99% Match, But He Smells Like My Ex-Boss - Chapter 12
Chapter 12
Three months later, the White Tower project went live.
Among the first batch of pilot companies, six Omega employees used the anonymous system to report pheromone harassment.
After two of the reports were confirmed, the executives involved were fired.
On the day of the launch press conference, the media asked me,
“Ms. Song, we heard that your compatibility with President Lu of Qingyao is as high as 99%. May we ask whether the White Tower project is also connected to your personal experience?”
The audience fell silent.
Lu Zhiheng was sitting in the first row.
He wasn’t looking at the reporter.
He was looking at me.
As if he were waiting for me to decide for myself whether I wanted to say it.
I picked up the microphone.
“It is.”
“I was once harmed by an inducer because of a pheromone data leak, and I was wrongly blamed within the company.”
The entire venue erupted.
I continued, “But White Tower wasn’t made for me alone.”
“It was made so that more people in the workplace don’t have to trade silence for safety.”
After the press conference, White Tower shot up the trending searches.
Rising along with it was the compatibility score between Lu Zhiheng and me.
The comment section was buzzing.
[99%? This is going to be hard to end without a wedding.]
[An ex-boss becomes a fated Alpha? What kind of novel plot is this?]
[Isn’t the real point the pheromone data leak?]
[Am I the only one curious exactly how much he smells like her ex-boss?]
I looked at the last comment and laughed.
Lu Zhiheng sent me a message.
Lu Zhiheng: There’s a celebration dinner tonight. Are you coming?
I replied: I don’t feel like going.
He replied: Then can I come to you?
I thought about it.
Song Zhi: Bring the clay pot.
Half an hour later, he really was standing at my door with a takeout box in hand.
The fir scent mixed with the smell of hot soup. It wasn’t refined at all.
I let him in.
He set the food on the dining table, his movements a little stiff.
“It’s my first time here.”
“Nervous?”
“Yeah.”
I laughed.
“President Lu has moments when he gets nervous too?”
He looked at me.
“I do.”
“When?”
“Every time I’m waiting for your answer.”
I lowered my head and unwrapped the chopsticks.
My ears felt a little hot.
Halfway through the meal, my scent gland suddenly gave a soft throb.
It didn’t hurt.
It was a familiar sense of being soothed.
I looked up.
Lu Zhiheng immediately drew in his pheromones.
“Sorry.”
I said, “I didn’t tell you to pull back.”
He froze.
I set down my chopsticks.
“A little is fine.”
The fir scent spread out again.
Very faint.
Like a forest after snow, distant and not oppressive.
I closed my eyes for a moment.
My body slowly relaxed.
This time, I didn’t feel pathetic.
Lu Zhiheng remained quietly seated across from me.
He didn’t come closer.
And he didn’t take the chance to reach out.
I opened my eyes.
“Lu Zhiheng.”
“Mm.”
“You’ve passed the probation period.”
The chopsticks in his hand stopped.
“What does that mean?”
“It means you can enter the observation period.”
He looked at me, his eyes brightening bit by bit.
“How long?”
“Depends on your performance.”
He smiled.
That was the first time I had ever seen him smile so openly.
Later, the Matching Center called me again.
The staff member politely reminded me,
“Ms. Song, your stability soothing assessment appointment with Mr. Lu has been scheduled for next month. Would you like to confirm it?”
I looked toward the kitchen.
Lu Zhiheng was washing dishes, his sleeves rolled up to his forearms.
The former boss who had once only known how to say “redo it” was now lowering his head, studying how not to break my bowls.
I said, “Confirmed.”
The staff member offered their congratulations with a smile.
After I hung up, Lu Zhiheng turned back.
“Who was that?”
“The Matching Center.”
His fingertips paused.
“You agreed?”
“It’s just an assessment.”
“Mm.”
He tried hard to suppress the corners of his mouth.
I saw it.
But I didn’t call him out.
Many people later asked me what it felt like to have 99% compatibility.
I thought about it for a long time.
It was probably this: when you hated someone deeply, your body remembered for you first that he had once protected you.
And when you finally didn’t hate him so much anymore, you realized that the fir scent that smelled so much like your ex-boss could, in fact, also smell a lot like coming home.
But I didn’t tell Lu Zhiheng that.
He was still in the observation period.
I couldn’t let him get too smug.
The End
