Hearing that, He Qingye stood even straighter.
Pei Yumian leaned sideways, trying to see his expression.
He Qingye turned his head too, apparently trying to examine Pei Yumian’s face, and their gazes met.
Pei Yumian noticed the ingratiating grievance in He Qingye’s expression, and the last of his anger dissolved completely.
He sighed softly, uncrossed his legs, and let go of the forceful demeanor he had been pretending to have.
He Qingye was always remarkably perceptive at moments like this. The instant Pei Yumian’s expression improved, he shot from the corner to Pei Yumian’s side.
His tall body folded down in front of Pei Yumian. Half kneeling on the floor, He Qingye cautiously reached for Pei Yumian’s hand.
“Mianmian~ If you’re angry, you can hit me.”
For the first time, Pei Yumian closed his own hand around He Qingye’s. His face was full of helpless amusement.
“How would I dare hit you? What if one day your memories come back and you hate me for it?”
He Qingye’s expression turned serious. He stared straight at Pei Yumian and promised,
“No matter what you do, whether I have my memories or not, I will never hate you.”
It was clearly a promise no one could guarantee, yet Pei Yumian was still moved by it.
Pei Yumian suddenly understood one thing very clearly: the He Qingye who possessed only his memories up to eighteen and the mature He Qingye from later were practically two different people.
If it were the latter, Pei Yumian would never have been tempted. But the man crouching in front of him was eighteen-year-old He Qingye, his gaze clear and his love completely undisguised.
Pei Yumian bent down and wrapped his arms around He Qingye, silently begging heaven to show him mercy just once and let him possess He Qingye’s burning love, even if only temporarily.
He Qingye’s body visibly stiffened. Pei Yumian found it amusing. Instead of pulling away, he leaned close to He Qingye’s ear and threatened,
“He Qingye, if you ever use this kind of self-pity trick again and ignore your physical condition, you can forget about seeing me.”
He Qingye’s returning embrace stiffened as well, but his voice carried fearless determination.
“Don’t worry. I won’t do it again.”
——
Once he crossed that barrier in his heart, Pei Yumian discovered that having a husband like He Qingye was actually quite nice.
Every morning when he opened his eyes, He Qingye would be there beside him with an expectant expression.
Whatever Pei Yumian wanted to eat, He Qingye would immediately find a recipe and try making it, making sure that whatever he served was the best and most delicious version possible.
No matter how childish the video game Pei Yumian wanted to play, He Qingye would happily play along. If Pei Yumian lost, He Qingye would secretly throw the next round and let him win.
So when He Qingye once again asked to sleep with Pei Yumian, Pei Yumian agreed without much thought.
Once there was a first time, there was naturally a second, then a third… In the end, Pei Yumian barely returned to his own room. As long as he opened his mouth, He Qingye would prepare anything he needed.
But that happiness lasted only a little over a week. One week before the semester began, Pei Yumian received a call from his class monitor.
Pei Yumian had never had many friends growing up. Things improved somewhat after he escaped the Pei family and went to university, but he still found it difficult to make friends with other people, apart from the class monitor, Chen Er.
Chen Er was a warm, generous beta. After Pei Yumian transferred into the program, Chen Er struck up a conversation with him, and the two gradually became friends.
There was a hint of embarrassment in Chen Er’s voice over the phone.
“Yumian, I know this is a bit difficult to ask, but our class only has two omegas…”
Chen Er had called to ask Pei Yumian to volunteer. The new students would be arriving soon, and every class had to send two alphas, two betas, and two omegas to help.
Unfortunately, Pei Yumian’s Mathematics Class Two had only three omegas. Chen Er knew Pei Yumian’s personality, so for this sort of thing he would ordinarily ask the other two omegas instead. But one of them had recently entered heat, leaving Chen Er with no choice but to ask Pei Yumian.
After hearing the whole explanation, Pei Yumian agreed to help with freshman orientation.
He Qingye had listened from beginning to end beside him, his expression growing increasingly awkward. He waited until Pei Yumian had hung up before finally protesting.
“Mianmian, who is that? Can’t you just not go…?”
Pei Yumian extended one finger and pushed the approaching He Qingye away.
“Our class monitor hardly ever asks me for anything. Stay home and behave. Don’t make me angry.”
He Qingye’s expression grew even uglier, and once again he proposed that outrageous idea.
“My gland is useless anyway. If I cut it out, could I go out with you right now?”
Pei Yumian was so angry he almost laughed. He had no idea what sort of revelation He Qingye had undergone that made him keep talking about castrating himself at the slightest provocation.
But meeting He Qingye’s pitiful gaze, Pei Yumian decided he should still coax him a little.
“Don’t overthink it. It’s not as if I’m never coming home. Once you’ve completely recovered, we can go back to school together.”
Yes, He Qingye and Pei Yumian had enrolled at the same university, and He Qingye had not even graduated yet.
When they married, He Qingye had just entered his senior year. Then came the car accident. He lay unconscious for three years, and when he returned, he was still a senior.
He Qingye seemed to think of something, and his expression returned to normal. Taking advantage of Pei Yumian’s soft heart, he hugged him again.
With the two of them pressed so closely together, Pei Yumian caught the scent of wormwood liquor on He Qingye.
He Qingye was recovering faster and faster. At first, Pei Yumian could barely sense his pheromones at all. Now, as long as he moved slightly closer, he could clearly smell the wormwood liquor scent.
When He Qingye first realized he was recovering, he had looked extremely nervous and tossed and turned all night.
Only after Pei Yumian asked did he discover that He Qingye was actually worried his scent might smell bad.
Caught between laughter and exasperation, Pei Yumian patiently explained,
“The pheromone compatibility between an alpha and an omega determines how well we respond to each other’s pheromones. In other words, the higher our compatibility, the better the other person smells to us.”
He Qingye cautiously asked,
“Then what’s our compatibility?”
Pei Yumian rubbed his nose, somewhat embarrassed.
“Ninety-seven percent.”
That was the result from the compatibility test when they registered their marriage three years ago. Even the staff member had been stunned when the result came out.
Anything over ninety percent was already rare. Pei Yumian and He Qingye had reached ninety-seven percent. At that point, what difference was there from one hundred?
Reality proved the ninety-seven percent compatibility was genuine. The two of them had conceived Xiaopang after only one intimate encounter following their marriage.
When He Qingye heard the number ninety-seven, his eyes widened. He immediately pulled out his phone to search what the number meant, and the more he read, the happier he became.
The next day, after receiving the doctor’s permission, both He Qingye and Pei Yumian were finally allowed to replace their heavy-duty pheromone-blocking patches with ordinary ones.
Pei Yumian did not really believe in things like compatibility ratings, but when he was pregnant with Xiaopang, He Qingye’s pheromones had once practically saved half his life.
So even if Pei Yumian had disliked the scent before, by now he could accept it completely.
A trace of grapefruit pheromones was drawn out by the wormwood liquor scent. The two intertwined and blended in the air until they could no longer be distinguished from one another.
He Qingye finally relaxed completely, while Pei Yumian noticed the wormwood liquor scent clinging to his own body growing stronger and stronger.
He did not care. He would not be going out until tomorrow anyway, so he would simply consider it another way of indulging He Qingye.
Early the next morning, Pei Yumian switched off his alarm and accepted the clothes He Qingye handed him. When he looked down, he saw the simplest possible outfit: a white T-shirt and black pants, exactly to his liking.
He was going out to work, after all. There was no need to dress too nicely.
After eating the breakfast He Qingye had made, Pei Yumian got into the departing car beneath He Qingye’s reluctant gaze.
Perhaps his state of mind had changed, because returning to campus gave Pei Yumian the strange feeling that a lifetime had passed.
Even when he had taken a full year off after giving birth, he had never felt this way. Had spending just over a month living under the same roof as He Qingye really changed him that much?
Pei Yumian pushed those messy thoughts aside. After calling Chen Er, he finally found the classroom where the School of Mathematics volunteers were gathering.
By the time he arrived, Chen Er was already at the podium explaining the precautions.
Chen Er was not only their class monitor but also president of the school’s student council. Naturally, he had to be involved in an orientation event like this.
Pei Yumian greeted Chen Er with his eyes, then sat beside Lin Qi, the other omega from Mathematics Class Two.
The moment Lin Qi saw Pei Yumian, his eyes lit up. He lowered his voice and asked softly,
“Pei Yumian, you’re volunteering this time too?”
Pei Yumian nodded and saw Lin Qi reveal an expression of someone waiting for a good show. Pei Yumian had no idea why. Then a handsome alpha sat down beside him.
Pei Yumian vaguely remembered this alpha, because he was the perennial second place in their class. First place belonged to Pei Yumian.
Pei Yumian curved his lips in a faint smile and nodded in greeting.
At the podium, Chen Er began checking attendance and assigning tasks. Pei Yumian immediately sat up straight, intending to listen carefully to what he would be doing.
Naturally, physical labor had nothing to do with the omegas. Their main duties were to serve as the welcoming face of the group and reassure omegas who had traveled from far away.
The work was not physically demanding, but it was tedious.
Although society advocated equality among all three secondary genders and insisted none was superior or inferior, omegas were still physically more vulnerable and needed protection.
Pei Yumian and the others were responsible for carefully introducing new omegas to the school’s emergency isolation rooms, emergency assistance numbers, and other resources, so they would have help if an accident occurred or an alpha tried to bully them.
After hearing the section concerning omegas, Pei Yumian’s attention began to wander. He opened his phone and, sure enough, found dozens of messages from He Qingye.
That was not too many. Apparently He Qingye was behaving himself. Pei Yumian opened the chat and began replying one by one.
Most of He Qingye’s messages were meaningless things, such as a flowerpot upstairs having wilted, or the fact that he had learned a new recipe, and so on and so forth.
But Pei Yumian replied seriously. He looked at every photo and read every sentence. Even when he had no idea what to say, he would send back a cute sticker.
The result of replying so conscientiously was that He Qingye came fully alive and began asking what Pei Yumian was doing, whether he missed him, and so on…
Pei Yumian clicked his tongue softly. Give He Qingye an inch and he really would take a mile.
At some point, Chen Er had finished explaining everything and sat down in front of Pei Yumian and the others.
“Yumian, there’s nothing else today. You and Lin Qi can go home.”
Pei Yumian had little sense of collective duty and naturally had no intention of volunteering to stay, so he got ready to leave.
The moment he stood up, a hand blocked his path.
“Pei Yumian, could I add your contact information?”
Pei Yumian followed the arm upward with his gaze. Wasn’t this the alpha who was always second place?
