After Becoming a Scummy Alpha, I Refuse to Get Divorced - Chapter 12

Sniffle, sniffle.

She cried because it hurt.

Sniffle, sniffle.

Her throat hurt, her toe hurt.

Sniffle, sniffle.

For a moment, Zhu Qingran completely lost control of herself. Her tears streamed even faster.

“That little brat still knows how to cry? Give her the phone—I have something to say to her!”

The voice on the other end of the line, originally warm and gentle, suddenly rose in volume, urging Du Shiyu to hand the phone to Zhu Qingran.

In her haste, Du Shiyu tripped on the carpet—and accidentally stepped on Zhu Qingran’s foot with her slipper.

In the very next instant, she saw Zhu Qingran clutching her throat, holding both feet, collapsing dramatically onto the floor.

So, she’d been overthinking.

The powerful, cold CEO was crying simply because her toe hurt.

The hand that had just searched her pocket for a handkerchief paused. She could no longer bring herself to perform any comforting gesture.

Du Shiyu let out a silent, helpless laugh at herself. She really had overestimated President Zhu’s iron heart.

Zhu Qingran would never cry for no reason—unless someone crossed her bottom line or violated her interests.

And now, Du Shiyu had witnessed, with her own eyes, what it looked like when Zhu Qingran’s bottom line was trampled.

A pinky toe getting stepped on must hurt really badly.

And it was on both feet.

Sorry! She didn’t do it on purpose.

Du Shiyu handed the phone to the woman still silently wailing on the carpet, then walked to the coffee table, pulled out the tissue box, and placed it in front of Zhu Qingran.

“It’s Grandma. She said she misses you,” she explained briefly before returning to her room.

But she couldn’t calm down enough to work on her lesson plans.

Her heart was in complete chaos.

Was it because of Zhu Qingran, who committed so fully to her tragic act or was it because of the sudden tug on her own heartstrings?

This feeling of being pulled in was truly unbearable.

Meanwhile, sitting on the sofa, Zhu Qingran picked up the phone and immediately complained in a hoarse, tearful voice.

“Grandma, life is so hard, my foot hurts, my head hurts, my heart hurts and my wife also—”

“Swallow it!”

Grandma Zhu’s sharp command stunned Zhu Qingran for a second.

Weren’t CEOs in novels always adored by their doting grandparents?

She hadn’t even begun trying to win Grandma’s sympathy yet!

She hadn’t even finished warming up!

And Grandma told her to swallow it back?

Sniff, hic, sniff.

“Stop sniffling! Didn’t Shiyu give you tissues? And if she didn’t, can’t you get them yourself? You’re a grown woman with arms and legs. Why does Shiyu have to do everything for you? Are you a giant baby? A useless Alpha who can’t even produce a child and only causes trouble for her wife!”

The moment Grandma started talking, Zhu Qingran went completely silent.

Her grandmother’s aura was overwhelming. Even through a phone call, Zhu Qingran felt suffocated.

She grabbed the tissue box and blew her nose several times, but her nose still felt miserably blocked.

“All right, stop crying in my ear. If you have the time and energy to wail, you should use it to win your wife back. Next week, I’ve arranged a family dinner at home. Bring Shiyu back with you. If you don’t want to come, fine—but I will see Shiyu. And she’d better not have divorced you yet.”

Grandma Zhu named her target directly: the lovely little wife.

As for her own biological granddaughter, throwing her into a recycling bin would barely matter.

Biological grandmother indeed.

Zhu Qingran muttered a few reluctant hums in response, only to be lectured again.

“I heard from Shiyu that you caught a cold? Then you two shouldn’t share a bed for now—don’t you dare pass it to her. Just look at yourself, what a mess. Aside from the image you show outsiders for work, what part of you looks like an actual human being? How did I end up with a granddaughter like you? Ugh, how annoying!”

Grandma Zhu sounded one second away from slamming the phone down and distancing herself from this trashy, wife-chasing granddaughter.

“Grandma, Mom and Dad gave birth to me, it’s not like—” Zhu Qingran, who always fixated on details, couldn’t help correcting her.

And for saying one sentence, Grandma Zhu unleashed ten.

“Yes, those irresponsible parents of yours—why did they even give birth to you and dump you on me? Ugh, just thinking about them irritates me! Those two useless fools!”

When a mother dislikes her own child, yes, that’s absolutely a real mother.

“All right, I’m done talking to you. Before you come next week, take Shiyu to the cemetery and bring flowers to those two fools. Sunflowers—remember, sunflowers. I’m exhausted. First, I had to see off the mediocre older ones, and now I have to deal with the useless younger one. If you gave me a tiny great-grandchild, maybe I wouldn’t be this tired!”

With that final complaint, Grandma Zhu hung up.

She probably exhausted herself from scolding. Zhu Qingran’s ears were exhausted from listening.

She wanted to have a child too. But wanting it didn’t mean she could.

When the day finally comes that Zhu Qingran recovers her health, she’s immediately going to start working toward the “two kids in three years” mission!

Zhu Qingran’s limbs were numb as she pushed herself up from the floor. The moment she moved, tears burst out uncontrollably.

“Ahhh, it’s numb, it hurts. I’m doomed. Did I overuse my brain and cause cerebellar atrophy and imbalance? Should I write my will early to express my undying love for my sweet wife? Even if we can’t live and die together, I’ll still love her after death. I refuse to believe I can’t win her over!”

With that dramatic thought, she forced her agonized, soul-tearing steps toward the study corner of the bedroom.

Maybe it was because people with colds always feel sleepy, but surrounded by that thick, green-tea scent that somehow pierced through her stuffy nose, Zhu Qingran eventually drifted off.

By the time Du Shiyu finished preparing her lesson plan, it was already past six.

She remembered clearly—on the phone, Grandma Zhu had told her to “let Qingran cool off for a while,” but still ended up defending the girl.

Ah, that Ah Ran child, she grew up without parents. While others had pampering, I was the one who raised her myself.

I taught her everything I could—how to protect herself, how to be strong and successful, but I never managed to teach her how to love others as she loves herself. She grew up in a blink, and suddenly she stopped listening to me.

That child is stubborn. If she truly likes something, she may not say it, but she’ll carve that feeling into her bones.

Shiyu, you two ended up together because there were feelings. Do you really think that girl is cold and heartless? She’s always stingy with her emotions—how could she share them so easily?

Unless, that person is worth it.

Throughout their conversation, Du Shiyu stayed perfectly polite, every inch the well-behaved junior.

When the elder spoke, she responded.

When the elder fell silent, she offered comfort.

Grandma Zhu wasn’t the stereotypical matriarch—she was a straightforward old lady who loved and hated clearly.

Thinking of how Zhu Qingran nearly broke her toe today and then caught a fever, Du Shiyu decided she might as well make her a bowl of clear broth noodles.

But apparently Zhu Qingran had worked herself half to death again—she’d fallen asleep right at her desk.

Du Shiyu picked up a blanket to cover her, but her eyes suddenly caught sight of the large, bold word at the top of the paper.

Will.

“Zhu Qingran?”

Du Shiyu’s brows knitted tightly, anxiety clenching her heart.

She shook Zhu Qingran’s arm hard, thinking the girl had done something foolish.

Experts always said that people were emotionally fragile when sick—sometimes you can’t eat candy and you’re already on the brink of a breakdown.

Du Shiyu didn’t even dare imagine what Zhu Qingran—ignored by her earlier and scolded by the old lady afterward—might do in such a vulnerable moment.

Just the fact that she’d been smiling idiotically, calling her “wife” and “I wanna go home,” was weird enough, what if—

“Zhu Qingran!”

She called out again. As she leaned closer, her fingers brushed against something wet at the corner of Zhu Qingran’s mouth.

Ah.

She had overthought it.

Goodbye.

Extra Scene
One day, little Zhu—tiny Miss Zhu at home—was reading a book titled The Overbearing CEO’s Wild Years and looked up at Mommy Du Shiyu.

Little Zhu: “Mommy, are CEOs really as powerful as they are in Mama’s books? Like, absolutely unstoppable?”

Du Shiyu: “No. CEOs get sick. CEOs also get sore toes.”

Little Zhu: “Is that so? But in Mama’s book, she praised you! She said you have divine powers—you can tell whether a person is alive or dead just by-”

Du Shiyu: “Just by checking if they drool on the desk while sleeping.”

Zhu Qingran: “No wonder my wife won’t let me nap on the desk anymore, so that’s why.”

Du Shiyu: “Stop talking. This is destroying your CEO persona.”

The little sweetheart shook her head, utterly speechless.