Hanging up the phone, Duan Jinwei cursed herself inwardly.
Why on earth couldn’t she say a single word in front of Qiao Yi’s older sister!
It was hard to describe her feelings, there was a faint, lingering sadness.
Public opinion online was still continuing to ferment, with many people hurling abuse at her. In the school cafeteria today, Duan Jinwei could feel several unfriendly gazes directed her way. Yet all she could do was wait until Monday to contact the administrator to delete the posts, other than that, she was completely powerless.
At the same time, that terrifying woman had also contacted her, and she still had to go make her face-to-face explanations.
“Weiwei, what are you doing?” Xia Tang stepped out of the hospital room and caught sight of Duan Jinwei standing in the corridor staring at her phone.
Duan Jinwei was busy editing what she wanted to say to Qiao Jiao tomorrow, trying to prevent her brain from going completely blank again when she actually met Qiao Jiao, leaving her unable to utter a word.
Seeing Xia Tang approach, she immediately locked her phone screen.
“It’s nothing,” she gave a bitter, forced smile.
That very night, she had a terrible nightmare.
In the dream, the woman with a temperament as cold and pure as jade looked down upon her from above like a queen, while she herself was tied up on the ground. Qiao Jiao raised her long leg and slammed it fiercely down onto Duan Jinwei’s back.
“Sister, please let me explain!”
The woman lashed down viciously with a whip. Duan Jinwei sobbed and cried in pain, while the woman’s emotionless voice echoed from above: “You cheated, I’m going to chop you into a thousand pieces!”
Duan Jinwei: “Sister, please, let me explain!”
Crack. Another lash of the whip. A piece of cloth was stuffed into Duan Jinwei’s mouth. The woman swung her long leg over a horse’s back, and Duan Jinwei could feel her hands and feet tightly bound: “Wuwuwu…”
She wanted to explain, wanting to say she was framed, but not a single sound would come out. The harder she struggled, the tighter the ropes on her hands became. The woman neatly raised her horsewhip, and before Duan Jinwei could even react, she was torn apart by five horses.
When Duan Jinwei woke up, her entire body was drenched in cold sweat.
It was already nearly eleven in the morning. The dorm room was pitch black, with the curtains tightly drawn. Duan Jinwei smoothed back her sweat-dampened long hair, put on her glasses, and climbed down to take a shower.
“Duan-duan, where are you going…” Xia Tang mumbled drowsily.
Exams were right around the corner, and they had been sleeping very late lately. Xia Tang had pulled an all-nighter last night and had only managed three hours of sleep.
Duan Jinwei whispered softly, “I have to head out for a bit.”
Afraid of waking her roommates, Duan Jinwei moved with extreme care. She pulled open her drawer, took out her Marking Specialist qualification certificate, double-checked the opening lines she had edited in her phone’s memo pad, and checked herself in the bathroom mirror for a long time to ensure her appearance was neat and appropriate.
Duan Jinwei was dressed simply today: a white T-shirt paired with a pair of light blue jeans that had been washed to a faded hue. She casually tied her hair into a messy bun, left the campus, and arrived at the restaurant where she had agreed to meet Qiao Jiao.
Qiao Jiao seemed to detest noisy environments and had booked a private room.
A waiter led Duan Jinwei to the door of the fourth-floor private room and politely took their leave.
Why is it in a private room? Standing at the door, Duan Jinwei inexplicably recalled the scenes from her nightmare last night, her entire being turning slightly sour.
She gripped the doorknob tightly and took a deep breath.
“Hello, Sister,” she put on a forced, stiff smile and pushed open the door to the private room.
A faint, subtle floral fragrance washed over her, greeting her head-on.
It was faint yet captivating, like the snow of a March spring day, instantly enveloping her entire body and scrambling eagerly to burrow into the glands at the back of her neck.
Duan Jinwei gave a sharp start, freezing in place.
“Sister…”
Qiao Jiao was collapsed on the floor not far away.
That woman who always appeared as cold as the snow on a high mountain peak during every encounter, at this very moment, her raven-black hair was slightly disheveled, her collar hung open, and the exposed skin was already tinged with a faint pink hue. Her hands were clenched tightly into fists, her knuckles starkly white.
Qiao Jiao raised a hand to clutch the back of her neck, breathing heavily and laboriously. Her autumn-water-like eyes shimmered and rippled as she suddenly looked toward her: “Don’t move.”
Perhaps she had tried to crawl to the door earlier to lock it, or perhaps she had wanted to reach the sofa for her phone to call an ambulance, because Duan Jinwei saw her phone lying on the floor not far away. But due to the debilitating effects of the heat cycle, the woman no longer had a firm grip on her phone, causing her to drop it by mistake.
The scent of the pheromones made Duan Jinwei’s scalp tingle. She took a step back, her back pressing flat against the door.
A chilling, bone-chilling coldness filled Qiao Jiao’s eyes.
Yet to her astonishment, the next second the girl pulled out her phone and dialed a number.
“Hello, this is the Nimbus Hotel,” Duan Jinwei said. “An Omega has entered a special phase, requesting rescue.”
The other end replied: “The nearest Gland Specialized ambulance is blocked in traffic, and there are no backup isolation-pod vehicles available. It cannot arrive within ten minutes. It will take half an hour.”
An Omega entering a heat cycle went through three stages. In the early stage of heat, the pheromone scent in the air was extremely faint. In the second stage, it gradually grew intense. In the third stage, it showed a tendency to erupt explosively. Duan Jinwei sniffed the pheromones in the air, the concentration was still low, meaning Qiao Jiao should have just entered her heat cycle.
Duan Jinwei calculated the time, half an hour should still be manageable.
“Thank you.”
The surrounding pheromone aura grew increasingly dense and heavy.
Duan Jinwei’s palms broke out in a sweat. Standing by the door waiting, she reached into her school bag with one hand to fish out her Alpha Marking Specialist practicing license to show Qiao Jiao: “Sister, don’t be afraid. I’ve undergone the most professional training and won’t lose control. I’ll stay right here with you and wait for the ambulance to arrive.”
Qiao Jiao furrowed her brows slightly. Her breathing was chaotic. She raised a hand and bit down hard on her knuckle.
She saw Duan Jinwei half-kneeling by the door, holding the blue cover of her certificate up toward her. The girl’s voice was gentle, not aggressive, and possessed a reassuring, stabilizing power, yet right now, not a trace of cowardice could be seen on that face, which instead looked utterly solemn.
As Duan Jinwei spoke, she felt her way along the wall to the air purifier’s dial and twisted the switch all the way up to maximum.
The air purifier was operating at full blast, but it still couldn’t drag the concentration down.
Duan Jinwei sat and stood with restless anxiety.
She wasn’t as calm as she looked.
She was an Alpha, it was impossible not to be affected by an Omega’s pheromones.
She gazed blankly at her phone, watching time slip away second by second, when she suddenly heard a woman’s painful, muffled groan from behind.
Stiffly, Duan Jinwei turned her head and saw Qiao Jiao clutching the back of her neck, her face turning pale with pain.
How could it hurt this badly?
As a medical student, Duan Jinwei had studied all knowledge related to ABO genders, scoring top of her grade on exams. She knew Omegas experienced a certain urge during heat, but that urge was generally accompanied by warmth and fever, not pain of this intensity.
Qiao Jiao said in a hoarse voice, “Help me bring that over.”
Duan Jinwei followed Qiao Jiao’s gaze.
A bottle of pheromones lay on the floor.
It was an Alpha pheromone soothing agent exclusively for Omegas.
Duan Jinwei: “Sister, please wait a little longer for the ambulance. Let’s not use, ”
Qiao Jiao’s tone grew a fraction colder: “Hurry up.”
Duan Jinwei’s heart shrank, and she immediately stood up: “O-okay, okay.”
She practically crawled on hands and knees to the side of the pheromones, handing the small bottle over to Qiao Jiao.
Frowning, Qiao Jiao tried to grip it, but her fingers lacked strength, and the bottle slipped to the floor.
Seeing her struggling, Duan Jinwei had no choice but to unscrew the bottle herself and hold it out for Qiao Jiao to inhale.
It was useless.
The patch of red at the back of Qiao Jiao’s neck grew even redder, flushing with a bloody hue as if the condition were severe, while the rich floral scent in the air only grew stronger without abating.
Duan Jinwei felt that something was seriously wrong: “Does it hurt very much?”
Trembling and biting her lip, Qiao Jiao still stared at her with those cold, pitch-black eyes.
In the end, she gave a slight nod.
As it happened, Duan Jinwei had brought gloves with her today, so she retrieved them from her bag.
“Sister, may I check for you?” Duan Jinwei pulled out her undergraduate diploma and various certificates from her bag.
“My major is clinical medicine, with a focus on glands. I usually examine patients with similar conditions.”
Qiao Jiao stared at Duan Jinwei for a moment.
Cold sweat slid down Duan Jinwei’s cheeks.
Suddenly, she heard the woman emit a soft en, nodding to signal that Duan Jinwei could proceed with the check.
At the same time, she raised a hand and gently grasped the Alpha’s nape.
Duan Jinwei stiffened.
Pads of fingers traced circles on the back of Duan Jinwei’s neck. Qiao Jiao had learned self-defense, if this Alpha tried to harbor any malicious intentions toward her, she could instantly rupture the other person’s gland.
Understanding what the gesture meant, Duan Jinwei let the Omega grip the back of her neck while, gloved hands moving with extreme lightness, she parted the stray locks of hair at the nape of Qiao Jiao’s neck to expose the fragile Omega gland.
Duan Jinwei’s research focus was gland surgery, and her mentor was a top-tier professor of gland science in the entire hospital. Frowning as she observed Qiao Jiao’s gland, forcing herself to think calmly, she applied a light fingertip touch.
The gland was abnormally swollen, its texture stretched tight to the point of hardness.
It was the textbook precursor to a gland rupture.
Duan Jinwei’s pupils shrank violently.
She had never witnessed a case this severe!
If this dragged on any longer, the best-case scenario was permanent gland damage, the worst-case was triggering massive hemorrhaging.
Under these conditions, even inhibitors were useless.
Duan Jinwei quickly explained the current situation to Qiao Jiao.
Standing so close, her own pheromones were unconsciously leaking out, intertwining with the rich floral fragrance hanging in the air.
Qiao Jiao’s thoughts were hazy and muddled, no longer as clear-headed as before.
For some reason, once Duan Jinwei drew close, the pain in her glands sharply receded quite a bit. There was a familiar, pleasant scent radiating from the girl, sweet, carrying a distant, tranquil herbal woody aroma. Qiao Jiao’s waist went weak, her eyes moist and somewhat unfocused. In an instant, a single thought consumed her entire mind.
When Duan Jinwei finished speaking, Qiao Jiao delayed a long time without responding.
Frowning deeply and sensing vaguely that something was amiss, Duan Jinwei was suddenly tackled to the ground by a lurching force.
Qiao Jiao smoothly straddled her waist, pinning her down with all four limbs, burying her head into Duan Jinwei’s neck and restlessly rubbing against the source of her stability.
Frowning, licking her lips, she inched closer and closer to Duan Jinwei’s gland.
Duan Jinwei stood frozen in place, utterly failing to react before moist lips pressed against the back of her neck.
Duan Jinwei’s eyes turned slightly red as she swallowed hard.
Yet the woman, still unsatisfied, scraped her fingers against the back of Duan Jinwei’s neck and lightly bit down. Alarm bells shrieked in Duan Jinwei’s mind, she immediately sat up and twisted Qiao Jiao’s hands behind her back.
The woman’s entire body was soft as cotton, those cold eyes staring up at her with a gaze full of aggrieved accusation.
Duan Jinwei could feel her feeble struggles, as well as the sounds escaping the woman’s throat whenever their bodies brushed together.
Her throat tightened, and her brain, which had spent years soaking in textbooks and research papers, spun at top speed.
Before the ambulance arrived, there was only one viable emergency measure left: a temporary mark.
She was someone who had passed the Alpha Pheromone Control Certificate exam.
For whatever reason, the Qiao Jiao in her arms had become completely muddled, relying purely on instinct to press against her body, letting out fragmented whimpers against the side of her neck in sheer distress.
Grasping the woman’s hands and biting her lip, Duan Jinwei anxiously racked her brain for a solution.
Perhaps before the ambulance arrives, I should give Xiao Yi’s sister a temporary mark first. To save her life.
After that… after that…
Duan Jinwei struggled between morality and terror for a brief moment.
Finally, kneeling before Qiao Jiao, she swallowed once more, gripped her gloved hands tight, and said nervously:
“Alpha Pheromone Marking Specialist, proceeding with the mark now.”