After Differentiation, My Arch-nemesis Thinks I’m Fragrant - Chapter 31

Shu Youzhan remained entangled in her thoughts until class ended. She held her phone, wanting to ask what was going on, but then she felt that since she had just expressed her indifference to the other person yesterday, being so proactive about sending a message today would make it look like she had a guilty conscience or was in the wrong. She pulled her phone out, then stuffed it back into her desk drawer.

Shu Youzhan decided to see who could hold their breath longer: her or Zhao Qinglan. Anyway. If she didn’t want to study, then fine. Zhao Qinglan had already missed some classes during her differentiation process. If she took a leave of absence now, she might even be several grades below her by the time she returned. They wouldn’t even take the college entrance exam at the same time, and by then… they wouldn’t have to see each other often anyway.

After comforting herself for a while, Shu Youzhan suddenly felt even more listless. Pei Yi came over to find her. Even though Zhao Qinglan wasn’t there, she didn’t dare sit in her chair. She simply squatted on the floor, resting her chin on her hands as she looked at Shu Youzhan. “Sister Xiao Shu, you don’t look like you’re in a very good mood today?”

“I’m not.”

Pei Yi stood up and circled her like a sunflower turning toward the sun. “You definitely are in a bad mood. Why? Is it because Zhao Qinglan didn’t show up today? Did you two have a fight?”

Ping Hui, sitting in the front row, turned around in shock upon hearing this. Then he shook his head, looking as if he had seen through the bitterness of love. With a very Zen-like attitude, he put on his headphones and retreated into the eternal happiness of his video games.

Shu Youzhan didn’t notice his gaze. She was only puzzled why Pei Yi was being so particularly concerned about her and Zhao Qinglan today. She spoke up, “Why are you asking? I’m not that close with her.”

Pei Yi’s expression turned subtle for a moment. After a pause, she smacked her lips. “Fine, if you say you’re not close, you’re not close. Want to go for a walk? I’m a bit hungry. I just ordered some takeout snacks. You run fast—can you help me grab it? I can’t outrun the security guard.”

Shu Youzhan: “…”

She propped up her head, feeling a bit helpless at Pei Yi’s antics. She gestured for her to come closer. “How about this: next time, put the delivery address as the Principal’s Office.”

Pei Yi: “?”

Shu Youzhan said solemnly, “That way, the delivery will be allowed in. Then you just need to wait at the principal’s door like a ‘stump-watcher waiting for a rabbit.’ You won’t even have to waste energy practicing your sprinting. Isn’t that a win-win?”

Pei Yi tried to imagine that future: “And then I get caught red-handed by the Dean at the door?”

Shu Youzhan felt a wave of despair. Hearing Pei Yi say the food had arrived and checking the time, she had no choice but to get up, leave the classroom, and go downstairs to have a footrace with the security guard. After running two laps around the school and easily shaking off the guard, Shu Youzhan lazily carried the takeout upstairs. Returning to Class 1, she placed the food on Pei Yi’s desk and heard her ask, “Feeling better now?”

Shu Youzhan: “?”

Pei Yi pulled her hand with great sincerity. “Experts say exercise makes people less depressed. Do you feel refreshed now?”

Shu Youzhan seriously assessed her current state, then ruthlessly brushed Pei Yi’s hand away. “I don’t know about my mood, but I feel like a total idiot right now. In the past, I never would have done something this stupid for you.”

“True. You’d usually just give me double the money and tell me to cancel the order,” Pei Yi agreed, nodding. She added, “Is this what they mean by love lowering your IQ?”

“What the hell?” Shu Youzhan furrowed her brows, thinking she had misheard.

Pei Yi nudged her gently with her elbow. “Oh, don’t hide it from me. Mi-Mi and I both know. This… ‘forbidden love’ always has to face some gossip and hardships. You need to take it easy. But Mi-Mi said an Omega has to learn to be reserved. If you take the initiative to coax her now, won’t you have even less status after you’re married? You have to hold your ground!”

Shu Youzhan stared at her for a few seconds. She raised her hand to check the temperature of Pei Yi’s forehead, then touched her own. “Am I the one who’s sick, or are you?”

Pei Yi held her bag of fried chicken. “Hey, why are you getting angry and calling me names?”

Shu Youzhan reached into the bag, pulled out a piece of fried chicken, and popped it into her mouth. After swallowing the fragrant meat, she raised an eyebrow. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. What ‘love’ nonsense? I am—Single. Royalty. Don’t @ me.”

Pei Yi: “Ah? You two aren’t dating?”

Shu Youzhan said instinctively, “No.”

Pei Yi tilted her head. “I didn’t even say who ‘you two’ were. Why did you deny it so fast?”

Shu Youzhan: “…”

Quick as a flash, she grabbed another piece of chicken and stuffed it into Pei Yi’s mouth. Amidst her muffled protests, Shu Youzhan said calmly, “Regardless of who it is, the answer is no. Eat your food and stop talking so much.”

After that scene in the morning, Shu Youzhan didn’t bother with Pei Yi’s strange enthusiasm for the rest of the day. Even after returning home after school, she seemed distracted. Her mind flipped between Zhao Qinglan’s leave of absence and Pei Yi’s theory about “Omegas being reserved.” She didn’t even hear Wei Shuangchi calling her.

“What are you thinking about so deeply?” Wei Shuangchi waved a corn cob in front of her. The corn, skewered on a chopstick, smelled incredibly sweet and fragrant—the sticky, chewy kind that was Shu Youzhan’s favorite.

She blinked and snapped out of it, whispering, “Mom…”

Wei Shuangchi handed her the corn and looked her up and down. “What’s wrong? Did you run into some difficult problem at school?”

“No.” Shu Youzhan shook her head like a rattle. She sat on the living room sofa and began quietly nibbling the corn. Wei Shuangchi, however, recalled something from the day before. “By the way, why did you leave so quickly yesterday? I didn’t see you in the Zhao family’s hall at all. You didn’t just drop off the gift and run, did you?”

Shu Youzhan shook her head, then nodded. “Um… yeah. I felt it was boring there, and I didn’t know many people, so I came back early.”

Wei Shuangchi tapped her forehead. “How impolite. When your mother and I were leaving, Qinglan specifically came to see us off. She even asked me about you. You didn’t even say a word to her before leaving.”

There were some corn crumbs near the corner of Shu Youzhan’s mouth. Hearing this, she suddenly looked up, her brown eyes full of surprise. “She asked about me?”

“Impossible,” Shu Youzhan said, waving the corn in her hand. “She finds me annoying.”

Wei Shuangchi pinched her ear. “Yesterday, she saw you were outside for a long time and even ordered someone to bring you a coat, fearing your clothes were too short and you’d get bitten by mosquitoes. How can you think of her that way?”

Speaking of which, Wei Shuangchi didn’t know what had actually happened between her and Zhao Qinglan. It wasn’t her place to interfere too much. Moreover, she could see that with her daughter’s pride, praising Zhao Qinglan would only make their relationship worse. Better to let it be.

She pushed herself up from the sofa, intending to check the kitchen to see how the servant’s soup was simmering. “I won’t meddle with you two. Oh, you’re all grown up now and have your own ideas. Mom can’t see through you anymore—you were much cuter when you were little and couldn’t even walk straight.”

Shu Youzhan couldn’t help but emphasize, “Even then, only I was cute. She wasn’t.”

Wei Shuangchi was amused by her childishness. She turned back halfway. “Yes, yes, only you were cute… I wonder who it was that used to cling to her and beg to play whenever she came to our house as a child.”

Shu Youzhan: “???”

Impossible! How could she possibly have such dark history!

After finishing the corn, Shu Youzhan returned to her room and buried herself in a sea of knowledge. After “swimming” for a few hours, she returned to shore, feeling bored. She read some extracurricular books for a while, forcing herself not to think about Zhao Qinglan. By nighttime, due to mental exhaustion, sleepiness washed over her, and she fell asleep easily.

But then came the second day, the third day… A week passed.

The seat next to her showed no signs of a returning occupant. Shu Youzhan nearly drowned in her sea of knowledge. That day, using the excuse of delivering monthly progress reports to the teachers, she dawdled over to Old Fang’s desk. Gripping the frosted glass partition of the desk, she whispered, “Teacher.”

Old Fang was looking at internal test questions for the next exam on his computer. He was startled by her voice and instinctively turned off the screen before looking back. “Oh, Student Shu. What is it?”

Shu Youzhan cleared her throat pretentiously. “Ahem, nothing much… just, as the Study Representative, I have an obligation to care about every student’s learning progress. I must ensure that those who are lagging behind keep up with the main group…”

Old Fang listened patiently, thinking she had some constructive suggestions for the students with lower grades. Instead, Shu Youzhan’s tone shifted—

“Isn’t there a student who took a leave of absence? Her studies will definitely fall behind, right? Teacher, you should tell me the duration of her leave. That way, I can help draft a study plan for her.”

Old Fang: “…”

So this was what it was all about. He rubbed his shiny forehead and gave Shu Youzhan a half-smile. “Asking about Zhao Qinglan again?”

Shu Youzhan picked at the frosted glass. “I wouldn’t call it ‘asking.’ It’s just normal concern between classmates—”

With a snort, Old Fang waved her off. “It’s no use asking me. Besides, you should know her situation better than I do. You two have similar family backgrounds. Didn’t you just celebrate her birthday? The headlines were all about that exaggerated screen-takeover of yours. Why don’t you just ask her directly instead of coming to me for gossip?”

Shu Youzhan: “…”

Great. The indirect tactic failed. She said thick-skinnedly, “Didn’t I fail to find out? Teacher, our two families have the same background, but we’re also like fire and water. Besides, in these big families, people are so cold to each other… So, can you tell me exactly how long Zhao Qinglan requested off for?”

Old Fang was amused. He told her what he could. “As far as the written request goes, she won’t be back this semester.”

Shu Youzhan was dumbstruck. “Why? What could be more important than studying? What kind of leave did she take? It couldn’t be maternity leave, could it?”

Old Fang waved his hand. “Go on, get out of here. I really don’t know. Don’t ask me. Your files are all top-secret; why are you asking me?”

Meanwhile. In the Fourth Galaxy, on a remote, desolate planet.

In extreme cold, Zhao Qinglan, dressed in snow-camouflage combat gear, was holding her phone up all over the tent. Someone glanced at her and gave a friendly reminder: “Hey, don’t bother. The only signal point here is at the docking station—the one that comes with the transport ships… What kind of urgent business can’t you let go of? You’ve been looking for a signal for a week.”

Zhao Qinglan didn’t look back. “I’ll try again.”

The person who advised her shook their head and went back to playing cards with their comrades. Half an hour later, Zhao Qinglan walked over of her own accord. Her black hair was almost long enough to cover half her eyes, but the bridge of her nose and chin remained exquisite. Even her voice was the same: “Excuse me, when is the next supply ship?”

“Once every three months. The last one was the one you came on. You can count the days yourself.”

“…Thank you.”

Another card player finished their hand early, collected their money, and looked up at her. “Thinking about someone back home?”

Zhao Qinglan gave a vague hum of agreement.

“Didn’t the higher-ups tell you how long you’d be here before you left?”

“No… I received a sudden deployment mission. I don’t know when I can go back.”

“Whoa, that’s rough. Who’s your superior? Who would set you up like that?”

The people in the tent broke into friendly laughter. Zhao Qinglan was about to speak when she heard the sound of the shift change. She walked out with the others. One of them, clearly having noticed her concern for home, pulled open the tent flap. Facing the blizzard outside, they spoke to her:

“If you’re really in a hurry, I have a way. It’ll be a bit miserable if you’re caught, and at most, it’ll only let you send one message out—”

Zhao Qinglan clenched her fist, exhaling a puff of white mist as she walked out. “It’s okay.”

Her voice was scattered by the wind, swallowed by the icy, swirling snow. “She might not even be thinking of me.”