Chapter 1: The Embarrassment Of Having Nowhere To Hide

(TN: If this is your first Chinese novel then please refer to this before continuing!!)

Chapter 1

The midday sun scorched the earth.

The small mountain village, nestled amongst verdant peaks, felt like it was trapped inside a steamer. The cicadas chirped restlessly from the treetops, their cries grating.

The crops in the valley couldn’t withstand the searing heat, their thin leaves wilting and curling at the edges.

Su Yu had been harvesting wheat all morning.

Sweat dripped constantly from her clear, fair face, soaking her faded school uniform. The fabric clung to her waist and stomach, outlining her slender figure.

Under the shade of a locust tree by the river, several farmers were sitting cross-legged, resting. Seeing Su Yu still working, one of them shouted,

“Hey, kid, come have some water.”

Su Yu took out a handkerchief and wiped the sweat from her neck.

She found a shady spot and sat down quietly. From her canvas bag, she pulled out a thick stack of college entrance exam practice papers. She bent one leg, resting the papers on her knee.

To save time, she didn’t go home for lunch. She had brought rice balls, which she ate casually.

Perhaps due to the heat, the rice balls had been stuffy in the cloth bag for too long and tasted slightly sour.

“Kid, have some meat!”

A man on the other side opened his lunchbox, holding the braised pork towards Su Yu.

Su Yu thanked him but didn’t reach out to take any. Her gaze remained fixed on the questions before her.

The man knew her temperament and didn’t insist.

He smiled and withdrew his hand.

“I never thought a delicate girl like you could work faster than us grown men. Cutting three swathes of wheat in one morning, that’s really impressive!”

Su Yu was naturally reserved, her delicate features always carrying a hint of melancholy.

She showed no reaction to the praise, merely letting out a muffled “Mm” as acknowledgment.

The man picked up his bowl and took a bite of rice, starting to chat idly.

“Ah Yu, my third son said you got first place in the city again in the recent exam. Your score was way higher than the second place.

You’re graduating in the second half of the year, have you thought about which university you want to apply to?”

“I want to go to Bin Cheng.”

Talking about studies, Su Yu rarely showed a flicker of age-appropriate excitement.

“Bin Cheng is an international metropolis, a place to see the world.”

The man was happy for her, his honest face beaming with sincere warmth.

But as he smiled, his expression faltered slightly.

“Although your grades are good and you get scholarships every year, studying in Bin Cheng… the tuition and living expenses are a considerable sum.

Your grandmother is often sick, and your sister needs to attend a special school. Can your family afford it?”

Hearing this, Su Yu’s hand paused mid-problem.

A trace of gloom clouded her eyes.

The man was from the same village as Su Yu and had watched her grow up, so he spoke without much reservation.

“It would be great if you could differentiate into an Alpha.

I heard the Alpha girls’ school in Bin Cheng doesn’t charge tuition and even provides living allowances.”

“Isn’t that right!”

A man nearby wearing a tank top chimed in, though his tone held obvious mockery.

“I say, Su Yu, you’re already eighteen, why haven’t you differentiated yet? Logically, you should have. Your mother is an Omega, and children born to Omegas usually have excellent genes.
Why can’t you differentiate?”

Another man with a scar on his face joked,

“Su Yu’s mother is an Omega, but her father is just a Beta…”

“Tch, everyone knows her mother arrived here with a big belly. Who knows who her father really is.”

The man in the tank top snickered, then his eyes met Su Yu’s icy, piercing gaze.

She was just a high school girl who had recently come of age. Yet she exuded a sharp, imposing aura.

The tank top man instantly fell silent.

Don’t underestimate Su Yu just because she was only eighteen.

She was sharp-minded and highly capable.

When the village’s only threshing machine broke down, she fixed it just by following the manual. The machine belonged to the village committee and was used by each household in turn.

If it broke, they could only rely on Su Yu to repair it.

Everyone held a certain degree of respect for Su Yu, the kind reserved for intellectuals.

Lunch was almost over. Everyone packed up, ready to continue working.

Su Yu put away her test papers, folded her towel neatly, and hung it on a tree branch.

Just as she was about to turn, she saw a small figure running towards them from the field path.

The figure gestured rapidly with sign language while making sounds, causing the men to glance over frequently.

The man in the tank top couldn’t understand sign language and impatiently shouted at the girl,

“Hey, little mute, what are you signing about?”

Seeing Su Yu raise an eyebrow and glance his way, the tank top man quickly corrected himself.

“Fang Shu Hui, what happened? Look how anxious you are.”

Fang Shu Hui was Su Yu’s younger half-sister.

She had fallen seriously ill at the age of five, and without timely treatment, she lost her hearing afterwards. The villagers considered her unlucky and avoided her like the plague.

Fang Shu Hui had low self-esteem, but thankfully, her older sister never looked down on her and would patiently communicate with her using sign language.

Su Yu watched her sister’s hand movements, her narrow peach-blossom eyes gradually filling with joyful light.

“Really? She’s here? Where?”

Fang Shu Hui nodded vigorously, signing “At home.”

“Let’s go, let’s go home.”

Su Yu rarely felt this happy. It was because an esteemed guest had arrived – the kind person who sponsored her education.

This kind person, according to the homeroom teacher who connected them, did business in Bin Cheng.

Su Yu had never met her, only spoken on the phone a few times. She had asked Su Yu to call her “Madam Ni.”

Last week, she received a call from Madam Ni, who said she wanted to bring her daughter to the countryside to experience rural life and asked if they could temporarily stay at her house.

Su Yu naturally wouldn’t refuse her benefactor’s request. She cleaned the house in advance, cleared out a room, and awaited their arrival.

Su Yu pulled her sister along, breaking into a jog. Seeing the small daisies blooming brightly on the path, she stopped to pick a cluster, tying them into a bouquet.

The mountain roads were slippery and uneven.

Before they even reached the village entrance, they saw a white SUV parked in front of their dilapidated brick house from afar.

Villagers had gathered around, curiously observing the “little gold man” emblem on the SUV.

A woman with exceptional poise walked out from the crowd.

She wore simple attire, a light gray shirt paired with a black long skirt. Her outfit consisted of plain color blocks from head to toe, yet it couldn’t distract from her strikingly beautiful face with strong features.

The woman sized Su Yu up, her vibrant features curving into a smile as she greeted her proactively,

“You must be Su Yu, right?”

Meeting her benefactor for the first time, Su Yu didn’t know how to describe her current feelings.

Perhaps it wasn’t just gratitude, but also a faint sense of bewilderment. Suppressed emotions surged within her, causing her face to flush instantly. She stood still like a block of wood.

The county officials followed closely behind. The village chief nudged her from behind,

“This child, what are you standing there for? Talk to her.”

Su Yu parted her lips.

It was their first meeting, and they had barely exchanged two sentences. She really wasn’t used to addressing her benefactor so intimately.

After hesitating for a moment, Su Yu timidly stepped forward, presenting the bouquet to the woman. She shyly called out,

“Madam Ni.”

The woman accepted the bouquet, smiled, and said thank you. Just as she was about to ask about Su Yu’s studies, a sweet, crisp laugh sounded from behind.

The laughter trailed off, thin and lingering, like pulled maltose candy wrapping stickily around the heart.

Su Yu subconsciously turned her head, looking towards the source of the sound.

The SUV door opened, and a girl in a revealingly hot camisole dress slowly stepped out. Large sunglasses covered most of her face, revealing only her cardinal red lips, moist and full like wet roses.

A beam of light reflected off a mirror, enveloping her.

Her skin seemed more translucent and lustrous than fine jade.

At this moment, Su Yu finally understood that “so pale she seemed to glow” wasn’t an exaggeration but a tangible reality.

The girl strolled over unhurriedly, her soft waist swaying, causing the skirt hem to ripple like waves. With each movement of her hand, glimpses of allure were revealed.

Su Yu hastily averted her gaze, her eyes landing on the girl‘s round, fair toes. Each one was as white as beautiful jade, painted a pretty cherry color. Su Yu looked down at her own cloth shoes with holes, secretly curled up her toes.

She wanted to hide them. Su Yu had never felt ashamed of her family’s poverty, but for some reason, her exposed toes made her feel incredibly embarrassed at this moment.

Su Yu gently lifted her foot, thinking she wouldn’t be noticed if she made no sound, however, when she looked up, she happened to catch the slight upward curve of the girl’s lips.
She had been noticed. Heat flared behind Su Yu’s ears, and a blush spread across her neck.