Chapter 17
“Just in case, I’ve set the room to ‘occupied.’ No one will enter until your doctor returns, so don’t worry,”
The doctor, concerned, looked at the bewildered Shu Ci. After quickly pressing a couple of buttons on the control panel, she left.
Shu Ci stood there, clutching the inhibitor, lost in thought.
From his escape from the Central Hotel to kicking Gu Lan Zhu in the groin, the plot had completely derailed. He could no longer rely on the original novel for reference, nor could he determine if his current state was normal.
What was certain was that he didn’t need the inhibitor.
His pheromones had simply changed scent, and he only realized how strongly they were emitting after the fact. It was completely different from the estrus period described in the book.
The original protagonist always wore the camellia necklace left by his father to suppress the onset of his disorder. Later, Gu Lan Zhu forcibly removed his glands, directly curing the illness.
But he had thrown away the necklace; Gu Lan Zhu had said he’d return it at the Shu residence, but he didn’t take it back.
This was his own fault. Fortunately, it was in a sealed room. If it were outside, Gu Lan Zhu would undoubtedly have noticed the anomaly.
At this thought, Shu Ci’s face changed. He quickly closed his eyes, recalling the method Lu Wanqing had taught him, trying to pull back the pheromones about to disperse.
However, most of the already dispersed pheromones couldn’t be retrieved; it was like a cat’s tail—independent and erratic, beyond his control.
Being able to control his pheromones was a matter of life and death.
If he left this room and couldn’t control them, he would only have one fate: to be at Gu Lan Zhu’s mercy.
Shu Ci couldn’t help feeling annoyed and agitated.
The pheromones, previously under his control, seemed to sense his resentment and anger. They fled in the opposite direction, causing his glands to tremble, and even more pheromones erupted, instantly filling the room with a strong scent.
Shu Ci’s pupils constricted. He immediately focused, closed his eyes, and engaged in a tug-of-war with the pheromones scattering everywhere.
Unfortunately, he was losing.
When Lu Wanqing returned, the room was in a chaotic state—
The originally beautiful and refined omega was slumped on the table in exhaustion. Hearing him come back, he struggled to lift his eyelids, wearily glancing at him before closing them again, his eyes and cheeks flushed unnaturally.
The air was filled with the fragrance of honeysuckle.
Lu Wanqing: “…”
He shifted his gaze from the scene that easily led to misinterpretations, looked around, noticed the fading jasmine scent disappearing, and his eyes darkened.
He walked to Shu Ci, reaching out, his warm palm hovering an inch above Shu Ci’s nape.
After a while, Lu Wanqing frowned.
“The disorder has started,” Shu Ci mumbled, his forehead resting on the table. “This new scent is like being soaked in a vat of herbs.”
“I know,” Lu Wanqing withdrew the inhibitor from his palm. “Don’t use the medicine.”
To reduce Shu Ci’s rejection reaction, he controlled the depth of his touch, ensuring no actual physical contact.
“No, I know it’s not,” Shu Ci lifted his head irritably, his sweat-dampened hair sticking to his forehead. “But I can’t pull them back using your method this time.”
He looked up, his gray-blue eyes glistening with moisture.
His complaining tone was slightly intimate.
Lu Wanqing raised a finger, placing it again behind his neck. “How about now?”
“I don’t feel anything,” Shu Ci shrugged, blinking his large eyes. “What are you doing?”
“An Alpha’s pheromone pressure has a deterrent effect. Usually, an Omega will subconsciously retract their pheromones when they feel the pressure. It might not be completely successful, but it’s an instinct,” Lu Wanqing paused. “I’m putting pressure on you.”
“…” Shu Ci twitched the corner of his mouth, nervously looking away.
He didn’t feel anything.
I’m sorry, this is his first time being an Omega; he doesn’t even know what his instincts should be like.
The only instinct he’d experienced was being overwhelmed and disoriented by Gu Lan Zhu’s pheromones; just thinking about it made his scalp tingle and feel nauseous.
Lu Wanqing unsurprisingly withdrew his hand.
“I noticed it before; you seem unable to sense my pressure.”
Shu Ci was stunned. “When?”
Lu Wanqing: “When you snatched my sunglasses.”
“Cough,” Shu Ci cleared his throat, preventing him from dwelling on that topic. “Speaking of which, you have a medical license, right? What’s wrong with me? Is it curable?”
Lu Wanqing looked down at him for a long time before shaking his head.
“In fact, cases of global pheromone disorder are very rare, and the patients’ conditions vary. In other words, the academic community currently simply calls the abnormal state of pheromones where the cause cannot be found, and the various problems caused by this state, a disorder.”
Current research is incomplete, let alone treatment methods.
“Are there any similar… symptoms?”
“If you’re referring to uncontrolled pheromones, it usually occurs as a rejection reaction after gland transplantation or artificial gland implantation. This happens when the new gland hasn’t fused with the nervous system and hasn’t been recognized as part of the body.”
“I understand,” Shu Ci nodded knowingly, subconsciously reaching out to touch the soft flesh. “Clearly, I don’t have a rejection reaction; I can’t even control my original ones.”
Shu Ci fell into thought.
If he couldn’t control his pheromones, it might be related to him not being the original protagonist. But this situation couldn’t explain his success in controlling his pheromones and retracting them at the Shu residence that day.
This seemed unrelated to whether he was transmigrated.
“Then what should I do? Sit here and become a human aroma diffuser?”
Shu Ci found that after Lu Wanqing returned, he wasn’t as anxious; he could even chat casually with him.
Lu Wanqing stared at him for a while and asked, “Do you have any plans later? If not, let’s get a full checkup.”
In the parking lot, the Beta doctor rushed to the Gu family’s dedicated medical vehicle with various medicines.
“This painkiller is only available in military hospitals,” she handed it to Zhao Qian, getting into the car. “Luckily, my self-service room access hasn’t expired yet.”
She glanced at the back seat. Gu Lan was lying in the car with a gloomy expression.
“Should we let Mr. Gu take the medicine first?”
“Let’s check at home,” Zhao Qian saw Mr. Gu’s clenched fists in the rearview mirror and quickly told the driver to start the car, raising the soundproof partitions. “Someone stole something from him earlier; he’s in a bad mood.”
“Someone dared to steal something from him?”
“…It’s a long story.”
Zhao Qian recalled the person’s indifferent expression and sighed.
He glanced at Yi Xing Shui; the Beta woman seemed unconcerned about Mr. Gu’s grievances. She took out her phone from her white coat, her expression serious.
“You don’t look good either,” Zhao Qian said. “Is it because you were called out of your nap?”
“I’ve already accepted the fact that I’m Mr. Gu’s personal doctor,” Yi Xing Shui didn’t respond.
She was thinking about the Omega in the self-service medical room.
The self-service medical room at the main hospital was once used for teaching. The instructor only approved three people in the group, and then it was never opened for applications again.
Her second senior sister wasn’t in City A.
Could it be that the Omega patient was brought by her first senior brother?
…
“So he took you to the main hospital for a VIP checkup?”
When Shen Ti arrived, Lu Wanqing was taking Shu Ci out of the hospital. He went to the parking lot, leaving them on a bench outside the hospital to talk.
Shu Ci found that when his mood calmed down and he adapted to the new pheromone scent, his ability to control his pheromones returned.
Earlier, when he was pushed into the MRI room and lay down, all the dispersed pheromones were instantly retracted. When he came out, he saw a hint of surprise in Lu Wanqing’s eyes.
They both didn’t know what happened; the honeysuckle scent throughout the hospital was locked up again and disappeared completely.
“Let me see your medical report,” Shen Ti snatched it from Shu Ci suspiciously. “My God!”
“What’s wrong?”
“This checkup package is only open to army generals and above. The Twelve Generals, the President, and their families—less than fifty people nationwide can experience it.”
Shu Ci almost fell off the chair.
There were four near-province districts and eight far-province districts in the twelve military regions. The highest-ranking officials in each region were collectively known as the Twelve Generals, directly under the Marshal’s command.
“Is it possible that he used his identity as a doctor to pull strings for me?”
Shu Ci swallowed.
Shen Ti shook her head. “Which doctor would dare do that? No, I have to call my husband and ask.”
As she dialed the number, a familiar ringtone sounded nearby.
Shen Ti turned her head sharply and saw her husband getting out of a car in the distance, walking nonchalantly beside Lu Wanqing, who had a faint look of impatience.
Cui You smiled cheerfully on his phone: “Hey, honey? Missed me? I can go home tonight!”
“…” Shen Ti frowned.
How did she not know that her husband and Shu Ci’s husband were so close?
“I remember your energetic husband just got promoted to Brigadier General?”
Shu Ci recalled Shen Ti’s interview a few days ago. Brigadier General was a rank lower than General.
Then he looked at the two Alphas in uniform approaching.
No one answered him.
Because the next second, Shen Ti charged toward Cui You at full speed.
Shu Ci watched the show, enjoying the affectionate interaction of the 95% compatible couple, when he was suddenly enveloped in a shadow.
He calmly met the person’s gaze.
A faint smile played on his lips. “How about you? Are you going home tonight, General Lu?”
Author’s Note:
Lu Wanqing, the legendary protagonist of a multiple-identity novel (dog head)