Once Jiang Wanning was gone, Yi Yi finally lay back properly against her pillow and instructed her optical brain to run a diagnostic — she needed to understand what had caused her CPU to overheat, because nothing like this had happened before.
The result came back quickly. The optical brain reported: emotional response classified as embarrassment.
Yi Yi's eyes went wide. That was impossible. She was too capable, too composed, too self-possessed to be embarrassed — and certainly not because of Jiang Wanning. She refused to accept it.
She pulled up her internal reference database to look into it further. There had to be another explanation.
Meanwhile, in the bedroom, Chen Wan had finally coaxed Yang Yang to sleep. She eased the little one carefully onto the right side of the bed, tucked her small blanket snugly around her, and wedged a pillow along the far edge to keep her from rolling off. Then she turned to face the bathroom door and waited, with a very particular expression — quiet, hopeful, and slightly too obvious about both.
It had been an extraordinarily tense day, and she had missed Jiang Yanxin in the specific way one misses someone when there has been no time to say so.
Jiang Yanxin, in the middle of washing her hair, had felt a brief wave of dizziness — just a few seconds, there and then gone. She assumed it was the accumulated stress of the day and shook it off without dwelling on it. She dried her hair, pushed open the bathroom door, and came out to find Chen Wan staring at her with the fixed, earnest attention of a very well-behaved big dog waiting to be noticed.
The corner of Jiang Yanxin's mouth curved. She walked over. Chen Wan immediately brightened and patted the space beside her on the bed, an open invitation.
Jiang Yanxin looked at Chen Wan with quiet amusement, raising an eyebrow."Coming right over. Someone's being very proactive tonight."
"We were apart all day. I missed my wife," Chen Wan replied with complete sincerity, her expression utterly innocent.
Jiang Yanxin accepted this with a small nod, privately finding her alpha endearing beyond measure. She missed her, and yet all she ever wanted was to hug her and stay close—truly the most well-behaved person imaginable.
She lay down on the bed and looked up at Chen Wan. A moment later, Chen Wan curled around her in a thoroughly clingy embrace.
Chen Wan's original intention had been nothing more than a cuddle, perhaps with a little wheedling. But then she caught a scent—sweet and warm, like grapes—drifting from somewhere near Jiang Yanxin's neck. Without quite realizing it, she pressed closer, her nose tucked against that spot, breathing it in with small, careful breaths.
"Honey, you smell so sweet. Like grapes. It's wonderful."
Jiang Yanxin's breathing had already grown slightly unsteady. One hand hooked loosely around Chen Wan, while the other moved instinctively to the back of her neck—and she felt it at once: the gland there, warm and pulsing in waves.
It came back to her then—the thing she had all but forgotten.
Her susceptibility period.
It had been delayed for so long that she had stopped thinking about it—and now, without warning, it was here.
She pushed Chen Wan, who was still contentedly buried against her neck.
"Chen Wan—I think my susceptibility period has started. Go get Yang Yang out of here, quickly."
Chen Wan pulled back, blinking. She had honestly forgotten this world even had susceptibility periods. She was on her feet immediately.
"I'll take her out right now."
"Come straight back after." Jiang Yanxin's forehead was already damp with a light sheen of sweat, and the sweet grape scent in the air deepened by the second.
Chen Wan scooped up the sleeping Yang Yang and slipped out. Qin Ke was still on the lower bunk with her book. She looked up as Chen Wan appeared with the baby, immediately reading the situation.
"What's going on? Is Yang Yang all right?"
"Yang Yang is fine. Yanxin's susceptibility period has started. Can you take care of her for me? Let her sleep with you—I need to get back." Chen Wan kept her voice low and slightly rushed.
"Got it. Hand her over." Qin Ke was already sitting up. "And Chen Wan—make sure you close your bedroom door properly. Some of us are Alphas too."
"Right. Yes. I'll close it." Chen Wan was already on her way back.
When she returned to the bedroom, Jiang Yanxin's forehead was damp with cold sweat. She reached for Chen Wan the moment she came through the door, like someone grasping a lifeline.
"Chen Wan. Hold me."
Chen Wan went to her immediately and gathered her into her arms without a word.
"Do you remember what we picked up from the hospital?" Jiang Yanxin's voice trembled slightly, the sound of someone exercising immense restraint. "Find the contraceptive pills. And water."
When they had visited the hospital, Jiang Yanxin had hoped to find suppressants, but none had been available. She had set the matter aside, since her susceptibility period had been delayed, and then forgotten it entirely. Now it had arrived without any warning at all.
No suppressants—but they had contraceptive pills, and she had Chen Wan. That would be enough.
Chen Wan found the pills and helped Jiang Yanxin take two with water, still slightly puzzled by the connection between susceptibility periods and contraceptives, but didn't question it. She set the bottle and glass on the bedside table—and the next second, Jiang Yanxin pulled her down onto the bed.
"Chen Wan," Jiang Yanxin murmured, her voice soft and sweet, her arms wrapped tightly around her. "Your pheromones. Now."
The request was unmistakable—and the urgency behind it even more so.
Chen Wan released her pheromones, the scent of green plum wine spreading gently through the room. In her heightened state, it took almost no effort. Jiang Yanxin inhaled just a trace of it and went visibly undone—her cheeks flushing, her eyes losing their sharp focus.
She buried her face against Chen Wan and breathed in slowly, as if she had fallen headlong into a vat of green plum wine—each breath intoxicating, the air itself sweet in her throat.
"Chen Wan. Hurry." Jiang Yanxin's voice against her neck was soft and coaxing, her warm breath spilling over Chen Wan's skin with every word.
Chen Wan was very quickly in no condition to hold a coherent thought. She wasn't even entirely sure what she was supposed to be hurrying for.
"Hurry with what?" she asked quietly.
"You're hopeless. I'll show you. Kiss me first—I feel awful. I want to taste the green plum wine. Give it to me," Jiang Yanxin murmured—and, without waiting for a response, kissed her.
Chen Wan felt as though her brain had simply stopped working. She hadn't expected susceptibility periods to make omegas quite like this—she couldn't even look at Jiang Yanxin directly without feeling the urge to look away.
And yet Jiang Yanxin had a hand hooked around her neck, kissing her with a warmth and closeness she had never shown before—nothing like her usual self, who delighted in teasing Chen Wan and leaving her flustered. This was something else entirely.
The mingled scents of green plum wine and sweet grape wove through the air, becoming something uniquely soft and intoxicating.
At the threshold of this unfamiliar territory, Chen Wan remembered to activate the room's soundproofing. She had no intention of subjecting Qin Ke to any of this.
When they finally woke, it was noon the following day.
Jiang Yanxin lay against Chen Wan's side in soft, drowsy comfort, idly poking her cheek with one finger."How are you this well-behaved?" she mused. "You needed your wife to teach you something like that. You weren't like this with anyone else before, were you?"
Chen Wan hadn't expected the question. She looked down at the person draped lazily across her."You already knew, didn't you, honey?"
"I've known for a long time that you weren't the original Chen Wan." Jiang Yanxin inhaled the faint lingering trace of green plum wine, her cheeks warm. "Tell me. What's your name? How did you end up here?"
"My name is also Chen Wan. I died—overworked, in the middle of the night. When I woke up, I had a system, and then I was suddenly here. Do you remember? At Zhang Qiang's place—that was where it started." Chen Wan's voice was gentle.
"I remember. I knew something was different. Turns out I was right—it really was a different person." Jiang Yanxin smiled quietly, then added, "And before you came here—was there anyone? Back where you came from?"
Chen Wan shook her head immediately."No one. But I have a wife now."
She tilted her head and pressed a light kiss to Jiang Yanxin's lips.
"That's more like it." Jiang Yanxin settled back—then, a few minutes later, looked up at Chen Wan again with a look that needed no explanation. Her voice softened once more."Chen Wan. I want you again. Come here."
"All right. Of course." Chen Wan answered gently and turned her full attention back to her wife.
At some point, someone came and left food outside the door—but neither of them had a moment to retrieve it. It was well past two in the afternoon before Jiang Yanxin finally loosened her hold enough to let Chen Wan go collect the tray.
When Chen Wan emerged, she carried the full fragrance of green plum wine and sweet grapes with her. Jiang Wanning and Qin Ke both took several large steps back the moment she appeared.
In the end, it was Qin Ke who reheated the food and had Yi Yi carry it in—the two of them simply couldn't get close without being affected.
Chen Wan brought the food inside, settled Jiang Yanxin in her arms, and coaxed her into eating. She was hungry too, and took advantage of the brief quiet to eat quickly before Jiang Yanxin needed her attention again.
She managed a short nap—but was woken before she had fully surfaced.
Chen Wan had not expected an omega's endurance during a susceptibility period to be quite this formidable. If it weren't for her enhanced abilities, she suspected she might not have been able to keep up.
There was no time to dwell on it.
She was pulled back under, into the warmth of sweet grapes.
With the soundproofing in place, nothing reached the outside.
Yang Yang spent the entire day searching for her Mom and Mama—and found neither.
When she woke the next morning, she was baffled. She had fallen asleep between her Mom and Mama, and now somehow it was Auntie Qin Ke lying beside her.
Fortunately, she and Qin Ke were close, and Yang Yang took full advantage of the situation by demanding several stories before agreeing to get up, wash, and eat breakfast.
After that, her aunties kept her company all day. Mom and Mama had gone somewhere without her—and still hadn't come back.
Yang Yang was not happy about this.
Not at all.
When they returned, they were definitely going to owe her a very thorough round of making up for it.
By evening, she had run out of patience. Looking up at her assembled aunties with great seriousness, she asked,"Aunties—are Mom and Mama still busy?"
When she had asked earlier where they had gone, the only answer she received was that they were busy—which was the only acceptable answer, since the truth was not something she could hear.
"They might be busy for another day or two," Qin Ke said, smoothing her hair. "But you have all your aunties here—isn't that fun? And Grandma and Grandpa too."
"Hmph! Mom and Mama are bad! They didn't take me with them to play!" Yang Yang declared indignantly—then promptly burrowed into Jiang Wanning's arms. "I'm sleeping with Little Auntie tonight. Tomorrow, Auntie Yi Yi. The day after Auntie Qin Ke."
She held up her small, chubby hand, trying very hard to show three fingers.
Qin Ke and the others could barely contain their laughter."Sweetheart—you've made a whole schedule. Got all your aunties assigned?"
Yang Yang nodded solemnly. "Yes."
The room dissolved into laughter.
Jiang Wanning, duly assigned, scooped her up and carried her upstairs.
Chen Wan and Jiang Yanxin managed to eat a little that evening—before being occupied again until three in the morning, when Jiang Yanxin finally fell asleep from sheer exhaustion.
At last, Chen Wan lay still, holding her sleeping wife, and thought vaguely that their trip to Funan University would have to wait another couple of days.