That male Alpha knew who Wang Luan was, but Wang Luan truly did not recognize him.
The original body had never gone out to socialize; the Butler Wang who suddenly threw her out to attend a banquet also hadn’t had her look through any materials beforehand. Now that she was meeting people on-site, of course she didn’t recognize anyone at all.
That male Alpha, with “You not recognizing me is insulting me” practically written all over his face, looked like a textbook Alpha—tall and robust, with a sharp, aggressive presence, as if he might erupt and start a fight at any moment.
“I’m Li Kewen!” the male Alpha ground out his name through clenched teeth.
He was probably waiting for Wang Luan to show a surprised expression of “So it’s him,” but Wang Luan had no extra reaction at all. She blandly said hello, which could only be described as boring to the extreme.
Li Kewen stared at her wide-eyed for a moment, waiting for more of a response. When none came, his expression immediately grew a couple degrees uglier.
“Although our Li family and your Wang family are both old-established noble houses, I’m not the same as you. I’m an S-level Alpha, studying at Thorn Military Academy, and I’ve even participated in several interschool mecha competitions. Are you really not recognizing me, or are you pretending not to out of inferiority?”
As he spoke, Li Kewen had already concluded it was the latter, his expression becoming ever more disdainful and arrogant.
The Alphas in this world seemed a bit overly confident. Wang Luan thought back to the Alphas she had seen over these few short days and confirmed that every single one of them had something wrong with them, more or less.
She didn’t want to interact much with men with long OO, so she perfunctorily replied, “Alright, I’ll go back and look over your profile.”
As soon as she said this, Yan Qiongyu, who was standing beside her as decoration, glanced at her with a smile in his eyes, not quite sure whether she was naturally bad at speaking or deliberately needling people. In any case, Li Kewen was nearly driven to death by anger, convinced she was provoking him.
A dense Alpha pheromone carrying an oppressive intent surged toward Wang Luan in an instant.
Almost at the same time Li Kewen’s pheromones poured out, Yan Qiongyu took a step back, calmly preparing to support Miss Wang Luan, his fiancée, who might soon be attacked and knocked over.
Li Kewen’s pheromones smelled of tobacco; the worse his mood, the more pungent the smoke became.
Some of the Alphas standing nearby didn’t look too good; those of lower rank even quietly broke out in cold sweat in their palms, and some Omegas couldn’t help turning pale.
Fortunately, Li Kewen still had a sense of restraint. His pheromones didn’t spread over a wide area; he only released a little toward Wang Luan, with limited impact on the others.
Facing this wave of pheromones head-on, Wang Luan, just like the last time she faced the Wang family head’s pheromonal pressure, still couldn’t feel that sense of threat between dominant members of the same sex.
She only felt that the smoke smell was far too choking. Looking again at Li Kewen, whose entire body was emanating that smoky scent, it was as if she were looking at a human-shaped smoked sausage—the smoke flavor had really soaked in.
Li Kewen had suddenly released his pheromones in the first place because he wanted to see Wang Luan lose her composure in public.
When low-level Alphas are subjected to the pheromonal pressure of high-level Alphas, they might cry, scream, collapse, or even lose control of their bladder out of fear… Yet just like with his earlier verbal provocation, he failed to get any of the reactions he had imagined.
Wang Luan stood there perfectly fine, only lifting her hand to pinch her nose.
This manner of disliking his smell without fearing him was deeply insulting. If Li Kewen’s anger earlier had been somewhat deliberate, now it was one hundred percent genuine rage.
“Wang Luan! If you have the guts, then don’t wear a pheromone blocker!”
As the name suggests, a pheromone blocker is a device specifically used to block Alpha and Omega pheromones. It is expensive to produce and is generally used to prevent certain A and O pheromones from going out of control, so it is installed in large public venues.
There are also some low-ranking but wealthy Alphas who will purchase an upgraded version of this blocker, which can prevent high-ranking Alphas from provoking them with pheromones.
Given Wang Luan’s demeanor when facing Li Kewen’s pheromones just now, everyone—including Li Kewen—thought she must be carrying that kind of blocker with her to appear so composed.
Only Wang Luan herself knew that she wasn’t.
Perhaps because she wasn’t the original model and there was some mismatch in compatibility with this body, she could only receive the basic scent of pheromones and couldn’t feel their effects. No matter how much these Alphas released their smells at her, it would only be enough to smoke her to death.
Seeing the veins bulge on Li Kewen’s forehead while Wang Luan still wore a blank, out-of-the-loop expression, the Seventh Imperial Princess coughed lightly and stepped in between the two of them.
She placed one hand on Li Kewen’s shoulder, her tone mildly reproachful. “Alright, Kewen, don’t take jokes too far. There are still Omegas here, it’s not appropriate.”
Li Kewen clenched his fist, took a breath, and reluctantly turned his head and took a step back.
Wang Luan thought to herself that his emotional management was terrible, while her dog-training skills were excellent.
The Seventh Imperial Princess lightly brushed away the earlier sword-drawn tension with the word “joke,” saying aloud, “Everyone hasn’t spent time together before and doesn’t know each other well. In the future, perhaps you could interact more and become familiar. What do you think, Miss Wang Luan?”
Wang Luan thought it was not good at all. Anyway, their relationship couldn’t possibly improve, and getting a bit worse didn’t matter.
“I think it’s not good,” Wang Luan said.
She hadn’t expected Wang Luan to not even give her face. The Seventh Imperial Princess’s polite smile paused, and she looked closely at Wang Luan, as if only now truly seeing her. “If you’re not on the same path, then it really isn’t good to force it.”
“But…” the Seventh Imperial Princess lowered her voice, “you’re happy too early. Being able to snatch something from my hands doesn’t mean you can handle it.”
Even if she were willing to let it go, her domineering Fifth Brother would not. When that Fifth Brother returned from the legion and discovered that the person he had his eye on had been taken—and by such a useless thing at that—it would definitely be lively.
Why should she bother arguing now with a short-lived ghost destined to die?
She withdrew her gaze from Wang Luan and let it fall on Yan Qiongyu beside her. The Seventh Imperial Princess took a step forward and leaned in as she said, “We met once a year ago. You remember, right?”
Seeing her move closer, Wang Luan was alarmed: people with long OO, don’t come over!
She quickly stepped back, and Yan Qiongyu seemed to be connected to her, retreating along with her.
The Seventh Imperial Princess: “…………”
Yan Qiongyu answered with his half-permanent polite smile. “I remember.”
No small talk, no embellishment, as if he had been infected by the tactless Wang Luan beside him.
The Seventh Imperial Princess then asked meaningfully, “Did you receive the gift I sent to the Omega Academy?”
Yan Qiongyu replied watertight, “The teachers are strict; we can’t receive any gifts.”
After forcing a few awkward lines of conversation, and since it was a public setting and she couldn’t go too far, the Seventh Imperial Princess ultimately passed by them with regret and went to speak with other guests, though her gaze still occasionally swept over the two standing in the corner.
Yan Qiongyu waited for questioning from his fiancée. Even if she disliked him, in the face of something that looked like a private affair, she wouldn’t be indifferent. Alphas have an extremely low tolerance for this kind of situation; even an Alpha like Wang Luan should possess basic Alpha pride, right?
After waiting for quite a while, there was still no reaction from the person beside him. Turning his head, he saw her standing there absentmindedly with an expression of “tired,” her gaze drifting through the crowd without a landing point, not paying him any attention at all.
She really didn’t look like an Alpha. Yan Qiongyu thought this for the second time.
“Miss Wang Luan, don’t you have anything you want to ask me?”
Wang Luan snapped back to herself and smoothly asked, “Can we leave now?”
Yan Qiongyu: “…I’m afraid not. The banquet hasn’t started yet.”
So Wang Luan let out a long sigh.
Yan Qiongyu observed her reaction with interest.
With so many Alphas and Omegas here, Yan Qiongyu quickly noticed that Wang Luan kept her distance from male and female Alphas as well as male Omegas, holding an attitude of difficulty accepting them.
There were also many male and female servants moving about the hall; they were all Betas. Toward male Betas, Wang Luan likewise showed a tendency to keep away. Among the six sex classifications, she showed no aversion only to female Omegas and female Betas.
Judging from bodily structure, it was easy to guess what she truly rejected.
As clever as Yan Qiongyu was, with just a bit of thought, he arrived at a shocking conclusion. Only, could such an Alpha really exist? That she would be unable to accept an organ that she herself also possessed?
