1122 - Chapter 5

“Only family members can sign this critical condition notice. Are you his partner Chu Beiheng?”

“Yes, I am his partner.”

“Good, please sign here. He’s losing too much blood and needs an immediate transfusion.”

Yan Nanchen’s hand trembled as he held the pen. When he wrote the final character “Heng,” he felt an overwhelming sense of irony. His heart ached as he signed this critical condition notice that didn’t belong to him.

Even the critical condition notice wasn’t his.

What else truly belonged to him?

His mind went blank as he stared at the glaring red light before him with bloodshot eyes. It was too bright, and his heart hurt so much he could barely breathe. If anything happened to Jiang Yi because of him, he would never forgive himself.

After what felt like an eternity, the operating room doors finally opened.

He rushed forward immediately, grabbing the doctor’s arm anxiously. “Doctor, how is he now?”

“His vital signs are stable, but his psychological state may be unstable. Mainly because he can feel the growth of his Omega gland and birth cavity.”

“He’s currently undergoing secondary differentiation, with pheromone concentration already at 80%, definitely an Omega. However, regulations clearly state that Secondary Differentiation Population cannot receive anesthesia during this process, so the pain level he’s enduring is comparable to childbirth.”

“The physical and psychological stress could completely shatter his willpower at any moment.”

“What can I do?”

“If you’re his partner and he deeply loves you, he’ll desperately crave your comfort. Right now, only an Alpha partner can help him through the most painful phase of secondary differentiation. But be careful his mental state is fragile as he struggles to accept becoming an Omega. He already bit a nurse earlier and may lose control at any moment. If he bites someone, press the call button immediately so we can administer sedatives.”

“Understood. Can I see him now?”

“Wait in the ward. He just received sedatives, don’t disturb his rest. Call us the moment he wakes to prevent extreme reactions. Also, when he wakes, lying down may be difficult. The newly differentiated gland on his neck is highly sensitive and requires special care.”

“One more thing, he’ll likely enter Heat soon.”

In the ward, Jiang Yi lay unconscious from the sedatives, his face as pale as paper like all vitality had been drained from him, nearly blending into the hospital’s white sheets. His furrowed brows suggested bad dreams, each frown tugging at the abrasions on his cheeks.

“Mmm…”

“What’s wrong, Yi? Does it hurt?”

The moment Yan Nanchen heard Jiang Yi’s pained whimper, his soul trembled. His gaze locked onto Jiang Yi, yet he couldn’t even hold his hand both were bandaged from minor abrasions.

He could only watch helplessly, so close yet untouchable.

Suddenly, Jiang Yi violently gripped the sheets, curling into himself with agonized whimpers. The movement yanked the IV needle from his hand, sending droplets of blood splattering across his pale skin.

“Yi Yi, Yi Yi!” He reached out to hold Jiang Yi’s restless body, preventing him from touching his wounds, and then saw the tears sliding down Jiang Yi’s cheeks.

“It hurts.”

“Puppy hurts.”

“Someone threw me out of the car.”

Jiang Yi’s pained, choked voice echoed in his ears, and Yan Nanchen felt as if something shattered in his mind. The next moment, he saw Jiang Yi open his eyes.

When he met Jiang Yi’s tear-filled, reddened eyes, the grievance hidden beneath those tears instantly shattered the restraint he had been struggling to maintain.

“Why did you take so long to come?”

Those words made Yan Nanchen feel utterly ashamed.

“I’m sorry.” Yan Nanchen sat by the bed and, seeing Jiang Yi in pain from lying down, gently pulled him into his arms, whispering soothingly, “I’m sorry, baby. I was late.”

Jiang Yi felt weak all over, but the back of his neck hurt terribly.

Suddenly, he remembered something, and tears began to fall uncontrollably. He bit his lower lip hard and reached to touch the back of his neck.

“Don’t touch that!” Yan Nanchen swiftly grabbed his hand to stop him, but felt Jiang Yi resist.

Jiang Yi immediately broke free from Yan Nanchen’s embrace, refusing to let him touch him, and continued reaching for the back of his neck. The suppressant patch there seemed like his last shred of dignity if he tore it off, he could still be an Alpha.

“Yi Yi, listen to me. It’ll hurt if you tear it off now that you’ve just presented.”

“I don’t want to be an Omega.” Jiang Yi tried to struggle free from Yan Nanchen’s grip, but he had no strength left. Worse, he had already presented as an Omega. As if struck by a sudden realization, despair crushed his rationality, and he cried out at Yan Nanchen, “I’m not an Omega!!!”

That tearful cry struck Yan Nanchen’s heart like a hammer.

He met Jiang Yi’s gaze, filled with resentment and hatred. Though Jiang Yi hadn’t directly blamed him, it felt like an accusation against him, the one responsible for all this.

Knowing he couldn’t break free, Jiang Yi looked at his boyfriend, tears streaming down his face. He lowered his gaze, lashes trembling. “I hate Yan Nanchen.”

I hate Yan Nanchen.

Yan Nanchen’s mind buzzed as if his heart had been slammed to the ground and trampled into a bloody pulp. That weak, tearful declaration carried devastating force.

In his daze, Jiang Yi suddenly pushed him away.

Jiang Yi threw off the covers, trying to get out of bed.

Yan Nanchen quickly wrapped his arms around him, refusing to let Jiang Yi harm himself. Using his physical advantage, he held Jiang Yi tightly, feeling his resistance and struggles. He could only patiently coax him, “Yi Yi, be good. I’ll handle this and make it right for you. I won’t let you suffer for nothing.”

Perhaps from the back-and-forth, Jiang Yi felt exhausted.

He let his boyfriend hold him, resting his heavy head against Yan Nanchen’s chest. As his emotions and body settled, the pain grew sharper especially the ache at the back of his neck, as if mocking his futile resistance. It was already done.

Jiang Yi was no longer an Alpha. He was an Omega.

Biting his lip to stifle his sobs, the pain overwhelmed him. Unable to hold on any longer, he clung to his boyfriend, broken and miserable.

“Don’t bite yourself.” Yan Nanchen looked down to see Jiang Yi biting his lower lip again, already drawing blood. He pinched Jiang Yi’s chin and placed his own hand near his mouth. “If it hurts, bite me instead.”

Without hesitation, Jiang Yi lowered his head and sank his teeth into the fleshy part of Yan Nanchen’s hand.

Yan Nanchen’s temple throbbed as he pressed his lips together, tilting his head back slightly to take a silent deep breath, enduring the sharp pain radiating from his hand. What was this pain compared to what Jiang Yi was going through?

The pain lasted only ten seconds.

Then he felt something cool drip onto the back of his hand. He froze for half a second before looking down.

“I’m sorry.” Jiang Yi saw the blood welling up from the deep bite marks on his boyfriend’s hand. Tears streaming down his face, he clung to that hand, pressing his forehead against it. “It just hurt so much. I’m sorry.”

Before he could finish, Yan Nanchen pulled him into a tight embrace.

The sudden force of being drawn into that hug jolted his abdomen, draining all color from his face.

Right. He was an Omega now. His birth cavity was developing inside him growing in an unnatural, unscientific way. It was like having a fist slowly unfurling in his abdominal cavity.

Overturning twenty-six years of believing himself to be an Alpha.

From now on, his constitution would no longer be as robust, strong, or resilient as an Alpha’s. Instead, it would become soft and fragile like an Omega’s. He wouldn’t experience ruts anymore, he’d go into heat. He wouldn’t be the one marking his lover; he’d be the one being marked.

And he’d have to endure pregnancy after being completely marked.

It was terrifying.

Why had this happened to him?

“Puppy, why am I an Omega?”

Hearing that weak voice, Yan Nanchen’s heart ached even more. He kissed Jiang Yi’s forehead tenderly. “No matter what you become, you’ll always be Puppy’s most beloved. I’ll stay with you forever and always.”

“Look at my gland.” Comforted by his boyfriend’s words, Jiang Yi felt slightly better. In moments of vulnerability, people instinctively seek solace from those closest to them. Gritting his teeth against the pain, he lowered his head.

“Alright, let me see.” As Jiang Yi bowed his head, exposing the pale nape of his neck, Yan Nanchen saw that the gland was already covered by a blocker patch, hiding the differentiation process. Yet he could still detect the intense scent of Tuberose Jasmine pheromones wafting from it. He pressed a gentle kiss to the spot. “Does it hurt badly?”

Unlike the Tuberose Jasmine scent from when Jiang Yi was an Alpha, this pheromone had now transformed into an Omega’s belonging to the person he loved most. The fragrance was overwhelmingly alluring to him.

Since Jiang Yi had just undergone secondary differentiation, he couldn’t use blockers yet. This pheromone leakage would persist for some time.

“It hurts so much.” Jiang Yi lifted his face, looking at Yan Nanchen with teary eyes. “It’s excruciating like someone’s cutting into my flesh with a knife. And earlier, I was kicked out of a car.”

Yan Nanchen had never seen Jiang Yi cry like this before. Even when he cried during intimate moments, it was nothing like this fragile, broken state. The thought of someone forcibly injecting Jiang Yi with an overdose of Secondary Differentiation Special Medicine and then throwing him out of a vehicle made his expression darken instantly.

He kissed Jiang Yi again, his eyes filled with tenderness. “I won’t let that person get away with this. For every ounce of suffering you’ve endured, I’ll make them repay it a thousandfold.”

“Thank goodness this wasn’t on your brother, or it could have been fatal.” Jiang Yi buried his face in his boyfriend’s chest, inhaling his pheromones. The scent now felt completely different from before, an intoxicating allure that made him want to immerse himself completely, defenseless.

It provided some small comfort.

“Do you think I wouldn’t hurt if it were you? It would kill me.” Yan Nanchen’s heart twisted at Jiang Yi’s concern for Ranran even now. Both were equally precious to him, and he wished he could split himself in two.

“Puppy, I’m tired,” Jiang Yi murmured weakly.

“Alright, rest for a while.”

“I want you to hold me while I sleep.”

“Okay, I’ll hold you.”

Yan Nanchen carefully cradled Jiang Yi in his arms, soothing him to sleep. That his emotions had stabilized at all was a stroke of luck, he knew full well recovery would take time.

Soon, the breathing in his arms grew slow and steady.

He gazed down at Jiang Yi’s pale, bruised face, drowning in self-reproach. Once again, he had messed up. His poor judgment had dragged both Ranran and Jiang Yi into this.

Jiang Yi had said he hated Yan Nanchen again.

Should he still say it?

But if he didn’t, what then? Left unchecked, things would spiral beyond his control.

Two weeks later,

Late at night, the hospital room was suddenly flooded with the overwhelming scent of an omega in heat, tormenting the Alpha’s restraint.

“Puppy, give it to me.”

Yan Nanchen woke halfway to the suffocating omega pheromones, only to find Jiang Yi straddling him, cheeks flushed with desperate need.

Seeing his boyfriend awake, Jiang Yi cupped his face and kissed him, pleading in a trembling whisper, “Puppy, I can’t take it, please, hurry!”

The choked, shuddering plea sent a violent tremor through Yan Nanchen’s strained nerves. He sucked in a sharp breath and quickly wrapped Jiang Yi in the blanket.

Damn it! Jiang Yi’s heat had hit, why now?!

“Puppy, I want to be your omega.”

Yan Nanchen froze, stunned as he met Jiang Yi’s tear-filled eyes. “What?”

Through the blanket, their scorching body heat threatened to burn through all barriers.

“Puppy, I’m begging you. Mark me. Let me be yours, only yours.” Jiang Yi’s nape burned as his rationality crumbled, leaving only raw instinct to beg his puppy for relief.

Each broken sob chipped away at Yan Nanchen’s resolve.

How could he possibly deserve this? How could he mark Jiang Yi while drowning in lies?

Agonized by his heat, Jiang Yi ached for his Alpha’s touch. But when his pleas went unanswered, his heart fractured. “Puppy, don’t you love me?”

Hadn’t he sworn to love him endlessly?

“I love you.” Yan Nanchen gripped Jiang Yi’s restless hands, conflict and devotion warring in his gaze. “I love you so much.”

How could he not love Jiang Yi?

“Then why won’t you mark me?” Jiang Yi saw his boyfriend’s hesitation, and his emotionally sensitive state made him suspicious: “Don’t you want to be with me anymore? Do you think less of me because I’m a secondarily differentiated Omega?”

Yan Nanchen watched as Jiang Yi began to cry. Ever since differentiating into an Omega, this guy had become somewhat sentimental and fragile, prone to tears. His heart ached as he wiped away Jiang Yi’s tears, feeling the man’s abnormally high body temperature:

“I want to be with you.”

But he couldn’t mark Jiang Yi before coming clean. If he did, there would truly be no turning back.

“Then mark me!” Jiang Yi grabbed his boyfriend’s shoulders, shaking them through his sobs: “You’re all I have left, puppy. I’m so scared right now, you know that, I’m terrified. In this whole world, you’re the only one I have left, puppy. If you don’t mark me, what am I supposed to do?”

Yan Nanchen looked at Jiang Yi, whose emotions were beginning to spiral out of control. His heart felt like it was being sliced apart. Not a single day in the past two weeks had been free of torment, and now he was being forced to make a choice.

He was trapped in a dilemma moving forward was impossible, but retreating filled him with dread.

Yet if he told Jiang Yi the truth now, the man would surely break. What would he do then?

“Alright.”

Before the last syllable of his agreement had fully left his lips, it was swallowed by Jiang Yi’s scorching kiss.

“Yi Yi, let me lock the door first.”

“I can’t hold back.”

“Be good, this is a hospital. Let me have the floor cleared first, okay?”

“Fine then.”

That night, Yan Nanchen emptied out the VIP ward on the top floor. Fortunately, there were only three private rooms on that level, and aside from them, no one else was present.

Thus, the entire floor was sealed off from midnight onward, not reopening until seven days later.

After that night, Yan Nanchen had completely and thoroughly marked Jiang Yi.

And it was after that night that the true tragedy began.

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