The Alpha’s Hidden Marriage, Public Obsession - Chapter 33

Ye Jing was stunned by Lin Yulan’s outburst, frozen in place for a long moment without recovering. Her eyes stared blankly at Lin Yulan, not daring to say a word.

Perhaps Lin Yulan herself realized she had spoken too harshly. After all, Ye Jing was an Omega, and as an Alpha, she ought to be more gentlemanly toward Omegas.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to snap at you,” Lin Yulan said. “I just wanted to tell you that Jiang Xue isn’t the kind of person you think she is. Qu Mengxin leaving me to study abroad had nothing to do with Jiang Xue.”

If it had, how could she have tolerated it until now? How could she have agreed to marry Jiang Xue? She would have long since retaliated fiercely.

Ye Jing finally began to regain her composure and quickly explained, “Lan-jie, that’s not what I meant either. I was just voicing my doubts, I never actually said it was because of her. If you don’t want me to call her that, then I’ll just use her name. But you didn’t even consider how hurt and upset I’d feel when you yelled at me like that.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to,” Lin Yulan said sincerely.

At times like this, she definitely couldn’t just brush it off with a casual “it’s fine.” Ye Jing knew Lin Yulan well, if she said it was fine, Lin Yulan would take it at face value and move on without another thought.

She needed Lin Yulan to feel genuine remorse, to believe she had truly misunderstood her.

“Lan-jie, you’ve always known that no matter what, I’m on your side,” Ye Jing said, her voice trembling with grievance. “Before, when you said you hated Jiang Xue and wanted to find evidence of her having… romantic entanglements with others, I did my best to help you. I never targeted anyone. For me, whoever you dislike or hate, I dislike and hate them too. But now? Here I am, standing by your side, and you suddenly take Jiang Xue’s side and yell at me without even hearing me out. Lan-jie, you’re really too much.”

As she spoke, tears began rolling down Ye Jing’s cheeks.

The waiter, witnessing the scene, tactfully handed over a pack of tissues without a word.

Ye Jing murmured a thanks, pulled out a tissue, and began furiously dabbing at her eyes.

Her eyes had been perfectly normal before, and a few tears wouldn’t have been a big deal. But under the relentless rubbing of the tissue, her eyelids quickly turned red, making her look utterly pitiful.

Lin Yulan was already in a foul mood, and seeing an Omega cry in front of her only made her feel worse. Guilt gnawed at her for having taken her frustrations out on Ye Jing. “I… I’m sorry. It’s my fault I shouldn’t have lashed out at you. Please don’t cry.”

But her apology only made Ye Jing cry harder. Tears fell like broken pearls, unstoppable.

“I just thought… after all these years of knowing each other, Lan-jie still doesn’t understand what kind of person I am. Do I really seem that terrible to you?”

Lin Yulan wished she could go back in time and slap her past self. She hadn’t expected her reaction to someone badmouthing Jiang Xue to be so intense it was like she was a completely different person from before.

But she truly didn’t mean to say it, she just couldn’t hold back. Ye Jing’s words were like a thorn piercing her heart, making her extremely uncomfortable.

To be honest, though, Ye Jing’s reaction was understandable. After all, it was Lin Yulan herself who had told Ye Jing that she hated Jiang Xue and had even humiliated Jiang Xue in front of her. Ye Jing was merely following her lead. If anyone was to blame, it was Lin Yulan.

“You… stop crying, it’s all my fault. I’ll apologize to you!” Lin Yulan pulled another tissue from the pack and handed it to Ye Jing, even helping her wipe her tears. “Look at you, your makeup’s all ruined from crying. If you keep this up, you won’t look pretty anymore. Come on, don’t cry. It’s all my fault. If you want… you can slap me!”

¤

Ye Jing finally managed to stop her tears. She looked at Lin Yulan, her voice trembling with sobs. “Why would I slap you? If I hit you and Jiang Xue saw it later, she’d definitely think I did something to you and come after me.”

But the truth was, Jiang Xue wouldn’t care whether she was hurt or not. She had already blocked her on all communication platforms, how could she possibly care if someone hit her?

“She wouldn’t!” Lin Yulan said. “I know Jiang Xue she’s reasonable. She wouldn’t just assume you hurt me just because she saw a mark on my face. Besides, I have so many friends, and she doesn’t have any prejudice against you. Why would she immediately think it was you?”

Ye Jing sniffled, still hiccupping. “E-even so, I couldn’t actually slap you. I just… I just feel wronged. Your attitude toward teaching wasn’t like this before. Lan-jie, tell me the truth… have you… fallen for her?”

Lin Yulan fell silent. She didn’t know the answer to that question. Over the past few days, she had thought a lot, replaying Xia Ran’s words to her over and over in her mind. But she truly didn’t know whether what she felt for Jiang Xue now could be called love.

“Lan-jie, look me in the eyes and tell me have you fallen for Jiang Xue?”

“I… I…”

“Yes or no, Lan-jie. Just say it outright, is it yes or no?”

“I don’t know.”

Lin Yulan turned her head away, picked up her glass, and downed the strong liquor in one gulp. The burning sensation exploded in her throat, making her cough violently.

Ye Jing quickly patted her back. “If you’ve fallen for Jiang Xue, then what about Mengxin-jie? Aren’t you going to wait for her anymore? What if Mengxin-jie still likes you? Wouldn’t that be unfair to her?”

“Cough! cough!”

Lin Yulan coughed so hard from the alcohol that she had to ask the waiter for a glass of water. Once she had mostly recovered, she finally spoke. “It wouldn’t be unfair to her.”

“What?”

Ye Jing couldn’t believe her ears. Lin Yulan had cared so much about Qu Mengxin before, how could she say something like that now?

What kind of bewitching spell had that bitch Jiang Xue cast to change Qu Mengxin’s place in Lin Yulan’s heart in such a short time?

“Qu Mengxin was the one who left without a word back then. Do you know, Ye Jing? When she left, she blocked me on every platform. I couldn’t reach her, so I went to her house to look for her.”

“And then?”

“And then…” Lin Yulan let out a self-deprecating laugh. “Actually, that day when I went to her house to look for her, I knew Qu Mengxin hadn’t left yet. I stood downstairs, staring at her bedroom window, and saw Qu Mengxin looking down at me from inside. But no matter how much I shouted from below, she just wouldn’t come down to see me one last time.”

Ye Jing seemed lost in thought, not out of surprise but for another reason. “Sister Mengxin refused to see you, Sister Lan? How could that be? It must have been her parents stopping her from coming down!”

Lin Yulan shook her head with a bitter smile. “No, it was her own choice. Ye Jing, do you know? I even ran upstairs afterward and kept calling for her outside the door. I told her that if she wanted to study abroad, it was fine I wouldn’t stand in her way. No matter what decision she made, I’d support her. But after talking outside that door for over an hour, even her parents grew impatient, and she still didn’t come out to see me.”

“So, I always believed that she didn’t come out because her parents must have said something to her, forcing her to act that way. But now, when I think about it carefully if she had loved me as much as I loved her, even if her parents warned or threatened her, she could’ve at least come out to say a few words to me.”

She had always resented anyone who suggested Qu Mengxin didn’t love her, who doubted Qu Mengxin’s feelings. She’d even argued with Ming Zelan over it countless times. Now, it seemed she just hadn’t wanted to accept the truth. She had kept hypnotizing herself into believing otherwise, and over time, she had truly convinced herself.

“Sister Lan, but we can’t completely rule out the possibility that Sister Mengxin couldn’t come out because of something her parents said.”

“Maybe.”

But none of that mattered anymore. So many years had passed she really needed to learn to let go.

Lin Yulan ordered another glass of the same strong liquor from the bartender and downed it in one go. “In any case, I never wronged her. All those years after she left, I kept myself pure I didn’t even glance at another Omega. Even when Omega friends invited me out to eat or drink, I was afraid I’d do something to betray her if I got drunk, so I often turned them down. Ye Jing, I never failed her. She’s the one who failed me. She’s the one who was unfair to me.”

The more she spoke, the more agitated Lin Yulan became, and the more she drank, glass after glass burning down her throat. She didn’t even know how much she’d had, only that the alcohol was so strong it stung, making her eyes water. She just kept talking, kept drinking, letting the liquor numb everything so she wouldn’t have to feel the pain.

Ye Jing pretended to stop her. “Sister Lan, don’t drink anymore. You’ve had too much!”

“I want to drink!” Lin Yulan swayed unsteadily. “Ye Jing, today we’re drinking until we’re satisfied no stopping until we’re drunk!”

A faint smirk curled at Ye Jing’s lips as she signaled the bartender to keep mixing. “Alright, if that’s what Sister Lan wants, then I’ll keep you company.”

But though she said she’d keep her company, Ye Jing only took small sips, watching as Lin Yulan poured glass after glass down her throat.

The waiter was about to intervene when she saw what was happening, but as soon as she opened her mouth, Ye Jing stopped her, spinning a web of lies to convince the waiter.

In the end, Lin Yulan had drunk far too much and couldn’t hold on any longer, collapsing face-down onto the bar counter.

Ye Jing called out to her a few times, but when Lin Yulan didn’t respond, a faint smirk curled at the corners of her lips. She immediately stood up, hoisting Lin Yulan’s arms over her shoulders, then casually pulled a few hundred yuan from her bag and tossed it in front of the waiter. With a tone of unmistakable satisfaction, she said, “Keep the change.”

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