After leaving White Tower, Li Po had nothing to do but head back to his dormitory. On his way back, he encountered numerous alphas who had just finished training. Their glances shifted strangely upon seeing him—not out of disgust, but rather a thick curiosity.

Li Po wasn’t interested in their thoughts, yet their loud discussions were hard to ignore.

“Do you think, how does he manage to wrap those alphas around his finger? And we only know about a few; who knows how many more are out there completely smitten by him?”

“It’s because he’s good-looking, plus a bit of pheromone inducement. Which alpha could withstand that? If he dropped his pants in front of you, could you resist putting them back on him?”

“But… don’t we have pheromone resistance training? He’s just an E-grade omega, his pheromones can’t be that strong. If you really wanted to, you could resist, right?”

“You’re really naive. Is a real person the same as pheromones? Besides, he got in here because of that, he knows more tricks than you’ve had hot dinners, how could you possibly outplay him?”

“True… geez, when will he come seduce me?”

The alpha had just finished speaking when he suddenly sensed a scrutinizing gaze upon his face. He paused, then looked up towards the source of the gaze.

The very omega he had been discussing caught his eye with a quasi-smile. The slight curl of Li Po’s lips was quickly retracted as he continued walking forward, seemingly unfazed.

His smile might have seemed frivolous, but it actually contained a hint of contempt. The alpha stared, feeling as though he could taste an air of “you’re not worthy” from that look.

After Li Po had walked a good distance, the alpha, still puzzled, returned his gaze to his companions. “He just smiled at me, but why do I feel like he wasn’t flirting, but mocking me instead…”

The next second, his head was smacked: “I told you you’re an idiot, and you wouldn’t listen. That was blatant mockery, and you couldn’t even see it?”

“I see it now, ouch!” The alpha winced as he swatted his friend’s hand away, rubbing his head and muttering to himself, “But still, he does have a nice smile…”

His companion was speechless.

•

Inside the dormitory of Area S.

Li Po changed his clothes and climbed into bed, lying down with a weary slump. He casually picked up the communicator by his side.

The communicator was almost exploding with notifications.

As soon as he turned it on, he found dozens of friend requests, none of whom he recognized. Li Po figured if there were any reason attached to these requests, they’d all uniformly be “wanna meet?”

Unfortunately for them, he wasn’t interested.

Besides the friend requests, there were messages from Kuang Feng and Jin Mu. Kuang Feng’s messages were few, seemingly cautious not to disturb him too much. Jin Mu’s messages, on the other hand, were like trying to bury him under a mountain of texts.

Kuang Feng: [I’m sorry, I only intended to block those undesirables for you, I didn’t mean for things to turn out this way. It wasn’t deliberate.]

Kuang Feng: [I don’t know how they guessed it, but if it bothers you, I can step forward to clarify.]

Li Po, not particularly bothered, replied: [No need, it’s not your fault.]

Jin Mu: [Sorry, I was impulsive before. But I still advise you to think carefully; he’s really not right for you. You’re so delicate, you should be with an alpha who can protect you properly. Not someone like him who clearly isn’t capable. If you were bullied, he couldn’t even protect you.]

Jin Mu: [Many alphas are very lustful, don’t be deceived by his appearance. You’re so naive, what if he’s just pretending to be decent to woo you? Remember, a lifelong mark can’t be washed off. You must be cautious. AO relationships are seriously frowned upon in Area S, and you mustn’t let the higher-ups find out about this, or the consequences will be severe.]

Li Po stopped reading after a few lines; just those were enough to make his eyes hurt. He didn’t want to respond to Jin Mu, but the mention of “the higher-ups” piqued his curiosity.

If he wasn’t mistaken, that probably referred to Jiang Yu, right? After all, he had heard people mention him before. But why would Jiang Yu, a combat officer, care so much about this sort of thing? Shouldn’t this be something for the administrative officers to handle?

Curious, Li Po converted the dozens of friend requests into data and sent them to Jiang Yu along with a pitiful message: [Commander, they’re so annoying, constantly adding me, and I don’t even know them.]

Half an hour passed, and there was still no response from Jiang Yu.

Li Po felt a bit uneasy. Had his previous actions upset Jiang Yu? But he hadn’t actually kissed him, can’t he even take a joke…

Just as he was internally criticizing Jiang Yu for being petty, the screen suddenly lit up.

Li Po perked up and quickly opened the message.

A line of text lay quietly on the screen:

[The day after tomorrow afternoon, mission.]

Li Po’s eyes immediately curved up, and he typed: [With you?]

[Ah.]