After Differentiation, My Arch-nemesis Thinks I’m Fragrant - Chapter 48

“Nervous?”

“A little.”

Outside the magnificent gates of the Imperial Military Academy.

Shu Youzhan stood by the wide road, clutching a translucent pencil case. The ground was paved with broad, square gray floor tiles. There was little greenery around the grand entrance; the morning sunlight fell directly upon her profile.

She was dressed in the silver-white uniform of No. 1 Middle School. The silver-white trim of her winter coat shimmered in the daylight. Yet, her appearance was by no means overshadowed; she was not suppressed by this high-profile white, but rather complemented it perfectly.

Now, she tilted her head slightly, ignoring the luxury cars on the wide campus boulevard, and instead focused her attention on the person beside her who had rarely swapped their military uniform for civilian clothes.

“Speaking of which… you don’t even have to take the exam. Why did you come here today to join the fuss?”

Zhao Qinglan said casually, “I had some business to attend to here, and I just happened to be passing by to show you some concern.”

Students dressed in the military academy’s uniform were coming and going. Seeing these students from different schools and looking up at the exam hall banners in the campus, they understood that it was once again time for the annual early admission eligibility screening.

There was an interesting anecdote here.

Because the Imperial Military Academy’s eligibility screening included both academic performance and physical fitness tests, the difficulty of the academic portion was extremely high in order to filter out the most elite students each year. It was more difficult than any previous college entrance examination. Furthermore, because this part of the exam was open to the public, occasionally some particularly outstanding pre-senior students would want to experience it and would sign up as well.

Although Omegas were relatively rare, there were still a few every year.

Zhao Qinglan spoke up, “The exam starts in half an hour. Aren’t you going in?”

Shu Youzhan stood still, pulled out her phone to check the time, and said slowly, “Wait, let me do a bit more mental preparation.”

Around them, other students were carrying backpacks and listening to their parents’ exhortations, while others were nervously eating breakfast. Shu Youzhan looked at them and saw the nervousness on the faces of those richly dressed parents. She suddenly felt a bit fortunate that Wei Shuangchi hadn’t had time to see her off recently due to health reasons; otherwise, she would definitely be even more nervous now.

Zhao Qinglan stood guard with her at the gate with a slight smile, one hand in her pocket. She remarked, “I’ve never seen you nervous before.”

Shu Youzhan gave a “hmm”: “In the past, I knew how to do all the exam questions. Today, I’m thinking, what should I do if I happen to encounter a question I can’t solve?”

A passing examinee heard her words and couldn’t help but glance sideways, their expression turning slightly anxious.

Zhao Qinglan happened to notice and the smile on her lips deepened: “Are you engaging in psychological warfare here?”

Shu Youzhan: “?”

Zhao Qinglan gestured for her to look around: “Everyone else is worried about how many points they can actually get, and here you are agonizing over losing a single point.”

Shu Youzhan said “oh,” looking at her with eyes that were calm and unperturbed: “What exactly are you doing here today?”

Zhao Qinglan’s expression was indifferent: “The Imperial Military Academy was afraid I’d be snatched up by another school, so they asked me to come early and sign an enrollment agreement.”

Shu Youzhan: “Heh.”

She knew it.

A passing student who happened to overhear the conversation: “…” Is the king of posers right here beside me?

Many people looked back at the two of them with complicated expressions, wondering who was acting so pretentious as to mess with the mindsets of other students at the gate. Upon realizing that these two looked quite familiar—having seen them on the nightly news—

“Pardon me.”

“Then it’s fine.”

…

Five minutes later.

The two “kings of posing” parted ways. Shu Youzhan took her pencil case and admission ticket toward the examination building, prepared to crush her peers in the exam hall, while Zhao Qinglan headed toward the administration building, already ahead of everyone in her year in terms of progress.

Ring ring ring…

The morning session ended.

Zhao Qinglan was near the school gate, looking down at her phone. The rising midday sun shone on her, making her already fair skin look almost transparent. However, even more striking than her skin tone was her exquisitely carved features, especially her deep black eyes, which seemed to emanate a faint, cool aura like a deep pool.

Because of her tall stature, many people looked in her direction with curiosity or envy, but regardless of their feelings, no one took the initiative to approach her.

Zhao Qinglan heard many exam-related messages from the chatter of the people passing by. At a certain moment, she looked up toward the school gate and saw Shu Youzhan emerging with the crowd.

Omegas were generally small in stature, around 1.6 meters. Shu Youzhan was considered tall among them, likely due to years of exercise, and she was not submerged by the other examinees.

Whether it was because the two had once had an intimate connection or they were exceptionally mindful of each other, Shu Youzhan met her gaze very easily. She was stunned for a moment and then quickly walked to her side.

“You didn’t go back?”

“Waiting for you. Other little kids have parents accompanying them; you should have someone too.”

Because there were so many people around, Zhao Qinglan knew she was thin-skinned, so she only held her sleeve and led her across the boulevard to an ordinary sedan. When opening the passenger door, Shu Youzhan glanced inside and noticed the driver’s seat was empty.

“Wait, you’re driving? Do you have a driver’s license?”

“It’s a military autonomous vehicle.”

Finding that no one else from the Zhao family was present, Shu Youzhan indeed relaxed a lot. After sitting down and buckling her seatbelt, she watched Zhao Qinglan walk around the front of the car to the other side, open the door, and sit in. The small space was suddenly filled with only their breaths.

Zhao Qinglan, remembering her earlier comment about not having a license, squinted over: “What, if I drive, you won’t get in?”

Shu Youzhan rubbed her nose. “Is the progress of going straight to a lovers’ double suicide a bit too fast? Shouldn’t I be mentally prepared?”

Hearing her use a joking tone to question her driving skills, the corners of Zhao Qinglan’s mouth curled up. She looked down to set the destination, a restaurant she had found beforehand.

“Don’t worry.”

She reminded her in a cool tone: “Right now, I can’t bear for anything to happen to you. Even if I were to take your life, it would have to be in a different kind of ‘car’.”

Shu Youzhan blinked.

A few seconds passed.

Only then did she realize what the “car” in Zhao Qinglan’s mouth referred to.

Silently moving toward the car door, Shu Youzhan raised her hand to cover her ears and replied righteously: “Underage children shouldn’t hear such talk.”

Zhao Qinglan looked up just as she saw this childish gesture and suddenly advised:

“Don’t be so cute.”

Shu Youzhan tilted her head.

Then she heard the other person add calmly: “It makes it easier for me to feel impulsive.”

Shu Youzhan: “…”

She raised her hand to unbuckle her seatbelt: “I’m getting out, goodbye.”

…

The Imperial Military Academy’s exams lasted for three days. In addition to the standard tests in Common Language, Mathematics, a comprehensive science paper (Physics, Chemistry, Biology), and a comprehensive humanities paper (History, Politics, Geography), there was also one exam on Military Knowledge and one on Galactic Knowledge.

Because the exams started very early and were too far from the Shu family home, the place Shu Youzhan stayed was a five-star hotel nearby arranged by the butler. The suite was spacious and comfortable, and the surroundings were very quiet, conducive to studying and resting.

Wei Shuangchi, worried about her safety, even pulled a few bodyguards from her own security detail to follow her itinerary.

Consequently.

After the day’s exam ended, Shu Youzhan found that Zhao Qinglan had actually acted contrary to her usual improper self. After dropping her off at the hotel, she didn’t follow her upstairs or find an excuse to sit for a while, nor did she rent another suite next door. Instead, she took her leave decisively.

“I’ll come to accompany you for the exam tomorrow.” The other person pressed her index and middle fingers together, tapped her temple, and gave her a wave with an extra sense of chicness and decisiveness.

Shu Youzhan was a bit puzzled: “Why are you going to all this trouble?”

Zhao Qinglan raised her eyebrows and said somewhat helplessly: “I can’t help it… I can’t bear to leave you, yet I’m afraid of leaving a bad impression on Aunt Chi, so I have to wrong myself a bit.”

For a moment, Shu Youzhan was at a loss for words.

Every time she felt Zhao Qinglan was frivolous and deserved a beating, this person would always demonstrate a startling seriousness in those insignificant details. Just like now, even though she hadn’t even heard a formal response from Shu Youzhan, she was already preparing for the very, very distant future of the two of them.

It was as if…

Shu Youzhan only needed to nod in this relationship, and no matter what storms they encountered in the future, Zhao Qinglan would steadily hold up an umbrella for her to keep her safe.

A warm palm pressed gently on her head.

Shu Youzhan looked down and listened to the other person’s serious exhortation: “Review well—”

“As for the first-place position, you can’t give it to anyone else but me.”

Shu Youzhan didn’t dodge or shrink back. She hummed in response: “I know, see you tomorrow.”

…

The next two days.

Zhao Qinglan indeed did as she promised. Every time Shu Youzhan came out of the exam hall at noon or in the afternoon, she could always see her outside. Sometimes the person was in civilian clothes, and sometimes they were still in that black military uniform.

When the final exam in Common Language ended—

Shu Youzhan came out with a frown. As she walked to Zhao Qinglan’s side, she asked her: “Do you know which language is used on Planet 424?”

Zhao Qinglan thought for a moment: “They probably have a specific local dialect. Why, did they test you on that?”

Shu Youzhan asked again: “Can you speak it?”

Zhao Qinglan: “I can understand most of it.”

The next second.

The actual exam question—which had already spread across the internet and had a difficulty level so high that it required the collective efforts of netizens from the entire galaxy to answer correctly—was placed in front of Zhao Qinglan on a phone screen.

“This question, how do you translate it?” Shu Youzhan never expected that the Imperial Military Academy’s Common Language exam would actually test a language from such a remote, almost uninhabited little planet. When she saw those messy symbols, her heart was filled with bewilderment.

Zhao Qinglan leaned in to take a look. Originally, she wasn’t sure she could recognize it, but she just happened to have learned this exact sentence.

She subconsciously read it aloud according to the pronunciation.

Shu Youzhan couldn’t hear it clearly and only gazed at her intently. However, Zhao Qinglan was unhurried. She wasn’t in a rush to tell her the answer; instead, she teased: “You say it once.”

“?”

Unable to grasp her thoughts, Shu Youzhan hesitated for a moment and tried to mimic the pronunciation. Because she was dealing with an unfamiliar language, she was unsure while pronouncing it; she was a bit light where it should have been heavy, and the whole feel of it changed.

Seeing the smile brimming in Zhao Qinglan’s eyes, Shu Youzhan felt even more uncertain, as if she were being tricked. After muttering the phrase once, she couldn’t help but raise her hand to strike the other’s arm:

“What exactly does it mean?”

Zhao Qinglan leaned into her ear, deliberately sending her warm breath into her earlobe: “Come into my arms, or let me live in your heart.”

In the next instant.

It was as if a loud boom could be heard. Zhao Qinglan watched helplessly as that half of Shu Youzhan’s ear flared with a fiery color, like a bright red flower that had been forcefully crumpled until its juices seeped out.

Tempting one to pluck it.

Shu Youzhan guiltily raised her hand to cover her ear. She stamped her feet, wanting to scold her for being improper, but she felt that complaining like this in public would be equivalent to admitting she had just been teased by Zhao Qinglan, which was like another kind of declaration.

She could only lower her head and walk faster and faster, trying to leave the person behind. At the same time, she secretly felt stifled that this was the one question she couldn’t do. Even if she couldn’t do it, searching for the answer online would have been better than asking Zhao Qinglan!

Thinking about how she had just repeated that sentence twice to the person on the street, Shu Youzhan wished a crack would open in the ground for her to crawl into.

Zhao Qinglan admired her exasperated figure for a while. When Shu Youzhan stood at the intersection not knowing which way to go, she leisurely stood beside her, curling her lips as she asked:

“Student Shu.”

“The physical fitness test is about to start. Do you want Teacher to give you some extra tutoring?”