If The Persona Is Wrong, Everything Else Is In Vain - Chapter 17

“No, that’s not it, I just…” Zhao Wenying was anxious to explain, but the more panicked he became, the harder it was to organize his chaotic thoughts into proper words.

Thus, only a single, “I’m sorry,” could most accurately express his apology.

“I don’t need your apology.”

Lin Luo dragged the dumbfounded Xiao Yang forward by his side, turned around, and walked away, leaving Zhao Wenying with nothing but a retreating back that could not be grasped for forgiveness.

“The person who needs your apology isn’t here. She doesn’t know you owe her, and she never needs to know for the rest of her life. I am also not qualified to forgive anyone on her behalf.”

In fact, rather than hating Zhao Wenying, Luo Wenying hated Lin Luo even more, she probably didn’t even know Zhao Wenying existed.

Lin Luo didn’t want to, nor did he have the time to, transfer the resentment he had carried for half his life.

Luo Wenying’s single minded focus on pouring her hatred onto him, was that not its own kind of obsession, a mindset of “my enemies aren’t dead yet, so how can I die first?”

As long as it sustained her will to live, that was enough; the form it took didn’t matter.

It was just like how Lin Shen had saved Lin Luo, who originally would have been struck and killed by a car, causing his hatred to be canceled out. And since Luo Wenying didn’t know she had been cheated on during her marriage and didn’t know Zhao Wenying existed, she naturally wouldn’t have an extra layer of hatred.

Along the way, Xiao Yang hesitated to speak several times. When the words were finally about to escape his mouth, Lin Luo cut him off.

Lin Luo said, “I know what you want to ask, but I’m sorry, I have no intention of pouring out my grievances to anyone.”

He took the fish soup Xiao Yang was carrying and cast a faint glance at it.

A few pieces of green scallion garnished the milky-white broth, swaying with his movements. There was no excess grease floating on top to spoil the appetite, it actually looked quite good.

Lin Shen had loved eating fish during his lifetime. Even though no matter how Luo Wenying cooked it, it never suited his taste, he was still never stingy with his praise. This was probably the secret to keeping the decency of a superficial marriage everlasting.

Just like settling for meals that didn’t suit his palate, Lin Shen had “settled” for a lifetime in a marriage where he had failed everyone.

Lin Luo couldn’t help but let out a self-deprecating snort.

Following behind him, Xiao Yang constantly watched his expression. “I didn’t want to ask about the matters between you two.”

“I just wanted to speak about what I saw with my own eyes… I wanted to tell you that Uncle Zhao hasn’t lived this life in vain.”

He thought about it and continued, “Though you might not really want to hear it, I still want to say a word on his behalf.”

“For all these years, Uncle Zhao hasn’t spent a single day idle. He has lived a very meaningful life. From above, he plans out the lives of children who don’t have the means to study, pulling back those who are on the verge of dropping out and funding them with his own money and effort. Down below, he takes care of every single elderly person living alone in the village. He has poured all his energy into the school and into Shuihe Village.”

“It isn’t at all like what you said, the kind of wretchedness where someone ruins and wastes their future and life for the sake of one person.”

“What do you know?” Lin Luo interrupted him.

“Even if he has done every good deed under the sun, that is merely him atoning for his own sins, seeking peace of mind for himself, or accumulating good karma for himself.”

“But for the people he has hurt, the scar has already formed. Even if you gouge out that rotten flesh, it can never return to its original, unblemished state.”

With that, he stiffly pushed the soup back into Xiao Yang’s arms and glanced up at the entrance of Wei An’s house above the steps.

“Go in by yourself. It’s best if you can resolve things with him once and for all. Don’t let Wei An stir up any more trouble that harms both himself and others. Otherwise…”

Lin Luo’s gaze gradually turned ruthless. Pressing his brows down slightly, he said coldly, “I don’t mind taking care of both of you together.”

Xiao Yang remained silent for a moment, then turned around and walked up. He happened to run into Zhou Wan pushing himself out in his wheelchair. The two exchanged a glance and quickly averted their eyes.

Zhou Wan came toward Lin Luo. “Why didn’t you look at my messages?”

Lin Luo instinctively glanced at his injured leg, sighed, and tapped on his phone a few times.

Following that, Zhou Wan’s phone notification rang. He cast a casual glance, and the message Lin Luo sent popped right up. Got it.

“Are you satisfied now?” Lin Luo asked.

Zhou Wan curled his lip, leaned back against the wheelchair, and looked down at him from a superior vantage point. “How did you know there was something wrong with them?”

After that commotion at the cliffside, and with Wei An carrying the identity of Zhou Wan’s fanatical fan, just to prevent any unforeseen danger to Master Zhou…

The moment he came out of Wei An’s house, Lin Luo had messaged the guide, Uncle Li, to ask roughly about Wei An’s situation.

As it turned out, the main reason Wei An’s mental state had gone awry wasn’t because his parents and the village opposed his sexual orientation.

After all, though his parents opposed it, they had severed ties with him immediately and moved right out of Shuihe Village. At that time, Wei An’s mental state hadn’t broken yet.

The turning point for all of this occurred during the third month after he dropped out of school and returned home.

One day, someone saw Wei An pull up a stool to sit at his front door for an entire day. When asked, he said he was waiting for someone to pick him up.

He couldn’t say clearly who was coming, but it certainly wasn’t the parents who had “severed all affection,” and it was even less likely to be any relatives who had cut ties.

This state of waiting at a fixed spot every day continued until Xiao Yang came down to the countryside.

When Xiao Yang first arrived in the village, he accidentally fell into a field right in front of Wei An’s house. It was Wei An who pulled him out of the paddy mud.

From then on, Xiao Yang took special care of him, visiting his house almost every day. One way or another, he became Wei An’s only friend.

Fortunately, he was a Beta, otherwise, it would have stirred up more trouble.

It was also since then that Wei An changed his previously well-behaved image, completely transforming into a dark rock and roll style.

“I guessed it,” Lin Luo said.

Zhou Wan scrolled through the information gathered on his phone, information Lin Luo had asked him to help investigate before leaving the house. “Your guess was quite accurate.”

He looked back at the two people inside the house. “So he is the male Omega that Wei An likes?”

Lin Luo also looked inside the house. With his dark skin and sturdy build, Xiao Yang didn’t look like someone who possessed naturally beautiful Omega genes no matter how one looked at him.

“Tell me, do you think there’s a way to alter one’s dynamic?” Zhou Wan narrowed his eyes, his tone ambiguous, half-joking and half-serious. “If…”

“Don’t tell me you want to become an Alpha?” Lin Luo squinted at him. “That face of yours was practically made to be an Omega. Why push against your genes?”

Zhou Wan’s brow twitched slightly. “Who knows.” Pausing for a moment, his fingertip gestured toward Lin Luo from a distance. “I’ll take that as a compliment that I look handsome.”

Lin Luo rolled his eyes at him and said seriously, “I still feel a bit uneasy. I just feel like Wei An won’t give up so easily. There might be more trouble later on. Be careful lately. If it really comes down to it, hire a bodyguard or something.”

“Mm.” Zhou Wan propped his chin up, looking at him.

“Don’t go running around by yourself, you must travel with someone else.” His gaze landed on Zhou Wan’s legs, and he changed his words. “Forget it, you can’t even leave the house by yourself anyway.”

Zhou Wan: “Mm.”

“I’m serious.” Zhou Wan’s indifferent, dismissive attitude made Lin Luo frown.

Zhou Wan remained silent for a moment, then suddenly asked, “So, can I understand this as you worrying about me?”

Lin Luo blinked, averted his gaze, and said stiffly, “I’m just worried it will spill over to me.”

“Without a partner, how am I supposed to make a comeback? If something happens to you, the main star, and your solo fans pin the blame on me, who am I supposed to reason with?” He repeated, “What I care about is merely the safety of our community of shared interests.”

Zhou Wan let out a soft snort and extended both hands toward him.

“What… what are you doing?” Lin Luo asked.

“What else could I be doing,” Zhou Wan looked at his injured leg and the wheelchair beneath him. “Carry me down. Are we going to sit here all day?”

Regret flared in Lin Luo’s heart, feeling guilty over the fleeting thought of an unpure friendship that had flashed across his mind. He hurriedly walked to the front of Zhou Wan, turned his back, and said, “Get on.”

A familiar weight pressed down, heavy but quite grounding. As the weight settled, Zhou Wan’s feather light words also drifted into his ears.

He said, “The only community of shared interests I know of is a married couple.”

In an instant, the tips of Lin Luo’s ears seemed to be set ablaze.

The withered straw man had met the first fire of early autumn, thus, the flames burned into fireworks, achieving their first fulfillment amidst a succession of crackling sounds.

Only after a good while did Lin Luo say haltingly with a dark face, “That’s… that’s because you are ignorant.”

Perhaps his reaction didn’t match Zhou Wan’s expectations, so Zhou Wan added more fuel to the fire. “Don’t worry about me. Take care of yourself. Compared to myself, I care more about your safety.”

These words weren’t false, they held a steadfast sincerity. A blatant line of love dropped into Lin Luo’s ears, yet it turned into a fatal poison, a sharp pain capable of tearing him apart.

In this world, true feelings were the one thing that must not be touched.

Lin Luo gave a couple of dry, somewhat bitter laughs. “Thanks for the concern.”

Once again, he rejected Zhou Wan’s sincerity. It wasn’t the first or second time anyway. Explicitly rejecting a feeling that could not be reciprocated was the greatest form of respect.

Inside the house, Wei An drank the fish soup that Xiao Yang carefully fed him spoonful by spoonful, while casting his gaze toward the two outside the door.

The dim light inside the room concealed his dark, unreadable expression. When no one was paying attention, the corners of his lips hooked up slightly, and he covertly tightened his grip on an inconspicuous little object in his hand.

Two hours ago, he had used Lin Luo to threaten Zhou Wan into staying behind to accompany him alone.

After the two walked far away, Wei An went to the door and watched their retreating figures from afar. The sunlight poured onto the concrete ground that had just been sprinkled with water, gleaming brightly like a golden avenue.

“What do you want to do?” Zhou Wan spoke from behind him.

He always wore that high and mighty expression, full of arrogance, unable to hold anyone within those sanpaku eyes.

Wei An reined in his vacancy, replaced it with a smile, walked up to him, and gently tugged the drawstring on Zhou Wan’s hoodie. “What else could I want to do?”

He pointed at Zhou Wan and said jokingly, “Of course, I want to have you.”

Zhou Wan cast a faint glance at the drawstring gripped in his hand, shifted his gaze upward, and extended his hand. “Hand it over.”

“What?” Wei An played dumb.

“You decided to use that photo to make me stay behind because you were certain it could serve as a threat against me.”

Zhou Wan closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. “Since it wasn’t a spontaneous whim, it must have been planned long ago. As for your intentions, I have no interest in them, and I can guarantee you won’t be able to harm Lin Luo or me. But the photo…”

He paused. When he opened his eyes again, his previously calm gaze had already flared with ruthlessness. “Please hand it over.”

Wei An glanced at the extended hand, smiled lightly, and pushed it away. “You two really are alike.”

He murmured a lower sentence, “Maybe even the ending will be the same.”

Wei An said, “Do you want to make a bet with me?”

“Why should I bet with you?” Zhou Wan said.

“Because I bet Lin Luo doesn’t like you. No, that’s wrong,” the smile remained on Wei An’s lips, but his eyes gradually turned cold. “I am certain Lin Luo cannot possibly like you.”

Zhou Wan let out a cold snort, finding it utterly ridiculous. “Do I need you to be certain?”

Wei An held the photo up in front of him and pointed at the person inside. “This is the first man Lin Luo ever liked.”

“He’s a male Omega. You should know,” Wei An continued. “Liking a male Omega had already caused enough trouble to break the peace in his household.”

He swept his gaze up and down Zhou Wan. “Take a guess, can he accept you, an Alpha pretending to be an Omega?”

“You!” Zhou Wan clenched his fists in secret, gritted his teeth, and turned his head away. “It has nothing to do with you.”

“So do you want to bet with me?” Wei An changed the angle and brandished the photo in front of him again, even shaking it a few times.

With those few shakes, the smiles of the two people became more vivid and concrete, further stinging Zhou Wan’s fragile jealousy.

Only after a long while did a few words squeeze out from between Zhou Wan’s teeth. “What are we betting?”

Belatedly, the corners of Wei An’s lips curved up as he murmured, “Let’s bet on your weight in his heart.”

“If you win, the photo is yours.” He pulled out a grave relocation coordination document from his phone. “This will also belong to you two.”

Lin Shen’s name appeared clearly upon it, with all signing procedures complete. This was a complete agreement, one that could truly allow Lin Shen to return to his roots.

“And I will disappear from your sight forever.”

“Conversely, if I win,” Wei An’s gaze went dim, and he stared blankly at the shattered, vividly colored camellias on the ground, saying infatuatedly, “it will prove that the rules of ABO are absolutely accurate, true love cannot exist between the same dynamic.”

At the same time, an overbearing scent of camellias abruptly broke into Zhou Wan’s perception. Zhou Wan frowned, instinctively turning his head slightly to the side to distance himself from the scent.

“At that time, you will have to admit that you are anomalies, anomalies just like me,” Wei An said.

Zhou Wan was stunned, suddenly wondering whether Wei An’s madness was real or fake.

He pondered for quite a while before saying, “Deal.”