The Post-Apocalyptic Rival Who Crashed My Wedding with a Baby - Chapter 2

“By what authority?” Jiang Weiqing asked, her lips curling into a cold smirk.

Faced with the gun barrel pressed against her forehead, she didn’t flinch. Instead, she took a deliberate step forward, closing the distance. On the surface, she was the picture of composure, but inside, her heart was racing; a frantic, rhythmic percussion of excitement and high-octane tension.

Even she hadn’t realized how much she had been subconsciously anticipating this moment.

Though three years had passed, Shen Qingyu hadn’t changed at all. She still carried that same aloof, ethereal aura like a snow lotus atop a frozen peak, meant only to be admired from afar, never touched.

Shen Qingyu looked into those eyes; eyes that were three parts playful and seven parts dismissive and the finger gripping the trigger began to tremble. It felt as if a bucket of ice water had been dumped over her heart. It had been a long time since she’d seen such a cold, detached look from Jiang Weiqing.

It was as if… they were still just rivals and bitter enemies.

“By what authority?” Shen Qingyu pressed her tongue against the roof of her mouth, fighting back a surge of fury. She jerked her chin toward the toddler in her arms. “By the fact that—you are her mother.”

Shen Qingyu’s gaze swept across the hall, stinging as it hit the white backdrop behind the altar. It featured a photo of Jiang Weiqing and Lin Qitong looking at each other with sweet, radiant smiles. To any observer, they were a perfect, loving couple.

That sight extinguished the peak of Shen Qingyu’s rage, leaving behind only a cold, numbing bitterness.

So, the people at the base gates hadn’t lied to her. The lover she had spent three years with really had decided to get engaged to Lin Qitong the moment she left for a mission with their child.

At that thought, the wound on Shen Qingyu’s chest—a gift from a zombie—flared with a sharp, throbbing pain. Looking at the child’s pale face, her heart filled with a crushing weight of guilt.

Sensing Shen Qingyu’s accusatory stare, Jiang Weiqing felt a strange, inexplicable flicker of guilt, though she didn’t know why. Back at university, Shen Qingyu had shared the title of “Campus Beauty” with her. With her chic, shoulder-length black hair and narrow phoenix eyes that could shift from icy to seductive in a heartbeat. She was a study in contradictions; a snow lotus with a hidden, alluring edge.

Staring into those phoenix eyes now, Jiang Weiqing felt herself dazing for a split second. But the moment she processed Shen Qingyu’s words, she let out a sharp, derisive laugh.

“You’re saying this child is mine? How ridiculous!” Her eyebrows arched high, her expression turning utterly frigid. “Shen Qingyu, have you really sunk so low that you’d use a child just to ruin my engagement?”

Beside her, Lin Qitong let out a visible sigh of relief at Jiang Weiqing’s denial. She forced a bright smile and stepped forward. “Qingyu, I know you used to like me too.” She paused, her voice steady. “Maybe I gave you the wrong impression in the past, but since the apocalypse began, I’ve realized who I truly love.” She tilted her head back with solemn resolve. “Please, don’t ruin my engagement to Weiqing.”

Instantly, the judgmental gaze of the entire room shifted toward Shen Qingyu.

Shen Qingyu’s fist clenched so hard her knuckles turned white. She looked directly at Jiang Weiqing. “Are you really going to disown her?”

Her gaze was like a literal blade piercing through Jiang Weiqing, causing an unbidden pang of phantom pain. Jiang Weiqing’s eyes involuntarily drifted to the toddler in Shen Qingyu’s arms.

The child looked no more than two years old. She had fair, smooth skin and seemed incredibly well-behaved, but she was worryingly small and frail was likely a result of malnutrition. In the apocalypse, the very young and the very old were always the first to be abandoned. It happened every day.

Jiang Weiqing figured this child had probably been abandoned at birth and picked up by Shen Qingyu to be used as a pawn. She couldn’t imagine where Shen Qingyu got the audacity to think she’d just accept a random child as her own.

Jiang Weiqing rolled her eyes. “I don’t even know this kid.”

This move of Shen Qingyu’s was truly venomous; trying to force a child onto her. Her irritation grew, and her voice rose in volume. But just as she prepared to turn and walk away, she felt a tiny, weak tug on the hem of her wedding dress.

She looked down and locked eyes with a pair of large, grape-like pupils. For a fleeting second, she thought she saw a faint glimmer of blue in those black eyes, but it vanished so quickly she dismissed it as a trick of the light.

The toddler blinked her soulful eyes. Even held by a “stranger” like Shen Qingyu, she didn’t cry or fuss; she was unnervingly quiet, staring at Jiang Weiqing’s face as if trying to recognize her.

Then, the child let out a soft “aya” and reached out with both hands, a brilliant smile breaking across her face as she lunged toward Jiang Weiqing. Her soft, milky-scented limbs brushed against Jiang Weiqing’s face as she babbled a few clear words.

“Mama… Mama…”

“Hug… Huggies…”

Shen Qingyu was severely injured and had only just escaped a horde of zombies. In her exhaustion, she had momentarily relaxed her grip, allowing the child to successfully scramble halfway onto Jiang Weiqing.

Jiang Weiqing’s body went rigid. The sensation of something so soft and fragile against her sent a wave of panic through her. Her arms flailed in a desperate arc as she jerked back two steps, instinctively pushing the child away.

The force was too much; the toddler, unable to keep her balance, nearly tumbled to the floor. Fortunately, Shen Qingyu was fast enough to catch her before she hit the ground.

Seeing the heartbroken look on the child’s face, the harsh words in Jiang Weiqing’s mouth softened slightly. “Kid, you’ve got the wrong person. I’m not your mother.”

She turned her sharp gaze back to Shen Qingyu. “If she actually has a mother, give her back. Her mother is probably out there worried sick.”

Shen Qingyu found the statement laughably tragic. The child’s mother is standing right in front of her. And yet, for the sake of marrying Lin Qitong, this woman was lying through her teeth.

Shen Qingyu pulled the child close and glared at Jiang Weiqing. “Her mother doesn’t want her anymore,” she spat coldly.

Jiang Weiqing found the whole thing bizarre. Fine, the mother doesn’t want her. What does that have to do with me?

After the initial chaos, the guests—all battle-hardened Espers had calmed down and were now settling in for the spectacle. The whispers rippled through the hall.

“Wow, Jiang Weiqing is quite the player. Someone actually brought a kid to crash the wedding.”

“Has Dragon City’s tech gotten that advanced? Two women having a kid?”

“Tsk, if I were Lin Qitong, I’d be mortified.”

“Shh, look at the Lin family’s faces. They’re fuming.”

“Is that woman from another base? She’s gorgeous; how have I never seen her before?”

“That little kid looks really sickly, though…”

Lin Yue’s expression had turned as dark as a thunderstorm. Lin Qitong, stunned by the turn of events, had unconsciously dropped her bouquet. She stared at Jiang Weiqing with wide, disbelieving eyes. “Weiqing… whose child is that?” She wasn’t about to let her big day be ruined by some mystery baby.

Lin Wenguang, who had always doted on his sister, roared, “Jiang Weiqing! Are you two-timing my sister?”

Xu Banmeng had already leaped onto the stage, positioning herself protectively by Lin Qitong’s side. She glared at Jiang Weiqing, yellow Earth-type energy flickering at her fingertips as sharp stone spikes began to form. “If you dare betray Qitong, don’t blame me for being ruthless.”

Lin Qing gasped and grabbed Qitong’s hand. “Jiang Weiqing, you owe us an explanation!”

In truth, the Lin family had only agreed to this union because Qitong had insisted. While Jiang Weiqing was undeniably a powerhouse, she lacked the deep political background of suitors from other bases.

Jiang Weiqing blinked, her eyes roaming the room before she once again avoided the toddler’s grasping hands. “I have absolutely no connection to this child. This is nothing more than a scheme by Shen Qingyu.”

Shen Qingyu’s heart sank. Before she could even process the pain, the child in her arms began to sob uncontrollably. At two years old, the girl was sharp enough to sense the rejection. The cold attitude and the lack of an expected hug finally broke her. “Mama… Mama!” she wailed, stretching her arms toward Jiang Weiqing one last time.

But the hug never came. The child’s hands dropped helplessly. Large, crystalline tears rolled down her cheeks as she turned to Shen Qingyu with a look of pure, agonizing defeat.

“Baby… be good…” the child whimpered in a tiny, heartbroken voice.

Shen Qingyu bit her lip, gently patting the child’s back and offering a pacifier to soothe her. But the letter tucked against her chest. The one she had cherished, now felt like it was searing her skin. Her heart had turned to ash. She pulled out the envelope and hurled it directly at Jiang Weiqing’s face. “Then what the hell is this?”

The force of the throw tore the envelope, and several bright yellow pages fluttered out. Jiang Weiqing caught them, but as she began to read, her skin crawled.

The letter opened with sickeningly sweet endearments, followed by heat-filled, blunt professions of love and long-winded expressions of longing. It was so saccharine it made her want to gag. To anyone else, it would look exactly like a love letter she had written.

She looked up, her expression one of utter disbelief. “You actually found someone to forge my handwriting?” She let out a short, sharp laugh. “You probably just copied the letters I wrote to Qitong. How shameless.”

She was genuinely impressed by the lengths Shen Qingyu was going to. If she wasn’t 100% certain she’d never write to her rival, she might have doubted her own sanity.

To Shen Qingyu, Jiang Weiqing was simply playing dumb. Her patience, already strained to the breaking point, snapped at the word “shameless.” The volcano of her suppressed emotions finally erupted.

Shen Qingyu reached out and covered the child’s eyes. With a steady, decisive motion, she pulled the trigger of her gun.

“You don’t deserve to be her mother!”

In that instant, a crimson notification flared in Jiang Weiqing’s vision:

[Side Quest Triggered]

[Kill the High-Risk Targets: Level 5 Esper Shen Qingyu and her Zombie Offspring!]

Jiang Weiqing froze for a rare moment of genuine shock. Then, her deep blue eyes turned cold as absolute zero; a gaze as chilling as a frozen sea.

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