PANT - Chapter 21
Chapter 21
Su Wanxing was terrified.
She didn’t want her sister to know about this.
So when Shi Ning looked over, Su Wanxing nervously shook her head, tears trembling. She mouthed the word again: Don't.
Shi Ning turned around, her back to Su Wanxing, and walked to the balcony. "Everything's fine," she said in a clear voice. No one saw her hand gripping the railing tightly. "Nothing happened."
Su Tianxue sounded a little suspicious. "Really?"
Shi Ning laughed. "Really. What could possibly happen?"
Su Tianxue explained, "It's just that Wanxing doesn't seem to like you very much. She has a childish temper, and you're—"
Shi Ning: "What about me?"
Su Tianxue: "You don't know your own personality?"
Shi Ning: "So you already know my personality, huh?"
Su Tianxue heard the teasing and ambiguity in Shi Ning's tone and said calmly, "I'm good at understanding people. Is there a problem with that?"
Shi Ning shook her head. "No, what Miss Su says is never a problem."
Shi Ning heard someone on the other end urging Su Tianxue, so she said considerately, "You should get back to work. Don't worry, I'm not childish enough to pick a fight with your sister."
Su Tianxue hummed in agreement. "Thanks."
Shi Ning asked casually, "When are you coming back today? Do you want me to pick you up?"
Su Tianxue pressed her lips together. "No need."
Shi Ning didn't insist. She had a whole mess at home to clean up anyway. So she said, "Alright, I'm hanging up then."
Hearing the dial tone, Su Tianxue stared at her phone, feeling that something was strange. Given Shi Ning's usual personality, she should have been flirting shamelessly right now, maybe even asking for a kiss or two. Why did she just hang up like that?
A junior graduate student asked curiously, "Senior, who were you on the phone with?"
"No one important, just family." Su Tianxue opened a locker, placed her phone inside, then took off her jacket to change. As she changed, she asked, "By the way, did you print out those papers on high-temperature sundials and heating needles I asked you to collect?"
The junior student nodded repeatedly. "Yes, yes, Senior. I'll give them to you after the meeting."
"Okay, thank you for your hard work."
Su Tianxue changed into a white lab coat. The white robe suited her, accentuating her cool and detached aura.
Su Tianxue put on her ID badge. On it were the striking words: Chief Researcher.
She turned and entered the conference room, her steps firm, her posture confident and sharp.
Back at the Su family's old house, Shi Ning hung up the phone. She glanced at the still-bound and unconscious Jiang Ningran, then at Su Wanxing, who was lost in self-blame. For a moment, the scene felt familiar.
During her time doing legal aid, she had taken on many cases of rape, date rape, and sexual harassment. Some female inmates were imprisoned for excessive self-defense during marital rape, having stabbed their husbands to death and received a death sentence. She had also encountered cases where a young girl committed suicide after an assault, and her parents, unable to accept it, wanted to sue the perpetrator but were tormented by the lack of a witness and evidence, left to do nothing but cry every day.
And Shi Ning's job in legal aid was to fight for their last remaining rights.
From a fair and impartial standpoint, she shouldn't favor either Su Wanxing or Jiang Ningran. But personally, her fondness for Su Wanxing was greater than for Jiang Ningran.
Besides, Su Wanxing was Su Tianxue's sister.
Being protective of her own was one of Shi Ning's few virtues.
What's more, she wasn't a lawyer about to face off against someone in court right now. Her identity was simply Su Wanxing's sister's... hmm, wife.
Shi Ning walked over to Su Wanxing and crouched down, looking at the little crybaby. "Why do you cry so much?"
Su Wanxing sobbed. "I-I have tear incontinence. I don't want to."
Shi Ning sighed. "The floor is cold. Go sit on the sofa first. I'll heat up a cup of milk for you. Drinking it will help you calm down."
Su Wanxing was bewildered. "How did you know drinking milk would calm me down?"
Shi Ning: The book said so.
"I guessed," Shi Ning said. "Want some?"
She was a little tired from crying and felt a bit dehydrated. Su Wanxing obediently nodded, then added warily, "You're not going to put anything in the milk, are you?"
Shi Ning wanted to laugh—laugh at Su Wanxing's naivety and denseness.
"Why would you ask me that?"
Su Wanxing pressed her lips together, too embarrassed to admit it was because she had seen the "future" after her awakening. She always felt that although Shi Ning was beautiful, she was a bad person, like the kind of pretty woman who would casually lure girls off the street.
She didn't know how to answer and felt her question had been a bit offensive, so she apologized in a small voice, "I'm sorry."
Shi Ning opened the fridge, found an opened carton of skim milk, and poured it into a cup. Then she placed the mug, which had Su Wanxing's name written on it, into the microwave to heat. Her mind wandered for a moment, thinking that she had to get Su Tianxue to write on a mug for her someday. She recognized the handwriting on the cup as Su Tianxue's.
The air was quiet for a while. Silence became a fourth person in the room.
Until a ding sounded, she used an oven mitt to take the mug out and placed it on the coffee table in front of Su Wanxing. "It's a little hot. Wait a moment."
Su Wanxing secretly glanced at Shi Ning, wondering if she shouldn't judge a person based on the so-called "future" she had seen. Shi Ning... didn't seem that bad. She was actually quite gentle and protective of her. It was just... when she hit someone, she was really vicious, like one of those good-for-nothing thugs Su Wanxing had seen as a child.
But the content she'd seen told her that Shi Ning was a CEO with a good upbringing; she shouldn't have had a phase as a thug. Or was fighting also a required skill for a CEO?
Noticing Su Wanxing's gaze, Shi Ning smiled, plopped down on the floor cross-legged, and reached out to touch the mug to test the temperature. "It's not hot to the touch now."
"What?"
"The milk."
"Oh." Su Wanxing understood. She held the mug and drank the milk, thinking to herself, Shi Ning is amazing. Just like my sister, she added a spoonful of honey when she heated the milk.
Seeing that Su Wanxing's emotions had stabilized a bit, Shi Ning began to guide the conversation. "Do you remember the question you just asked?"
Su Wanxing blinked. "What?"
Shi Ning: "You asked if I would drug the milk."
Su Wanxing hurriedly apologized again. "I'm sorry, Shi Ning. I was just... overthinking things. I'm sorry."
Shi Ning shook her head. "No, it's good that you can think that way. You're an Omega. You can't help it; society demands that you be vigilant when you're out. Besides, you don't like me to begin with, so it's normal for you to be suspicious of me."
Su Wanxing pressed her lips together, wanting to explain. "I don't dislike you."
Shi Ning: "It's okay. We both know whether you like me or not. That doesn't affect what I'm about to say to you."
Shi Ning rested her right elbow on the coffee table and propped her chin on her wrist. She supported her face, looked at Su Wanxing, and asked lightly, "Su Wanxing, I'm curious. Why can you ask me that, but you couldn't ask Jiang Ningran?"
Su Wanxing's hands, holding the mug, paused. She blinked in confusion. "Shi Ning, what do you mean by that?"
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