After the three days of marriage leave ended, Yan Qiongyu returned to the Omega Academy to continue his studies.
The first seven years of study at the academy consisted of various courses aimed at cultivating students’ docile temperaments and artistic skills—put simply, teaching students to look like Omegas, and teaching them how to please Alphas.
As for eighth and ninth grade, the studies were meant to better care for Alphas. This stage was also known as “a bride’s newlywed education.”
In order to better care for Alphas, starting from eighth grade, Omegas had to study the physiological structure of Alphas and learn everything related to their bodies.
Before having an engagement, “purity” was the standard and virtue of an Omega. Omega students who had never been exposed to such “impure” knowledge before all flushed red in the face, shyly looking at the content on their learning terminals, curious yet embarrassed.
As a newly promoted eighth-grade student, Yan Qiongyu was also flipping through this physiological content. His face carried the same faint redness as everyone else’s, but inside, there was not the slightest ripple.
As early as when he was able to read on his own, he had already learned these things through other means.
Thanks to Doctor Hu Qingyu of White Oak Hospital, even Alpha corpses were not something he had never dissected; let alone textbook diagrams like these—he could draw something even more detailed than this with his bare hands.
With boredom in his heart, he flipped through the textbook, skimming past physiological structures, until he reached Alpha estrus.
An Alpha’s estrus generally appears after adulthood. Long-term emotional suppression or anger may trigger estrus prematurely. During estrus, an Alpha may undergo drastic changes in temperament, do things they normally would not do, and exhibit tendencies toward harming others or self-harm.
The book said that this period was the only time Alphas would display vulnerability, and that only an Omega’s pheromones could soothe them.
Yan Qiongyu was unconvinced.
An Alpha’s estrus was just like an Omega’s heat period—mainly hormonal imbalance caused by bodily stimulation or the receipt of a maturity signal. He felt this could completely be regulated through medication.
But the school’s textbooks always liked to overemphasize the importance and indispensability of Omegas to Alphas, using this to brainwash Omegas.
After all, making them think they were going to rescue and soothe Alphas was far easier to accept than plainly telling them they were going to be tools for venting desire and reproduction.
He unhurriedly flipped past this textbook that held little value for him, when he suddenly received a message. The teacher responsible for his daily life notified him to pause class and step outside.
Yan Qiongyu smiled apologetically at the instructor and stood up to leave.
“Student Yan Qiongyu, news has come from the Wang family. Your fiancée, Miss Wang Luan, has confirmed entry into estrus. She needs your soothing. Please go over immediately to accompany her and help her through this painful time.” The teacher responsible for arranging his life and monitoring his behavior looked at him with an encouraging expression.
Because of his obedience and initiative in this engagement, this teacher had been much more at ease with him recently.
Yan Qiongyu recalled the textbook he had just flipped through and felt that Miss Wang Luan’s estrus had come at an almost overly coincidental time.
On the surface, he naturally maintained an expression of concern and worry, boarded the Wang family’s car that came to pick him up, and rushed off to visit his fiancée.
They had only been apart for two days. Yan Qiongyu truly had not expected Wang Luan to suddenly enter estrus.
But thinking about it carefully, it was not without warning. Wang Luan’s sudden display of aggression toward Hei Yan on Snowfield Star had surprised him back then. Indeed, before and after estrus, one would be more irritable than usual.
It was just that this Miss Wang Luan’s irritability was limited, and he had not noticed it at the time.
Omega pheromones’ soothing effect on Alphas in estrus was something everyone knew, so after discovering that Wang Luan’s estrus had arrived, the Wang family, aside from bringing Yan Qiongyu over, did not use any medication to interfere with Wang Luan.
Once again entering Wang Luan’s room, Yan Qiongyu saw Wang Luan lying stiffly on the bed, her hands crossed and clasped over her chest.
If not for the fact that her face and eyes were flushed red, this posture would actually look quite peaceful.
Wang Luan sensed someone arriving beside her. She did not pay it any mind, still staring straight at the ceiling above her.
At this moment, her mind was enveloped by a wave of sorrowful emotion; reason was temporarily unable to approach the center, much less exert any effect.
On the night they returned from Snowfield Star, she began to run a fever. At first, she only thought she had caught a fever from playing in the snow too much on Snowfield Star, but very quickly, something felt wrong.
She did not sleep all night, her mind beginning to uncontrollably think about things that made her sad and angry.
For example, being kept like livestock here as a breeding stud and tool, for example this body she could never accept, for example losing the family and friends who cared about her, for example those unreasonable, detestable Alphas who would keep coming to cause trouble, and so on.
The more she thought, the worse it felt, and she could not escape this vicious cycle of thoughts at all. The negative effects of her emotions came rushing in fiercely, practically like her past menstrual period amplified hundreds of times.
She went through the initial irritability and anxiety, the continuous physical pain, and now had become dejected and dispirited, lying on the bed unwilling to do anything, only staring at the ceiling as tears fell dully.
Yan Qiongyu stood by the bed and greeted her: “Miss Wang Luan?”
“………………”
“Wang Luan?”
“………………”
Yan Qiongyu reached out and pressed his hand on Wang Luan’s arm. One second, two seconds… a minute passed, and Wang Luan showed no reaction at all.
Withdrawing his hand, Yan Qiongyu sat down by the bed and thought, “Is the impact of estrus this great?”
Wang Luan suddenly began to tremble all over, hugging the arm Yan Qiongyu had touched to her chest, sobbing softly: “I’m dirty.”
Yan Qiongyu: “That’s not really necessary—to dislike me this much?”
Wang Luan turned her head to look at him, another string of tears soaking into the pillow as she called out, “Yan Qiongyu.”
Yan Qiongyu leaned closer. “Mm? What is it?”
Wang Luan: “Help me with something. Help me cut that thing off.”
Yan Qiongyu: “…What thing?”
He seemed to understand, yet did not quite dare to be certain. Following Wang Luan’s gaze downward, seeing her lift the blanket and try to pull up her skirt, his eyelid twitched. He immediately pressed down her movement, covered her back up with the blanket, and held her firmly in place.
Fortunately, there were only the two of them here. If the butler were present and heard this, he would probably immediately send Wang Luan to the hospital to have her brain examined.
This kind of thought had already gone beyond what a normal Alpha in estrus might do.
“Miss Wang Luan, calm down. That’s just a normal bodily organ.”
Wang Luan let out a mournful cry: “I don’t want it! I don’t want it!”
Although it was very inappropriate, seeing her make such sounds and thrash wildly under the blanket really struck Yan Qiongyu as comical, and he nearly could not help laughing out loud.
“Wuwu… I don’t want this thing… wuwu… you’re my companion, help me cut it off…” Wang Luan had already turned into a broken record that had drunk fake alcohol.
Knowing that Alphas in estrus were very hard to persuade, Yan Qiongyu could only say, “Alright then. I’ll prepare first and see how to help you in a way that’s more appropriate.”
First, he would take a look at the changes in her bodily data.
He took out the blood collection device, did not even blink as he pricked Wang Luan, drew a tube of her blood, and then went to collect her glandular fluid.
According to his previous habits, he would first use his own pheromones to help her expose her glandular fangs.
The textbook said that Omega pheromones would help Alphas regain calm, but they did not seem to be like that.
When she smelled Yan Qiongyu’s pheromones, Wang Luan was dazed for a moment, and then she suddenly shed the sorrow and despair from before. Her tone became excited as she said, “It’s the smell of freedom!”
Yan Qiongyu was puzzled by this. He put away her glandular fluid and was just about to analyze it together with her blood when he saw Wang Luan spring up from the bed, raise her arms, and shout loudly, “Rebuke! Rebuke the disappearance of this freedom!”
Not only did she not calm down, in just a few seconds she had leapt to the opposite extreme from dejection.
Yan Qiongyu: “?” His first reaction was to turn on the recording function to document it, planning to play it back for Wang Luan after she recovered, so that the usually taciturn Miss Wang Luan could relive her “lively and adorable” self from this period.
Wang Luan was still raising her fists and shouting, “Rebuke this darkness, even if you are drowned in the darkness and unable to resist! Dawn will surely arrive!”
Yan Qiongyu propped his chin on his hand, smiling as he watched Wang Luan make declarations on the bed without beginning or end.
Wang Luan suddenly turned her head and caught sight of him, abruptly grabbing his arm and shouting at him, “If life deceives you, do not be sorrowful! Do not be impatient! Days of happiness will surely come!”
“……” Yan Qiongyu smiled. “Alright.”
As he spoke, he gave her an injection—the same sedative anesthetic he used on Hei Yan.
Wang Luan collapsed onto the bed in response. Yan Qiongyu forcefully pulled his arm out of her grasp, frowned as he smoothed the wrinkled sleeve she had grabbed, and began analyzing her bodily data.
The situation was a bit troublesome. It had been mentioned before that Wang Luan’s pheromones lacked a kind of androstenone.
Androstenone was negligible in the composition of pheromones, but in reality, it played a very large role.
When Alphas emit pheromones, broadly speaking, it serves two purposes: one is courtship, the other is intimidation.
Lacking androstenone would make an Alpha insensitive to the pheromones of their own kind. Yan Qiongyu guessed this was the reason Wang Luan had no reaction to other Alphas’ provocative pheromones.
Another point was that without androstenone, it meant she could not emit pheromones that attracted Omegas; likewise, Omega pheromones would not have their proper effect on her.
The production of androstenone was directly related to a person’s mental state. Her mental mutation, those strange thoughts of hers, and her rejection of certain groups—even of herself—had caused her to be unable to secrete androstenone.
Estrus was a normal physiological phenomenon. Generally, Alpha estrus was already difficult to get through; in Wang Luan’s case, it would likely be even harder, and would last longer.
Activating his hidden private smart-brain, Yan Qiongyu contacted Doctor Hu Qingyu.
[Good afternoon, Doctor Hu. Sorry to disturb you. Wang Luan has entered estrus and has brought me some new inspiration regarding pheromones. I want to try artificial androstenone. Please find me the latest relevant materials.]
Doctor Hu Qingyu replied quickly: [Why don’t you try inducing agents?]
Yan Qiongyu glanced at Wang Luan, who was still restless on the bed, and replied with regret: [The movements would be too large and would be discovered. I don’t want the Wang family to discover her special nature and ruin this rare case.]
The people of the Wang family did not care about her. Once they discovered her pheromone defect, they would only use large amounts of drugs to force her to become a beast ruled by instinct and complete the task of reproduction. She looked more pleasing the way she was now.
Doctor Hu Qingyu pointed out: [But you can’t delay for long. Artificial androstenone isn’t as simple as you think. This isn’t something that can be completed in a short time. If her condition doesn’t improve, the Wang family will soon notice something is wrong.]
Yan Qiongyu tapped his fingers lightly on his knee. This was indeed a problem.
He made a decision very quickly: [I will first try extracting androstenone from my own body and inject it into her.]
