In the New Star Calendar year 451, Liao Tingyan moved with her family from the central H-2 star to the capital star, A-star.

Her father had been promoted from a non-commissioned officer to lieutenant, and her elder brother had also earned military merits, so the family finally qualified to relocate to the capital star.

The Liao family consisted of seven people: Father Liao and Mother Liao, a typical Alpha-Omega pairing, and their five children, including Liao Tingyan, all of whom were Alphas. Liao Tingyan had older brothers and sisters above her and younger brothers and sisters below. Among the five siblings standing together, she, the third child, couldn’t match her older siblings’ robust strength, nor could she match the younger ones’ proud vivacity. Therefore, Father and Mother Liao often sighed at her: “Third child, you don’t look like an Alpha; you look more like a Beta or an Omega.”

The so-called A, B, and O referred to the three major categories in today’s gender system. A represented those whose combat ability and mental strength far exceeded ordinary people. Any Alpha, regardless of gender, was the toughest of the tough. O was opposite to A: low in physical strength and combat ability, generally sensitive and gentle, with physiques naturally suited for childbearing. They developed feelings with Alphas due to pheromones – the higher the compatibility of pheromones, the better the relationship between them.

As for B, they were ordinary people without extraordinary qualities or pheromones, making up the majority of the current population.

Fortunate to be an Alpha with qualities superior to ordinary people, Liao Tingyan should have been like her sister – fond of competition, never admitting defeat, brave and tenacious, a ‘superhuman.’ Unfortunately, perhaps because the soul in this body was a visitor from distant Earth, her personality was completely un-Alpha-like.

In short, over the years, her siblings had been ashamed of her, feeling that such a weakling tarnished the Alpha group’s prestigious reputation.

Liao Tingyan: Well, I don’t care.

Not long after they arrived at the capital A-star, Father Liao went to visit his superior for basic social interaction. That evening, Father Liao, returning from a banquet with his eldest son, was unusually excited. He summoned his children, saying, “I have something very important to tell you!”

Father Liao explained that the Imperial Prince had reached marriageable age, but among the upper class, he couldn’t find a marriage candidate with a compatibility rate higher than sixty percent. With no alternative, seeing that the Prince was already 24 years old without a suitable marriage prospect, the Emperor had to lower the requirements. Even children from lieutenant-level families could have a chance to be selected as the Prince’s marriage candidates.

Father Liao was so excited because, among his five children, the youngest twins had just turned eighteen, and the eldest son was twenty-five – all five had a chance to become the Prince Consort.

Oh, by the way, the Imperial Prince Sima Jiao was an Omega, so he needed to find an Alpha.

Liao Tingyan watched her family converse excitedly, with her mother talking about making new clothes, and thought the scene strangely resembled “Cinderella.”

Liao Tingyan was passively negligent about this matter. As an Alpha who completely didn’t resemble one, according to the current aesthetic standards of Omegas, she definitely wouldn’t be selected.

With the intention of broadening her horizons and having a good meal, half a month later, Liao Tingyan followed her family into that luxurious and spacious royal banquet hall. This was a famous royal banquet hall in the capital star, capable of accommodating tens of thousands of people for banquets. Upon entering, Liao Tingyan was nearly blinded by the dazzling brilliance.

Over a hundred ultra-luxurious crystal chandeliers, each dozens of meters long, a complex floral glass dome, and a gleaming golden floor. Melodious music, well-dressed crowds, upright soldiers in gold and red uniforms standing on both sides and elegant attendants weaving through the guests. Right on the hour, the indoor musical fountain erupted amid admiring exclamations, creating an artificial rainbow indoors.

Liao Tingyan: …This is too extravagant.

Today she wore a newly made formal outfit. Being a female Alpha, she hadn’t chosen a dress but rather a formal trouser suit similar to men’s, though more elegant and light. Accustomed to wearing loose T-shirts, Liao Tingyan felt uncomfortable, with her waist feeling constricted.

She thought she would see the legendary protagonist of the banquet, the Imperial Prince Sima Jiao, today, but as the banquet approached its end, this main character hadn’t appeared. Liao Tingyan heard some gossip from others’ whispers – apparently, the Prince was very dissatisfied with this large-scale matchmaking and didn’t want to attend.

News from the royal family was difficult to circulate, and she only now learned that the Prince didn’t seem to be a traditional Omega.

Her siblings had already engaged in heated conversations with their newly acquainted friends, leaving only Liao Tingyan alone again. The buzzing sounds indoors gave her a headache, and she wanted to find a quiet corner to sit for a while.

“Where are you going?” Her eldest brother shot her a particularly keen glance.

Liao Tingyan replied with an honest face: “To address a physiological need.”

Eldest brother: “Come back quickly, don’t wander off!”

Although her family thought her Alpha status was questionable and embarrassing, they still watched her closely when outside to prevent her from being bullied – to a large extent, her family’s overprotective Alphas treated her as if she were a Beta or Omega.

Slipping away from her family’s sight, Liao Tingyan sat on a stone doorstep outside the banquet hall. This area was relatively secluded and quiet, and she could finally sit down dejectedly, heave a long sigh, and loosen her too-tight waist.

At that moment, she noticed a person standing quietly in the shadow on the other side of the stone pillar, about five steps away from her. His features were indistinct, but he was very tall, probably an Alpha also attending the matchmaking banquet. He seemed to have been there for a while, looking gloomily at the flower bed beside him. The flowers were indeed beautiful – pink Madame Florenah roses, which smelled particularly fragrant.

Yes, besides the rose fragrance, there was an especially aromatic grilled meat smell, like the scent of cumin-sprinkled meat sizzling on a grill.

Liao Tingyan looked around, puzzled. Was someone grilling meat here? She sniffed, suddenly feeling extremely hungry. Who would have thought this evening event would only provide drinks without food? She had come on an empty stomach, and now smelling this aroma made her hungrier.

“Do you smell a delicious grilled meat aroma?” Liao Tingyan attempted to chat with the friend beside her who was similarly seeking solitude.

The person stood in the shadows, his appearance unclear. Upon hearing her, he slowly replied: “…Grilled meat?”

He sounded unhappy, perhaps disliking being approached by strangers. Liao Tingyan could only shut up, but the person turned his head to look at her for a while, then suddenly made a low clicking sound and tossed something to her. Liao Tingyan looked down to find a red flower, a type she had never seen before, shaped like a burning flame, with a faint fragrance that refreshed the mind.

When she looked up again, the person in the shadows was gone.

Liao Tingyan found the flower particularly beautiful and kept it in her hand, carrying it back to the banquet hall, where people along the way looked at her in shock.

Even her relatives looked at her as if their eyes would pop out of their sockets.

Liao Tingyan: …? Did I forget to tie back the loosened waistband and expose my underpants? Why is everyone looking at me? She discreetly checked her pants zipper.

“How did you… how did you get the Flame Flower?” Father Liao asked.

When she had slipped away earlier, the Imperial Grand Steward had appeared, selecting one hundred people on behalf of the Prince for the next round of selection, each receiving a Flame Flower. The one in Liao Tingyan’s hand was the hundred and first.

Liao Tingyan was dumbfounded. The old steward had already approached her, inquiring about the origin of the flower in her hand, his eyes full of suspicion.

Liao Tingyan: “Just now, outside by the flower bed, a young man gave it to me.” Perhaps the other person was also a chosen elite who didn’t want to be the Prince Consort, so he randomly tossed the flower to her.

Speaking of which, this “transferred” qualification shouldn’t be valid, right?

But the old steward carefully examined the flower in her hand and suddenly smiled. He slightly bowed, instantly changing his demeanor to kindness, and said: “Young lady, three days from now, please make sure to let us escort you to the palace for a banquet.”

Thus, Liao Tingyan inexplicably advanced to the next round of selection, entering the palace again under the complex gazes of her siblings and parents.

She might have arrived late; when she arrived, she saw a group of Alphas in a brawl. They had somehow gotten into a fight, a very intense one.

In the center of the fighting circle was an unusually tall man with black hair and eyes, his face bearing a mocking smile, exuding hostility, knocking down others who lunged at him one by one.

Liao Tingyan stayed away from the fighting circle, listening to the booming sounds from there, watching in trepidation for a while, thinking, this is a real Alpha, an absolute Alpha among Alphas! She had never seen such an Alpha male in her life; his aura was too magnificent.

She watched as that super Alpha knocked everyone down, then twisted his wrist, looking at her – the only one still standing – with a gloomy expression. Liao Tingyan quickly retreated two steps: “I surrender, don’t attack.”

This might be a martial selection scene for the Prince Consort position, and now this contestant had secured the top spot with an absolute advantage. It seemed the Prince Consort position was destined for him. As someone just filling in numbers, surrendering directly was wiser.

However, that friend ignored her words and walked towards her.

As he approached, Liao Tingyan smelled a fragrance of lemon honey mint tea, suddenly feeling a bit thirsty. Today she had come on a full stomach, but the hot sun along the way made her crave a cool drink.

The super Alpha came close to her and asked: “Want some grilled meat?”

Liao Tingyan recognized the voice – it was the friend who had tossed her the flower that night!

Liao Tingyan: “…I don’t want grilled meat; I want lemon honey mint tea. Did you just drink some? I can smell it.” She demonstrated her friendliness, showing strong survival instincts.

The super Alpha remained silent for a moment, then holding her wrist pulled her towards a door, “Let’s go then, to drink that tea.”

Liao Tingyan: ? Wait?

The attendants smilingly opened the door for them. Behind the door waited an old butler who addressed her super Alpha friend: “Your Highness the Prince, have you made your selection?”

Her super Alpha friend restrained yet impatiently tugged at her, “It’s her.”

Liao Tingyan: … Wait, Your Highness the Prince? Is he the Prince?

The phenomenal super Alpha was an Omega.

Liao Tingyan couldn’t help but fearfully turn to look at the room full of battered Alphas behind. Were they fake Alphas? She turned back to look at Prince Sima Jiao, who was taller than herself. No, this side might be a fake Omega.

She drank lemon honey mint tea with the Prince in a dreamlike state. The Prince drank this tea with distaste, “What flavor is this? What taste do you have?” Despite saying so, he finished more than half of the large cup.

Liao Tingyan was escorted back home, and the old butler kindly told her that as long as her compatibility with the Prince reached above sixty percent, she would be the Prince Consort.

That night, she received the news that her compatibility with the Prince was one hundred percent.

Liao Tingyan’s sentimental and gentle mother fainted on the spot.

Liao Tingyan: …Shocked my mom.

This miraculous compatibility rate not only astonished the Liao family but also shocked the entire nation. The royal family hadn’t seen such a high compatibility rate in three hundred years. Such high compatibility meant they were extremely suitable for each other – just upon meeting, it was love at first sight, enchantment at second glance, and fate sealed for three lifetimes.

Liao Tingyan: …Really? Did any earthshaking, heartrending situation occur between me and that grim-faced Prince?

She confusedly recalled her two encounters with Prince Sima Jiao, belatedly realizing that the grilled meat aroma she first asked about, and the lemon honey mint tea fragrance she smelled the second time, were the Prince’s pheromone scents. Wait, whose pheromones could change scents?

On their third meeting, Liao Tingyan smelled the Prince’s pheromone scent – butter cookie. Perhaps because they met during afternoon tea, when she wasn’t hungry or thirsty but just wanted some cookies, she smelled this type of pheromone.

She didn’t know if it was her issue or Sima Jiao’s, or maybe both had problems, just as she couldn’t smell other Omegas’ pheromones.

Sima Jiao sat across from her, reviewing a stack of government documents, the papers making strained rustling sounds under his pen, as if about to be torn.

“What do you want to eat?” he asked without looking up, seemingly a casual question.

Liao Tingyan answered truthfully: “Butter cookies.”

Is it this scent today? Sima Jiao put down his pen, “Why are you always thinking about food?”

Yet he ordered cookies for her, which were delicious. She ate them all afternoon, and after eating her fill, she even took a nap there.

Liao Tingyan was very curious about what her pheromone smelled like to Sima Jiao. Later, after they married and went to Y-2 Star for their honeymoon, Sima Jiao finally answered her question.

“It’s the scent of wind.”

Does the wind have a scent?

He held her by the window, looking at the vast starry sky outside, “Tonight’s wind carries the fragrance of flowers.”

This was a very romantic answer, romantic in a way, unlike the usual violent Prince.

Then Liao Tingyan said: “Tonight, you smell like spicy crayfish.”

Sima Jiao: …

He opened the internal line, expressionlessly instructing: “Send spicy crayfish to the Prince Consort.”

When the crayfish arrived, Sima Jiao pointed at the aromatic dish: “See this plate of crayfish?”

Liao Tingyan: “I see it!”

Sima Jiao: “I’d rather throw it away than let you eat it.”

Liao Tingyan: … Is our compatibility one hundred percent? Did the machine malfunction during testing?

Later, in bed, she couldn’t concentrate, drooling at his face. Sima Jiao almost suspected he was a giant spicy crayfish. With a dark face, he put on his clothes and sat up, “Go eat your crayfish!”

In the end, the Prince on the verge of an explosion sat with her and ate two plates of crayfish before calming down.

Liao Tingyan felt that being with the Prince, she didn’t seem like an Alpha but more like an Omega. Honestly, she believed there couldn’t be a more Alpha-like Omega in this world than the Prince; perhaps there weren’t even more Alpha-like Alphas than him.

She wasn’t the only one who felt this way. In the palace, everyone seemed to have always treated the Prince as an Alpha. At banquets, Alphas would unconsciously gather around the leading Prince, willingly submitting to this strong Prince from the heart, while a group of gentle Omega ladies naturally engaged in domestic chatter with Liao Tingyan.

Only when the Prince came over with a dark face to take her away from the Omegas did everyone realize… Ah, right, shouldn’t we Omegas be hanging out with the Prince?

The gentle-natured Omegas who liked taking care of others looked at the dark-faced Prince: No, no, too scary, too scary.

Liao Tingyan visited her family, and Mother Liao worriedly held her hand, “My child, you’ve been married to the Prince for so long, and you’re still not pregnant. What are we going to do?”

Liao Tingyan: …

Liao Tingyan: “…Mom, I’m an Alpha, I can’t get pregnant.”

Mother Liao suddenly came to her senses: “Oh, right! You’re the Alpha!”

Back at the palace, Liao Tingyan held a plate of beef jerky and asked Sima Jiao: “Do we really need to have an heir?”

Sima Jiao frowned impatiently while handling government affairs: “Are you eager to get pregnant?”

Liao Tingyan: … Well, even the Prince himself didn’t realize.

She ate two pieces of beef jerky, and the Prince finally reacted. He looked at her, his face suddenly darkening. Liao Tingyan, sitting in a swivel chair, kicked off, hugging the beef jerky and crunchily moving three meters away from him.

Liao Tingyan: “Munch, munch, munch.”

Sima Jiao called the Scientific Research Institute: “Now, immediately, at once, develop an artificial womb!”

Scientific Research Institute: “Your Highness, this violates our legal statute three hundred and twenty-one, and we are the Scientific Research Institute, not in charge of this; you should contact the Biological Research Institute…”

“Beep—”

He called the Legislative Council: “I want to amend the law, change article three hundred and twenty-one for me!”

Legislative Council: “Huh? Your Highness, this doesn’t follow the procedure…”

Later, no one knew that the ruler who amended countless laws and ruled dictatorially his entire life, initially demonstrated his dictatorship simply because he didn’t want to bear children.

Years later, journalists were fortunate to interview the royal family. The lifelong and only consort of that self-dictatorial emperor was invited to speak.

“May I ask, all your children were born through artificial wombs? How do you feel about this?”

Liao Tingyan: “Thanks for asking, I feel fine.”

“I’m grateful that His Majesty had them develop artificial wombs, rather than methods for Alphas to bear children.”

“Then may I ask, what exactly is the scent of the Great Emperor’s pheromones? This question has puzzled the public for many years.”

Liao Tingyan: “Regardless of time or place, it’s always my favorite scent.”

(End of ABO short story)