She Won’t Be The Alpha In A Redemption Novel - Chapter 2

The woman standing before Shen Banyan was nothing like the so-called heroine of a redemption novel.

According to the plot’s description, Su Xiqiao should have been a gentle, kind, pure white jasmine flower.

But the woman in front of her…

She wore a red slip dress, and beneath the lights of the hotel corridor, that red was so vivid it made it impossible to look away.

The soft fabric clung to her alluring curves, while the high slit of the skirt revealed her snow-white skin.

But what truly made it impossible to look away was the white waist chain around Su Xiqiao’s waist.

Under the light, the chain refracted scattered, delicate glimmers, tempting people to tug on it.

It even made one develop a reckless thought: perhaps with just one pull of that chain, the beauty before them could be drawn into their arms.

Su Xiqiao stared straight at Shen Banyan, a smile lingering at the corner of her lips the entire time. She lifted her chin slightly, and Shen Banyan was the first to look away.

There was a charm in Su Xiqiao’s gaze that should not have belonged to her. Shen Banyan clearly saw ambition in that look.

It was turbulent, surging ambition—ambition that should not have belonged to Su Xiqiao, the heroine of a redemption novel.

There was something wrong with Su Xiqiao. That much was obvious.

Either Su Xiqiao, like Shen Banyan herself, had learned about the plot, or Su Xiqiao had been possessed by someone else.

Shen Banyan admitted that apart from ambition, Su Xiqiao’s gaze also held countless shades of seduction, enough to make countless Alphas lose their souls.

And since World Consciousness 001 had not gone mad sounding alarms after all this time, Shen Banyan guessed it was probably the former.

“I’m sorry, miss, but you have the wrong person.” Shen Banyan’s voice carried a chill. Her entire back was straight, sharp as a blade.

With the slightest carelessness, one would be cut by Shen Banyan’s edge.

Because she had seen Su Xiqiao, Shen Banyan’s pain had already disappeared. Correspondingly, her freedom of movement had also returned.

When she pushed Su Xiqiao away, she reduced the force in her hand by half. Shen Banyan could clearly feel the gland at the back of her neck heating up.

In this situation, she did not even need to think too hard to know that she would not be able to withstand this wave of heat.

She had already used every possible method involving inhibitors.

“Wrong?” Su Xiqiao followed the force of Shen Banyan’s push and took half a step back. Then she lifted her eyes to look at the woman before her, who was still two centimeters taller than her even though she was wearing high heels.

Unlike other Alphas, the gaze of the woman before her was clean, like the finest jadeite. The kind of glass-grade imperial green jadeite that would fetch a sky-high price the moment it appeared at auction.

And yet, she wanted to see it.

She wanted to see what a person who dared risk her life to defy the plot truly wanted.

There was light in Shen Banyan’s eyes. It was a kind of light Su Xiqiao had never seen in anyone else’s eyes.

Since it was something so rare, then it ought to belong to her.

“Is there anyone else here named Shen Banyan?” Every word Su Xiqiao spoke seemed to land in Shen Banyan’s ears with several hooks attached.

“I’ve never heard that name. Maybe she’s in another room. Miss, you can ask somewhere else.”

Shen Banyan listened to the other woman’s voice. Clearly, she had already looked away, yet Su Xiqiao’s face still appeared before her eyes.

The more she tried to force herself to ignore Su Xiqiao, the more that face seemed branded in front of her.

And now, after this brief exchange, Shen Banyan only felt the heat in her gland gradually spreading through her entire body.

A high pheromone compatibility rate would make an Alpha involuntarily want to hold an Omega tightly.

Shen Banyan clenched her empty hands, doing her utmost to keep her breathing steady. Fortunately, the residual inhibitors were preventing her pheromones from being released.

Right now, the only pheromones in the air belonged to Su Xiqiao.

Otherwise, the pheromones would expose her current state…

Hearing such a lie, Su Xiqiao did not waste any more words with her.

She took a direct step toward Shen Banyan, and Shen Banyan almost reflexively took one step back.

After retreating, Shen Banyan’s gaze returned directly to Su Xiqiao’s face.

She had just been about to tell Su Xiqiao to stay away from her when a soft, cool hand touched her burning face.

[World Consciousness 001, get out here. I’ll make a deal with you…]

[Those conditions you mentioned earlier—we can discuss them.]

World Consciousness 001, who had been clamoring noisily just a moment ago, now did not say a single word and chose to play dead.

Shen Banyan called for her in her heart, but her expression did not change. She was still maintaining her cold outer shell.

“Miss, please conduct yourself with dignity.” Shen Banyan frowned slightly and lifted her chin, yet she did not remove Su Xiqiao’s hand from her face.

No matter who saw that expression, they would think she was impatient.

Only Su Xiqiao would not think so, because the way Shen Banyan tried to avoid her was more like a little cat rubbing against her palm.

“My life-saving benefactor has saved me so many times. Shouldn’t I return the courtesy?”

“Shen Banyan, let me save you too, all right?”

Did Su Xiqiao always speak like this? Her voice was light and delicate. Shen Banyan only felt as though Su Xiqiao’s words had pushed her into a misty cloud.

As soon as Su Xiqiao opened her mouth, Shen Banyan felt as if she were being pulled downward.

Without her pheromones leaking out, Shen Banyan could still keep up her surface composure.

“No need.” Her voice was like spring water beneath a snowy mountain in winter. Touch it, and all one would feel was a bone-piercing chill.

“Didn’t you say you weren’t Shen Banyan? Then how can you answer on her behalf?” Su Xiqiao’s lips curved up, giving the person across from her no chance to argue.

Then Su Xiqiao pushed Shen Banyan directly.

Shen Banyan could not keep her footing and could only stumble back.

With that retreat, she fell straight onto the carpet by the doorway, barely managing to support her upper body with one hand.

After losing blood for so long, she could not even stand steadily. If this were any normal day, Shen Banyan never would have been pushed to the floor by such a force.

Click.

Shen Banyan heard the sound of the door closing.

A soft, warm body fell into Shen Banyan’s arms.

Yes, not crashed—fell, like a flower falling into Shen Banyan’s embrace.

Shen Banyan only felt her arms grow heavier, followed immediately by a burst of fragrance. It was not the jasmine scent from the original plot, but the scent of tuberose.

This flower was also white, but its meaning was completely different from jasmine’s.

The language of tuberose was: dangerous pleasure.

And the meaning was not the only difference. Its fragrance was different from the jasmine scent in the plot, which carried a sense of purity.

Shen Banyan only felt that this fragrance was like mist. It cared nothing for another person’s wishes and instantly enveloped them completely.

By the time one realized they had been wrapped in that fragrance, it had already filled every inch of them.

The person in her arms was light and soft. Shen Banyan hardened her heart and decided to push her away. She turned her head aside, refusing to look at Su Xiqiao’s face.

That face full of allure, the face that kept appearing before her after just one glance.

“Please keep your distance…”

Before she could finish speaking, Su Xiqiao pinched Shen Banyan’s chin.

Between one breath and the next, a gentle kiss landed directly on Shen Banyan’s lips.

The excessively close distance and the warmth on her lips made Shen Banyan’s always-steady heartbeat go completely out of control.

The sound of her heartbeat was frighteningly loud, drowning out every other sound. All she could do was feel this kiss.

Her heartbeat slammed again and again against Shen Banyan’s ribs, hurting her with every impact.

It only touched her for a moment. That could not be counted as a kiss, Shen Banyan tried to remind herself, attempting to call back her reason.

But her repeated thoughts were of no use.

The more she reflected on it, the less she could shift her attention away from Su Xiqiao’s lips.

So soft. Such warm lips…

When Su Xiqiao had fallen into Shen Banyan’s arms just now, Shen Banyan had instinctively held her by the waist. It was only when she began deliberately trying to redirect her thoughts that she felt a hint of coolness in her palm.

That was right. In her palm, apart from Su Xiqiao’s soft waist, there was also the waist chain around Su Xiqiao’s waist.

“So it turns out the person I like is a proper gentleman.” Su Xiqiao released Shen Banyan’s lips, but spoke right beside Shen Banyan’s ear. Her words seemed to know how to bend. After circling Shen Banyan’s ear several times, they suddenly wound around Shen Banyan’s heart.

A proper gentleman?

Hearing those four words, Shen Banyan only felt that they had nothing to do with her at all.

A proper gentleman should be someone who did not harbor those thoughts from the bottom of their heart, not someone like her, clumsily hiding their own desires.

“Shen Banyan, don’t you think it’s unfair?”

“Why should you have to save me again and again? As if you were born to live for me.”

“Don’t you want to resist?”

Su Xiqiao was like a demon. Shen Banyan’s emotions could be provoked by a single simple sentence from her.

The one who saw through the deepest longing in Shen Banyan’s heart was not something all-knowing and all-powerful like the world consciousness.

It was Su Xiqiao…

“Look. I’m right in front of you. You can demand repayment from me for all your unwillingness, your anger, your resentment…”

She was Lilith who had crawled out of hell. Shen Banyan was certain of it.

Su Xiqiao would control everything about her, just like in the original plot. This absurd thought made Shen Banyan’s complexion grow even worse.

“Su Xiqiao, I don’t think I’ll be the one at a disadvantage when it comes to feelings.”

Even at this moment, Shen Banyan remained polite and restrained. There was a touch of superiority in her words, like a monarch looking down on everything.

Su Xiqiao’s eyes lit up when she heard this. It was as if she had discovered something truly interesting in a boring world.

The more challenging something was, the more capable it was of piercing through this hypocritical world, the more she wanted to hold it in her hands.

What answered Shen Banyan was not Su Xiqiao’s voice, which always seemed to carry hooks, but a soft sigh that Su Xiqiao breathed beside her ear.

With that sigh, Su Xiqiao’s breath brushed against Shen Banyan’s face.

A tingling numbness instantly traveled from Shen Banyan’s ear to her heart.

Originally, Shen Banyan’s hand had only been loosely resting around Su Xiqiao’s waist.

The second the tingling began, Shen Banyan’s hand tightened directly around Su Xiqiao’s waist.

Her hand seemed no longer to obey her brain. It gained a will of its own and grasped tightly at the source of her desire.

Feeling the hand around her waist tighten, Su Xiqiao revealed a smile at the corner of her lips.

That smile was the same as the language of tuberose.

Su Xiqiao was extreme danger, and also extreme temptation.

“I’m not a proper gentleman. I will take my anger out on you, Su Xiqiao. Saving me will be the thing you regret most in this life.”

Shen Banyan gave her answer. She was telling Su Xiqiao what the consequences would be.

The lights in the room were off. Shen Banyan’s eyes were hidden in the darkness, like a leopard ready to spring. The leopard had already locked onto the prey before it, and once the hunt began, it would never let go.

“What a coincidence. I’m not the little white flower from the plot either.”

“Shen Banyan…”

Su Xiqiao called Shen Banyan’s name, deliberately pausing after she finished saying it.

Even in the dim room, her overly vivid lipstick could still be seen. But every word she spoke was even more vivid than the color on her lips.

“Welcome, Shen Banyan, to come collect your debt from me…”

I won’t shortchange myself either.

Before those words could be spoken, Su Xiqiao’s mouth was sealed.

Shen Banyan’s hand, originally placed at her waist, slid down to the curve of her hips and pulled her directly into her embrace.

Of course, Su Xiqiao had not expected this turn of events. Her brows drew together, and she prepared to seize the initiative back.

Sensing that the other woman intended to resist, Shen Banyan directly let go of the hand supporting her against the floor and brought Su Xiqiao down with her.

Only then did Su Xiqiao show a hint of panic and loosen her tightly clenched teeth.

Shen Banyan had never kissed anyone before, and neither had Su Xiqiao. And so a perfectly good kiss, because of both their inexperience, turned into a contest.

From the moment Shen Banyan opened her mouth, Su Xiqiao knew she had little experience, so at the beginning, she still held the upper hand.

No one knew when it started, perhaps from the moment her lips were held between Shen Banyan’s, but Shen Banyan seemed to grow anxious.

She had been at a disadvantage the entire time, and once she grew anxious, she directly bit Su Xiqiao’s lip.

It did not hurt. Shen Banyan bit very lightly, then licked it once.

That lick and bite made Su Xiqiao’s entire body go soft.

Only now did Su Xiqiao realize that things seemed to be turning rather bad.

Although Shen Banyan had no experience kissing, she was truly gifted.

Su Xiqiao was the first to turn her head, trying to end the kiss. She did not look at Shen Banyan.

“You were right.” Shen Banyan leaned close to Su Xiqiao’s ear and spoke. Her lingering breath, along with the pheromones that had just begun to seep from her body, wound around Su Xiqiao together.

The inhibitors had completely lost their effect. Shen Banyan’s pheromones spread out thread by thread.

Her pheromones were actually the scent of whiskey.

“I should be collecting my debt from you.”

“However much you owe me, you should return every last cent.”

The moment her words fell, a scorching kiss landed on Su Xiqiao’s snow-white neck.

When red plum blossoms bloom in the snow, their redness is always startling to the eye.