Chapter 1
At seven-thirty in the evening, at the VB Gala red carpet venue.
Using the vanity mirror inside the car, Song Xu gave her styling one final check. It was perfect. There wasn’t a single problem.
She took a deep breath. Once the extended black Bentley came to a stop, an attendant stepped forward, bowed, and opened the door for her. The previously enclosed, quiet space was immediately flooded with noise. The continuous clicking of photographers’ shutters and the fans’ increasingly deafening screams from behind the barricades poured in, and Song Xu could vaguely make out her own name among them.
The broadcast camera stationed at the starting point immediately swung toward Song Xu when the car door opened, feeding the footage into the livestream in real time.
Almost the instant Song Xu appeared, the livestream’s already massive audience of tens of millions surged to an astonishing number. Her name, displayed in her official fan-support color, swept uniformly across the comments.
Onscreen, the woman slowly stepped out of the car. The draping skirt of her dark green gown inevitably brushed against the car door before settling across the velvet red carpet, creating a striking contrast.
The camera continued moving upward before finally focusing on Song Xu’s exquisite features, following her with a camera crane as she walked.
Song Xu knew the position of every camera along this red carpet by heart. She even remembered exactly where the ground-level tracking cameras would appear.
Song Xu cradled a bouquet of jasmine spray carnations in her left arm as a prop while raising her other hand to greet the camera. Her confident, gracious smile was flawless, and beneath the flashes, her delicate skin appeared luminous white.
As planned, she walked to the signature wall bearing the event organizer’s logo and posed for the cameras. When it came time to sign her name, however, she didn’t do what everyone else had done.
To everyone’s surprise, Song Xu took the pen and approached the nearest camera. Seeing this, the director immediately switched the livestream feed to the camera in front of her, and her face suddenly filled the narrow rectangular screen.
Because of the angle and distance, the livestream audience could see only the upper half of her face and her hand moving back and forth as she wrote her name.
The woman’s long platinum-blonde hair cascaded softly along her cheeks. Her gray-black eyes looked as though they held a pool of clear spring water, tender and focused, creating the illusion that she was gazing affectionately at each viewer through the screen.
Listening to the screams behind her rise in wave after wave, Song Xu knew she had secured the number-one trending spot.
.
“Hey, did you see? You-know-who is wearing Aurora Aria’s haute couture from this season again.”
“Don’t even mention that brand to me… We’re obviously around the same level, but I can never borrow anything from them. Didn’t they say Young President Lu got tired of Song Xu ages ago? Why are they still happy to let her wear every season’s new designs? I don’t think any of her other lovers get treated this well.”
“Hey, don’t say her name!” The woman in a white suit hurriedly elbowed her companion. “It’ll be bad if she hears you.”
All the celebrities who had finished walking the red carpet had gathered on the first floor of the villa. The enormous, magnificent crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling illuminated the entire foyer as brightly as day.
Zhong Shuting scoffed, clearly ignoring the other woman’s warning. “So what if she hears me? If you ask me, she only got where she is today because Young President Lu supported her. What does a resource-backed celebrity who can’t play anything except naive, sweet girls have to be proud of? She has no noteworthy work, her looks are nothing special, and she’s only a Beta. The day Young President Lu no longer wants her will be the day she’s finished.”
Merely mentioning someone she hated was enough to make Zhong Shuting angry, and the angrier she became, the more she wanted to continue venting. Quick-eyed and quick-handed, she snatched a cocktail from a passing attendant’s tray. As the pale yellow liquid went down, warmth burned from her stomach all the way up her throat.
Unable to stop herself, she covered her mouth and coughed dryly twice before continuing haltingly, “Anyway, I think being a kept canary like her is pathetic enough. If she were an Omega, Young President Lu wouldn’t have to go out every day looking for some oth—”
Her voice stopped abruptly.
Chen Ai instinctively wanted to ask why she had suddenly stopped talking, but before she could open her mouth, the Omega’s sensitive nose caught the faint scent of clean, bitter bergamot.
More precisely, the scent belonged to an Alpha.
An ominous feeling spread upward from the soles of her feet, making her tremble slightly beyond her control.
There weren’t many Alphas in this world—only one in every ten people—and Alphas with fruit-scented pheromones were even rarer.
For example, Young President Lu, Lu Lingze, whom the two of them had just mentioned, was said to have bergamot-scented pheromones.
Young President Lu naturally wouldn’t deign to attend an event like this red carpet. In that case, the person who carried the scent of her pheromones could only be…
Chen Ai’s body stiffened as she slowly turned herself around. The heavy stone weighing on her heart completely crushed her flat when she saw who was standing behind them.
With an awkward yet polite expression, she greeted the very person who had just been at the center of their conversation:
“What a coincidence, Sister Song Xu.”
“Enjoying your conversation, little Chen Ai?” Song Xu wore a faint smile as she raised her wineglass and tapped it against Chen Ai’s. The crisp clink rang out amid the strange atmosphere surrounding the three of them. Song Xu looked past Chen Ai and fixed her gaze on Zhong Shuting.
She recognized that face. Just a few days ago, she had come across a gossip account’s post pitting the two of them against each other.
Song Xu raised her glass toward Zhong Shuting from a distance, then lowered her head and took a small sip.
In Zhong Shuting’s eyes, every bit of this was an outright provocation.
Yet as though something had occurred to her, the corners of her lips, which had remained downturned ever since Song Xu appeared, curled upward into a false smile. Zhong Shuting blinked and looked Song Xu’s evening gown up and down.
The theme of tonight’s red carpet was “Glamour,” so most people had instinctively chosen eye-catching, warm colors for their outfits. Song Xu, however, had taken a different approach and worn a one-shoulder evening gown with dark green as its primary color, leaving her beautiful collarbones and the square-cut emerald necklace resting against her swanlike neck completely exposed.
The fabric over her chest featured a crossed-pleat design that extended to the side of her waist, where it was adorned with a simple green bow that beautifully outlined the woman’s slender figure.
Aurora Aria’s founder and artistic director, Ms. Lu Heqing—Lu Lingze’s biological mother—had a particular fondness for layered designs. Zhong Shuting studied the gown, which was dark green on one side and made of semitransparent, pale beige tulle on the other, and couldn’t help sneering again.
Song Xu had only been passing by when she heard someone gossiping about her behind her back, so she had come over to see what was going on.
She happened to notice an acquaintance waving to her from nearby. She nodded in that person’s direction to indicate that she was coming, then said evenly to the other two, “I’ll be going now. Excuse me.”
“Yes, yes, of course. Please go ahead.” Chen Ai was only a step away from bowing and scraping before her. At the same time, she felt genuinely relieved that this formidable presence was finally leaving.
Unexpectedly, just as Song Xu turned around, an accident occurred. A server appeared from nowhere and collided with her, spilling every last drink on the tray over the hem of Song Xu’s gown. Wineglasses shattered across the floor.
Song Xu hissed in pain. When the server instinctively crouched to pick up the broken glass, Song Xu caught her by the arm first and hauled her back to her feet.
Suppressing her physical discomfort, Song Xu frowned and spoke, but she wasn’t reprimanding the other woman. “Be careful not to cut your hands. It would be better to have someone bring a broom.”
“I’m sorry. I truly didn’t do it on purpose.” The server’s eyes reddened with fear, tears glistening in them as though they would spill at any moment.
The people who had previously been chatting in groups of twos and threes nearby all gathered around curiously. With so many people surrounding her, the young woman nearly forgot how to breathe and could only keep apologizing. “I’m sorry, I’m really sorry… Miss Song, why don’t you take off the gown and give it to me? I’ll have it cleaned and return it to you, all right?”
“Having an evening gown like that cleaned isn’t cheap,” someone in the crowd casually remarked. Those few words nearly crushed the person before them.
Even Zhong Shuting spoke her first words to Song Xu that evening. “Song Xu, you aren’t going to make things difficult for a server, are you? Are you worried Young President Lu will blame you for dirtying the gown?”
“Please stop talking—” Chen Ai’s voice floated like a ghost’s, her soul nearly frightened out of her body.
Did people not even bother hiding it when they targeted someone these days?!
“Of course not. It’s only a gown,” Song Xu said, without so much as sparing her a glance.
After warning the people around them about the broken glass on the floor, Song Xu comforted the server a little more and promised that she wouldn’t demand compensation. Only after the other woman finally stopped crying did Song Xu feel reassured enough to head backstage and change her clothes.
“I should take you there,” the server offered.
Considering that she truly wasn’t very familiar with the layout of the place, Song Xu nodded in agreement. Out of the corner of her eye, however, she noticed Zhong Shuting standing to the side and watching them.
Song Xu wasn’t sure whether it was her imagination, but she thought she saw Zhong Shuting smile.
Before she could take a closer look, the server spoke and interrupted her. “Miss Song, please follow me this way.”
Song Xu withdrew her gaze and nodded.
She followed the server at a moderate distance as the noisy chatter gradually faded behind them. After taking one turn after another, they finally stopped before a long corridor.
The server gestured ahead, then turned to Song Xu and said, “Miss Song, please wait in the changing room. I’ll contact someone to bring you clean clothes shortly.”
“Thank you for the trouble.” Song Xu gave her a gentle smile, her eyes curving warmly. Anyone could tell at a glance that it was sincere.
The girl’s footsteps paused.
“…You’re welcome. It’s what I should do.”
“Just keep going straight. The changing room is at the very end. I’ll be back soon.”
With that, she turned and left without looking back.
Song Xu remained where she was and watched until the other woman disappeared from sight before proceeding down the corridor.
Yet the farther she went, the more she sensed that something was wrong.
A thick blue carpet covered the Western European court-style corridor, completely swallowing the sound of Song Xu’s footsteps. Oil paintings and long, milky-white candles alternated along the walls on either side, with the occasional door between them. The faint crackle of burning wax added an unusual quality to the desolation.
A familiar scent drifted through the air.
It was like a crisp pine forest after the rain, its medicinal and woody notes mingled with the bright fragrance of citrus peel. Amid its quiet stillness was a faint, elusive allure. The closer she drew, the clearer the scent became.
It smelled like gin.
She walked straight to the end of the corridor and tentatively knocked on the tightly closed door. There was no response. She tried turning the handle next. It opened, but she didn’t enter immediately.
Perhaps she was overthinking it, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong with that server, not to mention the final look Zhong Shuting had given her…
After hesitating for a moment, Song Xu turned and walked to the right, deciding to lie in wait and see exactly what tricks they were trying to play.
Besides, the scent of alcohol seemed to be coming from this direction.
She placed her hand on the door handle and pressed it downward. With a click, the door actually opened.
Before she could feel pleased with herself, however, a stifled moan suddenly slipped through the gap in the door and entered her ears, making her expression freeze.
The sound seemed both pained and pleasurable. Like a feather, it circled lightly over her heart and gave it a gentle scratch.
Song Xu’s face went red with a whoosh.
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