The next morning, sunlight filtered through the gaps in the clouds and fell upon the sea, turning the ripples on the surface into shimmering gold.
The torrential rain that had kissed the sea incessantly the night before had long since dispersed, leaving only the fresh scent of sea salt baked by the sun along the coastline.
In his sleep, Zhou Shu caught a faint scent, and in his haze, he felt soft lips continuously pressing light kisses against him.
They were kisses of such cherished tenderness, as if he were a diamond retrieved from the depths of the ocean.
His eyelashes fluttered a few times before he slowly opened his eyes. As his vision cleared, he saw that familiar, handsome face.
He thought to himself: *My Yan-yan is truly good-looking.*
As the thought crossed his mind, a soft expression colored his face. Jin Yan immediately caught Zhou Shu’s mood and leaned down to deepen a morning kiss.
"Good morning, Ge. I missed you."
They hadn't been apart for a single moment all night, yet he claimed to miss him the moment he woke up. Zhou Shu couldn't help but laugh, reaching up to stroke the younger man's face.
"Why are you still so clingy, hmm?" His voice was somewhat raspy, a blend of nighttime exhaustion and the unique magnetic quality of the early morning.
"Mm, I just really like being clingy with you." Jin Yan’s lips quirked up, his tone carrying a deeper meaning. "I especially like being *stuck* to you."
Zhou Shu’s heart skipped a beat at the sudden whisper in his ear, especially at the deliberate emphasis on a certain word. It made him think of the way they had tossed and turned the night before, and his ears instantly turned crimson.
"Go away." He turned his head and gave Jin Yan a push, forgetting for a moment that the person beside him was an Enigma.
Though it was only a slight reactionary force, it made Zhou Shu feel as if he’d been struck; his entire body ached as if it were falling apart.
He let out a sharp hiss of pain, and Jin Yan immediately grew tense.
"Ge, what’s wrong?" He pulled back the quilt, wanting to check Zhou Shu’s body, only to catch sight of the mottled marks covering him.
They were all left by him last night—marks of wanton possession and love.
Jin Yan’s breath hitched, his throat feeling as though it were blocked by dense sea-salt ice cream.
He waited a moment before tucking the quilt back around Zhou Shu and snuggling up beside him.
"Ge, does it hurt?"
Zhou Shu dithered, seemingly not reacting to what Jin Yan was asking at first.
However, in the next second, he felt like a block of ice dropped into boiling water, his temper completely evaporated by the heat.
"...It’s fine," Zhou Shu murmured softly, turning his face toward the door.
Who would have thought the person beside him was such a "wicked" child? Jin Yan gently turned Zhou Shu’s face back toward him and spoke warmly into his ear.
"It’s fine?" Jin Yan chuckled softly, nuzzling against the crook of Zhou Shu’s neck. "If it’s fine, then let’s do it again—"
"Shut up!" The exasperated "wave" tumbled in place a few times before being soothed and enveloped by the "raindrop."
"Alright, Ge, I won't tease you anymore." He kissed Zhou Shu’s burning earlobe. "Lie down for a bit longer. I’ll go downstairs and get something to eat."
Zhou Shu nodded and tilted his face up to claim a long, lingering kiss.
Restraining the restless impulses in his heart, Jin Yan threw on a long coat and headed downstairs.
However, the moment he stepped off the last stair, he saw four parents sitting in the living room.
Hearing his footsteps, they all looked toward the stairs, their expressions a mix of hesitation and unspoken words.
"...Uncle Zhou, Aunt Liang, good morning. Mom, Dad, why are you here?"
Jin Yan’s mother was the first to speak. She looked behind her son and asked, "Where’s your brother?"
Jin Yan’s eyes darted away instinctively, but his tone remained natural. "Ge didn't sleep well last night. I’m letting him catch up on some rest."
"What happened with you two?" Jin Yan’s mother frowned, getting straight to the point. "We saw the trending searches online."
"Trending searches?" Jin Yan narrowed his eyes, and a sudden, oppressive scent began to climb through the air.
"Yan-yan," Jin Yan’s father warned. Only then did Jin Yan retract the surging power within him, allowing his aura to level out.
He sat down on the sofa and took the phone handed to him by Zhou Shu’s mother.
#Best Actor Zhou’s Casting Couch Scandal with 18th-Tier Omega Actor#
The accompanying photo showed an Omega with disheveled clothes huddled under a blanket, with a red-eyed, frowning Zhou Shu standing behind him.
Jin Yan took one look and didn't dare look further. He clenched his fists, his brow furrowed deeply. "No, this isn't true."
"Yan-yan, we know it’s not true, but we just don't know why Xiao Shu was suddenly photographed like this. Didn't he say a few days ago he was busy with work and going back to the capital? Why was he photographed in a Haicheng hotel?" Zhou Shu’s mother’s voice was anxious, though it was clear she was trying her best to suppress it.
Before Jin Yan could answer, the sound of a cup being slammed onto the table echoed from beside them. Zhou Shu’s father sat up straight and said to Zhou Shu’s mother, "I didn't agree with him entering this circle in the first place! Look at this, something finally happened!" His anger showed no signs of fading. "And how could such a photo be taken in Haicheng? How are those people doing their jobs!"
The atmosphere in the living room had dropped to freezing point. At this moment, only Jin Yan could break the barrier.
He sighed and gave a simplified account of what had happened that day.
However, he didn't forget the most important thing at the end, providing a profound summary for the four elders.
"So... I marked my brother."
As soon as those words were spoken, the atmosphere heated up in an instant.
After confirming that Zhou Shu’s health was not in danger, the adults shifted their focus elsewhere.
"Yan-yan, you... you said you marked your brother?" Zhou Shu’s mother was somewhat incoherent. She exchanged a look with Jin Yan’s mother and asked tentatively, "How... how did you mark him?"
To their surprise, Jin Yan’s mother swatted Zhou Shu’s mother. "Oh, how else could he mark him? Alpha reproductive chambers are vestigial."
"..."
The two Omega mothers began discussing their sons' "bedroom affairs" without any sense of taboo, completely tossing their previous worries to the wind.
Meanwhile, the three Alphas sitting nearby all cleared their throats. Seeing this, Jin Yan could only keep refilling the two fathers' tea.
It wasn't until the mothers tried to ask Jin Yan for more details that he hurriedly stopped them in a panic.
"Um... Mom, Aunt Liang, please don't talk about this in front of my brother later, okay?" He looked at the two mothers with a smile; to them, he looked just like the innocent child he had been years ago.
Zhou Shu’s mother shook her head and laughed. "We know. He’s the one with the thin skin."
Perhaps it was the law of attraction at work, but the old saying "speak of the devil" definitely had a scientific basis.
The protagonist being discussed in the living room appeared in the stairwell the very next second. Jin Yan was the first to turn his head at the sound, seeing Zhou Shu trying his best to steady his gait.
The parents, who had been whispering, also followed the sound. Their gazes swept over the exposed skin on Jin Yan’s neck and then simultaneously looked away.
It was too obvious. It seemed these two children had already...
The thoughts in the two mothers' minds grew increasingly dangerous, yet a certain someone clearly didn't know he had already become the subject of everyone's discussion.
"Dad, Mom, Aunt Fang, Uncle Jin, morning." He gave a casual greeting, his gaze softening when it landed back on Jin Yan. "Yan-yan, why have you been down here so long?"
"..." The four parents present all thought they were experiencing auditory hallucinations.
They truly hadn't expected that anyone who had been marked would develop such a strong dependency on their partner—even an Alpha was no exception.
He’d only been down for ten minutes, and already the other was rushing down to find him.
The two mothers "tsk-tsked" in their hearts, then stood up to go to the kitchen to prepare brunch for the children.
Zhou Shu was clearly starving; he kept his head down and ate, drinking two more bowls of soup than usual.
Jin Yan, who had been serving him the whole time, had eyes crinkled with smiles, his gaze stuck to the other man, unable to look away.
"Um, Xiao Shu..."
Zhou Shu’s mother was just about to say something when she was silenced by Jin Yan’s pleading look, forcing her maternal gossip-loving heart back down.
"Hmm? What is it, Mom?" Zhou Shu looked up, a grain of rice stuck near the mole under his lip.
Jin Yan naturally reached out, picked off the grain of rice, and popped it into his own mouth.
In that moment, the mole under the lip and his own heart were both laid bare in the air without reservation.
Both mothers were stunned. Although this gesture struck their "maiden hearts" like a heavy blow, a wave of warmth still rose in their chests.
These two children truly doted on each other. It had been this way for over twenty years, never changing.
As for who marked whom, how they marked them, or when it happened—it didn't really matter.
As long as their original intentions remained unchanged, it was enough.
This brunch left Zhou Shu satisfied in both body and mind. If Jin Yan took care of his meals every day upon waking, he could indeed restrain his morning grumpiness.
Just as they stood up to clear the table, Zhou Shu suddenly felt a sharp, stabbing pain in his abdomen.
Jin Yan noticed Zhou Shu’s abnormality almost instantly. He rushed to support him, asking anxiously, "What’s wrong, Ge? Does your stomach hurt?"
Zhou Shu didn't get better after a moment; instead, cold sweat broke out on his forehead, and he was in so much pain he couldn't even speak.
He clutched his stomach and was about to collapse when Jin Yan scooped him up and carried him toward the upstairs bedroom.
The two mothers followed anxiously, growing nervous as they watched Zhou Shu curl into a ball on the bed in agony.
"What’s happening to Xiao Shu? He was fine just a moment ago. Did he eat too fast?"
"Mom, Aunt Liang, don't worry yet. I’ll take Ge to the hospital right away." But just as Jin Yan finished speaking, he saw that Zhou Shu had bitten his own lip until it bled. "Ge! Don't, don't bite, be good."
Seeing that Zhou Shu was drifting out of consciousness, Jin Yan ignored his mother’s presence and leaned down to kiss him.
He thought to himself that given the current situation, calling an ambulance would be safer.
But just as he tried to pull away, the person being kissed seemed to have found some kind of medicine. Zhou Shu hooked his arms around Jin Yan’s neck, refusing to let the kiss end.
Zhou Shu’s mother had truly never seen her son like this and stood frozen in place, but a thought occurred to Jin Yan’s mother.
"Wait..." She thought of something and said to Jin Yan, "Yan-yan! Quick, release some pheromones!"
Hearing this, without time for second-guessing, Jin Yan controlled his gland to release a soothing dose of pheromones. He had to carefully regulate the concentration so it wouldn't be too high and suppress the two mothers.
To their surprise, after receiving the comfort of Jin Yan’s pheromones, Zhou Shu’s brow gradually relaxed, and his tense body softened significantly.
Jin Yan was both shocked and overjoyed, holding the man in his arms as if he had just survived a disaster. "Ge... you scared me to death, you really scared me..."
Seeing the scene before them, the two mothers exchanged another look. Jin Yan’s mother cleared her throat and patted her son.
"Yan-yan, you go out first. Aunt Liang and I have something to say to your brother."
Jin Yan blinked a few times, looking at his mother in confusion, before being pushed out of the room.
Zhou Shu, who had just recovered, was also bewildered, his expression tinged with dissatisfaction. Zhou Shu’s mother gave a helpless, mocking laugh and scolded, "Look at you."
The scent of Jin Yan’s pheromones still lingered in the room. That refreshing, pleasant scent of green grass after rain hadn't been taken away by Jin Yan; instead, it was radiating from Zhou Shu’s own gland.
Jin Yan’s mother’s lips moved slightly. She took a step forward and sat on the edge of the bed. "Xiao Shu, tell Auntie, where exactly does it hurt?"
Zhou Shu didn't quite process the question but instinctively placed his hand over his lower abdomen. "Here."
Then came the sound of a sharp intake of breath from beside him. Zhou Shu’s mother’s eyes were filled with disbelief. Only after she steadied her breathing did she speak to Zhou Shu. "Xiao Shu, Mom has something to ask you. I hope you can tell us the truth."
"What?" Zhou Shu had been tormented by irritability and pain for a while, coupled with the immense fatigue lingering from the day before. Even his voice was faint and airy.
Zhou Shu’s mother sighed at the sight, but she remained persistent. "You and Yan-yan... yesterday, did you..."
"Mom!" Zhou Shu’s pupils dilated slightly, his eyes shimmering. At this moment, he actually looked a bit like an Omega.
He understood his mother’s meaning almost instantly, and his ears turned red in the blink of an eye.
Seeing this, Zhou Shu’s mother quickly explained, "Oh, Aunt Fang and I aren't trying to satisfy our gossip; this is serious business!" She figured that a quick pain was better than a long one and decided to ask everything in one go. "Mom will just ask directly: did he enter the reproductive chamber?"
"Mom! I’m an Alpha!" Zhou Shu felt as if he were trapped in a locked sauna, unable to leave and struggling to breathe.
"I know you’re an Alpha! Oh, that’s not what I mean. What I mean is..." Zhou Shu’s mother "tsked" several times, unable to find the words to describe it for a moment.
Jin Yan’s mother finally couldn't watch any longer. She patted Zhou Shu’s arm to soothe him, waiting until his emotions stabilized a bit before she spoke.
"Xiao Shu, although I’m not entirely certain about your condition just now, what is certain is that not only Omegas and some Betas, but even Alphas have reproductive chambers. It’s just that due to the genetics of the gender group, the Alpha’s reproductive chamber naturally and gradually atrophies."
She finished and looked at Zhou Shu’s mother, who finally let out a sigh of relief and finished the thought.
"However, it is said that an Alpha marked by an Enigma will have their reproductive chamber stimulated."
"So, Mom wants to tell you..." Zhou Shu’s mother swallowed hard, turning her face away from Zhou Shu as she spoke. "Your reproductive chamber... might be regrowing for Yan-yan."
***
**Glossary**
| Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 生殖腔 | Reproductive chamber | A specialized internal organ in the ABO/Enigma universe for conception. In Alphas, it is usually vestigial. |
| 影帝 | Best Actor | Literally "Film King," a title for a top-tier award-winning actor. |
| 潜规则 | Casting couch / Unspoken rules | The practice of trading sexual favors for professional advancement. |
| 十八线 | 18th-tier | A slang term for obscure, low-ranking celebrities. |
| 腺体 | Gland | The organ (usually on the back of the neck) that produces pheromones. |
| 信息素 | Pheromones | Biological scents that convey status, emotions, and compatibility. |
| 标记 | Mark / Marking | The act of a dominant gender bonding with another through a bite on the gland. |
