Sitting in the car, Shen Han swallowed the pill.
The tablet slid down her throat with the ice water, the chill seeping into her body as her jittery nerves gradually calmed.
The driver turned back from the front and asked, “President Shen, do you need me to contact the family doctor?”
Shen Han shook her head, pressed her brow, and closed her eyes.
The spacious back seat of the vehicle fell silent. As the medicine took effect, her restless mental power slowly settled, and Shen Han let out a slow breath.
She glanced at the time, but then heard the driver let out an “Eh?”
Shen Han looked up, and the driver pointed into the distance ahead of the car. “Is that Miss Su?”
Everyone around her naturally recognized Su Mi.
Following the driver’s pointing finger from afar, she saw a girl with light golden hair holding a brown bear balloon, looking around.
Shen Han glanced down at her light brain, but there were no new messages.
She paused for a moment.
Then she got out of the car and walked straight over.
And so, Su Mi, who had been wondering where to park her car, was caught red-handed.
Shen Han had arrived too suddenly, leaving Su Mi momentarily unable to recall the excuse she had spent half the day fabricating.
She blinked in a daze and looked up at Shen Han in front of her.
Shen Han didn’t seem to think anything was wrong. She lowered her gaze, scanned her once, and asked flatly, “How did you end up here?”
Su Mi gripped the balloon string in her hand. “…”
She touched her face, looked away, and started forcing out the reason she had prepared earlier.
“It’s just… I wasn’t feeling well. Anyway, I was just waiting in the lounge, so I thought I’d come over first to discuss if I could head home early?”
Su Mi wasn’t used to lying, so after she finished, she couldn’t muster her usual cute and pitiful act.
She even knew she was in the wrong, so her voice gradually softened, trailing off uncertainly.
In Shen Han’s eyes, it was all too obvious.
Her curled lashes trembled slightly. Shen Han’s lips pressed into a straight line, and she didn’t answer right away.
For a moment, all Su Mi could hear in front of her was Shen Han’s faint breathing and the cold fragrance on her body, like the scent of fresh snow.
After enduring it for a bit, Su Mi said softly, “Is that okay?”
Shen Han then said, “Sure.”
Even though she could tell the girl probably wasn’t really unwell, Shen Han still lifted a hand as pale and cool as white jade and touched the side of her face.
She asked, “Do you need to see a doctor? What kind of discomfort?”
Su Mi tried hard not to flinch away, but the moment she was touched, she inevitably stiffened a little.
The icy chill on Shen Han’s body—something blurred between her pheromones and the cold fragrance—had now been completely overtaken by the cold scent.
Only Su Mi still felt like that iciness covered her mouth… and her body.
So she remained stiff in front of Shen Han.
She said softly, “I guess I got stuffy inside the bear. I don’t feel energetic enough for other rides. I might feel better going home to sleep.”
Shen Han hummed in acknowledgment and asked again, “If you’re low on energy, do you need me to drive you back?”
As she spoke, she looked down at her flatly, seemingly without any particular emotion—just routine concern.
Su Mi had no qualms refusing. It would be absurd to have Shen Han drive her for no reason.
She shook her head and put on an obedient little smile. “No need. It’s not far back. No need to trouble yourself.”
Shen Han nodded. “Alright.”
Was that agreement?
Su Mi figured she could leave now and started to step back, but then she saw Shen Han’s slender hand lift up. The motion was extremely graceful and polite as she pointed at the balloon in Su Mi’s hand and asked, “Can I have that?”
Stunned for a second, Su Mi quickly said, “…Sure!”
She hadn’t expected Shen Han to still want the balloon. She hurriedly untied the string from around her pinky and handed it over.
Before leaving the lounge, Su Mi had specially tiptoed to grab the lonely little bear hanging from the ceiling and brought it to the parking lot with some strange feelings.
When she handed the balloon to Shen Han, their fingers inevitably brushed.
The icy touch was fleeting, but it stirred up strange feelings in Su Mi’s heart again.
It was like a blockage in her chest. Su Mi instinctively took a small step back.
Su Mi considered herself someone who let go quickly, no matter what happened in life.
Logically, today’s… impolite experience should have been immediately cast aside, not allowed to affect her life or interfere with others’.
But… after all, it was… this kind of contact, with Shen Han fully sober.
The only silver lining was that Shen Han hadn’t said anything about it. To her, it was probably just a polite gesture that wouldn’t ripple her calm heart in the slightest.
Su Mi admired that. After withdrawing her hand, she lightly rubbed her fingers at her side, as if trying to rub away the lingering chill.
That should be it, right?
Su Mi tested the waters. “Then I’ll head back now?”
She quietly lifted her foot and took a few more steps back.
Just when she thought Shen Han would really let her go.
Suddenly, Shen Han asked out of the blue, “Are you… not used to being around me?”
.
On the way home, Su Mi wanted to bang her head against the seat.
When she was asked that question, Su Mi’s mind nearly crashed on the spot.
She relied purely on some worker-drone instinct to refute Shen Han’s assumption and laid on a bunch of lavish compliments.
Her acting might have been a bit over the top, but she tried hard to sell that she really was unwell.
She had no idea if Shen Han bought it…
Propping up her face, Su Mi sighed.
She decided to deeply reflect on herself and figure out exactly what she hadn’t acted out well enough to make Shen Han ask that.
After reflecting, she realized that in her recent interactions with Shen Han, she really… hadn’t been lackey enough.
Every time she spent a while with Shen Han, she wanted to bolt.
It had been like that in Haicheng, and it was the same at the amusement park this time.
Looking at it that way, it was pretty obvious. No wonder Shen Han asked.
Those actions were probably just everyday sisterly concern to Shen Han.
But to her—especially as her own personality increasingly seeped into this world—they felt very “intense.”
Her mental tolerance was only so high, and she hadn’t established any kind of intimate relationships with anyone.
She had put herself into the role, so she wanted to escape and ended up showing her flaws in front of Shen Han—exposing her weakness.
Like a clumsy monster disguised in beautiful human skin: fine for pretending at first, but full of cracks after a while.
Su Mi rubbed her face and sighed again. But who wouldn’t struggle to stay composed around Shen Han after all that?
So, her method for doing the task needed improvement!
Step one: no more avoiding her task target. Straighten up her attitude, stick to the persona properly, and stop making Shen Han think she was dodging her.
Who dodges their own task target? Did she even want to survive in this world?
Su Mi bared her teeth “fiercely” at herself in the mirror.
Time to go back to the mode before the exam! Keep being the antagonist’s loyal little lackey!
The only silver lining was that Shen Han seemed easygoing. After Su Mi sidled up and professed a bunch of loyalty, she somehow let her go anyway.
Shen Han really was a good person.
.
A couple days after getting back, she heard from Xu Nanqiao that the previous argument misunderstanding had been cleared up.
She had no idea if Shen Han had given in.
Su Mi couldn’t guess that far. First, she put herself back into familiar lackey mode, occasionally sending Shen Han status updates and check-ins, plus a few compliments.
At the end of the month, she followed Shen Han to the donation ceremony at the Shen Corporation and Prime City University.
It was also Shen Han’s appointment ceremony as a school director at Prime City University.
Su Mi sat in the audience, watching Shen Han go through the formalities. She left Secretary Zhuang and a few Shen Corporation executives to handle the mingling, then came down and took her to meet people.
The Shen Group’s massive donation check had just been handed over, representing the arrival of a new light brain laboratory and a batch of cutting-edge equipment. Naturally, no one gave her any unhappy looks and they gave Su Mi a very detailed introduction to the professional details.
Su Mi stuck to the original host’s persona. She stayed diligently by Shen Han’s side the whole time, playing the role of an “excellent and obedient little sister.”
Later, when Shen Han asked her impressions of the major, Su Mi followed the persona and showed great enthusiasm and acceptance.
She did like it, but if it were Su Mi’s own personality, she wouldn’t express her emotions so outwardly.
Shen Han frowned slightly but said nothing.
With the application filled out, there was only a month left before reporting to school.
The blackening value, which had been steadily dropping, seemed to stall out of nowhere, no longer declining obviously and starting to fluctuate.
Su Mi found it strange and thought maybe she needed to do something big to break through.
Before she could figure out how to extract key info from the original plot, Su Ciyu unusually asked her to clear a day.
Su Mi asked curiously, “Another banquet?”
But Su Ciyu said, “No, it’s the anniversary of Shen Han’s parents’ passing. Now that you’re… come with me to pay respects.”
