Chapter 7

As soon as the voice came through, Chi Yumo knew exactly who it was. In this world, the only person who would question her with such seething resentment was Xiao Yi—no one else.

Chi Yumo didn’t deny it.

She didn’t even bother to open her mouth. She simply hung up the phone and set it to silent.

She thought Xiao Yi would throw a fit and keep calling to harass her, but unexpectedly, Xiao Yi didn’t call again.

While she was wondering about it, a black sedan pulled up. With the sound of the horn, Chi Yumo saw Aunt Han waving at her from the driver’s seat.

It was the same car she had crashed into the week before—it had already been repaired.

“Aunt Han, sorry to trouble you to come pick me up personally,” Chi Yumo said as she got into the back seat, just like always.

The back seat was more private than the front passenger seat.

“What’s the trouble? We’re so familiar with each other now, Miss Mo. Don’t stand on ceremony with me—it makes us seem too distant,” Chen Han said with a smile as she looked back.

Chi Yumo was pure-hearted and reserved by nature. She had no bad habits or temper in her daily life, and she never threw her weight around using Shi Youwan’s favor.

Chen Han genuinely liked this obedient, gentle girl who took such good care of the young lady. At the same time, she quietly worried for her, wondering if she could weather the storm and truly become another mistress of the Shi Family Old Mansion.

“Did sister say roughly what time she’ll be back?”

“The young lady told us to prepare the meals first. She said she’d rush back as soon as possible, no later than eight o’clock at the latest.”

Shi Youwan was swamped with work. Rather than constantly messaging her to ask this and that, Chi Yumo preferred to inquire about Shi Youwan’s non-private schedule from others. That way, she wouldn’t annoy Shi Youwan by seeming “bothersome.”

The gaps in their identities, status, and ages were too vast. She was afraid that if she clung too tightly, Shi Youwan would treat her like a troublesome child who needed coaxing.

Xiao Yi could be the child who acted spoiled and willful with Shi Youwan, but she couldn’t.

Not long after leaving the farm, Chi Yumo glanced at her phone.

There were two new text messages.

One was the official acceptance notice from the Provincial Drama Troupe, and the other was from that unknown number.

[You won’t say? Fine, then I’ll ask her in person.]

Chi Yumo’s expression grew grave as she tried to recall Xiao Yi’s face. She had only met Xiao Yi twice in total, and both times had been chaotic disasters.

Two years ago, right after her grandmother passed away, the then-not-yet-twenty-year-old Chi Yumo was working at a bar to pay off debts. Meanwhile, Xiao Yi, who had differentiated into an S-Grade Alpha at just sixteen, had brought friends to the bar to celebrate.

Chi Yumo refused to serve them because minors weren’t allowed in the bar and advised Xiao Yi’s group to leave.

Xiao Yi lost face and insisted on ordering drinks. Amid the group’s bickering, the argument escalated into a full brawl, and they all ended up at the police station.

The clash between two S-Grade Alphas caused unimaginable chaos and damage.

Chi Yumo and Xiao Yi were the primary culprits.

The person who came to pick up Xiao Yi was Qiao Ke.

After the two injured parties reconciled and signed the papers, Qiao Ke paid the fines for both sides and took Xiao Yi away.

Outside the station, Chi Yumo hated herself for losing control and sat on the roadside, crying her heart out in self-abandonment.

A woman approached and handed her a tissue. “How badly are you hurt? Do you want me to take you to the hospital for a full check-up?”

“Who are you?”

“I’m Xiao Yi’s aunt.”

That was the first time Chi Yumo met Shi Youwan—looking up at her in awe.

The woman wore a meticulously tailored moon-white business suit, her hair loosely pinned up behind her head, exuding rigor with a subtle hint of casualness.

Her features were refined and elegant, her lips red and teeth white—a face as exquisite as a carved moon.

The moon that night was round and bright.

The woman that night was dignified yet gentle, like a goddess of moonlight.

Upon hearing that the woman was the other party’s guardian, Chi Yumo hurriedly apologized in a flustered ramble, explaining that she had lost control of her emotions because a family member had recently passed away.

She had been practicing Sanda martial arts since her teens to meet her grandmother’s expectations, and she surpassed Xiao Yi in age, height, and strength. If she hadn’t held back out of consideration for Xiao Yi’s youth, Xiao Yi would probably be in the hospital by now.

The woman reached out and pulled her to her feet.

She stared at Chi Yumo up and down for a moment before asking, “Why were you working at a bar? You’re not that old—you should still be in school. Places like that are full of danger and shady characters.”

After Chi Yumo casually mentioned, “I have a lot of debts to pay,” the woman continued, “I can help you find a part-time job as compensation.”

The fight had started because of her, so she definitely couldn’t go back to that bar.

The woman called over her assistant and had her leave a business card. “Go home and think about it. Contact me anytime once you’ve decided.”

Chi Yumo took the card and politely said, “Thank you.”

She had lost all memories before age ten, and everything after was just her and her grandmother.

For ten years, Chi Yumo had drifted with her grandmother. Wherever she went to school, her grandmother rented a place nearby, making ends meet by babysitting for neighbors.

They had weathered every hardship but never dwelled on worries.

She only hoped that no matter how many storms they faced, her grandmother would stay safe and live a long, blessed life.

But the news of her grandmother’s cancer caught her off guard, like mountains crumbling and rivers drying up, the world turning barren. Overnight, the once vibrant grandmother, under the clear light of time, had white hair stark against her skin, her steps frail as dead wood.

Her grandmother had hidden her illness for over a year. During Chi Yumo’s busiest senior year of high school, the grandmother, already aware of her condition, remained cheerful as ever. She told Chi Yumo that both studying and conduct required a calm, steady heart—open and sunny within—to ward off all chaos.

Sitting by her grandmother’s sickbed, Chi Yumo often thought that without her as a burden, her grandmother would have been a serene old woman in their small town, wise to the ways of the world, living steadily and facing joys and sorrows with equanimity.

The memories she had lost from that unnamed small town—her grandmother had recounted them to her for ten years—but she never mentioned the names or places of Chi Yumo’s “deceased” parents.

Out of curiosity, Chi Yumo had once sneaked off to the hometown listed on their ID cards.

The old house was gone, demolished for an electronics factory. She wandered the streets, but they bore no resemblance to her grandmother’s descriptions. After asking around, she found nothing.

Perhaps it was fate.

After that, she respected her grandmother’s hidden pain and let go of the urge to search for her origins.

After her grandmother passed, she was left all alone—an orphan.

The landlord, superstitious about someone dying in the house, made Chi Yumo move out, saying he wanted to sell it.

That old house was the last place connected to her grandmother. Chi Yumo didn’t want to lose her grandmother entirely, with not even a trace left in her life. So she gritted her teeth and begged the landlady to sell it to her.

Feeling pity for her, the landlady said she could have it for 600,000 discounted.

But she had no money at all.

The past two years of her grandmother’s treatment had relied on charity donations, and they still owed the hospital a considerable sum.

She knelt before her grandmother’s portrait and cried all night—for her own incompetence, and for their ill-fated lives.

To keep that old house, she shattered her last shred of pride and contacted Qiao Ke.

Rather than accept “sympathy” and “charity” from teachers and classmates like Cheng Xiangxiang, she preferred the straightforward “settling of accounts” from a stranger.

Shi Youwan arranged to meet her in a private room at a newly opened high-end restaurant.

Before getting to the point, Shi Youwan asked, “Can I ask how you got the scar on your right wrist?”

Several days had passed since the fight, and the injuries on Chi Yumo’s face had mostly healed. Suddenly asked about an old scar she had no memory of, she touched it wistfully.

She answered, “I don’t remember. Grandma said I accidentally burned it with a candle when I was nine.”

Seeing no reaction from Shi Youwan, she pleaded earnestly, “I’m not lying or trying to scam money. I really forgot my childhood, and I truly just want to keep that house connected to my grandma. President Shi, I’m all alone in this world now. If you don’t believe me, you can check the hospital where my grandma stayed, or the school I attended…”

“Don’t panic. I believe you.”

Before calling Qiao Ke, Chi Yumo had steeled herself to bare her scars.

She had managed to recount these heartbreaking stories to Qiao Ke over the phone with composure, but for some reason, in front of Shi Youwan, she couldn’t hold back the grief in her heart.

The dishes weren’t all served yet when chaos erupted in the restaurant. An S-Grade Omega in the hall unexpectedly entered their heat period, triggering the Alphas present to release their pheromones.

“President Shi, there are paparazzi outside. Someone from the restaurant must have leaked your whereabouts.”

The assistant urged Shi Youwan to leave. As the door opened, a thick, mixed wave of various levels of Alpha pheromones hit them.

Qiao Ke was an A-Grade Omega. She had taken an inhibitor before coming and brought the three strong suppressants Shi Youwan needed, but they took about fifteen minutes to take effect.

Shi Youwan had abstained for years and was nearly immune to suppressants.

Regular Omega inhibitors could be injected into the arm, but Shi Youwan needed them in the back of her neck for any effect.

Seeing Shi Youwan’s face twisted in pain, Chi Yumo instinctively released her S+ Grade pheromones to suppress the Alphas outside.

Qiao Ke injected the three suppressants into Shi Youwan, sweating profusely. “Why hasn’t Kai Ge come up yet?”

Chi Yumo walked over and tentatively asked, “President Shi, should I carry you out?”

As their distance closed, the lotus fragrance and coconut scent swiftly intertwined, like long-lost lovers reluctant to part.

Calmed by the coconut scent, Shi Youwan grabbed Chi Yumo, took a few deep breaths, and nodded. “Okay.”

Then, Chi Yumo took off her jacket to cover Shi Youwan, picked up the limp Shi Youwan, and followed the assistant downstairs. Zhang Kai, who had arrived, blocked the crowding strangers along the way.

Throughout the journey, Chi Yumo’s heart raced irregularly, pounding wildly.

Her appealing, mellow coconut pheromones made Shi Youwan’s fresh lotus pheromones even more active, shifting from faint to rich.

Likewise, Shi Youwan’s S-Grade Omega pheromones stirred Chi Yumo’s glands, bringing an unprecedented panic of near-loss of control.

Once in the car, Chi Yumo immediately asked Qiao Ke for an inhibitor patch, fearing she might enter her susceptible period and harm Shi Youwan.

Someone in the garage caught the scent of S-Grade Omega and S+ Grade Alpha pheromones and approached curiously, only to be driven back by a punch from Chi Yumo, whose veins bulged as she stood by the car.

After that day, the new restaurant shut down.

And Chi Yumo’s most lucrative part-time job became Shi Youwan’s personal bodyguard—usually afternoons or evenings, only needing to show up when summoned.

Paid per session: ten thousand each time.

The exorbitant rate stunned Chi Yumo. It was Qiao Ke and Zhang Kai who explained that countless people earned a million a year following President Shi, helping her realize that even among jobs, there were vast differences.

Shi Youwan “helped” her buy the old house as a “birthday gift” for her twentieth birthday and drafted a repayment contract—deducting from her bodyguard fees without interest. She even miraculously migrated Chi Yumo’s household registration over.

Later, during one of Shi Youwan’s heat periods, the two lost themselves in passion and took their relationship a step further. Bodyguard upgraded to little lover.

“Xiao Mo, from now on, don’t call me President Shi like they do.”

“Then what should I call you?”

“Call me sister.”

“Sister.”

“Mm.”

“Sister, did I hurt you?”

“No.”

“Sister, I… I want more…”

With a more suitable, living, highly effective suppressant, Shi Youwan rarely needed the bland synthetic ones anymore.

Chi Yumo was happy to serve as Shi Youwan’s human suppressant and followed the rules she set—knowing her place, never overstepping.

But when Shi Youwan tried to include their heat-period lovemaking as part of her part-time duties, Chi Yumo felt hurt and humiliated. For the first time, she got sulky with Shi Youwan.

Shi Youwan compromised, saying it wouldn’t count as paid work. Only then did Chi Yumo smile again, stop calling her President Shi, and go back to “sister.”

After two months as her little lover, Xiao Yi tracked her down at school and attacked her fiercely.

But Chi Yumo didn’t fight back, because she knew Shi Youwan cared deeply for Xiao Yi. She couldn’t hurt her.

She swallowed the incident.

However, photos and videos of her being beaten by an Alpha at school without retaliating were posted online, tagged with #CampusBullying, sparking heated discussions.

Qiao Ke saw it and immediately reported it to Shi Youwan, who swiftly had all the photos and videos online removed.

Both Chi Yumo and Xiao Yi were summoned to the villa by Shi Youwan. With a stern expression, Shi Youwan demanded that Xiao Yi apologize to her and warned her to know when to stop.

Shi Youwan’s words to Xiao Yi were: “Xiao Yi, if Chi Yumo hadn’t held back these two times, do you think your flowery fists and fancy footwork could have beaten a Sanda 6th Dan like her? Listen up—Chi Yumo is now in an employment relationship with me. Your grudge with her ends here. I don’t want anyone outside knowing that Chi Yumo is my personal bodyguard. This is for my safety.”

It was also on this day that Chi Yumo confirmed the real reason Xiao Yi had rushed to the school to hit her, from the way Xiao Yi looked at Shi Youwan. It wasn’t for another sparring match, as Xiao Yi had claimed, but because she viewed Chi Yumo… as a romantic rival.

After having someone escort Xiao Yi away, Shi Youwan stroked her face and asked, “Why are you so silly? Does it still hurt? Why didn’t you fight back?”

“—She’s the person you care about.”

“—Silly fool.”

For the first time, Shi Youwan took the initiative to kiss her lips—and right under the lights.

For a long time afterward, rumors flooded the internet claiming that Shi Youwan had taken a new little lover.

After reading through various speculative gossip articles, Chi Yumo finally learned that Shi Youwan’s Omega mother had passed away just over a year earlier.

The anniversary of her death fell one week after Shi Youwan’s birthday.