Yun Chuji breathed a sigh of relief at her words and paced back to her room.
Normally, she would read for another hour and a half after this, but today, she couldn’t muster the energy. The classical texts that usually fascinated her had been completely replaced by the memory of Tang Jianxi’s touch in the car, her gasps, and the sweat that had fallen from her face onto the nape of her own neck.
She couldn’t stop herself from thinking about it, just as she couldn’t stop her body from reacting again now.
Yun Chuji looked down at that familiar yet alien part of herself with a sense of shame, even beginning to consider that perhaps becoming a eunuch was a good idea.
But her father often said that those wicked creatures who had been castrated had a certain malevolent air about them, which was why they were born so stupid and venomous.
In that case, being a eunuch would not only earn her the scorn of her ancestors after death but also make her life miserable while she was alive.
Torn, Yun Chuji abandoned the idea.
She took out the Xuan paper and brush she had bought a few days ago—with money from Miss Tang, to be honest.
And thinking of Miss Tang, she inevitably thought of—
No!
Stop!
Yun Chuji dipped her brush in thick ink, and elegant, small regular script gradually filled the paper.
Yun Chuji began by copying the Admonitions for Women, then moved on to The Analects, and then The Spring and Autumn Annals, yet she still couldn’t find a passage that could truly extinguish the fire within her.
Was she a woman now?
Yes.
But was she entirely a woman?
Not entirely. The part of her that was male was precisely the part that was now burning, beyond her control and conscious will, just burning.
The Admonitions for Women was for governing women, but the books for governing men never mentioned how to control this part of oneself.
They all spoke of how a gentleman should be content with his lot, how a gentleman should aid the world, how a gentleman should seek harmony without uniformity, and how a gentleman should act for righteousness, not for profit.
Ah, Confucius had said that a gentleman’s conduct toward women should be neither too distant nor too close, for closeness breeds disrespect, and distance breeds resentment.
But was that enough?
The more Yun Chuji wrote, the more confused she became. The more she wrote, the more she thought of her elder brother, who had kept several paramours in brothels since he was sixteen. He only settled down after marrying his wife, but he still brought several concubines into his home.
Her father had quite a few concubines as well.
Yet the Yun family was still said to have proper morals, because the men never fooled around outside the home.
Yun Chuji used to believe this, but now, as the male and female parts of her body warred within her, she was lost.
Restraint is a woman’s virtue.
Restraint is also a man’s virtue.
But why, for the very same thing, was the standard of conduct so vastly different for men and women?
Perhaps, she thought, the answer was in the books.
She hadn’t read enough.
Her grandfather had read enough, which was why he had only one wife, her grandmother.
Her father and elder brother often said they were far from being gentlemen. She used to think it was humility, but now, Yun Chuji felt it was likely the truth.
Her heart finally calmed. Yun Chuji turned on her optical computer and began her hour and a half of pre-sleep reading for the night.
The next morning at breakfast, the moment their eyes met, they both, by unspoken agreement, avoided their usual seats.
Now, a table and a wide diagonal angle separated them.
Auntie Chen was an excellent cook, so good that even someone like Yun Chuji, whose sense of taste wasn’t particularly sharp, could appreciate it. That was why, in an era where housekeeping robots did most of the cooking, Auntie Chen had firmly established herself among the great households through her culinary skills alone.
But today, both of them were clearly eating without tasting their food. More was left on their plates than had been eaten.
Tang Jianxi stood up, and Yun Chuji followed suit. According to their routine, they were supposed to hold hands on their way to the door.
Yun Chuji rubbed her hands together, feeling inexplicably timid. The vigorous and uncontrollable desire from last night had truly frightened her.
However, this was their agreement.
Gritting her teeth, Yun Chuji started walking toward Tang Jianxi, but Tang Jianxi’s decision was clearly the opposite. She didn’t wait for Yun Chuji and walked straight outside.
Auntie Chen, who was clearing the dishes with a housekeeping robot, looked at the young couple with some concern. Have they had a fight?
Yun Chuji felt a strange sense of loss and relaxed her clenched fist, but she still followed Tang Jianxi out. She saw her then—Tang Jianxi was waiting for her at the door.
To be honest, Tang Jianxi was deeply conflicted.
Perhaps it was because of the permanent mark, or perhaps it was because of the temporary one from last night, but just smelling the faint trace of Yun Chuji’s pheromones seeping from under her inhibitor patch made her legs feel weak. Beyond the weakness, she felt a contradictory urge to move quickly—to get closer to that alpha.
Tang Jianxi felt ashamed of herself for this, yet she couldn’t resist the impulse.
Is this what it feels like? The omegas locked away at home, the omegas who give birth endlessly like animals—is this what they all feel?
What kind of sinister mind could have devised such a constitution to shackle people to their reproductive value? For the countless time, Tang Jianxi felt the urge to drag that mad scientist from the ruins of history and subject him to the most extreme punishment.
However, looking at the alpha’s equally restless posture—she was even more flustered than Tang Jianxi, and even more ashamed of her own body.
Tang Jianxi’s heart inexplicably calmed.
Facing this soul from millennia ago, Tang Jianxi opened her arms just as she had yesterday morning, and an embrace fell into her arms.
It was the same warmth as yesterday.
After the hug, Yun Chuji intended to let go, but Tang Jianxi held her by the waist, preventing her from leaving.
“Let’s hug a little longer,” she said.
Ordinarily, Yun Chuji would have had no objection to this. They were both women, after all.
But after what happened yesterday, she felt her body was somewhat out of her control. So she leaned close to Tang Jianxi’s ear and whispered, “I’ll… I’ll have a reaction.”
Tang Jianxi’s face went cold as she pushed her away.
Hmph, alphas.
But actually, besides that, Yun Chuji had something else to say. “About that, the pheromone soothing, is it tonight? In my room or yours?”
“Tonight. I’ll come to you.”
After saying those six words, Tang Jianxi left without a backward glance.
She was as coolly composed as the domineering omega protagonist in a popular S-District drama who had just dumped three alphas—if only her ears weren’t so red.
But fortunately, Tang Jianxi’s hair was long enough to hide most of the evidence, which made Yun Chuji feel a pang of shame. We are both women, yet Miss Tang is so magnanimous. Why must I be so timid?
Of course, they were both women, but Miss Tang and the other women of this world were especially different from her in one regard: they all showed their faces in public.
If Yun Chuji had transmigrated at her mother’s age, she might have felt compelled to persuade them to return to the home. But thanks to her youth, she was at an age of infinite curiosity about the world. This curiosity had been artificially suppressed for years, and now, suddenly finding herself in a more lenient environment, she had little inclination to interfere with others. She was wholly preoccupied with the thought, What should I do?
Her lifespan was no longer just one year. Yun Chuji knew she wasn’t the type to become a renowned scholar who would spend her entire life poring over the classics; she was just a simple woman hoping to gain a humble understanding of the Four Books and Five Classics.
So, how should she spend all the years that remained? In this world, with no family, no responsibilities, nothing familiar—how could she live?
Should she show her face in public like other women?
Yun Chuji didn’t know if she could do it. At that moment, she remembered Teacher Chu’s invitation. Perhaps that was a good way out?
Yun Chuji shook her head, subconsciously rejecting the idea. She wasn’t the original owner of this body. The books she had read and the knowledge she had acquired were pitifully scarce. If she went there under a false identity, she would only make a fool of herself.
She turned and walked back into the villa.
In any case, she still had a year to hide here with Miss Tang.
Night fell quickly. Tang Jianxi didn’t know what possessed her, but she came home more than an hour earlier than usual. Work was still piled up, yet she had no mind to deal with it. In the end, she could only drive home, silently fuming at herself.
Look at you, Tang Jianxi, you’re making mistakes with your eyes wide open!
You’re being a fool!
What’s so great about alphas!
It’s just pheromones, isn’t it?
Tang Jianxi cursed herself endlessly in her mind, but the moment she saw the person sitting primly in the living room reading a book, all the voices went quiet. It was inexplicable.
It was probably because of the pheromones.
“Ahem.” She cleared her throat.
It was a very rude way to interrupt someone’s concentration.
But the person who was disturbed wasn’t angry. On the contrary, what shone in those eyes was, ah, delight.
Tang Jianxi looked at her and was reminded of a small cat she had raised in her childhood. It would always wait for her just like this, obedient and quiet.
In the entire house, it was the only living thing that waited for her with single-minded devotion. Everyone else had their own things to do; everyone else was always busy with their own things.
Tang Jianxi pressed her lips together, softened her voice, and explained, “There was a little less work today.”
Ugh, why am I explaining!
Tang Jianxi clenched her fists and coughed again.
“Are you not feeling well?” the tactless alpha asked.
The warmth in Miss Tang’s eyes instantly cooled. She shot the other woman a glance, then started up the stairs, saying, “Get yourself clean. I’ll come find you later.”
Very good, Tang Jianxi, that’s the way. Omegas can be this domineering too.
Behind her, Yun Chuji, who had seen some of the world but not much, slowly opened her mouth in shock. This… this tone of voice… she seemed to have heard her elder brother use it with his concubines.
She nervously fiddled with the corner of her clothes, but remembering the safety of the previous two encounters, she finally calmed her heart and headed to her room, and then to the bathroom.
When Tang Jianxi pushed open the door to the adjacent room, she was greeted by the sight of an alpha who had been washed clean and smelled fragrant. In that instant, she was struck by the feeling that she was corrupting a child.
She couldn’t help but cough again as she gently closed the door.
Both of them were dressed very conservatively, as if they might have to go out in the middle of the night. Tang Jianxi nodded in satisfaction and, for the first time, stood at the agreed-upon distance of three meters.
“You can begin.”
Yun Chuji sat on the bed, her hands clutching the bedspread, and tried her best to release her pheromones. The scent of orchids instantly filled the room. Tang Jianxi, sitting on the chaise lounge, silently peeled off her inhibitor patch. The mark on her gland had not yet faded; it was still red. Under the influence of the orchid scent, it gradually grew moist.
And released its own scent.
In the chaos of their previous encounters, and because Tang Jianxi’s pheromones were so faint, Yun Chuji had never been able to identify their specific scent.
She still couldn’t now. It was a scent she had never smelled before, one she didn’t know how to describe.
It was very faint, with a hint of coolness, and what seemed to be a touch of saltiness.
She spoke up and asked, “Miss Tang, may I ask what your pheromones smell like?”
Tang Jianxi’s expression froze. In the ABO era, this question was actually extremely sensitive, about as sensitive as asking for someone’s measurements in the pre-ABO era. And what made it even more sensitive was asking for measurements after they had already been completely bare with each other several times.
“You can’t tell?”
Yun Chuji lowered her head in shame, and the flow of her pheromones slowed. “I’ve never smelled this scent before.”
Right, this one was an antique.
“It’s the scent of an iceberg at sea,” Tang Jianxi replied, a bit awkwardly.
Yun Chuji’s eyes widened, and she instinctively began to imagine the scene.
She had never seen the sea, nor had she ever seen an iceberg, but the combination of those few words was enough to convince her that it must be an incredibly beautiful sight.
“I will definitely go see it one day.”
Oh, for heaven’s sake!
This sentence was also very sensitive!
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