Yellow Hair still wore a malicious smile, his eyes openly sweeping over You Zhi. “Well?”
You Zhi casually spun the microphone in his hand. When it dropped back into his palm, he aimed it at the man’s nose and stabbed straight down.
The entire venue went silent.
Yellow Hair’s scream was hoarse and torn. His exhaust-fume-like pheromones were instantly overwhelmed by the pain.
You Zhi had no intention of stopping. Grabbing the man by the collar, he hauled him up from below the stage and threw him onto it.
Blood covered Yellow Hair’s nose. He still tried to fight back, releasing pheromones again.
You Zhi’s leg trembled. As he dropped, he used the motion to drive his knee directly into the man’s nose, smashing down with brute force.
Yellow Hair let out a scream that seemed to reach the heavens.
A layer of sweat appeared across You Zhi’s forehead. He shifted position, grabbed the back of Yellow Hair’s head, and slammed it hard into the floor.
Savage blue veins stood out across You Zhi’s pale knuckles. Gritting his teeth, he said, “You think being an A means you can do whatever the hell you want? Who gave you the nerve to think you could sleep with me?”
Below the stage.
“Why isn’t he affected by the pheromones?”
“Is he really an O? He’s so strong!”
“Holy shit, if he’s an O, I’ll eat shit while doing a handstand.”
“Beat him to death! He’s embarrassing us As! Beauty is meant to be admired, not defiled by garbage like you!”
“Exactly! I’m fucking speechless. Where did these pieces of trash come from? Even the red-light district has rules, okay!”
Some of the foul As realized the situation was turning against them and gradually withdrew their pheromones. Several Os nearby slowly recovered as well.
Everyone else: Why isn’t this guy affected by pheromones?
You Zhi on the outside: towering, suave, irresistible.
You Zhi inside: It hurts! It fucking hurts…
Once his anger hit its absolute peak, he could temporarily break through the physiological suppression.
At that moment, You Zhi had only one thought: even if the pain killed him here today, he was taking Yellow Hair down with him.
Li Yuan was the first to notice something wrong with You Zhi. The stairs to the stage had already been blocked off, so he could not get up at all. He could only slap the edge of the stage. “You Zhi! You Zhi! Get down here!”
You Zhi was already suffering mild spasms. His consciousness was badly blurred, and he was barely forcing himself to remain standing.
The DJ owner noticed something was wrong, took off his jacket, and draped it over You Zhi.
The alpha pheromones on the jacket temporarily masked the pheromones leaking from You Zhi.
“Are you two together?” the DJ owner asked Li Yuan.
“Yes.” Li Yuan gave a small nod, afraid of drawing the attention of anyone who still had crooked intentions.
“Fuck.” You Zhi cursed under his breath from the pain.
The DJ owner nodded to him. “I’ll take you out. Follow me.”
Pale-faced, You Zhi nodded.
As he was leaving the stage, he suddenly remembered something, went back, and kicked Yellow Hair one more time.
The entire crowd below erupted in cheers.
The DJ owner led Li Yuan and You Zhi to the back entrance of the red-light district. You Zhi’s legs were so weak he had to support himself against the wall to walk.
“Can you manage?” the DJ owner asked.
You Zhi nodded.
A man could never say he could not manage, but the pain was real—the kind that bored straight into the flesh.
You Zhi swore for the hundredth time in his heart: he absolutely had to kill the A who had caused him to develop postpartum stress disorder.
“Thank you,” Li Yuan said to the DJ owner.
The owner shook his head. “No need. My name is Jiang Ye.”
You Zhi cupped his hands toward him. “Thanks, brother.”
“It’s nothing. Just what I should do.” Jiang Ye laughed. “[For explicit and clean fiction updates, join group 152275281.] But you really are brave. An O actually dared go onstage. Your sweat glands probably leaked pheromones after you finished dancing just now. You should pay attention to that from now on and not give anyone an opening to take advantage of you.”
The corner of You Zhi’s mouth twitched. He muttered under his breath, “Even sweat glands can leak them?”
“It’s impressive that you held out that long. Any other O would probably have been forced to the floor by the pheromones much earlier,” Jiang Ye said.
You Zhi leaned against the wall, still draped in Jiang Ye’s coat. “I was forcing it.”
As he spoke, he clutched his stomach and sucked in a sharp breath.
“Your stomach hurts?” Jiang Ye crouched down.
Before You Zhi could answer, Jiang Ye had already taken hold of his wrist.
You Zhi instinctively tried to shake him off.
Jiang Ye looked up. “You’ve given birth before.”
You Zhi wanted to swear. “I can’t have babies!”
Jiang Ye lifted a brow and laughed. “Mm. You can’t, but you have.”
You Zhi could not even be bothered arguing anymore. He held his stomach and turned his head away.
Jiang Ye said, “I really didn’t expect that you’d given birth before.”
You Zhi gave him a strained smile. “Unexpected, right? I didn’t expect I could give birth either.”
Jiang Ye: ?
Li Yuan pulled a mint from his pocket and gave it to You Zhi, barely managing to plug his mouth for the moment, then gave Jiang Ye a stiff smile.
“You know you have postpartum stress disorder, right?” Jiang Ye said.
You Zhi let out a surprised sound and blinked. “Bro, you’re kind of amazing. You grabbed my wrist once and knew immediately.”
Jiang Ye laughed, amused. “I’m a doctor.”
You Zhi looked him up and down. “A doctor who runs a red-light district.”
Jiang Ye neither confirmed nor denied it. He shrugged. “Postpartum stress can only be treated with your partner’s pheromones. Where’s your partner?”
You Zhi froze in the middle of a yawn. “Probably dead.”
The smile at the corner of Jiang Ye’s mouth stiffened for a second.
You Zhi thought, I’ve never even met that idiot A. As far as I’m concerned, he’s dead.
“So you have to undergo specialized treatment every month now to regulate your postpartum stress?” Jiang Ye asked.
You Zhi nodded.
“Come to our hospital,” Jiang Ye said. “I’ll help you.”
You Zhi crunched the mint in his mouth and looked at him. Not wanting to play any roundabout games, he said directly, “Bro, I’m not into As.”
Jiang Ye paused for a few seconds, then laughed. “Mm. I am.”
You Zhi froze for several seconds, unable to process it. He smelled the pheromones on Jiang Ye’s coat. “Aren’t you an A?”
Jiang Ye nodded.
“You play pretty wild,” You Zhi said.
Jiang Ye smiled. “I just want to be friends with you. If you come here again, look for me. Don’t wander around leaking pheromones by yourself.”
You Zhi scratched his head. “I didn’t know sweating could leak pheromones.”
“Have you ever taken a physiology class?” Jiang Ye asked.
You Zhi shook his head.
Jiang Ye: ……
“I caused you a lot of trouble tonight, didn’t I?” You Zhi said.
Jiang Ye shook his head. “It’s fine. The red-light district has brought in quite a few newcomers recently, so the crowd has gotten much more mixed. We never used to have sudden incidents like this.”
Jiang Ye held out a hand. “Friends?”
You Zhi slapped his hand. “Sure.”
Jiang Ye did not leave until Li Yuan returned.
“Keep wearing the coat for now. It can mask your own pheromones,” Jiang Ye said.
You Zhi nodded. “Thanks.”
You Zhi thought, This trip wasn’t a loss. Came out once and picked up a doctor friend.
Li Yuan twisted open the water and handed it to him. “Drink a little first.”
You Zhi took a sip. The pain in his stomach had already eased a lot, though his gland still felt swollen. Fortunately, when leaving home, You Zhi had thought ahead and taken a suppressant.
Otherwise, the pheromones from that group of alphas might have stimulated him hard enough to bring his heat forward.
“Do you have any strength?” Li Yuan held out an arm. “I’ll support you.”
You Zhi shook his head. “No need.”
You Zhi stood, then followed the wall toward the exit. At the corner, Li Yuan went to hail a car.
You Zhi found a stone step and sat down, wrapped in the coat.
Right now, he felt exhausted in both body and mind.
This was even more tiring than playing a tournament…
People walked past the roadside in twos and threes.
A man came toward him, accompanied by two or three people. He wore a mask and cap, was very tall, and his face could not be seen clearly.
You Zhi glanced at him casually.
Suddenly, a warm scent drifted through the air. You Zhi instinctively inhaled.
This scent… It was like taking a nap in a silent forest, every breath full of lush green life; it was also like the scent carried by layer upon layer of snow weighing down pine branches.
You Zhi only took one breath, and his whole body relaxed.
The discomfort and pain that had lingered in his body were wrapped up in layers of warm pine-green scent, as though someone had aimed a syringe at his vein and injected him with a dose of pure vitality!
“That feels good.” You Zhi could not help sighing. His gaze followed the scent and landed on the man wearing the cap and mask.
“What kind of pheromones does that guy have? Smells amazing,” You Zhi murmured.
At the exact moment You Zhi turned his head away, Shen Zichen glanced toward the man sitting on the stone bollard.
Pink hair. His face could not be seen clearly. A faint trace of pheromones drifted through the air.
“Brother Shen, what is it?” Zhao Rui turned back and asked.
“Nothing.” Shen Zichen lowered his eyes and withdrew his gaze.
That person was an alpha.
After You Zhi returned home that night, he curled up in bed and slept for more than twenty hours before barely recovering his energy. The moment Yan Fan arrived, he began nagging in his ear.
“Are you still going to places like that in the future?!” Yan Fan said. “You Zhi! You really can’t mess around anymore!”
You Zhi pretended not to hear. After this incident, he had reflected on things too. He was no longer an ordinary person, but an O with heats and mating cycles. To avoid suffering, he had better tone down the madness in the future.
“You Zhi! Did you hear me or not?!” Yan Fan said. “You have no idea how scary As outside can be. You absolutely have to protect yourself! You can’t release pheromones recklessly!”
“Fine. I’ll have some sense from now on,” You Zhi said lazily.
Yan Fan had also brought him a book.
ABO Physiology Guide
You Zhi accepted his fate.
A person had to adapt to changes in the environment. Since he now lived in a society with this background, he could only exercise his own initiative while adapting to objective laws.
You Zhi had countless questions while reading the book.
“Why does compatibility between two people who originally had a very low match rate shoot up after they have a child?”
You Zhi sent a voice message and tagged everyone in the group chat.
[Li Yuan: I’ve never given birth.]
[Yan Fan: I’ll tell you after I give birth someday.]
[Jiang Ye: Because after childbirth, A and O develop pheromone dependence. But pheromone dependence is built on fully trusting and loving the other person. If two people reject each other, even forced pheromone bonding caused by childbirth has no effect.]
“So whether an A and O can ultimately stay together still depends on whether they like each other?” You Zhi asked.
[Jiang Ye: Yes. Love can overcome every hardship and even cross biological groups.]
[Yan Fan: Brother Ye! Are you really not considering an O? (blinking starry eyes)]
[Li Yuan: ……]
[Jiang Ye: It still depends on how I feel.]
You Zhi turned another page. “Why does an O need an A to get through a heat? I have hands. I can do it myself.”
[Li Yuan: ……]
[Yan Fan: ……]
[Jiang Ye: ……]
“What the hell is a rut? Why does his rut mean I have to let him fuck me?” You Zhi covered his face with the book and swung his crossed leg.
[Three silent faces.]
“What the hell is a temporary mark? He takes a piss on someone and suddenly they belong to him? Dream on,” You Zhi said.
No one in the group answered him anymore.
“This shitty world can just end already.”
