Chapter 21 Part 1

Right in the awkward moment, Professor Zhang came out carrying a tray.

The tuxedo-clad young man, who had been standing off to the side with arms crossed and watching coldly, immediately went over to help.

Professor Zhang dodged him. “No need.”

Seeing Mu Chenxing with his hands raised, he casually asked, “What’s wrong?”

Mu Chenxing immediately darted behind him and whispered, “I think I punched Pei Yao unconscious.”

Once he dodged away, Professor Zhang saw Pei Yao, who was being supported by the two young men, his head lolling as if he had passed out.

“…Finally. Holding out at such high levels—he’s not human.” He turned back to reassure Mu Chenxing. “Don’t worry. There’s no way you knocked him out. It’s his own issue.”

Mu Chenxing sneaked a glance at the two officers. They didn’t look angry at all, so he breathed a sigh of relief.

Professor Zhang set the tray down and frowned as he examined him. “Are you really feeling okay? Nothing uncomfortable?”

Mu Chenxing: “Huh? No, I’m fine.”

He sniffed. “Teacher Zhang, what did you put in the prep room? It’s kinda heavy—” He met everyone’s weird stares, paused, then realized. “Pei Yao’s pheromones?”

Professor Zhang nodded helplessly. “If you’re feeling off, head back quick.”

Mu Chenxing scanned the room.

Four Alphas including Pei Yao, Professor Zhang was a Beta—it was really only him who would be affected.

No, Professor Zhang was the least affected.

…Because Professor Zhang nimbly unpacked three syringes and jabbed one into each conscious Alpha.

The vials were small, but the needles were thick, leaving a big bloody puncture each time.

After jabbing them, Professor Zhang turned back to Mu Chenxing.

Mu Chenxing got it instantly and raised his hands. “I’m fine! Totally fine!”

Professor Zhang eyed him suspiciously. “Normally, pheromones this concentrated from an Alpha should trigger a reaction in you. Are your pheromones that resistant?”

Mu Chenxing looked innocent. “I don’t know either.”

“Professor Zhang.” One military-uniform Alpha glanced at Mu Chenxing and reminded him in a low voice.

“Oh, right away.” Professor Zhang picked up a suppressant from the tray and unwrapped it.

Mu Chenxing took one look—there were at least a dozen suppressants on the tray, with three big red letters on the packaging: High Concentration.

Not just a few, not ten—over a dozen.

He jumped. “All—all for Pei Yao?”

The educational materials said a maximum of three per person per month. Overdosing caused irreversible damage to the body, especially high-concentration ones.

Wouldn’t that kill him?

Professor Zhang seemed to read his mind without looking up. “Relax, he won’t die.”

Mu Chenxing: “…”

It was actually true.

…He regretted not agreeing earlier.

Professor Zhang prepped one, inserted a new injector tip, and turned toward Pei Yao.

Mu Chenxing reached out—

“Wait.” But the tuxedo Alpha suddenly blocked Professor Zhang.

Mu Chenxing hesitated, then pulled his hand back.

Professor Zhang just glared at the tuxedo Alpha, frowning. “What? He needs an injection right now.”

That Alpha grabbed his arm and called toward the sofa. “Pei Yao, how long are you gonna play dead?”

Mu Chenxing: “?”

Professor Zhang: “?” He shoved the tuxedo Alpha. “He’s out cold. What are you suspecting?”

The tuxedo Alpha sneered. “If he were really out, Chu Heng and the other couldn’t hold him down… And look, neither of them looks tense.”

The two military-uniform Alphas kept their eyes straight ahead, silent, just gripping Pei Yao’s arms while Pei Yao kept his head lolled, sitting there quietly.

Professor Zhang was speechless. “If he’s passed out, of course they can hold him.”

Tuxedo Alpha: “You don’t get it.”

He kicked the table aside and stomped the calf of the apparently unconscious Pei Yao—

It was blocked.

“Tch, can’t you use some common sense?” Pei Yao sat up straight with a sigh. “You’re already prepping for baby number two, and you wanna ruin my marriage prospects?”

He turned to Mu Chenxing, touched his punched nose, and smiled. “Little Star, you’re amazing. Almost knocked me out for real.”

Mu Chenxing: “…”

Professor Zhang: “…”

The two uniformed young men smoothly let go and silently stepped back a few paces.

The tuxedo Alpha was expressionless. “I don’t care if you fake passing out. Yunli needs meds—if something goes wrong, who’s taking responsibility? Don’t cause trouble.”

Professor Zhang was speechless. “What nonsense? Whether he’s out or not, the readings show it clear. I’m not dosing extra just ’cause he collapsed.”

Tuxedo Alpha: “Who knows what scheme he’s got. He’s all aggression right now—if he decks you, who compensates me?”

Professor Zhang looked embarrassed.

Mu Chenxing got it. This tuxedo Alpha was actually Professor Zhang’s partner!! The school principal—and he looked so young?

Oh wait, looking closer, there were faint crow’s feet at his eyes.

“What aggression? You got so little faith in me?” Pei Yao leaned back on the sofa, drawling lazily. “At least let your doctor jab me. Maybe Little Star will take pity and agree to bite me.”

Professor Zhang: “…”

Tuxedo Alpha: “…”

Mu Chenxing: “…”

Pei Yao looked at Mu Chenxing. “Little Star, really not reconsidering? Look, if you don’t bite me, I’ve gotta take over a dozen shots.”

Mu Chenxing sized him up and huffed. “Rejecting moral blackmail.”

He could still fool people, so he wasn’t dying anytime soon.

Pei Yao smiled. “No need for moral blackmail. How about money?”

Mu Chenxing: “…”

That actually could work.

He pretended to think it over, then nodded. “If the price is right.”

Pei Yao: “…”

Professor Zhang: “…”

Other Alphas: “…”

Professor Zhang smacked Mu Chenxing’s head. “You courting death? Biting for money?”

“Ow!” Mu Chenxing clutched his head and dodged back a few steps. “He saved me before.”

If Pei Yao hadn’t seemed totally normal at first, he wouldn’t have reflexively swung… He’d already regretted it, just hadn’t had the chance.

Besides, he wasn’t a native Omega anyway—no big aversion to gland-biting.

Professor Zhang paused, then said speechlessly, “Then why bring up money?”

Mu Chenxing: “He saved me, but he also stressed me out for over a month. Can’t just bite for free.”

More importantly, free would send the wrong signal to Pei Yao.

He was a straight guy!

Professor Zhang’s expression softened a bit. He glared at Pei Yao. “Your pheromones did mess him up. Little Star’s been through it with you.”

Pei Yao glanced at the slightly guilty-looking Mu Chenxing and raised a brow. “Like?”

Professor Zhang started listing. “His emotions have been all over lately, more aggressive, extra restless—probably all from your pheromones.”

Pei Yao: “…My pheromones do that?”

Professor Zhang: “Not certain. Yours are too dominant, no baseline. Can only reverse-engineer from effects. Only one sample in Little Star, hard to conclude.”

“…Is that so?” Pei Yao gave Mu Chenxing a meaningful look. “Too bad we can’t get more samples. No contributing to science.”

Few samples—? Everyone turned to Mu Chenxing.

Mu Chenxing: “…”

Thick-skinned, he changed the subject. “Still need me to bite?”

Pei Yao lounged on the sofa, eyes narrowing slightly, a smile tugging at his lips. “Yeah. One bite from you, and I can skip a few shots.”

He paused, then added, “Ten thousand per bite.”

Mu Chenxing was stunned. “Damn, that high? Sounds less like biting a gland and more like selling myself.”

Pei Yao paused, then chuckled lowly.

“How much do you think is fair?”

Mu Chenxing pondered, then tested, “Twenty thousand?”

Pei Yao: “…”

Mu Chenxing’s head took another smack.

Pei Yao’s gaze instantly flicked to Professor Zhang. The tuxedo Alpha frowned and stepped forward.

Pei Yao twitched his lips and looked away.

The tuxedo Alpha secretly relaxed.

Professor Zhang, oblivious, kept scolding Mu Chenxing. “He offers ten thousand and you drop to two? Brain pickled by pheromones?”

Mu Chenxing clutched his head and wailed. “Teacher, maybe you smacked my brain out.”

Professor Zhang: “Don’t get cheeky. He’s loaded—why haggle for him?!”

“Teacher, you just complained I asked for money.”

Professor Zhang was exasperated, done with the banter. “At least six thousand!”

Mu Chenxing looked at Pei Yao.

Pei Yao smiled. “Six thousand it is.”

Then he asked, “Convenient now?”

Mu Chenxing offhandedly: “Sure.”

Just one bite.

Pei Yao paused a second, then chuckled lowly. “Perfect. Go for it.”

Professor Zhang nodded too. “Right here.”

He paused, holding up the syringe. “Just in case, let me give you a suppressant first.”

Pei Yao smirked faintly. “No need. Not my Heat Period— it’d just mess with the effect.”

Professor Zhang hesitated. “But Little Star’s pheromones might not work.”

Pei Yao: “It’s fine. Try first.”

Professor Zhang said no more.

Pei Yao pushed off the sofa to sit straight.

The two military Alphas moved to help but he waved them off.

Mu Chenxing watched him slowly shrug off his jacket and only then got a real sense of his condition.

He recalled the physiology class notes on gland-biting: Teeth sink into the gland, hit with high-concentration pheromones, triggers your own secretion?

—Was that really pheromones, not saliva?

“Come on.”

Mu Chenxing snapped back. Pei Yao had ditched the jacket, unbuttoned his shirt to reveal solid shoulder and back.

Professor Zhang and the others had retreated meters away, behind the desk.

He took a deep breath, circled the table, and stood before the sofa.

Pei Yao tilted his head obligingly, pulled his collar aside to bare the gland behind his ear—a fleshy patch with a hazy, birthmark-like halo.

But Mu Chenxing’s gaze drifted down involuntarily, from the open collar to the firm, attractive chest and abs—

“Can’t you even do it?” Pei Yao asked, head still turned toward him.

Mu Chenxing yanked his eyes back, hesitating.

Professor Zhang spoke from a few meters away. “Xiaoxiao and them said Little Star hasn’t dated. Probably really doesn’t know how—go easy.”

Pei Yao went silent a second. “Mm.”

Mu Chenxing relaxed.

Excuses made for him—no problem.

“I’ve studied it. Should be fine,” he said.

Pei Yao chuckled lowly. “All yours then—put some force into it. My constitution’s high.”

Mu Chenxing: “…Oh.”

Wasn’t it just breaking skin? How different could it be?

He stepped closer, dropped to one knee—

A frosty snow aura wrapped around him instantly, chilling him with a shiver—

No, not cold—a cool, refreshing feel, like wind-frost embrace without the freeze… Actually comfy.

The young man held the pose, arms loosely on his knees, head turned away.

Mu Chenxing steadied himself, leaned into the frosty aura, gripped the young man’s shoulder—

Muscles tensed under his palm.

Mu Chenxing blinked. Pei Yao was nervous too?

That thought eased his own nerves.

He eyed the gland, opened his mouth, and bit down—

Hiss, his teeth.

The young man: “…”

Helplessly, “Bite the gland, not my shoulder.”

Mu Chenxing apologized quickly. “Sorry, missed the spot.”

He gripped the shoulder tighter, thought better of it, and shifted his fingers to press the gland’s edge—

?

Did Pei Yao just tremble?

Unsure, he yanked his hand back. “Did I hurt—”

“Keep going.” Pei Yao cut him off.

“…Oh.” Mu Chenxing didn’t dare touch with fingers again. To aim right, he scooted half a step closer, knee against the young man’s, leaned into his neck, eyed the spot carefully, and tested a nibble.

…Softer than the shoulder, but still wouldn’t break.

He gripped the shoulder, clenched his teeth with force—

His back was suddenly pressed down.

“Pei Yao!”

“Boss!”

“Don’t be reckless!”

Professor Zhang’s voice held panic. “Pei Yao—he’s only 18!”

Mu Chenxing: “?” He released blankly. “What’s wrong?”

The cool aura wrapped his whole body, relaxing him—no sense of anything off.

“It’s fine.” Pei Yao’s voice turned husky but still amused. “Just don’t use me to grind your teeth.”

He added, “What are you all worried about? I don’t have an exhibitionist streak, and Old Fu is here too.”

Professor Zhang and the others fell silent.

Mu Chenxing couldn’t see what was happening behind him, but hearing that everything was fine, he gripped Pei Yao’s shoulders again, lowered his head, and bit down hard—

He finally broke the skin.

The hand on his back suddenly tightened, slamming him down onto Pei Yao’s knee so hard his chest bones nearly cracked.

He hurriedly slapped at Pei Yao’s thigh—if his mouth hadn’t been occupied, he would’ve cursed him out on the spot.

Fortunately, it lasted only a moment before Pei Yao loosened his grip.

Pei Yao panted for breath, his voice low. “Continue.”

Mu Chenxing racked his brain recalling the lesson material, digging his front teeth into the flesh.

Perhaps because he’d broken the skin, the tissue under his teeth felt much softer now, easy to bite into. With one motion, his teeth sank in.

After a few seconds’ pause, something really did start to slowly seep from the tooth sockets.

—It worked.

Mu Chenxing let out a breath of relief, steadying himself on Pei Yao’s thigh as he quietly served as an injection tool.

Pei Yao didn’t move either.

The fluid from his tooth tips flowed slowly, taking quite a while to stop.

Sensing nothing more coming, Mu Chenxing retracted his teeth, closed his mouth, and pushed at Pei Yao’s shoulder.

Pei Yao still didn’t move.

Mu Chenxing: “Pei Yao?”

Pei Yao seemed not to hear him. Only after several long seconds did he slowly release his hand.

Mu Chenxing quickly pulled back, clutching his bruised chest as he stood.

The cool, refreshing aura seemed almost sentient, tugging him back the instant he rose.

Mu Chenxing stumbled, instinctively grabbing onto Pei Yao.

“Ah, sorry.” He let go at once, retreating several steps.