Lin Zhu knew nothing about what was happening in the System Space.

Inside the intensive care ward.

The blond youth gripped the waist of the man in his arms tightly. With half his face pressed against the other’s scorching neck, his canines pierced into the soft flesh beneath the skin and did not withdraw.

“Hah…”

Under the influence of the drugs, every inch of Yan Ruoyun’s skin was frighteningly sensitive, and the pain was several times stronger than the first failed temporary mark.

This bite from Lin Zhu abruptly washed away the comfort brought by the previous touches, causing him to gasp continuously. Yet, trembling, he tightened his arms around the youth.

Not just his arms; the man’s entire body was pulled taut, and even his long legs straddling Lin Zhu’s sides unconsciously clamped tight.

He hung onto Lin Zhu, like a drowning man clinging to his only piece of driftwood… His heavy, low pants sounded like cries for help.

Feeling Yan Ruoyun’s movements, Lin Zhu tensed his jaw muscles slightly. It made his jawline look sharper and more distinct than usual, shedding a bit of his boyish air.

To ease the man’s pain, he followed the teachings from his books, treating himself like an infant in the oral stage. He vigorously flicked his tongue, deeply suckling on that small lump of flesh…

Completely unaware that Yan Ruoyun’s soul was nearly being sucked right out of him.

Right at this moment.

Lin Zhu suddenly heard a ‘ding’.

An electronic voice rang out in his consciousness: [Current Synchronization Rate for [Wrath] is: 60%]

After this notification sound, Lin Zhu opened his eyes. The lingering restraint and shyness in his gaze gradually vanished. His expression became extremely calm—so calm it didn’t seem like he was holding a stark naked man in his arms.

It was very strange.

The youth who previously couldn’t help but blush intensely just from their lips and teeth touching was now holding someone and biting into their gland, yet showing no signs of discomfort whatsoever… Or rather, those complex emotions seemed to have been entirely extracted, compressed, and stuffed into the furthest corners of his brain.

Lin Zhu was just this kind of strange person.

When most people felt angry or sad, they would involuntarily spiral into negative emotions, becoming so flustered they wouldn’t know what to do.

But he was different.

The more this kind of situation occurred, the calmer and more rational he became.

Because of this, with the System’s enhancement, Lin Zhu completely suppressed the emotional feelings born from their intimate act. His mind and heart were left with only one thought.

—To soothe Yan Ruoyun as quickly as possible and help him return to normal.

As the synchronization rate rose, Lin Zhu suddenly had a profound and mysterious feeling. When it came to how to release pheromones, he seemed to have instantly mastered it without needing a teacher.

Ultimately, his gender had changed from a simple ‘male’ to a ‘Male Alpha’, one of the six genders in the ABO world.

And regarding the subject of ‘How to mark an Omega’, every Alpha was an expert in this field.

It was an instinct carved into their blood and bones.

An instinct that didn’t require anyone else’s teaching; merely experiencing it in practice once was enough to grasp the crux of it…

Lin Zhu closed his eyes, his jaw muscles contracting forcefully once again to bury his fangs deep into the flesh. Then, he immediately mobilized his pheromones, injecting them into Yan Ruoyun’s gland.

He couldn’t see the man’s momentarily dazed expression. He only heard the other’s low gasps suddenly soften, the trailing notes unconsciously elongating, ultimately turning into trembling breaths that vanished in his throat.

Yan Ruoyun shrank in his embrace, gritting his teeth and calling out in a very soft voice: “…Lin Zhu.”

Unlike the seriousness, intimacy, or teasing tones when the man usually called his name… this ‘Lin Zhu’ carried an indescribable nuance, breeding an inexplicable itch in his heart.

It made one want to reach out and scratch it, again and again.

But Lin Zhu did nothing.

He only lowered his brows and glanced at the monitor screen on the outer side of Yan Ruoyun’s upper arm.

The value displayed on the red glowing electronic screen had drastically dropped to three or four thousand, but it was still a massive distance away from the normal range of one hundred and seventy.

In truth, it wasn’t just Yan Ruoyun one-sidedly resisting and fearing a deep mark. Unless absolutely necessary, Lin Zhu also didn’t want to sleep with the man under these circumstances…

It was too rushed, too hasty.

The two of them hadn’t progressed to that stage yet either.

Continuously deepening the temporary mark was currently the best choice.

Thinking this, Lin Zhu’s nose suddenly caught a very faint scent—cold, damp, and carrying a slightly bitter astringency.

It was the scent of the sea breeze.

It was also… Yan Ruoyun’s scent.

Lin Zhu subconsciously sniffed deeply. The faint, alluring scent became rich and dense. A few breaths later, it underwent a subtle change…

Traces of mint cigarette smoke seemed to blend into the sea breeze, carrying a bit of a spicy, choking bite. Yet when inhaled deeply into the lungs, it brought a cooling sensation that made one linger.

Lin Zhu closed his eyes. The hand gripping the man’s waistline unconsciously wandered upward, finally resting on the side of his face.

Yan Ruoyun’s face was covered in an indistinguishable mix of sweat and tears. Curling his fingers, Lin Zhu gently stroked from the inner corners of his eyes to the outer edges, gently wiping the moisture away.

Then, his fingertips moved further down.

Reaching his lips, he suddenly realized the other man’s lips were slightly parted, with a curled knuckle jammed between them.

Earlier, when he had barged into the bathroom, Lin Zhu had caught him biting his own fingers, which were bloody with the flesh split open.

Lin Zhu sighed soundlessly.

He silently pulled out the ravaged knuckle and slipped his own index finger in instead. After releasing the fleshy lump in his mouth, he said softly: “Ge, if you’re really hurting too much… just bite mine.”

Clamping down on his knuckle, Yan Ruoyun was silent for a long moment before suddenly saying, “Lin Zhu, I think I smell your pheromones…”

The cool scent of mint, along with the mellow aroma of a cigarette.

Just like Lin Zhu himself—clean, transparent, yet impossible to fully grasp.

Yan Ruoyun turned his head slightly, revealing the lower half of his face. When he spoke, his wet, hot tongue kept brushing over his little boyfriend’s finger pad. He murmured in a low voice, “Lin Zhu, so this is what your pheromones smell like…”

Lin Zhu hadn’t expected it either—

That his pheromones would actually smell like mint cigarettes.

Thinking about it carefully, however, it felt perfectly reasonable.

In the ABO world, the highest mode of expressing sexuality was the blending and mingling of each other’s pheromones, carrying a part of me in you, and a part of you in me.

Before this, Lin Zhu had never engaged in any intimate physical acts. Even his wet dreams after entering puberty never featured a specific person.

In other words… Yan Ruoyun was his sexual awakening. A few days ago, on a particular night while Yan Ruoyun was away on a business trip, Lin Zhu had even dreamed of him.

In the dream, the alley was dim.

Lin Zhu leaned against the wall, and Yan Ruoyun leaned against him.

The two embraced tightly, allowing the other’s tongue to invade their mouths, recklessly sweeping up everything in a deep, mint-flavored kiss.

After waking up, Lin Zhu’s face flushed bright red with embarrassment, though his heart harbored a secret joy. The first thing he did when he got out of bed that morning wasn’t washing up, but washing his pajama pants… He was too embarrassed to initiate contact with Yan Ruoyun for the entire rest of the day.

In the end, it was Yan Ruoyun who called him.

He still remembered, right before hanging up, the man had suddenly said:

“Lin Zhu, I’m craving a mint.”

That night.

Lin Zhu had to recite his textbooks for quite a while before he could fall asleep.

Even though the two had only shared one deep kiss, the word ‘mint’ seemed to have been endowed with a certain ambiguous meaning, becoming their private, secret code word.

…It made one unable to stop having endless reveries.

Right at this moment.

Lin Zhu cast his eyes down at the man’s rosy lips. He withdrew his index finger, instead using his thumb to press down on the man’s lower lip and tongue, suddenly asking:

“Ge, do you want a mint?”

Yan Ruoyun’s eyes were hidden in the shadows of the youth’s neck. Because of Lin Zhu’s intrusion, his enunciation was extremely slurred, carrying the wet sound of saliva.

He replied in a low voice, “Mn, the mark just now still really hurts…” Even though the tone of the second half of his sentence was incredibly flat, it somehow sounded a bit like he was complaining and acting spoiled.

Yet Lin Zhu still didn’t lean in to kiss him.

It was clearly the youth who initiated the offer, yet he remained focused on the activity of the subcutaneous monitor. Yan Ruoyun waited for a bit, then dissatisfied, he tightened his arms around Lin Zhu’s neck and bit down on his collarbone, leaving a ring of teeth marks.

His teeth were very neat, not sporting overly long canines like Lin Zhu’s, leaving a perfectly regular oval shape.

As Lin Zhu observed the subcutaneous monitor, his mind was still dwelling on Dr. Xu’s instructions—pheromone resistance occurred because Yan Ruoyun’s body was constantly in a state of unfulfilled craving, causing the gland to lose its sensitivity and release pheromones at high intensity.

Its purpose was to garner a response from an Alpha.

But because the gland lacked sensitivity, even though Lin Zhu had already responded and successfully established a new temporary mark with him, Yan Ruoyun’s body still couldn’t react in time.

Or rather, the reaction was delayed.

And during this window of time, Yan Ruoyun would continue to endlessly release pheromones at high intensity. This was the fundamental cause of the damage to his body.

Precisely because the temporary mark took effect too slowly, Dr. Xu had suggested they perform a deep mark.

The level of intimacy of a deep mark was on a completely different scale than a temporary mark; it would allow Yan Ruoyun to react swiftly.

This required Lin Zhu to completely enter deep inside Yan Ruoyun’s body, but without entering the reproductive cavity to form a knot. Otherwise, it would turn into a permanent mark.

It was just that at this stage, regardless of their individual thoughts, neither of them wanted to hastily complete a deep or permanent mark.

Lin Zhu thought about it seriously, and came up with a method.

Without warning, he pulled the thin blanket off the man’s body. Ignoring Yan Ruoyun’s attempts to dodge, he supported his waist, intending to lay him flat on the hospital bed.

Unexpectedly, Yan Ruoyun clamped his legs around his waist, refusing to get down. The tips of his ears suddenly burned, and even his gaze began to dart away.

His legs and Lin Zhu’s waist were separated only by a thin layer of cotton top. Lin Zhu could deeply feel that, due to the man exerting too much force, the muscles on his inner thighs were spasming slightly.

It could also just be that he was too nervous.

But Lin Zhu still peeled the stark-naked man off his body and placed him in the center of the hospital bed.

After completing the temporary mark, although Yan Ruoyun’s symptoms had slightly improved, he was still in a high-fever heat state. Naturally, he couldn’t overpower the youth’s strength.

The moment he lay on the bed, he turned his head to the side, avoiding Lin Zhu’s line of sight, completely unwilling to make eye contact with his little boyfriend.

Lin Zhu roughly knew what was going on.

He looked down at the large wet patch on his own pants. It looked as if a disobedient kitten had peed all over him, appearing particularly wretched and terrible.

Lin Zhu couldn’t afford to care about that right now. The continuous beeping of the subcutaneous monitor hadn’t stopped even once; it was like a death warrant strapped to Yan Ruoyun, severely disturbing one’s peace of mind.

It was only because he had activated the synchronization rate that Lin Zhu could lay the man down without an ounce of shyness, and then climb up onto the bed himself.

The intensive care ward’s bed was soft and spacious, big enough to accommodate two people.

Lin Zhu spread his knees, kneeling upright at the foot of the bed. With a straight posture, he enveloped the man lying in the center of the bed within his shadow.

Yan Ruoyun stubbornly refused to look over. He barely moved, like a silver fish stranded and deprived of oxygen.

Dazzlingly white.

Lin Zhu moved forward two paces. He reached out and brushed away the loose hair on his face. His fingertips glided from the man’s forehead, down the bridge of his nose, over his lips… tracing all the way down to his chest and abdomen.

Then, he kissed them one by one.

Stretching out his arm, he used the webbing of his hand to cover Yan Ruoyun’s lips and tongue, preventing him from starting to bite his fingers again while he wasn’t looking. Then, he used tangible actions to make the man’s body realize…

“Don’t release any more pheromones.”

“——Because, I’m right here.”