Chapter 16: Studying with the Prince

The next day, Shen Han had someone send Su Mi’s car back early in the morning.

Su Ciyu was taking Su Xiaoyi out for a parent-child activity, and before leaving, she asked Su Mi if she wanted to go along.

The activity was at a large Private Baby Paradise, full of fun children’s toys, including over a dozen different kinds of bubble ball slides.

Su Xiaoyi looked at Su Mi eagerly. “Sis, sister! Slide! Big, big slide!”

Su Mi: …Tempted.

But the first round of basic knowledge tutoring wasn’t finished yet. The midterm exam was the week after next, followed by three mock exams leading up to the Unified Exam.

Su Mi could only painfully refuse Su Xiaoyi.

Even with Shen Han as her backer, she could skip the exams and still get into Prime City University.

What Su Mi wanted was to live on in this world after completing her mission successfully.

She couldn’t rely on Shen Han forever, so learning more and getting better grades to beautify her resume was always a good idea.

Su Family parents clearly didn’t quite understand.

When Wen Zisu had Su Xiaoyi, the Original Host was about sixteen or seventeen, right in her rebellious phase. She probably felt like her parents’ attention and love had been mostly diverted to her little brother, so she wasn’t close to him, and her communication with her parents dwindled too.

It was only after Su Mi arrived that she grew closer to Su Xiaoyi, and she usually exchanged a few gentle, obedient words with her parents as well.

For people in this ABO world, the Differentiation Period wasn’t just a coming-of-age marker like in Su Mi’s original world—it was a true sign of gland maturity.

After differentiation, a secondary gender emerged, along with unique pheromones. Due to hormonal influences, many people’s mindsets changed significantly afterward.

The Su Family parents were delighted to see Su Mi’s newfound closeness.

They also wanted to take advantage of this shift in attitude to bring the siblings even closer, to nurture their bond—after all, in another half year, Su Mi would be moving out for university.

Su Mi could tell that Su Ciyu and the others didn’t place much importance on the Unified Exam either.

The Su Family was a lineage with substantial wealth and heritage. Though it had fallen on hard times for a while, with most branches scattering, only Su Ciyu and her family remained in Prime City now.

Like most students at Lolan Academy, the Unified Exam wasn’t a big deal for the Original Host.

Even without Shen Han’s help, she could have gotten into Holy Cross Academy or studied abroad.

Prime City University was a great growth opportunity for Xu Nanqiao, but for the Original Host to attend there would even require a gift from Shen Han.

Su Mi had only realized this in the past few days.

Fortunately, Su Ciyu and the others’ approach to Su Mi’s education was all about indulgence.

Wen Zisu was a bit surprised when he heard Su Mi’s thoughts. He said, “Have you really been studying seriously these past few days?”

Su Mi: “…Yes.”

Wen Zisu smiled. “Sorry, Ya Ya. Your mother and I thought you were watching TV.”

“But whether it was watching TV or studying, your mother and I were both surprised and happy that you waited for us to come home yesterday.” Wen Zisu patted Su Mi’s head. “Study if you want, don’t if you don’t. Just don’t push yourself too hard or get too tired, okay?”

Su Mi: Wow.

She looked up at Wen Zisu. Perhaps due to Omega hormones, the man’s features were soft, his expression gentle and warm, with only faint lines at the corners of his eyes hinting at the passage of time.

Su Mi had often fantasized about what her father might be like before.

During parent-teacher conferences, as an outstanding student speaker, she could improvise well, delivering her speech while slowly scanning the fathers in the audience—some chubby and mild-mannered, some looking fierce and menacing, some stone-faced and expressionless…

A so-called father like Wen Zisu, who filled the role of mother, was something Su Mi had never imagined.

But he was especially, especially wonderful.

Then Wen Zisu asked, “Should I hire a tutor for you? Just watching online classes—won’t there be questions you can’t solve?”

Su Mi explained, “I’ve already hired an online tutor, and I’m on good terms with the top student in our grade now. She helps me with lessons every day.”

Wen Zisu: “Hm? Which classmate? Invite her over sometime. Your mother and I would like to thank her together.”

“You might know her too? Xu Nanqiao.”

After Su Mi said this, she looked at Wen Zisu.

He didn’t react much. “Nanqiao? Pretty name. Ask her when she’s free and invite her over, or we can have dinner together.”

Su Mi felt a slight pang of disappointment. “Okay. It might have to wait until after the Unified Exam.”

Wen Zisu smiled. “Alright then. Study hard. I’ll bring some fruit up later.”

The next day at school, after morning self-study ended, Su Mi asked Xu Nanqiao.

“So, did you contact the Yang Family yesterday?”

Yang Er’s seat was already empty today.

Xu Nanqiao had clearly noticed Yang Er’s absence too. She nodded, hesitated, and didn’t say much.

She probably thought the Original Host and Yang Er were still on good terms and wasn’t sure what Su Mi was thinking.

Su Mi said, “Speaking of which, I’ve always felt like I should apologize to you. If I hadn’t been close to you, Yang Er wouldn’t have learned about your relationship with my sister, and none of this would have happened.”

She looked earnestly at Xu Nanqiao, who seemed a bit embarrassed.

“It’s not that. Yesterday… when I went to see them, I found out President Shen had bodyguards downstairs protecting me. Those people were pretty scary. Yang Er was crying her eyes out, saying President Shen had shut down all their stores in Prime City, and they’re leaving in a couple days. With President Shen around, I think they’ve been punished enough for their wrongdoing, so I said forget it…”

Xu Nanqiao asked, “Su Mi, do you think forgiving her like this makes me too soft?”

Su Mi scratched the side of her face. “It’s fine, I guess. Not super satisfying, but whatever makes you happy.”

Xu Nanqiao smiled.

“Actually, I was already really happy when you came to save me that day.”

…?

Su Mi instantly looked up at the female lead.

As the female lead of this Small World, Xu Nanqiao was naturally very pretty.

Her clean face was like a little white flower, but what left the deepest impression was her pair of dewy doe eyes—the classic look of the school flower first love from student days.

Had she stolen the male lead’s screentime without robbing the female lead of her love-at-first-sight for him?

Otherwise, what did she mean by saying that?

Su Mi hesitated, then said, “Nanqiao, you’re great and all, but I think you suit an Alpha more.”

“…”

Xu Nanqiao blinked, then burst out laughing.

She pinched Su Mi’s cheek. “You know, in front of you, I feel more like the Alpha. And you’re saying this?”

Su Mi: ?

A, ABO version of all-love?

The System, witnessing Su Mi’s inner monologue throughout: “…” It let out two zaps of static.

Looked like some dirty data had slipped into the task materials provided to the host.

Su Mi confirmed that things between her and Xu Nanqiao were still just pure BO friendship.

As they spoke, two timid female voices came from behind.

“Su Mi…”

She turned to see the other two girls from the Original Host’s close sister group.

Ai Yiyi and Wei Wan.

They both looked unwell, probably having heard the news about the Yang Family. Judging by the dark circles under their eyes, they’d likely stayed up until the early hours.

Su Mi asked, “What’s up?”

Wei Wan and the others glanced at Xu Nanqiao, saying they wanted to talk to Su Mi outside.

Su Mi followed them to an empty spot in the hallway.

As soon as they faced each other, tears welled up in Wei Wan’s eyes, on the verge of falling.

Ai Yiyi hurriedly said, “We, we know what Yang Er did, but we really had no idea.”

Wei Wan quickly added, “Yeah, you know us—we do legit business. Unlike Yang Er, who knows all those kids from other schools. We just went along with her words verbally at most. We didn’t think she was serious.”

Su Mi naturally knew they hadn’t been involved.

Not to mention that in the Original Plot, it was indeed Yang Er who suggested teaching the female lead a lesson and who found the people. Plus, since Shen Han had investigated, the results were surely accurate.

Su Mi listened to their explanations for a bit, then hummed and cut them off.

“I know. If you’d been involved, my sister definitely would’ve dragged you out too. So no need to explain to me or be scared.” Su Mi said earnestly, “No guilty conscience, no fear of ghosts knocking.”

Wei Wan and the other: “…”

Ai Yiyi ventured, “Then, after school, wanna go see a movie with us? The new romance flick you like just came out yesterday.”

Su Mi blinked. “Nah, I’ve got tutoring to do. You guys go ahead.”

Wei Wan asked, “What about the weekend? You haven’t hung out with us since you got back…”

Su Mi said, “Because I’m insecure.”

These two had pretty much finished their roles in the Original Plot, and with the antagonist’s words in the car the day before about making friends and being more careful.

Su Mi figured this was a good chance to cut ties.

Wei Wan and Ai Yiyi: “Ah??”

Su Mi said it with great conviction. “You’ve all differentiated into Omegas, and I’m just a Beta. Hanging out with you makes me insecure. Plus, the Unified Exam’s coming up. For a Beta like me, better to focus on exams.”

Facing the stunned pair, Su Mi waved casually. “Gotta go preview the next class. Bye!”

They watched the girl with the light golden pigtails run mercilessly back into the classroom, their faces flushing and paling.

Not a trace of tears left.

Wei Wan sniffled and tsked.

“Acting all high and mighty.”

Ai Yiyi pulled out a mirror, touched up her makeup to cover the tear stains, and rolled her eyes lightly too.

“She’s not wrong. Differentiated into a Beta, and with President Shen making her tutor the ‘Prince’ to get into Prime City University—who wouldn’t cling to Xu Nanqiao?”

Wei Wan tugged her arm. “Whatever, ignore her. I heard Holy Cross Academy’s recruiting a bunch of students from Xi City this year. Xi City folks are different from us—they’ve got the real deal in those upper-class families~”

Ai Yiyi’s eyes lit up. “For real? Got any intel? Share!”

–

Su Mi naturally didn’t overhear their conversation, and even if she had, she wouldn’t have cared.

What she cared about was the male and female leads’ second encounter in a couple days.

It was a dessert competition hosted by Lolan Academy.

Not only did it offer generous cash prizes, but also extra credits.

Lolan operated on a credit system. Besides credits from required courses, a portion came from afternoon electives.

Since they were electives, plenty of students didn’t care about them until their final year, only to find they hadn’t fulfilled their credits.

This was like a little backdoor the school opened for them.

Good students like the female lead had long completed their credits and were just in it for the prize money.

Su Mi knew she couldn’t stop the female lead from signing up, so she asked the class monitor to register her too. On the day of the competition, she dragged Xu Nanqiao along to the activity room.

There were few people in the activity room—it was the last semester, and most who needed credits had already gotten them.

They registered with the activity club students, got their name tags, aprons, and tools, and just then heard a snide, mocking male voice at the door.

“Yo, isn’t this Young Master Gu? What, joining the dessert contest now?”