Rejection Reaction

But he was simply annoyed by all this trouble.

And it was the first time he had been treated like a child.

It irritated him a little.

Ye Qingpu watched the departing figure, his gaze dark and still. He unwrapped the fruit candy and put it into his mouth.

The candy was sweet, honeydew-flavored.

But in a situation like this, smoking would have felt better.

He seemed to have trapped himself in a contradiction. He forced himself to accept the fact that he had been turned into an omega, yet he was unwilling to let go of the person he had been for the past ten years.

After a long while, he sighed... Everything was so dramatic, like a joke.

Then again, his fucked-up life had always been a joke. Whenever he felt life was still okay, life would take a hammer and smash him over the head, telling him okay my ass.

He felt lost.

He did not know how to live as an omega.

At the same time, he felt afraid, and somewhat helpless.

As an egoist, he was strong and mature. But beneath his fierce exterior, he was kind-hearted, and his true self was often cowardly and childish.

He ground the candy between his teeth, then viciously bit down and crushed it.

The powerful figures in the business world who coveted him had this to say about him: Ye Qingpu rarely displayed the composure unique to a successful thirty-year-old man. Instead, he seemed more like a forbidden beauty who had secretly put on his master's suit—irritable, noble, coldly beautiful, and yet so broken.

He was a lofty flower coveted by all. Countless people wanted to keep him as a canary.

But no one would forever favor a beta, no matter how breathtakingly beautiful he was.

Unless that beta, watched hungrily by so many, became an omega with peerless beauty.

Ye Qingpu knew that as many people as feared him, there were just as many secretly coveting everything he possessed. Once a transformed omega was conquered, his efforts, his free soul, everything he had, would become the other person's possession.

He could not let news of his transformation spread.

As he idly rubbed his fingertips and stared blankly at the foggy sky beyond the window, the ward door suddenly opened.

"Didn't I say I wanted to be alone for a while?"

Ye Qingpu did not turn around, and there was displeasure in his voice.

"Whoa~~ Why are you so fired up~"

Ye Qingpu turned toward the voice. When he saw who it was, his eyes lit up.

"Jiang Jifu... When did you get back?"

"Nice reaction. Looks like you missed me."

The red-haired man wore a fashionably designed leather jacket. The earring on his earlobe swayed as he pulled out a chair. He removed his black mask, straddled the chair and leaned against its back, a roguish grin on his face.

"Weren't you busy with your schedule? And didn't you say your group was about to make a comeback? How did you have time to come back to the country?"

Ye Qingpu immediately perked up and fired off several questions in a row.

"Don't even mention it... During the comeback period, one of my teammates got exposed for dating. The comeback's been delayed, and our group might even be facing disbandment."

Jiang Jifu smiled helplessly.

"The company gave us a break, and the artists can manage our own schedules, so I flew back right away. Little uncle~ Tell your eldest nephew, did you go off traveling somewhere again and end up hospitalized?"

At that form of address, Ye Qingpu curled his lip in distaste.

Every summer or winter, Ye Qingpu would set aside time to travel. He would see mountains, rivers, and lakes; bungee jump, ride hot-air balloons, dive, enrich his life—then return and languish in a hospital bed for half a month.

Jiang Jifu mocked him every time. As his only close relative, and a junior several years younger than him, Ye Qingpu both loved and hated him.

"This time, I listened to you and gave up the idea of climbing snowy mountains."

As he spoke, Ye Qingpu naturally accepted the gift Jiang Jifu handed him.

Jiang Jifu suddenly looked at him seriously, his eyes searching.

"Wh... what is it?" Ye Qingpu felt uncomfortable under his gaze.

"Little uncle, did you change your perfume?"

Jiang Jifu leaned closer and sniffed.

It didn't smell like perfume either... It smelled more like pheromones? But where would a beta like little uncle get pheromones—could it be that little uncle had exhausted himself from excessive sex with an omega and ended up in the hospital?

One look at his expression told Ye Qingpu that he was imagining strange things again. He raised a hand and smacked Jiang Jifu on the head.

"Don't think weird things."

"No... Is that pheromone scent on you? It's kind of strange."

Jiang Jifu grabbed his collar and leaned in closer for another sniff. Then his Adam's apple bobbed, and he reflexively staggered back two steps.

"Fu＊k, disgusting...!" (Ugh—)

Ye Qingpu did not understand. He could not smell anything on himself.

Looking at Ye Qingpu's innocent expression, Jiang Jifu held his breath and opened the room's window. He looked back meaningfully, as though he wanted to say something but stopped himself.

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

Ye Qingpu frowned. Could it be... he had not bathed in several days and had started to stink?

At that thought, Ye Qingpu shuddered—he would not allow himself to be so unkempt...

What he did not know was that during the past few days while he had been deeply asleep, someone had carefully wiped down his body every day, even while limping on one leg.

"Little uncle... Have you been soaking in a pile of omegas for days? You've picked up the scent of omega pheromones."

Jiang Jifu spoke. He could not be wrong. Although he had been startled at first, it was not merely omega pheromones—it was the scent emitted by an omega in heat.

An omega's pheromones were extremely sensitive to alphas, especially the scent released by an omega in heat. To a mature, high-quality alpha, it was no different from a walking aphrodisiac... and Jiang Jifu happened to be an A-rank alpha.

Ye Qingpu immediately understood. Compared to him, Jiang Jifu, as a high-quality alpha, should have been more sensitive to the scent of pheromones on him.

For a moment, he had failed to realize that, now that he was an omega, he would give off a pheromone scent unique to omegas.

Ye Qingpu hesitated, truly not knowing how to explain it. A flush rose to his face, and he awkwardly turned his head aside.

Jiang Jifu frowned as he studied him. There was not only the scent of an omega, but another scent that belonged neither to an alpha nor to any other gender. The pressure it carried felt familiar and frightening. Someone involuntarily surfaced in his mind, and he subconsciously shrank back.

Seeing his little uncle's awkward, conflicted expression, Jiang Jifu narrowed his light-colored eyes. Standing by the window, he silently released the pheromones of an A-rank alpha and quietly observed Ye Qingpu's expression.

Ye Qingpu was momentarily stunned, clearly unable to identify where the scent filling the air came from. Then a sudden stabbing pain tore through his abdomen. Uncertainly, he touched his lower belly. The pain gradually intensified, as though something inside him were clamoring wildly. He instinctively doubled over.

The unfamiliar pain blanked out his mind for an instant. He could only follow his instincts and breathe deeply, trying to ease it.

"Little uncle!"

Jiang Jifu hastily withdrew his pheromones and stood frozen in place, anxious. He had not expected Ye Qingpu's reaction to be so intense, but it also confirmed his suspicion.

"Little uncle, are you... an omega?" Jiang Jifu did not know how to phrase it. In his memory, his little uncle had always been an exceptionally capable beta who refused to admit defeat... Yet his reaction to Jiang Jifu's pheromones was one only an omega would have, and moreover... an omega who had been marked.

A violent cramping pain twisted through Ye Qingpu's abdomen, as if a crudely made dagger were trying to stab through one of his organs. Curled up on the bed, he gripped his clothes tightly.

Whether from the unbearable pain or the stimulation of unfamiliar pheromones, Ye Qingpu reflexively vomited blood. It instantly soaked his clothes, and his body began to convulse uncontrollably.

"Little uncle! Ye Qingpu!"

Filled with regret, Jiang Jifu pressed the call button and summoned a nurse. As the nurse swiftly examined Ye Qingpu, he silently stepped aside. Getting too close now would only increase the burden on him.

After a round of examinations and an injection, Ye Qingpu finally began to calm down. His eyes gradually cleared as he gasped for air like someone who had just been pulled from the water.

"The patient has only recently completed his differentiation and is currently in heat, so he remains highly sensitive to other alphas' pheromones. On top of that, he has been marked by a specific pheromone, which caused a severe rejection reaction. We recommend that people associated with the patient do not release pheromones casually."

After giving her instructions and leaving behind several oral pills, the nurse departed.

"Little uncle, do you feel better?"

Guilt showed in Jiang Jifu's eyes, and even his voice had lost much of its energy.

"You brat. You barely got back to the country before nearly killing me. I'm your real little uncle."

Ye Qingpu curled up on the bed and weakly forced out a smile.

"Technically, you're not."

Jiang Jifu smiled and remained where he was, still choosing not to approach.

Only when his assistant arrived with a stack of documents did he move. Seeing Mr. Jiang standing in the corner and his own boss on the hospital bed barely breathing, the assistant tactfully placed the documents on the bedside table and opened the window wider—ah... the irritating pheromone scent of an A-rank alpha.