Chapter 23.2
In the original novel, Lu Xingzhou was merely a cannon-fodder Alpha.
Even though he admired and pursued the protagonist Omega, he did not appear often. Whenever he did, it was only to help advance the relationship between the protagonists.
At this thought, Shu Baiyu’s gaze paused.
He became even more silent while watching Lu Xingzhou’s figure.
After spending the past several days together, Shu Baiyu felt that Lu Xingzhou was actually not a bad person.
Unfortunately, Lu Xingzhou liked the protagonist Omega, whom he was destined never to obtain.
Even if Shu Baiyu felt grateful toward him, he would not allow him to obstruct the romance between Qi Yan and Tao Xi.
As that final thought settled, a soft clink sounded against the table.
A plate had been placed before him.
Shu Baiyu followed the withdrawing arm upward and saw Lu Xingzhou remove his apron after finishing the cooking.
When his gaze landed on Shu Baiyu, it paused.
“Let’s eat.”
After finishing everything, he sat across from Shu Baiyu and naturally placed food into his bowl.
Faced with Lu Xingzhou’s expectant gaze, which seemed to carry a subtle urging, Shu Baiyu lowered his head and tried a bite.
Lu Xingzhou then saw his eyes brighten slightly.
“It’s good.”
Lu Xingzhou’s mood unconsciously improved, and the line of his lips curved upward.
“I can cook many dishes. You can try them one by one.”
Shu Baiyu failed to notice anything unusual about his words and nodded in agreement.
After the meal, Shu Baiyu was full and satisfied.
He leaned back in his chair contentedly, emptied his mind, and prepared to rest.
Before even a minute passed, Lu Xingzhou approached.
“Finished eating?”
Shu Baiyu nodded.
Then he heard Lu Xingzhou continue:
“Good. There are some other things I need to tell you.”
Before Shu Baiyu could react, the chair was abruptly turned around, carrying his entire body with it until he faced Lu Xingzhou directly.
Lu Xingzhou sat before him with a calm gaze.
“I went to the hospital earlier and bought some inhibitors. An Omega’s heat lasts for a relatively long time. It cannot be resolved all at once.”
Shu Baiyu froze.
“There’s something else.”
Lu Xingzhou seemed to take a deep breath before speaking slowly.
“If this happens again, don’t ask another Alpha for help. Don’t trust someone so easily. Do you understand?”
After a pause, he added:
“…I’m the exception.”
Shu Baiyu frowned.
“Why can’t I?”
“You don’t know how insane an Alpha can become when faced with an Omega in heat.”
Lu Xingzhou said only that much.
Even he had nearly failed to restrain himself under the influence of Shu Baiyu’s pheromones today, briefly allowing instinct to control him.
If Shu Baiyu truly sought another Alpha’s help during such a vulnerable period, Lu Xingzhou did not dare imagine the consequences.
Since the native resident of this world must have his reasons, Shu Baiyu agreed.
“I understand.”
He raised his eyes and stared directly at Lu Xingzhou.
After a long silence, he asked in confusion:
“Aren’t you going to ask?”
Lu Xingzhou said, “Ask what?”
“About your pheromones.”
While Lu Xingzhou was helping him, Shu Baiyu had admitted that he could smell them.
Considering how much Lu Xingzhou had cared about the matter last time, he had expected him to question him immediately after completing the temporary mark.
Yet he had waited until now, and Lu Xingzhou still had not brought it up.
Lu Xingzhou’s expression did not change.
“I already know you can smell them.”
He had confirmed it the last time they were at his parents’ home.
However, because of what happened then, he would no longer use excessive methods to test Shu Baiyu.
“Don’t you have anything you want to ask?” Shu Baiyu considered it. “Didn’t you say this was extremely important to you?”
“Mm. I want to ask, and I want to know.”
After several seconds of silence, Lu Xingzhou explained the issue with his pheromones.
“…The doctor said that only someone with an extremely high pheromone compatibility rate with me would be able to smell them.”
“If I want treatment, it would be best for me to remain with someone capable of sensing my pheromones. Perhaps my condition would then gradually recover on its own.”
“That was why, after hearing about our compatibility rate, I agreed to help you with the pheromone baths.”
He did not conceal anything and directly told Shu Baiyu the truth.
Throughout these years, he had never given up on resolving the problem with his pheromones.
After listening, Shu Baiyu could not deny that if Lu Xingzhou had calmly told him the truth that day and asked for mutual cooperation, he would never have refused.
It was the same now.
“Then what do you need me to do?”
Lu Xingzhou froze.
Then he heard Shu Baiyu muttering to himself:
“Do we only need to follow the doctor’s instructions?… Is that really reliable? I only need to stay beside you?”
Suddenly, the matter Lu Xingzhou had always cared about seemed to become as light as a feather.
The corner of his lips lifted.
“Mm,” he said softly. “You only need to stay beside me.”
Shu Baiyu belatedly understood.
“So that’s why you argued with Qi Yan and asked me to live here?”
Lu Xingzhou stiffened.
He was about to speak when he saw Shu Baiyu’s expression of realization.
“Don’t worry. I’ll help you.”
As he spoke, he prepared to stand.
Before he could take a single step, someone caught his wrist.
When Shu Baiyu turned around, Lu Xingzhou’s expression was strange.
“What is it?”
“…Nothing. I’ll also help you.”
His words reminded Shu Baiyu of something.
The leg he had already extended abruptly withdrew.
He turned toward Lu Xingzhou.
“Do we need to do a pheromone bath today?”
Lu Xingzhou paused.
“Perhaps…”
Shu Baiyu did not hear clearly.
“We don’t need to?”
“Mm.”
Lu Xingzhou nodded slightly.
However, upon seeing Shu Baiyu’s puzzled expression, he paused and still offered an explanation.
“You’re currently in heat.”
Shu Baiyu stared at him, neither speaking nor leaving.
Under that gaze, Lu Xingzhou took a deep breath and finally forced himself to say it.
“…If we do a pheromone bath now, your body will react like that again.”
Shu Baiyu asked, “React how?”
Lu Xingzhou coughed lightly and shifted his gaze away.
“Do you remember the thing you recently said came out of your body?”
Shu Baiyu froze.
Then his eyes abruptly widened.
“That is ‘lubrication’ that makes it easier for an Alpha to enter,” Lu Xingzhou slowly explained. “An Omega naturally secretes it during heat. It’s completely nor—”
Before he could finish, heat had already flooded Shu Baiyu’s face.
Without giving Lu Xingzhou any chance to continue, he quickly covered the other man’s mouth with one hand.
Forcing himself to remain calm, he spoke rapidly:
“I understand. You don’t need to say anything else.”
Lu Xingzhou’s voice stopped abruptly.
For a moment, he did not move.
He merely lowered his eyelids, his gaze slowly settling on the palm pressed against his lips.
Unlike Shu Baiyu himself, his palm was soft and free of calluses.
His fingers were slender, and when they covered Lu Xingzhou’s mouth, they carried a faint trace of lychee-scented pheromones.
Lu Xingzhou’s Adam’s apple moved.
He did not resist.
He merely nodded quietly to show that he understood.
Shu Baiyu spoke rapidly.
“All right. I’m going to sleep.”
After leaving those words behind, he practically fled into his bedroom and slammed the door shut.
He covered his face and leaned against it.
Only after a long while did his breathing gradually return to normal.
However, the tips of his exposed ears were completely red.
Why had he failed to remember that an Omega’s body structure was fundamentally different from the one he had possessed before?
At the time, while his entire body burned with heat, he had suddenly felt coolness beneath him.
Now, merely remembering how he had stretched out his hand and shown it to Lu Xingzhou made him feel unbearably ashamed.
Just as his mind seemed ready to combust, someone knocked lightly on the bedroom door.
Lu Xingzhou’s calm voice sounded from outside, carrying a faint, unreadable meaning.
“Rest early. Pay attention to your condition tonight. If anything feels uncomfortable, come directly to me.”
“…There’s no need to be embarrassed.”
Shu Baiyu lowered his head.
After a long silence, he finally forced out a quiet:
“Mm.”
Unexpectedly, he slept far better that night than he had imagined.
However, before falling asleep, he felt the heat inside his body beginning to emerge again.
It rose weakly like a small flame, gradually intensifying.
Shu Baiyu forced his eyes closed and lay in bed for several minutes.
Eventually, he had no choice but to throw off the covers and sit up, his expression unpleasant.
After taking two deep breaths, he completed a temporary round of mental preparation.
Only then did he manage to remove his trousers.
He did not dare look at the dark stain spreading across the fabric of his pajama bottoms.
Grabbing them, he hurried into the bathroom, turned on the water, and washed them with his head lowered.
Afterward, he hung them in a corner of the balcony.
Washing underwear in the middle of the night was something he had only done as a teenager.
He had never expected to transmigrate into a novel and be forced to experience it again at his current age.
Furthermore, this situation was different from what he had experienced in the past.
If it had merely been like the ignorance of youth, it would have been easier.
Today’s experience was entirely new.
He moved carefully throughout the process and made very little noise.
Only after finishing did he prepare to return to his bedroom with his legs bare.
He had been in such a hurry to wash the soiled pajama bottoms that he had not considered putting on another pair first.
However, when he passed the master bedroom, his body unconsciously paused.
His footsteps gradually came to a stop.
He listened carefully for movement inside.
The room was completely silent.
Lu Xingzhou should already be asleep.
Shu Baiyu steadied his breathing, then relaxed his spine and leaned against the door.
Lu Xingzhou’s cool snowmelt pheromones lingered inside the bedroom.
Through the crack beneath the door, Shu Baiyu could smell them with only a slight inhale.
Although this behavior was extremely perverted, he had no choice but to admit it.
Once he separated from Lu Xingzhou, that cool, clear scent gradually disappeared.
After lying down for so long, his thoughts had been constantly filled with the other man’s pheromones.
He could not suppress the desire to smell them again.
The heat inside his body was gradually rising.
With no other option, he could only secretly come here for some relief.
At first, he had worried that he would not be able to smell anything.
However, just as his body temperature showed signs of slowly increasing, the pheromones coming from the room became slightly stronger.
Only then did he relax.
Shu Baiyu’s nose twitched.
He turned toward the tightly closed door, and the instant the cool scent enveloped him, every nerve in his body relaxed.
In a daze, he thought that Lu Xingzhou’s pheromones truly smelled wonderful.
The latter half of the night finally passed peacefully.
Shu Baiyu slept until he woke naturally.
Still drowsy, he opened his eyes, got out of bed, and walked all the way to the shared bathroom outside his room.
He opened the door and entered.
He was not fully awake yet.
He unwrapped a newly purchased toothbrush, squeezed toothpaste onto it, put it into his mouth, and slowly brushed his teeth before the mirror.
The young man reflected in the glass still had red marks pressed into his face from sleep.
His hair had not been tidied and was gathered in a complete mess. His raised bangs bounced up and down with every brushing movement.
He slowly rinsed his mouth and spat out the foamy water.
Then he turned on the faucet and lowered his head to wash his face.
Water rushed loudly.
The cold water made his mind somewhat clearer.
At the same time, he noticed another sound.
His back stiffened.
After shutting off the faucet, he seemed to sense something and slowly looked toward the source.
On the other side of a glass door, Lu Xingzhou stood naked beneath the shower.
He had just raised a hand to switch off the water.
Noticing Shu Baiyu’s movement, Lu Xingzhou also turned his head toward him.
Shu Baiyu: “…!”
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