The Alpha’s Hidden Marriage, Public Obsession - Chapter 45

Qu Mengxin had never expected Lin Yulan to ask this question. She had even imagined that the moment Lin Yulan saw her, she would be overwhelmed with emotion questioning her, unable to control herself, rushing to embrace her. But none of the scenarios she had envisioned in her mind came to pass.

Lin Yulan was calm. There were no accusations, no outbursts, no uncontrollable urge to rush toward her. There wasn’t even a trace of suppressed resentment or the kind of deep love that turns into hatred in her eyes. This Lin Yulan was completely different from the one Qu Mengxin remembered, it was as if she had become an entirely different person.

This realization made Qu Mengxin deeply unsettled. Her grip on the teacup tightened unconsciously.

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“Yulan, I think you might have misunderstood something. When we were together, my parents didn’t know about it,” Qu Mengxin said smoothly. “You might assume my parents are the kind of controlling, obsessive people who monitor my every move where I go, who I’m with, what we do together demanding to know every detail. But that’s not the case.”

She raised her eyes to carefully observe Lin Yulan’s reaction, only to find that her words had no effect. This meant Lin Yulan didn’t believe a single word she was saying.

But since she had already gone this far, even if she had to fabricate a story, she would keep going.

“My parents might seem overly controlling, but in reality, they’re just worried about me,” Qu Mengxin continued. “I’m their only daughter, so they’re always fretting over me. They worry that I’ll be taken advantage of by an Alpha, that as an Omega out in the world, what if I go into heat? What if an Alpha takes advantage of me and leads me astray? That’s why they raised me much stricter than most. I believe you, of all people, should understand that.”

Lin Yulan shook her head with a bitter smile. “I’m sorry, but I don’t.”

If she had to say, she might have understood before after all, Omegas are inherently at a disadvantage, so strict parental supervision wasn’t unusual. But after Qu Mengxin left without a word, she could no longer comprehend it.

Or, to be more precise, she only failed to understand Qu Mengxin not other Omegas. Someone like Jiang Xue, born into a family that favored Alphas over Omegas, had endured hardship from childhood, growing thorns all over her body, trusting no one, never easily giving her heart away. And the one fragile hope she had? It had been crushed by a scoundrel like Lin Yulan.

The thought made Lin Yulan’s heart ache faintly, and she wished she could slap herself right then and there.

Qu Mengxin noticed the shift in her expression, but her sharp intuition as an Omega told her that Lin Yulan’s emotional turmoil wasn’t because of her.

So… was Lin Yulan looking at her now and thinking of another Omega?

Qu Mengxin stared intently at Lin Yulan, her heart a tangled mess. “I thought you would understand me. Just like before, no matter what I did, you would always believe me.”

Yes.

In the past, no matter what Qu Mengxin did, as long as she offered an explanation, Lin Yulan would have believed her without hesitation.

If it were her past self, Lin Yulan would have undoubtedly believed Qu Mengxin’s explanation without hesitation. But now, she had left that version of herself behind and could no longer trust Qu Mengxin wholeheartedly as she once did.

“Even if I believed you, would you really tell me the truth?”

The conversation circled back again, and Qu Mengxin felt a little awkward. She didn’t actually want to discuss this topic after all, she was the one who had left without a word, the one who had walked away, the one who had abandoned Lin Yulan. On this point, Qu Mengxin still carried some guilt toward her.

This time, when she returned to the country, she had insisted on taking charge of the collaboration project with the Lin Group for an important reason she wanted to make up for the guilt she felt toward Lin Yulan.

“Yulan, I’m not lying to you. Back then, I really had no choice! My parents didn’t approve of us being together, and they even threatened to kill themselves. Even if I had recklessly chosen to stay with you… have you ever considered that I’m their only daughter? If I had selfishly stayed with you and they had actually gone through with it, how could I ever face you for the rest of my life?”

Qu Mengxin spoke with rising emotion, her eyes involuntarily reddening, as if she were truly heartbroken. “Don’t you even want to ask me why I came back?”

Truthfully, Lin Yulan really didn’t want to know.

“What does that have to do with whether you’re telling me the truth or not?”

Qu Mengxin’s sudden departure wasn’t the insurmountable hurdle for Lin Yulan. She could accept that part she could rationalize it as a decision Qu Mengxin had been forced to make under pressure. She could even convince herself that it wasn’t Qu Mengxin’s fault, allowing herself to cling to the fantasy of waiting for Qu Mengxin to return to her.

But now, it was clear that Qu Mengxin was avoiding the real issue, why she had refused to see Lin Yulan even once before leaving. To dodge the question, she kept making excuses.

The Qu Mengxin of the past had indeed been the cinnabar mark in Lin Yulan’s heart, her white moonlight, the one she couldn’t forget even while eating or sleeping. But even so, Lin Yulan couldn’t tolerate deception in matters of the heart.

She had been willingly deceived, but that didn’t mean she was a fool.

“Yulan, what’s really going on with you?” Qu Mengxin grew anxious and moved closer to Lin Yulan. “I know leaving without a word was wrong, but I never lied to you! I didn’t want to leave, but I truly had no choice! Today is the first time we’ve seen each other in all these years, do you really have to fixate on this issue and pick a fight with me?”

Lin Yulan didn’t want to, but whenever she thought about the past, she couldn’t control herself. “Mengxin, I’m not trying to fight with you. I just want an answer. After all these years, after waiting for you for so long, even after… don’t I at least deserve to know the truth?”

Waited for her all these years?

Did that mean Lin Yulan was still single now?

But what about that look in her eyes earlier?

Qu Mengxin refused to believe that what she had seen was just a misunderstanding. Her intuition told her she hadn’t been mistaken Lin Yulan had been looking through her at another Omega.

So, Lin Yulan’s heart already belonged to someone else. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have kept asking the same question and refusing to believe her.

“But those were my answers just now.” Qu Mengxin stared straight at Lin Yulan before asking, “Do you know, Yulan, on the flight back home, I kept wondering, what would our reunion look like? Would we embrace each other excitedly, or would tears blur our vision the moment we met? If it were you, you’d definitely choose the first option, because you never could bear to see me run toward you.”

“So, are you disappointed now?”

“Yulan, you…”

To say she wasn’t disappointed would be a lie, but Qu Mengxin refused to admit it. “I wouldn’t call it disappointment, just a bit of letdown.”

Lin Yulan let out a bitter laugh. “So it’s just a letdown, huh?”

Qu Mengxin immediately regretted her words and quickly corrected herself, “That’s not what I meant! I meant…”

“Meant what?”

“I…”

If she had to explain, Qu Mengxin couldn’t find the right words. And once those words were out, there was no point in explaining further. “I really didn’t mean it that way! It’s just that I never felt we truly broke up, so…”

Lin Yulan was momentarily at a loss for words. “You think we never really broke up? Mengxin, do you remember when I went to your place two days before you left?”

She had never felt such heart-wrenching pain before like her heart had been ripped out, trampled on, and then doused in salt. The agony was unbearable.

“I stood outside your building for over six hours, shouting until my voice was hoarse, almost coughing up blood. I even wondered if I’d lose my voice because of it. But even then, I didn’t dare leave to buy water, afraid you’d disappear the moment I stepped away.” Lin Yulan pressed her lips together, her eyes brimming with sorrow. “And yet, you still refused to come out and see me. Mengxin, I just want to know, how did you feel watching me like that from the rooftop? Did you think I was stupid, like some pathetic fool?”

“No!”

Qu Mengxin grabbed Lin Yulan’s hand and shook her head. “I never thought that! Yulan, you have to believe me, I truly never thought that!”

Lin Yulan didn’t pull her hand away. She just looked at Qu Mengxin. This Omega had grown more beautiful, almost radiant, nothing like the girl from their school days. But that very radiance made Lin Yulan feel a strange distance between them.

It was as if she was only now seeing Qu Mengxin clearly from her forehead to the corners of her lips, to the contours of her face. Only now did she truly see her.

“Then what were you thinking back then?” Lin Yulan still hoped for an answer. “There’s no one else here. Whatever you say, only I will hear it.”

Qu Mengxin bit her lip but quickly released it. “Yulan, can we talk about something else? Let the past stay in the past. No matter how much we dwell on it, time won’t reverse. We have to move forward, don’t we?”

Lin Yulan finally withdrew her hand at this moment and then stood up. “Mengxin, do you really not know how important you once were to me? I even went so far as to tell my mom, why don’t you just start over with a new account? I’ll voluntarily give up my position as the future heir of the Lin Group.”

Qu Mengxin stared at her in disbelief. She had never imagined Lin Yulan would go to such lengths for her. “You.”

“Surprised, aren’t you?” Lin Yulan smiled bitterly. “So now you’re telling me to just let the past stay in the past. I’ve tried to let it go but can it really be let go?!”

This can’t be let go.

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