The Heartless Alpha Just Wants to Follow the Plot - Chapter 23

“Are you sulking?”

Qiu Fu didn’t respond, her gaze drifting away.

Pu Ying asked bluntly, “Is it because she and I didn’t come back last night?”

Qiu Fu pressed her lips together, stubbornly insisting, “Whatever’s between you and her has nothing to do with me. We’re just bound by a contract.”

Pu Ying tugged bitterly at the corner of her mouth. “Sometimes, I really envy you.”

Qiu Fu was puzzled. “What’s there to envy?”

“That you get to receive her favoritism openly.”

Pu Ying stood up and pulled open the curtains. Harsh sunlight flooded into the room, bringing with it a psychological warmth to the climate-controlled space.

“You like her. I can tell.”
“I don’t.”

Qiu Fu instinctively tried to deny it, but when Pu Ying turned back and looked at her, she froze. The words lodged in her throat, unable to come out.

In a small, hesitant voice, she said, “I don’t know.”

“I know I shouldn’t have fallen for her. I shouldn’t even be thinking about it. But when I imagine her holding someone else in her arms, I still can’t help feeling upset. I still can’t help feeling awkward.”

Qiu Fu felt low and heavy inside. She knew she should put a stop to all of this, let these feelings—feelings that never should have belonged to her—fade away.

“I understand how you feel.”

Pu Ying looked at her, but her gaze seemed to pass through her, as though she was seeing someone else. Her voice was hoarse.

“You’d fall for her. I’m no exception.”

“Su Mo.”

She lowered her eyes.

“She really is a very good person.”

Qiu Fu’s surprise carried a trace of realization. “You too?”

No wonder Pu Ying treated Su Mo so well. No wonder she lost control the moment anything related to Su Mo came up.

Qiu Fu’s eyes softened with a hint of pity. Watching the person you love walk step by step toward someone else—she had never experienced it herself, but even imagining it felt suffocating.

Yet Pu Ying could still speak to her calmly, still be so gentle and kind. If it was Qiu Fu, she knew she couldn’t do it.

She had never considered herself that kind of generous person.

As she pitied Pu Ying, she also couldn’t help admiring her.

Pu Ying casually changed the subject. “You should go downstairs and eat. She brought lunch.”

Qiu Fu pressed her lips together, unwilling to let it go. “If you really like her, why force yourself to suffer like this? You’re more suitable for her than I am—aren’t you?”

“Suitable doesn’t mean necessary.”

Pu Ying turned her head toward the drifting leaves outside the window and said quietly, “She and I have understanding, history, feelings, secrets, and unwavering trust. But even so, she still won’t love me.”

That was why she never dared to speak.

Wherever Su Mo was, Pu Ying’s gaze would always tilt toward her. But Su Mo wouldn’t do the same. Even when Su Mo looked at her, Pu Ying was never the only one in her eyes.

Just as Su Mo herself had said—someone like her was never meant to belong to just one person. She would never give her heart to only one.

She doesn’t love me.

That is the reason.

Pu Ying gave a self-mocking smile and walked over, patting Qiu Fu on the shoulder.

“If you can do what I couldn’t, then maybe that proves I was wrong in the past.”

In the face of undisguised favoritism, she never even had the right to compete.

Qiu Fu: “……”

She lowered her head in guilt. “I’m sorry.”

So, this was what true love looked like—because you love someone, you’re willing to extend goodwill and hope even to those they care about, simply because that’s what the one you love wants.

“I can’t compare to you. I can’t be that generous.”

She would never share the person she loved. She would never allow something like that to happen.

Pu Ying smiled bitterly. If she could, wouldn’t she want to be like Qiu Fu?

But Su Mo didn’t care. No matter what Pu Ying did, it was useless. In the end, it all came down to Su Mo’s own will.

The price of generosity was permanent loss.

“She said she can mark you soon,” Pu Ying said softly. “An omega develops a special dependency on the alpha who marks them. Things like this will only happen more and more in the future.”

She tugged lightly at her stiff lips.

“Since you’ve already fallen for her, then the time ahead belongs to the two of you.”

There was no point in her staying and adding to her own sorrow.

“Pu Ying.” Qiu Fu called softly.

At that moment, she felt an overwhelming ache for her—and for the first time, she truly understood the difference between herself and Pu Ying.

Upstairs, the two of them poured out their feelings for Su Mo. Downstairs, Su Mo, who had been waiting the entire time, was utterly confused.

“Does it really take this long just to call someone down?”

The system choked as the plot updated, sighing sincerely:

【Host, you really are a person burdened with deep karmic sins.】

Su Mo: “?”

What are you even talking about? Why don’t I understand a single word?

System: 【You don’t need to understand. Trust me—if you did, this whole thing would just feel even more stifling.】

Su Mu: “……”

Why does that sound like it has something to do with me?

When Pu Ying and Qiu Fu finally came downstairs, their expressions had already settled. They exchanged a glance—one filled with something only the two of them could understand.

Su Mo looked completely lost. “?”

Why does it feel like those two now share a secret that has nothing to do with me?

【System, did I mess up the strategy somehow?】

Something felt very wrong.

The system replied gravely:

【No. Nothing is wrong. You did everything right. No—actually, you’ve surpassed the original host and become an entirely new existence that inspires deep loathing.】

Su Mo: “……”

“You’re saying that and suddenly I’m a little flustered.”

“Cough.”

Su Mo cleared her throat. When both pairs of eyes turned toward her, she smiled lightly. “Let’s eat. You’re both hungry, right?”

Qiu Fu tugged Pu Ying’s ice-cold hand and sat down, hurriedly picking up a meatball for her. Just as she was about to place it into Pu Ying’s lunch box, Su Mo seated beside them said, “She can’t eat meatballs. There’s water chestnut in them, she’s allergic.”

Qiu Fu’s hand froze midair. She clearly hadn’t expected Su Mo to know Pu Ying’s allergies so well, and a sour ache rose in her chest.

“Oh, and the soup with the kidney beans is Pu Ying’s. Don’t mix them up.”

Qiu Fu: “……”

If Pu Ying hadn’t already made things very clear upstairs, Qiu Fu would almost have thought she was superfluous here. The level of familiarity was nothing like what she had imagined.

Pu Ying opened her lunch box, gripping her chopsticks and forcing herself to sound calm. “It’s fine. Take whatever you like.”

Qiu Fu: “There’s nothing I really like.”

In this situation, she had no appetite for anything.

Neither of them ate much. Instead, Su Mo sitting off to the side scrolling through her light-brain polished off several chicken drumsticks.

Watching the atmosphere between the two turn only barely cordial, the system sighed.

【Host, you’re really hard to figure out. You flirt with one, remember another, don’t tell me you’ve never truly taken either of them to heart?】

Su Mo rolled her eyes.

【I’m not a garlic. I don’t have a clove in my heart for everyone.】

【Enough. It’s not me saying this—didn’t your own profile say so?】

System: 【Cold and heartless woman.】

【Whoever falls for you must’ve committed some grave sin in their past life and is paying it off now.】

Su Mo: “……”

What nonsense.

She couldn’t even understand it.

After the meal, Pu Ying found an excuse to leave. Soon, only Qiu Fu and Su Mo remained in the apartment.

Thinking about what she needed to say next, Su Mo felt a little shy. She hesitated, unsure how to begin—but it wouldn’t be right to make an omega like Qiu Fu be the one to bring it up.

No matter what, she figured she should say something first.

“Um.”

“You.”

When her eyes met Qiu Fu’s, Su Mo was startled to feel a rare flicker of embarrassment.

“Cough, cough. Well, I think it’s about time I, um helped you detox.”

Qiu Fu fell silent. This should have been something to be happy about, but the moment she recalled how Su Mo had listed Pu Ying’s allergies without a second thought, the joy drained away.

Liking someone and knowing another person’s allergies that well, didn’t that mean that person was important to Su Mo? Irreplaceable. Impossible to forget.

What Su Mo had said earlier had come out like instinct, shaking the certainty Qiu Fu had just formed because of Pu Ying’s words.

Pu Ying had stayed by Su Mo’s side for so many years and still hadn’t managed to change her. Could Qiu Fuwho had only crossed paths with Su Mo by accident—really change her in such a short time?

She wasn’t sure.

No, deep down, she was certain she couldn’t.

And so, for the first time, she felt resistant to the detox she had long awaited.

“Su Mo.”

She looked at her seriously, her expression grave. “Do you like me?”

Su Mo blinked. “Why are you asking that?”

Then she answered naturally, “Of course I do.”

“Then do you like Pu Ying?”

“I do, too.”

Su Mo barely hesitated. Pu Ying was cute, capable, strong, and reliable, how could anyone not like her?

Wouldn’t anyone?

Qiu Fu knew it. Su Mo didn’t even understand what she was really asking. No wonder Pu Ying had said Su Mo would never fall for her.

Qiu Fu stared at Su Mo, pressing on. “Are you helping me detox because you can’t bear to see an S-class omega disappear? Or because you like me? Or are you like everyone else—unable to refuse any omega who offers herself?”

“And the way you like me, is it the same as the way you like Pu Ying?”

Su Muqing: “……”

She was, for once, at a loss.

That kind of liking toward Pu Ying?

What kind of liking was that?

“Wait, I don’t quite understand what you mean.”

“You’re saying that Pu Ying and I?”

Qiu Fu pressed her lips together, clenching her fist. “You like Pu Ying—don’t you mean the kind of like where you want to be together?”

At last, Su Mo understood what Qiu Fu was getting at. She raised a hand to stop her. “Pu Ying and I aren’t that kind of relationship.”

Qiu Fu: “But don’t you like Pu Ying?”

Su Mo replied frankly, “I do like her. She’s capable, smart, cute, sensible—my family’s old man is especially fond of her.”

“But that has nothing to do with the kind of liking you’re talking about.”

Su Mo was very clear about this. She didn’t feel that way about Pul Ying, otherwise, she wouldn’t have agreed to help Qiu Fu detox in the first place.