Chapter 4

Her neither loud nor quiet scolding made the entire classroom fall silent in an instant. Lin Xiaowen stood frozen in place.

In that moment, probing, shocked, and excited gazes all came over. Every gaze contained the same thought:

Xie Shuyun… had stepped forward to speak up for Cheng Lingxue?

“Xie… Young Master Xie, I… Eek!”

Lin Xiaowen wanted to explain, but Xie Shuyun’s sharp gaze frightened her so badly that she trembled. Even without releasing pheromones, the aura emitted by a high-ranking alpha was not something ordinary people could compare to. What’s more, Lin Xiaowen was only an A-rank omega. Her whole body was like a rabbit being stared down by a ferocious beast, trembling in fear.

“Did she bump into you just now?” Xie Shuyun asked with her arms crossed.

“This… I…”

Under Xie Shuyun’s gaze, Lin Xiaowen felt as though all her malicious thoughts had been exposed.

But… but she had clearly done this kind of thing many times before. She had even done it in front of Xie Shuyun. Why was Xie Shuyun standing up this time?

Hadn’t she always supported it…?

“Then apologize.”

Her chaotic thoughts were interrupted by those four words. Lin Xiaowen raised her head in a daze and subconsciously responded,

“Huh?”

“Since she didn’t bump into you, then you were the one who bumped into her. Isn’t it only right to apologize?” Xie Shuyun said righteously.

“I… no…”

Lin Xiaowen wanted to refuse.

Asking her to apologize to Cheng Lingxue? What kind of joke was that?

But the person standing in front of her was Xie Shuyun. She could only lower her head, grit her teeth, and say vaguely,

“…Sorry…”

After saying that, she did not wait for Xie Shuyun’s response and immediately ran out of the classroom.

“Eh, eh… Why did she run away?”

Looking at the girl’s departing back, Xie Shuyun only felt baffled. Shang Yan leaned [bailiantales.com]closer and clicked her tongue with a laugh.

“Yunzi, you didn’t make her cry, did you?”

“I don’t think I did anything, right?”

Xie Shuyun scratched her cheek uneasily.

Could it be because she was an omega, so her emotions were more sensitive?

But…

Xie Shuyun looked at Cheng Lingxue, who was pinching her jacket between her fingertips as if she were holding something dirty, her face expressionless as she stared at her.

This…

If all omegas were emotionally changeable, then the female lead O had probably mutated.

“Your uniform is dirty. Do you want me to help you buy a new set?”

Xie Shuyun hurriedly took her jacket back and stuffed it into Shang Yan’s arms, then walked to Cheng Lingxue’s side and asked.

“…No need to trouble yourself.”

Looking at Xie Shuyun standing so close to her, Cheng Lingxue took a step back to create distance. She did not understand what kind of scheme this person was playing now.

Was she trying to pretend to be a good person?

“But going to class like this isn’t good either. I’ll buy you a new set—”

Before Xie Shuyun could finish persuading her, she saw Cheng Lingxue take out a brand-new uniform from her bag. She even vaguely saw that there seemed to be more than one set inside. That posture made it seem as though Cheng Lingxue had long known what she would encounter at school.

That action made Xie Shuyun’s heart ache.

What kind of life did she have at school that she needed to carry so many spare uniforms with her?

Xie Shuyun did not want to think about it, and she did not dare to think about it, because the cause of everything was basically the original body.

“Do you need anything else?”

Cheng Lingxue looked at Xie Shuyun with rippleless eyes and asked coldly.

Xie Shuyun shook her head.

Watching Cheng Lingxue quickly leave, she touched her nose.

Just now, she had made someone else speechless. Now Cheng Lingxue had made her speechless instead.

Was this what they called the wheel of fortune turning?

“Yunzi, hurry back to your seat. Class is about to start.”

Shang Yan urged softly from the side, pulling Xie Shuyun back from her thoughts. Her gaze swept around the classroom, and all those probing eyes instantly withdrew. Only then did she return to her seat, propping her chin up as she waited for class to begin.

Before the teacher arrived, Cheng Lingxue returned to the classroom after changing her uniform.

Her seat was far away from Xie Shuyun, in the first row. It suited the seat of a top student very well.

At the same time, Xie Shuyun also noticed that the classmates around Cheng Lingxue subconsciously avoided her. They were probably afraid of being implicated.

This also meant that perhaps at school, Cheng Lingxue did not even have a single friend she could talk to.

The morning classes passed while Xie Shuyun was absent-minded.

When noon arrived, Shang Yan kept urging her, and only then did Xie Shuyun come back to herself. The classroom was already empty, and even Cheng Lingxue was nowhere to be seen.

“Yunzi, you’re really different today. You actually stood up for the school beauty. Could it be [unauthorized copy]that something shocked you?”

As Shang Yan spoke, she touched her own neck, her hint extremely obvious.

“I saw that the school beauty was wearing a bite-prevention collar. Don’t tell me you fell for the smell of her pheromones?”

Cheng Lingxue’s… pheromone scent.

Xie Shuyun could not help but recall that sweet fragrance, the milky scent filled with refreshing coconut. Warm, silky, and smooth.

Honestly speaking, milky pheromones did not match Cheng Lingxue’s cold and aloof image at all.

But she had to admit, that scent lingered in one’s mind, making one want to savor it more deeply…

“Yunzi. Hey, Yunzi!”

Xie Shuyun blinked and met Shang Yan’s gossip-filled gaze. Only then did she realize what she had just been thinking, and her face immediately heated up. She quickly quickened her pace.

“Hurry up and go to the cafeteria. If we go late, we’ll have to line up for a long time.”

Shang Yan stood stunned for several seconds before jumping in place in shock.

“Wait for me! Since when do we need to line up at the cafeteria? Yunzi, your face turned red just now, didn’t it? You stolen contentactually blushed? Don’t tell me you’re embarrassed?”

The two bickered noisily all the way before finally arriving at the cafeteria.

Seeing the luxurious decorations inside, Xie Shuyun could not help but click her tongue. How was this a cafeteria? It was clearly a five-star buffet restaurant. And those high-end ingredients that should not appear in a school cafeteria at all—

Was this the life of rich people?

Holding a tray, Xie Shuyun looked around the cafeteria but did not see Cheng Lingxue anywhere. She could not help asking,

“Why don’t I see her?”

“You mean the school beauty?”

After swallowing the food in her mouth, Shang Yan shrugged and said casually,

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen the school beauty eat in the cafeteria. Mm… she probably takes food outside to eat. After all, seating here is limited. There are courtyards and gardens outside. Some people like eating there.”

Outside.

It was break time right now. Would someone go trouble Cheng Lingxue again?

She was still in her heat period. Even with the bite-prevention collar, it was still hard not to worry.

Xie Shuyun forced herself to eat a few more bites, but in the end, she could not suppress the unease in her heart. She stood up, took a plastic container, and poured the food from her plate into it.

“Huh? Yunzi, what are you doing?”

“I’m going outside to eat. You can enjoy your meal here slowly. See you in afternoon class.”

“What? Wait—hey!”

Ignoring the shout behind her, Xie Shuyun was just about to quickly leave the cafeteria when she thought for a moment and turned back again. She packed another box of food before running out.

She arrived at the courtyard planted with flowers, grass, and trees.

Sure enough, just as Shang Yan had said, there were quite a few pavilions here, as well as stone paths where students could walk around after meals and relax.

The shade of the trees blocked some of the scorching sunlight, adding a trace of coolness. Resting here was indeed nice. It really was a good place.

As she sighed in admiration, Xie Shuyun wandered along the little paths. The place was also extremely large, and walking around it made her feel a little dizzy.

It was not until she reached a more secluded corner that she heard a sleazy male voice.

“Isn’t this the school beauty? Why are you here alone? In such a hidden place too. [bailiantales.com]Don’t tell me you’re secretly meeting someone here?”

“Hahaha, maybe she’s waiting for us, Boss.”

“So the school beauty likes to play like this. Why don’t you come to the bar with us today and have some fun? We guarantee you’ll enjoy yourself so much you won’t want to leave.”

The other voices echoed along. Their lazy, laughing attitudes were truly unpleasant.

Xie Shuyun gently pushed aside the wall of branches in front of her and saw Cheng Lingxue blocked in a corner. In front of her were five boys wearing earrings, with dyed hair in all sorts of colors. Even their uniforms had been modified. They were clearly a group of delinquents.

Xie Shuyun frowned slightly.

Cheng Lingxue had encountered people looking for trouble twice in one day. Wasn’t this frequency a little too high?

Wait.

According to the plot in the book, Cheng Lingxue should have already been marked and unable to come to school now. Her arrival had changed the direction of the story.

Could this be the plot correcting itself?

Just thinking about it was terrifying.

At this moment, there was also a faint voice of doubt among stolen contentthe delinquent group. A thinner boy said softly,

“But… I heard Eldest Miss Xie stood up for her today. Is it really okay for us to do this?”

As soon as he said that, a boy beside him pushed him so hard that he staggered and nearly fell to the ground. The boy spat and said,

“Monkey, can you stop being such a coward every time? Eldest Miss Xie probably only helped her on a whim. If she really wanted to help, she would’ve done it long ago. Tch… Betas are just like this. Not a bit of courage.”

After saying that, the boy pointed at Cheng Lingxue’s neck as if he had discovered something surprising.

“Boss, look! The school beauty is actually wearing a bite-prevention collar… Could it be…”

As he spoke, the boy exchanged looks with the others. The vulgar and covetous expressions on their faces all showed clearly.

An SS-rank omega.

She was an existence they would never have dared to dream of before.

But they really wanted to know what she was like…

The leading boy also seemed very tempted. He licked his lips, his tone carrying a trace of hoarseness.

“That bite-prevention collar couldn’t be fake, read the original at bailiantales.com could it? Just some decoration? How could Eldest Miss Xie possibly give you something like that to wear… Come on, let me take a look…”

The boy reached his hand toward Cheng Lingxue.

A rotten-fruit smell instantly rushed into Xie Shuyun’s nose, almost making her vomit.

Her body seemed to have been provoked by something. Xie Shuyun only felt heat at the back of her neck, and something burst out, blocking off that disgusting scent.

…So gross.

Wait…

Damn it.

Was that person using pheromones against Cheng Lingxue?

Looking at Cheng Lingxue’s already poor complexion, now disturbed by that boy’s pheromones, her brows were tightly furrowed, and her body looked somewhat unsteady.

Xie Shuyun’s face darkened.

No longer caring whether she would be punished or not, she grabbed the branches in front of her and yanked hard.