MVCFO CH2

Although it was expensive, Lin Xiangqi accepted the injection treatment plan without a second thought and paid for the first dose.

Even though the doctor repeatedly emphasized that the treatment costs would be like a bottomless pit and that it would be best to find a high-ranking Alpha willing to help him with the therapy, Lin Xiangqi felt that begging Shen Qiaolan for help wasn’t much better than dying.

According to the original novel’s setting, Shen Qiaolan had already started developing feelings for Lin Xiangqi at this point—he was just suppressing them and hadn’t yet exploded.

It was only after Lin Xiangqi died that Shen Qiaolan fully realized his feelings. But by then, there was no longer anyone he could love. That was when all the twisted obsession and sickness he had buried for years got projected onto the main character.

That poor protagonist—just because he looked 70% like Lin Xiangqi—ended up being haunted by Shen Qiaolan like a ghost.
Not only was he forced to sign a contract to become a stand-in, but later he was also tormented by that lunatic Shen Qiaolan to the point of despair.

Just imagine—if the real “White Moonlight” Lin Xiangqi were to approach Shen Qiaolan, tell him he’s an Omega, and say he needed his pheromones to survive…

He didn’t even want to imagine what that psycho scumbag would do under the pretense of “repaying a life-saving favor”!

No. Absolutely not!
Under no circumstances did he want Shen Qiaolan’s pheromones!

—

Actually, while Lin Xiangqi was racking his brain trying to recall if there were any other high-ranking Alphas in the original story, he thought of one person.

His childhood friend and lifelong best buddy—Lu Cong.

Though Lin Xiangqi didn’t understand how Lu Cong ended up turning into the cold and dangerous villain of the novel, at least according to the setting, Lu Cong was a strong character in every way, rivaling even the main character’s Alpha.

Lu Cong had a solid character, and his pheromone level was definitely high. On top of that, he and Lin Xiangqi were extremely close, and he would almost never say no to anything Lin asked for. If he could get Lu Cong’s pheromones, all his troubles would be solved.

But…

Lin Xiangqi thought dejectedly: he had never once smelled Lu Cong’s pheromones.

They had known each other for over ten years, and theoretically, every Alpha had rut periods when pheromones were unstable and most likely to leak.
Yet Lin Xiangqi hadn’t smelled anything even once.

That could only mean one of two things: either Lu Cong’s pheromones weren’t strong enough to be detected, weaker than Shen Qiaolan’s…

Or, their pheromone compatibility was extremely low.

The doctor had said before that exceptionally strong Alpha pheromones were intense, and it was highly likely that someone like Lin Xiangqi would be able to sense them.
But if the compatibility was too low—so low it didn’t even reach 1%—then he might not be able to detect anything at all.

One percent!
He couldn’t even reach one percent?

Lin Xiangqi hadn’t really thought about pairing up with Lu Cong, but the realization still disappointed him.

They were such good friends.
And good friends should be on the same wavelength—fully in sync and perfectly compatible in every way.

Lin Xiangqi pouted, a little sulky for no reason, and grumbled in his heart: Lu Cong, you disappointment.

After paying for the first round of injection treatment, the doctor told Lin Xiangqi to wait for the results from the pheromone database.

Bored out of his mind, he pulled out his phone and, just to kill time, decided to send Lu Cong a grumpy emoji.

But when he opened his contacts list, Lu Cong wasn’t there.

Lin Xiangqi belatedly realized something else: Oh… right, he had blocked Lu Cong.
Because starting last week, he had unilaterally declared a cold war with him.

The reason… of course, was Shen Qiaolan again.

Thinking about how he had been chasing after that scumbag Shen Qiaolan before today—and even had a fight with his best friend over him—made Lin Xiangqi feel unspeakably ashamed. He immediately removed Lu Cong from the block list.

At that moment, he also noticed that his message notifications were lit up with red dots—he had over 99 unread messages.

Lin Xiangqi wasn’t planning to reply to them all right before getting his first injection treatment.
But then he noticed his desk mate, Chen Qiutian, had sent him 36 messages all by himself.

Did the sky fall or something?

Curious and nosy, Lin Xiangqi opened the chat—

7:35 AM
[Chen Qiutian]: Homework!! Let me copy!! Hurry!!
7:45 AM
[Chen Qiutian]: Where are you??
8:01 AM
[Chen Qiutian]: You took the day off? Damn, without you, who’s gonna treat me like a baby?
[Chen Qiutian]: No one else in class has milk candy in their pocket except you [Despair.jpg]
8:45 AM
[Chen Qiutian]: This is terrifying. Terrifying!! Do you know that while you were gone, Lu Cong was like a block of ice?! Is it that he can’t hear anyone except you? I tried to borrow his notes and he just walked right past me without even looking! So cold and aloof!!
8:47 AM
[Chen Qiutian]: Oh wait, he gave me the notes. Guess our class rep just doesn’t talk much, but he’s actually a straight shooter! [Smiling.jpg]
…
9:51 AM
[Chen Qiutian]: Come back ASAP!!! The class rep and that transfer student from next door got into a fight!!!
[Chen Qiutian]: The rep’s kinda fierce though (whispers)

Reading this, Lin Xiangqi’s mind went blank—

Who fought who?

Lu Cong and Shen Qiaolan???

No way…

Why were they fighting again?!

If he remembered correctly, the reason he started the cold war with Lu Cong last week was precisely because Lu Cong had beaten Shen Qiaolan into the hospital!

—

Thinking back now, Lin Xiangqi realized even at the time, he hadn’t been too clear on what had happened.

Last weekend, he and Lu Cong had originally made plans to do homework together. But halfway through, he got a call from Shen Qiaolan asking him to go to the downtown stadium—he said he was playing basketball there.

Lin Xiangqi rarely received messages from Shen Qiaolan, let alone direct phone calls—especially one with such an inviting tone.
Naturally, he had gone over joyfully.

That had been one of the rare times Shen Qiaolan treated him nicely, inviting him to play ball and even taking him out to dinner with his friends. Lin Xiangqi thought he was finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and happily followed along.

At the dinner table, Shen Qiaolan’s friends kept encouraging him to drink. Lin Xiangqi wasn’t good with alcohol to begin with, and now he was being forced to mix reds, whites—everything. He quickly began to feel dizzy.

Someone reached over to pour him more wine. He refused. But Shen Qiaolan, sitting beside him, looked at him and ordered without room for argument: “Drink it for me.”

Lin Xiangqi instinctively shook his head, but in a daze, he seemed to catch a whiff of some kind of alluring scent.

He didn’t know at the time that Shen Qiaolan was releasing his pheromones.
That kind of pheromone carried a strong sense of intimidation for most Alphas and Betas—it was almost a coercive act.

But no one knew that Lin Xiangqi was actually an Omega. Compared to others, he had a higher tolerance for Alpha pheromones.

Plus, his own glands had been clogged up with excess pheromones for a while, so Shen Qiaolan’s “coercion” ended up having a kind of therapeutic effect on him.

He started to feel really good and even leaned closer to Shen Qiaolan. Whatever Shen Qiaolan said, he didn’t care—he agreed to everything and kept drinking cup after cup.

But Lin Xiangqi hadn’t completely lost his senses.
He was afraid that if he got too drunk, he might do something embarrassing, and he didn’t want to lose control in front of others. So while he was still somewhat conscious, he secretly messaged Lu Cong to come pick him up.

Lin Xiangqi didn’t know when exactly he passed out. When he woke up, he was already back home.

He guessed Lu Cong must have brought him back. Just as he was about to go thank him, he got a phone call.

That’s when he learned that Lu Cong had fought with Shen Qiaolan while picking him up.

Shen Qiaolan had been seriously injured and hospitalized.

Lin Xiangqi had been shocked and furious. He confronted Lu Cong and got into a big argument.

He questioned Lu Cong about why he had attacked Shen Qiaolan, scolded him harshly, and demanded that he apologize.

Lu Cong didn’t say a word in response, but he also didn’t agree to apologize—so Lin Xiangqi took that as him arguing back with cold silence.

And so the cold war between them began.

It had been almost a week since.

Looking back now, with his new self-awareness, Lin Xiangqi realized that the whole situation had a lot of suspicious details.

This was Lu Cong, after all!

The Lu Cong he knew had always been upright and righteous. He won “Model Student” awards every year, had impeccable morals and character, never left a grain of rice uneaten, never wasted water when washing his hands. He’d helped elderly people cross the road since primary school, turned in money he found at school, and even wore his red scarf more properly than anyone else. In over ten years, he had never once gotten angry at Lin Xiangqi.

Such a righteous, gentle, calm, and composed person—he wouldn’t just get into a fight for no reason. He wouldn’t even curse, let alone throw a punch!

So for Lu Cong to actually hit someone, there had to be a deeper reason.

And as for Shen Qiaolan, he was the type to stir up trouble. Last time when Lu Cong beat him up so badly he ended up in the hospital, he never even pursued the matter afterwards—what else could that be but a guilty conscience?

So, what had actually happened that night after Lin Xiangqi got drunk?

That scene wasn’t written in the original novel, and Lu Cong had never explained it either. Lin Xiangqi could only imagine.

At first, he covered his mouth in horror and shuddered at the thought: had Shen Qiaolan taken advantage of him while he was drunk?

After all, according to the original setup, Shen Qiaolan had feelings for him, didn’t he?

But soon Lin Xiangqi was relieved—this novel, for all its dog blood drama, still had a “double virgin” trope. The protagonist Alpha gave both his first kiss and first night to the protagonist Omega.

Praise the trope! Praise the fact that he was just a cannon fodder character!

At the very least, it meant Shen Qiaolan hadn’t done anything too out of line.

As for what really happened that night… he’d probably have to ask Lu Cong himself to find out.

And now, not even a week later, Lu Cong and Shen Qiaolan had clashed again. But unlike last time—when he’d been blinded by Shen Qiaolan’s pheromone filter and acting like a love-struck fool—Lin Xiangqi was fully lucid now. He wasn’t going to blindly blame Lu Cong anymore.

He was absolutely sure of one thing: Shen Qiaolan was just asking for a beating!

Lin Xiangqi immediately replied to Chen Qiutian’s messages, asking what had happened that morning.

Chen Qiutian replied quickly:
[Chen Qiutian]: You finally replied! The transfer student was picked up by people from the Shen family. Looks like his gland went into some kind of stress response. Damn, no wonder they’re the richest family around—even the principal came out to greet his family when they arrived! [trembling.jpg]

Chen Qiutian didn’t mention Lu Cong—probably thinking Lin Xiangqi still cared more about Shen Qiaolan, judging from how he’d been acting lately.

But Lin Xiangqi pouted and thought: Who asked about Shen Qiaolan?

Zero people care.

Lin Xiangqi: [Lu Cong?]

Chen Qiutian:
[Oh, the class rep got personally driven home by the PE teacher!]

[Honestly, I think it was technically the transfer student’s fault. During the morning break lineup, a few of our classmates were horsing around and accidentally bumped into him. He turned around and just kicked someone over! Sure, it was Xu Muwen and those school bully types, but still—an apology would’ve been enough. What gave him the right to kick someone like that?]

[That’s why our class rep is such a responsible, stand-up guy. There weren’t any teachers around at the time, and everyone was afraid to confront Shen Qiaolan. So to prevent the situation from escalating, our class rep didn’t hesitate—he stepped in and stopped the transfer student’s uncivilized behavior!]

Lin Xiangqi sent a sticker in response: [thumbs up.jpg]

Chen Qiutian:
[But guess what? That dog Shen Qiaolan actually used his pheromones to provoke the class rep!]

Lin Xiangqi: [angry.jpg]

Chen Qiutian:
[I’m just a Beta, so technically I shouldn’t be able to smell pheromones. But Shen Qiaolan’s an elite Alpha—when he released his aggressive pheromones, a bunch of classmates felt nauseous, dizzy, weak in the limbs. Even I felt it. Thankfully, our class rep responded right away and released his own pheromones to suppress him. Only then did Shen Qiaolan back off.]

Chen Qiutian kept going, clearly excited—his typing speed was fast:
[Thinking back now, I’m still shook. Our class rep had never released his pheromones at school before. This was the first time I realized—his pheromones are crazy strong! You have no idea—Shen Qiaolan totally collapsed on the spot, full stress response in his glands, face pale as a ghost. [starry eyes.jpg]]

Chen Qiutian: [Uh, of course, I didn’t mean anything bad about Shen Qiaolan. I’m just an innocent bystander Beta… Even though I know the whole story, I won’t comment, okay? I got too excited just now and talked too much—please don’t be mad at me. I’m just being objective. Don’t worry, Shen Qiaolan should be fine. He just needs some rest. Otherwise, with his family, the whole school would’ve been turned upside down today. [eyeroll.jpg]]

Lin Xiangqi couldn’t help but laugh a little when he saw the barrage of “patches” Chen Qiutian tacked on at the end, like he was terrified of saying the wrong thing and getting scolded.

It seemed Chen Qiutian assumed Lin Xiangqi would naturally take Shen Qiaolan’s side in this matter.

Although that was frustrating, Lin Xiangqi couldn’t really blame him. For the past month, he really had been way too enthusiastic about Shen Qiaolan—pretty much everyone at school knew it.

So Lin Xiangqi could only ask again, more firmly this time:
[Did Lu Cong get hurt?]

Chen Qiutian must’ve imagined something again. He sent several crying and moved emojis before finally replying:
[He probably didn’t get hurt! Wuwuwu, Qizi, I’m so touched. You still care about our class rep! Your love-struck brain might still be salvageable!]

Lin Xiangqi: [.]

Chen Qiutian:
[But our class rep’s pheromones are really powerful. Even though he held back later, just a bit of the lingering scent on him still made a lot of classmates feel overwhelmed. So the teacher told him to go home and rest first.]

Lin Xiangqi was just about to reply when the hospital room door opened.

All thoughts of school were instantly pushed aside. He instinctively put away his phone and looked at the doctor.

The doctor walked in with a grave expression. “I have some bad news. I think you need to prepare yourself mentally.”

“Please go ahead,” Lin Xiangqi said, a little uneasy.

Hadn’t the worst news already been delivered earlier? That the injection therapy was expensive and unaffordable for him?

What could possibly be worse than poverty?

The doctor gave him a real answer.

“Our hospital’s last vial of top-grade Alpha pheromones has already been reserved by another patient, so we can’t proceed with your injection therapy for now. I’ve contacted the Capital Hospital to help locate and request a match, but… there are countless Omega patients around the world in need of high-grade pheromones every day, so…”

Lin Xiangqi blinked with difficulty, his breathing tight, and finished the sentence for him:
“So even if I have the money, I might not be able to get it?”

The doctor silently nodded.

It really was bad news.

He had a disease that they knew how to treat—but somehow, still couldn’t be treated.

Lin Xiangqi wanted to maintain a composed and calm expression and tell the doctor, “Okay, got it.” But the words wouldn’t come out.

He just stood there, frozen, limbs hanging awkwardly at his sides.

The doctor sighed, probably said some comforting words or encouragement that was well-meaning but ultimately useless.

Lin Xiangqi heard none of it. A loud ringing filled his ears.

An overwhelming sense of dread was spreading through him, and the calm façade he had painstakingly maintained finally crumbled.

The foreseeable future had already declared its verdict.

Lin Xiangqi felt like he was doomed—because he was nothing more than a disposable side character.

In the original novel’s plot, he was never meant to have a bright or healthy future.

—

Around 2 p.m., Lu Cong woke up from a feverish sleep, drenched in sweat and burning with unnatural heat.

His gland had started to uncontrollably secrete pheromones while he slept.

Now, the entire room was saturated with a chilling, violent scent.

Even though it was Shen Qiaolan who went into glandular shock during the morning’s “minor” pheromone clash, both of them were top-grade Alphas. Their pheromones were too aggressive. Lu Cong hadn’t come out of it unscathed either.

He had been pushed into a susceptibility phase.

He’d already noticed something was wrong after returning from school—so he’d locked himself in his room, taken some medicine, and gone to sleep. He thought, as before, he’d be fine when he woke up.

Clearly, that wasn’t the case this time.

Lu Cong’s body wasn’t like most people’s.

Both of his parents were top-grade Alphas. Most dual-A couples would choose not to have children—especially when both were extreme-grade Alphas.

Their pheromones were simply too powerful and naturally repellent to each other. Even through artificial methods like in vitro fertilization, it was nearly impossible to successfully combine their genes and have a healthy baby.

And yet, against all odds, Lu Cong had been born.

He inherited the strongest traits from both parents. He didn’t even need to go through differentiation—he had been a top-grade Alpha since the moment he was born. Because of this, his pheromone concentration was several times higher than a typical Alpha.

His susceptibility phases were dangerous—for himself and everyone around him.

So over the years, he had always used medication to suppress them. Even the slightest chance of a pheromone surge had to be avoided.

This time, though, the medicine hadn’t worked well enough. His pheromones were still leaking out, and now, Lu Cong was searching for an inhibitor.

The ones from ordinary pharmacies were useless to him. He needed the enhanced formula his mother, Qi Ye, brought back from her research institute.

But she had been too busy this year—hadn’t come home once since January.

Lu Cong had run out of that inhibitor.

The meds weren’t working, and the inhibitor was gone. At this moment, Lu Cong was more agitated than ever before. He pressed his fingers to his temples, trying to calm the chaos in his mind.

But in susceptibility, that was nearly impossible.

He wasn’t sure if he could stay fully rational through this episode.

Thankfully, Qi Ye had left him a private doctor’s number. Lu Cong prepared to call it.

Just as he pulled out his phone and started scrolling through his contacts—
The doorbell suddenly rang.

Outside the door…
Was Lin Xiangqi.