After Becoming a Scummy Alpha, I Was Spoiled by a Sweet Omega - Chapter 87

“What’s there to be so surprised about?”

Yu Yazhi maintained an air of calm, as if they were making a fuss over nothing. “It’s an adopted child.”

Ning Xuan and Xin Lie: “…”

Good grief, you nearly scared us to death.

Ning Xuan patted her racing heart. “Yazhi, don’t leave such a massive pause when you speak.”

Xin Lie was even more blunt. “President Yu, are you really here to thank me? Or are you here to commit murder?”

Yu Yazhi: “…”

What is going on in their heads? She didn’t think the fault lay with her. “You two are overthinking. Jin Min does charity work year-round; is it really that strange for her to adopt a child?”

Ning Xuan and Xin Lie lapsed into silence again. Fine. We were the ones whose thoughts went off the rails.

Xin Lie asked, “How do you know this?”

“I just do,” Yu Yazhi replied. “There aren’t many real secrets in elite social circles.”

Especially since they lived in the same city. Xin Lie was from the capital, so being that far from Shenzhen, it was natural she wouldn’t know.

“What else do you know?” Xin Lie pressed.

Yu Yazhi shook her head. “I just stumbled upon that. That’s all. For anything else, you’ll have to do your own digging. Try to break into her social circle and earn the approval of her friends and besties, that’ll be effective. The key is not to rush. ‘A hasty man never eats hot tofu.’ Good things take time.”

She spoke using her own romantic experience as a reference, completely forgetting how impatient she herself had been in the beginning.

Xin Lie listened quietly, seemingly taking the advice to heart.

At Dafu Village, the bodyguards Yu Jiayan brought were engaged in one-on-one sparring matches with Shang Li’s students. They were all burly men with rough temperaments; T-shirts were tossed aside as they grappled bare-chested in the dirt wrestling.

Yes, wrestling.

The onlookers were shouting and cheering: “Get him! Brother Li, take him down!”

The deafening roars came in waves, so loud they actually induced a premature labor in an ewe in the nearby sheepfold. One of the students, who had stepped away to relieve himself, saw it and ran back while still pulling up his pants, yelling at the top of his lungs: “Master Shang! She’s giving birth! She’s giving birth!”

Everyone on the scene: “…”

What “giving birth”? And “Master Shang is giving birth”?

Shang Li was acting as the referee, treating the wrestling matches as student training. Hearing the shout, she stood up, her expression darkening. “Calm down! Who’s giving birth? What are you yelling for?”

The student, face dripping with sweat, didn’t even stop to wipe it. He pointed toward the fold. “One of the sheep is giving birth! We’ve got lambs coming!”

Shang Li went silent. She knew that livestock giving birth was a serious matter, especially since Zhong Qiu cared deeply for those sheep. She headed into the house to get help.

Qu Ran happened to be coming out. Having clearly heard the student’s shouts, she walked quickly toward the sheepfold. A crowd of curious men followed behind her, most of them had grown up in the city and had never seen a sheep give birth.

They soon reached the fold, which was filled with fluffy white sheep. They were bleating “baaa, baaa,” and a few were circling the laboring ewe. Fearing they might trample the newborns, Qu Ran herded them to one side.

The ewe had already delivered one lamb. However, her belly was still distended; clearly, there were more inside. Mucus mixed with streaks of blood dripped down. After bleating in pain for a while, the ewe lowered her head to lick the mucus off the first lamb.

As the lamb was cleaned, it opened its eyes and began wiggling its limbs, attempting to stand. It didn’t succeed at first, but the mother nudged its head as if offering encouragement.

About three minutes later, the ewe lay back down, strained for a moment, and a second lamb was born. This one was also covered in mucus. The ewe seemed to have lost her strength; she remained lying down, simply licking the second lamb. The scene was filled with the glow of maternal instinct.

Ultimately, the ewe gave birth to three lambs.

Qu Ran didn’t interfere with the birth itself; she simply watched quietly. Once it was over, she partitioned off a special area and cleaned it up so the mother and her babies could live together. Naturally, most of the cleaning was done by Yu

Jiayan and his bodyguards. Yu Jiayan couldn’t bear to let Qu Ran do such dirty work.
The group busied themselves until dark, finally getting the family of four settled. Only then did Qu Ran have time to check the gender of the lambs.

There was one female and two males. Qu Ran needed to neuter the newborn males, a process involving placing a small ring on their testicles to cut off blood flow, after which they would eventually drop off on their own.

Yu Jiayan didn’t understand what she was doing at first. Once he realized, his empathy as a man hit him like a physical blow. Every other man watching also felt a phantom pain.

“That’s too cruel.” They couldn’t even look.

Yu Jiayan stepped in to stop her. “Why do you have to do that? Don’t. Ranran, I’ll support anything you do unconditionally, but this, this is just too cruel.”

The other men chimed in: “They’re so small and you’re already going to, it’s too much.”

Qu Ran didn’t particularly care what they thought, but she paused to explain. “In a flock, you only need one ram to ensure all the ewes get pregnant. Their ‘parts’ serve no purpose. I’m doing this to prevent indiscriminate mating and inbreeding once they grow up. Don’t worry. The procedure is quick, and they won’t be in pain for long.”

“Is it about the duration of the pain? This is a lifetime of suffering! Please, just let them be,” Yu Jiayan pleaded, fighting to save the lambs’ “manhood.” “At worst, we can just raise them in separate pens.”

Qu Ran replied indifferently, “They’re both rams. When they hit maturity, they won’t be able to control themselves and will start ‘helping each other out’.”

Yu Jiayan: “?”

What did she mean by “helping each other out”?

It took him a moment to process. Wait, rams can be gay?

As if reading his mind, Qu Ran nodded. “Exactly what you’re thinking. Now, do you still want to stop me?”

Yu Jiayan thought for two seconds but still nodded. “Let them keep them. Look how handsome and cute they are. If it comes down to it, when they grow up, I’ll just buy them and take them away.”

Qu Ran considered this, then lowered her hands and dropped the matter. If Yu Jiayan had formed a bond with these animals, she would just leave them to his care once she departed.

Unaware of Qu Ran’s inner thoughts, Yu Jiayan was ecstatic to see her agree. He quickly removed the rings and crouched down to rub the lambs’ heads. “Look at me! I’m the hero who saved your family jewels!”

The others burst out laughing. This young master was so foolish, it was almost endearing.

Shang Li stood on the periphery of the crowd, watching the commotion with a detached gaze.

Ding Jie stood beside her, stealing glances at her expression before whispering cautiously, “Master Shang, what is Miss Qu actually thinking? Yesterday she left Yu Jiayan high and dry, but today she’s close with him again?”

She had actually changed her mind based on just a few words from him. Although Ding Jie didn’t know Qu Ran well, she knew the woman had a powerful sense of self and was never one to be easily swayed.

Shang Li was thinking the same thing, and her mood was deteriorating by the second. She watched Qu Ran walk past and strode up to follow her. “Why?”

Qu Ran tilted her head. “Why what?”

“Your attitude toward Yu Jiayan,” Shang Li said, her voice laced with jealousy. “Why is it so hot and cold? Do you realize that by acting like this, you’re giving him hope?”

Qu Ran listened, her face remaining a mask of indifference. She simply asked, “So, what should I do?”

“Stay away from him,” Shang Li said. “Don’t talk to him. Kick him out.”

Qu Ran asked again, “And if I can’t do that?”

Shang Li: “…”

She was truly at a loss. Being firm didn’t work because she couldn’t bear to be harsh, and being soft was even more useless. Qu Ran acted entirely on her own whims. Zhong Qiu had been exactly the same, immune to both the carrot and the stick, yet able to wrap Shang Li around her little finger.

“Zhong Qiu, you must do it,” Shang Li said, grabbing her hand and lowering her voice. “Because it makes me sad. Please, don’t make me sad, okay?”

Qu Ran felt that familiar pang in her chest again. Clearly, whenever Shang Li took the initiative or showed her vulnerability, Zhong Qiu reacted.

Suddenly, a thought occurred to her. “Zhong Qiu’s heat is coming soon.”

Shang Li: “…”

Her heart skipped a beat, and she actually forgot to breathe. Saying that what does it mean? Is she inviting me?

Qu Ran herself didn’t fully understand why she had said it. She just felt a certain restlessness over the past few nights and knew the heat was approaching. Usually, during her heat, her body and nerves were at their weakest. If Shang Li stayed with her then, there might be unexpected progress.

It took a long moment for Shang Li to recover. She gripped Qu Ran’s hand tightly and asked softly, “Did Zhong Qiu tell you to say that?”

Qu Ran smiled and nodded. It didn’t matter who said it. What mattered was it was almost time for her to leave.

Twilight faded into deep night. Darkness blanketed the land, but while it should have been a time of absolute silence, the village was bustling because of the many people Shang Li and Yu Jiayan had brought.

The men had caught fish and wild rabbits, starting a large barbecue. They were singing, drinking, and playing drinking games, having the time of their lives.

Yu Jiayan overdid it. He was drunk as a dog and couldn’t even distinguish between his own bodyguards and Shang Li’s students. He grabbed a random guy and started sobbing. “Brothers, let me tell you this mountain road has eighteen bends, but my path to love is even more twisted than that!”

The man was actually one of Shang Li’s students, and he was pretty wasted himself. He patted Yu Jiayan’s shoulder in consolation. “Brother, don’t worry. If you can’t pick a flower here, we’ll just go pick one somewhere else.”

Yu Jiayan shook his head. “But I only like her. What am I supposed to do? I’ve got the looks, the money, and the devotion, why doesn’t she like me?”

A student nearby immediately chimed in with advice. “Brother, being devoted isn’t enough. I saw it online: ‘Devotion can’t keep a heart, only a routine can win it.’ You’ve got to use a strategy.”

“What strategy?”

“I don’t know. Look it up on the internet!”

As they were talking, Ding Jie threw in a jab: “Either way, if you act like an old lady with a lollipop, just licking it’s definitely not going to work.”

That hit a nerve. Yu Jiayan exploded instantly. “Who’s licking? Who’s acting like that? Dammit, Ding Jie, why is your mouth so mean? You’ve stolen all the ‘mean-ness’ in the world for yourself!”

The two fell into a heated argument again.

The noise outside was clearly audible indoors. Qu Ran was trying to write in her diary, but she couldn’t focus anymore. She pushed the door open, intending to tell them to quiet down.

However, just as she reached the courtyard, she bumped into Shang Li, who was walking toward her with hurried steps. Her heart tightened with a sudden, bad premonition. “What’s wrong?”

Shang Li gripped her phone, her face cold and her lips pressed into a thin line. Under the cover of night, her eyes were dark and piercing, exerting a heavy pressure. This was the first time she had ever looked at Qu Ran with such severity.

Qu Ran’s heart raced. She quickly guessed the cause. “Did you find out something about Zhong Qiu?”

Shang Li shook her head, her voice deep and heavy, each word striking like a hammer. “It’s not about Zhong Qiu. It’s about Qu Ran. Do you know? Qu Ran was a real person. But she, she’s already dead.”

She had just been outside on the phone, receiving the news from the private detective: Qu Ran existed, but she had been declared dead a year ago.