Fu Xu was brought upstairs once more. He had stood in the rain the entire night, and even now his drenched clothes clung to his thin frame, water dripping steadily from the hems.
He fought the urge to sneeze and followed quietly behind Zong Yuan, each step measured and cautious, as though even the sound of his breathing might offend.
Shen Louchen sat in the chair above, looking down from his height like a monarch before a trembling subject.
The faint traces of pheromones that had not yet dispersed still lingered in the air. His beast ears and tail remained visible, saturating the space with an Alpha’s oppressive presence.
Zong Yuan pushed Fu Xu forward and leaned down to whisper something in Shen Louchen’s ear. Whatever he said caused the Alpha’s expression to darken slightly.
The next moment, Zong Yuan withdrew, and the vast room sank into a heavy silence, leaving only the two of them.
Shen Louchen raised his eyes, sharp as a blade cutting through the dim light. “Why did you not leave?” His tone was calm but carried a hint of suspicion. “Did someone threaten you?”
He had seen the genuine fear in the Omega’s eyes earlier, a fear so raw it could not have been faked. Aside from coercion from the old master, he could think of no reason this fragile creature would choose to stay.
To his surprise, Fu Xu shook his head. His voice was small and trembling. “I… I just wanted to stay.”
He gripped the hem of his wet shirt tightly in both hands, his knuckles turning pale from the strain. Again and again he reminded himself: Be obedient. Be quiet. Do not make him angry. You must stay.
He did not even know why he was so desperate, why his heart clung to this place as if it were life itself. Perhaps because in his dreams, his mother sometimes appeared, smiling softly and stroking his hair as she whispered, A-Xu is such a good boy.
“Then what are you afraid of?” Shen Louchen’s gaze narrowed, sharp and penetrating, as though it could slice through his soul.
Fu Xu’s lips quivered. His entire body tightened until it felt like he might splinter under that gaze. When he spoke, his voice was a fragile thread. “I’m… I’m afraid you’ll divorce me.”
He did not want that. He did not want to be cast away again, not to the breeding center, not back to that living hell.
A faint sound escaped Shen Louchen’s throat, something between a scoff and a laugh. “Heh.” It was the first time he had met an Omega who was not afraid of him, yet was terrified of leaving him.
“I can work,” Fu Xu blurted. Kneeling amid the scattered shards of glass still streaked with his dried blood, he steadied his trembling voice and began carefully gathering the fragments.
He feared that faint curl of Shen Louchen’s lips meant rejection. “I can do chores. I do not take up much space. Please… please let me stay.”
It was the longest speech he had ever managed to say at once, every word wrung from the depths of his courage. As long as he was not thrown out, anything else was bearable. Anything.
Shen Louchen’s pupils thinned into vertical slits. His tiger tail lashed out, snapping through the air before brushing sharply across Fu Xu’s back and tearing the soaked fabric.
Instinct drove Fu Xu to raise his hands to shield the back of his neck, but he froze. No, that was wrong. Slowly, he lowered his hands and exposed the small gland at his nape, offering his vulnerability without resistance. If Mr. Shen wished to humiliate or use him, he had no right to refuse.
But the expected pain never came.
Instead, the tail coiled suddenly around his waist. Fu Xu gasped, his body going rigid. Shen Louchen leaned close, crimson eyes locking on his.
The Alpha’s breath was hot against his skin, sharp fangs grazing lightly as he inhaled the scent of him. The closeness made Fu Xu shiver uncontrollably.
“You are not the one the Fu family originally promised me,” Shen Louchen murmured, his voice quiet but laced with danger.
He was not as frenzied as Fu Xu had imagined a berserk Alpha to be. His expression even carried a trace of mocking amusement, though the sudden surge of pheromones in the air, thick and violent, betrayed his displeasure.
“So the Fus dared to switch in a defective Omega?” His lips curved into a cold smile that never reached his eyes. “Bold of them.”
The silver claws beside Fu Xu’s ear gleamed faintly in the low light, then fell, slicing cleanly through the metal wall panel. The floor trembled under the impact, and Fu Xu stumbled backward into a corner. When he looked up again, Shen Louchen’s black pupils were slowly turning to molten gold.
“I do not need an Omega,” Shen Louchen said, his voice rough and deep, rasping like sand grinding over glass. “I do not care how Grandfather obtained my fingerprints. I will process the divorce immediately. Leave.”
The fury twisting inside him was not only because of the Fu family’s deception. It was the madness of his disorder, pheromones surging violently through every nerve, each pulse demanding destruction.
Fu Xu pressed himself into the corner, wrapping his arms around his knees. A sharp pain stabbed through the gland at the back of his neck.
It was the curse of defective Omegas, their glands incomplete, unable to produce or absorb pheromones properly. In this moment, that flaw was a death sentence.
Without stabilizing pheromones from an Alpha, they could die simply from exposure to one in frenzy.
Shen Louchen took another step forward, the heavy thud of his boots echoing like a countdown. Fu Xu finally understood how the other Omegas before him had died.
Fragile, terrified, crushed beneath an Alpha’s pheromonal weight, most probably had their hearts stop before a hand ever reached them.
He could barely breathe. His chest burned with each heartbeat. The terror of death tangled with the dread of being sent to the breeding center, choking him from within.
Then, from somewhere deep inside, he found the smallest scrap of courage. He pushed himself upright and caught Shen Louchen’s wrist with trembling fingers, pressing his palm against the raised veins beneath the Alpha’s skin.
“Mr. Shen… please,” he whispered.
The golden light in Shen Louchen’s eyes flickered unsteadily. The suppression chip attached to his gland was heating rapidly, its faint hum sharp in the silence.
Fu Xu lowered his head, his voice faint yet filled with desperate resolve. “Please… I do not want to be sent to the breeding center.”
The hand gripping the back of his neck froze. For a long moment, Shen Louchen said nothing. Something in that plea struck a buried chord, something he remembered from an old report long forgotten.
In this world, there were three sexes: Alpha, Beta, and Omega.
Alphas were the rarest, endowed with superior strength, intelligence, and the power of pheromonal dominance. Betas lived ordinary lives, untouched by pheromones, neither blessed nor cursed. Omegas were the most delicate and most numerous, valued for fertility yet treated as expendable.
In a society where Omegas made up the majority, only those born into wealth or power were treated as people. The rest were merely tools, used to soothe Alphas or to bear the next generation.
If an Omega was abandoned, they were sent to breeding facilities, forced to conceive repeatedly until their bodies gave out and they died.
The world tilted in Fu Xu’s vision. His mind blurred as though drifting away. Is this how I die? he thought faintly. Or maybe…
“Do whatever you want,” Shen Louchen said at last. His voice was still rough, but the sharpness had dulled. The storm of pheromones around him began to settle. His chest rose and fell slowly before he opened his eyes again, fixing Fu Xu with a calm, distant gaze. “But you will follow my rules.”
Fu Xu collapsed onto the floor, breath escaping in uneven gasps. Blood stained his palms where glass shards had embedded themselves, and only now did the pain sink in. But he was alive, and that was enough.
Rules were fine. He was good at remembering rules.
The metallic tang of blood thickened the air. Shen Louchen closed his eyes for a moment, taking steady breaths to control the lingering heat in his veins. That scent of blood, how he despised it.
“Thank you, Mr. Shen,” Fu Xu said softly. His voice trembled with nervous gratitude. “You are… you are truly a good person.”
A low chuckle slipped from Shen Louchen’s lips. “Good person?” he repeated, the words quiet and mocking. It had been so long since anyone had dared to call him that.
Yet beneath the fading scent of blood and suppressant, he caught a faint fragrance, light, clean, and floral. An Omega’s scent.
The violent tension in his body ebbed almost instantly, replaced by a deep, unfamiliar calm. It had been years since he had felt such peace.
Shen Louchen reached out, brushing his fingers across the back of Fu Xu’s neck. The gland there was shrunken and lifeless, entirely inactive. It could not possibly be producing pheromones.
Then where was that scent coming from?
He closed his eyes. The soothing fragrance lingered, softening the air around him until the storm within him finally quieted. His beast ears faded, the golden light in his eyes dimmed, and at last he returned to his usual form.
Rising from his seat, he surveyed the wreckage around him without expression. “First,” he said evenly, “you can stay because you have no pheromones. That will prevent Grandfather from sending me another Omega. Beyond that, do not think too much.
“Second, you may treat this place as your home, but you are forbidden from entering my bedroom or study.
“Third, if you need anything, contact me directly. Your only duty is to act as a wife in name. Nothing more.”
“Y-yes,” Fu Xu stammered quickly. After a hesitant pause, he added in a small voice, “But… how should I contact you?”
“You do not have a phone?” Shen Louchen frowned, his expression unreadable. “In this age?”
“No…” Fu Xu twisted his fingers nervously, peeking up through wet lashes to gauge his reaction.
“I will have the butler prepare one for you tomorrow.” Shen Louchen kicked aside a shard of glass and turned toward the door. “Follow me.”
Without hesitation, Fu Xu scrambled to his feet, ignoring the sting as glass cut into his bare feet. He hurried after him, terrified of being left behind.
Shen Louchen glanced sideways. The small Omega followed like a shadow, cautious and tense, clutching at the hem of his clothes as though for safety. Even when blood trailed from his ankle, he said nothing, only quickened his pace.
He looked almost like a servant.
Was he one of the Fu family’s trained attendants? No….. Those people were always proud, polished, and confident. This one was too fragile. Perhaps the Fus truly had sent him as a substitute. It did not matter. He probably would not survive long anyway.
And since Shen Louchen had no desire for marriage, keeping a harmless, obedient Omega as a shield was convenient enough.
He remembered Grandfather’s words, that the Fu family’s youngest son was an S-class Omega, supposedly a perfect match to his birth chart. Perhaps the old man hoped it would help control his condition.
He snorted softly. Superstition.
Fu Xu followed him down the hall. Behind the main residence stood another villa, identical in structure though without the reinforced walls or security systems.
“When my condition stabilizes, I stay here,” Shen Louchen said, removing his bloodstained jacket and tossing it aside. He opened the refrigerator, took out two frozen nutrient packs, and threw one lightly toward Fu Xu.
The throw was precise. Fu Xu barely had to move to catch it. The packet was hard and cold, the chill seeping into his palms.
“That is all there is,” Shen Louchen said, closing the refrigerator door with a dull sound.
Fu Xu crouched down, wiping the blood from his ankle with his sleeve before slipping into the soft house slippers by the door. The inner lining was thick and warm, not something an Alpha like Shen Louchen would wear. Perhaps another Omega had once lived here but that was not his place to ask.
His gaze drifted toward the kitchen, where bags of groceries lay scattered on the counter, some filled with vegetables, some with meat.
Why, then, did Mr. Shen still rely on nutrient packs?
He thought of the Fu family’s lavish dining table, overflowing with food he had never been allowed to touch. Someone like Fu Jiaze would never eat something so plain, and surely a man like Shen Louchen did not need to either.
When Fu Xu made no move to eat, Shen Louchen did not comment. Coexistence without interference suited him fine. He needed only a name, a presence to appease his family. As long as the Omega stayed alive, that was enough.
“This will be your room,” Shen Louchen said as he led him upstairs to the farthest door on the right.
Other than his own, every room in the villa was a guest room, cleaned weekly by staff. This one had been tidied for a recent visitor.
Fu Xu’s eyes widened slightly as he stepped inside. The room was bright and neatly furnished, containing everything one could need. Compared to the place he had come from, it felt almost luxurious.
“Mr. Shen truly is a good person,” he thought, the words slipping from his lips before he could stop them.
His thin fingers pressed into his arm, leaving faint marks on the skin. “Th-thank you, Mr. Shen,” he said aloud, his voice carrying a small tremor of excitement.
Shen Louchen glanced at him and nearly laughed. The Fu family had truly sent their lowest subordinate, someone who could find happiness in a simple guest room.
“Mm,” he replied carelessly and turned to leave.
“Wait, Mr. Shen,” Fu Xu called softly, summoning what little courage he had left. He had nothing to give in return, nothing except small gestures of gratitude. After hesitating for a long moment, he asked timidly, “May I… use the kitchen?”
Shen Louchen frowned slightly, unsure what he intended. But seeing his hesitant posture, he decided it was not worth asking.
“Do as you wish,” he said flatly. “I told you, you may treat this place as your home.”
Without another glance, he walked away, his figure disappearing into the corridor.
Fu Xu let out a slow breath of relief. He had regretted speaking the instant the words left his mouth. In an unfamiliar place, facing someone he did not understand, every sentence felt like stepping across a line he could not see.
But Mr. Shen had not scolded him. In fact, his voice had almost sounded gentle, at least, not cruel.
Fu Xu lowered his gaze, pushing his worries aside, and quietly descended the stairs toward the kitchen.
Meanwhile, in his own room, Shen Louchen peeled off his shirt the moment he entered. The dried blood clung stubbornly to his skin, tearing as he stripped it away, yet his expression did not change.
He reached for the medical kit, scooped ointment from a jar, and spread it across his wounds before wrapping them with gauze in silence.
The bandage around his wrist was thick, making it difficult to move. Switching hands, he picked up his phone and typed a message to Zong Yuan.
[Find out everything about that Omega.]
✦ ✧ ✦
Vynellia
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
You made it to the end. The translator would like a tiny coffee. ☕
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
✦ thank you for reading ✦
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ChaptersChapter 1 · Substitute MarriageChapter 2 · PleaseChapter 3 · Thank you, Mr. ShenChapter 4 · Mr. Shen, are you going to throw me away?Chapter 5 · You don’t have to please me in everythingChapter 6 · Is This For Him?Chapter 7 · Do you know you don’t have long to live?Chapter 8 · But what about you? What will you be then?Chapter 9 · That’s a vehicle from the logistics department.Chapter 10 · What do you take my Shen family for?Chapter 11 · Can I bite your gland?Chapter 12 · He is not my “medicine catalyst”Chapter 13 · Who is that Alpha?Chapter 14 · Perfectly matched omegaChapter 15 · Perhaps you could call him, baby?Chapter 16 · That’s… Fu Xu’s scent?Chapter 17 · It was made by the masterChapter 18 · Abusing a pregnant omega is a serious crime.Chapter 19 · Mr. Shen is the best alpha.Chapter 20 · Family elderChapter 21 · Shen Louchen’s berserk periodChapter 22 Part 1 · You are my wifeChapter 22 Part 2 · You are my wifeChapter 23 · Aren’t we mutually in love?Chapter 24 · Which alpha did you go to see?Chapter 25 · Fu Xu, tell me you like meChapter 26 · Could Mr. Shen possibly have a little crush on him?Chapter 27 · Get out!Chapter 28 · Stay close to meChapter 29 · Mr. Shen and I are a legally married coupleChapter 30 · Spit it outChapter 31 · He’s been acting increasingly strangely latelyChapter 32 · Do you listen to everyone except me?Chapter 33 · Monthly ExamChapter 34 · Parent Teacher MeetingChapter 35 · The classroom was cold at nightChapter 36 · Court deathChapter 37 · Wife, Kiss meChapter 38 · This omega trying to steal a kiss from him?Chapter 39 · His omega turned out to be a little cunning.Chapter 40 · Is this little omega taking advantage of him?Chapter 41 · “Madam Shen” is your trump card, understand?Chapter 42 · Mr. Shen, I don’t know how to wear it…Chapter 43 · HusbandChapter 44 · Why is Shen Louchen acting like a peacockChapter 45 · I won’t abandon you, and I never willChapter 46 · Omega with a 92% match rateChapter 47 · Are you waiting for him?Chapter 48 · How can someone magically transformChapter 49 · Now it’s all good, two kids.Chapter 50 · Mr. Shen, will you regret it then?Chapter 51 · What is regret?Chapter 52 · If you’ve got the guts, say it again!Chapter 53 · That’s my milk teaChapter 54 · What he wanted to replace was the alphaChapter 55 · How do you know I’m not part of Mr. Shen’s plan?Chapter 56 · Why don’t you just kill me?Chapter 57 · Are we sending him away?Chapter 58 · Are you angry?Chapter 59 · Inhibitor or marker?Chapter 60 · Let Fu Xu mark himChapter 61 · There should be limits to joking, right?Chapter 62 · Do you really not like Young Master Lian?Chapter 63 · Will you still love me after I go to school?Chapter 64 · You are the best husband in the worldChapter 65 · Extra 1Chapter 66 · Extra 2