Chapter 6

Fang Yixing suspected that the health class he'd taken in middle school must have been fake.

Before entering seventh grade, the vast majority of students had not yet differentiated, but it was already possible to determine their future secondary gender through genetic testing. Fang Yixing's genetic test results showed a ninety-nine point nine percent likelihood that he would differentiate into an Alpha, with a pheromone rating at Huaguo's highest tier — Class SS.

When health and hygiene class covered topics relating to other secondary genders, even the Alphas and Omegas around him would go red-faced — but Fang Yixing had listened to every lesson with perfect composure.

He remembered that male Omegas did not have a menstrual period. But fully differentiated male Omegas did experience a monthly ovulation cycle similar to female Omegas. Male Omega ovulation cycles were short, but the volume was substantial.

A fully differentiated male Omega would generally experience a bonding heat once a month, during which the reproductive cavity would suddenly produce a large amount of bodily fluid. Apparently, to avoid accidents, Omegas would prepare male Omega-specific sanitary pads in advance, before the bonding heat arrived.

But there was no way Yun Zhi was experiencing a bonding heat right now. Bonding heat symptoms didn't appear until at least a month after differentiation at the earliest — and Yun Zhi hadn't even differentiated yet. It couldn't be a bonding heat.

Having reasoned this far, Fang Yixing gradually calmed down.

His deep eyes swept briefly over Yun Zhi's noticeably rounder, more distended stomach, and he thought he understood.

Yun Zhi, having waited a long time with no response from Fang Yixing, assumed he must not have any pads on him. His face crumpled instantly, and the corners of his light amber eyes shimmered faintly with the glimmer of imminent tears.

Yun Zhi blinked rapidly, trying to force back the tears welling up from the highly developed tear glands of an Omega. He was a resilient male Omega — he was sad, but he would not cry.

But what was he going to do? Get a delivery runner to buy some and bring them over? That should work! Better yet, get them to also buy a change of underwear and pants — so if the back of his trousers turned red, he'd have something to change into.

Ugh, being an Omega is so much trouble. Yun Zhi suddenly felt profound sympathy for every girl who had to go through this monthly ordeal.

Yun Zhi picked up his phone, about to look for an errand delivery service, when he heard Fang Yixing's calm voice above him — still capable of making ears melt even in this context. "Do you feel bloated in the abdomen?"

Yun Zhi looked up and nodded, the corners of his eyes still glittering with the tears he'd forced back, and a sprinkling of small teardrops still clinging to his long curling lashes. He looked absolutely pitiful.

Fang Yixing suppressed the urge to pull Yun Zhi into his arms and comfort him, and looked away as he asked, "Bloated and painful — and heavy too?"

Yun Zhi breathed in and out, taking stock of the sensations. Yes — that was exactly it: bloated, aching, and heavy. He nodded again.

After hearing this, Fang Yixing turned his head away and couldn't hold back a laugh. When he turned back, a smile still lingered at the corner of his mouth, and his tone had taken on an inexplicably indulgent quality. "Idiot. You're just stuffed."

Hm? A tiny question mark slowly floated up to the top of Yun Zhi's small head.

"Did you skip your middle school health classes?" Fang Yixing confirmed that his fated little sweet Omega seemed to be a bit dim, and explained with patient forbearance, "An undifferentiated Omega won't have a menstrual cycle."

Yun Zhi blinked. He couldn't immediately accept the reality of having just done something profoundly, catastrophically stupid in front of his new girl-friend, and instantly buried his head again. His delicate pink-tinged chin disappeared into the white collar of his hoodie, like a shy little rabbit retreating into its burrow.

The still-water calm that had defined Fang Yixing's heart for twenty-one years gave a violent, sudden lurch.

Yun Zhi felt a tiny degree of embarrassment. If only there were a hole in the floor right now — he'd like to hide in it for just a little while. In the span of a few brief seconds, his internal anguish at having done something stupid on their very first outing together had cycled through hundreds of rounds.

"I lost my memory — I've forgotten a lot of things. Including basic health knowledge." Yun Zhi decided he could still salvage this, and summoned his courage to explain quietly.

This excuse was plausible enough, but it couldn't quite account for the fact that he hadn't realized he was simply overfull. Fang Yixing decided that, as the Alpha here, he should be magnanimous and not expose the little sweet Omega. If this went on any longer, Yun Zhi was going to bury himself in the carpet.

He pretended not to see Yun Zhi's crimson-flushed face and gentlemanly extended his open palm toward him. "Shall we go for a walk? It'll help with digestion."

His hand was slender and clean, his fingers long and clearly defined at the knuckles, giving the impression that taking hold of it would be somehow reassuring.

Yun Zhi stared for a moment, then placed his small hand on top of it. "Sure."

But the moment he stood up, he sat right back down with a thud. When he'd straightened, a distinct heaviness had pulled at his stomach — like a weighty stone dragging him back down.

Yun Zhi: QAQ

Fang Yixing: ...

"I can't walk. My stomach is too heavy. Let me rub it a bit first." Yun Zhi really did not want to waddle out cradling his swollen belly or hunched over, shuffling out one step at a time with a hand on the wall. That looked absolutely terrible.

Meeting Yun Zhi's bright, shining eyes, Fang Yixing found all other thoughts driven from his head — instinctively, he simply went along with him. "Alright."

Yun Zhi looked down in embarrassment and rubbed his stomach in clockwise circles with his small hand.

Watching the scene unfold, Fang Yixing somehow found himself conjuring an unbidden image in his mind — of Yun Zhi pregnant, looking down at his own belly with a tender, gentle expression.

Fang Yixing, who had never once fantasized about marriage, snapped back to himself and was genuinely startled by the fact that his imagination had leapt so far into the future. He pressed his lips firmly together, dropped a quick "I'm going to buy some medicine," and left at a rapid pace.

A few minutes later, he returned with a box of digestive tablets and two small cartons of yogurt. Yun Zhi took the medicine and drank some water, and somehow felt even more bloated than before.

He'd also been rubbing for too long, and his arm was sore.

Did Omegas really only have this much physical endurance? Or was it that this particular body was just naturally delicate?

In his past life, he had been able to dance in the practice room for fifteen hours a day, three years running.

He couldn't help worrying about his future idol career.

He looked up at Fang Yixing with a piteous expression, which made the hair on Fang Yixing's back stand up a little.

"Yixing, could you rub my stomach for me? I've run out of strength." Yun Zhi wrinkled his little face and looked at him with wide, beseeching eyes.

Surely girl-friends could do little things like this for each other, right? Back when he was training at the company, he used to give massages to exhausted teammates all the time.

Fang Yixing visibly stiffened for a moment, his brow furrowing slightly, a look of conflicted emotion crossing his cool and handsome face.

Yun Zhi caught the impression that he probably wasn't keen on rubbing his stomach but felt too awkward to refuse outright. A small sting of hurt went through him — but he could understand. This was only their second meeting, they could barely be considered acquaintances, and Fang Yixing not thinking of him as a close friend yet was perfectly normal.

It was fine. In the future he would treat Fang Yixing very well — look after him and care for him — and Yun Zhi was sure that before long they would become the kind of girl-friends who could talk about anything.

While Yun Zhi was daydreaming about their future as the closest of friends, Fang Yixing had already made up his mind. He walked over to Yun Zhi.

Seeing him come over, Yun Zhi's face lit up with delight, and he shifted his heavy body inward to make room. His seat was a long, rectangular soft sofa — just enough for two people.

After Fang Yixing sat down, Yun Zhi simply stretched out his stomach generously, and helpfully placed Fang Yixing's hand directly on his abdomen — as if to say magnanimously: there you go, start rubbing.

Fang Yixing: completely unable to move.

The little sweet Omega's soft stomach was right there beneath his palm, rising and falling in a gentle, even rhythm with Yun Zhi's light breathing.

He tentatively pressed his fingertips against the springy, soft flesh, and Yun Zhi looked at him with a puzzled expression, earnestly instructing, "Not like that — you have to go in circles. Clockwise."

"Mm." Fang Yixing's throat felt slightly tight.

At this close range, he caught those faint wisps of sweet white peach fragrance again — seeming to drift up from the skin beneath his fingertips, or perhaps drifting from the warmth of Yun Zhi's breathing.

His blood burned hot, and a primal, instinctive impulse began to clamor. Fang Yixing clenched his jaw and managed to suppress the urge that the pheromones had stirred.

Afraid of losing control and gripping the little sweet Omega's waist in a tight clench, the hand rubbing Yun Zhi's stomach moved with extraordinary gentleness.

Circle after circle, coaxing Yun Zhi into a state of comfortable ease — like a little cat being stroked into blissful submission by its owner.

Yun Zhi felt bad about letting Fang Little Beautiful O rub for him too long, so after a few minutes, with the combined effects of the digestive medicine and Fang Yixing's massage, he was feeling much better.

He rallied himself, stood up in one go, and went to pay the bill.

When they left, the sky had already been draped in a veil of black. Night had fallen.

Yun Zhi: "Let me walk you home."

Fang Yixing: "I'll walk you home."

Both spoke at the same time. They looked at each other, and both broke into smiles.

Yun Zhi had wanted to walk Fang Yixing home because he was worried his beautiful little girl-friend might run into danger on a dark night — but then he thought about it: everyone who had any designs on Fang Yixing was someone he already knew about, and there had been no scene in the novel of Fang Yixing encountering danger on the way home.

Fang Yixing's determination to walk him home was firm, and Yun Zhi had no choice but to let him. Obviously — walking a perfectly helpless Omega home was a basic gentlemanly duty for an Alpha.

Yun Zhi's home was very close to the shopping mall where they'd had hotpot — only a ten-minute walk.

Fang Yixing took hold of Yun Zhi's slender arm and steadied him as they walked leisurely home.

Yun Zhi was quietly glowing with happiness inside. He could already picture the two of them strolling together like this in their old age.

The walk was so short. Before Yun Zhi knew it, they had rounded the corner of the road that led to the villa's gate.

In the dim amber glow of the streetlamp, Yun Zhi and Fang Yixing's shadows stretched long behind them, overlapping where they met. And not far ahead, in the brilliant white light flooding the villa entrance, stood Jin Zeli — watching them approach with an expression that was impossible to read.

Yun Zhi's heart lurched.

Oh no. Brother has run into Fang Yixing again!

How had he not thought of this — he'd actually agreed to let Fang Yixing walk him back. He was a criminal pushing his girl-friend straight toward disaster!

Yun Zhi's heart clenched tight when he saw his brother's gaze settle on the two of them.

Jin Zeli lifted his foot and began walking toward them.

Yun Zhi went white-lipped with fright.

No — he had to stop his brother!

Yun Zhi hurriedly turned to Fang Yixing and said, "We're at my house — thank you for walking me home! Goodbye!"

Without even waiting to hear Fang Yixing's farewell, he bolted toward Jin Zeli. Not stopping to catch his breath, he immediately reached out and wrapped his arms around Jin Zeli's waist, pressing his face against Jin Zeli's chest and softening his voice into a coy wheedle. "Brother, I missed you so much."