Xiao Can was in a daze for a long time afterward.
The feverish skin, enticing fragrance, saliva exchanged against his will, and the strange sensations from the intrusion.
The unfamiliar experiences made him fearful but instinctively brought him enjoyment, even addiction.
Unable to exert any strength in his limbs, his bones felt as if they had turned to jelly, his body only held together by his skin, soft and pliable, easily manipulated.
It wasn’t until he felt a stabbing pain in his neck that he suddenly woke up, realizing what was happening at that moment.
He let out a meaningless whimper, trying to resist, but the Alpha persistently nibbled at his glands, unmoved.
It hurt.
The intense stimulation caused his body to spasm slightly, a numbness spreading along his spine to every limb.
Even lacking experience, he understood what this meant.
It was the most intimate act an Alpha could perform on an Omega.
From that moment on, his body no longer belonged solely to him.
With his eyes closed, Xiao Can muttered with a sob in his voice, his tone muddled and barely audible, not even clear to himself.
After that, he briefly lost consciousness.
When he woke up again, he was still lying on the carpet. He Xingzhou was still lying heavily on top of him, unmoving.
Xiao Can tried to push him, but he was unresponsive, even when pushed over onto his back, he still didn’t react.
Xiao Can panicked, subconsciously thinking that the Alpha had died. After being dumbfounded for a while, he noticed the steady rise and fall of the other’s chest.
Turns out he was still alive.
As he relaxed slightly, a strong sense of regret surged within him.
Better if he had died.
Delayed anger and frustration filled his thoughts. Xiao Can hastily straightened his forcibly disheveled clothes, shakily propping himself up against the wall.
He instinctively wanted to leave immediately, but just before turning around, he felt a strong unwillingness. With a venting kick, he kicked He Xingzhou in the leg.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t muster any strength at the moment, and He Xingzhou’s body only slightly swayed.
On the way back to his room, Xiao Can’s legs continued to tremble, his steps unsteady.
Finally swiping his key card, he couldn’t make it to the bedroom, so he slid down to sit against the door.
The sensation from earlier still lingered on his body. Recalling those scenes, Xiao Can couldn’t help but shiver.
He was twenty-two years old this year, and since his differentiation at the age of fifteen, he had been approached by countless Alphas in various ways, expressing their affection, yet he had never responded to any of them.
Until a few hours ago, he had never even held an Alpha’s hand.
Long-acting suppressants had been available for many years, with constantly evolving ingredients, safe and reliable, and widely available. Nowadays, whether Alpha or Omega, it was difficult for them to come into contact with others’ pheromones in daily life.
Benefiting from this, Xiao Can had never experienced the so-called heat period, living his life like a Beta.
He had read the contents deliberately skipped by the teacher in physiology textbooks, but because of the lack of practical experience, he remained ignorant and confused.
But there were some basic knowledge that he still understood.
An Alpha stimulating an Omega’s glands on the neck while entering the Omega’s body marked the Omega permanently.
With a start, Xiao Can took out his phone and tremblingly typed on the search engine: What to do with an accidental marking?
After quickly browsing through some search results, he compared the recommendations and bought suppressant pills on a delivery platform.
At the moment of pressing the payment button, he couldn’t help but feel like crying.
That bastard He Xingzhou.
He had thought this annoying guy was just self-centered, never expecting him to do something so despicable.
This was all so inexplicable.
Putting away his phone, he reluctantly stood up and headed for the bathroom.
After showering for a while, Xiao Can received a call from the staff, asking if he had ordered medication delivery.
After confirming, the Beta girl who had interacted with him before quickly knocked on his door.
“Mr. Xiao, are you feeling unwell?” she asked with concern.
Xiao Can smiled at her while taking the paper bag. “Just a bit allergic, nothing major.”
Closing the door, his expression immediately darkened.
In addition to the suppressant pills, he also bought pheromone neutralizers.
He Xingzhou must have left a lot of pheromone scent on him, and if it weren’t for the fact that the staff member was a Beta, she would have noticed it as soon as he opened the door.
After swallowing the suppressant pills with water, he sprayed a large amount of neutralizer on himself.
Tonight’s event was very important to him.
Xiao Can had known since he was young that he was exceptionally good-looking, filled with longing for the entertainment industry. After coming of age, he diligently managed his own account, finally accumulating a small fan base, and for the first time, he received an invitation to a fashion event and could walk the red carpet.
There was no accident that could stop him. Just a mere despicable Alpha shouldn’t be taken seriously, let alone have the qualifications to affect his future.
Xiao Can took a deep breath, silently chanting in his heart, yes, this was just a trivial matter.
He took the suppressant pills in time, so there wouldn’t be a marking. It was just like being bitten by a dog.
It’s okay, it’s not a big deal, don’t worry about it.
Self-hypnosis had a slight effect, but not much.
As time passed, the discomfort gradually became stronger. Sitting in the car arranged by the organizers, Xiao Can felt drowsy and sluggish, his thoughts sluggish.
He took a deep breath, trying to keep himself awake.
After getting off the car, the flashing lights in front of him instantly invigorated his spirit. He smiled and walked onto the red carpet, waving to the audience and the media, while silently feeling that something was wrong.
His legs were so weak that it was unbelievable, the whole world seemed to be spinning, even his vision became blurry.
He couldn’t be sure if his facial expression management was successful at this moment, barely making it to the side of the host, he had already used up all his willpower.
“Hi~” The female host greeted him warmly, “Xiao Can, over here!”
Xiao Can walked to the side of the host, looked at the camera, his mind blank, all the prepared lines completely forgotten.
“Is this your first time attending such an event?” the host asked, “You seem a bit nervous.”
Xiao Can pursed his lips, paused for a few seconds before speaking, his words polite but not answering the question: “Hello, everyone. Hello, Sister Fang, good evening.”
“You do seem quite nervous,” the host, seeing this, stopped asking further questions, smiling as she gestured back, “Why don’t you take a rest first?”
“I am very happy and honored to be here today,” Xiao Can said absent-mindedly, “I… oh, then I’ll go.”
As he turned around to leave, just as he took the first step, he stumbled, his legs giving out, almost falling to the ground.
The host quickly reached out to support him when she saw this: “Are you okay? Be careful!”
“Thank you,” Xiao Can swayed unsteadily, “Thank you.”
Finally entering the rest area, he didn’t care about his image and immediately found a nearby place to sit down.
Something wasn’t right; even on the way back to his room after the incident, he hadn’t felt so uncomfortable. He raised his hand to touch his forehead, but for a moment, he couldn’t tell if his body temperature was normal.
Resting with his eyes closed for a while, he heard a stranger’s soft voice beside him: “Are you feeling unwell?”
Xiao Can opened his eyes, quickly adjusting to a professional smile when he saw the other person’s face: “It’s nothing, just a little tired.”
The person who took the initiative to talk to him, he recognized, was a singer named Tan Zhen, also an Omega like him, who had been in the industry for some years but never really gained much popularity. Xiao Can had heard his songs, but they hadn’t left much of an impression.
“I have some mint candy,” Tan Zhen offered, holding out his hand, “Do you want some?”
Xiao Can looked at the candy in his palm, the kind that could be seen everywhere in street corner convenience stores, hesitated for a moment before nodding: “Thank you.”
The fresh taste of mint candy indeed made him feel a bit better.
Seeing him breathe a sigh of relief, Tan Zhen smiled at him.
A timely help, Xiao Can couldn’t help but develop some goodwill towards this person, just as he was about to initiate a conversation, someone nearby called Tan Zhen’s name.
Tan Zhen excused himself, then quickly left.
Xiao Can closed his eyes and rested for a while, and a staff member came to remind him that it was time to enter.
After getting up, he consciously looked around.
Many of the faces in his line of sight were very familiar to him but he was seeing them in person for the first time. If he were in good health, he would have taken the initiative to strike up a conversation with them, trying to leave a good impression.
But now he was more willing than able.
Fortunately, the instigator of all this was nowhere to be seen.
Xiao Can secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
He really didn’t want to see He Xingzhou again.
Alphas had always been annoying, and He Xingzhou could be said to be the most annoying. Before today, Xiao Can had considered him a mysterious lunatic, but now he had evolved into an unforgivable scumbag.
Stay away from Alphas, Xiao Can silently repeated in his mind, it will only lead to misfortune.
When he first started managing his account, Xiao Can wasn’t very serious about it.
At that time, he had just turned eighteen, still a student, occasionally making some short videos in his spare time, singing or imitating popular challenge projects, with rough and casual editing.
His outstanding appearance attracted some fans, but that was all.
In an era where everyone could use beauty filters, the gap in appearance between him and ordinary internet celebrities wasn’t that obvious from the videos.
During that time, his fan growth was pitifully small, but the barrage of creepy private messages from Alphas never stopped.
Xiao Can was annoyed and extremely disgusted, and even thought about giving up.
It wasn’t until two years later when he casually posted a video complaining about some unlucky things he had encountered. Because the content was so funny, it unexpectedly went viral, and his traffic skyrocketed.
After analyzing it seriously, Xiao Can realized one thing.
High technology made beauty on the internet no longer a scarce resource, but there weren’t many beauty bloggers willing to let go and be funny, so the competition wasn’t as fierce.
So he decisively transformed, seriously delved into writing jokes, and tried to learn exaggerated performance. The strong contrast quickly attracted a large number of fans.
There were few funnier than him who weren’t as handsome, and those more beautiful than him weren’t as interesting.
Persisting like this for more than two years, Xiao Can finally became a veritable “internet celebrity”, his online popularity surpassing many third-rate celebrities, but he felt a wave of emptiness in his heart.
He dreamed of becoming a big star, but not like this.
When he first sang, no one cared, but now that he had so many fans, perhaps someone would be willing to appreciate it?
Xiao Can tried writing a song, spent a lot of money to have someone compose it, and made a video.
Because he was nervous, he deliberately maintained his usual exaggerated performance while singing seriously, recording multiple times meticulously to ensure both his beauty and humor were preserved.
When it was released, he was very nervous, and prepared to delete it secretly if the reception was bad.
Unexpectedly, the video went viral, received a strong response, completely became popular, and became a hit for a while.
The sudden huge traffic made Xiao Can dizzy.
It was at this time that he first came into contact with He Xingzhou.
He Xingzhou retweeted his video on Weibo.
——What rubbish, is this even called music?
The moment he saw it, Xiao Can, who was still immersed in excitement, felt his head buzzing.
What made him speechless was that, when he opened the comments section, He Xingzhou was actually arguing with strangers.
Someone explained to him that people liked the video not because of the song, but because it was funny; it was a comedy video.
He Xingzhou’s heartless comment: “Not funny.”
