“Old Taste of Lin City” is a homestyle restaurant in the suburbs that has been open for decades.

The surrounding area has been redeveloped into high-rise buildings, and it’s said that the Xiao Corporation plans to build an air route nearby to boost the local economy.

This old restaurant, tucked away in a quiet alley despite the bustling surroundings, has affordable prices, making it a popular spot.

The winter wind outside was fierce, but the little restaurant was filled with the warm, smoky scent of food—a rare atmosphere in this high-tech metropolis.

As soon as the door was pushed open from outside, the people in the private room stood up in unison, their chairs scraping across the floor with a loud “zzzzz” sound.

“Coach! Good evening!”

Their voices were so loud that even the customers outside dropped their chopsticks in surprise.

“Alright, alright,” said the young man who entered, bringing in the chill of the wind with him as he closed the door behind him with a reverse hand gesture, motioning for them to sit down. “Why are you all still calling me ‘coach’?”

A young man with a buzzcut suddenly teared up and said, “You’ll always be our coach!”

Gu Yin, as he took off his coat and thick scarf, replied, “You’ve finally got some vacation time, so just relax. Don’t start crying the moment you see me. It’s not like I’m dead.”

Under his jacket, he wore a sweater. Under the sweater was a cashmere shirt, and under that was a knitted vest. Beneath it all was a soft, cotton sweatshirt with a cute little hood.

The hood, despite being a core part of the ensemble, was left out in the cold wind.

Watching him peel off his layers like an onion, his comrades couldn’t help but laugh, their sadness over parting quickly fading away.

“My mom made me wear them,” Gu Yin explained as he finally freed himself from the mountain of clothes, feeling a huge sense of relief. “She wouldn’t let me out otherwise.”

Everyone nodded in understanding. “Auntie must love nesting dolls.”

Gu Yin raised a hand to flatten his hair, which had gotten staticky from all the layers. He had a cold yet obedient demeanor, and when he smiled, his eyes curved like little crescent moons.

He looked younger than the group of soldiers he was with, but in reality, Gu Yin had enlisted earlier and held the highest rank among them.

They had all assumed they would be the ones seeing him off one by one, but unexpectedly, he was the first to leave.

“How’s your health, coach?” The bespectacled young man was the first to ask.

The room grew quieter as if they were all waiting for his answer.

“It’s just differentiation,” Gu Yin replied casually. “Don’t act like you’ve never seen the world before, alright?”

The guy with the glasses responded, “To be honest, I used to think I was someone who had seen it all.”

“But in the end, sorry, this is something I really haven’t seen before.”

Each of them had their own worries, but they all forced a smile, trying to keep things light.

What happened over the past month was anything but light.

They had been assigned a covert mission to combat a gang known by the codename [UNNAMED] within the Federation’s star system.

This group primarily dealt in stealing confidential information and kidnapping. The organization was highly structured, with professionals assigned to each task—from breaking into databases to erasing traces and laundering money.

For years, they managed to escape just in time, disappearing for a while before reappearing to wreak havoc again.

After years of investigation, the military suspected that the gang had ties to certain Federation politicians. So, based on intel from an informant, the military deployed a special forces team codenamed [Alpha] to infiltrate a gambling city and trace the gang’s financial sources and destinations.

However, during the mission, one of their team members was exposed.

At the time, their coach and team leader, Gu Yin, was held back by an unexpected situation. Before he could break free to assist, the enemy realising they were exposed, went all out causing a chaotic shootout during which all clues were destroyed.

The special forces returned fire and quickly retreated, resulting in the mission’s failure.

The comrade whose identity had been exposed died on the spot. The only silver lining was that the identities of the rest of the team remained intact, sparing them from facing the Federation’s military tribunal.

After their return to base, just as the aircraft ascended into the stratosphere, another emergency arose—

Gu Yin suddenly fell into a high fever and lost consciousness, releasing a high concentration of Omega pheromones in the enclosed space thousands of meters above the ground.

The soldiers were nearly scared out of their wits.

—The kind of person who would usually joke around and trash talk, and during training would beat up the others, suddenly transformed right before their eyes.

I mean, how could you not be freaked out?

Thankfully, the military aircraft had all the necessary medical supplies on board. The Betas in the team immediately isolated Gu Yin in a sealed chamber and gave him enough inhibitors.

God knows their hands were steady when firing guns but when it came to injecting those inhibitors they were trembling like crazy.

After they landed, the Southeast Military District commander severely scolded them.

“Look at you all! You look like a bunch of stray dogs! Why are you standing there like that? Report your numbers!”

A team member responded, “Reporting, sir! Alpha team, here to report back! The mission failed. One comrade was lost. Fourteen members returned, six Betas and seven Alphas!”

“And what about the last one?!”

“Th-there’s also one newly differentiated into an O-Omega!”

…

The emergency meeting in the military district went on until the middle of the night.

**

“It couldn’t be helped.”

Gu Yin shrugged and said, “No military district in the Federation recruits Omegas. It’s clearly stated in the rules.”

“But the enlistment physical—”

Gu Yin shook his head to stop him from continuing. “Tests are tests. Machines can malfunction. It’s just probability. It could happen to anyone. I was just unlucky.”

Special forces soldiers undergo extensive training, and most of them haven’t undergone secondary differentiation when they enlist. Hence, there are strict screening processes, including checks for family genetic differentiation over several generations. With dozens of tests, the error rate is practically negligible.

But, as Gu Yin said, the differentiation was already a fact. All that awaited him now was discharge.

The soldier nicknamed “Fox” asked, “Has the transfer process been sorted out?”

Gu Yin remained silent.

Others would be honorably discharged, while he was being secretly discharged. The higher-ups wanted him to take everything about his military service to the grave, so naturally, the transfer wasn’t going to be handled easily.

“No, I haven’t decided what to do next,” Gu Yin replied.

These were his brothers who had been with him for years, and they understood what that meant—Gu Yin didn’t want them to feel upset on his behalf.

After a moment, Fox said, “I heard that after the New Year, we might be reassigned to other teams.”

Gu Yin nodded. “Oh.”

Fox added, “We have military academy degrees, but under these circumstances, you’ve lost yours, Captain.”

“Yeah,” Gu Yin seemed to have accepted this outcome.

Outside the private room, there was the occasional sound of customers calling for service and waiters responding. The lively atmosphere of life carried on, but for the people sitting inside, it felt a bit cold.

The mood grew heavy again.

Fox squinted as he scrutinized Gu Yin.

In just a month, Captain Gu had changed a lot.

The special forces training left the soldiers with sun-darkened skin, but after Gu Yin’s differentiation, the influence of the Omega pheromones made his skin much fairer, making his features even more delicate.

He used to be a “warrior” who could outdrink an entire platoon, but now he had a glass of juice in front of him, looking so well-behaved.

“Captain, am I hallucinating?” The man with glasses adjusted his frames and asked, “Why do I feel like you’ve gotten better looking?”

“Watch what you’re saying! The captain’s always been good-looking!” The buzzcut soldier teased.

“Alright, alright, the flower of the Southeast Military District.”

This little gathering was mainly a send-off for Gu Yin. They wouldn’t be seeing each other much after this, so they couldn’t let it be all doom and gloom. These soldiers had big, carefree personalities, so after some joking around, the atmosphere lightened up again.

“Hey, seriously though… I’ve always wanted to know, what does it feel like to be an Omega?”

Once that question was thrown out, the room was immediately filled with the curious gazes of his comrades, their eyes practically sparkling.

“Uh,” Gu Yin lowered his eyes. “No comment. Next question.”

“Come on, we’re all brothers here. How about you make a small sacrifice and give us a biology lesson?”

“Honestly, I’ve seen fewer Omegas than the enemies I’ve killed.”

“Same here.”

…

Gu Yin roared, “Looks like you’re all itching for a beating! It’s only been a few days, and you’re already asking for it?”

Fox, who was sitting closest was unfortunately the target of this outburst. As he rubbed his sore ear, he said, “I’m telling you, Captain, none of that matters. What’s important is that you find someone to help manage your temper. Agreed, hands up!”

“Swish, swish, swish,” a forest of hands shot up.

Gu Yin was a legend in the Southeast Military District. He had broken all of the district’s training records and held onto them for four years—only four, because after he was discharged, those records were “conveniently” erased.

Not long after he enlisted, he became a coach due to his outstanding performance and was responsible for training other soldiers.

Rumor had it that Coach Gu had made many tough men cry and was nicknamed the “Devil Instructor.” As for the Alpha special forces team, none of them had escaped his (brutal) training.

Fox was ready to get physical in the small private room when Gu Yin suddenly went quiet.

“?” Fox was puzzled and mumbled, “…No way, right? Don’t tell me you already have someone?”

Under the eager gazes of his comrades Gu Yin blushed slightly, an unusual sight. “I’ve been introduced to someone, but it seems like they haven’t followed up.”

“Who is this person? How dare they keep you waiting!” His comrades immediately started hooting in indignation. “Our squad flower has been served up to them, and they’re still dragging their feet? They deserve to be single forever!”

“Yeah, the squad flower is so perfect, except for hitting a little too hard, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with you!”

“Can hit a bullseye at 900 meters with a single hand, assemble a KB-874 sniper rifle in just 4.8 seconds… By the way, squad flower can you cook? Will the food be deadly? If it is—oh wait, he’s also good at poisoning!”

Gu Yin: ………

Thanks for nothing, guys.

The buzzcut soldier declared boldly, “What does this person do for a living? Let me say this up front, an average Alpha doesn’t deserve our squad flower. You’ve got 200,000 brothers in the Southeast Military District behind you!”

“It’s Xiao Zong,” Gu Yin’s voice grew even smaller.

“Who??”

“Xiao Zong,” Gu Yin hesitated, then pulled out a photo on his phone to show his comrades. “Here, it’s him.”

In the photo, a man was sitting in front of a large floor-to-ceiling window, playing with a fierce-looking cat with a big tail.

The man’s peach blossom eyes drooped slightly, the corners of his eyes curving upwards in a subtle arch. The sunset spread out in the background, casting a warm glow over his profile.

The corners of his mouth were also turned up, creating a stark contrast to the pouting cat.

For a moment, the room fell into a dead silence.

The guy with glasses took off his glasses, wiped them on his clothes, put them back on, and asked, “Is he crazy, or am I?”

Fox reached out and felt Gu Yin’s forehead. “Coach, did you fry your brain during your fever?”

Buzzcut stammered, “That… that’s my idol…”

A teammate asked curiously, “Since when do you have an idol?”

“Anyone rich is my idol… Ah, you guys don’t understand. Do you know what kind of family the Xiaos are? Let me explain it like this. You know how there’s that old phrase ‘as rich as a country’? Based on that standard, Xiao Zong is ‘as rich as a planet.’”

Everyone: ……

“When others are still struggling to build multinational corporations, Xiao Zong is already a legitimate ‘cross-planet’ CEO. He’s the richest man across the six habitable planets in the Federation.”

The others still wanted to get a closer look at the kind of ‘cross-planet’ this guy was running, but Gu Yin quickly put his phone away like it was some precious treasure.

Xiao Zong’s face was hard to mistake. Fox patted the glasses guy on the shoulder and said seriously, “You’re not crazy. Squad flower really has a private photo of a cross-planet CEO.”

Gu Yin explained, “I only found out recently that my grandfather and Mr. Xiao’s grandfather were war buddies in the same unit.”

The faint scent of spruce filled the small room, cold and distant, like the fragrance of wood buried beneath heavy snow.

Xiao Zong probably didn’t remember.

He would only recall that someone protected him in the chaos—maybe a bodyguard, maybe a bystander. But certainly not an Omega named Gu Yin.

Even though it wasn’t right, Gu Yin couldn’t help but wish that there was one more person in the world who remembered that he had once been a soldier.

His comrades were realists. They didn’t say anything pessimistic like, “Entering a rich family is like sinking into the sea,” or “Are you sure you want to go through with this?”

Their missions were always difficult, often nearly impossible. Giving up easily wasn’t something soldiers did, and it wasn’t something special forces did.

Buzzcut was already being pragmatic. “Coach, there’s an old saying, ‘If the mountain won’t come to me, I’ll go to the mountain.’ The target isn’t going to deliver themselves to your door. If you don’t make a move, someone else will.”

The guy with glasses agreed. “Take advantage of the fact that Xiao Er¹ still has an impression of you. Seize the opportunity!”

Gu Yin pondered, “It might be too forward.”

“You’ve got to get used to being an Omega,” Fox said as he took the juice away from in front of him and replaced it with an empty glass, filling it with wine. “What are you hesitating about?”

Gu Yin stared at the clear wine and joked, “Xiao Er is in high demand. I’m afraid he’s out there partying all the time.”

“No way!” His comrade slapped him on the back so hard it nearly spilled the wine. “If he dares to run off, we’ll drag him back and let you train him every day!”

“Train him in what…” Gu Yin laughed and cried at the same time.

“Li, your thinking is all wrong. Soldiers are supposed to protect the country, not just be about coercion! Our captain isn’t some hard-to-sell product!”

“Oh come on, I was just kidding. Look, the captain didn’t even say anything—hey, don’t hit me! If you hit me again, I’m going to fight back!”

“Just wait till I get you when we’re back!”

“No need to wait, fight me here if you’ve got the guts, come on~”

“Cut it out. If you keep messing around, Coach Zhang is going to skin you both alive when we get back.”

Gu Yin smiled as he watched them horse around in the private room. He quietly drained his glass.

It wasn’t hesitation. He just couldn’t bear to leave this group behind…

–

While Gu Yin was still figuring out how to reach out to Xiao Zong, Assistant Wei beat him to it. He called to ask if Gu Yin had time in the next couple of days because his boss wanted to meet up.

The heater was on inside and the glass window had fogged up with a thin layer of white mist keeping the cold firmly outside.

After hanging up the phone, Gu Yin couldn’t help but smile, his lips curving upward along with his mood.

From the other room, he could faintly hear his grandfather and mother talking.

His grandfather sighed, “I only asked Old Xiao to help find Yin Yin a job. I didn’t intend to marry into their family. I don’t know what kind of person that Xiao Zong kid is. The news has been full of gossip about him and some young models lately. I’m worried Yin Yin will end up suffering.”

His mother consoled him, “Yin Yin is grown now. You don’t have to worry so much.”

Their voices were quiet, and through the door, they were muffled into indistinct murmurs.

Gu Yin glanced at the wall in his room, which was plastered with sticky notes. They were reminders of various things to be mindful of as an Omega, like not entering the wrong restroom, signs of an upcoming heat, and the brands and prices of inhibitors.

His gaze landed on a printed photo nearby—Xiao Zong teasing that pouting cat.

Gu Yin smiled softly, his eyes sparkling.

They say when one door closes, God opens a window.

Maybe Xiao Zong was his stained-glass window.

1. 萧二 Xiao Er – Second Xiao (Second Young Master Xiao) ↩︎