I Like Your Pheromones

“Why did he give you the school uniform? Is he going to run the laps for you?” Song Yi looked up and down Duan Jiayan, eyes opening wider in disbelief: “When did you and the class president reach this kind of secret deal?”

“I have a stress disorder.”

Since Song Yi is an omega, he had also heard about this disease. He looked at Duan Jiayan with a complicated look. He didn’t know what to say to comfort the poor guy.

After a moment, Song Yi suddenly felt that there was something wrong.

Why didn’t Duan Jiayan isolate himself?

“I have high pheromone compatibility with Lu Xingci. He can help me treat my stress disorder.” Duan Jiayan shook the sleeves of his school uniform: “So this is a treatment method and not a secret deal. Do you want to exaggerate this more?”

Song Yi dimly said: “How I wish I also had the stress disorder. Do you think that the class president would give me his uniform too?”

Duan Jiayan: “…”

Duan Jiayan stopped shaking the school uniform. He looked at Song Yi as if he were looking at a crazy person.

Song Yi suddenly realised something: “Wait. The stress disorder should be very serious. It is impossible to alleviate the disorder just with the pheromone from the school uniform. Could it be that you—”

Seeing that Song’s voice kept  rising and that his facial expression gradually became one which reflected extreme fear, Duan Jiayan immediately  covered his mouth.

Song Yi: “…mMMmMmm!”

Duan Jiayan: “Have you calmed down? Be a little quieter.”

Song Yi nodded desperately.

Duan Jiayan let go of him.

“Little* Duan!” Right as he regained freedom, Song Yi softly hissed with rage in Duan Jiayan’s ear: “You really aren’t human! You’re such a beast!”

*T/N: 小 – “Xiao” / “Little”; It is used as a term of endearment or as a reference to a friend/classmate when slotted in front of a person’s name.

Duan Jiayan also softly hissed back: “Fuck you. Wake up! It was he who bit me.”

Song Yi: “He actually bit you?! You getting a stress disorder can bring this kind of good event?!”

Duan Jiayan: “…”

Song Yi also realized that his reaction was too immature. He tugged at Duan Jiayan, and whispered sneakily: “Did it feel good? Was the class president powerful?”

Duan Jiayan: “…”

Duan Jiayan really didn’t know how to answer this question.

Director Jiang is very adept at grasping opportunities. If he wasn’t, he wouldn’t have been able to be at the director position.

This ability to grasp opportunities is reflected in all aspects. Since he caught the students today, he will ruthlessly rectify the habits of First Middle* students by showing all students the consequence of not wearing school uniforms.

*T/N:  一种 – “Yi Zhong” / “First Middle”; Name of the school they’re attending. In China, “Middle” schools tend to cover 3 years (grades 7 to 9) of middle school and 3 years (grades 10 to 12) of high school.

He used a unique approach of asking students to run laps in groups of twenty and each group to run after each other. In this way, chaos is avoided and everyone can see clearly who exactly is running, having the effect of a public transparent execution.

The flag-raising ceremony was about to end, Song Yi looked over to the side: “Currently it has just reached Class Seven’s turn to run. If it’s like this, when will they even fucking finish running.”

The boys have to run five laps while the girls have to run three laps. There are more than twenty classes in the whole grade, so there are nearly two hundred people who have to run.

From where they’re standing, they just happen to be able to see the finish line of the track. a few boys who have finished running supported  each other as they walked, looking as tired as a dead dog.

Song Yi saw this and looked back: “Are you going to leave straight away after this?”

Duan Jiayan also watched those boys.

If there was no Lu Xingci, then he would probably be among those running the laps. Although he wouldn’t necessarily run the laps obediently, if he just left like this, it would seem very unkind.

“I’m going to buy him a bottle of water.”

At the end of the flag-raising ceremony, the students orderly left the field by class. Duan Jiayan walked in the opposite direction of the crowd.

There is a bubble tea shop next to the cafeteria. Because of the fine taste, the rich variety offered, and its location being within First Middle School, it could be considered a mega-popular* shop in Ning City. Students often buy milk tea from there.

*T/N:  网红 – “Wang Hong” / “Web Red”; just means super popular/famous on the web

He had originally planned to order the recommended, white peach oolong, but he unconsciously looked  to the side and he suddenly saw the new product.

Duan Jiayan pointed to the signboard.

“A cup of citrus passion fruit, large cup, with less ice.”

When Duan Jiayan returned to the court, it was just Class Ten’s turn to run.

Director Jiang stood at the finish line and watched people. Duan Jiayan fought battles of wits and courage against him for more than a year now, so Director Jiang also knew Duan Jiayan. Watching him walk over so carefreely, Director Jiang gave him a few more suspicious stares.

But Duan Jiayan just stood there watching the students run and didn’t cause trouble. He rarely wore a school uniform but now, he’s wearing the school uniform properly as he stood at the side of the field. Just looking at his appearance, he doesn’t seem like the famous big shot of First Middle.

Duan Jiayan’s eyes fell on Lu Xingci.

This is already their third lap. Lu Xingci wore a dark t-shirt, looked ahead with a relaxed gaze, and appeared absent-minded as he ran.

Compared to the others who are so tired they’re becoming dogs, Lu Xingci can be described as pretty relaxed. He’s running at the front of the group, with only two or three people in front of him.

When Lu Xingci ran by, Duan Jiayan called out his name.

“Class President, come on.” Duan Jiayan said: “The first place is about to be taken away.”

Lu Xingci glanced at him, and did not speed up, he continued running at the same steady speed as before.

Behind Lu Xingci were a few dawdling boys in Class Ten. These people were all pretty familiar with Duan Jiayan. They saw him and greeted him lively.

“Brother Duan, who did you bring water for? “

“Of course it’s for me. Thank you, Brother Duan.”

“Hahahaha you?”

On the last lap, several people running in front of Lu Xingci gradually exhausted their physical strength and slowed down.

Duan Jiayan watched as Lu Xingci used that steady pace to overtake them and was the first to cross the finish line.

Director Jiang was probably becoming bored from watching over these students run that he actually bothered  to take out his phone stopwatch: “Hey! New record!” 

Duan Jiayan: “…”

Seeing clearly that the person who ran over is Lu Xingci, Director Jiang paused before he smiled as he spoke: “Remember to wear the school uniform next time. Look at how much time was wasted from running these big laps.”

Lu Xingci nodded.

Duan Jiayan watched as Lu Xingci wiped his sweat after running, and felt that according to this amount of exercise, he would more or less be somewhat thirsty. Right now is a good time to send the drink over.

Lu Xingci gave him the school uniform, so he will return Lu Xingci with a cool refreshment.

So thoughtful of Little Duan!

When he was just about to step forward, he saw several girls jog towards Lu Xingci, and stopped in front of him. One of them looked somewhat familiar.

It was Jiang Qinian.

He watched as Jiang Qinian handed Lu Xingci a sports drink and Lu Xingci reached out his hand.

Received it.

Accepted it.

And even thanked her as well.

Fuck? How dare you accept it?

Duan Jiayan was about to explode.

Duan Jiayan thought about how the girl he liked so much looked at Lu Xingci as a prince charming, and even waited at the side with a sports drink when she saw he was running, and even smiled so prettily.

At that moment, he completely forgot about returning the favour and threw the thought of it at  the back of his head. Coincidentally, he was feeling a bit thirsty. He looked down in the bag and found the straw, he was just about to poke it ruthlessly into—

“Isn’t that for me?”

He looked up. He didn’t know when Lu Xingci had walked over to him.

Just after exercising, his hair is a little wet from sweat. Lu Xingci is a bit taller than him, and both of his eyes were looking downwards, so the lines at the end of his eyes were clear and beautiful. 

“It was originally for you, but didn’t Jiang Qinian give you a drink already?” Duan Jiayan shot a look at  the bottle of sports drink in his hand, reminding himself to be more generous… be more generous…

Fuck.

Duan Jiayan couldn’t stand it anymore. He just looked at Lu Xingci, with and without a smile: “I was thinking that, you probably can’t finish drinking two bottles of drinks alone.”

Lu Xingci seemed to not have felt the aggressive attacks in his words, and with a natural attitude: “What is this?”

“Citrus Passion Fruit.”

“I’ll drink this.”

Duan Jiayan smiled: “Do you see that sun above your head? Why are you sleeptalking when it’s broad daylight?”

Lu Xingci said nothing.

He glanced at the school uniform Dian Jiayan was wearing and then locked eyes with Duan Jiayan with a slightly raised eyebrow.

Duan Jiayan felt that this was a silent threat.

But he really was threatened.

He has the short end of the stick, not to mention that he really can’t do without the pheromone of Lu Xingci. Duan Jiayan sighed and threw the straw back into the bag, handing it forward.

“Didn’t you always reject her drink in the past?” Duan Jiayan still remembers the time when Jiang Qinian had asked him to help her pass milk tea to Lu Xingci, and this person said “I don’t drink this” in such an annoying* way that made him want to punch him.

*T/N:  欠揍 – “Qian Zou” / “Wanting to be beaten up”

Duan Jiayan tried to poke out the truth: “You don’t like her, right?”

His amber eyes gazed straight with hope, his eyesight unwavering. Just a bit off of saying “You better not like her.”

Seeing that he was so earnest, Lu Xingci was suddenly put in a bad mood.

Does he like Jiang Qinian this much?

Biting the straw, he ambiguously said: “I didn’t like someone before, but that doesn’t mean I can’t like them now right?”

Duan Jiayan: “…”

Lu Xingci previously ignored Jiang Qinian’s expressions of affection, yet she still likes him so much. If Lu Xingci was interested as well, then wouldn’t he have no chance at all?

“You can like someone, but can you… can you choose someone else to like?” Duan Jiayan pondered how to sway him: “Look at you. She’s a top student whereas you’re a study slacker. You guys won’t have a common topic between the both of you.”

“I like a person for who they are, not for that person’s school transcript.”

“…”

Then you have a pretty clear logic sense?

“I was joking.” Lu Xingci saw that his expression was almost gone, and chuckled: “Her friends were watching from the side.”

The little girl is pretty sensitive and thin-skinned. If she expressed affection alone, he could directly refuse it, but in the face of so many people, if he did not accept the drink, it would be difficult for Jiang Qinian.

Duan Jiayan processed the information and became aware that Lu Xingci’s handling was to protect Jiang Zun’s self-esteem.

How many people did he reject to gain this experience?

Lu Xingci slipped the straw through the cover and took a sip.

Sweet and sour. There’s probably not much sugar added. Duan Jiayan saw him drink, and asked casually: “How is it?”

“It’s not bad.”

“Don’t you think this has the same taste as you?” Duan Jiayan smiled: “Both taste so sour.”

Lu Xingci stared blankly for a bit but soon realized that Duan Jiayan was referring to his pheromones. His pheromone smells like limes. He really doesn’t know how Duan Jiayan smelt it to think that he has the same taste as this drink.

He found it a bit funny.

Just a moment ago, his mind was actually in the gutter because of that one sentence.

When they went back, the second class just ended.

Most of the class saw Lu Xinci previously when he was part of the group that ran the penalty laps. Everyone felt that it was new as Lu Xingci, who has not made any mistake all year, had actually been punished.

When Lu Xingci just sat down, the boys in the front row turned around and asked: “Brother Lu, was it fun to run? I heard that Director Jiang even recorded your time. I think he’s holding the Olympics?”

“Ha ha ha ha ha, Director Jiang did that?”

“Brother Lu settled the spiral.” A group of boys who were punished chimed in: “He set a new record, and Director Jiang stared in awe at it, thinking ‘Is this a standard of a student who’s being punished?’”

“Wow, so pro? Then you must be added to our team for this year’s sports competition’s long-distance run.” Chen Yue laughed. He suddenly saw the fruit tea placed on Lu Xing ci’stable and leaned close since it was a bit strange: “What’s this? Fruit tea? Don’t you dislike drinking these?”

Lu Xingci didn’t give a definite answer, and smiled: “I like it today.”

He didn’t speak very loudly, but Song Yi who has been paying close attention at the side heard it very clearly. When Duan Jiayan pulled out his chair and sat down, Song Yi who next to him seemed like he received an imperial edict, with both hands typing at lightning speed.

The next moment, a message from Song Yi popped up in the Holding Up First Middle’s Sky* chat group:

*T/N:  撑起一中一片天 – “Cheng Qi Yi Zhong Yi Pian Tian” / “Holding Up First Middle (school name)’s Sky”; the name of the chat group

[Sisters, make sure to send fruit tea when sending drinks in the future! The class president just said it. From today onwards he likes to drink! Fruit! Tea!”]

…

Below, a thread of replies saying the message has been received.

Duan Jiayan snorted: “narcissistic.”

Throughout all these years of his life, this was the first time he met someone who liked his pheromone this much.