Chapter 107
Pitting Lou Che and Gu Ximian against each other in an exam would, by design, be like striking the sturdiest shield with the sharpest spear.
It wasn’t that she was completely uninterested in the outcome, but Zhuang Chi managed to restrain her curiosity and started on the path back to her dorm after this “emergency meeting” with no serious content concluded. However, she hadn’t gone far before she stopped, hearing footsteps behind her that made no effort to conceal they were following her. She turned around, somewhat exasperated. “...Lou Che, is there something else?”
“Nothing much,” Lou Che said, not looking the least bit flustered at being discovered. He walked up leisurely. “It’s just that you rejected my proposal earlier, so I thought I’d try to sell myself a little more.”
...What kind of act was this? Could it be that being rejected had ignited a competitive spirit in him? Zhuang Chi frowned as Lou Che continued, “I’m not bragging, but if I tutor you, your final exam scores will definitely improve a lot. Beating Gu Ximian will no longer be impossible. I think your chances of winning are at least around 70%... Why did you refuse my help?”
Yes. Zhuang Chi had refused Lou Che earlier. It had been more of a subconscious reaction than a well-thought-out decision with a specific reason, but now that he asked, she could find a rational explanation. “...This competition with Gu Ximian, I don’t actually—that is—”
“You don’t want to win that badly?”
Lou Che cut her off, the young genius frowning with an expression of disbelief, as if he found Zhuang Chi’s way of thinking incomprehensible. “So you’re saying you want to lose to Gu Ximian? Then why don’t you just agree to her terms directly, like An Chen said?”
His gaze was one of straightforward confusion. Zhuang Chi thought for a moment, trying to explain her slightly awkward state of mind to him. “...It’s not that I want to lose, I just don’t think it’s reached the point where I need to borrow your power just to win. Besides, if Gu Ximian found out I was studying with you, she might misunderstand and think I really don’t want to live with her...”
“Why do you make it sound like me teaching you is a bad thing?” Lou Che said after listening, though he wasn’t convinced. “You have to review for final exams anyway. I’m just teaching you the material, not giving you the questions or helping you cheat. Isn’t this perfectly legitimate?”
“And as for making Gu Ximian unhappy...”
He paused, then said very directly, “I know you like her. But are you really going to give up your right to choose for that reason, to wear yourself out with internal conflict and live with her on pins and needles?”
“...”
It was a difficult thing to respond to. Zhuang Chi lowered her eyes, trying to deny his claim. “I’m... not on pins and needles...”
“How are you not?”
He retorted without mercy. Lou Che huffed softly, crossed his arms like a grown-up, and sighed with feigned maturity.
“Alright. Let’s find a place to talk,” he said, giving Zhuang Chi a meaningful wink as she looked up. “Didn’t I say it earlier? Whether it’s studying or anything else, I’ll help you.”
The two of them ended up at a coffee shop. The moment Lou Che sat down, he regretted it. “Should we go somewhere else? The strong smell of coffee now always reminds me of the day of your susceptible period.”
He didn’t lower his voice when he said this, causing the surrounding customers and waiters to glance over frequently at the words “susceptible period.” Panicked that strange rumors might start, Zhuang Chi could only respond in a similarly loud voice, “...You mean when you all came to check on me, right? You weren’t there for that long, haha...”
...She didn’t know if her explanation was clear enough, but at least most of the gazes had retracted. Lou Che, however, shrugged as if he hadn’t noticed. “Even if I wasn’t there for long, it was my first time directly facing another Alpha’s susceptible period. I haven’t really drunk coffee since then.”
Despite saying this, he didn’t actually seem to have any intention of getting up and leaving. When it was time to order, however, he did indeed only ask for a glass of hot milk, which made Zhuang Chi feel rather bad, so she didn’t order coffee either. Lou Che saw it all. After both their drinks arrived, he spoke up. “You know, just from smelling your pheromones back then, one would think you’re a high-grade, aloof Alpha. No one would think you’re the type of person who would be considerate of my feelings and choose not to order coffee.”
“Sometimes, pheromones really don’t resemble the person. After all, they’re a mechanism that doesn’t operate according to a person’s thoughts. It’s like how Ling Jing’s pheromones are cream cake, while mine are cedarwood. Just based on appearance or impression, it might seem more reasonable if they were switched...”
He suddenly launched into this long speech. Zhuang Chi was still reeling from the new and shocking information that “Ling Jing’s pheromones are cream cake” when she heard Lou Che’s tone shift. “...The formation of pheromones is just that irrational, so it’s normal that they’re sometimes hard to control. You’re probably the only person in the world who would feel so much psychological pressure because of it.”
It was the signal that he was getting to the point. Lou Che looked at the slightly stunned Zhuang Chi and said frankly, “Zhuang Chi, compared to the others in the Student Council Presidium, I’ve known you for the shortest amount of time, and we don’t have much of a shared history. I should be the person who is the most ‘unfamiliar’ with you. But perhaps because of that, I should also be the one in the Presidium who can view you most objectively.”
“I sometimes feel that you’ve almost gone beyond not being like an Alpha—you’re almost not like a person from this world.”
Her heart leaped violently. Zhuang Chi almost thought Lou Che had discovered something, but she realized that wasn’t the case when he continued speaking. “I don’t mean that as an insult. I mean... everyone in this world knows that being an Alpha is something to be happy about. It means this person will have a stronger physique or a sharper mind than most people, and they will very likely benefit from it in their future life. As for the difficulty of controlling pheromones during a susceptible period, that’s just a small price to pay, insignificant compared to all the benefits.”
“Everyone receives this kind of education from a young age, so they gradually come to take it for granted. Even if they really lose control during a susceptible period, as long as it doesn’t cause any excessively serious consequences, everyone will just treat it as something that can’t be helped.”
“I’ve really never seen anyone like you. So hung up on it. Even though you managed to do what 99% of Alphas couldn’t during your last susceptible period, you still think you’ll put Gu Ximian in danger,” Lou Che said, studying Zhuang Chi as if looking at a rare animal. He blinked and said, “I guess... you probably also feel a sense of shame about your susceptible period, right? Feeling that your body and emotions were controlled by your pheromones, that the things you wanted to do to Gu Ximian then weren’t entirely from your own heart, which in turn makes you feel even more resistant... Am I right?”
“...” He had basically hit the nail on the head. Zhuang Chi was silent for a long while before lowering her eyes sorrowfully. “...Is it strange?”
“Of course it’s strange. Like I just said, it’s not a thought a normal Alpha from this world would have.” Lou Che stated this decisively, with no intention of sparing Zhuang Chi’s feelings. Only at the end did his tone soften. “But it’s fine. Geniuses are also often considered strange.”
...It was hard to say if that counted as a Lou Che-style consolation. Zhuang Chi gave a bitter smile, and Lou Che looked at her, his expression turning serious. “In any case, as your Alpha senior, there are probably two things I can teach you.”
“First,” he held up one finger and said sternly, “you need to know that Gu Ximian will not let you pose a danger to her.”
“...”
That was a convoluted sentence. Zhuang Chi raised an eyebrow, somewhat baffled, as she listened to Lou Che’s deadpan explanation. “Don’t underestimate Gu Ximian. Since you’re the one moving into her house, you’re the one who should be careful. Even if, by some one-in-a-million chance, you do lose control, Gu Ximian has ten thousand ways to defend herself and incapacitate you—don’t look at me like I’m telling some kind of fairy tale. A person like Gu Ximian, do you really think she’s some fragile Omega? I suggest you raise her danger level in your mind a bit.”
...Although she didn’t think of Gu Ximian as a fragile Omega, but... Zhuang Chi thought about it with difficulty for a moment, then said hesitantly, “...It would be great if she was willing to be on guard like that, but I’m worried she doesn’t think that way—”
“Oh, you’re worried she doesn’t think that way, so she won’t be on guard against you?” Lou Che cut in quickly, finishing her sentence. “Then do you have any thoughts of wanting to hurt her? You don’t have those either, so why are you worried you’ll hurt her?”
The whole exchange gave Zhuang Chi a headache. It felt like she was in a debate with Lou Che. She felt he was twisting the concept, but before she could speak, Lou Che continued on his own. “I guess you’ll say your thoughts are influenced by instinct—and that’s the second thing I’m going to teach you.”
“—Even an Alpha’s instinct is closely related to your own thoughts.” Lou Che held up a second finger, this time more solemn than his earlier alarmist tone. “Don’t be so strict with yourself. Resisting too much is a form of self-deception.”
Zhuang Chi frowned. Lou Che could tell from her expression that she disagreed, so he spoke before she could. “I once read a myth about a god who felt that humans were flawed. They hid their thoughts in their hearts, which gave rise to lies and misunderstandings. The god wanted to create a world of honesty, so he altered the human structure, making their hearts exposed on the outside so that everyone’s thoughts would be clear to others at a glance.”
“Of course, that story isn’t important. I’m telling it now because I want to say—” Lou Che paused, then suddenly pointed to the gland on his neck. “...Our Alpha glands are like our hearts, exposed for all to see.”
“Pheromones are a kind of manifestation of our thoughts. So of course they’re hard to control. No one can completely control their own thoughts, right? For example, liking someone. You like Gu Ximian—was that a thought you could have anticipated and controlled?”
“Besides, even if pheromones are indeed influenced by Alpha instinct, we are still human beings, not animals that act purely on that kind of conditioned reflex.”
Lou Che paused, hesitating for a rare moment over whether he should say what came next. But seeing Zhuang Chi, who seemed to be deep in thought, he ultimately decided to stick to his life philosophy of speaking his mind. He said bluntly, “Listen to me, Zhuang Chi. If you wanted to be closer to Gu Ximian during your susceptible period, it’s because you already had that thought in your heart. It’s just that you have such a strong moral compass that you usually suppress that thought so deeply that your pheromones expressed it for you.”
“It’s the same with wanting to kiss her. It’s not because your pheromones are controlling you, it’s because you were already thinking that yourself. The thought most influenced by your pheromones is probably the desire to mark her. That’s indeed something you might not normally think about, but in the end, it’s still because you like her, want to be with her forever, want to marry her—”
Before he could finish, Zhuang Chi shot to her feet, recklessly reaching across the table to cover his mouth. Her panicked movement nearly knocked over both their drinks. Lou Che managed to steady them just in time and, before his mouth was truly covered, decisively raised both hands in surrender. Only then did he manage to defend his freedom to breathe from the beet-red Zhuang Chi.
“...If you don’t believe me, try it with someone else. When you were kidnapped, that kidnapper was also an Omega. Did you have the slightest thought of wanting to get close to her?” But Lou Che really couldn’t resist finishing his thought, whispering, “Just like when you opened the door and saw us during your susceptible period. To me, your pheromones were conveying only one message: stay away from her.”
Zhuang Chi’s head was spinning. She began to regret not having covered Lou Che’s mouth sooner. But he was still muttering things like, “So don’t worry about your feelings not being pure during your susceptible period,” or “Just relax, you won’t do anything to hurt Gu Ximian. If you did, then every other Alpha in the world would become a criminal.” His words were baseless but delivered with such inexplicable conviction that after hearing enough of them, even Zhuang Chi started to feel they weren’t entirely without credibility. She pressed her aching temples and sighed silently.
“I’m not saying you should just act on your thoughts directly. I’m just saying, it’s perfectly normal for you to have these thoughts about Gu Ximian. It’s not because you’re a bad person or a pervert—in fact, it would be strange if you had no thoughts at all. In that case, you should go to the hospital to check if your functions are working properly.”
“So stop overthinking things,” Lou Che said, finally satisfied with his speech, and steered the conversation back. “For now, just focus on reviewing with me for the final exams, okay?”
...The leap between his two topics seemed completely illogical. Zhuang Chi looked at him, mystified, and asked the person who looked so self-righteous, “...No, according to what you just said, shouldn’t I be moving into Gu Ximian’s house without any distractions? Why are you still thinking about me beating Gu Ximian?”
“There’s no conflict,” Lou Che said, tilting his head back. “Your bet is ‘whoever has the higher GPA gets to decide,’ not ‘if Gu Ximian wins, you live together, and if you win, you don’t.’”
“After you win, what kind of demand you’ll make hasn’t been decided yet, has it?”
His implication was exceptionally clear. Zhuang Chi’s eyes widened as she quickly understood what Lou Che meant.
“So? Miss Alpha, who wants to see her lover happy more than anything,” Lou Che winked slyly and smiled. “Whether you want to give Gu Ximian a little surprise is up to you, isn’t it?”
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