After Rebirth, My Archrival Omega Looks at Me Differently (GL) - Chapter 3

Chi Yan suddenly thought of a line from a poem:
“Silence is tonight’s Cambridge.”

It felt like time had reversed itself, crushing her memories as it turned. She remembered this moment clearly. It had already happened once before.

Back then, she swore that if her future self could travel through time, she would come back to this exact day to warn her past self never to respond to that voice calling out, “Ayan.”

But now, at twenty-eight years old, having returned to this day, she still hadn’t been able to stop the awkward moment from happening.

Chi Yan believed that the most embarrassing thing in the world wasn’t doing something foolish, but doing something foolish and having everyone witness it.

After the two voices answered at the same time, an odd silence fell over the classroom.

As the saying goes, one mountain cannot hold two tigers. “Ayan” and “Ayan” were pronounced exactly the same. Having two students with nearly identical nicknames in the same class naturally led to conflict. The tension that followed was inevitable.

Everyone in class—and across the entire grade—knew that Chi Yan and Yan Youqing were fierce rivals when it came to academics. No one expected their first head-on encounter of the semester to happen so soon.

Outside the classroom, lively chatter echoed from the corridors. Cicadas buzzed in the trees, still clinging to the final traces of summer heat.

Sunlight slanted in through the windows, falling gently on Yan Youqing.

Chi Yan locked eyes with her.

Her face, just like ten years in the future, showed little emotion. Her cool, pale-black eyes were calm and distant.

Unfamiliar, yet familiar. Detached, yet compelling.

For a moment, Chi Yan felt she had seen those eyes somewhere before.

The noise from the sports field stirred her thoughts. At the classroom door, Yan Youqing’s friend, Chen Niannian, glanced at her watch and spoke up.

“Ayan, Mr. Chen said the disciplinary committee has a meeting during the break.”

There was something deliberate about the way she said it. The name “Ayan” seemed to carry extra weight, harsher than usual. It cut straight through Chi Yan’s thoughts.

Everyone waited to see how Yan Youqing would respond. Chi Yan braced herself, half-expecting a cold, mocking glance.

But Yan Youqing didn’t react at all.

Despite being an Omega—technically supposed to be overpowered by Alphas—her presence was so steady that even Zhong Yi, an Alpha nearby, felt tense. She didn’t dare step in to ease the awkwardness.

Chi Yan had wondered more than once how someone like her ended up differentiating as an Omega.

Then again, maybe it made sense. She herself was a Beta with underdeveloped glands. Yan Youqing was a misfit Omega. No wonder they always clashed.

Time always slows down right before something dramatic happens, then speeds up the moment it arrives.

The sound of a folder being pulled from a bookshelf cut through the silence.

Yan Youqing’s face remained expressionless. She calmly looked away from Chi Yan, then reached into the shelf and pulled out her folder.

Her eyes were like still water. Without saying a word, she turned and walked out of the classroom.

The breeze from the hallway drifted into the room. With the main subject gone, the air cleared. The tension, so carefully built up by eager onlookers, dissolved into nothing. The classmates who had been watching now looked foolish for expecting drama.

The Life Sciences High School was far livelier than the quiet buildings of the Life Sciences Institute. Even the roses by the hallway plaza bloomed more brightly here.

Yan Youqing walked with perfect posture beside Chen Niannian, heading toward the meeting room. In a quiet voice, she said, “Tell the disciplinary committee to use my full name from now on.”

Chen Niannian looked surprised. “Why? I’ve been calling you that for years. Is it because of her? But you won today. Didn’t you see how awkward she looked? My toes curled just watching it. I felt secondhand embarrassment for her.”

Yan Youqing glanced at her with a calm, unreadable look. “I don’t need that much space to cringe.”

For some reason, that look felt just a little sharp.

Chen Niannian quickly went quiet. She thought for a second, then nodded, as if figuring it out for herself.

“You’re right. What if someday her friend calls her ‘Ayan’ and you respond by mistake? Then it’ll be our turn to be embarrassed.”

“You really think ahead. Besides, now that we’ve won once with that kind of scene, doing it again would just make us look petty.”

Yan Youqing didn’t reply. Her cool gaze landed on the grade ranking board as they passed it.

The glass reflected the angled sunlight. In the golden glow, her name and Chi Yan’s were listed side by side.

Between classes, the teaching building was always full of noise. Even in the top-performing class, things were lively.

The awkward moment from earlier faded into the background. The classroom buzzed with voices again.

Wang Chuning from the class next door had seen Yan Youqing and Chen Niannian leave. She slipped in quietly through the back door.

With practiced ease, she pulled over an empty chair and sat down next to Chi Yan and Zhong Yi.

Grinning mysteriously, she leaned in and whispered, “Guess what I just heard outside?”

Chi Yan, well aware of Wang Chuning’s love for gossip, pointed at the security camera on the wall and warned her.

“Mr. Chen just said not to sneak into other classrooms. You’re breaking the rules. He’ll catch you if you’re not careful.”

Wang Chuning didn’t care. “There are so many people in class during break. How’s he going to notice? Besides, you two are in the science track. Can you really stand to watch a poor Alpha like me suffer alone in the liberal arts class?”

Chi Yan looked at Wang Chuning’s acting, which hadn’t improved a bit in the future or the present, and nodded deliberately. “Yes, I can.”

“Chi Yan!” Wang Chuning protested, clearly offended.

Zhong Yi had already taken the bait. She jumped into their conversation, shaking Wang Chuning’s arm excitedly. “Come on, tell us, Chuning. What did you hear just now?”

Wang Chuning glanced around, lowered her voice, and said mysteriously, “I heard Yan Youqing tell Chen Niannian that from now on, if the disciplinary committee comes looking for her, they have to call her by her full name.”

“No way.” Zhong Yi looked amazed, with a glint of excitement in her eyes. A sudden realization struck her. “Chi Yan, is that her way of backing down?”

Chi Yan was surprised too, but her reaction wasn’t as thrilled as Zhong Yi’s.

She tapped her pen slowly on the desk and looked thoughtfully at the now-empty seat where Yan Youqing had been sitting. Her voice was quiet but certain. “No. That wasn’t backing down. That was disgust.”

“She didn’t want to share a nickname with me.”

Chi Yan didn’t quite know how to describe how she felt. It wasn’t just dissatisfaction—it was something closer to defeat.

She remembered the way Yan Youqing had looked at her earlier. It felt like throwing a punch that landed on soft cotton. All strength, no impact.

Why was it so easy for Yan Youqing to step aside?

Back at the institute, when both their research groups were negotiating for lab equipment, they had agreed to compete fairly. But when the time came, Yan Youqing had chosen to go second, right in front of the director. Her choice made Chi Yan look petty, like she couldn’t be gracious even if she wanted to.

Chi Yan knew she might be overthinking it, but she didn’t believe that there was nothing in this world that Yan Youqing wouldn’t fight for.

One day, she would force her to show something other than calm indifference. One day, she would make Yan Youqing feel unwilling, even bitter.

Coming back to high school after ten years, Chi Yan had adjusted quickly. She realized that the day she returned to was actually one day before the explosion. Though technically eighteen, she was still seventeen.

Having one more year of youth felt refreshing.

In less than a day, Chi Yan caught up with the top class’s pace. Except for English, which still gave her a headache, the other subjects came easily. She picked them up without much effort.

In the last period of the afternoon, the classroom was quiet during self-study. The only sound was the scratching of pens against paper. Chi Yan looked down at the biology exam she just finished and leaned back, proud of what she was sure would be a perfect score.

“Alright, everyone look up. We’re going to hold a quick class meeting during this period.”

Chi Yan’s thoughts were interrupted by the voice of her homeroom teacher, Li Qin, who walked up to the podium holding her worn black handbag.

Li Qin was famous throughout the school for being strict. Zhong Yi had privately nicknamed her “The Iron Nun,” and Chi Yan thought it fit perfectly.

“This is our first class meeting since the start of the semester. Our class hasn’t had a lot of changes, and we just received the results from the entrance test. I think most of you did well, so I won’t praise or criticize anyone today. We’ll keep it simple. Two things. First, let’s welcome two new students joining our class: Zhang Wu and Zhou Wen.”

She looked at the two boys temporarily seated in the last row near the door.

Though they had already made friends with some classmates, being introduced formally still made them a bit shy. They stood and bowed awkwardly as the class clapped and cheered.

Li Qin nodded, pleased with the atmosphere, and moved on. “Second, I’ve finished arranging the new seating chart. It’s based on your test scores, with a few adjustments. Please take this time to change seats quietly, then get back to self-study.”

As soon as she finished speaking, the classroom filled with low, excited whispers.

Everyone seemed curious about the new seating arrangement—except Chi Yan.

She already knew. In her past life, she had asked Li Qin for the window seat in the last row, and she had stayed in that seat for the entire final year until graduation.

At the podium, Li Qin sat and watched. Although there was a buzz of conversation, it wasn’t loud.

Students quietly followed the seating chart projected on the board and began moving to their new seats. From the back row, Chi Yan watched the shuffling classmates until her eyes started to feel tired. With nothing else to do, she rested her head on her desk.

She wanted to dream again.

To return to that final memory before she died.

The pain of her gland awakening felt like a flower slowly blooming in the dark, petal by petal.

The Omega who had chosen her without hesitation appeared again in her thoughts. Bl00d blurred her vision, and that unfamiliar scent touched her struggling gland with something close to comfort.

A breeze came through the open back door, drifting toward the window beside her.

There was a scent in the air, like early morning dew settling on the back of her neck. It carried a faint hint of sea salt.

Someone bumped her desk with a quiet thud.

Chi Yan frowned slightly and stirred from her dream, annoyed by the disturbance.

The golden afternoon sun lit the desks in the back row. The desk next to hers, which had been empty, now had a stack of books on it.

A tall, slender shadow fell across her shoulder.

Chi Yan leaned back in her chair, preparing to scold whoever it was. But when she looked up, she saw Yan Youqing calmly setting her backpack on the hook beside the desk. Without saying a word, she sat down next to Chi Yan as if nothing had happened.