WHV | Chapter 5

Shi Ciyan went back to the dorm first and took a shower. He had barely come out of the bathroom when his phone rang.

He glanced at the note, and when he saw the two characters Chen Lun on the screen, his hand, still towel-drying his hair, paused. He tucked the phone under his arm, opened the glass sliding door to the balcony, and only after leaning back against the railing did he answer.

The moment the call connected, the person on the other end got straight to the point without a word of small talk.

“The information match report you wanted is out.” Chen Lun sighed. “How long have you known him?”

Shi Ciyan was silent for two seconds. “Half a day. Does that have anything to do with the pheromone compatibility?”

Chen Lun let out a breath of relief, his tone turning much brighter. “Half a day, then that’s not so bad. Your compatibility with this Omega is only 56%, not even passing. As your attending doctor, I advise you to find another match as soon as possible and look for an Omega with a higher compatibility rate.”

Shi Ciyan didn’t hear the rest. He only asked, “Are you sure it’s only 56%?”

“Yes. I watched the report the whole time, there won’t be a mistake. 56% is too low. Your condition is already not looking good, and finding an Omega with such low pheromone compatibility won’t be good for either you or the Omega.”

“Okay, got it.”

Shi Ciyan was just about to hang up when Chen Lun hurriedly stopped him. “Don’t hang up yet. Is your heat period almost here? How do you feel, any reaction?”

“Nothing much. No reaction either.” Shi Ciyan answered truthfully. If he had to name a reaction, it would only be that his gland had felt hot in the bathroom at noon, but there had been no other change beyond that.

“If there are even the slightest changes, remember to tell me. And even if you don’t end up using suppressants during your heat period, try to keep two or three on hand just in case.”

To keep him from going on and on, Shi Ciyan answered, “I’ll buy some tomorrow.”

After hanging up, he stayed outside for a few minutes. The autumn wind was bleak, brushing gently over his skin. By the time he finished the call, his half-dry hair had already dried in the breeze.

At eleven, the lights went out on time.

As the best university in Nanshi, Nanda held its students to extremely high standards. After lights-out, the dorm supervisor made rounds on every floor.

Shi Ciyan got into bed in the dark. A faint banana scent lingered at the tip of his nose. By the time he crawled under the blanket and pulled it over himself, the smell had grown even stronger.

His blanket had been stained with Omega pheromones too.

When he had been on the phone with Chen Lun, he had kept feeling like he was forgetting something. Only now did he remember that he had forgotten to ask what Yuwei’s pheromone scent was.

He didn’t know if it was fruit-scented like his.

Shi Ciyan closed his eyes, thinking about what this sweet but not cloying pheromone smelled like, and slowly lost consciousness.

When he opened his eyes again, it was daylight.

He was standing in the middle of his dorm room, and Yuwei was facing away from him, carefully stepping down from the bunk ladder.

He should have slipped and needed support, but he landed safely on the floor. The imagined slip never happened. Yet Shi Ciyan still moved forward under no control of his own, wrapped an arm around that slim waist, lowered his head slightly, and brushed his nose against the snow-white nape of Yuwei’s neck. “Your pheromones are leaking.”

Yuwei turned back. His voice was soft and gentle, the tail end of it seeming to carry a hook, full of temptation. “Does it smell good?”

“Mm, it smells good.”

“That’s not fair. You can smell my pheromones, but I can’t smell yours. I hate you.” The person in his arms widened his beautiful eyes, his tone spoiled and coquettish. He tried to pry away the hand around his waist and struggle out of his embrace.

Shi Ciyan’s eyes darkened. He held tighter, then rubbed his nose against Yuwei’s gland through the pheromone-blocking patch, almost obsessively. “I’ll let you smell my pheromones too, okay?”

In the next instant, the concentration of Alpha pheromones in the air surged violently. The sweet scent of overripe bananas mixed with the fresh fragrance of apples. The Yuwei in his arms went limp against his chest, his gaze gradually losing focus as he stared into empty space and panted.

Shi Ciyan leaned close to his ear, his voice hoarse. “Do you like it?”

The trembling body in his arms turned around, wrapped both arms around Shi Ciyan’s neck, and looked at him with eyes like silk. His voice was sweet as honey. “I like it. More.”

The next second, the scene changed. Yuwei was sitting on the cold white sink, his clothes in disarray, looking toward the bathroom door with red-rimmed eyes. His brows and eyes were all flirtation, the kind that made blood rush hot through the body.

“Ah Yan, why aren’t you coming over? You’re standing so far away, I can’t smell your pheromones.”

Yuwei hooked a finger at the doorway. Shi Ciyan’s steps moved toward him out of his control, until he stood in front of Yuwei. Yuwei lightly hooked both legs, and Shi Ciyan took the chance to squeeze himself into his embrace. His hands braced on either side as he lowered his head slightly, exposing his own gland. “Can you smell it now?”

“I can, but it’s still not enough.” Yuwei was like a greedy little cat, constantly asking for more.

Shi Ciyan held the disheveled Yuwei in his arms, his forehead pressed against that round, pale shoulder. His breathing grew heavier and heavier. To satisfy the person in his arms, a steady stream of pheromones poured out from his gland, and the soft gasps in his arms grew louder and louder.

Bang, bang, bang.

A sudden knock on the door rang out abruptly. Yuwei’s body gave a light shiver and he burrowed into Shi Ciyan’s embrace. “There’s someone outside.”

“He’s a Beta, he can’t smell pheromones. It’s fine.” Shi Ciyan’s broad palm moved down along the line of Yuwei’s back. Yuwei’s shirt had already slipped halfway off, and as he was touched over his exposed skin, he kept trembling, weakly leaning against Shi Ciyan’s chest and letting out soft, beautiful whimpers.

…

Bang, bang, bang.

“Shi Ciyan, get up and take your suppressants.”

Lin Yuchi endured the discomfort as he got out of bed and stood under Shi Ciyan’s bunk, repeatedly banging on the bed frame, trying to wake him.

“Get up already, damn it. I’m about to be suffocated to death by you. Get up.”

Shi Ciyan clutched the blanket with both hands and still didn’t wake, not even furrowing his brows. Lin Yuchi pinched his nose with one hand and yanked the blanket away with the other. In the moonlight, he clearly saw the moment the blanket was pulled away, Shi Ciyan suddenly opened his eyes. There was no fog of sleep in them at all.

“You bastard, pretending to sleep? Deliberately releasing pheromones in the middle of the night just to cause trouble, huh?”

Lin Yuchi already had bad sleep. Today, with a new environment, he had tossed and turned in bed even worse. He had been lying there for nearly an hour and a half, and just when he finally started getting sleepy, Alpha pheromones drifted through the air.

During the day, he hadn’t smelled a trace of pheromones on Shi Ciyan, so he had assumed all three roommates in the dorm were Betas.

At first, he only caught a faint whiff of pheromones and thought his nose might be playing tricks on him, so he kept trying to sleep. He hadn’t expected that after only half an hour, he would be suffocated awake by Alpha pheromones.

If he hadn’t woken up, he was going to choke to death.

“If you’re awake, get down and take your suppressants before you sleep again.” Lin Yuchi casually threw the blanket onto a chair, yawned, and walked back toward his bed.

It was three in the morning now. He was sleepy too.

He had just touched the ladder when movement sounded behind him. Lin Yuchi turned around and met Shi Ciyan’s swinging fist.

He sucked in a breath, his nose stinging, and felt sticky warmth flow out.

“Have you two had enough? Is everyone in this room just obsessed with fighting or what?”

Lin Yuchi had already been beaten up by Yu Song during the day, and he was still holding that anger in his chest. But since he couldn’t beat Yu Song, all he could do was swallow it. Now he couldn’t sleep in the middle of the night, and on top of that Shi Ciyan had punched him. He exploded instantly.

He couldn’t beat Yu Song, but could he really not beat Shi Ciyan?

The facts proved he couldn’t.

Shi Ciyan hit hard and accurately. Lin Yuchi dodged several times but still took solid blows. Their noise finally woke the two Beta roommates who had been sleeping like the dead.

“What the hell are you two doing in the middle of the night, cockfighting?” Yu Song had sleep inertia and looked groggy. “If you’re going to fight, go outside. Don’t disturb my sleep.”

As soon as Qiu Lei got up, he fumbled for his glasses and put them on, then took in the situation and weakly asked, “Should I turn on the light?”

The school strictly enforced lights-out. Right now the whole floor was pitch-black. If they turned on the light, it would be obvious at a glance, and the dorm supervisor would appear in the room within five seconds.

“Turn it on.” Lin Yuchi was so beaten up he could barely speak clearly. He used all his strength to shove Shi Ciyan away and retreated to a corner of the dorm to catch his breath.

“He was this crazy on the first day. Yu Song, aren’t you supposed to be good at fighting? Get down here and restrain him.”

“He’s not hitting me. What does it have to do with me?” Yu Song was lying at the edge of the bed watching the show, delighted by the chaos. He hadn’t gotten enough of a fight during the day, so of course he wouldn’t help now that Shi Ciyan was hitting someone else.

Lin Yuchi wiped at the blood surging up into his nose. Just as he was about to snap back, he suddenly paused. Frowning, he raised his blood-smeared hand and sniffed it again.

Omega pheromones. Very faint, but in the rusty smell and saltiness of blood, that one special trace of sweetness stood out sharply.

When had he gotten it on him?

“I’ve seen people guarding their food, but never seen anyone guard a blanket.” Yu Song rested his chin in both hands and said teasingly.

Blanket.

Lin Yuchi immediately looked at the chair where he had put the blanket, then at Shi Ciyan, who was carefully holding the blanket in his arms. Understanding dawned in his eyes. He smiled slightly and picked up Yu Song’s words.

“Do you know what’s wrong with him?”

Seeing that both people had gone quiet and had no intention of continuing the fight, Yu Song found it boring. He lay back down and said casually, “Sleepwalking, I guess.”

Lin Yuchi deliberately kept him hanging. “Didn’t you smell anything?”

“I smelled apples, like green apples.”

“What green apples? It’s obviously a poisonous apple.” Lin Yuchi said. “He’s entered his heat period.”

Yu Song blinked. “Don’t only Alphas get heat periods?” Aside from Yu Wei, their family were all Betas, so even at his age, he had really never seen an Alpha go into a heat period.

Lin Yuchi said, “He’s an Alpha.”

Yu Song shot upright. “He’s not a Beta?”

“Who told you he was a Beta? Did you see the blanket in his arms? That blanket got stained with your brother’s pheromones. Look, he got so worked up by your brother’s pheromones that he lost his mind. He went this crazy on the first day of his heat period.”

Seeing Yu Song’s face turn worse and worse, Lin Yuchi kept stoking the fire. “Maybe he smelled your brother’s pheromones and had a wet dream. He might even be fantasizing about your brother right now.”

Sure enough, as soon as he finished speaking, Yu Song jumped out of bed and snatched the blanket out of Shi Ciyan’s arms. That action seemed to push Shi Ciyan into fight mode. In less than a few seconds, the two of them were beating each other into a mess.

“What are you two doing in the middle of the night? Open the door for me.”

Before the person arrived, his voice came first.

Lin Yuchi watched the drama and opened the door for the dorm supervisor, then stood behind him and ate popcorn while also casting Yu Song an admiring look.

Being able to fight someone who had lost control in his heat period and still come out on top.

It had to be said, Yu Song was really good at fighting. Even the dorm supervisor almost couldn’t pull them apart.

“Tie him up first.”

Shi Ciyan had already lost all rationality. All that was left was his fixation on the blanket. Yu Song tied up his hands and feet, then kicked him twice, still unwilling to let it go.

“Stop fighting. Every time there’s a fight, it’s you again.” The dorm supervisor shot Yu Song a glare, then turned and swept a look over Lin Yuchi’s rainbow-colored face, shaking his head helplessly.

One dorm, three troublemakers.

He looked sympathetically at the honest one standing there as a backdrop. Qiu Lei was clutching his phone, and his big eyes under the black frames blinked twice.