Betas could not smell pheromones, but Betas could buy perfume.
Lu Sili told himself it was only a coincidence.
“Do you usually wear perfume?” Lu Sili asked on the drive home.
Lu Sili was already exhausted from the day’s examinations, so Su Yuan was driving.
He drove meticulously, keeping his eyes on the road and rarely looking around. Right now, the car was stopped at a large intersection, waiting for the red light to change before turning left.
Su Yuan was a little surprised that Lu Sili would ask something so personal, but he still answered, “Hardly ever. I spend so much time in operating rooms that I mostly smell disinfectant.”
That made sense. Lu Sili realized belatedly that a doctor probably would not wear much perfume.
Lu Sili said, “Then… home fragrance?”
Su Yuan smiled. “Sometimes. If I happen across a scent I like, I’ll use it.”
Lu Sili asked, “What kinds of scents do you like?”
Suddenly receiving Lu Sili’s attention, Su Yuan’s lips curved upward. Once the car started moving again, he watched the road and answered enthusiastically, “I haven’t studied fragrance deliberately, and my preferences change a lot. I used to really like florals. Lately I’ve preferred woody or chypre scents. When we went to Japan together, I found one while shopping that I really liked. It’s a chypre home fragrance, and smelling it helps me relax a little.”
“Are you under a lot of tension?” Lu Sili asked.
Su Yuan: “…”
Was that really how this conversation was supposed to go?
Lu Sili said, “I was just asking.”
Lu Sili is being strange.
Su Yuan thought that and glanced at him briefly.
“Did the matching not go well?”
“Huh?” Lu Sili had been lost in his own deductions and fantasies and reacted a beat late. He said quietly, “No. It went fine. They already found a match.”
The moment Lu Sili came out of the lab, Su Yuan had thought his expression looked strange. When he asked about the result, Lu Sili had been vague, saying only that it was over and that he was tired and wanted to go home.
Su Yuan thought and thought. Maybe Lu Sili had disliked the matched pheromone scent, or found the matching process uncomfortable, or maybe he had started thinking about the possibility that Su Yuan might have to use it and…
“There’s a good chance we won’t need the artificial pheromones at all,” Su Yuan suddenly said.
Lu Sili turned toward him.
Su Yuan continued, “Today, Luke, Dr. Jiang, and I analyzed the changes in your health over the past two years. Your baseline constitution is actually better than that of many Omegas. Once you adjust your diet and sleep, avoid Alphas in rut, take your medication on schedule, and let me take care of you, your health should improve quickly. If nothing goes wrong in the first three or four months, we probably won’t need them. You… don’t have to worry so much.”
“It’s fine. I’m not worried,” Lu Sili said.
With only a few seconds left on the red light, Lu Sili added, “You don’t have to worry either.”
…
The awkward atmosphere lasted all the way home. They had left a little after nine that morning, and now it was almost three in the afternoon.
Su Yuan asked whether Lu Sili was hungry.
Lu Sili checked how he felt and said, “Not hungry. Kind of sleepy, though.”
He changed his shoes, walked over to the sofa, sat down, and curled into the soft cushions. Talking almost to himself, he said, “It’s strange. I haven’t felt sleepy enough to actually want to rest in a long time. Usually I have to take sleeping pills before I can fall asleep.”
“Maybe it’s the soothing effect of the pheromones,” Su Yuan said.
Lu Sili immediately thought of the pheromone scent they had matched at the end. He looked toward Su Yuan, who had already reached the kitchen doorway and taken down an apron to put on.
Su Yuan tied the apron carefully behind his back with both hands, looking every inch the domestic househusband.
He continued, “I talked to my senior about this. When Alphas and Omegas who aren’t in rut or heat smell highly compatible pheromones, they won’t lose control. Instead, it can have a mild calming and soothing effect.”
“Really?” Lu Sili’s eyes shifted thoughtfully.
Then would smelling that fragrance in Su Yuan’s bedroom more often also calm and soothe me?
Maybe I could ask Luke to recommend a home fragrance with a similar scent.
“Go rest for a while. I’ll put the soup on. By the time you wake up, dinner should be ready,” Su Yuan said.
“Mm.” Lu Sili came back to himself. “Okay. Thanks for the trouble.”
Lu Sili stood and prepared to return to his room. When he reached his bedroom door, he stopped and stared at Su Yuan’s bedroom across the hall.
What kind of coincidence was this? The scent with such high pheromone compatibility with him was the same as Su Yuan’s bedroom fragrance.
As his thoughts wandered, he remembered Su Yuan getting drunk a few days earlier, hugging his arm and kissing the back of his hand.
Afterward, Lu Sili had thought about how unusually relaxed and gentle he had felt in Su Yuan’s room that night. He had not suffered his usual discomfort after drinking, and he had not gotten angry even when Su Yuan crossed the line a little.
Could the fragrance have caused that?
But a home fragrance was only a fragrance. Pheromones were something else entirely.
Lu Sili, who habitually reviewed projects after the fact, even worked backward through the situation and found the absurd hypothesis “I relaxed in Su Yuan’s room, so I fell in love with pheromones that smell like his fragrance” ridiculous.
Pheromone compatibility was innate.
And Su Yuan was a Beta who could not smell pheromones.
Perhaps because the highly compatible pheromones at the hospital had soothed him that afternoon, Lu Sili slept especially deeply.
He had meant to take a nap, but when he woke it was nearly seven and already dark outside.
Faint light slipped through the gap in the curtains from the neon of distant high-rises. Lu Sili rolled over and decided to stay curled up for a few more minutes. Sleeping this deeply felt wonderful, and he was reluctant to let it end.
There was no sound from the living room either. Su Yuan was probably resting too.
Just as Lu Sili wrapped himself more tightly in the blanket, hearty laughter suddenly came from the living room. It was Li Ya.
Lu Sili woke up a little more and reached for his phone on the bedside table. Sure enough, Li Ya had called and sent messages. Lu Sili’s phone had gone into sleep mode while he was asleep, and Li Ya’s final message read: [I’m calling your husband. He invited me over for dinner.]
Lu Sili smiled for no apparent reason, yawned again, and climbed out of bed to throw on a knitted cardigan.
People rarely visited Lu Sili’s home. Grandma, Fiona, and Li Ya were all people he did not need to dress up for. Su Yuan was his husband, contract or not, and he lived there every day anyway. Maintaining a polished image twenty-four-seven would have been far too exhausting.
When Lu Sili opened the door, he caught Li Ya stealing food.
“Hey!” Lu Sili laughed at him.
Li Ya saw him, raised his brows, stuffed the fried capelin into his mouth, and smugly finished the entire fish right in front of him.
Lu Sili rolled his eyes. “Why are you here?”
Before he had even finished the question, Su Yuan poked his head out of the kitchen. “You’re awake. Dinner’s almost ready.”
“Okay.” Lu Sili smiled.
His hair was messy from sleep and his face slightly puffy, but he looked dazed and unexpectedly cute. Standing there beside Su Yuan in an apron, the two of them actually looked rather well matched.
Li Ya looked back and forth between them several times. After Su Yuan returned to the kitchen, he leaned closer and asked, “So what’s going on with you two now?”
“What do you mean?” Lu Sili sat down on the sofa.
Li Ya said, “You really don’t look much like a contract marriage.”
Lu Sili pointed toward Su Yuan’s room. “Separate rooms across the hall. How does that not look like one?”
Li Ya had nothing to say to that. After a pause, he continued, “He seems pretty concerned about you. Everything he says is about how to take care of you. What does the nutritionist’s meal plan look like? Should he hire a private chef so you eat properly at lunch too?”
Lu Sili actually did not know about any of that.
He thought for a moment. “It’s fine. I pay him.”
Li Ya asked, “How much?”
“Forty thousand. But judging by his plans, maybe I should add another ten.”
“You really are generous.” Li Ya ran out of things to say again and flopped back against the sofa. “But your husb—mmph!”
Lu Sili lowered his voice urgently. “Don’t talk nonsense. He’s home.”
When they were alone, Li Ya could run his mouth however he liked. But if Su Yuan heard him saying that at home, he would probably be embarrassed.
Li Ya spread his hands.
Lu Sili asked, “I didn’t answer your call, so you just came straight over?”
Li Ya said, “No. I called Su Yuan. He said you were home, told me to come keep you company, and promised to cook me something good.”
“…” Lu Sili said flatly, “You two are both very comfortable making yourselves at home.”
Li Ya laughed. “Be grateful. Your husb… Su Yuan bought a live softshell turtle to nourish you. It took him an entire hour just to clean the thing.”
Hearing that someone “loved” him from this angle made Lu Sili feel unexpectedly flustered, happy, and embarrassed all at once.
All he could do was pretend not to care and mutter, “He could’ve just dealt with it casually…”
Li Ya looked speechless. “Can you stop acting tsundere, princess?”
At that moment Su Yuan came out of the kitchen carrying braised softshell turtle in one hand and a small tray in the other. “Have some dessert first. Warm up your stomach and put something in it.”
Lu Sili immediately sat up and took the tray. “Okay.”
There were two small bowls of bird’s nest on it.
Lu Sili liked it quite a bit. Grandma made it every time he ate at her place, so he immediately picked up a bowl and began sipping it.
“Are you doing postpartum confinement or something?” Li Ya suddenly said. He lifted his bowl and finished the entire thing in two gulps. “This doesn’t even taste like anything. It’s just sweet.”
Elio’s Notes: “Postpartum confinement” refers to the traditional Chinese recovery period after childbirth, when special foods and rest are emphasized.
Lu Sili looked at him. “A wild boar can’t appreciate fine grain.”
And it was obviously delicious. Sweet, fragrant, and silky. Su Yuan’s cooking was no worse than Grandma’s.
A few minutes later, all the dishes were on the table.
Lu Sili went to wash his hands. When he came back out, Su Yuan and Li Ya were already sitting across from each other.
Previously, Lu Sili and Su Yuan had always sat facing each other.
As Lu Sili approached, both men looked up at him.
Laughing inwardly, Lu Sili sat beside Su Yuan. He missed the delighted, satisfied look on Su Yuan’s face and instead teased Li Ya’s deliberately helpless expression. “We’re a ‘married couple,’ aren’t we? What’s the problem?”
“Got it, got it.”
Li Ya smiled and started eating.
Sitting across from them, Li Ya chatted idly as he ate, and it was impossible not to notice the two people opposite him.
This is really only a contract relationship?
Did the contract also include “putting food in Lu Sili’s bowl,” “serving him rice,” “putting all the best dishes in front of him,” “gazing at him tenderly,” and “adding honey to his water”?
Li Ya narrowed his eyes slightly as a revelation flashed through his mind.
Forty thousand yuan… can that actually buy true love?!
While they chatted, the subject shifted to class reunions. Li Ya, the resident peacock, went every year and could not remember ever seeing Su Yuan, so he asked, “You’ve never gone even once?”
Su Yuan ate neatly and calmly. “I went two years ago.”
“Ah…” Li Ya felt a little guilty because he had completely failed to notice him. He laughed. “Maybe I was wasted. The year before last, huh? That was after Lu Sili came back to China. I begged him forever to come and he refused. I was so mad I downed eight drinks.”
Lu Sili laughed. “Get lost.”
With Li Ya there, the conversation became livelier. Once they were mostly done eating, Li Ya started asking about Lu Sili’s hospital visit that day.
It was Lu Sili’s condition, yet Su Yuan was the one answering Li Ya the entire time.
“Yes. Some imported medications really do work better.”
“Director Jiang from the Department of Secondary Sex Characteristics was my senior when I was a student. He attends the Frontiers in Secondary Sex Characteristics Conference every time, so he knows more about international treatment methods.”
“Artificial pheromones definitely have side effects for the person who injects them, and they can’t be overused.”
…
Su Yuan answered every question carefully.
Seeing how seriously Su Yuan was taking everything, Li Ya finally relaxed. After taking a sip of water, he thought of another question.
“What?” Su Yuan asked.
Li Ya rubbed his chin. The serious look on his face caught Lu Sili’s attention too, and both Su Yuan and Lu Sili waited for the question.
Li Ya asked, “If you use the artificial pheromones and Lu Sili reacts to them, then what about you?”
Lu Sili had been refusing to think about that exact problem. The moment Li Ya said it aloud, he wanted to faint. He sneaked a glance at Su Yuan and saw that Su Yuan’s face had already turned completely red.
Su Yuan, who had just been speaking fluently about Lu Sili’s condition and treatment, could no longer get a single word out.
Li Ya was fascinated and pressed on. “Betas □□ aren’t affected by pheromones, right?”
Elio’s Notes: The two censored characters are preserved exactly as they appear in the JJWXC source rather than guessed.
Su Yuan’s face burned red. He nodded and gave a quiet “mm.”
Li Ya asked, “Then if it really gets to that point and you can’t get hard, what are you going to do?”
Su Yuan and Lu Sili: “…”