Sweet O's Report on Post-Marriage Deterioration - Chapter 5

Everyone in the room cast an unbelievable gaze at Ruan Nian.

Except for Mu Yan.

He silently looked at the young man sitting opposite him.

His brows and eyes were clear and clean, dazzlingly bright as if one could see straight to the bottom at a glance. His eyelashes were very long, like the gently fluttering wings of a butterfly, blocking the light in his eyes between breaths.

His black hair rested obediently behind his ears, and the pure white high-necked knitted sweater slightly covered his delicate chin. He sat on the soft sofa, yet he looked as though he were sitting before a desk and chair, his legs neatly pressed together, his rounded fingertips resting on his knees, and his spine held very straight.

He was so well-behaved.

If not for the striking age listed as the second item in the investigative data, Mu Yan would have felt as though he were looking at a clean student sitting properly in a classroom, waiting for a teacher to start a lesson.

He was far too well-behaved.

Mu Yan even could not help suspecting that someone had leaked information during this period, subjecting the youth to life-threatening pressure and forcing him to say such words.

Yet Ruan Nian’s gaze was far too bright and calm, as if everything were a predetermined arrangement. For a fleeting second, Mu Yan had an illusion: they felt as though they had gone through a long romantic journey, ultimately sitting together in a room where their feelings had naturally blossomed into proposing marriage.

But it was not like that.

Not like that at all.

He had forced an Omega.

Yet the Omega, who appeared gentle and fragile in his eyes, had quickly adjusted everything about himself, rationally and calmly proposing the best possible solution.

An Omega like this suddenly made him feel somewhat helpless.

The scent in the air fluctuated for a moment. Mu Yan’s pheromones were released for an instant, only to be immediately reined in and restrained.

Ruan Nian perceived his restlessness. He said nothing at all, still calmly looking straight into the alpha’s eyes.

Mu Yan’s expression was actually blank, the depths of his eyes pitch-black, as though without the slightest ripple. But Ruan Nian knew that Mu Yan’s inner thoughts at this moment were very complicated, even harboring disagreement and rejection toward the solution he had proposed.

He simply knew.

The connection between high-compatibility AO was closer than he had imagined.

“Niannian! You!”

The one who spoke up this time was not Ruan Shi, but Tan Qiyu, who had remained silent all along on the side.

As a doctor, he understood what had transpired between Ruan Nian and Mu Yan much better.

Mu Yan’s pheromones were extremely aggressive tequila.

Alcohol-type pheromones were extremely successful in military, political, and business circles because alphas possessing such pheromones naturally carried aggressiveness and a compelling leadership presence. Yet with the advent of a peaceful era, such pheromones had grown increasingly rare, existing solely among aristocrats with strict bloodline requirements.

At the same time, excessively high rarity caused them to find it difficult to match with Omega pheromones, making them extremely prone to falling into manic and destructive emotional states. Most alphas could only be forced to endure the torment of violent ruts, ultimately spending their lives in lonely depression.

Meanwhile, Ruan Nian’s pheromones were extraordinarily precious. Or perhaps, they should have been.

His pheromones, much like himself, gave people an impression of non-aggressive soothing scents. Most pheromones of this category were relatively common, easy to match, and immensely welcomed by alphas.

At the same time, the higher the compatibility of the pheromones, the better the comforting effect on both parties. Consequently, individuals with high compatibility easily attracted one another, letting their romance develop naturally.

However, Ruan Nian’s were not like this.

Certain special circumstances had caused his pheromones to mutate, not only delaying his heat but also transforming his pheromones into an extremely rare variety that was difficult to match.

In an interstellar society where alphas far outnumbered omegas, very few omegas found it difficult to match.

Following years of continuous equal rights movements and reforms, although the state no longer enforced marriage quotas and medical science had advanced significantly, the rarer the pheromones, the harder it was to accept universal synthetic pheromones, and the harder it was to peacefully weather a heat.

If AOs with rare pheromones could match and bond, this would be the absolute best win-win choice for both parties.

Tan Qiyu was deeply aware of this point.

Yet how could this be possible? This was not an initial meeting that brought warm memories upon recollection, but rather an accident that plunged the Omega into a nightmare.

Just how much psychological trauma had Ruan Nian failed to show? Unwilling to disclose it himself, Tan Qiyu could only rely on his medical experience to estimate.

The more he thought, the more alarmed and uneasy he felt.

The fact that Ruan Nian had not fallen into depression and could sit here steadily felt like a miracle to him.

Now, Ruan Nian was actually the first to propose marriage.

How was he supposed to believe this?

Ruan Nian seemed to know what he wanted to say. But the youth merely smiled and cut off the unspoken words in advance.

“It is fine, Dr. Tan.”

With this conversation concluded, only the Ruan brothers remained in the room.

“Niannian.”

Ruan Shi’s feelings were extremely complicated.

An alpha’s instinct had caused him since childhood to view taking care of his physically weak younger Omega brother as his own duty. In his eyes, Ruan Nian had always been joyful, soft, and sweet, the most gentle and kind Omega he had ever seen.

Yet he was not fragile in the slightest. Amid drastic family upheavals and youthful accidents, things even an alpha like himself found difficult to accept, Ruan Nian had walked out of the shadows in just a short span of one year and immersed himself back into life.

His younger brother seemed quite different from omegas who were naturally fragile and sensitive in mind; he possessed a heart far more steadfast and strong than an alpha’s.

Time flew by, and the child who used to stand behind him had long grown into a youth as warm and refined as jade. He would still act spoiled and embrace his family members, but he had also learned to conceal his emotions and thoughts, revealing not a single fraction when he chose not to confide.

Yet no matter when, Ruan Nian was always the younger brother he needed to protect in his eyes. Everything that made him unhappy or joyless, Ruan Shi desperately wanted to block before him and help chase away the gloom.

Yet this time, before Ruan Shi could carefully figure out how to clean up the mess, Ruan Nian had already stepped forward and given his answer.

Ruan Nian’s spine did not relax with the departure of outsiders; it remained held straight.

He knew that the hurdle right in front of him was actually the hardest one to clear.

He heard his own voice echo in the room, flat and direct:

“It is fine, older brother. I have thought it through clearly. This actually just happens to solve my pheromone problem, does it not?

“Although it would also be possible not to marry and instead establish a contract to maintain a purely transactional relationship, a marital relationship will be somewhat more stable, and handling subsequent matters will be much more convenient. A surface marital relationship like this holds no losses for me, and Mu Yan is also a suitable partner. You agree with this point as well, right?

“As for myself, older brother need not worry. I will simply treat as if nothing ever happened, just taking what each other needed during the rut, and leaving each other undisturbed at all other times.”

Before the words were finished, Ruan Nian had already been tightly embraced by Ruan Shi.

His eldest brother’s embrace had not changed at all, remaining just as clean and warm as before.

“Niannian. Niannian.” Ruan Shi softly repeated his name, gentle as an elder comforting a young beast.

Ruan Nian finally could not hold it in, his spine curving inch by inch.

His calm and serene disguise was instantly punctured in front of his older brother. His inner weakness and unease had nowhere to hide.

How could he possibly treat it as if nothing happened? The bruises on his body and the occasional dull ache at the back of his neck were constantly hinting to him that he had already been branded by an alpha.

The process had not actually been too painful, yet it stirred up the old scars of his youth, making the wounds that seemed to have healed bleed once more, aching intensely.

The warm family he once possessed had been reduced to coldness, and amidst the illnesses tormented by nightmares, it was his fantasies and obsessions about the future that made him grit his teeth and persevere time and again.

He had once believed that a gentle alpha was definitely waiting for him in the future, bringing back the warmth of a family.

Now everything was impossible.

In the future, he might have an outstanding alpha partner praised by everyone, but they would maintain a polite distance, sustaining a relationship of mutual convenience.

The last remaining bit of utopia in his heart had been snapped apart bit by bit by his own hands, and he forced himself to accept reality, however cold that reality might be.

But it did not matter. After all, he no longer had any other expectations.

Life like this, he could accept it.

Long afterward, the youth’s muffled voice came from within the embrace, carrying a hint of nasal congestion, sounding partly like acting spoiled and partly like self-consolation:

“It is fine, older brother, I can manage.”

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