Yan Xia was stunned.
She knew the Shang family was extremely rich, but she hadn’t expected them to be this domineering—who just casually drops classic CEO lines like that?!
Zhu Yuxing was also frozen in place, veins bulging on his forehead, his dark face twisted with fury: “Are you fucking kidding me?!”
“For someone like you, ordinary methods of education no longer work.” Shang Wandong’s expression was indifferent, as if stating a plain fact. “Yan Xia is my friend. I don’t want someone like you getting close to her.”
The blatant protectiveness in her words left many of those present too intimidated to make a sound. To Zhu Yuxing’s ears, that repeated “someone like you” was especially grating and sharp.
He was about to explode with curses when the school nurse walked out from the inner room with medicine. Seeing the tension, she snapped on the spot: “The patient needs rest. What’s all this yelling about? Why are you all standing around here? Go back to class!” Then she turned to Shang Wandong, her tone softening. “Shang, you should head back too.”
Shang Wandong shook her head. “I want to stay and take care of her.”
“Fine.” The nurse didn’t refuse, then turned to Yan Xia and said gently, “If you’re not feeling well, you can rest a while longer.”
Yan Xia nodded obediently.
The class monitor could only say, “Alright then. Yan Xia, if you’re okay, come back to class soon…”
The snow-white privacy curtain was drawn, everyone else was shooed out of the infirmary, and the air suddenly grew much quieter.
Shang Wandong took out a pear from the bamboo basket beside her, sat down, and began peeling it.
Yan Xia sat on the bed, mentally running through a dozen possible conversation topics, but felt that ordinary small talk wouldn’t mean much to Shang Wandong.
She thought for a moment, then said carefully, “Just now—thank you.”
Shang Wandong’s attention was entirely on the peeling; she didn’t look up. “You’re welcome.”
Yan Xia asked quietly, “If you stay here to take care of me, won’t it hold back your studies?”
Shang Wandong didn’t even lift her head. “No. I reviewed last night.”
What a conversation killer…
Yan Xia suddenly had no idea what to talk about with her, so she could only offer a compliment: “You’re amazing at peeling fruit…” As she spoke, her attention was drawn to Shang Wandong’s hand speed.
Shang Wandong held the fruit knife, peeling fast and fierce—blade rising and falling like an unstoppable force, flesh separating from skin. The pear spun rapidly in her hand, leaving a blur of motion, while the peel came off in one continuous, unbroken ribbon, perfectly intact.
Yan Xia: !
The rich young lady can peel fruit herself?! Does that even fit her character?
System: Well, the book never said the young lady can’t peel her own fruit…
In less than a minute, the pear was fully peeled.
Although Yan Xia didn’t particularly like pears, she still felt a surge of anticipation—after all, this was the first time anyone had ever peeled fruit for her!
And it was Shang Wandong peeling it, with those hands that would one day make tens of thousands in minutes on the market!
She watched unblinking, waiting for that pear with snow-white flesh, whole and round, to be placed in her hands.
She watched as Shang Wandong tossed the intact peel into the trash, her slender, fair fingers holding the pear and slowly extending it forward—
Only to stuff it into her own mouth.
Crunch. Pretty crisp, too.
Yan Xia: …
Shang Wandong noticed her gaze, then took a small mandarin orange from the fruit basket and peeled it in a few quick motions, revealing plump, orange segments that bloomed open like flower buds.
She placed the orange in Yan Xia’s hand. “Eat this.”
Yan Xia: “…So the pear wasn’t peeled for me?”
“No.” Shang Wandong munched on a pear, her cheeks bulging, crunching away as she said casually, “Don’t you not like pears?”
She said it as a statement of fact. Yan Xia froze, then asked back, “How did you know?”
The book never mentioned the female lead didn’t like pears, did it?
Shang Wandong paused and glanced at her.
Yan Xia met her gaze, bewildered.
Shang Wandong’s face was perfectly calm as she answered in a tone of absolute certainty: “You told me before.”
Her tone was so upright that even Yan Xia couldn’t help doubting herself. She pondered, “D-did I?”
“That’s right.”
Maybe the female lead really doesn’t like pears—did I just miss it?!
The more Yan Xia thought about it, the more convinced she became that she’d misread. She nodded trustingly, “Then I must have forgotten.”
After all, she was Shang Wandong—how could she possibly lie?
Shang Wandong nodded in deep agreement, then turned her head and went back to crunching her pear.
The room fell silent. After a moment, Shang Wandong asked, “Should we tell Aunt Zhao about this?”
Yan Xia paused, rubbing her orange-stained fingertips, and answered awkwardly, “…Probably not.”
She lowered her head and said quietly, “She wouldn’t care about me anyway.”
Shang Wandong: “Mm, then we won’t tell her.”
Yan Xia ate the last segment of orange and said in a low voice, “Dr. Shang… Wandong, I think I’m feeling much better.”
Shang Wandong then asked, “Ready to go back to classes?”
Yan Xia thought for a moment, then shook her head.
A flicker of hope rose in her eyes as she drooped her lids, looking utterly pitiful: “Could you take me out for a walk?”
Shang Wandong nodded. “Sure.”
Yan Xia immediately wore a look of triumphant glee.
July, blazing sun, so stiflingly hot you’d want to live in a swimming pool.
The old banyan trees along the sidewalk were warmed through by the sun, shedding dappled shade across the ground, casting a patch of quiet coolness.
Head down, stepping on the spots of light beneath her feet, Yan Xia asked as if in passing, “What medicine did they prescribe you today?”
“Suppressants.” Shang Wandong opened the plastic bag in her hand—inside were several bottles of medication, a metal box, and some glucose for Yan Xia. “My Rut is coming soon.”
“Whoa.”
“What’s ‘whoa’ about it?”
Shang Wandong turned to look at her. Sunlight fell on her long black hair, and her beautiful eyes gleamed bright.
Yan Xia pressed her lips together and smiled with feigned shyness: “I just can’t imagine what you’d be like during your Rut.”
An Alpha’s Rut was different from an Omega’s heat—it didn’t require special isolation, didn’t cause loss of reason; they could still move around freely.
But every Alpha’s dependence on Omega pheromones was different. Some Alphas were affected more strongly, and to keep them from attacking other Omegas, they had to wear a Bite Guard.
Shang Wandong said, “Remember to stay away from me when the time comes.”
Yan Xia’s eyes went wide. “Is it that scary?”
“Mm.” Shang Wandong looked away, gazing at the sky. “During my Rut, I can’t stay fully rational either.”
How could she know that her well-meaning advice would only get Yan Xia excited?
“System, tell me—if Shang Wandong accidentally bit my Gland, and then I made her take responsibility for me…” As she thought, her smile froze. “Wait, I can’t be marked, can I.”
System: “Indeed you cannot.”
Yan Xia: Damn it, plan foiled!
System: “An Alpha’s gland is incompletely developed, but if the bite is deep enough, symptoms of pseudo-marking will appear—though they don’t last long.”
Yan Xia looked miserable: “What good is pseudo-marking? We’re both Alphas—she can’t get pregnant. How am I supposed to make her take responsibility for me?”
System: ………… Host, that’s a pretty bold idea.
Shang Wandong suddenly said, “It’s been an hour.”
Yan Xia didn’t catch on, asking blankly, “What?”
Shang Wandong, perfectly serious, led her back the way they’d come: “An hour has passed. You should head back to class.”
Yan Xia thought to herself: Damn it, we finally get a chance to be alone—can we not ruin the mood like this!
“C-could we stay a little longer? I don’t want to go back yet…”
An idea struck her. Gathering her courage, she grabbed Shang Wandong’s wrist and said, her voice barely a whisper, “I think that place… is disgusting.”
Shang Wandong paused.
She stopped, glancing back at Yan Xia.
Yan Xia hung her head, bangs covering her eyes, the tips of her ears bright red, her slender white fingers trembling uncontrollably, as if utterly terrified.
Shang Wandong’s tone softened: “All right.”
A summer when they were sixteen or seventeen. On the sports field, someone was playing ball, whistles carrying far into the distance.
The summer cicadas droned on, and with the faint wisps of breeze, a subtle sweet-and-sour scent rippled through the air, mingling with the bitter tang of sea salt.
Every sense grew extraordinarily sharp—even the fingertips that brushed together seemed to burn.
Feeling the other’s concession, Yan Xia pressed her advantage, leaning close to murmur, “Can I come study with you at your place tonight?”
“I won’t say a single word, I won’t bother you at all… I’ll be very quiet.” She made a zipping-her-lips gesture to show she’d keep quiet, looking very well-behaved.
But Shang Wandong looked puzzled: “Why do you suddenly want to study?”
“…Am I not allowed to want to study?”
Shang Wandong said, “Because you never used to study. This request caught me off guard.”
Yan Xia took a deep breath: The female lead obviously does study, okay! It’s just that no matter how much she studies, her grades never improve!
“Because I’ve suddenly decided to turn over a new leaf and study hard.” Yan Xia declared righteously, “Will you believe me?”
Under her earnest gaze, Shang Wandong slowly nodded: “I do.”
Then she added, “Since you love studying so much, I can’t let you down. When the bell rings, let’s head back to class.”