Alpha top student Jiang Yanli is the “iceberg” everyone at Imperial Academy fears. His pheromones are the bone-chilling scent of snow-covered cedar, cold enough to freeze glands; his grades always dominate the top of the rankings, and he is so stingy with smiles he will not give even half of one. Then his family forces him into marriage, and he casually “marries” Su Ye, a supposedly well-connected Beta who is a social butterfly.
Su Ye squats by his front door with grilled skewers and sings love songs off-key. He uses Jiang Yanli’s lab reports as a cushion when he sits on the steps. When Jiang Yanli’s pheromones go out of control, Su Ye foolishly offers him a strawberry-flavored hard candy. No one knows that this loud, boisterous “Beta” is actually an Omega with damaged glands and pheromones so faint they are almost impossible to detect. He married Jiang Yanli just to get access to legitimate suppressants.
What began as a contractual marriage of mutual convenience takes on a different flavor amid their tug-of-war: “the top student teaching the social butterfly how to solve problems” and “the social butterfly taking the top student skipping class.” Jiang Yanli discovers the vulnerability Su Ye hides beneath his jokes, while Su Ye sees the tenderness behind Jiang Yanli’s cold expression. Neither of them expects that their bond was already forged years ago, in the scandal involving inferior suppressants that nearly destroyed Su Ye.
When the “Beta” is exposed, and the truth of the past comes crashing down, the iceberg finally melts. Only then do they understand that the fiercest form of salvation is the impulse to hold the other close and protect him, even before you realize it yourself.
