flee his marriage…
But none of it mattered now. The past was useless. Time only moved forward.
Wei Qing’s fingers relaxed, letting the glass shards clatter to the floor.
Zhou Younan thought that life was like scavenging through garbage, you rarely found anything truly valuable.
Coming back to the Zhou family was like picking up a piece of trash.
Marrying Wei Qing was like picking up a bomb.
And that capsule was like acquiring the detonator.
Now, all he had to do was set it in place, and the bomb would become a weapon, something dangerous, but under his control, something that could buy him time and power.
As long as he got Wei Qing to swallow that capsule, this terrible marriage might just become a temporary advantage.
Zhou Younan had seen death before. He knew that a single thought could decide whether one lived or died.
Giving Wei Qing a drug that would make him attracted to his pheromones was a sin but it was a sin born from desperation, a bid for survival.
His steps grew firmer.
From the sofa, Wei Qing rose to his feet and started walking toward him.
Zhou Younan froze for a moment.
Once Wei Qing stood up, Zhou Younan realized he was even taller than he had imagined.
He towered above the others in the room, broad-shouldered and narrow-waisted, his long legs carrying him with an effortless grace. Years of command had etched authority into his every movement.
It made Zhou Younan’s pulse quicken with fear.
His hands clenched at his sides.
He saw Luoluo’s smiling face flash through his mind.
For Luoluo, he told himself.
He took a deep breath and walked forward again.
When he finally stopped before Wei Qing, he found himself barely reaching the man’s chest. He had to tilt his chin up to meet those cold green eyes.
Wei Qing’s face, with its striking, chiseled lines, was even more handsome than in the photographs. His long golden hair gleamed under the lights, and for a fleeting moment, he looked like a celestial being, an angel.
But the icy blue glint in his eyes, the cruel indifference in his expression, shattered that illusion.
No, Zhou Younan realized, he wasn’t an angel.
He was a demon from heaven itself.
This was Wei Qing, the man who would be his husband.
Zhou Younan had differentiated into an Omega at fifteen, and since then, love had been a foreign concept.
Once, back at the research institute, he’d seen a poor couple volunteer for dangerous experiments in exchange for money.
After each trial, they would hold each other tightly, trying to soothe one another’s pain.
Back then, Zhou Younan had believed that love could be as powerful and comforting as family.
But later, they betrayed each other. Each wanted the other to suffer more than themselves.
The director, Xu Qi, had looked at him with disdain and said, “Love is the most unreliable thing in the world.”
Zhou Younan had never forgotten that look.
He knew what he was, his appearance was ordinary at best, his pheromone nothing remarkable.
Years of malnutrition and confinement had left him pale and fragile.
Who could ever truly like an Omega like him?
If he were Wei Qing, he certainly wouldn’t.
He had no choice.
Wei Qing’s cold voice cut through his thoughts. “Zhou…”
He stopped, his brows tightening.
Zhou Younan laughed inwardly. See? He doesn’t even remember my name.
“Young Master Zhou… ”
Before Wei Qing could finish, Zhou Younan’s trembling hand shot up, grabbing the collar of his uniform.
He bit down on the capsule hidden in his mouth, releasing a faint wave of his pheromone.
Then, standing on tiptoe, he leaned up, his target clear, his lips parting as he closed the distance.
Would it work?
He shut his eyes and prayed from the bottom of his heart that it would.
Wei Qing came from another world, a world of beasts.
There were jungles and grasslands, mountains and valleys. The air was pure, the food abundant, the tribes peaceful.
During one hunt, he had fallen from a cliff. When he awoke, he found himself in another universe entirely.
Here, humans lived among the stars. There were no forests, no plains, only endless cities of concrete, steel, and machines.
At first, Wei Qing had found it fascinating. But fascination soon turned into disgust.
The neon lights made his eyes ache.
Food was scarce, not because the world lacked it, but because it was tightly controlled.
In the Alliance, rations were distributed per capita. In the Empire, they were hoarded by noble families.
Commoners barely survived, while Wei Qing, with his beastman metabolism and higher body temperature, was constantly starving.
It made him irritable.
Worse still, the people here couldn’t even transform. They smelled strange, each one radiating an unpleasant scent that made his nose itch and his eyes water.
He’d been weak for months because of it.
And then came the Zerg, monstrous creatures that devoured humans. The first time he saw one, he’d instinctively shifted forms in terror.
This world was awful, utterly, unbearably awful.
He hated it.
He wanted to go home.
From the age of twelve to thirty-four, twenty-two long years had passed. He had risen to become the marshal of the Tyron Empire, but still, he hadn’t found a way back.
At least his rank now allowed him to eat what he wanted, when he wanted. The nose irritation, he managed with a silver snuff bottle.
For a time, he’d tried to distract himself with the thought of catnip.
In the beastman world, catnip was rare and precious. Only chieftains and priests knew where it grew. Each adult in the tribe received a single, withered leaf during their coming-of-age ceremony.
Wei Qing still remembered the faint scent from his brother’s leaf, it had been intoxicating.
Perhaps, he’d thought, in this world of stars, catnip might still exist.
He imagined a room full of it, imagining curling up in his feline form among its leaves, finally at peace.
But when he consulted a botanist, his hopes were dashed.
Catnip did exist here but only on ancient Earth.
And Earth had long since stopped rotating. Though humanity was working to restore it, the project was painfully slow.
Catnip might still be there, but in a dead world, it would be nothing more than an unremarkable weed.
No one cared about it.
No one except him.
Still, he thought, maybe that was for the best. This rotten, steel-built universe didn’t deserve something as beautiful as catnip.
From then on, he stopped searching.
Until now.
Standing in this suffocating hall, surrounded by nauseating scents, Wei Qing suddenly caught a whiff of something so familiar it made his heart pound.
Catnip.
The real thing.
He didn’t like Zhou Younan. The man was an Omega, a former researcher who’d once disrupted the Emperor’s plans, delaying his own investigations.
It might not have been Zhou Younan’s fault but Wei Qing had blamed him anyway.
When he first saw him, with his long fringe shadowing dark eyes and that faint air of gloom, his first thought had been: figures.
But that scent…
That unmistakable, tender, intoxicating scent….
It was catnip.
How could a human’s pheromone smell like catnip?
For the first time in years, Wei Qing’s heart stirred.
This world wasn’t entirely hopeless after all.
Henry had told him Zhou Younan’s pheromone was “plain herbal.” Rubbish.
Catnip, his catnip was anything but plain.
The delicate threads of fragrance coiled around him, and for the first time in decades, Wei Qing felt at ease.
He didn’t need his snuff bottle anymore.
He dropped the shards in his hand, rose from the sofa, and strode toward the young man.
The sash on his shoulder fluttered behind him, catching the light like a golden flame.
The closer he got, the more the world seemed to quiet.
The chaos of scents around him faded until all he could smell was that soothing, heavenly catnip.
It was bliss. Pure bliss.
For the first time since arriving in this cold, alien universe, Wei Qing felt truly happy.
His green eyes locked onto the youth approaching him, slim figure, a white pearl glinting softly in his hair, golden earrings swaying lightly as he moved.
Wei Qing’s body moved on its own, drawn forward like a moth to light.
Somewhere deep inside, a voice warned him sharply: You don’t like this person. Not at all. Stay away from him!
But if he stayed away, he’d lose that scent.
He glanced at Zhou Younan again, the dark, liquid eyes, wide and wary, like a startled fawn in the woods.
When they finally stood face to face, Wei Qing spoke first. “Zhou…”
Then his mind went blank. He couldn’t even recall the man’s full name.
That mocking inner voice laughed again: See? You don’t like him. You don’t even remember who he is. And he’ll never like you.
He’ll fear you, hate you. Once he knows you’re a beastman, he’ll think you’re vile, filthy.
A flash of cold light flickered in Wei Qing’s green eyes.
He lowered his gaze to the smaller figure before him and tried again. “Young Master Zhou… ”
But the last syllable never left his mouth.
Because Zhou Younan suddenly reached up, tugged at his collar and pressed his lips to his.
✦ ✧ ✦
Cressilia
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
(╯°□°）╯︵ ☕ — deploy caffeine!
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
✦ thank you for reading ✦
← PreviousNext →
ChaptersChapter 1 · Escape from Zhou familyChapter 2 · Bride To BeChapter 3 · Attacked on SpaceshipChapter 4 · FiancéChapter 5 · Wild one Tastes betterChapter 6 · Cousin, Zhou MoChapter 7 · Wedding DressChapter 8 · Wedding Hall disputeChapter 9 · Marshal Fainted!Chapter 10 · CATNIP!Chapter 11 · His Pheromone is Catnip!Chapter 12 · The show beginsChapter 13 · He likes me!Chapter 14 · He is crazy!Chapter 15 · Auditorium, I brought it. Do you like it?Chapter 16 · Only I can bite your lipsChapter 17 · Wei Qing grabbed his wristChapter 18 · Your posture just now was perfect for kissingChapter 19 · This is… Wei Qing’s leopard?Chapter 20 · Let’s do what newlyweds should do.Chapter 21 · Release your pheromones and overwhelm meChapter 22 · Zhou Younan, I miss you.Chapter 23 · The promise to bite your lip isn’t just for yesterdayChapter 24 · You beast! You enormous beastChapter 25 · My patience is almost at its limitChapter 26 · Touch Wei San? Pluck its feathers?Chapter 27 · Doesn’t Wei Qing like you a lot?Chapter 28 · You’re the dog, your whole family are dogsChapter 29 · How did things turn out like this?!Chapter 30 · Zhou Younan, I love everything about youChapter 31 · Cheetahs do react to catnip.Chapter 32 · Second PrinceChapter 33 · Immersed in the fluffy touchChapter 34 · What can you do to help if you stay?Chapter 35 · Sand WormChapter 36 · I gave Wei Qing a capsuleChapter 37 · His vulnerable period has arrivedChapter 38 · Reason has long since been burned awayChapter 39 · I can’t believe I did that! I’m insane!Chapter 40 · The person I want to protect is my wifeChapter 41 · Zhou Younan, you can only be mineChapter 42 · Until the last star in the universe is annihilated.Chapter 43 · The light in Wei Qing’s eyes dimmed.Chapter 44 · Family?Chapter 45 · The green capsule was in his palmChapter 46 · Zhou Younan was filled with fearChapter 47 · Brother won’t abandon youChapter 48 · What a piece of trash!Chapter 49 · Zhou Younan, are you looking at me?Chapter 50 · Zhou Younan feared Xu QiChapter 51 · Zhou Younan, you’re such a foolChapter 52 · You really don’t want to marry me?Chapter 53 · My braceletChapter 54 · Zhou Younan, I can’t mark youChapter 55 · A symbol of brotherhoodChapter 56 · How old are you?Chapter 57 · Abnormal!Chapter 58 · Did you give Wei Qing the capsules from the tin box?Chapter 59 · Brother, I’ve made up my mindChapter 60 · Doing things for you is my wishChapter 61 · You’re the first person I’ve ever liked, Wei Qing.Chapter 62 · Childhood sweetheartChapter 63 · He can’t live without youChapter 64 · Teacher RigenChapter 65 · Were they running togetherChapter 66 · You two kidnappersChapter 67 · GiftChapter 68 · Don’t look back, just carry onChapter 69 · Maurice Jin is already a thing of the past for meChapter 70 · I finally found youChapter 71 · Who’s your wife?Chapter 72 · How would he interpret his leaving?Chapter 73 · Wei Qing was Wei San?Chapter 74 · Maurice Jin had been assassinated?!Chapter 75 · Turn your face towards the sunChapter 76 · Wei Qing’s eyes were brightChapter 77 · Pheromones are a double edged swordChapter 78 · Don’t stareChapter 79 · He’s the Empire’s MarshalChapter 80 · So WeakChapter 81 · Are you alright?Chapter 82 · Was he really that kind of person?Chapter 83 · He remembered his forgotten goalsChapter 84 · Come on, shoot me in the heartChapter 85 · Why are you unhappy again when I touch you?Chapter 86 · Don’t you even like me anymore?Chapter 87 · Wei Qing transformed into Wei San.Chapter 88 · I’ll give you my love, and I’ll give you my lifeChapter 89 · Just do it for me, okay?Chapter 90 · Don’t bother me until you explain clearlyChapter 91 · I want to stop your time when you still love meChapter 92 · Damn it! Zhou Younan! You just waitChapter 93 · From the very beginning, I had no choiceChapter 94 · From the very beginning, I had no choiceChapter 95 · A gunshot rang outChapter 96 · I grew up in the research instituteChapter 97 · You complete liar! You’re despicableChapter 98 · You will always be the only one in my heartChapter 99 · You are actually the same as meChapter 100 · Zhou Younan, I’m leavingChapter 101 · How could a big cat possibly resist the allure of catnip?Chapter 102 · The EndChapter 103 · Extra: 1