CH 12

Jin Siming stood at the door of the classroom with a bucket and a mop and a bitter look on her face.

Today is her turn to be on cleaning duty, and, since it was an extensive cleaning, she needed to clean both the inside and outside of the classroom. After all, the student council will be checking their cleaning today so everyone in her group is responsible for doing more work than usual to clean this place up. 

In the past, whenever she was on duty, she would barely lift a thing as throngs of boys would rush to help her. Now, however, she has to do everything herself and not only that, she is also assigned to the most physically intense part of the cleaning—mopping the floors. Just because she’s an alpha. 

She sighed for the nth time, and lifted her mop, dipping it into the water bucket as she began mopping row by row, from left to right. 

By the time she made it to the fourth row, she stopped in her tracks. This is because several girls are standing in her way, blocking the floor of the fourth row. She couldn’t maneuver around them as there is no space to do so. 

In the center of their little huddle is Yao Jin’s seat. At this moment, the girl in question is surrounded by 3-4 other girls and there are bottles and jars of cosmetics lying on her desk. 

Lin Ying picked up a lipstick sitting on Yao Jin’s table and opened it gently. She let out an envious sigh, “Aiya, I’ve been wanting to buy this shade of lipstick for such a long time, but it’s just too expensive. I’ve been reluctant to buy it.” 

Yao Jin smiled at her and seeing that the girl seemed to really like the lipstick, she said, “If you like it that much, then I’ll just give it to you. It just so happens that I haven’t used that one yet.” 

Lin Ying held the lipstick tightly in her hand, feeling a little excited: “Really, Jin-Jin? But this lipstick is quite expensive, ah, forget it, I shouldn’t….” 

Yao Jin didn’t seem to mind, “This is nothing. Your birthday is in a few days, right? Just treat it as an advance birthday present from me.” 

After hearing this, Lin Ying jumped up happily and wrapped Yao Jin into a hug. 

The group of girls enthusiastically continued to discuss cosmetics, and Jin Siming just happened to hear this little snippet as she approached. 

Although she hates Yao Jin to the bone, she has to admit that she really can’t be like Yao Jin. For not only is the hateful woman popular with teh opposite sex, she is also very popular among the same sex. 

Meanwhile, Jin Siming has a cold temperament when meeting new and unfamiliar people, and rarely takes the initiative to make new friends. 

Before her differentiation, the people around her didn’t care how cold her attitude was due to her beautiful face. Alphas would still flock to her and try to curry facor with her, but as for the same sex….except for Su Xiaohang and her little group of friends, her relationship with the same sex was really bad. One time, a girl got really jealous when her crush fell in love with Jin Siming instead. She insulted her on the school message boards and almost slapped her because of it. 

The entire debacle was traumatizing to the point that she still feels uncomfortable just remembering about it.

On the other hand, Yao Jin is not only popular with the alphas, but with the omegas and other ordinary girls. This is not only due to her cheerful personality, but her lavish spending habit and her constant gift-giving. 

This Lin Ying doesn’t seem to be a very sincere person…was it really necessary to spend so much money on those materials to maintain these fake friendships? 

Does she simply enjoy the feeling of being surrounded by fans like a movie star?

With these thoughts in mind, Jin Siming snorted disdainfully and picked up her mop and loudly tapped it on the ground a couple of times as she shouted impatiently, “Hey, excuse me,  I’m mopping here! Please get out of the way.” 

A few water droplets accidentally splashed onto the calves of two of the girls. They screamed indignantly and turned around angrily, but quickly changed expressions when they saw it was Jin Siming holding the mop. They looked at each other and then quickly walked away without saying anything. 

With these annoying obstacles removed, Jin Siming continued her work and went back to mopping the floor. 

In her mind, she exclaimed her pleasant surprise at these girls’ attitudes. They treated her much better than she thought they would. She thought they would at least give her an eyeroll or two before leaving. 

By the time she reached Yao Jin’s desk, the girl was still sitting in her chair and slowly cleaning up her pile of cosmetics. 

Today Yao Jin is wearing a pair or white shorts, revealing a pair of slender and smooth legs with a pair of AJs on her feet. At this moment, that pair of smooth and slender legs are crossed over each other beneath the desk. 

Jin Siming’s mop couldn’t reach beneath the desk with those legs in teh way so she knocked her fist against the desk, “Please get up. I need to mop the floor.” 

“Ok…..” 

Yao Jin lifted her eyelids and lazily glanced up at her once and then returned her focus to her cosmetics. She didn’t bother getting up and instead simply raised her legs up into the air. 

Jin Siming “….” 

Since Yao Jin wasn’t getting up, Jin Siming could only hurriedly mop the floor beneath that desk before leaving. 

She turned to leave when she suddenly heard Yao Jin gasp. She turned her head only to see Yao Jin jump up from her seat and rush towards her with those long legs. 

Jin Siming was so frightened that she quickly took two steps to the side to avoid a collision. 

“Jin-Jin, what’s wrong?” 

A few boys hurriedly came over and asked. 

“A-A cockroach.” 

Yao Jin stood next to Jin Siminng, her pretty face turning white with fright. 

“So it turns out it’s a cockroach? Don’t be afraid, I’ll catch the little thing for you!” 

“It’ll be alright, Jin-Jin, leave it to me! I’ll immediately send that little bug to heaven!” 

“That’s right, don’t be afraid! You have us here!” 

The boys immediately volunteered to help kill the bug and save the damsel in distress. Soon enough, a group of people huddled in front of Yao Jin’s desk again as they launched the operation to hunt down the evil cockroach. 

Meanwhile, Yao Jin’s heart was still beating furiously in fright and she clutched her chest, subconsciously taking a few steps closer to Jin Siming who was standing next to her. 

However, Jin Siming, feeling that a certain someone was getting too close to her, quickly moved to the side and widened the distance between them. 

“…..” 

Yao Jin raised her head and gave her a look. 

Jin Siming quickly turned her head away from the look Yao Jin was sending her. Did she see a few traces of anger in Yao Jin’s usually smug fox eyes? 

But before she had much time to think about it, the insect-catching brigade suddenly moved. 

She watched as the cockroach spread its wings and quickly flew out of the encirclement with a loud ‘buzz’. 

It just so happened that the bug was flying in Jin Siming’s direction. 

Yao Jin reacted first, and she screamed as she hid behind Jin Siming. However….Jin Siming is also afraid of cockroaches! Just like Yao Jin, she screamed and then turned around to run out the door. 

But Yao Jin was standing behind her and her sudden turn almost caused the two to collide. 

The buzzing sound of wings was getting closer behind her. Jin Siming felt the hair on the back of her neck stand on edge and before she had time to even think, she grabbed Yao Jin by the shoulder and half-carried, half-dragged the other person to the door with her. 

The skin against her hands is smooth and soft, and Yao Jin was much lighter than she thought. Jin Siming suddenly thought of her grandmother’s beautiful little ragdoll. If that cat had pheromones, it would probably smell like this person. 

This is Jin Siming’s third time smelling Yao Jin’s pheromones. She can finally distinguish what the scent is. The scent is like….white-peach flavored fruit wine. 

She quite liked the scent of peach wine, and couldn’t help but lower her head for a closer sniff. 

By the time she returned to her senses, she realized she had already brought the other person to the door. 

Her heart froze and she quickly released her hands and took two steps backwards. 

But Yao Jin wasn’t paying attention to Jin Siming. She is still scared of the big cockroach she had seen by her feet. She really was frightened, and she still hasn’t recovered yet. So no matter what Jin Siming did to her now, she wouldn’t care as she closed her eyes and lowered her head, not daring to move even a muscle. 

When Yao Jin feels unsafe, she likes to attach to the nearest thing she could find. Now that Jin Siming has backed away from her, she could only lean against the doorframe and then carefully opened her eyes to look into the classroom. 

The class was in disarray as there was a burst of screaming everywhere the cockroach went. Finally, several boys joined forces to drive the bug out of the windows before slamming it shut and calming everyone down. 

“Jin-Jin, it’s alright now! You can safely come back now!” 

A boy waved his arms with an exhausted expression. 

Yao Jin breathed a sigh of relief, and softly murmured her thanks to Jin Siming before returning to her seat. 

Meanwhile, Jin Siming stood in the same place, frozen and in a daze. 

Is her ears playing tricks on her? Did Yao Jin really thank her? And there seemed to be a rare bit of sincerity and…. friendliness in that soft ‘thank you’ just now. 

This seems to be the first time they’ve had a normal conversation without mocking or insulting each other. 

Furthermore, she felt like she had seen a secret side to Yao Jin. 

For example, when frightened, the girl would become very quiet and obedient….

……

After Jin Siming finished cleaning the corridor outside the classroom’s door, she checked off her last task and washed her mop before placing it back into the storage unit full of cleaning supplies. 

She returned to her desk, but the rest of her group that was on cleaning duty had not finished yet. So she propped her chin in one hand and stared lazily at the clouds outside the window. 

As soon as she started to daydream, her daze was interrupted by Zhang Hao sitting in the empty desk in front of her. 

He flashed a smarmy smile at her. 

‘Bro, your arm strength is awesome!” 

Jin Siming rolled her eyes, “Don’t call me ‘bro’.”

She despised when people used masculine terms for her. 

Zhang Hao shrugged. Known as the “Human PHS*”, Zhang Hao is notorious for being the most gossipy boy in Class 14. (*T/N: PHS = Personal Handy-phone System, was a mobile network system that used to operate in China until 2013)

He only talks to other people for two reasons: 1) To gossip or 2) To dig up gossip. 

Jin Siming didn’t think he was here to gossip with her, but she also didn’t have any gossip for him to dig up in the first place. 

So she gave him an incredulous look, “What arm strength?” 

Zhang Hao tsked and then leaned over, both hands placed flat on her desk, “Ming-zi, don’t try to hide it. That cockroach just now may have thrown the class into chaos just now, causing everyone to not pay attention, but I saw everything~” 

He stood up, gesturing with his hands to pantomime an embrace. He winked at Jin Siming and said, “You were so fierce just now when you carried our Beauty Yao out of the classroom. Fortunately, Li Yong’s group of alphas didn’t see you, otherwise they’ll die of jealousy~” 

“Ai, I never expected little Ming-zi to become so cool after differentiating. To think everyone used to treat you like a little princess and throw affection at you left and right~” 

“Now the little princess has become a hero who saves the beautiful damsel in distress, yah! It’s a little hard to digest, huh?” 

The corners of Jin Siming’s mouth twitched. Why does she have the feeling that he was deliberately rubbing salt in her wounds? 

She lamented silently to herself. He is indeed the most gossipy boy in their class, he won’t ever miss a single piece of gossip and not only can he sniff out gossip, he likes to spread it around everywhere. 

Jin Siming interrupted his monologue with a dark face, “That’s because she was in the way. I only pushed her out of the way, alright?” 

Zhang Hao waved his hand and dismissed her explanations. 

“I saw the two of you talking during gym class. I knew I felt something weird between you two lately. I can smell the traces of gossip in the air~ As a classmate, how can I be worthy of my ‘Human PHS’ title if I don’t dig out this information first-hand?” 

Seeing that he wasn’t going to stop anytime soon, Jin Siming stood up and moved to leave. 

“Hey, hey, don’t leave now. I have another piece of gossip that involves you. Would you like to hear it?” Zhang Hao quickly stopped her. 

Jin Siming was getting impatient, “If you have something to say, then spit it out and leave!” 

Zhang Hao coughed and dramatically began, “Yesterday, our second year Yang-ge, er, that is Yang Xing, suddenly asked me about you.” 

“Ask about me?” Jin SIming was at a loss, “Why did he ask about me? I don’t know him.” 

“This, I’m not too sure, but I heard that some people from the vocational high school next door blocked Beauty Yao at the gate. Yang-ge then took a group of people with him to retaliate against those delinquents, but for some reason neither side threw a fist and later he came to me to ask about you.” 

Jin Siming’s heart dropped and raised her head, “And then what?” 

Zhang Hao smiled, “And then he didn’t ask me any more questions after I told him you are an S+ rank Alpha. Ming-Ming-zi, don’t worry, you are our school’s only S+ Alpha. Even if Yang-ge wanted to bother you, he must first consider the consequences.” 

“…..” 

Even Jin Siming has heard a little bit about Yang Xing. After all, he is quite a famous student in their school. Coming from a rich family, his parents have donated a lot of money to the school. He is the very picture of your average rich second-generation and he is one of Yao Jin’s most high-profile suitors. He also often gets into fights in Yao Jin’s name. 

Jin Siming didn’t want to have anything to do with such a person.

Her mind was a mess. Zhang Hao said something else before she left, but she couldn’t hear anything over her mounting anxiety. 

After thinking about it, she concluded that this was all Yao Jin’s fault. If it weren’t for that woman, she wouldn’t be targeted by this Yang Xing! 

She scolded Yao Jin ten times over in her heart. She even drew an evil looking villain on a piece of paper, writing Yao Jin’s name under the doodle and then poking a few holes into the paper to reduce her anger. 

Suddenly, the phone in her pants pocket vibrated a few times. 

【Lu Yi: What kind of flowers do girls usually like?】

Flowers? Why did he suddenly ask about this? Could it be…

【Jin Siming: For Senior to suddenly ask me about this, is it because White Day is coming up?】

【Lu Yi: Ahem, I’ve been seen through….laughing-crying-emoji.jpg】

If he chose to ask her this, then the recipient of these flowers will most definitely not be her. 

Jin Siming raised her head and glanced at Yao Jin. Seeing that evil woman talking and laughing with another alpha, she lowered her head and pursed her lips. 

【Jin Siming: Who gifts flowers nowadays? It’s better to gift some grass instead, and dogtail grass has become very popular recently.】