Chapter 6

“Sister Yunyun, you’re so good to me!”

Ning Ye wore gloves as she ate the junk food her mother normally forbade her from eating—delicious fried chicken. Her lips were already shiny with grease, and while she ate with her eyes squinted happily, she still kept talking to Mu Suiyun. “This is great, this is great! Sister Yunyun, I really love you.”

This kid.

Mu Suiyun smiled, then suddenly realized something and tentatively asked, “Does your Sister let you eat this stuff?”

Ning Ye giggled and winked at Mu Suiyun.

“…Then you’d better not sell me out.” Mu Suiyun propped up her chin and looked at the girl. “No repaying kindness with betrayal, Xiaoye.”

Ning Ye nodded vigorously. She hurriedly pulled off one glove and patted her chest. “How could this little sister ever betray her word? Sister Yun is a woman of unparalleled righteousness. I will definitely repay you in the future!”

Seeing how mischievous she was, Mu Suiyun found it amusing, but at the same time, she couldn’t help [stolen content]wondering how two sisters could have such different personalities.

She couldn’t imagine Ning Zhifan smiling this happily.

Mm… her fiancée had never shown a childish side in front of her.

Ever since they first met, Ning Zhifan had always been this cold and distant.

When Mu Suiyun had first moved in with Ning Zhifan, Qi Yi had joked with her, asking whether that ice beauty of hers slept in the refrigerator at night and whether Mu Suiyun had frozen to death yet.

Mu Suiyun picked up her phone and checked the time.

Three-thirty in the afternoon.

She had already exchanged messages with Ning Zhifan, and Ning Zhifan probably wouldn’t be working overtime today, so Mu Suiyun asked Ning Ye, “After you finish eating, should I take you to your Sister’s company?”

That way, once Ning Zhifan got off work, they could all leave together.

Ning Ye nodded eagerly. “Okay, okay! I’ve never been to Sister’s company before. Mom says I should stop causing trouble for Sister.”

Toward the end, she pursed her lips and looked a little dejected.

After knowing her for so long, Mu Suiyun could naturally tell that Ning Ye adored Ning Zhifan.

What younger sister wouldn’t admire her older sister?

But for some reason, Mu Suiyun also felt that the two sisters weren’t particularly close when they were together.

Whenever Ning Ye was in front of Ning Zhifan, she immediately became obedient and stopped fooling around.

But it didn’t seem as though Ning Zhifan disliked her little sister either.

If she didn’t care about Ning Ye, Read on BaiLianTales why would she specifically leave her own contact information with Ning Ye’s school?

Hard to understand.

Mu Suiyun respected boundaries, so she had never asked Ning Zhifan about it.

A question like that could very easily sound like an accusation and put pressure on someone.

“Sister Yunyun.”

Ning Ye looked up at her future sister-in-law. Strictly speaking, she had only met Mu Suiyun a few times in total, but there was something exceptionally peaceful about Mu Suiyun that made Ning Ye like her, want to get close to her, and even want to confide in her.

“I have something bothering me.”

Mu Suiyun was slightly surprised.

She looked at the girl, who had only just started middle school, sighing with such melancholy.

Her smile faded as she became serious. “What’s wrong?”

“…” Ning Ye pressed her lips together, clearly hesitant and conflicted.

She didn’t know whether she could say it.

“…I’m going to have my differentiation test soon. I’m really worried. I’m scared I won’t be an alpha.”

The normal age for secondary differentiation was around fourteen or fifteen. Those who developed later might differentiate at sixteen or seventeen, while even the latest cases would generally complete differentiation between eighteen and twenty.

With technology having developed to its current level, once the gland began its earliest stages of development, pheromones could be extracted from inside it to determine what secondary gender someone would differentiate into. If no pheromones could be extracted, it meant that person would be a beta.

Some parents had their children tested in advance. This helped them plan their children’s education accordingly and avoid wasting unnecessary time.

Among the population, betas were the most numerous. Alphas and omegas together made up less than seven percent, and omegas were even rarer, becoming symbols of fragility and preciousness.

Children born to an alpha and omega had a comparatively high probability of also being one of those two genders. When either was paired with a beta, the chance of producing an AO child dropped considerably. As for two betas together, it was even more unlikely for them to have an AO child.

Because of this, there was an extreme ideology claiming that alphas and omegas—especially omegas—absolutely should not reproduce with betas, because doing so would gradually cause these two “superior” genders to disappear.

And compared to ordinary families, powerful and wealthy families were almost universally formed through AO pairings in order to ensure the excellence of their descendants. In earlier times, if a prestigious family produced a beta child, that child might even have been regarded as disabled.

Compared to alphas, omegas had weaker constitutions and were also expected to bear children, so historically they had been treated as accessories belonging to alphas.

In modern times, those views had weakened, but among powerful families with more conservative beliefs, alphas were still valued to an extreme degree.

The Ning family was one such family.

Mu Suiyun frowned slightly.

She wanted to tell Ning Ye that it didn’t matter what secondary gender she became.

But for Ning Ye, who lived within the Ning family, a single sentence like that from an outsider would carry no weight at all.

Besides, Mu Suiyun herself was a beta. Coming from her, it might sound like nothing more than self-comfort.

But Mu Suiyun truly did believe it.

“Xiaoye.”

In the end, Mu Suiyun reached out and stroked Ning Ye’s head. “If you’re not an alpha, what do you think will happen?”

Ning Ye’s eyes grew slightly wet.

“I… I’m afraid Grandma will get angry. She said if I’m not an alpha and I’m only an omega, then I can start taking omega classes early—learning flower arrangement and etiquette. And my mom will be scared too. She’s afraid Grandma will say that we don’t deserve to live in the Ning family.”

Mu Suiyun couldn’t stop herself from frowning again.

“She wouldn’t dare.”

“She hasn’t understood her own position at all.”

Her voice was actually very gentle, even softer than usual as she comforted Ning Ye. “Old Madam Ning’s views are far too outdated. She can’t keep up with the times, which is why, under her leadership, the Ning family’s businesses have declined by ninety percent. How could our Xiaoye listen to someone like that?”

Ning Ye looked up at her.

Those icicle-clear eyes, somewhat similar to Ning Zhifan’s, were watery and pitiful.

Mu Suiyun paused slightly before continuing, “Do you know whose advice in the Ning family is most worth listening to?”

Her voice carried encouragement.

“Someone you like, or someone you don’t like?”

“Sister!” Ning Ye’s eyes lit up.

“That’s right.”

Mu Suiyun smiled. “Compared to an alpha grandmother who nearly ran the family business into bankruptcy, isn’t your omega Sister, who started from nothing and is already beginning to make a name for herself in an emerging industry, much more worthy of your admiration and learning?”

Ning Ye nodded hard. “Yes!”

She wiped her tears.

“Sister… used to learn those things too. Grandma said it was precisely because Sister did so well at them and was trained into an outstanding omega that so many alphas wanted to marry her, and even Grandma Mu took a liking to Sister for her granddaughter.”

“Sister Yunyun.” She asked Mu Suiyun, “I feel like Grandma is wrong. You want to marry Sister not because she’s an omega, but because of who she is, right?”

Trust shone in the young Read on BaiLianTales girl’s eyes as she waited for Mu Suiyun to give her an affirmative answer.

…Unfortunately.

Mu Suiyun thought that even when adults knew what they ought to do, they still sometimes did things they shouldn’t.

She didn’t want to give Ning Ye a negative answer and crush the confidence she had only just built up.

Nor did she want to lie to a child.

Fortunately, adults were always good at changing the subject.

“You got ketchup on your face.”

Mu Suiyun handed her a tissue and smiled. “Little tabby cat, clean your face before I take you to see your Sister, or you’ll expose our military secrets.”

Ning Ye’s face reddened, and she hurriedly took the tissue. “Where? Sister [stolen content]Yunyun, where is it?”

She wiped and wiped at her face.

Mu Suiyun mischievously directed her. “Here. No, not there. Over there.”

Only after Ning Ye had struggled for quite a while did Mu Suiyun finally say, “Mm, it’s clean now. Very good.”

Once Ning Ye finished eating, Mu Suiyun drove her to see Ning Zhifan.

When the car stopped downstairs from Ning Zhifan’s company and they got out, Ning Ye skipped over to Mu Suiyun and whispered, “Sister Yunyun, because of you, I feel like even being a beta would be okay. Because I could learn from you and become the kind of adult I like.”

After saying that, she immediately became embarrassed and shy, then turned and ran.

Mu Suiyun followed behind her. “Slow down. Don’t fall.”

A faint smile appeared on her face.

—

They had already told Ning Zhifan that they were coming to the company, so the moment they reached the first floor, Assistant Xiaowen came to meet them.

“Miss Mu, Miss Ning.” Xiaowen led them upstairs. “President Ning is still in a meeting. She asked you both to wait in her office. If there’s anything you’d like to drink or eat, just tell me.”

It was Ning Ye’s first time visiting her Sister’s company, and excitement filled her eyes, but she behaved properly. She stayed obediently beside Mu Suiyun, neither touching things nor looking around excessively.

“No need to trouble yourself, Sister Wen. I’m not thirsty or hungry.”

That was certainly true.

She had just filled her stomach with fried chicken and cola.

“Don’t be so polite, Miss Ning,” Xiaowen said. “It’s my job to receive you. This isn’t trouble—it’s [read the original at bailiantales.com]my responsibility, and I’m happy to do it.”

Ning Ye shook her head and looked up at Mu Suiyun for help.

“Two glasses of water will be fine,” Mu Suiyun said. “Warm, please. We’re going to dinner later, so we won’t fill the little one’s stomach right now.”

Only then did Ning Ye remember that.

After they entered Ning Zhifan’s office, she rubbed her already rounded stomach.

“…Sister Yunyun… do I really still have to eat later?”

Actually, this was also Mu Suiyun’s first time inside Ning Zhifan’s office.

Her gaze briefly swept across Ning Zhifan’s desk and the chair behind it.

She wasn’t exactly lacking domineering CEOs in her life, yet she still found [stolen content]herself imagining Ning Zhifan sitting there, seriously handling her work.

When she encountered a difficult problem, she would probably frown slightly, then solve it decisively and efficiently?

“Sister Yunyun?”

Ning Ye’s voice pulled Mu Suiyun back from her thoughts.

She looked at the girl.

Ning Ye was smiling mischievously. “Sister Yunyun, were you thinking about Sister?”

“You two are so loving.”

Ning Ye covered her face.

“How embarrassing~”

At that exact moment, the office door was pushed open again.

Mu Suiyun looked over at the sound.

She saw Ning Zhifan’s excessively beautiful face, those icicle-clear eyes looking toward them with their usual cold distance.

…Mu Suiyun wasn’t quite sure whether Ning Zhifan had heard Ning Ye’s last two sentences.

She smiled faintly. “Finished?”

“Mm.”

Ning Zhifan’s expression was the same as usual—calm, with a hint of coldness.

She looked toward Ning Ye. “What was wrong with you that you needed to take leave from school? And [unauthorized copy]you even troubled Sister Mu.”

Ning Ye immediately became nervous.

She shrank behind Mu Suiyun and hugged her arm.

“I… I…”

She couldn’t come up with an explanation.

She could hardly say her stomach hurt and she had taken leave to seek treatment from a certain Doctor M.

Mu Suiyun patted Ning Ye’s shoulder.

“I mentioned to Xiaoye before that I wanted to see her. She happened to get a good score on a test today and wanted to share it with me, so I went to pick her up.”

Ning Ye had mentioned the test earlier while they were eating fried chicken.

Mu Suiyun knew she wanted to tell her Sister about it, so she conveniently brought it up now, saving the child from being too shy to praise herself in front of Ning Zhifan.

Of course Ning Zhifan understood that Mu Suiyun was making excuses for Ning Ye.

She pinched the bridge of her nose.

After receiving her examination report and medical advice that afternoon, Ning Zhifan had returned to the company to continue working.

Truthfully, right now…

she didn’t particularly want to see Mu Suiyun.

She needed some breathing room to think seriously and carefully.

Mu Suiyun’s presence would only interfere with her thoughts.

“Next time, don’t contact Sister Mu during school hours.”

Ning Zhifan glanced at Ning Ye.

“Do you understand?”

She was already constantly taking advantage of Mu Suiyun.

She didn’t want Mu Suiyun to invest genuine affection in her family as well.

Benefits could be repaid someday.

Only emotional bonds…

were difficult to assign a price to.

That was why Ning Zhifan didn’t want her younger sister getting close to Mu Suiyun.

Ning Ye pressed her lips together and nodded.

“…Sorry, Sister. I won’t do it again.”

Mu Suiyun put an arm lightly around her shoulders without saying in front of Ning Zhifan that it was fine and she didn’t mind.

Ning Zhifan was disciplining Ning Ye.

She shouldn’t interfere.

Seeing the older and younger figures pressed close together, Ning Zhifan frowned faintly.

“What do you want to eat tonight?”

Ning Ye didn’t dare make a sound.

“I’ll cook.”

Mu Suiyun lowered her head. “What do you think, Xiaoye?”

That would stretch out the time a little longer and give the child more time to digest.

Ning Ye immediately nodded. “I want to eat Sister Yunyun’s cooking.”

Then she looked uneasily at Ning Zhifan.

“Sister… is that okay?”

Seeing how extraordinarily close her younger sister was to Mu Suiyun while being afraid of her, Ning Zhifan sighed inwardly and gave a quiet “Mm.”

“Then I’ll trouble you, Suiyun.”

Mu Suiyun was just about to say it wasn’t any trouble.

Ning Ye whispered, “It’s no trouble, no trouble. Cooking for Sister is Sister Yunyun’s responsibility. She’s very happy to do it because you’re fiancées.”

As she spoke, her voice grew increasingly cheerful.

She looked up and grinned at Mu Suiyun.

Those were words Assistant Xiaowen had said earlier, only Ning Ye had modified them.

Mu Suiyun laughed helplessly.

“Mm.”

The two of them were sharing some unspoken joke.

Ning Zhifan was puzzled.

When had they become so close?

Her irritation deepened somewhat, but she restrained herself and didn’t interrupt their cheerful atmosphere.

She simply became much quieter.

Once Ning Zhifan finished her work for the day and returned home with them, the three first stopped by the supermarket to buy groceries.

“Xiaoye, go choose whatever dishes you want to eat.”

With just a few words, Mu Suiyun sent Ning Ye away.

Once only Ning Zhifan remained beside her, she pushed the shopping cart and moved a little closer.

“Zhifan, are you… unhappy?”

Betas were always excessively perceptive about things like this.

So considerate it was irritating.

Ning Zhifan felt her gland beginning to release pheromones uncontrollably again.

Fortunately, she was wearing a stronger suppressant patch, so they wouldn’t leak out.

She frowned.

“No.”

She obviously was.

Mu Suiyun fell silent and began thinking.

Had taking Ning Ye out of school angered Ning Zhifan?

After all, Ning Zhifan seemed to care a great deal about Ning Ye’s studies.

She wanted to apologize.

“Sorry.”

Ning Zhifan spoke first instead.

She looked at Mu Suiyun.

“Today… I ran into some troublesome things. I’m not angry with you.”

She had adjusted herself in time.

Before deciding what her next move should be, she needed to maintain her relationship with Mu Suiyun.

Mu Suiyun was so easy to coax.

Ning Zhifan watched as just a few words from her made a smile appear on Mu Suiyun’s face again and thought coldly to herself—

So stupid.

If she really raised a child with Mu Suiyun, she would even have to worry whether their child might inherit genes like these and end up doing so terribly in school that it gave her a headache.

She irrationally chose to forget that Mu Suiyun had been such an outstanding student that she had earned the ​stolen content​highest scholarship every single year.

—

At that moment, neither of them had yet realized that a major problem was waiting for them that night.

Ning Ye was staying over.

And because the two of them normally slept in separate rooms, if they didn’t want her to notice anything unusual, they could only…

sleep in the same room.