A Stand-in Alpha Awakens - Chapter 9

The world filtered through the lenses became much softer, and the coldness and loathing in Jiang Lu’s eyes were effectively blocked.

The sunglasses covered nearly half her face, masking her expression so well that even Liang Shuang, standing right next to her, didn’t notice anything amiss.

That is, until Jiang Lu spoke up impatiently: “Please move. You’re blocking the way.”

The smile on Su Mengrui’s face froze. The light in her joy-filled eyes instantly dimmed, narrowing into a dangerous arc. “You don’t remember me?”

Jiang Lu looked down at Su Mengrui’s snake-like eyes. “Do I know you?”

“We can get to know each other now—”

Before Su Mengrui could finish, Jiang Lu brushed past her without a second glance, her rejection icy: “Not interested.”

“Jiang Lu!” Su Mengrui spun around. Her voice, sharp from losing control, drew many curious stares.

It also jolted Liang Shuang out of her confusion over the scene. She quickly chased after Jiang Lu.

After encountering Bai Yue in the cafeteria last time, Liang Shuang had remembered that the Omega who appeared in their classroom was Su Mengrui. She had intended to tell Jiang Lu, but in the busyness of starting the term, she had forgotten entirely.

Now that they had met again, her heart beat like a drum. Something felt very wrong.

However, before she could speak, Su Mengrui caught up to them on her motorcycle.

Hearing the buzzing roar, Jiang Lu didn’t pause for a second. She strode across the street toward the more crowded areas. She didn’t believe Su Mengrui would be reckless enough to cause a scene in broad daylight. After all, the seniors also had Sunday afternoons off; there was no guarantee that the people shopping nearby didn’t know Su Mengrui—or Chu Ziyan.

Su Mengrui’s bike was heavy. After two failed attempts to cut them off, she finally lost her patience. She drove straight toward Jiang Lu, and seeing that Jiang Lu had no intention of dodging, she swerved the handlebars at the last second, grazing toward the Alpha beside her.

Liang Shuang didn’t understand what Su Mengrui was trying to do, but she already understood that Jiang Lu wanted nothing to do with her. Realizing the bike was aimed at her, she leaned to the side and pulled Jiang Lu up the high steps of a shop entrance.

Su Mengrui’s wheel hit the curb. Riding without a helmet, she was seething with rage. The moment she hopped off the bike, she snatched the helmet hanging from the handlebars and threw it with all her might at the Alpha with the high ponytail.

Many people were standing in front of the milk tea shop. In the noisy environment, the sound of the helmet hitting the ground was negligible, and the act didn’t attract much attention.

But the fact that she had missed even at such close range made Su Mengrui even angrier. Since childhood, when had she ever been ignored like this?

“Jiang Lu! Fuck your ancestors! Do you think I’m giving you face for nothing!?”

The shrill scream cut through the air. The people queuing for milk tea, buried in their phones, finally looked up and turned around.

Countless gazes landed on Su Mengrui like spotlights. She glared back fiercely, cursed at the innocent onlookers, and then strode over the helmet lying on the ground to grab ahold of the retreating Jiang Lu.

“Hey!”

“I’m talking to you! Are you deaf!?” Su Mengrui’s pale cheeks were flushed with rage, her eyes fierce and her expression distorted.

Jiang Lu was not yet seventeen, but her height was nearly 175cm. She looked down at the Omega, who was less than 160cm, and her Alpha aura flared out instantly. The atmosphere changed immediately.

The crowd of onlookers seemed to grow.

“I said I don’t know you. Please stop acting like a lunatic.” Her voice was as usual—calm and waveless.

But this “indifferent as water” attitude fell into Su Mengrui’s eyes like cold water splashing into a pot of hot oil, making her lose all rationality.

“Jiang Lu, I’m warning you, don’t throw back the face I’m giving you!” Su Mengrui hissed the threat through gritted teeth.

Jiang Lu easily caught the right hand Su Mengrui swung at her. With her other hand, she removed her sunglasses, her dark pupils reflecting Su Mengrui’s ugly expression. “I’ll say it one last time: I don’t know you. Please stop making up drama for yourself.”

“Making up drama?!” Su Mengrui could hardly believe her ears.

“Yes.” Jiang Lu flung her hand away. “And please stop following me. I really dislike an Omega as lacking in self-respect as you.”

Dislike an Omega as lacking in self-respect as you?

Su Mengrui stood frozen on the spot. After a moment, she burst into a laugh of pure absurdity.

Jiang Lu, however, didn’t care for her reaction. She put her sunglasses back on and calmly walked to the ice cream shop on the other side of the milk tea place, buying the flavors she and Liang Shuang liked.

Since Su Mengrui had betrayed her “trust” and didn’t care if her actions reached Chu Ziyan’s ears, Jiang Lu didn’t mind helping fan the flames. Showing their “conflict” in public had nothing but benefits for her.

The more people who knew Su Mengrui was harassing her, the better.

Thinking this, Jiang Lu handed the ice cream to Liang Shuang. As they walked back eating, she tossed the empty canvas bag into a roadside trash can.

They finished their ice cream just as they reached the school gates. Liang Shuang pulled out a wet wipe to clean her hands, silently replaying the events of the first day and what had just happened.

As they stepped under the shade of the trees, she finally couldn’t hold back: “Jiang Lu, do you really not know Su Mengrui?”

Jiang Lu was examining her new sunglasses. Hearing the name “Su Mengrui” come out of Liang Shuang’s mouth, she almost snapped the frame with her fingertips.

She gave a noncommittal “Mhm” and hooked the glasses back onto the bridge of her nose. “Su Mengrui? You mean that Omega from just now? I don’t know her. Do you?”

“I wouldn’t say I know her, but I’ve seen her once.” Liang Shuang couldn’t see Jiang Lu’s expression, and her suspicion deepened. “During the summer break, the Su family threw a graduation banquet for her. I went that day.”

Jiang Lu was quite surprised. “A graduation banquet?”

When she had time during holidays, she would accompany Ms. Jiang to dinners. As the only child and future heir, she was conscious of her duties. However, Ms. Jiang valued her studies more and wouldn’t let her waste too much time on socializing unless necessary. Thus, Jiang Lu hadn’t known about this.

“Yeah. She graduated from No. 1 High this year. They said she got into B-University.” Liang Shuang took off her own sunglasses and reached out to remove Jiang Lu’s as well.

Locked in eye contact, Liang Shuang’s expression became unusually serious and grim. “Jiang Lu, did something happen between you and her that I don’t know about?”

“No. Why do you ask?” Jiang Lu looked into Liang Shuang’s eyes with a blank expression, her heart honestly recalling the line from the novel: ‘Before this, they had never met.’

Liang Shuang couldn’t find any anomaly, and her heart finally settled. “Good. I heard someone say that day that the Su family was looking for an Alpha for her. I thought…”

“Thought what?” Jiang Lu smiled.

Liang Shuang laughed too. “I thought she’d taken a liking to you and wanted you to marry into her family.”

In this era, marriage was extremely free and not restricted by gender. As long as both parties were willing and of age, anyone could marry anyone. However, as an Alpha—and an Alpha meant to inherit a family business—marrying into the Su family was definitely not a good choice.

“What if she did?” The smile on Jiang Lu’s face grew wider.

Liang Shuang’s face changed instantly. “What if? What does that mean? Jiang Lu, did Su Mengrui really—”

“I’m joking. I’m just talking nonsense,” Jiang Lu patted the startled Liang Shuang. “She hasn’t taken a liking to me.”

She’s just taken a liking to my pheromones. Of course, Jiang Lu didn’t say the second half aloud.

Liang Shuang’s heart had been on a rollercoaster; now it was just hanging there. She clutched her chest and asked the certain-sounding Jiang Lu: “You’re so sure? Then what about the things you said to her earlier?”

Jiang Lu pulled her along as she spoke. “Psh, I just took her for some outside delinquent who fell in love at first sight and got obsessed with me, so I just expressed my annoyance.”

“Oh…?” The end of Liang Shuang’s “oh” pitched upward sharply.

Wait, if you put it that way, how is that different from what I was worried about?!

The fact that Su Mengrui had sought her out twice already spoke volumes about her interest in Jiang Lu! To put it bluntly, Su Mengrui was interested in Jiang Lu!

Hearing Liang Shuang’s anxious analysis, Jiang Lu laughed and shook her arm. “Don’t worry, it won’t happen.”

“Don’t worry? Won’t happen? What’s your basis?” Liang Shuang felt the danger grow the more she thought about it, unable to understand Jiang Lu’s optimism.

Jiang Lu saw that she was truly concerned. Feeling a warmth in her heart, she raised her hands in surrender. “I’ll tell you, I’ll tell you. Just calm down first.”

Liang Shuang: “Speak. I’m very calm.”

Jiang Lu said: “I really hate the scent of the pheromones she gives off. We learned in biology last semester: when the pheromone compatibility between an Alpha and an Omega is lower than 35%, it results in physiological repulsion. The Marriage Law even states that if the bidirectional compatibility is lower than 55%, a marriage certificate will not be issued.”

“Besides myself, the law wouldn’t agree to me marrying her.” Jiang Lu pulled her arm back. “Can you rest easy now?”

Liang Shuang blinked. “Physiological repulsion?” So the reason Jiang Lu’s attitude was so bad was because of that?

Jiang Lu nodded.

Liang Shuang recalled the first day of school when Jiang Lu had rushed into the classroom and suddenly vomited. The furrow in her brow slowly relaxed.

She had heard her mothers chatting before: the Omegas of the Su family, in order to better control their Alpha partners, basically always chose Alphas with a 100% pheromone match. Choosing a bidirectional 100% was considered “true love.”

If it was lower than 35%, it was indeed impossible.

At the same time, in a black business van five kilometers away from No. 1 High.

Su Mengrui glared impatiently at the “long-haired ghost” sitting across from her. “What exactly are you trying to say? I was just riding a motorcycle. You’re not going to report this to Grandmother too, are you?”

“I’m not as idle as you, nor as boring as you think.” Bai Yue didn’t even look at her. She reached into the beige handbag beside her and pulled out a white envelope. “Someone asked me to give this to you. Running into you was purely coincidental. Believe it or not.”

The plain white envelope had nothing on it except for a red wax seal.

Su Mengrui’s face turned deathly pale at the sight of it. In this age of hyper-speed technology, even elderly people who couldn’t type had learned to use phones. There was only one person in her memory who would leave her a message in such a primitive way as a letter.

Her Alpha mother, Jiang Wanxin. A woman who had abandoned her when she was just starting primary school.

“You… you saw her?” Su Mengrui’s voice lost its usual eccentric edge.

Bai Yue’s hand paused on the car door button. “No.”

Su Mengrui grabbed her bag. “Sis, don’t lie to me…”

“She asked a little girl to give it to me,” Bai Yue said. She pressed the button, pulled her bag back, and left without looking back.

Su Mengrui withdrew her hand and stared blankly at the envelope. She pursed her lips and carefully tried to pry up a corner of the seal. Fearing she might damage it, she immediately stopped and told the driver to take her back to her nearby apartment.

To open the letter without damaging it, she needed tools.

Realizing her own cautiousness, Su Mengrui closed her eyes and leaned back against the car seat.

Not long ago, she had thought that in this world, only that little Alpha Jiang Lu was tired of living enough to ignore her like that. She hadn’t expected to be reminded of another so soon. One even more excessive and unforgivable than Jiang Lu.

And yet, she couldn’t forget her or let go. Every time she got even a shred of news about her, she was consumed by obsession, excitement, and joy.

Su Mengrui held the envelope in both hands, her mind uncontrollably imagining what her mother might have written. Twelve years without meeting—did she miss her? Did she regret her impulsive decision?

The last time she received a handwritten letter was three years ago after the middle school exams; her mother had congratulated her on getting into No. 1 High. Did she know she got into B-University this time? Was she proud?

The more Su Mengrui thought, the more restless she became. In her peripheral vision, she saw the driver stop at a zebra crossing to yield to pedestrians. Frantic, she rolled down the window and screamed: “Are you all fucking crippled?! Move faster!”

After the black van drove off, Bai Yue, standing under the shade of a roadside tree, withdrew her gaze. She turned off her glowing phone screen and walked with a light step toward a nearby dessert shop.

Back when she was studying at No. 1 High, every Sunday afternoon during breaks and before going home, she would stop here to buy a large bag of treats. Last time she came, she was too rushed, but delaying today had allowed her to witness quite a “show” for free.

It was rare. That “strawberry-brain” Su Mengrui was actually interested in that cold, cool little Alpha. No wonder she had run into her at the school last time.

Bai Yue thought about the Chu family her grandmother had mentioned a few days ago. She lowered her eyes and swiped open her vibrating phone. “Hello?”

“Hello, Miss Bai.” The female voice on the phone was exceptionally serious. “The matter you commissioned has been investigated. One week ago, Miss Su did indeed conduct a pheromone compatibility test. However, the source of the other pheromone is unknown; we can only confirm it is a young Alpha who has not yet experienced an Enigma/Rut period.”

“Alright. Thank you.” Bai Yue hung up. The face with the pink sunglasses appeared in her mind, alongside the eyes filled with hidden blades she had accidentally glimpsed at the cafeteria door that day.

To be honest, compared to Chu Ziyan, this little Alpha was much more interesting.