Mistaken ‘O’ is a Crazy Gorgeous Boss - Chapter 25

The distance between them was no longer intimate, yet it was only a hair’s breadth apart.

Qu Zhen still hadn’t let go, her eyes lowered as she gazed at the Omega before her, whose lips were flushed and alluring. Even though her ears were red with shyness, she didn’t back down.

The silence was broken by Shen Zhikou’s voice: “It’s not.”

After finally catching on, the foolish puppy wasn’t so easily fooled. For once, Qu Zhen was stubborn: “It is, sister.”

That time when they were drunk, they had both responded to each other. But during the first kiss after washing up, she had been too dazed to respond, leaving everything to Shen Zhikou’s control. This time, however, it was the opposite, she had been unable to restrain herself from probing deeper. Although Shen Zhikou had let out sounds of arousal, she hadn’t responded at all.

Qu Zhen grew more certain of her thoughts and, following this clue, belatedly realized something she had overlooked all along.

And this was something Shen Zhikou had reminded her of early on when they first met.

“Because of the temporary mark, I’ll develop a strong dependence on you…”

Qu Zhen felt remorseful. As an alpha, she had been failing in her duties, always unable to take good care of Shen Zhikou, even overlooking such an important point. Moreover, Shen Zhikou’s condition would make her rely on her alpha more than the average Omega.

The foolish puppy hung her head in shame: “Even if it’s not, it’s okay. I’ll do better. I’ll always respond to you from now on, sister.”

Shen Zhikou suddenly called out to her: “Zhenzhen.”

“Hmm?” Qu Zhen quickly lifted her head, staring intently at her. “Sister, are you going out now?”

“No.”

Shen Zhikou leaned in and kissed her, a brief, fleeting kiss. After their lips touched, she only traced the outline with her tongue before pulling away, as if to prove that it really wasn’t the reason, or that she wasn’t upset or angry at all.

“Let’s go,” she said, stepping back.

Qu Zhen turned into a dazed, bewildered puppy, her face flushed with continuous blushes.

“O-okay,” she murmured, nodding and starting to walk with an awkward, clumsy gait. “Let’s go, sister. We’ll go out.”

Even after they left the bathroom and Qu Zhen returned to the bedroom to get Shen Zhikou’s medicine, her clumsy walk didn’t improve. This moment of buffer time brought the dazed Qu Zhen back to her senses. She sat on the rattan chair, covering her face, so shy that even her fingertips were pink.

Back then, she had instinctively wanted to make Shen Zhikou happy, imitating her alpha mother’s way of comforting her, too worried to care about saving face.

Now, looking back, she felt both embarrassed and puzzled. How… how had she become so bold under the influence of pheromones?

The surge of emotions made her eager to do something. She picked up her phone, opened WeChat, and sent a long string of exclamation marks in their four-person dorm group chat. After spamming a bunch of stickers, she finally felt a bit calmer.

In the past, whenever any of the four had something they needed to vent about, they would do this first, then go out together for hot pot or barbecue.

Besides, these days, Jiang Cheng basically flooded the group every day with a set of “darkened little penguin” stickers about the pressures of grad school entrance exams, so everyone was used to it by now.

Turning off her phone, she took the medicine and returned to the living room, sitting beside Shen Zhikou and focusing intently on applying her medication.

She kept a close watch on Shen Zhikou’s condition, her movements gentle and meticulous, her eyes brimming with concern. Finally, she puffed out her cheeks and blew softly on the injured area.

“When I was little and got hurt, my grandma would blow on it, and the pain would go away,” Qu Zhen said with a curved, smiling gaze. “It’s magical, isn’t it?”

“Mhm,” Shen Zhikou responded. “It doesn’t hurt anymore.”

“Sister, if it hurts, you have to tell me.”

“Mhm.”

After Qu Zhen finished wrapping the bandage, the two changed clothes and went downstairs. While having a buffet breakfast on the second floor of the hotel, they ran into the person responsible for the previous day’s incident. The alpha mother had brought her child over to apologize again, this time accompanied by the child’s omega mother. After the family offered their apologies, the child presented both of them with handmade gifts.

After bidding each other farewell, the two, having accepted the gifts, drove toward the Sacred Tree Tiankeng.

…

The journey took a full forty minutes.

Sitting in the driver’s seat, Qu Zhen, hearing the constant vibration of her phone, suddenly recalled what Z had said the day before.

She had originally wanted to ask Shen Zhikou about her thoughts on relationships, but after a moment’s hesitation, she suppressed the urge. By the time the car arrived at the Sacred Tree scenic area, the two got out and began walking. Along the way, flowers bloomed in profusion, the fragrance of osmanthus filled the air, and the scenery was captivating.

At the center of the vast, flat expanse was a naturally formed giant sinkhole, as if carved by a meteorite with divine craftsmanship. At the heart of the sinkhole stood an ancient tree so towering it seemed to blot out the sky and pierce the clouds.

Its leaves were inverted triangles, pale apricot in color, with a canopy so dense it resembled a small forest. The trunk was thick and gnarled, twisting like a giant dragon coiled within the sinkhole. From a distance, it looked less like a single tree and more like a small, dense grove formed by multiple trees merging together.

Qu Zhen, holding Shen Zhikou’s hand, approached. “Sister, we came at just the right time. The Sacred Tree is in bloom.”

The pristine white flowers, which bloom only once every five years, clustered together. A gentle breeze passed, causing them to sway like tassels, incredibly beautiful.

“Mhm, do you want to take photos?”

“Yes, yes!”

Qu Zhen released Shen Zhikou’s hand and eagerly opened her phone’s camera. After taking nine photos, she leaned close to Shen Zhikou and asked, “Sister, can we take a photo together?” she added softly, “Aside from our wedding photo, we don’t have any other pictures together.”

“Okay.”

The tip of her tail swayed again, and Qu Zhen’s eyes sparkled like a child who had just tasted honey. Once Shen Zhikou removed her mask, the two stood to the right of the Sacred Tree, leaning close together and facing the camera.

Qu Zhen opted for a burst of nine shots. Her photography skills were quite basic, with little consideration for composition or angles. Even so, in the resulting photos, Shen Zhikou looked stunningly beautiful, as if the dappled light filtering through the tree canopy favored her especially.

“All done,” Qu Zhen said, already thinking of how she would use the photos. She sent a copy to Shen Zhikou. “Sister, let’s go make a wish.”

At the entrance to the Sacred Tree, there was a sales point for wish ribbons, which they had bought on their way in. Qu Zhen took a pen from her backpack and wrote her name at the end of a red wish ribbon, then handed the pen to Shen Zhikou for her to do the same.

She was very considerate, aware that Shen Zhikou’s hand was inconvenient, so she let her rest her arm on hers and write in her palm.

The tip of the pen glided across the ribbon, each stroke sending a tickling sensation through Qu Zhen’s palm. Yet she remained focused on Shen Zhikou, like the most loyal knight pledging her devotion.

Once she finished writing, the two went together before the tree, closed their eyes, and made their wishes.

Beneath the divine tree stood a wooden ladder for tying wishes. After making their wishes, the two used it to hang their wish ribbons on the branches before leisurely strolling back.

“Sister, what did you wish for?”

Qu Zhen hadn’t expected an answer, nor was she genuinely trying to pry. She was simply following the advice from a bestselling romance book, choosing the most fitting topic for the moment.

“My wish?” Shen Zhikou tightened her grip on the alpha’s hand. “It’s for you to have your wish come true.”

Meeting the alpha’s surprised gaze, she turned her head and said firmly, “Because I’ve already gotten what I wished for, so I hope you get yours too.”

Qu Zhen recalled the words Shen Zhikou had said when they first met and introduced themselves:

The “zhi” in “longed for but beyond reach.”

Hearing Shen Zhikou’s answer now, she didn’t overthink it, simply feeling genuinely happy for her: “I’m glad Sister’s wish came true. But since it’s only fair to give and take, when winter break comes, let’s go to Hongming Temple. I’ll repay you with a wish.”

Shen Zhikou calmly averted her gaze. “Mm.”

Hongming Temple was the largest and most popular temple in Haicheng, with many visitors coming to pray and make offerings during the New Year or festive seasons. Every year, on the first day of the New Year, three sky lanterns were hung from the Xiangyun Pagoda of Hongming Temple, lit only for the first three fortunate individuals.

Many among the wealthy revered gods and Buddhas, and even those who didn’t were tempted by the auspiciousness of the three sky lanterns.

In recent years, however, Haicheng’s upper circles knew that all three sky lanterns of the Xiangyun Pagoda were claimed by Shen Yunxi of the Shen family. Every year, on the first day of the New Year, she would climb the long cloud ladder, bowing every three steps and kowtowing every five, until she reached the top of the Xiangyun Pagoda to personally light those three sky lanterns.

No one knew what it meant.

No one knew what she wished for.

And no one knew that the name written on her paper slip was always the same.

As the sky lanterns drifted across the dome of the sky, gradually consumed by the candle flames until they vanished, only the distant wind and the deities in the stories heard her prayer:

Grant peace, smoothness, joy, and well-being.