Unfortunate News

When Ye Qingpu half-awoke, heavy rain was falling outside, with the occasional clap of thunder.

In his daze, he was glad they had this cave—he hated rain.

But his body was still so hot. Instinctively, he hugged the cool sensation against him tighter.

Rainwater splashed onto his skin. He gave two dissatisfied hums, and then someone held him and shifted him farther inside.

Someone shielded him from the outside.

"Brother, my leg's injured, so I can't use much strength. Once I get you settled, can you do it yourself?"

A low, hoarse voice sounded beside his ear.

The tone was good, and the attitude was decent... Half asleep, Ye Qingpu gave a soft hum. If he wanted him to do something, that was the attitude he ought to have.

Pei Jiaqian thought this man was adorably unfair. Using his strong arms, he adjusted their position, leaning half against the rock wall as he looked with satisfaction at the person sprawled against him.

Ye Qingpu had buried his head against his neck. His nose was filled with the damp scent of forest trees. Through his muddled thoughts, he tried his best to place it. It was somewhat like the scent he had smelled when he stood on the western slope of Minya Konka, gazing toward the northwestern ridgeline—cold and crisp, refreshing, yet carrying a touch of the warmth of orange sunlight.

He thought this person's scent was truly strange, yet he was intoxicated by it all the same, sinking helplessly into that drunken spell.

By the time Ye Qingpu fully woke up, the rain outside had eased considerably.

A little embarrassed, he pulled on his black undershirt and glanced at the man whose clothes were still perfectly neat.

Fucking pervert.

Ye Qingpu cursed inwardly.

"Brother was amazing."

Pei Jiaqian chose that inappropriate moment to praise him. It was not that he, a young man full of vigor, had poor self-control. The situation had simply been truly urgent.

How could he let the person he had marked faint? Judging by Brother's reaction, he most likely had not noticed yet~

"Got it. Shut up."

Ye Qingpu frowned. Much of the heat in his body had faded, replaced by numbness in his skin and an aching weakness.

"Brother, would you be willing to stay trapped here forever if we had to?"

Pei Jiaqian looked thoughtful.

Ye Qingpu: ...Tsk.

"Brother, your eyes are swearing so nastily. You need to fix that."

Ye Qingpu: ...Hmph.

"Brother's joints are so soft. You don't seem like a beta at all~"

"Fuck off—if that little mouth of yours keeps yapping, I'll toss you here to feed the wild boars first, brat." Ye Qingpu impatiently flipped him the middle finger.

He had been hearing a faint buzzing sound since earlier. He knew that sound better than anyone.

As the sound grew louder, Ye Qingpu saw a black dot gradually appear in the sky not far away.

Pei Jiaqian followed the sound with his gaze. What a coincidence—he knew that sound too.

"How did they find us?" Pei Jiaqian asked.

"There are bushes all around the cave, and this is a sunny slope facing east. We can see them, and they can see this cave too. My assistant is very smart. He could guess we were here," Ye Qingpu answered.

Pei Jiaqian quietly watched his gentle profile before casually asking,

"Your assistant is an alpha, right?"

"What? Gender discrimination? You think it goes against morality for a beta like me to hire an alpha assistant? Listen here, kid. The one with money is the boss. I'm the grandboss."

Pei Jiaqian merely smiled softly as he watched the black dot draw closer and the roar become deafening.

When the ladder was lowered, Ye Qingpu sent Pei Jiaqian up first before climbing up after him.

"Boss, are you two all right?"

The assistant sitting in the co-pilot seat turned back and handed each of them a cup of hot coffee.

"I'm fine. Young Master Pei is injured."

Ye Qingpu took a towel and wiped the rainwater from his hair and face.

"I'm fine too."

Pei Jiaqian took a sip of coffee... It was bitter as hell. Brother liked drinking this?

"Then we'll take you both directly to the hospital. Young Master Pei, we've already contacted your father. He'll send someone to pick you up."

The assistant spoke.

"Mm, thank you."

Pei Jiaqian nodded and silently set the coffee aside.

"I'm very sorry we arrived late. The moment we saw you two fall, we contacted the rescue team immediately. But the terrain was steep, so relying on manpower alone would have taken longer. That's why, Boss, I contacted your private helicopter. Just as we were preparing to take off, a heavy rainstorm suddenly started, delaying us for a while."

The assistant looked apologetic.

"It's fine."

Ye Qingpu said it lightly. He was preparing to change out of his soaked clothes when he seemed to remember something and silently lowered the hem he had been about to lift.

The assistant caught sight of the varying red marks on his boss's neck and could not help frowning.

Pei Jiaqian noticed his gaze. His brows rose slightly, and his eyes immediately turned teasing.

"Brother, there are so many mosquitoes in the mountains. Did they bite you?"

Seeing his deliberately surprised expression, Ye Qingpu rolled his eyes and adjusted his collar.

"Shut up."

Pei Jiaqian chuckled softly and, copying Ye Qingpu, leaned back against his seat.

Sometimes, one had to admit that money really did make things efficient.

After Ye Qingpu arrived at the hospital, he had blood drawn, underwent examinations, and got an MRI. The entire process took no longer than a meal.

The doctor told him two things. First, aside from a few abrasions, he had no internal or external injuries.

Second—the fucking quacks had detected omega pheromones in his blood.

How could a beta's blood contain omega pheromones? Either he had randomly drained an omega dry and exchanged blood with them...

Or this beta was actually an omega.

When Ye Qingpu heard the news, he nearly snapped his chopsticks in half.

Clenching his teeth, eyes red, he rolled up his sleeve.

"Draw it! Draw several more tubes for me and send them all for testing!"

The doctor was too frightened to say more. The nurse beside him gathered her courage and explained,

"Mr. Ye, we have already tested your blood multiple times... Omega pheromones are indeed present... And..."

Seeing the nurse hesitate, Ye Qingpu's face darkened further.

"And what?"

He silently gripped the hem of his clothes, comforting himself that no matter how devastating the rest was, he had to remain calm.

"And... the blood test shows that your body contains a portion of unknown pheromones. The concentration of your own omega pheromones is above 900 and is currently continuing to decline. When it drops to the average level, it will mean you have passed your first heat..."

"Also, the test shows that the Ω-6 content in your blood exceeds the average..."

"Speak plainly."

Ye Qingpu frowned deeply and clenched his hands tight.

"It means that, due to unknown factors, you underwent the extremely rare Third Differentiation, changing from a beta into an omega... You are currently in heat and have already been knot-marked. The remaining unknown pheromones are still very active, indicating that you were marked less than six hours ago. In addition, your Ω-6 level exceeds the average, meaning you are currently... in your fertile period..."

"...Are... are you all right?" After finishing, the nurse looked awkwardly at the beautiful man on the bed, whose face was deathly pale as though his soul had left him.

Ye Qingpu's mind was full of unfamiliar yet familiar terms. He tried to arrange them into something he could understand, but those obscure words were too vicious. His mind was a complete mess, as if someone had split open his skull and shoved a CD playing mysterious chants into his brain.

Heat... fertile period... knot-marked...

He had never imagined that words used on omegas would one day be used on him.

"...You got it wrong. I'm just a beta..."

Ye Qingpu stood up, his eyes hollow and numb.

Third Differentiation, my ass.

Omega, my ass...

He had just shaken his ass and become an omega. Then what had all the mockery and ridicule he suffered before been? What had all the unfair treatment he endured been? What had those ten dark years with no end in sight been... It had to be a joke...

"Mr. Ye..."

"Get out! Get the fuck out, all of you!"

Eyes red, Ye Qingpu overturned the bedside table.

But because he was so agitated, he covered his mouth and coughed up a pool of blood.

"Sedative!"

The voices around him were far too noisy, making Ye Qingpu even more agitated. Especially the nonstop buzzing in his ears—it was so loud that he wanted to dig out his own brain and crush it beneath his feet...

Meanwhile, the culprit was sitting on a bed in another VIP ward. The woman who entered in high heels spotted the fresh, crisscrossing blood marks on the man's back at a glance.

Because Pei Jiaqian's removed clothes were waterproof, only the inner fabric had been soaked through with blood. Almost no patch of skin on his back was uninjured; it was covered in bruises and sharp wounds of varying sizes. The doctor was stitching up the deeper wounds on his back.

"Sis, why are you here?" Pei Jiaqian guessed who it was as soon as he heard the sound.

"You still have the nerve to ask? How did you get hurt this badly?"

Pei Shuang frowned, her eyes suddenly stinging.

"Just superficial injuries." Pei Jiaqian grinned carelessly and looked outside. "Why is it so noisy?"

"On the way here, I heard that a man in the VIP ward downstairs smashed up his room. The doctors were preparing to give him a sedative, but somehow, there was blood."

Pei Shuang silently looked away. Her younger brother had been pampered since childhood and had never suffered much, yet he had somehow become capable of forcing himself to endure things. He was injured like this and still smiling so playfully...

"Blood?" Pei Jiaqian's breathing stalled. "No, I need to go take a look."

Just as he was about to get up, the doctor pressed him back down.

"Young Master Pei, don't get agitated yet. There are only five more stitches."

"You know him?" Pei Shuang frowned.

"Sort of," Pei Jiaqian answered uncertainly.

"You should worry about yourself first. A month ago, after coming back to the country, you disappeared for several days for no reason. When you came back covered in injuries, you wouldn't tell us what happened no matter how we asked. Now you're hurt like this again. Mom will cry when she finds out."

"Don't tell Mom." Pei Jiaqian's eyes were pleading.

"If you don't want Mom to worry, stop abusing yourself like this." Pei Shuang spoke with some irritation.

"Mm, mm, mm, got it, unnie—"

"Smartass."

With unease in his heart, Pei Jiaqian finally waited for the doctor to cut the sutures. Leaning on a crutch and supported by Pei Shuang, he took the elevator downstairs.

The moment he stepped out of the elevator, he saw a nurse emerge from a VIP ward carrying a tray full of bloody gauze. Pei Jiaqian's breath caught. He remembered clearly—it was Ye Qingpu's ward.

"Hello, how is the person in that room?" Pei Jiaqian stopped the nurse to ask.

"You mean Mr. Ye? His hand was cut. The doctor has already stitched it up, but the sedative didn't knock him out after one injection. He's probably preparing to leave the hospital now."

"Thank you."

Pei Jiaqian's eyes darkened.

Leaving the hospital? Wasn't Brother supposed to stay overnight for observation?

Growing increasingly uneasy, Pei Jiaqian quickened his pace. Yet at the door, he came face-to-face with Ye Qingpu, whose face was white beyond belief. His right hand, with its sleeve rolled up, was wrapped in bloodstained gauze.

Ye Qingpu looked exhausted. His eyes were rimmed red, and unconcealed irritation filled them. The moment he saw Pei Jiaqian, his lifeless gaze filled with terror and hatred.

"Brother..."

Pei Jiaqian's heart sank as he tentatively spoke.

"Fuck your mother. Get lost."

Ye Qingpu shoved past him and left directly.

"Hey, what the hell? How can you be so rude?" Pei Shuang protested indignantly, instinctively taking her brother's side.

"I'm sorry, Young Master Pei. After receiving the sedative, my boss refused to fall asleep because he was highly tense, so he's rather sensitive."

The assistant, carrying several medicines, nodded apologetically before hurrying after him.

"He's Ye Qingpu?"

Pei Shuang looked thoughtful.

The man her younger brother had remembered for ten years did not seem to have a very good personality...