The Alpha’s Hidden Marriage, Public Obsession - Chapter 29

Lin Yulan drove straight home and locked herself in her room without coming out.

Her mind kept replaying Jiang Xue’s mocking words from the car. “What a shame, Qu Mengxin doesn’t want you. She didn’t even say goodbye before leaving the country. Who knows, maybe she’s already rolling around with some other Alpha…”

“Little Lin, sometimes you have to face reality. No matter how much you refuse to accept it, it’s still the truth. If Qu Mengxin truly cared about you, no matter how much her parents tried to keep you apart, she would have found a way back to you. But all these years have passed, and she hasn’t even had someone reach out to you. That just means, Qu Mengxin never had you in her heart to begin with.”

Everything Jiang Xue said was, in fact, correct. If Qu Mengxin had truly cared about her, there was no way she wouldn’t have tried to contact her even once in all these years. The absence of any attempt could only mean one thing, Qu Mengxin didn’t love her as much as she had imagined.

No matter how much she didn’t want to believe it.

Lin Yulan curled up on the bed, hugging her knees. Her phone lay beside her, the screen flickering intermittently someone was trying to reach her, but she didn’t feel like talking to anyone right now.

Downstairs, the butler and the servants were busy, occasionally glancing up toward the second floor. The moment Lin Yulan had walked in, everyone could tell the young mistress was in a bad mood. No one dared to approach her at a time like this, not even offering words of comfort. They just whispered among themselves, wondering if she had been wronged outside, which would explain her terrible expression.

But based on the butler’s lifelong understanding of Lin Yulan, whether others could bully her was debatable given her carefree personality, it was unlikely she’d let herself be taken advantage of. So he reassured the staff not to worry.

Before long, her phone rang.

Lin Yulan glanced at it, Xia Ran was calling.

Normally, she would have answered immediately, but today, she was in no mood. She let the call ring until it disconnected on its own.

But Xia Ran clearly had something urgent to discuss. When the first call went unanswered, she immediately dialed again.

One of Lin Yulan’s better traits was that she never took her emotions out on others except with Jiang Xue. So after taking a deep breath and forcing herself to steady her mood, she picked up the phone and swiped to answer.

“Hey, what’s up?”

“Where are you right now?”

Hearing the subdued tone in Lin Yulan’s voice, Xia Ran became even more certain of her suspicions. The two must have had a huge fight over Qu Mengxin, and now Lin Yulan was sulking. Otherwise, given how quickly she usually answered Xia Ran’s calls, there was no way she wouldn’t have responded right away.

Lin Yulan had always been completely open with Xia Ran, so she answered truthfully, “At home.”

Just as she thought.

Xia Ran watched Jiang Xue’s retreating figure before asking, “Didn’t you ask me to help track down Jiang Xue’s address? Why didn’t you go back with her?”

Lin Yulan didn’t want to hear Jiang Xue’s name right now, just the mention of it made her blood boil. “Why are you asking about her? You never cared about her before, so why the sudden interest? Can’t you show some concern for your best friend instead? We’re supposed to be the ultimate duo, got it?”

Xia Ran ignored her comment and instead said, “I gave Jiang Xue a ride back to school.”

Lin Yulan: “…”

The other end of the call fell completely silent.

Lin Yulan clearly didn’t want to discuss anything related to Jiang Xue. After nearly five minutes of silence, she finally asked, “You ran into her?”

“Yeah,” Xia Ran replied. “The road was under construction today, so she couldn’t get a taxi and was walking along it. I happened to be driving back from the office and saw her.”

No taxis on that road?

When Lin Yulan had angrily driven off earlier, she hadn’t noticed that detail. She’d just assumed that with so many cabs around especially since it wasn’t the middle of the night, it wouldn’t be hard to hail one.

“While she was in the car, she asked me something,” Xia Ran continued, deciding to bring it up. “She asked if the reason you helped her back then was because of her face.”

Lin Yulan froze, a sudden unease creeping into her chest. “Why would she suddenly ask you that? What… what did you tell her?”

Xia Ran answered truthfully, “I told her exactly what you told me back then.”

“And… then?”

“Then what?”

Lin Yulan hesitated. Maybe it was just her imagination, but she felt like Xia Ran knew exactly what she was asking yet refused to lay everything out at once. “What was her reaction?”

Instead of answering, Xia Ran countered, “What reaction were you hoping for?”

The question caught Lin Yulan off guard.

Right, why did she care about Jiang Xue’s reaction?

Logically, Jiang Xue’s response shouldn’t matter to her at all. And yet, for some reason, Lin Yulan couldn’t help but want to know how Jiang Xue had taken those words.

Almost as if… Jiang Xue’s reaction was important to her.

“Why would I hope for anything? I was just asking casually,” Lin Yulan deflected stubbornly. “So? After you told her what you said, how did she react?”

This time, it was Xia Ran’s turn to go silent.

Truthfully, ever since running into Jiang Xue and especially after Qu Mengxin left, Xia Ran had been struggling to understand Lin Yulan’s true feelings toward Jiang Xue.

If Lin Yulan had helped Jiang Xue solely because of her resemblance to Qu Mengxin, then her behavior was far too subdued, she didn’t seem like someone who was projecting Qu Mengxin onto Jiang Xue. After all, being able to clearly distinguish between the two suggested that Lin Yulan didn’t actually see them as similar.

But if it wasn’t because of Jiang Xue’s face, then Lin Yulan’s willingness to help her must have stemmed from something else. So why, even now, couldn’t Lin Yulan recognize her own feelings?

Her sister had once told her that some people loved without realizing it. But the way Lin Yulan was acting now? It didn’t seem like unconscious love at all.

“Whatever reaction you imagine Jiang Xue had, that’s the one she had.”

“Huh?”

Lin Yulan let out a half-amused, half-exasperated sigh. “What kind of answer is that? ‘Whatever I imagine’?”

Not in the mood to argue, Xia Ran cut to the chase. “Jiang Xue thinks the things you said about admiring her were just excuses you made up for yourself.”

Lin Yulan was taken aback. Just as she was about to explain, Xia Ran continued, “She must have been crying for a long time. When I let her into my car, her eyes were terribly red. As for why she suddenly brought this up… Yulan, perhaps you’ve been wrong all along.”

Lin Yulan was completely baffled. “I’m wrong? How am I wrong? I didn’t bully her, this is her problem! How does that make me the one in the wrong?!”

Xia Ran was somewhat exasperated on the other end of the line. Anyone with half a brain wouldn’t focus on that. Lin Yulan had at least been in a relationship before, how could she still not see this?

So Xia Ran had to repeat herself: “Jiang Xue cried in my car.”

This time, Lin Yulan finally caught on. “Wh-what? You said she cried?”

But why would Jiang Xue cry?

Today, it was Lin Yulan who had been mocked and ridiculed, she was the one who should be crying!

What did Jiang Xue have to cry about?!

She hadn’t bullied Jiang Xue. If Jiang Xue hadn’t deliberately provoked the topic, Lin Yulan wouldn’t have said such harsh things in the first place!

“So what? You don’t actually think I made her cry, do you?!” Lin Yulan argued. “Do you have any idea what awful things she said to me today? She mocked me, saying Qu Mengxin abandoned me, that Qu Mengxin never liked me at all that if she had, she wouldn’t have gone all these years without reaching out. That it was all just me being delusional. I just got too angry and yelled at her a couple of times. If she cried over that, then she’s just playing the victim!”

Xia Ran didn’t know what to say anymore. Should she praise Lin Yulan for remaining so naive at her age, or should she criticize her for having zero romantic awareness, what people called being “straight as an alpha”? She had already spelled it out so clearly, yet Lin Yulan was still fixated on the idea that Jiang Xue’s tears had nothing to do with her!

“Yulan, there’s something I really want to ask you.”

“What is it?”

Xia Ran chose her words carefully. “Back when you were dating Qu Mengxin… did the two of you ever fight?”

Lin Yulan thought about it. She and Qu Mengxin had never had a full-blown argument, but they had certainly had their share of disagreements though they were always minor, so she usually brushed them off. Now that Xia Ran brought it up, Lin Yulan remembered. “Why are you asking me this?”

Xia Ran said, “Answer me first, then I’ll explain.”

Lin Yulan hesitated for a long moment before replying, “Mengxin and I couldn’t have fought. You know how much I loved her, that kind of thing just didn’t happen.”

“Then let me rephrase: Did you ever have disagreements with her?”

“…”

“Silence means yes.”

“…Even married couples fight sometimes. What’s the big deal about a few disagreements?”

Xia Ran ignored her deflection and pressed on. “What were those disagreements about?”

Finally sensing something was off, Lin Yulan refused outright. “Why are you suddenly asking me about past disagreements with Mengxin? What does this have to do with Jiang Xue?”

Xia Ran replied, “It has everything to do with her. Now answer me.”

“Then tell me what the connection is?” Lin Yulan truly couldn’t see any relation between the two. She felt this was just Xia Ran trying to trick her into talking!

Left with no choice, Xia Ran had to spell it out directly: “Yulan, after all I’ve said, haven’t you realized yet? Jiang Xue genuinely likes you. The only reason she agreed to marry you at your mother’s request is because she loves you, not because she covets your family’s status or wealth.”

Lin Yulan froze completely. “W-what do you mean?”

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