Chapter 27: Going? Going?

The vehicle started smoothly.

Su Mi sat closely against the backrest of the passenger seat and slowly felt the interior warm up.

The driver was a Beta who drove manually with exceptional steadiness, his eyes fixed straight ahead.

Su Mi glanced at him before twisting her head to sneak a peek at the back seat.

It was better not to look, but once she did, she fell silent.

Shen Han rested her elbow on the armrest by the car door, idly gazing out the window.

Xu Nanqiao leaned awkwardly against the other side, seriously staring at the scenery outside.

Su Mi: “……”

How had they invited Xu Nanqiao into the car, only for no one to chat afterward?

Su Mi mustered her courage and broke the silence in the car.

She picked a topic that should have been easy to discuss.

Turning her head back, she asked, “Sister, you came back so quickly. I heard from Secretary Zhuang before that your vacation still had half a month left?”

It was fine not to say anything, but once she did, the temperature in the car seemed to drop a few more degrees.

Su Mi: Had she said something wrong?

Shen Han gave her a light, measured glance. “Something came up that needed handling.”

Su Mi gushed praise without thinking. “As expected of Sister. With such a strong career drive, no wonder you brought Shen Group to these heights.”

Shen Han lowered her elbow, placed both hands neatly on her lap, and leaned back.

The head poking out from the front seat stood out conspicuously.

Shen Han closed her eyes briefly.

She tossed out two words: “Dizzying.”

Su Mi took it to mean Shen Han felt carsick from her bobbing around.

She obediently shrank back into the front seat and began browsing her Light Brain, checking out the various complaints on Starnet about the Unified Exam.

As expected of Shen Han’s driver—he drove both steadily and swiftly, and they soon arrived at Southern Garden.

Su Mi hopped out of the car and circled around to the left side of the vehicle to find Xu Nanqiao.

Her hand nearly reached out habitually to grab Xu Nanqiao’s arm, but her gaze swept over Shen Han, who had just stepped out, and her hand hit the brakes, dropping back down.

She restrained herself and stood beside Xu Nanqiao, saying softly, “Before we got in the car earlier, Ren Yue said she’d go on the Graduation Outing with us.”

Lolan Academy’s Graduation Outing was a tradition for every graduating class. Shortly after the Unified Exam each year, Lolan Academy partnered with the Anhe Mountain scenic area in the suburbs of Prime City, reserving the entire mountain for a full day. They hiked during the day, held activities at the mountaintop campsite at night, watched the sunrise the next morning, then enjoyed free time before heading home.

Su Mi loved these kinds of group activities and had signed up early.

But Xu Nanqiao was still on the fence about going.

Their homeroom teacher was sick and wouldn’t be joining the outing. Xu Rou felt it wasn’t safe without a familiar teacher around and hadn’t given her approval yet.

Su Mi understood completely. After all, Xu Nanqiao was an Omega, and the outing was just a casual group activity—going or not wouldn’t make much difference. They’d have plenty more chances to hang out together later.

It was a shame, but not a big deal. She wasn’t in any rush to persuade her.

Seeing Shen Han had already entered Southern Garden Villa, she patted Xu Nanqiao’s arm. “We’ll talk about it later. Come on, let’s head in too.”

Once inside the villa, Xu Nanqiao followed Shen Han upstairs first.

Su Mi wandered into the kitchen to pick out ingredients for hotpot.

During this exam prep period, the Blackening Value had stayed fairly stable. She checked it every few days.

Perhaps Shen Han had taken good care of herself during her overseas vacation, because the Blackening Value rose extremely slowly. Over more than a month, it had only gone up by 5 points from before she left.

Currently, the task was stuck at 86% Blackening Value.

Thinking about it, Su Mi couldn’t help feeling a bit frustrated.

When they came downstairs after studying and sat at the dining table ready to eat hotpot, Su Mi checked the Blackening Value again.

80%.

Sure enough, having Xu Nanqiao study was effective.

But it was strange too. She’d been here for months now, yet Shen Han’s Blackening Value had never dropped below 80%.

Every time it neared 80%, that first digit seemed stuck in place.

It made her task progress look painfully slow.

Still, Su Mi kept a positive mindset. She knew both she and Xu Nanqiao had been swamped with exams lately—it wasn’t like she could make Xu Nanqiao skip studying to start dating.

And from another perspective, the task progress was actually pretty good.

The male and female leads hadn’t even exchanged contact information.

So no matter how you sliced it, there wasn’t the slightest sign of the Plot Point that would cause Shen Han’s Blackening Value to spike.

A slow drop in Blackening Value was the visible task progress.

The Original Plot’s romance line not appearing was the hidden progress.

Su Mi was very satisfied.

She picked up a piece of meat with her chopsticks and placed it in Xu Nanqiao’s bowl, inwardly praising her wonderful girl.

Sharing dishes when they ate together in the cafeteria had become a habit, so Xu Nanqiao didn’t find it odd. She didn’t even say thanks before eating it.

But Su Mi only realized after the fact—the antagonist was right there too.

Wouldn’t this make her jealous as well?

Su Mi glanced over cautiously.

Fortunately, the antagonist was focused on her greens and hadn’t looked their way.

She let out a breath of relief.

Speaking of which, Shen Han had opened up pretty quickly too.

These last few times, she’d proactively come to find Xu Nanqiao instead of making her come over every time like before.

Though Shen Han said she’d returned early for business, coming straight to see Xu Nanqiao showed that missing her was one reason for the trip back.

It was a shame her emotional intelligence was still a bit low. Su Mi secretly lamented—why didn’t she ever proactively chat with Xu Nanqiao when they were together?

Her repeated sneaky glances at Shen Han were quickly noticed.

She earned a cold stare in return.

Su Mi had a mouthful of food and nearly choked.

She swallowed it down with effort before suddenly thinking of a brilliant idea.

The graduation trip allowed bringing family members along. In that case—

Turning her head, Su Mi asked Xu Nanqiao, “Your mom worries there’s no teacher leading the group, so it’s unsafe. What if we brought an adult with us?”

Xu Nanqiao: “An adult? Who?”

Su Mi nodded in Shen Han’s direction. “My sister.”

Her eyes sparkled as she sincerely believed she’d come up with a great idea.

Shen Han was reliable and capable. And for the first outing after finishing middle school—hiking and camping together, watching sunsets and sunrises—how memorable would that be?

Xu Nanqiao went quiet for a moment, as if reluctant to respond.

They sat at a small round table set up specially for the hotpot, with Shen Han across from them and Xu Nanqiao and Su Mi sitting close together.

Xu Nanqiao ducked her head slightly, murmuring softly to cover it, “That might not be good. My mom doesn’t know President Shen either. It’d be even more trouble to explain.”

Su Mi considered it and nodded in agreement—it made sense.

Xu Rou’s personality was what it was.

She sighed. “If you change your mind and can go on the outing, make sure to tell me first, okay?”

Shen Han didn’t butt into their conversation anyway, so the two shifted to other topics and leisurely finished their hotpot.

Shen Han had gone upstairs midway to handle work and arranged for Southern Garden’s driver to take them home.

When they arrived home, Su Ciyu and the others were in the living room.

Seeing Su Mi return, Wen Zisu turned from the kitchen and brought out some prepared fruit.

He didn’t ask how her exam went—just pure hands-off parenting.

Instead, he asked, “The Graduation Outing in a few days—is your good friend going?”

Over the past two months, they’d grown familiar with Xu Nanqiao too, referring to her in the Su Family as “good friend.”

Su Mi plopped down on the sofa, took the fruit, and said, “Her mom’s still hesitating. She says since Nanqiao’s an Omega, staying out overnight isn’t safe.”

Wen Zisu leaned against the armrest of Su Mi’s sofa and reached for a cherry tomato.

Su Ciyu: “Different families have different circumstances. You’ve mentioned hers is a single-parent home with two Omegas, so they’re naturally more safety-conscious.”

Wen Zisu munched on the cherry tomato. “Our Ya Ya’s an Omega too. Should we worry about her?”

Su Ciyu smiled and glanced at Su Mi. “Her? I think she’s forgotten she’s an Omega.”

Su Mi chuckled and popped a cherry tomato into her mouth.

She had a point.

After transmigrating, Su Mi had basically lived as a Beta, so she truly had little real sense of her Omega identity.

Wen Zisu ruffled Su Mi’s hair. “You be careful too, got it? Call Mom and Dad if anything comes up. But the Graduation Outing happens every year and is very safe—no need to worry too much.”

Su Mi nodded.

Then she asked obediently, “Are you guys coming with me? We could bring Xiao Yi and make it a family outing.”

Su Ciyu laughed. “You kids go have your fun. We won’t crash the party.”

Su Mi sighed. “I was thinking if an adult came along, Nanqiao’s mom might agree.”

Su Ciyu: “Then why don’t you ask Shen Han? I think… a few years back when she graduated from Lolan Academy, she skipped that year’s outing?”

Su Mi perked up curiously. “Why?”

Su Ciyu shrugged. “No idea. But a few days later at a banquet, someone asked me about it, so it stuck in my mind a little.”

She’d only mentioned it offhand and couldn’t recall the details, so she dropped it.

Back in her room, Su Mi actually started agonizing over it.

Because Xu Nanqiao had messaged: My mom said yes! (^▽^)

Su Mi: Yay! OWO!

She couldn’t help but think: Since Xu Nanqiao was going—and Shen Han had never done the Graduation Outing—

Wasn’t this the perfect chance to create some good memories?

Su Mi paced back and forth on her room’s balcony for a while, finding the idea more appealing by the second.

She opened her Light Brain and tapped the pinned Ink Crane avatar.

: Sister, busy? [/knock knock]

Not long after, Shen Han replied: Suddenly so polite?

Su Mi: ……

Y-yeah, kinda.

She scratched at her cheek, remembering how during Shen Han’s time abroad, she’d treated her like a message board thanks to the time difference.

She hadn’t bothered checking the clock—just drafted messages and sent them, figuring Shen Han would see them when she woke up.

But now Shen Han was back…

Feeling awkward for a second, Su Mi sent a smiling emoji.

: Saw you were still busy when we left Southern Garden ^^

Shen Han: Not too bad. What’s up?

Pretty amiable.

Su Mi figured her mood must be good.

Gathering her courage, she sent over the Graduation Outing details.

: Sister, wanna come with? Xu classmate’s mom already said yes! Mom mentioned you skipped it when you graduated—perfect chance to join in hehe.

Shen Han went silent over there for a bit.

Then she replied out of nowhere with three words: Why?

Why indeed?

Su Mi thought for a moment: A graduation memento? Can’t leave life’s regrets hanging! Now’s your chance to make up for it~

Su Mi: They say the mountain views are gorgeous! Camping, sunsets and sunrises—must be beautiful. We can sit around the campfire telling ghost stories too, hehe.

She forwarded related posts and pictures.

Painting an enticing picture for Shen Han.

But Shen Han didn’t reply.

Su Mi stared at her Light Brain for a while, a little disappointed.

She comforted herself: The antagonist had come back for work anyway, so it was normal if she didn’t have time for the outing.

Standing on the balcony, she gazed at the starry sky for a bit. It wasn’t peak summer yet, and the evening air carried a chill.

Su Mi rubbed her arms, gave up waiting, and slipped back into her room to sleep.

Late into the night, her Light Brain lit up silently.

Shen Han had replied with one word: Okay.