Having “love sickness” was a fact, and Yu Chen admitted it.
However, Yu Chen would not accept being slandered. He said sternly: “Let me emphasize this again—I am a person with self-control.”
He did have it, just not much. Pei Xingting thought to himself.
But jokes aside, after the teasing, Pei Xingting lowered his voice and spoke seriously: “Yu Chen, I need to tell you something very important, and you must remember this: if the Third Highness marks you, then so be it. At worst, you’ll enter another susceptible period—it’s not a big problem. But—”
He emphasized his words: “You absolutely, absolutely cannot mark the Third Highness. You must never let your pheromones enter his body—no matter the method.”
Pei Xingting used “absolutely” three times to stress the gravity of the matter.
Yu Chen froze for a moment, faintly sensing that this had something to do with Yun Xunlan’s “illness.”
So he didn’t ask why and simply agreed: “Okay.”
“You really like him…” Pei Xingting chuckled softly, then sighed in a daze. “And you two can still be together. That’s nice… I envy you.”
That final sigh was so faint that even Yu Chen almost missed it. By the time he came back to his senses, Pei Xingting had already hung up the call.
Yu Chen stared blankly at his light-brain bracelet for a while.
The γ-type Level III specialized injection began to take effect, gradually reducing the overwhelming top-tier pheromone pressure in the dormitory—akin to a tsunami—back to the SS-level range where it should be. Clearly, this type of injection was highly effective at suppressing alpha pheromone outbursts without impairing their physical abilities.
The suppression bullets used by every Royal Guard to control Yun Xunlan’s pheromone outbursts were made from this type of injection.
However, those bullets used Level I specialized injections—they worked quickly, lasted briefly, and had almost no side effects.
In contrast, the Level III specialized injection Yu Chen used had long-lasting effects on reducing pheromone pressure but came with significant side effects due to its higher concentration. These side effects made injected alphas more prone to excitement, irritability, emotional instability, and even violent or bloodthirsty tendencies.
So as soon as the injection took effect, Yu Chen immediately clenched the stem of a lychee rose tightly in his hand.
The surging aggression in his heart urged him to crush and destroy the flower. But Yu Chen didn’t break it; he didn’t even forcefully peel apart its petals or crush its delicate core like he had last time.
Instead, Yu Chen simply stared at it silently and intently, like a planet orbiting its star.
Under the influence of the alpha susceptible-period suppressant’s side effects, that rose became distorted into an elongated shape in his spinning vision, reminding Yu Chen of a certain creature—a silkworm moth.
He recalled that during biology class, when the teacher explained pheromone attraction between alphas and omegas, they had used this creature as an example.
The reason was that male silkworm moths could only detect female sex pheromones—and they were incredibly sensitive. Just one molecule of pheromone could trigger their neural response.
However, Yu Chen had always doubted this claim.
He believed humans were not insects; insect characteristics had nothing to do with people. Besides, he had never felt such an attraction toward any omega before.
Tonight, in this narrow dormitory, in front of this distorted rose, Yu Chen felt as if he had turned into a male silkworm moth, and Yun Xunlan’s pheromones were the never-diminishing electrical signals transmitted through his sensory nerves, triggering the alpha’s most primal instincts for possession and marking.
And at this very second tonight, Yu Chen completely finished his training to resist Yun Xunlan’s pheromone pressure.
Because from now on, every molecule of pheromone from the youth could only ignite his neural impulses and become the fuel for his desires.
Even though Yun Xunlan wasn’t his omega.
Even though Yun Xunlan was also an alpha.
Yu Chen still defied the natural repulsion between alphas, desperately yearning for closeness with his lover.
No matter how much he used lychee roses to build a nest, their faint floral scent wasn’t pheromones and couldn’t fill the lack of security in a susceptible alpha’s heart.
Even if he couldn’t touch him or see him in person, just hearing his voice or looking at the characters he typed would suffice—this thought had barely surfaced in Yu Chen’s mind when his light brain vibrated to notify him that his special attention: The Galactic Empire’s Third Prince had updated his starnet public account.
Yu Chen clicked in and found that the youth’s new status consisted of just one image and three words, extremely concise—
[Yun Xunlan: So blue. [Image]]
The accompanying image was of the blue betta fish’s dreamy and dazzling tail fin, nearly filling the entire frame. From a distance, it looked almost like a monochromatic pure blue picture.
Yun Xunlan had pinned this new status to the top so that anyone visiting his profile would see it.
Yu Chen clicked on his [Profile] tab again and discovered that the previously blank “Likes” section at the end now had a new answer: [Favorite color: Blue]
After staring at the new status and profile for a full minute, Yu Chen closed the electronic interface of his light brain, rolled over on the bed, buried his face into the pillow and lychee roses, leaving only a pair of slightly red ears exposed.
He stayed like this for three whole minutes. Once he calmed down and regained composure, Yu Chen lay back properly with rose-shaped indentations pressed into his face and muttered under his breath: “…Damn it. Susceptible periods are so annoying.”
The prince is annoying too.
Didn’t he say he didn’t want to make their relationship public?
Now he’s being so high-profile—what is he trying to do?
Isn’t he afraid people will find out they’re secretly dating?
Yu Chen closed Yun Xunlan’s starnet account page and decided not to indulge in these romantic thoughts anymore. He needed to focus more on work. He opened Ni Chun’s newly issued schedule notification to review the prince’s itinerary for tomorrow.
Then Yu Chen saw that the prince was scheduled to wake up early tomorrow to pick up Jian Wenxi, the young master of the Jian family, and head together to Imperial Capital Star Port.
Yu Chen: “…”
So today he confirms their romantic relationship with him, and tomorrow he’s going to meet his rumored love interest? And Yu Chen himself has to escort them there!
At this point, Yu Chen didn’t just feel like there were green sprouts growing on his head; he also felt like he couldn’t continue working in the Royal Guard for even one more day.
What broke Yu Chen even further was realizing that even though he was now dating Yun Xunlan, he still didn’t have His Highness’s private contact information.
Yu Chen could only use his starnet account to send a message to Yun Xunlan’s account—
[Lanlan’s: .]
Little did Yun Xunlan know that after posting the pinned status on his main account, he swiftly switched to his alt account to resume his usual activities—searching for negative comments about himself online. After all, Yun Xunlan deeply understood the principle of not putting all your eggs in one basket. Even though he now had Yu Chen, he still needed to stay vigilant.
Preparing for a rainy day and preventing problems before they arise is the best strategy—this is called “being cautious in times of peace.”
After saving tonight’s collection of negative comments into the book category titled *”Bedtime Reading for Sleep Aid”*, Yun Xunlan also visited the most popular emotional exchange community on the Galactic Empire’s internet to read trending posts.
For example, posts like *”100 Things Couples Must Do Together”*, *”Do These 99 Details Well to Make Your Lover Love You More”*, and *”If You Don’t Want to Break Up, Don’t Cross These Seven Boundaries!”*—Yun Xunlan read them all.
After finishing, he even bookmarked a few practical posts that might come in handy in the future, such as *”10 Secrets to Keep Freshness in Your Marriage”*, *”How to Win Back Someone You Still Love After Divorce”*, and *”How I Became Friends with My Ex-Husband Again”*.
“Dating is really not easy; I think it’s harder than cultivating immortality,” Yun Xunlan remarked to the system before going to bed. “If I want to have a good relationship with Yu Chen and not break up, I still have a lot to learn.”
The system, acting like a mischievous advisor, gave him a bad idea: “Why don’t you date a few more people? Gain some experience. Then when you date Yu Chen, you’ll be less likely to hit any pitfalls and break up.”
*”If You Don’t Want to Break Up, Don’t Cross These Seven Boundaries!”* clearly stated that dating multiple people at once is the biggest pitfall leading to breakups,” Yun Xunlan avoided falling into the system’s trap. “Unless you’re the Third Prince of the Galactic Empire himself.”
The system was puzzled by Yun Xunlan’s statement: “Aren’t you him?”
“I am him.”
“So this post isn’t entirely correct. I read it but didn’t bookmark it,” Yun Xunlan raised an eyebrow and explained slowly to the system. “Because the Third Prince of the Galactic Empire wouldn’t date multiple people at once; he would only date Yu Chen.”
System: “…”
System: “Lanbao, you’re making me feel unfamiliar.”
“When I’ve dated Yu Chen for a while longer and you’ve grown accustomed to my experiences, you won’t feel unfamiliar anymore.”
While chatting with the system, Yun Xunlan followed the advice from *”Do These 99 Details Well to Make Your Lover Love You More”*—specifically the suggestion that you should send your partner good morning and good night messages every day. He prepared to send Yu Chen a “Good night.”
But when he lit up his light brain screen, Yun Xunlan suddenly remembered—he hadn’t added Yu Chen’s private contact information.
Yun Xunlan: “…”
Disaster!
On the first day of dating, he’d already hit a major breakup pitfall!
Yun Xunlan hurriedly found Yu Chen’s personal light brain ID from the AI butler and sent a friend request to add him as a contact.
The friend request was approved instantly.
However, Yun Xunlan didn’t relax even slightly. While he was still deliberating over how to apologize, Yu Chen’s message arrived—
[Yu Chen: Three hours.]
Huh?
What three hours?
Yun Xunlan’s brain was working at lightning speed, but Yu Chen revealed the mystery first:
[Yu Chen: Your Highness, you usually don’t check starnet private messages, right? It’s okay, I understand.]
Starnet private messages?
Yun Xunlan quickly switched back to his main account and clicked on the private message button under Yu Chen’s profile. Sure enough, he saw that Yu Chen had sent him messages.
[Lanlan’s: .]
[Lanlan’s: ..]
[Lanlan’s: …]
A total of three messages, the first one sent three hours ago, one per hour, all consisting of ellipses.
After reading them, Yun Xunlan replied honestly:
[Yun Xunlan: Yes, I usually don’t check because netizens mostly send me confessions.]
If they weren’t negative comments, Yun Xunlan never looked at them. He didn’t have time—he barely had enough time to search for bad reviews. Besides, no one dared to privately message him insults on starnet; doing so would essentially be handing over evidence for the Galactic Empire’s Royal Image Public Relations Department to file a lawsuit. So why bother checking starnet private messages?
[Yu Chen: …]
Having studied countless emotional advice posts, Yun Xunlan now understood how to coax someone. So when he saw Yu Chen’s ellipses, he remained calm and confidently typed to soothe his lover:
[Yun Xunlan: I’ll check from now on—only yours.]
[Yu Chen: .]
[Yu Chen: Oh.]
Yun Xunlan continued coaxing:
[Yun Xunlan: You’re adorable. Kiss kiss =3=]
[Yu Chen: What’s adorable?]
[Yun Xunlan: You sending me ellipses is like Beauty blowing bubbles at me—so cute.]
[Yun Xunlan: [Video]]
Yun Xunlan recorded a video of the blue betta fish blowing bubbles at the fish tank and sent it to Yu Chen—this was something taught in *”100 Things Couples Must Do Together”*: couples should frequently share interesting things and often praise each other to make their partner feel your unique love for them.
Yun Xunlan didn’t know if his feelings for Yu Chen could be considered “love.”
But he had promised Yu Chen not to deceive him.
So he had to seriously date Yu Chen and make an effort to learn how to like him.
After sending the video of the blue betta fish blowing bubbles, Yun Xunlan added another message:
[Yun Xunlan: But it’s still not as cute as you. In my eyes, you’ll always be the cutest.]
