Chapter 9, Chapter 9—aren't there times like that…?
There are times like that, aren't there?
Forgetting an umbrella on a cloudy day, mistaking sleeping pills for vitamins, filling in the wrong answer sheet during an exam, and even the things you just read in a book happening in real life.
The omega pheromones in the air were so strong that Ji Qingyu felt somewhat uncomfortable. He differentiated very late and was less affected by pheromones, unlike top-tier alphas like Fu Han, who were so sensitive to omega pheromones.
Ji Qingyu saw Fu Han cover his head and try to distance himself from the omega, but the omega remained clinging to him. Fu Han wanted to tear her off, but his eyes were forced to turn red.
So Ji Qingyu rushed over and pushed the omega away. The girl struggled like a madwoman.
Ji Qingyu was almost unable to control her, and the woman scratched her arm, leaving several bloody marks. To make matters worse, the pheromones released by Fu Han were so intense that Ji Qingyu was on the verge of collapse.
He hardened his heart and slapped the girl on the back of the neck. The girl collapsed into his arms and lost consciousness.
Ji Qingyu's head was covered in sweat, and her arms were covered in stinging, swollen welts. She was panting heavily from the fight.
Before he could even catch his breath, he suddenly felt a warm current on the back of his neck. Ji Qingyu's mind was still blank, and the sluggish hallucination had deceived him, preventing him from reacting in time. A hand grabbed Ji Qingyu's neck and pulled him backward.
A sharp, aching pain shot through the back of my neck.
The murky heat, carrying with it a budding and unfamiliar desire, swept Ji Qingyu into the wave.
The canine teeth pierced through, and Ji Qingyu felt numb all over. She tried her best to pry Fu Han's hand off, but no matter what she did, she couldn't break free.
Alphas in heat are all crazy, only knowing how to inject more of their pheromones into the omega's glands, intensely craving to possess more territory. And omegas, under the natural suppression of their gender, always seem so insignificant.
The pheromone injection process was like a long and humiliating torture. Ji Qingyu felt sore and achy all over, and she could only gasp softly. Her eyes were misty, but she was powerless to break free.
"Let go, Fu Han, are you crazy? You...you...let me go!" He struggled desperately, but to no avail.
Fu Han paused, feeling Ji Qingyu's resistance, and his emotions intensified. He bit down even harder, and his hand on Ji Qingyu's lower abdomen was incredibly hot.
No one knows how much time passed, so long that Fu Han's hand, which was gripping Ji Qingyu's neck, was covered in tears.
When Fu Hansong gave in, Ji Qingyu's legs went weak and she knelt down.
Her knees hurt, every inch of her body was numb and itchy, and even her voice trembled when she breathed. Ji Qingyu stared at the ground in front of her, sweat and tears mixed together.
Ji Qingyu felt a burning sensation on the back of his neck, and he broke out in a cold sweat. The sticky feeling made him extremely uncomfortable.
Before he could run, Fu Han suddenly scooped him up and pulled him tightly into his arms, as if he were a giant toy doll. The force forced Ji Qingyu's unfocused eyes to tighten, and he cried and begged Fu Han to let him go.
Fu Han briefly pulled out his canine tooth and licked Ji Qingyu's wound in an animal-like manner, seemingly to comfort him, saying in a hoarse voice, "It's okay, it won't hurt much."
But the next second it bit down without any mercy.
"Ah!" Ji Qingyu was completely exhausted. He curled up inside Fu Han's body, panting helplessly. His body trembled every now and then, and tears streamed down his face unconsciously.
After an unknown amount of time, Fu Han gradually regained consciousness from the control of pheromones.
Ji Qingyu looked at him with red eyes.
Fu Han turned his head to the side, licked his teeth, as if he had just come to his senses and realized what he had done.
He looked at the back of Ji Qingyu's neck, but before he could see it clearly, Ji Qingyu's hand slapped his cheek. The slap was as light as a cat's scratch. Fu Han raised an eyebrow and fixed his gaze on him.
"Fu Han, they're right, you're a bastard." Ji Qingyu's tears fell straight down, a bitter feeling spreading from every part of her body. "The temporary mark won't disappear for three months, summer vacation is coming soon, and I still have to work. What am I supposed to do? How can I face anyone?"
Fu Han touched his face, wiped the blood seeping from his lips, stared at the blood, and stood silently in place.
Ji Qingyu wiped away her tears, her legs trembling as she reached out to carry the girl next to her, trying to take her to the infirmary. After taking only a couple of steps, she suddenly felt a lightness on her body as Fu Han took the girl from her. "Let me do it."
"You need to get your neck checked too," Fu Han said calmly. "I'll call my private doctor. You wait here, don't go to the infirmary. There might be something wrong with what happened today."
Ji Qingyu's eyes were still red, his hair was drooping, his hair was half-cut and short, and his eyes were full of tears. He said, "It's none of your business."
He ran, faster than a rabbit, stirring up a tiny whirlwind.
"Hey!" Fu Han called after him, but he didn't turn around. He lowered his head, walked through the long teaching building, rushed into the infirmary to get two inhibitor patches, and then walked away with his head down.
Ji Qingyu skipped the afternoon sports meet, put the depression patch on her neck, went back to the classroom, picked up her schoolbag, packed her things, and skipped class to go home.
When he returned, some neighbors greeted him, but he ignored them. His home was at the very end of the old street, with green plants on the narrow walls on both sides of the alley. It was very close to the vegetable market, and he could hear the vendors calling out their wares.
He startled an orange cat that lived there as he entered the stairwell. The kitten meowed twice, jumped onto the gray cement wall, and ran away.
The exterior of the residential building was old, but the interior was clean and tidy. Fresh flowers were placed in glass bottles on the coffee table, and a basin of snow-white dough was still rising on the stove. Ji Qingyu ignored everything and rushed into the bedroom, burying her head under the pillow.
Only then did he feel a little sad.
Overwhelmed by a tidal wave of sensory stimulation, he reached for his backpack and threw the inappropriate book under the bed. All that talk about how omegas are great is a lie; he was already in excruciating pain.
Is Fu Han born in the Year of the Dog...?
Lin Ying returned after closing up shop in the afternoon and was startled to see Ji Qingyu. "Why are you back early?"
"Nothing to do." Ji Qingyu's voice was still muffled. Half an hour ago, he had taken a mirror and looked at his neck, the redness on the back of his neck was glaring and horrifying.
He didn't want to look anymore, so he put on a waterproof patch, quickly took a shower, and then found Lin Ying's only bottle of perfume and sprayed it all over himself.
Ji Qingyu's house has a semi-open balcony, just big enough for him to sit on. He's wearing a white old man's shirt, his shorts pulled up, and he's practicing singing with his guitar.
He was not very interested. The orange cat settled down among the many green plants on the balcony shelf and rubbed against Ji Qingyu affectionately.
Lin Ying brought back two fish, stunned them on the cutting board, removed the fish bones, minced the fish meat, washed her hands, picked up some fruit, and turned on the TV.
"Qingyu, I'll cook some fish ball soup later. Also, your little brother Ma wants you to go fruit picking with him after your summer vacation starts in a couple of days." Lin Ying was watching a melodramatic soap opera during prime time. "Why are you looking so down?"
"It's nothing." Ji Qingyu said casually, a few strands of hair falling to the side of his face. He blinked uncomfortably, probably because some dust had gotten into his eyes. "I hate alphas."
Lin Ying ate the peach, watched Ji Qingyu's busy figure in the kitchen, and then looked back at the TV: "The child is all grown up now, and doesn't share her worries with her mother anymore. Does she have someone she likes? Your perfume is too strong. I'm a middle-aged beta and I can't smell pheromones. Why are you spraying so much perfume?"
When Ji Qingyu went to the livehouse the next day, he had dark circles under his eyes and a silk scarf wrapped around his neck, which looked out of place in the summer.
The bar owner frowned: "Xiaoyu, what's that smell on you? Why are you wearing perfume?"
"Hmm... I'd like to give it a try." Ji Qingyu tuned the guitar, biting into a slice of lemon to try and clear his head. He tilted his head, holding the guitar between his shoulder and head, and wrote rapidly with his pen.
In the dim twilight, a man sat in the corner of the bar, his sharply defined face standing out in the night. He got up and walked towards him.
Ji Qingyu looked up and saw Fu Han with his arms crossed, looking arrogant, staring at his notebook: "Can this kind of thing be used to write songs?"
"You, what are you doing here?" Ji Qingyu asked, somewhat bewildered. "How did you know I was here?"
Fu Han skipped Ji Qingyu's question, handed her a thin black card, and said in an unfriendly tone, "Take it, you won't lose out."
"Ah..." Ji Qingyu shook her head, "Take it back, I don't want it."
"...There's enough money in here for you, you won't need to work anymore." Fu Han said, his expression full of perfunctory and indifference. He frowned and asked again, "What do you smell like?"
Like an enraged rabbit, Ji Qingyu put down her guitar and slammed down her notebook. Ignoring who was standing in front of her, she angrily said, "Fu Han, don't think you can buy everything with money. I can earn money with my own hands, I don't need you to do this! Do you think I'm like those omegas, that you can bite me just because I give you money? You're all a bunch of bastards who treat omegas like fast-moving consumer goods!"
So he could be this scary too. Ji Qingyu tried to recall what Fu Han's expression was like back then—surprise, bewilderment, or anger at being offended, or perhaps just blankness? He couldn't remember anymore.
His memory is hazy in many places, and the repeated torment of his estrus cycle over the past six years has been more intense than he imagined. Neither his body nor his mind can return to the age of eighteen.
He stared blankly for a moment, then forced himself to stand up, put on his clothes, and rushed to the hospital.
He didn't know how Fu Han would handle the copyright issue, and he was even more worried about Lin Ying's condition. When the doctor saw Ji Qingyu, he raised his hand to greet him.
"How could you inject her with something like that?" Ji Qingyu asked, his anger overwhelming him. "What you're doing is illegal."
“Mr. Ji, that was just saline solution,” the doctor said. “Since you didn’t want the injection today, we stopped it immediately. It was supposed to be injected normally anyway.”
"Is it normal procedure for so many of you to be gathered there?" Ji Qingyu questioned.
"Today we had a multi-person consultation. Ms. Lin Ying's condition has improved. You should have been informed of this by now, right?" the doctor said. "The tumor in Ms. Lin Ying's brain was originally pressing on a nerve, but now it has moved to the side. If this continues, it is very likely that the tumor can be removed through surgery."
"You, you're serious?" A long-extinguished flame was rekindled in Ji Qingyu's heart. He excitedly grabbed the doctor's collar. "Are you telling the truth?"
"Really, don't get agitated." The doctor nudged Ji Qingyu. Looking at the person in front of him, he felt a pang of pity. His mother was sick, and he was an omega. How could he possibly cope alone?
“Your brother came here today for the same reason. Don’t worry about it. No matter what, at least you have your brother’s support. As for the big star, you don’t need to worry about money.” After comforting Ji Qingyu, the doctor noticed that her face had turned even paler. “He left in a hurry today, as if something urgent had happened. Why don’t you contact him?”
Ji Qingyu went to a secluded spot to make a phone call. The corridor was empty. The phone rang twice before being answered.
Ji Ran's voice remained gentle, "Fu Han came to talk to me, wanting to take your song back. You've only been with him for a few days. I really underestimated you before."
Ji Qingyu's voice tightened, and she said in a low voice, "He called a doctor to come and check my throat. You should know that this kind of thing can't be hidden."
Ji Qingyu thought Ji Ran would get angry, but he simply picked it up high and then gently put it down, saying, "This matter can still be discussed. You need to know what you should and shouldn't say."
"Your mother is about to have surgery. It's a critical moment, and anything could happen." The sound of the door opening came from Ji Ran's side, followed by a man's voice.
Ji Ran's tone softened, and he replied with a few words, "That's fine. I can talk to him, but the more difficult the conversation goes, the harder it will be for your mother's situation to change."
"I... I won't let him know, I dare not." Ji Qingyu said, then fell silent again. He was always afraid; he had something on his mind, but that same thing also gave him hope.
He lowered his head slightly, looking as thin as a solitary shadow, leaning against the hospital's blindingly white wall, fine beads of sweat covering his forehead.
The wound on the back of my neck doesn't seem to be healing well; it's already scabbed over, but it still aches.
A note from the author:
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