I’m Allergic to Pheromones - Chapter 7

“Look at you, so ugly you scared the customers away.”

In the living room, Nan Ju sat barefoot on the carpet playing with a puppy.

The little thing was full of energy, its short, stubby tail wagging furiously as it lay on its back, letting Nan Ju knead its soft belly while whimpering happily, thoroughly enjoying the attention.

It was still too young to eat raw meat, and since the villa had never been equipped with pet supplies, Aunt Pei had to prepare a bottle of warm milk.

“Would the young miss like to try feeding it herself?”

Nan Ju hesitated for a moment before taking the bottle.

The bottle was warm, filled with milky-white liquid that didn’t smell fishy but instead had a sweet, powdery aroma. Nan Ju glanced at it once, then couldn’t help but look again.

When she was very young, she’d once had the chance to taste baby formula straight from the can—rich, fragrant, and utterly addictive.

Unconsciously, she licked her lips.

The next second, she locked eyes with the puppy, which had rolled over and was now standing, whimpering and yipping at her.

“Hmph, it didn’t notice,” Nan Ju thought calmly.

The second time, the puppy let out an “Awoo!” and stared at her with round, pitch-black eyes, unblinking.

“Does it want to bite me?”

The third time, its little paws scraped against the soft floor, making an irritating scratching noise.

Nan Ju clicked her tongue and deftly shoved the bottle into the puppy’s mouth.

“Pathetic.”

The chubby, short-haired pup immediately latched onto the n1pple and began drinking eagerly, its front paws clutching the bottle as it stood up, as if declaring, “This is all mine—don’t you dare take it!”

Nan Ju mischievously tugged at the bottle but couldn’t pull it free. Seeing the milk slowly wet the fur around the puppy’s mouth, forming a little white beard, she found it hilarious.

Holding the bottle upside-down with one hand and stroking the puppy’s head with the other, she teased softly, “Silly dog.”

The pup had quite the appetite—its belly soon bulged round, and it sprawled at Nan Ju’s feet, whimpering and nuzzling against her, its fur reeking of milk.

Nan Ju wrinkled her nose in mild disgust and lightly tapped its swollen belly, only to hear a hollow, watermelon-like “thump.”

The puppy let out a soft “whimper.”

Guiltily, Nan Ju quickly withdrew her hand, afraid she might have accidentally “cooked” its insides.

Aunt Pei had been standing nearby the whole time, smiling.

As the villa’s housekeeper, she had remained silent when Nan Ju drove Ye Qiushuang away, but now she deliberately changed the subject.

“Young miss was just like this when you were little.”

Nan Ju turned to her, baffled.

“Like a dog?”

Aunt Pei’s smile deepened, unfazed by Nan Ju equating herself with a puppy. Her dark eyes brimmed with nostalgia and affection.

Little Nan Ju had been extremely clingy as a baby. Before she could speak, she would always “whimper”—excitedly when leaves fell, pitifully when adults walked away…

Aunt Pei often remembered the scene of baby Nan Ju lying in her crib, struggling to hold her bottle while drinking and whimpering at the same time. The tiny girl, already strikingly beautiful, would puff out her round belly, her eyes rimmed red as she obediently—yet sadly—expressed her displeasure.

Wasn’t that just like a puppy?

“This bottle was the one you used as a baby. It seems to fit just right now, too.”

Nan Ju puffed out her cheeks, her long lashes fluttering slowly, but her attention was quickly diverted.

“Is this my baby bottle?”

Aunt Pei nodded and added, as if it weren’t enough, “You loved this one with the puppy pattern the most when you were little.”

Nan Ju fell silent.

Damn, she was so jealous—the original owner got to drink milk powder every day as a child.

A few minutes later, she started poking the little puppy again, annoying the already full and drowsy pup until it whimpered softly.

“Eight Million.”

“Wake up.”

Nan Ju couldn’t stand the little thing being so comfortable, so she kept tapping its ears, trying to teach it its name.

A dog’s ears are sensitive—the slightest touch makes them twitch, which was endlessly amusing.

Nan Ju indulged in teasing it for a while before belatedly realizing: Hadn’t she been calling “Eight Million” for ages without any response?

“Eight Million?”

She bent down, scratching the pup’s chin playfully, and tried again.

Sure enough, the little dog just squinted its eyes, showing no reaction.

“Five Million?”

“Big Yellow?”

“Dog Egg?”

“Fortune?”

…

Nan Ju tapped her chin thoughtfully and gave it one last try.

“Rich Dog?”

The response was a quick, cheerful “Awoo~”

Nan Ju: “…”

You little brat, you really know how to pick, huh?

In another villa, Ye Qiushuang, who had stormed out of Nan Ju’s house in a rage, was in a far worse mood.

The moment she got home, she started smashing things—porcelain, glass, anything fragile—scattering shards across the floor.

The servants tried to step in to clean up, but the furious mistress scared them into retreating, too afraid to speak.

When Wen Qiao returned from outside, he found the servants huddled fearfully in the living room, casting uneasy glances upward.

A sharp, violent crash echoed, and everyone flinched like frightened quails tucking in their feathers.

Wen Qiao frowned and glanced upstairs, making a slight noise to announce his presence. By the time anyone looked his way, his face had already smoothed back into its usual gentle, refined demeanor.

“Aunt Wang, take everyone downstairs for now. Shuangshuang isn’t feeling well today—I’ll go check on her.”

The middle-aged woman called Aunt Wang exhaled in relief and quickly ushered the others away.

Left alone, Wen Qiao stood still for a moment, listening expressionlessly to the intermittent noises from upstairs before finally heading up.

On the four-poster bed, veiled in pale purple curtains, lay a woman. Ye Qiushuang had buried herself in the blankets in frustration. Hearing the door open, she hurled a pillow without looking.

“Get lost! I said don’t bother me!”

The pillow hit the floor, bouncing off broken porcelain and landing at Wen Qiao’s feet.

He glanced at it, nudged it aside with his foot, and walked forward.

“It’s me, Shuangshuang.”

Hearing an unexpected voice, Ye Qiushuang stirred but didn’t get up.

She was always prideful and concerned with appearances, but in private, her temper was fierce—constantly throwing tantrums that Wen Qiao had to soothe, whether she was in the right or not.

With her back turned, she didn’t see the cold, weary expression on her fiancé’s face.

All she heard was the sound of him removing his coat before he embraced her from behind, his warm breath brushing her neck.

“Didn’t you go see Nan Ju today? Why come back in such a rage?”

Alpha’s breath teased around the scent gland, and even Ye Qiushuang’s formidable temper couldn’t help but soften, instinctively submitting in compliance.

“It’s all because of that little b1tch Nan Ju—she actually played me.”

Ye Qiushuang gritted her teeth as she recounted the incident, shifting her body to turn over and wrap her arms around Wen Qiao’s neck, settling onto his lap with a petulant pout.

“Do you think she might have discovered our plan? Something feels off to me.”

In the heat of the moment, she hadn’t thought much about it, but now that she’d calmed down, the inconsistencies were obvious.

Forget about the dog for now—when had Nan Ju ever argued with her before?

In all their interactions, she had always been the dominant one. Nan Ju was soft-natured and naive, easy to manipulate with just a little effort, incredibly gullible.

Even when upset, a few sweet words would placate her.

But today, Nan Ju had coldly told her to get out.

Ye Qiushuang grew increasingly indignant as she reflected on the day’s events. “Why does she get to have everything so effortlessly? Just because she’s pretty?”

Wen Qiao’s arm around her stiffened slightly as an exquisitely beautiful face surfaced in his mind.

She was indeed stunning enough to make one want to kiss her, to kneel at her feet and beg for a glance, to willingly become her dog.

Wen Qiao thought earnestly: If possible, he wouldn’t mind being the young mistress Nan’s devoted dog, wagging his tail and fawning over her.

“Why envy her, Shuangshuang? To me, you’re the best Omega.”

The scent gland on the back of her neck was gently massaged. Though the man’s physique wasn’t particularly robust, neither was it frail. As he drew closer, his pheromones aggressively overwhelmed the air in the room, making her waist grow weaker the more she inhaled.

Having already experienced this before and loving the way Wen Qiao sweet-talked her, Ye Qiushuang’s eyes soon glistened with moisture. Her fingers feebly rested on his shoulders, giving a half-hearted push.

“Stop trying to sweet-talk me.”

Wen Qiao caught her fingers and playfully nipped at them, his expression growing even gentler. “I mean it.”

Alphas were powerful and intelligent, their innate advantages and talents giving them a natural air of superiority. Few were as approachable and refined as Wen Qiao.

This was precisely why Ye Qiushuang had agreed to their engagement—she could control this Alpha, deriving a sense of fulfillment from him that she’d never experienced before.

More importantly, Wen Qiao was a male Alpha.

Alphas were divided into male and female, but it was generally accepted that male Alphas were slightly stronger than their female counterparts. This gave Ye Qiushuang a subtle sense of triumph, as if she had one up on Nan Ju.

Wen Qiao and Su Wei were two completely different types of Alphas.

At this thought, Ye Qiushuang felt a twinge of schadenfreude.

“Nan Ju called off her engagement with the Su family’s eldest daughter. She claims it was her decision, but I think the Su family simply didn’t want her. Should we leak this to a few newspapers?”

She spoke while laughing, her gaze lingering on Wen Qiao’s lips, which looked particularly enticing, stirring a restless itch within her.

To keep their scheme against Nan Ju intact, they had yet to take the final step of a permanent mating mark.

“What did you say?”

Wen Qiao’s eyes snapped open as he abruptly sat up, his expression darkening.

Ye Qiushuang hadn’t expected him to move so suddenly. She froze momentarily before shooting him an annoyed glare.

As the distance between them widened, their entwined pheromones gradually settled.

“I said she’s already broken off the engagement with Su Wei. What’s the problem with that?”

Wen Qiao skillfully masked his displeasure: “Weren’t we waiting for the Su family to call off the engagement after our plan succeeded? Now that the Nans have withdrawn first, doesn’t that make all our efforts wasted?”

The prestigious Su family would never accept a promiscuous, tainted Omega. That had been their plan all along—to sully Nan Ju’s reputation and ruin the alliance between the two families.

“It wasn’t the Nans who withdrew. Nan Ju personally went to break off the engagement with Su Wei. I doubt her family even knows yet. Tell me, have you taken a liking to her?”

Wen Qiao frowned: “What nonsense are you talking about?”

Ye Qiushuang narrowed her eyes, scrutinizing her nominal fiancé.

While their arrangement was indeed transactional, and their engagement served mutual interests, discovering her Alpha showing interest in another Omega still irked her immensely.

What made Nan Ju so special?

Just because she came from a better family, had more money, was prettier, and happened to be Flower City’s only S-class Omega?

All beauty and no brains—that vixen’s face practically screamed future infidelity. She might even create a huge scandal without any outside interference.

The more Ye Qiushuang thought about it, the more convinced she became. Her anger over Nan Ju escaping unscathed at the engagement party gradually faded, replaced by a sweet smile.

“Fine, I’m just jealous. No need to be so harsh about it.”

She playfully hooked her fingers around the man’s, coquettish, her eyes sparkling with delight.

She’d just thought of a perfect way to teach Nan Ju an immediate lesson.