After Differentiation, My Arch-nemesis Thinks I’m Fragrant - Chapter 13

“Pushing those kinds of products on a minor! I am definitely going to complain about that shop!”

On the way back, after the initial awkwardness had passed, Shu Youzhan became more indignant the more she thought about it. Holding the bag of medicine in her left hand, she made a gesture as if to pull her phone out of her pocket with her right, her mind racing through which department she should call to file a complaint.

Following behind her, a glimmer of amusement flashed in Zhao Qinglan’s dark, clear eyes. The corners of her lips twitched slightly, but when she spoke, she brought up something else: “Apply your medicine. They were just casually upselling.”

Shu Youzhan lifted her hand to look; her knuckles were already showing signs of swelling, and a dull, rhythmic pain throbbed through them. She shook her hand and looked at Zhao Qinglan with a sense of bewilderment.

“Are you Alphas made of steel and iron? Why does it hurt so much when we fight?”

Zhao Qinglan: “…”

For a moment, she didn’t know how to answer that question.

As a result, after the girl in front of her scanned her up and down a few times, she looked away disinterestedly. “Forget it, there’s no point in asking you. For a low-level Alpha like you, whether you differentiate or not doesn’t make much of a difference.”

After a brief chuckle, Zhao Qinglan stood a bit straighter. She took a few steps to close the distance, looming over Shu Youzhan with her presence. With her hands in her pockets, she lowered her gaze slightly and opened her lips to say:

“Didn’t get enough of a beating just now? You want to go a few rounds with me, is that it?”

“Ho! What’s that supposed to mean? Even if you hadn’t shown up just now, it would have only taken me a little more time to deal with them… Besides, I’m not afraid of you. Bring it on!”

Hearing Shu Youzhan’s spirited acceptance of the challenge, Zhao Qinglan slowly withdrew her right hand from her pocket. There was a faint shadow where her wrist bone protruded. Shu Youzhan stared at her somewhat pale skin, where she could faintly see the blue veins on the back of her hand.

By all accounts, someone so thin should have average physical strength and not be good at fighting, but Shu Youzhan inexplicably felt a sense of dread. Her eyes widened, and her whole body went into a state of alert, like a rabbit cautiously pricking up its ears.

Then, Zhao Qinglan’s movements suddenly accelerated. Before Shu Youzhan could react, Zhao snatched the bag of medicine from her hand, fished out the bottle of trauma ointment, let the bag slide down to her right wrist, and pulled out her left hand to tear off the packaging in a few swift motions.

With a pop, the bottle cap was pulled off.

“Hand,” Zhao Qinglan said, looking at her expressionlessly.

Shu Youzhan met her gaze suspiciously. That sense of threat vanished instantly, leaving her puzzled as to why Zhao Qinglan had no intention of fighting her. Although the two of them didn’t often have conflicts in public, back in middle school during summer breaks when her mother dragged her to the military camp, Zhao Qinglan would occasionally be there, and they had sparred in combat before.

The win-loss ratio between them was about fifty-fifty.

She was actually quite curious to know if Zhao Qinglan’s physical fitness had undergone any changes after differentiating into an Alpha.

Seeing her lack of movement for so long, Zhao Qinglan lost her patience while holding the medicine bottle. She directly hooked Shu Youzhan’s wrist with her left index finger. Before Shu Youzhan could react, the cool medication had already been sprayed onto the back of her hand.

Shu Youzhan subconsciously pulled her hand back, her brown eyes looking at Zhao Qinglan in confusion, but she eventually stayed still and let the other person handle her, only managing to speak up:

“Hey, Zhao Qinglan.”

The gold chain on the diagonal bangs of her forehead trembled slightly. The person whose name was called looked up: “Hmm?”

“I feel like you’ve been acting a bit weird lately… being so friendly to me. What kind of mischief are you plotting?”

Zhao Qinglan’s movements as she seriously applied the medicine paused for a second. Her slightly raspy voice was as calm as ever: “Am I?”

“You’re still acting? You were out of breath when you arrived just now. You ran here, didn’t you? Are you that worried about me?”

“Oh, that’s because your cousin came back saying you were about to be beaten to death by other Alphas. I had to rush over to witness such a historic moment, didn’t I?”

The force holding her wrist suddenly vanished. Shu Youzhan took a moment to react, seeing the other person straighten up, toss the medicine back into the bag, and hand the bag back to her, without the slightest intention of helping the “injured patient” carry her things.

Shu Youzhan ignored her already-treated hand and indignantly snatched the bag back. “With such a poisonous tongue, aren’t you afraid of scaring away all the Omegas who admire you?”

Zhao Qinglan chuckled and walked past her toward the restaurant they came from. By then, dusk had fallen, and the streetlights flickered on simultaneously, casting a soft, warm orange glow that left a layer of molten gold on the shoulders of her snow-white school uniform.

From a distance, Shu Youzhan heard her lazily drop a sentence: “Don’t bother worrying. Whether it’s poisonous or not, it’s not like I’m letting you taste it.”

Shu Youzhan: “…”

Seeing the two of them appear unharmed, Sun Yue, Pei Yi, and the others breathed a massive sigh of relief. Shu Mi’s legs had been weak with fear earlier and she still hadn’t recovered. Seeing how scared she was, Shu Youzhan took the initiative to buy her a bottle of yogurt to calm her nerves and called the driver to take Shu Mi home first.

By the time she reached home herself, it was already past eight in the evening.

Shu Youzhan sat at her desk. After completing several sets of exam papers, she checked the time. Twirling her pen, she recalled the scene after the conflict today when Zhao Qinglan arrived and those people were all kneeling on the ground.

Why?

How did an Alpha without pheromones manage that?

She thought for a long time, suddenly remembering that Zhao Qinglan’s status was quite unusual. She was the officially announced heir of the Zhao family, enjoying powers and treatment that were very different from her own status as a “waiting” heir.

Buzz.

The phone vibrated. Zhao Qinglan, who was sitting in the study reading documents, subconsciously glanced that way before withdrawing her gaze. The next moment, she pinched the page she was turning with her left hand and picked up the phone with her right, seeing the message:

“Help me thank your bodyguard. Taking on three at once was pretty impressive.”

It took Zhao Qinglan two seconds to realize that Shu Youzhan assumed the source of the pheromone suppression that crushed those people earlier was a bodyguard who hadn’t shown his face.

She let out a helpless smile, not knowing how to bring this up with her.

“Finished reading?” A cold voice came from behind another large sandalwood desk nearby.

The smile subconsciously vanished. Zhao Qinglan held her phone and lowered her head to scan the next page with lightning speed. She calmly looked up at the other person: “Yes, Mother.”

“The document submitted to the committee regarding ‘Requesting the opening of military recruitment conditions for Omegas’ was rejected again. Any thoughts?”

The person whose face had shed its youthfulness and whose temperament had matured said softly yet firmly: “Some of the content in this proposal involved too large a leap. It was within my expectations that it would cause opposition. For the next proposal, I will try to narrow the scope first…”

“I am not talking about that.” The woman draped in a black military coat placed her military cap on the desk. She reached up to push her gold-rimmed glasses, her sharp gaze sweeping over harshly: “Zhao Qinglan, you have already differentiated into an Alpha, and you are my chosen sole heir. Since I have approved your application for an internship in the military department, then don’t let me down. Show some ability—”

“Instead of focusing your gaze on these trivial, petty matters.”

Zhao Qinglan lowered her eyes, looking as if she were truly listening to the lecture. After a long while, she replied calmly: “I understand, Mother.”

“It’s about time. Go back to your room. Although you can be recommended for admission to the Imperial Military Academy, don’t let your usual grades look too bad.”

“Yes.”

Leaving the study, Zhao Qinglan stood at the door for a moment. She looked down at her phone and read Shu Youzhan’s message once more. The ice in her eyes melted. She moved her fingertips and typed a reply:

“The bodyguard says you’re welcome. On your end, why was no one following you?”

Soon, the phone displayed “The other party is typing…”

After waiting patiently for two minutes, Zhao Qinglan found that no message had come through.

At the Shu residence.

Shu Youzhan recalled the conversation she had with her mother that day. Although she had registered as an Omega, the matter had not been announced to the public because the files were confidential. However, on her next birthday, all external eyes would be focused here. If she had truly differentiated into an Alpha this year, that would be the moment to officially announce her as the sole heir of the Shu family.

But she hadn’t.

Even though she was Shu Yu’s daughter, if she wanted the protection of the family, she had to truly become the heir. There was another scenario: she could announce her status as an Omega. In that case, as an important future resource for the family and a necessary pawn for external marriage alliances, she could also receive strict protection.

But Shu Youzhan didn’t want that.

She didn’t mind her Omega identity being discovered, but she hated this form of announcement, as if she were forced to admit that she had henceforth become a delicate, fragile object.

Sitting at her desk, she rested her forehead against the table and stared at the phone screen below for a long time. She deleted her reply over and over again. Finally, she slowly sent out a sentence:

“Oh, my family is like this. To avoid overprotecting children, the bodyguards won’t show their faces unless it’s an emergency.”

“See, I told you, even if you hadn’t come this afternoon, I could have handled those people, right?”

After being cocky, Shu Youzhan remembered that unpleasant feeling of being dominated by Alpha pheromones.

So, after pondering for a while, she sent another sentence. “By the way, let me ask you something.”

In another part of the city.

Inside a luxurious private park, a villa with a strong sense of design stood by the lake, brightly lit.

Zhao Qinglan walked through the long corridor and stopped in front of the elevator. It was only then that she received the latest message, which turned out to be:

“Do you know any Alphas who have particularly strong, incredibly badass pheromones?”