Resisting Arranged Marriages: Starting with Myself - Chapter 1

“Mom, I’m home!”

Before the mechanical “Hello, please come in” of the smart lock could finish, Le Xiao’s cheerful voice rang out at the doorway.

After dragging his suitcase inside, he left it standing haphazardly against the wall. He kicked off his shoes so they lay crookedly in the entryway and tossed his hat, sunglasses, and coat onto the shoe cabinet in a messy heap. A moment later, a figure dashed into the living room, took a flying leap to bury himself in the sofa, and grabbed a throw pillow to hug. “I’m exhausted!”

Wen Yan smiled as she ruffled her son’s hair. “The tour must have worn you out. Dinner will be ready soon.”

Le Xiao buried his face deep into the pillow and took a long sniff. “Mom, did we change the room fragrance again? This smells amazing.”

The pillow in his arms exuded a rich, crisp scent of cedarwood, reminding Le Xiao of a log cabin on a snowy night: the sky filled with swirling flakes, pine trees covered in white, and a crackling fire in the fireplace.

As he marveled at the scent, he rolled around restlessly, only to bump straight into something warm, firm, and elastic. It felt like abdominal muscles.

Stunned, he looked up and unexpectedly locked eyes with a pair of bright, gentle eyes watching him with a hint of a smile through thin lenses. Startled, Le Xiao shot up into a proper sitting position and squeezed out an awkward smile. “Hello.”

He secretly shot Wen Yan a look, blaming her for not warning him that a guest was over.

“Hello, my name is Ye Jiming,” the stranger said, extending a hand.

The Alpha’s voice was low and mellow, like a fine vintage wine, and it matched his cedar-scented pheromones perfectly.

“Le Xiao,” Le Xiao replied, shaking his hand politely.

Wen Yan’s amused voice sounded beside them. “You two met when you were little. Xiao Xiao, do you remember? we even set an arranged marriage for you back then.”

“What?!”

It felt like a bolt from the blue, leaving his head spinning and his ears ringing. The smile on his face had not even had time to fade; it simply froze at the corners of his mouth as if turned to ice. Le Xiao’s shocked gaze darted between his mother and Ye Jiming, but he saw only doting affection and calm composure.

It turned out they all knew. He was the only one kept in the dark, left feeling like a shocked and bewildered fool.

But he was only twenty. He had just reached the legal marriageable age for an Omega. He was young, beautiful, successful, and talented; everyone praised him. He had the love and adoration of millions of fans, he had written and performed chart-topping albums, and he had not even been in a relationship yet. His life still held infinite possibilities. And now, an arranged fiancé suddenly appeared out of nowhere to tell him he was getting married?

It was not until his father, Le Jiancheng, let out a pointed cough that he managed to snap back to reality, forcing his flustered self back into his usual lively and cheerful persona.

The atmosphere at the dinner table was strange and eerie. Although Le Xiao tried his best to act as usual—cheerfully recounting the various interesting things that happened during his months on tour—he still could not control himself. He intentionally or unintentionally avoided all eye contact with Ye Jiming.

Sitting next to Le Xiao, Ye Jiming was like a transparent person with no presence. He listened silently when Le Xiao spoke and ate his meal quietly without saying another word.

Half an hour later, Le Xiao finally tired of talking and picked up his bowl to eat. A pair of chopsticks reached over at the perfect moment, gently placing a piece of braised pork into his bowl. “Eat more meat.”

The braised pork was a perfect mix of lean and fat, coated in a bright, thick red sauce that gave off a rich aroma. The white fat had been rendered translucent, appearing soft and elastic when pressed with chopsticks.

However, as Le Xiao looked at the greasy sheen of the meat in his bowl and thought of its chewy texture and the mouthful of oil, he felt nauseated. He whispered a “Thank you” but surreptitiously pushed the braised pork to the very edge of the bowl, quietly burying it under his rice. Out of sight, out of mind. Afterward, he even gave the surface of his rice a few light strokes with his chopsticks, seemingly out of a sense of distaste.

Ye Jiming saw all of these little movements, and his heart sank for no reason, feeling as heavy as a thousand pounds.

After dinner, the two younger men stood up to clear the dishes. Ye Jiming stole a glance into Le Xiao’s bowl and saw that the piece of braised pork still lay quietly at the bottom, exactly as it had been when first placed there. Even the small circle of rice surrounding the pork remained untouched.

After clearing the table and accompanying Le Jiancheng for two cups of tea, Ye Jiming stood up to take his leave.

“The company still has some matters to attend to, so I will not stay longer today. I will come to visit you both another day.” His suit jacket was draped over his arm as he pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses and bowed slightly to the two elders.

“Alright, go on then, get to work,” Wen Yan said with a smile as she stood up, secretly shooting a frustrated glare at her son, who was brooding over his phone. “Xiao Xiao, go see Xiao Ye out.”

Reluctantly, Le Xiao grabbed his jacket and walked out with his head down, not saying a word and not caring if Ye Jiming was following. Along the way, his eyes remained downcast, watching the sparrows hopping and chirping by the roadside. He felt everything was meaningless; his heart was as cold as stone.

Upon reaching the community entrance, Le Xiao said a flat “Bye” and turned to head back.

“Xiao Xiao!” Unexpectedly, Ye Jiming called out to him. The tall, handsome Alpha thinned his lips, his gaze deep and intense as if trying to see through to his heart. “Do you hate me?”

There was an indescribable sadness in his voice.

“I do not,” Le Xiao said, closing his eyes. “We are not close. Also, I have hated meat since I was a kid, especially fatty meat. It is oily and shiny; it is sickening to look at.”

With that, he shoved his hands into his pockets and walked away without looking back.

Coming home felt like the calm before a storm. The air seemed to congeal into heavy clumps, pressing down on Le Xiao’s chest and making it hard to breathe. A wave of swelling, aching pain throbbed in the gland at the back of his neck, as if an invisible hand were repeatedly kneading and squeezing the delicate organ. This was accompanied by an uncontrollable leak of pheromones: a fresh scent of mint.

The pain in his gland was an old phenomenon that had accompanied Le Xiao since childhood, appearing at unpredictable times. When he was young, he had asked his mother for the reason, and Wen Yan had simply said, “It is because your gland is still developing, just like how your knees hurt when you are growing taller.”

Therefore, Le Xiao had always firmly believed that the aching pain in his gland was just part of growing pains—a required course in an Omega’s growth.

“You child, what was wrong with you today? You did not even talk to him. How rude.” Wen Yan’s soft reprimand made Le Xiao flinch, bringing him back to his senses.

Le Xiao looked into his mother’s eyes and took a breath, as if having made a decision. “Mom, I do not want to get married.”

He saw a flash of panic in his mother’s eyes, which was immediately replaced by a forced smile of disguise. “Silly child, what are you saying?”

“Is a marriage arranged since childhood something you can just call off now?” His father’s voice came from the sofa. Le Jiancheng did not have his wife’s good temper; his tone was as heavy as a volcano about to erupt. “If you want to go back on your word at the last minute, how are we supposed to explain this to the Ye family?”

“That is your problem!” Le Xiao suddenly shouted, the stinging in his nose reaching his eyes. “You never told me! You all knew, Ye Jiming knew, and I am the only one being manipulated like a fool! You never even asked me what I thought! What era is this? You are still doing arranged marriages!”

“Nonsense! Your wings have truly grown strong; you are becoming more and more undisciplined! If it were not because of what happened when you were little,” Le Jiancheng stood up in a rage, but was interrupted by his usually gentle wife.

“That is enough, Le Jiancheng! Say less!”

“You old dinosaur!” Le Xiao stormed out the door. From a distance, he could still hear his father’s roar behind him telling him not to come back if he left, along with his mother’s attempts to calm him down.

The twilight was heavy, and the night wind blew through Le Xiao’s thin clothes, giving him goosebumps. He pulled his phone out of his pocket, skillfully pulled up a number from his contacts, and dialed. “Hey, come out for a drink.”

“Le Xiao, are you crazy? It has only been a few hours since we parted at the airport. Can you not let me rest? Being your manager on tour is not enough; I have to accompany you for fun too?” The complaints over the receiver were mixed with the crackle of static, making them sound unclear.

“The usual place, hurry up.” Le Xiao cut him off and hung up immediately.

“What? Marriage? Now?!”

Inside the noisy bar, the lights were dim. The band on stage played ear-splitting rock music, and young men and women on the dance floor swayed their bodies wildly to the rhythm, singing and dancing their hearts out.

Amidst the deafening waves of sound, Xiang Nan almost had to tear his throat out to be heard. “Are your parents crazy? Getting married at twenty?!”

“I think so too, but what can I do?” Le Xiao propped his head up with one hand and tilted it back, draining another glass. Three or four empty glasses already sat before him, and his mind was becoming foggy.

“So, what do you plan to do now?” Xiang Nan asked.

“I do not know.” Le Xiao’s slender fingers gripped the empty glass, tapping it gently against the bar. “My father’s attitude is very firm; he insists I go through with this marriage. My mother has not said it explicitly, but she definitely wants me to marry too.”

As he spoke, he ruffled his hair. “It is so annoying.”

“If you ask me, whether this marriage happens or not mostly depends on that Ye Jiming.” Xiang Nan was two or three years older than Le Xiao and had a more flexible mind. “If he does not want to get married either, there is nothing to discuss. Your parents cannot exactly drag the two of you to the Civil Affairs Bureau, can they?”

“The problem is, he does want to,” Le Xiao said irritably. “The way he acted today—polite, chatting happily with my parents, does he look like someone who does not want to get married?”

“So here is the key point: you just need to make him change his mind!” Xiang Nan clapped his hands excitedly. “Look, you acted indifferent to him today and showed you were a picky eater. Why not strike while the iron is hot and create a difficult persona? He does not have any feelings for you anyway. Once you annoy him enough, he will naturally want to call off the wedding. Perfect!”

“A difficult person? But I am not really like that. If the news of the marriage had not been so sudden, I would not have acted that way today. It was very rude,” Le Xiao murmured.

“That is why I said it is a persona! Life is a play; it all depends on your acting once the mask is on!”

Le Xiao went silent, his fingertips tapping the bar as he carefully considered Xiang Nan’s words. Play the part of a diva until Ye Jiming cannot stand it and breaks the engagement? That actually sounded like a great idea.

Ye Jiming, just you wait. Let us see if I stop acting first, or if you run out of patience first.

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