Marking My Arch-Rival [Rebirth] - Chapter 5

Ji Shihuan had no idea what her sudden appearance had disrupted.

After Jiang Boyan left, she returned to the banquet hall and stayed a while longer. Once she had spoken to Nie Zheng, she departed early.

The parking garage on the second basement level was livelier than usual. As Ji Shihuan walked through it, she repeatedly heard hurried footsteps.

At one corner, she accidentally overheard a conversation.

“Are you sure she came down here?”

“Yes. I saw her enter the elevator myself.”

“Her car is still here.”

“Keep searching. Send more people to block the exits.”

“…”

Ji Shihuan made no effort to conceal herself, and the sound of her footsteps quickly drew their attention.

The two sides encountered each other in the passageway. Ji Shihuan saw that they were two male bodyguards dressed entirely in black.

Probably unwilling to cause further complications, they lowered their heads toward her and voluntarily stepped aside.

Ji Shihuan found her car and had just unlocked it when she caught the scent of freesia.

Following the fragrance, she circled around a nearby pillar and found a woman crouching in the shadows.

The woman wore a fitted black dress with wave-shaped silver rhinestones decorating its hem.

Ji Shihuan moved closer, her calf brushing against the woman’s knee through the fabric.

The woman abruptly trembled.

The next moment, someone lifted her chin.

Ji Shihuan’s fingers became damp with the fragrant sweat on Jiang Boyan’s skin. Its smooth, warm texture reminded her of a piece of superior mutton-fat jade kept in her family’s collection.

Yet the woman before her was clearly far more precious than even priceless jade. Despite hiding in the darkness, she remained breathtakingly vivid, without the slightest trace of dullness.

Jiang Boyan’s gaze was unfocused.

Their eyes met for a brief moment, but Ji Shihuan could not tell whether Jiang Boyan had recognized her.

Recalling the bodyguards she had encountered and looking at Jiang Boyan’s feverish, disheveled state, Ji Shihuan formed a specific guess.

“This is bad.”

She leaned close to Jiang Boyan. It was difficult to tell whether her voice contained more sympathy or excitement at watching the spectacle.

“They’re looking for you. Your secret is about to be exposed.”

Jiang Boyan grabbed her arm, trying to use it to stand.

But the moment she straightened her legs, her body weakened and slid downward.

She closed her eyes, unable to bear confronting her own miserable condition.

Then an arm suddenly circled her waist.

The next moment, she fell against a warm embrace.

“What should we do?” Ji Shihuan asked. “Do you need my help?”

Jiang Boyan had been tormented by her rising temperature for nearly half an hour. Her mind was dizzy and muddled. She barely managed to organize a few thoughts, but she was incapable of expressing them clearly.

She turned her head, her hair brushing against Ji Shihuan’s nose, and looked toward the corner where she had been hiding.

Too sweet.

Ji Shihuan complained inwardly.

Following Jiang Boyan’s gaze, she found a hotel key card lying on the floor.

Before she could decide what to do, the people searching for Jiang Boyan arrived.

One sharp-eyed man in black quickly spotted them and approached at a brisk pace.

Ji Shihuan frowned unhappily.

“Miss.”

The man paused to catch his breath before cautiously asking, “What happened?”

The unavoidable scent of Omega pheromones in the air had already completely exposed Jiang Boyan’s presence.

Ji Shihuan raised a hand and covered the gland on the side of Jiang Boyan’s neck.

Looking at the two uninvited guests, she smiled without warmth.

“What do you think?”

“Ahem.”

The man rubbed his nose.

“Your companion doesn’t appear to be feeling well.”

He looked suspicious, repeatedly attempting to peer at Jiang Boyan.

“Do you require assistance?”

Ji Shihuan tightened her arm and pulled Jiang Boyan completely into her embrace.

With half-lidded eyes, she looked at the man contemptuously.

“Try it.”

Alpha pheromones differed greatly in strength.

The moment Ji Shihuan released her displeasure at being disturbed, the two men opposite her immediately began trembling. Even the amorous thoughts aroused by the Omega pheromones vanished completely.

Unlike them, the previously quiet Jiang Boyan released a soft moan and voluntarily pressed closer, rubbing against Ji Shihuan’s neck.

“Tsk.”

Ji Shihuan lowered her head and teased her.

“That impatient?”

With that, she lifted Jiang Boyan into her arms and carried her past the men toward the elevator.

Jiang Boyan was already barely conscious, and Ji Shihuan was in too much of a hurry to check anything else.

Neither of them noticed the lonely white handbag left behind beneath the pillar.

Ji Shihuan carried her to the room corresponding to the key card.

Omega pheromones overflowed everywhere, and the suppressant patch at the back of Ji Shihuan’s neck had long since stopped working.

She placed Jiang Boyan on the bed and tore off the useless patch with one hand.

Without attending to herself, she grabbed Jiang Boyan’s arm.

“Where are your suppressants?” Ji Shihuan asked. “Aren’t you always extremely meticulous? How could you make such an elementary mistake?”

How could Jiang Boyan possibly understand her now?

Following the force of Ji Shihuan’s pull, she fell into her embrace.

After catching the scent of the other woman’s Alpha pheromones, she obsessively pursued it, rubbing her cheeks and lips against Ji Shihuan.

Ji Shihuan pulled her away.

Separating their clinging skin felt no better than forcibly tearing apart a strip of adhesive tape.

She was just about to curse when she lowered her head and saw cloudlike patches of pale pink blooming across Jiang Boyan’s skin.

“…”

Ji Shihuan swallowed the profanity and pushed her away before beginning to search the room alone.

She checked the bedside cabinet and searched through the drawers. She even went through the bathroom, but she found nothing resembling Omega suppressants.

After only a few minutes, fine sweat had already appeared across her forehead, and every breath she exhaled felt scorching hot.

Ji Shihuan decisively gave up.

She found her handbag at the foot of the bed and opened it, intending to apply a fresh suppressant patch first.

While she was still searching, two arms reached around her from behind and wrapped themselves over her shoulders.

“Stop fooling around.”

Ji Shihuan had not taken an Omega in heat seriously.

But she had never expected Jiang Boyan to be bold enough to kiss her gland.

For both Alphas and Omegas, the gland was undoubtedly one of the most sensitive organs.

Ji Shihuan had already been drawn into a mild susceptible period under Jiang Boyan’s influence. Now that her gland was being kissed, fine electrical currents surged through her entire body.

Jiang Boyan knew none of this.

She was merely following instinct, searching for the scent that made her feel comfortable.

Kissing was clearly not enough.

Her lips soon became more urgent. She extended her tongue to lick the skin before changing to an even more explicit sucking motion.

The next moment, the world spun.

Ji Shihuan restrained both her hands and pressed her onto the bed.

The handbag fell to the floor, spilling several brand-new suppressant patches.

But their owner, who had been urgently searching for them moments earlier, no longer noticed them at all.

“Do you know what you’re doing?”

Ji Shihuan narrowed her eyes.

Jiang Boyan struggled to focus her gaze on her face.

“Ji Shihuan…”

Ji Shihuan was surprised that she could still recognize her.

She slightly loosened her grip and turned her gaze elsewhere.

“Calm down. I’ll put on a suppressant patch, then go to a pharmacy and buy you—”

Before she could finish, Jiang Boyan’s body pressed against her like a water snake.

She hooked her arms around Ji Shihuan’s neck and extended her tongue to lick the sweat from Ji Shihuan’s chin.

Then, like a child who had just tasted something sweet, she greedily sought more.

Ji Shihuan leaned backward and pressed against her shoulders to stop her from approaching.

Jiang Boyan looked at her through tear-filled eyes, her expression both aggrieved and desperate.

“You really are…”

Ji Shihuan’s reason had been driven to the edge of a cliff and was barely holding on.

She raised her hand and slipped her fingers between Jiang Boyan’s parted lips, pressing down on the soft tongue that had just caused trouble.

It was originally meant as a warning.

But Ji Shihuan quickly discovered a strange pleasure in it, and her fingers began moving inside Jiang Boyan’s warm mouth.

She watched as Jiang Boyan’s expression gradually became pained. Silver strands of saliva she could no longer contain slid from the corner of her lips.

An inexplicable trace of satisfaction arose within Ji Shihuan.

Yet she failed to realize that both Jiang Boyan’s pain and her own pleasure were merely by-products of desire.

In the air, two highly compatible pheromones entangled and blended until it was impossible to distinguish one from the other.

When Ji Shihuan withdrew her fingers with a soft popping sound, her reason shattered along with it.

She lowered her head, her gaze falling upon the wave-shaped hem of the dress.

Then she lifted it and reached deeper beneath it…