Although Luo Li had a rugged appearance, his movements were agile as he performed disinfection, bandaging, and temperature measurement in one go.

“He only suffered superficial injuries, Your Highness. His other indicators are normal, aside from his elevated temperature.”

Oser: “What is the cause of it?”

“There could be many reasons, such as an inflammatory reaction, postoperative rejection, or others. The specific cause can only be determined by sending a blood sample for testing.”

“In your experience, which is more likely?”

“A reaction to the mark,” the experienced male Omega answered without hesitation.

“What does it mean?”

Luo Li covered his face again and giggled: “Your Highness has to be joking. The meaning of a marking reaction? It’s what you already know.”

“……”

Seeing his strange expression, Luo Li remembered that the Alpha before him was no ordinary Alpha: “Your Highness doesn’t know?”

Oser wore a displeased expression: “Either communicate better or I’ll replace you.”

Luo Li immediately became serious: “When an Omega is first marked by an Alpha, it causes a non-infection related temporary increase in body temperature due to the fusion of foreign pheromones. He’ll recover naturally in three to seven days, with the recovery speed depending on the individual’s constitution. As an Omega is repeatedly marked by the same Alpha, the marking reaction will weaken as the number of markings go up, until there are no symptoms at all. However, if marked by a new Alpha, the symptoms will increase significantly. In severe cases, it can lead to symptoms such as persistent fever and loss of consciousness.”

“Is that so? So a new Alpha can mark him,” Oser said coldly.

“I just memorized the introduction to physiology class material. An existing Alpha mark can only be overwritten by an Alpha with stronger mental power. A wise and powerful Alpha like Your Highness certainly doesn’t need to worry about such a problem.”

Having said this, he gave the wise and powerful Alpha a meaningful wink.

Tang De had just come in when he witnessed this striking scene.

He gasped in fear and inhaled the mixture of Ling Yi and Oser’s pheromones, feeling like his death was just around the corner.

Ling Yi, who had been sleeping soundly in bed, suddenly rolled over and sat up, as alert as a hedgehog with its spines standing on end.

“He’s here!”

Oser hastened over and took the man into his arms, but found that his eyes weren’t open.

“Who’s here?”

“The one who injected poison into the oxygen tube.”

Oser sent Tang De a suspicious look. The latter waved his hands fearfully, indicating that it had nothing to do with him.

Ling Yi couldn’t see, but he was very confident: “That person’s pheromones smell like methyl tert-butyl ether. I remember it very clearly.”

Tang De: “……”

It suddenly occurred to him: “Is it because I touched the assassin and the scent of his pheromones is still on me?”

“Why did you touch him?” Oser asked unhappily.

“You injured him so badly that there’s an eighty percent probability that he’ll die. I wanted to return him to the Prime Minister as a warning not to do anything rash. But Doctor Lan Ze said he has other uses for the body, so I gave it to him.”

Oser patted Ling Yi gently, coaxing him: “It’s okay, it’s okay. That person is gone. He won’t come back.”

The person in his arms visibly relaxed.

Tang De asked curiously: “It can’t be that you can distinguish every Alpha by their pheromones, right? What do mine smell like?”

Ling Yi thought for a moment, then said, “Probably…..isoamyl acetate.”

“Doctor Pat?”

“Cedrane epoxide.”

“And His Highness Oser?”

Ling Yi tilted his head to take a sniff, and said after some time: “I can’t describe it.”

Tang De endeavored to hold back his laughter. He knew His Highness was not a product of the natural world.

Oser glared at Tang De, not only because Ling Yi couldn’t describe his pheromones, but even more so because Ling Yi could describe so many other Alphas’ pheromones.

Then he asked Luo Li: “What’s wrong with his eyes?”

Luo Li: “Let me see……it’s not a big deal. He just suffered a shock before and is too afraid to open his eyes.”

He applied a few eyedrops to Ling Yi’s eyes: “Don’t be afraid, open your eyes slowly.”

Ling Yi slowly opened his eyes under his guidance. The first thing that entered his vision was a heroic, rugged face, which startled him.

“Who are you?”

Oser was once again unhappy. Pat had clearly promised that the first person Ling Yi saw when he opened his eyes would be Oser.

Tang De introduced him to Ling Yi: “This is Luo Li, the new nurse who will be taking care of you.”

Luo Li shyly hooked his pinky fingers together: “You can call me Luoluo or Xiao Luo.”

Ling Yi was in a stupor, and felt that it would be better if the world was a little hazier.

“Where’s Nan Ting?”

Tang De: “She was seriously injured while protecting you, but fortunately, her life is not in danger. The best treatment has been arranged for her, you can rest assured.”

“How is Doctor Pat?”

Tang De: “He’s still alive, but…..”

Oser continued: “How long that lasts depends on my mood.”

“And Doctor Lan Ze—”

Oser interrupted him: “Are you going to ask after everyone you know?”

It was only then that Ling Yi’s attention turned to Oser for the first time.

He looked as if he wanted to execute Pat thrice over.

With just one glance, everything that had occurred in the haze came to mind.

Although he hadn’t witnessed those wanton, obscene, and physically intertwined moments with his own eyes, they seemed vivid in his mind.

Ling Yi had imagined that since he made this deal with Oser in order to survive, no matter how well he prepared himself mentally, the first time he surrendered his body would inevitably be accompanied by humiliation and unwillingness.

But he had never expected that when the moment came, he would be the one clinging to Oser.

He was clearly no match for Oser in a fight, so why had he been so strong at that time?

The eye contact lasted three seconds before Ling Yi looked away in discomfort.

Luo Li stared at the two men. Sensing the unspeakable atmosphere between them, he stuffed a medicinal solution and cotton swab into Oser’s hands and began to command the prince in a booming voice.

“Your Highness used considerable force when you marked him. If the wound is not immediately disinfected, it could easily become inflamed. The back of the neck is very sensitive, so Your Highness should do it yourself.”

He gave Tang De a wink and hinted: “I need to send the blood and pheromone samples for testing, but the lab is on the sixth floor. What if some unscrupulous person breaks in? I’m so scared.”

Goosebumps rose all over Tang De’s body, but he could only bite the bullet and acquiesce: “How about I escort you there?”

Luo Li giggled: “Then I’ll have to trouble Captain Tang De to protect this flower.”

“Ai…..” Ling Yi started to stop them, thinking that a blood sample didn’t require mobilizing this many people. But the two of them fled in a hurry before he could even raise his hand. Nobody wanted to stay and act as a third wheel.

The ward was suddenly much emptier, making it even more difficult to ignore the fiery intensity of Oser’s gaze.

He had just been lowering the air pressure in the room, but now he was in such a good mood that it seemed Pat’s death sentence would be suspended.

In fact, the curve to Oser’s mouth was almost out of control.

Just as Ling Yi had thought. The resentment he had accumulated due to various trivial matters had vanished without a trace the instant Ling Yi looked away guiltily.

Because from the moment he met Ling Yi, he had always exuded an extreme rebelliousness, and actively controlled the rhythm of their interactions. Even when he pretended to be well-behaved, it was all a pretense.

This was the first time he had ever seen such an almost deflated expression on Ling Yi, and it was so genuine that it endeared him.

Compared to this, all of those messy trivialities seemed inconsequential.

“You were so enthusiastic before. Why are you shy now?” Oser teased.

What goes around comes around. Ling Yi’s usual shameless tactics weren’t going to work this time.

“Is it too late for me to pretend to have amnesia?”

“It’s not impossible. I didn’t intend for our first time to be so hasty. I originally at least wanted to cover my bed in rose petals…..”

“Stop!” Ling Yi shouted, unable to bear it. “Just don’t.”

Oser lowered his head, not wanting his smile to be too obvious.

Ling Yi slumped down on the bed in despair, exposing his neck. “Weren’t you going to apply medicine? Go on.”

Behind him, Oser didn’t move for a long time, and Ling Yi knew that he was admiring his masterpiece.

He hadn’t hesitated at all when he bit down, and the bite mark must look clean and sharp.

Ling Yi was waiting for the medicine to be applied, but what he felt was the back of Oser’s fingers gently gliding along the curve on the back of his neck.

When his knuckles glanced over the location of the gland, Ling Yi arched his back in discomfort.

An Alpha’s gland was absolutely not allowed to be touched by others, unless one was deliberately challenging the other party’s authority. This conditioned reflex developed over years made Ling Yi tense up in desperate resistance.

And an Omega’s gland was extremely sensitive. The slight touch made his limbs go weak and powerless, and an uncontrollable croon escaped from the corners of his mouth.

Oser heard the faint sound and asked: “Does it hurt?”

Ling Yi’s voice was muffled in the pillow: “I’ll bite you, and you can see if it hurts.”

Oser put two fingers together and lightly flicked the mark: “Naughty.”

“Ah—-”

This time, Ling Yi couldn’t help but cry out.

Oser was surprised: “It really hurts that much? I barely used any force.”

His surprise was swallowed up by Ling Yi’s angry glare. There were even traces of redness at the corners of his upturned eyes.

Oser now believed that he wasn’t exaggerating, but was simply puzzled: “I had the impression that you have a strong resistance to pain.”

At the execution grounds, he had gritted his teeth and said nothing even with a scalpel pressed against his gland.

Ling Yi stared at this Alpha who completely lacked any common sense biology knowledge, and said in a temper: “I’m an Omega now, can’t I be a little more delicate?”

Oser believed him, and said with a look of realization: “Then I’ll be a little gentler.”

Ling Yi buried his head in the pillow again and attempted to divert his attention by talking.

“Did anything go wrong with the surgery?”

Oser gazed at the back of his exposed neck, hands applying medicine mechanically as he was lost in thought.

He answered casually: “The mark is complete. How could there be a problem?”

“Thanks to Your Highness arriving in time, everything turned out fine. If you’d come a little later, I would have been marked by more than a dozen Alphas in turn.”

Crack.

A small noise cut through Ling Yi’s words, and Oser stopped applying medicine.

Ling Yi waited quietly, but there was no movement behind him.

He raised his head slightly: “What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing.” Oser threw away the broken cotton swab as if nothing had happened and replaced it with a new one. “I’ll ask Pat for an explanation for this when I see him.”

. . . . . . 

A figure sneaked into Lan Ze’s operating room. 

This was the special operating room provided to Lan Ze by the medical college for his personal use. Due to his unpredictable personality, no one dared to enter without permission, which made it one of the safest places in the medical college.

“Congratulations, Doctor Pat.”

Pat slipped and nearly fell.

When he looked up, Lan Ze was sitting in front of the operating table with his back toward him. He hadn’t even looked back.

Lan Ze’s tone was devoid of any warmth or emotion, but to the anxious Pat’s ears, his tone was full of sarcasm.

“Congratulations for what?”

Lan Ze proceeded to speak in a mechanical tone: “Congratulations on putting your theoretical research into practice. You are the first person in medical history to complete AO reassignment surgery. Next year’s Imperial Award for Medicine will be yours.”

Pat circled around Lan Ze to see that he was being earnest rather than sarcastic, which made him feel even more desperate.

“Isn’t there a possibility that I won’t live to see the award ceremony next year?”

“The award only honors achievements, so it can be given posthumously if the winner passes away.”

“Thanks so much, ah. When you go onstage to receive it for me, don’t forget to thank my mother,” Pat said bitterly.

Only then did he spare the energy to glance at Lan Ze’s surgical patient. The man was lying face down with a bloody mess on the back of his neck.

“Eek—” His reaction was pained, and he proceeded to express his doubts to Lan Ze: “I don’t understand. You smelled the cultivated pheromones and participated in the surgery, so what went wrong?”

“Perhaps there was nothing wrong with any of the steps.” Lan Ze removed a piece of bloody tissue from the back of the patient’s neck. 

“Then tell me why this pheromone tide induced almost all of the Alphas in the entire hospital to go into rut!” Pat gritted his teeth and repeated: “The entire hospital! This was completely different from what my reports deduced!”

“The beauty of medicine is that there are no 100% guarantees.”

Pat murmured helplessly: “Medicine may be beautiful, but I’ll be dead soon.”

He gazed up at the ceiling in a daze for a long while. When he looked back down, he saw Lan Ze putting a piece of tissue back onto the patient’s neck. For some reason, this action looked a little familiar.

After being here for so long, he finally remembered to ask: “What sort of surgery are you performing? Who’s this unfortunate fellow?”

“The assassin sent by the Prime Minister. He’s suffered damage to his gland, and won’t live long.”

Pat: O口O！？

Lan Ze: “Your research inspired me. If a healthy gland is transplanted, perhaps he will still survive.”

Pat: “Why are you saving him? This person came to assassinate Ling Yi, and nearly killed us all!”

“I just want to study the feasibility of this matter. Why not use a ready-made experimental subject?” Talking did not affect Lan Ze’s skillful suturing at all.

“…..Fine. Now that he’s in your hands, living isn’t necessarily more fortunate than being dead.”

Pat waved his hand. He didn’t have the energy to care about the fate of another person, and adopted a laissez faire attitude.

He asked casually: “But I recall that the medical college only cultivated one artificial Omega gland, the one that was just transplanted onto Ling Yi. Where did you get this healthy one?”

“It was ready-made.”

Pat: “Oh.”

Pat: “……”

Pat: O口O！！！？？？

He pointed at Night Crow in disbelief: “Y-y-you…..you gave him Ling Yi’s gland?!”

“Is there a problem?”

“Of course there is! That’s Ling Yi’s gland! From the moment he got off the operating table alive, he was the future consort!”

“I figured the future consort wouldn’t need his factory-issue gland anymore.”

“It seems he really doesn’t……but don’t talk about human organs like they’re machine parts! You should at least respect human beings, a highly intelligent life form. You can’t treat them like Legos, building them up and then tearing them down, right?!”

Lan Ze disagreed: “Since the advent of organ transplant technology, the average life expectancy for patients with various terminal illnesses has been extended by thirty-six years.”

Pat absolutely couldn’t listen to this. He covered his face in despair: “I’m done for. If His Highness Oser finds out, even having a few extra lives won’t stop my execution.”

He came to a decision, and warned Lan Ze in a fierce tone: “You and I know about this, but no third person can find out! If His Highness Oser discovers that someone arbitrarily gave his Omega’s gland to someone else, neither you nor I will live to see next year’s medical award ceremony!”

Lan Ze sighed and stopped what he was doing, as if he genuinely felt sorry for Oser.

“If His Highness could appreciate the fascination of medicine, he wouldn’t be so obsessed with Omegas.”

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Chapter 16 << Table of Contents >> Chapter 18