The next day.
Having slept poorly all night, Qiao Jiao told Jiang Na, “Let’s wash it off after all.”
Resisting the urge to say anything, Jiang Na held back her thoughts and wheeled Qiao Jiao into the cleaning room that very day.
Anyway, she needed to experience it herself to truly understand.
Once the mark was washed away, that annoying, dependent feeling vanished completely.
However, on the very first night, Qiao Jiao suffered from insomnia.
She could once again perceive the pheromones drifting through the surroundings.
All sorts of pheromones drifted in through the gaps in the door and seams in the wall, piercing her glands.
They smelled awful and made her feel uncomfortable. Her glands began to ache, which in turn sent dull throbbing pains through her temples.
Frowning deeply, Qiao Jiao closed her eyes to rest with an irritable mind as she lay on the hospital bed, when the phone by her side suddenly vibrated.
Jiang Na: [Video].
Qiao Jiao tapped it open, and a sensual scene filled her eyes. In the video, an alpha was pinning an omega down on a bed to mark them.
“Mm…” The omega’s soft, dainty gasp drilled straight into her ears.
Qiao Jiao shut off her phone and let out a deep breath.
Qiao Jiao: [?]
Jiang Na: [I have to supervise you now. You must watch a clip of this every day.]
[This is the mildest one. Watch it more often, and you won’t repulse it once you’re used to it.]
“…”
In the blink of an eye, five days had passed.
Nothing happened.
Duan Jinwei had left in a rush that day and hadn’t specifically inquired afterward, so she had no idea which hospital the woman had been sent to.
Qiao Jiao still hadn’t contacted her.
Duan Jinwei’s hanging heart gradually settled back into place.
That’s wonderful.
Never seeing each other again is for the best.
With her department rotation handover complete, Duan Jinwei arrived at the Gland Department.
Jiang Na was thrilled to see her: “Xiao Duan, you’re here?”
“Hello, Teacher,” Duan Jinwei greeted.
Closing the medical record in her hands, Jiang Na looked at her with a smiling gaze and asked, “How is it? Did you get bullied out there?”
Duan Jinwei smiled. She was the kind of well-behaved girl who couldn’t handle being teased, looking rather shy as she smiled: “No…”
Jiang Na was a universally recognized academic titan in the field of endocrinology and gland studies, excelling at both clinical practice and scientific research while possessing striking looks. She was the kind of advisor students would break their heads trying to follow across the entire hospital.
Yet she rarely took on students, Duan Jinwei was the exception.
Ever since Duan Jinwei passed the exams for her master’s program, she had been rotating through various clinical departments for standardized training.
Having long since reviewed Duan Jinwei’s scores across those rotations, Jiang Na was thoroughly satisfied, feeling a sense of maternal pride at seeing her “daughter” excel.
Jiang Na waved a hand at Duan Jinwei: “Come with me to do rounds today. There’s a patient with a special gland condition, I’ll take you along to see her.”
In the ward.
Qiao Jiao had her laptop unfolded before her, handling work matters.
The door over there pushed open.
Wearing a white coat with her hands in her pockets, Jiang Na walked in, followed closely by a young woman.
Too lazy to raise her head, Qiao Jiao kept her fingers clacking away at the keyboard until she suddenly heard Jiang Na casually introduce: “Routine rounds. Her name is Duan Jinwei, she’s my student. If you have any symptoms today, just tell her.”
Duan Jinwei.
Qiao Jiao’s movements paused, she lifted her gaze slightly.
The girl possessed exceptionally fair skin, wore thin-framed black glasses, and had her hair tied up in a bun with a few stray wisps trailing down her brow. She gave off an intellectual scholarly vibe, and her features were delicate and pleasant. Dressed in a white coat, she followed obediently behind Jiang Na.
Duan Jinwei reached out to take the chart folder, her eyes instinctively dropping to the name column at the very top as she flipped it open: “Ms. Qiao…”
Qiao Jiao.
It wasn’t as though people with identical names didn’t exist, but the moment those three characters hit her eyes, she still froze in place.
Duan Jinwei raised her eyes, her gaze locking directly with Qiao Jiao’s.
The air stagnated briefly for a long moment.
In that split second, Duan Jinwei felt an overwhelming urge to turn around and run away.
She subconsciously straightened her posture as a fine sheen of cold sweat broke out across her forehead.
How could this be?
Why is Qiao Jiao here?
Duan Jinwei had previously guessed which hospital Qiao Jiao had been sent to that day.
Clearly, the Third People’s Hospital of Haicheng was the closest to the hotel!
However, with Jiang Na standing cross-armed behind her, she had no choice but to put on a mask of nonchalance.
Leaning back against her pillows, Qiao Jiao gazed at her.
Operating on the principle that as long as the other party didn’t bring it up, the incident had never happened, Duan Jinwei forced a stiff smile and asked, “Do you have any areas of discomfort?”
Qiao Jiao looked her up and down, lowered her gaze, and lightly tapped her fingertips against the edge of the bed beside her, speaking in a calm, flat tone: “A bit of pain.”
“Where?”
Unaware that the person who had marked Qiao Jiao that day was Duan Jinwei, Jiang Na was completely oblivious to the current situation. She merely wanted to gauge how well her student grasped clinical knowledge, and watched eagerly from behind.
“Not sure,” Qiao Jiao said softly.
Biting the bullet, Duan Jinwei stepped forward, skillfully donned a pair of gloves, and lowered her head slightly. She leaned in to brush back a strand of Qiao Jiao’s long hair, pressing her fingertips against the back of the woman’s neck and gently kneading.
“Does it hurt here?”
Qiao Jiao furrowed her brow slightly.
For some reason, even though the mark had already been washed away, the moment Duan Jinwei’s touch landed, she still felt a distinct shudder run through her body, leaving her limbs weak and devoid of strength. She could distinctly smell that sweet fragrance belonging to the other person.
It was Duan Jinwei’s first time observing Qiao Jiao at such close range.
Being a science major with a limited vocabulary, she couldn’t find a single appropriate word to describe Qiao Jiao’s beauty.
All she could register was that the woman’s skin was as white as snow, her brows exquisite, her lips full, and her eyes breathtaking. Her mind looped frantically through superficial words: peerless beauty, stunning looker, queen…
Only a moment later did she manage to squeeze out a couple of slightly more proper terms: graceful and elegant demeanor, with a骨相 (bone structure) of unworldly purity.
Following that, Duan Jinwei caught sight of a heavy bite mark on the woman’s fair, slender nape.
“…”
During her first time practicing, she had botched many things, such as failing to soothe the omega after the mark, and losing control of her strength during the act.
Qiao Jiao turned her head to look at her.
Under the bright lighting of the hospital ward, the girl’s skin looked tender enough to pinch out water. The eyes behind her lenses were single-lidded, when lowered slightly, she looked exceedingly well-behaved, her gaze earnest and focused, her movements practiced and crisp like a promising medical student.
That is, if the tips of her ears weren’t burning a fiery, dripping red right out in the open.
What a coincidence.
To actually run into each other here.
And this little ostrich is acting like she doesn’t recognize me.
“Mm,” Qiao Jiao acknowledged.
Even though the room temperature was completely comfortable, Duan Jinwei felt scorching hot. Perhaps her body recognized that the person before her was the omega she had just marked, causing her marking teeth to ache at an inappropriate time and secrete glandular fluid.
Suppression her urge to cover her face, Duan Jinwei spoke in a soft voice: “It’s alright, this is a normal phenomenon. Once the glandular sac ruptures, the body repairs itself automatically, and experiencing mild itching or pain during the process is completely normal.”
Raising an eyebrow, Jiang Na maintained her strict demeanor in front of her student: “And the follow-up care?”
Retreating from Qiao Jiao to face Jiang Na, Duan Jinwei answered without missing a beat: “Constant temperature hot compresses on the posterior neck gland twice daily, ten minutes each time, paired with topical medical soothing gel to stabilize local pheromones.”
She thought her reaction had seemed relatively calm, but little did she know that in Qiao Jiao’s eyes, her current appearance was the picture of shy bashfulness.
Jiang Na turned to Qiao Jiao: “Get some good rest, I’ll come check on you again this afternoon.”
Breathing a sigh of relief, Duan Jinwei immediately prepared to follow Jiang Na out.
A wave of floral-scented pheromones suddenly drifted over from behind.
“Gulp, ”
Duan Jinwei involuntarily swallowed.
The sound wasn’t loud, but in the quiet ward, it sounded exceptionally clear, all three of them heard it.
Jiang Na: ?
The young alpha was sweating profusely, the tip of her nose flushed pink, looking thoroughly distressed.
Subconsciously, Jiang Na glanced back at Qiao Jiao. The woman was staring at her computer, maintaining her usual nonchalant expression, but it was abundantly clear that the pheromone scent had originated from her.
As an omega, Jiang Na could sense Qiao Jiao’s pheromones, but suddenly releasing pheromones in front of an alpha was completely abnormal.
Jiang Na: Huh?
Could it be that the short video she sent her yesterday actually worked?
Even a blockhead can get enlightened?
Is she actually trying to seduce this student of mine?
Though Xiao Duan was good-looking, surely it wouldn’t go this far?
Staring at her screen, Qiao Jiao remarked casually, “Dr. Xiao Duan seems awfully hungry.”
“…”
Her cool voice rang out with crystal clarity in the quiet room.
Jiang Na’s gaze grew even more peculiar.
She lifted her chin at Duan Jinwei: “You head back to the office first.”
Once Duan Jinwei left, Jiang Na leaned against the doorway, looking at Qiao Jiao with a half-smile.
“My, it seems you’re quite fond of my student? Or could it be that the material I sent you last night took effect?”
“You misunderstood,” Qiao Jiao said flatly. “I just couldn’t control it.”
Casting a skeptical look, Jiang Na didn’t press the matter further.
Rather than intentional enticement, Jiang Na was more inclined to believe that Qiao Jiao had accidentally released her pheromones just now.
If there was one person who understood what kind of person Qiao Jiao was, it was her.
That very evening, Jiang Na sent over the second marking-related video.
Today’s video content appeared much more normal: it featured a professional uniformed doctor performing a pheromone mark on a patient.
The doctor’s movements were calm and professional, while the patient’s cheeks were flushed, their eyes filled with an undeniable, surging tide of passion, yet from beginning to end, the doctor never once spared the patient a second glance.
After finishing the video, a thought occurred to Qiao Jiao, and she sighed.
Just then, Cui Yi’an pushed open the door, and before she could even shout “Sister Qiao”,
Qiao Jiao blanked her phone screen: “What is it?”
Cui Yi’an handed over a tablet: “These are the company’s itinerary schedules for the next few days. Since you’re still hospitalized, do you need me to notify them that you won’t be able to make it?”
The schedule on the tablet was densely packed.
Given that Qiao Jiao’s glands were already sensitive to external pheromones, compounded by what had just happened, she needed complete rest. She simply couldn’t attend meetings with alphas present in the short term. Yet the company was in its current precarious state, with Lu Yang and the director lurking like tigers watching their prey, and important meetings couldn’t simply be postponed or avoided.
Always a proud and driven person, Sister Qiao made Cui Yi’an worry that she might disregard her health and force herself to attend those corporate meetings.
Pondering for a moment, Qiao Jiao raised a hand and pressed the bedside call button.
“Hello, how can I help you?” a nurse’s voice chimed through the speaker.
This was a VIP ward exclusive call feature, which allowed patients to order meals or summon doctors and nurses through the device.
Qiao Jiao asked softly, “Hello, my glands are feeling a bit uncomfortable right now. Could you have Dr. Duan Jinwei come over?”