After replying with that “What’s wrong with being a beta?”
Su Mi: I’m just out eating with my sister. What does beta or not have to do with it?
She had only then thought to distance herself from the association.
Fu Shixing replied with a string of ellipses.
Fu Shixing: Sister? What’s going on between you two?
Su Mi simply explained how she had been recognized by Shen Han as a god-sister.
Fu Shixing expressed surprise at this.
The Fu Family seemed to have distanced itself from Prime City’s upper circles since moving. Fu Shixing had gone abroad to study, pursued further education for several years before returning, and then went straight to a research institute in another city.
Thus, she was unaware of these events in Prime City.
Su Mi explained a few sentences, and Fu Shixing believed her. Sourly, she said she hadn’t expected Su Mi to have a new sister besides herself.
Since the new sister could always treat her to meals, this sister wanted to treat her too.
Su Mi smiled and replied to her teasing chatter, and by the way, they made plans to go out for dinner on the weekend evening.
Fu Shixing would pick the restaurant. Su Mi put down her phone, yawned, and felt a bit dizzy—probably because dinner had been too filling.
This South City cuisine was indeed good.
She rubbed her own little belly, but the pressure wasn’t enough. It was a red light at the intersection, so she grabbed Shen Han’s hand and placed it on her little belly.
She hummed twice.
Indicating for Shen Han to rub it for her.
But Shen Han didn’t move.
Su Mi looked at her in confusion. Shen Han slightly turned her head and looked at her. “Who were you just chatting with? You seemed so happy.”
Su Mi: “An old friend I knew before. What a coincidence—she’s in Prime City for this period and was just eating at that restaurant. She saw me, and we said we’d go out for dinner this weekend.”
Shen Han’s eyes darkened slightly as she looked at her and asked, “What gender?”
Su Mi recalled for a moment. “Female beta.”
After saying that, she thought about it herself. “Did I seem that happy just now?”
Shen Han: “Not really.”
Her slender hand gently circled, rubbing Su Mi’s belly clockwise—not too light, not too heavy.
This covered over the line of questioning.
Shen Han seemed to have specially learned some massage techniques for Su Mi. Before long, the bloated feeling in Su Mi’s stomach was massaged away.
Su Mi hummed comfortably, then removed Shen Han’s hand. She looked at the passing yellowish streetlights outside the window, her head feeling sleepy.
Before drifting off, she noticed an amusing road situation ahead. “Eh, that car that turned left just now didn’t close its trunk.”
Shen Han chuckled lightly. “Probably forgot—just like you forgetting to close the window when you park…”
After she said that, the back of her hand was twisted by Su Mi.
Drowsy, Su Mi mustered her spirits to defend herself. “It’s been a long time since I drove.”
After dating Shen Han, even when Shen Han was busy, she handled 95% of Su Mi’s travel.
Over time, Su Mi naturally forgot some driving procedures.
Shen Han smiled, lifted her hand to rub Su Mi’s earlobe, and asked, “Baby, do you want me to drop you off for dinner with your friend this weekend?”
Su Mi struggled through another yawn. “No need. I can go myself. If I don’t drive soon, I might as well sell the car.”
Shen Han adjusted her seat lower for her. Su Mi nestled in, and Shen Han stuffed a soft pillow into her arms.
Now she was really drowsy. Su Mi hugged the pillow and soon lost consciousness.
When she opened her eyes again, she was lying on her bed in her room. Her outer coat and shoes and socks had been removed—she wore only the inner shirt and pleated skirt, sleeping messily under the covers.
She turned on the bedside lamp and saw Shen Han’s message on Guangxun. It said there was a pot of pig trotter soup warming in the kitchen—scoop some if she got hungry at night.
She glanced at the time: past ten or eleven. Su Mi suddenly felt like she was being fattened up like a pig.
When she got out of bed to shower, Su Mi deliberately posed in front of the mirror.
She didn’t seem to have gained weight.
That was good.
Su Mi let out half a sigh of relief.
On the weekend evening, Su Mi was about to head out for dinner with Fu Shixing. At the entrance, as she bent to put on her shoes, Shen Han grabbed her waist and placed her on the side cabinet. She held her face and kissed her for a long time.
Her lipstick—carefully applied for five minutes—was kissed off completely.
Shen Han bumped her nose against Su Mi’s, her hand rubbing her waist as she hummed, “Why make it so pretty… You don’t put in this much effort even for dates with me.”
Su Mi huffed angrily and pulled Shen Han’s hand out from under her skirt. “I don’t wear obvious colored lipstick when going out with you for whose sake? Reflect on it yourself.”
Shen Han lowered her eyes. Her thin lips, stained with Su Mi’s lip color, pursed straight. “You’re being mean to me.”
Acting like she was the vulnerable one.
Su Mi pouted in dissatisfaction, but halfway through her exasperation, she couldn’t help laughing. She jumped down from the side cabinet.
She pulled a tissue from her bag and carefully wiped the lipstick from the corner of Shen Han’s lips.
She went back to the indoor sink, fixed her lipstick in the mirror, then returned to the entrance. Passing Shen Han, who was still standing there, she touched her hand.
“If I don’t leave now, it’ll be too late. I told Mama Zhang I won’t be back for dinner tonight.”
Shen Han listlessly ummed. The reluctance in her pale blue eyes almost materialized—like ice picks dripping reluctant teardrops beside her.
Under this pressure, Su Mi walked two steps. Her hand hadn’t even reached the doorknob before she stopped.
Amused and helpless, she walked back, tiptoed up, and pecked Shen Han on the lips.
Coaxing her: “I’ll come back early, okay?”
Shen Han half-closed her eyes, her emotions unreadable. She held Su Mi’s waist, lowered her head, and kissed her again. “Come back early.”
Su Mi: “Okay! It’s been a long time since I hung out with friends. Bye!”
Her intuition told her that dragging this out with Shen Han might mean not leaving until afternoon, so Su Mi quickly slipped out the door.
That line about not hanging out with friends for a long time was true.
In this world, she really didn’t have many friends.
The original host’s fair-weather friends had been cut off completely. In her university class, there were a few familiar girls, but their friendships were limited to class discussions and post-class meals—nothing extending outside school.
After Ren Yue grabbed her and said a bunch of inexplicable things last time, they hadn’t been in touch again.
Xu Nanqiao didn’t like going out much and usually tutored on weekends, so they couldn’t go out together.
Thus, Su Mi’s main social life now was dating Shen Han—going on dates everywhere, being clingy together.
Of course, it was very happy. Compared to making new acquaintances and grinding from strangers to familiar, Su Mi preferred spending more time with people she already knew.
She really liked being with Shen Han.
But she had already made plans with Fu Shixing—the neighbor big sister who grew up with the original host. For Su Mi, going out for a meal counted as normal socializing.
She drove to pick up Fu Shixing. Fu Shixing was in Prime City for a collaborative project at some research institute, staying only one or two months, and living in the institute’s dorm.
Su Mi’s car couldn’t enter the strictly secured gate, so she parked on the roadside to wait.
Soon, someone knocked on the passenger-side window.
Su Mi unlocked the car. The door opened, and a woman bent down to peek inside.
She had straight long hair tied in a ponytail, tortoiseshell thin-framed glasses perched on her nose tip, and wore a simple shirt and long pants—it could easily pass as the inner layers under a lab coat.
Seeing Su Mi in the driver’s seat, Fu Shixing tilted her head and smiled brightly, revealing a little tiger tooth. “Ya Ya~”
She also wore a star earring on her earlobe—different style—which swayed gently in Su Mi’s view with her tilt.
Her identity was obvious. Su Mi lightly coughed, a bit uncomfortably. “Star Sister.”
Fu Shixing’s smile widened. “Long time no see!”
She cheerfully got in, placed her black crossbody bag on her lap, buckled her seatbelt, and said, “Let’s go. Did you set the navigation?”
“Yep.”
The vehicle started smoothly along the planned route.
They chatted idly on the way.
Fu Shixing was as talkative as in their online chats—very enthusiastic, with topics flowing one after another.
She talked about her colleagues at the Lotus City Research Institute, the lead on this Prime City institute project, some inconveniences of living there for a few days, and various social topics about betas and omegas…
Su Mi barely needed to chime in—just umming and ahing, occasionally agreeing. The atmosphere in the car was very harmonious.
Their dining spot was on the top floor of a mall. When they arrived, they learned the restaurant also operated on timed sessions in the evening—still half an hour until opening.
They had arrived early.
Fu Shixing burst out laughing beside her and took responsibility. She had heard it was a popular restaurant with childhood flavors, so she booked a spot but forgot to check the hours.
Su Mi sweatdropped. They went downstairs and found a cafe on the roadside. They sat by the glass window, where Fu Shixing played with the cafe’s cat and mentioned she also kept a little black cat in her Lotus City apartment.
She enthusiastically showed Su Mi the photos.
Su Mi wowed. The cat inside was adorably goofy—a mix of ugly and cute shots, plus a bunch of videos.
Seeing how much Su Mi liked it, Fu Shixing sent them all to her in one go.
While receiving the files, Su Mi looked out the window and suddenly spotted someone somewhat familiar.
It was a curvaceous omega.
Su Mi narrowed her eyes. The omega looked familiar, but she couldn’t place her right away.
After the omega passed the cafe window, Su Mi suddenly remembered.
It was the omega bartender from the Shen Family Banquet—the one who mixed drinks for her!
Back then, this omega had been ambiguously flirty, mixing drinks and teasing her. But after Shen Han appeared, she had mysteriously disappeared.
Su Mi had later suspected whether Shen Han had been drugged because of the drink this omega mixed.
But the banquet staff had been hard to track down, and Su Mi couldn’t ask Shen Han to investigate. The matter had been left hanging.
Seeing her suddenly now, Su Mi abruptly stood up and grabbed Fu Shixing’s arm. “Quick, quick—come with me.”
Bewildered, Fu Shixing set down the cat in her arms and followed her out.
As they ran out of the cafe, the omega had just turned into the adjacent mall entrance. It was evening on a weekend, with some foot traffic, so Su Mi pulled Fu Shixing along, unusually sneaking after her inside.
They followed all the way to a mall corner—a very upscale restaurant, with hardly anyone around.
The omega showed some info on her light brain and was welcomed inside.
Su Mi tried to follow after her, but the restaurant manager at the door stopped her.
The restaurant manager smiled welcomingly. “Hello. This is a members-only restaurant. Please show your membership card or reservation info. Thank you.”
