“Mmm… hmph.” Song Nanyin hugged her soft pillow and nuzzled against it comfortably. Her hair was on the drier side, and when she first woke up in the morning, it tended to look a bit messy.

Feeling a sudden shadow fall over her, Song Nanyin, still half asleep, furrowed her brows slightly and blearily opened her eyes. The first thing to come into view was a thin white gauze dress, and higher up, the slender waistline the dress traced.

Pretty as the picture was, anyone opening their eyes to find someone standing right there would get quite a fright. Song Nanyin shot up, instinctively backing away before looking up to meet Liu Zhaoran’s impassive face. Only then did her racing heart settle a little.

“Liu Zhaoran, are you out of your mind? It’s early in the morning, and instead of sleeping, you come here to scare me.” Song Nanyin snapped irritably, and with that disheveled mop of golden hair, she looked for all the world like a bristling little lion.

Liu Zhaoran, of course, had no awareness of having startled her awake. She simply took out her phone, checked the time, then pointed at the screen for the other woman to see.

“It’s 9:13 in the morning, a perfectly normal time to get up. It doesn’t match your ‘early in the morning’ in the slightest.”

“It’s the weekend, I don’t have to work, so why get up so early? The question is, what are you doing in my room?”

Song Nanyin muttered under her breath, but Liu Zhaoran paid her no attention at all. Instead, she simply took out a stethoscope and pressed it to Song Nanyin’s chest to check her heartbeat and pulse.

Song Nanyin was stunned by the action, until the other woman, with practiced ease, reached over and slipped a hand beneath her skirt to fondle a certain part. Only then did Song Nanyin snap back to her senses, her entire face flushing crimson.

“Black-Hearted Lotus, you… are you sick? Don’t just touch me like that.” Song Nanyin was both mortified and furious at Liu Zhaoran’s behavior. She had no idea what was wrong with this woman’s head, barging in here and getting handsy.

Let alone whether touching someone’s private parts was polite, the two of them were, strictly speaking, still former romantic rivals. Tell me, was it reasonable for a former rival to come to your room in the morning and touch you there?

“Relax. I told you long ago I have no interest in you, and even if I did, it would only be on a research level. I’m curious why you don’t have morning arousal.”

Ignoring Song Nanyin’s protest, Liu Zhaoran gave the soft flesh in her hand a squeeze. There was indeed no reaction whatsoever, as if it were completely detached from the body’s responses.

In Liu Zhaoran’s original world, female Alphas, though female in primary sex, had constitutions even stronger than most men’s, thanks to their physical changes and pheromone influence. As a result, most female Alphas experienced fairly frequent morning arousal.

But Song Nanyin did not, and Liu Zhaoran suspected it had to do with the more complex pheromone system. Pheromones were the unique identity marker of the human species in her world. Everyone had their own pheromones, generally released from the scent gland opening at the back of the neck.

The scent gland opening was vitally important to them, equivalent to a second heart. Sometimes, it was even more fragile than the heart itself.

However, Liu Zhaoran would absolutely never let Song Nanyin know any of this, nor did she intend to reveal a single thing about this aspect, or about her own secrets.

“What… what’s this all about? You came over just for this? I… I’m not a man, why would I have such a weird reaction?” Song Nanyin muttered quietly, inching backward and “smuggling” her part back from the other woman’s hand.

She had always felt that she was a normal woman, both physiologically and psychologically, and the few times that part of her had reacted at all, it always seemed to be Liu Zhaoran’s fault. At that thought, Song Nanyin found Liu Zhaoran even more insufferable. Nothing good ever came of running into this Black-Hearted Lotus.

“Seems like yours doesn’t quite work.” Liu Zhaoran withdrew her hand and calmly wrote down her findings. Though it was the truth, and Song Nanyin could not care less whether that wretched part worked, coming from Liu Zhaoran’s mouth, it still made her a little angry.

“None of your business. It’s not for your use anyway.” Song Nanyin snarled ferociously, but just woken up, bare-faced and with that disheveled mop of hair, she really had no intimidation factor.

“Get up and freshen up. We’ll run the examination on an empty stomach, then have breakfast.”

“What examination? Didn’t we already do all the tests before?”

“For the next few days, you’ll have a routine examination every day, covering whether all your organs are functioning normally, as well as the changes in your hormones.”

With that, Liu Zhaoran did not linger. Seeing her walk off just like that, Song Nanyin muttered discontentedly before getting out of bed to tidy herself up. Standing in front of the mirror, she put on some light makeup while thinking over her plans for the days ahead.

Five days had passed since Liu Zhaoran discovered her secret, and she had been living here for a few days as well. From being ill at ease with everything at first, Song Nanyin now found living here rather comfortable.

These past few days, Liu Zhaoran had run a full examination on her every day, from body structure to blood tests, covering nearly every kind of check-up Song Nanyin could think of.

Though she had to face Liu Zhaoran’s annoying face every day, it did provide psychological comfort, at least putting Song Nanyin’s mind somewhat at ease, so she no longer spent every day on tenterhooks, afraid she might turn into a man.

After finishing her makeup, Song Nanyin padded up to the examination room on the second floor in her slippers. Liu Zhaoran was sitting there, studying something or other. When she saw Song Nanyin come in, she merely gave a faint sideways glance, then turned away without another word.

Compared to the previous examinations, this one had fewer items and was quicker. Within half an hour, it was done. Song Nanyin and Liu Zhaoran went downstairs together, where breakfast was already set out neatly on the table, kept warm under domed covers.

Song Nanyin couldn’t cook. On workdays, she would rather sleep a little longer than get up and make breakfast. Most of the time, when she got hungry in the morning, she’d just casually order takeout or tide herself over with some snacks.

But now that she had moved in with Liu Zhaoran, a different breakfast was laid out every morning. Yesterday, for instance, was Chinese-style soup dumplings and congee; today, it was Western-style sandwiches and fried eggs. Song Nanyin ate her breakfast while covertly studying Liu Zhaoran.

How to put it… The breakfast was really good, so good it didn’t seem like something Liu Zhaoran would make, yet it truly did come from this woman’s hands. And so, Song Nanyin fell into a state of inner conflict.

On one hand, she felt she shouldn’t be so shameless as to eat her former romantic rival’s cooking, and even finish every bite while finding it delicious each day. On the other hand, she had to admit that Liu Zhaoran’s culinary skills were genuinely excellent, better than any breakfast sold outside by who knows how many times…

In the end, between the struggle in her heart and the cravings of her stomach, the latter always won. Song Nanyin finally understood what it felt like to be beholden to someone who fed you…

The weekend passed quietly and peacefully. The relationship between the two remained as it had always been, only with slightly less gunpowder in the air than before.

Song Nanyin’s vacation balance for the year was completely used up, with no extra leave days left. For the next month or so, aside from the mandated weekends, she could not take any more time off, and would have to keep working until the end of the year…

“Your car’s still parked at the company, so you can ride with me.” Liu Zhaoran brought it up as they headed out together, the arrangement already a settled matter. Liu Zhaoran’s place wasn’t close to the company, and there was no convenient subway nearby. Rather than spend so much money on a cab, it truly was better to ride with her.

And so, Song Nanyin reluctantly took the passenger seat, sitting down with her bag clutched to her chest. Liu Zhaoran got in from the other side, then suddenly leaned toward her.

As she drew closer, that grass-smoke scent came with her. After these few days of proximity, Song Nanyin’s nose and sense of smell seemed to have carved Liu Zhaoran’s scent into her DNA. Even without being close to the other woman, simply walking past her, she could seem to catch that rich fragrance, and it was especially concentrated at the back of her neck.

The scent on Liu Zhaoran was very distinctive, half coming from her natural body fragrance and the other half a lingering trace of body wash mixed with tobacco. This woman smoked far more at home than at the company. As far as Song Nanyin could tell, she had never once seen Liu Zhaoran take out a cigarette and lighter at WCRR.

Song Nanyin had reasonable grounds to suspect that she was probably the only person in the entire company who knew Liu Zhaoran smoked. Hmph. What a two-faced woman, and she hid it remarkably well.

Despite the mental jab, Song Nanyin had to admit that Liu Zhaoran looked beautiful when she smoked. The woman liked to lean against the balcony, holding a cigarette between two slender fingers.

The vast dark night and stars hung above her, her silhouette shrouded in pale gray smoke, the curve of her profile flickering in and out of view.

There was an elegance to the way Liu Zhaoran smoked. Perhaps “elegance” was a hard word to pair with smoking, but in Song Nanyin’s eyes, that was exactly what it was. She did not smoke like men did, rough and unsightly, hunched over with head down. Instead, she habitually tilted her chin up slightly.

She liked to hold the filter between her pearly white teeth, her red lips circling around it, staining the white filter cherry red. It was a lovely sight, truly beautiful, and even the cigarette butts she had finished were pinched into perfect shapes.

“What are you spacing out about?” Seeing that Song Nanyin was not responding, Liu Zhaoran asked, snapping the latter back to reality. Finding Liu Zhaoran still right beside her, the tips of Song Nanyin’s ears burned slightly.

“Why are you getting so close?” Song Nanyin shrank back. She felt that one straight woman should keep her distance from another, and getting this near always felt weird.

“I’m fastening your seatbelt for you. Or does Team Leader Song think we can get anywhere with you unbuckled?” Liu Zhaoran said with a smile, tugging at the seatbelt’s strap.

However, Song Nanyin’s chest was rather full, and it took some effort to pull the belt across. Watching the seatbelt press the dress against Song Nanyin’s chest, making those two full mounds look even rounder and perkier, Liu Zhaoran withdrew her gaze with a slight frown.

Big chest, empty head. It seemed that saying was not entirely false. When God gave Song Nanyin good looks and a great body, He had to take away her brains.

The two of them arrived at the company together. That should not have been a big deal in itself, but as luck would have it, they ran into Zhang Kai in the parking lot as they got out of the car. As for this man, Song Nanyin no longer held any of her former feelings.

When she first came to the company, she really had been somewhat interested in Zhang Kai. He was young and handsome, and the two of them were in sync at work. Song Nanyin had expressed her admiration for Zhang Kai, and he had invited her to dinner a few times.

Just as the relationship was warming up, Liu Zhaoran’s arrival was like an eraser, wiping away everything between Song Nanyin and Zhang Kai. Song Nanyin knew that Zhang Kai cared far more about Liu Zhaoran, and had cast her aside without a second thought.

She had been angry at first, that was true, but seeing Zhang Kai again now, her heart had since settled. As the saying went, a womanizing man is not even worth a dog. Bye-bye was bye-bye, and the next one would be better. Was there anyone Song Nanyin could not reel in? There was no need to have anything more to do with a man who liked Liu Zhaoran.

“Team Leader Song? Director Liu? Why are the two of you arriving together?” Zhang Kai was rather surprised to see them get out of the car at the same time. In his view, both Song Nanyin and Liu Zhaoran were interested in him. He also believed the company rumors and took it for granted that they were vying for his affection out of jealousy, secretly savoring the feeling. So of course, seeing them arrive together now came as a surprise.

“Nothing. We ran into each other on the way. If General Manager Zhang has nothing else, I’ll head upstairs first.” Song Nanyin was rather cold, walking straight past Zhang Kai and leaving. Watching her stride off with a cold face in her high heels, Liu Zhaoran found her somehow full of presence.

How to put it… She now felt that compared to the Foolish Lion, this man before her was truly, utterly boring.

“General Manager Zhang, Team Leader Song and I still have work to discuss, so I’ll head up as well.” Liu Zhaoran had no intention of humoring Zhang Kai. Without giving him a chance to speak, she left quickly.

None of the three knew that a coworker had witnessed the scene, taken photos, and posted them to the forum. And so, rumors about the relationship between Liu Zhaoran and Song Nanyin spread even more wildly on the forum.

During the lunch break, Song Nanyin sat in the company cafeteria, scrolling through the forum on her phone, inwardly rolling her eyes at the employees’ speculation. Just then, someone sat down across from her and set a bowl of black-bone chicken soup before her.

Song Nanyin looked up and met Liu Zhaoran’s smiling face.

“Hey, you think the company rumors aren’t crazy enough already? You actually dare to sit across from me?” Song Nanyin glanced at the coworkers whispering around them, feeling as if ten thousand eyes were fixed on her and Liu Zhaoran.

“Does Team Leader Song think ours is a relationship that can’t bear the light of day? Lately the two of us have had projects to work on together. Isn’t it natural for us to be a bit closer?”

Liu Zhaoran was completely unruffled, which instead made Song Nanyin look rather petty. Poking at her rice with her chopsticks, Song Nanyin said nothing, and glanced at the black-bone chicken soup before her.

“What’s this for?”

“It’s for you to drink.”

“I don’t even like chicken soup.”

“I’d suggest you drink some anyway. It nourishes yin and yang, and as it happens, you need both.”