Chapter 27

Although Feng Ran's daily schedule is different from Shen Shiqian's, Shen Shiqian will always finish work early on Fridays to go home and have dinner with Feng Ran. Then he will work in his study at home on Saturdays and go to the military headquarters on Sundays.

Even though Feng Ran subtly rejected his advances, he was still trying to salvage something through this invisible struggle. Feng Ran's tough attitude at that time stemmed from her inner confusion and wavering when facing her true gender, while Shen Shiqian's attempt to distance himself from her annoyed her. In fact, her attitude towards this person was ambiguous; she didn't care what he did, as long as it didn't bother her.

However, this was only before her memory returned. During this period, she didn't know if it was because she started taking medication again or because her memory was returning, but the frequency of her flaring neuralgia attacks was higher than before. Every time she woke up in her empty house, she felt a dull pain in her heart. After the daze, she couldn't help but feel a deep fear. After getting used to this complex emotion, her hatred for Shen Shiqian intensified.

Shen Shiqian returned exceptionally early today, and surprisingly, Xisen was also there. There were also some unfamiliar staff members who seemed to be busy with something in a room at the end of the corridor. They were sitting on the living room sofa chatting idly, and looked up as Feng Ran entered the room.

Feng Ran came back wearing her sportswear. After the competition, she changed into trousers, which were warmer than the uniform skirt. The black, gray and white striped jacket and trousers were a very simple and ordinary style, but they accentuated her tall and slender figure. After shedding her elegant and composed demeanor, she had a capable and elite aura. Her hair was down, and the fluffy and slightly curly strands fell everywhere with her movements. After brushing aside her bangs to reveal the outline of her forehead, her every move and expression became much more lively.

Shen Shiqian stared at her, his pupils shrinking for a brief moment, as if he had been sucked into those eyes. After a brief moment of realization, his heart began to race.

Feng Ran gave a faint smile: "Sir." Then he greeted Xisen, "Dr. Kalisch, it's been a long time."

Xisen's expression was natural, but there was a subtle sense of inquiry: "Hey, long time no see. You look pretty good. How have you been feeling lately?"

Feng Ran: "Thank you for your concern. As you can see, everything is fine lately, nothing's wrong." Not wanting to deal with the doctor any longer, she changed the subject, glancing meaningfully at the staff coming and going, and asked, "What's going on here?"

Shen Shiqian sighed, "I wanted to give you a surprise, but I didn't expect you to come back so early today."

Feng Ran: "Because today is the sports meet, there are only two events this afternoon. I came back after the closing ceremony."

Shen Shiqian paused for a moment, but his tone remained as gentle as ever: "I'm sorry, I've been too busy lately. I remember that Saint Ya's sports meet had an open event, and I had planned to go and take a look."

Open house events are actually aimed at prospective students that the school wants to recruit, but very few families actually bring their children to the open house of elite schools. Usually, the secretary or assistant will conduct an assessment and then make a decision directly. Moreover, very few people usually come when they say they are going to have a parent-teacher meeting, so no one cares about this.

Feng Ran felt a little strange. She attributed it to the fact that Shen Shiqian attended a public school and didn't know these things. She didn't think about explaining further and just said calmly, "It's okay. You'll be very noticeable if you appear at school."

After all, it would be hard for the people of the empire to imagine that their aloof and otherworldly male god would actually marry someone, especially a high school student. The pressure of curiosity and investigation would fall entirely on Feng Ran's shoulders, and it would be very troublesome for her to deal with it.

Feng Ran interrupted him, asking, "So, what's the surprise?"

Shen Shiqian: "A smart mechanical laboratory. I suddenly realized that we've known each other for so long and I haven't given you any gifts yet. Xisen said that you know a little about pharmaceutical research and suggested that I install a medical laboratory for you, but I think a mechanical laboratory is more versatile. In case you don't like pharmaceuticals, you can still research other things."

That's a lame excuse.

What doctor would recommend sending a patient to a medical laboratory? What's the difference between that and a policeman giving a thief lock-picking tool?

Although Feng Ran and Xing Tong had always wanted an intelligent mechanical laboratory, they didn't want to get it this way. This blatant probing—was Shen Shiqian too greedy or too hasty?

Her response was weak: "Thank you."

Shen Shiqian was somewhat taken aback by her reaction: "Don't you like it?"

Feng Ran: "I don't know, it's very subtle, it feels like I have to do assignments even when I'm on vacation at home."

She withdrew her attention from the brand-new room and said calmly, "I'll go back to my room and change my clothes first."

There's a slight difference.

Seeing her leave, Shen Shiqian sighed with some annoyance. He thought Feng Ran would really like the gift, since she had seemed to like it before.

Long ago, when they first met, they weren't separated by a screen on a quantum computer, but stood face to face with each other. At that time, Feng Ran wasn't some notorious interstellar criminal, but an ordinary mechanical student in the Science and Technology Department of the Capital Military Academy.

Everyone else's white coats were clean, neat, and smart, but hers were covered in machine oil and dust. At that time, she was sitting on the floor of the equipment room, holding an enormous energy power furnace in her arms. She glanced at Shen Shiqian, who had suddenly arrived, and then silently continued to hammer and tinker with the large iron block.

Shen Shiqian went to the equipment room on a whim after a lecture he had given. He was wandering around the academy alone. When he was in school, he was a problem student who gave the instructors a headache. During mecha practical classes, the lightweight new mecha would always be smashed to pieces by him, as he would pull the joystick wildly in his excitement. The teachers in the asset department wanted to blacklist him from practical classes several times. In the end, they found him an old mecha that was three times heavier than the new mecha. The operating system was not as responsive as the new system, but Shen Shiqian used it with great ease.

Shen Shiqian cherished that mecha, firstly because the asset department would blacklist him if it were damaged, and secondly because he had been inside the cockpit of such an old-fashioned mecha with his father when he was a child, which he found nostalgic. He piloted the old-fashioned mecha and dominated in various school leagues, becoming famous overnight and even causing the focus of later mecha development to shift towards heavy mechas. Unfortunately, the mecha broke down when he was in his third year. The technology department couldn't repair the layers of damage, and in the end, it could only be left in the equipment room as a decoration.

His mech was still in the equipment room, not covered in the thick dust he had imagined. The previously broken metal cover and reflective shield had been replaced with new ones, but the colors were very mismatched, as if the materials were not good enough and were randomly matched. As he approached to see if the broken alloy fiber on his arm had also been repaired, Feng Ran jumped up from the ground and grabbed him, looking at him with displeasure: "Don't touch that, that's the arrow slot."

Shen Shiqian pointed to the other damaged areas. The girl pushed the heavy observation mirror to the top of her head, revealing her delicate and pretty face, her expression unreadable.

"Track roll interface".

"Reflector spring pin".

"Missile launch port".

Every modification was beyond Shen Shiqian's expectations. The teachers in the Department of Science and Technology told him that the various key connections that were originally damaged could not be repaired, but the girl used a special technique to carefully sew them up and fix them in place.

"Can it be opened?"

Feng Ran gave a wicked smile, somewhat proudly: "Sure, but no one dares. Its sensitivity is three times that of the current new model. It can only be used for close-range physical attacks, and its grabbing and destructive power is terrifying. As long as the point of force is clever enough, it can even tear through the planet's protective shield. The split-type remote dual operation is very difficult, and only those with a mental strength rating of S or above can pilot it."

...

Feng Ran always manages to do things that ordinary people can't. Perhaps his gift was a bit far-fetched, but Shen Shiqian just wanted to protect her talents and restore her rightful glory to her future.

Ignoring Shen Shiqian's melancholy, Xisen glanced around and then leaned closer to him: "When do you plan to tell her about the checkup?"

The last time he temporarily entered a period of high susceptibility, or rather, a false heat, Feng Ran gave him a small mark. The bite mark was very shallow, and with the powerful regenerative ability of a 3S-level Alpha, it didn't even leave a scar. The fact that the temporary mark could work meant that their compatibility should indeed be very high. Shen Shiqian recalled the values ​​given by the Academy of Sciences and was more inclined to believe that the data they hadn't calculated was problematic.

Of course, it's also possible that Feng Ran secretly altered that value. If she had developed that advanced intelligent system at the age of 16, it would have been incredibly easy for her to do so. He just wanted to try harder to trust Feng Ran a little more.

In fact, a high compatibility is not a big deal. On the contrary, couples will become more loving and devoted because of this instinctive attraction. However, Xisen said that his pheromone levels seemed to have changed. The degree to which this change could be perceived from the outside was that the first impression he gave to others had changed. His previous aloofness and coldness had been tinged with a more complex mystery, which was complex but overall became softer.

Initially, no one paid much attention to this impression. In fact, no one in the military dared to gossip about Shen Shiqian. It was during the routine autumn physical examination that Xisen, Shen Shiqian's personal physician, discovered the problem.

This is due to pheromone mixing and residual markers.

These are symptoms that shouldn't appear in an Alpha.

In the ABO sex system, Alpha is at the absolute top. Because of this priority, the effect of marking is particularly obvious. Temporary marking can cause O to develop pheromone dependence, and permanent marking is even more difficult to wash off. The higher the Alpha's level or the higher the compatibility between the two, the more residual the marking will remain. Even if B cannot be marked, it is only because there is no pheromone effect. After marking, the pheromone will remain in the body for a period of time before being excreted through metabolism. However, once the amount of pheromones received exceeds the body's capacity, it will also have a certain impact on B. The most obvious effect is that the uterus sinks and the conception rate increases.

The only A with the ability to mark will produce an immune rejection in its body due to the difference in pheromone levels between itself and the outsider, even if it gives a mark to someone of the same sex. This will tightly wrap and break down the invading foreign pheromone, or resist its penetration and diffusion and force it out through the wound. This is why there is intense pain when A marks someone of the same sex. Therefore, it is impossible for A to have any mark residue.

The only thing that can leave a mark on an Alpha is the legendary fourth gender, Enigma.

As soon as this conjecture arose, Xisen was eager to have Shen Shiqian take Feng Ran to the Supervisory Bureau for a gender test. While she was still a minor and had not yet undergone secondary differentiation, if the pheromone deviation value really reached the Enigma level, then Shen Shiqian's situation with her would be somewhat dangerous.

Enigma's eccentricity and power are no joke. Whether as a doctor, a friend, or an ordinary citizen of the Empire, Xisen doesn't really want Shen Shiqian to be marked as pregnant because of this relationship. After all, he's in a very high position, and such a thing would not have a good impact on either him or Feng Ran.

Seeing that Shen Shiqian remained silent, Xisen continued, "Her last pheromone test data was taken when she was eight years old, right after she differentiated. At that time, she already had a deviation value of 52. Now it's probably even higher."

After all, Shen Shiqian is a 3S-level Alpha with a current pheromone deviation value of 91, while Feng Ran's pheromones are already able to resist Shen Shiqian's pressure and remain completely unaffected, which is enough to make people think about it with trepidation.

The higher the deviation value of pheromones, the stronger the pressure and effect that pheromones can produce. Once this value exceeds the 95 threshold, it is either an extremely rare and special pheromone-enhanced individual, or an existence with a probability of breaking through and differentiating into Enigma. Although this deviation value will gradually increase with age, after adulthood, the rate of increase will only slow down, and finally stabilize at a value around the age of eighty.

Shen Shiqian knew this without Xisen specifically reminding him, but he was more anxious about something else: once Feng Ran's Enigma identity was confirmed, their marriage might completely break down.

The existence of Enigma itself requires reporting to the Empire, and Feng Ran will be controlled and protected as a special case. Even if Shen Shiqian can take Feng Ran for this examination in secrecy, how will he face Feng Ran after the results come out?

The threat to his gender meant that Shen Shiqian could not have a relationship with Feng Ran. Because of his status, everything he did was prioritized the interests of the empire. This marriage was forced to become a mere formality, and all his words to Feng Ran became empty promises. Even the most basic trust relationship would be broken as a result. But if he still insisted on keeping Feng Ran, wouldn't he be even worse than Basil Sleika?

Shen Shiqian felt a headache coming on: "Isn't the probability of a special individual being higher than the probability of an Enigma appearing?"

Sissen: "Yes, but why don't you take a look at your medical report before asking? If the markers continue to remain, it's not impossible for your pheromone deviation value to start changing and dropping."

Seeing him caught in a painful dilemma, Xisen pursed his lips and finally managed to say, "You need to think carefully about which side you want to choose. After all, you know how hard it was for you to get to where you are today. If your marriage and pregnancy with Enigma were to be exposed, the people in the council would skin you alive. His Majesty might not even be on your side. But I can't interfere with your feelings. You need to know what you're doing and make sure you don't regret it."

...

Shen Shiqian remained silent.

Feng Ran lost patience and interest in eavesdropping. Shen Shiqian had always been unpredictable, aloof, eccentric, and stubborn. His own principles sometimes contradicted the direction the empire hoped for. For example, when the empire tried every means to capture her alive, he did not hesitate to shoot her. Feng Ran did not think he was the kind of person who would act according to the choices given to him by others.

When Feng Ran met Xisen at Shen Shiqian's house, she subtly sensed that something was wrong. She had clearly told Shen Shiqian that she didn't like Xisen, and that even if they were closer friends, there was no need to invite him over when she was home. So, after returning to her room, she investigated the uninvited guest's purpose and listened in on their conversation by controlling Xisen's terminal.

Feng Ran still doesn't really feel the reality of becoming Enigma. If she had known that a casual mark she made would leave such a hidden danger, she should have just given Shen Shiqian two injections of a powerful inhibitor to make him suffer to death.

Did she differentiate into Enigma in her previous life? It seems not. Her second differentiation at age 18 seems to have been a blur, because she was busy preparing for exams, so she has little memory of it and no real feeling about it.

Feng Ran opened the spatial button, took out a pinkish-white medicine from the medicine box, stared at the flowing liquid in the light for a while, and then slowly pulled off the rubber stopper.

I really don't want to use this if I could.

A highly effective fertility trigger made with Fran pheromones.

Ever since recalling the painful experience of being entangled with Basil in her past life, Feng Ran has become averse to the idea of ​​using pheromones as medicine. Even if the object were Fran, she would still feel uncomfortable. Fran gave her a bunch of miscellaneous potions that looked like magic props, saying that he had made them before and that they could be used in critical moments. He smiled foolishly and glossed over his original intention of using his own pheromones to make medicine.

The medicine tasted slightly fishy and sweet. Considering his own constitution and drug resistance, Feng Ran drank another bottle before finally feeling his body warm up slightly.

But what should an Alpha's fertile period be like? Feng Ran released his pheromones, but then felt it was too calm, so he took a stimulant, drew it into a syringe, and injected it near the gland.

As expected, this body also refused to accept the Omega's pheromones. The pain almost made Feng Ran drop the syringe, but fortunately, the drug seemed to be working very well. Even exhaling a breath of stale air felt like he was running a fever, and his sensitivity to pheromones even decreased.

A blizzard-like, frenzied cold, like a surging glacier, spread and attacked in all directions. Alcohol robbed people of their reason, stifled their breath, and forcibly shattered their senses, as if it were a pheromone riot that was determined to destroy the world without any room for argument.

When Xisen smelled it, he got up with Shen Shiqian, but the overwhelming pressure made him fall to the ground as soon as he stood up, as if a thousand-pound weight was on his body. Watching Shen Shiqian's hurried departure, he felt like he could hardly breathe.

...I want to swear.

Shen Shiqian was also in a bad mood. Unlike the previous times when he was in a false heat due to compatibility, Feng Ran's pheromones were wild and irritable this time, carrying indiscriminate aggression. Shen Shiqian walked with difficulty to her room door, feeling dizzy and lightheaded, as if his lungs were full of ice shards.

He raised his hand and knocked on the door, his voice unusually hoarse: "Ranran, are you alright?"

Feng Ran was busy washing his nosebleed in the bathroom, as the drug was getting stronger and stronger. He was telling himself to stay calm and maintain his bottom line, and he couldn't hear Shen Shiqian's noise at all.

Fran must be crazy to put so much aphrodisiac in her. Not only are her glands throbbing and leaking pheromones, but when she came to her senses, she even had a nosebleed.

Once Feng Ran's nosebleed finally stopped, she turned her head and saw Shen Shiqian leaning against the wall, struggling to look at her from outside the bathroom door.

It was a bit unexpected, but also somewhat expected. Feng Ran originally just wanted to use her susceptible period to deepen their understanding of her being an Alpha, and incidentally avoid the so-called gender check, but now, she had some new ideas.

Feng Ran's face was flushed, and his breathing was erratic. He gripped the edge of the pool tightly with his right hand. The cuffs and collar of his casual clothes, which he had just changed into, were wet, and there were some bloodstains that had seeped into the water.

"I'm sorry, I... I'm in my vulnerable period. I'll take the suppressants properly, I can control it," she bit her lower lip, not daring to look directly at Shen Shiqian's expression, and repeated again and again, "It's okay, it's okay, I can do it..."

Seeing this, Shen Shiqian felt increasingly heartbroken. After his initial shock, he was filled with bitterness and regret. He was a useless adult who had prejudicially and naturally pushed the responsibility and idea of ​​controlling pheromones onto Feng Ran. Wasn't that the same thing the Feng family did to Feng Ran?

Feng Ran reached out to close the bathroom door, but Shen Shiqian grabbed the door frame, causing her to take a step back and be pushed in by Shen Shiqian.

So Feng Ran started crying. Facing Shen Shiqian's approach, she nervously retreated step by step into the bathroom cubicle. When she leaned back, she couldn't reach the glass door of the cubicle. Just as her body was about to fall on the edge of the bathtub, Shen Shiqian rushed up and protected her.

After a dizzying moment, Feng Ran's lower back still hit the bathtub wall. The nerve roots in her lumbar spine felt a sharp pain followed by a tingling numbness. Although Shen Shiqian tried his best to hold her, she still slipped into the bathtub and was trapped between the wall and Shen Shiqian.

They were so close that they could see the bloodshot veins in Chen Shiqian's eyes. Their hot breaths exchanged naturally in the air, carrying each other's scents—bitter, sweet, spicy, and mellow—creating an enchanting and ambiguous atmosphere.

Feng Ran looked into Shen Shiqian's eyes, trying to see through him completely. Those deep blue eyes were now burning brightly with passion and pain, yet also flickering with suppressed emotion.

My heart was tingling for some reason, and a shiver ran through my bloodstream and into my breathing. It felt so stuffy, like I couldn't breathe.

"Ignite it!"

"It's okay, don't be afraid."

Shen Shiqian gently wiped away Feng Ran's tears. Seeing Feng Ran looking at him with pure and focused eyes, like a ripe, red apple with dew on a branch, the forbidden fruit of Eden, he felt that all his worries had become blurred at this moment. The false heat induced by Enigma was being replaced by the Alpha's desire to conquer, possess, and destroy. His breathing was so heavy that it felt like his heart had stopped beating.

Feng Ran was trapped beneath him, unable to escape. Their bodies trembled slightly as their breaths mingled. The distance between them disappeared inch by inch until Shen Shiqian finally sat down in the bathtub, making the space feel cramped and confined.

Shen Shiqian's breath was long, and with each affectionate lick, the intensity increased as if he wanted to devour the girl. Feng Ran felt as if her breath was being choked, and she could only obediently cooperate and endure it. When she felt dizzy, her heart pounded so hard that she felt uncomfortable and wanted to cry again.

It was both sour and bloated, fragile and painful.

When Shen Shiqian finally let go of her, Feng Ran cried even harder. She couldn't even tell where she was in pain. She was comforted by Shen Shiqian holding her tightly in his arms. The vague pain occupied her mind, and she felt a hatred that made her want to strangle him.

What does Shen Shiqian mean by this? Is it because he likes her that he kissed her? Or is it because of the residual mark and the effect of pheromones that he craves her to an unbearable degree? In Feng Ran's understanding, Shen Shiqian is not the kind of person who would break his promise. Can Enigma really have such a significant impact on a person?

It seemed so. Shen Shiqian kissed him again without saying a word. The fervor and affection in his expression made him seem like the one who was going through a sensitive period, compared to Feng Ran. His eyes were overflowing with love, which frightened Feng Ran. He was stunned by those emotions and forced to accept another kiss.

The pain in her glands had long since subsided, but because she had overused her pheromones, Feng Ran now felt nauseous. She pushed Shen Shiqian away, her expression no longer the usual obedient and pitiful one; instead, she frowned, which could even be described as gloomy and disgusted.

With difficulty, Feng Ran found a foothold in the bathtub and stood up unsteadily. He stepped out of the bathtub and glanced at Shen Shiqian, who was still somewhat confused and infatuated. He suppressed the strange emotions in his heart and said, "I'm going to get an inhibitor. Do you need one, sir?"

"Burning..."

His response was the sound of the bathroom cubicle glass door being pulled shut.

The effects of the stimulant wore off, and the side effects caused her body temperature to drop below normal. Feng Ran felt unusually cold. She recalled the kiss in the bathroom, but her memories drifted back to a much earlier time, to the scene of being torn apart by gunfire. Shen Shiqian stood far away from the crowd, coldly watching her and saying "monster." All she could hear in her mind was the word "monster," and her heart felt like it was about to burst.

The reason why the kiss was uncomfortable seemed to have been found. Feng Ran recalled some details. After she was defeated in that battle, she underwent heart suturing surgery. When she woke up on the operating table, she was still in a daze. Rather, it was more accurate to say that her mental state had already shown signs of collapse before she was besieged by Shen Shiqian. Shen Shiqian's actions were like planting a nail in an already festering wound.

After the surgery, her mental and physical energy was greatly diminished. She could no longer provoke the Empire and the military with ease, and even developed a severe physical aversion to Shen Shiqian. She felt disgusted even when confronting him. Exhaustion and despair tormented her, so she chose to end her life.

Shen Shiqian. Feng Ran chewed on the name carefully, and jumbled images flashed through her mind like a slideshow. Her hands and feet were cold as she recalled the immense pain of dying from an intravenous injection, the toxins relentlessly destroying her nerves and cells, and her stitched-up heart twisting and exploding. Why did she have to suffer like this? Feng Ran didn't understand.

It was so cold that she longed for the warmth of basil's embrace. The pain of injecting a strong inhibitor had become numb in the cold. She raised her wrist and found it empty. She felt a moment of relief, but then felt lonely again.

Feng Ran put on the sportswear jacket he had just changed out of, walked out of the room, and found Xisen in the living room.

The air purifier couldn't remove the strong pheromone smell in the air for a while, but fortunately, the workers who assembled the smart machine lab were Betas and were unaware of everything that happened in the house in such a short time.

Feng Ran stood a meter away from him, arms crossed: "Could you go and give the Marshal an inhibitor?"

Xisen's face was grim. He had been hit by pheromones for no reason, which made him even more convinced that Feng Ran was an Enigma. Compared to Shen Shiqian, who was in a false heat, he was clearly more curious about Feng Ran: "What's wrong with you?"

Fengran: "Susceptible period".

Does Enigma have a susceptible period? This reason is hard to believe, yet it's unavoidable.

Sissen sighed, "Why didn't you just give him a shot while you were at it..."

Feng Ran: "You're the doctor, aren't you?"

Nishimori: "But since it's your most vulnerable period, why don't you just mark him? Don't you like him?"

Feng Ran looked at him coldly: "Since you already have the answer in your heart, don't ask me."