Wake Up, I’m A Beta - Chapter 4

Perhaps because her heat still hadn’t fully passed, even though Ning Zhifan had injected a suppressant ahead of time and put on a suppressant patch, her gland still felt uncomfortable from all the pheromones at the banquet.

Although both alphas and omegas at social events kept suppressant patches firmly in place to avoid the discourtesy of leaking pheromones, Ning Zhifan was an S-rank omega and was exceptionally sensitive to them. On top of that, there were always a few alphas who seemed never to have been taught proper pheromone control, leaking traces now and then even with suppressant patches on.

All of this made the discomfort in her gland worse.

But in order to accomplish her goal tonight—to make contact with a potential partner who could help market and promote her company’s new drug—Ning Zhifan endured the discomfort and stayed until the banquet was nearly over before leaving.

Before she left, she saw Qi Yi.

Qi Yi was standing with one of the young ladies from the Wei family, nervously watching her. The moment she realized she had been spotted, she immediately hid.

Ning Zhifan remembered that while she had been discussing business with her prospective partner earlier, Wei Chi happened to know that person, so the three of them had talked together for a while. She immediately understood that Qi Yi had been watching to see whether she and Wei Chi had crossed the boundaries of normal social interaction.

Already feeling unwell, Ning Zhifan couldn’t help growing irritated at the trouble.

Qi Yi was Mu Suiyun’s friend. The few times they had met, Ning Zhifan could clearly sense Qi Yi’s distrust of her, as though she were constantly afraid Ning Zhifan might do something terrible to Mu Suiyun.

Heh.

Ning Zhifan sneered inwardly.

She was right to worry.

This time, after noticing Qi Yi’s gaze, Ning Zhifan knew that this childish rich second-generation heir was making wild assumptions again. She had no idea whether Qi Yi had sent Mu Suiyun anything misleading.

She took out her phone from her handbag and checked her messages.

After she had told Mu Suiyun to rest early, she had already received a reply of a cat nodding.

Other than that, there were no new messages.

Ning Zhifan relaxed a little.

Her assistant accompanied her to the underground parking garage and would act as her driver later to take her home.

She had drunk some alcohol. She wasn’t drunk, but there was a faint flush on her cheeks, and even her icicle-clear eyes carried a slight haze of intoxication, making her breathtakingly beautiful.

Her assistant found where the car was parked. “President Ning, it’s over there.”

Ning Zhifan glanced at her and noticed that her assistant seemed a little excited.

Her assistant was a young woman who had just graduated. She usually treated Ning Zhifan like an idol—loyal, innocent, and quite capable.

She still needed some training, but Ning Zhifan felt at ease having her around.

“Mm.” She said, “You’ve worked hard. I’ll give you a raise this month.”

Her assistant immediately bounced on her feet. “Thank you, President Ning!”

Naive people like this were always so easy to move.

Ning Zhifan lowered her eyes slightly.

Just like her fiancée, who should already be resting by now.

“Zhifan!”

Someone called from behind.

Ning Zhifan stopped.

Recognizing the voice, she frowned slightly and turned around. “Wei Chi, what is it?”

Wei Chi hurried over and finally caught up to her.

She was a steady, refined-looking alpha who rarely did anything as undignified as chasing after someone, so once she stopped in front of Ning Zhifan, she looked a little embarrassed.

She glanced at Ning Zhifan’s assistant. “How about… asking this young lady to step away for a moment?”

The assistant looked horrified.

She didn’t dare answer on her own and immediately looked toward Ning Zhifan for help.

No, no, no. Boss, please don’t.

“She’s someone I can trust.”

Ning Zhifan was tired and forcing herself to stay alert. “If you have something to say, just say it. Is it about Tao Xian?”

Tao Xian was the business partner she had contacted, and the two had agreed to discuss the details tomorrow.

Wei Chi shook her head.

She looked at Ning Zhifan, her voice softening. “It has nothing to do with business. I wanted to ask about you.”

The assistant immediately started coughing.

“Cough, cough, cough!”

The violent coughing instantly shattered the faintly ambiguous atmosphere Wei Chi had just managed to create.

Ning Zhifan’s brows drew tighter, her eyes turning cold.

“Miss Wei, I’m rather tired tonight. I really don’t have time to discuss irrelevant matters with you. I’ll be leaving now.”

The assistant noticed that the window of President Ning’s car had been lowered and suddenly became very nervous.

“That’s not what I mean.”

Wei Chi took two steps closer and said worriedly, “Zhifan, I… I can sense that your pheromones are unstable. Is Mu Suiyun treating you badly? Is she refusing to let you receive a mark from an alpha at a medical center?”

An alpha’s mark had a major effect on an omega, but not every omega had a stable partner. Artificially extracted alpha pheromones were not always compatible and were expensive.

To address this issue, every city had government-supported medical centers with volunteer alphas who could provide temporary marks for omegas in need and help stabilize their pheromones.

Among many BO couples, a lot of omegas relied on this method to get through their heats.

But some people could not accept their partner carrying another person’s mark.

Ning Zhifan did not believe she had any obligation to answer such an intrusive question about her privacy.

She was just about to leave when she noticed Wei Chi’s gaze move past her toward something behind her.

Ning Zhifan followed her gaze and turned around.

Her eyes widened in surprise.

Sitting inside her car was…

her fiancée.

Mu Suiyun rested one arm against the car window, leaned her head out, and waved.

“Hi~”

Of course Wei Chi knew who Mu Suiyun was.

Although the two had never formally interacted, Jiangcheng’s social circle was only so large. How could these second- and third-generation heirs possibly have never seen each other before?

If they were around the same age, they had probably even followed similar educational paths.

Anyone would feel awkward after badmouthing someone only for that very person to appear the next second.

Wei Chi awkwardly waved back.

But she quickly composed herself.

“Miss Mu, because you’re a beta, you may not understand how badly an omega’s body can be affected without a stable mark. I hope you can be more understanding toward Zhifan and not hurt her.”

The assistant curled her lips.

Who are you?

How do you have the nerve to say something like that to her actual fiancée?

“Shut up.”

Ning Zhifan’s temples throbbed.

Her patience had completely run out.

“Wei Chi, my affairs have nothing to do with you.”

She didn’t know whether Mu Suiyun would misunderstand.

Mu Suiyun opened the car door and stepped out.

She walked over to Ning Zhifan and asked quietly, “Are you feeling unwell again? Get in the car and rest first. Let’s go home.”

She completely ignored Wei Chi.

Wei Chi grew displeased.

“Miss Mu, don’t be so narrow-minded. It’s true that I nearly became engaged to Zhifan, but there’s nothing between us. Don’t refuse to listen just because I’m the one saying it.”

The car door was still open.

Mu Suiyun lightly put an arm around Ning Zhifan and helped her into the car.

Only then did she straighten and turn back toward Wei Chi.

She smiled.

“Miss Wei, if I were you, I wouldn’t meet Zhifan privately like this, and I certainly wouldn’t openly express concern for her in front of her fiancée.”

“If you really think I’m a narrow-minded person, then surely you should realize that behaving like this would only affect our relationship even more.”

Mu Suiyun glanced at her.

“Or is that exactly what you’re trying to do? Deliberately sow suspicion between us?”

“I heard Miss Wei has achieved quite a lot overseas over the past year or so. It seems you really have made progress. You’ve become much more calculating.”

“What a shame.”

She smiled.

“I trust my fiancée without reservation. We have a very good relationship, so trying to stir up trouble between us won’t work.”

After saying that, she looked away and spoke to the assistant.

“Xiaowen, sit in the back with Zhifan and rest. I’ll drive.”

The assistant hurriedly nodded.

“Okay, okay.”

Then she had to add, “You’re absolutely right! No wonder listening to this young lady talk made me so uncomfortable.”

After saying that, she immediately scrambled into the car, her heart pounding.

After all, she knew Wei Chi was a rich second-generation heir too.

She couldn’t afford to offend her.

Mu Suiyun smiled and didn’t bother with Wei Chi anymore.

She got into the driver’s seat and drove away.

Wei Chi watched Ning Zhifan’s car disappear into the distance, frowning deeply.

She punched the air hard.

Damn Mu Suiyun!

What did a beta need an S-rank omega for?

Could she even understand what an omega was like?

—

Inside the car, it was very quiet.

No one spoke.

The assistant sat there nervously, secretly observing the two of them.

Especially Ning Zhifan’s expression.

Mu Suiyun had gotten the car keys from the assistant before getting into the car, and the assistant had kept it secret from Ning Zhifan.

Would President Ning be unhappy with her?

Originally, she had thought she was helping prepare a surprise for President Ning.

Who could have expected something like this to happen?

Now the surprise had turned into a fright.

If she had told President Ning in advance that Miss Mu was coming, President Ning might have been prepared and wouldn’t have let Miss Mu overhear those unpleasant words.

The young assistant couldn’t help sighing.

In the silent car, the sigh was far too obvious.

Mu Suiyun glanced in the rearview mirror.

Seeing the assistant looking as though the sky had fallen, she couldn’t help laughing.

Then she glanced at Ning Zhifan, who had her eyes closed as she rested.

Ning Zhifan opened her eyes.

“Suiyun, drop Xiaowen off downstairs at her home first. It’s too late for an omega to go home alone.”

“Mm, okay.”

Mu Suiyun asked Xiaowen for her address.

Those two ordinary exchanges were enough for Xiaowen to realize that she had worried for nothing.

The two of them were acting exactly the same as usual.

They hadn’t been affected by what had just happened at all.

Xiaowen finally relaxed.

When she got out of the car, Ning Zhifan told her she could take tomorrow morning off.

That made her even happier.

“Thank you, President Ning! Thank you, Miss Mu!”

She happily hugged her bag and ran off.

Mu Suiyun started driving again.

They weren’t far from home now.

Another ten minutes or so and they would arrive.

“What made you come over?” Ning Zhifan asked.

Mu Suiyun made a small joke.

“I was afraid my fiancée might run off with someone else.”

“My taste isn’t that bad,” Ning Zhifan said. “Someone I didn’t like back then isn’t someone I’d suddenly like now.”

Mu Suiyun let out a dramatic “wow.”

Ning Zhifan sighed helplessly and finished the line for her.

“So domineering.”

“Why are you stealing my line?”

Mu Suiyun laughed, then muttered, “Making fun of me.”

“I’m not.”

Ning Zhifan corrected her.

“I think you’re cute.”

Mu Suiyun knew Ning Zhifan was trying to cheer her up while also testing whether she had been bothered by what happened.

She said, “Qi Yi sent me a message. She secretly took a picture of you. You looked a little uncomfortable in the photo, so I thought I’d come take a look.”

Ning Zhifan asked, “Were you waiting in the car for a long time? Why didn’t you come into the banquet?”

“I didn’t want to interfere with your business.”

Mu Suiyun knew that news of her engagement to Ning Zhifan was still a popular piece of gossip in Jiangcheng even now.

Tonight, Ning Zhifan and Wei Chi had already appeared at the same event.

If Mu Suiyun had suddenly shown up as well, who knew how many rumors people would spread behind their backs?

And the omega at the center of the gossip would most likely be the one targeted and slandered.

She didn’t voice that concern.

But Ning Zhifan understood anyway.

She sighed inwardly.

Why wasn’t this person an alpha?

If Mu Suiyun were an alpha, Ning Zhifan thought, then she probably…

wouldn’t want to leave her.

—

After they arrived home.

Ning Zhifan peeled the suppressant patch off her gland.

Her cold, distant pheromones immediately began spilling out.

She frowned and tried to pull them back under control.

Normally, this was effortless.

As an S-rank omega, she had always been able to control her pheromones with ease.

Even during heat.

This time, however, something had gone wrong.

Ning Zhifan remembered the phone call she had received from the housekeeper at the Mu family’s old residence, reminding her and Suiyun to make time for a premarital medical examination.

She knew it was an order from Mu Suiyun’s grandmother.

She needed to obtain a medical report confirming whether she was fit to serve as a vessel for reproduction.

Disgust rose inside Ning Zhifan, and her expression turned cold.

Perhaps…

she really should get herself checked.

But not at a Mu family hospital.

After changing clothes, Ning Zhifan came out of her room and saw Mu Suiyun still sitting on the sofa.

She found it strange.

“What are you doing?”

Mu Suiyun was holding her phone.

She looked up at her.

“The designer sent photos of our wedding dresses. Do you want to see?”

Ning Zhifan gave an indistinct “mm.”

Mu Suiyun turned her phone around and showed her.

“Do you want me to send the pictures to you?”

On the phone screen, the pure white wedding dresses were beautiful and dazzling.

But Ning Zhifan felt no sweetness at all.

To her, they looked more like a signal that an execution was approaching.

She studied Mu Suiyun and saw the faint smile on her face.

Then Ning Zhifan suddenly asked,

“Suiyun, if you like betas, why were you willing to get engaged to me?”