When he was fourteen years old, Bai Heting brought a six-year-old child back to his estate. He threw the child to the steward to be used as needed, while he himself returned to the battlefields on the border.
Since being brought back to the capital city by Bai Yi at the age of eleven, this was the most audacious and reckless thing he had ever done.
For a long time afterward, Bai Heting rarely returned to the capital. Aside from returning to the estate for a brief three-month stay when his secondary gender first manifested, the few other times he came back were only to recover from injuries, and he would depart again in haste as soon as he had healed. In the winter of his twenty-third year, while he was stationed on the southern border, the steward sent him a letter stating that the child he had brought back had already been missing for a month.
It was all too common for youths to meet an early grave. Bai Heting put the letter back into its envelope, merely assuming that the child had poor luck and ultimately failed to escape the fate of a premature death.
Just as the child was slowly slipping from his memory, Qiu Chen reported a strange occurrence to him. An Alpha had disguised himself as a Beta to blend into his guard regiment, remaining in the unit completely unnoticed for nearly a year. It wasn’t until a few days ago, when the guard regiment underwent a comprehensive physical examination for all members, that the military physician finally saw through it.
An Alpha posing as a Beta sounded like utter fantasy. Finding it suspicious, Bai Heting asked casually, “What kind of person is he?”
Qiu Chen’s reply caused him to lose himself for a moment, “Without father or mother, he previously worked as a general laborer at your estate for several years. His name is Luo Congye.”
Bai Heting set aside his tasks and personally paid a visit to the military camp.
Through the narrow-arched glass window of the confinement room, he saw the nearly adult Luo Congye for the very first time.
The young Alpha stood with his back against the wall with his head slightly lowered. This angle perfectly revealed the structural advantages of his well-defined features. His eyes and brows were deep, the bridge of his nose was sharp and prominent, and his physique was entirely that of an adult Alpha.
At seventeen years old, Luo Congye was already roughly the same height as the twenty-five-year-old Bai Heting.
Time passed like a fleeting shadow; in the blink of an eye, the child he had picked up had grown up.
“How did he pass the recruitment screening?” Bai Heting asked Qiu Chen.
To enter his guard regiment, one had to pass three separate rounds of screenings, the very first of which was a physical examination. Furthermore, if anyone presented as an Alpha or an Omega after joining, they would be immediately discharged from the unit. The secondary gender screening was handled by several Alpha officers from the infantry corps; they should not have made such a low-level mistake.
Qiu Chen answered carefully, “No scent of pheromones could be smelled on him.”
“Did he use an inhibitor patch?”
“No.”
“Did you not smell it, and did you not see it either?”
Although the gland at the back of an Alpha’s neck was not as conspicuously developed as an Omega’s, a slight protrusion could still be detected upon close inspection. This time, Qiu Chen’s reply lacked confidence, “The length of his hair happened to just cover the gland a bit.”
So, it really was a low-level mistake born of preconceived notions.
Bai Heting fell silent. Qiu Chen hurriedly added, “The Alphas responsible for the screening has already been disciplined.”
Bai Heting withdrew his gaze from Luo Congye and turned to walk out. “Do you really need to ask me how to handle a trivial matter like this?”
Qiu Chen followed him out, relaying the commander’s words as concisely as possible, “His performance is top tier in the unit, and… he really seems to want to stay in the unit. He also promised that he could function properly as a Beta.”
He observed Bai Heting’s virtually unchanging expression and said anxiously, “What do you think…”
Function properly as a Beta. What a grand ambition.
Bai Heting paused his footsteps for a moment, then indifferently dropped a line, “Let him be.”
Because he had agreed far too readily, Qiu Chen was actually left stunned.
Bai Heting continued walking forward, letting out a dismissive laugh. “What’s the difference between an Alpha and a Beta?”
*
Two years later, today, Bai Heting had to admit that there was still a difference between an Alpha and a Beta.
His inhibitor patch had accidentally fallen off during the melee just now. For Luo Congye to arrive so quickly, he must have tracked him by following his pheromones.
The position from which the youth had loosed that arrow was at least fifty paces away. To accurately strike a skull and achieve armor penetration in such dim surroundings, Bai Heting gave him a nod of approval. “Your archery… is not bad.”
Luo Congye’s facial features were sharply defined, making him look somewhat fierce when his expression was grim. He didn’t answer, instead locking his elbow around the scar-faced man’s neck and dragging him a dozen meters to the side.
Bai Heting heard the sound of the corpse’s cervical vertebrae snapping.
Luo Congye folded back, kneeling in front of him as his gaze swept over him inch by inch to check for wounds.
Bai Heting glanced down at himself. His hunting attire was heavily mottled with blood, which indeed looked quite horrifying. “This,” he raised a hand to wipe his face, his voice thoroughly drained of energy, “is not my blood.”
Luo Congye’s gaze ultimately came to a rest on his left hand, which rested loosely against his thigh.
This was the only wound on Bai Heting’s entire body, and he had inflicted it upon himself.
His nose is quite sharp.
“There are inhibitors in the quiver.” He spoke up to interrupt the Alpha’s redundant search, rolling the sleeve of his left arm up to his elbow before propping up one leg to rest his arm against his knee.
The last lingering glow of the setting sun was about to fade completely, veiling Bai Heting’s face in shadow, yet the ever-present scent of fir pheromones still exposed his current condition. The guard regiment taught basic physiology regarding the secondary genders, and the physiological weaknesses of Alphas and Omegas were compulsory subjects. Bai Heting’s pheromones had been unstable all day, yet he himself seemed completely oblivious to it. Luo Congye had risked defying orders to break formation and chase after him precisely because he was worried that the general would fall into the very danger he faced now.
He extracted an inhibitor from Bai Heting’s quiver and, utilizing the faint sliver of light, pushed the medicine into the Omega’s arm.
Bai Heting was somewhat surprised.
An Alpha who could expertly administer an inhibitor was incredibly rare.
Then again, an Alpha willing to use inhibitor patches was even rarer, let alone one who hid top-tier pheromones like a precious treasure.
Truly a peerless oddball.
While Bai Heting was still silently marveling in his mind, Luo Congye stopped playing mute and spoke in a low voice, “General.”
Bai Heting raised his head.
The light in Luo Congye’s eyes was like a pool of clear spring water.
“I am Luo Congye, do you still remember?” The young Alpha clenched his fists rigidly, waiting a brief moment before saying, “You were the one giving me this name.”
