Jiang Wei craned his neck toward the mirror with great effort, barely catching a glimpse of the crescent-shaped bite mark on the back of his nape. He immediately whirled around and barked at the person in the room, "Tang Zihe!"
"Hmm?" Tang Zihe was sitting nonchalantly on the floor, leaning his back against the side of the bed. Hearing his name, he even raised a hand in a particularly good mood. "Right here."
"You..." Jiang Wei reached back to touch his nape. Unsurprisingly, his fingers met a patch of uneven, raised skin. It felt as though the sensation of the other man’s lips and the tip of his tongue still lingered there. Flustered and annoyed, he snapped, "Was it really necessary to bite that hard for a temporary mark? It even bled! Are you a dog?"
"Temporary marks fade quickly. It’ll probably disappear right around the time your heat ends," Tang Zihe said, automatically filtering out the insult as he provided a perfectly reasonable excuse. "It saves us from having to find time for a touch-up later."
At the thought of potentially being bitten again, the tips of Jiang Wei’s ears turned red at a speed visible to the naked eye. He snarled, "Who said I’d ever want a touch-up from you?"
"Then who do you want to get one from?" It sounded like a casual question, and Tang Zihe even wore his usual smile, but Jiang Wei felt an involuntary shiver run down his spine. Only then did he realize he had walked right into a trap.
Feeling a bit petulant, Jiang Wei said, "Why do I have to find anyone at all? Suppressants are enough."
"Using suppressants forever?" Tang Zihe stood up. "I’ve heard that using too many is bad for your health..."
"It doesn't matter," Jiang Wei shrugged. He tried to fuss with his hair in the mirror, attempting to make it cover the mark on his nape. He added offhandedly, "I’m going to have my glands removed after graduation anyway..."
Once an Alpha or Omega reached adulthood, they could apply for gland removal surgery at a hospital at any time. However, because Omegas generally had weaker constitutions and their nervous systems struggled to withstand the shock of the procedure, the failure rate was significantly higher than for Alphas. Consequently, unless it was absolutely necessary, very few Omegas chose to risk their lives for the surgery.
Because of this, Jiang Wei’s words sounded exceptionally "insane."
"What did you say?" Tang Zihe’s expression instantly turned solemn. "You’re going to have your glands removed?"
Jiang Wei’s hands paused. He gave a relaxed smile and said, "What? You must have misheard me."
"Don't you—"
"Don't let your imagination run wild, okay? Instead of worrying about that, why don't you think about how to clean up the mess you left behind," Jiang Wei interrupted him, pointing to the bite mark on his neck. "How am I supposed to go to class like this?"
"I only prepared scent neutralizers. I don't have any suppressant patches, and I don't have any high-collared shirts..."
Jiang Wei continued to grumble as he bent over to rummage through his clothes, failing to notice that Tang Zihe’s eyes remained fixed on that ring of teeth marks. Tang Zihe licked his lips and murmured softly, "But it looks quite cute..."
"What?"
"Nothing." Tang Zihe walked over to Jiang Wei’s side and began neatly folding the clothes Jiang Wei had tossed around. "Do you need me to go buy them for you?"
Jiang Wei looked him up and down, seemingly considering the feasibility of the idea.
Ultimately, he shook his head.
"Forget it. You’re too high-profile. If anyone caught their 'Academic God'—the man who supposedly has zero worldly desires—buying suppressant patches for some 'little vixen' Omega, the school forum would literally explode." Jiang Wei seriously weighed the consequences and added somewhat sourly, "I’m not that famous. I’ll go myself."
Tang Zihe: "..."
*Are you sure about that?*
If that pack of predatory Omegas found out that the handsome new transfer student—whom they hadn't even had a chance to make a move on—had already been snatched up by some unknown "little vixen," the forum would probably explode just as hard.
Jiang Wei didn't give him a chance to argue. He reached out and gestured. "Do you have a baseball cap? Lend me one."
***
While the two of them had been preoccupied in the room, they hadn't noticed the passage of time. It wasn't until Jiang Wei picked out a white hat, they both reapplied scent neutralizer, and they stepped out of the dormitory side-by-side that they realized it was already the first period of the afternoon.
"You go back first. I'll head to class after I buy the patches and put them on." Jiang Wei chose to part ways at the bottom of the dorm building. "Otherwise, it'll be hard to explain why we're returning together."
Although Tang Zihe didn't personally care, he was still half-pushed and half-shooed toward the teaching building by Jiang Wei.
Jiang Wei turned toward the small campus shop. Along the way, he kept his left hand clamped over the back of his neck, looking extremely guarded.
First period in the afternoon.
The timing was delicate. While it was likely that very few people were actually paying attention in class, most students still chose to stay in their classrooms to sleep even if they weren't listening.
Aside from the muffled voices of teachers lecturing inside the buildings, the campus grounds were almost silent.
Thus, despite being as jittery as he was, Jiang Wei felt that nothing unexpected should happen.
Sure enough, he reached the shop entrance smoothly without running into a single soul—he wasn't sure if it was just good luck, but it seemed no classes were having PE at this hour.
But just as he stepped through the door, before he could even breathe a sigh of relief, he looked up and ran straight into an acquaintance.
"What a coincidence." Ye Feiyang had just finished paying and was holding a pack of cigarettes as he greeted Jiang Wei. "Class One doesn't have PE this period, right?"
Jiang Wei nodded at him, his hand tightening slightly over his nape as he walked toward the shelf next to the checkout counter.
Items like scent-blocking patches were all kept on this particular rack.
"What are you here for? My treat." Ye Feiyang didn't seem to be in any hurry to leave. Instead, he found a seat near the counter and sat down.
"Class Three doesn't have PE either, does it?" Jiang Wei didn't want to look too rushed, so he lowered his head and began searching for what he needed.
"Does having PE or not have anything to do with where I show up?" Ye Feiyang shrugged nonchalantly. "Li Zhuang has given up on trying to control me."
From the very beginning, Ye Feiyang felt like something was off. As he opened his cigarette pack, he noticed that Jiang Wei’s left hand hadn't moved once. Finally, he figured out where that strange feeling was coming from.
Ye Feiyang asked, "Is your neck hurting? Did you sleep on it wrong?"
"Yeah." Jiang Wei gave a non-committal grunt as he continued to carefully select a scent for the patches—only mixed fruit and milk were left.
He had no choice but to grab a box of the milk-scented ones and head to the counter.
Ye Feiyang stood up to help pay. "What took you so long to pick? Did you run out of scent neutralizer?"
Jiang Wei’s hand instinctively jerked. He tried to hide the item he had just placed on the counter, but the cashier was one step ahead and grabbed it to scan. He reached out to snatch it back but grabbed thin air—because his right hand was in his pocket getting his phone, in his desperation, he had reached out with his left.
*Thud.*
The visual impact was too great. Ye Feiyang completely forgot to catch the cigarette pack that slipped from his hand and hit the floor. Jiang Wei, on the other hand, appeared relatively composed as he finished paying.
At that moment, Ye Feiyang felt a thousand words clog his throat. In the end, he could only choke out: "Your pillow... sure knows how to bite... that's pretty unique, huh..."
Jiang Wei: "..."
*Is there something wrong with this guy's head?*
"You've seen a pillow that bites?" He stuffed the box of patches into his pocket. "If it's that unique, bring it over next time so I can see it too."
Ye Feiyang crouched down to pick up his cigarettes and pulled one out. He looked utterly dazed throughout the process, yet he didn't forget to call out to Jiang Wei: "I... I need a smoke to calm down. Keep a lookout for me."
Jiang Wei: "..."
*Fine. Since I'm the one who scared him into this state, I might as well play lookout.*
"Smoke faster, I'm in a hurry to get back to class." Jiang Wei accompanied him to a corner. He opened the new patches and fumbled around, trying to stick one onto his nape. It took him over a minute of struggling before he finally got the thing on properly.
Ye Feiyang expertly lit his cigarette and stood three meters away—the closest distance Jiang Wei could tolerate the smell of smoke—and took a deep drag.
Jiang Wei watched his expression. If it weren't for the bright sun and the lack of thunder, he would have thought this man was about to renounce the mortal world and ascend to immortality the next second.
"Jiang Wei," Ye Feiyang suddenly called out. His voice wasn't loud, but it carried a heavy sense of exhaustion. "Do you think... it's possible for an Alpha's gland to be bitten until it's a bloody mess?"
Jiang Wei: "..."
*Which of your damn eyes saw my gland being a bloody mess?! It's just a little bit of broken skin!*
Jiang Wei said expressionlessly, "Actually, you don't have to be that subtle with me."
*You might as well just call me out by name.*
"I didn't mean it like that, I just... feel like..." Ye Feiyang took another deep drag and tilted his head back to exhale a cloud of smoke.
In truth, Jiang Wei understood exactly how he felt.
If he were to put himself in Ye Feiyang's shoes and suddenly discover that Ye Feiyang was an Omega—and that his nape bore a temporary mark from some unknown, high-and-mighty Alpha—he would probably also want to smoke a cigarette in a quiet corner to process his world being turned upside down. Though, he certainly wouldn't think a pillow was capable of biting someone.
"Catch." Jiang Wei pulled the box of patches from his pocket and tossed it into Ye Feiyang's arms. He added with a straight face, "Personally, I believe the scenario you described is theoretically impossible."
Ye Feiyang instinctively caught the box and held it up to inspect it.
*Omega Scent-Blocking Patches.*
*Milk Scent.*
His hand shook, nearly dropping the box again.
Jiang Wei gestured for him to toss it back.
"If a fourth person finds out, I'm as good as expelled."
Once a falsified gender was discovered, expulsion was inevitable. Jiang Wei blinked, tucked the box back into his pocket, and turned toward the teaching building.
He left Ye Feiyang alone in the corner, silently pulling out a second cigarette.
There was nothing a single cigarette couldn't fix. If there was, then have another.
