After Dissing The Aloof Omega In A Talent Show - Chapter 12

Nie Wenyu understood it instantly, those two words were “blackmail material.”

Her expression panicked for a fleeting moment, but she immediately let out a cold snort, refusing to show weakness.

“Anyway, I was just kindly giving a warning. For you guys to mess around with an Omega who is so utterly ruined and discredited…”

“You still talk too much,” Ming Tang interrupted chillingly, cutting her off.

Nie Wenyu shrank back a bit, truly not expecting that Ming Tang, who had always patiently swallowed insults in the past, actually had such a side to her.

Her arrogance was completely doused. With an ugly expression, she tugged at Qi Zhen’s sleeve, her intention to leave becoming painfully obvious.

“Leaving just like this is a bit too cowardly, isn’t it?” Ming Tang’s expression was incredibly stern. “You are an Omega too, yet you can still say such things. Don’t you know that saying this to an Omega is no different from spreading malicious rumors?”

“Exactly! To think I actually liked you with all my heart before. I didn’t expect you to be this kind of person in private!” Qi Deng piped up, filled with righteous indignation.

“Who cares about your liking!”

Nie Wenyu’s face turned grim, and she was practically about to stomp her feet in fury.

“Whether you care or not, your words and actions have failed the people who liked you.” Remembering what she and Qiao Xiangshu had encountered before, Ming Tang clenched her hands into fists at her sides, her voice cold and sharp. “Apologize to Chi Ling.”

Nie Wenyu’s expression struggled, and her mouth twitched. Ming Tang suspected she wanted to say, “In your dreams.”

But at this moment, besides the vocal Ming Tang, there was also Qiao Xiangshu staring at her with a cold sneer, posing a silent threat.

Qi Zhen lightly patted the side of Nie Wenyu’s leg with the back of her hand and said in a low voice, “Wenyu, you are in the wrong this time. Apologize.”

Nie Wenyu bit her lip hard, her jawline tightening rigidly. Even without hearing a sound, anyone could tell from her stubborn expression that she was biting her teeth in sheer indignation.

“I’m sorry, alright?!” Nie Wenyu threw out the sentence and turned around to storm off in a rage, though the commotion still drew glances from quite a few people.

Hearing this incredibly perfunctory apology, Ming Tang, who was already angry, felt her temper flare even hotter. However, when she turned around, she saw that Chi Ling had just unhurriedly finished chewing her last piece of lettuce.

“Thank you guys for speaking up for me,” Chi Ling said, wiping her mouth. “But I’m used to hearing words far more disgusting than this, so you don’t need to care too much.”

Hearing this, Ming Tang felt a pang of heartache, yet she also felt as if her punch had landed on cotton.

It turned out Chi Ling truly didn’t care about this anymore, making her own sudden outburst look a bit ridiculous. But all of this was only because the dirty water splashed on Chi Ling and the stigma attached to her name normally were simply too much.

“Chi Ling, this isn’t something you should stop caring about just because you’re used to it.” Ming Tang’s eyes grew somewhat dark. “Baseless dirty water is just baseless dirty water. It shouldn’t be that just because you get splashed a lot, you start to feel like the dirty water doesn’t matter.”

Chi Ling stiffened in her movements.

She had never thought that she still had the right to say “no.”

Ever since the night she differentiated, the night she sent Yu Wenqing to the hospital, she had been carrying countless curses and infamy on her back.

For the things she actually did, she naturally had no words to defend herself. But for the things she didn’t do, she had no way to explain herself either.

It was a grand, anonymous carnival on the internet, where everyone reveled in discussing how a presence people once looked up to and pursued had fallen from grace.

She was all alone, it was too hard to clarify.

“Yeah, Chi Ling,” Qiao Xiangshu also chimed in to fight the injustice. “For things you haven’t done, you can absolutely snap back at them just like we did.”

Ming Tang didn’t want to play the role of lecturing others in the first place. Seeing Chi Ling’s expression, her tone softened a bit. “Swallowing your resentment will only make certain people with ulterior motives think you’re easier to bully.”

She subtly took a jab at Huayin Entertainment along the way.

“Now I finally know how those endless streams of smear campaigns were generated.”

“Chi Ling, next time you just boldly fight back. I never believed those bizarre smear articles anyway. After interacting with you today, I feel even more that it’s impossible for you to be that kind of person.”

Surrounded by this unfamiliar kindness, Chi Ling was a bit unaccustomed to it. After licking her lips, she only gave a low, quiet, “Mm.”

Qi Zhen did not leave with the already exasperated Nie Wenyu, she stood rooted to the spot, completely motionless.

“Do you have anything else?” Ming Tang asked.

“…I’m sorry.” Qi Zhen seemed to have had a long psychological battle with herself, her voice sounding a bit dry. “Wenyu, she…”

Chi Ling stood up, cutting off Qi Zhen’s words.

Ming Tang originally wanted to say something more, but seeing Chi Ling stand up, she knew that Chi Ling had taken the words they just said to heart.

At the end of the day, this was Chi Ling’s own business, and it should rightfully be left to her to make the decision.

No one else had the right to decide for Chi Ling whether she should forgive someone who harbored malicious intent toward her.

“Since it wasn’t you who said it, there is no need for you to apologize for it,” Chi Ling said. “Unless you think that way yourself.”

Qi Zhen shook her head.

“Then please trouble yourself to tell her.” Chi Ling’s voice was just like usual, devoid of any ripples. “When she said that sentence, it didn’t hurt her at all, and her apology was thoroughly reluctant.”

“I don’t mind her speaking her mind directly like you do, but if it’s this kind of fabricated accusation, I am not going to continue being submissive and meek.”

After a moment of silence, Qi Zhen nodded and left in the direction Nie Wenyu went.

Seeing Qi Zhen’s back also looking as if she were fleeing in panic, everyone was extremely gratified by Chi Ling’s reaction, which was a massive improvement compared to before, and a small round of cheers erupted among them.

Chi Ling bit her lip, hiding slightly behind Ming Tang out of shyness.

Though Ming Tang didn’t say anything, firmly suppressing the corners of her mouth that wanted to curl upward, the slight smugness at the tips of her brows and the corners of her eyes could hardly be hidden.

During the evening practice session, the assistant instructor was replaced by an Class A trainee who was currently ranked second.

Because Chi Ling had set a good example for everyone in the afternoon, everyone was much more at ease when facing the top students from Class A now, no longer shrinking back in fear. When they encountered real problems, they boldly asked for advice directly. Throughout the whole evening, that Class A trainee was constantly running around in circles among the crowd.

Ming Tang didn’t join in on the excitement.

She found a corner spot at the very front row of the dance mirror, practicing the theme song on her own against the mirror, almost entirely undisturbed.

Ming Tang’s singing and dancing had become much smoother overall; she was the fastest progressing one in Class F.

Ever since Qi Deng said at noon that she had a woody-toned perfume scent on her body, she constantly felt as though the scent of Chi Ling’s pheromones was still lingering at the tip of her nose.

A clean, transparent, clear fragrance flowed along Ming Tang’s veins, slowly unfurling and overflowing throughout her entire body.

“Could it be the effect of Chi Ling’s pheromones?”

After successfully executing the theme song smoothly from start to finish once again, Ming Tang looked at herself panting heavily in the mirror, secretly pondering in her heart.

A few strands of hair were glued to her forehead by sweat, and beads of sweat rolled past her brow bone, leaving a transparent water line along her cheek before finally dropping from the tip of her chin onto the wooden floor.

The training room was noisy, and the sweat drops falling from high up made no sound at all.

“If only I could smell Chi Ling’s pheromones a few more times.”

After realizing how ridiculous her own thought was, Ming Tang shook her head again. Her short hair flew out from the motion, dropping back down obediently the moment she stopped.

“Ming Tang, oh Ming Tang, you’ve really lost your mind. How could this have anything to do with pheromones… it must be because Chi Ling teaches well.”

Ming Tang’s self-muttering voice wasn’t loud, but Qi Deng, who walked over to drag her back to the dorms, caught the last half of the sentence.

“What are you muttering about? Completely won over by Chi Ling, aren’t you?”

Without saying anything else, Ming Tang nodded repeatedly. “I am already down on all fours in admiration.”

“Even so, you don’t have to look so intoxicated, right?!” Qi Deng was deeply shocked.

Ming Tang laughed in spite of her anger, giving Qi Deng’s shoulder a push. “Alright, let’s go back and rest. We still have to come back tomorrow.”