After the System Called Me Mom, My Arch-Nemesis Omega Fell for Me - Chapter 15

However, in the very next second.

“Ugh!” A sharp, nerve shredding pain exploded without warning from deep within the glands at the back of her neck.

Lu Lingzhi’s body shuddered violently, and the strength instantly drained from her fingers.

Clatter! The exquisite ice cream spoon slipped from her grasp, hitting the bone china plate with a crisp, piercing sound.

“What’s wrong?”

Lu Lingzhi clutched the back of her neck, fine beads of cold sweat breaking out on her forehead. Her body curled slightly from the intense pain. “My glands… they hurt so much.”

Jiang Mingyue didn’t hesitate for a second. Taking two steps, she reached Lu Lingzhi’s side, cupping Lu Lingzhi’s face with one hand while gently brushing aside her hair with the other. The patch of skin was exposed under the light.

Sure enough, the glandular area was turning bright red at a rate visible to the naked eye. Pheromones were leaking out in wisps, no longer the pure, cloyingly sweet scent of cherries.

It was like a ripe cherry being crushed by force, the juice seeping out with a faint, shimmering tartness of fermentation.

Jiang Mingyue stared at the gland.

This looked exactly like the description of “Abnormal Differentiation” leading to “Secondary Differentiation” in the book. She might be becoming an Alpha.

The tonsillitis was likely triggered by the inflammation of the glands.

“Has it hurt like this suddenly many times today?” Jiang Mingyue’s voice was low, laced with hurried concern.

“Mm…” Lu Lingzhi’s voice trembled with pain.

“Then earlier in the car, were you also in pain?” Jiang Mingyue instantly connected the dots to that sudden acceleration.

Lu Lingzhi nodded with difficulty, sweat already drenching the stray hairs on her forehead.

So she didn’t step on the gas just to scare me.

It was because the sudden, stabbing pain in her glands caused her to lose control and kick down.

Jiang Mingyue’s mood improved slightly.

This idiot, why didn’t she say anything? She let me misunderstand her.

“Glandular pain is a serious matter. Why didn’t you say anything in the car?” Jiang Mingyue’s voice was both urgent and annoyed.

Lu Lingzhi lifted her tear-rimmed eyes. Due to the pain, she looked exceptionally fragile and aggrieved. She looked at Jiang Mingyue, her lips trembling as she spoke with a heavy nasal tone and a hint of a coquettish accusation: “You… you were mean to me.”

Two fingers appeared in Jiang Mingyue’s line of sight.

Twice.

You were mean to me twice.

The look you gave me in the car scared me to death, and the way you just spoke scared me too.

Jiang Mingyue was momentarily speechless. We’re really arguing about being “mean” right now?

She never tells her anything, does she think Jiang is a mind-reader? If she had that kind of ability, would their relationship still be this strained?

The priority was to relieve her suffering. Jiang Mingyue extended her cool fingertips, her pads covering the burning, swollen skin of the gland, and began to massage it in circular motions.

“Mngh.” Lu Lingzhi couldn’t help but let out a soft moan.

In her heart, she was screaming: Keep rubbing, keep rubbing.

It felt so good, truly wonderful.

Every press was like a traveler dying of thirst in a desert falling into a cool oasis. The crisp sensation of comfort instantly smoothed over her stinging pain.

She reached out and grabbed the fabric at the side of Jiang Mingyue’s waist, her fingers tightening until the material bunched and deformed. Her body leaned forward instinctively, seemingly wanting to bury her burning cheek into Jiang Mingyue’s embrace into that scent of cool, elegant tulips seeking a deeper sense of security.

From the corner of her eye, Lu Lingzhi caught a glimpse of the scene outside the restaurant’s massive floor to ceiling window.

Two school children with backpacks were standing there curiously, their small faces pressed almost flat against the glass, their large, dark eyes blinking as they stared at them.

They watched Jiang Mingyue cupping her face, her fingers massaging the back of her neck in an ambiguous manner, they watched her clutching the other’s clothes, her posture dependent and intimate.

Being watched by children sent a wave of intense shame crashing through her, burning from her earlobes all the way down to her neck.

She snapped into a moment of clarity.

What am I doing? Jiang Mingyue likes Omegas, and I am an Omega, what does this entanglement look like?

But the glands hurt so much.

And Jiang Mingyue’s touch… was her only salvation at this moment.

Reason tottered on the brink of collapse in the face of physiological need.

Lu Lingzhi’s beautiful peach-blossom eyes were misty with tears. She turned her head slightly, a strand of sweat-slicked hair sticking to her cheek. Avoiding Jiang Mingyue’s focused gaze, her voice was as light as a feather:

“Jiang Mingyue.” Her throat was dry. “There are too many people here. Can you… can you keep rubbing it for me when we get back to the car?”

Jiang Mingyue didn’t hesitate. The hand originally cupping Lu Lingzhi’s chin slid down, guiding her head to rest on her shoulder, while the other hand maintained its comforting posture, hovering protectively behind her lower back.

Walking out of the restaurant, the bright lights of the mall and the roar of the crowd rushed toward them. Lu Lingzhi frowned in discomfort, her body instinctively shrinking closer to Jiang Mingyue, pulling her long hair forward to hide her disheveled state.

After all, she was the “Campus Belle” of Peking University.

Jiang Mingyue took a mask out of her bag and helped her put it on. The mask covered most of her pale, fragile face, leaving only a pair of beautiful eyes filled with pain and embarrassment.

They headed straight for the parking lot elevator.

During the brief descent, the cramped space was filled only with the sound of their slightly hurried breathing. Without Jiang Mingyue’s soothing touch, the throbbing in her glands began to flare up again, causing her to let out small gasps of air.

By the time they reached the parking lot, the designated driver had arrived.

The woman was holding an ice pack.

“Please take us to the Beijing General Hospital.”

In the narrow confines of the car, the pheromones on Lu Lingzhi grew more intense, sweet yet fermented, sour yet sugary. The ice pack in Jiang Mingyue’s hand emitted a faint chill.

“Endure it for a bit.”

The driver suddenly glanced at the two in the rearview mirror, noting their close, dependent posture. “Is she going through abnormal differentiation?”

“Yes.”

The driver nodded. While steadily starting the car and driving out of the parking lot, she offered advice in a calm tone: “Ice helps, but don’t just hold it there. Wrap the ice pack in a tissue. Apply it for a bit, stop for a bit, then massage gently for a bit. Alternate like that, it’s less irritating and more effective. You absolutely cannot keep pressing on the center. Also,”

She looked at Jiang Mingyue through the mirror. “Control your own pheromones. Her glands are extremely sensitive and fragile right now, in an open state. Your hands aren’t sanitized, massaging the center directly can easily introduce bacteria and cause a serious infection. Then you’ll have more than just a differentiation problem. Abnormal differentiation comes in waves.”

The driver’s explanation matched what the professors had taught in class.

Jiang Mingyue no longer hesitated. She wrapped the ice pack in a tissue and carefully, gently pressed it against that burning patch of skin.

“Hiss!” The sudden cold made Lu Lingzhi gasp sharply. Tears fell as her body jerked violently, trying to pull away.

“Don’t move!” A hand firmly steadied her shoulder. “Endure it, it’ll be better soon. We’re almost at the hospital.”

She didn’t press the ice pack down. Jiang Mingyue simply held it there lightly for about ten seconds, feeling the scorching temperature recede slightly under the cold.

Then, she moved the ice pack away and her finger pads descended again. Her fingertips, carrying the chill from the ice pack, covered the sides of the swollen gland.

Lu Lingzhi’s face was pressed against Jiang Mingyue’s thigh. The warm liquid soon dampened the thin fabric of Jiang Mingyue’s skirt. That damp warmth seeped through the fabric to Jiang Mingyue’s skin, making her whole body shudder. A faint blush crept onto her cheeks as she turned her gaze to the scenery outside the window.

“Jiang Mingyue,” Lu Lingzhi called out urgently.

Her face rubbed unconsciously against Jiang Mingyue’s thigh. “I… I want to bite.”

It was a primitive, chaotic craving, a way to redirect the pleasure, the lust, and the agony.

Jiang Mingyue’s eyes widened. “No.”

“Then I won’t bite your hand, I’ll bite your thigh.” Lu Lingzhi’s tears flowed faster, her voice softening into a siren-like, bewitching lilt: “Mingyue~~ Jie-jie (Sister).”

Jiang Mingyue: “…”

As Lu Lingzhi spoke, she rubbed her face against Jiang Mingyue’s palm, her tongue tracing circles against the skin. A damp, sweltering heat swept over Jiang Mingyue, like a rising tide crashing onto a beach again and again.

Jiang Mingyue’s heart skipped a beat. She was being pulled in by Lu Lingzhi’s chaotic dependence and that “Jie-jie” address. The moist palm was becoming saturated with pheromones, threatening to drag Jiang Mingyue off the cliff and into the abyss.

It was becoming hard to tell if Lu Lingzhi was an Omega or an Alpha.

Perhaps she was in a state of being half-Omega and half-Alpha.

“Do you know what you’re saying?”

“Please? Please~~ Jie-jie, Mingyue.”

Slap.

Slap.

Two crisp, yet not overly heavy sounds broke the ambiguous and chaotic atmosphere.

Lu Lingzhi was stunned; her brain’s “CPU” seemed to overheat and fry.

She hit me?

Jiang Mingyue actually dared to hit me.

“If you’re sick, get treated. Does that feel good?”

After a brief moment of shock and blankness, Lu Lingzhi’s dazed, unfocused pupils actually began to refocus, slowly lighting up. It was as if those slaps had flipped some strange internal switch.

She blinked. Instead of anger, a bizarre expression of enjoyment surfaced on her face. She even unconsciously licked the corner of her mouth where she had just been struck.

“Good…” she murmured to herself, filled with the wonder of discovering a new world and a secret pleasure. “…It feels so good.”