The Beta Wife Claimed by Competing Alphas - Chapter 16

You Actually Know; You Actually Know This Makes People.

“Keep it for that roommate of yours, I can’t eat this,” Lu Chong said coldly.

His face was dark, fuming over God knows what again.

Mu Yan fell silent for a moment. He didn’t say anything more, simply lowering his head to continue eating.

His silence made Lu Chong even more irritable. For Lu Chong, whenever he wanted to lose his temper, whatever Mu Yan did only served to make him want to lash out further.

“Mu Yan, what is this silence supposed to mean? Do you think I’m being unreasonable and difficult, or do you just have nothing to say to me?”

Mu Yan looked up at him briefly before quickly averting his eyes again.

“If I speak, you’ll just say I’m arguing with you for the sake of an outsider.”

From the time they first got together until now, Mu Yan and Lu Chong had hardly ever quarreled. Mu Yan’s temper had always been incredibly mild; especially toward Lu Chong, he seemed to have no edge at all, letting Lu Chong be as unreasonable as he wanted without getting angry.

Every time they had a disagreement, it was almost always Lu Chong sulking unilaterally, only to be quickly coaxed back by Mu Yan.

It was the first time Lu Chong realized that Mu Yan could be so sharp-tongued in an argument.

With just a few words, he had been choked into speechlessness.

Lu Chong raised his voice: “So that gives you the right to ignore me?”

“Actually, many times, you treat me the same way. When you’re unhappy, you don’t say a word,” Mu Yan said softly. “Actually, you know this makes people feel sad, don’t you?”

It’s just that… you don’t really care if I feel sad or not.

The kitchen suddenly went quiet. The atmosphere felt as though it had dropped to a freezing point.

Across the narrow table, Mu Yan’s gaze fell on the man opposite him.

Admitting a mistake was harder than climbing to heaven for Lu Chong. His expression darkened further; he slammed the kitchen door and walked out without looking back.

The old wooden door let out a pitiful groan under such violent treatment. Mu Yan was left alone in the kitchen once again.

The steam had stopped rising from the dishes. Mu Yan did not chase after him.

Right now, he just wanted to finish this meal in peace.

After Lu Chong’s outburst, the food had grown cold. Mu Yan hurried through the rice in his bowl, leaving half the side dishes unfinished.

He took a deep breath. After calming his emotions, he pushed the door open, thinking that if Lu Chong hadn’t left the house, he would coax him back to eat.

He had known Lu Chong for a long time. While he saw Lu Chong’s terrible temper clearly, he also always remembered Lu Chong’s kindness.

Lu Chong was only twenty-four. He understood Lu Chong’s immaturity, impulsiveness, and inability to love properly. He knew Lu Chong wasn’t bad at heart.

But when would he finally grow up? When would he become mature?

Lu Chong was not in the living room, nor was he in the bedroom. He must have gone out.

Lu Chong wouldn’t eat leftovers. Mu Yan silently threw the remaining food away, wiped the table clean, and washed the dishes.

As he washed, Mu Yan made his plans. Today was Saturday, tomorrow was Sunday; it was his turn this week to accompany his mother for her albumin infusion. He needed to rest early today so his mother wouldn’t see his pale complexion.

After tidying up the kitchen, he sat on the sofa and picked a random game cartridge to play. The console had been won at last year’s company annual meeting. When he found out the second prize was a game console, he had actually been quite disappointed because the third prize was 888 yuan in cash.

But after giving it to Lu Chong, Lu Chong seemed to like it quite a bit and had bought many cartridges.

When Lu Chong was happy, Mu Yan was happy. He quickly put the loss of that 888 yuan out of his mind.

Mu Yan didn’t have any notable hobbies. In the first twenty years of his life, aside from studying, merely making a living occupied almost all of his free time.

Spending time on something just for his own pleasure felt like a luxury; for the poor, both money and time are extremely tight. To the point that even when he finally had time, he only knew how to circle around Lu Chong like a clumsy dog.

Funny little characters on the screen sprayed ink with weapons. Mu Yan played for a while but didn’t find it as interesting as when he watched Lu Chong play.

He sent a message to Lu Chong, reminding him to eat and telling him it was cold at night, so not to stay out too long or he’d catch a cold.

It wasn’t until he finished another round that Lu Chong replied.

“If I get sick, I get sick. What’s it to you?”

It was nine o’clock. Even if he lay in bed, he couldn’t sleep at this hour. But Mu Yan found the game dull, so he put the console away anyway.

He called Lu Chong. The phone rang for a long time. Just as Mu Yan was about to hang up, the call finally connected.

“Have you eaten?” Mu Yan asked softly.

“I have. Do you think I’d starve to death without you?” Lu Chong’s tone was mocking.

Mu Yan ignored the thorns in his voice. “Don’t be angry anymore. Come back and sleep. Your studio only has summer blankets and straw mats; you’ll be cold.”

Lu Chong didn’t speak. Just as Mu Yan thought he was going to say “What’s it to you” again, Lu Chong muttered an “Oh.”

Mu Yan waited until ten-thirty, but Lu Chong still hadn’t returned. Not wanting to nag like a resentful spouse, he simply left the living room light on for him and went to bed first.

Long after he had fallen asleep, Mu Yan was vaguely woken by the sound of Lu Chong entering the room. One o’clock? Two o’clock? Once Mu Yan saw the time, it was hard to fall back asleep, so he just closed his eyes and pretended to sleep.

When he woke up the next morning, he found Lu Chong sleeping while holding him. Mu Yan stuffed a plush toy into Lu Chong’s arms and got out of bed early.

Mu Yan’s wardrobe consisted of nothing but black, gray, or white. His mother always said young people shouldn’t wear such somber colors, so he specifically picked out the only sky-blue down jacket in his closet. Standing before the mirror, the vibrant color seemed to make him look a few years younger.

No matter how many hardships were in his life, he didn’t want to bring that negativity to his mother.

“Xiao Yan is here!” The auntie in the next bed greeted him with a smile. “That thing I mentioned last time—my colleague’s daughter? She’s a graduate of the Normal University and is a teacher at the A University affiliated middle school. Have you thought about it?”

“Oh,” Mu Yan poured the fish soup from the thermos for his mother and replied to the auntie. “My job isn’t stable yet, and my salary isn’t high. I shouldn’t waste the girl’s time.”

His mother’s first husband was an Alpha with a bad temper who loved to drink. Whenever he got drunk, he would beat her and his brother. His mother had expressed her dissatisfaction with Alphas more than once.

Mu Yan had never dared to tell her about Lu Chong. When they first got together, he felt Lu Chong was as brilliant as the moon in the sky; such a person wouldn’t stay with him for long anyway.

He felt there was no need to let his mother know and cause unnecessary anger.

One secret led to another, and it had dragged on until now.

His mother had always been proud of Mu Yan. He had heard her many times bragging that her younger son had good grades and good looks, had gotten into A University, and worked for a big company. Many of his mother’s friends took these words to heart and had introduced him to several well-qualified Beta girls.

In reality, he had gotten into A University through sheer rote memorization. Aside from that diploma, he had nothing.

Fortunately, after he explained his family situation, those Beta girls politely backed away, saving him the step of having to reject them.

While his mother drank the fish soup, Mu Yan didn’t stay idle. He took some fruit to the auntie next door and then took another bag of fruit to find the young nurse who had been looking after his mother.

“Mr. Mu, it’s you. I heard you were here and was just about to look for you.”

“It’s Sunday, so I came to take my mom for her albumin infusion. I brought you some fruit…”

Mu Yan handed over the fruit as usual, but to his surprise, the nurse didn’t reach out to take it.

“I… it’s like this. If it’s convenient, Mr. Mu, could you pay the treatment fees first?”

“The albumin infusion, plus the regular monitoring and medication… Ms. Mu Juanhua’s treatment fees are six months overdue. Because you and Mr. Lin have always been so proactive and frequent with payments, we hadn’t pressed you. But the hospital’s limit for treatment before payment is 150,000 yuan, so…”

“How can it be overdue?” Mu Yan froze. “Isn’t the treatment money always deducted from the card? There were 100,000 yuan on the card; it should have lasted until next May.”

“Could there be a problem with the hospital system?” Mu Yan’s tone was so shocked, and since he was always thorough and a filial son, the young nurse began to feel uncertain too. “I have to start my shift soon. Why don’t you go to the finance department and check yourself, Mr. Mu? Logically, there shouldn’t be a mistake…”

Mu Yan thanked the nurse and immediately ran to the finance department to verify. But the result was exactly as the nurse had said: starting from April, the records showed the account was in arrears.

The finance department was also encountering someone questioning the system for the first time. An Omega looked up at Mu Yan with confusion: “Sir, is this bank card yours? Perhaps you should check if there’s an issue with the card itself?”

Mu Yan shook his head. “It’s not mine, it’s my mother’s. But there should have been 100,000 yuan in it.”

“This… could it have been stolen, or did you remember incorrectly? Regardless, you should settle the debt first. The hospital can only allow a maximum debt of 150,000 yuan. If you don’t pay, your mother likely won’t be able to receive her albumin infusion today.”

The nurse felt the Beta youth before her suddenly turn into a robot whose battery had run out. After nearly a minute, he stood up from the stool and slowly said, “Thank you.”

The hospital elevator happened to be broken that day. Mu Yan didn’t know how he managed to climb from the first floor of the finance department to the sixth floor.

He lingered outside his mother’s ward for a while, hearing her chatting and laughing with the patient in the next bed, hearing the auntie praise how sweet the oranges Mu Yan had brought were.

Support The Beta Wife Claimed by Competing Alphas