The Cold And Straight Alpha Is Always Being Flirted With By The Goddess Aunt - Chapter 19

Like kin, like friends. Whatever the relationship…

Before Xi Zhaowan even arrived at Hangyu High School, the news of her upcoming lecture had already spread like wildfire among the students. The school forums were buzzing with excitement.

Discussions ranged from Xi’s legendary academic record at Hangyu to her outstanding contributions to the field of scientific research after graduation. The thread grew into a “skyscraper” post, and the focus eventually shifted toward. Xi Zhaowan’s beauty, her suitors, whether she had ever dated, and if she had ever accepted anyone’s advances.

Gradually, this ever-lengthening post sparked a war of words:

Pigeon Airplane: “The goddess should be enshrined on an altar for us to look up to. Just the thought of her dating makes my heart ache!!!”

Little Sweet Cake: “Senior Xi was a ‘flower on a high peak’ back at Hangyu. I truly can’t imagine who would be brave enough to pluck her.”

Dayiya Mama: “The people above are being too idealistic, haha. ‘Flower on a high peak’? If you ask me, she probably has a kid already, she just hasn’t gone public with it.”

Fast Car Slow Hands: “Impossible. Even if she did, the goddess wouldn’t deny it.”

Dayiya Mama: “Unmarried with a child! Maybe the goddess doesn’t want people to know she has a kid so she can keep being surrounded by admirers.”

Fast Car Slow Hands: “Words are cheap. Does rumor-mongering cost nothing these days?”

Dayiya Mama: “Oh please! Last time, I saw Xi Zhaowan at the school gate dropping off a young girl. The girl looked quite small, she’s likely the goddess’s daughter!”

Fast Car Slow Hands: “How can you be so sure it’s her daughter? It could be any other relationship. Like a senior-junior thing, or a relative.”

Group of Posters: “Exactly! ‘Dayiya Mama,’ what are you thinking? Your brain must have a hole in it! Senior Xi is clearly so young!”

Soon, the poster “Dayiya Mama,” led by “Fast Car Slow Hands,” was torn apart by public criticism. Left with nothing, she slinked away and vanished from the thread.

Tucked under her desk, Zhang Siyu hiding behind the “Fast Car Slow Hands” alias was tapping her phone’s virtual keyboard at lightning speed, her face flushed with indignation.

“Qinghe, someone actually said you were Senior Xi’s daughter!” It was the joke of the century. Although Yan Qing looked young, Xi Zhaowan looked twenty-something at most, they looked more like sisters.

“Don’t pay them any mind,” Yan Qing said faintly. She never took such idle gossip to heart. Her long years of cultivation had made her indifferent to the human habit of wagging tongues.

What surprised her was that Xi Zhaowan was actually coming to her school to give a lecture. She usually saw Xi Zhaowan at home cooking, reading, drinking tea, or taking walks.

Having never seen Xi Zhaowan in a formal setting, Yan Qing began to look forward to the lecture.

On the day Xi Zhaowan arrived at Hangyu, the auditorium, which could seat a thousand people, was packed in every corner. Her reputation preceded her; after the news broke, some students from other schools even snuck in, pretending to be locals, standing on their tiptoes at the entrance.

Zhang Siyu had saved a seat for Yan Qing in advance, so Yan Qing was able to sit in the third row. She watched the stage where Xi Zhaowan stood in an elegant suit. With only light makeup, her bright countenance made the other girls at Hangyu pale in comparison. Yan Qing’s gaze was focused.

Specifically, seeing that beautiful face explain ABO research concepts in the simplest terms was an eye-opener for Yan Qing.

As the first half of the lecture drew to a close, Yan Qing found it fascinating. She raised her hands to clap, but before she could, the underclassmen, more excited than she were already applauding like thunder.

Xi Zhaowan smiled, her eyes downcast. Her gaze cut through the thousands of people and found those smiling, serene eyes. Her beautiful eyes lingered for a few seconds. Seeing Yan Qing applauding, a wave of tenderness rippled through her gaze.

The second half was the Q&A session. Hands in the audience popped up like bamboo shoots after rain.

“It’s rare to see everyone so enthusiastic. How about this: we’ll let Senior Xi choose the questioners herself,” the coordinating counselor said into the microphone with a smile.

An Alpha boy in the front row, tall and lanky, practically tried to climb onto the podium. “Pick me, pick me! Senior Xi!”

His voice was so loud that Yan Qing frowned. So noisy.

Xi Zhaowan caught Yan Qing’s tiny reaction with amusement and decided to pick that boy.

“Senior… can I… pursue you?” The boy started timidly but eventually threw shame to the wind, shouting his confession to Xi Zhaowan.

As soon as he finished, a collective “Whoa” echoed through the hall. Everyone waited for Xi Zhaowan’s reaction.

Xi Zhaowan maintained a polite smile: “You cannot. Students should focus on their studies.”

“What about after university? If I have the chance to join your R&D team? Do I have a chance then?” The boy was relentless.

Whispers and laughter broke out. It was impossible, the boy was bold but he had asked the question many of Xi’s admirers and worshippers cared about.

Zhang Siyu was initially focused on Xi Zhaowan’s reaction, but she soon noticed the aura of the person next to her was off. Yan Qing’s face was as dark as a storm cloud, as if a thunderstorm were about to break.

It makes sense, Zhang Siyu thought. It’s normal to be angry when a senior member of your family is asked such an intrusive question by a school junior.

Xi Zhaowan arched an eyebrow, thinking of a tactful way to decline and move past the topic.

The counselor was fuming. It had been difficult enough to invite Xi Zhaowan, and now someone was prying into her privacy during the lecture.

“Since Senior Xi is here, why don’t we ask some practical questions?” The counselor shot a cold look at the boy in the first row. He was truly inconsiderate.

However, the counselor seemed to have underestimated the students’ curiosity. After answering a few academic questions, a timid girl with glasses raised her hand.

She was the person on the forum using the “Dayiya Mama” alias. After being shut down by the crowd, she was secretly fuming and determined to get to the bottom of things, even if it meant making Xi Zhaowan look bad.

She wasn’t without evidence. Although her family wasn’t at the top like the “Four Great Families,” they were middle-class, and the socialite circle was small. Rumors had long been circulating that Xi Zhaowan remained unmarried at thirty because she had a child out of wedlock.

The rumors were vivid, claiming that years ago, people saw a young Xi Zhaowan taking care of a child, and the child was quite pretty.

Even if hearing is empty, seeing is believing. The girl with glasses had seen Xi Zhaowan several times from a distance delivering lunchboxes to a teenage girl, though the girl always walked too fast for her to see clearly.

She fired her question at Xi Zhaowan, one sentence after another like a machine gun.

The lecture hall fell silent. What! The goddess isn’t married because she already has a kid? And the kid likely goes to this school!

No way! Who would have thought!

The counselor felt like her soul was leaving her body. This was a disaster. The next batch of materials Xi Zhaowan was supposed to donate would likely fall through, and there would be zero chance of a future lecture.

Just as she was about to grab the microphone to suppress the burgeoning gossip with a look that could kill every student in the room…

“There is no need,” Xi Zhaowan said calmly into the mic, looking at the men and women waiting with bated breath.

“I am not married, and the idea of me having a child is groundless.” Her tone left no room for doubt. “However…”

The rows of juniors, male and female, were ignored by her gaze. She focused only on that one bright, ethereal person in the audience and said: “In Hangyu, I do indeed have someone I care about very much, someone I am very concerned for…”

“She is deeply admirable, like a brilliant morning star whose light cannot be hidden.” Xi Zhaowan didn’t miss Yan Qing’s stunned reaction. “Even in front of me, whom you have placed on this podium.” In front of me, her light shines even brighter, Xi Zhaowan thought, making one willing to be illuminated by her warmth, to drown in it…

The students laughed. Senior Xi was truly humble. They became even more curious about who this person was. Some remembered seeing a girl by Xi Zhaowan’s car at the school gate and began to speculate.

“One of the reasons I came to Hangyu High School was because I was curious about what kind of platform nurtured such an excellent person like her.”

Yan Qing was feeling a bit unsettled by the praise, especially with Xi Zhaowan’s focused gaze. She felt like she was sitting on pins and needles, yet she felt a strange sense of gratification. Unfortunately, Xi Zhaowan only looked at her for a few seconds before shifting her gaze away.

Her beautiful face was as elegant as ever, but every word she spoke made Yan Qing’s face flush harder.

“She is not my child. Although she is younger than me, in my heart, she is more than kin and like a friend.”

More than kin, like a friend. Any relationship is fine, except… that kind. Xi Zhaowan slammed a window shut in her heart. The ethereal silhouette outside that window, the one she wanted to draw close to and embrace was shut out by those words.

Those words were like a final notice, a closing curtain.

Xi Zhaowan told herself: That’s it. All the ambiguous, subtle emotions would fade away after this public announcement.

Everything before was just a post-injury delusion. Perhaps she had been affected by “toxins,” causing an instinctive pheromone disturbance. After all, her heat was approaching; it was normal for her emotions to fluctuate.

After getting her answer, the girl with glasses sat down quietly under the counselor’s glare. Fine, it wasn’t the answer she expected, but Xi Zhaowan’s response was incredibly dignified. She knew that given her low status, she had already been very bold. But… who was that person? She was truly curious.

Why does the atmosphere between those two feel so strange? Zhang Siyu’s round eyes darted between Yan Qing and Xi Zhaowan. Yan Qing’s reaction looked like shyness, but also not.

Still, the relationship between this aunt and niece is truly good.

After leaving the hall, Xi Zhaowan’s eyes grew slightly dim, but the gloom vanished when she saw Yan Qing, becoming as light as a breeze.

Yan Qing didn’t ask if the person Xi Zhaowan mentioned was her, it was so obvious she would have to be an idiot not to know. A strange joy welled up in her heart, a long-lost feeling that wasn’t like the joy of a breakthrough in cultivation; it was a feeling of fulfillment and happiness.

It was good. Xi Zhaowan didn’t just treat her as a junior, the way she treated the original owner of the body.

Facing the current her, Xi Zhaowan treated her more like a friend.

This mutual acknowledgment and response made her find Xi Zhaowan even more pleasant to look at.

It was because, after spending time together, she had already come to view Xi Zhaowan as her first friend in this world.

“Yan Qinghe, so you were here.” Su Fang had been looking for a while, holding Yan Qing’s neatly folded school uniform in her arms. “Your clothes, I’ve washed them and brought them back. They’re definitely more fragrant than before.” Su Fang gave a playful wink.

Ji Qianqian: “I heard you saved Su Fang last time. You have a conscience after all.” Over the past period, Yan Qing had been quite cold to her, and she thought their relationship had soured. It seemed Yan Qing still cared about her, and her best friend.

Both of them were pleasantly surprised to see Xi Zhaowan.

“Wow! Senior Xi is here too!” Su Fang was elated, Xi Zhaowan was her idol.

“Auntie Wan, long time no see!” Ji Qianqian also happily grabbed Xi Zhaowan’s arm. She had eaten many meals at the Yan family home growing up.

“It’s such a pity. Fangfang and I had to attend dance rehearsal, so we missed Auntie Wan’s lecture. My brain is severely lacking the baptism of knowledge.” Ji Qianqian’s flattery in front of elders was as polished as ever.

Since she and Su Fang were supposedly at a dance rehearsal, they hadn’t heard the lecture and were seemingly oblivious to the interaction between Xi and Yan in the hall.

“Qianqian, you’re still as silver-tongued as ever.” Xi Zhaowan pinched Ji Qianqian’s nose. It was clear that due to their families’ long-standing friendship, they had spent a lot of time together.

Xi Zhaowan glanced at the clothes in Su Fang’s hands. Those were indeed Yan Qing’s. But why were Qing’er’s clothes… in that girl’s hands? She was an A-grade Omega with a cute ponytail and bright eyes, Qianqian’s friend, and quite pretty.

Are they close with Qing’er too? She suppressed her question as Ji Qianqian let go of her arm, pouting and insisting they all go to dinner together.

Ji Qianqian pulled Yan Qing, swaying her arm coquettishly, letting her choose the place. “Qinghe, Qinghe, let’s go to that place we always used to go to, okay?”

Yan Qing: “…”

The way Ji Qianqian acted with Xi Zhaowan was normal, but it changed the moment she turned to her.

After the lecture, it was almost time for school to let out. The group got into Xi Zhaowan’s car and went to a restaurant owned by the Ji family.

At a delicate round table, Xi Zhaowan sat down first as the elder. Yan Qing instinctively wanted to sit next to her, but Ji Qianqian beat her to it, sitting on Xi Zhaowan’s left. Su Fang didn’t want to lose out and sat on the right.

There was only one seat left, the one between Ji Qianqian and Su Fang. The two girls looked at Yan Qing, waiting eagerly for her to sit down.

Yan Qing resignedly sat between the two girls. They surrounded Xi Zhaowan, and they also sandwiched her.

She was the only one directly across from Xi Zhaowan, separated by someone on both her left and right.

But this was fine. She was facing Xi Zhaowan. She gave her a small smile, but Xi Zhaowan seemed not to see it, laughing and chatting with the other two girls.

Yan Qing couldn’t get a word in edgewise.

Finally, the food arrived.

“Qinghe, I want to eat this. Can you peel it for me like you used to?” Ji Qianqian pointed at the fragrant crawfish.

Yan Qing: “…”

Refuse. She was going to refuse, but before she could speak, Ji Qianqian grabbed her arm again, moving on to another dish and proactively putting food in Yan Qing’s bowl.

“Here, I remember this is your favorite.” The eldest Miss Ji had dropped her former condescending tone, acting like a sensible and virtuous companion.

Yan Qing: Is Ji Qianqian possessed today? She’s acting exactly like the original owner, the ‘simp’ Yan Qinghe.

Su Fang watched the interaction with deep eyes, deep in thought. She glanced at Xi Zhaowan’s reaction. Xi Zhaowan had a smile on her red lips, looking at the two of them like an elder watching juniors play. She then lowered her head to take a sip of soup.

Senior Xi is truly as elegant and dignified as ever, Su Fang thought.

But Qianqian is definitely different today. As her best friend, I know her better than anyone. We didn’t have a dance rehearsal; why did she lie?

The meal progressed slowly. Xi Zhaowan didn’t eat much before putting down her utensils and saying with a smile that the meal was on her.

Walking toward the cashier, only she knew that her steady, graceful steps were no longer as light as they once were.

During the meal, when Ji Qianqian leaned in to speak, Xi Zhaowan had caught a specific scent from the back of the girl’s neck.

It was the scent of Qing’er’s pheromones. The kind of scent that lingers and is hard to dissipate after a “Complete Marking.”

Even though Ji Qianqian was wearing a scent-blocking patch, it was slightly crooked. And even if it hadn’t been, Xi Zhaowan as an expert and as Yan Qing’s “family” was intimately familiar with Yan Qing’s scent.

The thought of Yan Qing having completely marked Ji Qianqian…

Xi Zhaowan’s heart, which she had worked so hard to convince, settle, and suppress, sank like a setting sun.

That elegant, perfect smile vanished the moment she turned her back.

Bitterness, like a vine, wrapped around her legs and pulled her toward the heavy earth, then climbed upward… sprouting sharp thorns to prick at her heart.

All her secret, reserved grace was swept away in an instant the moment she smelled that familiar scent.