Chapter 16 “He Hates Me.”
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The chaotic sound of Shen Yao’s breathing could be clearly heard in the air as he adjusted his heartbeat and pressed his waist tightly against the edge of the table.
His shoulders were tense. Although he willingly allowed himself to be marked, Shen Yao felt an indescribable sense of suffocation, as if his fragile neck was being choked and he could not break free.
Yan Zhixing stood a few steps away from him, giving him enough safe distance.
It wasn’t just Shen Yao who was affected by the mark. Yan Zhixing gave away some clues, such as his slightly messy clothes, his icy blue eyes, and the three long scars on the back of his hand, which looked like scratches. It was somewhat abrupt to see them on the serious Yan Zhixing.
Shen Yao could control his thorns and act like a docile vase when Yan Zhixing called him over or marked him. But that didn’t mean he was willing to be taken advantage of.
His glands were still warm, and he still hadn’t smelled Yan Zhixing’s pheromones. He guessed that it was intentional.
Shen Yao didn’t pursue this question, and with his beautiful and delicate face, he asked, “Does it hurt so much to be marked? Why did other omegas say it should be a comfortable thing?”
If it weren’t for the fact that Yan Zhixing had marked Shen Yao before, he might have been deceived by Shen Yao’s natural appearance.
Yan Zhixing stared at him. When others lied, they would usually feel a little uneasy, but Shen Yao’s gaze did not dodge and was clear and clean.
Shen Yao lowered his head and said, “It really hurts.”
If Yan Zhixing hadn’t confirmed that Shen Yao, like himself, suffered from dependency syndrome and couldn’t accept other alphas marking him, he might even think that Shen Yao had been marked by another alpha.
Yan Zhixing lowered his eyes and suddenly wondered if Shen Yao had been marked by someone else before he met him.
According to the information he found, Shen Yao’s romantic history was as clean as a blank sheet of paper. As he said, there were many alpha suitors around him, but he had never been with any of them.
A sudden pain shot through the back of his hand, but it was very mild for Yan Zhixing. He glanced down.
Shen Yao’s claws were unusually sharp.
“Sorry, it was not intentional.” Shen Yao apologized to him. “But I couldn’t control myself when you bit me so hard during the marking, so I accidentally scratched you.”
He whispered, “Is this the first time you’ve marked an omega, or have you marked other omegas who hurt as much as I do?”
Yan Zhixing was very mysterious, and he had never heard of any omega around him. But with his high status and power, it should have been easy for him to find a compatible omega. However, if he did have one, his marking action seemed a bit too clumsy.
He said a lot, but Yan Zhixing didn’t respond and instead asked, “Don’t you dislike that alpha named Dai Xinghui?”
Shen Yao was taken aback. “Why?”
Yan Zhixing said lightly, “If you want, he won’t appear in front of you again.”
Shen Yao fell silent for a moment. In his eyes, Dai Xinghui was insignificant and had no influence on his mood. However, it would be troublesome if he was entangled.
He asked bluntly, “I also have other alphas that I dislike. Can you make sure they don’t appear in front of me too?”
Yan Zhixing had already sat back in his chair. He looked like he had a lot of things to do, with a stack of documents on his desk. “Sure,” he agreed to Shen Yao’s condition. He picked up a pen with a sapphire inlay and his expression, which had just shown some fluctuations, returned to calm. “Let the servant take you to the guest room. I have a video conference later.”
There was a male servant waiting outside the door, similar to the one from last time. Shen Yao noticed Yan Zhixing’s habit of hiring beta servants who had ordinary looks but were easy on the eyes and knew how to keep quiet.
There were many empty rooms in the estate. The servant led him to an elevator and only went up two floors. The servant opened one of the room doors, which was decorated in a European retro style and was clean and bright. The living conditions were impeccable.
“If you need anything, just press the switch on the bedside table.”
Shen Yao nodded. “Okay, thank you.”
There was a bookcase in the room, and he randomly picked up a collection of poems and laid down on the bed. He opened the book cover and could still smell the scent of new paper and ink.
He touched his gland and didn’t sense any alpha pheromones, but this was still a mark.
It was truly a fair trade, he thought expressionlessly. He gave Yan Zhixing a mark, and Yan Zhixing gave him what he wanted.
After the video conference, Yan Zhixing’s face still showed no signs of fatigue, like a robot that would never make a mistake.
The door to the study was knocked again, and Yan Zhixing looked at the clock before saying in a low voice, “Come in.”
A beta wearing a shirt came in with a thick stack of documents and a toolbox in his right hand.
Jian Rui wore thin-framed glasses and had been following Yan Zhixing for four years.
As a beta without a prestigious family background, he was often ostracized in the research institute. Even the experiment he proposed and completed on pheromone dependency syndrome was directly stolen by others.
He was still somewhat incredulous when he received a call from Yan Zhixing’s assistant.
Jian Rui took out the pheromone measurement device from his box and also took out a syringe. Yan Zhixing put down his files and allowed him to extract a blood sample from his vein.
As he waited for the results, Jian Rui’s breathing became a bit nervous. As he expected, Yan Zhixing’s pheromone value after marking with an omega was very stable.
The pheromone value that usually required a large amount of medication to maintain was now very stable with just a simple mark.
Yan Zhixing also saw the results, and the truth bluntly told him that Shen Yao was his only correct medicine, and he couldn’t temporarily do without him.
He slowly said, “I found that it was hard for me to control myself when I marked him.”
“This is unavoidable,” Jian Rui said somewhat helplessly. “The pheromones of this omega have an extreme attraction to you. Even the strongest alpha’s self-control can’t restrain it because it’s instinctive, just like a knee-jerk reflex, something that can’t be fundamentally controlled.”
“You’re already the alpha with the strongest self-control I’ve ever seen. When he was in heat in front of you, you even gave him suppressants and let him go from under your nose.”
Yan Zhixing’s face was like ice, and only he knew that if he hadn’t left in time that day, Shen Yao would never have left that resting room.
He asked, “Are you sure pheromone dependency syndrome is always mutual?”
Shen Yao looked too normal, and he seemed completely unaffected by this disease, but it was not ruled out that he was pretending.
Jian Rui explained, “Although there aren’t many cases of this disease, all the recorded cases indicate that it’s mutual, but… there are degrees of severity.”
He knew Yan Zhixing wouldn’t like to hear the next words, so he gently said, “For example, your dependency is the most severe, so when your pheromone value is unstable, you might even have hallucinations of the omega’s pheromones and do… um… things.”
During Yan Zhixing’s sensitive period, he even saw alphas who were normally high and mighty lose their minds.
In his hand, he tightly clenched a piece of cloth that Yan Zhixing tore off from the omega in the chaos at the time. The scent of pheromones remaining on this small piece of cloth became his last medicine.
Yan Zhixing’s blonde hair was wet and disheveled as he used it to cover his mouth and nose, barely breathing in the sickly sweet scent from the fabric of his clothes.
When he heard the sound of Jian Rui opening the door, he raised his eyes like sharp knives, his voice hoarse and full of hostility.
“Where is my omega?”
“Where did you hide him?”
During his heat, Yan Zhixing could not distinguish friend from foe, and anyone who entered his territory who was not his beloved omega was seen as a threat.
He pounced on Jian Rui like a wild animal, his grip tightening around his neck. Though his expression was blank, there was a hint of madness in his eyes.
Jian Rui tasted the suffocating sensation as Yan Zhixing squeezed his neck tightly, and his vision went black.
The sound of buzzing filled his ears, and he felt as if he was about to die. Finally, he felt a cool breath of air enter his throat just as he was on the brink of passing out.
Jian Rui thought Yan Zhixing had regained his senses, and opened his eyes, only to see that the alpha’s hand was still firmly around his neck. Yan Zhixing’s voice was cold and resolute as he asked again, “Where is my… omega?”
How could Jian Rui possibly give him an answer?
Jian Rui’s eyes widened slightly, and the suffocating feeling returned in the next moment. Yan Zhixing repeatedly questioned him, giving him less and less time to breathe. If it hadn’t been for the alert guards outside who realized something was wrong, Jian Rui might have really died there.
It took five or six alphas to finally pry Yan Zhixing’s hand off Jian Rui, but he still held tightly onto the cloth.
Jian Rui swallowed nervously and cautiously looked at Yan Zhixing’s expression as he continued, “If the dependency syndrome has a minimal effect on that omega, he might only react to your pheromones.”
Yan Zhixing put down the pen in his hand, and it was clear that he had also remembered that incident. He said coldly, “That’s really unfair.”
So Yan Zhixing planned to make this unfair situation even more unfair.
He liked to use a secure approach, cutting off anything harmful to himself from the root of the problem. Shen Yao’s suspicious nature made him constantly speculate about his inexplicable attraction to Yan Zhixing.
But his calculations fell short in Yan Zhixing’s eyes.
“After the laboratory is fully prepared, I will bring him back to the Yan family to extract his pheromones.”
From the very beginning, Yan Zhixing had never planned to rely on Shen Yao’s pheromones and mark for the rest of his life. He would not allow himself to be held hostage by such a huge weakness.
“He wants to extract Shen Yao’s pheromones and turn the humanoid medicine into a real medicine.
All AO patients with addiction tendencies choose to get married, and their compatibility is high, which simplifies everything.
This is just an experimental idea, but there is a 99% chance that Jian Rui thinks it can succeed. He asked more than he should have, “What about that omega?”
If Yan Zhixing finds the medicine, what about the omega without his appeasement? Will he never find an alpha for his whole life?
His question was not answered, and Yan Zhixing just looked at him quietly. Jian Rui immediately broke out in a cold sweat on his back. People from the Yan family were more and more ruthless. Why would Yan Zhixing care about others?
Yan Zhixing’s approach has always been simple: if someone wants money, he will give them money; if someone wants power, he will give them power. Just like when he found Jian Rui and invited him to join this secret experiment.
Whatever Shen Yao wants, Yan Zhixing will give it to him. But what happens to him later, Yan Zhixing won’t care.
The estate was large, and after Shen Yao woke up the next day, he never met Yan Zhixing again. He didn’t care and had the driver take him back to the Shen family.
In a few days, it will be the anniversary of Shen Chen’s death, and Shen Yao’s eyes were vacant as he headed towards the old Shen mansion. The roof seemed to be covered with dark clouds.
The old mansion was somewhat close to Yan Zhixing’s estate, so he came to take a look.
When Shen Yao arrived, there was no one in the living room, only the servants were there. They were slightly surprised to see the rarely appearing young master.
He ignored the servants and went straight to the room where the portrait was displayed. The picture was taken when Shen Chen was sixty years old, and he didn’t look weak at all, with a cold look in his eyes.
Shen Yao looked quietly for a while before leaving.
As he prepared to leave after coming down the stairs, Shen Shenmian was sitting in the living room. He must have been waiting for him.
Sure enough, Shen Shenmian felt the mark on Shen Yao’s body and his expression changed drastically.
He suspected that Shen Yao had come to show off to him on purpose. Otherwise, why would he come home for no reason? He enviously said, “You’re getting along with Yan Zhixing now. Aren’t you proud?”
Shen Yao didn’t want to deal with Shen Shenmian and casually answered, “It’s okay.”
Shen Yao continued to walk outside.
“Shen Yao!” Shen Shenmian called out to him, and he stood up from the sofa and said loudly, “Guan Shu is back, do you know?”
Shen Yao’s pupils shrank slightly, not too obvious, but Shen Shenmian still noticed it. He finally felt the pleasure of successful revenge from Shen Yao, gloating, “Guan Shu hates you so much, how do you think he will retaliate against you?”
After a brief silence, Shen Yao’s expression quickly returned to normal. He continued to walk outside, standing in the backlight of the doorway. Shen Shenmian couldn’t see his face clearly, but he could hear his gentle tone.
“It doesn’t matter,” Shen Yao said. “He may hate me with all his heart, but he’s also willing to do anything for the sake of loving me.”
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