After Rebirth, My Archrival Omega Looks at Me Differently - Chapter 25

The moonlit night was calm. By eight in the evening, the hospital room had become quiet and still.

The scent of iodine lingered faintly in the air, leaving a cool sensation on Chi Yan’s arm where it had been applied.

Just moments ago, she had been acting smug and playful, full of teasing confidence. But now, under the steady gaze of Yan Youqing’s dark, glassy eyes, she blinked softly, unsure of herself.

She had not expected Yan Youqing to invite her to stay.

Emotionally, Chi Yan did not want to share a roof with someone who used to be her rival. But logically, she knew this hospital room was her safest option right now.

Outside the window, tree branches swayed in the wind. The tightly sealed glass let in no trace of the autumn night’s chill.

In the center of the room, the warm light cast their shadows on the wall. Yan Youqing stood tall and still, quietly waiting for Chi Yan’s response.

After a pause, Chi Yan pressed her dry lips together.

Her voice remained steady, but her earlier boldness had faded. “Of course I’m staying. What do you expect me to do, sleep outside tonight?”

She stood up from the sofa, picked up her schoolbag, and walked over to the companion bed. Lying down on her back, she tried to act natural.

The bed was not particularly soft. The clean white sheets carried the faint, sterile scent of disinfectant.

Chi Yan thought to herself that the VIP room was not really as special as it sounded. Just as the thought crossed her mind, she noticed a shadow fall beside her.

Yan Youqing had returned, holding a small cake she must have found somewhere in the cabinet or mini-fridge. She offered it to Chi Yan and said, “Here.”

The cake was covered with a smooth pink chocolate glaze and decorated with a few small chocolate hearts.

Her voice was brief. Even though she wore a loose school uniform, her posture was upright and her arm stretched out steadily.

For some reason, Chi Yan suddenly remembered the melodramatic soap opera her stepmother had been watching the day before. In one scene, the tearful female lead confessed her feelings to the male lead in the school infirmary.

The scent of disinfectant mixed with the gentle sea-salt fragrance drifting from Yan Youqing’s wrist. It clung to the air near Chi Yan’s ear and made her feel oddly warm.

Just then, Yan Youqing spoke again.

“Aren’t you hungry?”

Her voice was calm, with a bit of genuine confusion, breaking Chi Yan’s train of thought.

Chi Yan quickly snapped out of it, realizing just how ridiculous her imagination had become.

It was just cake. Probably one of the standard snacks that came with a VIP room.

Was she going crazy? Or did she really think Yan Youqing was offering her a heartfelt gesture?

Feeling embarrassed by her thoughts, Chi Yan turned her head sharply and said, “I’m not hungry.”

But her stomach betrayed her almost immediately. Before Yan Youqing could even move, a quiet growl came from under the blanket.

It was soft, but in the silence of the hospital room, it was very noticeable.

Yan Youqing did not speak. She just stood next to the bed with the cake in her hand, looking at Chi Yan with her usual calm expression.

Chi Yan still refused to give in. She stayed stubborn, holding onto her pride as an Alpha.

Another growl followed.

A few seconds later, Yan Youqing silently handed her a second slice of cake.

Chi Yan sat on the bed with a fork in hand, quietly eating the cake she had previously rejected.

The clock on the wall ticked slowly. The two girls sat on their separate beds, not saying a word. The room felt unusually quiet.

Then Yan Youqing spoke again.

“Chi Yan.”

Chi Yan was still chewing her cake and replied with a muffled sound. “Hmm?”

“Why don’t you live with your dad?”

Chi Yan realized that Yan Youqing was referring to what she had said earlier on the sofa. She rested her chin in her hand and replied with a half-serious tone, “Wait, are you seriously worried I’ll be homeless?”

Yan Youqing gave a small nod without hesitation.

Chi Yan could not tell if it was the quietness of the room or the sincerity in that nod, but something about it made her want to answer seriously.

She leaned back into the pillow with the cake still in her hand. After staring at the ceiling for a moment, she finally responded.

“It’s not that I don’t want to live with my dad. The thing is, people who work in biological research don’t have a regular schedule. They’re up at all hours. I remember when I was little, my dad would come home at two or three in the morning. Sometimes, he would stay in the lab for three days straight.”

She had experienced it herself while living with him, and her voice carried a light and matter-of-fact tone.

“I couldn’t rest properly, and he couldn’t really take care of me. That’s why he sent me to live with my aunt. It made things easier.”

But Yan Youqing had a different view.

“Maybe your dad doesn’t think that way.”

Her voice remained calm and even. But her words carried more emotion than her tone did. She did not seem like the kind of person who would try to see things from someone else’s perspective, but here she was, doing just that.

Chi Yan turned to look at her, surprised.

After a short pause, Yan Youqing continued, “He probably wanted to give you the best possible environment. But maybe being with him was already the best one.”

Chi Yan listened quietly. Since returning to the past, she had held tightly to her decisions. But now, for the first time, she began to waver.

She slowly uncrossed her legs and shifted slightly. Her eyes grew uncertain.

“You wouldn’t understand…”

“Being able to spend even a little time with your parents is already a kind of luck,” Yan Youqing said softly.

Her voice remained gentle and distant, as though she was watching everything from outside, untouched by it all.

For a brief moment, Chi Yan had the strange feeling that Yan Youqing, like her, had also come from the future and knew everything that had already happened.

The already quiet room grew even quieter.

Chi Yan stared at her. A subtle confusion flickered in her dark eyes.

Then she heard Yan Youqing speak again.

“Sorry. I was just thinking about myself.”

The confusion in Chi Yan’s eyes faded as clarity returned.

So that was it. Yan Youqing had only been projecting her own thoughts.

Of course. There was no way something so unbelievable had happened. Chi Yan was the only one who had come back. Yan Youqing must have survived the explosion and continued forward, alone, in a timeline where Chi Yan no longer existed as her competition.

“I just thought that maybe every time your dad comes home and sees you there, he feels happy,” Yan Youqing said.

Chi Yan heard her words and felt her earlier hesitation begin to return.

To be honest, ever since she came back ten years into the past, she had never truly considered changing what had already happened.

She had been staying at her aunt’s house, focused on how to stop Xu Yongli’s embezzlement. It had never occurred to her that she could simply move in with her father.

Right now, she was Chi Yan at twenty-eight years old. Her father might be too busy to care for her, but she was more than capable of caring for him.

She knew many things about the future, but in her otherwise vivid world, the part that involved her father remained blank.

Maybe now was the time to return home and add some color to that part of her life. Maybe she could even prevent that painful moment from ever happening.

The second hand on the clock ticked steadily. Time moved slowly as Chi Yan continued to think.

She finally let out a quiet breath. Something had clicked in her mind. Turning to Yan Youqing, she promised gently, “Alright. I’ll seriously think about everything you said.”

Yan Youqing nodded in agreement.

As if she had finally settled a major decision, Chi Yan relaxed and tucked one arm behind her head like a pillow.

Looking across the room at the girl lying in the other bed, she spoke with a soft sigh and a touch of shared bitterness, half-joking.

“You know, Yan Youqing, don’t you think our lives are kind of alike? You lost your mother. I don’t have mine either.”

“My mother didn’t die. She disappeared,” Yan Youqing corrected her quietly.

Chi Yan was slightly surprised. She realized she had said the wrong thing and quickly added, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.”

Before she could continue, Yan Youqing shook her head and gave her a calm look.

“When I was very young, she slowly faded out of our home. Later, she remarried. After we moved, I lost contact with the last place connected to her. Since then, I haven’t heard anything from her.”

Chi Yan silently filled in the rest in her mind.

That large, expensive villa. Many people probably envied the fact that Yan Youqing had a place like that all to herself while still so young.

But today, Chi Yan finally understood. A house’s size or luxury does not mean a person is truly living well.

Maybe this quiet, distant version of Yan Youqing was the result of a missing piece in her family.

Chi Yan thought back to what she had said earlier outside the hospital. That line about how “the family of three looked so happy together.”

She wondered how Yan Youqing had felt hearing that.

Her mother had started a new life with another woman and had children of her own.

When she saw her daughter again, she only showed surface-level concern. Then she handed her off to a girl she had just met.

That was heartbreaking.

What use was a big house if it felt empty, like no one else existed in it but yourself?

Chi Yan regretted those words she had spoken outside the hospital. Then she heard Yan Youqing speak softly beside her.

“I’m fine. You don’t have to worry about me.”

Her voice was gentle and calm. It still had that cool tone but felt less cold than usual.

Chi Yan looked over at her and saw a faint curve at the corner of her lips. Yan Youqing added, “The house has a security system. I’ll be safe.”

The warm lighting fell softly across Chi Yan’s face. That simple, thoughtful answer hit her like a surprise. Her heart skipped a beat.

She blinked quickly, flustered, and snapped, “Who said I was worried about you?”

“Are all Omegas this self-obsessed?”

Then she turned her back, pulled the blanket over herself, and wrapped it tightly around her.

As if hiding under the blanket would also hide her thoughts from Yan Youqing.

It was a little childish.

Yan Youqing looked at Chi Yan’s turned back. Her small smile deepened.

The sky outside had long gone dark. The hospital felt even more still beneath the quiet night.

Chi Yan closed her eyes. She heard the quiet rustle of someone turning off the lights. Just as she was beginning to relax, assuming that Yan Youqing had gone to sleep, she heard her name again.

“Chi Yan.”

Chi Yan heard it but chose not to respond.

A few seconds passed. Then a muffled voice came from beneath the blanket.

“What?”

“Good night,” Yan Youqing said softly.

In the darkness, Chi Yan’s eyes opened wide. Her thick eyelashes blinked twice in the quiet room.

Her body under the blanket stiffened.

Maybe she had wrapped herself too tightly. Her ears suddenly felt hot, almost burning.

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