Shen Han didn’t reply. She tightened her hold on Su Mi’s waist and lowered her head, nipping—not too lightly, not too heavily—at Su Mi’s shoulder.
Her teeth pressed through the soft knit fabric of the sweater, sending a faint sting to Su Mi’s skin.
Su Mi exaggeratedly hissed, then said obediently, “Fine, I won’t go. I didn’t fully agree anyway, and with weekend shifts starting next week, I might not even be free. I’ll tell her later.”
Shen Han asked, “Do you chat with her a lot? Lately, I keep seeing you glued to your light brain… You seem really happy talking to her. Always smiling.”
Whereas now, with Shen Han holding her, Su Mi showed barely any reaction.
Su Mi thought to herself that it was because she was eating up the gossip. Fu Shixing told it so vividly and excitingly—it probably just looked different.
But she knew Shen Han wasn’t the type to enjoy gossip. Other people’s trivia was mostly irrelevant to her, a waste of time.
Su Mi felt inexplicably guilty for no reason and downplayed her interest. “Not that happy. Just some family chit-chat, gossip, jokes. Fun to share, you know, casual talk.”
Minimizing the gossip angle as much as possible.
“…”
Shen Han naturally picked up on Su Mi’s evasion. She tilted her head slightly, eyes dropping to Su Mi’s smooth nape. Her teeth began to itch faintly.
Something churned inside her, but she didn’t know what to say.
She slipped her hand from Su Mi’s waist, tilted her head, and gently touched Su Mi’s nape.
The nape without a gland felt smooth. That was probably how a beta’s nape was—signifying that it couldn’t be marked, or perhaps that it couldn’t be completely and thoroughly possessed.
However, permanent marks could also be washed off, removed, and completely erased. Nothing was forever.
The slightly cool pad of her finger touched that skin and paused briefly.
Su Mi: …!!!!
She jumped in fright. The touch felt no different from a jolt of electricity—it was too stimulating.
Her voice trembled: “Wh-what are you doing?”
In the one or two months since they had started “dating,” Shen Han had never touched her nape. This sudden contact made Su Mi’s heart pound wildly. She subconsciously reached up to touch her barrier earring.
She confirmed it was still steadily transmitting energy before she calmed down a little.
Shen Han took in her intense reaction, paused, withdrew her hand, and said, “I touched it by accident.”
Su Mi let out a dazed “oh.”
She was still steadying her heartbeat when a sudden thought struck her:
She couldn’t actively tell Shen Han that she was an omega, but could she passively let Shen Han discover it?
How did the System judge the difference between “active” and “passive”?
Once their relationship was confirmed, should she try forgetting to apply her suppressor patch? Or let Shen Han find her real test report? Or have Su Ciyu and the others tell Shen Han?
Su Mi didn’t actually consider the difference between her beta and omega identity to be a big deal. Shen Han had never shown any concern about Su Mi’s secondary gender.
But it was still a concealment. Su Mi felt she needed to find an opportunity to clear this up too.
She gathered her thoughts and sorted out in her mind what she needed to do.
One was the part-time job. She had to see if the world consciousness would give the male lead any more plot points and stay on guard.
The other was with Shen Han. She needed to find the perfect moment, draft her confession script… and figure out how to let Shen Han discover she was an omega, clearing her last secret.
In Shen Han’s eyes, it just looked like Su Mi’s prolonged, distracted silence.
After a long while, Shen Han suddenly asked, “Have I been managing you too strictly?”
“Huh?” Su Mi’s thoughts snapped back. She said, “It’s fine.”
Shen Han countered, “Is it?”
Su Mi: “Well… maybe just a little? You don’t need to get that kind of groundless jealousy. I’m just making normal friends and chatting with them. If you get upset over this, it’s not good for your health. It’s all a misunderstanding.”
Shen Han was stunned for a moment, then let out a soft sigh: “You’re right.”
She released Su Mi, got up, and stood by the bed. She lowered her head to smooth the wrinkles on her shirt.
Su Mi rolled over too, sat on the edge of the bed, tugged at her own hem, and looked up at her.
Shen Han finished straightening her clothes and patted Su Mi’s head: “I have a meeting at the branch office this afternoon. I’ll have the driver take you home later, okay?”
Her expression had returned to its usual cool detachment, but her downcast eyes held a touch of warmth as she looked at Su Mi seriously.
Su Mi blinked, marveling at her ability to rein in her emotions. She waved her hand obediently: “No need. I’ll drive myself back.”
“Mm. See you at home tonight.” Shen Han agreed, leaned down to kiss the corner of her mouth, and turned to leave.
But she only sent Secretary Zhuang to the branch office. Her own driver turned toward the hospital where Li Zhao was.
Li Zhao, who had rushed over from home rest, looked baffled: “You just finished a treatment session this morning, and now you want awakening therapy? Can your mental power handle it?”
Shen Han calmly sat on her treatment bed and glanced sideways at the instruments. She said, “Didn’t the morning one fail to work?”
Li Zhao was momentarily stunned: “But you can’t repeat the awakening treatment. Your mental power’s dark zone has hit a bottleneck for awakening. Your subconscious is blocking you from recalling the full memory. If you insist on doing it again…”
She trailed off, looked at Shen Han, and sighed helplessly: “So you want to switch to the stimulation plan I mentioned?”
Shen Han raised her eyes: “Not switch. Add it.”
Li Zhao frowned and met Shen Han’s gaze for a moment before conceding.
She let out a long sigh: “I knew you had this temperament. Here, I prepared a few plans after you left this morning. Take a look.”
Li Zhao flipped through her light brain and shared the light screen, explaining as she did: “There are many ways to stimulate your mental power’s dark zone. The mildest and most suitable is through mental power or pheromones with blood ties—ideally related to your parents. That’s tricky, but there’s one perfect candidate…”
Shen Han flipped through the file page by page. Her fingertip paused.
Her fine brows furrowed slightly. Shen Han lowered her eyelids, then looked up again: “You’ve been hiding this from me since then.”
Li Zhao chuckled: “For your own good. But I don’t believe you haven’t guessed at all. Otherwise, why keep her around for so long?”
.
Su Mi smoothly completed her first part-time shift.
It wasn’t hard! In her previous life, she had worked as a restaurant server, so picking up bartender work at the Quiet Bar came naturally.
Gu Yansheng even sighed: “I didn’t expect you’d have such a talent for this.”
Su Mi went home and happily shared her perfect service experience at the Quiet Bar with Shen Han. She leaned against Shen Han’s desk, smug as if she had a fluffy tail wagging behind her, her face beaming: “See? I told you trying this part-time job was a good idea, right?”
Shen Han held Su Mi’s hand, her tone helpless: “Silly, he was mocking you.”
Su Mi: “…?!”
Shen Han smiled: “But if you like it, I can buy the Quiet Bar from him later and give it to you. Then you can be your own boss and hire yourself whenever you feel like working…”
Su Mi was stunned, then quickly waved her hands: “No need for that much trouble. You know it’s just my three-minute enthusiasm. I was just playing around.”
To prove her point, Su Mi deliberately picked some examples that wouldn’t give her away.
Shen Han listened to these stories of her fleeting interests without showing much emotion and rubbed Su Mi’s ear.
Su Mi seized the opportunity, shifted closer, and sat facing her on Shen Han’s lap.
She touched Shen Han’s face and tossed out a question: “Have you been really tired lately? Is work busy?”
After spending so much time together, Su Mi could tell Shen Han had been appearing and disappearing unpredictably lately, coming home later and later.
But Shen Han’s habits and demeanor hadn’t changed much from before.
Su Mi wasn’t sure if it was just her imagination.
Shen Han was momentarily dazed, then tilted her head: “Why do you ask suddenly? Work’s fine.”
That meant nothing was wrong, right?
Su Mi didn’t think much of it and fully trusted Shen Han. She leaned in for a kiss. Her lips hadn’t left when she pouted and rubbed against Shen Han’s thin lips. Shen Han understood, cupped her face, and kissed her deeply.
Su Mi loved kissing Shen Han. Apart from the time she had helped Shen Han with the antidote, she had no other experience. She felt that kissing was intimate enough—moreso, even, with its lingering passion.
Their kisses were mostly tender, with ears and temples rubbing together, an exchange of saliva and breaths. Shen Han always cradled her face, kissing deeply but not forcefully, revealing her cherishing gentleness.
Su Mi wrapped her arms around Shen Han’s neck, her fingers resting on her neck ring, gently caressing it. It gave her the secure feeling of the intimacy she craved.
But this time, after kissing for a bit, Shen Han gently pulled back.
Her cool fingertips brushed Su Mi’s lips before being easily wiped away with a handkerchief.
Shen Han’s lips and teeth still carried Su Mi’s scent. She lowered her eyes ambiguously at her, gaze holding amusement and a hint of indistinct fatigue. She said: “Alright. If we keep kissing, will you sleep with me tonight?”
Su Mi chuckled. Of course she didn’t dare. She hopped down and slipped out of the study to do her homework.
But soon enough, Su Mi’s claim that the part-time job was great was slapped in the face.
During one afternoon shift, the bar wasn’t crowded. Right in front of Su Mi, Gu Yansheng was humiliated in a very traditional way by a rich second-generation heir who popped up out of nowhere.
The guy seemed to be from South City with an old grudge against Gu Yansheng. He verbally abused him arrogantly, made him pour drinks, and during the shoving, deliberately framed him for smashing a bottle of liquor worth over a hundred thousand that he had brought, demanding compensation and an apology on his knees.
Su Mi watched from afar. The original plot had a similar scene where the male lead resolved it by playing possum to turn the tables, biding his time.
She thought it would be handled the same way this time, but the male lead stood calmly by the booth and suddenly looked her way.
Su Mi: ? Why look at me? Does he want my help?
In the previous two encounters with the male lead, Su Mi had indeed stepped in both times. The first was saving Xu Nanqiao, the second was helping the cornered Gu Yansheng.
But not this time! Xu Nanqiao was upstairs changing clothes and not here. There was no need for her to intervene; the male lead could handle it himself.
With that thought, Su Mi turned and took a job delivering fruit upstairs, trotting away.
However, when she came back down, she saw in the center of the crowd—where Xu Nanqiao should have been in the staff lounge—standing by the booth with an empty bottle alongside Gu Yansheng.
Across from them was the rich heir, who had liquor splashed in his face and hadn’t reacted yet.
Su Mi: …
Su Mi: …………
She rarely wanted to curse the heavens—except now.
She ran to the onlookers and asked a familiar sister what happened. It turned out Xu Nanqiao had finished changing and come down to stand up for Gu Yansheng.
