Chapter 8

The next day, Lin Xu still wanted to sleep in a bit longer, but Shu Wan Ning urged her to get up.

To be precise, she had slept on the sofa the night before. With her tall stature and long legs, she could only curl up, leading to restless sleep.

Because of this, when Shu Wan Ning chased her into the car, she insisted on taking the back seat.

Shu Wan Ning helplessly rolled her eyes at her again. “Sis, why did you have to bring her along?”

It was as if she were complaining that Shu Qingyou had healed so quickly that she had already forgotten the pain.

After securing Shu Rong in the safety seat, Shu Qingyou specifically checked Lin Xu’s Inhibitor Patch—she had a bad sleeping posture.

That morning, while preparing breakfast, Lin Xu had released pheromones again, forcing Shu Qingyou to personally apply the crumpled patch for her.

Yet this heartless Lin Xu showed no awareness even in her waking moments.

Inhibitor Patches were changed twice a month, specifically during heat periods. After the heat subsided, a new one was applied.

In the short two days since meeting Lin Xu, she had already gone through four patches, along with equally soaked underwear.

“Leave her alone at home to cause trouble?”

Shu Qingyou brushed it off. Lin Xu slept even more soundly than her daughter. She sighed, “I’m not worried about her.”

Shu Wan Ning thought it was a case of protesting too much, but she couldn’t resist a sharp-tongued remark. “You don’t need to emphasize it. The more you say, the more you care.”

Fine, words were pointless. Shu Qingyou stepped on the accelerator.

Shu Wan Ning turned around—well now, she had draped Shu Rong’s special little blanket over this big bad wolf Lin Xu.

With the car heater on full blast, they passed through a buffer zone, causing some bumps. Lin Xu yawned and leisurely woke up.

She rubbed her eyes; neither her body nor her mind had fully caught up yet. She looked around in confusion.

Unconsciously clutching the blanket, she saw only Shu Qingyou driving in the front seat. Shu Rong had been gazing at the scenery and hadn’t paid attention to Lin Xu.

“Where’s Shu Wan Ning?”

Shu Qingyou immediately knew Lin Xu was awake; the rearview mirror showed her rubbing her sleepy eyes in a cute, dazed manner.

Blood ties were wondrous. At that moment, Shu Rong grew tired from counting birds outside the window and began rubbing her eyes too.

As expected of mother and daughter…

Their expressions were nearly identical.

Shu Qingyou suddenly regretted bringing Lin Xu out.

To ensure Shu Wan Ning could graduate smoothly from school, Shu Qingyou had decided to keep the appointment.

“Missing her already?”

For once, she felt like teasing Lin Xu.

Shu Qingyou couldn’t deny that Lin Xu had excellent looks: a smooth jawline, a refined nose,

no makeup on her face, yet her skin glowed fair and pink. If not for Lin Xu’s erratic personality, she might have actually reached out to pinch her cheeks.

But now, though Lin Xu’s personality had changed for the better, she really didn’t want another nagging little sister.

Lin Xu thought of Shu Wan Ning’s sharp-tongued face and only wanted to compete with her or hide behind Shu Qingyou.

“Aaah, that’s so scary! How could you say something like that? Miss her? Even if the world ended and we had to board Noah’s Ark to survive, I’d rather drown than stay with her. She kicked me to the sofa—such a meanie.”

Lin Xu paused for a few seconds. “Where are you taking me anyway?”

Shu Qingyou hadn’t expected such an intense reaction; it was amusing, and the corners of her mouth curved into a small arc.

“My university mentor needs a subject for human experiments, so I plan to sell you to her.”

This completely baffled Lin Xu. She asked like a naive fool, her heart pounding with anxiety. “You… selling me off—how much money would you make?”

So that was the real concern?

Shu Qingyou saw Lin Xu’s brows furrowing like little mountain peaks, but her eyes shone with sincerity.

Shu Qingyou replied with a laugh in her voice, “Quite a considerable amount.”

At that, Lin Xu counted on her fingers, bit her lower lip, gripped the seat tightly in distress, and whined with heavy grievance in her voice.

“Sister Shu, you don’t want me anymore.”

Shu Qingyou’s brows furrowed slightly. Her jade-like fingertips tapped the steering wheel once, then again.

After a long moment, she said, “You were only staying at my place temporarily anyway.”

Time ticked by. Lin Xu wanted to chatter more, but Shu Qingyou focused on driving.

Lin Xu began to believe Shu Qingyou’s talk of selling her off.

She wilted like an eggplant hit by frost, hanging her head silently.

They arrived at a lush, verdant hillside, and Lin Xu sensed something, murmuring glumly, “Is this the place?”

Shu Qingyou parked in the designated spot and picked up Shu Rong, who looked curious yet afraid of strangers.

Looking up, mountain breezes rustled through vast woods, with forests on all sides enclosing a luxurious mansion in the center.

Servants went about their duties. A properly attired butler approached, inviting them inside to meet the madam.

The butler’s suit and tie followed European standards.

He paused slightly upon seeing Lin Xu, then resumed his professional demeanor.

Lin Xu fidgeted a bit. Why did Shu Qingyou look so poised and elegant, her long hair softly draped behind her head?

She wore a cinnamon-colored French knit sweater under her coat, paired with a dark coffee wool skirt that covered her calves and the tops of her short boots, accentuating her lively yet graceful aura.

Lin Xu pursed her lips. Shu Qingyou was already beautiful enough, and she even had a delicate silver necklace around her neck.

The necklace glimmered faintly in the light. Compared to her, Lin Xu’s outfit was downright pitiful.

She wore casual sportswear, a ponytail, and plain Air Force 1 sneakers.

As if she had come for a morning workout.

Unfortunately, she was still led inside, awaiting being sold off by Shu Qingyou.

The butler arranged for a servant to guide them.

“The madam is ahead. Please watch your step, Ms. Shu.”

Once inside, it wasn’t a cave at all—artificial rockeries, wooden bridges, and pebble-paved paths.

The sound of trickling water echoed in their ears. They passed a waterside pavilion and terrace, then walked further, with bamboo groves rustling in the wind on either side.

The air was fresh, but Lin Xu couldn’t relax her mind. Shu Qingyou and Shu Rong remained quietly silent, not uttering a superfluous word.

The servant occasionally used a walkie-talkie to report that people would arrive soon.

In the distance, Shu Qingyou spotted a middle-aged woman with her hair casually tied atop her head.

Dressed in a tight dark work suit, faint buzzing came from the machine before her as her hands steadily shaped a long strip of clay on it, pulling it methodically.

Teacher Yue Yang was of mixed Chinese-Japanese descent, an Omega born in Japan. As she grew up, she encountered Eastern ceramics, fell in love with the aesthetic art, and derived tea ceremony philosophy from it.

She was particular about glazes and clays. When she became a ceramics teacher at A University, she often traveled far to study soils in various cities.

Shu Rong’s eyes lit up at the spinning clay lump—she wanted to play with mud too—but in her mother’s arms, she couldn’t move freely.

She wrapped her arms around her mother’s neck, acting coquettish.

But Shu Rong could only make soft milky hums.

Shu Qingyou patted her back. “Good girl.”

The servant then led them to a tatami room. They removed their shoes and sat on the cushions.

Lin Xu wondered why she so naturally knelt on the cushion. She smelled incense that calmed the mind.

Shu Qingyou remembered it was the teacher’s favorite scent.

She recalled her student days, when the teacher had praised her potential countless times and even bought one of her works with her own money.

The piece was titled Wilderness—a curved teapot with three overlaid glazes that, by lucky coincidence, fired into layered abstract spatial effects.

And there it sat prominently on the shelf.

Shu Qingyou’s eyes darkened slightly. After a few breaths, she looked away.

She closed her eyes—an occasional habit she had learned in recent years: meditation.

But Lin Xu couldn’t settle. Insects chirped endlessly outside.

She leaned close to Shu Qingyou, whose soft face was illuminated by a few rays of sunlight.

Fine hairs on her cheeks swayed gently.

Beside them, Shu Rong seemed well-behaved, but Lin Xu knew this little girl definitely wanted to go play, yet was too timid, only blinking in a daze.

So pitiful—this young child being tortured by Shu Qingyou. Lin Xu had an idea.

She fake-coughed, but Shu Qingyou didn’t react. Lin Xu took a deep breath and tugged at Shu Rong’s clothes.

Shu Rong pursed her lips and turned away. Lin Xu grinned slyly and scooped her up while she wasn’t looking.

Startled, Shu Rong flailed in Lin Xu’s arms. Against her wishes, Lin Xu covered her mouth.

Joking, “Hehe, keep struggling, and I’ll sell you off too.”

Shu Rong’s little heart pounded. Soon, Lin Xu felt something sticky and wet on her hand.

“Eh? No way, crying again? I was kidding—hold on…”

Lin Xu hurried to the pottery area with her. Yue Yang’s left hand was inside the clay center, her thumb and index finger curved inward, applying just the right pressure to pull the clay.

“See, Rongrong? I’ll take you to play with mud.”

Sure enough, Shu Rong stopped crying. She did want to play with clay; normally, her mom wouldn’t let her play with other kids.

The other kids were all dirty; she was clean, but unhappy.

Yue Yang, immersed in flow state, disliked interruptions, especially from a child clamoring to play with mud.

She looked up—familiar face. In their circle, most knew each other; she’d seen her once at a banquet.

But this didn’t match her image of a high-powered Alpha. The little girl in her arms was crying like a tear-streaked kitten, and Lin Xu patiently comforted her.

Uncertain, Yue Yang asked, “You’re… Lin Xu?”

“Eh, Master, you know me?”

Yue Yang stood, turning off the wheel. Had she mistaken her?

Master…

Yue Yang quickly realized, “You came with Qingyou?”

Lin Xu nodded. Both she and Shu Rong were a bit disappointed—the machine was off, so no more mud play.

She figured they should wash hands. Lin Xu held Shu Rong in place waiting, but before the child did, a servant led them back.

Lin Xu started to walk, but Shu Rong clung tightly to her collar.

“Hm?” She immediately understood. “Just a moment~”

Yue Yang emerged from a side room by the meditation chamber, now in casual clothes, rounding the screen.

Shu Qingyou held her breath, eyes slightly closed.

Since leaving the hospital, her passion for ceramics had waned.

She knew Shu Qingyou’s difficulties and had offered help, only to receive the expected polite refusal.

Three years without seeing her, and now this child had noticed her work displayed in the most prominent spot.

The message was clear: she hoped Shu Qingyou would rediscover her dream, as her most talented student in all these years.

Shu Qingyou’s senses were sharp now; she heard her teacher stop behind her.

Ever since Lin Xu had sneakily taken Shu Rong away, she hadn’t been able to calm her mind.

If only back then she hadn’t been so destitute, so exhausted from struggling.

If Lin Xu had been just a little kinder to her, offering even a spark of warmth in the cold darkness, it could have been her lifeline.

She wouldn’t have rejected her sister’s care so harshly.

Ignored her mentor’s sound advice.

Turned a cold shoulder to friends’ aid.