Chapter Text
Hua Yong doesn’t hate omegas. After all, his beloved mother is one. He also doesn’t hate alphas. Much. But he hates his half-brothers. To be fair, they hated him first. It’s not his fault. It’s not even because he’s illegitimate. They’re all illegitimate too. Only father’s first child by Madam Hua is legitimate. Hua Chun Hua, an omega socialite long since married off to a high-ranking family and with kids of her own already. Madam Hua had insisted on taking in father’s other children and raising them herself after she was told she couldn’t have another child. But Hua Yong’s mother, Péng Xiu Ying, hadn’t allowed that and is raising him herself. Madam Hua was and is furious because Hua Hàorán, his father, had allowed that, assuming it meant he had fallen in love with his mistress, something he’d never done before.
It isn’t like that, though. Hua Yong knows it’s because she appealed to his sense of legacy. Of his alpha children, only fourth brother has shown any aptitude for business and the way he approaches things leaves his father uneasy at the idea of passing Beichao to him. His mother had pointed out that maybe the flaw wasn’t in the children themselves, but in the person who raised them. Incidentally, that being Madam Hua. She had claimed she could raise a stronger, smarter son. Someone worthy of the business.
So, they had struck a deal. His mother raises him until he presents. And if he’s an omega or beta, then Madam Hua takes over raising him. But if he’s an alpha, then his businesswoman mother finishes raising him and she starts teaching him business.
Unfortunately, Madam Hua hadn’t taken that calmly at all. Instead, she set the children she raised against him. And he knows it will just get worse if he has the misfortune of presenting as an omega or beta. Which he won’t. His aggressive instincts are too strong for either possibility. But if he should, then he would have no escape. Unfortunately, he’s a pretty child, which his tormentors seize on gleefully.
And speaking of no escape… His alpha half brothers have him trapped. Again. He’s not getting out of this unscathed, he knows. He’s an unpresented child, much smaller and weaker than them and cornered like this, his agility and speed isn’t any help. Even his training won’t be much help once they get a hand on him.
Fourth brother, Hua Guo, leans close and takes a taunting sniff. “Ooh, apples. A fruity scent like that? Definitely going to be an omega. And that pretty face. Worthy of an omega whore. Lucky for you, father won’t allow you to end up selling yourself on a street corner. Too bad. I’m sure my friends would love a turn between your legs.”
Hua Yong refrains from rolling his eyes. Apples? Really? Okay, maybe his scent is a little apple-like, but it’s not apples. It’s ghost orchid. His mother has one and often comments on the sharp similarity of scent, even if his is still milky with childhood. Floral scents often belong to alphas or high rank omegas. Poor father. If this is the best he has to rest his hopes on, no wonder he’s worried for his legacy. The stench of stupidity is strong.
Then the sharp scent of oranges mixed with sweet rum hits his nose, roiling with suppression. It feels like a blanket of protection somehow, but with how his brothers immediately start choking, it must be strong. He takes a deliberate sniff. Ah. S rank. What would an S rank want here?
“What is going on here? Don’t you have better things to do than bullying an omega child? I hate bullies.” The S rank steps into sight. A boy of maybe 14 and he is stunning. “Get out of my sight!”
His brothers stumble away clutching at their faces as if that will keep the scent away from them or something.
When they’re gone, the S rank turns and squats down in front of him, pheromones turning soothing. “Are you alright, omega? I’m sure that must’ve been scary.”
“I’m fine. And I’m not an omega,” Hua Yong says stoically, though his heart his beating faster. The S rank protected him! And now he’s treating him with such gentle care. This is the first and probably the last time he’s being treated as something precious by another child. “I’m not scared.”
“No?” The S rank sniffs curiously. “An unpresented child? They’re even more despicable than I thought. Is there an adult I can escort you to?”
Hm. Father probably wouldn’t be too annoyed to deal with him for a few minutes as long as he minds his manners. “My father.”
“Is your father here for the conference?” S rank asks, rising to stand again. He holds out his hand so Hua Yong can take it.
It takes Hua Yong a moment to parse what he’s doing, because he hasn’t held hands with his mother for two years. Not because she doesn’t love him, but because she knows his father would see that as weakness if he happens to see or hear about it. He thinks about scoffing, then discards it. This kind of kindness is what he wants in a mate. In the future, of course. He makes a decision right then. S rank alpha will be my mate. For a moment, a brief moment, he wishes for the first time to present as an omega despite the hell that would be for him, so he could be the perfect mate. Then he discards the thought as useless. He has to become worthy of so powerful a mate. That means taking over father’s empire and making it stronger. So, he takes his future mate’s hand, going along with his sweet delusion that Hua Yong is a helpless child.
They don’t make it to father. Míngzé, one of his omega siblings who actually likes him even if he won’t step in to protect him, intercepts them.
“A’Yong, there you are! I thought I saw our brothers follow- Um. Who is this?”
S rank ignores his question to look at Hua Yong. “You know him?”
“He’s one of my brothers.” Hua Yong sees his brother’s miffed expression at being ignored. “Mingze ge, he rescued me.”
“Oh! In that case, thank you!”
“It was nothing. Keep a better eye on him,” S rank brushes off the thanks and releases Hua Yong’s hand.
“Wait! Your name!” Hua Yong calls, clutching at his sleeve.
The older boy smirks at him and pulls a thin notepad and short pencil out of a jacket pocket and writes something, before tearing off the small page and folding it in half to hand to him. Then he walks off, disappearing into the crowd.
Hua Yong unfolds the paper eagerly, then wilts. The only thing written there is a bold X. His mate really didn’t do this in expectation of reward, did he? It only makes him like him more.
Mingze looks over his shoulder, then pats his back. “If it helps, I think he came with the Jianghu delegation.”
“Thanks, Mingze ge!” It helps a lot.
~
He presents that night. His pheromones saturating the air so thickly and heavily that his mother and the staff are forced to flee the house. Even the beta servants. He wakes up to no one in the house and finally finds them outside, anxiously awaiting his appearance. In the end he has to go around opening doors and windows so the house can air out enough for everyone to return. A LOT of pheromone neutralizer is used.
They have to replace a couple windows and doorknobs he’s accidentally broken with his new strength before he adapts. A few plates and eating utensils are casualties too.
His father takes him to a doctor, a young doctor who is cousin through Hua Yong’s mother, and they find out that he’s not an S rank like everyone assumed. He’s an Enigma. Enigmas are so rare that out of billions of people, there are only fifty-two registered worldwide. Hua Yong is the only one in P country. Enigmas are to S rank alphas what S rank alphas are to A rank alphas, so basically SS rank. His father is ecstatic to have such a high-ranking son, worthy of his mafia-tied empire.
Enigmas have superior healing, pheromones, strength, reflexes, mental capacity and reproductive abilities. They can even impregnate alphas. Hua Yong has lots of questions about that. Cai Hong answers all his questions patiently. Apparently, the highest ranking alpha mate of an Enigma has been a B rank alpha and there’s risks of complications during alpha or beta pregnancies that omega pregnancies have less risk of, but it’s not guaranteed to have issues. Cai Hong acknowledges that he could probably impregnate an S rank alpha, but warns that there are no records of such so the pregnancy should be carefully monitored for complications.
Father notices the trend of his questions and asks in amusement, “Is there some S rank you’re interested in or is this theoretical?”
Hua Yong nods. “I met him at the conference. He was stunning. Maybe 14? Came with the Jianghu delegation.”
His father studies his face carefully, then nods, “Then I’ll make inquiries for you. An S rank would be worthy of my heir.”
And that is that. He shortly finds out his mate to be is Sheng Shaoyou of ShengFang Biotech. Sheng Fang’s heir. A month later, he finds out that he’s Sheng Fang’s eldest and only legitimate son. Sheng Fang supports all his mistresses and their children in lavish style, giving Madam Sheng no face. He demands everything from Shaoyou and nothing from his illegitimate children. Somehow Shaoyou manages to be hardworking, old fashioned about family and unfailingly kind anyway. Though he hates liars and has an unfortunate attraction only to omegas.
It wouldn’t be too hard to pretend to be an omega until his Mr. Sheng falls in love with him, right?
His mother nixes that plan immediately. “NO, A’Yong. Relationships you wish to keep are built on communication and truth. If you lie about something so fundamental, how is your partner ever supposed to trust you after such a betrayal? They won’t. And didn’t you say he hates liars? If you start off with a lie, he won’t love you, he’ll hate you.”
Hua Yong droops. “Then what do I do? I can’t make myself an omega for him.”
“And why should you have to, hm? Make yourself strong and crafty so you’re worthy of him. Then tell him the truth with a soft smile. Do you really think he’ll believe you? Most people think Enigmas are myths and fantasies, not truth. He’ll think you’re joking and believe what he wants. When he finds out the truth, you can point out that you told him the truth and it was him who chose not to believe you. Just play along until he’s in too deep to back out, but never lie to him. He’ll still feel betrayed, but he’ll get over it,” his mother, Xui Ying, tells him.
It makes sense, so he decides to use her plan instead.
~
Hua Yong takes to business like a duck to water. By age nine, his mother is having him read real contract proposals and making him spot why they were rejected. By age ten, he’s moved on to choosing which ones are valid, which need improvements and what improvements they need. By age eleven, he’s practicing writing up his own business proposals from scratch. Naturally, he’s learning other aspects of business as well.
At age twelve, his father takes over his training, slotting him into an intern position in Beiochao Holdings. His coworkers quickly learn not to take him lightly because of his age.
It’s at this age, that Hua Guo, fourth brother, registers him as a real threat and he and Madam Hua start sending assassins.
The first assassin is a C rank alpha wearing omega pheromones and carrying a small pistol. Unfortunately for her, she makes the mistake of breathing within his vicinity and is shortly unconscious on the floor from his targeted oppression pheromones. She still shoots him, but barely manages to graze his shoulder. She doesn’t survive his father’s fury at his heir being targeted. He heals within two hours.
The second assassin poisons him. He recognizes that the food smells off, but he doesn’t know what it is, so he eats it and gets sick. It’s not a fatal poison and anyways, his system burns through it so fast that the doctor was barely able to get enough residue to identify it. After that, he doesn’t touch any food or drink that smells off to him. That assassin gets away, but successive poisoners do not. Unfortunately, whoever hired them is smart enough to have not left a money trail.
The other assassins keep trying and failing. One shoots him from a distance in the arm, but doesn’t escape. Hua Yong is healed within a day. Unfortunately, all the shooter knows is that a young male voice hired him and the contract was pay on success, so there’s no money trail there, either. His mother is convinced Hua Guo is behind it, but there’s no proof. This is the first assassin that Hua Yong is given the choice of what to do with.
Since the man has been so cooperative, Hua Yong decides to spare him on the condition that he never take contracts on him, his mother, Sheng Shaoyou or his father and he works for Hua Yong now. He even arranges for an actual sniper rifle for the man so he can be a better assassin. His father is dubious but approving.
Then, whoever is behind the poisoners decides if they can’t poison him, then at least they can take his mother out of the picture.
“No! Mother!”
His sharp order makes his mother drop her spoon in shock. “A’Yong?”
“The congee is poisoned. Don’t eat it.”
She looks at the congee in shock. “They poisoned me, this time? But why?”
“Because they couldn’t get me,” he points out.
Apparently, this poisoner is smarter than the previous ones. When he comes into the kitchen, she immediately raises her hands in surrender. “It was Madam Hua. And I deliberately put in enough poison for you to smell across the table.”
She was also smart enough to demand half payment up front and document it and who hired her. Apparently, all the poisoners dying had spawned an issue of few poisoners being willing to take the risk. All she asks for is to be allowed to live.
Father leaves it up to him and Hua Yong is reluctantly impressed enough with her forethought to agree on the condition that she work for him if he needs her services. Without betraying him like she had Madam Hua. She hastily agrees to that on the condition that he not send her on guaranteed suicidal missions, which is fair enough.
As for Madam Hua, his father threatens to divorce her if another poisoner is sent after either Hua Yong or his mother. After that, the threat of poisoners ‘mysteriously’ dries up.
The next assassin stabs him with a poisoned knife. Hua Yong grabs his wrist and doesn’t let go. That’s the first assassin that Hua Yong personally kills. Not exactly on purpose though. The poison is designed to burn out scent glands permanently. The sudden flood of oppression pheromones that Hua Yong is unable to control asphyxiates the man.
Fortunately, the poison is really designed for C class alphas and lesser designations, and even a B class alpha wouldn’t be permanently damaged by it. Hua Yong’s body burns it out of his system in under half an hour.
Unfortunately, Beichao employees need to flee the floor to avoid asphyxiating while it does, even though he promptly locks himself in his father’s office for the duration. The floor needs airing out. Well, the whole building really. But his father’s office requires professional cleaners to make it habitable again.
There’s no lead on who hired the assassin, but after that, the board quits questioning his father’s decision to make his youngest son his heir. There’s also a reduction in assassination attempts as it suddenly becomes hard to hire an assassin to go after him. It seems that the underworld thinks he deliberately killed the assassin. Suddenly, no one wants to risk tangling with the Enigma.
~
Hua Yong skips a year of school and starts business school at age thirteen. It’s there that he makes his first friend.
Shen Wenlang is another kid with a mafia family, though his omega father was a general. He’s an angry kid and he sits alone in the furthest corner of the cafeteria. Hua Yong sits with him because there are open seats and he can tolerate one person better than a bunch of chattering students. Shen Wenlang reacts by starting to release a small amount of oppression pheromones, then gradually increasing them when Hua Yong fails to react.
Hua Yong is rather impressed when they increase enough to place him at S rank. But he only looks up from his food and inquires mildly, “Are you done yet?”
Shen Wenlang huffs and stops. “S rank too?”
“Enigma,” he corrects.
“Interesting. I thought Enigmas were myths.”
“No. Just very, very rare. I’m the only one in P country.”
They strike up a conversation about the classes and then wander into commenting on their families. Turns out that Wenlang wants out from under his alpha father’s thumb more than anything. He plans to build his own business from the ground up, going into biotech medications like Mr. Sheng.
Hua Yong offers him a position working under him after graduation, offering money for a proper startup.
Wenlang stares at him a long time. “You have enough money to do that?”
“Not yet, but I’ve already increased the company’s bottom line by 5%. Beichao is already expanding into legitimate markets.”
“Why?”
“Hm? Oh, because my mate is a law-abiding man and I don’t want to distress him. My father thinks it’s funny, so he’s allowing it.”
“Your mate?”
So, Hua Yong tells him all about Mr. Sheng. Then he asks Wenlang about his own preferences.
“Preferences? None. I hate omegas and I’m not attracted to betas and alphas. I don’t need sex to live my life.”
Hua Yong raises his brows. “I suppose not. You shouldn’t hate omegas, though.”
So, Wenlang explains why he hates omegas. He gets so upset that Hua Yong actually directs some soothing pheromones his way to calm him down.
“Don’t do that,” Wenlang grumbles, settling down despite himself.
“I understand your grievance with omegas, but not all omegas are like your father. My mother would never debase herself for any alpha or leave me behind for a doomed love. I’ll introduce you.”
“No,” Wenlang resists.
“Nonsense. It’s already decided. I promised to introduce all my friends to her.”
“We’re not friends!”
Hua Yong just looks at him in amusement until his resistance crumbles.
“Fine, we’re friends. Little psycho. But you have to meet my alpha father too.”
He smirks. “I’d be happy to.”
~
When Hua Yong introduces Wenlang to his mother, he forces him to explain to her what his omega father had done. Wenlang is stunned when his tale prompts some ranting and raving about his father’s lack of self-respect and being a terrible parent who didn’t deserve him. Then she turns around and demands that he come live with them, away from that terrible home.
He’s so stunned that he actually agrees to her demand before back tracking to explain he needs his father’s permission or he’ll be forcibly retrieved.
So, Hua Yong goes with him to make the request. Well, demand, really. Shen Yu clearly hasn’t been training Wenlang as his heir to his firearms empire, so Hua Yong doesn’t think that there will be much resistance from him.
Shen Yu takes one look at him and smirks at Wenlang. “All that talk about hating omegas and you bring an omega home to me?”
“Enigma,” Hua Yong corrects.
Interestingly, Shen Yu believes him as easily as Wenlang had. He cocks his head in question, “Beichao’s little heir?”
“Correct.”
“And what do you want with my son?”
“To have him come live with my mother and me. You clearly don’t care to have him in your presence anyways,” Hua Yong says bluntly.
Shen Yu is quiet for a moment. “And then what will you do with him?”
“He’s agreed to come work for me after graduation.” He actually hadn’t, but Shen Yu doesn’t need to know that. “I will support his ambitions.”
“Is that so?”
“It is.”
“Hmph. Wenlang, pack your bags. Take what you want with you. Don’t disappoint me.” Then he looks at Hua Yong. “Take care of him Xiao Hua.”
“I will.”
“I will continue paying for his education. He is still my child, not yours.”
“I would expect nothing less,” Hua Yong agrees easily. Convincing his father to pay for Wenlang’s education might be a hard sell anyways.
~
His father dies when Hua Yong is fourteen. He replaces his father’s secretary with a man capable of running Beichao in his absence and starts balancing work and school, all the while detaching Beichao from its mafia connections and transitioning into legitimate business and growing his small empire into something more. A force of nature. He also changes the name to X Holdings.
Almost immediately, he has to quash an attempt to take over the business from Hua Guo. Hua Guo resents not being the heir anymore and resents the business going legitimate.
Hua Yong has him escorted to his office and presents him with evidence of all his sins, including the last five assassins he’s hired. Four of which now work for him and one of which is dead. Then he uses his oppression pheromones to choke Hua Guo until he’s gasping for air and begging for mercy.
He warns him that this is his last chance. Hua Yong is not his father. He has no obligation to keep fourth brother alive after all he’s done. Then he has him escorted back to his own office to clean out his keepsakes before he has him thrown from the building. As an afterthought, he reduces Hua Guo’s allowance by half.
When Wenlang and he graduate at 18 and 17 respectively, Wenlang comes to work for him and they spend the next two years building X Holdings into a titan in P country and expanding into Jianghu. Then he gives Wenlang 6 billion yuan to start up HS Group in Jianghu. Wenlang hires that underclassman that he’d been close to in business school as his secretary and together they make HS Group a formidable company in the biotech field.
Hua Yong, on the other hand, investigates Gao Tu before telling Wenlang about his circumstances and that if he wants to secure his loyalty for life, he should pay outright for Gao Qing’s surgery. He meets Gao Tu more on accident than anything and realizes he’s hiding his true gender. Wenlang has long since let go of his hatred for all omegas and no longer degrades them, so it’s not because of Wenlang.
If Gao Ming mysteriously dies of alcohol induced liver damage within the month, well surely that’s just fate, not an assassination.
~
When Hua Yong turns twenty-three, he sends a letter to Mr. Sheng with a marriage contract and a letter, explaining that X Holdings will turn over the cure for Sheng Fang’s cancer if Sheng Shaoyou marries him. He sends a picture.
Sheng Shaoyou is a desperate man, but insists on meeting with him before signing the contract.
“So, you’re an omega?” Mr. Sheng asks.
Hua Yong gives him a sweet smile. “No. Enigma.”
Mr. Sheng thinks it’s a joke and laughs and tells him he’s got a fun sense of humor. But he signs the contract. That’s the important part.
Sheng Fang recovers slowly. He’s thrilled about the marriage.
They meet each other’s friends. Mr. Sheng’s friends hit on him, much to his displeasure. Wenlang winds Mr. Sheng up about being a kept man until Hua Yong intervenes.
He starts up an innocent conversation about the side effects of suppressant abuse.
Gao Tu starts looking a little green around the edges and then guilty.
Whatever. At least he stops taking suppressants, surprising Wenlang greatly to find out his beta secretary is actually an omega with a pheromone disorder from suppressant abuse. He has to reassure Wenlang that it wasn’t because of him.
The wedding is small but lavish and a couple members of the press are invited.
Mr. Sheng is very surprised to find himself on the bottom in the marriage bed and has a whole rant about lying to him, to which Hua Yong points out that he told him the truth, it was him who didn’t believe. And the contract actually states he’s an Enigma and that they’ll share ruts, not ruts and heats. Somehow Mr. Sheng had missed a couple sentences there, which he insisted on double checking.
Of course, the contract says exactly that, so Mr. Sheng apologizes for his words very reluctantly.
Hua Yong graciously forgives him. Then points out that divorce is not possible until after an heir is born. An heir that Mr. Sheng would have to carry.
Mr. Sheng resigns himself to marriage for life, stating that he’s never going to get pregnant.
He assures him that he won’t force him to. While he thinks Mr. Sheng would look lovely carrying his child, he doesn’t want his mate to hate him. They can always adopt.
Mr. Sheng attempts to convince him to avoid sex outside of rut shares.
Hua Yong refuses, telling him he definitely wants to be used to it when rut hits or he’ll be in pain. “Plus,” he adds, “a sexually frustrated Mr. Sheng would be a very grumpy Mr. Sheng.”
He can’t quite argue with that, so he gives up the effort.
There’s an earthquake, but they’re outside taking a walk, so they’re uninjured. They end up helping Wenlang and rescue crews dig Gao Tu out of the wreckage.
Gao Tu is fine, just shaken.
Sheng Shaoqing tries to have Shaoyou killed with poison by some ‘alpha hunters’.
The alpha hunters do not survive.
Hua Yong gives Shaoyou a permanent mating bite to save his life.
Mr. Sheng is middling grateful.
Shaoqing ends up in prison for life. If only so Hua Yong doesn’t have to do something more permanent to get rid of him.
Sheng Fang is annoyed that Shaoyou refuses to testify on Shaoqing’s behalf.
Wenlang and Gao Tu start dating after Wenlang starts helping him with his pheromone disorder.
Hua Yong is quite sure they’ll end up married within a couple years at most. Maybe one.
Mr. Sheng comes down with his own pheromone disorder and blames Hua Yong, accusing him of deliberately inducing it.
Hua Yong hands him research proving that it’s a natural side effect of sleeping next to him.
He insists on separate bedrooms, but that only makes it worse, so they start sleeping together and Hua Yong has to deliberately start using soothing pheromones on him to help him control it.
The disorder eventually goes away, but then Mr. Sheng starts having heats instead of ruts, which he is furious about.
Hua Yong offers to let him suffer through them alone.
Mr. Sheng takes him up on it and lasts all of four hours before he comes begging for help.
Being a good husband, he naturally complies. He’s even careful not to get him pregnant.
Gao Tu and Wenlang are not as careful. They get mated but put off the wedding until after baby Shen Lele is born. Only Qing, Hua Yong and Mr. Sheng are invited to the wedding.
Hua Yong and Mr. Sheng get drafted to watch the baby for the weekend over Qing’s objections, while his parents have a mini-honeymoon in X Hotel. The baby is cute enough, Hua Yong supposes, but it’s Mr. Sheng who falls in love with the tiny human. Hua Yong just gapes at him when he overhears him mutter that maybe having one of their own wouldn’t be so bad. After his heart recovers from the shock, he says casually, “Well, if you do decide you want one of our own, you only have to ask.”
Mr. Sheng turns very red and demands, “You heard that?”
He gives him a puzzled look. “Of course I did. We’re in the same room.”
“Oh.” Mr. Sheng turns even redder and buries his face against Lele’s tummy.
Maybe he’s said other things that he hadn’t intended for him to hear and is just realizing that he heard them? That’s the only explanation he can come up with.
In the end, he doesn’t ask. A faulty condom breaks. Mr. Sheng is remarkably not angry about being pregnant, though, so Hua Yong takes it as a win.
Mr. Sheng insists on working, so Hua Yong takes a leave to work with him, because Mr. Sheng requires his soothing pheromones a lot. There’s also a lot of secondary mating bites taking place to strengthen the womb. Shaoyou gives birth at 7 months. He has a minor hemorrhage which scares Hua Yong white, but it’s not life threatening.
Their little Sheng Hua Sheng is born healthy and perfect, quite vigorous for a preemie.
Cai Hong informs them that if they’d had a child earlier on into their mating, the hemorrhage probably would’ve been fatal for both mother and son.
Hua Yong decides there won’t be a second pregnancy. He can’t bear to lose Mr. Sheng. Or a precious piece of him, of course.
His mother insists on meeting Hua Sheng.
Mr. Sheng is surprised to learn he has a mother-in-law. Apparently at the wedding he mistook her for a family friend. Fortunately, they get along quite well.
Hua Sheng plays favorites. Mr. Sheng, Lele, mother, Wenlang, Gao Tu and Hua Yong in distant 6th place. He doesn’t really mind. His Peanut only goes to sleep for Mr. Sheng, mother and him and he can understand preferring those two over him. After all, he prefers them too.
He gets a bit jealous of Mr. Sheng spending all his time with Peanut. His mother reprimands him sharply and explains why it’s necessary and instead of being jealous, he should be giving Peanut more attention himself. He obeys and is surprised when his son starts liking him more.
When Peanut is five, he declares, “I’m going to marry Lele!”
Lele gives him a dubious look. “I’ll probably be an S rank like Dad.”
“Then I’ll be your Enigma!” Peanut announces confidently.
Lele thinks about that, scrutinizing Shaoyou and Hua Yong for a long moment, then nods. “Okay.”
Wenlang has a fit.
Gao Tu thinks it’s cute.
Shaoyou just covers his face and mutters, “Like father, like son.”
Hua Yong is very proud of his son.
When Peanut is six, Shaoyou gets pregnant again.
Hua Yong mentions abortion.
They have a screaming fight about it which ends with Mr. Sheng yelling at him, “It’s my body, Hua Yong! I get to decide what to do with it! You do not own me. I am not your slave!”
He’s so taken aback by the accusation that he just stares at the slammed door for a good ten minutes after.
Mr. Sheng doesn’t talk to him for a week.
Hua Yong caves first and apologizes.
Eight months later they are blessed with a daughter, their little sunshine, Hua Mu Qing. True to her name, she’s a very happy child.
His mother comes to visit again. She adores both her grandchildren.
Lele doesn’t present until he’s almost ten, which is very late. He presents as something even rarer than an Enigma: a Luna.
Peanut presents a week later as an S rank alpha. He’s a little disappointed not to be an Enigma, but satisfied he’s strong enough to protect Lele from all his sudden admirers.
An older B rank alpha gets Lele alone when he’s twelve and tries to…do something. No one knows for sure if it was intended rape or intended forced mating or both. Lele proves Luna’s are far from helpless and calls Peanut. Peanut calls Hua Yong.
The B rank alpha ends up in prison for attempted assault. Word mysteriously spreads of what he tried to do to a child and he suffers an ‘accident’ in prison. Hua Yong has nothing to do with it other than releasing the information to the prisoners. The ‘accident’ lands the man in a years’ long coma.
Even Wenlang is satisfied with that.
After that, Peanut sticks to Lele like glue and thwarts numerous other attempts ruthlessly.
Mu Qing presents at eight as an Enigma, which is a surprise to everyone. She smells like petrichor and honey. More like honey with her positive and soothing pheromones, more like petrichor with her unhappy or oppression pheromones.
Hua Yong sends Mr. Sheng and Peanut to stay with Wenlang and Gao Tu while she presents, but he stays with her, making sure nothing goes wrong. She’s fine. He has the house professionally cleaned before he allows his mate and son to come back.
While that’s being done, Mu Qing goes through the process of learning not to break things and finer control of her pheromones.
Somehow the entire school mistakes her for an omega, but her brother’s reputation for brutal retaliation lingers, so no one tries anything.
In business school, at fourteen, an arrogant S rank alpha boy approaches her and declares that he’ll make her his omega.
She leaves him choking on the floor from suppression pheromones and walks away.
It fails to deter him, though at least he quits calling her an omega. His courtship is a comedy of flamboyant fails that their classmates and parents follow with open amusement. Finally, in private, he desperately offers to be her omega if she’ll just date him and she takes pity on him and agrees to date him. He’s a very devoted boyfriend.
Hua Yong’s theory is that their pheromone compatibility must be through the roof. There’s no other reason for an S rank alpha to fixate on an Enigma for no apparent reason. It’s eerily similar to how Wenlang and Gao Tu fixated on each other. Just far more dramatic.
All in all, he and Mr. Sheng are satisfied with their lives and that their children are happy young adults. His mother and Sheng Fang look forward to great grandchildren, but they’re in no hurry and that’s just fine. Their entire lives are still ahead of them.
It’s good to be alive.