Sikong Sui’s heart skipped a beat.
“…Yes.”
Xie Ren fell silent for a moment.
Then he smiled.
The smile was faint, so faint it was almost imperceptible, but something flickered in his eyes—like a match struck in the darkness, gone in an instant.
“Alright.”
That was all he said before heading upstairs.
Sikong Sui stood where she was, watching his back disappear around the corner of the staircase.
The housekeeper was still cheerfully tidying the blankets nearby, completely unaware that anything was amiss.
But Sikong Sui could sense it.
Xie Ren’s tone just now had been off.
A shiver ran down Sikong Sui’s spine.
[Ding! System Notification: Xie Ren’s Favorability -10 → -1. Reason for Change: Unknown.]
“Unknown?”
Sikong Sui cursed inwardly. “What do you mean, unknown?”
[Target Xie Ren’s emotional response is complex. The system is temporarily unable to analyze it. It is recommended that the Host remain vigilant.]
Sikong Sui took a deep breath and looked at the tightly closed door on the second floor.
Next door.
Her room and Xie Ren’s room were separated by only a single wall.
Tonight, she would be sleeping just a wall away from a Rut Period Alpha, a ruthless killer with negative favorability toward her.
“System.”
[Here.]
“Can I request a room change?”
[No.]
“…”
Sikong Sui closed her eyes.
Xie Ren—she still didn’t even know why he had disliked her from the start.
In the middle of the night, Sikong Sui was jolted awake by an overwhelming wave of Pheromones.
Not just overwhelming—it felt oppressive.
Like a mountain pressing down on her chest, making it hard to breathe, impossible to move, and even opening her eyes required immense effort.
She sat up abruptly, her first thought being that someone was releasing Pheromones.
And not just ordinary Pheromones.
The scent in the air was sweet, sickeningly sweet.
But beneath the sweetness lurked a cold, razor-sharp chill that seemed to slice into her skin.
Bloody Mary.
Xie Ren.
Sikong Sui threw off the covers and rushed out of her room.
In the hallway, the Pheromones were even stronger, so thick they were almost visible to the naked eye.
A faint, reddish mist, like a haze of blood, drifted slowly under the dim corridor lights.
She walked up to Xie Ren’s door and raised her hand to knock, but hesitated, her hand hovering in mid-air.
[System Notification: Detected severe Pheromone loss of control in target Xie Ren during Rut Period. As the Host has not yet undergone Differentiation, exposure to high concentrations of Alpha Pheromones may trigger…]
The system’s words were cut short.
Sikong Sui had already pushed the door open.
The scene inside the room was worse than she had imagined.
Xie Ren was curled up on the bed, trembling violently.
His entire body was convulsing, every muscle contracting uncontrollably.
Pheromones surged from him like a tidal wave, one wave after another, endless.
Sikong Sui stood at the doorway, nearly knocked off her feet by the force of the Pheromones.
“Xie Ren!” she called out.
Xie Ren didn’t respond.
His eyes were closed, his eyelashes trembling violently, his lips moving but making no sound.
Sikong Sui’s heart clenched.
She walked over, knelt by the bed, and reached out to touch his forehead.
Burning.
Unbelievably hot.
“Xie Ren, can you hear me?” She patted his cheek. “Where are your Suppressants?”
Xie Ren’s eyes finally cracked open slightly.
Those eyes were red.
The ruptured capillaries caused by the pheromone overload left his eyes bloodshot, making him look like a beast on the brink of death.
He stared at her, his pupils trembling violently as if trying to recognize who she was.
Then he spoke.
His voice was so hoarse it was almost inaudible: “…Get out.”
“Where is your suppressant?”
“Get out!” He suddenly lunged, shoving Sikong Sui away.
Sikong Sui stumbled backward, her back slamming against the wall. The pain made her gasp sharply.
Xie Ren braced himself against the edge of the bed, panting heavily as another wave of pheromones erupted, thickening the bloody mist in the air.
“I told you… to get out…”
His voice trembled, but his tone was commanding. “I’m in my rut period… you’re undifferentiated… you’ll be…”
He didn’t finish.
Sikong Sui understood.
He was afraid of hurting her.
When a top-tier Alpha loses control during their rut period, their pheromones exert a suppressive effect on everyone around them.
For Alphas, it’s suppression; for Omegas, it’s arousal; for undifferentiated individuals, it can trigger premature differentiation or even cause permanent gland damage.
Xie Ren was surprisingly considerate, using what little remained of his rationality to protect her.
In the original story, Xie Ren was a madman, an assassin.
But now, he was pushing her away with all his strength, simply because he didn’t want to harm her. In that case, she wouldn’t stand by and watch him suffer.
“Where is the suppressant?” she asked, her voice firmer than before.
Xie Ren gritted his teeth and remained silent.
Sikong Sui scanned the room and noticed several syringes and empty suppressant bottles scattered on the nightstand.
She picked them up, examined them, then looked at the dense cluster of needle marks on Xie Ren’s arm.
Her pupils contracted.
Those needle marks weren’t from today.
Some were old and scabbed over, while others were fresh and still oozing blood.
“Have you… developed a resistance to suppressants?” Sikong Sui’s voice tightened slightly.
Xie Ren didn’t answer.
But his silence was answer enough.
Sikong Sui took a deep breath, quickly recalling the world’s ABO hierarchy from the original story.
In this world, the ABO ranks, from lowest to highest, were: E, D, C, B, A, S, SS, SSS.
The vast majority of people fell between B and A rank.
S rank and above were considered top-tier, with fewer than a hundred individuals nationwide.
SS rank was exceedingly rare, countable on one hand.
And SSS rank… existed only in legends.
Their pheromone concentration was over a hundred times that of an S rank, with suppression power strong enough to control hundreds of Alphas simultaneously.
And Xie Ren was a top-tier Alpha of SSS rank.
For an SSS-rank Alpha’s rut period, suppressants were already largely ineffective.
Moreover, having been raised as an assassin by the Xie family since childhood, his long-term excessive use of suppressants had caused his body to develop severe resistance.
Now, the only suppressants that worked for him were either military-grade enhanced versions or banned drugs circulating on the black market.
But even the enhanced versions were gradually losing their effectiveness.
And as for compatibility…
Pheromone compatibility was an indicator measuring how well an Alpha’s and an Omega’s pheromones aligned.
The higher the compatibility, the more harmonious their pheromones, effectively alleviating the Alpha’s rut period and the Omega’s heat cycle.
Theoretically, a compatibility rate above 60% was considered a good match, while above 80% was a perfect pairing.
But Xie Ren’s pheromones were too unique: Bloody Mary.
A cloying sweetness tinged with the scent of rust, intensely aggressive, with extremely poor compatibility.
Across the entire nation, there wasn’t a single Omega whose compatibility with him exceeded 10%.
So every time his Rut Period hit, he had no choice but to endure it on his own.
Enduring it meant curling up in bed, bearing the excruciating pain that spread throughout his body from the loss of control over his Pheromones, enduring the hallucination of his bones being crushed inch by inch and then reassembled, suffering through three days and nights of torment, and then losing half his life in the process.
Sikong Sui recalled the description of Xie Ren’s Rut Period in the original novel, which consisted of only one sentence: “He writhed in a pool of blood like a snake stripped of its skin.”
When she first read that line, she only thought the author’s writing was vivid.
Now, seeing it with her own eyes, she found it terrifying…
“Xie Ren.” Sikong Sui crouched down, meeting his gaze at eye level. “Do you still have any enhanced Suppressants?”
Xie Ren’s breathing was heavy, each breath carrying a sound like tearing.
“Useless…”
“Even if… I use them… they’re useless…”
Sikong Sui: “Whether they’re useful or not, we’ll find out after you use them.”
Xie Ren lifted his bloodshot eyes to look at her.
His gaze was complex. “…Why…”
“Why what?”
“Why… aren’t you running?” His voice was soft, so soft it was almost a whisper to himself. “Everyone… runs… you should… run too…”
Sikong Sui was taken aback. “If I run, who’s going to find Suppressants for you?”
Xie Ren’s pupils trembled slightly.
Sikong Sui didn’t pay him any more mind and turned to rummage through his luggage.
Inside the black leather suitcase, aside from a few pieces of clothing, were rows of neatly arranged syringes—all Suppressants.
She picked one up and checked the label. It was a military-grade enhanced version, with a dosage five times that of a regular Suppressant.
She removed the needle’s protective cap and walked back to the bedside.
“Give me your arm.”
Xie Ren didn’t move.
He looked at her, at the syringe in her hand, at the clear liquid gently swaying inside the needle.
His lips trembled. “Aren’t you… afraid?”
Sikong Sui looked up. “Afraid of what?”
“I’m… a killer.”
When he said those two words, his voice carried self-mockery, bitterness, and an indescribable sense of anticipation. “I’ve killed people, many of them. Aren’t you afraid I…”
“Xie Ren.” Sikong Sui interrupted him.
She set the syringe aside and reached out to cup his face, checking his condition.
His skin was thin, so thin that the blue veins beneath were visible.
“You’ve killed people, I know.”
“But right now, you’re not a killer. You’re Xie Ren, the heir of the Xie family, my classmate, and my brother’s good friend.”
“Now, give me your arm.”
Xie Ren didn’t speak but slowly extended his left arm.
Sikong Sui took his wrist, turned it over, revealing the densely packed needle marks on the inner side.
Her fingers gently brushed over the overlapping old and new wounds, her movements light, as if afraid of hurting him.
Then she found a relatively undamaged patch of skin, disinfected it, inserted the needle, and pushed the medication in.
Her movements were clean and precise.
Xie Ren let out a muffled groan, his brow furrowed tightly, but he didn’t pull away.
As the liquid in the syringe was slowly pushed in, Sikong Sui withdrew the needle and pressed a cotton ball against the puncture site.
“Hold it there.”
Xie Ren didn’t move.
Sikong Sui sighed and pressed it herself.
The room fell silent for a few seconds.
The Suppressant hadn’t taken effect yet, and the Pheromones in the air remained as thick and palpable as ever.
But Xie Ren’s breathing seemed to have steadied a bit, whether due to the medication or some other reason.
“Sikong Sui,” he suddenly spoke.
“Hmm?”
“Do you know… what you were just doing?”
Sikong Sui looked up at him.
Xie Ren’s eyes were still red, but most of that beast-like madness had faded.
“I was giving you a suppressant,” Sikong Sui said, puzzled.
“You were approaching a top-tier Alpha in rut.”
Sikong Sui’s hand paused slightly.
She suddenly realized a problem.
She hadn’t differentiated yet.
But an undifferentiated person, exposed to a top-tier Alpha’s rut pheromones for so long…
“System,” she called out in her mind.
[Here.]
“Is it possible… I might differentiate early?”
The system fell silent for a second.
[Host currently exposed to SSS-level Alpha rut pheromones. Concentration has exceeded the safety threshold. Probability of differentiation induction: 99.3%. Estimated differentiation time:…]
Before the system’s prompt could finish, Sikong Sui’s body reacted first.
Sikong Sui: ?
A surge of heat suddenly rose from her lower abdomen.
Not the discomfort from being suppressed by Alpha pheromones earlier, but a more intense, burning sensation that seemed to seep from her very bones.
It was as if a fire had ignited inside her, scorching every nerve, every inch of skin, every cell.
Her knees went weak, and she pitched forward.
Xie Ren caught her.
His pheromones peaked at that moment—the scent of Bloody Mary so intense it was almost suffocating. The air turned thick and viscous, each breath feeling like drinking blood.
Sikong Sui’s consciousness began to blur.
She heard her own heartbeat, fast as pounding drums.
She heard Xie Ren’s heartbeat, right beside her ear, just as rapid.
She also heard another sound—something inside her body seemed to be responding to Xie Ren’s pheromones.
Then she smelled her own scent.
Peach.
Fresh, sweet, dewy peach, with a hint of creamy jasmine.
Intertwined with Xie Ren’s Bloody Mary, the sweetness grew sweeter, the pungency more pungent.
Like two colors that should never meet colliding, yet unexpectedly harmonious.
Only one thought crossed Sikong Sui’s mind…
It’s over.
Differentiated.
She had differentiated.
Differentiated early.
[Ding! System notification: Host has completed differentiation. Gender: Omega. Level: SSS. Pheromones: Creamy Jasmine Peach.]
[Host Sikong Sui (SSS-level Omega, Creamy Jasmine Peach) and target Xie Ren (SSS-level Alpha, Bloody Mary) pheromone compatibility is—]
[99.97%.]
[Warning: Host is currently in the early stages of a heat cycle and exposed to SSS-level Alpha rut pheromones. Immediate action is recommended…]
Before the system’s prompt could finish, Xie Ren’s pheromones surged again.
This time, it wasn’t loss of control.
It was a response.
His pheromones coiled around hers like a serpent—entwining, intertwining, devouring, claiming…
Sikong Sui’s mind went completely blank at that moment, all reason drowned by instinct.
She heard Xie Ren’s voice, coming from somewhere far away, hoarse, trembling, filled with disbelief: “Sikong Sui, you… you’re actually…”
An Omega.
SSS-level top-tier Omega.
A once-in-a-century rarity.