After Differentiation, My Arch-nemesis Thinks I’m Fragrant - Chapter 3

“Boss, I heard someone from Class One was looking for trouble with you today?”

As Zhao Qinglan walked toward the sports complex, she was surrounded by two pretty girls who looked remarkably alike. Their height, exceeding 175cm, and the oppressive aura between their brows made it easy to guess they had already differentiated as Alphas.

The listener didn’t even bat an eyelid. She neither admitted nor denied it, as if she hadn’t heard a thing. With one hand in her pocket, she walked slowly under the sunlight. Her slightly pale skin turned a faint, sluggish red under the golden rays, finally gaining a hint of “human” color.

Sun Yue drew her own conclusion from the silence. Clenching her fists, she said with a heavy expression, “Fine, I’ll go find out later who was so blind—”

“Give it a rest. What do you think you can do at school? Didn’t you see that Boss doesn’t even care to acknowledge you?”

The lazy tone coming from the other side was like a bucket of cold water, instantly deflating Sun Yue’s aggressive atmosphere.

Sun Yue turned to look and saw Sun Jue holding a large bag of snacks in both hands, with a Pocky stick hanging out of her mouth. The decadent vibe radiating from her could be smelled from ten miles away.

Sun Yue frowned, her face written with displeasure. “To protect the interests of the alliance, didn’t Mom and Dad say that if someone provokes us, no matter the time or place…”

Sun Jue rolled her eyes and interrupted, “You think just anyone can provoke Boss?”

Pausing, she bit through the Pocky stick and glanced in Zhao Qinglan’s direction. “Maybe someone is afraid of dealing a blow to the strength of her sweetheart, who is about to differentiate into an Alpha, so she’s enduring humiliation for a greater cause…”

Sun Yue: “Huh?”

At that moment, Zhao Qinglan, who had reached the entrance of the gym, looked back. Her eyes were glazed with a layer of pale gold, complementing the golden iris hair accessory, yet her gaze was cold. “What? You two are here for PE class too?”

“Ajue, if you know how to talk, say a few more words.”

Sun Jue shrank her neck, her brows drooping. She stuffed the empty snack packaging into a roadside trash can and fumbled through her bag again. She took a moment to glance at her sister. “Let’s go. Can’t you see Boss thinks we’re annoying?”

Sun Yue still hadn’t figured out what was going on. She couldn’t believe she had suddenly incurred Zhao Qinglan’s dislike. The trees by the road cast dancing shadows that flickered across her face as she was dragged away by her sister. When she looked back again, Zhao Qinglan was gone.

Shu Youzhan felt a bit listless.

She didn’t know if it was because she had caught a cold while dozing off during the break, but after changing into her swimsuit and swimming a lap as the PE teacher required, she felt no interest when Pei Yi tried to drag her to the diving area.

She felt like a balloon leaking air somewhere, slowly deflating bit by bit.

Pei Yi invited her several times, but seeing that Shu Youzhan wasn’t moved, she had no choice but to go to the high platform of the other pool by herself. On the three-meter diving board, she took two small steps, gave a heavy stomp and leap at the edge!

Her body twisted in the air like a dolphin leaping from the water, rotating smoothly before slicing into the pool with barely a ripple.

Only a small splash followed.

The students of Class One were all clapping. Some Alphas even pressed their fingers to their lips and whistled at Pei Yi in approval.

Some students looked curiously at Shu Youzhan, wondering why she wasn’t participating in such a show-stopping performance today. A few bold Omegas even came over to invite her, but Shu Youzhan was too tired to keep refusing.

She simply got out of the pool early, draped a towel over herself, and headed toward the showers.

Because of her mental fatigue, she didn’t have the energy to pay attention to others. She only left a trail of watery footprints along the edge of the pool.

Splash…

Zhao Qinglan finished a stretch of underwater swimming. The moment she surfaced, she brought up a spray of water. Her slightly pale fingertips rested on the tiled edge of the pool. Transparent water droplets rolled over her distant-mountain-like brows, down her high nose, and landed near her eye sockets, making her raven-feather lashes even wetter and heavier.

Originally, her eyes were closed.

But the moment she caught a scent in the wind; she snapped them open.

Following that faint, tranquil fragrance that others couldn’t capture, Zhao Qinglan saw a familiar back disappearing around a corner.

A flash of astonishment appeared in her eyes.

Then…

She placed both hands on the edge. Ignoring the slippery floor, she exerted force with her arms, easily breaking free from the water’s pressure to sit on the bank. Slowly, her long, slender white legs emerged from the water.

The humidity in the air was heavy, and because it was a semi-enclosed venue, the air circulation was poor. The scent that had lingered there could still be traced—

Zhao Qinglan lowered her eyelids.

An Alpha’s exceptionally keen sense of smell was repeatedly telling her:

This residual faint fragrance originated from the pheromones emitted by an Omega.

After taking a hot shower, Shu Youzhan felt much better psychologically; at least she no longer felt cold.

Instead, she felt like she had become a small furnace. On the way from the shower to the changing room, she caught sight of her cheeks in the mirror, which were flushed as if she were drunk.

In a good mood, she pulled open her locker, intending to pack her things, skip the rest of PE, and sneak back to the classroom to do some problems.

However, there was an extra stack of booklets in the locker, with nothing on the cover.

Shu Youzhan took them out and flipped open the cover. On the first page, she saw four bold black words: “The Special Her.” Recalling the various scenes recorded inside…

For example, the absurdity in the living room, bathroom, balcony, and other places, the back of her ears turned bright red again. She hadn’t expected Pei Yi to be so efficient.

“Hey…”

Suddenly, a magnetic, somewhat hoarse voice appeared beside her.

Shu Youzhan reflexively felt a bit guilty. She shoved the booklet back into the locker before turning around, only to find that the person was the “life-giving” protagonist of the story she just saw, Zhao Qinglan.

She was startled, but she unhesitatingly went on the offensive, speaking rudely: “What do you want? I advise you not to try and mess with your competitor through underhanded methods like intimidation. It’s unsportsmanlike, you get it?”

Zhao Qinglan hadn’t changed out of her swimsuit yet. The one-piece deep blue suit was clearly a common student-style design, yet against the lines of her figure, it unintentionally amplified all her strengths.

Shu Youzhan was almost dazzled by those long, pale legs.

The other woman leaned against the metal locker. Half of her face was submerged in shadow. Her wet, long hair was draped over her shoulders, with water droplets occasionally rolling down her snow-white neck, trembling in the hollow of her collarbone for a long time before finally settling.

Zhao Qinglan only slightly lifted her eyes. A faint dark-blue trace could be seen in her eye sockets, making her obsidian-like pupils appear even more piercing. She leaned there willfully, ignoring the puddles under her feet, and said slowly to Shu Youzhan: “You’ve differentiated…”

Her voice was like the sound of wind rustling through mulberry leaves, carrying a sandy texture.

She was using an affirmative statement.

Shu Youzhan was stunned for a moment. Reminded by her, she realized that her symptoms today might not have been a cold, but rather some rejection reactions on the eve of differentiation…

No wonder she felt incredibly hot now.

Her right hand reflexively rummaged through the locker and pulled out a pheromone-decomposing enzyme spray meant for Alphas.

This spray was colorless and odorless, capable of quickly dissolving Alpha pheromones in the air. As long as one sprayed it once a day on the gland at the back of the neck, an Alpha could maintain its effect for ten hours under normal emotional conditions, preventing their pheromones from leaking out, which favored social stability.

Even though she hadn’t smelled her own pheromones yet, she chose to believe Zhao Qinglan’s judgment and, in a particularly good mood, sprayed it several times on the back of her neck, as if she were putting on perfume.

Zhao Qinglan’s throat moved.

She saw Shu Youzhan pull back the collar of her school uniform, revealing that patch of milky-white neck…

Similarly, she saw the gland unique to Omegas, capable of being marked, protruding slightly under the skin of the other’s neck.

The fragrance in the changing room grew stronger. As if competing with the Alpha pheromone suppressant or something, it spread out aggressively, soaking into every corner of the locker room.

This time, the scent was finally distinguishable: it was water lily.

It was rich but not repulsive, like the most sophisticated lady among flowers, perfectly coordinated in designer brands, far more comfortable than the gold chains wrapped around the necks of the nouveaux riches.

Even the seduction was elegant and reserved. When it brushed against your cheek, it was quiet and gentle, yet it could make one surrender instantly. Every move was led by her; even being dragged into ultimate bliss would be done willingly.

For a moment, Zhao Qinglan couldn’t tell if the pheromones Shu Youzhan had differentiated into were as generous as her public facade or as unreasonably overbearing as her inner self.

She cut off her thoughts, stepped forward, and snatched the spray bottle from Shu Youzhan’s hand—

“You can’t use this.”

Shu Youzhan didn’t react immediately. “Eh?”

Her gaze followed the pheromone spray held high by Zhao Qinglan. She stood on her tiptoes to grab it back but couldn’t reach it. As she glared at the other person, she belatedly realized that this fellow was actually much taller than her.

Facing her angry gaze, Zhao Qinglan looked down at her flushed cheeks and realized that Shu Youzhan actually dared to surround her with Omega pheromones so brazenly, performing an act that appeared to be provocation but was actually seduction.

She could vaguely see the gentle water lily vines extending under the moonlight, swaying their pale purple petals and wrapping around her unconsciously.

Licking her lower lip, Zhao Qinglan said slowly, “You don’t need this. You should use a dressing film… Youyou.”

The voice at the end was very low, but Shu Youzhan still slapped Zhao Qinglan’s arm hard. “None of your business! Give it back!”

“Also, don’t call me that, it’s disgusting. We aren’t close.”

Zhao Qinglan didn’t budge, as steady as a pine tree standing on a cliff.

Shu Youzhan was already restless due to the differentiation. Her patience hit rock bottom. Being provoked repeatedly by Zhao Qinglan, she was fuming, and it took her a while to regain her senses and realize what the other person had just said.

Dressing film. It also exists in liquid form, but when sprayed on the skin, it forms a biological barrier membrane that can hide all traces. It is the best assistant for an Omega to hide their glands and pheromone scent.

What… was Zhao Qinglan saying?

She laughed in anger. “You’re the one who differentiated into an O! Your whole family differentiated into O’s!”

Zhao Qinglan remained silent, merely looking at Shu Youzhan with that calm gaze that seemed unshakeable no matter what happened. This lack of argument served as a side-on confirmation of the fact.

Shu Youzhan was actually feeling quite broken inside, but she forced herself not to show it.

Instead, she felt that Zhao Qinglan’s joke was extremely malicious. She had been certain since birth that she had a 99.9% chance of becoming an Alpha.

Thinking of this, she steadied her mind and turned back to pull out that R-18 booklet from the locker.

She then took a large step toward Zhao Qinglan, slapped the book against the other woman’s body, and put on a polite, fake smile, though her voice carried subtle pity and sympathy: “I heard you have problems in that area after differentiating?”

Zhao Qinglan raised an eyebrow as if she didn’t understand, or perhaps as if she didn’t care.

“And?” she asked leisurely.

Shu Youzhan said loudly and righteously, “So you must have smelled wrong. I am a guaranteed A—”

Before she could finish the word “Alpha.”

Shu Youzhan suddenly lost all her strength and was about to fall straight to her knees. Zhao Qinglan reacted quickly, stepping forward to catch her in her arms.

The booklet fell to the floor.

Superior eyesight allowed her to scan the contents at a glance, and she happened to see her own name appearing in an extremely erotic description, such as “grabbing the other’s ankle to pull her back,” “using a silk scarf to tie her to the balcony railing”… and so on.

Holding the burning-hot Shu Youzhan, who was differentiating into an O, and with those lines of description reflected in her eyes, even with Zhao Qinglan’s decent self-control, she felt a bit of heat rising.

She turned her head and found that the source of the water lily fragrance was extremely close to her.

So she suddenly asked, “Do you want to try?”

Shu Youzhan was so hot she was somewhat delirious, like ice cream about to melt under the scorching sun. Her voice was also sticky: “Try what?”

“Try…”

“Whether I actually have a problem or not.”

Zhao Qinglan lowered her voice. The raspy tone had a hint of inexplicable seduction, like a mermaid appearing in the sea at night, pulling people into the endless ocean with her song.

Perhaps she was touched by the dampness on the other’s swimsuit, or perhaps the side effects of the differentiation period were becoming too obvious—

As Shu Youzhan listened to her words, she felt as if she were soaked through, inside and out.