After Setting Me Up With My Ex, The Aloof Alpha Regrets It - Chapter 35

Chapter 35: Shi Li Loves Her.

Zhu Yunqi didn’t expect Wen Yue to actually go up.

Could it be that she wanted to show off in front of Shi Li?

Zhu Yunqi felt that, judging by Wen Yue’s personality, it was most likely for that reason.

After Wen Yue entered the mech, she looked at the control panel and breathed a sigh of relief.

This was the most basic type of mech. The control panel was so simple that it only had a few buttons and a wheel, as well as a single-line voice communication channel for the team.

A simple flight was possible.

She had overthought it. A mech that could be put on a public plaza for promotion like this, without worrying about technology leaks, would only have the most basic functions.

After she adjusted her seat, a somewhat familiar voice suddenly came from the mech’s voice channel.

“Wen Yue, this is Zhu Yunqi.”

Wen Yue’s eyes widened.

Why hadn’t she thought before she went on stage that Zhu Yunqi was a student of the Federation’s number one military academy and had gone directly to the Black Star Belt after graduation? The Black Star Belt was the place where mechs were used most frequently, so it made perfect sense for Zhu Yunqi to be here.

Below the stage, Lan Yang saw that Wen Yue had gone up and couldn’t sit still anymore. She rushed onto the stage, opened the hatch of the third mech, and sat inside.

“Wen Yue, Wen Yue, this is Lan Yang. Can you hear me? This is Lan Yang. The Lan Yang who delivered weapons to you at the Combat Department last time. Can’t you hear me? It’s me, Lan Yang. You don’t know where the voice channel button is, do you?”

Lan Yang wanted to get revenge for the time Wen Yue had given her a biased look at the entrance of the Combat Department.

Wen Yue was already in a bad mood. She was now trying her best to calm herself down with her reason, to not act on impulse.

She said coolly, “Received, Lan Yang.”

Lan Yang sent a message to Zhu Yunqi on her light brain.

Lan Yang: Captain Zhu, you’ll see how I’m going to embarrass her in a bit.

Zhu Yunqi: Don’t mess around. There are a lot of people here. She’s not skilled. It’s easy to cause an accident.

A few seconds later, she sent another message.

Zhu Yunqi: Besides, didn’t you notice? Her emotions are unstable right now.

They would try to avoid operating mechs when their emotions were unstable. No matter how advanced the mech technology was, it was essentially no different from a car’s “iron shell and flesh.” It was extremely fast and required precise operation. A collision or other mistake could easily lead to serious consequences. And an unstable emotion would slow down a person’s reaction time.

Lan Yang honestly agreed.

Wen Yue took a deep breath, trying to relax and calm down.

She said in the channel, “I’m ready.”

The host teacher enthusiastically announced, “Then let’s all enjoy the wonderful operation performances brought to us by the seniors from the Federal Deep Space Strategic Command University and the Interstellar Defense Military Academy!”

After taking off, Zhu Yunqi focused most of her attention on Wen Yue. Although she didn’t like Wen Yue, she didn’t want anything to happen to her in this kind of situation.

She operated her mech, making sure she was always between Wen Yue and Lan Yang.

In the Sea Serpent team led by Zhu Yunqi, Lan Yang was usually not the one operating the mech. Her Beta partner, code-named Raven, was. Lan Yang had an unstable personality, while Raven was the kind of person who wouldn’t change her expression even if a mountain collapsed in front of her. After linking up with Lan Yang, she would operate both mechs at the same time, and Lan Yang only had to focus on the mission.

Lan Yang’s operating skills were also mediocre. But they were still a lot better than Wen Yue’s.

Zhu Yunqi observed the situation on both sides, adjusted her direction and speed in time, and also performed a few difficult maneuvers in the limited space. This drew a chorus of amazement from the audience below.

“Oh my god, is this the strength of the number one military academy?”

“Did anyone see who the person in the middle is? I love them so much.”

“Deep Space, you know how to recruit. It’s making my heart itch—so can you lower the score a little?”

“I have a reasonable suspicion that Deep Space isn’t here to recruit but to simply show off.”

“Can they lower the tuition? Four hundred thousand Star Coins a year. I can’t afford to go to school.”

“Which university in the Federation has low tuition? They’re all so expensive. Going to university is a rich person’s game. Commoners can only take out loans and work their butts off to pay them back.”

…

Someone had even started a live stream on the StarNet.

However, not only because of the long-term emotional tension, but also because her stomach started to ache faintly after Wen Yue had barely managed to keep up with Lan Yang for a while.

She covered her stomach with one hand, trying her best to operate the mech with the other.

But Wen Lirong’s messages kept flashing in front of her eyes.

“Wen Yue, if you don’t start moving, do you want me to come and get you?”

Wen Lirong’s serious face seemed to flash in front of her. Wen Yue was startled, and her hand slipped unnaturally. The control wheel immediately veered off course, and the mech flew sharply to the right.

Zhu Yunqi, who was constantly watching her, immediately operated her mech’s mechanical arm to catch her.

At the same time, she warned in the channel, “Wen Yue, be careful.”

She knew that Wen Yue’s operating skills were mediocre, and she might even be at the level of a hobbyist, but such a careless mistake shouldn’t happen during a straight flight.

She must have been distracted.

Through the transparent shell in front of her mech, Zhu Yunqi locked onto Shi Li in the crowd. Shi Li’s eyebrows furrowed for a moment when Wen Yue veered off, and her eyes were filled with worry.

Some of the audience didn’t understand and thought it was pre-arranged, just a performance for the audience. Others had already started to complain about Wen Yue.

“Ah, don’t try to bite off more than you can chew.”

“Which school is she from? I need to put up a wall.”

“Probably Interstellar Defense. Deep Space’s mech major is their ace.”

Similarly, some people who didn’t like the nitpicking spoke up in her defense.

“It’s not that bad, actually. We can’t even fly. What right do we have to mock a senior?”

“Exactly. Maybe she graduated many years ago and can still remember some of the operations. That’s already amazing. Can you still do calculus after you graduate from high school?”

…

Zhu Yunqi couldn’t hear what the audience below was saying. She pulled back her gaze. Shi Li was worried about Wen Yue.

Wen Yue then replied, “Thank you. I’ll be careful.”

Her voice was full of tension and exhaustion. Zhu Yunqi temporarily treated her as her own teammate. In this situation, she would definitely not let her teammate continue to operate the mech and would take over herself or find another teammate to do so.

But the mechs they were operating now were almost like models and didn’t have the function to coordinate and take over.

So she could only remind her again: “Are you not feeling well? If you’re not feeling well, you can stop.”

Lan Yang agreed, “Yeah, yeah, if you can’t do it, just get down quickly, don’t…”

Thinking of Zhu Yunqi’s warning, Lan Yang swallowed the second half of her sentence, “don’t bite off more than you can chew.”

After hearing Zhu Yunqi’s words, Wen Yue felt very upset. She had no idea that Zhu Yunqi was such a gentle person. In her mind, Alphas handled things in a cold and ruthless way, either being absolute like Wen Lirong, or being decisive and vigorous like Zhu Shengxi, or being insulting and vengeful like Lan Yang.

Her throat choked up, and Wen Yue was also worried that something would happen if she continued like this. She was ready to listen to Zhu Yunqi and land.

However, after hearing what Lan Yang said, Wen Yue immediately changed her mind. What right did Lan Yang have to look down on her? Lan Yang’s operating skills were nothing special, only good enough to fool the young students below who had never seen a mech before.

She endured the pain and said, “I’m fine. I just haven’t touched a mech in so long that I forgot for a second.”

Zhu Yunqi could only give her a reminder and didn’t want to force Wen Yue to do anything. She continued to operate the mech and flew to a higher altitude.

Wen Yue also gritted her teeth and followed. Even if she was just a foil, she didn’t want to quit halfway.

But Wen Lirong’s shadow in front of her became clearer and clearer, as if a dozen Wen Lirongs were surrounding her. The Wen Lirongs surrounded her, constantly saying things:

“That doesn’t mean I will continue to condone your actions.”

“Or, is there someone who made you change your mind?”

“Wen Yue, you’re my only child. You must never bring shame upon me.”

“Reflect on your recent actions.”

“Why are you in second place again?”

…

And the light brain on her wrist seemed to vibrate as well. Wen Yue quickly opened it, only to find that Wen Lirong hadn’t sent her a new message.

Wen Yue shook her head violently, trying to shake off the illusions. No one could see that inside the mech’s cockpit, her face was pale, the color had completely drained from her lips, her forehead was covered in a cold sweat, and her whole body looked like she had lost her soul.

Wen Lirong didn’t love her.

It didn’t matter. She still had Shi Li.

Shi Li loves her.

Shi Li loves her. She needs Shi Li…

Wen Yue stiffly looked down at the crowd below. But she was too far away to find Shi Li’s exact location. However, she saw a vehicle she was all too familiar with driving toward them in the distance.

The long, black car that the Combat Department had assigned to Wen Lirong.

It was as if a cold, large hand had grabbed her neck, and all her breath was stolen. A black shadow surged from behind, slowly and cruelly enveloping Wen Yue…

No, she needs Shi Li. She doesn’t want to marry Zhu Yunqi according to Wen Lirong’s wishes. She wants to postpone the engagement. She’ll worry about everything else later. She just needs to postpone the engagement, just like last time.

Wen Yue looked down at her hand and realized that her vision was so blurry she couldn’t even see her own palm.

She’ll get hurt again, just like last time. Getting hurt will give her a reason to postpone the engagement.

She remembered that mechs were equipped with an escape pod. In the instant of a rapid descent, the escape pod would deploy. Although it couldn’t guarantee her safety, she was sure she wouldn’t die.

Her mind went blank for a second. Then, Wen Yue suddenly operated the wheel, making the mech nosedive quickly.

The audience thought she was finally going to show off her skills like Zhu Yunqi and perform a difficult, “dragonfly skimming the surface of the water” maneuver.

But Shi Li immediately felt that something was wrong the moment she started to nosedive. She immediately sent an urgent message to Zhu Yunqi on her light brain.

Shi Li: Wen Yue!

Zhu Yunqi had been closely monitoring Wen Yue’s movements. Coupled with Shi Li’s message that popped up in front of her, she suddenly understood. She immediately followed Wen Yue’s nosedive and extended her mech’s arm to its full length.

Zhu Yunqi yelled in the channel, “Wen Yue! You’re crazy! Stop now!”

She had already checked. This type of model mech was not equipped with any life-saving devices. If Wen Yue were to crash like this, she would definitely die.

If Wen Yue died in an accident, Shi Li would be heartbroken, and Wen Lirong would not let it go.

Even though Shi Li had sent her a text message, she could see Shi Li’s anxiety and despair in the two words “Wen Yue.”

Wen Yue couldn’t hear her anymore.

She chose an empty space, and the ground was within reach. The audience below finally realized something was wrong. Their eyes of anticipation turned into silent observation.

All that was left in front of her was the bright red of a carpet.

Wen Yue didn’t close her eyes.

The next second, fire exploded.

Shi Li had already rushed to a spot less than thirty meters from the crash site. The fire was reflected in her pupils, making them glow.

She wanted to scream but found that she couldn’t make a sound from her throat.

Amidst the fire and the screams of the crowd, Shi Li saw a figure slowly standing up next to the wreckage of the mech.

Zhu Yunqi gently shook her head at her and mouthed the words, “Don’t come over.”

Support After Setting Me Up With My Ex, The Aloof Alpha Regrets It