Does An Inferior Omega Also Have To Marry First, Then Fall In Love? - Chapter 16

Chapter 16: Ji Qingyu Took On Fu…

Ji Qingyu endured Fu Han’s inexplicable anger. No matter how much he pleaded, Fu Han refused to stop. It was too much for Ji Qingyu. Fu Han’s canines even scraped Ji Qingyu’s neck several times, making his skin crawl.

He eventually passed out from exhaustion. He woke up a while later, his body aching, feeling dizzy and heavy-headed. Both Fu Han and the box on the desk were gone.

Ji Qingyu realized what had happened. He fumbled to find the overturned photo frames, but they had all been cleared away.

It was just after noon. The office was bright and clean, yet it made him feel suffocated. The desk was sharp-edged, without any warm wooden elements or plants. The glass water cup was a minimalist designer piece. An owl sculpture stood by the office door, its eyes fixed on him, unnerving Ji Qingyu.

He left silently, without telling anyone. The corporate tower was imposing, and building such a standalone structure in the city center must have cost a fortune. He descended in the elevator, looking up at the sky dominated by tall buildings. After eating a quick bread at a convenience store, he decided to visit Lin Ying at the hospital.

The performance was scheduled for tomorrow. Ji Qingyu felt uneasy. As he exited the subway station, he ran into a fortune teller. He couldn’t resist. He paid the fee and sat on the small stool.

The fortune teller pulled out a tortoise shell filled with copper coins, and a chipped porcelain bowl. He said, “Benefactor, just think about what you desire in your heart, then shake the coins out. Heaven will show you a clear path.”

Heaven? Ji Qingyu thought. His relationship with Heaven isn’t exactly good.

Despite saying that, Ji Qingyu quietly wished for the performance tomorrow to go smoothly. He shook the bowl fiercely, six times. The coins rattled loudly inside the bowl. The fortune teller felt them, then shook his head. “I fear there will be an unexpected change.”

“Ah?” Ji Qingyu wiped the sweat from his brow. He thought, The tickets are already sold, what am I going to do? But he still asked, “If I change the date, will that solve it?”

The fortune teller extended one hand holding the bowl and the other for money, indicating another attempt.

So, Ji Qingyu continued to shake with his already aching arms. The fortune teller felt the coins again, still sighing. “It has nothing to do with the date, Benefactor. This is not your tribulation, but you will be used to face it.”

Ji Qingyu scratched his head. What kind of nonsense is that?

The fortune teller bowed to Ji Qingyu. Ji Qingyu immediately stood up and returned the gesture. He was about to leave, but the fortune teller shook the bowl in his hand again. “Since we are destined to meet, why doesn’t the Benefactor try to calculate his love life? I’ll make a good connection with you, and the third reading is free.”

Love life… Ji Qingyu felt weary. He didn’t really want to know anything about Fu Han, nor did he want to pry into their relationship. He was afraid such prying would make Heaven believe their destiny was not yet fulfilled, pulling the red thread of fate and tying them even tighter.

He shook his head, yet his feet seemed glued to the stone pavement, utterly still. After careful consideration, he finally accepted the old tortoise shell and began shaking it.

His mind was a mess, and he couldn’t formulate a specific question. He just thought of Fu Han’s face. The last coin dropped into the bowl with a crisp clinking sound.

Ji Qingyu felt his heart quicken slightly.

The fortune teller touched the coins, then did some calculations with his fingers, and exclaimed in praise, “Aha, Benefactor, this is a wonderful marriage! Great wealth and nobility, marrying into a prominent family. Your husband loves you deeply. You will have happiness and fulfillment.”

Sure enough, Ji Qingyu thought. I figured this person was a fraud after the second reading.

He felt relieved, gave a perfunctory farewell, and prepared to leave. However, he turned around and ran into an unexpected person.

“Uncle Lin, why are you so covered up? I can barely see your face.” Ji Qingyu gave a strained laugh. Lin Feng was wearing a hat, a mask, and sunglasses, fully geared up. In his hand was a plastic bag containing colorful medicine bottles with complicated terminology Ji Qingyu couldn’t understand.

“What, you believe in this?” Lin Feng laughed heartily and said to the fortune teller, “Master, give me a reading too. I don’t have much of a career, so let’s check my love life.”

Ji Qingyu tugged at Lin Feng, quietly telling him, “No, Uncle, this is a fraud. He doesn’t read accurately.”

But Lin Feng had already picked up the tortoise shell. Ji Qingyu could only sigh internally and stand aside. He looked at Lin Feng and noticed a scar on his neck, much more prominent than his own, which had been covered by his hair and was difficult to see clearly. The scar was vivid and striking, looking like it had been made with a blunt knife, twisted and winding across his skin.

The fortune teller touched the copper coins, made some calculations, and praised, “Aiya, this person is also very wealthy, and the other person’s love for you has always been deep and lasting.”

“Inaccurate.” Lin Feng paid the money and secretly told Ji Qingyu, “He’s definitely a quack.”

“Uncle Lin, are you married?” Ji Qingyu’s mind was on the striking scar. He felt like he was overlooking something, but he couldn’t find the crucial clue.

“I was, but my husband died over ten years ago. Let’s not talk about it,” Lin Feng was very accepting. He hooked his arm around Ji Qingyu’s shoulder and asked, “What are you doing here? Are you feeling unwell somewhere?”

“No…” Ji Qingyu thought for a moment and decided it was alright to tell Lin Feng; it wouldn’t matter. So he said, “My mother is here. She is sick.”

“Oh…” Lin Feng paused, frowned, and lit another cigarette. He took a puff and patted Ji Qingyu’s back. “I don’t have anything going on right now. Do you want me to go up with you?”

Ji Qingyu accepted. He felt Lin Feng was kind and instinctively liked him.

They walked up together, reaching Lin Ying’s hospital room. Lin Ying still lay there quietly, everything unchanged. The late summer air carried a slight chill, and their shadows stretched longer.

Ji Qingyu still requested three minutes of visiting time from the doctor. After disinfecting, he walked in, moved the monitoring clip on Lin Ying’s hand, and played the stage play music he wrote for her.

Lin Feng waited outside the room.

The clean glass room separated two worlds. Perhaps moved by the sadness, Lin Feng also showed a trace of sorrow. The corners of his eyes were marked with the wrinkles of time, but they made him look gentler when he smiled.

Lin Feng always gave Ji Qingyu a very contradictory feeling.

He was unkempt, his beard covering half his face, his hair neither long nor short, yet he didn’t seem messy. Although he claimed to be a mountain guard, he danced so well. Ji Qingyu walked out of the room. Lin Feng immediately embraced him. It was a long and slow hug.

Ji Qingyu had never experienced paternal love, yet he sensed a kind of replacement for it in Lin Feng’s embrace—warm, substantial, like layered tree shadows, and like endless mountains.

“Do you visit your mother alone all the time? Doesn’t your husband care?” Lin Feng’s brow furrowed slightly, worrying about Ji Qingyu’s affairs again, looking somewhat displeased.

“Ah,” Ji Qingyu sat on the metal chair, looking into the room. The doctor had placed a new potted plant with a white porcelain base next to Lin Ying’s bed. He slowly said, “He doesn’t know.”

“What?!” Lin Feng’s emotions surged. He was almost shocked, his voice rising. “How could he not know about something like this?”

Ji Qingyu smiled awkwardly. “The reasons are quite complicated…”

The doctor went back in to routinely turn Lin Ying over. A new task recently was monitoring the location of the tumor in Lin Ying’s brain, and the doctor was also planning the surgical procedure.

“No matter how complicated, he shouldn’t let you bear this alone,” Lin Feng seemed a little angry. Ji Qingyu blinked at him and quietly said thank you in his heart.

Lin Feng decided to stay and accompanied him until sunset. The doctor meticulously informed Ji Qingyu of Lin Ying’s current condition, the possible risks of surgery, and the chances of waking up afterward. Finally, he concluded, “In short, the possibility of recovery from this surgery is quite high, but we cannot rule out risks. We are currently waiting for the right moment. Whether to proceed with the surgery will be decided later. I can only say that the current situation looks promising.”

Ji Qingyu thanked him, stayed with Lin Ying a little longer, and then he and Lin Feng walked back along the road. The setting sun cast a bright, orange-red reflection. It wasn’t until they reached the station that Lin Feng cautiously asked, “Little friend… maybe you should talk to your husband. Don’t carry this burden alone. An extra person to share the load would be good.”

Ji Qingyu shook his head. “No. Actually, once Mom gets better, I plan to leave.”

Lin Feng froze, looking back at Ji Qingyu with disbelief. “Do you truly have no feelings for each other at all? I’ve seen your videos. I thought your relationship was quite good…”

Whether they had feelings or not, it was all the same. Ji Qingyu didn’t want to talk about it, so he just smiled. “He doesn’t love me. We are only together for mutual benefit. He’s just putting on a show for the media. He doesn’t even want me to have his child.”

Lin Feng was stunned, staring at Ji Qingyu in shock. The wind blew a few strands of Ji Qingyu’s hair out of his hair tie, making him appear even more fragile and melancholy.

The bus arrived, slowly stopping in front of them. The last bit of the sunset disappeared. Lin Feng had to leave. The drive back would take an hour. Lin Feng touched Ji Qingyu’s hair, was silent for a few seconds, and sighed. “You’re such a good child. The problem isn’t you. It must be him.”

Is that so? Maybe. He couldn’t tell anymore.

Ji Qingyu felt warmth in his heart from the encouragement of Lin Feng, a stranger he had only met a few times. He thanked Lin Feng and noticed the medicine in Lin Feng’s hand rattling. Amidst the complex terminology, he saw the words “pheromone.”

He thought that perhaps Lin Feng’s gland, like his own, was also unhealthy.

He felt a sense of tragedy. Did Omegas truly have no other path to happiness besides relying on Alphas? This twisted, parasitic relationship was etched into the AO genes, like a curse.

Lin Feng stood on the bus, waving at him.

As the bus was about to pull away, Ji Qingyu pushed all the sudden thoughts out of his mind. He cheered up and shouted to Lin Feng, “Uncle, don’t worry! All I’m thinking about now is our performance tomorrow. That fortune teller was wrong. We will definitely succeed!”

As for everything else, it no longer mattered, and he wouldn’t dwell on it.