Chapter 2: The Scent of His Wife

Li Huang was carefree by nature and not particularly perceptive, but even he could tell from that cold stare that the man was unwilling. The fact that he’d stumbled into this windfall was pure blind luck—after all, Alphas only cared about Omegas.

“Forget it if you’re not interested. I was just asking.” After sitting up for that short while, his buttocks stung even worse. He simply flopped back onto the bed and muttered to himself, “Your rut is really killer. Let me rest a bit before I go.”

A strange silence fell over the room.

Li Huang didn’t notice. His brain couldn’t handle too many complicated things. Just choosing between the check and the cash was enough to tie him in knots. He wanted both, but didn’t dare take both. Someone had taught him that you shouldn’t take what isn’t yours, and if you really want something, you have to earn it through your own ability. That was why he wanted to negotiate an extra sum out of that one million in cash.

“Have you made a decision?”

Hearing the suited man’s voice, Li Huang turned his head and only then realized that the Alpha had at some point turned toward him. That icy gaze was still fixed on him.

Being stared at for no reason was baffling. He blurted out, “Why do you keep looking at me? If there’s a problem, just say it.”

Xing Yan wasn’t looking at Li Huang. He was looking at the ambiguous marks he himself had left on this low-level Alpha.

The back of the other man’s neck had been bandaged by the club’s doctor to stop the bleeding. The injured gland was hidden beneath the gauze, but those kiss marks and bite marks covered his entire body—even the two feet sticking out from under the blanket had them. They were more glaring than the sunlight.

After three days and nights of entanglement, Xing Yan’s memory was hazy, but one thought had been carved in deep: he wanted to mark this man.

Seeing that the Alpha didn’t answer, Li Huang grew even more confused. He thought it over briefly, then a lightbulb went off. “Oh, so you feel disgusted? Well, there’s nothing I can do about that. You think I’m having a good time? You stole my first kiss—who am I supposed to complain to?”

He sighed. “Forget it, forget it. I’m a little bit at fault too. Actually, you should be glad. Good thing my body’s tough and I’m hard to kill. If I’d been an Omega, you’d have screwed me to death already.”

Then he said to the suited man, “I’ll take the check.”

Xing Yan had been watching Li Huang the entire time. His gaze swept over the crisscrossing old scars on the other man’s back—there were knife wounds, whip marks, and a few that were impossible to identify. He tilted his chin slightly, signaling Lu Qian’s assistant to leave.

The assistant had just crouched down to close the cash box when another command came.

“Leave the money.”

“Understood, President Xing.”

Li Huang saw this and grew even more bewildered. Had he changed his mind about being disgusted? Leaving the money—did that mean he was interested?

He figured that once the suited man left, he’d quickly make things clear. Another three days and nights would be unbearable—he’d starve to death in bed. Just one more time, and the price could be whatever the other man thought was fair. Things were already like this anyway; it couldn’t hurt much more than it already did.

But the other man didn’t give him a chance to speak. The moment the door closed, something pressed against the back of his head—hard and a little cold. He tried to turn his head, but the object pushed firmly against his skull. Then, the crisp sound of a trigger being cocked rang out clearly in his ear.

Li Huang shuddered violently. His entire body went rigid, and he didn’t dare move.

“L-let’s talk this out nicely…” His voice was stumbling over itself. He hadn’t even registered when this mad dog had drawn a gun.

Xing Yan lowered his eyelids, looking at the trembling man begging for mercy. His body wasn’t particularly sturdy—just a thin layer of muscle. After three days and nights, his voice had gone hoarse from screaming, yet he could still chatter on this much. Xing Yan had thought he had more guts than this.

He asked only one question: “Where did the scars on your back come from?”

“Huh?” Li Huang was stunned for a moment, then hurriedly explained, “Someone beat me.”

“Explain clearly.” Xing Yan’s tone was flat. Not only did he not move the gun away, he pressed it even tighter. The Alpha shuddered again, and the tremor traveled through the barrel into his palm.

“I-it was just someone beating me.” Li Huang wanted to explain clearly, but when he got anxious, his mind turned to mush. No matter how he thought about it, he couldn’t say who had beaten him. He felt wronged—Brother Ren hadn’t told him either. He’d only told him to live well and not cause trouble outside.

Truly afraid his life would end right here, Li Huang could only keep begging. “I can’t remember. Don’t kill me. I don’t want the check anymore, okay? I got into the wrong car that night. I deserved it. I’ll definitely forget about this, and I’ll forget about you too. I promise! I swear! If I don’t, you can shoot me then.”

Xing Yan put the gun away and casually pulled the blanket over, covering the red marks on the Alpha’s upper body completely.

“…” Li Huang, having survived the ordeal, couldn’t understand why the mad dog had suddenly covered him with the blanket. He still lay on his stomach without daring to move, even breathing furtively, afraid the other man would change his mind again and put a bullet in him.

“Rest here. A doctor will come by.”

“…Oh.” Li Huang perked up his ears, listening to the footsteps gradually fade. The door opened and closed. Only after confirming the man had really left did he let out a long sigh of relief. “Oh man, scared me to death.”

In the office next door to the suite, Lu Qian finished listening to his assistant’s report and assumed his cousin, experiencing his first taste of pleasure, had gone and done it with that Alpha again.

The next second, the office door was pushed open. Seeing Xing Yan enter, he waved the assistant away and teased half-jokingly, “Took a fancy to that Alpha?”

Xing Yan didn’t respond. He walked to the sofa and sat down, his long fingers swiping open his phone contacts and scrolling to a landline number.

Seeing this, Lu Qian smiled. “Uncle came by yesterday. He heard the wailing from your room and wanted to go in, but your pheromones blasted him right back out.”

Once the call connected, Xing Yan first reassured him. “Dad, I’m fine. It was a side effect of the special suppressants. I’ll be fine after taking some supplements when I get back. Sorry to worry you.”

He paused, then added, “Happy birthday.”

On the other end of the line was Xing Yan’s other father, and also Lu Qian’s uncle—Bai Xuzhi.

“Good to hear you’re fine. No need to make a special trip. The person who helped you through your rut—there’s no problem with them, I hope?”

“It was an Alpha,” Xing Yan said. “I’ve looked into it. It was just an accident.”

“An Alpha?” Bai Xuzhi was clearly taken aback. “Is he doing alright? You’d better get him a psychologist. It could leave psychological trauma.”

Xing Yan’s mind flashed to that sycophantic smile the man had worn at the sight of money, eager to throw himself forward again. Did he need a psychologist?

“Yeah.” His voice cooled. “I know.”

Lu Qian leaned back in his chair, smoking, listening to the father and son exchange a few more simple words about the Xing family. His cousin only showed a bit of life when talking to his own father—which just showed what kind of hell the Xing family in Beicheng was.

After Xing Yan ended the call, he gave a reminder. “Even if he’s an Alpha, keep an eye on him. He’s pretending to sleep.”

The moment the man’s breathing had shifted, Xing Yan had sensed it. The old scars on the other’s back were too conspicuous, yet he acted like a money-grubbing sycophant, full of flaws, stupid to the point of being written all over his face. That made him less suspicious than a clean, innocent Omega.

“Have a doctor give him a full-body examination, and let him take the one million in cash.” With that, Xing Yan stood up.

At the mention of this, Lu Qian remembered something. “Oh right, his gland was already damaged to begin with. Its function isn’t quite normal—most likely he has no marking ability.”

The gland is an Alpha’s core physiological organ. Once damaged, it causes the pheromone system to become disordered, or even to lose function entirely.

The most direct manifestation is the inability to effectively inject pheromones into an Omega’s gland through biting, which naturally means the inability to complete a mark. Not to mention other accompanying symptoms—if it’s completely ruined, it can basically be considered a physiological disability.

Lu Qian flicked his cigarette ash. “I’ll have people keep an eye on things here. You head back to Beicheng first. I’ve arranged a driver to take you.”

“No need,” Xing Yan refused.

“I’m doing this for your own good.” Lu Qian stood up. “Go look in a mirror at your complexion. Who goes this crazy during a rut? You did it all over the entire suite. That Alpha went without food or water with you—the man was incontinent. I don’t think this is a side effect of the special suppressants. Is your pheromone system disordered?”

The bodyguard lying in the hospital, who also served as a driver, had been with Xing Yan for years. He was once a practical mercenary who had rolled through hails of bullets, with top-tier skills. Who could have imagined that, that night, merely acting on his urge to protect his master, he’d made a clean move against some unlucky guy who got into the wrong car—only to be taken down by his own master in a few moves and hauled off in an ambulance.

Having been controlled by his rut for three full days, Xing Yan was indeed a bit exhausted. “Arrange it, then.”

Lu Qian still wasn’t reassured. “Is your pheromone system disordered? Like this, how is Uncle supposed to feel at ease letting you go back to the Xing family?”

Weariness surged up. A flicker of disgust crossed Xing Yan’s expression. “I’ve developed antibodies.”

“That fast?” Lu Qian was surprised.

As a fellow Alpha, he kindly advised his cousin, “Stop developing those special suppressants. Fighting your own instincts is just asking for suffering. Find an Omega. There are clean and safe ones at the club, and their skills are good too. First-time ruts are bound to be uncontrollable. Don’t tough it out next time—pheromone disorder is no joke.”

Xing Yan acted as if he hadn’t heard. He only raised his hand to check his watch.

Lu Qian couldn’t be bothered to waste more breath. He called his assistant and immediately arranged a driver, and also had the club doctor go to the neighboring suite to give that mysterious unlucky guy a thorough examination.

He walked Xing Yan out of the office and casually asked, “That personal bodyguard of yours—”

“Useless trash. Hand him over to Bai Yan.” Xing Yan’s tone carried no fluctuation.

“Fine.” Lu Qian waved a hand. “He didn’t stop you, so he’s indeed useless. Have Xiao Bai get you a new one.” He added some teasing. “As expected of a top-tier Alpha—who could stop you? Your rut was so fierce, you disowned all your kin and had eyes only for that unlucky guy. I came by this morning to take a look—you were holding him and sleeping quite soundly.”

Xing Yan: “…”

“Alright, go on.” Just as the words left his mouth, Lu Qian saw his assistant come rushing out of the neighboring suite.

“President Lu, President Xing, that Alpha is gone!” The assistant hurried over to report. “He didn’t take the check. He only took thirty thousand in cash.”

“Thirty thousand?” Lu Qian looked at Xing Yan. “Seems like he wants you more than the check.”

Xing Yan’s expression darkened slightly. He coldly rejected this interpretation. “He’s timid.”

Lu Qian didn’t know what had happened between the two of them not long ago. He said, “I think he’s quite bold, actually. He wanted you to take responsibility, wanted to go again, and specifically emphasized that he gave you his first kiss. I’ve seen this trick plenty of times—he’s trying to get your attention.”

“President Lu,” the assistant interrupted cautiously, “that Alpha also left a message.”

Lu Qian took the paper the assistant handed him. Without even glancing at it, he said, “He even knew to go look for paper and a pen in the study. Quite good at playing hard to get.”

He looked down. On the paper were only six crookedly written characters: May good people live in peace all their lives.

Xing Yan’s gaze paused on that ugly handwriting for a brief two seconds.

“Xiao Lin,” Lu Qian called to the assistant, “what do you make of this?”

Xiao Lin seemed to think seriously for a moment, then dared to agree. “President Xing is worth more than two million. He’s playing hard to get.”

“Did I ask you to state the obvious?” Lu Qian shot his assistant a look. “Tell me, what does ‘may good people live in peace all their lives’ mean?”

“Uh…” Xiao Lin steeled himself and analyzed, “That must mean President Xing’s technique was so good, gave him an unforgettable experience, he’s addicted, so he’s praising President Xing as a good person and wishing him peace for his whole life.”

“Mm, that does make sense.” Lu Qian turned to ask the person in question what he thought, but the other had already left, leaving only a retreating figure in the distance.

“My cousin…” He shook his head.

It hadn’t been easy making it to the main road. Li Huang had run with desperate urgency, his forehead covered in cold sweat. Partway there, his legs gave out and he took a tumble. He clutched the thirty thousand yuan in his jacket’s inner pocket for dear life, gritted his teeth, and flagged down a taxi. The moment he got in, he collapsed in the back seat, his heart still pounding wildly.

The driver was startled by his red-faced, panting appearance and quickly asked, “Young man, what’s wrong with you?”

“Nothing! Just fell on the road!” After saying that, Li Huang wanted to rub his waist and also his buttocks. His legs were sore and trembling too. In short, every part of him felt awful—he’d never been this weak in his life.

The driver looked suspicious. “Don’t go into heat in my car.”

“I’m an Alpha.” Realizing that his pheromones were still too strong, and that they carried that sweet, delicious honey peach scent, Li Huang’s brain short-circuited and he blurted out a random explanation. “This is my wife’s scent!”

How would a low-level Alpha have ever smelled such pure, rich pheromones? He couldn’t tell at all whether they came from an Alpha or an Omega. The driver sniffed and sourly remarked, “Your wife sure smells nice.”

“…”

Li Huang gave an address, still clutching the money for dear life, inwardly muttering: He’d only said he didn’t want the check, not that he didn’t want the cash. He’d only taken thirty thousand yuan. That mad dog wouldn’t hunt him down and silence him for that, surely.

He’d even left “may good people live in peace all their lives.” If the other man had any conscience at all, he’d know this thirty thousand yuan was what he deserved!

Author’s Note:
Xing Yan is also Lu Qian’s cousin, but since they share the same surname on one side and different surnames on the other, we’ll just call them cousins.