MVCFO CH6

Lin Xiangqi woke up an hour later.

As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw two figures standing by his bed.

One, unsurprisingly, was Lu Cong—tall and upright, standing there silently like a mountain, just looking at him without saying a word.

The other was Tang Luyu. Lin Xiangqi recognized her.

Tang Luyu was a friend of Lu Cong’s mother, Aunt Qi Ye. She was a doctor, rumored to have once been a military physician treating Alpha soldiers in war zones—very impressive. Later, she retired and opened her own hospital, now living in a semi-retired state.

When they were younger, she used to give Lu Cong checkups, and would often examine Lin Xiangqi next door while she was at it.
It was Tang Luyu who discovered Lin Xiangqi’s cavity when he was ten years old—though she wasn’t a dentist, she had a sharp eye.

The moment he opened his eyes and saw those two people, Lin Xiangqi silently lit a candle for himself in his heart.

He figured his condition had been exposed…

Well, it was really hard not to be.

An hour ago, he had been clinging to Lu Cong, inhaling his pheromones like his life depended on it—not only was he unharmed, he even fell asleep in bliss. What kind of Beta could do that?

And to make things worse, in his pheromone-dazed state, he had blurted out, “I’m an Omega.”

Unless Lu Cong was a total idiot, he’d already figured it out.

Of course, Lin Xiangqi had never planned to keep it from him. His illness was practically a terminal one—he couldn’t keep it a secret forever.
He just hadn’t figured out how to break the news yet.

Lin Xiangqi wasn’t at all worried about Lu Cong finding out he was an Omega. What really troubled him was the thought that if he died, Lu Cong might be sad.

But now!
He had smelled Lu Cong’s pheromones!
Lu Cong could save him!

All the previous worries were gone. There was nothing to hide anymore.

Lin Xiangqi gave himself a mental pep talk and resolved to confess everything—but before he could speak, Tang Luyu beat him to it.

“Xiaoqi, are you aware of your physical condition?”

From her expression, Lin Xiangqi could sense concern and affection. That was normal—she was an elder who had watched him grow up. Upon hearing about such a serious problem, of course she’d worry.

But… what was going on with Lu Cong?

After seeing that he’d woken up, Lu Cong didn’t say a single word of concern. He showed no signs of anxiety. In fact, he even turned his face slightly, as if he didn’t want to make eye contact with Lin Xiangqi.

…Maybe it was just his imagination.

Lin Xiangqi decided Lu Cong’s pheromone-induced state hadn’t completely passed yet, and maybe his mind was still foggy. So he forced himself to look away.

He said to Tang Luyu, “I went to the city hospital this morning. The doctor said I have a rare condition—my gland development stalled, so I couldn’t differentiate, but I’ve accumulated a lot of pheromones inside me.”

“Mm, I saw the marks around your gland—you’ve already had a puncture test, haven’t you? Did it hurt?” Tang Luyu asked.

Lin Xiangqi instinctively shook his head, not mentioning that he had passed out from the pain during the procedure.

Tang Luyu looked a little guilty. “That was my oversight. I’ve given you so many physical exams over the years and never noticed anything abnormal about your gland. If I had found it earlier…”

“No, it’s not your fault. The doctor said that because my gland hardly developed at all, all my indicators were identical to a Beta’s. Without a deep puncture test, there’s no way to know how much pheromone was accumulating inside.”

He said this because he didn’t want Lu Cong, like in the original story, to blame himself for Lin Xiangqi’s condition. So he added,

“So, it’s not anyone’s fault. Even I couldn’t tell—how could anyone else have known?”

After speaking, he instinctively glanced at Lu Cong again.

This time, Lu Cong was also looking at him. But as soon as their eyes met, Lu Cong quickly turned his head away again.

Lin Xiangqi: “?”

“You’re the one comforting me now.”

Tang Luyu didn’t notice the back-and-forth glances between the two and just said,

“Still, your condition is extremely rare. I called the Gland Research Center in the capital just now—even they’ve never encountered a case like yours.”

In fact, Tang Luyu hadn’t initially believed that Lin Xiangqi was an Omega. She assumed he was just teasing Lu Cong with those words. That’s why she hadn’t rushed to confirm anything—she thought she could just ask him once he woke up.

But Lu Cong was unmovable.
If they didn’t figure out Lin Xiangqi’s situation, he refused to do his own exam.

Left with no choice, Tang Luyu brought up a pheromone tester to run a preliminary test on Lin Xiangqi.

But the results at the time showed no sign of differentiation.

If Tang Luyu hadn’t seen the puncture mark at the base of Lin Xiangqi’s neck, she might have mistakenly dismissed it again.

Gland punctures were troublesome and painful. If someone went through with one, it usually meant they already had a strong suspicion about their own condition.

And since Lin Xiangqi had the mark, and then came home and told Lu Cong he was an Omega… well, that basically confirmed it.

Thankfully, Lu Cong had insisted she verify things, because Lin Xiangqi’s situation was even more serious than Lu Cong’s pheromone flare-up.
For an Omega to reach age eighteen without differentiating—there was a huge risk of complications.

Tang Luyu immediately had Lu Cong search for Lin Xiangqi’s medical records. Sure enough, they found the diagnostic report from the city hospital on the coffee table in his living room.

Tang Luyu said, “Good thing you found out in time. With rare conditions like this, even a day’s delay could…”

She trailed off.

“I know. If I don’t get treatment soon, I might just suddenly drop dead at home one day,” Lin Xiangqi replied calmly.

After all, he had already dropped dead once in the original storyline.

“It can be treated.”
The long-silent Lu Cong finally spoke.

Lin Xiangqi looked at him, thinking, He’s finally realized he should care about me. He smiled and said, “Yeah, it can. The doctor mentioned something called pheromone therapy.”

Speaking of this, Lin Xiangqi still felt grateful.

When he was at the hospital, he thought he’d never be able to afford pheromone treatment and that he was doomed. But when he came home—twist of fate!
He’d caught the scent of Lu Cong’s pheromones.

Heaven hadn’t abandoned him!

Tang Luyu showed a slightly strange expression. She didn’t respond immediately. Instead, she looked at Lu Cong.

But Lu Cong clearly avoided her gaze.

Tang Luyu suddenly felt the immense pressure of being the responsible adult in the room. Gritting her teeth, she asked Lin Xiangqi, “Xiaoqi, since you know about pheromone therapy… have you found a suitable Alpha to help you yet?”

Of course, Lin Xiangqi hadn’t.

He only knew about the injection-based treatment and hadn’t learned much about the other options.

After all, the only Alpha he could even consider before was Shen Qiaolan, and he’d ruled that out immediately. Naturally, he hadn’t asked the doctor for details about how pheromone therapy actually worked.

But Lin Xiangqi was clever…

He thought, since injection therapy meant directly injecting pheromones into the glands,
Then by extension, getting an Alpha’s help probably just meant figuring out how to absorb the pheromones into his body, right?

Lin Xiangqi’s understanding of this was: at the time, Lu Cong would release his pheromones, and he’d just inhale them like mad. Like he did an hour ago.

Painless treatment with excellent results—this must be pheromone therapy.

—A crude interpretation from a Beta who had never taken an AO physiology class.

Lin Xiangqi nodded confidently and said he knew about this treatment method. “Right now I can only smell Lu Cong’s pheromones. I think asking him to help me is the best option.”

He outright ignored the possibility of Shen Qiaolan.

Normally, pheromone therapy didn’t cause harm to the Alpha involved, so Lin Xiangqi thought that once he said this, Lu Cong would immediately agree to help.

But when he looked over—

Wait a second.
Why did Lu Cong turn his face away?

He was pretending not to hear!!!

Lin Xiangqi started to feel unsure and tentatively asked Tang Luyu, “Excuse me, would helping me have any effect on Lu Cong?”

Tang Luyu: “Of course—”

Lu Cong: “None.”

This time he responded quickly. Tang Luyu mentally rolled her eyes and could only change her tune: “There’s nothing on Lu Cong’s end. It’s mainly about how you feel. After all, this concerns your whole future.”

Lin Xiangqi relaxed a little after hearing that Lu Cong wouldn’t be affected, but soon he began to think that what Tang Luyu said sounded… a bit odd.

His whole future?

Hmm… While recovering from the illness might change his fate of dying young, that phrase still sounded a bit too dramatic.

Anyone overhearing might think he was planning to marry Lu Cong or something.

Lin Xiangqi thought about it and felt he should still ask Lu Cong’s opinion. After all, even the injection therapy required at least a year. Any other treatment would likely take a long time too. It wasn’t impossible that Lu Cong might find it too troublesome.

So he looked at Lu Cong and asked, “Tell me honestly—are you willing?”

Lu Cong slowly turned to look at him, his gaze full of seriousness that Lin Xiangqi couldn’t quite read. Then, very lightly, he said, “Mm.”

And that was it—he said nothing more, his eyes avoiding every part of Lin Xiangqi’s face.

Lin Xiangqi: “……”

All right, fine.
I ask you for help, and you give me the cold shoulder. So much for over ten years of friendship!

Just then, Tang Luyu seriously suggested, “Okay. If you’ve both made your decision, I’ll speak with Lu Cong’s parents as soon as possible.”

She turned to Lu Cong and said, “This is a big deal, and you’re both still young. I think it’s necessary to have your mom and dad come back. The proper procedures need to be followed, otherwise it wouldn’t be fair to Xiaoqi. What do you think?”

Lu Cong had no objections.

But Lin Xiangqi did!

“Wait a minute… Why do we have to tell Uncle and Auntie? Isn’t Uncle Lu stationed in a war zone? And Auntie, she’s flying around the world. Making them come back just for my sake feels way too troublesome.”

He was already embarrassed about burdening Lu Cong with his illness. Now they wanted to drag his parents into it too?

Were they afraid he’d sniff Lu Cong and then skip out on the medical bill?
He’d pay! Even between brothers, accounts should be clear. He’d never take advantage of family.

Lin Xiangqi pressed his hands together and pleaded, “Can we not tell them? Don’t let them worry. This can just be something between me and Lu Cong, done quietly. We can wait until I’m better to tell them.”

Cough—

Before he even finished, Lu Cong seemed to choke on air and started coughing.

When he saw Lin Xiangqi looking at him, he suddenly turned and picked up an empty cup on the desk, pretending to drink water that wasn’t there.

Lin Xiangqi: “?”

Tang Luyu didn’t remain calm either. Her expression shifted dramatically as she looked at Lin Xiangqi. “Xiaoqi, you look well-behaved, but I didn’t expect you to be so bold.”

Lin Xiangqi was completely confused. “Bold…?”

“No matter what, you’re still a minor. Even if it’s for a medical condition, you still need adult consent to marry an Alpha, you know?”
Tang Luyu spoke earnestly.

At the word marry, Lin Xiangqi bolted upright from the bed, his voice almost cracking from shock: “Marry?! Me?! Why?!”

Tang Luyu looked even more surprised than him: “Wait—are you saying you don’t intend to marry Lu Cong after a permanent mark?”

Lin Xiangqi froze.

He’d heard of the concept of marking between AOs, but clearly hadn’t looked into the difference between temporary and permanent marking. So he cautiously asked, “Why would there be a permanent mark? And… what is a permanent mark, anyway?”

Now it was Tang Luyu and Lu Cong’s turn to fall silent.

They exchanged a subtle glance, realizing they had completely misread the situation.

They’d assumed the doctor had explained all the treatment options to Lin Xiangqi—

The fastest way for Lin Xiangqi to recover was to have a high-quality Alpha perform a lifelong mark on him, thoroughly purging the built-up pheromones in his system.

If the match between the two was good enough, the process could even stimulate Lin Xiangqi’s glands to mature, helping him complete his delayed differentiation.

But permanent marking was a serious matter for any AO. Once marked, their pheromones would merge and alter. Even if the mark was removed later, the scent of the other would remain forever.

So usually, only married lovers—after careful consideration—would agree to it.

There was once a high-profile case of two young people who impulsively did a permanent mark without registering their marriage. Later, the Alpha lost interest and refused to take responsibility for his Omega. He disguised his status and went on to mark another Omega.

As a result, the Alpha’s scent became a mix of two Omegas, no longer pure or exclusive, and neither Omega could receive comfort from him anymore.
The Alpha was taken to court and ordered to pay both Omegas large compensation and cover the cost of removing the mark.

Even so, the two Omegas’ pheromones had been permanently tainted with the Alpha’s scent and could no longer attract other Alphas.

That case had served as a wake-up call for many Omegas to treat permanent marking with extreme caution.

In short: permanent marking was a lifelong decision.

The prerequisite was both parties agreeing to spend their lives together.

Tang Luyu had assumed Lin Xiangqi knew all this and, seeing that he had taken the initiative to ask Lu Cong for help, thought he had already made his choice—hence she brought up Lu Cong’s parents.

But clearly, Lin Xiangqi had misunderstood everything.

Tang Luyu was about to start explaining from the very basics, “A mark is—”

“I’m going downstairs to grab something,” Lu Cong interrupted mildly. “You two talk.”

Then he left the room and gently closed the door.

The moment Lu Cong left, Tang Luyu clearly saw the tension in Lin Xiangqi’s shoulders melt away.

Over the next ten minutes, Tang Luyu carefully explained what a temporary mark was, what a permanent mark entailed, and how each of them was carried out.

Lin Xiangqi clutched the pillow in his arms until it was completely deformed, pretending to be calm as he nodded: “Oh, oh, I see…”

But the tips of his ears were completely red.

Once he had digested all the information, Tang Luyu said, “Lu Cong and I talked about this. Being eighteen and still undifferentiated is very dangerous. Conservative treatment is possible, but it takes too long and there’s a risk of glandular complications. So we believe that the fastest and most effective solution is a permanent mark.”

What she didn’t say was that when she brought this suggestion to Lu Cong and asked if he was willing to make that sacrifice for a friend, Lu Cong didn’t respond. He only said, “He wouldn’t agree to it.”

But in Tang Luyu’s opinion, since it was for medical treatment, and if Lu Cong was willing, it was still worth asking Lin Xiangqi’s stance.

Lin Xiangqi immediately said, “I didn’t know the treatment required a permanent mark. The doctor at the hospital just told me an Alpha needed to cooperate—I thought that meant Lu Cong would just release some pheromones for me to sniff.”

“I don’t think the doctor was deliberately trying to hide anything. In normal cases, as long as the Alpha’s pheromones are high-quality and can be provided stably over time, daily temporary marking is enough for the glands to absorb pheromones and achieve the desired effect.”

Tang Luyu explained patiently, “It’s just that this process takes a long time. And as pheromones accumulate, temporary treatment might go from once a day to multiple times a day.”

“But if you get a permanent mark, things become much simpler. The built-up pheromones in your body will be completely cleared out during the mark. You could recover almost immediately.”

She paused, then said, “I asked Lu Cong. If you accept this treatment, he’s willing to cooperate.”

Her words hit Lin Xiangqi like a bolt of lightning. His face flushed bright red and he shook his head quickly: “No, no, no! That’s not necessary. I think the regular treatment is fine. Just temporary marks… like the bite-the-neck kind. That’s okay, right? Even if it takes longer, it’s fine. Let’s skip the permanent mark.”

Tang Luyu looked at him. “Why?”

“You said permanent marking is irreversible for AOs, right? And you have to get married just to treat me… Wouldn’t that hold him back?”

Lin Xiangqi suddenly clapped his hands in realization. “No wonder he seemed upset just now and wouldn’t even look at me. He must think I’m trying to force him into this using my illness! Dr. Tang, please help me explain to Lu Cong—”

At that moment, the door opened and Lu Cong came back in—just in time to hear Lin Xiangqi say:

“I really never planned to permanently mark with him.”

The room fell silent.

But Lu Cong remained calm, as if he hadn’t heard anything at all.

He walked in and handed Lin Xiangqi a cup of warm water, saying, “I’ve heated up the food. Come downstairs for a bite after we finish talking.”

Lin Xiangqi was easygoing by nature and was quickly distracted by Lu Cong’s words.

He blinked a few times, thinking that now really wasn’t the time—or at least shouldn’t have been the time—to ask that question.

But in the end, he couldn’t resist and blurted out, “What dishes are there?”

Lu Cong usually cooked three meals a day for the two of them. Since they brought lunch to school, it was rarely elaborate, but always enough for the both of them.

Lu Cong deliberately kept him in suspense. “The ones you wanted to eat.”

Lin Xiangqi took the bait immediately and started guessing excitedly. “Wasabi shrimp balls?”

Lu Cong nodded. “And more.”

Lin Xiangqi’s eyes lit up. “Sweet and sour ribs!”

Lu Cong nodded again and said, “And more.”

Lin Xiangqi reasoned logically, “There must be a vegetable dish too. Could it be my favorite—vinegar cabbage?”

Lu Cong paused, looking at him. “Since when is vinegar cabbage your favorite?”

Lin Xiangqi smiled sheepishly. “Saw a mukbang the other day. That UP’s vinegar cabbage looked amazing. I suddenly fell in love with it.”

“…” Lu Cong figured Lin Xiangqi had long forgotten what he originally said he wanted to eat.

Understandable—after all, they had just spent an entire week in a cold war, during which Lin Xiangqi hadn’t so much as stepped into his house once.

Lu Cong had to reveal the answer himself. “Diced lotus root.”

Lin Xiangqi lit up with joy. “Sour and spicy?”

Lu Cong: “Mm.”

Lin Xiangqi instantly began to salivate, all previous awkwardness forgotten. He jumped out of bed, hugged Lu Cong excitedly, and said, “Thanks, bro!”

Lu Cong: “.”

The hug was brief.

Lin Xiangqi couldn’t wait to go downstairs to eat. He didn’t forget to call Tang Luyu along: “Doctor Tang, come eat with us! Lu Cong’s sweet and sour ribs are amazing!”

And with that, he ran out.

Tang Luyu watched this unfold without a change in expression.

She suddenly felt that all her previous worries might have been unnecessary—

She had thought that after Lin Xiangqi refused the permanent marking, Lu Cong would storm off in a rage.

Or that Lin Xiangqi would be so embarrassed about needing such an intimate method of treatment with Lu Cong that he wouldn’t know how to face him.

But clearly, the two of them had their own way of getting along.

Whatever reason Lin Xiangqi had for not wanting a permanent bond with Lu Cong, it didn’t seem to affect the balance of their relationship at all.

Which made sense.

They were still young—who knew what might change in the future? To bind themselves for life and marry just for the sake of treatment would be too much of a price to pay.

Might as well let things take their course.

Tang Luyu decided to stop worrying and followed Lin Xiangqi downstairs to get something to eat too.

As she passed Lu Cong, she gave him a meaningful look and said, “Take your time. That kid still doesn’t understand anything… Hm? What’s with that look? Need some advice from your auntie here, from someone who’s been there? No problem—got any wine? I’ve got lots of stories to share—”

Lu Cong stared at her expressionlessly and said, “Sorry, I didn’t prepare a portion for you. I’ve ordered a car for you.”

Tang Luyu: “?”

What was with this kid? So rude—use her and then kick her out?

Lu Cong continued, “I remember you had plans today but canceled them to deliver the suppressants. So I rebooked a reservation for you. Two seats. I’ve sent the address to your phone. Any questions?”

Tang Luyu quickly pulled out her phone and took a look—then froze in shock—

What?! That super hard-to-book rooftop garden restaurant in the city center?!

Voted number one date spot online?!

What?! And he used his card to pay?!

Tang Luyu immediately changed her expression, very satisfied with her “house call fee.” She hurried to pack up her medical kit and rushed downstairs, not even looking back as she said:

“Lu Cong, someone like you is destined for success no matter what you do!”

Her parting words still echoed as she vanished out the door.

…Someone like him was destined for success?

Lu Cong let out a self-mocking laugh.

If only that were true.