Marked by My Omega Rival After Moving In (GL, ABO) - Chapter 65

By the time all the tests were finished, Xiang Shuhuai’s face had gone completely pale.

Her cold sweat soaked her shirt, and her fingers trembled slightly from the lingering pain, her eyes closed as she rested on the examination bed.

It was very painful. She’d been given a shot of Demerol halfway through, but the sharp pain still lingered, controlling every nerve in her body that shuddered from physiological fear.

After resting for a while, she propped herself up and went to meet the doctor who was reviewing her results outside.

The doctor furrowed her brows tightly, looking disapproving. She was a middle-aged Chinese Beta woman named Xie, a meticulous researcher responsible for the clinical aspects of the team. She was also assigned to communicate with Xiang Shuhuai since her primary language was Chinese.

After explaining a few values in the report that deviated from the standard and reviewing the details of the surgery process, Dr. Xie gave her conclusion:

“Overall, your situation is not ideal for reconstructive surgery,” Dr. Xie said. “Your pheromone levels are unstable, and even removing the glands completely won’t eliminate the effect. This itself is a complex issue. Though implant surgery could restore your normal physiological function, it would have significant impacts on your health and could even worsen your condition…”

Xiang Shuhuai spoke softly, “So, is it necessary for me to go through with it?”

“If you absolutely need reconstructive surgery,” Dr. Xie sighed, “then you’ll need to bring your Alpha partner with you. Your partner’s support and cooperation will be necessary throughout the entire process, from pre-surgery to recovery.”

Xiang Shuhuai froze for a moment. “Does it have to be my partner?”

“It doesn’t have to be your partner specifically,” Dr. Xie clarified, “It just needs to be an Alpha that you trust and rely on, both mentally and physically.”

…Yū Xiaoxiao.

But she didn’t want Yū Xiaoxiao to know. Not about this.

After a brief pause, Xiang Shuhuai spoke again, “If I don’t have one, what would happen?”

Dr. Xie’s expression became a bit more complicated, but she restrained herself, keeping it professional.

She only said, “If you don’t have one, it will be more difficult.”

“Based on the abnormal increase in several of your values during the tests, you seem to have a strong resistance to most Alpha pheromones. Artificial pheromones are unlikely to have a calming effect, and may even have the opposite effect.”

Dr. Xie continued, “Reconstructive surgery is a long and painful process, much more painful than what you just experienced. Without the calming presence of a partner, it will…” She chose a more gentle expression, “…be very difficult to endure.”

“I understand,” Xiang Shuhuai nodded. “Thank you.”

That concluded the diagnosis for today. Dr. Xie took the results back to her team for further consultation, while Xiang Shuhuai needed to make her treatment decision by October 17th and notify them. She acknowledged this and prepared to leave.

Dr. Xie walked her to the door and paused before stopping Xiang Shuhuai for a moment.

“My personal recommendation is—if you need to eliminate the pheromone effects urgently, removing your current s3x glands and using medication to adjust your gender expression towards Beta would be a relatively lower-risk solution.”

“But if you have a suitable partner who can help manage emergencies, I’d actually recommend keeping your glands and opting for a conservative treatment approach.”

“And you’re not necessarily incapable of accepting a permanent mark. The risks of Omega reconstructive surgery… are still too high.”

“If you absolutely must go through with it, though, you’ll still need a partner. We’ve never had a patient undergo surgery alone. And your gland condition is one of the worst we’ve seen. The presence of a partner is crucial for the surgery’s success.”

She spoke with a complicated look in her eyes, no longer like a doctor informing a patient, but more like an elder giving advice to a younger one. “You’re an exceptional person. This isn’t your only worth. You don’t have to do this.”

From Dr. Xie’s expression, Xiang Shuhuai could tell she was genuinely concerned, tinged with a bit of regret. She thanked Dr. Xie and left the private hospital.

Her current state wasn’t suitable for driving, so she had her assistant come to pick her up and take her home.

“Boss,” her assistant asked, glancing back, “where are we going?”

…For some inexplicable reason, Xiang Shuhuai found herself giving Yū Xiaoxiao’s address.

It took her a few seconds to say the address out loud, but the entire car ride was spent regretting it.

She shouldn’t be going there. Especially after they had just had an argument, and she had made Yū Xiaoxiao, who was usually carefree with her eyes sparkling, so angry that she stormed out of the room.

But, most likely, Yū Xiaoxiao wasn’t at home. It was enough time for her to go in and retreat to her own room.

The tests had drained her of so much energy, and the pain was unbearable, making her close her eyes and lean into the soft leather seat, letting out a long sigh as her exhaustion slowly slipped away.

Dr. Xie had said that with conservative treatment, her body could likely accept a permanent mark.

…But if she wanted to regain her fertility, she would have to undergo reconstructive surgery.

And that surgery… she wouldn’t ask Yū Xiaoxiao to accompany her. After all, this wasn’t something an Alpha girl should even have to know about or bear.

Besides, they were still fighting. Yū Xiaoxiao was angry with her, and she wasn’t in a position to bother her.

In her exhaustion, Xiang Shuhuai barely opened her eyes, sent a message to her assistant asking her to buy some commercially available artificial Alpha pheromone calming agents and deliver them to Yū Xiaoxiao’s house.

…An Ning hadn’t yet made a final decision regarding her relationship with the Xiang family, but luckily, as a senior, her character was trustworthy. Xiang Shuhuai didn’t need to worry about her selling her secrets to others in the family.

A few seconds after sending the message, An Ning quickly called, but Xiang Shuhuai didn’t answer.

It was obvious—she was probably trying to persuade her not to go through with the surgery. And now, she’d probably add in a reminder that Yū Xiaoxiao should accompany her. There was no need to listen to all of that.

Sure enough, after the call was disconnected, An Ning waited a moment before replying with one word: [Okay]

That meant everything was set.

After taking care of this, Xiang Shuhuai checked her email and replied to several invitations. Once she had finished these tasks, she put her phone away, closed her eyes, and fell into a shallow, exhausted sleep.

When she got home, Yū Xiaoxiao was, as expected, not there. She had no idea where she had gone. The house was eerily quiet.

…Perhaps it was because she had spent so much time with Yū Xiaoxiao every day. Now, standing in the empty house with the pheromones that An Ning had brought her, Xiang Shuhuai felt the coldness of the place too much. She couldn’t help but shiver.

The gland check had drained her, and her brief nap in the car hadn’t helped. Just holding those bottles and capsules of artificial pheromones while going upstairs, getting the key, and opening the door made her sweat again.

Her lips were pale, and her vision blurred, almost unable to see clearly.

She fumbled along the shoe cabinet and wall, forcing herself to sit on the sofa and set the pheromone products aside.

After resting her eyes for a long time, the weakness slowly faded from her body. As she sat there, she suddenly remembered—they had both rushed out earlier, and neither of them had cleaned up the breakfast dishes. The leftovers were still sitting on the table.

She sat for a while, pressing on the aching back of her neck. Once she felt a bit of strength returning, she stood up and went to the kitchen to finish preparing the remaining breakfast.

The two of them had parted on bad terms this morning. After Xu Xiaoxiao slammed the door and left, Xie Shuhai had been a little emotionally stirred and went to the hospital before finishing her breakfast. Now, on her plate, there were still a few dumplings, a fried egg, and two strips of bacon. The soy milk had already cooled down, and the plate between the two of them—

Had several apples carved into the shapes of rabbits, along with a small cat.

Xie Shuhai stared at them, reaching out as if to touch the carved apple shaped like a little cat, but her hand stopped short in mid-air.

“…So cute.” She hadn’t realized Xu Xiaoxiao’s carving skills were this good.

If only, if only she hadn’t taken her anger out on Xu Xiaoxiao after that ridiculous dream, and made her upset—then perhaps Xu Xiaoxiao wouldn’t have left, right?

Maybe, if things had been different, the alpha girl would be sitting across from her now, smiling and chatting non-stop, with endless words flowing from her mouth. Xu Xiaoxiao’s body temperature was so high, and she had so much energy. Surely, she wouldn’t let this house feel so empty and cold, making her almost feel an unfamiliar kind of fear…

Xie Shuhai squeezed her eyes shut, fighting back a tinge of bitterness in her heart.

It hadn’t even been that long, and already she felt like she couldn’t live without Xu Xiaoxiao.

…What would she be like when they finally separated?

She shook her head, trying to push away these thoughts, then sat back down at the table and resumed eating the leftover breakfast.

The breakfast was completely cold now. The dumplings were still decent, but the fried egg with soy sauce only left behind the egg’s raw smell in her mouth. The bacon was so greasy it almost made Xie Shuhai feel nauseous. She pressed on her throat, forcing herself to swallow, then washed away the unpleasant taste with the cold sweet soy milk.

Xie Shuhai ate slowly, but after taking a bite at a time, she eventually finished everything. Unlike when the two of them ate together, there was usually some leftover food—when Xu Xiaoxiao served her, she tended to be a bit too enthusiastic and would often put more on her plate than she could eat.

With the excess food filling her stomach, Xie Shuhai felt a bit bloated. A dull pain slowly spread, causing beads of sweat to form on her forehead. She pressed her stomach, sitting there for a while, until the pain faded. Finally, she stood up and cleaned all the dishes, neatly placing them aside.

…Only the plate of sliced apples remained.

The apple slices had been exposed to the air too long and were now a little oxidized, turning slightly yellow. The edges had started to wilt, no longer showing the fresh white color they had when they were first cut. Xie Shuhai looked at them for a moment before placing them in the fridge, leaving the little cat-shaped apple in her palm as she carried it to the living room.

—Now that the chores were done, it was time to test those calming agents.

Xie Shuhai figured that with so many types of calming agents on the market, maybe one of them would work for her. Then, she wouldn’t need Xu Xiaoxiao’s company and could complete the procedure on her own.

Logically, she should return to her bedroom to experiment, but the room was empty. She had just spent so much time at the hospital, and the smell of disinfectant lingered on her body. Only the faint trace of Xu Xiaoxiao’s pheromones remained on the couch in the living room. It was warm, like the scent of the sun, making her feel particularly safe.

She must have been too tired because she allowed herself this small indulgence. She curled up on the couch and laid the calming pheromones out beside her.

There were many different scents, as Anning had bought many kinds for her. Most of them were relatively mild smells: gummy candy, sprays, ointments, capsules, and injectable solutions.

The first thing to discard was the injectable solution. The gummy candies looked suspiciously like placebo, so after a brief hesitation, Xie Shuhai decided to start with the safest choice—the inhalable spray.

She tried to open the first bottle, but for some reason, her cold fingers seemed to tremble a little, and she had to use her palm to steady the cap before twisting it off.

Click.

This bottle of artificial alpha pheromone claimed to smell like the sun, and its concentration appeared to be relatively low. Starting with this one seemed like the safest choice.

Xie Shuhai took a nervous breath, clenched her hand, and held it up to her nose and mouth, gently pressing down.

“—Ugh!”

The scent of alpha pheromones hit her instantly. Xie Shuhuai’s face went pale as she choked, nearly suffocating. She curled up on the couch, struggling, trying to escape the overwhelming pressure, gasping for air as if she couldn’t breathe in enough.

Threat. She felt an intense, instinctive sense of danger, even though it was of poor quality, it was still strong enough to make her hear a voice in her head screaming for her to run—run away!

Xie Shuhai turned her face away, gripping her wrist for a long time before she could finally calm her breathing and stop her body from trembling. She tossed the bottle aside.

Unqualified.

The next bottle was a gentle floral scent.

…It was disgustingly bad quality. Stumbling to the bathroom, she threw up everything in her stomach. Weakly, Xie Shuhai lay there, thinking as she looked at her pale face, with only the red circles around her eyes.

It seemed like all her omega instincts had been triggered by these poor-quality artificial pheromones. Her glands at the back of her neck throbbed with excruciating pain, and she was drenched in cold sweat. Her chest heaved as if she were a dehydrated fish.

But eventually, she returned to the couch, closed her eyes, and mechanically opened the third bottle of pheromones.

…This one didn’t work.

The fourth one didn’t either.

The fifth, sixth, seventh…

Finally, Xie Shuhai could only clutch her chest, collapsing onto the couch in pain. She was on the verge of passing out, surrounded by all the bottles and cans she had used.

She instinctively gasped, desperate for some pure oxygen, but all she could inhale was more and more mixed artificial pheromones, further stripping her of her sanity.

The instinctual fear rattled and screamed inside her bones and bl00d.

None of them worked.

It hurt… so much.

She felt as though invisible hands were holding her down on the couch, unable to escape. The mix of alpha pheromones surrounded her, and Xie Shuhai felt like she was back in that time.

That time—when she could only hide behind the thin door of the women’s restroom, curled up, desperately pressing on her glands, trembling, wishing she could disappear. That same alpha, Sun Tao, stood outside, leering greedily, releasing his pheromones to suppress Xie Shuhai, preparing to break down the door and forcefully take her. And everyone else ignored it, tacitly accepting what was happening.

Someone had drugged her, making it impossible for Xie Shuhai to control her pheromones. Sun Tao had long been scheming against her.

And all she had was a utility knife the size of her palm.

If—if necessary, she could kill Sun Tao with all her strength, it wouldn’t be hard. But Xiang Shuhuai couldn’t do that.

She was still just an insignificant illegitimate daughter. If Sun Tao died or was injured while resisting, Xiang Hongshan would never protect her. She’d likely be handed over to the Sun family as a “concession.” But if she was marked by Sun Tao, she would be hastily married off to the person who had marked her.

So, there was only one path left to take.

The alpha man continued to kick the door violently, each strike making Xiang Shuhuai almost tremble. But her hand remained steady, as if even she herself couldn’t believe she was able to keep her composure in this moment.

She quickly stuffed her mouth with her school uniform to avoid biting her tongue.

Then—swiftly and forcefully, she drove the utility knife deep into the back of her neck.

She gouged out the gland.

It hurt. Xiang Shuhuai nearly passed out for a few seconds, her mind going blank, cold sweat soaking through her clothes, and she could hardly suppress the sharp scream of pain. Soon, through her darkening, blurred vision, the door to the compartment was kicked open, and Sun Tao stood there, frozen in place, a maniacal grin on his face.

Xiang Shuhuai casually discarded the piece of flesh she had removed.

One hand pressed against her bl00d-soaked neck, the other holding the bloody utility knife. Her cold, unblinking eyes stared at him, as if she might lash out at any moment and slit his throat.

Sun Tao was frightened. He only wanted to seduce a beautiful omega girl, but he never planned on losing his life over it.

He backed off, and Xiang Shuhuai, regaining her senses for a moment from the brink of unconsciousness, groggily called the police. The teachers rushed over and took her to the hospital. Xiang Hongshan seemed to notice her ruthlessness in the situation and helped her handle it.

Most of her classmates had gone abroad, continuing their extravagant, carefree lives until Xiang Shuhuai started the Star company and took over the Xiang family business, leading to the bankruptcy of their family companies.

…And now, Xiang Shuhuai seemed to have returned to being that abandoned daughter with only a utility knife, without any power.

Save me, she struggled on the soft couch, nearly losing her sanity from the intense pressure. Help, save me, please don’t…

Only the sharp pain in her neck reminded her that it was over, it had all passed. She had already removed her gland. She was no longer anyone’s prey. She had already gained the power she needed.

The intense scent of pheromones lingered in the air for a long time. Xiang Shuhuai didn’t know how long she had been struggling or how long it had taken her to truly regain her composure. All she remembered was instinctively burying her face in the soft pillow, the only soft, untainted sanctuary left.

The smell that belonged to Yu Xiaoxiao.

Sweet, faint cream scent, like freshly baked bread, playful and sweet enough to make Xiang Shuhuai, drenched in cold sweat and barely conscious, nearly burst into tears.

It seemed that no other pheromone would do… She probably had to go through the surgery by herself.

…She had simply gotten used to her past way of living.

If she wanted something, she had to work hard for it, to use any means necessary to take it. Most of the time, Xiang Shuhuai could get everything she wanted, except for people’s hearts.

Like—her Star company, her Xiang family, all the money and status she needed.

Her sister was her business partner. They exchanged interests. Her meeting with Yi Anning had been planned from the start, and now she couldn’t control whether Yi Anning would betray her. Her biological mother, father, and all her relatives had never shown her a bit of love, despite the bl00d they shared.

In Xiang Shuhuai’s life, nothing ever came easy.

…Except for Yu Xiaoxiao.

She didn’t understand why Yu Xiaoxiao liked her. But Yu Xiaoxiao’s love was so pure, so kind, so good. It was the best thing Xiang Shuhuai had ever received.

That’s why she felt so incredibly uneasy, unsure of the heavy price she would have to pay to be worthy of that love.

…Perhaps the omega reconstruction surgery could be part of that?

Once the surgery was done, would she be able to keep Yu Xiaoxiao, to possess that scent more?

Thinking this, Xiang Shuhuai tightly hugged the pillow, and in the last bit of the warm scent, she drifted into a dazed sleep.

The tests during the day had drained her of so much energy, and she slept deeply on the couch for a long time.

…When she opened her eyes again, it was already completely dark. The only light in the living room was a flickering small lamp, and she was covered by a strange thin blanket.

Yu Xiaoxiao was standing in the corner of the light. When she saw that Xiang Shuhuai had woken up, she quietly walked over.

“Big Ice Block,” she said softly, “Why are you sleeping here? You’ll catch a cold.”

“…Yu Xiaoxiao.”

Xiang Shuhuai stared at the figure, unsure whether she was dreaming or if she was really there. Her voice was hoarse.

“Yu Xiaoxiao…?”

…It was probably a dream. She thought to herself after a long while.

After all, Yu Xiaoxiao was still mad at her. She probably wouldn’t come back.

Since it was a dream.

Xiang Shuhuai reached out, gently tugging on the hem of the alpha girl’s shirt in her dream.

“Yu Xiaoxiao,” she asked softly, her voice still laced with sleepiness, “…When I become a complete omega, will you like me a little more?”