Mischief

“My cousin said your condition is special,” Xu Ya Qing said as she parked the car and led Wei Yin upstairs. “If you can’t smell pheromones, it’s like someone who’s lost their sense of taste can’t smell rot. You’re less likely to notice danger.”

Wei Yin smiled. Only Hua Yu would describe an alpha’s pheromones that way.

“I can smell a little. Dr. Hua exaggerated.”

Xu Ya Qing stopped and held out her wrist to her. “Then tell me. What do my pheromones smell like?”

Wei Yin sniffed seriously. “Something fruity.”

Xu Ya Qing raised her brows in surprise. “What fruit?”

“Then I can’t tell anymore,” Wei Yin said with a laugh. “Dr. Hua’s pheromones are nice too. Kind of woody.”

That was about all Wei Yin could smell. After all, she wasn’t a beta, so it wasn’t that she couldn’t smell anything at all.

But being able to smell something didn’t mean she would feel anything.

The two of them got into the elevator. Xu Ya Qing asked curiously, “When you’re next to Hua Yu, can you feel her pheromones? Do you get hot?”

Wei Yin shook her head. “I don’t feel anything.”

Xu Ya Qing looked regretful. “Her pheromones are the soothing kind—agarwood. Very attractive. There’ve always been tons of omegas chasing after her since she was little. If you could feel them, it’d probably be really comfortable.”

Wei Yin repeated the word softly, her eyes bright. “Agarwood?”

“Yeah. But my cousin has always been very self-controlled,” Xu Ya Qing said as the elevator arrived. She led Wei Yin to the door, opened it, and went inside. “She rarely leaks pheromones. Only people who know her well would know.”

“A whole bunch of omegas?” Wei Yin thought of Yu Tiantian, who had come up during their meal earlier that day.

Only then did that name start to feel a little familiar.

Not like she remembered anything, but like she had seen it somewhere before; the impression just wasn’t deep. Maybe it had only flashed past her eyes once.

Still, it made sense. Someone as outstanding as Hua Yu was perfectly normal for people to pursue.

Thinking of that, Wei Yin remembered the way Hua Yu had looked at her today. Her head dipped, and her mood crashed in an instant.

Xu Ya Qing found her slippers for her. “My place is pretty big; there are a lot of bedrooms. Just pick whichever one you want to sleep in. No need to be shy.”

When she turned back, she saw Wei Yin’s expression and froze.

It was a dazed, distracted look with a faint hint of loss. On Wei Yin’s slightly youthful, delicate face, it looked almost painfully out of place.

“What are you thinking about?” Xu Ya Qing asked.

Wei Yin answered without thinking, “Yu Tiantian.”

By the time she came back to herself and realized what she’d said, she hurriedly denied it.

“No, I mean—I wasn’t thinking about anything.”

Xu Ya Qing wasn’t as sensitive as Hua Yu, and her attitude toward Yu Tiantian was only so-so. She clicked her tongue. “You really don’t remember anything?”

Anyone could see she had something on her mind.

Wei Yin lowered her head in embarrassment. “I don’t remember.”

Xu Ya Qing explained, “Yu Tiantian is a childhood friend of ours. We don’t get along, and I mean really don’t get along—not the kind where we turned against each other, just that we’ve been incompatible since we were little. Neither of us ever thought much of the other.”

Wei Yin had all her attention on her, taking in every word.

So Hua Yu really wasn’t close with that person. She hadn’t lied to her.

But if she wasn’t close with Yu Tiantian, why had her attitude been so guarded…

“I thought you and Hua Yu were so close that maybe you remembered her,” Xu Ya Qing said offhandedly.

Wei Yin paused. “Close?”

“Of course,” Xu Ya Qing said as she took out her phone to order takeout. “What do you want to eat? I’ll order.”

Wei Yin said anything was fine, then tried probing, “How can you tell we’re close?”

Xu Ya Qing didn’t even look back. “With your eyes, and with your ears. Haven’t you noticed? The way she speaks to you is different from the way she speaks to other people.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Has Dr. Hua ever dated anyone?”

Xu Ya Qing immediately opened her mouth to answer, but halfway through she realized something was wrong. She turned and glared at Wei Yin. “Oh, so that’s what you’re doing. Trying to get me to spill.”

Wei Yin shuffled in her slippers and looked down while idly swiping at her phone; she looked extremely guilty. “I just asked casually.”

“No,” Xu Ya Qing sighed, “she’s a stubborn old tree. A thousand years and not a single blossom. I even suspect she’s O-phobic.”

“Dr. Hua is O-phobic?” Wei Yin was shocked.

Xu Ya Qing gave her a sidelong look, her tone unreadable. “Look at you. Does that seem possible?”

Wei Yin didn’t know. She was still thinking about how Hua Yu had never dated anyone.

That was unusual for any alpha.

Especially one who’d already been through a heat cycle.

Wei Yin said, “These days, alphas who’ve never dated are rarer than kids who’ve never gone through compulsory education.”

“Not necessarily,” Xu Ya Qing said, unwilling to gossip about Hua Yu’s unusualness behind her back. “For example, um, like, that is, for instance…”

She trailed off and fell silent, unable to come up with a single counterexample.

She herself was an alpha. In her teens, she’d been restless all day long; if she couldn’t even hold an omega’s hand for a day, she’d be itching with frustration.

That was normal for any alpha—hormones at work, the natural pull between A and O. Unless something had gone wrong during development.

“All right,” Xu Ya Qing admitted helplessly. “You’re right.”

Wei Yin couldn’t stop herself from feeling happy.

She didn’t even know what she was happy about. Hua Yu was such a good person; it would be normal for her to date. But if someone that good had never dated, it was like a beautiful crystal losing the last possible flaw it might have had; the past was clean and untouched, just like her.

Yes, just like her.

So the information extraction had worked after all. Wei Yin gave herself a thumbs-up in her heart.

The takeout came from a restaurant downstairs and arrived quickly. Xu Ya Qing handed Wei Yin one box and opened hers to eat.

Wei Yin unlocked her phone and opened the chat with Hua Yu. There was nothing there.

She poked at the screen absentmindedly and took a tasteless bite of rice.

She was still angry at Hua Yu, so she absolutely wasn’t going to send a message first.

At that moment, the chat suddenly showed “typing…”

Wei Yin nearly choked on the rice.

[Late-Night Dr. Hua]: Have you eaten dinner?

Wei Yin pinched her fingertip, then took a picture of her lunchbox and sent it over.

[in]: [photo]

Well, since Hua Yu had brought it up first, she might as well send a picture.

Xu Ya Qing asked casually, “What are you doing?”

Wei Yin lifted her cup for a sip of water, staring happily at the chat window. “Dr. Hua asked what I’m eating tonight.”

“Pfft—”

Hua Yu’s reply and Xu Ya Qing’s spit-take landed at the same time.

[Late-Night Dr. Hua]: Then don’t eat it. Tell Xu Ya Qing to reply to my WeChat.

Hua Yu put down her chopsticks in a daze and used a tissue to wipe the water splashed onto her forearm. “Are you all right?”

Xu Ya Qing coughed violently, waving a hand as she stammered, “N-no, wait a sec. I’m fine. Don’t eat it.”

While still coughing, she got up and dumped Wei Yin’s lunch box, her movements hurried and frantic, as if she were covering up some piece of evidence.

Wei Yin was baffled. “Why are you all suddenly telling me not to eat?”

“I forgot. The errand service from Cheap Mart put your nutritional supplement in the cabinet outside the door. You need to drink that before you eat, and then you can’t eat the meal either…” Xu Ya Qing tied off the trash bag. “Wait, what do you mean ‘all’?”

Not let her eat?

Who else was telling her not to eat?

Wei Yin pointed at her phone. “Dr. Hua. I just took a picture of the lunch box and sent it to her; she said not to eat, then told me to have you reply to her message.”

Xu Ya Qing: !?

“How were you that fast,” Xu Ya Qing said slowly, turning to stare at her phone, “when I only forgot for a moment. Just a moment.”

“It’s fine. I didn’t eat the vegetables,” Wei Yin said, very easygoing. She didn’t like causing trouble for other people; she ate whatever was set before her. The fast food Xu Ya Qing ordered was braised eggplant and oil-braised yellow eel. She was allergic to eggplant, and she couldn’t eat too much seafood either, so she’d been chewing on rice the whole time. “I’ll explain it to Dr. Hua later.”

Xu Ya Qing raised a hand. “No, don’t say anything. I’ll handle it myself.”

Wei Yin was a little unconvinced. Coming to stay at Xu Ya Qing’s place was already causing trouble, and Xu Ya Qing also had no obligation to watch over her meals. Besides, she was an adult; she knew perfectly well what she could and couldn’t eat. It had nothing to do with Xu Ya Qing.

Xu Ya Qing saw the dissatisfaction and eagerness in her eyes and immediately planted herself in front of her, staring straight at her with utter sincerity. “I. Will. Say. It. My. Self.”

Wei Yin didn’t know what position she held with Hua Yu, but Xu Ya Qing knew crystal clear.

If Hua Yu hadn’t forbidden Xu Ya Qing from talking too much, Xu Ya Qing would be shaking Wei Yin’s shoulders right now and roaring, Little sister-in-law, wake up! Stop making things harder for me!

Wei Yin thought of herself as an unwelcome guest, but in Xu Ya Qing’s eyes, this was her future little sister-in-law.

Mm, the term felt a little odd, but that was roughly what it meant. Family was family.

Wei Yin couldn’t eat eggplant; otherwise she’d have an allergic reaction. Allergies were hard to manage; mild cases were fine, but severe ones could be another matter.

Xu Ya Qing annoyedly wondered how she could have forgotten that.

She opened the file Hua Yu had sent her.

Inside were Wei Yin’s precautions, marked in different colors and different font sizes.

Xu Ya Qing collectively called it the “Wei Xiao Yin Care Guide,” and underneath there was even a bonus line: “If there is any accident, please send her back immediately.”

Hua Yu didn’t want Wei Yin following Xu Ya Qing home. Xu Ya Qing herself had taken a liking to Wei Yin and brought her over here; naturally, she needed to take good care of her too.

Besides, Xu Ya Qing secretly glanced at Wei Yin; she had her own selfish motives.

“You stay here. I’ll go bring your food over.”

Xu Ya Qing went out and came back with the nutritional supplement for Wei Yin.

“Thanks.”

Wei Yin opened it and found several boxes of traditional pastries along with a row of individually packaged nutritional supplements, each small bottle labeled with a date on a sticky note.

Thoughtful and meticulous; every detail showed care.

Wei Yin pressed her lips together and stubbornly closed the lid.

—

Xu Ya Qing walked out onto the balcony and dialed Hua Yu.

Hua Yu seemed to be busy on her end; the background noise kept sweeping past. Then came the sound of a door closing, and the line fell quiet.

“I’ve re-ordered food for Wei Yin,” Xu Ya Qing said first. “And Wei Yin didn’t eat the eggplant, so don’t try to pin this on me.”

Hua Yu wasn’t really blaming her and just hummed. “She knows not to eat it.”

Xu Ya Qing leaned on the railing and looked out at the night. “Has Yu Tiantian been asking you out a lot lately?”

Hua Yu’s tone was colder than the night. “Mm.”

“Then accept one invitation. Send me the time and place, and I’ll go in your place then,” Xu Ya Qing decided. “Anyway, I’ll get close to her first. The thing you asked me to do, I’ll handle it when I find the right moment.”

Hua Yu had no objection. “Besides that, there’s one more thing I need you to help me check.”

Xu Ya Qing stretched. “What is it?”

“I want to know Wei Yin’s finances if she doesn’t want to come back. If she stays with you these next few days, help me find out her financial situation.” Hua Yu said.

Xu Ya Qing said, “…What are you planning? Don’t make me look down on you. Us alphas can’t go scheming after a little O’s property.”

Hua Yu couldn’t even be bothered to answer her.

“All right, I’ll ask for you,” Xu Ya Qing said, then laughed. “Anything else?”

Hua Yu thought for a moment. “Besides Wei Yin’s finances, I also want to look at her bank records from these past few years.”

“No, wait, you’re trying to dig into her whole background,” Xu Ya Qing finally understood. “If you know which bank, that part’s easy enough to check, but this is personal privacy. I’m advising you: if it’s something you can discuss, then don’t go snooping.”

Hua Yu was silent for a moment. “I know. If there’s a chance, I’ll ask her. If she’s willing to tell me, that would be best.”

Xu Ya Qing still couldn’t make sense of it. “Did something happen to Wei Yin?”

She knew her cousin’s character. Hua Yu would never go digging into Wei Yin’s background just because she was curious or wanted to control her.

After a pause, Hua Yu said, “Wei Yin bought her mother a grave plot. It cost at least several hundred thousand.”

“I suspect she’s been working to pay off debts all these years and has never been able to save money because it all went to that grave plot.”

Xu Ya Qing was shocked. She looked back at the apartment, then quickly calmed down and advised, “So what? Some people believe the dead don’t count and what matters is that the living stay alive. Others just want to show filial piety to dead family members and let them rest in honor. Are you not even going to let someone buy a decent grave?”

“That would be best, if everything is Wei Yin’s own free will,” Hua Yu said, sounding tired at first, but by the end of her sentence her voice had turned dark and sharp. “If not… then someone must have made Wei Yin suffer all these years.”