The elevator door opened. Jiang You took a deep breath and stepped onto the thirty-sixth floor.
The carpet in the president’s office area was so soft it made almost no sound. Several assistants were typing away at their workstations. Seeing her approach, the assistant who had tipped her off earlier waved her over and lowered her voice: “President Wen said you can go right in.”
“Thank you.” Jiang You nodded, her heartbeat starting to accelerate uncontrollably.
She walked up to the black wooden door, which was ajar, leaving a narrow crack.
She raised a hand to knock, but her hand paused mid-air because she faintly heard a rustling sound inside, like the friction of clothing.
As Jiang You hesitated, the familiar, cold voice came from within: “Come in.”
Jiang You stiffened all over and pushed the door open.
The office was empty. Wen Shaonian was not at her desk.
Jiang You looked around blankly. Just as she was wondering what to do, she noticed a concealed door on the wall to the right of the desk, half-open, with warm yellow light spilling out from inside.
The rustling sound was coming from there.
“Come in.” Wen Shaonian’s voice sounded again, carrying a hint of impatience.
Jiang You swallowed hard, bit the bullet, and walked over to push open the concealed door.
Then she froze completely.
Behind the concealed door was a spacious lounge without any main lights on, illuminated only by a few warm-toned wall lamps embedded in the walls. A large bed stood against the wall, made with dark gray bedding. Next to it was an entire wall of wardrobes with semi-transparent glass doors, through which neatly hung clothes were faintly visible.
Wen Shaonian was standing with her back to her. She had taken off her black suit jacket and was wearing only a red strap dress that fell to her calves, outlining a smooth and graceful curve. Her hair was down, long and dark strands scattered over her shoulders, revealing a patch of fair, slender nape.
The problem was that the zipper of the dress was in the back and only pulled up halfway, leaving a large expanse of smooth skin exposed from the shoulder blades all the way down to her waist.
Jiang You turned around almost instinctively, babbling incoherently: “Sorry President Wen, I didn’t mean to, I didn’t know you were changing clothes, I…”
“Come here.” Wen Shaonian interrupted her stutter, her tone quite calm.
Jiang You stood frozen in place, her brain coming to a halt. Mechanically, she turned back around and walked in.
She kept her head down, her eyes fixed firmly on the floor, not daring to look up or let her gaze wander. Her face felt hot enough to fry an egg. She walked behind Wen Shaonian, came to a stop, and stood there helplessly.
“Help me zip it up,” Wen Shaonian said, emotion completely absent from her voice.
Only then did Jiang You notice that the zipper of the red dress was stuck in the middle. Probably because the zipper pull had caught on the fabric halfway up, and Wen Shaonian couldn’t reach it herself.
With trembling hands, she reached out and pinched the small metal zipper pull.
The pull was slippery, and her fingers were shaking so badly she couldn’t get a steady grip after two tries.
“What are you shaking for?” Wen Shaonian tilted her head slightly, a hint of confusion in her tone.
“Nothing.”
Jiang You denied it instinctively, but her hands were visibly trembling. After three attempts, she finally managed to grip the pull, carefully tugging it down a fraction to free the caught fabric.
It wouldn’t budge.
She pulled it down a bit more. The fabric came free, but the zipper pull caught on the other side instead.
Wen Shaonian stood silently without saying a word, but the invisible sense of pressure made Jiang You wish she could evaporate on the spot. Putting on a brave front, she used both hands to firmly pinch the zipper pull, gave it a firm tug all the way to the top, and then withdrew her hand as if she had been burned, taking a step back while keeping her gaze fixed firmly downward the entire time.
The zipper was up, and the red dress wrapped smoothly around Wen Shaonian’s body, outlining a flawless curve. But Jiang You saw none of it; her line of sight remained firmly fixed below Wen Shaonian’s nape, not daring to glance anywhere else.
Wen Shaonian turned around and looked at the person standing before her who practically wanted to tuck her head away, the corners of her mouth curving imperceptibly.
“Look up,” she said.
Jiang You lifted her head with difficulty, her gaze landing on Wen Shaonian’s chin, refusing to look any higher.
Wen Shaonian didn’t mind. She walked over to the wardrobe, opened the glass door, and pulled out a white shirt and a pair of navy blue casual trousers, handing them to Jiang You.
“Put these on.”
Jiang You blankly accepted the clothes, her brain malfunctioning for a brief second.
“This is?”
“You need to wear them for your ID photos,” Wen Shaonian said. “The clothes you have on won’t look good in the pictures.”
Jiang You looked down at her own white T-shirt, opened her mouth to say I think it’s fine, but swallowed the words back. Cautiously offering a mild protest: “I think wearing these is fine.”
“My mother will look at the marriage certificate,” Wen Shaonian interrupted. “If she spots a problem, are you going to explain it?”
Jiang You was choked silent. She looked down at the T-shirt and jeans she was wearing, then glanced at the shirt Wen Shaonian had handed her, since just looking at the fabric told her it wasn’t cheap. It wasn’t that she was picky about her own clothes, but in front of this CEO, her outfit indeed looked a bit shabby.
Resigned to her fate, she took the clothes, turned toward Wen Shaonian, and wanted to ask her to step outside for a moment.
Wen Shaonian was leaning against the wall next to the wardrobe with her arms crossed over her chest, showing no intention of leaving whatsoever.
Jiang You froze.
“President Wen,” she began, her voice a bit dry, “Could you please step outside for a moment?”
“No,” Wen Shaonian answered with crisp finality.
Jiang You?
She blinked, thinking she had misheard.
“Why?” she blurted out, regretting it the moment she spoke.
Wen Shaonian looked at her without the slightest change in expression, as if stating the most ordinary fact in the world: “We are going to live together in the future, and sooner or later I will see you changing clothes. There’s no need to avoid it.”
Jiang You was rendered speechless by this reasoning.
Because the logic sounded like nothing was wrong with it. Moreover, this was Wen Shaonian’s lounge, and letting her change clothes here in the first place was already a courtesy. What right did she have to ask someone to leave?
Clutching her chest, she repeatedly told herself: It’s fine, I’m an Alpha. What does an Alpha have to be afraid of?
Isn’t it just changing clothes? Dressed properly, you won’t lose a piece of flesh.
And she was still wearing her undergarments underneath anyway, not naked.
Right, underwear didn’t need to come off.
Giving herself a mental shot of adrenaline, Jiang You gritted her teeth and started changing.
She took off her jacket first, then the T-shirt, moving very quickly like a thief. As she pulled the T-shirt over her head, her hair became a tangled mess, but she ignored it, rolling the T-shirt into a ball and holding it against her chest to cover her upper body.
At that moment, she didn’t feel like an Alpha at all; instead, she felt like a pitiful Omega being kept by a sugar mommy.
Turning sideways with her back to Wen Shaonian, she began putting on the shirt, rushing frantically. But the moment she slipped one arm into a sleeve, she felt someone approach from behind.
Wen Shaonian’s presence suddenly drew closer, and the scent of cold plum blossom pheromones drifted over imperceptibly.
Jiang You stiffened all over, her arm stuck inside the sleeve, unable to move.
A hand reached out from behind her, fingers slightly cool, and rested gently against her waist.
Jiang You’s mind went completely blank.
That hand didn’t stop. It traced along her waistline, moving upward inch by inch, fingertips brushing across her skin and sending a wave of fine shivers through her.
Jiang You stood frozen in place like she had been hit by a paralysis spell, forgetting even how to breathe.
What is the meaning of this?
Wen Shaonian’s hand lingered at her waist for a moment, her fingertips pressing with slight firmness against the muscles at her side. Then she continued upward, coming to a rest near her chest, her fingertips lightly tracing as if gauging her body temperature and heartbeat.
Jiang You’s brain had completely shut down.
She should push Wen Shaonian away, she should demand to know what she was doing, she should summon the imposing presence of an Alpha.
Instead, she could do none of those things because her entire body had turned into a block of wood.
Then she caught a distinct wave of scent: cold plum blossom, a clear, intense, and aggressive Omega pheromone. The scent poured out from Wen Shaonian like a fissure suddenly splitting open across a frozen lake, bitter cold mixed with a surging undercurrent.
Cold, yet shockingly fierce.
Jiang You’s body began to heat up, a dry, feverish warmth radiating from the very marrow of her bones, leaving her parched. Her hands were trembling with a strange, unfamiliar, and nearly uncontrollable urge she had never experienced before.
She had never known her own body could react this way.
Her pheromone rank was inferior, meaning she had no reaction to any Omega pheromones whatsoever. The doctor had said her glandular function had severely degraded, making her practically immune to any pheromone influence. She had assumed she was a natural insulator who would never experience the feeling of being ignited by pheromones in her lifetime.
Yet right now, her body was telling her: You were wrong.
Your glands aren’t broken; they just hadn’t met anything capable of awakening them yet.
Panicking, Jiang You whipped around and stammered: “Wen, President Wen, what are you doing?”
Wen Shaonian withdrew her hand and looked down at her, her gaze carrying a renewed sense of scrutiny, as if observing the changes in a test subject.
The pheromones were still being released, the scent of cold plum blossoms lingering thickly like fog in the confined space.
Jiang You felt her body getting hotter, that unfamiliar impulse growing stronger and stronger. Her gaze involuntarily fell upon the exposed skin around Wen Shaonian’s collarbone, which looked fair and alluring.
No, I can’t look.
She snapped her gaze away, her voice raspy and unlike her own.
“President Wen, can you please pull back your pheromones? I am a bit…”
She couldn’t possibly bring herself to say the words: having a reaction.
Wen Shaonian stared straight at her in silence for about three seconds.
Then the pheromones vanished.
Like a gust of wind blowing away the fog of cold plum blossoms, only a faint lingering trace remained in the air. Wen Shaonian returned once more to being the calm and composed icy CEO, her face devoid of any excess expression as if nothing had happened at all.
“Hm,” she remarked calmly, her tone even carrying a trace of satisfaction. “It seems it really is useless.”
Jiang You: “…”
She hadn’t fully recovered from her previous state yet, her brain lagging a beat behind as she failed to grasp her meaning right away.