SAHBQT 08

Chapter – 08

The Beloved Heiress — A Fine Place

The two walked one behind the other, stooping as they passed through layers of defensive walls, finally escaping the steel cages that confined humanity in this later era. They stood once more beneath the vast sky and earth, gazing out at the water blending with the horizon, where the Milky Way poured into the sea.

Waves lapped against the shore, carrying a faintly briny breeze—rustling, whispering, weaving into the ears.

This was the last pristine stretch of ocean, the final untouched sanctuary of humankind. In this age, even if the poor wished to come see the sea, they had no opportunity. And those who could come here were all now immersed in the splendid banquet.

There was no one else on the beach. Along the shore, blue tears—a phenomenon passed down from centuries ago—glowed with a magnificent radiance, slowly unfurling like a dream, like a fantasy.

“I bet you’ll love it here,” You Mingming said, taking off her high heels and setting them aside before sitting down on the beach. She beckoned to Bai Qiyao. “Want to watch the sea with me for a while?”

Bai Qiyao had been led along the whole way. His military cap had been removed at some point without him even noticing, tossed aside. His forehead was slightly damp, his hair disheveled—he no longer looked like the aloof, distant figure he’d been amid the crowd at the banquet.

The usual restraint was gone too.

“Is that so,” Bai Qiyao said as he sat down beside her, long legs folded. His appraising gaze fell on the girl beside him. “Why do you think I’d like it here?”

“Because I’m a genius,” You Mingming said smugly to the system.

The system replied: “Then say that to him if you’ve got the guts.”

You Mingming: “No way, that’d break character. Fun is fun, but you don’t mess with work. I’m a candidate for Best Supporting Actress of the Year, you know.”

She’d heard that the prize for Best Supporting Actress of the Year was a billion yuan. Hehehe.

“Just intuition,” You Mingming said with a smile, having already fantasized in her head about what she’d do once she became filthy rich. “I didn’t like it there either.”

“So I’m guessing we might be kindred spirits.”

“Kindred spirits?” Bai Qiyao repeated the word but didn’t argue. Instead, his expression softened slightly as he gazed toward the sea. “I thought you were the type of young lady who’d rather stay home, someone who’d never even think of stepping outside her little bubble.”

You Mingming smiled, her face illuminated by the blue glow of the sea. She said, “If it weren’t for my constitution, I’d love to go out and see the world with my parents too.”

This naturally floral-scented constitution could soothe others’ mental wounds and lift their spirits—but it could also darken people’s hearts, stirring greed and the urge to possess. No matter how much she longed to go out, she had to keep herself locked away like an object on a high shelf.

Bai Qiyao felt a pang in his chest, like a needle prick. For once, he felt a rare sympathy for the girl. Even that fragrance that always lingered at the tip of his nose—he no longer resisted it as he once had.

Born into a family like hers, the things she had to bear, give up, and accept against her will—none of those were what he would have chosen. Likewise, the girl’s innate constitution, carrying the fragrance of a hundred flowers, was never something she’d asked for.

So Bai Qiyao said, “If you’re willing, I’ll take you to see the outside world someday.”

“That is, if you stop being so hung up on Pei Jingzhi.”

You Mingming curved her eyes at him, and then she saw the young major’s face flush red again. He turned away with a feigned look of indifference, pretending to gaze elsewhere… but his ears, burning crimson, had already betrayed him completely.

That night, they encountered no fatal danger. You Mingming was escorted home by Bai Qiyao.

Amid the eager gazes of the old butler and the maids, and Qi Xin’s cold, dissatisfied sneer, You Mingming went up to the second-floor perfume-blending room. The old butler told her that this had once been the place where the eldest young master, Pei Jingzhi, used to blend perfumes—but for some unknown reason, he’d never come back here again.

You Mingming focused on taking notes. The perfumers at the banquet had told her that a good perfume must have layers, not just a single note.

Think about it—when you’re out in nature, the scents you pick up are always a mix: the faint fragrance of unknown little flowers, the freshness of grass, maybe even a hint of earthy rain-soaked soil.

Once she understood that, figuring out how to balance those different notes so they had a clear hierarchy in actual use became the real challenge.

You Mingming felt she’d had a breakthrough. Over the next two weeks, she revised her first green-note perfume and had a maid deliver it to the designated location for X as promised.

After the delivery, she took the list the system had given her and called each person one by one. By now, the money raised from selling the perfume formulas in the USB drive was enough to cover the debts of Pei Qingqing’s parents’ company.

Although skipping these small details wouldn’t really affect the mission, doing them wasn’t particularly difficult for You Mingming either.

And when the mission ended, it’d earn her extra points in the final evaluation.

Higher scores meant higher bonuses and performance pay.

“Details determine success, attitude decides everything. Once I get that billion-yuan prize, I’m buying seventeen or eighteen properties!” You Mingming seized every second while waiting for the calls to connect to spoon-feed the system a piping-hot bowl of motivational chicken soup spiced with pepper soup flavor.

“Living off rent, huh?” the system replied. “That does sound pretty nice on your end—easy money.”

You Mingming didn’t respond, because the call had already been picked up. She explained her purpose, but to her surprise, everyone on the other end said the money had already been repaid by the Pei family’s eldest young master, Pei Jingzhi.

She made over a dozen calls, and every answer was the same—Pei Jingzhi had settled the debts more than half a month ago.

After learning this, You Mingming had long forgotten their earlier conversation topic. She sighed, “Having a brother like that is actually pretty nice.”

If not for that obsession in her heart, and if not for the whole mess of Wen Suyue’s rebirth, Pei Qingqing’s life probably would have turned out fairly decent.

At that thought, You Mingming suddenly realized that ever since she’d arrived in this world, Pei Jingzhi hadn’t come home even once.

—

The maid returned to the Pei residence shortly after making the delivery. When she saw the young lady sitting on the sofa, the gloom on her face faded a little, replaced by a smile: “Miss, I’m back~ I brought you your favorite pudding!”

You Mingming took the delicate pudding and asked, “How was it? Did you see the person? What did he look like?”

The maid thought for a moment. The person she’d met with… wore a silver-gray pinstripe suit and glasses, looking like some kind of assistant. At best, his appearance was average—she had no idea how the young lady had come to know such a person.

If her pure-hearted young lady got swindled by someone like that, how would she ever find her again and stay by her side?

With too many worries weighing on her mind, the maid schemingly said, “He was an ugly middle-aged man.”

You Mingming acknowledged this with a murmur and didn’t ask further. In her view, the person who picked up the perfume at the designated spot wasn’t necessarily X himself. She spent two hours watching a short movie, figured X should have finished evaluating her perfume by then, and returned to her room.

X had indeed replied to her—but only with two brief sentences—

X: Your work has no value whatsoever.

X: It can only be described as a waste of talent.

You Mingming felt a pang of sadness and resentment when she saw that response, but it passed in an instant, replaced by a spirit of defiance and determination to try again. She asked, “Why do you say it has no value? What’s still lacking? I can make improvements.”

X replied quickly: “Your thinking is still rigidly stuck in the old generation of perfumers’ experience. You only see the point of perfume as being about the scent.”

You Mingming was puzzled. If the point of perfume isn’t about the scent, then what is it about?

As if aware of her confusion, the other person continued: “A good perfume carries memories—you could also call it water of memory. It can make use of space to achieve a leap through time.”

You Mingming asked the system: “Is this Chinese? Because I can understand each word separately, but when you put them together, I have no idea what they mean.”

The system: “I’m just a string of data. I don’t get it either.”

X: “To put it simply—when you smell a certain perfume at a particular point in time, and then smell it again years later, it can instantly bring back the memory of when you first encountered it.”

X: “So, the most crucial thing about perfume is its ability to trigger associations and leave a lasting impression.”

X: “The perfume you developed does feel closer to nature, but it doesn’t leave any memory behind. It’s as bland and uninteresting as plain water.”

You Mingming roughly understood. She had the maid go back to the designated spot and retrieve the perfume X had sent as a comparison. She tried smelling it—X’s perfume was intense and heavy, strictly speaking not pleasant, but it made her think of soldiers fighting amid billowing smoke on a battlefield, the neighing of warhorses.

In comparison, her own green-note perfume was nothing more than something people would forget the moment they smelled it.

She spent another week immersing herself in research, then had the maid deliver the final product to X. This time, X didn’t say much—just two words of evaluation: “Not bad.”

Having read extensively about X’s reputation online, You Mingming knew that getting a “not bad” from this person meant it was exceptionally good—good enough to qualify for the advanced perfumer competition. She let out a sigh of relief.

After taking care of the perfume matters, You Mingming turned her thoughts to her two thousand万的 goal (20 million).

Learning from the system that Pei Jingzhi was currently at the Night Color Bar and seemed to be in some trouble, she sprayed herself all over with the latest version of her green-note perfume. Once she’d completely masked her natural body scent, she headed out.

The system only knew Pei Jingzhi was at the Night Color Bar, but not exactly where he was inside.

You Mingming had initially assumed that this so-called Night Color Bar would be like the bars in her real world—finding someone should be a piece of cake, right?

But it wasn’t until she got inside that she discovered a whole different world—

The place was huge. Most of the people there were young, and they wore all sorts of scents, so much so that her green-note perfume blended right into the mix and became far less noticeable.

You Mingming made a mental note to improve the perfume again once she got home after finding Pei Jingzhi.

She wasn’t tall, and there were many people blocking her view, all facing the same direction with looks of fervent obsession. Amid the crowd’s cheers, rhythmic, energetic music erupted along with a rapid drumbeat—and then a magnetic, deep voice followed.

You Mingming pushed through the crowd, finally making her way to the front, and saw the person on stage.

He looked about eighteen or nineteen, with a buzz cut and sharp, unrestrained brows and eyes. He wore a black casual outfit with a skull necklace hanging around his neck. His lean, tall frame radiated explosive energy, and as he played the drum set, he inadvertently revealed a glimpse of his taut, slender waist.

The system frowned: “Maybe we came at the wrong time.”

“No,” You Mingming said, “we came at exactly the right time.”