Chapter 48: Scalding Tongue

Anyway, with the Blackening Value now stable, Su Mi swallowed the shrimp and sneakily drawled, “Got it…”

Shen Han glanced at her but said nothing more. She picked up her chopsticks and started eating as well.

She had always been one who didn’t talk while eating. Back when they dined in the Southern Garden, she rarely said a word.

The lounge fell quiet for a moment. Su Mi ate while her mind wandered wildly, still guessing at the reason for their argument.

Who could she ask for a breakthrough?

But it wasn’t necessary to get to the bottom of it anyway. Given Shen Han’s attitude toward Xu Nanqiao, she would probably soften up in a few days.

Then, as a little go-between, Su Mi might learn a thing or two.

The consequence of not focusing on her meal was that Su Mi accidentally took a sip of scalding hot soup.

This bowl of soup was the one Shen Han had pushed toward her after she had nearly finished the rest of her food.

The soup had barely touched her mouth when her mind buzzed from the heat, and her tongue tip went instantly numb with pain.

“Mm!”

Su Mi was stunned by the pain. Tears welled up uncontrollably in her eyes from the physical reaction, and she clutched the soup bowl, unsure what to do.

Not even two seconds later, before Su Mi could react, Shen Han had frowned and taken the bowl from her hands. She quickly handed her a brand-new empty bowl. “Spit it out.”

Su Mi did so instinctively. The next second, a bottle of water with the cap already twisted off was brought to her lips.

Shen Han leaned in slightly, facing Su Mi directly, her icy blue eyes showing clear tension.

“Gargle,” she said softly.

Su Mi’s tongue tip and half her tongue were already numb, her reaction time delayed like after biting into a hot pepper. Tears swirled in her eyes, her eyelids red, her face scrunched up.

Unsure how to move, she simply tilted her head back as Shen Han fed her the water.

A faint buzzing from the pain still lingered in her ears.

The room-temperature but coolish water didn’t enter her mouth right away, and her senses cleared a bit.

Only then did she notice the half-raised water bottle in her line of sight, and Shen Han watching her with particular worry.

Su Mi held the water in her mouth and swallowed bit by bit, her gaze slowly focusing on Shen Han’s face.

No matter how many times she observed her, Su Mi always thought the antagonist was beautiful. Not in a particularly feminine way or an aggressively sharp one, but like the bright moon hidden behind dark clouds, or a lone crane atop a frigid peak—a distant, cold beauty that was aloof to everyone.

But now, the clouds had parted to reveal the sun, and the crane was right before her. They were very close.

In those icy blue, serene eyes, there was only Su Mi. Her gaze was fixed tightly on Su Mi’s swallowing motions, her thin lips pressed together, brows furrowed.

It was an unusually overt worry.

This was also the first time Su Mi had received such meticulous care from someone when she was hurt.

Strangely, amid the intense pain that made her mind buzz and go numb, she suddenly drifted off, thinking of the last time they had been this close.

It was in a bedroom with only faint moonlight filtering in, pressed into the pitch-black bedding, mingled cold and warm wetness entwined.

Now, it wasn’t just her tongue tip that felt hot—her face started heating up too.

Su Mi forced her gaze away from Shen Han’s eyes and evasively looked toward the stray lock of hair hanging by Shen Han’s cheek.

The lounge had no private washroom, only a few bottles of room-temperature mineral water placed inside. The cool water passed over her scalded-numb tongue, bringing some relief, but it wasn’t very effective. It still hurt.

After drinking half the bottle, Su Mi couldn’t help letting out a breath. She opened her mouth and stuck out the numb tip of her tongue a little, letting the cool air soothe it.

She pointed at the air vent blowing cool air above, then at the water bottle, and looked at Shen Han with teary eyes.

—Not cool enough.

Shen Han sighed softly. “My fault.”

She used her Light Brain to contact the staff and asked them to buy a few bottles of ice water.

When she looked back at Su Mi, Su Mi had already stealthily closed her mouth.

Perhaps her mouth was automatically secreting mucus to protect the scalded area. After Su Mi closed her mouth and swallowed a couple times, the pain made her sniffle, a soft choke escaping her throat.

She looked so aggrieved.

Then, Shen Han pinched her chin and lifted it up.

Lowering her gaze, her voice and posture both soft—like coaxing a child—she said, “If it hurts, open your mouth.”

Su Mi did so without understanding, sticking out half her tongue and tilting her head back, waiting for Shen Han’s next instruction.

But Shen Han said nothing more. She squeezed the bottle, averted her eyes, and set it on the table nearby.

As she turned, Su Mi suddenly felt a very faint chill touch her tongue surface.

Her tongue was already exposed to the cool airflow, so this chill wasn’t very noticeable.

But…

She didn’t need to think about it—Su Mi’s whole body stiffened.

The half-inch of exposed, raw red tongue tip trembled, wanting to pull back, but Shen Han turned back and looked at it again, freezing her in place.

Her heartbeat suddenly accelerated.

The sensation was very clear: amid the cool breeze, an intangible icy chill gently pressed against the tip of Su Mi’s exposed tongue.

Then slowly, as if testing, very gently, it covered the red, swollen half of her tongue surface.

Cool and icy, it soothed the scalded pain inch by inch.

Soon, this enveloping chill made the scalded part of Su Mi’s tongue feel much more comfortable.

But accompanying it, Su Mi’s face grew hotter and hotter.

To be precise, her mind was buzzing into a blank.

The moment she realized what it was, Su Mi completely lost her ability to think. She could only force herself not to glance down at her own tongue tip to confirm.

In the silent lounge, even the ventilation system was hushed.

To anyone watching, there was nothing improper about the two in the lounge.

They were even half a meter apart.

But…

No one knew that the aloof-faced Shen Han had gently covered Su Mi’s tongue tip with her private, unknown icy-cold pheromones.

Su Mi’s hands on her knees clenched secretly. She felt like they might even tremble, yet she had to keep her tongue still.

Her heartbeat raced faster in her chest. Her only thought was to breathe lightly, not let Shen Han see… see that she knew.

No one in the world knew Shen Han’s pheromone scent better than she did.

Only an SS-Grade Alpha like Shen Han could have pheromones that transcended smell and could be felt.

Su Mi didn’t even dare… or need to look down. There was surely nothing on her tongue tip.

The chill swept over her tongue like a lover gently kissing the tip.

In contrast, her earlobes grew hotter and hotter. As time passed, Su Mi’s head spun dizzily.

She thought in panic that Shen Han was relying on the fact that she didn’t know her pheromone scent.

So… so she dared to do something this rude.

Maybe she herself was partly to blame—no, mostly to blame.

If she hadn’t been careless with the boiling soup and shown such an unbearable reaction to her scalded tongue tip, Shen Han probably wouldn’t… wouldn’t do this.

Shen Han must just be concerned.

She had been crying from the pain. As a sister who cared for her little sister, she used her pheromones to wrap around this unrelated Beta’s tongue tip.

After all…

After all, this kind of pheromone contact only happened… during kisses or… marking…

Su Mi’s heart trembled. She almost blamed it all on her own baseness, which led the well-intentioned Shen Han to overstep like this.

Shen Han was sober right now…

If not for her worry… she wouldn’t do something this… kiss-like…

Su Mi’s thoughts halted.

Amid the panic, tension, and embarrassment, she grasped the most important thing at hand.

She had to pretend she knew nothing, to avoid putting Shen Han in an awkward spot.

Su Mi pinched her palm, barely regaining a shred of composure.

Dizzy and muddled, she mustered a bit of courage and lifted her eyes to look at Shen Han.

She had expected a cold or perhaps gently kind expression on the face before her.

But she froze too.

What she saw in Shen Han’s ink-like noble brows and eyes was a hazy mistiness.

Her curled lashes fluttered lightly, the icy blue eyes like a cold pool shrouded in a layer of mist.

Even her porcelain-white face seemed tinged with warmth.

Her brow tails weren’t relaxed; her eyelids half-lowered, lashes trembling faintly with her barely audible breaths.

Her lips pressed together, her gaze vaguely, like her pheromones and mind, fixed on Su Mi’s tongue tip.

Shen Han’s face was calm, but she didn’t seem as composed as she appeared.

Because she quickly caught Su Mi’s gaze. Her slender brows furrowed slightly, she pressed her lips, and asked casually, “How? Feeling better?”

Her voice was low and husky, like it was tugging at Su Mi’s heartstrings.

Su Mi’s tongue tip trembled, her cheeks burned, and she nodded.

She thought Shen Han would stop now, but Shen Han remained composed. Her icy gaze carried an undeniable heat as it swept over Su Mi’s tongue tip.

Her tone seemed consultative. “It’s still a bit red.”

Su Mi: “…Mm.”

She had no choice but to keep it out.

Her plump red lips parted slightly, like a little dog panting, exposing half her soft little tongue.

It was fully wrapped in the pheromones another person had deliberately laid over it.

Shen Han’s faint breathing sounded in her ears.

Their breaths almost synced, neither speaking.

Though separated by some distance, the atmosphere hovered at an ambiguous point.

Su Mi’s throat tightened. After a while, feeling plenty of moisture gather in her mouth, her tongue tip curled instinctively, and she pulled her chin in.

Gritting her teeth, she evasively looked aside, closed her mouth, and softly swallowed.

The swallowing sound was somewhat obvious in the quiet room. From the corner of her eye, she saw Shen Han pause slightly.

Almost the instant she closed her mouth, Su Mi regretted it.

It was just like that late night, her lips and teeth full of Shen Han’s icy scent, and as she swallowed, the chill rolled down her throat, spreading through her esophagus into her body.

Her fingertips trembled. Su Mi didn’t want to open her mouth again.

It was too… too weird.

Her mouth was full of Shen Han’s scent. The chill had soothed it—no more pain, not even numbness.

Since it was better, opening her mouth again would look like… begging for a kiss.

Her soft tongue tip pressed against the roof of her mouth. Su Mi lowered her head, flustered.

After a long while, she finally whispered in a mosquito-like voice, “…That’s enough.”

Shen Han might be kindly concerned, but she knew the truth. Opening her mouth again would just make her seem base, deliberately seeking pheromones that weren’t hers.

Su Mi held herself to moral standards. She couldn’t allow herself to do that on purpose.

She pinched her palm, waiting nervously for a while, until she heard Shen Han say softly, “Good then.”

As if nothing had happened.

The surrounding chill gradually dissipated.

This was what Su Mi wanted to see. She relaxed and hummed in response.

Soon, there was a knock at the lounge door.

Shen Han didn’t let them in. She went to the door and took the ice water from the staff.

She twisted open a bottle and handed it to Su Mi to drink.

Su Mi pretended to be calm as she drank the ice water, the other person’s scent in her mouth thoroughly diluted and swallowed down.

Shen Han waited for Su Mi to set down the bottle, then took it methodically and capped it.

Their eyes met. Seemingly unconcerned with Su Mi’s evasion, Shen Han’s voice was slightly husky but calm as she said, “I need to grab something from the car. Rest here a bit longer.”

Su Mi blinked.

Rubbing her fingers, a strange reluctance bubbled up. She asked, “Can I come with you…?”

Shen Han refused. “The staff are still outside. If you want more water, ask her.”

Su Mi oh-ed in confusion.

Shen Han furrowed her brows slightly, seemingly a bit unaccustomed as she instructed, “Wait for me to come back. I’ll take you to do some other rides, okay?”

Su Mi nodded dazedly.

She watched as Shen Han took the water and left the lounge.

Her thoughts raced. With shaking hands, she opened the selfie camera on her Light Brain.

With Shen Han there earlier, Su Mi hadn’t thought to check her tongue.

Now, looking at it… Shen Han was effective. The color was almost normal, and it felt like she’d held ice all night—no discomfort at all.

But in the camera lens, her eye tails and lip corners were flushed red, like she’d been… bullied by someone, even though Shen Han had barely touched her.

Su Mi’s face suddenly flushed even more. For no reason, she coughed once in the empty room.

She finally regained her calm, stood up, straightened her skirt hem, and tidied up the things on the table.

Only then did she remember what Shen Han had said before leaving.

She naturally associated Shen Han’s mention of fetching something with going to play the amusement rides together later.

She had no idea how Shen Han could… after doing such a thing, still calmly want to take her along for the rides.

Was this the sense of responsibility of a corporate magnate? Even toward a god-sister with no blood ties, she could handle it like this. And afterward, she showed not the slightest discomposure, as if she’d merely lent her a corner of her clothes.

Su Mi couldn’t.

She felt that even looking at Shen Han now… made her legs go weak.