Yang Qian did not answer. He merely poured all of his passion into responding to Shao Yiqing in the most extreme ways. In truth, he knew that a person like Shao Yiqing would never hold a place for him in his heart; at most, he was someone to be admired at a glance before being promptly forgotten.
There was an insurmountable chasm between them. Back when Yang Qian had not yet understood what love was, Shao Yiqing had already conceived and nurtured life with another person.
Yang Qian could not picture what Shao Yiqing looked like when he fell hopelessly in love. He seemed utterly incapable of it, sparing Yang Qian a shred of tenderness only during his rut. Yet even so, Yang Qian still could not gracefully pull himself away. He still desperately wanted Shao Yiqing, desperately wanted a stable future with him, and loved him so deeply that he could even love a child of Shao Yiqing’s who was only a few years younger than himself.
Yet, despite going to such lengths, he could not receive any differential treatment from Shao Yiqing. Consequently, Yang Qian could not help but fantasize: What kind of person could attract Shao Yiqing? What kind of person could make him willingly step into marriage and bear children for him? He envied that person so intensely that it bordered on jealousy.
Yang Qian felt as though he were losing his mind. He thought of Shao Yiqing during class, thought of him after class, and thought of him while dining with classmates; his mind was consumed by Shao Yiqing every waking second. At his age, blessed with such striking looks and exceptional academic achievements, the number of high-quality Omegas crossing his path was overwhelming. Yet he couldn’t muster an ounce of interest in any of them, or rather, encountering Shao Yiqing had cast every other Omega in his life into utter shadow.
He was in the prime of his youth, yet he was so infatuated with an Omega who offered no possibility of an outcome. Without even waiting for the moment of separation, Yang Qian felt profoundly unsatisfied simply holding the man in his arms right now.
“Your pheromones are leaking out.” Yang Qian buried his face in the crook of Shao Yiqing’s neck. He rarely caught the scent of Shao Yiqing’s pheromones; was it because he couldn’t restrain himself during this rut, or because this was their final time and the man was pitying him? A flurry of thoughts drifted through Yang Qian’s mind.
“Do you like it?” Shao Yiqing’s damp strands of hair clung to his forehead, his body beginning to sweat as his eyes shone with moisture.
“I like it,” Yang Qian pressed close to Shao Yiqing’s neck, murmuring with desperate attachment, “Little Uncle smells so sweet.”
Fearing he would never smell it again, he inhaled deeply, taking in more, and yet more, as if carving this scent into his very spiritual core.
Shao Yiqing loathed releasing his pheromones, and the blockers he used achieved a ninety percent blocking effect. This was partly because, moving among numerous Alphas, he had no desire to expose his scent to outsiders. Furthermore, pheromones easily provoked emotional fluctuations, and to him, most Alphas were far too inferior; catching even a whiff of his scent would warp their minds, one second they were discussing serious business, and the next they were prying into his romantic affairs.
Any creature whose emotions could be so easily manipulated was utterly tedious.
As for why he refrained from releasing pheromones in front of Yang Qian, it was because their pheromones didn’t blend well together, mingling into a bizarre odor that Shao Yiqing thoroughly disliked. Meanwhile, Yang Qian had a habit of releasing his pheromones, or perhaps he was simply too young, too easily influenced, and incapable of controlling his own scent. Whenever they spent time together, even the collar ring couldn’t stop Yang Qian’s pheromones from growing increasingly dense. While Shao Yiqing could tolerate the scent of Baileys Irish Cream, once it grew overwhelmingly thick, he lost his taste for it entirely.
In his youth, countless top-tier Alphas had pursued him, and Shao Yiqing had witnessed plenty of unique and alluring scents. Thus, he held no special obsession toward anyone else’s pheromones. Moreover, lacking any marking bond with Yang Qian, pheromones held very little sway over him.
Yet at this moment, he still released his pheromones. Like a person soothing an injured puppy, he raised a hand to stroke Yang Qian’s face. His tone wasn’t that of a lover, but rather an elder, which, chronologically speaking, wasn’t incorrect either. Shao Yiqing asked, “Have you ever been to London?”
Yang Qian shook his head.
“Are you scared?” Shao Yiqing asked. “Going over alone.”
Yang Qian replied, “A little. I only heard that people abroad are very open, and I’m afraid I won’t be able to hold my ground.”
Foreign countries weren’t just open; they were downright uninhibited. Yang Qian had made substantial preparations, researching foreign lifestyle precautions and local customs. Most places strongly supported AA relationships, and his destination of London was no exception. AA pairings were the norm out there, which spoke volumes on its own.
Shao Yiqing remarked, “It’s far more savage than what we have here. Protect yourself; Alphas are dangerous out there too. If a drink leaves your sight, don’t touch it.”
“Is Little Uncle worried about me?” Yang Qian persisted. “Then why not accompany me there?”
“Still trying to persuade me?” Shao Yiqing patted Yang Qian’s cheek. “If you thought I was that soft-hearted, you’d have already left your seed in my belly by now.”
Were they considered intimate? Yes, how could sleeping in the same bed not be? Yet every single time, Yang Qian was blocked from fully and completely possessing Shao Yiqing; he couldn’t even dream of having a child with him.
He could never claim one hundred percent ownership of that territory, always separated by a barrier, just like their relationship.
Yang Qian gripped Shao Yiqing’s hand, clinging desperately to the post-coital tenderness. Even when listening to Shao Yiqing’s harsh words, he remained willingly intoxicated.
“How did the matter I entrusted to you turn out?” After venting, Shao Yiqing’s expression grew much clearer. The overhead light was somewhat dazzling, and he turned his head to look at Yang Qian’s handsome face.
“I’ve sorted it out,” Yang Qian said. “Three schools meet the criteria. I’ll hand you the documents tomorrow, and you can let him pick whichever he likes.”
Shao Yiqing reached out to touch Yang Qian’s forehead. “A little puppy trying to save the world.”
Yang Qian propped himself up on his forearms, staring intently at Shao Yiqing’s face for a long moment before complaining with dissatisfaction, “I don’t want to save the world. I only want to save myself.”
“Why did I have to meet you?” Yang Qian grumbled. “I don’t want to go to London at all now.”
“You’ll go,” Shao Yiqing said. “Because I’m not going to give you anything else.”
His tone was absolute and cruel.
Complex emotions flickered across Yang Qian’s gaze. He wanted to unearth a shred of reluctance or lingering affection from Shao Yiqing’s eyes, but he mined nothing. The man looked utterly indifferent; this play of falling into love seemed, from the very beginning, to be an obsession suffered by him alone.
A few days later, Yang Qian departed.
Shao Yiqing did not go to see him off that day. Yang Qian sent him numerous messages and placed several calls, saying he wanted to see him one last time before his flight. Shao Yiqing simply and coldly dismantled his phone, pulled out the SIM card, handed it to Deng Su, and instructed him to dispose of and completely destroy it.
Deng Su only had a superficial understanding of the people Shao Yiqing interacted with privately, but he knew of this Yang Qian, having caught sight of him on one or two occasions. He asked, “President Shao, do you have to be this ruthless?”
Shao Yiqing raised his eyes, fixing an impatient glare upon him. Recognizing that he had spoken out of turn, Deng Su immediately promised to handle it right away and hurried off with the SIM card.
Over the next couple of days, Shao Yiqing’s rut arrived. He didn’t go to the company, choosing instead to lie low at home while dismissing all domestic staff. He spent the entire duration of his rut in solitude. With Yang Qian gone, he was short a satisfying source of soothing comfort. Since it was inconvenient for him to go out searching during these two days, and frankly, he didn’t care to, he simply administered a few vials of suppressants to himself as a meager consolation.
He rarely used suppressants. Given his chaotic personal life, he never lacked an outlet for his desires, making suppressants entirely unnecessary. Sometimes, he couldn’t even tell who was actually in rut; the Alphas who tumbled with him during his cycle possessed stamina so boundless that Shao Yiqing didn’t need to utter a word, each of them brimming with relentless drive. God only knew who was actually soothing whom.
Some Alphas were overly high-strung, invariably leaving marks on his body, a privilege they dared claim solely because it was his rut. Otherwise, they wouldn’t dare harbor an ounce of audacity around Shao Yiqing.
Because Shao Yiqing forbade it.
In the past, some arrogant brute had attempted to mark Shao Yiqing while he was incapacitated during his rut, trying to forge a bond and permanently claim the Omega. Indeed, an Alpha had actually gone through with it. As for his end, there was no need for elaboration; in short, Shao Yiqing was a lunatic. He was ruthless to others and even more ruthless to himself. He checked into the operating room to surgically scrub away the mark, then utilized every resource and trick at his disposal to throw the culprit straight into prison.
Gathering evidence for verdicts involving such matters was notoriously difficult, but who was Shao Yiqing? If he wanted to bring someone to justice, he had no shortage of wits and methods. In short, ever since that incident leaked, no one ever dared harbor any wild ideas regarding Shao Yiqing’s scent glands again.
Shao Yiqing learned his lesson and avoided entangling himself with anyone during his ruts, until he met Yang Qian, someone he could fully control, whom he had summoned during a rut.
Now that Yang Qian was gone, and lacking any satisfying partner due to the abundance of tedious, uninteresting fools out there, he chose to tough out the rut on his own.
Unable to get in touch with Shao Yiqing, Xu Mingfu came to pay a visit over the next couple of days and discovered that Shao Yiqing was currently going through his rut. Catching the rich scent of tuberose pheromones filling the house, he was just about to leave when someone called out to him. Shao Yiqing detained him because he realized his battle-hardened body was simply too agonizing to comfort on its own.
He needed an Alpha’s pheromones, and coincidentally, he rather liked Xu Mingfu’s scent.
Xu Mingfu had come over voluntarily this time precisely because he felt that giving Shao Yiqing just that single round of recompense wasn’t quite fair. He came to repay his debt, believing that being utilized at least three times by Shao Yiqing would constitute a fair exchange. As for whether there were other motives or reasons, only Xu Mingfu himself knew.
Xu Mingfu stayed, taking the initiative to remove his collar ring because Shao Yiqing’s appearance looked truly indecorous.
The corners of his eyes were flushed red, his lips slightly parted, radiating a heavy air of seduction. Sitting on the sofa, his bare feet rested against the coffee table before him. He tilted his head back toward the ceiling, occasionally numbing his senses with nicotine as he completely immersed himself in Xu Mingfu’s pheromones.
“Did you sign it?” Shao Yiqing asked distractedly.
“Signed.” Xu Mingfu replied with equal distraction. He stared at Shao Yiqing’s dainty feet resting on the coffee table; they were slender in shape, with clean toenails, and the rounded, plump toes were tinged with a delicate blush. Because he wore a strapped loungewear robe, the hem hung open, offering glimpses of more from Xu Mingfu’s angle. The tips of Xu Mingfu’s ears turned red, and he quickly averted his gaze.
A moment later, he stealthily peeked back.
Shao Yiqing’s attention wasn’t on Xu Mingfu at all. He smoked fiercely and intensely, burning through several cigarettes in the span of just a few minutes. Finding tobacco insufficient, he switched to a cigar. Resting his arm on the sofa armrest, he took periodic puffs, lingering on each inhalation long enough to thoroughly register the feeling of tar and nicotine passing through his lips, tongue, and lungs, before heavily dropping his arm back onto the armrest and panting against the ceiling.
“Your warning was right.” Xu Mingfu spoke up abruptly, keeping his gaze fixed on Shao Yiqing’s inexplicably alluring ankles with an unnatural expression. “When we signed, Sheng Tingzhou had no intention of letting us go at all. He wiped out every single member of Lingrui.”
Shao Yiqing’s mind suddenly flashed with that fiercely handsome visage, and without logic, he quietly murmured that name: “Sheng Tingzhou.”
Perhaps tortured by the rut, perhaps influenced by the surging Alpha pheromones in the air, or perhaps the time had simply come, it was just time.
As he silently uttered that name, Shao Yiqing felt his bone marrow gnawed upon by the predatory ants of desire, leaving his entire body limp and weak.
His curled toes turned pale. Submerged within Xu Mingfu’s pheromones, an itchy numbness crept up his neck, and he was swept to the clouds by a pair of deeply sinful eyes.
The cigar pressed against the soft fabric, scorching a hole in the damply soaked sofa.