Hua Zhi: “Who is Pinru?”
Xie Shimian’s face showed a trace of embarrassment. “What are you doing climbing into my bed in the middle of the night?”
She looked so practiced at it.
She must have done this more than once.
For a moment, Xie Shimian felt at a loss. She stiffened her expression and said, “Go back to your room and sleep.”
Hua Zhi buried her face in Xie Shimian’s chest. “I can’t sleep without you, sister.”
The dim light hid the flush spreading across Xie Shimian’s face.
Her breathing was rapid, her tone unusually impatient. “Get out. Now.”
She had been in the middle of something when she was abruptly interrupted.
She glared fiercely at Hua Zhi, who took the look as flirtation.
Xie Shimian narrowed her eyes at her, her gaze lingering on those overly red lips.
She couldn’t tell whether what she felt for Hua Zhi was pity, fear, affection, or just plain desire.
Whatever it was, it was an impulse, one that needed to be dealt with immediately.
Hua Zhi was startled by her tone. Clutching her clothes, she stood up. “Do you hate me, sister?”
If Xie Shimian said she hated her, Hua Zhi wouldn’t dare cross any boundaries.
She would obediently be a tool, a charity project for the Xie family quietly following Xie Shimian without causing trouble, never testing the limits again.
If that was what her savior wanted, she would do it.
Xie Shimian wiped the sweat from her face and neck, suddenly feeling a wave of irritation.
She grabbed Hua Zhi by the collar and pulled her close. “Hua Zhi, don’t ever climb into my bed at night again.”
In the darkness, she stared into Hua Zhi’s glistening eyes, the heat in her body growing more intense.
Xie Shimian spoke slowly, enunciating each word. “Don’t test my feelings for you.”
There might be tenderness between them, but there was also the looming threat of the future.
Xie Shimian didn’t want to experience the thrill of nurturing a viper in her bosom.
She pressed a soothing kiss to the corner of Hua Zhi’s lips barely even touching them.
It was a kiss filled with sisterly warmth.
Even Xie Shimian herself found the gesture somewhat hypocritical.
She had wanted to kiss somewhere else, but for the sake of the girl’s growth, she settled for this ambiguous touch.
“My dear Hua Zhi, I like you. But now is not the time.”
Xie Shimian’s voice was unusually restrained and gentle. “It’s late. Go back to sleep.”
Hua Zhi’s breath hitched. She had been kissed?!
Just that brief touch at the corner of her lips was enough to send the kitten into raptures.
“Okay. Goodnight, sister.”
In the quiet bedroom, Xie Shimian stared blankly at the carved patterns on the ceiling.
So annoying. After being interrupted, she no longer felt like continuing.
In her memory, she had almost never felt this kind of impulse before. Today was the first time.
The big boss only cared about starting fires, not putting them out. She got up and splashed cold water on her face.
Her pheromones were raging inside her. Xie Shimian pressed her fingers to her lips, the same ones that had just touched Hua Zhi’s face.
She braced her palms against the cold sink, her long hair sticking uncomfortably to her sweat-drenched back and neck.
Staring at her reflection in the mirror, she muttered, “Hua Zhi, I’ve sacrificed a lot for you. I hope you won’t turn out to be an ungrateful wretch. Otherwise…”
Otherwise, Xie Shimian wasn’t sure what she might do to her during her pheromone-induced rage.
She knew very well she wasn’t a gentle person.
She hadn’t been human for a long time.
In the luxurious bedroom of the estate.
Hua Zhi tossed and turned in bed. She hadn’t yet presented as an Omega, but her body was already showing signs.
She pressed her cool fingers to the slightly swollen nape of her neck. She didn’t know if it was her gland, but the spot was definitely warm.
“Sister, sister…”
The young girl was not entirely ignorant of the affairs of the bedroom in fact, she knew more than most.
Growing up in a depraved family, Hua Zhi had witnessed her siblings engage with countless others from a tender age. The chaotic bedrooms were filled with nauseating odors.
“If it’s sister, anything is fine.”
Hua Zhi buried her face in the pillow, enduring the waves of pheromones surging through her body.
If it were her sister, she would accept anything done to her.
No matter what actions were taken, no matter what unspeakable words were uttered, as long as her sister would give her another kiss, she would be willing.
Xie Shimian had appeared in her life like a goddess. On the desolate, hellish planet where Hua Zhi had lived, the Xie family had come to her, offering to adopt her in Xie Shimian’s name.
“Sister, sister…”
She had expected to fall into a den of wolves and tigers, mentally prepared to submit, but instead, Xie Shimian had cradled her in the palm of her hand.
The bedroom door was thick enough to muffle the girl’s murmurs.
The next morning.
Xie Shimian, dark circles under her eyes, poured herself a cup of iced Americano.
Iced Americano, the herbal medicine better suited to the constitution of the corporate drone.
The butler fretted, “Young Miss didn’t sleep well last night. Look at those dark circles, if Madam and the Master knew, they’d be heartbroken.”
Xie Shimian ground her sharp canines against the rim of the cup. “No one knows what I went through last night.”
The butler asked, “A nightmare?”
Xie Shimian replied, “A wet dream.”
The butler: “?!”
Xie Shimian gave a weary smile. “Just kidding.”
The butler thought to himself that this statement was more like a joke.
The fifty-something butler silently retreated, returning minutes later with a cup of calming, heat-clearing nutritional supplement, bitter as coptis root.
Hua Zhi descended the stairs gracefully, clad in a traditional cheongsam, and sat close to Xie Shimian.
Her complexion was rosy, her eyes bright and alluring, her expression shy. A faint, elusive fragrance clung to her.
Compared to Xie Shimian’s drained appearance, she looked far more spirited.
Xie Shimian caught a whiff of something bitter and lemony in the air. “Zhizhi, are you wearing perfume?”
Hua Zhi looked up, puzzled. “No?”
Xie Shimian said, “You smell so good.”
The bitter lemon scent overpowered her coffee’s aroma.
“Uncle Butler, do you smell that fragrance?” Xie Shimian pulled the butler over. “It’s really strong.”
The butler shook his head. “Young Miss, are you referring to the stench of coffee swill?”
To this day, the butler couldn’t understand Xie Shimian’s coffee habit, stubbornly convinced it was poison disguised as slop.
Xie Shimian let go. “Ke Rong?”
Ke Rong shook her head. “No.”
She was sipping a mocha with milk and sugar.
The butler’s pupils trembled in horror.
How was this poison contagious? Truly, he couldn’t comprehend the preferences of the younger generation.
Hua Zhi nudged her elbow. “Sister, could it be my natural scent you’re smelling?”
Xie Shimian’s hand trembled, spilling coffee onto her skirt.
Only then did she notice that Hua Zhi was wearing a traditional cheongsam in bright red, with wide, flared sleeves edged in white lace. A slender, jade-like arm gleamed under the chandelier.
Wide sleeves, delicate wrists, a mutton-fat jade bracelet adorning one.
She was beautiful, like an Eastern maiden stepped out of an ancient painting.
Xie Shimian’s preferences were reignited.
Hua Zhi tugged at her sleeve. “Sister, lower your head, please.”
Xie Shimian softened her breath as her ear was drawn to Hua Zhi’s lips.
Once again, their breaths intertwined.
Though nothing had happened between them, the suffocating tension seemed capable of consuming her entire being.
“Only those closest to each other can catch the scent of one another.”
Xie Shimian didn’t quite catch her words, only noticing those overly rosy lips parting and closing.
“What?”
“I said… does sister like me, even just a little?”
Even if it’s just the tiniest bit.