As soon as Xie Ren finished speaking, Sikong Nian’s fists clenched again.
“Get out.”
The word was forced through gritted teeth, soft but filled with unmistakable threat.
“Go ask Fu Yuan for suppressants.”
Xie Ren raised an eyebrow, leaning lazily against the doorframe.
His pheromones had mostly receded by now, the scent of Bloody Mary so faint it was almost imperceptible.
Yet the oppressive aura of a top-tier Alpha still lingered faintly in the air.
He glanced at Sikong Nian, the corner of his mouth lifting into an ambiguous smile.
“No need,” he said. “I’ve already made it through my rut period.”
Sikong Nian froze.
He stared at Xie Ren for a few seconds, his eyes filled with suspicion.
For a top-tier Alpha, a rut period typically lasted at least three to five days.
Even with the best suppressants, it took at least two days to subside.
How long had it been since Xie Ren’s episode started?
A little over two hours?
Three hours?
How could it possibly be over so quickly?
“?” Sikong Nian didn’t speak, but the rising inflection in his tone conveyed all his doubts.
Xie Ren’s face suddenly flushed.
It wasn’t a blush of shyness, but more like the unease of having something exposed—a hint of guilt.
He turned his head away, his gaze involuntarily drifting toward Sikong Sui.
Then he quickly looked back, the tips of his ears tinged with a faint pink.
“Her Highness Suisui and I have a compatibility rate…”
His voice suddenly dropped, so low it seemed meant only for himself, “…almost close to one hundred percent.”
Sikong Nian’s expression froze.
As the heir of the Sikong family, he knew all too well what a compatibility rate close to one hundred percent meant.
In the ABO world, a pheromone compatibility rate of sixty percent was considered acceptable, seventy percent was excellent, and anything above eighty percent was a match made in heaven—one in ten thousand.
But close to one hundred percent? That was something that existed only in theoretical data, except for…
A top-tier SSS Alpha and a top-tier SSS Omega, with a compatibility rate close to one hundred percent.
Sikong Nian slowly turned to look at his sister.
Sikong Sui was still sitting on the bed, bare feet resting on the floor, her prestigious Imperial Academy uniform crumpled on her body, her hair cascading over her shoulders.
She looked small, obedient, like a well-behaved kitten.
The temporary mark on her neck glimmered faintly under the light.
The scents of Bloody Mary and peach pheromones blended perfectly on her, like a carefully crafted perfume.
A top-tier SSS Omega.
The only one in the entire nation.
No, it would be more accurate to say there wasn’t a second one in the entire world.
Even top-tier S Omegas were rare enough to make major families fight tooth and nail for them.
But an SSS Omega? That was beyond rare.
Omegas were rarer than Alphas, as only they could bear the next generation of AO bloodlines and carry on a family’s legacy.
And an SSS Omega meant that every child she bore would be a top-tier Alpha or Omega, ensuring a family’s prosperity for the next century.
Sikong Nian’s gaze softened.
He watched Sikong Sui’s two small feet stepping barefoot on the cold floor.
On the pale skin of her feet, there was still a faint red mark left from the earlier chaos, her toes round and adorable.
Suddenly, he felt a slight sting in his nose.
Lately, his little sister had become so well-behaved.
The little tyrant who used to argue with him, throw things, and do all sorts of mischief—the one everyone disliked—was gone.
In her place was this sister who would smile at him, hold his hand, and softly call him “brother.”
He didn’t know what had changed her.
Perhaps it was the maturity brought by differentiation, or maybe it was something else.
But whatever it was, he was grateful.
Sikong Nian silently vowed in his heart: he would protect her well.
“Even though your rut period is over,” Sikong Nian snapped out of his thoughts and looked at Xie Ren, his tone leaving no room for argument, “you still can’t stay here.”
He pointed toward the door. “Take your luggage and get out. Go back to staying next to me.”
Xie Ren’s face immediately fell. “Your pheromones smell terrible. I don’t want to. It’s fine here.”
He even took half a step closer to Sikong Sui.
Sikong Nian’s temple twitched twice.
Sikong Sui glanced at the tense standoff between the two and couldn’t help but try to mediate. “Brother, it’s fine. If Xie Ren wants to stay here—”
“No!”
Sikong Nian almost shouted. He took a deep breath, trying to sound less agitated.
But the effect was clearly lacking. “How can I rest easy with him staying here? He’s an assassin, and a top-tier Alpha at that. Are you trying to throw your life away?”
Xie Ren sneered. “If you keep pushing me, I’ll spill your secret! You old pervert!”
Those words were like a match thrown into a barrel of oil.
Sikong Nian’s pheromones exploded instantly.
The scents of cedar and cold iron surged toward Xie Ren like a tsunami, too fast to react.
Xie Ren instinctively released his pheromones in response. The scent of Bloody Mary clashed with Sikong Nian’s, producing a dull hum in the air.
Just as the two were about to clash again—
“Enough!”
Sikong Sui’s voice wasn’t loud, but the innate pheromone suppression of an SSS-ranked Omega was displayed to its fullest in that moment.
Her voice was like an invisible blade, cleanly slicing through the tense atmosphere between the two Alphas.
“If you want to fight, take it outside! Don’t wreck my house!”
The room fell silent for a full three seconds.
Xie Ren and Sikong Nian simultaneously withdrew their pheromones.
One leaned against the doorframe, turning his head away; the other stood in place, rubbing his temple.
Two top-tier Alphas, scolded by a newly differentiated Omega like misbehaving schoolchildren, neither daring to say another word.
Xie Ren was the first to turn around. He picked up his luggage bag, which he had tossed by the door, and walked without looking back toward the guest room at the other end of the hallway.
He wasn’t leaving.
The sound of the door closing echoed, and the hallway returned to silence.
Sikong Nian stood at the entrance to Sikong Sui’s room, looking at her.
Sikong Sui looked back at him. A few steps separated them, and neither spoke first.
In the end, it was Sikong Nian who moved first.
He walked into the room and knelt down in front of Sikong Sui.
From under the bed, he retrieved her slippers and slipped them, one by one, onto her cold little feet.
His movements were gentle and slow, as if handling some fragile treasure.
Sikong Sui looked down at the whirl of hair on the top of his head, watching his slender fingers pinch her slippers to help her put them on. A vague, indescribable emotion suddenly welled up in her heart.
“Little sister.”
Sikong Nian stood up, looking down at her, his voice low and serious. “Don’t let anyone know you’re a top-tier Omega, understand?”
Sikong Sui nodded.
She took a step forward and hugged him.
Her face buried in his chest, she caught the faint, faint scent of cedar on him, suppressed by the suppressant.
His body stiffened for a moment, then one hand slowly rose and gently landed on the back of her head.
Sikong Sui closed her eyes.
This was in the book, yet she truly felt a sense of closeness to Sikong Nian.
Whether it was for the purpose of returning home or because of Sikong Nian’s genuine kindness toward her, her nose felt a little sour at this moment.
“Brother.”
Her voice came muffled from his chest. “It was all my fault before, always being unreasonable and throwing tantrums.”
Sikong Nian’s hand paused.
“I won’t do that anymore,” she said. “From now on, I’ll listen to you obediently and never cause trouble again.”
Her pheromones unconsciously leaked a trace with these words.
The pheromones of an SSS-level top-tier Omega were no joke.
Just that tiny trace was like a gentle breeze carrying the scent of peaches, lightly brushing past her.
The veins on Sikong Nian’s forehead began to bulge.
That scent was too pure, so pure that it almost overwhelmed the instincts of a top-tier Alpha.
He suddenly understood why Xie Ren had lost control.
As the empire’s number one assassin, Xie Ren’s willpower and self-control were among the very best.
But in the face of an SSS-level Omega’s pheromones, those things were as fragile as paper.
It wasn’t that Xie Ren wasn’t strong enough—it was that his little sister was simply too powerful.
Sikong Nian took a deep breath, using all his self-control to suppress that restlessness.
He gently pushed Sikong Sui away, holding her shoulders with both hands, lowering his head to look into her eyes, forcing a somewhat strained smile at the corner of his mouth.
“Good girl.”
His voice was a bit hoarse.
Sikong Nian released one hand, rummaged in his pocket, and pulled out a small communicator, handing it to her. “I’ll help you prepare suppressants. Your gland has just differentiated and isn’t fully mature yet. You need to be careful around all Alphas, understand?”
Sikong Sui took the communicator, looked up at him, her eyes filled with an innocent curiosity. “Including you, brother?”
Sikong Nian paused.
Looking into his sister’s clear, bottomless eyes, he suddenly felt this question was even harder to handle than her pheromones.
He opened his mouth, wanting to say “not including,” wanting to say “brother is different,” but the words caught in his throat.
Because he knew—he truly was different.
Every generation of the Sikong family would differentiate into one supreme Alpha and one supreme Omega.
This was a destiny written in their bloodline.
A law carved into their genes over thousands of years.
The purpose was clear: to ensure that the Alpha-Omega bloodline combined in each generation was the purest.
To ensure that the Sikong family’s heirs would always overpower other aristocratic families in pheromone rank.
This was the foundation upon which the Sikong family had stood for thousands of years.
The core secret that allowed them to remain unshakable in the power landscape of the ABO world.
And he and Sikong Sui were the top-tier Alpha and Omega of this generation.
The pheromonal attraction between them was an instinct that nothing could completely suppress.
Their compatibility was a true 100%.
“Including brother,” Sikong Nian said, his voice low and firm, as if speaking to himself.
Sikong Sui looked at him and suddenly smiled.
That smile was sweet and warm. She leaned in a little closer, her eyes sparkling with a bright gleam: “Brother is the best to me, I will definitely help brother win over Fu Yuan!”
Sikong Nian was stunned: “?”
“I know it’s hard for brother to pretend to be an Omega for love!” Sikong Sui said with righteous confidence, as if this were the most natural thing in the world.
Sikong Nian’s smile froze on his face.
…
He stood there, like a statue that had been struck motionless, his mind buzzing.
His sister knew.
She knew he was an Alpha, knew he was pretending to be an Omega.
But clearly, she knew more than that. She knew he liked Fu Yuan, knew he was willing to disguise himself as an Omega just to get close to Fu Yuan.
Sikong Nian’s palms began to sweat.
His sister had discovered he was a gay Alpha.
How would she see him?
Would she think he was disgusting?
Would she think her brother was a pervert?