ALSACW – Chapter 76

After they had confessed their feelings for each other, Yun Chuji could no longer bear Tang Jianxi’s unrestrained little gestures. Her threshold for embarrassment had never been very high, and after she caught an alpha casting an envious glance their way when Tang Jianxi planted a kiss on her, a blushing Yun Chuji took her home.

But the moment she saw the conspicuously placed icebergs surrounding the house, Tang Jianxi, who had just been getting handsy in the hovercar, was instantly overcome with shame.

Yun Chuji stood outside the car, looking at her in confusion.

Tang Jianxi gritted her teeth, her trembling finger pointing at a nearby iceberg. “How could you live in a place like this!”

Especially now that she knew what her own pheromones smelled like.

This was the most shameless act of a stalker!

Yun Chuji hadn’t expected that she would one day find the very thing that could breach Tang Jianxi’s threshold for embarrassment. Just as Tang Jianxi had once danced all over her own boundaries, she now explained with a casual air, “I wasn’t sure about my feelings for Jianxi before, and I had never seen an iceberg. I thought they must be as beautiful as you are, so I came here to sort things out.”

Tang Jianxi grew even more mortified.

The thought of Yun Chuji sorting through her feelings while smelling her pheromones made her feel as if a fire was burning through her entire body.

Pheromones! That was something one was only supposed to smell under certain circumstances!

Simply! Unreasonable!

Tang Jianxi shot her a fierce glare, got out from the other side of the car, and then quickly went downstairs, refusing to even glance at the all-too-present icebergs.

However, the second floor was transparent.

“This… this… this!” Tang Jianxi stammered, gritting her teeth as she faced the icebergs in every direction and spat out a single word, “Pervert!”

She could only blame herself for being too happy just now. Her eyes had been fixed on Yun Chuji, causing her to completely lose her usual vigilance and never once look out the window. If she had known Yun Chuji lived in a place like this, she would have turned back immediately.

No, she could still turn back now.

Tang Jianxi spun around, planning to stay in a hotel for the night or buy a house right away.

To make her stay in a place like this for one night—even if she was a pioneer of omega rights, she couldn’t withstand the shame of sleeping while smelling her own pheromones.

Ah! Tang Jianxi clenched her fists. The thought that Yun Chuji had been sleeping while smelling her pheromones for the past few days made her—

Just as she opened the elevator to leave, Yun Chuji keenly sensed a murderous aura and looked up to meet Tang Jianxi’s crimson face.

As someone born and raised in an era of only two genders, she still couldn’t empathize with Tang Jianxi’s sense of shame.

She only reminded her in a small voice, “You can’t see them from the first floor.”

Then she added with precision, “As long as you don’t look out the window.”

Tang Jianxi declared with a deadpan expression, “I’m staying at a hotel.”

“Get your things. We’re leaving.”

“Huh?” Yun Chuji was utterly bewildered. “Why is Jianxi so opposed to this? They’re clearly very beautiful.”

“If you say one more word, I’ll spray myself with orchid-scented perfume!”

Yun Chuji was not the least bit threatened. Instead, she smiled innocently and said, “The orchid is a noble flower. It suits Jianxi well.”

Forget it, Tang Jianxi gave up. People with different thresholds for embarrassment could not communicate.

Tang Jianxi stepped into the elevator and pressed the button for the first floor. After exiting, she stood with her back to the windows and said, “Bring your luggage. We’re going to a hotel.”

But when it came to hotels, Yun Chuji’s memory was quite sparse. Her only impression was of the hotel suite from when she had just arrived in this world, a place filled with memories she couldn’t bear to look at directly.

Now her face turned red as well. “Jianxi,” she said nervously, “although we are betrothed, we must not be overly forward.”

Then she lowered her voice, speaking more quietly than the engine of the latest hovercar starting up, with the shy furtiveness of a pure soul. “We must wait until after we are married.”

Tang Jianxi felt like the pot was calling the kettle black.

This person had moved in right next to the source of someone’s pheromones and then casually brought that person home. If it were any other omega who didn’t know her background, they could have reported her for sexual harassment. And now, she actually thought Tang Jianxi was the one with ulterior motives!

Don’t get angry, don’t get angry. This person is an antique. She doesn’t understand.

Tang Jianxi took a few deep breaths and then said, “I think I need to teach you the rules of social interaction in the ABO era.”

Before she had even finished speaking, Tang Jianxi peeled off the inhibitor patch on the back of her neck. A faint scent of pheromones spread through the air—the same scent Yun Chuji had grown familiar with over the past few days.

But this was stronger, much stronger than the occasional whiffs she had caught from Tang Jianxi before.

It was the same scent, but… how strange. Yun Chuji’s blood began to race through her veins. Her hand instinctively reached out to brace herself against the wall as that shameful part of her body began to make its presence known.

Through a hazy, watery sheen in her eyes, she saw that the corners of Tang Jianxi’s eyes were now tinged with red.

Ah, her own pheromones were being released too.

With her last shred of rationality, Yun Chuji closed the elevator door.

She pressed her face against the cool metal wall, trying to cool down.

But it was no use. This was not the same kind of ice, nor the same kind of fire.

She could only wait for it to burn out for lack of fuel.

Half an hour later, Yun Chuji emerged from the elevator.

This time, she packed her luggage without saying a word.

Sitting in the hovercar again, the two were clearly much more reserved than before. The passionate flames of new love still burned secretly, but the one who had lit the fire had already been burned once and was now much more hesitant.

Tang Jianxi found a high-end hotel and booked a presidential suite.

Neither of them seemed to have much luggage. Tang Jianxi carried only a small bag, while Yun Chuji had slightly more, but the extra portion consisted of papers and manuscript drafts—she was accustomed to writing her drafts by hand.

The contents of the small bag were highly compressed; once opened, its rich interior would be revealed.

As Yun Chuji stepped into an environment so similar to that first night, her fingertips trembled for a moment as she closed the door.

She wasn’t worried about what might happen tonight—she optimistically trusted both her and Tang Jianxi’s self-control, and she now deeply understood the reason they had come to a hotel. She was simply annoyed that she would probably keep thinking about that night, especially after being hit by Tang Jianxi’s real pheromones. That much was almost certain.

Yun Chuji sat stiffly on the living room sofa in the middle of the suite, waiting for Tang Jianxi to tell her what to do.

However, now that she was free from that compromising environment, Tang Jianxi clearly felt she was back in control.

The difficult days of seeing her beloved right before her eyes every day, yet being constrained by their relationship and unable to do anything more than steal a few kisses, were finally over.

Tang Jianxi tossed her small bag aside and sauntered toward Yun Chuji, a smile on her face that made Yun Chuji’s scalp tingle.

She said, “We’re fiancées now, aren’t we?”

There was that line again. Back in the car on the way to the iceberg house, Tang Jianxi had said the exact same thing before she started kissing her.

And she hadn’t stopped.

Yun Chuji’s palms began to sweat. She felt this was not in accordance with propriety. Although it had indeed been a wonderful contact, it was precisely because it was too wonderful that it was improper.

It was too easy to become lost in it.

But she nodded.

A soft laugh escaped Tang Jianxi’s throat. Her beautiful, fox-like eyes held a teasing glint. The light from above cast a soft halo around her jade-white form.

“Then, fiancées should hug.”

This was such a simple request that Yun Chuji couldn’t help but look surprised.

Tang Jianxi reached out and tapped her nose, letting out a light hum filled with the pride of a pampered upbringing. “This isn’t me chasing you anymore. You can’t always make me take the initiative.”

With that, she wrapped her arms around Yun Chuji’s approaching body before continuing, “If you like me, you’ll want to be close to me too. You can just say it, or just do it. I’ll be very happy.”

Since the little antique was a little antique, those old doctrines would always have some effect on her. Tang Jianxi had done a little research. Because she didn’t understand the context of that era, she couldn’t properly judge the practical significance of those doctrines, but she understood her own era. She knew those doctrines were superfluous now.

In fact, they would only hinder a sincere love.

So she hoped Yun Chuji could loosen up a bit.

But a person with no experience in taking the initiative would naturally not know how to translate her chaotic thoughts into a course of action. In her previous life, as her mother prepared for her marriage, she had spoken to her about the ways of husband and wife, but it was no different from what was written in the Admonitions for Women. In short, it was to listen to one’s husband; the husband would naturally know what to do.

But in this era, strictly speaking, she would likely be the one in the husband’s role after they married.

Yun Chuji panicked, her arms tightening around Tang Jianxi as if she were afraid she would run away upon discovering her ignorant core.

“Does Jianxi know… how one learns to be proactive? Are there courses or books on this subject? Um, movies would also be fine.”

Hearing this, Tang Jianxi burst out laughing. She released Yun Chuji, and they faced each other from a short distance. Her petal-soft lips uttered teasing words, “Are you saying you want me to teach you how to be my wife?”

Yun Chuji’s ears turned red. She felt even more useless.

Not wanting to meet Tang Jianxi’s meaningful gaze any longer, she pulled her into an embrace again, burying her face sullenly in Tang Jianxi’s shoulder. Thanks to Tang Jianxi’s relentless coaching since her confession, she could now perform this level of intimate action with perfect ease.

But anything deeper… every time she thought about it, her mind would be swamped by an overwhelming tide of shame, leaving no room to even consider the question of being proactive.

“Yes. Please teach me well, Jianxi.”

Over this period, Yun Chuji had discovered that she was a very good learner. Combined with the original owner’s knowledge base, she could grasp about seventy or eighty percent of those abstruse books and the once-unattainable Four Books and Five Classics. The remaining ten or twenty percent only required the guidance of a good teacher to achieve full comprehension. Therefore, she should be able to learn the subject of how to be a good wife to Jianxi as well.

But to say it out loud felt a bit shameless. After all, in the movies, A’s and O’s started enjoying the sweetness of love as soon as they confessed their feelings. For her to require an extra step was truly unfair to Jianxi.

She never expected that, for Tang Jianxi herself, this was part of the sweetness.

The omega took a breath, her heart beginning to race. She raised two pale hands to cup Yun Chuji’s face, her voice slightly hoarse as she instructed, “To be my wife, one thing you must do is… have good kissing skills.”

After speaking, she lifted her eyelids and looked at Yun Chuji quietly.

The first thought that popped into Yun Chuji’s mind was that they weren’t married yet. It was one thing for Tang Jianxi not to know better, but she herself had studied propriety for so many years. How could she transgress?

But her head was spinning now. Staring into those eyes and the shimmering light within them, she couldn’t help but rebelliously refute herself. What propriety? My very existence is the greatest breach of propriety.

So she bent down, lowered her head, and captured that red fruit between her lips.

And she squeezed from it its intoxicating sweetness.

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