“Yan Yan?” Ji Qiu had previously helped calculate the timing—it really was supposed to be around these couple of days.
He had still been wondering how to handle it, but hadn’t expected Liang Yan to come looking for him first…
“Mm.” Liang Yan responded softly, still not lifting his head, and not letting go of Ji Qiu’s sleeve.
They stood at the entrance of the dormitory building. It was evening, and quite a few students were passing by.
What’s more, the two of them had become walking gossip magnets on campus. Now with Liang Yan clinging to Ji Qiu and still keeping his head down, it was drawing even more attention.
Not far away, a few gossip-hungry students were already whispering excitedly in voices low enough not to be heard:
“Holy crap! Holy crap!”
“They’re finally gonna spend the night together!”
“They’re both adults—what’s the big deal? It’s the Omega dorm, nothing weird about it.”
“I still can’t mentally process two Omegas together… sob sob…”
“Forget it, I’m out. Enjoy, everyone, I’ll take my leave.”
“They’re not even holding hands and your brains are already full of filth!? What if they’re just going up to get something?”
More and more people were “casually passing by” while secretly observing, and a few of the bolder ones were even creeping closer to watch.
Ji Qiu was still an Alpha, after all. Liang Yan hadn’t spoken a word, and now in his heat, the hand gripping Ji Qiu’s sleeve trembled slightly—giving away the inner turmoil he was trying to hide.
A voice inside Ji Qiu’s heart was growing louder and louder.
Without waiting for Liang Yan to say anything more, Ji Qiu suddenly reversed his hand to grasp Liang Yan’s, then with his other hand, firmly pulled him into his arms by the waist—as if, just one second slower, others might catch a glimpse of his Omega.
No way.
He wouldn’t let anyone else see.
He belonged to him.
His Omega.
Liang Yan was startled by Ji Qiu’s sudden move, but didn’t resist at all.
“Okay.”
He heard Ji Qiu’s voice, with a rare note of restraint, as Ji Qiu draped his jacket over him—worried Liang Yan wouldn’t be able to suppress his pheromones in heat—then half-embraced him into the elevator.
As the elevator doors closed, Liang Yan’s symptoms started to intensify. His pale face was tinged with red. Ji Qiu held him tightly, calling his name again and again.
“Yan Yan… Yan Yan…” At times like these, Ji Qiu truly sounded like an Alpha—anxious, urgent. “Does it hurt a lot?”
Liang Yan actually wanted to say it was manageable, no different than before. But maybe Ji Qiu’s concern made him long for more—his body already soft, he let himself lean against Ji Qiu fully, his arm loosely hooking around Ji Qiu’s neck.
Ji Qiu thought he was feeling worse and quickly tried to comfort him: “My dorm’s just me alone. Hold on—we’re almost there.”
Due to secondary gender arrangements, the school had four types of dorms. To hide his identity, Ji Qiu had intentionally selected a dorm mostly occupied by Betas and, using some connections, secured a two-person room that he lived in alone.
Liang Yan nodded in agreement, lifting his head to look at him.
An Omega in heat had a beauty unlike their usual self. Liang Yan’s pupils were deep black, but heat made them glisten, wet and lustrous. His soft lips were devastatingly attractive, like dewdrop-kissed peach petals. Just looking at him made Ji Qiu’s throat dry.
God, I’m terrible, Ji Qiu thought.
And then he let himself be lured in, bracing his hands against the elevator walls, trapping Liang Yan in the corner, shielding him from the security camera—and planted two light kisses at the corner of his mouth.
The kiss seemed to cast a spell. Liang Yan licked the spot Ji Qiu had kissed and gazed at him softly, eyes wide and unblinking—almost as if saying, That’s not enough. Kiss me more.
“Yan Yan…”
Ji Qiu felt himself burning under that gaze. He glanced at the floor indicator—there were still about ten seconds left—and couldn’t resist anymore. He bent down and cupped Liang Yan’s face, kissing him again, longer this time.
This is torture.
Liang Yan didn’t waste a single second, savoring every bit of it until the elevator dinged—and only then did he reluctantly pull away.
Luckily, Ji Qiu’s room was close to the elevator, and no one else was around. He rushed in, practically stealing away his burning-hot Omega, shut the door, turned on the lights, locked it, and drew the curtains.
Just as he finished all this, Liang Yan followed him in slowly, pointed at Ji Qiu’s jacket still draped on him, and said: “Hot.”
Then, right in front of him, took it off and tossed it on Ji Qiu’s bed.
The peppermint scent of his pheromones could no longer be held back—it filled the small room in an instant.
Ji Qiu rushed back immediately, not daring to leave him alone even for a second.
“Yan Yan…” Ji Qiu ran his tongue across his fangs, trying to stay calm. Pressing a hand to Liang Yan’s shoulder, he asked, “Can I… mark you?”
Liang Yan seemed slow to react but eventually nodded.
Ji Qiu’s heart pounded—half joy, half nervousness.
This would be their first mark since they confessed their feelings. Everything leading up to this felt inevitable—step by step.
He carefully held Liang Yan, whose body was already radiating abnormal heat, and didn’t dare loosen his grip—as if he were holding a fragile porcelain doll that could shatter at the slightest mishap.
Ji Qiu’s room was tidy, even minimalist. Since he lived alone, only one of the two beds was made. Liang Yan gazed at him with wide, trusting eyes. Ji Qiu gently sat him down on the bed and held him close. “It might hurt a little.”
Liang Yan obediently leaned against him, cheek rising and falling with the movement of Ji Qiu’s chest.
In that moment, Liang Yan’s mind drifted with odd thoughts—he even started counting Ji Qiu’s heartbeat.
Ji Qiu leaned close to the nape of his neck, brushing aside the strands of hair. The closer he got to the gland, the stronger the scent became—the peppermint pheromones clawing at his senses, seductive and inviting, begging for an Alpha’s fangs to pierce it and inject his own, exclusive scent.
Ji Qiu’s eyes turned faintly red from the steam-like heat between them. Instinct told him to bite down hard—but he resisted. Instead, he gently licked Liang Yan’s gland, fangs grazing it lightly. The movement made Liang Yan shiver and let out a barely audible gasp.
Ji Qiu opened his mouth, just about to bite—
“No… don’t.”
Liang Yan suddenly shifted, tilting his neck away slightly.
Ji Qiu was stunned by his refusal, but still suppressed the momentary, almost crazed instinct to claim him, and obediently stopped. He asked, “What’s wrong?”
Discomfort surged continuously in Liang Yan’s body. He shook his head to clear his thoughts and said, “Don’t… don’t mark me yet.”
Ji Qiu froze, but quickly understood what Liang Yan meant. “You want to…”
Liang Yan bit his lower lip and closed his eyes. The discomfort was still unbearable, so he simply gave up resisting and leaned against Ji Qiu, wrapping his arms around his waist and resting his head on his chest. He nodded slightly. “In your dorm… do you still have a sampler?”
So it really was like this.
“I do,” Ji Qiu replied. “But—”
But I’m your Alpha.
A pheromone sampler, when used during an Alpha’s rut or an Omega’s heat, often produced the most standard and reliable results. That’s exactly why KB, with its deep pockets, spent a fortune to distribute them to Omegas participating in clinical trials, hoping to obtain the most comprehensive data.
But some people collect data for better experiments, while others only want to prove their product is “foolproof.”
“Don’t mark me…” Liang Yan weakly tugged at Ji Qiu’s clothes with his fingertips. “Xu Yishu… Xu Yishu even gave me a sample today.”
Xu Yishu… he endured it all on his own.
But I’m much luckier than him. I have my own Alpha.
Ji Qiu fell silent.
He knew that if he marked Liang Yan, the sampling results would be severely skewed—almost to the point of being considered invalid.
Even if he marked him after the sample was collected, it would only reflect the initial data.
He knew that—he knew all of it.
But now that the moment was here, all he wanted was to selfishly mark him.
To claim him. To possess him.
The most primal instinct of an Alpha was always base and animalistic. Even though society had learned to conceal it well, the moment they were faced with their Omega, it would always be laid bare.
Liang Yan sat on his lap, softly hooking his arms around Ji Qiu’s neck and calling his name.
“Ji Qiu.”
“…Yan Yan?”
Liang Yan gently stretched his body, using the strength of his waist to bring his lips close, rubbing them against the tip of Ji Qiu’s nose.
“You know there are other ways.”
An Omega’s heat—wasn’t it just instinct and desire?
The scent of mint still lingered around Ji Qiu.
“…Mm.”
“Use the sampler first,” Liang Yan insisted. “I came to you for this reason.”
I’ve made all the necessary preparations. You don’t need to feel guilty, or hesitate.
Some things simply have to be done.
Since we chose to stand on the same side, we must follow through, step by step.
“I want to do something for your brother too.” Liang Yan recalled the day Ji Qiu confessed to him—the fresh lilies on the gravestone.
He remembered the young man on the tombstone, with clear eyes and a gentle smile.
Liang Yan gripped the front of Ji Qiu’s shirt. Even his fingertips trembled.
The waves of heat wrapped around him, but he still struggled to speak clearly. When he looked at Ji Qiu, his gaze was calm yet laced with a kind of madness.
You can kiss me. You can mark me.
You can even… do something else.
Don’t hesitate. Isn’t this only natural?
Ji Qiu closed his eyes. “Then… wait for me a bit.”
Liang Yan nodded, but didn’t let go of Ji Qiu. As the latter stood to retrieve the sampler, Liang Yan supported himself on weak legs and rose with him.
Ji Qiu moved quickly. There were still plenty of samplers in his dorm. He picked one and returned to Liang Yan’s side. After collecting his own pheromone sample, he looked at Liang Yan and said, “I promise you.”
Only then did Liang Yan smile in satisfaction, a faint dimple appearing on his cheek.
Ji Qiu was skilled at sample collection. In less than three minutes, he completed the entire process. Then he labeled the small bottle containing his Omega’s sample and carefully set it aside.
“Later… after this, I’ll have to collect again.” Ji Qiu bit his tongue, swallowing the word in the middle.
Even knowing what was going to happen, he was still so cautious.
Liang Yan leaned on the bed watching him. The collar of his shirt was slightly askew, pulled during the almost-successful marking attempt, revealing part of his shoulder and collarbone.
Ji Qiu hung his hands by his sides, looking a little helpless, but his eyes were completely fixed on Liang Yan, unwilling to look away even for a second.
His Alpha was no worse than any other Alpha—exceptionally intelligent, tall, and impossibly handsome.
Around others, he was always composed and full of charm, but when facing Liang Yan, he always became cautious, prone to doing reckless things just to test boundaries—and then showing up later with a guilty expression, begging for forgiveness.
Sometimes he even acted like a fool, doing many little things without ever daring to admit them.
Liang Yan looked at him—and smiled.
But Ji Qiu always chickened out at moments like this, afraid he wouldn’t be able to suppress his instincts and end up hurting himself.
When the other’s hand once again pressed against the small of his back, Liang Yan suddenly remembered something someone once said when confessing to him.
They had said: “People should strive upward, should pursue higher, more noble things—
—not be ruled by base instincts and animal desire.”
Thinking of that, Liang Yan smiled faintly, then gently cupped Ji Qiu’s face and kissed him—devoutly and with intoxicated affection.
The other finally seemed to reach the end of his restraint and began to respond with both tenderness and passion.
What could he do?
He couldn’t control the instinct to court Ji Qiu.
Because he loved him.
…
…
When they came out of the bathroom, Ji Qiu had already helped Liang Yan install a new sampler.
The flush on Liang Yan’s face hadn’t completely faded yet, but his eyes and mind were much clearer.
He came out wearing Ji Qiu’s jacket. Ji Qiu heard the door and, afraid Liang Yan might not be able to stand steadily, rushed over in panic. “You should’ve just called me! What if you slipped and fell?”
Liang Yan made a sound in response, allowing Ji Qiu to scoop him up horizontally and carefully place him back on the bed—Ji Qiu had already laid out clean sheets on another bed, since the one they’d just used had been completely wrecked. Even the path from the bed to the bathroom was littered with marks of their… activities.
Ji Qiu averted his eyes—he really couldn’t bear to look.
Good thing they’d moved the battlefield to the bathroom later on.
Wait, now wasn’t the time to think about that.
“Are you hungry? Want me to get you a late-night snack?” Ji Qiu coughed twice, forcing himself to refocus, and asked the Omega beside him.
Liang Yan shook his head, saying nothing.
During heat, Omega appetites naturally decrease—even after intense physical exertion, he still didn’t feel hungry.
“Just eat a little something,” Ji Qiu said, picking up his phone. He ordered porridge anyway.
Once he had placed the order, Ji Qiu came over, kissed the top of Liang Yan’s head, and his hand gently slid from Liang Yan’s ear down to his Adam’s apple.
“Want me to dry your hair for you?”
He asked, but before waiting for a reply, Ji Qiu had already walked over, plugged in the hairdryer, set the wind speed, and began blow-drying Liang Yan’s hair.
Liang Yan was wearing Ji Qiu’s fuzzy bear pajamas, eyes closed, arms wrapped around his knees, exposing his slender, pale ankles.
Ji Qiu had been fairly restrained—not leaving many marks on Liang Yan—but his own arm, the one holding the hairdryer, was covered in messy scratch marks.
Liang Yan stayed still, obediently letting him move his head around.
It was only during times like these that the two of them actually seemed like a normal Alpha and Omega.
He lifted his gaze and saw the scratches on Ji Qiu’s hand, looking a bit embarrassed. “…Sorry.”
Ji Qiu acted like he didn’t feel any pain at all and continued to grin as he dried Liang Yan’s hair.
His fingers threaded through Liang Yan’s soft strands. Despite the noisy whirring of the hairdryer, the moment somehow felt peaceful for both of them.
Ji Qiu wasn’t really skilled at blow-drying. While he managed to get Liang Yan’s hair dry, it ended up a fluffy, frizzy mess because of how soft and voluminous it was.
The porridge arrived soon after, just the right temperature. Ji Qiu brought it over. Liang Yan hesitated, trying to refuse, but in the end, gave in to Ji Qiu’s usual coddling.
He stirred the shredded chicken porridge in the paper bowl and took tiny bites, one at a time.
Ji Qiu just sat there and watched him finish the entire bowl before gently wiping his mouth. “Want to go wash up?”
Liang Yan nodded. “You don’t have to be so…”
…meticulous about everything.
Like he’d suddenly lost all ability to take care of himself.
But he didn’t say it out loud. After all, based on how things were going now—one person eager to dote, the other willing to be doted on—it was a mutually enjoyable rhythm.
At exactly 10:55 PM, Yin Tongguang’s call came through.
“Yan Yan?” Yin Tongguang said, “There’s five minutes left until curfew. Do you want me to talk to the dorm supervisor for you?”
Liang Yan looked up at the person beside him.
Ji Qiu mouthed silently from the side, “I—can—walk—you—back.”
“No need,” Liang Yan withdrew his gaze and replied calmly to Yin Tongguang, “I’m not going back tonight.”
Yin Tongguang, whose love-brain worked about as well as a paramecium’s, didn’t get it at first: “Huh?? You already went home?”
“…” Liang Yan paused for a second. “I’m at Ji Qiu’s dorm.”
“Oh, oh, got it… Wait—what the hell??? Yan Yan???” Yin Tongguang replied casually at first, then suddenly realized what that sentence implied.
Liang Yan’s fingers tightened around the phone, a little nervous, though his voice remained steady: “Mm.”
“Uhh…” On the other end, Yin Tongguang fumbled for words and had no idea what to say.
Finally, Ji Qiu thought for a moment and took the phone. “What time is your class tomorrow?”
Yin Tongguang was stunned to hear Ji Qiu’s voice out of nowhere. After a beat, he checked the class schedule. “Third and fourth periods. Ten o’clock.”
After saying that, he felt it wasn’t detailed enough and helpfully added, “It’s an elective, and the teacher doesn’t really take attendance!”
“Mm, thanks,” Ji Qiu nodded and hung up.
Liang Yan looked at him and started laughing.
It was just a phone call, and Yin Tongguang couldn’t even see Ji Qiu nodding—yet that fool still seriously nodded on his end.
When Ji Qiu handed the phone back to Liang Yan, he saw the smile on his face. “What’s so funny?”
Liang Yan shook his head, though the dimples at the corners of his mouth remained.
He was wearing Ji Qiu’s teddy bear pajamas, looking gentle and tame. His hair was a tousled mess, blown dry by his Alpha. His dark eyes curved softly, and his fingers were still hooked into Ji Qiu’s palm.
The aloof youth who had always seemed hard to approach in the eyes of other students was now looking at his Alpha with such tenderness and sweetness it was almost unreal.
The pretty Omega hugged his knees, the smile on his face growing brighter, and then—whether on purpose or by accident—he suddenly collapsed into Ji Qiu’s arms.
That night, even after the lights were out, Liang Yan—whose heat hadn’t completely passed—ended up doing it with him again. Twice.
The overwhelming waves of desire left him helpless, and under Ji Qiu’s relentless thrusts, he could only let out broken syllables.
By the end, they were both fully awake. In the darkness, the two of them, already tasting the sweetness, naturally gave in again—shame never even came up.
The only imperfection, maybe…
Was that the dorm bed was just too small.
Ji Qiu was spacing out in class, chewing on his pen as he thought about it.
He had woken up early. After washing up quietly and carefully, so as not to wake Liang Yan, he left a note before heading reluctantly to class.
Liang Yan, on the other hand, slept deeply through the whole morning. When he finally woke up, he shuffled to the balcony in Ji Qiu’s slippers and pajamas to wash up.
But when he saw his reflection in the mirror—swollen lips, messy hair flattened from sleep, wearing those teddy bear pajamas he would never have bought himself—he felt momentarily dazed.
Just then, the sound of a key in the door and the scent of a delicious lunch wafted in.
And his Alpha was standing there in the doorway, smiling at him. “I’m back.”
All of a sudden, Liang Yan felt like… maybe this wasn’t so bad.
“Mm.”
He heard himself answer.
However, on the school forum—which neither of them cared about much—the scene from the night before sparked another round of heated discussion.
[RT, about Yan and Qiu—how many people saw what happened outside Dorm 5 last night?]
[Didn’t see, but I heard about it.]
[AAAAAAAH I’M DEAD I’M ACTUALLY DEAD]
[Willing to pay big money for a pair of eyes that didn’t witness last night under the dorm building]
[Yeah, and the vibe between those two was totally off, okay?! I’m starting to ship QiuYan!]
[Ship quietly in your own bubble. We’re all team YanQiu here.]
[What can two Omegas even do?? WAKE UP!]
[Blind guess: they were just chatting innocently under the blanket.]
[Just chatting. 1]
[2]
[Right, we’re all med students, let’s be blunt—they can’t knot or mark each other, so maybe it really was just some friendly emotional bonding.]
[Oh… upstairs just hit the key point.]
[Let’s drop it—what’s it got to do with any of us anyway.]
Just then, the ever-present anonymous alt account popped back up:
[You guys know NOTHING: LOOK AT MY USERNAME!!! YOU KNOW NOTHING!!! AAAAAAAHHH!!!]
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