The Alpha’s Hidden Marriage, Public Obsession - Chapter 36

Lin Yulan only realized that Xia Ran had called her after the bodyguards brought her home. Instinctively wanting to call Xia Ran to ask what she should do, she discovered her phone had been on silent Xia Ran had called over a dozen times, but all the calls had been automatically rejected.

Yet Lin Yulan clearly remembered that she never set her phone to silent, fearing she might miss calls from her mother, the Empress. Even in the most critical situations, she would never mute her phone.

So, this could only have been done by someone else. And today, the only person who could have touched her phone was Ye Jing.

It dawned on Lin Yulan belatedly what Ye Jing had really wanted from her today. But now, no matter what she said, what had happened had already happened, it was too late for words.

She dialed Xia Ran’s number but remained silent.

Xia Ran, relieved that the call had finally gone through, immediately asked anxiously, “What’s going on? Why didn’t you answer my calls for so long?”

There was still no response from the other end.

Xia Ran sensed something was wrong. Realizing what might have happened, she cut straight to the point: “Yulan, did you and Ye Jing…?”

But she couldn’t bring herself to finish the sentence. Whether or not Lin Yulan and Ye Jing had done what she suspected, voicing it outright was still too sensitive.

Surprisingly, Lin Yulan didn’t question how Xia Ran knew about her and Ye Jing. Instead, her voice was muffled, filled with confusion, as if she were talking to herself: “Xia Ran, what should I do?”

Truthfully, just as Ming Zelan had said, Lin Yulan had been sheltered too well and had rarely been exposed to the darker side of human nature. In her mind, anyone who showed her even the slightest kindness couldn’t possibly be a bad person.

As a result, Lin Yulan often relied on her instincts to make friends unfortunately, those instincts were like a car without GPS, veering wildly off course. She ended up surrounded by a pack of fair-weather friends who all seemed genuine on the surface but were actually scheming for a piece of the Lin family’s wealth.

As for Lin Yulan herself, Xia Ran didn’t know whether to describe her as naive, careless, or downright foolish. If it weren’t for the fact that Ming Zelan and Lin He were currently at the helm of the Lin Group, the family’s assets would have long been picked clean.

The little intelligence she did possess was never used on the right people.

Xia Ran sighed, realizing she was even more of a worrier than Ming Zelan when it came to this best friend of hers. “What do you mean, ‘what should I do?’ Did you really sleep with her?”

The two had always been blunt with each other, never mincing words or beating around the bush. So Xia Ran asked directly, and Lin Yulan answered just as frankly: “I don’t know.”

She covered her face with her hands, her voice trembling slightly. “I blacked out from drinking. I don’t remember what happened. When I woke up, my mom was standing right beside me. Xia Ran, what should I do?”

Xia Ran wanted to say, “I’ve told you so many times that Omega clearly had ulterior motives! You should’ve been more careful! And now look what happened!”

But there was no point in saying that now. What was done was done, and no amount of scolding would change anything.

“This matter have you told Jiang Xue yet?”

Lin Yulan fell silent for a long moment before answering with difficulty, “Not yet.”

“She’s your wife now, and something like this happens, yet you didn’t call her first?!” Xia Ran was furious but didn’t even know where to begin. Eventually, she sighed helplessly, “So how do you plan to explain this to her?”

“I don’t know!”

“You…!”

No wonder Jiang Xue was so disheartened. If it were her, she would’ve long since run off with another Alpha! Staying even a second longer with Lin Yulan would mean she’d lost!

No matter how close Xia Ran was to Lin Yulan, hearing such a response left her too angry to speak.

“What do you mean you don’t know?” Xia Ran’s voice involuntarily rose. “Do you know what kind of person says things like that? With that kind of talk, you’re nothing but a scumbag Alpha!”

Lin Yulan couldn’t refute Xia Ran’s words. The truth was, she really didn’t know who to turn to about this, and she knew asking wouldn’t help, but she still instinctively sought out Xia Ran.

Seeing her remain silent again, Xia Ran was genuinely tempted to hit someone. “I warned you a long time ago, didn’t I? That Omega hanging around you clearly had ulterior motives, but you insisted it was my fault, that I was biased against her. And now look what happened! Let me tell you, even if you call me, I won’t speak to Jiang Xue for you. This is your mess, your betrayal of Jiang Xue. What’s the point of calling me? Call me again only after you’ve fixed this. Goodbye!”

Beep beep beep!

Lin Yulan stared at the phone, now disconnected by Xia Ran, completely at a loss.

The butler and the servants didn’t dare ask what had happened. Seeing the bodyguard who usually stayed by Ming Zelan’s side escort her back, they knew it was serious far from the usual minor squabbles. They guessed Lin Yulan had likely caused some major trouble outside, and Ming Zelan had personally stepped in to clean up the mess.

So, they could only pretend nothing had happened and quietly carry on with their duties.

Ming Zelan didn’t return that night. It was unclear what she did after leaving. Lin Yulan stayed in her room, waiting until well past 1 a.m., but never heard Ming Zelan come home. Eventually, exhaustion overtook her, and she fell asleep clutching her phone.

The next morning, Lin Yulan woke up starving. She hadn’t eaten anything while drinking with Ye Jing the night before, and though her stomach had growled when she got home, she hadn’t had an appetite. She’d essentially gone half a day without food.

Just as she was about to get up and ask the housekeeper if there was anything to eat, she turned and saw Jiang Xue sitting silently on the edge of the bed, motionless and wordless.

So, when had Jiang Xue come in? And when had she sat down beside the bed? How had Lin Yulan not heard a thing?

“J-Jiang Xue, h-how did you get here?”

Normally, Lin Yulan’s voice would fill the entire bedroom, but guilt and shame made her speak in little more than a whisper.

“D-did my mom, ask you to come?”

There was no need to guess, it had to be Ming Zelan’s doing.

Jiang Xue sat with her back turned, her face expressionless, revealing neither joy nor anger, nor any hint of what she might be thinking. At Lin Yulan’s question, she merely responded with a quiet “Mm.”

Lin Yulan hated silence the most, and now, she couldn’t find a single word to say.

What could she say?

Should she tell Jiang Xue: “I slept with Ye Jing, but I didn’t mean to cheat on you. It wasn’t intentional, nor was it to force you into a divorce. I blacked out from drinking, so it happened without my knowledge”?

No one could bring themselves to say something like that.

“Jiang… Jiang Xue, I…”

“Don’t you have anything to say to me?”

The deathly silence in the room was finally broken by Jiang Xue’s icy voice, but it did nothing to ease the tension instead, the atmosphere grew even heavier.

Lin Yulan slowly shrank back into the corner. After Xia Ran hung up on her last night, she had spent the entire night thinking about what to say, how to explain. She had gone over it all in her head, but now, sitting face-to-face with Jiang Xue, she couldn’t utter a single word.

“I… I…”

Jiang Xue didn’t press her. She just found it bitterly amusing that in a situation like this, the first person to tell her wasn’t her own Alpha, but Ming Zelan.

Then again, it made sense. After their last unpleasant parting, it was only natural that Lin Yulan wouldn’t confide in her.

“About you and that Omega, Aunt Ming has already told me everything. She was the one who asked me to come this morning. Let’s get everything out in the open today so we don’t have unnecessary trouble later.”

Then Jiang Xue’s tone shifted. “I thought Young Mistress Lin would remain chaste for Qu Mengxin. Turns out, the ‘true love’ you always talked about is so fragile.”

Lin Yulan wanted to defend herself. She didn’t like Ye Jing, and she would never have willingly slept with her. This whole thing this whole thing.

Should she say it was all Ye Jing’s scheme?

But saying that would just sound like she was making excuses for her own actions. Would Jiang Xue even believe her?

The answer was obviously no.

“I never thought something like this would happen. I’m sorry, I really didn’t. I was drunk, I’m sorry.”

Jiang Xue should have laughed at that, but she couldn’t. There was nothing funny about it. As the one who’d been cheated on, none of this was amusing.

“Young Mistress Lin, if apologies were enough, what would we need the police for?” Jiang Xue said coldly. “What’s done is done. What’s the point of saying all this now? But then again, for someone like you, this probably isn’t a big deal. After all, your postnuptial agreement clearly states that after marriage, we each live our own lives and do as we please. So you sleeping with an Omega falls within the scope of the agreement no breach of contract, no infidelity, because as your wife, I allowed it, right?”

“No, that’s not it!”

“What’s not it, Young Mistress Lin?”

Lin Yulan hadn’t expected Jiang Xue to remember the contents of their postnuptial agreement so clearly. She herself couldn’t even recall the specific clauses. But even if that were the case, she could swear to the heavens that her so-called “each live our own lives” was meant literally not as permission to fool around outside.

“That’s not what I meant!” Lin Yulan protested. “That clause doesn’t mean that!”

Jiang Xue didn’t want to know the specifics of what it all meant right now. The agreement had already been signed, and the right to interpret it lay with Lin Yulan, it had nothing to do with her. “So, how does Young President Lin plan to handle this? Do you want a divorce? I meant what I said back then. If you want a divorce, just have the legal department draft the contract. Don’t worry, I won’t take a single thing that doesn’t belong to me.”

Seeing Jiang Xue about to leave, Lin Yulan panicked and immediately reached out to grab her hand. “Don’t go. I don’t want a divorce!”

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