After the Scummy Alpha Marked the Crazy Beautiful Heroine - Chapter 62

Pei Jiuyao set the hairdryer on the cabinet and called out, “Come in.”

Chi Yang pushed the door open and closed it behind her, her expression dark.

The moment she looked at Pei Jiuyao, she tried hard not to show anything—yet Pei Jiuyao saw right through her.

Humans were strange creatures. When Chi Yang had slammed the door and stormed out earlier, Pei Jiuyao had wondered whether she should coax her.

But now that Chi Yang had come to her on her own, Pei Jiuyao instead felt like keeping her distance, wanting to see what this little fox was after.

Chi Yang walked a circle around the room, then went out again.

Pei Jiuyao froze for a moment and got up to follow, but before she reached the door, Chi Yang came back in, carrying a small stool. She set it down opposite Pei Jiuyao and sat.

She spoke softly. “Can we talk? Please?”

Pei Jiuyao sat down. “What do you want to talk about?”

“About Su Yin.” Chi Yang paused. “Do you like her?”

Pei Jiuyao had expected Chi Yang to beat around the bush, to ask more delicately. “Do you really not feel whether I like her or not?”

“I thought the two of you were just putting on an act for the cameras but now I’m not so sure.” As Chi Yang spoke, she tugged the collar of her shirt without realizing it.

“But what I don’t get is, why would Bai Zhi want you to hype a CP with someone else? Aren’t you two involved?”

“No matter what we are, to Bai Zhi, I’m just a money-making tool.” Pei Jiuyao’s expression stayed calm. “And there really is nothing between me and Su Yin.”

She wanted to clarify things with Chi Yang—but not too clearly.

Suddenly, she felt a little mischievous. She wanted to see Chi Yang jealous. As long as it wasn’t to the point of no return, teasing her a little was pretty cute.

Chi Yang released a shallow breath when she heard “nothing,” but the words “Bai Zhi” quickly caught her attention.

“Even if you’re just her ‘money-making tool’, that’s still okay with you?” Chi Yang looked up, her eyes faintly red.

Even if you’re just a tool, you can still be with her?

I thought you wanted a love that was unique and genuine.

Or is it that I can’t compare to her?

“I can give you far more than Bai Zhi ever could,” Chi Yang said.

“And what exactly can you give me? Are you going to shove whatever you think is good into my hands?” Pei Jiuyao shrugged. “How do you know I even want those things?”

“So, you’re happy being Bai Zhi’s moneymaker? She doesn’t even care about you.” Chi Yang’s emotions were slipping. “If you don’t tell me what you want, how am I supposed to know?”

Pei Jiuyao shot her a sidelong glance. “You really mind whatever I have with Bai Zhi?”

“I.” Chi Yang bit her lip. It took her a long time to answer. “I don’t mind.”

After a stretch of silence, Chi Yang stood. After a moment of hesitation, she said, “I shouldn’t have said any of that, should I?”

“I know you don’t like hearing it.” She let out a slow sigh. “You clearly said I’m here to please you, so why am I like this? Why do I feel like I’m.”

Like what?

Like she couldn’t keep pretending anymore. These past few days, the act had been slipping, and she had even boldly declared she wanted to pursue Pei Jiuyao again.

Was the problem with herself? Or had Pei Jiuyao never taken her seriously?

What was this supposed to be? Should she just give up—admit defeat?

But how could Chi Yang stand by and watch Pei Jiuyao treat someone else kindly and feel nothing?

She sniffed lightly, her expression smoothing out. “I think I need some time to cool off.”

After Chi Yang left, Pei Jiuyao slowly loosened her grip on the bedsheet.

She felt she’d gone too far tonight.

She really should have comforted Chi Yang. For someone you liked to release pheromones at another Omega, it must have hurt terribly.

Pei Jiuyao, as an “outsider,” didn’t treat pheromones seriously. But Chi Yang wasn’t like that.

Here, pheromones and glands were deeply private matters.

The next day, the group split into two teams—one to go paragliding, the other to visit a zoo.

Pei Jiuyao chose paragliding. Su Yin was afraid of heights—and she knew that staying alive was far more important than CP marketing. On top of that, she had just had an allergic reaction the night before and still felt unwell, so she firmly chose the zoo.

The final grouping ended up being Pei Jiuyao, Chi Yang, and Fang Qimeng for paragliding, and the remaining four for the zoo.

Fang Qimeng chose paragliding purely because she didn’t want to be in Su Yin’s group. Once they arrived, she made an excuse about being too old for the activity and stayed at the foot of the mountain to wait for them.

The climb up was a world with just Pei Jiuyao and Chi Yang.

It should’ve been a good thing. But after what happened last night, the entire morning passed with the two of them exchanging not a single word.

The whole hike up was silent, both of them visibly downcast.

Pei Jiuyao wanted to explain last night several times, but Chi Yang looked drained and listless—clearly not in the mood for anything.

And every time their eyes met, Chi Yang immediately looked away.

At the top of the mountain, Pei Jiuyao tried to force a conversation. “Are you scared?”

Strapped into the paraglider, Chi Yang hesitated for a long moment before answering, “I’m okay.”

And then there was nothing more to say.

Pei Jiuyao suddenly felt uneasy. Leaning against the paraglider’s frame, she turned to Chi Yang. “You haven’t been well lately.”

“Have I?” Chi Yang tugged at the corner of her mouth. “I guess I’m just tired.”

“About last night.”

“Last night was my fault.” Chi Yang cut Pei Jiuyao off. “I shouldn’t have confronted you about your relationship with Bai Zhi. I should’ve been calmer.”

The wind howled through the valley. Pei Jiuyao watched as Chi Yang turned back around to face her and said quietly, “Yaoyao, it’s just, I love you too much.”

After that, Pei Jiuyao stayed in a daze.

The wind whipped her long hair and clothes. Whatever poses the coach asked her to hold under the camera, she completed stiffly, like a robot.

Even when Fang Qimeng ran over to greet them, even during the car ride afterward, even at the restaurant, Pei Jiuyao barely had her mind in the moment. All she kept thinking was whether she had gone too far.

Chi Yang, who was always so composed, so sharp, so effortlessly in control, why did she turn into a red-eyed, wounded, timid little rabbit in front of her, instead of that sly fox she always pretended to be?

Was this really what she wanted? To tame the person she loved?

After they returned, Pei Jiuyao washed up, stepped out to throw away the trash, and on her way back she heard Chi Yang’s voice outside.

She rounded the corner and saw Chi Yang on the phone.

Her voice was cold and flat. “Of course I’m taking the meds, don’t worry. How else would I film a variety show? How else would I pull an all-nighter to finish a project? I was born to work. Don’t worry about it.”

Wasn’t she taking vitamins? Why did it sound like she was taking something else?

After returning to her room, Pei Jiuyao quietly snuck into Chi Yang’s room and shook a few pills out of the bottle, slipping them into her pocket.

Just then, Chi Yang pushed the door open, startled. “Yaoyao? You, why are you here?”

“I, I wanted to talk to you.” Pei Jiuyao’s shoulders trembled slightly, the guilt of having been caught doing something suspicious making her shrink a bit as she slowly pulled her hand out of her pocket.

“Talk about what?” Chi Yang shut the door and walked over.

“About what we didn’t finish talking about yesterday,” Pei Jiuyao said, turning around. “You don’t seem very happy today.”

Chi Yang let out a low, mirthless laugh. “Watching the person I like release soothing pheromones on another Omega—am I supposed to pretend I’m happy? Yaoyao, you can’t be that strict with me.”

“I wasn’t trying to blame you for anything. There’s nothing going on between Su Yin and me.”

Pei Jiuyao’s instinctive explanation made Chi Yang pause.

But she quickly regained her composure.

“And I shouldn’t have questioned you about Bai Zhi,” Chi Yang continued. “I know I have no right to question anything. It’s what I deserve.”

Pei Jiuyao took a step forward and couldn’t help asking, “Do you really not mind?”

Chi Yang froze.

Then gave a bitter smile. “I’m already like this—must you really dig until there’s nothing left? My head is a mess, I’m barely holding it together, and honestly? Holding it in hurts. So just don’t worry about me. Otherwise, I really will lose it.”

Pei Jiuyao tilted her head slightly as she looked at her. Soft, clear light filtered through the space between them like a thin layer of mist.

“So, you do mind me and Bai Zhi.”

Her persistent questioning forced Chi Yang to raise her head. “I do mind. A lot.”

The moment she said it, it was as if the floodgates opened—everything she had been holding back suddenly spilled out uncontrollably.

“Don’t you know? I hate everyone around you. Everyone who covets you, everyone who gets too close to you, everyone who’s unclear with you.”

Chi Yang’s carefully-constructed self-control collapsed. “I’ve been holding it in. I’ve been trying so hard to please you, to act spoiled with you. I’ll do anything for you. If you want money, resources, fame, love—even my life—I can give it to you. I’m not lacking in any of that!”

“But you’re still not satisfied. I know you must be disappointed in me. What happened a year ago was my fault, but I just—”

Her voice grew increasingly faint, and suddenly she realized something.

She realized what Pei Jiuyao meant when she said, one year ago:

We didn’t break up because of Minghe.

We broke up because you needed a well-trained dog.

Chi Yang found she had no way to refute it. Everything she said now could be countered by that single sentence—a sentence Pei Jiuyao had sealed her heart with a year ago.

How could she have only wanted a dog who obeyed?

She just wanted Pei Jiuyao to listen, to love her, to never leave her.

That was completely different.

Chi Yang stood there, stunned for a long time, before finally completing the sentence she couldn’t finish back then.

“I just had no other way.”

Her voice trembled, with the faintest trace of tears.

Pei Jiuyao stepped forward, a sharp ache stabbing through her chest.

These words had finally been spoken, hadn’t they? She must have been hiding them in agony.

“Is there really no way back for us?” Chi Yang covered her face with both hands, then slowly lowered them and looked up at Pei Jiuyao. After a long silence, she whispered:

“But I, I can’t.”

Can’t what?

In the single year we’ve been apart,

I’ve watched you change—from the girl who liked no one but me, who spoiled me without hesitation—into someone who’s grown up, capable, independent.

There were suddenly countless people crowding around you—girls younger and cuter than me, or heiresses with more power, higher status, and better backgrounds than mine.

Chi Yang thought, I’m finally no longer the only one.

Whatever she could give Pei Jiuyao, others could give as well.

What was so special about her, really?

A year ago, Pei Jiuyao was just a minor celebrity who needed favors just to get onto a music show. A year later, she had already won the Golden Cloud Award for Best Supporting Actress, with resources piling up faster than she could count.

Aside from her ridiculous, earnest heart—nothing she offered mattered.

“Pei Jiuyao, do you know something?” Chi Yang suddenly called her by her full name. “You’re not good to me at all. You’re gentle, yes, and you’re good—but you’re good to everyone. You can let go so fast. Just because I said one harsh sentence a year ago, was it worth refusing to forgive me no matter what? Worth using it to threaten me, to toy with me—because you know I love you?”

Pei Jiuyao placed a hand on Chi Yang’s shoulder and said softly, “Chi Yang, calm down.”

“I can’t calm down!”

Her voice was low, yet it sounded like she was swallowing back a scream.

“Just one year—does it really make it so easy for you to be this heartless? Then what about the year I spent tossing and turning, feeling like I was dying? You can take such good care of Su Yin—why can’t you treat me just a little better?

Your so-called ‘rewards’ aren’t even a fraction of how you treat strangers. When you see I’m upset, you don’t even spare a word of concern!”

“Guess what I’ve been thinking about lately?” Chi Yang’s eyes were blood-red, tears falling uncontrollably. “I’ve been thinking about this—every single day. This is the truth you wanted to hear! These are the things you hate hearing, and now that I’ve said them—what are you going to do? Throw me out again? Discard me? Or strip away even that pathetic title—mistress, lover—I don’t even know what I am to you!”

“Chi Yang!”

Pei Jiuyao knew she couldn’t toy with her anymore. She could endure her own misery, but she couldn’t bear watching Chi Yang break like this.

So-called “taming” had always been nothing more than her own selfishness.

A year ago, she was the one who chose to leave, all for a so-called mission. She had approached Chi Yang with impure intentions from the start.

Maybe Chi Yang didn’t know how to love. Maybe her possessiveness was uncontrollable. But Pei Jiuyao could’ve taught her—gently—not forced her, not reshaped her love into something distorted.

This would drive anyone insane.

Chi Yang was right: she had threatened her, toyed with her, watched her fawn and get jealous and suffer—just because she liked her.

“Look at me.”

Pei Jiuyao cupped Chi Yang’s face and gently wiped away her tears.

“I’m not with Bai Zhi. We’re just boss and employee. Nothing else.”

Chi Yang froze. After a long moment, she murmured, “You’re not with Bai Zhi? Then why did Bai Nian call you ‘Mom’?”

“She just blurted it out. There’s nothing between me and Bai Zhi.”

Pei Jiuyao sighed. “Whatever’s going on between us—it has nothing to do with her.”

“You’re really not with Bai Zhi?”

Chi Yang repeated the question, and her body suddenly relaxed. The problems that needed solving remained unsolved. Pei Jiuyao still hadn’t answered her accusations of coldness.

But at least she explained the matter with Bai Zhi.

Didn’t that mean that—through all of it— Pei Jiuyao had only ever had her?

The moment she loosened up, her tears poured out like a broken dam. Her body went limp as she collapsed onto Pei Jiuyao’s shoulder, sobbing uncontrollably.

A sharp ache pierced Pei Jiuyao’s heart. After bullying Chi Yang for so long, she finally realized—this was never what she wanted. She wanted a smiling, healthy Chi Yang, not this blank, hollow, suffocated version of her.

She rubbed Chi Yang’s shoulder and rested her hand on her back.

Feeling the warmth, Chi Yang whispered, “I feel terrible. I’m sick and you don’t even feel sorry for me.”

Pei Jiuyao thought of that ridiculous bottle of “mixed medicine,” and her fingers trembled.

“What’s wrong? What kind of sickness?”

After a pause, Chi Yang said, “My stomach hurts. I ate something bad. Please rub it for me.”

Pei Jiuyao laughed softly. “When did you learn to act cute all of a sudden?”

It wasn’t deliberate, not the kind of coquettishness Su Yin used—just Chi Yang’s own unintentional, instinctive softness.

She was finally relaxing in front of her. Pei Jiuyao felt a pang of regret.

Chi Yang was Chi Yang.

Why had she ever tried to force her into becoming someone else?

A little possessiveness wasn’t so bad after all.

“It must be because I smelled your pheromones that I feel unwell,” Chi Yang muttered. “You told me to tell the truth, and I did. I’ve been so obedient today—don’t I get a reward?”

“What reward do you want?”

Something in Chi Yang’s subconscious told her Pei Jiuyao was being a little gentler today.

Reliance surged up in an instant, wiping away all restraint and calm.

She explained things to me, Chi Yang thought.

She still cares a little.

Chi Yang lifted her head, pushing her luck just a little. “You haven’t marked me in so long. The last time was a year ago. Your scent on me is already fading.”

“You’re not seeing anyone else anyway, can I have a mark?”

Pei Jiuyao snorted. “I thought you were going to ask me to be your girlfriend.”

Chi Yang froze, then looked genuinely annoyed. “I forgot we’re not together yet. You hugged me and scrambled my brain.”

“If I had known, I would’ve chosen that,” she muttered. “But, I can still chase you, until you’re satisfied. Just please don’t bully me like this anymore. Don’t be so cold to me.”

“Alright,” Pei Jiuyao said with a smile, pressing a thumb to the gland on the back of Chi Yang’s neck. “You chase me, and I’ll give you rewards. From now on, every reward—you get to choose.”