After Rebirth, My Archrival Omega Looks at Me Differently (GL) - Chapter 14
The lighting in the photo was not very bright. The lights in the auditorium appeared a little blurry, captured by a lens that lacked proper focus.
And yet, despite the lack of sharpness, this slightly unfocused image somehow created a certain atmosphere.
At that time, Chi Yan was in the early stages of her secondary gender differentiation. With difficulty, she looked up at Yan Youqing, who stood just above her line of sight.
One of them had a restrained and quietly enduring expression. Her trembling eyelashes revealed the pain of her transformation. The other had a cool, distant presence, almost like a figure from a celestial realm.
The scene around them was filled with students trying to evacuate in a hurry. But in the middle of that chaos, Yan Youqing, an Omega, was kneeling on one knee. Her slender arm was held tightly by Chi Yan. In that narrow walkway, moving against the crowd, there was an unexpected feeling of salvation.
Moving against the crowd.
Chi Yan’s gaze suddenly turned dark, then shifted to irritation. She glanced at the photo a couple of times before exiting it.
In the lower right corner of the screen, a blue indicator showed that while she had been viewing the photo for just thirty seconds, Zhong Yi and Wang Chuning had already sent over a dozen messages in the group chat.
“Wow, who took this photo? How did anyone even have time to take pictures in that situation?”
“No idea. I saw it on the forum. It was from that post about our school having an S-class Alpha. Yan-jie attracted quite a few Omega fans.”
“I saw that post too. How come I didn’t see this photo?”
“Because nobody paid attention to it. Only a few comments were discussing it. Someone even said this pairing was crazy, but not in a good way. Come on, it’s actually worth shipping.”
“Careful. If Yan-jie sees this, she might beat you up.”
“Me or you? Weren’t you there too? If you had protected Yan-jie properly, this photo wouldn’t even exist. Tell me, where did you go at that time?”
Their conversation was all about the photo. As Chi Yan scrolled through the messages, she had to admit that Zhong Yi was right. The first thing she needed to do tomorrow at school was to confront Wang Chuning.
Just as Chi Yan quoted Zhong Yi’s last message and quickly typed “Exactly,” another message from Zhong Yi appeared.
Zhong Yi was always cheerful, as if she had completely forgotten how panicked she had looked back then. She happily circled the half-visible part of her hand in the lower left corner of the photo and wrote, “That’s me.”
Trying to make herself stand out even more, Zhong Yi took a screenshot of the photo. She didn’t even need to open it. In the neat square image preview, the moment when Yan Youqing supported Chi Yan was clearly zoomed in and highlighted.
The light above the auditorium happened to fall directly on Yan Youqing’s head, casting a glow on her hair.
Perhaps it was because the photo had been taken in a rush, but within the soft, scattered light and shadows, Chi Yan thought she saw a trace of sorrow in Yan Youqing’s usually cool and distant eyes.
Why would she look sorrowful?
Was it because she had seen how much Chi Yan was suffering during her differentiation?
Chi Yan frowned.
This didn’t match the Yan Youqing she remembered.
In her memory, Yan Youqing was always proud and indifferent. Her face showed no emotion, and she seemed detached from everything, as though nothing in the world could affect her, let alone stir any feelings in her heart.
The two figures in the photo were reflected in Chi Yan’s eyes, then disappeared in the blink of an eye.
She felt like she was imagining things. Someone like Yan Youqing, an Omega, would not feel sorrow for her during differentiation.
They were rivals.
It had to be the blurry photo, or perhaps the intense release of pheromones at the time that caused this illusion.
Wang Chuning, a devoted fangirl who loved imagining romantic pairings, jumped in right after Chi Yan noticed that subtle expression in Yan Youqing’s eyes.
“Why do I feel like Yan Youqing’s expression looks a bit strange? I can’t really describe it.”
“Ayi, you were there. Tell me what really happened. I’ll buy you milk tea.”
“Make that two cups,” Zhong Yi added, sending a sticker to sweeten the deal. After Wang Chuning agreed, Zhong Yi began to share what she had witnessed in person.
“When Ayan started differentiating, I was completely shocked. Do you know how terrifying the pheromones of a top-tier Alpha are? That scent was overwhelming. I honestly felt like my legs were going to give out.
All I could think was, I need to get Ayan out of there. If I didn’t, the Omegas affected by her pheromones might have torn her apart.
But I couldn’t do it. I really couldn’t. I feel so bad. I failed Yan-jie. My legs just gave out. I watched helplessly as she slipped from my hands and was about to hit the ground.
And then, guess what happened?”
Right at that moment, as if on purpose, Zhong Yi stopped her story.
Chi Yan lay on her bed, listening. Even though she was the one who had lived through the story and already knew how it ended, she still couldn’t help but pause when Zhong Yi stopped speaking, her tone deliberately mysterious. A strange sense of anticipation quietly stirred within her.
Before Chi Yan could lose patience and urge Zhong Yi to continue, Wang Chuning beat her to it, unable to hold back any longer.
“Little push of the hand, landmine explosion, come on come on!” she wrote, tossing in a meme.
Zhong Yi, clearly enjoying the attention, was more than happy to deliver. She curled her lips into a smile and continued with enthusiasm.
“Right at that moment, Yan Youqing appeared. Oh my god, do you know how cool she was? She caught Ayan with one hand. She’s an Omega, and she just scooped her up like that. Then she said something like, she had already injected her suppressant in advance. She even asked me for an Alpha suppressant and gave Ayan the shot herself.”
The more Zhong Yi spoke, the more animated she became. She even blurted out a curse in excitement.
“Damn, is this the charm of the discipline committee? She’s cold and detached most of the time, but in a crisis, she’s surprisingly reliable.”
Zhong Yi’s vivid storytelling stirred something in Chi Yan. She began to remember that chaotic moment during her differentiation.
The memories came flooding back, bringing with them the sounds, the scents, and the fragmented light and shadows of that day.
Though she was lying comfortably in bed, surrounded by the soft, sun-warmed blankets that still held a faint pleasant scent, her mind returned to the moment when she leaned against Yan Youqing’s shoulder. She could even recall the way her long hair carried the smell of morning dew mixed with sea salt.
That was the dream she fell into during her fevered unconsciousness, the one brought on by the pain of her transformation. The dream had felt like an ocean, calm and gentle, soothing away the trauma from a past life’s explosion, pulling her under with its tenderness.
But tenderness had never been something she associated with Yan Youqing.
Buzz.
Her phone vibrated twice, breaking the flow of her wandering thoughts and pulling her back into reality.
She exited the chat with Zhong Yi and the others and saw a new message from Yan Youqing.
“Don’t stay up too late. Get some rest.”
It was just a simple reminder, nothing more. Yet even through the screen, Chi Yan could almost hear Yan Youqing’s familiar voice in her ear.
Like the cold moonlight shining outside the window that night, her words were calm and composed, almost formulaic.
Chi Yan still remembered the things Zhong Yi had said Yan Youqing told her after rejecting her. Her brows furrowed slightly.
She leaned back against the chair, letting the ceiling light spill into her eyes, blurring her vision with its brightness.
It was true. It made perfect sense to attribute everything Yan Youqing did that afternoon to her role and quick thinking as a member of the disciplinary committee.
But for some reason, as Chi Yan looked at the message that seemed to be reminding her to take care of herself, she suddenly realized something.
After ten years of knowing Yan Youqing, she no longer felt like she could truly understand her.