PANT - Chapter 13
Chapter 13
At eleven p.m., Shi Ning leaned against the sofa, drowsy, and let out a yawn.
Su Tianxue stood on the balcony with her arms crossed. The old house had a semi-enclosed balcony where no flowers were grown. Su Tianxue had tried growing them before, but without exception, every flower she tended to died. They either got spider mites or powdery mildew. Su Tianxue had come to accept that she simply didn’t have a green thumb.
This semi-enclosed balcony, which received excellent sunlight, was generally just used for drying clothes.
Su Tianxue stood by the window, her gaze fixed outside.
Shi Ning turned on the sofa to look at her. She felt that sometimes, when you watched this woman in a quiet moment, she became like a pale watercolor painting. The brushstrokes were light and sparse, exuding an air of ethereality, with a hint of romance. If the wind blew any harder, Shi Ning feared Su Tianxue might simply shatter and be carried away with it.
It was this fear of her disappearing that made Shi Ning break the silence.
“Still worried about Su Wanxing?”
Su Tianxue’s lips tightened. Without turning back, she gave a slight nod.
Shi Ning saw the ends of her hair sway gently and knew she was answering.
She asked, “If Su Wanxing doesn’t come back, are you just not going to sleep tonight?”
Su Tianxue: “I can’t sleep.”
Although Su Wanxing had gone to get a room with an Omega friend she knew, as her older sister, Su Tianxue couldn’t help but feel a knot of anxiety as long as her sister wasn’t home.
And she couldn’t help but wonder, did Su Wanxing leave so abruptly because she saw Shi Ning in the house?
She was wringing her hands so hard they might have been forming calluses. When the wind blew, she would lift her hands to rub her arms, presumably thinking the friction would generate heat.
Shi Ning sighed softly and walked over. She wrapped her arms around Su Tianxue’s waist from behind, holding her close. She rested her chin on Su Tianxue’s, nuzzling her neck gently like a small animal.
“Want to try my method for getting to sleep?”
The moment she was embraced, a wave of warmth spread from behind her, dispelling some of the loneliness in Su Tianxue’s heart. However, hearing Shi Ning’s still-frivolous and completely unreliable words, she grew annoyed and struggled. “Let go of me.”
But Shi Ning wouldn’t let go.
The more Su Tianxue struggled, the tighter she held her.
“Shi Ning!” Su Tianxue fumed.
Shi Ning replied lazily, “I’m here.” She even deliberately pressed her cheek against hers. “Want to consider my proposal?”
Su Tianxue changed her tactic. “Fine, as long as you let me top you for once.”
Shi Ning raised an eyebrow. “Okay.”
She agreed so readily that Su Tianxue was a little suspicious. “Really?”
A slight smile touched Shi Ning’s lips. “Really.”
Seeing Su Tianxue calculating something, Shi Ning laughed at her. “As long as you can beat me in a fight, I’ll let you top me.”
Su Tianxue: “…”
She had been a bookworm since she was little and spent her adult life in research labs. While she wasn’t exactly weak, beating Shi Ning in a fight? Su Tianxue didn’t need to run the numbers to know that would be a bit difficult.
Su Tianxue: “Forget it. Just hold me if you want. Pretend I didn’t say anything.”
Shi Ning loved the feeling of holding a woman. Having a soft, fragrant, jade-like body in her arms was comfortable in every way. Holding someone like this, holding Su Tianxue, made Shi Ning feel as if a spring breeze had suddenly swept through her empty, desolate heart, causing a flower to bloom.
She liked this feeling.
Shi Ning held her without letting go, standing with her in this position on the balcony, letting the wind blow past them.
“Wife, I’m cold,” Shi Ning said coquettishly. “Let’s hug for warmth.”
After so many days of contact with this person, Su Tianxue had seen through her shamelessness, which was thicker than a city wall. Thus, she replied bluntly, “If you’re cold, you can put on more clothes.”
Shi Ning’s flirtatious remarks came effortlessly. “But you are my clothes.”
To her surprise, Su Tianxue played along. “What, is this that old saying? ‘Women are like clothes, but brothers are like limbs,’ is that it?”
She figured she must be truly bored to be bantering with Shi Ning like this.
Shi Ning pouted. “Of course not.” She grumbled softly, “I’m the type to choose beauty over duty, the kind who’d stab a friend in the back for a woman. Wife, how could you say that about me?”
Su Tianxue: “And you’re proud of that?”
Shi Ning: “It’s nothing special, just a little bit of self-confidence.”
“But—” Shi Ning’s tone shifted. “So, Su Tianxue, were you just saying that you’re my woman?” She delivered the last few words with a particularly seductive lilt, her voice rising in a teasing, alluring hook. For a moment, Su Tianxue felt as if someone were inside her, taking a small shovel to the fields of her heart, digging and planting a few flowers. When they bloomed, they took the shape of the words, “you are my woman.”
“I can’t be bothered with you,” Su Tianxue said, choosing a strategy of retreat.
Shi Ning laughed behind her, the vibrations from her chest resonating against Su Tianxue’s back. She happily nuzzled Su Tianxue’s neck. “I like that you think that way.”
“You’re not cold now, are you?” she asked suddenly.
Only then did Su Tianxue realize that after Shi Ning had embraced her, she no longer felt cold and hadn’t been rubbing her arms. The name “Shi Ning,” and her embrace, had become linked with gentleness.
As this thought settled, Su Tianxue’s ears grew a little hot, and her voice was slightly hoarse. “You didn’t have to do that. I could have just put on a jacket.”
The wind was strong at night, and she had been standing here for a while, risking a chill. That was why Shi Ning had come over to hold her.
Shi Ning: “Why wouldn’t I do that?”
Her voice had a lightheartedness that could dispel any gloom. “Legally speaking, you’re my wife now. What’s wrong with becoming a piece of clothing to shield my own wife from the wind?”
“Besides, what if there are people from the Cohabitation Inspection Committee monitoring us in the complex? Maybe they’ll see this and give us extra points.”
“You’re talking nonsense,” Su Tianxue said, wanting to laugh. “Have you been watching too much TV?”
Her sharp eyes spotted two girls appearing downstairs—one was Su Wanxing, and the other was her Omega friend. Su Tianxue quickly pushed Shi Ning away. “Wanxing is back.”
Shi Ning stood there with her arms spread, feeling a bit like a woman having an affair with a married person—caught in a tender moment, only to be shoved away with the words, “My husband’s home.”
Watching Su Tianxue’s anxious state, Shi Ning shook her head in resignation. She grabbed a jacket for her, then followed her downstairs to meet Su Wanxing and that friend of hers who was pretending to be an Omega.
Su Wanxing wore a sullen expression, but Jiang Ningran, who was behind her, was all smiles, looking like some kind of harmless little animal. The moment she saw Su Tianxue, Su Wanxing ran to her, calling out, “Jie,” and burrowed into her embrace.
Watching this, Shi Ning felt an inexplicable sense of irritation.
Jiang Ningran’s reaction was no better.
Her polite smile froze into ice the moment she saw Shi Ning, replaced by sheer astonishment.
—Why is Shi Ning here?
Hadn’t she already prevented any possibility of Su Wanxing meeting other women?
Why was Shi Ning, who should have been out of the picture, back in the story?
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