After Little Sweet Omega Runs with the Ball - Chapter 23.2
Ji Mingxue lowered her gaze as she stepped into the private elevator. As the elevator descended, she seethed.
“No one in the company is allowed to mention Song Shuangtian’s name.”
Standing at the entrance of ST Group’s headquarters, Ji Mingxue strode into the still-lavish lobby amid the sycophantic smiles of those around her.
The sharp clicks of her high heels echoed against the tiled floor.
Her eyes swept past the general manager’s position no longer bearing Song Shuangtian’s name, but that of the illegitimate son.
“Song Jun.”
“Do you think if I completely acquire ST Group, Song Shuangtian will come back to me?”
Lu Xing heard Ji Mingxue ask this.
She knew the domineering alpha didn’t need an answer.
The current chairman had long forgotten his wife and her child.
In that case, Ji Mingxue no longer needed to hold back.
In the confined space of the elevator, Lu Xing opened her phone’s notes. “Three days from now is the anniversary of her passing.”
Ji Mingxue’s already grim expression darkened further. “I know.”
Compared to Ji Mingxue’s overwhelming busyness,
the newly pregnant little omega lounged on a lakeside bench, basking in the sun.
A straw hat covered her face, her once-slender waist now softly rounded. Though she still retained her youthful figure, her hips and chest had begun to fill out.
The little omega fiddled with the necklace around her neck while Madam Qiu sat nearby, quietly reading in the sunlight.
Yuan Yin leaned against a tree with her arms crossed, phone in hand, her expression subdued.
“Madam Qiu.”
Yuan Yin had known Madam Qiu for a long time she was practically a mentor to her.
“Speak your mind. There’s no need to hold back on my account.”
Madam Qiu casually loosened her hair bun and pinned it back up with a wooden hairpin.
Her movements were graceful and serene, exuding an air of quiet detachment.
“ST Group was my sister’s life’s work. After she passed, I never held any hope for that man. That it’s lasted this long is already a miracle.”
Even with Madam Qiu’s reassurance, Yuan Yin found it difficult to speak. Her gaze eventually settled on Song Shuangtian, who was weaving a flower crown.
Her belly, now over five months along, had grown into a plump little watermelon shape.
No matter how much Madam Qiu pressed her, Song Shuangtian refused to reveal who the father was so much so that the usually composed Madam Qiu had once threatened to hit her with a book in frustration.
Yuan Yin sat cross-legged on the ground, plucking a morning glory and tucking it into Song Shuangtian’s flower crown.
“It’s Ji Mingxue,M Group wants to acquire ST Group. Lately, ST’s stock has nearly hit rock bottom.”
As one of the shareholders of ST Group, Yuan Yin wasn’t in a hurry. Instead, she sold her shares at a very low price to Song Shuangtian.
At Yuan Yin’s level, income was plentiful, so naturally, she wouldn’t put all her eggs in one basket.
When Ji Mingxue’s name was mentioned, Song Shuangtian still felt a sharp pang in her heart.
Madam Qiu glanced up and noticed the stiffness in Song Shuangtian’s expression. “You know Ji Mingxue.”
Know her? More than that they were fucking familiar.
Song Shuangtian lowered her head guiltily. After weaving a crown of morning glories, she placed it on Madam Qiu’s head and made another for Yuan Yin.
Yuan Yin: “…”
Song Shuangtian paused before speaking. “Does she really want to acquire ST Group? She never had such intentions before.”
Song Shuangtian: Having seen M Group’s high-level strategic plans, there was no mention of acquiring ST Group.
Yuan Yin looked utterly confused: Don’t you know why she’s doing this?
Song Shuangtian’s eyes were blank: Should I?
Yuan Yin mouthed silently: Love turned to hate understand?
Song Shuangtian: “…”
Song Shuangtian mouthed back: There was no love from her. She only saw me as a disposable lover.
Yuan Yin: “…”
Madam Qiu: Are you two treating me like a blind woman?
Madam Qiu didn’t want to pry into the younger generation’s cryptic exchanges. She brushed off the grass from her clothes and stood up.
The breeze by the lake ruffled her temples. Her hair was now streaked with gray, but her poise remained impeccable.
Time had been kind to beauty it hadn’t left many traces of illness on her. Instead, thanks to meticulous care, she exuded a youthful charm.
“In a few days, it’ll be my sister’s death anniversary.”
At the mention of her mother, Song Shuangtian’s eyes lowered. “Mm, I’ll go to sweep the grave and burn incense.”
“Will you come, Auntie?”
Madam Qiu took off the flower crown, twirling it between her fingers.
“I have a check-up in a couple of days. I’m afraid I won’t be able to make it.”
Madam Qiu’s heart had always been weak, unable to endure long journeys.
She wanted to advise Song Shuangtian not to go, omega pregnancies were already precarious, and without an alpha’s presence, their pheromones could easily destabilize.
But seeing Song Shuangtian’s expression, Madam Qiu swallowed her words.
“Go early and come back soon.”
Yuan Yin knew this wasn’t the time to interject. She patted Song Shuangtian’s hand in silent comfort.
As Madam Qiu had said, Song Shuangtian’s body wasn’t suited for travel in her condition.
Slumped weakly in the car, she called her father.
A gruff voice barked through the phone, “What did you do to piss off Ji Mingxue?! Don’t you know how obsessive she is? She’s capable of anything! You’re too young, you don’t understand anything!”
The moment the call connected, the man’s scolding poured out. Song Shuangtian’s lips twitched, but she couldn’t muster a smile.
“Do you know what day it is today?”
Song Shuangtian gazed at the fine drizzle outside, her voice calm.
“What day?! The day the stock price hit the limit down!!”
“I told you not to go to M Group! Look at you tried to steal a chicken only to lose the rice. Now you’ve got what you wanted, huh?! Happy?!”
Song Shuangtian set the phone on her lap.
Beside her hand lay a bouquet of blooming white chrysanthemums.
She cut off the man’s tirade as the sound of shattering glass occasionally crackled through the line.
“Wasn’t it you who begged me to go?”
Song Shuangtian had no affection for this father. If there had been any lingering hope before, it had completely dissipated upon learning of his illegitimate child outside the family. The whole situation now felt utterly tiresome.
Through discreet acquisitions, Song Shuangtian had become the largest shareholder of ST Group though, of course, the second-largest shareholder was Ji Mingxue.
If Ji Mingxue wanted to buy the shares in her hands, she’d have to pay a steep price.
“You!”
A man’s furious roar came through the phone. Song Shuangtian responded calmly, “Today is my mother’s death anniversary. You’ve forgotten even that.”
The other end of the line fell silent for a moment. Before the man could speak again, Song Shuangtian hung up first.
Whatever. It didn’t matter anymore.
Walking into the cemetery, Song Shuangtian held a black umbrella over her head. She wore a long white dress, its loose fabric unable to conceal the swell of her abdomen. Cradling her belly with one hand and holding flowers and the umbrella with the other, she stepped alone into the fine curtain of rain.
Eventually, she stopped before a private burial plot.
Her mother’s gravestone stood quietly in place.
“Mom. I’m sorry.”
Song Shuangtian lowered her head and whispered an apology, though she wasn’t entirely sure what she was apologizing for. Perhaps it was for her own powerlessness.
She bowed deeply, the weight in her abdomen becoming more pronounced as she bent forward.
“Mom, I’m pregnant. I’ll be bringing a good child into the world.”
Her voice was so soft it could dissolve into the wind.
She wiped the dust from the gravestone with a handkerchief, shielding it from the rain with her umbrella.
“The doctor confirmed it this child is normal,” she murmured. “They won’t have abnormal pheromones like me, won’t struggle with gender confusion, won’t accidentally get pregnant from a temporary mark.”
A fierce gust of wind swept through, lifting the hem of her dress. The biting cold settled over her skin, raising goosebumps.
Her face was damp whether from rain or tears, she couldn’t tell.
The black-and-white photo on the tombstone bore some resemblance to her, yet they were ultimately different.
Song Shuangtian didn’t have many memories of her mother.
Her mother had lived in Europe for years, and their meetings could be counted on one hand.
In her recollections, her mother had been a gentle woman, her relationship with her father distant and polite. They rarely exchanged more than a few words when they met.
Perhaps her mother hadn’t even liked her.
If she had, Song Shuangtian thought, she would have visited more often.
Her fingers brushed the necklace around her throat, one of the few things her mother had left her.
Before leaving, her gaze lingered on the rain-drenched white chrysanthemums.
“Maybe it’s the name ‘ST Group’ it’s just unlucky,” she said quietly. “In industry terms, ‘ST’ means delisted. And now, sure enough, the stock’s hit its limit down.”
The words struck her as somewhat laughable until she remembered her own name.
Then, suddenly, she couldn’t find it funny at all.
“Oh, right. The child’s mother is Ji Mingxue. She’s a very beautiful alpha, not the easiest person to get along with, but she’s wealthy and capable.”
“The place she used to live was also where you worked. I wonder if you ever met her?”
Song Shuangtian sighed, about to say more about Ji Mingxue, only to realize she knew nothing about her.
In the oppressive silence of the rain, the only sound was the steady drumming of water against the umbrella.
“Enough, let ST Group become a thing of the past. It’s rotten to the core. I’ll start a new jewelry empire.”
But first, let’s have this baby.
At the cemetery gates, a black luxury car stood parked in the same rain.
Ji Mingxue stepped out of the car and watched as another black vehicle sped away behind her, splashing muddy water in its wake.
The car was moving too fast to make out the license plate or the model.
“Could it be Song Shuangtian?”
Lu Xing stepped out from the passenger seat.
Ji Mingxue frowned slightly but said nothing.
As a thunderclap exploded in the distance, Ji Mingxue suddenly snapped back to reality.
Her high heels sank into the muddy ground, staining with a layer of grime.
Holding a black umbrella, Ji Mingxue walked up to the tombstone and found it wiped clean, not a speck of dust in sight. Beneath it lay a fresh bouquet of white chrysanthemums.
Lu Xing ventured, “Perhaps it was President Song?”
After all, she was the late wife of President Song. It would make sense for her to visit.
Ji Mingxue cut her off. “Impossible.”
“Song Shuangtian has been here.”
Ji Mingxue stared fixedly at the white chrysanthemums on the tombstone. For a moment, she wanted to bolt out of the cemetery, chase after that black sedan ahead.
Another peal of thunder cracked across the sky, bringing a flicker of clarity to Ji Mingxue’s dazed eyes.
As she placed another bouquet of white chrysanthemums before the tombstone, Ji Mingxue bent down and gathered the original bouquet into her arms.
Amid the crisp fragrance of the chrysanthemums lingered a faint, familiar trace of orange blossom pheromones.
The suppressants in her system had brutally forced her own pheromones down, only for them to surge back even stronger.
A throbbing pain pulsed at Ji Mingxue’s temples, her teeth grinding as if she needed to sink them into something anything.
That elusive omega pheromone was sweeter and richer than usual, no longer youthful but matured.
A shadow fell over the alpha’s eyes as she rasped, “Keep pressuring ST Group’s executives. Song Shuangtian will come to me.”
She lowered her gaze to her former teacher and silently whispered an apology in her heart.
Ji Mingxue had stolen her daughter and now, she was taking the flowers her daughter had left at the grave.
Clad in a black suit, the alpha carried the white chrysanthemums back to the car, her clothes now soaked through by the rain, her entire being radiating a dark, unapproachable aura.
Song Shuangtian, stop running.
I know what you want.
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