"Who...?" Haoran started to ask, his voice trailing off as the sound of heavy, synchronized footsteps thundered into the clinic. A group of men flooded the lobby, their presence turning the sterile air thick and suffocating.
"Heh! Are you his little lover?" one of the men sneered, stepping to the front. Without warning, he flicked his wrist, sending a concealed knife whistling through the air. Haoran barely had time to gasp before the blade sliced into his arm, thankfully it wasn't too deep.
"Haoran, what's going on—" Qixian rounded the corner and froze. His blood turned to ice the moment his eyes landed on the lead man's face.
"Qixian... do you know these people?" Haoran asked, clutching his bleeding arm and stumbling back from the predatory group.
Qixian's expression shifted into something unrecognizable—dark, sharp, and cold. He grabbed Haoran's shoulder and shoved him toward the back hallway. "Haoran, step back. Get into your room right now."
"What? Why—"
"Just get into your room and lock the damn door!" Qixian shouted. The sheer ferocity in his voice startled Haoran into silence. Realizing the atmosphere of the situation, Haoran nodded and scrambled back.
"I'll call Yichen and Sihan!" Haoran whispered frantically as he disappeared into his room and bolted the door.
"Would you look at that? The little genius is actually protecting his pet," the man at the front taunted, a small scar twitching on his cheek.
"Jiulu. It's been a long time," Qixian said, his eyes boring into the group with a dangerous, predatory stillness.
"You actually remember?" Jiulu raised his hand, showing a missing pinky finger. "This... this was because of you. I haven't forgotten the debt you owe me."
"I've told you before, Jiulu. I wasn't the one who caused that," Qixian said, his voice eerily calm despite the situation.
"It doesn't matter now even if you lie to me. Today, you finally pay!" Jiulu snarled, pulling a handgun equipped with a silencer and leveling it at Qixian's chest.
"You know perfectly well that a toy like that won't work on me," Qixian said, not even flinching.
"Let's see about that!" Jiulu growled, attempting to squeeze the trigger. But his finger refused to move, his entire hand had gone numb, vibrating with a strange, heavy paralysis.
"It's too late," Qixian murmured, his gaze dropping to Jiulu's trembling hand. "My pheromones have already settled into your nervous system the moment I saw your fucking face. How boring."
Before the man could even process the threat, Qixian charged forward with explosive speed. He landed a brutal, bone-crunching punch directly to Jiulu's face, sending him reeling back.
"That's much better," Qixian said, his voice dropping into a low, terrifying register as the rest of the group drew their weapons and lunged at him simultaneously. "Now... shall we see who survives the night?"
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"Sihan is too far away, he'll never make it in time..." Haoran whispered to himself, his fingers trembling as he clutched his phone. He stared at the screen, heart hammering against his ribs as the dial tone hummed mockingly in his ear. "Come on, Yichen... please, just pick up the phone. Answer me..."
After what felt like an eternity, the line finally clicked open.
"Haoran? I'm sorry, I just stepped out of a meeting and I only just saw your name on the screen," Yichen's voice came through, sounding professional but slightly distracted.
"Yichen! You have to come here—quickly!" Haoran blurted out, his voice cracking with sheer terror. "Qixian... there are people here... Qixian is in danger—"
The background noise on Yichen's end vanished instantly, replaced by a chilling, sharp silence.
"I'll be there in a minute," Yichen said. His voice had dropped into a terrifyingly low, predatory growl. Before Haoran could even reply, the line went dead.
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"It's foolish of you to try and fight a descendant of the Zhou family," Qixian said through gritted teeth, his voice a turning into a whisper as he twisted the arm of an attacker aiming a weapon at him. The sound of shifting bone echoed in the sterile room. "Fine, save your drama for someone who cares. Keep fighting if you must, but the moment I truly lose my patience, I'll make sure your internal organs are the ones paying the price."
The group surged forward, a desperate wave of violence that Qixian met with a precise move, clearly experience as a surgeon, for several minutes. "Aren't you all getting tired of this yet?" he asked, his breath hitching.
"Not until we see you dead!" Jiulu shrieked, his face contorted.
"Who even told you I was here?" Qixian demanded, his movements slowing just a fraction. "Was it Jin Rou?"
"Does it even matter now?" Jiulu smirked as three men successfully tackled Qixian, pinning him against the wall.
"Let go of me!" Qixian roared. "I said..." He panted, his eyes beginning to glow with a faint, dangerous light as he prepared to unleash his pheromones. But suddenly, a sharp, searing pain exploded deep within his chest. 'The backflow... not now!' he thought in agony as the suppressed heat began to overwhelm his nervous system. "Don't... touch... me!"
Just as a heavy baton began its downward arc toward Qixian's head, a shadow blurred across the clinic entrance.
The air temperature seemed to plummet as if they were in Antarctica in a heartbeat. A scent so cold and suffocating it felt like inhaling a cold wind that flooded the space, extinguishing the attackers' aggressive pheromones like a tidal wave. It wasn't just an Alpha's presence, it was more like a nightmare that exudes a very demonic aura as if they had just opened the gate of hell.
"I believe he told you to stay back." Yichen's voice didn't sound human. It was a low, crushing frequency that made the attackers' knees buckle instantly. He stood at the entrance, his Enigma blue eyes burning through the dim light like dying stars.
Jiulu froze, his hand trembling as he gripped the baton. "Hey! Stay out of—"
Yichen didn't let him finish. He moved with the speed of a wolf hunting for his prey—closing the distance. He caught Jiulu's wrist, and with a sickening, audible crunch, the baton clattered to the floor along with the man's pride.
"I don't care who you think you are," Yichen whispered, leaning into the man's ear while his Monkshood pheromones crushed the other Alphas into the dirt. "But you're standing in my territory. And you're touching the things that belongs to me without my permission."
Within minutes, the men were scrambling away in a blind panic, dragging their broken leader toward their car, their primitive instincts screaming at them to flee the monster they had accidentally provoked.
Silence returned to the clinic, broken only by the sound of Qixian's ragged, uneven breathing. He slumped into a corner seat, his body trembling from the chemical war inside him.
Yichen turned, the dark blue in his eyes slowly receding, though the air remained heavy and charged. He walked toward Qixian, his expression a mask of unreadable intensity.
"You... No, never mind. Just check on Haoran," Qixian wheezed, his head spinning. As he inhaled the lingering traces of Yichen's cold scent, the agony he has been feeling through his veins began to stabilize. "I hate to admit it... but your pheromones actually smell good, it's comfortable..." Qixian slipped.
Yichen, who had been turning toward Haoran's room, froze in his tracks. "What?" he asked, spinning back to look at Qixian.
"I said it, but the meaning is the opposite," Qixian managed a weak, mocking smile, trying to reclaim his pride.
Yichen moved towards Qixian and only stopped when he was inches away from Qixian. He could smell it now. If feels like a mask was... gone, shattered by the stress of the fight. The 'Alpha' doctor was radiating a scent so pure, so floral, so metallic, and so desperate that it made Yichen's own pheromones react.
"Song Qixian," Yichen said, his voice dropping to a gentle, terrifying low. "You're incredibly annoying, you know that?" He reached out, his fingers brushing the sensitive scent gland on Qixian's neck.
Qixian immediately caught Yichen's wrist, his grip weak but firm. "Are you that offended by a compliment?"
Yichen ignored the deflection. "Explain to me why an 'Alpha' smells like a blooming Spider Lily in the middle of a graveyard, with a sweetness that shouldn't exist."
Qixian looked up, his eyes wide with a mix of fear and naked surprise. "Damn you... just... shut up..." he whispered, shoving Yichen away with the last of his strength.
"Now, I really wonder, are you not really an omega?" Yichen asked, his tone turning serious.
"Go look at Haoran." Qixian tried to divert the topic.
As if on cue, Haoran emerged from his room, pale and clutching his arm. "Qixian! Yichen! Are you both okay?"
"We're fine, but you're bleeding..." Qixian's instincts kicked in, his eyes locking onto Haoran's wound.
Yichen immediately shifted gears, reaching Haoran in two strides to support him into a chair while grabbing a first-aid kit from the counter.
"Haoran!" A sudden, familiar voice boomed as the door swung open again.
"Sihan?" Qixian tilted his head, leaning back against the wall.
"Are you all alright? What happened here?" Sihan asked, taking in the trashed lobby.
"I'm just exhausted," Qixian said, a mocking smirk returning to his lips. "But you could at least help Yichen. It looks like he has no idea what he's doing with those bandages."
Yichen shot a sharp glare at Qixian, but he stepped aside, letting the more composed Sihan take over the first aid.