This time, Tan Jing’s precursor symptoms were fiercer than in previous years, partly influenced by He Siheng’s pheromones.
He Siheng was the Omega he had marked. Compared to others, Tan Jing was more attuned to his angry emotions.
Etched into Alpha genes was an egocentric desire to conquer. His Omega’s resistance only stimulated him more to make He Siheng submit.
Reason and instinctual baseness clashed. He controlled himself, so his body protested with pain.
Tan Jing leaned on the table and sat in the chair He Siheng had occupied earlier. He pulled open the drawer under the desk, took out a sedative, and injected it into his arm.
Suppressants were ineffective against his susceptibility period, but this sedative could at least alleviate the pain from the precursor symptoms.
Seeing the cold sweat beading on Tan Jing’s forehead from the pain, Tan Cong couldn’t help but speak. “The precursor symptoms weren’t this bad in previous years. Why this year…”
He suddenly thought of the furious person who had just left. “Was it because of that He Family kid? Did he come over and argue with you? Provoke you? I’ll go settle the score with him right now!”
Tan Cong turned to head next door and drag the kid back, but Tan Jing stopped him.
“Don’t let him come over.”
The sedative needed time to take effect. Enduring the pain, Tan Jing propped himself up on the table, opened the window for ventilation. “And don’t let him know.”
Tan Cong was about to ask why when he noticed the two chairs side by side in front of the desk. He suddenly understood.
His expression changed. “The person you’re dating… is the He Family kid?”
…
He Siheng stormed home in a rage. As soon as he arrived, he rushed to the fridge, grabbed a bottle of mineral water, and chugged it down.
His Adam’s apple bobbed repeatedly. After downing the entire bottle, he finally quelled some of his anger. He also smelled his own leaking pheromones and quickly pulled out the portable scent blocker from his pocket, spraying it wildly at his gland.
Damn Tan Jing—he’d been so furious that his pheromones had leaked out!
He Yunlang, who had come out of the study for water, saw his state. “Son, what’s going on? Who pissed you off with that scowl?”
He Siheng wiped the water from his mouth with the back of his hand and gnashed his teeth. “I got scammed online!”
He Yunlang was startled. “You were doing online dating?”
He Siheng: “…”
How did “internet scam” immediately link to online dating? Though it was pretty close to the truth.
He Yunlang asked with interest, “Did you fall for an Omega online, only to meet and find out it was an Alpha?”
He Siheng fell into an even more complicated silence. His dad should quit business and become a fortune teller.
Seeing He Siheng not respond, He Yunlang assumed he was right. He tsked twice, part exasperated and part relieved. “Online dating is unreliable. With your looks and our family’s status, why chase fads? Losing some money isn’t a big deal—as long as you’re safe.”
He Yunlang paused midway, asking uncertainly, “The person is fine, right? You didn’t go to a hotel with that scammer—”
“No, no!” He Siheng quickly denied as his dad’s assumptions grew wilder.
He Yunlang breathed a sigh of relief. “Good. You absolutely cannot date an Alpha.”
On any other day, He Siheng would have agreed and wheedled some pocket money out of it. But today, he had no mood for it.
He sniped sourly, “Why not? Don’t we have dating freedom at home?”
He Yunlang took it as sour grapes from being emotionally scammed and patiently explained. “It’s not interfering with your love life or gender discrimination—it’s for your own good. Once you differentiate into an S-Rank Alpha, without an Omega to soothe you, the susceptibility period will be torture.”
He Siheng was stunned. “What do you mean?”
He Yunlang sighed. “I only learned recently that S-Rank Alphas are immune to suppressants. Only A-Rank or higher Omegas with high compatibility can soothe susceptibility period symptoms. Otherwise, you have to tough it out.”
He Siheng froze in place. He had never heard Tan Jing mention this.
No, he should have realized it earlier. Both were S-Rank; suppressants didn’t work on him, so they wouldn’t work on Tan Jing either.
He Yunlang continued, “You know the Tan Family kid next door is an S-Rank Alpha, right? No wonder Tan Cong was so eager to arrange blind dates for him last year—to find a suitable Omega.”
He had once gloated over the Tan father and son arguing about blind dates. Now, he only felt sympathy. Fortunately, his own son He Siheng hadn’t differentiated yet and avoided the suffering early. At least now he had wised up and found someone.
Though the kid’s brain wasn’t the sharpest, quietly falling for an online scam.
He Yunlang glanced at his son’s dejected appearance and shook his head. Who did he take after to be so gullible?
“Son, how much did that little scammer take you for? Dad will transfer it back—consider it tuition.”
“No need.” Before he finished, He Siheng returned to his room on his own.
He Yunlang sensed trouble. This time, he’d really been scammed hard—not even wanting pocket money.
He Siheng shut the bedroom door, tossed his backpack on the desk. Since the zipper wasn’t fully closed, a white medicine bottle rolled to the opening.
It was the medicine Tan Jing had given him a few days ago—pills that could temporarily block Alpha pheromone influence.
He sat dazed at the desk for a while, then remembered something. He pulled open the drawer, rummaged, and found the pheromone matching report from his differentiation at the hospital last year.
The “100%” stabbed at his eyes.
Echoing in his mind were Tan Jing’s repeated declarations of liking him.
But accompanying them were Tan Jing’s lie after lie: the fake sprained ankle, the fake Little Strawberry, the fake family pressure for a business marriage—using his trust over and over, by any means to get close.
He Siheng closed his eyes, his heart a tangled mess with no clue what to feel.
He didn’t even know if he should worry about Tan Jing’s next susceptibility period… or suspect…
Whether Tan Jing’s feelings for him were just because of the agonizing susceptibility period.
