What Should I Do If My Ex-Girlfriend's Pheromones Smell Too Good? - Chapter 57

Chapter 57: Enlightenment

While choosing to answer the call, Shu Qiong proactively leaned closer to Yan Xiangyu, giving the latter’s knee a reassuring pat.

In her heart, Yan Xiangyu loathed Xin Xiuyun’s scheming nature. If there’s business to discuss, then discuss it; why start a video call? If you want to seduce someone, just say so. Feeling Shu Qiong’s touch, however, her expression softened slightly.

Shu Qiong turned on the speakerphone and went straight to the point: “Did you leave the base planet early on purpose?”

Her tone was questioning, but her expression was utterly certain.

Though it had been less than ten days since they last met, Xin Xiuyun had become noticeably thinner. She curled her lips slightly, showing an unusual frankness: “Yes, I did indeed purposely find an opportunity to leave. Speaking of which, I used you—my apologies. However, I didn’t know then that such a massive accident would occur at the base planet; I only had some ominous suspicions.”

“In fact,” Xin Xiuyun drew out her words, her eyes narrowing slightly, “even now I cannot be certain exactly what happened at the base. Of course, you shouldn’t be able to disclose the details to me as you please.”

Shu Qiong spoke with an unreadable tone: “And the reason? Any inference must have a basis.”

“Of course.” Xin Xiuyun laughed. “In the early hours of this morning, I re-established contact with a few military cadets still on the base. Although they didn’t reveal any useful information, the mere fact that they can communicate with the outside world says a lot—according to the normal training schedule, the earliest you could leave by starship would be tomorrow, right?”

“Hmm, could it be that terrorists attacked the signal tower and blew up the signal processor?” she offered a random guess.

“Worse,” Shu Qiong said, carefully observing the subtle changes in the other’s expression.

Xin Xiuyun fell into deep thought: “Worse…”

Shu Qiong silently exchanged a look with Yan Xiangyu, who gave a small, subtle shake of her head. Xin Xiuyun’s expression was too natural; no flaws could be seen.

“Is someone with you?” Xin Xiuyun suddenly asked.

Shu Qiong made no attempt to hide it, tilting the camera to show Yan Xiangyu beside her. Yan Xiangyu’s gaze swept across the light screen without a trace of emotion, and Xin Xiuyun sized her up in return.

Predictably, the curve of Xin Xiuyun’s lips slowly vanished: “It’s you.”

“That shouldn’t be surprising,” Yan Xiangyu said, her hostility far greater than it had been toward Lin Mi. “After all, we have been together the entire time.”

She rarely provoked people so directly; this was an exception. What the other had previously done to Shu Qiong had earned her a spot in Yan Xiangyu’s grudge book.

Shu Qiong did not contradict Yan Xiangyu’s words, tacitly acknowledging the unusual relationship between them. She looked at Xin Xiuyun and threw out the question she had long wanted to ask: “I’m curious, why did you choose to target me that night? I don’t believe it was an impulsive lapse in judgment.”

Xin Xiuyun nodded: “Your assessment is correct. I never intended to harm you, and the goals I wanted to achieve were quite simple.”

“First was to use the opportunity to make the Xin family despise me and cut myself off from them. Second was to gamble on whether I could climb onto a high branch like you. Third was to use the incident to be persuaded to leave the base planet, avoiding certain potential hidden dangers. I guessed back then that there were internal problems within the Xin family, and that they would explode very soon.”

Her tone possessed a bluntness that suggested she had nothing left to lose.

Shu Qiong pressed further: “What problems does the Xin family have? Problems so urgent that you felt the need to pluck yourself out so desperately.”

“They wanted me to draft a detailed map of the interior of the base’s equipment building. Of course, I never intended to do so from the start.” Xin Xiuyun revealed a slightly bitter smile. “I don’t know much more than that. Have you ever seen a chess player explain their plan in detail to a chess piece?”

After a skillful pause, she lowered her eyes and murmured: “…For people like us, trying to hold fate in our own hands is just that difficult.”

Yan Xiangyu let out a cold laugh and turned her head away expressionlessly, completely unconvinced by these half-true words.

Shu Qiong, meanwhile, gave a fake smile: “Don’t use a ‘bitter meat’ tactic on me, and don’t try to evoke my sympathy; I don’t buy it.” As she spoke, she raised an eyebrow as if remembering something amusing. “According to your narrative, you were a completely pitiful, innocent victim in this entire affair. Is that truly so? I don’t believe it.”

“Let me guess…” Shu Qiong looked her in the eye and stated her conclusion. “You used the evidence of crimes you’ve collected over the years to report the Xin family?”

The expression on Xin Xiuyun’s face did indeed stiffen for a moment, but it quickly returned to normal, and her transition in tone was quite natural. She bypassed the topic directly: “If everything had gone smoothly back then and you had actually been triggered by the pheromones to mark me, I would have staged a small accident to allow both of us to leave the base reasonably.”

“For instance, I would have claimed that your marking behavior induced a rare disease in me that only my private doctor could treat with discretion, requiring my immediate departure. You see, that way, we both could have reasonably escaped the disaster that followed.” Xin Xiuyun truly felt she had done nothing wrong; she only felt a bit of pity regarding Shu Qiong’s constitution. “What a shame, you actually have an aversion to Omega pheromones.”

Yan Xiangyu had clenched her fist and furrowed her brows as soon as the other mentioned this “hypothesis.” Shu Qiong had no doubt that if the three were talking face-to-face right now, Yan Xiangyu’s fist would have already slammed into Xin Xiuyun’s face. It’s not the people doing bad things that are scary; it’s the people who do bad things and remain logically self-consistent, believing their starting point was noble.

Shu Qiong felt that this pair of siblings, Xin Xiuyun and Xin Zhize, were truly… Did the sister eat her brother’s brain?

“Back to the question: why me?” Shu Qiong interrupted the other’s review of criminal psychology. “Why not someone else?”

“You really don’t remember me.” Xin Xiuyun sighed, as if she had expected this. “We met when we were children, at the charity gala at Moonlight Manor.”

High society is a circle; one way or another, everyone is an acquaintance. Even if you aren’t close, you can find a connection through a few turns.

Shu Qiong knitted her brows and fell into memory, but after thinking for a long time, there was still no result. She actually had very little overlap with the so-called upper-class circles; the most frequent times she attended balls and salons were during her childhood, during those few short months living at the old Shu estate. But she was only seven or eight then, and almost no memory remained.

Xin Xiuyun stared fixedly at Shu Qiong’s face: “Lin Mi must have found a chance to tell you about our relationship. Back then, not long after I was brought into the Xin family, news spread that Madam Lin had given birth to a biological child. My status suddenly became very awkward… even the servants called me a ‘wild seed’ occupying a nest that wasn’t mine behind my back. I heard them.”

“I tried to please and fawn over everyone… but the effect was minimal.”

“Living like that was truly too exhausting. I was only ten; why did I have to live as humbly as a rat in a sewer? Why did I have to worry about so many twists and turns? Death was the simplest way out, but I wasn’t reconciled to it.”

“Everyone at the gala was a part of that deep pool of the vanity fair. The torrent of materialism and snobbery in their eyes was too blatant. I struggled to breathe in the gaps, until I met you.”

Xin Xiuyun suddenly laughed. “You were very small then, and you didn’t know how to hide the dissatisfaction on your face. Many people tried to fawn over you. You were of noble birth, exceptionally good-looking, and clever. Your mother was a renowned rising figure in the Alliance with not a single stain to be found. Compared to someone like me, it was the difference between clouds and mud.”

Shu Qiong said nothing, her brain frantically searching for related memories.

“But you told them to get lost.”

The smile on Xin Xiuyun’s face deepened, a light of excitement flickering in her eyes, echoing the small flash reflected by the tiny purple stud on her earlobe. “That prestigious elder of yours, the dignitary trying to arrange a betrothal between his grandson and you, the politicians trying to climb up through you and your mother… you told them all to get lost because you were going to find your mom.”

“You were so brave, like a fearless little calf, charging straight out of the noisy hall. I secretly followed you; no one would notice a little mouse like me.”

The more Xin Xiuyun spoke, the more agitated she became, showing a visible level of euphoria. Shu Qiong felt her state was very wrong, bordering on madness, and was temporarily at a loss for words. In her view, Xin Xiuyun seemed to have a significant degree of self-destructive tendencies. However… Shu Qiong had no interest in listening to someone expose their psychological trauma.

“…Of course, you didn’t find your mother. The gala was set in an unfamiliar and remote manor. Powerless, you sat in the garden in frustration, basking in the moonlight.”

“I finally found an opportunity to approach you. Your eyes were very beautiful, like pebbles at the bottom of a clear pool. I wanted to push you into the pond to see if they would still look as good.”

Shu Qiong’s eyebrows were knitted tight enough to form a knot. At such a young age, her thoughts were already quite criminal.

Xin Xiuyun’s expression didn’t show a hint of provocation; she just continued talking to herself: “But you noticed me very quickly and told me to get far away.”

Shu Qiong rubbed the bridge of her nose: “…My rebellious phase came quite early.”

Xin Xiuyun clapped her hands: “From your gaze, I felt a rare sense of equality.”

The equality of telling everyone to get lost.

“Cute,” Xin Xiuyun said her initial impression of Shu Qiong like a pervert.

In fact, that night in the garden, two children briefly escaped the clinking glasses of the vanity fair and began a bizarre conversation.

Xin Xiuyun’s tone had been tentative yet expectant: “Aren’t you going to comment? My surname is Xin.”

Shu Qiong hated everyone and everything related to her grandfather equally: “Trash.”

Xin Xiuyun had been in a remarkably good mood: “I think it’s trash, too.”

Shu Qiong gave her a subtle look, the sharpness in her eyes dissipating quite a bit, though replaced by a touch of hesitation. Xin Xiuyun was familiar with that look and said with total indifference: “Think I’m sick?”

Shu Qiong turned her gaze back: “I didn’t say anything.”

The pond water reflected the moonlight, ripples shimmering into her eyes. Xin Xiuyun sighed to herself: “The weather is so nice tonight. If I drowned myself in this pond, do you think anyone would be sad for me?”

Shu Qiong crossed her still-short arms, her expression disdainful: “No.”

The smile vanished from Xin Xiuyun’s face. she turned her head to stare at the foul-faced brat beside her, who was a head shorter than her.

Shu Qiong met her gaze without any fear, clenching her fist in a slightly “chuunibyou” manner: “Are you a coward? Only if you make them cry and make them hurt will they be sad.”

Who knows where she had heard those words, but spoken in a tender, childish voice while acting so serious, they seemed somewhat laughable.

But Xin Xiuyun couldn’t laugh. After thinking it over, she said: “If I kill everyone who wouldn’t be sad about my death, would that make me a ‘brave-ghost’?”

Little Shu Qiong didn’t answer; she was led back by her grandmother, who had come out looking for her.

“…” At this very moment, Shu Qiong was stimulated by Xin Xiuyun’s narration into remembering some fragments.

Xin Xiuyun was radiant with spirit: “It was you who told me not to be a coward. I have been working hard for that ever since.”

Thanks to little Shu Qiong’s “enlightenment,” she had achieved realization! After that, her self-consuming self learned how to consume others.

Shu Qiong only felt a black scapegoat had fallen from the sky onto her. She had only been a bit “chuunibyou” and rebellious as a child! Since when had she ever acted as such a black-hearted mentor?