Chapter 2

“Then you might just get your wish.”

When those words reached Ye Shuangqi’s ears, she didn’t understand them at first. Thinking Zhu Jinyue was taunting her by saying she would be disappointed, she indignantly prepared to snap back. The words were already on the tip of her tongue when realization suddenly struck.
Get her wish…?

By then, Zhu Jinyue had already taken a couple of steps into the staffroom, leaving her with only the sight of her tall, slender back.

If she hadn’t been standing there watching, Ye Shuangqi would never have noticed how perfectly Zhu Jinyue’s hair was tied into that beautiful high ponytail.
Her hair was gathered high before falling naturally, inky strands spilling over her spotless white school uniform. The back of her head was nicely rounded, and her movements revealed a slim, fair neck.

Without realizing it, Ye Shuangqi found herself stealing glances at that little patch of skin on the back of her neck.

Would she have a gland there just like hers?
What would it feel like to bite it?

…Wait! What on earth was she thinking now?!
Had differentiating actually changed the way she felt about her nemesis?

No, no!!

Ye Shuangqi shook her head vigorously.

A nemesis was a nemesis. A nemesis could never become her wife!
If she became her wife, then what would all that suffering she’d endured count as?!

A reward.

…Like hell!

Ye Shuangqi mentally berated herself.

Was this really the time to use the memes she’d picked up from all her internet surfing?!

Seeing Zhu Jinyue coming back with the papers, ready to leave, Ye Shuangqi hurriedly stopped her. “Wait. Explain yourself. What did you mean just now?”

The girl before her lowered her gaze, her long lashes casting shadows beneath her eyes. Then she suddenly looked up, her small, delicately shaped lips moving. “You’ll know in a week.”

“A week?” Ye Shuangqi was even more confused. “How do you know when you’ll differentiate?”

Zhu Jinyue suddenly let out a laugh.
She rarely smiled in front of Ye Shuangqi, so the sudden change was like snow melting beneath a warm spring breeze. Her rosy lips revealed a few straight, white teeth, and there were even two faint dimples in her cheeks.

Ye Shuangqi stared, momentarily spellbound. By the time Zhu Jinyue said, “It’s a secret,” she didn’t even have time to react before the other girl seized the opportunity to leave the staffroom.

Aaaaaah…!
Since when had the enemy learned to use her looks as a weapon?!

Ye Shuangqi stood there fuming helplessly until a teacher entered the staffroom and smilingly asked what had brought her there today. Only then did she hastily make up an excuse and return to class.

Xu Jingzhe was already bent over her desk, working through practice questions. Seeing her return, she suppressed a laugh. “Back from stealing your paper?”
Ye Shuangqi slapped the paper onto her desk in annoyance. “You’d better sleep with one eye open tonight.”

If it weren’t for the fact that Xu Jingzhe had done what she’d promised…
Speaking of which, Ye Shuangqi asked curiously, “How did you tell Zhu Jinyue?”

Xu Jingzhe stopped writing and hesitated. “Tell her what?”
Ye Shuangqi said, “About my differentiation.”

“I haven’t told her yet.”
To keep Ye Shuangqi from wanting to murder her again, Xu Jingzhe hurriedly added, “Zhu Jinyue headed to the staffroom not long after you left. I didn’t get a chance!”

Then how had Zhu Jinyue known?

Ye Shuangqi pondered this.

Was she really that smart now?

“Forget it. Do you think…” Ye Shuangqi hesitated, choosing her words. It took her a while to piece together the question she wanted to ask. “Under what circumstances would someone know when her own differentiation would happen?”

“She traveled back in time,” Xu Jingzhe said without even looking up.

Ye Shuangqi: “…”
Ye Shuangqi: “Could you take my question seriously?!”

Xu Jingzhe leaned a little closer, though her eyes never left her paper. “Who are you talking about? Zhu Jinyue?”

“How did you know?”

Xu Jingzhe burst out laughing. “Does anyone else’s name ever come out of your mouth?”

Ye Shuangqi’s gaze slid away.
That might be true, but why did it sound so strange coming from Xu Jingzhe?!

Thoroughly deflated, she slumped over her desk and poked her deskmate’s elbow, tirelessly pestering her. “She said she’ll differentiate in a week. How does she know?”

“Maybe rich people have some secret method the rest of us don’t know about,” Xu Jingzhe said offhandedly.
Ye Shuangqi asked, “Then why don’t I have one?”

“Oh,” Xu Jingzhe said. “Then you don’t count as rich.”

With all that joking around, Ye Shuangqi soon forgot what she had originally wanted to ask.
More and more classmates returned from their lunch break, and she felt awkward about continuing to talk. She shut her mouth and obediently started finishing the paper she had left undone last night.

Only when the bell rang did Ye Shuangqi finally lift her head and loosen her shoulders and neck.

And what a sight greeted her. A girl was following their homeroom teacher, Ban Song, into the classroom. Perhaps it was because Ye Shuangqi talked about Zhu Jinyue so often, but she could actually see a faint resemblance to her in the girl’s features.

She instinctively watched Zhu Jinyue out of the corner of her eye, but the other girl never even looked up, her gaze fixed on the paper in her hands.
…Putting on an act again.

Ban Song cleared her throat twice. Once she had the class’s attention, she introduced the girl beside her.

“This is our new transfer student, Ye Zhiyun. Please get to know her.”

After a scattering of applause, Ban Song pointed her toward a seat. “There’s only one seat left, in the back row. Sit there for now. If it doesn’t work for you, I’ll arrange something closer to the front later.”
The girl murmured a quiet “Thank you,” then stole a glance at Zhu Jinyue, who was sitting in the front rows diligently working on her questions, before stepping down from the platform with her schoolbag on her back.

Ye Shuangqi wasn’t sure whether she had imagined it, but the girl seemed to glance her way before leaving the front of the room.

Her surname was Ye too…
Although meeting people with the same surname wasn’t particularly unusual, Ye Shuangqi still picked up on it immediately.
She watched the transfer student from the corner of her eye as she sat down and organized her schoolbag. After listening to Ban Song say a few more things at the front, she finally returned her attention to the paper before her.

Time was precious in the final year of high school. Most people wouldn’t waste their energy paying attention to someone else.
Zhu Jinyue, for example.
From beginning to end, Ye Shuangqi never saw her look up to spare the transfer student another glance.

But there were also people like Ye Shuangqi, who weren’t quite so passionate about studying.
The college entrance exam wasn’t her only path in life, after all, so she naturally had a little more freedom.

Ye Shuangqi was very curious about what circumstances could have made this transfer student change schools at such a crucial time.
With less than a year left, would she be able to ​bailiantales.com​adjust? Who knew what her parents were thinking, being so unconcerned about it.

Forget it. Ye Shuangqi shook her head.
It had nothing to do with her anyway.

After class, Ye Shuangqi went to the staffroom to register her differentiation results with Ban Song.
To prevent incidents on campus, all students had to report their results to the school as soon as they finished differentiating and wear suppressant patches or similar protective items. They were also permitted to carry suppressants.

After dutifully filling out the form, Ye Shuangqi asked Ban Song, “Miss, back then, could you roughly sense when you were going to differentiate?”

“Why are you only asking that after you’ve finished?” Ban Song took the paper she handed over, put it in order, and filed it in the cabinet. “I thought you’d be more interested in asking about your rut.”

“We covered that in health class,” Ye Shuangqi said. “Why would I need to ask?”

Ban Song chuckled. “True enough. Are you asking because you felt something before you differentiated?”

Ye Shuangqi answered honestly, “No, but I have a friend… She guessed when her differentiation would happen.”

Ban Song didn’t ask who that friend was. “Has she finished differentiating, then? Did it happen when she expected?”

Ye Shuangqi hesitated. “…Well, no.”

“Then she’s just joking,” Ban Song said.
A few seconds later, she added, “Still, if it’s close, your body can indeed start feeling a little different. Didn’t you ​Read on BaiLianTales​keep running a low fever the week before you differentiated?”

Reminded of this, Ye Shuangqi remembered.
She really had taken three or four days off because of a low fever. Even her menstrual cycle had become irregular, and she’d had no appetite.

Maybe that was how Zhu Jinyue had guessed.

Having gotten her answer, Ye Shuangqi put the matter out of her mind.
Zhu Jinyue had said she would get her wish, anyway. All she had to do was wait.

*

“You’re saying Ye Shuangqi’s pheromones smell like citrus and brandy?”
Zhu Jinyue stared at the teenager before her, her voice cool.

Ye Zhiyun blinked and nodded.

An incredulous expression immediately appeared on Zhu Jinyue’s face. “How is that possible…? I hate the smell of alcohol more than anything…”
She still couldn’t believe everything she had learned over the past few days and kept asking questions over and over. “Did Ye… Did your mom and I get married as part of an alliance between our families?”

Ye Zhiyun shook her head. “Mommy said you got married in a whirlwind after you started dating. She brags to me every day about how in love you were back then. I’ve heard it so often my ears are growing calluses.”

Zhu Jinyue: “…”

She and Ye Shuangqi, in love?
Zhu Jinyue thought back over all the times she had tattled on Ye Shuangqi since they first met. She couldn’t believe the other girl could love [bailiantales.com]her with the fiery passion their daughter described.

“What do my pheromones smell like, then?” she asked.

Ye Zhiyun looked upward, her mind blank for a long while before she remembered. “Mommy said your pheromones smell like lying in a bed of flowers. I guess they must be floral?”

Zhu Jinyue closed her eyes helplessly.

“Mom, can I really not tell Mommy who I am?” Unwilling to give up, Ye Zhiyun asked the same question for the fifth time since she and Zhu Jinyue had acknowledged each other as mother and daughter.
Mom was great too, of course, but Mommy would take her out to skip class, eat delicious food, and do fun things! Just thinking about it made her happy! Surely the whole point of accidentally traveling back to Mom and Mommy’s high school days was so she could have a good time!

She cautiously glanced at Zhu Jinyue’s expressionless face. Mom was much scarier now than she was in the future. She had no idea how Mommy managed to grin and flirt with her every single day.

“No.”
Zhu Jinyue coolly refused her daughter’s request.

She wasn’t normally one for many words, but seeing Ye Zhiyun’s disappointed expression, she finally softened her tone and offered a few words of comfort. “Your mommy… Ye Shuangqi doesn’t believe in anything supernatural. If you suddenly approach her and tell her who you are, she’ll only think you’re a scammer.”
“But you thought I was a scammer too!” Ye Zhiyun protested. “…You only believed me after you saw the parentage test report!”

With the report as proof, Zhu Jinyue knew Ye Shuangqi would acknowledge this daughter no matter what.
But the problem was… she wasn’t ready for Ye Shuangqi to know that they would fall in love, get married, and even have a beautiful, sweet daughter together.

Even less did Zhu Jinyue want Ye Shuangqi or Ye Zhiyun to see through her private little agenda, so she vetoed the idea outright. “Preparing for the college entrance exam is what matters most right now. We can’t interfere with your mommy getting into university.”

Ye Zhiyun wanted to say something, but after thinking it over for a long while, she swallowed her words and gave a glum “Oh.”