SCOM - Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Zuo Luohuan still had plenty of credits left over from the previous semester. Skipping class for a day had no impact on her, so she unhesitatingly vaulted over the wall right in front of Ji Yuezhi and left.
After leaving school, she went straight home.
Neither of her parents was home, which conveniently saved her the trouble of explaining. Zuo Luohuan headed towards her second-floor bedroom. Halfway up, she saw the butler entering through the front door. Remembering something, she stopped. "Uncle Zhao, where are my coming-of-age gifts kept?"
Months ago, at Zuo Luohuan's coming-of-age ceremony, she had only made a brief appearance before leaving and hadn't returned since.
"Miss, do you want to open your gifts?" Uncle Zhao thought for a moment. "Madam asked me to put them all in the warehouse before."
Zuo Luohuan turned and came back down. "I'll go take a look."
"Why did you suddenly come back?" Butler Zhao Bo followed behind her, chattering, "Last semester, people from the school came several times, saying you were constantly absent from class, causing a bad influence. The Master managed to block them, but Madam was a bit angry and wanted you to stay properly in school."
"She's angry I didn't answer her communications." Zuo Luohuan reached the warehouse door, stopped, and turned to let the butler unlock it. "I won't leave this semester."
The butler took out a card, swiped it on the door lock, and then verified his iris scan. Only then did the warehouse door open. "It's good that you won't leave. Madam and Master will surely be happy. But Miss, today is Tuesday, don't you have classes?"
Zuo Luohuan: "...It's been too long since I ate at home, so I took leave to come back."
"Then I'll go prepare now." The butler didn't enter the warehouse, quickly turning to leave. He needed to contact the Master and Madam to tell them the Miss was home for a meal.
Once the butler was far enough away, Zuo Luohuan stepped into the warehouse. The first room was piled high with her coming-of-age gifts. Just from the packaging, it was clear most of the items inside were quite valuable. Her gaze swept over all the gifts in the room. The butler had sorted them according to the sender's surname, making it easy to find what she was looking for.
Zuo Luohuan walked to one section, reached out, and rummaged through the pile. Sure enough, she found a gift labelled 'Ji Yuezhi'. The name on the box was written by the butler, likely done uniformly when he received the gifts for her to avoid mixing them up.
She pulled the gift out, tore off the label, and opened the box. Inside, wrapped in a layer of white silk, lay the contents. On top was a gold-edged paper card bearing only one sentence: Coming-of-Age Ceremony Gift. Below was the signature, Ji Yuezhi.
Zuo Luohuan's gaze swept over the elegant script on the gold-edged card. He didn't wish her a happy coming-of-age, nor did he write any wishes for her future after adulthood. The perfunctory nature was obvious. However... her fingertip traced the signature, and a slight smile touched her lips. A low, pleasant, slightly husky voice echoed in the warehouse, tinged with teasing amusement as she deliberately read the signature along with the message: "Coming-of-Age Ceremony Gift Ji Yuezhi?"
Placing the card aside, Zuo Luohuan reached out and pulled away the silk wrapping. Her eyes fell on the gift lying on the raffia. The next second, she couldn't help but raise an eyebrow, mentally repeating Ji Yuezhi's name, this time with a hint of faint anger.
She picked up the so-called gift. It was made of black, vertical metal strips pieced together into the shape of a mask, with a squarish protrusion below that would cover the mouth if worn.
—It was a face lock.
Historically, before inhibitors were developed, Alphas had to wear mask locks when going out to maintain social stability. Once put on, they couldn't be broken by human strength and could only be opened by someone else with a key. Omegas would wear neck locks, which functioned similarly but differed in shape and placement.
Nowadays, face locks had long been phased out by history. Only Alphas completely unable to control their pheromones used them now, and such Alphas were practically considered useless.
Sending a face lock was tantamount to mocking her lack of self-control, or perhaps... wishing she lacked self-control in the future. What a coming-of-age gift. Truly worthy of the Ji family, never missing an opportunity to oppose the Zuo family.
Zuo Luohuan lowered her gaze to the face lock in her hand, her fingers tracing the joints. Things were different now; the craftsmanship was completely different. A real face lock should be cast in one piece, not like this one, which she could easily break with a firm squeeze.
She lifted her hand and loosely held the face lock against her face, her eyes darkening. "Ji Yuezhi..." You don't seem to know the difference between a face lock and an erotic face mask.
I think he knows
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