Scumbag Alpha’s Pheromones Are Toxic - Chapter 16

Qin Zishu mocked her rival: “You drove halfway across the city just to visit a hospital near my house?”

Jiang Jiaran rolled her eyes. “I like it here. What’s it to you?”

“Your motives aren’t pure,” Qin Zishu retorted.

“And yours are?”

Qin Zishu fired back instantly, “Of course they are.”

“I don’t believe you,” Jiang Jiaran snapped.

“I don’t need you to,” Qin Zishu replied.

Caught in the middle, Ji Yao remained silent: “…”

Both of these women are high-profile figures, yet they’re bickering like primary schoolers.

Jiang Jiaran shot Ji Yao an ambiguous, meaningful look. “Sister, don’t believe a word she says. To you, she’s—”

“She’s not close to you,” Qin Zishu interrupted. “Stop calling her ‘Sister.’ Do you even know her? Stop acting so familiar.”

Ji Yao silently retreated into a corner, terrified of being swept into the center of the storm.

Jiang Jiaran gritted her teeth and took a step forward. “Sister, don’t let her decent appearance fool you. In reality, she’s just lusting after your body!”

The elevator fell into a sudden, heavy silence.

Ji Yao didn’t even want to turn her head to look at them. It was beyond embarrassing.

Question: As a guardian, what is a failure more profound than raising a brat who turned out wrong?

Answer: The brat growing up and lusting after your body. And you, for various reasons, agreeing to it!

Ji Yao shot a murderous glare at Qin Zishu, thinking: I really did fall into your trap.

Qin Zishu gave a “bashful” smile, looking as if she had just been handed a prestigious award.

Jiang Jiaran misinterpreted their eye contact as “blame” and “regret,” which only fueled her urge to play the whistleblower.

She pointed a finger at Qin Zishu and said to Ji Yao, “She’s no good. Sister, I’m putting it plainly: stay as far away from her as possible. Otherwise, the day you find out her true intentions, you’ll be utterly disgusted.”

Please, just stop talking.

Ji Yao’s scalp prickled with anxiety; she felt like strangling herself just to pass out and escape.

But Jiang Jiaran wasn’t finished. She grabbed Qin Zishu’s sleeve and asked hysterically, “Qin Zishu, you know better than anyone what the relationship between you two is! How dare you.”

Ji Yao wished for the end of the world. I must have committed terrible crimes in a past life to deserve this karma.

Jiang Jiaran shouted, “Qin Zishu, tell the truth! In what capacity are you standing by her side right now?”

Qin Zishu replied coldly, “None of your—”

“As my sugar mommy,” Ji Yao interrupted.

Jiang Jiaran: “…”

Qin Zishu: “…”

What? What did she just say?

Jiang Jiaran let out a mindless, “Huh?”

Qin Zishu turned her head, convinced she had misheard. Ji Yao was such a proper, upright person—how could she say something like that?

Seeing their thunderstruck expressions, Ji Yao realized the bickering had finally stopped. To ensure future peace and quiet, she decided to go all out. She threw her pride and reputation to the wind.

Adopting a “coy” and shy persona, she clung to Qin Zishu’s arm like a delicate damsel. “Or, if you prefer, you can call me ‘Master.'”

Qin Zishu’s heel twisted, and she nearly collapsed onto her knees. Jiang Jiaran’s vision went dark as she leaned against the elevator wall to recover.

Finally, the two sources of noise were neutralized.

Ji Yao released Qin Zishu’s hand and waited expressionlessly for the elevator to reach the 11th floor.

Perfect. These two infants finally lack the courage to speak.

Ji Yao felt a surge of pride. Think I can’t handle you two?

Her shocking words were so powerful they had effectively traumatized them. Jiang Jiaran’s mind was a mess; she was genuinely questioning if she had the wrong person. The Ji Yao she knew was always virtuous and would never say something so scandalous.

Auditory hallucinations. It must be. I’m too agitated; I’m hearing things.

Watching Jiang Jiaran descend into a mid-life crisis, Qin Zishu shot her a sideways glance and silently edged closer to Ji Yao.

For the first five seconds, Qin Zishu just held Ji Yao’s hand. By the tenth second, they were shoulder to shoulder. By the time the elevator doors opened, Qin Zishu was practically glued to Ji Yao’s back.

Ji Yao: “…”

Stepping out of the elevator, Ji Yao hurried away from the “clingy spirit,” only to be chased down immediately.

Qin Zishu acted spoiled. “Sister, don’t leave me alone. You know I get moody when I’m by myself. And when I’m moody, I lose my temper. As an Alpha, I can’t control my pheromones when I’m angry and you know mine are quite toxic. If some poor soul accidentally catches a whiff, it might ruin them.”

“Oh? Then you’ve done a good deed,” Ji Yao slowed her pace. “Should I praise your self-control for not poisoning anyone despite being so angry just now?”

Qin Zishu smiled and pressed her palm against Ji Yao’s. “You don’t have to praise me. Just give me a little treat.”

“No moral kidnapping allowed. Who taught you these bad habits?” Ji Yao flicked Qin Zishu’s palm with her finger. “Don’t think I care. There are no treats. If you’re so capable, go back and poison her with your pheromones right now.”

Jiang Jiaran, who had just caught up, overheard the last sentence and turned to stone. She didn’t dare follow any further.

It was true; she had been so caught up in the argument she forgot Qin Zishu’s trump card: her toxic pheromones. Rumor had it that any Omega who smelled them became infertile and desensitized to other Alphas.

She didn’t want to lose her advantages as an Omega at such a young age. Even if she couldn’t have Ji Yao, she still had to find someone else. She couldn’t let her life end at the hands of Qin Zishu’s pheromones.

Luckily, Qin Zishu hadn’t made things difficult for her in the elevator.

The two ahead quickly left Jiang Jiaran behind. Ji Yao walked fast, and Qin Zishu followed closely, refusing to let Ji Yao out of her sight for a single second.

“Sister, why did you suddenly want to come to the hospital today?” Qin Zishu asked.

Ji Yao exhaled, feeling a surge of emotion.

The last time they were out together, Ji Yao had been the one chasing after Qin Zishu, gritting her teeth and calling her “Manager Qin.” Ever since the truth came out, Qin Zishu hadn’t dared to demand such titles. Instead, she spent her time chasing Ji Yao and calling her “Sister.”

It was a strange reversal. Before Ji Yao’s “death,” she never received this kind of treatment.

During her rebellious phase, the young Qin Zishu never gave Ji Yao a kind look. She acted as if Ji Yao owed her millions. Even in public, she refused to call her “Sister,” addressing her as either “You” or by her full name, “Ji Yao.”

Now that Ji Yao had returned from the dead, that “Sister” came so easily. And looking at her, she seemed to enjoy saying it.

“You say ‘Sister’ quite naturally now.”

Ji Yao observed her closely. The girl was over 1.7 meters tall with a cold, world-weary face, yet she forced a smile that hadn’t been seen in eight hundred years just for her.

Ji Yao had seen videos of her; she knew Qin Zishu didn’t treat anyone else this way. No matter how important the person, they rarely got a pleasant look from her.

Compared to them, Ji Yao was indeed special.

“It’s from the heart,” Qin Zishu vowed.

“From the heart?”

Qin Zishu grabbed her hand again. “If you don’t believe me, I’ll cut it out and show you. We are at a hospital, after all.”

Ji Yao: “…” That is absolutely unnecessary.

Amidst their banter, they were ushered in for a series of tests related to their “Third Gender” (ABO) attributes.

At the last moment, Qin Zishu hesitated. “Sister, I don’t need to do it.”

When Qin Zishu was a child, Ji Yao would take her for checkups, providing mutual company. However, they had only done routine exams back then, never anything related to the Third Gender. Those tests involved pheromones and more private matters.

Ji Yao understood. Given the issues with Qin Zishu’s pheromones, she wouldn’t easily disclose her data to a hospital she didn’t fully trust. With her celebrity status, any leak would be a PR nightmare.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be with you the whole time, just like when you took me to the hospital as a kid.” Qin Zishu squeezed her hand. Her voice was gentle, filled with the same raw sincerity she had shown that late night when sharing her secrets.

“The loneliest thing in the world is going to the hospital alone. Sister, you were with me during the most important years of my life.” Qin Zishu paused and lowered her head. “Thank you.”

It was a thank you that came far too late.

In her youth, she had been stubborn, keeping her feelings bottled up. Looking back, those unspoken words had turned into knives in her heart during the lonely nights after losing Ji Yao. Even if she said them all now, she couldn’t fully heal the scars of the past.

Qin Zishu sat by Ji Yao’s side, watching nurses move in and out, her gaze drifting as she recalled her childhood nightmares.

In the nightmares, she was back in her hometown, Lancang. The village road was shrouded in mist. She was running barefoot in the middle of the night, something chasing her from behind, trying to pull her back to that hated place.

Ji Yao’s silhouette was always just ahead. Young Qin Zishu would run until she was breathless, her face stoic but her heart screaming in grief.

In the dream, she was consciously aware that Ji Yao was dead, which made her terrified that the figure ahead would abandon her.

But Ji Yao never did. That silhouette always waited for her a short distance away, until she ran out of the nightmare village. Only then would the figure vanish into the fog.

Even in death, Ji Yao had led her out of her nightmares.

Later, Qin Zishu swore that if Ji Yao ever came back, she would lay her heart bare. What was there to be embarrassed about? She wasn’t afraid anymore. Compared to losing her, revealing her true heart was nothing.

“Why so sentimental all of a sudden? Have you finally seen the light?”

Ji Yao smiled, resting one hand as the head nurse prepared the needle.

Qin Zishu gave a faint, bittersweet smile. “Yes.”

She had been trapped in a loop of pain as punishment. The long years of torment and recurring heartache had caused her feelings to ferment. Pain, regret, and guilt had evolved into a paranoid, possessive love.