The sunlight filtered through the white sheer curtains of the floor-to-ceiling windows.
"Lin Jianlu, get me a glass of ice water." His voice, hoarse from a hangover, carried a magnetic undertone.
Lin Jianlu was not a little sweet O. He wouldn't bring the ice water to him, nor would he sweetly call him "husband."
Lin Jianlu would only turn over and sit up, stare at him coldly, and then toss a box of sweet milk beside his pillow.
Xie Wang waited for a long time, shielding his eyes from the sunlight with his arm, but the sweet milk he didn't like to drink never came.
The room was quiet.
Oh, I remember.
He had been reborn.
At this time, he hadn't married Lin Jianlu yet.
"Did I come back alone last night?" He called his assistant.
"Yes," the assistant said, "You were drunk, so I sent you home."
"What about Lin Jianlu?" Xie Wang asked.
"Lin Jianlu?" The assistant thought for a moment, "You mean the omega student you talked to yesterday? He went back with his roommate."
Roommate?
Xie Wang understood.
It must be Wei Lan.
A few years later, Lin Jianlu would be a well-known cold beauty in the circle, someone who rarely said more than ten sentences in a conversation.
The only person Lin Jianlu ever really talked to was his omega roommate, named Wei Lan, a screenwriter major at X University.
In Xie Wang's view, Wei Lan was just a conservative, old-fashioned omega.
He had read Wei Lan's scripts before—dry, utterly lacking in sexual tension, artsy love stories that were bullshit when you read through them. Yet, somehow, people were willing to buy them, and they even got filmed and sent to compete for awards.
In short, these two omegas were joined at the hip; one was cold and the other old-fashioned.
And Lin Jianlu could talk to Wei Lan for a long time every time.
Whatever, Xie Wang thought, I'd better go to shoot.
Isn't it wonderful to pursue a career? He loved acting.
It's not like he absolutely needed Lin Jianlu in this life.
***
Morning, X University, ABO physiology morning class.
Lin Jianlu sat in the third row, his left hand pressing down on a notebook as he took notes.
The omega's side profile looked very focused.
The lecturer saw this scene and nodded in satisfaction.
X University's students are of high quality; good-looking and serious in class.
"Listen to this," Wei Lan said, handing over an earphone.
Lin Jianlu tilted his head slightly and rested his right hand against his cheek.
He listened intently for a few seconds.
"So, what do you think?" Wei Lan asked.
Without taking his eyes off the blackboard, Lin Jianlu responded coldly, "Not bad. This alpha is a good panter."
"I think so too," Wei Lan replied, "but his face is pretty average."
Lin Jianlu hummed in agreement and added two more lines to his notebook.
"YoYo," Wei Lan leaned closer, "You smell of alpha pheromones, a bit like… unripe grapefruit."
Sour and astringent.
Lin Jianlu had a pretty good idea of who it belonged to.
After returning from the wedding banquet yesterday, Lin Jianlu had taken several showers.
But that grapefruit scent still lingered, clinging to him persistently.
Either the other person's pheromone level was exceptionally strong, or their pheromones were highly compatible.
"A fling?" Wei Lan asked. "Is it a good A?"
"It's scumbag A," Lin Jianlu replied.
And with that, the topic was temporarily dropped.
As soon as Lin Jianlu finished his class, he received a call from his company.
The company, quite large and called Xingluo Entertainment, was one he had signed with on his own, without his family's knowledge. They had good resources overall and were paying enough attention to a newcomer like him.
"There's a music competition show coming up," the person from the company said. "The planning proposal has been sent to major companies, and we want you to participate. Can you adjust your schedule?"
"I can," Lin Jianlu replied.
"Great, I'll sign you up then," the person on the other end said. "Take it easy for the next few days. Once filming starts, I'll have someone pick you up."
"Mm," Lin Jianlu responded.
"When you're on the show, don't be so distant. Talk to people more; it's all about networking," his manager advised.
"Mm," Lin Jianlu responded.
He hung up the phone.
His phone buzzed a few more times—Lin Ming had sent over some profiles of alphas again.
Without even looking at them, Lin Jianlu blocked him.
***
Xie Wang had been living quite comfortably these past few days.
He attended several rock concerts, singing along with the crowd; he raced a car for a few laps at the track—an activity that would annoy Lin Jianlu if he saw it—and even visited an art gallery in a neighboring city to see a painting exhibition.
The entire gallery was filled with oil paintings of oranges—round, flat, pristine, peeling, green, yellow—every kind imaginable.
He didn't understand art and couldn't make sense of the paintings.
But the intense longing for Lin Jianlu gradually faded and was not so strong.
Sure enough, he was simply used to having an omega by his side.
Whether it was Lin Jianlu or not didn't really matter.
He was a free and clear-headed alpha.
When the weekend arrived, his agent had had enough. A car drove to the doorstep of Xie Wang's house, and he was practically dragged into it and taken to the set to start filming.
The movie "Hidden Sword" was a suspense thriller.
It opened with the detective, played by Xie Wang, being threatened by the adversary who had kidnapped his omega.
The scene Xie Wang had to film today was one where the detective, after a small victory, returns home to find his house in disarray. Upon discovering a threatening letter on the table, he breaks down emotionally.
"Brilliant." The director crossed his legs and watched Xie Wang in the center of the frame, clicking his tongue in amazement. "I took a liking to him at first sight during the audition that day. He's a genius, a natural talent."
The director continued, "Look at this performance, this emotion, this expression—it's like he's really lost his wife, hahaha."
In the scene, Xie Wang collapsed beside the table, his fingers digging into the wood, veins bulging on the back of his hand.
The alpha's eyes were bloodshot, his breathing erratic, and the hand that answered the phone was trembling violently. His voice was choked with a fierce desperation: "…I've lost my wife."
Director: "This is what it means to be a professional actor! It's so real, so real… ahem."
Assistant: "..."
It's just fucking acting, why did his alpha pheromones explode?
"Has his temper been pretty bad these two days?" Xie Wang's agent took a few steps back.
"Yeah," the assistant replied. "The other day, when Wang-ge was drunk, he was even talking in his sleep and asking for his wife. It was so funny. Where did he get a wife?"
Xie Wang walked out of the set amid the director's crazy praise, grabbing a towel soaked in ice water and pressing it against his temple.
"Are you trying to scare off all the omegas on set?" the agent scolded. "Your method acting is a bit tiring."
The grapefruit-scented alpha pheromones had faded significantly.
Xie Wang sat on a bench for rest, feeling a little depressed.
What was Lin Jianlu doing right now?
But then again, did what Lin Jianlu was doing have anything to do with him?
"I've got you a spot on a music competition show," Agent Sun said, "You can be a mentor during your free time from filming."
Xie Wang had received an invitation to this show before his rebirth as well.
At that time, he was fully focused on "Hidden Sword" and had declined without hesitation.
"Seeking Sound?" he asked, naming the show.
"Huh? You know it?" Sun Lei was surprised. "They want you as a special guest mentor. Other mentors have two votes, but you'll only have one. They want to mooch your popularity."
Xie Wang definitely remembered "Seeking Sound," which was the only music competition show that stood out during this period.
After he married Lin Jianlu, he had heard friends mention it.
It was also the first official show Lin Jianlu participated in.
His final ranking wasn't great—only third place.
But two years later, Lin Jianlu's song for a TV show's ending theme became a huge hit online, and with that song, he won two awards.
And it was at this awards ceremony that the two first met.
"It's not an important invitation," Sun Lei said. "If you don't want to go, I'll—"
"I'll go." Xie Wang said.
He really wanted to see Lin Jianlu at this point in time.
Such a brainy and proud guy—how did he not get first place?
He wanted to watch the fun.
"Alright then, you focus on filming, and I'll arrange the schedule for you," his agent said. "Let's set aside some time to meet with the creative team first."
***
To ensure the quality of the show, "Seeking Sound" had a pre-screening audition.
Lin Jianlu received the notification well in advance.
Early in the morning, he took a company car to the "Seeking Sound" recording venue.
Wei Lan was already awake and had been texting him to chat.
[Lan]: Yoyo, are you in estrus? I just helped you air out your bedding, and it smells like strawberries.
[Yoyo]: A little bit.
The pheromones Xie Wang released that day when he was threatening someone still had an effect on him.
[Lan]: Then make sure to protect yourself, okay?
[Yoyo]: Yeah.
[Lan]: Go for it! Our Yoyo's singing will definitely charm a bunch of people.
Lin Jianlu slipped his phone back into the pocket of his black hoodie as the recording venue came into view.
There were many people there for the audition, and some had already started chatting with each other.
Lin Jianlu, carrying a backpack, stood against the wall, far away from the crowd.
It was at this moment that Xie Wang's car arrived.
From a distance, he spotted Lin Jianlu outside the group.
It was not that he deliberately looked for him, but that Lin Jianlu's appearance was already stunning and made him stand out.
The omega had changed into a softer black shirt, with two of the silver buttons at the collar left undone, revealing his collarbones and the slender neck above—
Around which was a black choker.
An omega pheromone-suppressing collar.
Xie Wang was all too familiar with that thing, and he even hated it a bit.
Lin Jianlu's skin was soft and sensitive, unable to tolerate the thin pheromone-blocking patches commonly used by omegas—they would easily cause redness and irritation.
So, whenever Lin Jianlu was nearing his estrus, he would opt for the more traditional neck ring.
The black inhibition ring was fitted with a silver monitoring chain, which ensured the omega's safety at all times and alerted him to his health status.
Xie Wang's memories were instantly pulled back to before his rebirth—
He had been sulking and worked overtime into the night on set. When he finally returned home and opened the door, there was a faint scent of strawberries in the air.
Lin Jianlu was barefoot, lying on the sofa, asleep on his side.
He must have been tired, as the omega still had a shirt he'd worn the previous day draped across his waist.
Xie Wang didn't know if he was aroused due to the pheromones, but he suddenly lost control.
Lin Jianlu opened his sleepy eyes slightly, his amber eyes coldly reflecting Xie Wang's image.
And he, with a fierce intensity, grabbed him and pressed him against the edge of the sofa. His fingers dug into the gap between the leather and Lin Jianlu's neck, gripping the pheromone-suppressing collar with rough movements and a harsh tone—
"Untie it and let me take a bite."
"Please."
--------------------
Dog Xie, you use the harshest tone to say the most pathetic things.
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