So cute I could die. I want to kiss her.
“Teacher Yu smells so good!”
“I know, right? Her pheromone scent is such a perfect match for her, it’s like they’re completely one and the same. Working with her is the ultimate enjoyment for the eyes and the nose…”
Before entering the dressing room, Yu Luo heard the staff members inside chatting.
Her hand, poised to push the door, paused for a moment. Her fair fingertips turned pink and curled slightly.
Due to long-term injections of severely excessive inhibitors, her pheromone concentration had always been maintained at a level below 0.01%, and no one could smell it.
When people had expressed confusion about this in the past, she had always fobbed them off with the excuse that her glands were sick.
But ever since she started using the scented balm Qi Song had given her, that clear, snow-like fragrance had been stable and long-lasting. Everyone around her assumed her glands had healed and that this scent was her pheromone fragrance.
Every day, someone would compliment her on how good she smelled, their voice full of amazement.
It wasn’t that she hadn’t thought of buying a bottle of perfume before. But Yu Luo knew that the more people said it smelled good, the more shame it would bring to her sensitive and fragile heart—this was, after all, an artificial, mass-produced perfume. You praise the scent I bought, yet you have no idea what a repulsive smell is hidden beneath my glands.
But the balm from Qi Song was different.
“This is your scent.”
That day, the young woman’s gaze had been sincere as she told her that the balm smelled exactly like the fragrance she had smelled on the skin of her neck, a true body scent that belonged only to her.
“It’s usually very faint, only noticeable if you press your nose close to the skin and sniff carefully,” Qi Song had once said. “But whenever Jiejie’s body temperature rises because of shyness or a heat cycle, it becomes richer.”
Yu Luo was cool and distant in front of others, so no one had ever gotten close enough to smell it. Coupled with the fact that she herself couldn’t detect this scent that had fused with her own body, Qi Song was the only witness.
Ever since she started applying the balm to her glands, every time she was complimented on her nice-smelling pheromones at work, Yu Luo couldn’t help but feel flustered and a warmth spreading through her heart.
Shy, inexperienced, and cautious—you are all genuinely praising my real scent.
It was as if… I wasn’t always going to be avoided like snake and scorpion, pitied, or despised because of my scent.
Her past experiences had made Yu Luo almost paranoid about the matter of scents. And the gift that Qi Song had spent two years, all her thought and energy, to give her had already integrated into every inch of her life, silently and slowly healing her fragility and self-loathing.
“Why are you just standing at the door?” Her manager Chen-jie’s1 voice sounded beside her. “Didn’t you say you were going to pick up your little sister for dinner?”
Yu Luo snapped back to her senses and pushed the door open. “I’ll just grab my bag and go.”
“Let me give you two a ride. I have to run some errands anyway.”
“Okay, thank you for the trouble, Chen-jie.”
It was the evening rush hour, so the traffic on the way to the school was a bit heavy.
“Find a shop with air conditioning near the school gate and sit for a while. There’s a bit of a traffic jam right now, so Jiejie might be a little late.”
“Mm, be good.”
Just as Yu Luo put down her phone, she heard Chen-jie laugh teasingly, “Teacher Yu really has two different sides to her. Usually so cool and aloof, but when you talk to your little sister, your voice becomes impossibly gentle.”
“…” Yu Luo was silent for a moment.
“Ah, I’m running my mouth. After all, she’s your tongyangxi2, of course you have to treat her gently,” Chen-jie added, deserving a smack.
Having personally witnessed Yu Luo’s scheme of pretending to be drunk to cling to the kid last time, Chen-jie’s worldly-wise eyes had already seen through everything.
The words “tongyangxi” shocked Yu Luo so much that she choked on her own saliva. Overcome with guilt, she covered her lips and coughed until her eyes misted over and her cheeks turned crimson.
“Hey, hey, hey, I’m sorry.” During a pause in traffic, Chen-jie quickly reached out to pat Yu Luo’s back, extremely worried.
“My dear ancestor3, don’t you cough yourself sick; you were just discharged from the hospital a few days ago…”
Yu Luo’s coughing slowly subsided, and she instructed with unsteady breaths, “You must not tell her about me being in the hospital.”
“You get sick every other day. Have you never told her?” Chen-jie asked.
Yu Luo looked out the window. “Mm,” she hummed. “She’ll cry.”
“And the gaokao4 is coming up soon. I can’t let her get distracted.”
She had seen Qi Song secretly wiping away tears from being too worried when she used to get sick frequently in the autumn and winter. That sight was too pitiful; she couldn’t bear to see it a second time. Fortunately, since her work had become busier, she had room to hide things, always choosing to see Qi Song when she was in good health.
Chen-jie sighed. “Although as your manager, I’m very pleased that my only artist is so dedicated to her work, I also genuinely see you as a little sister. You need to pay more attention to your own body.”
“I don’t know what’s wrong with you, your constitution is just so weak. You catch a cold if you’re not the least bit careful, and you’re always getting a high fever and put on an IV drip. Last time it was forty degrees, I was worried you wouldn’t make it.”
“The doctor even said that if you keep going on like this, you’ll have a hard time living to forty…”
Yu Luo listened to her nagging without a word, her hand tightening on the seatbelt in front of her.
In the end, she just said in a low voice, “Once this busy period is over, I’ll start working out consistently.”
“That’s more like it,” Chen-jie said. “After this busy period, your little sister will have just finished the gaokao. Put both your studies and work aside for a bit. You both need to rest and recover.”
As they chatted, the car had already arrived at Qi Song’s school gate.
Seeing the tall, graceful figure of the young woman under the parasol tree through the windshield, Yu Luo was momentarily lost in a daze.
Qi Song had been watching the intersection, paying attention to every passing vehicle, so she spotted Yu Luo’s car immediately.
The corners of her lips instantly curved up, and her steps became light and quick, full of youthful energy.
As always, she first stopped outside the window on the side where Yu Luo was sitting.
Yu Luo rolled down the window and, with practiced ease, reached out to stroke the young woman’s head as she leaned in, asking gently, “Didn’t I tell you to wait in a shop? It’s too hot outside.”
“I couldn’t wait,” Qi Song said, gazing at her without blinking. “I missed you so much.”
Yu Luo’s hand, which was stroking her head, paused. Her chest felt tight, and her cheeks began to heat up.
Beside them, Chen-jie reminded them helplessly, “You two can have your sisterly bonding session later. If you dawdle any longer, you’ll be seen by passersby.”
After all, Yu Luo was now an extremely popular actress, and she always needed to be careful when she went out.
Qi Song blinked, greeted Chen-jie obediently, and got into the back seat.
Chen-jie didn’t want to be a lightbulb5, so she dropped the two of them off at the restaurant they had booked and left.
As soon as Yu Luo entered the private room, someone clung to her from behind, hugging her tightly and calling out incessantly, “Jiejie, Jiejie…”
Feeling a little overwhelmed, Yu Luo gripped the back of the chair. She didn’t have the heart to push the person away and just curved her lips in a silent smile.
They really hadn’t seen each other in a while.
“Jiejie smells so good,” Qi Song said, her nose pressed lightly against the side of Yu Luo’s neck, nuzzling the delicate skin.
An unavoidable desire rose in her heart, and she fought to restrain herself from kissing her.
She was still just a pitiful minor.
After letting Qi Song cling to her for a while, Yu Luo finally pushed her away, simultaneously straightening the collar of her school uniform that had been messed up from the nuzzling, and said softly, “Alright, let’s eat first.”
The dishes had been ordered in advance and were quickly served.
Qi Song sat next to Yu Luo and skillfully served her food6, asking with concern:
“Have you been very busy with work lately? I feel like Jiejie has lost a lot of weight. You need to eat more.”
Yu Luo had only been out of the hospital for a short time and had a poor appetite; she didn’t really want to eat dinner.
She changed the subject. “You’re usually busy with your studies and can only eat at the cafeteria. You should take this chance to eat more of your favorite foods.”
“That’s not true. Jiejie clearly has her assistant send me lavish meals all the time.” Qi Song could tell she was changing the subject.
Yu Luo had deliberately put on makeup before coming to cover her pale complexion.
Therefore, Qi Song couldn’t see it, but she was instinctively worried. “You really need to eat more.”
Seeing the woman give a perfunctory hum from her throat while eating so little and so slowly, Qi Song’s brows furrowed slightly. She suddenly pressed down on Yu Luo’s chopsticks.
Yu Luo looked over, not understanding, and blinked lightly, her gaze full of innocence.
“If Jiejie won’t eat properly, I’ll feed you.”
Qi Song said it word by word, her tone carrying a seriousness that brooked no refusal.
This was the little puppy she had raised herself. Yu Luo had never been afraid of her, let alone intimidated by her now.
Thus, she didn’t realize the gravity of the situation, only thinking that Qi Song was fierce in appearance but timid inside7, and was just saying it casually.
Her eyebrows twitched, and she played along with Qi Song’s words, her tone deliberately rebellious:
“No.”
The air suddenly froze with those two words.
In the young woman’s gradually darkening eyes, Yu Luo felt a tingling sensation run up her spine, and her heart began to race.
In this sudden sense of crisis, before Yu Luo could react, she felt something rush towards her, followed by a wet, hot pain on the skin of her neck, making her let out a low hum—
She’d been bitten.
For the first time, Yu Luo learned that the little puppy she had raised could also bite.
She was completely unprepared, stunned into a momentary daze.
By the time she came to her senses, she saw Qi Song holding a spoon in one hand. Lying in it was deboned braised fish and plump white rice, held to her lips.
The young woman’s rosy lips parted slightly. “Ah—”
Coaxing her to open her mouth and eat.
In the heart-pounding shock of being suddenly bitten, Yu Luo obeyed involuntarily, actually opening her lips obediently to eat.
“Jiejie is so good.” Qi Song’s eyes curved. With the hand that wasn’t holding the spoon, she touched the woman’s long, black curly hair and stroked it gently.
“…” Yu Luo’s fair ears began to flush and burn.
She looked at the satisfaction spreading in the young woman’s eyes and knew that this person was genuinely worried because she had lost weight, and had just been genuinely upset that she wasn’t eating properly.
Therefore, although she was a little embarrassed, she didn’t refuse Qi Song again and was fed dinner just like that.
In her post-meal satisfaction, she was slow on the uptake; when she usually had no appetite, forcing herself to eat a few bites would make her nauseous, but today she had eaten a whole bowl without any resistance.
A thought suddenly popped into her head—could I ask Qi Song to feed me often in the future?
On one hand, it was very blissful, like being a cherished child. On the other hand, she herself hoped to nurse her body back to health and not… die before forty as the doctor had said.
By Qi Song’s side, Yu Luo had long since gone from being unafraid of a talented year’s early death8 to beginning to yearn for a long life.
“Next time Jiejie is naughty again, I’ll still feed you like this.”
—The young woman beside her laid down a threat.
Yu Luo lowered her eyes, the bright light of the private room dancing on the tips of her thick, fan-like eyelashes.
“…I’ve always been very naughty.”
She replied cryptically, her cool voice slightly humid with shyness.
On the day the gaokao ended, a light rain was falling.
Qi Song held an umbrella, her features relaxed, her mood light and cheerful.
Both because Jiejie was waiting for her at the gate, and because they were about to go on a trip to Y City.
They would probably be stuck together for the entire summer vacation before school started.
People hurried about with umbrellas. Unworried about being discovered, Yu Luo, for a rare change, hadn’t driven and was standing under a parasol tree waiting for her.
Qi Song spotted the woman’s graceful figure at a glance. Her eyes lit up, and she quickened her pace, rushing towards her, a flush appearing on her cheeks from the exertion.
Just as she reached the parasol tree, she opened her mouth to call out, “Jiejie—”
“Qi Song.” A voice suddenly came from beside her.
Qi Song’s steps faltered. Before she could turn her head to look, she felt a stack of letters or something similar being stuffed into her hand.
She subconsciously turned her head and saw the back of a girl running away.
Her gaze quickly returned to meet the woman’s clear, tranquil eyes. Qi Song pressed her lips together, suddenly feeling that she was holding a scalding hot sweet potato9.
“The pink envelopes are quite pretty,” Yu Luo said with a light laugh.
“To give you so many at once… she must have liked you for a long time.”
Her tone was meaningful, holding a mischievous desire to see the young woman flustered or rushing to prove her innocence.
But she saw Qi Song ponder for a moment before saying, unhurriedly and with extra seriousness:
“I’ve liked you for a long time too.”
“…”
Nearly eighteen, the childishness in the young woman’s temperament had faded completely. Her features had blossomed into something exquisite and elegant, with soft, bright curves.
Her figure was slender, and she stood tall and graceful before her. Looking down, her eyes seemed to hold a pool of clear moonlight, steeped in the unspoken words of love from years past.
She had only uttered a few of those words, but they landed heavily on Yu Luo’s heart, making her breath tremble and a warmth spread through her chest, rendering her suddenly speechless.
Watching the woman get startled by the sudden straight ball10, the fair skin behind her ears turning red in an instant, her eyes misting over, looking pitifully unable to speak for a long time, Qi Song’s eyes grew dark.
So cute I could die.
I want to kiss her.
Why wasn’t she eighteen yet after finishing the gaokao!
Amidst intense regret, Qi Song squeezed under Yu Luo’s umbrella.
“Grandma, please take this umbrella,” she said, giving her own umbrella to an old woman who had just rushed under the parasol tree with her granddaughter to take shelter from the rain.
Then she took the umbrella handle from Yu Luo’s hand, nonchalantly stuffed the envelopes into Yu Luo’s arms, and half-draped an arm over the woman’s shoulders, leading her on the path home, continuing with a light laugh:
“Jiejie clearly knew long ago that I like you to death, so why are you acting so surprised?”
Another straight ball, leaving Yu Luo in a daze for even longer.
She had walked a hundred meters before she managed to struggle back to her senses.
Although the window paper11 between them was half-torn but not fully, they had always been mindful of the age issue, and had always maintained a state where their hearts reflected, not declared12. It had never been clearly spelled out.
Therefore, she was indeed unable to handle such a direct statement for the first time.
I like you to death…
Her heart trembled with a feverish heat. On one hand, a green shyness bloomed, and on the other, she was hit by such a strong wave of pleasure that she wanted to smile.
In the end, all she could do was raise a hand to straighten the umbrella handle, which Qi Song had tilted towards her, and use a not-so-clever method to respond: “Don’t get caught in the rain.”
“Oh,” Qi Song replied, but the umbrella still tilted almost imperceptibly towards Yu Luo.
She was several centimeters taller than Yu Luo, so she leaned down and rubbed her cheek against the woman’s soft earlobe, continuing, not yielding, not forgiving: “Jiejie’s ears are so hot.”
“Qi Song.”
Yu Luo was flustered by the nuzzling, and her voice was hoarse when she spoke. Helplessly, she said, “…Behave.”
Qi Song paused slightly.
Her heart was pounding wildly at the sight of her beloved’s embarrassment. The fingertips gripping the umbrella handle struggled to bear the impulse in her heart, turning white from the force.
She herself was getting all hot and bothered and couldn’t continue teasing.
So she replied meekly, “I’m being good.”
For the latter half of the walk home, the two of them calmed their respective thoughts, and for once, didn’t say a word. The misty curtain of rain separated the space inside and outside the umbrella into two worlds, and the dry part was filled with the dampness of their hearts.
With a click, the lock on the front door engaged.
Yu Luo slipped on her slippers and turned around, about to say something to Qi Song, but she accidentally fell into the young woman’s eyes, which seemed to be churning with a dark tide. The words on the tip of her tongue scattered.
“Jiejie…” Qi Song said cautiously. “I’ve finished the gaokao. A hug should be okay, right?”
“I’ll be an adult in just over twenty days…” she muttered under her breath, her eyes downcast.
The young woman’s shoulders were slightly damp from tilting the umbrella towards her just now, and a few crystalline water droplets clung to her hair.
Paired with her slightly pursed lips, she looked so pitiful, like she had suffered all sorts of grievances.
The very picture of a rain-soaked puppy again.
Yu Luo couldn’t help but soften.
She took a light breath, her eyes filled with a helpless, gentle smile.
“Come here and hug me.”
The next second, Qi Song’s tail started wagging. The dejected air from before vanished, and she approached with sparkling eyes, reaching out to embrace her completely.
Like huffing a cat13, she buried her head in the crook of her neck and sniffed lightly.
Yu Luo’s skin tickled from the strands of her hair, and she couldn’t help but take a step back. Perhaps thinking she was trying to escape, the hand on her waist tightened in the next second.
Their body heat and softness were pressed tightly together.
Her mood, full and light from the embrace, Yu Luo wrapped one arm around Qi Song and gently stroked the young woman’s head with the other.
Just as she was slowly curving her lips, thinking how pure and cute Qi Song was for pleading for and being satisfied with just a hug, she suddenly felt the hand on her waist tighten further, exert force, and lift—
She was lifted completely off the ground, her long legs could only hook helplessly around Qi Song’s waist and back.
“Qi Song?”
Having never experienced this before, in the insecurity of being suspended in the air, Yu Luo subconsciously tightened her arms around Qi Song’s neck.
This position was really too clingy, and too ambiguous… especially after several years in the acting world, Yu Luo knew a thing or two.
She pinched the back of Qi Song’s neck and chided, “Hurry and put Jiejie down.”
“Isn’t this also a hug?” Qi Song replied innocently, even bouncing her up a little, holding her tighter.
Then she walked steadily towards the living room and finally placed Yu Luo down on the sofa to sit.
She leaned over to look at Yu Luo, a bright smile rippling in her eyes, as if seeking praise. “I delivered Jiejie directly to the sofa.”
The young woman’s gaze was too frank, too clear. Yu Luo was slightly stunned and suddenly felt embarrassed—it seemed her own thoughts were too impure, that she had over-analyzed the young woman’s intentions.
Qi Song was devoted to her studies; she clearly didn’t know anything. If they were to date in the future… she might even have to teach her everything step by step.
“What is Jiejie thinking about?”
The two were so close that their skin could feel the heat of each other’s breath.
Because of this, Yu Luo felt as if Qi Song could see right through her thoughts from just a moment ago.
Her eyelashes fluttered uncomfortably, and she hastily reined in her unspeakable fantasies, her cheeks growing warm.
“Nothing.”
“Oh.” Qi Song had been focused on her eyes, but then for some reason, her gaze shifted downwards, pausing pointedly on her lips for a while.
Being stared at like that, Yu Luo couldn’t help but bite her lip.
And the sight of her fair teeth leaving an imprint on her soft, rosy lower lip seemed to only silently entice Qi Song even more fiercely.
The clarity in those eyes dissipated with ease, as if it had only ever been a superficial disguise.
It revealed the surging desire within, carrying a hint of humid, heated aggression.
Watching this, Yu Luo’s chest felt constricted, her heart thudding dully.
She had a premonition. From this day on, Qi Song would become untamable.
And what was even more subtle… was that both Qi Song’s obedience and her untamability seemed to make her lose her self-control.
Otherwise, why would her legs have gone weak just now?
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