Chapter 116: Your Scent is the Best

Afternoon sunlight streamed through the mall's glass dome, casting a brilliant glow upon the golden sculpture in the first-floor atrium.

Chen Mo and Su Yuqing strolled side by side between aisles of dazzling merchandise, their eyes scanning various pencil cases without ever pausing.

"I thought we were buying a pencil pouch?" Su Yuqing gently tugged at Chen Mo's sleeve, her voice soft.

"I'm seeing if they still have the same kind of pencil case that Yuanyuan uses. I was thinking of getting one too, while we're at it." Chen Mo grinned, raising an eyebrow. "Looks like finding the exact one she's used since she was a kid is going to be tough."

The cool air from the mall's central air conditioning wafted into the shop, making it exceptionally comfortable. Chen Mo's fingertips brushed across the pencil pouches of various materials on the display rack. The unique, coarse texture of the Oxford cloth ones seemed quite durable.

"This one will do. The matte cherry blossom pink," Chen Mo said with a smile, selecting the most expensive pencil pouch.

But even as the most expensive one, the pencil pouch wasn't worth much.

Naturally, Chen Mo planned to add something extra to it.

So, he picked out some cute stickers in the shop and had the clerk help him apply them to the pouch.

It made the pencil pouch look a little more special.

"Have you decided what you want to give Yuanyuan?" Chen Mo asked, looking at Su Yuqing with a smile.

Su Yuqing looked a bit embarrassed. "I don't really have any money, so I used the needle and thread I brought from home to sew this for Yuanyuan."

After she and Chen Mo had visited her family's home, Su Yuqing had brought back a complete embroidery kit.

To prepare a gift for Zhao Yuanyuan, she had spent the last few days finding spare moments to embroider some well-wishes onto a silk scarf for her.

"A handmade gift is the most precious, that's true, but giving just these two things together feels a bit... lacking. Why don't we find something else to go with them? You help pick it out, and I'll pay. We can say it's from both of us," Chen Mo said with a smile.

Glancing at the pencil pouch the clerk had just placed in a gift box, Su Yuqing felt he had a point. She simply nodded without saying anything more.

"Let's go upstairs and see if we can find a better gift."

After buying the pouch, the two took the escalator and quickly arrived on the second floor.

As soon as they got to the second floor, Su Yuqing's gaze was drawn to the window of an accessory shop. A plush teddy bear keychain lay inside a glass display case, its charmingly silly appearance making her look twice.

Chen Mo followed her gaze, the corner of his mouth twitching into a small smile. "Want it?"

"Of course not!" The tips of Su Yuqing's ears turned red. "We need to focus on finding a gift for Yuanyuan."

"It won't take long."

Chen Mo smiled and pulled Su Yuqing into the store, pointing at the bear keychain she had just been admiring.

"Do you have this bear in other colors?"

"We do. What color would you like, sir?"

"I'll take a pink one and a gray one," Chen Mo replied with a smile.

"Of course. One moment, please."

The clerk quickly returned with two bear keychains, one pink and one gray.

He gave the pink one to Su Yuqing and clipped the gray one onto his own keyring.

"See? It looks great. We're out buying a gift, but we're also just shopping. If you see something you like, just say so."

Chen Mo smiled and led Su Yuqing on another lap around the accessory shop.

Su Yuqing did indeed see a few things she liked, but nothing she felt a strong desire to buy.

So she didn't say anything.

As they left the accessory shop, a sweet citrus fragrance drifted from an aromatherapy store on the corner of the second floor. Su Yuqing's pace slowed unconsciously.

The window displayed essential oils in amber-colored glass bottles. Under the warm lighting, one with "A Midsummer Night's Dream" printed on the label in a handwritten script looked like a dollop of hardened honey.

"Yuanyuan likes citrus scents," Su Yuqing said suddenly, tapping her finger on one of the bottles. "I smell it on her sometimes. Should we get this for her?"

"And what scent do you like?" Chen Mo chuckled, leaning against the glass display case. His eyelashes cast faint shadows beneath his eyes. "We can get a bottle for you, too. I hear that putting a drop in your room before bed helps you relax and sleep more soundly."

Looking at Chen Mo's earnest expression, Su Yuqing answered instinctively, "Sandalwood is nice."

'But while she said sandalwood, she was actually thinking that the scent she found most pleasant was the one that emanated from Chen Mo himself.'

'If she could fall asleep to a scent like that, she would sleep so peacefully and comfortably.'

As they spoke and entered the shop, a clerk promptly offered them some test strips. As Su Yuqing reached for one, her fingertips brushed against Chen Mo's, which were also reaching out. She pulled her hand back as if she'd received an electric shock.

Clearly, she was too shy to do anything that might look intimate in front of other people.

The clerk, however, saw the whole exchange.

'So they're a young, innocent couple just starting out,' she thought.

In contrast to Su Yuqing's public shyness, Chen Mo naturally took a test strip and held it casually to his nose. "This one smells pretty good. The top note is bergamot, and there's cedar in the base note."

"You're quite the connoisseur, sir." The clerk had assumed they were just a naive young couple and that making a sale would be easy, but she hadn't expected to run into an expert.

Chen Mo just smiled and didn't elaborate.

He wasn't so much a connoisseur as he was naturally gifted with a sensitive nose. His years as a criminal police officer had trained him to distinguish all sorts of scents, so when it came to fragrances, he knew what he was talking about.

"I'll take a bottle of the sandalwood and a bottle of the citrus," Chen Mo said to the clerk with a smile.

The clerk quickly brought out several different options.

"These are all our sandalwood and citrus options. They differ in price and quality. Which ones would you like to try, sir?"

The clerk then dabbed a bit of each scent onto separate test strips for Chen Mo to try.

In the end, Chen Mo chose the second-most-expensive sandalwood and the most expensive citrus.

Although they were ostensibly the same fragrance,

their aromatic profiles were different.

The two he selected both had top, middle, and base notes that, to his keen sense of smell, were well-balanced—fragrant without being overpowering.

The chosen bottles of fragrance were tied with dark green satin ribbons to be given as gifts. While paying, Chen Mo casually added a tube of hand cream from a brand he recognized as being effective.

After paying, Chen Mo turned and saw Su Yuqing squatting in front of the next shop's window. She was in front of a display of preserved flowers, taking a picture on her phone of a bouquet of white roses sealed under a glass dome.

"Want one?" His shadow fell over her slender shoulders as he gently squatted down beside her, a smile on his face.

"No..." Feeling his warm breath brush past her ear, Su Yuqing quickly turned to look at him and mumbled her reply.

She scrambled to her feet, her phone screen still glowing with the photo she had just taken. "I just think flowers that never wilt are... quite beautiful."