Chapter 7

Su Louzhi read the System task again.

Xiqiao Mountain Hiking Mixer. November 28th.

She didn't know why she had to sign up, but she could guess—that must be the day Qin Qingyan and Shen Boyang's feelings would heat up, and she needed to be there as the catalyst to help things along.

She curved her lips. Fine, this was a role she knew well. The task was still two months away, so there was no rush. After today's drama, she needed some time to decompress.

Su Louzhi rolled over and sprawled flat on her bed. Sunlight slipped through the gap in the curtains, painting a faint streak of light on the wall. She stared at it for a while, and her eyelids gradually grew heavy. She'd skipped her afternoon nap waiting for the task, and even though it was already four in the afternoon, the drowsiness surged up and refused to be held back.

She closed her eyes slowly.

—

Meanwhile, in a high-end penthouse near the school.

Ji Kailan pushed open the door and stepped inside, closing it behind him. He leaned against the door panel, letting out a barely perceptible breath. The mixed, pungent pheromone smell that had been clinging to his nose finally faded. He shut his eyes for a moment, then walked into the living room and collapsed onto the sofa.

As the world's rare enigma, he had been tormented by pheromones for seven years.

The year he presented at fifteen, the whole world had erupted.

Enigma. A being said to stand above alpha. How many years had it been since the world had seen one? Everyone said the Ji Family was about to welcome an heir of unprecedented power.

They weren't wrong. He was indeed the most outstanding heir. Top grades, thriving business ventures, not even bothering to skip grades because going to school normally didn't stop him from mastering the family business. He entered university at eighteen, double-majoring in finance and economics while taking over a portion of the group's operations in his spare time, which had since become an indispensable core sector. It sounded like a perfect script.

But the second half of the script, no one told him.

Six months after presenting, he experienced his first rut.

His parents were on high alert. They mobilized the best medical teams under the group, prepared enhanced alpha suppressants, and even cleared out a villa in the suburbs, waiting for him to ride out those days.

And the result?

All that preparation was wasted.

That day he lost control—not going mad, not losing his mind, but losing control of his pheromones.

As an enigma, his pheromones naturally dominated every other gender. Alphas, betas, omegas all bowed before him. And when those pheromones spiraled out of control, it became a disaster.

The medical team were all betas, theoretically immune to pheromone effects. But they couldn't get anywhere near him. The moment they stepped into that room, his pheromones crushed them—dizziness, nausea, unable to move an inch.

In the end, he had to lock himself in the villa and endure that week alone. No suppressants, no comfort, no one who could approach him. Year after year.

Four years. He'd endured it every year, believing his willpower was strong enough to keep going.

Until the year before last, his nineteenth birthday.

When that rut came, he realized something was wrong. He began to lose control of himself. Self-harm started. When he came to, his arms were covered in bloody scratches he'd made himself.

After the rut ended, his medical team conducted a full assessment.

His attending physician, Zhang Ze, spoke with a grim face. "Young Master Ji, your pheromones have been building up for too long. In the early years, you could rely on willpower, but now, every rut requires several times the suppression of the last. You've reached your limit."

Ji Kailan said nothing.

"We've researched it," Zhang Ze continued after a pause. "Technology has no answer. There are too few enigma samples; suppressants simply can't be developed. Your only option now is to find someone who can soothe you."

"What kind of person?" Ji Kailan asked.

Zhang Ze hesitated. "I don't know," he said. "But it definitely isn't an alpha, beta, or omega. You're too strong—their pheromones are like cheap perfume to you. During a rut, their scent would make you unable to breathe, even vomit. And they, in turn, couldn't withstand your violent pheromones."

Ji Kailan lowered his eyes. "What if I can't find one? Zhang Ze, you should know—in this world, everyone has a designation."

Zhang Ze looked at him. "Young Master Ji, you can hold out at most until thirty."

Ever since that verdict two years ago, the family had erupted. His mother cried for three straight days. His father kept a brave face, but that night he sat alone in his study until three in the morning.

They couldn't accept it.

The Ji Family was the pinnacle of this world. What resources couldn't they mobilize? What price couldn't they pay?

Ever since he presented as an enigma at fifteen and first lost control of his pheromones, the family had poured endless money into that bottomless pit. Research institutes were built one after another, elite teams were brought in wave after wave, and the annual investment was incalculable.

But seven years passed, and nothing had been figured out.

After the doctor's verdict two years ago, his parents went mad with increased investment. Any institution on Earth even remotely related to pheromone research—they contacted them all. Any expert with a name in the field—they invited them all. Money wasn't the issue, resources weren't the issue. The issue was that no one knew how to make an enigma suppressant.

No samples. No data. No precedent.

He was like a one-of-a-kind experiment, stranded on a desert island, waiting for time to drown him.

The news was tightly sealed by the family. Even now, those in the know, besides the medical team, numbered no more than five. Shen Boyang was one of them.

Ji Kailan opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling.

Today in the alley, when Qin Qingyan showed the police Su Louzhi's campus card, he and Shen Boyang both saw it—that card bore a special marking.

The special designation identifier.

Just like his own campus card had the same marking.

Shen Boyang had glanced at him then. Ji Kailan knew what he was thinking—that Su Louzhi, like him, was a special designation.

But Shen Boyang was wrong.

Because only he could feel it: when he got close to Su Louzhi, that mixed scent that had tormented him for seven years suddenly faded.

Clean. Empty. Air he could finally breathe.

Su Louzhi carried no scent at all. She wasn't an alpha, not a beta, not an omega. She was, in the truest sense, a person without designation.

But that alone wouldn't have made her so significant. The problem was that she not only kept herself clean—she made the scents around her fade too.

One step closer, and the cheap pheromones receded a little more. If he got close enough...

Ji Kailan's Adam's apple bobbed slowly.

If he got close enough, those scents would disappear completely.

In that moment, he understood.

Su Louzhi.

Was his cure.