She only knew that the man kept whispering “just one last time” in her ear, over and over again—but after one time, there was always another. Qiu Zheng couldn’t help but think: was that really candy he ate? Or was he on something?
Qiu Zheng finally woke up when Wen Yan was no longer beside her.
There was the sound of running water in the bathroom. She sat up—fortunately, her body felt relatively clean. Not wasting time, she struggled to get up.
Aside from exhaustion, she was starving.
She really didn’t want to stay any longer in this room where she couldn’t tell day from night. So, while Wen Yan was still in the bathroom, she quickly got herself ready.
Just as she was about to leave, there was a click—the bathroom door opened.
Qiu Zheng saw Wen Yan, wearing nothing but a towel. His upper body was bare, and droplets of water fell intermittently from his still-wet hair.
The visual impact froze her for a moment, making her forget to look away.
Only when Wen Yan stepped out did she snap back to her senses, hurriedly retreating a few steps toward the door, ready to leave at any moment.
“I have something to do, so I need to… go first.”
Wen Yan walked to the wardrobe without lookingat her. “The food should be at the door.”
“Eat before you leave.”
Qiu Zheng had intended to refuse.
But she was hungry—really hungry. Especially after opening the door and smelling the food on the cart, she decided that no matter what, she’d eat first.
In her original world, for a suite like this, staff would’ve already pushed the dining cart inside.
But in this world, because of pheromones, privacy was taken very seriously. Staff would only enter after the room had been ventilated.
So when Qiu Zheng pushed the cart in, she turned on the ventilation system.
Even though she couldn’t smell pheromones, the air did feel fresher.
Just as she was about to set the table, Wen Yan came out, already dressed.
“So fast?” she blurted out.
It really was fast—she had only just pushed the cart in, and he was already fully dressed and presentable.
Wen Yan didn’t answer. After standing still for a moment, he turned toward the door and pressed something on the control panel. The ventilation system shut off.
“It’s noisy,” he said.
There was indeed some sound when it was running, though it was already quite quiet compared to what Qiu Zheng had at home.
She didn’t mind. After all, she couldn’t smell anything anyway. No point trying to understand a rich man’s preferences.
Wen Yan walked over and helped her set out the dishes.
This time, he ate with her. His movements were slow and refined. Qiu Zheng couldn’t be bothered to watch—so pretentious. She was starving and devoured her food.
Maybe influenced by her, Wen Yan seemed to speed up a little, even reaching his chopsticks toward dishes in front of her.
“Nothing happened during this time, right?” he asked.
Qiu Zheng, mouth full, shook her head.
“Next time I message you,” Wen Yan said after a moment’s thought, “reply to me. It’ll help me understand better.”
Qiu Zheng glanced at him, a bit confused. It didn’t seem like a big deal, so she nodded and gave a muffled “mm.”
The man’s expression softened slightly. He put down his chopsticks and, from the suit jacket he had thrown on the sofa yesterday, took out a box.
“A gift.”
Qiu Zheng was stunned.
After a year of marriage, this was the first gift she had received from her husband. An anniversary gift? No—that wasn’t right, it hadn’t even been a full year yet.
As she continued eating, her eyes stayed fixed on the elegant-looking box. She was just thinking about how to refuse when Wen Yan added, “You’ll be going back to the family home. You shouldn’t look too shabby.”
So it was for appearances.
Now she couldn’t really refuse. After thinking it over, she accepted it. “Thank you.”
She slipped it into her pocket, finished eating, and left immediately—afraid that if she lingered, she might not be able to leave at all.
The man who remained sat on the sofa for a long time without moving. Perhaps because of the faint restlessness in his heart, he took out a cigarette—but as soon as the smell spread, he quickly stubbed it out.
His phone rang. It was his assistant.
After discussing work matters, the assistant asked, “Professor Wen, since you’ve returned, should we clean up the villa?”
Wen Yan had a strong sense of territory—anyone entering his villa, even for cleaning, required permission.
He thought for a moment. “No rush. I’ll stay at the hotel for the next couple of days.”
The assistant was about to hang up after receiving his answer when he suddenly heard Wen Yan ask, “Under what circumstances would someone have no reaction to my pheromones?”
The assistant froze.
“Huh? That shouldn’t be possible, right?”
Everyone knew that as an elite alpha, Wen Yan’s pheromones were top-tier—even among alphas, they had a suppressive effect.
It was just that he personally despised using pheromones to influence others.
“Could it be some kind of pheromone perception defect? Like… no reaction at all?”
Wen Yan thought about the way Qiu Zheng occasionally looked dazed when staring at him. “There’s some reaction, but not much.”
“Then…”
The assistant had no answer. Wen Yan hadn’t expected one either. After hanging up, he remained seated on the sofa in the same position.
Although the ventilation system had been on briefly, it hadn’t been long enough. The mixed scent of male and female pheromones still lingered in the room.
He had rented this suite long-term, so quite a few of his personal belongings were there. After a while, Wen Yan took out a notebook from a fingerprint-locked cabinet.
The title was written on the first page:
“100% Anti-O Manual”
Flipping it open revealed a list.
Normally, lists had checkmarks. His, however, had several striking red Xs.
Because these weren’t things to do—but things he must not do.
Holding a pen, his gaze moved down the page.
“Don’t stare at her for more than 20 seconds ×
Don’t hold hands ×
Don’t hug ×
Don’t have sex ×
Don’t kiss ×”
One X after another—like retreating lines of defense.
Finally, his gaze stopped on the last line:
“Don’t give her gifts”
He stared at it for a long time, then picked up the pen and drew another X.
As soon as he finished, his brows furrowed with regret.
He really… shouldn’t have.
Qiu Zheng checked the time.
What a beast. It had already been a full day since she came here.
No wonder she was so hungry.
Oh no—her novel. She’d missed an update.
Qiu Zheng’s profession was an online writer. It had been her job before she transmigrated, and afterward, as someone without legal status, it was the only thing she could do.
The past two years… well, no point dwelling on it. If things had gone well, she wouldn’t have agreed to this marriage contract.
In short, after resolving her legal status through the marriage, she had only gotten back on track in the past six months. Regardless of how many readers she had, she was a proper daily-updating author.
And now she’d missed an update… She felt like dying.
She opened her backend. No one cared… Now she felt even worse.
Sigh. Since it’s already happened, I might as well stockpile chapters.
Qiu Zheng wasn’t someone who enjoyed socializing. And in this strange world of pheromones and heat cycles, everything felt dangerous to her.
Before marrying Wen Yan, she hadn’t even had legal status.
Debuffs stacked on top of each other had turned her into something of a homebody.
Generally, after meeting Wen Yan, they wouldn’t see each other again for quite some time. So she planned to take this opportunity to stock up on supplies and stay indoors for a while.
Back at her apartment building, she parked and carried several large bags upstairs.
It was an old building with no elevator. Fortunately, her unit wasn’t too high—fifth floor. This probably counted as her exercise for the week. Speaking of exercise… ah! Qiu Zheng mentally wailed and quickly pushed those inappropriate thoughts out of her mind.
She carried her things upstairs. There was quite a lot, making it a bit difficult, but not impossible.
Renovation started again on the sixth floor today. The higher she climbed, the louder and more piercing the noise became—though she was gradually getting used to it.
Qiu Zheng entered her fifth-floor apartment.
“Phew~”
As the door closed, she let out a long breath, feeling like she had returned to a safe zone.
She set down her things and went to wash her hands. Looking up at her reflection in the mirror, she brushed her loose hair aside, revealing her neck.
Qiu Zheng’s skin was very fair—the kind that stood out in a crowd. Now, her neck was covered in bluish-purple marks.
Especially around the gland area—densely marked.
If she even had such a thing.
She rubbed at them, but it was useless, so she let her hair fall back down.
Her mood… was hard to describe. But she didn’t have time to dwell on it. She was busy—organizing her groceries, tidying up her apartment after two days of neglect, and making up for yesterday’s missed update.
Whether anyone read it or not, she had to maintain a proper work attitude.
It wasn’t until she was lying in bed at night that she suddenly remembered something she had forgotten.
She turned on the light, got up, and found the coat she had worn earlier, which she hadn’t yet washed.
Wen Yan’s gift was still inside.
She carefully opened it.
Inside was a gold necklace, with a delicately designed irregular circular pendant.
Her first reaction was, of course, liking it. It was hard for anyone to resist such a gift.
But after a moment, a deeper sense of unease crept in.
Back then, she had agreed to the marriage mainly to secure her legal status. At the start of their contract marriage, Wen Yan had given her a sum of money.
It wasn’t as exaggeratedly large as in novels, but it wasn’t small either—enough for a struggling writer like her to get by for a while.
She was someone who prepared for the worst, so she had saved most of it.