Chapter 15

After the banquet ended, when Wen Zisu and the others got home, it was already nearly ten o’clock. Su Mi nestled on the living room sofa, watching online classes on the TV. When she heard sounds at the door, Su Ciyu walked in carrying the soundly sleeping Xiao Yi.

Su Mi paused the video and leaned closer to take a look.

Xiao Yi slept with his little face flushed red, covered by a small blanket in Su Ciyu’s arms.

Su Mi reached out and secretly poked him. Xiao Yi hummed softly in his sleep and stretched out his little hand, waving it in the air.

Su Ciyu said, “Xiao Yi just fell asleep in the car. Don’t disturb him.”

Su Mi put her hands behind her back and nodded obediently.

Wen Zisu had just come in behind them. He saw Su Mi waiting in the living room and was somewhat surprised. He lowered his voice and asked, “Ya Ya, why haven’t you gone to sleep yet?”

Su Mi said, “I wanted to wait for you all to come back. Now that you’re here, I’ll go up and sleep right away.”

She turned off the TV and followed Su Ciyu to her side. She originally wanted to go upstairs with them, but then she heard Su Ciyu let out a sound of surprise.

Su Ciyu asked, “How was Shen Han today…?”

What did she mean by how?

Su Mi blinked and said uncertainly, “What about her? She seemed no different from usual. She even sent me back home in the evening.”

Su Ciyu turned to Wen Zisu and said, “Zisu, turn off the barrier ring and take a sniff.”

Wen Zisu touched the barrier ring around his neck, turned it off, then leaned close to Su Mi’s side and gently sniffed.

He immediately hissed and leaned back a few steps, pressing a few buttons on the barrier ring.

Both of them looked at Wen Zisu.

Wen Zisu frowned, thought for a moment, and said, “There is a bit of a restless scent, but it shouldn’t be pheromones. It’s just some mental power fluctuations.”

Su Ciyu sighed. “Let’s go upstairs first.”

Su Ciyu took Xiao Yi to his children’s room, while Wen Zisu brought Su Mi into the master bedroom.

Wen Zisu took out a measuring instrument and had Su Mi sit on a chair. He peeled off the barrier patch on the back of her neck and removed the barrier earring.

In an instant, the air in the room seemed to come alive.

Among them, two particularly distinctive scents stood out. Su Mi twitched her nose.

Wen Zisu smiled and said, “Can you smell it? Your mother’s and my pheromone scents.”

In this world, people with blood relations were much less sensitive to each other’s pheromone scents. But probably because this was the parents’ bedroom where they lived and rested, even after passing through the house purification system’s filters, Su Mi still caught traces of the scents lingering in the air.

It was a bit like trees, and a bit like sweet, silky milk.

This was probably what their pheromones smelled like.

This was the first time she had come into contact with someone else’s pheromones since arriving in this world.

Su Mi still hadn’t figured out what her own pheromones smelled like.

On the first night she arrived, she hadn’t started wearing the barrier earring to block pheromones every day yet. So when she followed the tutorial from the System to change the barrier patch before bed, Su Mi vaguely caught a bit of her own pheromone scent.

It seemed like a faintly sweet, fresh grassy scent.

She didn’t know much about plants and couldn’t name the specific botanical scent.

Now that she smelled her parents’ pheromone scents, Su Mi reached a simple and pleasant conclusion: her own scent was like a combination of her parents’.

Ah, a combination.

Su Mi narrowed her eyes, quite happy, and nodded to Wen Zisu.

At the same time, she asked the System in her mind, “You said this body is still mine, so what about the pheromones?”

System: “Pheromones are emitted from your own body’s gland, so of course they belong to you too, but…”

The System paused.

Meanwhile, Wen Zisu said, “Your mother’s scent is like cypress trees, and mine is a more ordinary milk scent.”

Su Mi blinked curiously. “What about mine?”

Wen Zisu chuckled helplessly and said, “I’ve been busy supplementing your Beta information lately and haven’t had time to get a pheromone identification done. We’ll do it next time we have a chance.”

“Okay,” Su Mi thought of her parents’ earlier conversation and couldn’t help but ask curiously, “Father, what were you and Mother talking about just now?”

Wen Zisu slapped his forehead and picked up the circular ring instrument from the side.

“Your mother is more sensitive to these things and thought you had gotten Shen Han’s Alpha pheromones on you. But it’s fine; it’s just some traces of mental power fluctuations. I’ll measure if it’s affected your mental power.”

Wen Zisu placed the instrument on Su Mi’s head, with a strange groove fitting right at her brow center.

There was almost no sensation. Su Mi tilted her head back halfway and watched as Wen Zisu secured it and began operating on the light brain.

As he operated, Wen Zisu explained to Su Mi, “Your differentiation didn’t go well. Your gland and mental power are both somewhat fragile. Otherwise, pretending to be a Beta wouldn’t have been so smooth. That’s also why we restricted you from going out after your differentiation. There are too many uncertain factors outside, especially when encountering Alphas with stronger mental power. Their mental power fluctuations can easily affect you.”

Su Mi was stunned for a moment and subconsciously asked, “Would someone like Big Sis with double S mental power affect me?”

Wen Zisu shook his head and said, “At her high level, there won’t be any issues. She just went to the hospital a few days ago for a routine checkup near her heat period. That was probably the cause of the mental power fluctuations. No need to worry.”

Su Mi nodded in a daze.

It seemed Wen Zisu’s company handled the medical business under the Shen Group, which explained his confidence.

Did he know a little about the inside story of Shen Han’s “heart condition”?

But Wen Zisu’s attention had already returned to the light screen. At the same time, there were two knocks at the bedroom door. Su Ciyu asked from outside, “Is it done?”

Wen Zisu removed the measuring instrument from her head. As Su Mi applied the barrier patch and put on the barrier earring, she watched Wen Zisu open the door.

Su Ciyu walked in, patted Su Mi’s head, and took the light screen from Wen Zisu to check.

Wen Zisu said, “The readings still haven’t reached the standard line.”

Su Ciyu hummed in acknowledgment. “Be careful when you’re out. Come home early every day, got it?”

Su Mi sat between the two of them, facing their instructions from left and right, and obediently replied, “Okay.”

She was all about being obedient.

Then she was sent back to her own room.

Sitting at her desk, Su Mi first checked her chat with Xu Nanqiao.

After getting home, she had immediately messaged Xu Nanqiao to give her a heads-up, briefly mentioning running into the Yang Family people when she went out and telling her that the Yang Family might come begging for mercy in the next few days.

Moreover, Su Mi very carefully reminded her: Big Sis is worried about your safety and said she’ll send people to protect you. Be careful when going out these few days ^^.

But Xu Nanqiao wasn’t planning to sit idly by. She proactively asked Su Mi for Yang Er’s contact information.

Su Mi was a bit worried at first, but after doing some homework, she realized the female lead probably didn’t want the Yang Family finding her home.

After all, the female lead lived in an old neighborhood with tight-knit neighbors. If the Yang Family showed up at her door and made a scene like today—pulling moral blackmail to force her to forgive them—it would be quite troublesome.

And…

Recalling how the female lead’s mother interfered with her in the original plot, Su Mi shrank back her neck.

It was better to let Xu Nanqiao handle it herself.

She left a message for Xu Nanqiao: Let me know when it’s handled, okay.

Xu Nanqiao: Mm-hmm, I will.

Before bed, as she scrolled through her phone, Su Mi subconsciously opened her chat with Shen Han.

The latest message was still the few chasing segments she had sent to Shen Han.

Maybe the antagonist had gone back to work, so there was no reply yet.

However…

Su Mi checked the blackening value, and her eyes lit up.

The blackening value was now only 80%!

That meant it had dropped another two percentage points compared to when she finished reading and went downstairs.

The only thing related to Xu Nanqiao during this time was her own hinting “advice.”

So Shen Han ate this up? She seemed like she didn’t want to listen or look on the surface, but actually took it all in and was even “inspired” by her?

Su Mi’s mind heated up, and she decided to strike while the iron was hot.

She carefully searched through the System’s provided database, screened repeatedly, and sent to Shen Han:

《Too Late at 25! Ten Phrases to Enter an Omega’s Inner World》

《Top Ten Wife-Chasing Crematoriums in Literature》

《No Regrets: If I’d Known Earlier, I Would Have Loved Her》

This time, Shen Han replied very quickly.

Shen Han: [Picture]

She opened the picture, and it was clearly the block button for their chat.

Su Mi: “…”

She listened, but was still so fierce?

Su Mi immediately replied with a silencing emoji.

She also sent a good night.

Sneakily adding: Big Sis, next Saturday I’ll bring Nanqiao over, okay? ^^

Shen Han: Mm.

The conversation ended, and the blackening value didn’t change, still at 80%.

Su Mi turned off the light brain screen, burrowed into the warm covers, and hummed contentedly twice.

This week’s task was still successfully completed. Next up was waiting for the fixed plot point next week.

She mentally reviewed the event where the male and female leads would intersect next week, and soon fell into a dream.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Shen Han had just come out of the private club’s ball court. She let out a light breath and wiped her sweat.

Secretary Zhuang handed over the next day’s work schedule from the side.

Shen Han flipped through it, picked out the key meetings, gave a few instructions on the priorities, then hesitated.

“Wait.” She called out to Secretary Zhuang, who was about to leave.

The lights in the ball court behind her had already gone out. It was early spring with a slight chill, and the outdoor trees stood silently in the pitch black.

In the night’s chill, Shen Han paused and tried saying, “Have you noticed that Su Mi seems a bit different after her differentiation?”

“…”

Secretary Zhuang thought for a moment. “There is a little, but…”

He chose his words carefully and said, “But Miss Su has always been quite attentive toward you. In my view, it’s not much different from before. Did you notice something when you delayed the meeting today to send Miss Su home?”

Shen Han denied it. “No.”

She lowered her eyes and silently thought about Su Mi’s behavior today.

As Secretary Zhuang said, Su Mi had always been attentive, but it was different before and after differentiation.

Before differentiation, she could clearly see the ambition and greed in the girl’s eyes—all for the benefits from supporting the Su Family.

As the head of the Shen Group, Shen Han had seen too many such people around her. People with desires were easiest to control. Keeping them around for amusement was fine, as long as they completed the tasks she assigned.

But now it was different.

The clear purpose from before was gone, replaced by something else.

She was no longer as transparent at a glance; Shen Han even didn’t know what she really wanted.

Shen Han thought about Su Mi’s actions.

The sudden closeness with Xu Nanqiao, the clumsily mimicking obedience, the baffling talk about “liking”…

As she pondered, Secretary Zhuang suddenly said, “Miss Su did say some strange things to me today as well.”

Shen Han raised her eyes and looked at Secretary Zhuang.

Secretary Zhuang stated flatly, “Something like how you don’t have other Omegas around you either, and being unique by your side… things like that.”

Seeing Shen Han didn’t respond, Secretary Zhuang continued, “I just comforted Miss Su, saying that in your heart, she is the unique one. Then Miss Su seemed stunned and said it’s been a long time since she saw you happy.”

“…Come to think of it, Miss Su seems to care a lot about differentiating into a Beta.”

At this point, Secretary Zhuang suddenly felt he had discovered the right answer and opened his mouth in realization.

Before he could think it through, he quickly distanced himself.

“I don’t know anything else. After all, I’m not close to Miss Su personally.”

Shen Han: “…”

She couldn’t help but glance at her capable secretary, who also had quite a reputation in Prime City’s business circles.

“Act normal.”

She knew what Secretary Zhuang was inferring but didn’t believe it.

Frowning, Shen Han said, “Send me another copy of that day’s test report, and the room’s pheromone detection report.”

Secretary Zhuang respectfully agreed, hesitated, and asked, “Do you want to do any other tests?”

Shen Han gave a noncommittal hum.

“We’ll see.”