99% Match, But He Smells Like My Ex-Boss - Chapter 2

Chapter 2
As soon as I stepped out of the Matching Center, my heart started racing.
My scent gland felt like it was being pricked by needles.
I leaned against a roadside billboard, cold sweat seeping out layer after layer.
Damn it.
Shen Yanci’s pheromones had gotten too close to me, and my body reacted before my mind could catch up.
I felt around in my bag for the inhibitor.
Empty.
I’d rushed out the door this morning and forgotten to bring it.
Footsteps came from behind me.
Shen Yanci held out a portable inhibitor to me.
“Beta version. It’s less stimulating for Omegas.”
I stared at him.
“You carry this on you?”
“Yeah.”
“Aren’t you an Alpha?”
“Alphas can carry them too.”
He said it so naturally.
I took the inhibitor but didn’t use it right away.
Shen Yanci took a step back.
“I won’t touch you.”
Those words were like a thin needle, piercing my chest and making my heart skip a beat.
Lu Zhiheng had said the same thing.
It was my first year at Qingyao, during a heat period.
A rival company had dosed me with an inducer and locked me in a stairwell.
By the time Lu Zhiheng found me, I was burning up and delirious.
He took off his coat and draped it over me, his voice icy.
“Song Zhi, snap out of it.”
I grabbed his sleeve and smelled the fir scent.
He said, “I won’t touch you.”
Later, I woke up in the hospital.
Lu Zhiheng was sitting outside the ward, a deep scratch on his arm.
I asked him what happened.
He said, “The cat scratched me.”
Back then, I thought he actually owned a cat.
Now, thinking about it, the Qingyao office can’t even keep a potted plant alive for three days-where would a cat come from?
I jabbed the inhibitor into my arm.
As the medicine took effect, my heartbeat gradually steadied.
Shen Yanci stood three meters away the whole time.
He didn’t come closer, but he didn’t leave either.
I asked, “Why did you follow me out?”
“I was afraid you’d collapse.”
“Mr. Shen, we only met today for the first time.”
“The report says our match is 99%.”
“So?”
“I can sense a bit of your abnormal reaction.”
I froze.
People with high matching rates can indeed experience slight empathy.
But usually, it only becomes noticeable after marking.
We’d only sat together for twenty minutes.
I looked at him.
“Who exactly are you?”
Before Shen Yanci could answer, my phone rang.
Caller ID: Qingyao Legal.
My heart sank.
When the call connected, the voice on the other end was formulaic.
“Ms. Song Zhi, the review of the Yunqi Project incident from two years ago requires your cooperation.”
“Please come to Qingyao Technology’s headquarters tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. for questioning.”
The Yunqi Project.
The very project I was fired over.
I gripped my phone.
Shen Yanci looked at me.
“Qingyao?”
I raised my head.
His eyes had changed.
Not surprise.
He had known all along.