One Year After Her Sister-In-Law Was Widowed - Chapter 24.1

For several days in a row, Xiao Shuangyu became increasingly lifeless.

Following behind Ji Zhuozhou, she was unable to see Ji Zhuozhou arrive at Huarui. By the time she returned to Ji Zhuozhou’s home, it was already midnight. Ji Zhuozhou, who was always waiting for her, would soon go to rest, and the closed bedroom door would shut her out.

Every day, Xiao Shuangyu squatted in front of Ji Zhuozhou’s door, her dark eyes nearly piercing through the wood.

Ji Zhuozhou’s heat had almost completely subsided by Monday morning. After wearing a scent-blocking patch for another day, her pale nape no longer showed the swelling of her gland.

It was truly over, completely over.

Xiao Shuangyu couldn’t even find an excuse to seek a little more “companionship.”

Huari seemed quite busy these few days.

In the brand experience center next to the first-floor lobby, Huarui employees were in the midst of intense preparations, setting up new displays and arrangements. The foot traffic of employees on the first floor had instantly increased several times over.

It was said that this Friday, the last day of July, several industry experts would be invited to visit for a fragrance exchange meeting with Huari.

Huari attached great importance to this, and everyone from top to bottom was actively cooperating.

The security team had received orders early on to maintain high security recently, especially to guard the experience center well.

Xiao Shuangyu did exactly as she was told, following every command and working diligently with an empty mind.

It wasn’t until she went to work on Thursday that she saw Ji Zhuozhou outside the brand experience center on the first floor.

Ji Zhuozhou was talking to several people around her. Her posture was elegant yet professional. In the blink of an eye, she walked inside the experience center without noticing her.

A shadow flickered in her dark pupils, and Xiao Shuangyu stepped forward.

In Wang Ran’s words, she had already “graduated” and no longer needed to walk with her every time.

So, while Wang Ran chose to go upstairs for a patrol instead of standing guard, Xiao Shuangyu’s post was on the first floor.

The lobby was on the first floor, and the brand experience center was also on the first floor.

After all, there was still the reception desk in the lobby, so Xiao Shuangyu walked away decisively.

She stood outside that beautifully decorated space.

Being an experience center established inside the Huarui building, it felt less like a space for target customers and more like an explanation of the self.

Then again, the people entering here wouldn’t be the kind of users who just buy a few products; they would mostly be Huarui’s partners. Gaining the recognition of partners was the ultimate goal of establishing this place.

Xiao Shuangyu didn’t pay attention to the philosophy Huarui was trying to explain. She saw Ji Zhuozhou standing in front of a row of shelves, picking up a bottle of perfume and seemingly saying it needed to be moved to the other side.

Ji Zhuozhou harmonized with this space all too well.

This thought popped abruptly into her brain. The next moment, Ji Zhuozhou turned around and saw her.

Without alerting any of the people around her, Ji Zhuozhou curved her eyelashes slightly and gave her a light nod.

The look that was both familiar and distant.

Xiao Shuangyu didn’t hide. She quickly nodded back in response.

She knew that with other people present, she couldn’t bring trouble to Ji Zhuozhou.

Ji Zhuozhou moved her gaze away and continued working. Xiao Shuangyu lowered her eyes slightly, then raised them again, staring straight over.

She rarely gets to see Ji Zhuozhou working.

The strict security on the ninth floor sequestered Ji Zhuozhou’s working hours. Xiao Shuangyu had only seen Ji Zhuozhou in a white lab coat once before.

It was on the day she first entered Huari—that one and only time.

And the Ji Zhuozhou before her now, amidst several employees from perhaps different departments, wore that rigorous white coat with a demeanor that was gentle yet serious.

Xiao Shuangyu almost lost herself.

The pace was fast. Every point Ji Zhuozhou pointed out was quickly implemented by someone.

By the time they finished a lap, the corresponding work was all complete.

Ji Zhuozhou and the others began to walk out.

Ji Zhuozhou stood in front of the security guard at the door, using an excuse to part ways with the others.

Once those people had all turned the corner and disappeared, Ji Zhuozhou turned around and looked at the guard behind her. “Is it okay for LianLian to stay here?”

Her deep green eyes carried a faint smile. Ji Zhuozhou kept her hands in the pockets of her lab coat, which pulled slightly at the tightly buttoned front, tugging it down a bit.

A bit of pale purple fabric was revealed part of the long dress Ji Zhuozhou was wearing today.

Before Ji Zhuozhou had left the house, Xiao Shuangyu had secretly looked at it over and over again.

Xiao Shuangyu was dazing again. She struggled to snap out of it, looking serious. “This is work.”

Ji Zhuozhou couldn’t help but squint her eyes. Her voice was soft and light, carrying a thick sense of temptation. “LianLian has worked seriously for so long. Do you want to take a little break?”

A clear question mark formed in Xiao Shuangyu’s dark eyes.

Ji Zhuozhou turned around and re-entered the beautiful space decorated with various products.

She looked back again. “Want to come, and see?”

Before her brain could react, Xiao Shuangyu followed her in.

Ji Zhuozhou brought her to the perfume section, her fingertips sliding over different perfume bottles. “Has LianLian used perfume before?”

She didn’t even need to search her memory; Xiao Shuangyu said directly, “No.”

She had never had any awareness or consciousness of scents, so she had never thought about using or buying perfume.

Even though for Alphas and Omegas, scents could be a part of comfort during special periods.

Ji Zhuozhou’s fingertip landed on one of the bottles. She took it out and looked at her. “Want to smell it? It might give you some ideas for making a fragrance.”

Only then did Xiao Shuangyu realize that Ji Zhuozhou wanted to help her find inspiration.

Ji Zhuozhou found a scent strip. “It’s okay if you don’t have any ideas. The process of experiencing scents is wonderful in itself; it’s very relaxing.”

Xiao Shuangyu’s heart slowly settled back into place.

The fragrance she wanted was simply Ji Zhuozhou’s scent.

She didn’t dare say such things, not even things like “I want a scent that reminds me of Ji Zhuozhou when I smell it.”

But she did want a bottle of such a fragrance, which meant she would inevitably have to describe that result through other descriptions.

She couldn’t guarantee that she could find such a description after smelling the perfumes here, so she had been worried about the “ideas” Ji Zhuozhou mentioned.

She was afraid Ji Zhuozhou would find her indecisiveness annoying.

Now, Xiao Shuangyu stared intently at Ji Zhuozhou’s face and nodded with relief.

Ji Zhuozhou quickly sprayed the perfume on the scent strip. After a brief wait, she handed it to her. “This scent is relatively light, so let’s start with this one.”

Xiao Shuangyu’s gaze finally dropped to Ji Zhuozhou’s hand. She carefully took it and brought it to her nose for a light sniff.

It was fragrant.

Layers of scents she couldn’t distinguish wrapped around her and progressed, bit by bit filling her nasal cavity.

She lowered it.

Ji Zhuozhou already had the next bottle ready. “How is it?”

Xiao Shuangyu thought for a moment. “I’m not used to it.”

It wasn’t that she didn’t like it; she just wasn’t used to it.

That fragrance completely failed to merge with the scent of rain and mist on Ji Zhuozhou’s body, feeling disjointed and strange.

Ji Zhuozhou smiled and handed her a new scent strip. “You can smell it again later. Perfumes have top, middle, and base notes. It’s not accurate to only smell the top note.”

Xiao Shuangyu nodded, somewhat dazed.

She knew nothing about perfume, so Ji Zhuozhou used simple and easy-to-understand words to explain the tonality of each bottle to her.

Sweet, spicy, floral, woody…

As a display, there weren’t many types of perfume here.

But as she smelled more and more, Xiao Shuangyu felt like she was losing her ability to distinguish scents altogether. She couldn’t even remember which middle note belonged to which top note she had smelled before.

This made her admire Ji Zhuozhou even more, feeling that distinguishing and blending scents daily was truly not a simple or easy job.

Seeing her confusion, Ji Zhuozhou stopped temporarily. “Shall we continue?”

Xiao Shuangyu blinked. “Let’s rest a bit.”

Just now, she seemed to have smelled two scents that contained a bit of Ji Zhuozhou’s pheromone scent. She wasn’t sure, and she also wanted to use this chance to stay with Ji Zhuozhou a little longer.

Though she said they were resting, Xiao Shuangyu’s nose was still moving toward the scent strips, sniffing this one and that one, but she couldn’t find which one had given her that illusion.

She had originally planned to ask Ji Zhuozhou once she found it, but now she could only put down the scent strips with a bit of regret.

After fully settling down, Xiao Shuangyu suddenly remembered a question. After some hesitation, she asked, “Have you… has Teacher Ji been in charge of this place for the past few days?”

After all, their working hours were different, and Xiao Shuangyu didn’t know if Ji Zhuozhou had been working here during the times she wasn’t around.

Even though she spent those times on the opposite side of the road, she couldn’t see inside clearly from the outside, and she had never paid attention to it.

Ji Zhuozhou denied this. Setting up this place was not within the scope of the Perfumery Department’s work. However, since the exchange meeting was for fragrance, the arrangement and display ultimately needed final confirmation from the Perfumery Department.

What Ji Zhuozhou had been doing just now was making small-scale changes to the order of the products to avoid any disharmony in the scents.

Ji Zhuozhou was just assigned by the director. If she hadn’t happened to be free, it might have been another perfumer who came.

After explaining, Ji Zhuozhou’s emerald-green eyes narrowed slightly as she added, “There are only the two of us here.”

Xiao Shuangyu didn’t catch the implication and nodded with an expression that said “indeed.”

Her dark pupils dropped slightly, making them look round and wide.

Ji Zhuozhou met her eyes. “Why call me ‘Teacher Ji’?”

Xiao Shuangyu froze, and suddenly she began to stutter.

She… she just felt that since this was Huari and Ji Zhuozhou’s working hours…

“I… I… just now… there were people just now.”

Ji Zhuozhou tilted her head slightly.

Xiao Shuangyu felt even more anxious, flustered and helpless. She steeled herself and stammered, “Sis… Sister.”

Ji Zhuozhou suddenly curved the corners of her mouth. “Mm.”

She added, “When it’s just us, LianLian should always call me that.”

Her voice was soft and gentle, landing right on Xiao Shuangyu’s heart.

The tips of her ears turned red unconsciously. She quickly averted her gaze and murmured, “I understand.”

Her gaze dropped very low, then she quietly looked up again. “Does Sister… use perfume?”

Ji Zhuozhou indeed hadn’t used perfume during the time she spent with her, but that didn’t mean she never used it.

Ji Zhuozhou wasn’t surprised by her question. Perfumers had different preferences, and the frequency with which they used perfume varied significantly. She said, “I occasionally use it when I’m not at work.”

She looked at Xiao Shuangyu’s eager face and couldn’t help but squint her eyes. “Do you want to smell it? The scent I use.”

Xiao Shuangyu had been hesitating about how to ask, but happiness suddenly rushed at her, hitting her squarely and dazing her.