Zhou Shiyi was in an awkward position. He wasn’t a member of the Gu family, so standing there felt inappropriate, but he had already promised Gu Sheng, and everyone present had heard it, so leaving abruptly would also be improper.

“This time we owe Mr. Zhou. You not only saved me but saved my brother as well—you’ve done the Gu family a favor. It’s just a bit awkward right now; once my brother is out of danger, I’ll personally bring him to your door to express our thanks.”

Gu Yuan took out a personal business card and handed it to Zhou Shiyi.

“If you ever need anything in the future, anything I can help with, just say the word.”

Gu Yuan truly lived up to being the Gu family’s eldest son. Even though they were all in a sorry state, their clothes wrinkled and rumpled, his bearing and the way he handled matters were comforting.

Zhou Shiyi hesitated for a moment, then accepted Gu Yuan’s business card.

Seeing Zhou Shiyi take the card, Gu Yuan also breathed a sigh of relief.

The Gu family weren’t ungrateful people, but with his brother lying in the ER and his life hanging in the balance, this was the most he could do for now—offer compensation afterward.

Seeing that Zhou Shiyi still hadn’t left and, considering how late it was and that he was so dutifully waiting outside, he felt a bit embarrassed.

“Mr. Zhou, do you work at the Gao household? When I left earlier I heard the foreman looking for someone. It’s our fault for keeping you—I’ll have the driver take you back right now.”

Zhou Shiyi’s personal belongings were still in the estate, and Gu Yuan had already spoken up; leaving now would also ease the awkwardness of having to make an exit.

It was already nearly midnight and taxis would be hard to get. Having the Gu family’s driver take him back really was the best option.

He nodded and said, “Then I’ll trouble you with that.”

After Zhou Shiyi left, Gu Yuan was pulled aside by Gu Jinyan, who looked bewildered.

“You just let him leave like that?”

“I know this was somewhat thoughtless, but Gu Sheng is still in the ER. I could only take care of the immediate matters first; I’ll definitely come by to thank him properly another day.”

Gu Jinyan gave him a tug. “That’s not what I meant.”

Gu Yuan: “?”

Gu Jinyan quietly repeated what had just happened. After hearing it, Gu Yuan also looked puzzled.

But when he saw the red indicator light, he grew anxious inside and had to restrain himself, putting on a thoughtful expression while waiting for Gu Sheng to come out.

Zhou Shiyi rode in the Gu family’s car to the manor, and along the way he could still see ambulances speeding past.

The luxury cars that were rarely seen on ordinary days were now everywhere on the street, all busy driving out of the manor.

They had their own private doctors; unless the injuries were particularly severe, they would choose to return home, where their private physicians had long been waiting.

Cars like the Gu family’s, heading back toward the manor now, were few and far between.

The driver’s driving was excellent; he stopped very smoothly in front of the estate.

Someone was standing outside the estate; looking closely, it was Aya.

Zhou Shiyi naturally saw Aya waiting outside, and the two bags she was carrying in her hands.

He got out of the car and greeted Aya.

Aya also recognized it as a luxury car, so she was somewhat surprised to see Zhou Shiyi get out.

Zhou Shiyi mumbled that he had just taken someone to the hospital, and the patient’s family asked the driver to bring him back to grab some things.

Hearing that explanation, Aya let out a sigh of relief. She handed one of the bags to Zhou Shiyi:

“I looked for you earlier and didn’t find you. I saw your stuff still there and figured you’d come back for it, so I brought it out for you. Check it—are all your things here?”

Zhou Shiyi’s things were few and he finished looking through them at a glance. He nodded: “Everything’s here, thank you. Why are you still here?”

Aya glanced around and said, “The head nurse just called us together and told us not to tell anyone about what happened tonight, and gave each of us some hush money. You weren’t here — the head nurse will probably call you later to say the same thing.”

No matter how they tried to cover it up, what happened tonight was still a huge scandal.

Zhou Shiyi nodded. “I understand.”

He knew what to say and what not to say; he had never been one to talk much.

It was already past midnight, and they couldn’t easily get a taxi, so Aya suggested they walk down together.

Seeing that the two had completely ignored him, the driver pulled the car up beside them and honked once.

Zhou Shiyi turned back, and the driver rolled down the window, calling to them, “Mr. Zhou, it’s hard to get a taxi here. I’ll give you a ride down. Miss, you can get in too.”

“Would I be putting you out?” Zhou Shiyi asked hesitantly.

“President Gu specifically told me to make sure you got home safely just now; there’s no way we’d leave you stranded halfway,” she replied.

Hearing that, and since there really were no cars here, he got in the car with Aya.

It was Aya’s first time riding in such a nice car, and she was still a bit curious.

The driver was very talkative all the way, but not in an annoying way.

They first took Aya home.

Aya got out of the car and said goodbye to them.

They only drove off after a light went on in a room of one of the apartment buildings, glowing in the night.

“You can just drop me off here; it’s hard to turn around inside.”

The driver looked at the block of connected apartments in front of him and, following his advice, let Zhou Shiyi out.

Zhou Shiyi thanked the driver, took out his phone to light the way, and headed home.

The driver waited until he saw lights on in the building before calling Gu Yuan.

“Hello, President Gu, the person has arrived home safely.”

On this end, Gu Yuan received the call, said a few more words, then hung up.

He rubbed his brow and looked at the report in front of him.

After emergency treatment, Gu Sheng had been taken out of danger and transferred to the intensive care unit for observation for one day; if confirmed fine, he could be moved to a general ward.

At first that seemed like good news, but what the doctor said afterward was inevitably a bolt from the blue, catching the Gu family completely off guard.

Because they couldn’t detect what Gu Sheng was allergic to, they could only take blood and rush the tests.

Unexpectedly, Gu Sheng’s allergen was something unprecedented and unheard of.

Gu Sheng is allergic to pheromones.

It’s not like a person being allergic to mangoes—where inhaling the scent of mango pheromones can trigger a reaction—Gu Sheng is allergic to all pheromones.

And the symptoms are very severe: just smelling them causes rapid breathing, dizziness, and nausea.

If too much pheromone is inhaled, it can cause large patches of hives on the body and eventually lead to laryngeal edema; in severe cases it could cause anaphylactic shock.

The doctor was also encountering this situation for the first time; seeing that Gu Sheng’s various indicators were normal, he could only say that he couldn’t rule out psychological factors.

Nian Meilan sat there dumbly, staring blankly, the same test report clutched in her hand.

Ever since she heard the doctor’s diagnosis, she hadn’t recovered at all.

An alpha, allergic to all pheromones, including his future partner.

This meant that Gu Sheng would have to spend his entire life getting through the receptive periods with suppressants, and before suppressants existed there were also precedents of alphas who never paired with an omega for their whole lives.

Without suppressants, one can only rely on willpower to force through the rut; in the end that alpha died during one of those ruts.

This case is somewhat insane, so every alpha and omega, from the moment they’re born, are told that they are a match made by nature — alphas can only be with omegas.

But the doctor’s diagnosis was like a notice handed down to Gu Sheng: for the rest of his life he could never be with an omega, and must steel himself to endure every sensitivity period.

And if he smelled other alphas’ pheromones, it would trigger further negative effects.

Apart from sorrow and worry for Gu Sheng, the Gu family felt mostly anger.

Someone had no idea who it was, but they’d tortured Gu Sheng into this state.

They contacted the hospital, found the best specialist in that field, and arranged an urgent transfer for Gu Sheng that very night.

When Zhou Shiyi woke up the next day, just as expected he received a call from the foreman of the Gao family. Between the lines he was warned not to tell anyone about the matter, and on top of his regular pay they added a hefty hush money.

He unlocked his phone and checked the news.

Something that big happened yesterday—there was no way it wouldn’t be in the news.

He clicked in and saw a report that a member of an extremist organization had been arrested and was currently under investigation.

What had happened last night was mentioned only in passing.

There were so many reporters last night, and nearly the entire city’s ambulances showed up — it’s impossible there was no news; the He family doesn’t have that much power.

The only possibility is that all of H City’s upper circles joined forces to suppress the story, making sure no other fish would be caught.

Last night’s situation was indeed ugly. These are prominent people; being schemed like that, they couldn’t have taken no action at all.

They were even at the scene and found several mini night-vision cameras.

So even if Zhou Shiyi hadn’t taken the Gao family’s hush money, he still wouldn’t be able to post anything online if he wanted to.

The original novel centered on Gu Sheng and He Yanqing, so those details were filled in by the world’s consciousness.

When Zhou Shiyi sat up, his arms felt as if they’d been run over by wheels repeatedly—after all, he’d spent last night trying to control those alphas, lifting and lowering the wounded; he’d exhausted himself to the point his arms wouldn’t lift.

Especially the two bites Gu Sheng gave him last night and the marks on his wrists—any movement made them hurt.

Last night when he got back, Zhou Shiyi could barely wrap the wound with cling film and took a shower.

Although he couldn’t smell the pheromone scent on him, he’d worked up a sweat, and couldn’t possibly sleep without washing.

Since his hands were weak, Zhou Shiyi went downstairs to buy breakfast, managed to squeeze onto the bus, and didn’t end up late.

He’d just stepped into the classroom when he heard a heated discussion going on inside.

Zhou Shiyi listened and realized it had happened only last night.

The classmates all came from somewhat influential families, but not everyone had attended the dinner. Still, their families clamped down and ordered them to keep quiet and not blab outside.

But teenage curiosity couldn’t be contained, so they all clustered around Qin Shu, who was said to have been there.

“Qin Shu, was Miss Gao really tagged by someone? What about her and her fiancé?”

The questioner was an omega from the class, and that was also how most of them felt.

They were all moved hearing that Miss Gao’s fiancé had stood up for her, but when they learned that Miss Gao had been marked by another alpha, they felt a pang of regret.

Qin Shu scratched his head. “Well, I’m not really sure either. It’s just that her fiancé was taken to the hospital — they say he’s now in a vegetative state. No one knows when he’ll wake up.”

“Ah, Miss Gao and her fiancé are really tragic.”

“Yeah, yeah, who would’ve thought something like this would happen at your own engagement banquet.”

Zhou Shiyi heard it too and felt a bit wistful.

“What about Sheng-ge? Sheng-ge went last night too, right? Why isn’t he here today, did something happen to him?”

“Well…” Qin Shu looked a little embarrassed. At that moment the class bell rang, and he seemed to have found a savior, hastily shooing everyone back.

“Class is starting, class is starting, what are you all clustering around for?”

The English teacher held a book under his arm. Seeing they weren’t at their seats, he frowned slightly and told them to go back and prepare for morning reading.

Zhou Shiyi noticed that not only was Gu Sheng absent, but He Yanqing hadn’t come to class either.

When school let out at noon, Zhou Shiyi used the lunch break to go to the First People’s Hospital.

It was also a coincidence that Grandma Zhou was hospitalized in the same hospital.

Only Grandma Zhou was on the third floor, while Gu Sheng had been placed in a private room on the fifth.

Zhou Shiyi brought a fruit basket and took the elevator up to the fifth floor, where he heard from the nurses in the ward that Gu Sheng had already been discharged.