Chapter 29: “But Your Pheromones Are Overflowing.”
“—Pheromones are a person’s second face.”
This was the subtitle used by the Ole Empire’s Differentiation Research Center when it released the pheromone statistics report in the year 1007 of another world.
Because she had never agreed with the Ole Empire’s domestication and alienation since she was young, Ming Fei, still a child at the time, felt that this subtitle was full of ambiguity.
Now, for the first time, she clearly perceived the pheromones of Zhu Yiqiao, who was also an alpha. Although she hadn’t taken any physiology classes after differentiating, she knew that mutual repulsion could occur between members of the same group.
But… Zhu Yiqiao’s pheromones smelled so good.
She wasn’t sensitive to smells, but she immediately recognized it—it was her favorite woody scent.
She subconsciously wanted to discern the specific fragrance further, but her unwavering reason relentlessly reminded her that this was a very offensive and transgressive act. So, she took off the pheromone bracelet from her wrist and handed it to Zhu Yiqiao.
“Jiejie, you use mine first.” She explained, “I’ve put on a suppressor patch and learned how to control my pheromones.”
“Okay.”
For some reason, Ming Fei felt that Zhu Yiqiao’s final glance at her was a little strange, like a human observing an unfamiliar creature in a cage.
Because there were still many military personnel and officials outside, Ming Fei didn’t ask any more questions for fear of revealing their secret.
After seeing Zhu Yiqiao securely fasten the bracelet, Ming Fei picked up her own bracelet, which had fallen to the ground and become unresponsive, and handed it back to Zhu Yiqiao, who had returned to her usual indifferent demeanor.
The cold fragrance in the room immediately faded, the previous rich surge as if it had been just a fleeting illusion.
Zhu Yiqiao extended her hand towards her: “Let’s go out.”
Ming Fei took her hand: “Mm.”
They walked out. The bright and spacious banquet hall was surrounded by military personnel, and the soldiers in the center were detaining three deputy ministers and councilors from Silla. The Chief Superintendent of Taiya, seeing Zhu Yiqiao, immediately walked over.
“Chief Judge Zhu, please apologize to Executive Lan on my behalf. I will definitely give the Trial Court an explanation for tonight’s incident.”
The head of the police department didn’t look young, with streaks of silver already appearing at her temples. And because of her gentle appearance and manner of speaking, she seemed more like a politician than the Chief Superintendent who dealt with vicious criminals.
Zhu Yiqiao said coldly, “Chief Superintendent Qian, I hope the Trial Court can investigate Bai He together with the police department.”
Bai He was the Minister of Civil Affairs of Silla, and she was clearly involved in tonight’s attack and assassination attempt. The Trial Court had been investigating the whereabouts of the research institute, and Zhu Yiqiao didn’t want to hand over all the leads to Taiya for investigation.
Chief Superintendent Qian, knowing she was at fault, nodded: “Of course. Please rest assured, Chief Judge Zhu, the police department will fully cooperate with the Trial Court in the investigation.”
“Mm.”
Chief Superintendent Qian’s gaze shifted to Ming Fei, and she said, “Chief Judge Zhu, I will increase the number of personnel to protect your safety during this time.”
Zhu Yiqiao, who had already arranged for people to be stationed around the hotel, didn’t refuse.
They talked a little more about tonight’s incident. Five minutes later, Zhu Yiqiao left St. Gesali with Ming Fei.
Taiya First Military District Hospital.
After the black hovercar entered the parking garage, Zhu Yiqiao and Ming Fei took the elevator upstairs. Arriving at the sixteenth floor of Building Three of the inpatient department, they walked hand in hand towards Ward 009.
Inside, Lan Lubai, wearing a hospital gown, was video chatting with Min Man, who was back in the Independent State of Yi Meng.
She was pale, but her lips were curved upwards, and her emerald green eyes sparkled with amusement. While listening to Min Man on the other end of the video call, she played a virtual game on the game console in the room.
It wasn’t until the door opened and she saw Zhu Yiqiao and Ming Fei enter that she turned off the game and started to act pitiful.
“Yiqiao, that Bai He fought unfairly, otherwise, in a one-on-one fight, I would have taken her down in three moves.”
“I made a huge sacrifice this time, wuwu.” She blinked, hinting, “It’s my birthday next month, why don’t you give me—”
Zhu Yiqiao directly stuffed an apple into her mouth and started talking business with Min Man on the screen.
“Bai He is from the research institute.”
Min Man’s expression turned serious: “I guessed as much. In the last gene theft case, the Trial Court found that the SE Group’s gene theft activities were linked to Taiya. I didn’t expect that Silla, which has always been moderate and neutral, would also be involved.”
“Perhaps it’s more serious than we initially thought.”
Zhu Yiqiao actually remembered who Bai He was. This Minister Bai, who had been openly pursuing her since she was transferred to the Trial Court, had sent her private messages many times. Apart from necessary official contact, she had never paid attention to Bai He, let alone wasted time replying to her invitations.
If Bai He had been in contact with the research institute three years ago, then all her public displays of affection and invitations were premeditated attempts at something more sinister.
The image on the screen flickered, and Min Man then asked, “Should we re-investigate the other countries?”
Zhu Yiqiao said, “All of them.”
“Okay.”
Min Man asked, “I didn’t have time to ask just now, is Teacher Ming okay? I heard from Lubai that the first bullet was aimed at her.”
Ming Fei, who had remained silent since entering the room, greeted Min Man at Zhu Yiqiao’s prompting glance.
“Thank you for your concern, Executive Min, I’m fine.” After saying that, she quickly added, “By the way, please don’t tell Zaozao, she’ll worry.”
Min Man said, “Okay, I will keep it a secret from Teacher Ming for now.”
Ming Fei, having finished the conversation, returned to her original position. She took out her phone, logged into 008’s system intranet, and after setting the command to prohibit the disclosure of this news, she opened 008’s video library and looked at today’s recordings of Ming Zaozao.
Ming Zaozao seemed to have grown a little taller in the past half month.
But because of the sudden drop in temperature, she was always bundled up warmly indoors, and her winter appetite was good, making Ming Zaozao’s little round face even rounder, so it was a little difficult to tell from her appearance whether she had grown taller or not.
Ming Fei secretly decided to measure Ming Zaozao again when she got back. If she had grown taller, she would make her favorite jujube cake. Of course, even if Ming Zaozao hadn’t grown taller, she would still receive many gifts and the most delicious Ming Fei-brand jujube cake.
Ming Zaozao in the video was very cute, and Ming Fei watched with a smile in her eyes. It wasn’t until Min Man suddenly had something to do and hung up the video call that her thoughts were brought back by Zhu Yiqiao’s voice.
“Who was the other person in the compartment?”
Lan Lubai was already munching on an apple, her eyes narrowed slightly as if in recollection, but in the end, she still couldn’t remember.
“Looks familiar, but I can’t remember the name.”
“I ran into them when I went to find Chief Superintendent Qian. At that time, Bai He was still acting as usual. She asked me where you were, and I didn’t want to pay attention to her, then the person next to her suddenly lunged at me.”
“I thought she was a little strange at the time, so I didn’t use excessive force. At first, her physique was normal, and I had the upper hand.” Lan Lubai took a vicious bite of the apple, as if venting her anger. “But soon, she seemed to lose her mind and wanted to bite me, and her physique and strength suddenly increased. I judged that she had been injected with some kind of illegal drug. Just as I was trying to lure her into the restroom to deal with her, that despicable Bai He attacked me from behind with a silenced pistol.”
“The bullet grazed my left shoulder, and the other person took advantage of my distraction to knock me down. Bai He followed behind her and injected me with an anesthetic.”
After listening, Zhu Yiqiao said calmly, “That person shouldn’t be a test subject of the research institute.”
Lan Lubai widened her eyes, putting on an act: “Yiqiao, you’re not concerned about me at all after hearing this? I was actually injured!”
She continued to complain, and after listening, Zhu Yiqiao asked, “When can you be discharged? I need you to join the investigation.”
Lan Lubai’s fake crying became even louder, and she quickly looked at Ming Fei next to her.
“Teacher Xiao Fei, look at Yiqiao, she doesn’t know how to care about the Jiejie who went through life and death with her.”
Ming Fei hesitated to speak.
Under Zhu Yiqiao’s gaze, Ming Fei decided to ask, “Then what did the doctor say?”
Lan Lubai threw the apple core into the trash can: “The doctor said at least a week.”
Ming Fei was a little surprised because Lan Lubai seemed perfectly fine at the moment, not to the extent that she needed to be hospitalized for a week.
Zhu Yiqiao, who knew her friend’s personality very well, asked back, “A week?”
Lan Lubai conceded, “Okay, it’s actually five days.”
The naive Ming Fei then asked, “Five days?”
Lan Lubai couldn’t bear to deceive her: “Well, four days would be fine too.”
Finally, meeting Zhu Yiqiao’s icy gaze, Lan Lubai raised her hands in surrender: “Okay, okay, two or three days! That little graze doesn’t even need a medical pod. I can be discharged after two days of observation if everything is fine.”
The moon was like water.
It was already eleven o’clock at night when they returned to the hotel in the main urban area.
Ming Fei almost dozed off during the car ride and managed to stay awake until they returned to the hotel, but the sleepiness was dispelled by the thought of sharing a bed.
The snowy scenery outside the French windows was beautiful and dreamlike. Ming Fei sat on the single chair and waited, and only saw Zhu Yiqiao’s reflection in the French window when the bedroom door creaked open slightly.
After washing up, Zhu Yiqiao let down her long curly hair, took off her Trial Court uniform, and changed into a simple black nightgown. For some reason, Ming Fei felt that Zhu Yiqiao, reflected in the French window, looked like a black rose in the snow.
Cold, elegant, beautiful, and with thorns born from growing in a harsh environment.
Ming Fei turned around: “Jiejie, I’ll go take a shower.”
“Mm.”
Ming Fei, as if fleeing, hurried into the bathroom with her pajamas. After showering and drying her long hair, Ming Fei changed to a new pheromone suppressor patch. Perhaps because they shared a bathroom, Ming Fei noticed a faint woody scent in the air.
Based on the type of pheromone, she guessed that Zhu Yiqiao’s differentiation level should be very high, while she, after differentiating, had become a defective alpha of the lowest level due to an accident.
But she didn’t care about these things.
She was herself, and no matter what category or level she belonged to, she didn’t care about the definitions imposed by the Ole Empire.
Therefore, she had no intention of prying into Zhu Yiqiao’s past.
After leaving the bathroom, she slowly approached Zhu Yiqiao, who was reading documents, and was just about to say that she planned to sleep on the single sofa in the living room.
But as she took a step, Zhu Yiqiao looked up and asked,
“Ming Fei, didn’t you use a suppressor patch?”
Ming Fei paused: “Jiejie, I just changed to a new one.”
After saying that, to prove that she wasn’t lying, she even pulled her long black hair to the right side, exposing the gland on the back of her neck for Zhu Yiqiao to inspect.
“I didn’t lie to you,” she said softly. “I really used one.”
Because they had already established a foundation of trust, Ming Fei didn’t think there was anything wrong with letting Zhu Yiqiao check whether she had applied a suppressor patch. She was even worried that Zhu Yiqiao couldn’t see it, so she naively asked,
“Jiejie, did you check?”
At this moment, Zhu Yiqiao noticed that Ming Fei’s pear scent was still continuously emanating, as if countless sweet and juicy pears had been cut open in the room. And the information on her Trial Court official website wasn’t fake, she really did like to eat pears.
In the Ole Empire’s pheromone statistics report, there were no alphas whose pheromones smelled like pear. Only omegas had sweet, fruity scents. Although a very small number of alphas had fruit-type pheromones, they were never… sweet.
Thinking of something, Zhu Yiqiao said, “Come closer.”
Ming Fei didn’t suspect anything: “Okay.”
She obediently moved closer, letting her most vulnerable weakness be exposed to Zhu Yiqiao’s view, and only turned to look at her when Zhu Yiqiao spoke again.
“At St. Gesali, you said you had learned to control your pheromones.”
Ming Fei nodded blankly: “Mm.”
“But your pheromones are overflowing.”
“The teacher in your basic physiology class should have taught you that for a differentiated alpha or omega to release pheromones, it’s either a challenge or a courtship.”
Zhu Yiqiao asked slowly, “Ming Fei, which one is it?”
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