After Setting Me Up With My Ex, The Aloof Alpha Regrets It - Chapter 9

Chapter 9: The Pheromone, a Mere 0.1% Concentration, Became Her Antidote.

“It’s not that it’s hard to wash off. It’s just that an Alpha was in there. You know I’m afraid of Alphas, so I hid in the stall and didn’t come out to clean up until she left.”

Shi Li found that, like Wen Yue, she could now lie without batting an eye. She didn’t know if this was a good thing or a bad thing.

Wen Yue’s tense nerves finally completely relaxed. She had been overthinking. How could Shi Li possibly have spoken to Zhu Yunqi? They couldn’t possibly know each other.

Her tone became cheerful again: “Hurry up and eat the takoyaki, baby. It has both sauces you love, teriyaki and lime plum sauce.”

Shi Li picked up a piece of takoyaki covered in lime plum sauce and put it in her mouth. The taste was a mix of sweet, sour, and savory, which should have been delicious. But at this moment, it tasted like cardboard.

Shi Li chewed for a long time before swallowing.

Wen Yue watched her carefully. “What’s wrong, baby? Doesn’t it taste good?”

Shi Li shook her head. “I ate too much for dinner; I can’t eat anymore. Ah Yue, I’m a little tired. Let’s go home.”

Omegas are always the most concerned about staying in shape. Wen Yue didn’t suspect anything, thinking Shi Li was just controlling her calories. She finished the remaining takoyaki and drove Shi Li home.

The car stopped in front of Shi Li’s building. Before they parted, Wen Yue wanted to kiss Shi Li. The car was silent, the night sky was dark, and Wen Yue leaned forward from the driver’s seat to the passenger seat, wanting to touch the long-desired soft sweetness.

Shi Li didn’t move in the passenger seat, quietly waiting for Wen Yue to get closer and closer until her body completely enveloped her. But just as their lips were about to meet, she turned her head, and the kiss landed on her cheek.

“I think I saw a shooting star,” Shi Li said, looking out the window for an excuse. “Oh, I was wrong, it’s a car light. Ah Yue, I’m going up now. Drive home safely.”

“Okay. Good night. I’ll text you when I get home.” Wen Yue smiled and said calmly.

She got out of the car with Shi Li, leaned against the front of the car, and watched Shi Li go upstairs until the window on the 19th floor lit up. The smile on her face froze. Wen Yue realized that something had changed between her and Shi Li. The change was so subtle and tiny that she couldn’t find or describe it. It was like a silkworm thread on her face—she knew it was there but couldn’t pinpoint it—or like an itch in her ear from another dimension.

She sensed it, but she was afraid to say it. This meeting with Shi Li seemed to have undergone a complete change, and she had become the person who was constantly cautious. It was early summer, and the night temperature in Z3291 was only 18 degrees Celsius, so a thin dress was a little too thin for such a night. But Wen Yue seemed to not notice. Her hands gradually became cold in the wind. Then, she slowly raised her hand and gripped the necklace Shi Li had given her. It was as if this could hold Shi Li firmly in her hand.

…

Back home, Zhu Yunqi was met with her mother’s furious accusations and her “mother’s” sarcastic questions. This couple of enemies only became “loving” when facing Zhu Yunqi.

Zhu Yunqi thought to herself that from this perspective, she was the “fruit of their love”—no, a knot.

A research report from a biological institute had stated that as long as the pheromone match between an Alpha and an Omega was over 50%, even if they had a deep-seated hatred for each other, once they completed the marking, they would be instinctively attracted to each other by their genes and eventually fall in love. In the years following the report’s release, novels featuring themes like forced love, falling in love with a mother’s killer, and Stockholm syndrome swept the internet. The more they hated now, the deeper they would love later.

Zhu Yunqi didn’t believe it. The pheromone match between Zhu Shengxi and Shen Qinghe was as high as 85%, yet after more than 20 years of marriage, their relationship was still one of pure hatred. Love can overcome genetic instinct, and so can hatred.

From the time Zhu Yunqi could remember, it seemed she had never received love from her mother and “mother.” Her mother was always busy with corporate affairs, leaving early and returning late. As the head of Zhu Holdings, Zhu Shengxi was autocratic and ruthless, qualities that children fear. By the time Zhu Yunqi was old enough to understand Zhu Shengxi’s personal style, they had long passed the stage of establishing a deep bond.

Shen Qinghe spent relatively more time with Zhu Yunqi. But in Zhu Yunqi’s memory, Shen Qinghe was always serious and wore an unresolvable sadness between her brows. She was more accustomed to letting nannies and housekeepers care for Zhu Yunqi, watching from the side as a third party. Shen Qinghe was a professor and researcher at a university in the Federation. Every year, there was a period when Professor Shen would use the excuse of staying at the research institute for nearly a month without coming home. Later, Zhu Yunqi learned that that was the time when Zhu Shengxi first brought her older sister home.

The warmth of family Zhu Yunqi felt came almost entirely from Zhu Jingshan, her older sister from another mother. Although she later understood this was a betrayal of Shen Qinghe, when she was too young to understand the adults’ loves and hates, her biological instinct for seeking advantages and avoiding harm made her want to be closer to the sister who would hold her in her arms and tell her stories.

The “critique” finally came to a temporary halt with Zhu Jingshan’s arrival. Shen Qinghe had a headache every time she saw Zhu Jingshan. She was trapped in the memory of the rainy night when Zhu Shengxi brought five-year-old Zhu Jingshan home. Zhu Jingshan’s existence was a constant reminder that her wife had marked another Omega.

Returning to her room, Zhu Yunqi threw herself heavily onto the bed. An inexplicable irritability surged in her heart. She wanted to smash things, to flip the room over, to destroy something, anything. If it were raining outside, she would rush out and let herself get drenched without a care.

Zhu Yunqi rolled around on the big bed. She kicked off her slippers, which flew in a perfect parabola and landed on the balcony.

Trapped in the blanket, Zhu Yunqi felt a little breathless. Her body temperature would be higher than normal during her estrus period, and the imbalance of pheromones made her feel like there was a snake that had woken from hibernation in her veins.

Hunger, excitement.

Inhibitors could only forcibly suppress the snake that wanted to break through her rationality during each period, but they made her even hungrier when it awoke next time. Medically, this is called drug resistance.

Having used pheromone inhibitors for a long time to get through estrus, Zhu Yunqi’s body had developed a resistance to them. She had to use even more powerful inhibitors.

When she was in the Black Star Belt, a colleague with a similar experience suggested she find an Omega to get a temporary mark, which would greatly relieve her symptoms. Since it was a temporary mark, it could be washed off and wouldn’t have much of an impact. But her mother and “mother’s” experiences had long since made her determined to either live alone for life or only be marked by her one true love. She would never be like her mother, nor would she let the person she loved go through the pain Shen Qinghe did. Alphas must control their pheromones.

But this time, it was so uncomfortable… Especially after coming home, the symptoms became more pronounced.

Zhu Yunqi curled up tightly into a ball on the bed. She hugged her legs, buried her head in her knees, and wondered if she had bought fake inhibitor patches. A thin layer of sweat appeared on her forehead. Her body was clearly hot, but she felt waves of coldness.

The smart health assistant promptly reminded her: “Master, your current pain level is 45. Would you like to call a doctor or an Omega? I can help you contact one.”

Zhu Yunqi mumbled, “Call me when the pain level reaches 55.”

She had tested it before; a pain level of 55 was her critical point. If it went over 55, she might lose control. Before 55, it was just pain. She could endure it.

Breathing was difficult. Zhu Yunqi raised her hand, tore off her top, and threw it aside.

She turned, and the tip of her nose touched the soft fabric of a garment. A faint scent of lime wafted into her nasal cavity, clear with a soft sourness.

Zhu Yunqi’s eyes suddenly flashed with an image of Shi Li’s hanging black curly hair. Shi Li was wearing a lime-scented perfume today. She opened her eyes and picked up the garment. The scent of lime was coming from the collar. Shi Li had helped her button the collar, and her fingertips had left a cool, damp touch. The lime scent was like a cool breeze blowing on a hot summer day.

Zhu Yunqi couldn’t help but bring the garment closer and take a deep, powerful breath. Her smart health assistant “dinged” again: “Pain level detected as having decreased. It is now 44%.”

But the scent molecules left by a simple touch were so few. Zhu Yunqi felt like a demon from ancient mythology who sucks up people’s energy, having sucked the scent of Shi Li from the garment in one go. She thought with regret, “I should have smelled it little by little.”

A sudden flash of inspiration made Zhu Yunqi jump up from the bed and stride toward the dirty laundry basket in front of the walk-in closet. As she walked, she prayed in her heart, hoping the robot housekeeper wasn’t so smart and diligent and hadn’t washed the jacket she had taken off yesterday…

The black silk jacket lay quietly in the laundry basket. The villa was in Zhu Jingshan’s name, and Zhu Yunqi had only been living there for a short time. The smart housekeeper treated her as a guest and didn’t enter her room to clean at will.

She grabbed the jacket and covered her face with it. Zhu Yunqi smelled another scent: a faint wisp, but an extremely sweet cherry-wine scent. Her body was like an electric current running through it, desperately bursting with a desire for the smell of cherry wine. Zhu Yunqi even smelled the orange wood seeping out of the inhibitor patch.

“Ding—Master, a faint Omega pheromone has been detected. The level is S, the scent is cherry wine, the concentration is about 0.1%, and the match with your pheromone is 95%. Due to the low pheromone content, the matching result is for reference only, with a fluctuation of no more than 5%. The pain level has been detected as having decreased and is now 44%.” The smart health assistant reported in real time.

Zhu Yunqi: “…”

“Can you shut up? You’re too noisy.”

She didn’t need the smart assistant to tell her; she knew it was Shi Li’s residual pheromone. The shiver brought by an Omega’s pheromone was incomparable to that of ordinary perfume. That night, on the way to send Shi Li home, Shi Li, who had been injected with a pheromone stabilizer, felt cold all over due to the medication, so she draped her jacket over Shi Li. She had originally intended to smell if there was any of Shi Li’s perfume left on the jacket to help her get through her difficult estrus period.

Unexpectedly, what was left was pheromones. The smell of hospital disinfectant, the high humidity from the heavy rain… all prevented her from noticing it at the time.

Zhu Yunqi carefully held the jacket, walked back to the bed barefoot, and slowly wrapped the jacket in her arms, breathing in greedily but with restraint. It wasn’t the first time she had smelled an Omega’s pheromone, but it was the first time she had such a strong reaction.

The pheromone, at a mere 0.1% concentration, had become her antidote. Shi Li’s pheromone was cherry wine. It seemed to match her perfectly. Zhu Yunqi’s thoughts scattered. Before her eyes flashed the Omega’s crescent-shaped smiling eyes and the star-like mole under them.

Is Shi Li home now with Wen Yue? Or did they go somewhere else?

Zhu Yunqi had never been in a relationship, but she had seen others in love. Lovers would go on dates, hold hands and walk under the moonlight at night, whisper their love for each other in the gentle night breeze, followed by a passionate, restrained, and long kiss…

Would Wen Yue also kiss Shi Li? She should. A kiss would mean their relationship was progressing, and her engagement would be more likely to be canceled. But no, don’t kiss Shi Li. Why kiss Shi Li?

Under the comfort of the cherry wine, the restless pheromones in Zhu Yunqi’s body gradually calmed down. She let herself fall into a daze, holding the jacket, and slowly fell asleep.

Support After Setting Me Up With My Ex, The Aloof Alpha Regrets It