MVCFO CH27.1

Lin Xiangqi had originally thought he couldn’t fall asleep because he was craving a late-night snack. But even after eating with Lu Cong and returning, he still lay awake well into the night.

He wasn’t sure whether it was due to excitement or just his imagination, but the area around his gland felt strangely warm all night. At one point, he even got up to check his temperature with a digital thermometer. It showed nothing abnormal, so he crawled back under the covers.

He finally drifted off sometime after 3 a.m., but the sleep was far from restful.

His dreams were a chaotic jumble of images.

One moment, he was dreaming about his childhood and his first meeting with Lu Cong—thinking how the little Lu Cong was anything but cute, always frowning and fierce, a total brat. But somehow, over time, they started spending more and more time together and became the best of friends.

Then, the dream jumped to disturbing scenes from the original storyline—Shen Qiaolan’s cold mockery, Lu Cong’s silent disappearance. Lin Xiangqi felt like he was stepping on clouds with no ground beneath his feet, no way back, teetering on the edge before finally falling, body shattered beyond recognition.

At the end of the dream, a math problem appeared.

Lin Xiangqi was scribbling and calculating on scratch paper, while behind him, Lu Cong’s laughter echoed.

Annoyed, he asked, “What are you laughing at?”

Lu Cong didn’t answer. Instead, he wrapped his arms around Lin Xiangqi’s waist and pressed his lips to the back of his neck.

Later, Lin Xiangqi solved the problem several times. The dream was filled with lingering traces of unseemly pleasure.

When the alarm went off, he woke in a cold sweat, panicked.

Still late in developing, Lin Xiangqi had no experience with this. Lifting the covers, he found the sheets a mess, the dampness clearly caused unconsciously during sleep.

Remembering what he’d dreamed about last night, his mood grew complicated.

By the time Lu Cong knocked on the door, Lin Xiangqi had just washed and hung up his soiled pants.

“You awake?”

Hearing Lu Cong’s voice from downstairs, Lin Xiangqi inexplicably felt a sharp twinge in his gland—not the unbearable pain of injury, but a restless ache caused by overexcitement.

He rubbed the back of his neck and walked out of the room, leaning over the second-floor railing to call out, “Morning.”

He tried to sound as casual as possible.

Lu Cong looked up and noticed Lin Xiangqi’s damp hair.

Even though Lin Xiangqi liked to stay clean, it didn’t make sense that he would’ve showered again after already doing so last night.

Lu Cong opened his mouth but didn’t ask. After a moment, he averted his gaze and said, “Good, you’re up. It’s getting late—we’ll eat breakfast on the way.”

Then he walked over to the sofa, seemingly ready to wait in the living room.

“Lu Cong…” Lin Xiangqi called softly.

Lu Cong looked up. “Yeah?”

Lin Xiangqi glanced around nervously. “Can you come upstairs?”

Lu Cong’s hands clenched slightly on his knees before he stood up and headed to the second floor.

“What is it?” he asked.

As he approached, Lin Xiangqi tugged at his collar and said, “I think there’s something wrong with my gland today.”

“Let me see.” Lu Cong frowned and stepped closer. There was nothing visibly abnormal, so he gently placed his hand on the area. When Lin Xiangqi didn’t resist, he pressed lightly.

“Does it hurt?”

“Ahh…” Lin Xiangqi shuddered, his cheeks quickly flushing red. “It doesn’t hurt, but… it keeps throbbing.”

“When did it start?” Lu Cong asked.

Lin Xiangqi thought for a moment. “I think it started late last night, but it wasn’t bad. Maybe it’s because I don’t have enough pheromones? Can you give me a mark now?”

Lu Cong paused slightly at that, knowing Lin Xiangqi wasn’t used to maintaining Alpha-Beta boundaries after being a Beta for so long. But he still found Lin’s bluntness a little exasperating.

“Okay, wait a moment,” Lu Cong replied.

“Are you going back for something?” Lin Xiangqi asked.

“Yeah,” Lu Cong said. “To get the suppressant.”

Ever since the incident with the overmarking, Lu Cong had been using a suppressant before marking Lin Xiangqi. Lin hadn’t objected, probably still a bit wary of what had happened.

But this time, Lin Xiangqi grabbed his arm.

Lu Cong looked at him. “Hmm?”

“Does taking the suppressant make you feel bad?” Lin asked.

Lu Cong didn’t deny it outright. Instead, he asked, “Why?”

“Well… since it suppresses pheromones, it must have side effects—like how cold medicine can make you drowsy or dizzy.” Lin thought for a moment and added, “You’ve got a few competitions today. Maybe it’s better if you don’t take it.”

Lu Cong raised an eyebrow. “If we do it directly, can you handle it?”

“No, no!” Lin Xiangqi panicked, shaking both his head and hands. “I didn’t mean full-on marking. I just meant… I just need your pheromones, so we could—um…”

He pressed his lips together, using his eyes to signal Lu Cong.

For some reason, Lu Cong didn’t seem to catch on. “So we could what?”

Trying to sound composed, Lin Xiangqi blurted out, “A little hum.”

“…What?”

Lu Cong looked genuinely confused.

Lin Xiangqi hadn’t expected to be this nervous and flubbed his words. Embarrassed, he rubbed his nose and softly corrected, “A kiss.”

“Huh?” Lu Cong leaned closer. “Didn’t catch that.”

At this point, Lin Xiangqi gave up. He raised his voice in frustration: “I said kiss—mmph!”

Before he could finish, Lu Cong leaned down, wrapped an arm around his waist, and pulled him close, lips pressing down on his as his tongue, laced with pheromones, slipped in.

The kiss was deep and lasted quite a while.

After several minutes, Lin Xiangqi felt full of pheromones. His gland finally settled, and his entire body went limp with comfort, practically melting into Lu Cong’s arms.

Lu Cong slowly pulled back, licking the slight flush on Lin’s lips. “Is that what you meant?”

Lin Xiangqi: “…”

You kiss me and then ask? You’re seriously asking now?!

He shot Lu Cong a lazy glare.

Lu Cong wiped the moisture from his lips with his thumb. “Dry your hair before we go.”

“I don’t want to,” Lin Xiangqi said matter-of-factly. “I’m too tired.”

Lu Cong didn’t argue. With a bit of force, he pulled Lin Xiangqi into the bedroom, skillfully grabbing his hairdryer—clearly familiar with where everything was.

Lin Xiangqi didn’t protest. He was getting used to sitting on Lu Cong’s lap, resting his head on Lu’s broad shoulder. “You blow-dry it. I’ll nap a bit.”

Lu Cong hummed in response and turned on the dryer, gently rubbing Lin’s damp hair.

With the warm air blowing, Lin Xiangqi grew drowsy, the hum of the dryer lulling him.

But it was an uncomfortable nap—something about the way he was sitting felt off. It just wasn’t a good position.

He shifted left, then right, trying to get comfortable.

Suddenly, the dryer stopped.

Lin Xiangqi opened his eyes, confused. “All done? That was fast.”

He squirmed, trying to get up.

Lu Cong suddenly let out a low, shaky breath, then firmly pressed Lin back into place, voice hoarse: “Don’t move.”

“But—”

Lin Xiangqi trailed off, face stiffening as he looked down.

His brain finally caught up to what had been poking him the whole time.

It wasn’t the position that was wrong.

It was Lu Cong.

“…Sorry. Maybe I released too much pheromone.”

Lu Cong had never lost control in front of Lin Xiangqi like this before. He had always carefully hidden such reactions. He was afraid of scaring Lin Xiangqi, so once again he brought up pheromones as an excuse.

But Lin Xiangqi was much calmer than he had expected. Instead, he showed concern for Lu Cong: “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” Lu Cong’s hand seemingly unintentionally rested on Lin Xiangqi’s waist. “I just need a moment to recover.”

Lin Xiangqi frowned deeply when he heard that. Putting himself in Lu Cong’s shoes, he figured that if it were him in such a state, “just a moment” definitely wouldn’t be enough.

Adhering to the principle of mutual support and repaying kindness, Lin Xiangqi patted Lu Cong’s shoulder chivalrously and said, “Want me to help you?”

“…” Lu Cong stiffly turned his head to look at him. “What?”

“You helped me yesterday, didn’t you?” Lin Xiangqi said with surprising candor. “I’m returning the favor.”

Lu Cong’s pupils were shadowed by his trembling lashes, hiding his expression of surprise. Several breaths passed before he replied, “No need. There’s no time.”

He held Lin Xiangqi by the waist and lifted him off, saying, “I’ll head back for a bit.”

With that, he hurriedly left without giving Lin Xiangqi a chance to ask more questions.

Lin Xiangqi curled his lips, watching his back and muttered, “What’s so time-sensitive about this…”

/

“I can’t believe this! They must be doing it on purpose—of all times to bring it up, they waited until the event was about to start!”

The sports field was noisy and lively, with everyone appearing full of excitement. But the atmosphere around Class 7 of Grade 12 was unusually heavy.

“Another loss. Ugh, I’m gonna explode!”

“I’m exhausted. How are we doing in overall score? Fourth or fifth?”

“It’s fine. The class monitor hasn’t competed yet. His individual events are guaranteed wins. Once he’s done, we’ll climb back into the top three.”

“But we’ve already lost two group events. If we lose one more, even if the monitor wins everything, we’ll still be stuck at fourth.”

“Damn it…!”

At the beginning of the sports meet, everyone had treated it like a game, not taking rankings too seriously.

But as the competition heated up and the rankings of each class grew tighter, everyone’s competitive spirit was ignited.

Lin Xiangqi was especially fired up.

A teacher who once taught him had said: Lin Xiangqi is the kind of person who can’t handle provocation at all.

Originally, he had felt a bit off from his glands today and planned to take it easy during the races to avoid overexerting himself.

But no one had expected that just before the group event started, several classes would suddenly team up and file a protest—

Claiming that since Lu Cong from Class 7 was an S-tier Alpha, it created an unfair physical advantage despite having equal numbers. They demanded that Lu Cong be withdrawn from the group events for fairness.

Although the request was abrupt and last-minute, their argument was reasonable. Lu Cong’s physical ability really did far surpass ordinary students. In the end, Qin Xiao and the teachers from other classes reached a compromise:

Lu Cong would keep his individual events, but he had to be replaced in the group events.

At first, no one in Class 7 had expected that losing Lu Cong would cause such a devastating impact on their team events.

It was only then they realized they had been overly dependent on their class monitor. They had assumed that as long as he was competing, everything would be fine, and thus hadn’t taken practice too seriously.

Seeing their class’s rank slipping further, Lin Xiangqi grew anxious.

Someone nearby asked, “Brother Qi Zi, isn’t it your turn for the 400 meters next?”

Others quickly turned their heads. “What? Qi Zi’s running the 400? I thought it was the monitor!”

“We’re doomed—looks like the other runners are all sports majors!”

“Can we still switch runners? Let the monitor do it. At least that way we might still have a shot at top three—”

“The monitor went to the infirmary. I heard some students from other classes fainted, and the teachers asked him to help carry them.”

“Don’t they have their own monitors? Why ask ours?”

“Probably because their monitors can’t carry someone in each hand…”

“Fair enough.”

“So what do we do for the 400 meters? If we don’t make top three, we’re completely out of the competition.”

“How about we let the PE rep do it? Zhang Kebo, you good to go?”

Zhang Kebo stood up, ready to take over—until he met Lin Xiangqi’s cold glare. He sat back down instantly. “…Sportsmanship is the most important thing. Winning is secondary. Participation matters most.”

At that moment, Lin Xiangqi couldn’t take it anymore. He cracked open a Red Bull, downed it in one go, and roared, “Shut your mouths! I’ll run first and shut you all up!”

Zhang Kebo was stunned. “Want me to go sabotage the other competitors?”

Others chimed in. “We still have time to spike their drinks, right?”

“Stop underestimating me.” Lin Xiangqi rolled up his sleeves and stood. “It’s time you all saw what Qige is made of.”

With that, he left the stands and walked toward the track.

Everyone stared at his determined back and couldn’t help but remark:

“Our Qige’s got a small frame but a big attitude.”

Just before the 400 meters began, Lin Xiangqi held his race bib, warming up while glancing toward a certain spot.

Some classmates were giving him pre-race pep talks—mainly trying to convince him not to put too much pressure on himself. After all, the other competitors were athletic students. It was already a done deal—they were going to win.

Chen Qiutian was massaging his shoulders, saying, “Qi Zi, relax, just run at your own pace.”

Chen Qiutian, second only to Lu Cong in understanding Lin Xiangqi’s temperament, knew how dangerous it was once Lin Xiangqi got fired up—he could be unstoppable.

He wasn’t afraid of Lin Xiangqi placing last; he was afraid Lin Xiangqi would insist on winning.

Back then, when Lin Xiangqi got stubborn, Chen Qiutian would always get caught up with him. But now it was different. Chen Qiutian knew Lin Xiangqi’s “secret.”

He lowered his voice and said, “You Omegas are naturally a bit physically weaker, so even if you lose, it’s not your fault. Just don’t push yourself.”

Lin Xiangqi patted his head. “Shh! Don’t say that word.”

Chen Qiutian looked wronged. “I said it really quietly!”

Lin Xiangqi: “What if someone can lip-read?”

Chen Qiutian was speechless. “Okay, okay, I won’t say it next time. Just remember—don’t push yourself too hard.”

Whether Lin Xiangqi listened or not was unclear. He absentmindedly did high knees on the spot.

“What are you looking at?” Chen Qiutian followed his gaze curiously.

“Just enjoying the scenery,” Lin Xiangqi answered vaguely.

“You’re looking for Lu Cong, aren’t you?”

“I’m enjoying the scenery. Scenery.”

“You’re so weird. Just admit you’re looking for him.”

“When will you learn to read the room?”

“I am reading it—your eyes are screaming ‘Where is Lu Cong?’”

“…”