Resisting Arranged Marriages: Starting with Myself - Chapter 32

On the hospital bed, Le Xiao turned over, curling his body and falling into a quiet sleep.

His hair had lost its usual luster, drooping softly over his forehead like wilted grass. His lips were somewhat dry and cracked, no longer possessing their former rosy vividness. His palm-sized face was halfway covered by the duvet, and his complexion was so pale that it was difficult to distinguish it from the white hospital linens.

Wen Yan watched her son’s sleeping face in silence before stepping lightly out of the ward. On the bench outside the room, Ye Jiming sat with his head bowed, motionless as a statue.

“Xiao Ye?” His consciousness was pulled back to reality. He looked up to see Wen Yan standing before him, her expression full of concern.

“Why have you been sitting here all this time?” she asked, sitting down beside him.

“I, I want to stay here with Xiao Xiao.”

Hearing this, Wen Yan sighed. She finally could not help but ask, “You and Xiao Xiao?”

“It is my fault,” he said in a low voice. “I let Xiao Xiao down.”

Looking at him in this state, Wen Yan hesitated for a moment before saying, “I know. It is a good thing for young people to be ambitious in their careers. You should not blame yourself too much. Although this time, well, Xiao Xiao has also been spoiled by us and is often quite sensible.”

“Back at home, seeing the way you two met for the first time, I could already guess. Xiao Xiao must have thrown quite a few tantrums with you, right?”

“No.” Remembering the way Le Xiao would usually pout and lose his temper, Ye Jiming unconsciously let out a smile. What once seemed ordinary now felt like a sight he might never see again.

“When it comes to marriage and living together, how can everything be so black and white, right or wrong? Most of the time, it is just about each person taking a step back,” Wen Yan’s voice was gentle and pleasant. “It takes two to tango. You both have areas that need improvement.”

She suddenly stopped herself, hesitated for a moment, and then asked, “You heard what I said to Xiao Xiao just now, did you not? Regarding your divorce, what are your thoughts?”

Ye Jiming was suddenly unable to speak, as if a bottle of paste had been poured down his throat, clogging his voice. After a long while, he struggled to force a strained sound through the gaps in his throat.

“I, I respect Xiao Xiao’s wishes.”

Hearing this, the worry in Wen Yan’s brow deepened. “But Xiao Xiao does not know the situation. Are you not clear on it yet? If you two truly get a divorce.”

“I am, of course, willing to be married to Xiao Xiao and stay together for a lifetime. But if he is unwilling, what is the difference between the pain of tying Xiao Xiao to my side for life and using pheromone blockers for a lifetime?”

As he spoke, his voice grew deeper but gradually became steady. Every word was clear.

“I hope for my own happiness, but I hope for Xiao Xiao to be happy even more.”

Wen Yan let out a heavy sigh, completely out of options. She reached out to take Ye Jiming’s hand resting on his knee and said softly, “Good child.”

Then she noticed something wrong: Ye Jiming’s hand was ice cold, not at all the body temperature a living person should have. Her heart skipped a beat, and she quickly looked up at his face. His complexion was pale and wretched, yet his cheeks were flushed with an unnatural redness. Reaching out to touch his forehead, she found it as hot as burning coal.

“You have a fever!” Wen Yan cried out in alarm, immediately moving to call a doctor.

Ye Jiming was startled by her shout and finally realized, belatedly, that something was wrong with him. He pulled on Wen Yan’s hand with a smile. “I am fine, Auntie. It is just a small cold.”

“What small cold!” Wen Yan’s voice turned sharp instinctively. Her brows were tightly knit, her face full of anxiety. “High fever is the most dangerous thing for people with your condition. Have you forgotten?”

Inside the ward.

Waking from his nap, Le Xiao found the room in silence, save for the steady, rhythmic beeping of the monitoring equipment. There was no one else in the private room; even Wen Yan was absent, likely having gone to find a doctor.

Le Xiao used his hand without the IV needle to prop himself up. He placed a pillow behind him to make himself more comfortable. After scrolling through his phone for a few minutes, he began to feel bored. He craned his neck to look around and found something to distract himself.

On the nightstand lay his medical record book, quiet and still. The book looked very old, as if it had been used for many, many years. On the cover, the patient information filled out in black ink was nearly blurred. In the age column, it even said “3 years old.”

Le Xiao was somewhat puzzled as he flipped through the records. He did not remember being frequently ill as a child; in fact, he rarely went to the hospital. Seventeen years had passed, yet he could still see the records he had once used.

He opened the book directly. To his surprise, the old record was filled with diagnostic reports, prescriptions, and medical slips. As he flipped through it, the various papers fluttered down like snowflakes, scattering all over the bed.

Feeling that he had caused trouble, Le Xiao’s almond eyes widened. He began a frantic scramble to clean up the mess. The diverse medical slips were a jumble of different years, doctors, and types, making it impossible to find any order. Le Xiao gritted his teeth and organized them one by one, neatly separating them into several stacks. He read the words on the slips carefully, trying to categorize them, but he was caught off guard by a small line of text.

Pheromone Disorder Syndrome.

The texture of the hospital’s specific ink was already unclear, and the printed characters had become even more blurred under the erosion of time. He did not understand it, yet he felt a secret chill in his heart, as if he already had a bad premonition. He looked up at the patient information in the upper right corner of the slip. It was his diagnosis, without a doubt.

Pheromone Disorder Syndrome, him?

Like a sudden clap of thunder, he could not recover his senses for a long time. He knew about Pheromone Disorder Syndrome, but only to the extent of knowing the name; he did not understand it well. Pheromone Disorder Syndrome is a congenital genetic disease with a probability of about one in ten thousand. Beyond that, he knew nothing.

He opened a search engine to look for information, but after several failed attempts to type the correct characters, he realized his hands were quietly trembling. In a matter of milliseconds, the page displayed the answers he wanted. He skimmed the text rapidly, as if doing so could reduce his tension. His heart beat violently and uncontrollably, as if it were about to leap out of his chest at any moment.

Patients show symptoms in early childhood, mostly between ages 3 and 7, and no later than age 10 for older children. In childhood, patients exhibit symptoms such as swelling, pain, and itching of the gland. As they age and enter the puberty differentiation stage, symptoms vary by secondary gender: Alphas face irregular ruts, burning pain in the gland, and irritability, while Omegas experience irregular heat cycles, swelling pain in the gland, and sensitivity or depression. The peak onset for adult patients is concentrated after age 20. During an episode, Alphas will be unable to control their pheromones; severe cases may involve a loss of reason and high levels of aggression. Omegas will intensely crave the pheromones of a partner; severe cases can lead to high fevers and fainting. There is currently no cure for this genetic disease. For the affected population, only pheromone receptor blockers can be used for suppression to control the condition. Every patient has a unique genetic match of the opposite gender. Patients who are matches for each other have naturally compatible pheromones that can naturally alleviate the condition without the need for any drug intervention.

He read down the lines faster and faster. His breathing grew rapid, and his chest heaved uncontrollably. He felt as if he would suffocate in the next second.

Before today, this syndrome was merely a cold line of text in a textbook. A brief introduction of a few words would never have caught his eye. He did not care about such diseases, their treatment plans, or the symptoms of patients. At most, he might have spent a few moments struggling over the genetic probability of a fictional patient’s child while solving a biology problem.

It was not until this line of text truly fell upon his own head that he realized how heavy a few simple words could be, heavy enough to make a person lose their breath, unable to raise their head or straighten their back.

How could it be him? How could it be him?

He suddenly seemed to go mad, starting to search wildly through the pile of medical slips. The papers he had just organized were all thrown into disorder again. After searching for a long time, he finally pulled out the one he wanted from the pile of old papers, his first diagnosis slip. The old paper had long since turned yellow, thin as a cicada’s wing and nearly translucent, as if it would crumble or vanish with a gentle touch. Le Xiao held it carefully and read the information.

Name: Le Xiao; First Gender: Male; Secondary Gender: Omega; Age: 3 years old.

Below it was a small line of text:

Genetic Match: Ye Jiming; First Gender: Male; Secondary Gender: Alpha; Age: 10 years old.

His heart gave a violent jolt, sinking into his chest with a dull, tight pain. A sudden roar filled his ears, and for a moment, he felt as if he had gone deaf, unable to hear any other sounds. So, this was why his parents had been working tirelessly to facilitate their engagement.

It was not some childhood betrothal or arranged marriage at all. He and Ye Jiming, they were naturally compatible genetic matches. So this was why, even without a mark, he would instinctively crave Ye Jiming’s cedar pheromones, be drawn to him, and move closer to him subconsciously. They were naturally attracted to each other; they were a match made in heaven.

Le Xiao trembled all over, unable to recover from the massive shock for a long time. The last line of the diagnostic report was the doctor’s flamboyant signature, with the date from that year in the bottom right corner. It was April 13, seventeen years ago.

He suddenly remembered that day in Nanfeng Village, when Ye Jiming held the silver ring he had crafted himself and placed it solemnly on his finger. He had asked curiously what the 0413 in the inner ring’s “04130902” meant. He had almost jumped with anxiety trying to guess but failed, eventually giving up in frustration.

From beginning to end, Ye Jiming had only stood by and watched him with a smile. When Le Xiao pulled on his arm demanding an answer, he had said with eyes full of laughter, “You will find out one day.”

Since then, this string of numbers had begun to appear frequently in every corner of his life: the house code had been changed to it, Ye Jiming’s phone password was it, and even the payment password was set to “413902.” He had encountered this string of numbers in countless moments of his life, yet he had never known its meaning until now.

Now, he finally knew. This was the day they first met. It was the day they were confirmed to be a match made in heaven. A drop of water fell onto the old diagnosis report, soaking the date and causing the ink from the pen to blur.

The sound of a handle turning came from outside the door. Wen Yan pushed the door open and entered, saying softly, “Xiao Xiao, the doctor just told me.”

Her voice came to an abrupt halt. Le Xiao, sitting on the bed surrounded by scattered medical records, looked over at her with bloodshot eyes. He was already covered in tears.

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