At the moment the text message was sent, the system was dumbfounded, and only after a long while did it say in disbelief, “H-Host… the key line passed the check! It actually passed?!”

“But that’s the protagonist’s line!”

The system couldn’t make sense of it and muttered to itself in a tiny voice, “Could it be that the sub-system module has also bugged out? Should I report this to Headquarters?”

Before Lin Zhu could open his mouth to stop it, the system spoke again, bitter and resentful: “No, Headquarters doesn’t pay me anything. If something goes wrong, they’ll just grab me to take the blame. I can’t report it, I absolutely can’t report it!”

The corner of Lin Zhu’s mouth twitched, and he couldn’t help sighing, “You’re quite humanized…” The speed of this ideological backsliding was faster than his own; it was really a pity not to send it out to play the scumbag ex-husband.

But Lin Zhu had no mood to chit-chat nonsense with the system now. He was half leaning against the wall, eyes fixed on his phone screen, still thinking about what had just happened.

Had his pheromones been smelled by the passing Omega?

What did they smell like?

In the original book, the ex-husband’s pheromones had a stimulating cigarette scent, but now that Lin Zhu had taken his place while still using his own original body, would the pheromones change accordingly?

It was just that Lin Zhu still couldn’t smell his own pheromones right now, nor could he control their secretion. According to the system’s test results, it would take about half a month for them to fully repair on their own.

Thinking and thinking, Lin Zhu couldn’t help wondering:

Then… did Yan Ruoyun also smell them just now?

Although the man was wearing an inhibitor collar, would a 100% pheromone compatibility manage to break through the product’s blocking function? That was a question mark.

…Surely it wouldn’t go so far as to make Yan Ruoyun suddenly go into heat in the hallway, right? Like how he himself had inexplicably gotten a nosebleed before, and then one flare-up infecting two people.

Originally, the system had been troubled that Lin Zhu couldn’t actively secrete pheromones, which would make the plot point of “inducing Yan Ruoyun to go into heat” fail. Who would have thought that Lin Zhu would be the first one to go into heat, his pheromones spreading out like they were free of charge, flooding the place.

You could call it a crooked but successful shot.

System: It has never fought such a well-supplied battle!

This had the system so excited it couldn’t sit still, clapping wildly as it praised him: “Host, you’re so clever! First you get the protagonist to come over, and once he comes into contact with your pheromones, you’ll definitely be able to complete the mission!”

Lin Zhu was not as optimistic as it: “…I don’t think he’ll come.”

The system refuted, “That’s not certain. In the original, the protagonist once fell in love with the ex-husband for a time; otherwise, how could they have married and then divorced? Now you, Host, are the ex-husband himself! Plus with the aid of this system, there’s no problem!”

Lin Zhu’s eyelids drooped, and he expressed his sincere admiration: “You really are an optimistic piece of useless pastry.”

System: “…”

Even though he’d only dipped his head in water, Lin Zhu now looked like he’d just been fished out of it; his whole body was soaked, his clothes clinging stickily to his skin as if they were sucking away the oxygen.

After a short while, the blond teenager weakly leaned against the wall and slowly slid down to sit on the tiled floor.

The Xiangshan Club was very high-end; the restroom was cleaned until it gleamed like a mirror, not a speck of dirt or clutter in sight, to the point that Lin Zhu even felt like he himself was the environmental pollutant.

He sat for a bit, then suddenly felt something was wrong. He lowered his head to look at his lower body, then wordlessly bent one leg up to cover himself a little.

…The ABO world was this terrifying; it had really broadened his horizons.

Because the concentration of Alpha pheromones in the air was too high, it triggered the restroom’s intelligent air circulation system; the purification mode was running at maximum power, emitting a low buzzing sound, but the effect seemed limited.

The room temperature had dropped a few degrees.

Between hot and cold, Lin Zhu sneezed a few times.

Outside the restroom, the sounds were getting more chaotic. Several unfamiliar voices were talking: “The pheromones are too strong; they’ll negatively affect other guests… Has the inhibitor not arrived yet?”

“Manager, I’ve already sent Xiao Han to get it.”

“Did that guest inside come alone?”

“No, he came with another Omega guest…” The speaker hurriedly lowered his voice, and it was unclear what else he said.

Lin Zhu was groggy, the ringing in his ears sharp like a knife stirring around in his head, to the point he couldn’t even hear the system shouting in his consciousness.

The most frightening part was that the discomfort came in waves, making him both irritable and helpless.

When he felt a little better, he suddenly realized that the corridor outside had already gone quiet; there wasn’t a hint of voices.

Suddenly, someone knocked on the restroom door, two dull “knock knock” sounds.

Lin Zhu was leaning against the wall. He craned his neck and turned his head to glance over, thinking it was the staff bringing the inhibitor, and rasped out, “Come in.”

“Click—”

The lock was turned from the outside.

Lin Zhu tightly gripped his completely unresponsive phone, lifted his reddened eyes and looked up, his breathing so heavy it was clearly audible.

He looked utterly disheveled right now, like a drenched golden retriever. With no expression on his features, his face seemed fierce and guarded; his slightly small pupils, when looking at someone, gave a chilling sense of a wild beast staring straight at you.

The restroom door opened.

The narrow crack grew larger and larger until it could no longer hide the tall, slender figure behind it.

The person standing there turned out to be Yan Ruoyun.

The man in a suit stood in the doorway with an indifferent expression. The usual calm, easy smile had vanished, and his entire aura had cooled, as if the gentle mask had been stripped away to reveal his true nature.

Because of the angle and height, Lin Zhu’s line of sight first fell on the man’s hands. At a glance, he noticed that there was now a pair of black leather gloves on Yan Ruoyun’s hands.

The gloves wrapped his long palms tightly, revealing only a small section of pale wrist.

Judging from the looks of it, these gloves were probably part of the same series as the inhibitor collar on his neck. Their appearance was very similar, giving a fully-armed solemn feeling, tinged with an eerie allure.

Lin Zhu opened his mouth in surprise but couldn’t speak.

After sending such a text message, he had imagined several possibilities, but in none of them did Yan Ruoyun actually come to find him in person, and even show up empty-handed without an inhibitor.

In the novel, he avoided all Alpha pheromones like the plague; the close subordinates and staff around him were mostly Betas and Omegas, and he completely steered clear of places where Alpha pheromones were dense and mixed.

The Alpha restroom was one such place that had to be avoided.

Yet Yan Ruoyun still came.

He had originally planned to leave early. Since he had already met the person, he could at least give an explanation to the family. Who knew that as soon as he stepped out, he would run into the Su family’s little Omega, and accidentally find out that Lin Zhu had actually gone into heat in the restroom.

Why?

He instinctively thought it was because of himself.

But today he had specifically worn the high-strength inhibitor collar he usually disliked, and had sprayed cleansing spray in advance. Logically, not a trace of his pheromones should be leaking.

Could it be that the 100% pheromone compatibility was affecting that brat?

Between an Alpha and an Omega, the Omega is always more susceptible to the influence and suppression of pheromones. This has nothing to do with personal will, but is determined by genes.

Genes are truly a wondrous thing.

Yan Ruoyun thought of his own rare genetic disease: NH0047 sequence deficiency, the “true love disease” that had never once been cured in medical history…

Because every patient diagnosed with “true love disease” failed to live long enough to meet someone with a compatibility rate higher than 95%, and instead died early from organ failure.

Now that medicine had developed rapidly, with joint treatment from many top doctors, Yan Ruoyun was very likely to live past fifty, but years of heats left unsatisfied meant his quality of life could not be guaranteed.

Therefore, after Lin Zhu appeared, everyone who knew the inside story was urging him—

Give it a try.

This was an unparalleled miracle.

Yan Ruoyun sneered at this and responded with cold indifference, not daring to tell anyone about the deep-seated fear he kept buried.

It truly was an unparalleled miracle, so what kind of price would he have to pay?

However, the way things developed tonight was full of anomalies.

He hadn’t gone into heat.

The one in heat turned out to be Lin Zhu, this Alpha.

In the corridor, two young Omegas were covering their noses, cheeks slightly flushed, and softly asked, “The pheromones are a bit strong. Brother Ruoyun, didn’t you smell them?”

Yan Ruoyun silently mouthed: No.

He really hadn’t.

And so, he inexplicably stepped forward, explaining to the manager that he was the companion of the person inside, and had the staff clear out the nearby visitors so he could stay behind alone.

…He really must have been out of his mind.

Somewhat annoyed, Yan Ruoyun released the doorknob, his fingers curling slightly without a sound, then he stepped inside and closed the door.

The air in the Alpha-only restroom had been intensely circulated; almost no scent remained.

The strangest thing was precisely this: there was no scent.

There was neither the scent of any other Alpha, nor of Lin Zhu.

Under the bright, gentle light of the crystal chandelier, the Alpha teenager sat with his leg bent in the corner, head raised slightly to meet his gaze. A droplet of water traced down from the corner of his tightly pressed lips, slid past his jawline, and meandered toward his Adam’s apple…

Gulp.

His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down.

The boy’s collar was wide open and disheveled, the water drop landing with a snap on his collarbone, then merging into the layer of sweat clinging to his skin so that one couldn’t tell whether it was sweat or water.

Yan Ruoyun was not unfamiliar with this appearance. Even though he had never been in close contact with any Alpha, every month—he himself turned into this same wretched state.

Lin Zhu’s discomfort was visible to the naked eye. His eyes were very red, a vein bulged at his temple, and only after a long time did he rasp out, “…Why did you come here?” His voice was hoarse beyond belief.

Yan Ruoyun was silent for a moment, then raised his phone as a brief indication and looked down at him, saying, “Didn’t you text me to come over?”

Lin Zhu: “…Right.”

After a moment, the man took a few steps closer. His leather shoes clicked crisply against the tile, until he stopped half a meter in front of Lin Zhu.

Lin Zhu’s head tilted from sideways to directly upturned, but his gaze never left the man’s figure.

He silently watched Yan Ruoyun walk closer, watched him stop, watched him bend down toward him and say—

“So, I came.”