“Moonlight Allure” - Chapter 2

“Why?” A ripple of emotion finally disturbed the stillness in Xiao Nianru’s eyes.

Jiang Xueyin’s lashes trembled. “I want to redraft the divorce agreement.”

“Xueyin, stalling is pointless,” Xiao Nianru replied, her patience wearing thin. “If you refuse a mutual settlement, I’ll be forced to take this to court.” She didn’t want things to get ugly; as a public figure, her Weibo header was still a photo of the two of them, and her manager, Li Han, was still in the dark about the impending split.

“It’s not that.” Jiang Xueyin shook her head slowly. “I’m serious. I can’t accept the terms you’ve offered. Give me two days; I’ll provide a new agreement.”

“Fine.” Xiao Nianru tucked the documents back into her bag and turned to leave.

Jiang Xueyin bit her lip, unable to stop herself from calling out: “Niannian.”

Xiao Nianru froze and looked back, the confusion in her eyes deepening. “What is it?”

“Nothing. I just wanted to say your name.” Jiang Xueyin’s voice was soft, reminiscent of the fans she’d seen in videos, screaming themselves hoarse just to have Xiao Nianru look their way for a fleeting second.

A faint, almost imperceptible sigh escaped Xiao Nianru’s lips. She turned to walk away again.

“Can I, can I have one last hug?” Jiang Xueyin asked, her voice laced with a cautious, fragile hope. “Just for a moment.”

Xiao Nianru glanced at the Affection Rating floating above Jiang Xueyin’s head and gave a small nod of assent.

The next second, Jiang Xueyin dove into her arms. The faint, elusive scent of lily of the valley drifted past her nose. She was holding her again. This embrace felt just as warm and grounding as the Xiao Nianru she remembered from her past life.

Overwhelmed by the moment, tears escaped her eyes and dampened Xiao Nianru’s shoulder. She quickly pulled away, messily wiping her face and forcing a smile. “Niannian, you should stay here. This isn’t a plea for you to stay married to me, I’ll give you the freedom you want. But this is your house. If anyone leaves, it should be me.”

“You stay. I have an event to get to; I need to go.” Xiao Nianru looked at the tears on Jiang Xueyin’s face. Her gaze remained soft, but her tone was tinged with a clinical detachment. She offered no hint of where she was going.

As the door closed, the light in Jiang Xueyin’s eyes dimmed several shades. The sprawling villa was now silent, save for her. Usually, they had a cook, Auntie Zhang, and a cleaner, Auntie Zhao, but the “scumbag Alpha” had sent them away to clear the stage for her original, heinous plan.

She collapsed onto the sofa. As she caught sight of the ceiling chandelier, the blood seemed to rush to her head. A horrific memory replayed on a loop: the awards ceremony, the falling light, the impact. Blood staining the red carpet a darker, visceral crimson. It had been a live broadcast; the footage was burned into the internet’s collective memory.

Jiang Xueyin closed her eyes, agony radiating through every nerve. Suddenly, a fresh, elegant scent of lily of the valley filled the air. She turned her head and saw a translucent, cream-colored shawl draped over the sofa. She picked it up and inhaled; the fragrance was identical to the one she’d smelled during the hug.

Is this an Omega’s pheromones?

As a former Beta, Jiang Xueyin had never been able to smell pheromones before. Knowing this was Xiao Nianru’s scent sent a surge of fierce, complicated emotion through her chest.

She took a cold shower to clear her head, but her mind was a gallery of Xiao Nianru. Because her memories were still fractured, they only surfaced when triggered. In the bathroom, flashes of the “scumbag Alpha’s” past interactions with Xiao Nianru surfaced, making her pulse with a maddening, localized jealousy.

She finished her shower in a rush and began stripping the bedroom of every photograph of them together. Only after hours of physical labor did her heart begin to quiet.

She lay in bed, her heart still racing. She rolled over and caught a lingering, faint trace of lilies on the other pillow. After stripping the sheets, she kept only that one pillow, clutching it to her chest. Bathed in that fading scent, she finally drifted off.

The next morning, the scent was gone. Pheromones rarely lasted more than a week on physical objects. She let go of the pillow and stared out the window. The sunlight peeking through the curtains was harsh.

She checked her phone. A notification popped up: “How did it go last night?”

The message was from her cousin, Song Siyuan, a textbook “trash Alpha.” He was the one who had dragged the original host to bars to “drown her sorrows” with hired company. He was also the one who had provided the inducement drug to “fix” her marriage.

Jiang Xueyin’s mind snapped into sharp, angry focus as she scrolled through other chats. “Absolute scum,” she hissed through gritted teeth.

Xiao Nianru was pinned at the top, but beneath her was a sea of ambiguous flings and inappropriate conversations. If the cousin was responsible for the drugs, these chats were proof enough that the original host had been emotionally unfaithful long ago.

Infuriated, she deleted every single contact. But the feeling of “dirtiness” remained. She decided right then to get a new SIM card and a fresh account. If she was going to be here, she was going to start over properly.

After a light touch of makeup, she headed out. She ignored the car in the driveway; despite having a license in her past life, she hadn’t driven much and didn’t want to deal with peak-hour traffic.

She hit the service center for a new card and a new phone, then headed straight to a law firm for a consultation. As she walked through the door, she ran straight into a familiar face: Song Siyuan. He looked “human” enough in his crisp suit, but Jiang Xueyin knew the rot that lived inside.

“Yo, cousin! What brings you here?” Song Siyuan smirked, rubbing his chin. “Don’t tell me you’re actually going through with the divorce. Why didn’t you answer my texts last night? Was the ‘stuff’ I gave you a dud? That shouldn’t be right, it was the latest version.”

Jiang Xueyin’s fists tightened. She might not be able to go back in time and beat some sense into her “scumbag” predecessor, but she could certainly settle the score with this piece of trash.

In her past life, she had taken up judo in her second year of working. Without hesitation, she lunged forward, grabbing Song Siyuan by the collar and pinning him against the wall.

Song Siyuan’s head hit the drywall with a dull thud. “Ow! What the hell are you doing?” he yelped, staring at her in bewilderment.

In his eyes, his Alpha cousin had always been useless. Before her secondary differentiation, everyone assumed she would become an Omega, her face was practically built for it. Even her pheromones were orange-scented. While common, an orange-scented Alpha was a rarity; most Alphas possessed aggressive, heavy scents, like hard liquor or woodfire.

“Can’t you tell?” Jiang Xueyin’s face was shadowed, her voice dropping to a cold, deliberate whisper. “This is exactly what you deserve.”

As their eyes locked, Song Siyuan felt a chill crawl up his spine. His legs began to tremble. Just as Jiang Xueyin was about to deliver a blow, the sound of a familiar voice drifted from down the hall.

“Alright, let’s leave it at that. Thank you.”

The voice came from a meeting room that had just opened. A flash of inspiration hit Jiang Xueyin. She released Song Siyuan, let out a sharp cry of alarm, and threw herself onto the floor, looking for all the world like she had been shoved.

Song Siyuan stood there, frozen like a statue, his face a giant question mark.

Disturbed by the noise, Xiao Nianru turned her head. The first thing she saw was Jiang Xueyin with an 84% Affection Rating glowing above her head. Her eyes flickered with a strange emotion as she walked over. She glanced at the cowering Song Siyuan before reaching down to help Jiang Xueyin up.

“What happened?”

“He was saying such horrible things about you,” Jiang Xueyin said, pouting as her eyes welled up with tears. She looked exactly like a pitiful, bullied puppy. “I tried to tell him to stop, but then he hit me and pushed me down!”

“Bullsh*t!” Song Siyuan’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. “I didn’t say anything! I didn’t touch her! She’s the one who attacked.”

Attorney Xu, who had followed Xiao Nianru out of the room, cut him off with a cold glare. “Do not make a scene in this office.”

Song Siyuan choked on his words.

“Niannian, he’s lying. You know I’ve never raised a hand against anyone,” Jiang Xueyin said pitiably. She reached out, her finger tentatively hooking around Xiao Nianru’s pinky.

Song Siyuan isn’t a “person,” she thought. In the original novel, he was the Alpha’s accomplice and was eventually sent to prison for dealing illicit substances.

Xiao Nianru subtly withdrew her hand and looked at Song Siyuan. Her voice was ice. “Apologize.”

A surge of joy hit Jiang Xueyin’s heart. Xiao Nianru had chosen to believe her without a second thought.

Song Siyuan stared at them in disbelief. After a moment, he snapped. “Fine! You two are just messing with me, aren’t you? Am I just part of your twisted roleplay? F*ck this!”

He turned and stormed out, cursing under his breath. No one moved to stop him.

“Niannian,” Jiang Xueyin whispered, “Are you here to redraft the divorce agreement?”

Xiao Nianru regained her composure and gave a soft nod. “And you?”

“Let’s discuss it together,” Jiang Xueyin suggested.

“Alright.”

Jiang Xueyin, Xiao Nianru, and Attorney Xu sat in a small, private conference room. Since Attorney Xu already understood Xiao Nianru’s position, the focus shifted to Jiang Xueyin.

“I don’t want the house. I don’t want the savings,” Jiang Xueyin stated.

Xiao Nianru’s gaze was gentle but unreadable, a mirror that reflected nothing of her true thoughts.

“Are you certain?” Attorney Xu asked, a hint of shock breaking through his professional facade. “You want to walk away with nothing?”

The two had been married for three years. While the Alpha had done nothing, Xiao Nianru had worked tirelessly. Their marital assets were substantial. By the original terms, Jiang Xueyin would have walked away wealthy.

“I’m certain.” Jiang Xueyin didn’t look at the lawyer. Her eyes were fixed on Xiao Nianru’s calm face.

It was a divorce, yet Xiao Nianru was so serene, as if they were discussing the weather. It reminded Jiang Xueyin of her own parents’ divorce back in high school—the screaming, the smashed furniture, the bitter court battles. Neither of them had wanted her. Eventually, the judge had handed her over to her mother, a Beta who was only slightly better off. It was that crushing sense of being unwanted that had led her to the school pond that night, the night she met Xiao

Nianru.

Xiao Nianru frowned, about to protest the lopsided deal, but Jiang Xueyin spoke first.

“But, I do have one condition.”