Divorced from the Cold CEO Who Lived by the Rules - Chapter 32

Beta’s gaze was gentle and harmless, even carrying a trace of inexplicable tenderness. Xing Yan’s eyelashes fluttered slightly before she quickly released Xu Zhen’s hand. “Let’s go.”

She strode ahead alone, not waiting to see if Xu Zhen or Zhen zhen followed.

Xu Zhen reacted swiftly, immediately stepping forward to keep pace. Zhen zhen froze for a moment, glancing between Xing Yan, Xu Zhen, and Xue Ling, who was left behind in visible frustration before hurrying after them. “Wait for me, A-Yan!”

Xing Yan’s steps weren’t large, so Xu Zhen easily caught up. “Thank you,” she said sincerely, grateful that Xing Yan had intervened on her behalf. Given their strained relationship, Xing Yan could have easily stood by and done nothing.

“I was just afraid of getting caught in the crossfire,” the Omega replied coolly, her tone as icy as the perpetual snow atop a mountain peak. “If something happened to you, Jiang Ruan would pin the blame on me again and force me to apologize.”

Jiang Ruan had indeed acted unfairly before, blinded by concern. Xu Zhen fell silent for a moment. “Sorry for dragging you into this.”

“I know that person has nothing to do with you. You wouldn’t stoop to such methods.” Xing Yan held too many advantages to sabotage herself, if she wanted to win, she had countless better, more discreet ways to do so.

Xu Zhen, ever straightforward, hesitated briefly before admitting candidly, “After falling into the water, I could have been rescued immediately. But I chose not to.”

Xing Yan immediately sensed the implication, tilting her head slightly as her mind raced.

Before she could speculate further, Xu Zhen continued honestly, “From the rumors about you and Jiang Ruan to someone using your name to attack me, don’t you think this is all part of a scheme?”

“So what if it is?” Xing Yan’s expression remained unchanged. Just as she finished speaking, the Beta suddenly lowered her voice, now standing uncomfortably close. “That’s why I swam away and hid.”

Xing Yan, usually unshakable, felt a rare ripple of surprise. “What?”

“I’m a strong swimmer, so I adapted to the situation letting the scandal escalate to lull the mastermind into complacency.” Xu Zhen apologized again. “So, I’m sorry for implicating you.”

The Omega slowly came to a stop. After a pause, she let out a cold laugh. “I underestimated you.”

No naive, guileless fool could survive in the entertainment industry for long. Xu Zhen had not only skyrocketed to fame on her own but had also maintained her popularity. So how could this Beta beside her be some paragon of purity?

Xing Yan finally regarded her seriously. “What’s your purpose in telling me this?”

“What do you want to know from me?”

Xu Zhen instinctively wanted to deny any ulterior motive, but at the last second, she changed course. “Jiang Ruan is keeping something from me,” she stated with certainty. “You must know something about it, right?”

“If she chose to hide it from you, why would you think I’d betray her confidence?” Xing Yan smirked faintly, a hint of arrogance in her expression. “If you really want to know, go pry it out of her yourself.”

The answer was expected, so Xu Zhen wasn’t discouraged. “What she’s busy with is related to you, isn’t it?”

“No comment.” Xing Yan turned away, her tone distant.

Xu Zhen pressed on relentlessly, “You’re quite mysterious, especially after your family sent you abroad.” She realized her curiosity about Xing Yan was growing too strong and tried to rein it in, but it was futile. “In the years you’ve been away from Jiang Ruan and Zhen zhen, it’s like you vanished off the face of the earth…”

Before she could finish, Xing Yan’s icy gaze swept over her. “Keep talking, and I won’t mind teaching you a lesson.”

“Would you really go after me?” Xu Zhen’s eyes held a probing glint. “When I haven’t posed any threat to you?”

Xing Yan: “Feel free to test me.”

The Omega curled her lips into a smile, though it looked more unsettling than anything. Sensing the tension, Zhen zhen quickly stepped in to mediate, but fortunately, Jiang Ruan appeared just in time. “You’re all here.”

Zhen zhen exhaled in relief. “Jiang Ruan, you came at the perfect time. ”

“Jiang Ruan, sis!” Xue Ling, who had been openly following Xu Zhen, brightened at the sight of Jiang Ruan. She flitted toward her like a graceful butterfly, only for Jiang Ruan to deftly sidestep her.

Jiang Ruan felt a headache coming on at the sight of Xue Ling. “Sorry, but I have a wife. Please keep your distance.”

“Exactly,” Zhen zhen chimed in, eager to see Xu Zhen and Jiang Ruan reconcile. She wouldn’t allow any outsiders to ruin their relationship. “You have no sense of boundaries.”

“Honestly, you shouldn’t be here interrupting their time together. Come with me.” Zhen zhen grabbed Xue Ling’s arm, dragging her away without waiting for consent.

Xue Ling shrieked in outrage, “Let me go! I don’t want to go with you!”

“I finally got to see Jiang Ruan, sis! I need to talk to her!” Her noisy protests successfully grated on Xing Yan’s nerves. Without hesitation, Xing Yan grabbed a piece of cake from a nearby plate and shoved it into Xue Ling’s mouth, finally silencing her.

Xue Ling choked on the crumbs, tears welling in her eyes as she whimpered her grievances. Xing Yan cut her off with a cold warning, “Keep making noise, and I’ll throw you into a crowd of Alphas to get marked by someone else.”

“……”

With the noise gone, Xing Yan strode away.

Xu Zhen wasn’t satisfied with how things had unfolded today. Glancing at Jiang Ruan, who was dressed impeccably, she felt an inexplicable surge of irritation. “Why are you here?”

Her tone was far from welcoming.

“I heard you were here,” Jiang Ruan replied formally. “I thought you might need me.”

“Unnecessary. You can tend to your own affairs.” In the past, Jiang Ruan had rarely accompanied Xu Zhen to such events, so her presence or absence made little difference.

Jiang Ruan caught the underlying meaning in the beta’s words. Slowly, she reached out her hand. “Still mad at me?”

Xu Zhen wanted to pull away, but the Alpha was quicker, interlacing their fingers.

Jiang Ruan’s palm was larger, warm against her skin, the heat seeping through in a way that inexplicably soothed her. Xu Zhen stopped resisting. “There’s something I want to ask you.”

She lifted her eyelids to gaze at Jiang Ruan. “This is the first time, and also the last. If you choose not to answer me, then I won’t ask again in the future.”

Beta’s tone was too serious. Jiang Ruan knew she couldn’t brush it off today, and one wrong move might cost her points with her wife. So she gathered her focus and said, “Ask away.”

“Why exactly was Xing Yan sent abroad?” Right now, Xu Zhen’s mind was completely occupied by Xing Yan, so naturally her question revolved around her.

Xu Zhen wasn’t sure if it was her imagination, but she felt Jiang Ruan visibly relax after hearing this question.

Did she have even bigger secrets she was hiding?

Xu Zhen frowned.

Jiang Ruan mistook her wife’s puzzlement for displeasure. Without hesitation, she answered immediately: “Back when A-Yan was eighteen, shortly after presenting as an Omega, she attended a dinner party.”

Xu Zhen became interested. “And then?”

“At first she was really enjoying it because they served all her favorite foods that she rarely got to eat.”

“An ambush banquet?” Such pleasant beginnings usually came with unexpected dramatic turns, so Xu Zhen’s guess wasn’t unfounded. After years in acting, she was particularly sensitive to these things.

Jiang Ruan nodded without denying it. “It wasn’t until she was almost finished eating that she learned it was actually her engagement dinner.”

“Everyone at the table knew her parents, the entire other family everyone except her. The family her parents chose for her was quite powerful, a good match socially, but the Alpha was already 35 years old.”

Nearly twice Xing Yan’s age.

Xu Zhen pressed her lips together lightly. “She resisted, didn’t she.”

“Exactly.” Speaking of this, Jiang Ruan actually smiled. “Don’t let her gentle appearance fool you, she’s incredibly headstrong.”

“She must have been furious. She grabbed the seafood scissors from the table and stabbed several bloody holes in that Alpha’s neck.” Jiang Ruan’s voice carried clear satisfaction and pride at Xing Yan’s combat prowess. “No one knows how she managed it in her weakened state.”

“But from that night onward, A-Yan was immediately exiled overseas by her parents.”

Xing Yan’s parents paid dearly to smooth things over and apologize. To this day, the couple still resented their daughter for it. But Jiang Ruan had no sympathy for them if they hadn’t disrespected Xing Yan first, she wouldn’t have lost control and hurt anyone.

“So that’s how it was…” Xu Zhen said in realization.

Xing Yan wasn’t wrong. Anyone would go mad with anger if they were tricked into an engagement with an Alpha seventeen years their senior.

Back then, the newly eighteen-year-old Xing Yan had been brilliant and dazzling how could she have resigned herself to becoming some wealthy housewife, spending her life bearing children and managing household chores for an Alpha?

She was clearly capable of going further and standing taller than any Alpha.

The more Xu Zhen learned about Xing Yan, the more sympathy and fondness she felt. Looking at Jiang Ruan beside her, she couldn’t help asking, “Do you think Xing Yan dislikes me?”

Jiang Ruan was puzzled. “Probably not.”

“That’s a relief.”

Jiang Ruan: “?”

She was momentarily dazed, then suddenly became guarded. “You’ve been paying a lot of attention to her lately.” The Alpha probed subtly, “Has your relationship with her grown closer?”

“Not yet,” Xu Zhen answered honestly. “She doesn’t seem to like me much.”

Jiang Ruan’s slightly anxious heart had just settled when her wife added, “But there was progress today she actively helped me out by shielding me from Xue Ling’s harassment.”

Jiang Ruan: “…”

A sudden sense of foreboding arose in the Alpha. She gazed at Xu Zhen with an inscrutable expression, as a bold conjecture silently sprouted in her mind like bamboo shoots after rain.

But perhaps she was just being paranoid, Jiang Ruan silently reassured herself.

After roughly understanding Xing Yan’s situation, Xu Zhen promptly withdrew her involvement. As for what Jiang Ruan and Xing Yan were secretly scheming… that would require further investigation. Both women were tight-lipped and not easily pried open.

“Do you have work tonight?” Xu Zhen changed the subject. By now, Zhen zhen, Xing Yan, and even Xue Ling had left. Unfamiliar with the remaining attendees and wary of making a misstep that might be leaked to the media, Xu Zhen had no choice but to stick close to Jiang Ruan.

“Yes, I’ll work overtime after this event,” Jiang Ruan replied.

Jiang Ruan was a woman of few words, even in conversations she stuck strictly to the point without unnecessary chatter. Having answered Xu Zhen’s question, she quickly fell silent.

Such moments of solitude between them were rare, and Xu Zhen found it unfamiliar.

Fortunately, Jiang Ruan’s prestigious status as a rising star in the business world soon attracted people seeking to exchange pleasantries. Thanks to the Alpha’s presence, Xu Zhen also received superficial respect.

Gossip was gossip, and business was business. Jiang Ruan’s willingness to appear publicly with Xu Zhen today signaled at least a surface-level harmony in their relationship.

Coupled with Xu Zhen’s considerable fame, many executives began considering her as a potential endorser for their products.

In an era where popularity reigned supreme, even notoriety could be valuable as long as it boosted a product’s visibility, they cared little about a celebrity’s personal scandals.

Thus, Xu Zhen unexpectedly received the warmest reception she’d had in months.

While Xu Zhen was surrounded like the moon among stars, Jiang Ruan deliberately receded into the background, avoiding upstaging her wife. Like a reliable bodyguard, she stood silently by Xu Zhen’s side, lending her support.

When someone spoke disrespectfully to Xu Zhen, Jiang Ruan made her displeasure clear with a pointed look.

After a few such instances, the crowd took the hint and treated Xu Zhen with increasing deference.

“Thank you,” Xu Zhen seized a moment to express her gratitude. Jiang Ruan’s presence had indeed made things easier, sparing her from many unnecessary conflicts.

For a fleeting moment, Xu Zhen wondered, if Jiang Ruan had always been this way, perhaps the past wouldn’t have been such a tightrope walk?

So why had the Alpha suddenly changed her attitude?

Lost in thought, Xu Zhen pondered was it her repeated rejections of Jiang Ruan’s advances? Or… had the woman finally developed a conscience?

Though this newfound enlightenment might be coming rather late.

The Beta’s unfocused pupils betrayed her wandering thoughts. Jiang Ruan held her lightly, fingertips brushing against her waist, feeling the warmth through the thin fabric.

Soft and warm, with the elegant fragrance of high-end cosmetics lingering around her face.

Xu Zhen’s long eyelashes fluttered down in unison, veiling the emotions swirling in her eyes. “I also have something to ask you,” she said suddenly.

Startled back to awareness, Xu Zhen instinctively responded, “What is it?”

“Why do you keep rejecting me?” The Alpha’s dark pupils held an indescribable hint of pitiful grievance, strikingly out of character with her usual demeanor. “Don’t you like it anymore?”

Xu Zhen’s eyelid twitched, her heart seemingly skipping a beat.

Unable to help herself, she glanced around at the bustling crowd coming and going, voices rising and falling in a lively hubbub. “What are you talking about?” she asked.

To bring up such matters in this kind of setting… only Jiang Ruan could pull off something like this.

“Because I can’t understand,” Jiang Ruan persisted. “You used to like it so much before. I know this makes me seem overly eager, but I want to.”

Xu Zhen swiftly covered the Alpha’s mouth. “We’ll talk later.”

Jiang Ruan blinked, then finally nodded.

Only after confirming Jiang Ruan would behave did Xu Zhen slowly withdraw her hand. Moments later, however, she heard Jiang Ruan ask again, “When is ‘later’? What date and time?”

Xu Zhen: “…”

“Tonight, after we return to the hotel.”

Jiang Ruan was finally satisfied, the corners of her lips curling up slightly. “Okay.”

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