Chapter 122
After a not-so-peaceful weekend, it was time to go to school for classes.
She had barely been to school last week. After staying in the house for so many days, Zhuang Chi actually felt a sense of unfamiliarity as she walked to the door, as if something was missing, leaving her feeling empty. It was only before heading out that she suddenly blurted out, “The blocking collar!”
As she spoke, she abruptly turned to look at Gu Ximian and, as expected, saw that the other girl was no longer wearing the familiar choker around her neck. Or rather, after Gu Ximian had casually tossed them aside, they had both put the matter out of their minds. Neither of them had thought to look for them again, perhaps mainly because they didn’t have the spare time. It was only now, with Zhuang Chi’s reminder, that Gu Ximian remembered. She raised a hand to touch her neck, pondered for a moment, and then said, “I don’t think I really need to wear it anymore.”
“What the doctor said back then was surprisingly right. After you marked me, I can actually control my pheromones now,” she said, looking at Zhuang Chi, whose expression was still a little worried. Her eyes flickered, and she suddenly tilted her head up, gesturing. “Why don’t you come and smell for yourself? I shouldn’t have any pheromones leaking out right now. Try and see if you can smell anything?”
…She always felt that this job was a little too dangerous. Zhuang Chi wrinkled her nose, but under Gu Ximian’s silent, urging gaze, she eventually bent down slightly and took a small, cautious sniff from a slight distance.
But she soon realized she wasn’t quite suited for this job—because the scent of Gu Ximian’s perfume faintly wafted over, and she had some difficulty distinguishing whether this was the scent from Gu Ximian’s pheromones or just the perfume Gu Ximian had sprayed on her collar in the morning.
Fortunately, her gland could still be of some help at this moment. Judging from her gland’s relatively calm reaction, Zhuang Chi determined it was just the perfume. So she quickly straightened up and said vaguely, “…Mhm. There shouldn’t be any pheromones leaking out.”
“Shouldn’t be?” But Gu Ximian noticed her vague wording and raised an eyebrow, moving closer to her. “What’s wrong, you couldn’t smell it clearly?”
Her words carried a hint of worry, and Zhuang Chi understood that Gu Ximian had probably misunderstood, thinking there was something wrong with her sense of smell. She quickly shook her head. “That’s not the problem, it’s just…”
“…Speaking of which, I don’t think I’ve told you about this yet.” The timing when she first noticed it had been a bit inappropriate, and she hadn’t found a chance to bring it up specifically later. Zhuang Chi thought it was fine to say it now and explained frankly, “You put on perfume this morning, right? I can smell the same scent in your pheromones.”
“I was just a little uncertain because I had trouble telling if that scent was coming from your pheromones. But thinking about it carefully, I only smelled that perfume scent, so it probably isn’t your pheromones—”
“Wait a minute,” Gu Ximian interrupted her. She looked at Zhuang Chi, somewhat at a loss. “My pheromones… didn’t you say back then that your favorite was the scent of flowers…”
“…” Actually, she had just made that up on the spot back then, only to realize later that she had coincidentally hit close to the mark. Zhuang Chi thought for a moment and said succinctly, “During my first susceptible period, your perfume scent got mixed into my favorite scent.”
Gu Ximian was stunned for a long while, then suddenly pinched her on the waist, her tone seemingly annoyed. “Then why couldn’t you have told me earlier! You have no idea what I was—”
She thought she was about to be taken to task again. Zhuang Chi waited guiltily to be lectured, but Gu Ximian stopped mid-sentence. Now, she was curious about the half-finished sentence. “Back then…?”
Gu Ximian faltered for a moment, then finally turned her head away and fell silent. But a thought stirred in Zhuang Chi’s mind, and she pursued her with a flash of insight, “Gu Ximian, when did you start liking me?”
“…”
Gu Ximian pointedly dodged Zhuang Chi’s gaze again and turned to open the door and leave, but Zhuang Chi was quick to block the door, thwarting her attempt. She glared at Zhuang Chi, but her gaze lacked any force, full of only shame and anger, so Zhuang Chi felt no intimidation at all. She stubbornly refused to move, insisting on an answer. Gu Ximian, pestered to the point of distraction and unable to escape, finally gave up and took a step closer to Zhuang Chi, saying fiercely, “Anyway, it was earlier than you!”
What a resonant statement. Zhuang Chi was stunned, while Gu Ximian, having said it, clearly regretted it. Her bravado quickly deflated, and she leaned into Zhuang Chi’s embrace with a huff.
“…Are you happy now? It was just earlier than you,” she muttered, then leaned over and bit Zhuang Chi’s lip lightly out of frustration, whispering, “You’re so stupid.”
Poor her, the female protagonist. In the past, she had been perplexed countless times about why her official match was so unresponsive, and she had been repeatedly unsettled by her own feelings for Zhuang Chi. Even after learning that Zhuang Chi was the author and not her official match, which made Zhuang Chi’s past behavior understandable, Gu Ximian still felt a little indignant. Anyway, she was allowed to be unreasonable with Zhuang Chi, so she simply tilted her head up and protested, “You have to compensate me!”
…This time, they had skipped the step of taking her to task and gone straight to demanding compensation. Zhuang Chi came back to her senses, with no thought of trying to get a lighter sentence. She obediently admitted her fault, “I’m sorry. What kind of compensation do you want?”
Gu Ximian let out a light huff and spoke without much thought, making Zhuang Chi suspect she had probably thought this out long ago. “First, you have to tell me what you’re hiding from me as soon as possible. Otherwise, I’ll keep worrying.”
This was indeed something she needed to think carefully about how to explain. Zhuang Chi nodded, then noticed Gu Ximian had said “first,” which probably meant there was also a “second” to her compensation… As expected, she heard Gu Ximian continue, her pace inexplicably quickening a little as she said in a serious tone, “Second, even though your susceptible period is over, I think you… don’t have to move back to your room.”
Ah. Zhuang Chi blinked in realization. This seemed to be the “compensation” Gu Ximian truly wanted.
Gu Ximian was always like this. She was never willing to be the one to speak first, so she would beat around the bush, mixing truth with falsehood. Even if she had to speak up, she would lay a lot of unimportant groundwork first, hiding her true feelings within.
But it was okay. Zhuang Chi would understand what she wanted to say and then be the one to speak first. She smiled, hugged Gu Ximian tightly, and asked, “Is that okay? I’ll live in your room from now on?”
“…Mhm.” Gu Ximian buried her face in her shoulder and said in a muffled voice, “Let’s turn your old room into a storage room tomorrow.”
She was practically leaving her no way out. Zhuang Chi chuckled, raised a hand to stroke her smooth black hair, and said gently, “Then can we put the blocking collars in there too?”
Gu Ximian was also amused by her and looked up, her eyes filled with a lighthearted smile. “Mhm. Let’s find where we threw them tonight. Then put them in the storage room.”
Anyway, she would never need a pheromone blocking collar again in the future.
Gu Ximian being able to take off her blocking collar was, of course, a good thing, but the corresponding storm of gossip it stirred up at St. Blaisedon was not so good.
…The fact was, both she and Gu Ximian had worn them every day before, and now they had suddenly taken them off at the same time. It was inevitable that it would be noticed and discussed, Zhuang Chi thought. Especially if someone with a mind to do so could find out that they had both taken leave for the past few days… then even if others didn’t know the reason Gu Ximian had worn a pheromone blocking collar before, it would still lead to even more speculation.
“—You two got together, right?”
In the Student Council Presidium office, Lou Che stood before Zhuang Chi like a door god and asked bluntly, leaving Zhuang Chi speechless. And this person had deliberately called a meeting when the literature department had classes, so Gu Ximian and Olivia were away, making it even more convenient for him to use the meeting as a pretext for gossip. “Well, to put it more simply, you marked Gu Ximian, right?”
…He said it with such certainty, there was no need to ask her at all. Although Lou Che probably didn’t know the real reason Gu Ximian had worn the blocking collar… this person was a genius, so it seemed plausible that he could figure anything out. Zhuang Chi sighed silently, glanced at An Chen, who was slumped over the table without a word, and Ling Jing, who was patting his shoulder and muttering, “Kids grow up, it happens one day”—her tone was just like that of a parent—she was hesitating whether to admit it when she heard Lou Che suddenly say with a pained heart, “…Then the bite guard I gave you just a few days ago was completely useless!”
“…”
Zhuang Chi was speechless, having nothing to say in her defense on this matter. Lou Che understood everything just from her expression, frustrated and annoyed. “Damn it, it just took too long to get it custom-made, and now it’s useless… How about you two get a dog in the future? I mean, a real dog.”
…Was he suggesting she give the bite guard she had used to a dog?! Zhuang Chi’s face was written all over with disapproval, and Ling Jing probably saw it, chiming in from the side, “Why get a dog? From what I’ve seen, well-behaved dogs generally don’t need bite guards. It’s the same thing.”
Alright, alright. So she was a bad dog who needed a bite guard before.
Being with this group of Alphas was really giving her a headache. Zhuang Chi finally managed to stabilize the situation. Logically, she could have already left this content-less meeting, but thinking of the matter that had been troubling her for the past two days, she suddenly asked Ling Jing, “Ling Jing, if you suddenly gained the power to make your subconscious thoughts come true, what would you think?”
“Huh?” Ling Jing was taken aback, then fell into deep thought. “Sounds very useful… So if I subconsciously think Xiao Ying will have a well-proportioned figure tomorrow, then when I wake up tomorrow, he’ll really have successfully lost weight—”
“What nonsense,” An Chen, who had recovered from his gloom, scoffed. “Putting aside how hard it is to genuinely think that subconsciously in the first place, even if you could, once you’re told you have such a power, you probably wouldn’t be able to do it anymore.”
“Yeah. And it doesn’t seem like it’s all good things. You’d have to be careful,” Lou Che nodded in agreement, adding seriously in a matter-of-fact tone, “What if after watching a horror movie, you go to the bathroom at night and in a daze, you mistake the coat hanging on the door for a ghost…”
“…” Ling Jing shivered silently and said dryly, “…Then I’d rather not have that kind of power.”
The few Alphas chatted casually without a care, but Zhuang Chi felt melancholic listening to them—it was just as she had thought. Telling Gu Ximian directly like this didn’t seem like a smart idea…
But she didn’t want to just make up some story to get by, especially since she had already promised Gu Ximian. So Zhuang Chi agonized over it for a long time, and by the time she went to bed that night, she still hadn’t figured out what to say. Her unusual state was naturally noticed by Gu Ximian. The person lying beside her suddenly took her hand, curled a knuckle to hook her finger, and whispered, “What’s wrong? Is it that difficult?”
It seemed she had misunderstood, thinking Zhuang Chi couldn’t sleep because she was sleeping with her. Zhuang Chi didn’t want Gu Ximian to get the wrong idea, so she turned over, pulled Gu Ximian into her arms, and said gently, “No, I’m just thinking about how to say it… Let’s sleep first. It’ll be better after some sleep.”
Perhaps sensing the hesitation in Zhuang Chi’s words, Gu Ximian thoughtfully didn’t press further and fell asleep nestled in her arms. Sleepiness gradually crept up on Zhuang Chi as well. She vaguely thought that maybe she should consult the notebook again, and then she drifted into a dream—
【Hello. Pardon the intrusion.】
…She met the notebook in her dream. Zhuang Chi walked silently to the desk, looked at the notebook that had already opened by itself, and smiled. “Did you come to my dream because you knew I wanted to see you?”
【No. Did you want to see me very much?】 The notebook’s reply was somewhat unexpected to Zhuang Chi. 【I came to see you because I have something to tell you.】
Zhuang Chi’s heart stirred. She remembered the notebook had once said, “In the future, I will only contact you again when a real problem arises in this world.” She instantly grew nervous. “Did something happen?”
【Yes.】 The notebook gave an affirmative answer, but quickly continued, 【It’s not a bad thing, you don’t need to worry too much.】
【It’s mainly about the power you gave to Gu Ximian.】
Zhuang Chi looked at the notebook, but at that moment, she heard the sound of footsteps approaching from a distance. She abruptly looked up and saw a figure slowly walking towards her in the distance—
“…Zhuang Chi?”
It was Gu Ximian. She looked completely unaware of the current situation, her face tense with confusion and nervousness. She only relaxed a little upon seeing Zhuang Chi and jogged to her side. Zhuang Chi reached out and took her hand, feeling a real, warm touch. She quickly realized that this was her Gu Ximian, not some illusion in a dream.
She looked back at the notebook and saw that two new lines had silently appeared on it.
【That power underwent some changes after you marked Gu Ximian.】
【Therefore, I believe it is necessary to come and explain it in person.】
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