After Becoming a Scummy Alpha, I Refuse to Get Divorced - Chapter 31

The day Zhu Qingran truly realized she had fallen for Du Shiyu, she had actually just stepped away from a high-stakes negotiation table.

That year, the interstellar winter was exceptionally harsh. The biting wind slashed against her face like a cold blade, leaving a stinging, raw ache. Zhu Qingran tightened her black formal suit and zipped up her down jacket. Not wanting outsiders to see her at school, she had the driver drop her off at the side entrance of the college.

Despite the short distance—barely two hundred meters—the freezing wind pierced right through her. This was physical, bone-chilling cold, not the metaphorical “coldness of heart” that Zhu Qingran usually prided herself on ignoring.

Frozen and stiff, she leaned against a pillar in the long corridor to catch some warmth. No matter how much she rubbed her hands together, they remained numb, the sensation in her fingertips completely gone.

Today was the final exam for her elective painting class. She hadn’t brought any art supplies—just her ID card. Seeing the other students carrying drawing boards and kits into the hall, Zhu Qingran felt a sudden urge to turn back and leave.

But, as fate would have it, Du Shiyu was the proctor.

Gritting her teeth, Zhu Qingran entered the hall under the watchful eyes of the young teacher. Once seated, however, looking at her empty desk, a wave of despair washed over her. The dignity she had just fought so hard for at the negotiation table felt like it was crumbling into nothing.

Maybe I should just skip it, she told herself more than once, preparing to walk out.

But then, Du Shiyu placed a small, palm-sized hand warmer in front of her. Zhu Qingran found herself too embarrassed to even look up and meet her eyes.

“Does anyone have extra supplies?” Du Shiyu asked the room softly. “Could someone lend a set? We can piece a kit together if everyone helps out!”

With Du Shiyu’s help, the woman who was ready to give up managed to finish the exam. However, when it came time to collect the papers, the person who came by was someone whose face Zhu Qingran didn’t quite catch.

“The level of this batch of students is decent,” a different teacher remarked, glancing at the submissions and smiling at Du Shiyu. Because that teacher was an expert in the field, several other faculty members passing by stopped to chime in. They showered that teacher with praise and even started asking for commissioned paintings.

Zhu Qingran watched as the teacher smiled and asked Du Shiyu if she wanted a painting; she offered to paint Du Shiyu first.

Zhu Qingran couldn’t hear much of what was said after that. She sat there, clutching the borrowed stationery, unable to let go yet unwilling to step forward. Actively approaching someone, showing initiative, or revealing a weakness—those were things Zhu Qingran never did. She would rather hide deep within a shell, at the bottom of the ocean, than expose a single soft spot.

And yet, she felt a sharp pang of jealousy.

After returning the supplies to the other students—along with a generous gift of her company’s latest products as a thank-you—Zhu Qingran looked for a chance to thank Du Shiyu. But a proper opportunity never came. Either Du Shiyu was in class, or Zhu Qingran was working overtime. They kept missing each other, as if they were simply fated to remain parallel lines.

If Zhu Qingran had given up then, their story would have ended before it even began.

That night, feeling dejected, the “Junior CEO” went to a club to drink alone. Despite the crowd of predatory Omegas circling her, none could get close. Her little cousin, He Yimo, showed up at just the right time—though, as usual, she was “billing by the hour,” her fees higher than anyone else’s.

“What’s wrong, CEO Zhu? You look like you’ve either been dumped or are about to be dumped!” He Yimo swapped Zhu Qingran’s liquor for a sparkling water. The refreshing burst of mint and lime snapped her out of her gloom.

“It’s nothing. I’m just jealous for no reason. A victimless crime of jealousy.”

Zhu Qingran was no child; she had experienced more than most her age and wasn’t the type to act impulsively on a whim of the heart. She could describe her situation with clinical accuracy, ensuring no one wasted energy trying to pry into her thoughts.

“Oh. Is it that little Professor Du?”

Even though He Yimo was busy at the Academy of Arts, she had heard plenty about “Professor Du” from Zhu Qingran. This woman, Du Shiyu, had marched into Zhu Qingran’s life, and there was no way she was leaving unscathed.

“Listen, you silly woman. If you like her, chase her. If not, give up. Do I really need to teach you such basic logic?” He Yimo took a huge gulp of her drink, letting out a sharp hiss of satisfaction. She looked carefree, but deep down, she was envious. Her older sister had found someone, while she—a lifelong solo player—was forced to act as a relationship coach. Zhu Qingran definitely needs to pay me extra for this!

“I like her, but do I really have to chase her?” Zhu Qingran mused. “I prefer the feeling of the prey walking into my own trap. If I chase her, what if the novelty wears off? Ah—”

Zhu Qingran had always treated He Yimo like a little sister, never once raising a hand to her. But that day, her “baby” cousin reached out and gave her a sharp flick to the forehead.

Even years later, the CEO would recall that “wake-up call” from her relationship-coach cousin with a ringing head. But it worked. It opened her mind. From that day on, Zhu Qingran treated her cousin like the apple of her eye. If anyone dared bully her sister, they were messing with Zhu Qingran’s entire world.

“Zhu Qingran, do you even hear yourself? Is that how a human speaks?” He Yimo looked at her with pure exasperation, her fierce glare scaring off the lingering Omegas nearby.

“I’ve always considered myself a member of the human species. Am I not speaking the language? I was just being transcendent, and then—”

“Shut up! One more word like that and you’ll be single for thirty years!” Under He Yimo’s warning, Zhu Qingran finally got serious.

“Should I really pursue her? What if, what if she rejects me?”

Zhu Qingran, a woman who at twenty had already faced life and death with indifference, was actually afraid. Being rejected isn’t inherently terrifying to most. But Zhu Qingran could handle her saying “I don’t like you because you aren’t mature or good enough.” What she feared most was: “I’m rejecting you simply because I don’t feel anything for you.”

She had never been obsessed with “liking” things, because likes create weaknesses. With weaknesses, she was no longer safe. She could survive living in fire and water, but she couldn’t bear the thought of the person she wanted to protect feeling unsafe. If it came to that, she’d rather not love at all.

“Zhu Qingran, if you don’t try, how will you ever know? Even if you’re rejected, at least you proved you tried. It’s not that you aren’t good enough; it’s just that you weren’t the ‘right fit’ for each other at that time.”

Zhu Qingran finally made up her mind to pursue Du Shiyu in the early spring, just as winter break ended.

She stopped missing classes. she began appearing frequently around the building where Du Shiyu taught. She would “coincidentally” eat at the school cafeteria, sitting right where Du Shiyu would see her the moment she looked up.

Du Shiyu would nod and smile at her—not a direct, bold greeting, but always in her direction. Zhu Qingran noticed that when Du Shiyu felt flustered, she would pace the tree-lined paths between buildings, whispering her lecture notes to herself. She loved to stop and catch the scent of flowers, losing herself completely in her own world.

So, at the end of that spring, Zhu Qingran sat by a clearing along the path with a bag of sunflower seeds, digging into the earth and burying them one by one. She carefully nurtured the seeds that were breaking ground in her heart, hoping that by late summer, she would harvest the flowers she desired.

However, that year’s outdoor sketching for the painting class and location scouting for the photography class left her newly sprouted seedlings a trampled mess. Zhu Qingran’s newly built confidence took a hit. She healed herself amidst her busy schedule and moved her sunflowers to her home and office.

To outsiders, “Junior CEO Zhu” was a woman with a flirtatious reputation, known for “hiding a beauty in a golden house.” She was indeed hiding a beauty—one with a golden, radiant temperament. Though she missed the chance to give Du Shiyu flowers at the end of that summer, she managed to place a bouquet of sunflowers into the other woman’s vase by late autumn.

Walking slowly down the stairs, Zhu Qingran looked up to see her “Little Darling Wife” cradling a sunflower and catching its scent. The flowers in the Du family garden were impeccably maintained, with sturdy stems and massive, vibrant blooms. From a distance, it was a picturesque scene. But in Zhu Qingran’s eyes, the “beauty” was far more captivating than the scenery.

“Mom, when Ah Ran and I first got together, you and Dad knew, didn’t you?”

After finishing her quiet admiration of the flowers, Du Shiyu suddenly turned to her mother, Lin Zhi. Lin Zhi didn’t respond immediately. She paused her watering, her movements momentarily frozen.

“Mmm. So, you knew all along? I thought we were being seamless,” Lin Zhi said with a smile, resuming her work. “It seems our precious daughter shouldn’t have gone into academia; she should have joined a detective agency for counter-surveillance.”

Lin Zhi seemed to truly enjoy gardening. In this moment, it was hard to tell if her happiness stemmed from her daughter seeing through her little scheme or simply from the flowers in bloom.

“Mom, thank you. And thank Dad for me, too.”

The moment Du Shiyu’s words of gratitude left her lips, Zhu Qingran’s footsteps came to a halt.

Thank them?

Surely, those were words Zhu Qingran should be saying. She wanted to thank her father-in-law and mother-in-law for their mercy back then, and thank her wife for giving her a chance.

“Why are you thanking us?” Lin Zhi replied. “We simply accompanied a child through a stretch of her journey. Zhu Qingran turned out to be quite capable. If she hadn’t loved you enough, she wouldn’t have stood a chance of stepping through the Du family gates in this lifetime!”

Author’s Note:

In the past, Zhu Qingran’s personality was somewhat like a Crown Prince standing on a frozen height—lonely and invincible, feeling she had to be immune to all “poison” to be fearless. Meanwhile, Shiyu was like a fresh novice entering the workforce, worrying about her students’ grades, the quality of her lectures, and getting along with colleagues.

The two of them falling in love was like suddenly leaping out of the comfort zones they had built around themselves and slowly merging. It’s just that Little Zhu tried to use her “overbearing CEO” tactics to lock her wife down. If she doesn’t end up in a “chase-her-back-from-the-crematorium” situation (regretting her coldness and having to beg for forgiveness), then even I might finally end my single streak!

(The author, Er Du, holds her cat while looking disdainfully at her “eldest daughter,” Zhu Qingran.)