It’s Not Okay to Kiss Me as Soon as We Meet (ABO) - Chapter 4

Lin Huaiyi felt indifferent either way.

In her previous life, she had navigated the business world. For a merchant, the most important trait was a sharp eye that could read people’s minds and thus understand their needs.

She had arrived in this world empty-handed and urgently needed to observe it closely. Most importantly, she wanted to see how the people in this world differed from her original one, beyond just the genders.

The private room felt a bit hot. Lin Huaiyi had a little sun body constitution, so she simply took off her suit jacket and wore only the white shirt.

Lin Huaiyi rolled up the sleeves of her white shirt, revealing a section of her beautiful arm. The arm held slight muscles with smooth, attractive lines.

In modern society, everyone had grown accustomed to checking the time on their phones, but Lin Huaiyi had always kept the habit of wearing a watch.

She liked the feeling of seeing the time with just a glance down, as if mastering time allowed her to better control her life.

In the dimly lit KTV private room, the alpha’s watch reflected dazzling light with the rotating disco ball on the ceiling.

The drinking game began. Besides Lin Huaiyi and Xiao Wen, eight other new hires had joined today, most of them betas.

In fact, in this world, alphas and Omegas belonged to a tiny minority. Society mainly consisted of betas.

Lin Huaiyi had always behaved gentlemanly, taking care of everyone. Xiao Wen often spoke to Lin Huaiyi too, with a shy and bashful expression on her face. Nosy people saw this and always hooted about the two of them.

Yang Qiang from the product department had a wild personality in crowds. He volunteered to be the host. He gripped the bottle in his hand, let out a big roar, and spun the bottle before him.

Those seated around the sofa all stared unthinkingly at the bottle spinning rapidly on the table, hoping it would not stop in front of them. In the end, the empty bottle wobbled two circles and pointed at Lin Huaiyi.

Lin Huaiyi glanced at the host. Why did she always feel this was no coincidence? This skill at spinning the bottle looked far from simple.

The host felt a cool breeze blow over him, touched his neck, and grinned sheepishly at Lin Huaiyi.

Yang Qiang: “Oh man, Little Lin, you’re really unlucky. First spin and it lands on you. Hahaha, a bet’s a bet! Little Lin, truth or dare?”

Xiao Wen’s eyes sparkled with light as she looked expectantly at Lin Huaiyi.

Lin Huaiyi knew that the “dare” game in KTVs always aimed for physical contact among people.

She had a slight germaphobia and had no intention of getting involved with any colleagues present, so she chose “truth.”

Host Yang Qiang’s eyes darted. In this icebreaker where no one knew each other well, if the punished person chose “truth,” it proved hard to ask anything appropriate.

Especially since the other was a female alpha colleague—this required careful control of the scope. Better to toss this hot potato away and do a favor in passing.

Yang Qiang: “Hey~ Xiao Wen, why don’t you ask? Whatever question you want to ask, go bold!”

Xiao Wen lowered her head shyly. Though she really wanted to know how Lin Huaiyi felt about her, Xiao Wen also understood the host teased her. Xiao Wen seemed timid but actually possessed a stubborn streak.

After spending a day with her colleagues, she no longer felt as stage-frightened as at first. She lifted her head to look at Lin Huaiyi and said, “Little Lin, may I ask?”

Lin Huaiyi nodded.

Xiao Wen: “Little Lin, you… how old are you this year?”

Lin Huaiyi looked amusedly at this young girl.

Since entering the company, this young girl had liked following behind her. In the world of Lin Huaiyi’s previous life, same-s3x marriage was not legal, so Lin Huaiyi had subconsciously treated this young girl like a little sister.

In this world, genders totaled six. As long as the genders differed, anything was possible. Even for the same gender, if both parties wished, they could be together. Though due to physiological structures, few chose such pairings.

Lin Huaiyi reminded herself not to view women who showed interest in her through the lens of her previous life’s identity and attitude. What if she only wanted friendship, but the other mistook her friendliness for a desire to get close—how would she handle that?

“I’m 23 this year.”

Though Lin Huaiyi had thought a jumble of messy things in her mind, she reacted quickly on the surface and did not let Xiao Wen wait too long to feel awkward.

Yang Qiang thumped his chest inwardly. Xiao Wen, you’re such a disappointment. Brother helped you this far, and you just ask that?

On the surface, he remained composed and continued livening up the atmosphere.

As a pretend professional host, the vibe was the host’s lifeblood!

Yang Qiang: “Keep going, keep going. Spin the bottle.”

Shen Li woke from a nap as the sun had already set.

Though the extra sleep dispelled her accumulated fatigue, turning to see the mountain of piled-up work still made Shen Li secretly pull a long face.

She opened her computer, where over a hundred emails awaited processing. President Shen immediately dove into high-efficiency work mode.

It seemed hard to believe, but since graduating with her master’s and formally entering the company, Shen Li had always maintained a 996 work schedule.

Yet it was precisely this drive that let her rise to product department head in just two short years.

Other Shen Corporation employees had double rest days, holidays, and compensatory time off. Shen Li had none of them.

Shen Li could only redouble her efforts to prove to the Shen family elders that Omegas in the workplace were no worse than alphas.

So today marked the only day off Shen Li had taken since joining the company.

After handling most of the work, Assistant Yang knocked and entered.

“President Shen, today is our product department’s new hire welcome. By tradition, the department head always attends the employee activity in person. You have no other plans tonight. Would you like to make an appearance? If so, I’ll arrange a car for you.”

Product department welcome? Lin Huaiyi’s detestable face floated in Shen Li’s mind again. Since it involved work, Shen Li had no reason to refuse.

Shen Li: “Okay, thanks for preparing a more casual outfit for me.” Shen Li turned to glance at her watch and then said to Assistant Yang, “We’ll head out in half an hour.”

When Shen Li entered the KTV private room, the drinking game was reaching a small climax. The bottle had unluckily spun to Lin Huaiyi again.

After several rounds, everyone understood that host Yang Qiang simply wanted to play matchmaker for Xiao Wen and Lin Huaiyi.

With the bottle pointing at Lin Huaiyi, everyone could not help but cheer in unison. “Dare! Dare!”

Lin Huaiyi had never liked the feeling of people hooting at her, but with the atmosphere built to this point, for an alpha to insist she dared not do the dare would prove awkward. Just as she felt troubled, Shen Li entered.

Shen Li differed from her daytime professional suit. Tonight’s attire switched to casual wear.

The silver G-house casual dress suit lacked the stern formality of a business suit and the opulent inaccessibility of custom evening gowns.

Shen Li’s hair tonight fell black, long, and straight, paired with the silver dress. Her arms exposed outside looked slender and fragile.

Under the light beams, they gleamed white to the point of glowing. She attracted everyone’s gaze the moment she entered.

Assistant Yang had notified everyone beforehand that the department head would come tonight, so no one felt surprised.

Yet Shen Li looked so young and beautiful that many could not hide the amazement in their eyes.

Lin Huaiyi eyed that glaring white figure and felt a bit uncomfortable in her heart.

Shen Li unfolded a smile toward everyone and said, “Don’t stop on my account. Keep playing the game. Where are we at now?”

As host, Yang Qiang grew even more spirited. He boldly joked with Shen Li. “President Li, our Little Lin here has really bad luck tonight.

The bottle just landed on her again. Little Lin chose only ‘truth’ tonight, no ‘dare.’ Everyone was just cheering her on to try a ‘dare’ this time.”

Lin Huaiyi panicked inwardly. When Shen Li entered just now, she had already pressed her back against the sofa, shrunk her neck, and tried to use the room’s dim lighting to avoid Shen Li noticing her.

The matter of accidentally temporarily marking Shen Li on differentiation night remained unresolved. Today she had stubbornly princess-carried her again.

Though circumstances forced it and she had no choice. But this! One thing! After another!

She had heard Shen Li was a vengeful, ruthless person.

Lin Huaiyi, tall as she was, shrank aggrievedly for half a day. The thick-browed, big-eyed host brother called her out with one shout, and she unwillingly got dragged before Shen Li for display.

Shen Li looked at Lin Huaiyi’s cowardly appearance and nearly broke character. Wasn’t this person quite domineering during the day? No one invited her into the superior’s office, yet she barged in. She even boldly princess-carried her. Now what was this aggrieved little dog act?

Shen Li decided to toy with this little wolf pup disguised in aggrieved little dog clothing. She spoke to everyone.

“Among this year’s new hires, isn’t Little Lin the only alpha? Since so, why not do a ‘dare’ this time. Everyone has entered the workplace now. Alphas need to show some courage. What kind of dithering is that?”

Everyone had not expected Shen Li to be so down-to-earth, immediately picking up the joke to play along with them. They felt the distance to Shen Li shrink greatly.

Lin Huaiyi felt dumbfounded. This Shen Li seemed cold on the surface, yet how did she team up with host Yang Qiang to prank her?

She looked at Shen Li and found her stunningly beautiful tonight. The silver dress wrapped her curves exquisitely, like an elf.

Shen Li watched her too, her amber pupils holding a barely detectable mischievous smile.

Lin Huaiyi cried out inwardly, “Goodness gracious.” Who could refuse such a Shen Li?

Lin Huaiyi unwittingly fell under the charm of tonight’s mischievous Shen Li. “Fine, I’ll choose ‘dare.'”

Host Yang Qiang beamed with joy. After striving all evening, he had finally seized the chance.

He dared not hand the “dare” decision to Xiao Wen again. Xiao Wen was so young and shy—what explosive “dare” could she suggest?

They said opportunity favored the prepared. This rang true. In the blink of an eye, Yang Qiang pulled out a stack of playing cards specially for drinking games, just like Doraemon from behind.

Yang Qiang: “Here, from now on, the punished person does whatever the card says. A bet’s a bet, right?”

Yang Qiang turned to President Li with a fawning smile. “President Li, why don’t you draw this one? That way no one can complain I’m unfair, hahaha.”

Shen Li’s eye corner twitched. How had she not known their product department had such a treasure? Yang Qiang offended no one and pushed her out to do the offending work. He had some guts.

But Shen Li truly did not want to hand the power to punish the little dog to anyone else. She smoothly took the cards and drew one at random.

Shen Li: “Hmm… the card says the punished person and the third person to their left must stare into each other’s eyes for thirty seconds. Otherwise, drink a glass of wine.” She finished and showed the card’s content to everyone.

Everyone cheered in support, then began counting who the third person to Lin Huaiyi’s left was.

It was a female beta.

Shen Li felt inexplicably unhappy for no reason. She attributed it to her dislike of drinking games.

So punishing the little dog was no fun either. Shen Li reflected not at all that she was the one who started the hooting first.

Lin Huaiyi felt the gaze projected from Shen Li’s side, like frost. She reached out, took the large mug for draft beer before her, and “clang clang clang” poured a full glass of whiskey into it.

Lin Huaiyi: “Sorry, I spoiled everyone’s fun.”

Without waiting for others to react, Lin Huaiyi raised the glass and started drinking.

Everyone present felt shocked.

Pure whiskey, a whole glass—this could not lead to problems, could it?!

Shen Li grew a bit anxious too and wanted to speak up to stop her.

The alpha held the huge draft beer mug and began drinking. The amber liquid went down one by one into Lin Huaiyi’s slender, delicate throat.

The throat joints, prominent from her thinness, bobbed with the swallowing motion. Those watching could not help but swallow their saliva too.