MVCFO CH4

Hearing Lu Cong’s words, Lin Xiangqi’s first reaction was to sniff himself.

Today at the hospital, Lin Xiangqi had listened to a nurse explain some common knowledge about AO.

He already knew that every Alpha’s pheromone had its unique scent, and only Omegas could detect it.

Alpha pheromones among the same sex had a natural repelling effect, causing their glands to only sense hostility in each other’s pheromones.
Omega glands, however, could metabolize the aggressive components and perceive the fragrant notes in Alpha pheromones.

The higher the AO matching rate, the richer and more delicate the layers of scent that an Omega could detect.

To help Lin Xiangqi better distinguish Alpha pheromones in the future, the nurse shared some common fragrance examples like fruit scents, floral scents, grassy scents, and sweet honey aromas.

Some rarer scents were very distinctive but not everyone liked them, such as various alcoholic aromas—rumored that a certain sauce-flavored pheromone Alpha was recently very popular. Lin Xiangqi didn’t like alcohol but was respectful about it.

There were also some extremely rare scents—pheromones that smelled like after rain clears the sky, like spring blossoms, like all things reviving, or like a serene mountain valley.
It was said these Alphas were blessed by heaven, earning a lifetime’s worth of food and shelter just by selling perfumes made from their pheromone scents.

In short, the point was: as long as the matching rate wasn’t too low, Omegas could smell the unique fragrance of an Alpha.

Lin Xiangqi even speculated that maybe Lu Cong’s pheromone was odorless. After all, Alpha pheromones were wildly varied; having one that smelled like plain water wouldn’t be strange!

Yet, Lu Cong told him he smelled entirely like Lu Cong.

Lin Xiangqi sniffed again and again.
There really was no scent at all.

It must be a very low matching rate!

“There’s no scent, I can’t smell anything, so it doesn’t count,” Lin Xiangqi pouted.

“Fine,” Lu Cong said flatly, no emotion detectable, “then it doesn’t count.”

Though Lin Xiangqi was the one who said it, hearing Lu Cong say “doesn’t count” made him dissatisfied. He leaned close to Lu Cong, sniffing here and there.

If not for the fact they used the same laundry detergent, he would have pretended the detergent’s scent was Lu Cong’s pheromone.

“Stop sniffing.” Lu Cong frowned, reaching out to cover Lin Xiangqi’s mouth and nose. “Even if there’s no scent, smelling too much will make you uncomfortable.”

“I’m not—”
Lin Xiangqi was about to say he wasn’t uncomfortable but sneezed uncontrollably as soon as he opened his mouth.

He complained, “I was just about to ask—does your place have something burning? I keep smelling sparks.”

Lin Xiangqi found it hard to describe that smell. It wasn’t just the scent of something burning.

It was a bit pungent, like a bullet leaving the barrel, like flying sparks, like the smoky, bloody smell of a battlefield.

But since this was Lu Cong’s home, not a gunfight scene, he could only guess something was burning. So, with naïve fearlessness, he asked Lu Cong:

“With such a strong smell, don’t you notice? It’s choking.”

Lin Xiangqi didn’t know his words made Lu Cong’s expression darken severely.

Almost as soon as he finished speaking, Lu Cong pushed him away.

Turning quickly, he walked into his room and rifled through a cabinet for a medicine box.

Lin Xiangqi wasn’t upset at being pushed away; he thought Lu Cong was rushing to find the fire source, so he followed him foolishly: “What’s burning?”

Lu Cong didn’t answer.

The medicine box didn’t have the suppressant injection, but Lu Cong found some pheromone-blocking patches.

These patches hardly worked on him—at most, two minutes before the pheromones broke through and spread again. Still, Lu Cong quickly applied one on his gland area.

Beside him, Lin Xiangqi looked like a curious little kid, tilting his head to watch Lu Cong, his face begging “Can I have one too? I want one!”

Alpha and Omega blocking patches were different.

Alpha patches were for emergency use, not worn long-term on glands. They were stronger, and almost immediately blocked external pheromones, but only lasted 1–3 hours.
Omega patches were gentler, could be worn continuously, and lasted about 48 hours—enough to cover the entire heat cycle for Omegas with short cycles. Used with suppressant injections, life was almost unaffected by heat cycles.

Both types had their advantages, but essentially, they blocked pheromones. Sometimes they were even mixed between AO depending on personal habits.

Here is the English translation of the excerpt:

Back at the hospital today, Lin Xiangqi had originally planned to buy some suppressant patches. But the doctor told him that his glands hadn’t fully developed yet, and he could barely detect any pheromones. If he actually did smell something, it would be a good sign.

So the doctor said he didn’t need to use suppressant patches for now.

But seeing the patch in Lu Cong’s hand, Lin Xiangqi couldn’t help but want to try it. He looked at Lu Cong with anticipation.

Lu Cong frowned, worried that his pheromones might overwhelm Lin Xiangqi and make him uncomfortable. But he couldn’t bring himself to refuse the boy’s curiosity. So he tore off another patch and handed it to Lin Xiangqi.

Lin Xiangqi immediately took it and slapped it onto the back of his neck with a satisfying “pop.”

He originally just wanted to try how it felt against the skin, but then suddenly froze.

He carefully removed the patch and subtly sniffed the air. Then he put the patch back on, sniffed again.

Lu Cong didn’t notice Lin Xiangqi’s strange behavior.

To prevent his pheromones from fully erupting, his body was already reacting. A sharp pain throbbed in his temples, his glands pulsed, and his body temperature was rising rapidly—his skin burning hot.

“You should head back,” Lu Cong urged him, unsure when his pheromones might spiral out of control. Yet even now, he didn’t forget to remind him gently, “There’s food in the fridge downstairs. I made it this morning and you didn’t come get it. You might as well heat it up and eat now.”

But Lin Xiangqi wasn’t listening at all.

He looked up at Lu Cong, first confused, then stunned, and finally delighted.

“…Is this supposed to be so fun?” Lu Cong watched as Lin Xiangqi repeatedly peeled off and re-applied the patch to his neck—nearly ten times—and gave in indulgently, “Just take the rest too.”

As he spoke, he handed over the remaining box of patches from the medical kit to Lin Xiangqi.

But instead of taking it, Lin Xiangqi suddenly reached out and wrapped his arms around Lu Cong’s neck, practically draping himself across Lu Cong’s shoulder.

It was a far more intimate gesture than a casual arm around the shoulders.

Lin Xiangqi’s arms circled Lu Cong’s neck, and because of their height difference, he had to press close against him, rising slightly on tiptoe. Any balance he lost, he naturally leaned into Lu Cong to regain it, leading to unavoidable body contact.

Lu Cong’s limbs stiffened, his breath catching. It took a while before he could compose himself and ask, “What are you doing?”

His voice was hoarse and unusually low in pitch, trying to mask his abnormal state. Anyone else might’ve thought Lu Cong was scolding him.

But Lin Xiangqi was Lin Xiangqi. He knew Lu Cong too well—knew he wouldn’t get angry so easily. So he didn’t let go. His eyes sparkled brightly as he stared at Lu Cong.

He believed he had completely figured it out—

When he wore the patch, he couldn’t smell that scent. But when he took it off, it came back.

“…So that’s your pheromone, isn’t it?”

That smell—like fire, like gunpowder, like violence and death lingering on a battlefield—filling the entire house and clinging to Lin Xiangqi’s own skin.

It was Lu Cong’s pheromone.

The scent was so far removed from what Lin Xiangqi had imagined an Alpha’s pheromone to be that, even though he’d smelled it as soon as he walked in, he hadn’t connected it to that.

You couldn’t really blame him—its presence was just too overwhelming.

As someone whose glands weren’t fully functional yet, Lin Xiangqi had assumed he couldn’t smell strong pheromones. Using Shen Qiaolan as a reference, he thought even if Lu Cong had a scent, it would be faint at most.

He never imagined that this suffocating intensity—this scent flooding the room—was entirely Lu Cong’s.

“You smelled it,” Lu Cong said, his gaze calm as a still lake.

It wasn’t a question. It was a statement.

There was no doubt he was telling Lin Xiangqi: Yes, what you smelled was my pheromone.

Lu Cong had forgotten something important—

How did Lin Xiangqi, a Beta, manage to smell his pheromone?

Clearly, his emotions were not as composed as he appeared. He overlooked many details.

Because more than wondering why Lin Xiangqi could smell it, what mattered more to him now was:

Would Lin Xiangqi find his scent frightening or repulsive?

All top-tier Alphas had pheromones that were innately attractive to the opposite sex.

Just like Shen Qiaolan—no matter how annoying he was, no one could deny his pheromone was objectively “pleasant.”

But Lu Cong’s pheromone, much like the man himself, was too unique.

It wasn’t fragrant, seductive, or tempting.

It was dangerous, aggressive, violent—incapable of stirring up romance or gentle desire.

It probably wasn’t the kind of scent anyone would ever want.

“Yes! I smelled it! Your pheromone—it’s just too—”
Lin Xiangqi took a deep whiff, then promptly sneezed three times in a row, smiling foolishly, “—too intense.”

Lu Cong looked at him, wanting to say something but stopping himself.

Rationally, he should’ve covered Lin Xiangqi’s nose and pushed him out the door. But he didn’t.

The suppressant patch was beginning to fail. The air around them felt like a wildfire ready to ignite. Lin Xiangqi, overheated and woozy, started to slump.

“…But your pheromone is really fierce,” he murmured.

Lu Cong supported his waist with one hand, holding him up. “Sorry,” he said.

Though he said that, his hand stayed firmly on Lin Xiangqi’s slim waist, with no intention of letting go.

After all, this was the first time Lin Xiangqi had inhaled such a large amount of pheromones, and now, both his body and spirit were over-stimulated.

Surrounded by the overwhelmingly intense Alpha pheromones, he could no longer distinguish whether the heat came from the air around him or from his own breath. Normally, such a potent and aggressive scent would be unbearable to anyone, yet Lin Xiangqi gradually found himself unsatisfied.

He actually wanted more of that stimulation. Unconsciously, he leaned closer to Lu Cong. “Let me smell it again…”

Lu Cong looked at him, sighed softly, and pinched Lin Xiangqi’s nose to stop him. “Doesn’t it feel uncomfortable?”

Lin Xiangqi, annoyed, slapped his arm. “Let go.”

The slap was light, almost playful. Lu Cong lowered his eyes and let Lin Xiangqi lightly punch him twice like he was throwing a tantrum, then helplessly pinned his hand down. “Stop messing around.”

He thought Lin Xiangqi was just curious, that his interest in his pheromones was fleeting and childishly playful. He treated the whole thing as a game.

But Lu Cong couldn’t possibly let him keep “playing.” Lin Xiangqi didn’t understand what an Alpha’s rut meant, but he should at least know some boundaries.

“If this keeps going, you could get hurt. So go home, okay?”

Suppressing one’s pheromones during a rut was nearly the same as forcing oneself to keep their eyes open while asleep—it went completely against the body’s instincts. The difficulty level was high, almost self-torturous.

Yet Lu Cong still did his best to restrain the unrest in his body.

Thanks to years of self-discipline and restraint, Lu Cong now had far better control over his body than most. Enduring had become second nature.

But he didn’t expect that even after saying all that, Lin Xiangqi still refused to leave.

Vaguely, he seemed to hear Lin Xiangqi mumbling the name “Shen Qiaolan,” and his brows furrowed instantly, his expression darkening.

But soon, he heard it clearly. The stammering and broken words were actually saying: “Don’t want… don’t want Shen Qiaolan.”

Lu Cong’s eyebrows lifted slightly, his expression unreadable. “What?”

Soaked in a haze of top-quality pheromones like never before, Lin Xiangqi was gradually losing all his strength. Even speaking was hard, and perhaps his mind wasn’t all that clear either. But he stubbornly insisted on finishing his sentence: “…Can’t have anything to do with that scumbag Shen Qiaolan anymore. Must stay away… I have to.”

Lu Cong’s lips curled upwards—almost imperceptibly—by 0.5 pixels.

“Lu Cong…” At some point, Lin Xiangqi’s hand had found its way to the nape of Lu Cong’s neck, where a patch still covered his gland. With a small tug, he peeled the pheromone blocker off.

The action startled Lu Cong. He immediately grabbed Lin Xiangqi’s wrist and said, “That’s enough.”

It was a clear signal to stop.

Unfortunately, Lin Xiangqi wasn’t playing anymore.

The blocker was gone, but Lu Cong was still suppressing his scent extremely well. Lin Xiangqi, feeling restless and wanting more, somehow instinctively pressed his warm palm against Lu Cong’s gland.

Lu Cong’s pupils trembled. “You…”

“Save me, Lu Cong.”

I don’t want anyone else’s pheromones, so only you can save me.
That was the one thought echoing through Lin Xiangqi’s dazed mind.

Lin Xiangqi had a pair of beautiful eyes that made it hard for anyone to say no.
Whether his gaze held sincere pleading or mischievous calculation, it could always soften hearts.

And this time, he wasn’t saying anything else.
He was asking for help.

Lu Cong almost felt like cutting open his chest to offer his heart to Lin Xiangqi.

He asked Lu Cong to save him—but who was truly suffering more at this point?

Those restless hands were still clinging to the Alpha’s most sensitive nape, lingering dangerously long over the beast-like gland. Lin Xiangqi didn’t know what kind of Alpha stood before him. He didn’t know that beneath Lu Cong’s calm and indifferent surface, there was already a tide of emotion on the verge of breaking down.

He only knew how to make his own absurd requests and then, in a near-reckless innocence, press his warm palm blindly against Lu Cong’s skin.

His voice was tinged with fragile hoarseness, whispering like temptation in Lu Cong’s ear:

“Give me a little of your pheromones… okay?”