An Obsessive Alpha Covets The Honest Beta - Chapter 6.1

At six-thirty, Li You finished work right on time. Lin Zhaoning’s car had already been waiting downstairs of the company for quite a while.

Zhang Qian walked out with him. Lin Zhaoning rolled down the car window and offered her a smiling greeting.

“Wow, what a handsome guy~” Zhang Qian exclaimed softly. But noticing that Li You beside her looked rather uncomfortable, she asked with her usual oblivious nature, “Brother Li, are you feeling unwell? Why do you look so pale?”

Li You said it was nothing. After bidding Zhang Qian farewell, he paced toward the car. Lin Zhaoning got out of the car personally to receive him, rubbing the back of his head and lightly pressing a kiss onto the corner of his lips like a devoted husband.

Zhang Qian’s eyes widened in sheer shock. She stood dazed on the spot, watching the car drive away, only then remembering that Li You seemed to be married already.

The young girl was completely bewildered. They always said a sweet love nourishes one’s mind and body, yet her first impression of Li You had been thinness and exhaustion, even a somewhat sickly fragility. When he zoned out, Zhang Qian felt that what emanated from Li You was not quietude, but a stifling, silent deadness.

It seemed this Beta could only resemble a normal person when he was fully immersed in his work.

Zhang Qian suddenly felt that the handsome guy who had just greeted her didn’t look quite as appealing anymore.

Inside the car, the driver in the front row tactfully lowered the privacy partition. The two in the backseat looked at each other in silence. It was Li You who took the initiative to slip off his wedding ring right in front of Lin Zhaoning, saying calmly, “The divorce agreement is on the living room coffee table. Take some time off so we can collect the divorce certificate.”

Lin Zhaoning remained as poised and calm as ever, his composure unshaken. Like a refined gentleman, he stayed Li You’s hand as he tried to take off the wedding ring, not forgetting to patiently soothe his spouse: “Xiao You, don’t be willful.”

Li You was momentarily rendered speechless. He didn’t understand why the modest and gentle aura Lin Zhaoning once possessed had changed its flavor at this moment. The current Lin Zhaoning was more like a superior who disregarded him, denying his feelings and ignoring his needs. This calm and peaceful demeanor made it seem as though he himself were throwing a mindless tantrum.

“I am not being willful!” Li You suddenly raised his voice, shouting at the familiar yet strange Alpha before him, “You already have your own Omega, and in a few months, you will have a cute child! So why do you keep holding onto me and refusing to let go?! I am not being willful. The one who has ignored my requests from beginning to end is you! Lin Zhaoning, the willful one is you!”

In twelve years, Li You had never lost his composure like this in front of Lin Zhaoning. He dazed for a brief moment, ever since they started dating, they had always treated each other with mutual respect. Even if there had been minor frictions, they had never argued like this.

This war was started unilaterally by Li You.

Lin Zhaoning abruptly let go of his hand, his expression extremely strange, filled mostly with incomprehension. He explained to Li You with patient gentleness, “Xiao You, I just need a child. This does not conflict with our marriage.”

“You know, Betas can hardly conceive…”

Lin Zhaoning wanted to continue, but Li You cut him off directly and bluntly: “That’s not it,” he spoke softly, his gaze pinned like a nail onto the Alpha’s face, while his body quietly pulled away.

“You simply don’t need our child.”

Li You exposed all of Lin Zhaoning’s disguises and lies. His words were sharp, pronouncing the end of this marriage as he revealed the truth. “For the past month, I’ve been constantly wondering why you did this, but I couldn’t find an answer. I used to persuade myself to be more open-minded, that as long as we still loved each other, I could turn a blind eye to all those people and matters outside…”

A bitter tightness welled up in his heart, spreading to his throat and almost preventing him from speaking. Li You raised his hand to wipe away a tear, his gaze fixed on Lin Zhaoning’s disabled right leg as he let out an incomparably tragic smile. His eyes were hollow and desolate: “You regret it, don’t you.”

He stated it as a declarative sentence. Lin Zhaoning did not refute it, tacitly accepting it.

“It wasn’t until I saw that Omega that I understood, you need a partner who can be conquered. Your child can crawl out from anyone’s belly, but that person will absolutely not be me.” Speaking up to this point, Li You’s tone became cruel and heavy: “Because you resent me. Your leg was injured because of me, so you are no longer that perfect Alpha. In your eyes, all the inequality between us can be wiped clean because of this disabled right leg!”

Li You leaned against the seat back and closed his eyes weakly.

His mind had never been as clear and lucid as it was right now.

Because of that car accident, the spotlight focused on Lin Zhaoning had shifted from the initial “Alpha with a top-tier family background, appearance, and manners” to a “devoted, wife-loving Alpha who happens to suffer from a disability.”

Alphas were born with a desire for conquest. The Lin Zhaoning of the past didn’t need to rely on the act of marking to conquer Li You, because as long as he stood there, Li You had to look up at him.

And now, all rules had been broken. Lin Zhaoning could no longer achieve victory on a spiritual level, so he needed the natural act of marking an Omega to reclaim the pride that belonged to an Alpha.

But Li You was a Beta.

Not only was Li You a useless Beta, but he was also the culprit who caused him to fall from a favored son of heaven into an ordinary mortal. It was impossible for him to have a child with Li You.

Yet Li You had to remain his rightful, legitimate spouse.

Lin Zhaoning’s expression shifted slightly; his usually flawless composure finally showed a crack.

The car gradually came to a stop. Li You didn’t intend to continue arguing. Leaving behind his final words, he said, “Zhaoning, let’s get a divorce. We can each live our own lives peacefully.”

The smile in Lin Zhaoning’s eyes was no longer as soft as before. He asked Li You, “I’ve been supporting you all these years of marriage. If we divorce, you’ll leave with nothing. There is no benefit in it for you, so why give up a comfortable and well-off life just to earn that pittance of a monthly salary?” The Alpha paused. “It’s best if Xiao You remains obedient. I don’t like using unconventional means to make things difficult for you.”

“Of course, most importantly,” he pointed at Li You’s heart, subtly reminding him: “This life of yours was given to you by me.”

Lin Zhaoning looked at his spouse’s angry and incredulous eyes, saying indifferently, “Xiao You, my lawful spouse is only you.” “It was so in the past, and it will be so in the future.”

Li You’s face began to burn hot.

Lin Zhaoning needed an Omega who relied on him, looked up to him, and yielded to him, but at the same time, he also needed a generous, harmonious spouse who shared a perfect understanding with him. Only in this way could his child be legitimate, and in the eyes of outsiders, this would remain an enviable, beautiful story.

The Lin family produced a devoted lover, that affectionate Alpha had ruined a leg for his spouse, yet they were still deeply in love and even gave birth to the fruit of their love together. Even if his spouse was just an ordinary person of low background, even if his spouse was merely an ordinary Beta.

“You are carrying a stranger Alpha’s pheromones on you. Bringing it before me like this is not very polite. Go upstairs, change your clothes, and then come down.”

Lin Zhaoning shot Li You a meaningful glance. Li You’s heart was suddenly clutched and yanked up by an invisible, massive hand, he was afraid, terrified that he would be exposed for his abnormality by his husband in name.

In reality, Lin Zhaoning didn’t say much else. In a daze, Li You got out of the car and went upstairs to change. Warm water trickled down over his body, drops sliding down along his jawline. He stared at the incandescent bathroom light, so bright that its edges turned dark, while the mirror across from him was entirely covered in steam, making it impossible to see any reflection clearly.

Li You reached out to wipe away the fog on the mirror, staring at the person in the glass for a long time, finally comprehending the emotion that had always been unconcealed in Lin Zhaoning’s eyes, it wasn’t love, but pity.

His husband pitied him. Perhaps even more so in the past, but Li You had been so blind and naive as to believe that it was proof of his husband’s love for him. The sudden revelation was absurd and bizarre; when the bloody truth was cruelly torn open, the halo of the husband he had loved for twelve years vanished. The illusionary light reflected the eyes Lin Zhaoning had used to look at him with a smile countless times in the past, and this time, Li You finally saw it clearly.

Lin Zhaoning was refined and elegant, treating him with gentleness and warmth, that was an undeniable fact. But all of this was built upon the foundation of the Alpha’s pity toward him. He had thought this class-transcending, earth-shattering love was genuine, but from beginning to end, it was nothing more than a saint’s small charity and alms.

The moment Lin Zhaoning entered the door, he was called into the study by Father Lin.

In the living room, an elegant, rich woman dismissed the surrounding servants. Aside from Lin Xun, who was present, no one else was around.

Yang Wan was maintained to look extremely young. Although in her fifties, she looked like she was in her thirties or forties, looking almost like siblings when standing next to Lin Xun.

“Miss Qin is returning to the country tomorrow. Go meet her and ask her out for a meal,” Yang Wan babbled incessantly as she instructed her son. “You haven’t seen each other for years, so you need to get familiar in advance. A marriage alliance with the Qin family will bring you no harm.”