Chapter 122

"Please, mark me..."

As she spoke, she rubbed against her without holding back.

No wonder she would have such a dream... Zhong Ning thought in a daze. A dark fire burned beneath her skin, and her pheromones escaped without permission. The sweetness of yuzu blossoms mixed with the slight bitterness of absinthe, and the air was saturated with the scent of both their pheromones.

Xie Shiqing caught her scent, and her bones went limp as she collapsed onto her.

"Ning Ning, Ning Ning..." she called out repeatedly, her voice as sweet as if it had been dipped in honey.

"I'm so hot, Ning Ning... please, help me, Ning Ning, help me."

Every word trembled with a sob, nearly turning into a whimper.

Zhong Ning was drenched in sweat, breathing heavily. "No."

She grabbed Xie Shiqing's restless hand, sat up straight, swallowed a few times, and repeated, "No."

This time, her voice was firmer, resolute, leaving no room for refusal.

Her body was burning, but her mind remained clear.

She didn’t want to go through another confusing, muddled love. She didn’t want to do this driven by nothing but desire. If they slept together now, wouldn't everything they had insisted on before be completely meaningless?

Their relationship would return to how it used to be.

Zhong Ning pushed Xie Shiqing down onto the bed, turned her over, made her lie on her stomach, then wrapped her tightly in the blanket until only her head was left exposed. That way, she could pin her down with just one hand on her back while reaching for the phone on the headboard with the other.

The air was as hot as a sauna.

The body under her palm writhed like a slippery fish, hard to hold onto, and the scent of pheromones was growing thicker, nearly suffocating.

Zhong Ning found the phone and immediately jumped off the bed. Relying on the last bit of rationality, she dashed out of the room and shut the door.

Click.

She locked it.

The omega's heat was pulling at her, like a pot of catnip placed in front of a cat, or a steaming bowl of meat set before a starving dog.

Zhong Ning had never felt her own willpower to be this strong.

She unlocked her phone and called the butler. "Shiqing's heat has started. Please bring the tranquilizer over as soon as possible."

She knew the tranquilizer had already been developed.

After hanging up, she went to the medical kit to get the suppressant she had previously bought from the hospital.

The accompanying thin syringe was finer than her pinky, even the needle was tiny. When Zhong Ning opened the packaging, her hand trembled slightly.

She had to get a shot... There was no oral version of this—she had asked specifically.

She held the syringe, hands shaking. She was so nervous that even her fuzzy head cleared up a bit from fear.

The only times she had come into contact with needles were for vaccinations. Zhong Ning had never been sick, not even had an IV drip.

Although she wasn’t afraid of injections, sticking herself was still a bit difficult.

She held the syringe and practiced a few times before ultimately deciding to contact Xie Shiqing’s bodyguard upstairs to come help with the injection.

Xie Shiqing’s bodyguards were all betas, and this one was no exception. She arrived quickly, and after understanding the situation, calmly took the syringe and administered the shot to Zhong Ning’s gland.

It was an awkward situation, but the bodyguard remained surprisingly composed, which eased much of Zhong Ning’s discomfort.

Thinking about it, it made sense. The bodyguard had followed Xie Shiqing for who knew how long and was a native of the area. In their understanding, heat was just a perfectly normal physiological phenomenon—nothing to be embarrassed about.

The suppressant took effect much faster than a tranquilizer. It felt like a bucket of ice water had been poured over her. Zhong Ning could feel her body temperature drop rapidly, and the heat in her body and fog in her mind dissipated.

She went to wash her face. Passing by the bedroom, she heard faint sobs coming from behind the door.

Her body was drenched in sweat, sticky all over, and her hands felt damp and clammy—but for entirely different reasons.

The moment she thought of what Xie Shiqing had done, her guilt flared into shame and frustration. Without a second thought, she turned and headed into the bathroom.

Even if it was the heat period and she wasn’t clear-headed, she couldn’t do something like that...

The water poured down from above, washing away the sweat on Zhong Ning’s body and rinsing off her turbulent emotions.

If given a choice, maybe Xie Shiqing didn’t like the heat period either. It turned a rational and clear-headed person into a beast, made everyone a prisoner of desire.

Perhaps that was why all the servants in the Xie family villa were betas, and the bodyguards too.

Betas didn’t have heat periods; they were just ordinary people.

Zhong Ning let out a deep sigh.

Maybe Xie Shiqing didn’t want this either.

She dried off, changed into a fresh set of clothes, and when passing the bedroom again, her feet came to a halt involuntarily.

The rise and fall of sobbing leaked out through the crack of the door, like a feather, like a chain, tying Zhong Ning’s heart down, making her unable to move.

She reached out and touched the doorknob. After hesitating for a moment, she unlocked the door. The light from the living room spilled in through the doorway, illuminating the bedroom.

The woman was lying on the floor beside the bed, wrapped in a blanket, like a fledgling fallen from its nest, wailing in soft cries. Her scattered black hair resembled seaweed tossed up by wind and waves, lying messily across the floor.

Zhong Ning felt a stab in her heart.

She had already used the suppressant, so even the overwhelming pheromones in the room didn’t matter. Omegas in heat became especially sensitive and needed a great deal of companionship. Her actions were undoubtedly a deep wound to Xie Shiqing.

Zhong Ning walked over quickly, crouched down, brushed back her damp hair behind her head, and didn’t rush to move Xie Shiqing. Instead, she gently patted her back. “Shiqing?”

“…Shiqing?”

The person wrapped in the blanket continued to cry.

She leaned closer, gently tugged down the edge of the blanket, revealing a tear-streaked face. Sweat and tears had mixed together and splashed across her cheeks like a messy painting. She whimpered, her breathing fragmented, lips slightly parted, as if something louder was about to escape.

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