What Should I Do If My Ex-Girlfriend's Pheromones Smell Too Good? - Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Green Tea Scent. Isn’t Your Body Being Quite Dishonest?

Before leaving for dinner, Shu Qiong pulled a new mask out of her bag and carefully put it on.

Yan Xiangyu asked her: “Aren’t you hot now?”

“I have a heavy burden to bear,” Shu Qiong spoke without skipping a beat. “This is called personal image management.”

“I want one too.”

The reply was so seamless that Shu Qiong didn’t react for a moment: “Huh?”

Yan Xiangyu held out her hand: “A mask. Give me one.”

A sudden image of the forum confession post flashed through Shu Qiong’s mind. She automatically found a mask printed with a pink pig nose and watched woodenly as Yan Xiangyu quickly tore open the packaging, hooked the elastic over her ears, and put it on.

Hey, it’s quite cute.

Passing the large coat rack by the door, Yan Xiangyu took a baseball cap from the top, gently placed it on Shu Qiong’s head, and patted it with satisfaction.

Shu Qiong’s vision went dark. She subconsciously wanted to take the hat off, but remembering her newly established persona, she grumpily wore it.

Muttering, “Tacky.”

It was actually quite good-looking and fit her aesthetic.

As the two walked out of the dorm, Gu Tiantian’s voice drifted out from the hallway: “Yan Xiangyu has a hat like that too. Did you buy couple items?”

Shu Qiong nearly missed a step.

Yan Xiangyu’s tone was flat. Her cool-girl persona was firmly in place once she was out of the dorm: “That one is mine.”

“Swapping wardrobes,” Gu Tiantian nodded. “The mask is quite distinctive.”

Yan Xiangyu looked at Shu Qiong, who was rushing down the stairs without looking back: “The masks seem to be couple items. Well, I’m not sure, she chose it.”

Shu Qiong’s voice, full of embarrassed annoyance at her failed attempt to play deaf, came up the stairwell: “It’s from the same series of masks! A whole set, understand!”

Yan Xiangyu corrected herself: “Oh, family pack then.”

“…” Shu Qiong’s eyes were fierce.

Su Heyi watched their antics with an affectionate smile: “Shall we go to the Second Cafeteria? Their braised dishes are famous.”

“Go, go, go! Second Cafeteria, Second Cafeteria!” Shu Qiong rushed downstairs furiously, her footsteps echoing loudly.

It was dinner time. The group wasn’t particularly noticeable amidst the students rushing to eat. Shu Qiong walked close to the wall with her mask on, striving to maintain a safe distance from every passerby.

Yan Xiangyu glanced at her a few times but said nothing.

As soon as they entered the Second Cafeteria, Shu Qiong felt a little desperate. The long line in front of the counter confirmed the reliability of Su Heyi’s recommendation and the genuine deliciousness of the braised dishes. However, Shu Qiong’s quick glance revealed several Omegas.

She observed Yan Xiangyu out of the corner of her eye, gritted her teeth, and uttered a lie amidst the enticing aroma of delicious food: “I think I’ll just drink nutrient fluid…”

She pointed at the neglected vending machine in the corner and said bitterly, “I’ll buy it and save a seat for you guys.”

Ignoring her roommates’ astonished looks, Shu Qiong resolutely embraced the bland, tasteless nutrient fluid.

How idiotic. Drinking nutrient fluid in the cafeteria.

She wasn’t trying to be the cold, indifferent, and ascetic CEO Alpha archetype.

Finding an empty seat, she opened her bracelet, unable to suppress her inner critic, and started typing furiously.

Shu Qiong: MISS!!!

Jin Yan replied instantly: How is it? How’s it going with your little Student Yan?

Shu Qiong: “[Knife] [Knife] Don’t even mention it! Do you have any sisterly love?”

Jin Yan sent a string of [Laughing so hard I’m banging the table] GIFs.

Shu Qiong ignored the screen-flooding emojis and invited her to join them at the Second Cafeteria.

Jin Yan: Reason? Let me hear it.

Shu Qiong: “[Image] [Image]”

Jin Yan clicked on the pictures. The first was of the long line at the braised dish counter, and the second was a pitiful tube of nutrient fluid on the table.

Shu Qiong unsurprisingly received ten more [Laughing so hard I’m banging the table] GIFs.

Shu Qiong: …Are you coming or not? If not, we’re breaking up.

Jin Yan: [Image]

Shu Qiong clicked it open and saw a tea table spread with an array of exquisite food. Some bowls were already showing the bottom, clearly indicating that Miss Jin had already had lunch.

Jin Yan: “[Red Lips] Sorry, darling, I already have a date with pasta, salad, and matcha mini-cakes [Red Lips]”

Shu Qiong irritably closed her bracelet.

Clatter, a food tray was placed in front of her. A shadow loomed over her from behind.

“Calling each other so affectionately,” Yan Xiangyu’s voice said. “Why isn’t she here to eat with you?”

Shu Qiong looked up: “…Screen-peeping is shameless!”

Yan Xiangyu’s lips were thin. When pursed, she looked unapproachable, but Shu Qiong wasn’t afraid of her and stared directly back: “Do you have to manage who I eat with?”

She regretted the words as soon as they left her mouth. This conversation, which had occurred countless times when they were together, felt very… inappropriate now.

—”Do you have to manage who I eat with?”

—”Don’t you want to spend more time with your girlfriend? Xiao Qiong, I miss you so much…”

—”We were just in class together!”

Yan Xiangyu, normally so cool, was incredibly clingy when in a relationship, getting jealous over everything and driving people crazy. She liked watching Shu Qiong eat, calling it a feast for the eyes. As she watched, she would inevitably cling to her again, preferring to eat with her left hand just to free her right hand to play with Shu Qiong’s fingers.

Yan Xiangyu’s gaze deepened now: “What are you thinking about?”

Shu Qiong snapped back to reality, realizing their posture was a little ambiguous. From afar, it looked like Yan Xiangyu was embracing her, their distance so close she could see the other’s eyelashes.

“Did you set your bracelet to senior mode?”

Shu Qiong realized Yan Xiangyu was responding to her previous topic, a subtle but scathing way to say she was not intentionally screen-peeping.

WTF?

She just liked a larger font size! Protecting one’s eyes is everyone’s responsibility, okay?

The ambiguous atmosphere evaporated. Shu Qiong moved away from Yan Xiangyu, looking at the still-long line where she saw Su Heyi and Gu Tiantian: “How did you get back so quickly?”

Yan Xiangyu walked around the chair and sat down next to her: “The dishes are different at each counter. Dividing the labor and queuing is more efficient, and my line was short.”

Shu Qiong then noticed her plate was piled high with only a few kinds of vegetarian dishes.

Yan Xiangyu handed her a pair of chopsticks and a bowl.

Shu Qiong was slightly embarrassed: “I didn’t even queue. I feel so bad…”

Su Heyi’s voice came from beside her: “You saved us seats. Luckily you saved them early, or there wouldn’t be any left.”

The table Shu Qiong chose was a bit secluded. She looked up and realized the surrounding tables were all full.

Gu Tiantian finally returned with a large tray of braised meats, like goose intestines and spicy dried duck, receiving a warm welcome from the group.

The unopened tube of nutrient fluid was instantly forgotten by Shu Qiong. Who would eat feed when there was meat?

Yan Xiangyu handed out tissues to everyone, finding time to ask Shu Qiong: “Where’s your ‘Miss’? Not coming to join you?”

Shu Qiong was suddenly choked by a chili pepper and coughed uncontrollably, tears streaming from her eyes.

Oh goodness, this chapter hasn’t ended yet!

Yan Xiangyu smoothly offered water to her lips, commenting on Jin Yan: “Not thoughtful at all.”

Shu Qiong obediently took a sip of water from her hand: “Mhm, mhm, mhm, not thoughtful.”

Yan Xiangyu wiped the sauce from the corner of Shu Qiong’s mouth with a tissue: “People who call others ‘darling’ immediately are very frivolous.”

Shu Qiong allowed her to do so blankly: “Right, right, right, very frivolous.”

Yan Xiangyu retracted her hand: “Do you find me annoying and are just humoring me?”

“Yes, yes, yes—wait? No, no, no!”

Almost a reflex, alarm bells went off in Shu Qiong’s heart, and she began to console her expertly: “Student Yan, you are truly a good person, much better than that clueless Jin Yan! I feel especially honored to be your, uh, your roommate!”

Shu Qiong broke out in a cold sweat after realizing what she was doing. This scene was a flashback to the past. She almost couldn’t resist her infatuation and nearly self-destructed by confessing everything right there!

She looked across the table. Su Heyi was watching their roommate drama with a smile, while Gu Tiantian’s face was partially covered by her hand, her expression unreadable.

“Eat, eat, eat. Why are you looking at me!”

Shu Qiong lowered her head, determined to adhere to the ancient wisdom of not speaking while eating.

In between bites, she noticed Yan Xiangyu’s face didn’t look good. She didn’t know which sentence had offended her this time.

Can’t afford to provoke her. Can’t afford to provoke her.

She sped up her eating.

On the way back to the dorm, Yan Xiangyu wore a cold face. Although it looked much the same as usual, Shu Qiong still sensed her bad mood.

She opened her bracelet and saw that “darling” message from Jin Yan again. She had a sudden revelation.

Is Yan Xiangyu jealous?

Although thinking this might be self-flattering, but, but…

“Ahem, Student Yan.” She called out to Yan Xiangyu.

Yan Xiangyu, hands in her pockets, slightly turned her face at the sound.

“What is it, Student Shu?”

The words “Student Shu” were delivered as if she was grinding her teeth. Compared to “darling,” it was exceptionally distant.

Su Heyi had been pulled back to the dorm by Gu Tiantian, leaving the two of them facing each other in the corridor. Before closing the door, Gu Tiantian gave Shu Qiong a meaningful look, full of encouragement.

Shu Qiong suspected she had misread it. After all, she wasn’t about to confess her love.

She cleared her throat and said to Yan Xiangyu: “Jin Yan and I are innocent. My relationship with her is as straight as chopsticks, understand?”

“Straight?” Yan Xiangyu sneered. “Chopsticks bend after being used for a long time.”

Shu Qiong quickly countered: “Then we’re stainless steel chopsticks.”

Yan Xiangyu met her gaze: “Why are you explaining this to me?”

“Of course, I don’t want anyone to misunderstand our pure friendship!”

Shu Qiong felt a little awkward. She couldn’t quite articulate her motive. She and Yan Xiangyu were in the past, and she had never cared how others perceived or judged her.

Perhaps it’s just a force of habit. She thought. Habits are terrifying.

Shu Qiong realized she might, possibly, still have a trace of lingering affection for Yan Xiangyu.

She gazed at the other’s face and thought her lingering affection was perfectly reasonable.

She was “stomach-friendly” to Omega pheromones, not disinterested in beauty.

Shu Qiong’s tiny lick of her lips did not escape Yan Xiangyu’s eyes.

Yan Xiangyu knew exactly what this person was thinking with a single look and waited patiently for her next move.

Shu Qiong seriously considered whether to be audacious enough to Alpha-up and force a kiss, then run away as soon as she scored a win. But she remembered that she could not escape Room 406 and shamefully chickened out.

With her mind wandering, she mechanically explained her pure relationship with Jin Yan: “Jin Yan and I are both Alphas. How could we spark the fire of love?”

Noticing that the person in front of her was visibly going from sunny to cloudy, Shu Qiong regained a sliver of rationality and quickly added: “I’m not discriminating against Alphas, it’s just that AA relationships would be strange…”

Her voice grew quieter as she spoke.

Shu Qiong still couldn’t imagine two Alphas fighting and biting each other’s necks during a rut.

So she felt a little more confident: “This is a physiological factor, you know. Alphas naturally reject other Alpha’s pheromones!”

She meticulously analyzed Yan Xiangyu’s expression, feeling like a dedicated Yan-brand barometer. She keenly caught signs of her turning from cloudy to partly sunny, then full sun. Her heart jumped with delight—

“Really?” Yan Xiangyu reached out to Shu Qiong’s nape.

This was a sensitive spot, but considering they were both Alphas, Shu Qiong forced herself to endure the shiver and not dodge.

Yan Xiangyu’s fingertips were cool, causing Shu Qiong to flinch when they touched her hot scent gland.

Shu Qiong suddenly realized something and was mortified.

“I smell you,” Yan Xiangyu’s lips curved in pleasure. “You say you reject my pheromones, but isn’t your body being quite dishonest?”

The strong scent of grape brandy, a fierce liquor mixed with rich fruity fragrance, almost completely masked the faint tea scent in the air.

Shu Qiong blushed and choked out: “You are such a green tea.”

It turns out you were the one releasing pheromones in the bathroom! No class!

The thought that she had praised the scent as having good taste made her face burn even hotter.

Her body temperature was scorching, blood rushed upwards, and the fingertips rubbing in circles near her scent gland were incredibly alluring.

Just before passing out, Shu Qiong forced out every word: “My rut is due any day now. Excitement makes it come early. It’s not… it’s not because your pheromones seduced me…”

Yan Xiangyu cradled her waist, sensing that her body was collapsing backward. Although she knew the timing was wrong, she still asked: “Then do you hate my pheromones?”

Shu Qiong used all her remaining strength to whisper near her ear: “I really hate them!”

It was unclear if she was expressing genuine disgust or merely a playful complaint.

Shu Qiong tilted her head and completely fainted in Yan Xiangyu’s arms.