After Differentiation, My Arch-nemesis Thinks I’m Fragrant - Chapter 29

While waiting for her driver, Shu Youzhan patiently helped Shu Mi pick out a trendy long dress at a reasonable price. All the while, she listened to Shu Mi whispering inquiries:

“Hey, Sis, from how far away can you smell Zhao Qinglan’s pheromones?”

Lowering her head to check the time, Shu Youzhan prepared to head downstairs, answering casually, “I didn’t really notice. Anywhere nearby?”

Shu Mi immediately looked at her with an expression of profound admiration. Before Shu Youzhan could ask why, her driver called. She bid them goodbye and turned to leave, only then hearing Shu Mi whispering to Pei Yi:

“I’m so jealous.”

Pei Yi hadn’t quite recovered from the “exhaust fumes” of that wild conversation earlier. Hearing Shu Mi’s lament, she looked puzzled, unable to fully grasp the world of Alphas and Omegas. Shu Mi began to explain in a low voice: “During her physical training last time, didn’t she say Zhao Qinglan actually has pheromones, and they’re incredibly powerful? I was so shocked back then…”

“And just now, she said she could smell Zhao Qinglan’s pheromones from a distance. Given the strength of Zhao Qinglan’s pheromones, it’s definitely not because the concentration suddenly dropped! There’s only one answer! Their pheromone compatibility is extremely high! My sister has already formed a pheromone dependency on her!”

Pei Yi asked sincerely, “…So, how is this kind of dependency formed?”

Shu Mi, well-versed in AO stories, said knowingly, “Generally speaking, there has to be some intimate contact. Temporary marking, deep marking… anyway, once a mark is made—”

Her voice suddenly stopped.

She seemed to realize the terrifying implication of what she was saying.

Pei Yi also turned to look at her in shock. At that moment, they both felt they had touched upon some hidden truth. Thinking of her cousin’s seemingly innocent and clueless demeanor, Shu Mi was speechless for a long time before choking out a sentence:

“This… they’re playing quite a wild game.”

Pei Yi nodded in a daze, “They’ve hidden it so deep.”

Shu Youzhan had no idea she had exposed herself again. After leaving the mall and getting into the car, she went to the club where Wei Shuangchi was located. Although the decision to attend the birthday banquet was last-minute, her family had prepared clothes for her in advance. Once there, she only needed to finish her skincare, makeup, and hair before changing and heading out.

Shu Yu would go directly from the military headquarters; they would meet near the entrance of the Zhao family residence.

In the magnificent club room, seeing her daughter marveling at the array of cosmetics on the table, Wei Shuangchi found it amusing and teased her, “Weren’t you refusing to come? Why the sudden change of heart?”

Shu Youzhan remained silent, pretending not to hear. As the makeup artist discussed how her skin was good enough to avoid heavy foundation, she waited patiently, then asked Wei Shuangchi seemingly nonchalantly:

“By the way, Mom, do you have any recommendations for a gift? I don’t know what to give.”

Wei Shuangchi sat up straight so the stylist could better handle her hair, glancing at her through the lighted mirror. “Why do you want to give a gift this year?”

Shu Youzhan hemmed and hawed an excuse: “Well… I heard she gives me one every year. If I don’t return the favor occasionally, wouldn’t I look stingy?”

Wei Shuangchi looked at her with a smiling gaze until Shu Youzhan felt guilty. Finally, her mother answered warmly, “You can think about what she usually likes. Depending on your allowance, as long as it’s not some rare treasure, you should be able to order it in time.”

Shu Youzhan: “…”

Good question.

But how was she supposed to know what Zhao Qinglan liked?

Shu Youzhan sat upright. As the makeup artist’s brush first touched her face, she asked calmly and sincerely, “How about I just go home and wait for you guys? I checked the almanac, and I feel like today isn’t a good day for my zodiac sign to be out.”

5:15 PM.

Shu Youzhan sat in the passenger seat, fiddling with her phone and messaging someone, while listening to Wei Shuangchi complain to Shu Yu as she entered the car: “Sigh, it was so hard to get her to change. She’s almost a big girl now, yet she refuses to wear dresses, and she was so reluctant to put on makeup—”

Shu Yu was about to agree when Shu Youzhan turned halfway, gripping the seat back and smiling at the back seat: “Mom, that wasn’t just any long dress. If I wore that, I could help the Zhaos mop their floors. Why don’t you let Mother try it?”

Shu Yu: “…”

Her hair inexplicably stood on end. She pulled her military jacket tighter, and her words took a 180-degree turn: “Ahem, there will be other opportunities…” Waving for the driver to proceed, she skillfully changed the subject to distract her wife from the idea of dressing them up.

Shu Youzhan sat back obediently, continuing to message on her phone while resisting the urge to lick her lip gloss. At her insistence, the exaggerated dress was gone, and the heavy makeup was skipped. The makeup artist had only used a bit of lip gloss to enhance her complexion. Since her skin was naturally fair, the simple look made her appear exceptionally radiant.

When they parked, Shu Yu received a text from the military. She glanced down, opened the car door, shielded the top of the door for Wei Shuangchi, and said to Shu Youzhan in the front:

“You applied for it?”

“Yeah, is it okay? In a private capacity.” Shu Youzhan looked at her tentatively.

Shu Yu looked away lazily and announced, “Six months of allowance, gone.”

Shu Youzhan gasped at the cost, but she knew that if it were calculated at civilian rates, even three years of her allowance wouldn’t be enough. She nodded obediently, “Thank you, Mother.”

She didn’t follow the two into the Zhao residence. Inside, the cups were clinking and the elite of politics, business, and the military were mingling. It had only been a few days since the news of her secondary differentiation into an Omega broke; she didn’t want to face those strange looks, so she stayed outside.

The water lilies in the courtyard from her last visit had been moved to the side. The center had been specially designed into an open-air buffet. Young people gathered in small groups, and well-dressed attendants moved through the crowd with trays of juice, wine, and snacks.

She walked toward a corner and looked up at the twilight sky. The orange-rimmed clouds were receding, and a deep blue was surging up like a tide, darkening until the horizon became an inky blue, like the descent of the deep sea.

Shu Youzhan looked at the sky, then played with her phone. Unknowingly, she stayed in that corner until nightfall.

Those invited to celebrate Zhao Qinglan’s birthday were no ordinary people. For example, from the Shu family, only close relatives like Shu Youzhan or younger generations like Shu Hua could come. But since it wasn’t their home turf, someone like Shu Mi, who hated trouble, preferred to save her time for her own amusement rather than come here to be looked down upon.

On the contrary, the distant relatives of the Zhao family were scrambling for a chance to curry favor with Zhao Xi and Zhao Qinglan. Seeing Zhao Qinglan’s current standing, it was clear she was intended to inherit Zhao Xi’s power, and everyone wanted to please the future heir.

Shu Youzhan was focused on the sky. When she saw a faint red light flashing in the night, her lips curled. She tapped on her phone, focusing on the signal, not noticing her surroundings until someone suddenly approached her from behind.

Her reaction time was faster than anything else. As she sidestepped, she heard an exaggerated “Ouch!”

The nearby youths all looked over. When Shu Youzhan turned, she saw Sun Yue and Sun Jue nearby. Then, she saw a girl sitting on the ground by her feet; her juice had spilled, and glass shards were everywhere.

The girl’s gaze was weak and soft, and her makeup was so exquisite it was hard to guess her age.

Shu Youzhan raised an eyebrow, not expecting to encounter a “faker” here, but habitually asked, “Are you alright?”

She reached out to pull the person up, noticing that the girl’s fingertip seemed to be cut and bleeding.

Sun Jue, who was scooping up a forest chocolate cake, suddenly spoke: “Don’t help her. You didn’t even touch her; she fell on her own.”

As soon as she spoke, a male voice rang out: “Sun, since when is it your turn to speak here? Know your place.”

“As for you, Shu Youzhan, hurting someone at our Zhao residence—aren’t you being a bit too arrogant?”

Sun Jue paused her eating, and Sun Yue frowned, whispering, “Forget it, it’s not good to have a direct conflict with them.”

Sun Jue kept her head down, seemingly listening, but muttered back: “You shouldn’t be saying that to me… besides, if we let it go now, some people will only be more embarrassed later.”

Shu Youzhan was too far away to hear what they were saying. She just crouched down, checked the girl’s hand, thought for a moment, and pulled a pack of tissues from her pocket to press on the wound. She said:

“Whether you meant it or not, an Omega’s skin is delicate and should be cared for.”

The girl felt the sharp pain in her pinky and the gentleness as she was helped up. For some reason, her eyes reddened. She wanted to say something, but sensing the threatening gaze behind her, she only mumbled and clenched her palm.

“Hey, my sister might not hold it against you, but we Zhaos protect our own. I won’t forgive your behavior just now. You’d better offer a sincere apology.”

Hearing this, Shu Youzhan finally looked toward the source of the barking.

She glanced at the sky again, then looked down to stretch her wrist. “An apology… let me think how I can be ‘sincere’.”

“What do you want to do? Are you going to hit someone here?” The boy took a step back. “You Shus are really too arrogant!”

Just as he was about to shout for security to make a scene and humiliate Shu Youzhan, Sun Jue sighed, stepped back several paces, and looked away.

The next second—

A force struck him right in the lower back, sending him flying forward to kneel right in front of Shu Youzhan.

“Who’s arrogant? Let me see?” A cold, slightly raspy, and sexy voice rang out. Everyone instinctively looked toward the source and saw Zhao Qinglan appearing out of nowhere, wearing the black uniform of the Sixth Legion, as if she had just returned from outside.

The boy was stunned by the kick. He turned to look at her, anger on the tip of his tongue, but withered the moment he saw who it was.

Zhao Qinglan didn’t give him a chance. She called for security and gave a faint instruction: “Don’t let just any cats or dogs in. Please remove the irrelevant people.”

With that, she walked toward Shu Youzhan. Her gaze fell on the short skirt, seeing the hem swaying near her thighs—which had a certain “uniform temptation” vibe—before looking away and saying casually:

“Why are you here alone?”

Shu Youzhan was a bit disappointed she didn’t get to do anything herself and lowered her hand. She walked a few steps toward her. “I’ve been busy… Since someone already has everything, I almost grew grey hairs trying to prepare a gift for her.”

Hearing that she had prepared a gift, Zhao Qinglan’s deep dark eyes held a hint of a smile. She followed along, “So, have you thought of it now?”

Shu Youzhan kept it a secret. Seeing Zhao Qinglan about to walk inside, she grabbed her sleeve and pulled her back. After checking the time on her phone, she told Zhao Qinglan, “Wait! One minute!”

Zhao Qinglan cooperatively waited for her.

Beautiful stars were twinkling in the night sky. A light breeze blew through the courtyard as the two stood before the house, with the brightly lit floor-to-ceiling windows of the hall behind them. Shu Youzhan prepared for a few seconds and counted down for her: “Three, two, one—look!”

Countless fireworks rose from a secluded spot near the Zhao residence, bursting into colorful displays.

People from inside came out to watch.

However, there was something even more dazzling—

A line of radiant words slowly appeared in the sky: “The Lord of Star L04 in the Andromeda Galaxy, Shu Little Baby, wishes Zhao Qinglan a Happy Birthday!”

The fireworks surrounded the words, making the line even more brilliant, nearly illuminating half the night sky over Planet Blue. Media personnel who were allowed inside used their lenses to record this moment.

Shu Youzhan stood with her hands on her hips, looking proudly at the sky.

Three seconds later, her smile froze.

“Wait.”

“What the hell is ‘Shu Little Baby’?!”

She belatedly remembered that when Wei Shuangchi gave her the planet, she had indeed said it would be registered under “Little Baby,” but she didn’t expect it would really be used without her formal name. More importantly, no one confirmed this with her during the communication this afternoon!

Where were her dominant three characters, ‘Shu Youzhan’???

Seeing the smile on Zhao Qinglan’s face grow wider, genuinely “surprised” by the gift, Shu Youzhan jumped up and reached out to cover her eyes: “Wait! I’ll change it! There’s a programming error over there! Ahhh, don’t look! This isn’t the gift!”

Zhao Qinglan was doubled over with laughter. She watched as Shu Youzhan angrily called the other side, practically screaming over the sound of the fireworks to make them change the text. Soon, the words in the sky honestly changed to: “The Lord of Star L04 in the Andromeda Galaxy, Shu Youzhan, wishes Zhao Qinglan a Happy Birthday!”

The radiant colors reflected on their hair and in their eyes.

Zhao Qinglan saw Shu Youzhan grumpily trying to find the media to delete the pictures and quickly stopped her. Wrapping an arm around her waist, she whispered, “I really like the gift. Truly. It was… very surprising and unexpected.”

Shu Youzhan’s hair was practically standing on end. “Forget the line from just now! Fast!”

Zhao Qinglan leaned in close to her, seeing the colors reflected in Shu Youzhan’s eyes. As clusters of fireworks continued to bloom in the sky and the words projected by Blue Planet’s high-tech remained dazzling, they formed a world of vibrant color.

The same light sparkled in her own dark eyes. She said softly:

“Thank you for the gift.”

Shu Youzhan snorted, mentally repeating “As long as I’m not embarrassed, the embarrassment belongs to others.” Only then did she calmly begin to show off: “See? If I had more time, I could have done even more tricks.”

Zhao Qinglan’s brow arched. In the midst of the jumping, falling lights, she asked with a grin:

“Oh?”

“What other tricks do you have, Shu Little Baby?”