🍒 Chapter 30: He didn’t even seem like an Alpha…
That night, Shen Shuyi slipped into his pajamas and settled onto his bed with the ease of someone certain he was safe. The bedroom was his private harbor, his most secure retreat. What he did not know was that the little electronic camera he had unplugged was not dead at all. It had its own battery. All it took was someone flicking the hidden switch, and the eye would wake again.
On the weekend, Shen Shuyi traveled with the hospital team to D City for training.
The main group was led by several of Huada’s senior specialists in mental health.
They arrived at a psychiatric hospital in D City, the sort of place that housed Alphas and Omegas whose minds had broken under the weight of pheromone disorders. Most of the Alphas had once spiraled into complete pheromone loss of control. Most of the Omegas had endured various pheromone-related conditions until their minds collapsed.
What startled Shen Shuyi, however, was that in this place there were Betas too.
Except calling them Betas was not quite right. He noticed small, oddly-shaped glands on the back of their necks. Smaller than Omega glands, but in shape clearly closer to an Omega than to any true Beta.
The doctor in charge explained, “These are Betas who were altered by an Enigma’s pheromones. Now they are almost no different from Omegas. They enter heat, they can be marked, their fertility rate is high. The only distinction is that they can only be marked by the specific Enigma who changed them, and they cannot release a pheromone scent of their own.”
“No scent?” Shen Shuyi immediately caught that detail.
“Yes. Research shows the glands of these altered Betas can be extracted for pheromone samples, otherwise they wouldn’t have developed pheromone-related psychological conditions and been admitted here. But to the outside world, they appear scentless.”
“And the Enigma who altered them… can he smell them?”
The doctor blinked, then gave a somewhat awkward smile. “That… the clinical cases are too few. I’d have to dig into the records. If you’re curious, you can visit our hospital’s archives building. We keep documents there on how Enigmas turn Betas into Omegas. The library is open to outside scholars.”
Shen Shuyi nodded quickly, silently taking note.
This was knowledge he had studied before, but never witnessed with his own eyes. These altered Betas were in pain, no different from the Omegas broken by pheromone disorders.
He also heard that a girl had once lived in this ward. She could not accept that she had become an Omega. A few days before his visit, she had taken a towel into the ward bathroom and ended her life.
Shen Shuyi felt a cold weight pressing on him. For her to choose that method meant her despair had been bone-deep.
“Enigmas are born devils,” the attending doctor muttered, his composure fraying. “They cannot control their moods, cannot control their actions. They are puppets bound by pheromones. Everything they do is ruled by it.”
This was the second time Shen Shuyi had heard that phrase: “Enigmas are born devils.” But he disagreed. “Surely not all Enigmas. Their pheromone level is high, their physical ability stronger than Alphas. If they want to restrain themselves, they should be able to, shouldn’t they?”
The doctor gave him a knowing look. “How many truly rational people exist in this world? Desire is the hardest thing to control.”
Shen Shuyi could not argue with that. Yet something still felt off.
That afternoon, while the senior professors attended a clinical exchange seminar, Shen Shuyi declined the company of a hospital escort and went alone to the archives.
This hospital was not as large as Huada’s, but it specialized in gender and mental health. Its entire patient population was exactly the type of cases Shen Shuyi wanted to study. For a student like him, still in training, this was rare and precious exposure. The patients here were textbook examples. The cases would be invaluable for his future, whether for research, thesis work, or his eventual career.
The library in the archives was as promised. Packed with classic cases, volumes on gender psychology, and rare files.
Current research on Enigmas was thin. There were gaps everywhere. Yet after hearing about the Beta girl who killed herself, Shen Shuyi made up his mind. His graduation thesis would focus on Enigmas.
The choice was unkind to him. It would be difficult. But his instincts told him Enigmas were not pure monsters, not hopeless. There had to be a way to help them. He wanted to find it.
If he wanted to become a serious gender psychology doctor, he needed results. He could not be a shallow private-clinic type, content to muddle through. That was not the life he wanted.
And here, in this library, he did indeed find research. Sparse but real. There were case files on how an Enigma turned a Beta into an Omega, or marked an Alpha.
The marking of an Alpha was simple enough. One full pheromone injection sufficed.
As for turning a Beta into an Omega, the notes said this: one false gender shift plus a number of temporary markings, followed by one lifetime mark.
A false gender shift meant a temporary gland forming on the Beta’s neck, functioning like an Omega’s. The gland brought heat and allowed marking. But it was temporary. If the Enigma refrained from marking again, it would wither away and vanish, restoring the Beta to normal.
Shen Shuyi filled his notebook with diagrams and questions. He was not satisfied.
First, what caused the false gland to appear? The text gave no detail.
Second, how could one ensure an Enigma would refrain from further marking? Would physical isolation suffice? And what about a promiscuous Enigma, who marked one person today and someone else tomorrow, did such inconsistency protect the Beta, or doom them?
And what did “after a time it fades” really mean? A week, a month, a year?
Even the pheromone issues were unanswered.
The initial excitement dulled. The path ahead looked endless.
That evening, after the exchange seminar ended, Shen Shuyi’s teachers told him he would join a dinner party.
He knew the type. Hospital leaders and pharmaceutical representatives, trading favors over wine. Whoever held the purse strings could arrange commissions from medical equipment and drugs.
He disliked such affairs. They turned patients into bargaining chips. And as a mere student, he had no need to be there.
But Chen Xin explained. A pharmaceutical rep had noticed Shen Shuyi’s looks and wanted him at the table, to make the hospital look good.
Shen Shuyi nearly laughed at the absurdity. He also knew he could not refuse. The attendees would be his professors, his superiors. To refuse was to offend. So he went.
The dinner was set at a five-star hotel in D City. The luxury was suffocating. Chen Xin himself muttered behind him, “If I’d known this academic exchange was just a cover for business, I would never have come.”
Shen Shuyi was nervous. He wished he had stayed away.
Inside the lavish private room, the tables were many. He sat with familiar colleagues, trying to disappear. But soon, a junior leader from Huada stood and waved at him.
“Shuyi, come here. Have a drink with us. Meet our Director Zhang.”
Following the gesture, Shen Shuyi looked to the central round table.
A man sat at the head, his presence overwhelming. His gaze was sharp, his expression cruel, predatory. The look of a beast that had fixed on its prey. And that gaze was locked on Shen Shuyi.
Danger prickled over Shen Shuyi’s skin.
The man’s aura was too strong, too heavy. Not like a typical Alpha at all. His pheromone level had to be high. Very high.
How did he compare to Xie Chen Zhou?
No. He did not even seem like an Alpha.
He seemed more like an Enigma.
Translator notes:
Thank you for reading 💕
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