After the Sickly Child Differentiates into A - Chapter 47

After seeing Lin Li off, Su Yue went straight back to the research institute.

Her team was still waiting. She called them directly into the conference room. Once everyone was gathered, she skipped any preamble and immediately presented the day’s examination results.

“Professor Su, is Lin Li still unwilling to stay at the institute?”

“What’s the differentiation ratio?”

“Are we certain about discontinuing the medication?”

“Yes, she’s unwilling.”

“One to one.” Su Yue’s expression was grim. “The probabilities of becoming an Alpha or an Omega are now equal.”

“The duration of effectiveness is too short. There’s no point in continuing the medication.”

Lin Li’s condition was almost exactly as Su Yue had informed her. After stopping the medication, there was a risk of “explosion” at any moment, with no telling when the final outcome would occur.

Su Yue tapped the table. “Last year, when Wen Jingzhi came for a physical, were the stored pheromones usable?”

“No, they lost viability after three days outside the body.”

“We can only create artificial pheromone gases that mimic the scent.”

“Start working on it. We might need it.” Su Yue pinched the bridge of her nose, unable to hide her exhaustion. “Ask the enforcement department we’ve already raided all the confirmed research facilities, so why is the data we’re receiving still from seven or eight years ago?”

“Not a single living researcher has been captured, and the mastermind is still at large.”

“There’s no usable data at all!”

The researchers below looked weary and began to complain.

“Yeah, the data is completely insufficient.”

“Even if we activate the emergency plan, there’s very little we can do.”

“Why not contact Wen Jingzhi directly?”

“In urgent situations, we don’t necessarily need Lin Li’s consent.”

“The hope for a cure is right before our eyes, Professor Su!”

“How can you be so sure Wen Jingzhi’s pheromones will work?!” Su Yue’s face turned cold as she slammed the table, pressing her fingertips hard against her temples. “If it weren’t for those two young volunteers willing to test the drugs, the blockers and new inhibitors wouldn’t have been developed so quickly.”

“They are the victims. We’ve worked day and night to treat them, but in the end, the beneficiaries are us, the general public.”

The researchers understood Su Yue’s implication and fell into a complicated silence.

Her gaze swept over them, full of warning.

“Why do we need Lin Li and Wen Jingzhi’s consent?”

“Because they are the ones directly involved.”

Su Yue knew these researchers all too well.

Lin Li was Old Master Wen’s beloved granddaughter and the orphan of the martyr Lin Junyan.

As for Wen Jingzhi, her status went without saying.

If anything happened to either of them, no one could bear the responsibility.

Lin Li returned home, ate the meal prepared by Auntie Li, and hesitated for a moment when handed her medicine.

This medicine only served to maintain her health. The new drug was an injection initially administered once a month, then twice, and by last year, three times.

If she continued using it now, it might require four or five doses per month.

But now, it was no longer necessary.

Whether she took this medicine or not seemed to make little difference.

Still, she might as well take it.

Otherwise, she’d have to explain things to her sister.

After taking the medicine, she went to the study to do her homework. A little after nine, there was a knock on the door.

Even through the door, Lin Li could smell the familiar scent of the person outside. She opened the door and smiled at the tall, slender woman. “Sister.”

Wen Jingzhi looked down, her expression softening. “How did the check-up go?”

“It’s fine.” Lin Li hesitated for a few seconds before opening her arms to hug her sister. “Did you have fun, sis?”

It wasn’t exactly a trip for fun.

“Mm.” She still responded.

Wen Jingzhi curved her lips, raised her right hand, and pressed her palm against the girl’s soft hair, gently ruffling it.

A scent of disinfectant alcohol, identical to the one in the hospital corridor, drifted from the sleeve of the arm above her head and rushed into Lin Li’s nostrils.

Her stomach convulsed violently. Her pupils contracted sharply. Covering her mouth, she gently pushed Wen Jingzhi away, ran to the bathroom, shut the door, and locked it.

She lunged toward the toilet and vomited.

Everything from dinner, along with that bowl of bitter medicine, came up until only stomach acid, stinging her throat, remained.

Blood trickled from her nose.

“Lin Li!”

Urgent knocking sounded at the door.

The sound of retching traveled through the glass door, making Wen Jingzhi’s face turn cold and grim. She reached out, gripped the doorknob, pressed down, but couldn’t push it open.

It was locked.

Wen Jingzhi snapped coldly, “Open the door!”

Her hand on the doorknob tightened until her veins bulged. She pressed her lips together, her thoughts in disarray.

Why did she suddenly feel nauseous?

What scent was clinging to her?

Today, she had only gone to the cemetery and a restaurant. She had maintained a polite distance with Shen Yuan and hadn’t come into contact with anything with a strong odor.

What was it?

“Cough! Cough!” A violent coughing sound came from inside.

Wen Jingzhi furrowed her brows fiercely, tightened her grip on the doorknob, and tried to wrench it off entirely.

“Sis.” The girl’s blurred figure appeared behind the frosted glass door. “I’m fine.”

“I just ate a bit too much tonight.”

Wen Jingzhi didn’t believe her and said coldly, “Open the door.”

“I’ll be done soon. Can you wait a moment, sis?”

Her red lips pressed into a tight line. Ignoring the plea, she gripped the doorknob with both hands and pulled hard.

Hearing the sound of the doorknob straining under the pressure, Lin Li covered her nose, ran back to the sink, tossed the blood-stained tissues into the toilet, flushed, then splashed water on her face to clean up. The moment she lifted her head, fresh blood flowed from her nose again.

Crack.

Bang.

The sound of shattering glass and the doorknob breaking.

Hurried footsteps approached.

Lin Li cursed inwardly. Fighting off dizziness, she gripped the sink with her left hand, covered her nose with her right, and slowly turned around.

The tall figure was already in front of her, closing in.

Cold eyes fell on the girl’s neck, still dotted with water droplets, then moved upward blood was seeping through her fingers.

“Fine?” Worry and anger clashed and surged in her eyes. She raised her right hand, grabbed the girl’s wrist, and pulled it down. The sight of blood struck her vision, making her heart constrict heavily. Her chest heaved. “Lin Li, is this what you call fine?”

Lin Li guiltily turned her face away, only to have her chin gripped by cold fingertips and turned back. Her head was spinning, her vision blurry. Weakly, she said, “It’s just a nosebleed.”

“I’ve had them before. It’ll stop soon.”

A trace of the alcohol scent still lingered. Her stomach convulsed again, but she had nothing left to vomit. She pressed her lips together and endured.

Perhaps due to the intense emotional turmoil, a snowy pheromone drifted out and settled on Lin Li, easing her dizziness slightly. She closed her eyes, and suddenly, a soft tissue was pressed under her nose.

Wen Jingzhi held the girl’s jaw with her left hand, the back of it was cut by something, blood trickling down to her wrist, threatening to drip. With her right hand, she released the slender wrist, took two tissues, and pressed them firmly under the bleeding nose.

Suppressing her emotions, she asked coldly, “Why did you vomit?”

Eyelids marked with a scar lifted. Dark pupils shifted, settling on the woman’s icy face, trembling.

Wen Jingzhi furrowed her brow. Lin Li pressed her lips together, hesitating. “The smell of alcohol. I can smell it.”

“Alcohol?” She hadn’t drunk tonight.

Her long lashes fluttered.

It was Shen Yuan’s pheromones.

Why hadn’t she felt nauseous on Saturday night?

She hadn’t even hugged Shen Yuan today.

“Where is the smell coming from?” Wen Jingzhi stuffed a tissue into Lin Li’s palm and took a step back.

She hadn’t detected Shen Yuan’s pheromones all afternoon or evening, which proved he wasn’t in his special period and hadn’t behaved inappropriately.

“The cuff,” Lin Li murmured, lowering her hand and taking a deep breath. Enveloped by the scent of snow, her dizziness faded and her vision cleared. She looked at her sister and forced a smile. “Maybe it’s because I went to the hospital today. The smell made me uncomfortable.”

“It has nothing to do with that scent.”

She knew she was lying.

It was an Alpha’s pheromones.

She had recognized it the moment she smelled it.

But it shouldn’t have caused such an intense reaction. Perhaps, it was because she had stopped taking her medication.

Wen Jingzhi frowned, watching her without a word.

She knew Lin Li could detect pheromones even without having presented, but she hadn’t realized the girl’s sense of smell was this sharp.

If it was the scent on her cuff, it must have been from when she reached out to steady Shen Yuan on the way to the cemetery.

A brief touch, hours ago, and she could still detect it.

This wasn’t just sharp, it was extraordinary.

Her gaze, fixed on the bloodstain on the girl’s chin, suddenly tightened.

If she could detect such a faint scent, then what about her own pheromones.

So that was how this girl always managed to find her so accurately.

A wave of inexplicable embarrassment and irritation washed over her. Wen Jingzhi pressed her lips together, her face cold and silent, until Lin Li’s nosebleed stopped. Without a word, she turned and returned to her bedroom.

As her sister’s figure disappeared from view, Lin Li sighed silently and tossed the crumpled tissue into the toilet, flushing it away.

How awful.

She had made her sister angry.

After tidying up, Lin Li walked to the glass door and noticed the removed lock on the floor, surrounded by scattered glass shards. Her gaze shifted and froze on a trace of blood near the handle’s gap.

Sister was injured!?

She immediately went to the living room, fetched the first aid kit, and walked to Wen Jingzhi’s bedroom door, knocking.

No response.

She pressed her lips together and raised her hand to knock again when the door suddenly opened from the inside.

Wen Jingzhi stood under the light, her eyes lowered. The shifting shadows danced across her thick lashes, casting a veil of darkness beneath them.

Making her expression unreadable.

Lin Li, too anxious to consider her sister’s mood, reached out and took the other’s right hand, which hung at her side. Finding no injury, she released it and grasped the fingers of the left hand, sliding her grip upward until she held it firmly. As she lifted it, a long, bloody scratch on the back of the hand came into view.

The sensation of those slender fingers “caressing” her skin was so vivid it made Wen Jingzhi’s lashes tremble as she lifted her eyelids.

Lin Li, filled with guilt and sorrow, bit her lip and tried to lead Wen Jingzhi to the living room to tend to the wound. After taking two steps, she felt resistance.

Wen Jingzhi hadn’t moved an inch, standing coolly at the doorway, watching her with an inscrutable expression.

“Sister,” Lin Li turned slightly, her eyes downcast, looking pitiful. “Let’s tend to your wound first, okay?”

“I shouldn’t have locked the door. I shouldn’t have hidden that I was feeling unwell.”

“You can be angry with me after we take care of your hand, alright?”

“I’m not angry.”

Wen Jingzhi closed her eyes briefly, her gaze falling upon that pale stretch of neck. With a slight inward pressure of her arm, the slender girl was pulled closer. Her blood-stained left hand withdrew, lifted, and cool fingertips gently pressed against the girl’s delicate neck, tracing along the taut blue veins.

Her eyes darkened slightly.

That slender neck was covered with a network of blue veins, stark against the pale skin both sickly and eerie.

A sense of uncontrollable unease washed over her, causing her brows to furrow deeply.

Was it due to the irritation from vomiting?

It hadn’t been like this before when she had nosebleeds.

Her fingertip lightly tapped the skin. “What’s going on here?”

“What?” Lin Li’s voice carried a barely noticeable tremor.

The sensation of the fingertip gliding over her skin made her heart clench, beating like a frantic drum.

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