Since they were going to do the experiment, they had to make preparations. Yan Mu went to the bedroom to fetch something, while Jiang Zhihuo, feeling bored, decided to turn the notes on the paper into a table.
Yan Mu made thorough preparations. From winter coats to summer T-shirts, frequently used pens and often-read books, everything was neatly arranged on the coffee table.
The effects of the kiss at school were still there, and they had to wait for the heat symptoms to reappear before they could start the experiment.
For the first time, the school bully and the god of learning stayed in the same place peacefully. Not arguing was already the limit; having a conversation seemed to be unbelievable. Each person leaned on the end of the sofa, playing with their phones.
Jiang Zhihuo casually started a game. Yan Mu was using an app to practice questions, fifteen multiple-choice questions with ten-minute time limit. After answering two questions, Xie Qiu’s messages kept popping up.
Xie Qiu: Yan-ge, are you and the school bully…everything alright?
Yan Mu didn’t pause the timer, switching to WeChat, and replied, “It’s nothing.”
Xie Qiu: About the wound on your hand, what happened?
Yan Mu lowered his head. The red mark from yesterday where the nurse had touched was still there, though it had faded a bit. However, with his fair skin, the color still appeared dark.
Xie Qiu also wasn’t aware about the tactile defensiveness disorder.
Yan Mu: I did it myself.
Jiang Zhihuo was halfway through his game when messages from Zong Bei bombarded him. Probably tired of doing the test paper for a long time, the chat box kept showing up.
Zong Bei: Huo-ge, I heard you went to troubled Yan Mu?
Zong Bei: What’s going on between the two of you?
Zong Bei: Do you need help?
Jiang Zhihuo was in the middle of playing a shooting game, snipping his opponents on the head. This area was likely the next safe zone, so he wasn’t in a rush to move. After controlling his character to find cover, Jiang Zhihuo exited the game.
Jiang Zhihuo: Am I the kind of person who would pick a fight for no reason?
At this point, it was time for class. Zong Bei replied quickly: When it comes to Yan Mu, you are.
Jiang Zhihuo: …….
He took a photo of Yan Mu, not revealing his face, with the camera tilted slightly to the side, capturing half of the wall and only a bit of his clothes. He originally wanted to prove that he and Yan Mu were getting along now. He only typed half of the message and hadn’t even had a chance to send the picture when suddenly he felt his whole body stiffen. An uncontrollable wave of heat rushed through every corner of his body in an instant—
The rich, mellow aroma of wine filled the entire living room.
Yan Mu’s hand paused as he was working on the problem.
—A deep mark would establish a subtle connection between alphas and omegas. Albeit this connection had a little effect on alphas, it was like a shackle for omegas, to the extent that even medicines couldn’t relieve .
“Quick! Quick!” Jiang Zhihuo glanced at the time when the heat surged through him, his breathing rapid. “Remember this, forty minutes!”
Since the moment they kissed at school until the symptoms began, forty minutes had passed.
Yan Mu hurriedly wrote ‘40’ in the ‘kiss’ column, then grabbed a pen from the coffee table and handed it to Jiang Zhihuo.
The symptoms showed no sign of relief.
It’s useless!
Jiang Zhihuo tugged his collar forcefully, taking a deep breath as Yan Mu handed him a book.
It’s still useless!
Later, they tried a few more things, yet the daily items had no effect. Jiang Zhihuo’s heat was not only carried on, but also grew more intense. Sweat started to form at his back, a buzzing noise filled his ears, and his chest felt stuffy. Even breathing required all of his efforts.
Until Yan Mu draped a coat over his head.
The heavy burden was instantly lifted, but only for a very short time. For Jiang Zhihuo, who was in pain, it was just a brief moment. His body, which had just relaxed, curled up again.
Coat, three seconds.
Yan Mu, then placed a T-shirt over him. The T-shirts were usually worn close to the skin, so the pheromone residue was relatively stronger, able to provide relief for about thirty seconds.
Yan Mu almost tried everything that could be worn on his body. Jiang Zhihuo’s body was torn between pain and relief, the intermittent heat torturing him. In just a few minutes, he was drenched in cold sweat, too weak to even cry out. His face paled as he collapsed onto the sofa.
Yan Mu held his wrist and said, “Take a break.”
Jiang Zhihuo pointed to the half-drunk bottle of mineral water on the table, gesturing for Yan Mu to hand it over. He unscrewed the cap and took a sip, breathing deeply, mentally preparing himself as he gritted his teeth, and said, “Continue.”
This kind of pain was enough to endure once, it was impossible to rest.
Daily items were useless. The closer the clothes and accessories were worn on the body, they also lost their effectiveness over time. In fact, none of them worked; the longest-lasting effect was only a minute and a half.
The outcome was known long ago, before the experiment. However, Jiang Zhihuo didn’t want to give up. If there was even a slight possibility, who the hell wanted to be in contact with their love rival all day long?!
Yet, the facts were right in front of them. Whether they wanted to accept it or not, they had to. Compared to heat, isn’t this just about having contact? Come! Bring it on!
The paper only listed five types of contact, with kissing being the most limited. Anything beyond that…it would never happen in this lifetime!
It was during summer in Lincheng. As soon as Yan Mu entered the house, he turned on the air conditioner. The cold air blew down from above, the external unit emitted a buzzing sound.
The experiment continued.
At first, it was a hug and holding hands.
Ten seconds later, Yan Mu drew two lines in front of these two options.
They have tried both at school, but neither worked. Only continuous contact was effective; once let go, it would return to its original state.
Then……
The two of them stared at the three words in the column silently.
Biting ears.
Jiang Zhihuo gulped.
Although it was just an experiment to see how long this kind of contact could last, Jiang Zhihuo still felt uneasy when it came to doing it seriously.
Looking up at Yan Mu, who was expressionless, Jiang Zhihio thought about how the other person had previously suggested, ‘let’s try these first.’ Yan Mu remained as indifferent as now.
Jiang Zhihuo was unwilling to accept losing to Yan Mu in this regard, thus he put on a calm expression and said, “Don’t worry, this kind of thing is very simple. You don’t need to do anything; I have experience.”
As he spoke, Jiang Zhihio moved closer.
Yan Mu, as instructed, remained still, but Jiang Zhihuo was shaking inside.
Although he had just kissed Yan Mu, biting the ear wasn’t a big deal compared to kissing, but that was in a moment of urgency. Now…Jiang Zhinuo truly didn’t know how to start.
He hesitated near Yan Mu’s ears for a long time, thinking to himself that he had already put on the act. If he didn’t dare to make a move now, wouldn’t Huo-ge lose face?
He hardened his heart and bit the other person’s earlobe.
The earlobe was cold and soft.
After that, Jiang Zhihuo didn’t know what to do next. Thinking he had already bit it, he decided to run his lips along the edge of the ear. When his breath bruhsed past the back of the ear, Yan Mu’s body trembled.
“That’s enough.” Yan Mu said coldly.
“Oh.” Jiang Zhihuo let go and moved to the other end of the sofa, playing with his phone.
He was too nervous earlier, but now that he had calmed down, Jiang Zhihuo realized his heart was beating amazingly fast. This was just biting the ear; the paper mentioned that next would be biting the neck and kissing.
These two words on the paper seemed wild.
Biting the ear was more effective than the previous tries and provided a longer-lasting suppression. Jiang Zhihuo drank several times in a row. When he reached for the mineral water for the fifth time, he realized the bottle was empty. He asked, “Is there any more water?”
Yan Mu stood up and fetched another bottle.
Fifteen minutes later, the heat came again.
With the previous experience and having adjusted his mindset, Jiang Zhihuo forced himself to believe that he was an expert in flirting who could handle both men and women and directly seduced Yan Mu.
“Isn’t it just planting a strawberry? This is a man’s honor!” Jiang Zhihuo muttered beside Yan Mu’s ear, trying to boost his courage. “You know, back in the day, right, with my ex, I liked to plant…”
“…” Yan Mu interrupted, “Hurry up.”
Okay.
Someone was impatient about being bitten. Since he was the one doing it anyway, he might as well go for it.
The carotid artery pulse was at an average rate of 1.33 beats per second. When his lips touched, the pulse was particularly clear.
This…how does one bite the neck?
Jiang Zhihuo had never done it before, and he didn’t know how.
Omega’s glands were located at the back of the neck. Alphas didn’t have glands, making that area very soft. After all, the neck was a vulnerable part of the body. Jiang Zhihuo used to be an alpha; although he never marked an omega and even unexpectedly became an omega himself, he still retained the instincts of an alpha..
For example, when touching the back of the neck, one might subconsciously use their teeth to bite a small patch of flesh and then lightly lick over it.
A few seconds later, he realized his actions were off. He feigned sucking a few times, then loosened his mouth with an air of having ‘experience.’.
Jiang Zhihuo had never imagined that instead of leaving behind a brave scar, he would end up with a strawberry mark.
Doing this kind of thing was too awkward, and after separating, the two were silent. Yan Mu calmly opened the practice app. This type of app had a large question bank with low difficulty, and Yan Mu usually used it to pass time, often getting all answers correct. However, after spending ten minutes on the questions, he discovered that he had gotten half of the fifteen questions wrong.
—He hadn’t absorbed a single word; all his problem-solving skills had vanished under these circumstances, leaving his mind completely blank.
Jiang Zhihuo wasn’t doing well either. He had a high rank in the shooting game, within the top twenty of the server. He often played with lower-ranked players like Zong Bei and Chang Luo, winning almost every match, and calling himself the king of the battlefield. However, in the recent few rounds, he kept landing in the same spot and getting killed immediately, turning the high-level shooting game into a parachuting game.
Not in the right state of mind, and with the risk of losing ranks from repeatedly getting killed, Jiang Zhihuo quit the game. After struggling with a screen full of apps for a long time, he finally opened the timer. The timer on his phone had a background sound, and the numbers on the screen ticked rapidly.
Fifteen minutes had already passed.
Jiang Zhihuo had already figured out a general pattern for the duration of the suppression. The more pheromones in the area, the longer suppression lasted.
Alphas marked their territory with their teeth, and pheromones were often penetrated into omega’s glands through the sharp fangs.
Among the limits they could currently accept, it was obvious which area had the most pheromones.
Ten minutes later, the symptoms reappeared.
Yan Mu put down his phone and glanced at Jiang Zhihuo.
In the paper, kissing was divided into two levels, a simple touch on the lips and a deep kiss. They had already tried the ordinary kiss; the two quick kisses Jiang Zhihuo had given at school could suppress the symptoms for forty minutes.
First, it was a touch on the lips.
Jiang Zhihuo: “…Do you want to go first, or I go first?”
Yan Mu: “It’s up to you.”
Jiang Zhihuo: “Then I’ll go first.”
Kissing was something where it didn’t really matter who made the first move; once the lips touched, just go over it in one go. However, when Jiang Zhihuo leaned in toward Yan Mu, Yan Mu’s handsome and aloof face appeared in his vision, and he had no idea what to do next.
Yan Mu was truly good-looking, which was the reason Jiang Zhihuo admitted that this person was his love rival. If it were someone else, based on looks alone, they wouldn’t be worthy of comparison.
Yan Mu and Jiang Zhihuo became famous in different ways. Jiang Zhihuo gained fame in a single battle by beating up the school bully next door. Yan Mu, on the other hand, was known on the very first day when he entered the first year of high school.
At that time, he went on the stage as the representative of the new students to give a speech. That day, the school forum was flooded with photos of this handsome guy. Humans are visual creatures, especially high school students, and with the anonymity of the forum, their comments became even bolder and more unrestrained.
The comment that received the most likes at that time was: I’ll be frank, this junior is so damn handsome! I just want to give him a kiss, just once.
Now, this face, this person, was right in front of Jiang Zhihuo.
Jiang Zhihuo: “……”
Treating the illness was more important; even if it was a pig in front of him right now, he would still give a kiss.
He closed his eyes.
Perhaps, Jiang Zhihuo’s movements were too slow; after staring for a long time without moving, Yan Mu directly placed his hand on the back of the other person’s head and pressed down.
Jiang Zhihuo: “!”
He could only lower his head as he followed Yan Mu’s actions.
Their lips touched, and after lingering for five seconds, they separated.
Then, Yan Mu released his hand and stood up, walking into the room.
Jiang Zhihuo was left alone in the living room. For a virgin who had never been in a relationship, this kind of contact felt excessively ambiguous, even though the person involved was a guy, his love rival, and his enemy. Although it was just an experiment, it was hard not to be mentally affected.
During those five seconds, Jiang Zhihuo even forgot to breathe.
Yan Mu stayed in the room for five minutes.
The two of them continued to sit at the opposite end of the sofa, playing with their phones.
The time seemed to be unusually long. Jiang Zhihuo clearly felt that a lot of time had passed, but the feeling of having heat hadn’t yet appeared. He realized that only half an hour had actually gone by.
The experiment was only supposed to go as far as kissing, leaving the last column blank.
—Deep kiss.
The author has something to say:
Thank you all very, very much for reading this!
I love you all so much!
