The Reborn Scummy A and the Sickly O Got Together - Chapter 61

Clothes were scattered from the bedroom door all the way to the edge of the bed. The faint morning light seeped through the dark red velvet curtains, casting a dim glow.

Two children, both around four or five years old, pushed open the bedroom door hand in hand, calling out in their sweet, childish voices, “Auntie!” Stepping on the clothes, they pouted and looked at the bed. “Throwing clothes everywhere and still sleeping in? Auntie is such a lazybones!”

Luo Mingyue had woken up early. Her hair now reached her chest as she leaned against the headboard, scrolling through news on her phone. Nestled in her arms was her petite lover, limbs sprawled out lazily like a child, her head resting on Luo Mingyue’s chest. Long hair cascaded down, the strands of the two girls so entangled it was hard to tell whose was whose.

Just as Luo Mingyue was about to shush Feng Shaoyang’s two little rascals, Feng Baiming opened her eyes. She lazily glanced at the pair of twins, her younger sister’s creations from her early marriage and childbearing, both betas, likely inheriting their mother’s secondary gender.

Neither she nor her parents held the outdated notion that alphas must pair with betas. But her sister had gotten engaged and had children before even graduating from university, boldly declaring that “loving a beta is true love, while A/O relationships are just AI-like pairings dictated by pheromones.”

For a moment, Feng Baiming couldn’t tell if Feng Shaoyang was mocking her and Luo Mingyue for defying societal expectations or if her sister’s years of pretense had finally cracked to reveal her true, brainless nature. She wavered between the two possibilities before realizing that love makes even the most rational people lose their minds.

And once that happens, any idiotic nonsense can spill out.

The two little ones were the byproducts of Feng Shaoyang’s love-struck delirium. Five years had passed Luo Mingyue had graduated and started her master’s degree, while Feng Baiming had also pursued further studies. This year, she had just begun leading her own research team. With a bit of luck, she might even make associate professor within the next five years.

The two fair-skinned little dumplings lunged for the bed, but Luo Mingyue stretched out her arms, blocking their chubby cheeks with her palms.

The younger of the two wailed dramatically, “Hug! Baby wants hugs too!”

Luo Mingyue glanced down at her lover, who met her gaze. Feng Baiming tugged the thin strap of her nightgown back onto her shoulder, relieved that last night’s intimacy had been mild enough to leave no visible marks on her exposed skin.

Still, they had gotten carried away so much so that they’d forgotten to lock the bedroom door, allowing these two rambunctious toddlers, so much like their mother, to barge in and disrupt their peaceful morning.

Luo Mingyue blinked playfully. “Don’t blame them. They’re just copying you.”

Feng Baiming was baffled until the older of the two flailed his short arms and cried, “Auntie, get up! We want sister to hug us!”

Only then did she realize, these little gremlins had seen Luo Mingyue holding her and now wanted to take her place in those arms.

Though technically, by traditional counting, she was already thirty this year, Feng Baiming felt like she’d been growing younger in spirit with each passing year.

Wrapping an arm around her lover’s shoulders, she lazily yet smugly, shot back at the toddlers, “Have you done your English morning reading? Eaten breakfast? Finished your kindergarten crafts?”

Under this barrage of questions, “Auntie” instantly shot to the top of the twins’ “Most Annoying” rankings. With loud wails, the two little rascals turned and waddled away on their short legs.

Feng Baiming muttered, “Kids are so annoying.”

The body pressed against hers vibrated slightly. Looking up, she saw her young lover’s lips were sealed shut, but her eyes curved into crescents, her trembling body betraying her suppressed laughter.

Through these thousands of days and nights, whether at dawn or midnight, whether she was focused or daydreaming, Feng had developed an unconscious habit of watching her intently, having missed so many years of her life before. Yet even on this ordinary morning, the sight of her lover’s still-youthful face stirred emotions anew.

Luo Mingyue also looked down at the woman in her arms. During their gaze, neither could tell who first lowered their head or who raised theirs, but their lips met in gentle friction before melting into tender kisses.

Only when muffled whimpers came from the embrace did the kiss end reluctantly. Luo wrapped her arms around Feng’s waist and whispered, “You skipped dinner last night, don’t miss breakfast today.”

Feng buried her face against Luo’s shoulder. Both wore silk spaghetti-strap nightgowns, their bare skin pressed together without barriers. A soft laugh escaped her. This homecoming was only possible because her parents, seeing how stable their five-year relationship had become, had finally “granted mercy” by allowing her to bring Luo home.

But Luo’s mind wandered. She recalled reading about how those deprived of affection often developed skin hunger, that in such unobstructed contact with another’s soft skin, one could hallucinate returning to infancy, the phase when humans most crave embraces and warm touch.

She couldn’t discern whether she wanted to be the embraced infant or the adult clutching her lover tightly.

With relaxed fondness, she asked, “What are you thinking about?”

Feng took her hand. In this lifetime, Feng had sworn a silent oath: she would hold this hand and never allow anyone to harm its owner again.

“I remembered when we first went public. Your family was thrilled, but mine called with endless objections.”

Mentioning this past, Luo also felt awkward. The conversation returned to five years ago. Unlike Luo who remembered her past life completely, Feng only retained fragments of hers. Yet those pieces sufficed for Feng to reconstruct how, in that other world, she had missed her chance with the only person she ever loved, leading to their tragic, permanent separation.

Thus in this life, Feng became extraordinarily brave, announcing to the world with almost moth-to-flame determination that Luo was her chosen life partner.

Luo was naturally stunned by this sudden love declaration her heart ached yet overflowed with sweetness. No candy could rival the bliss of hearing Miss Feng proclaim, “She’s the one I’ll spend my life with.”

But to Feng’s parents, their calm phone call carried relentless pressure: “She’s an 18-year-old freshman while you’re about to graduate with a master’s. She’s gentle and patient; you’re aloof and proud. In this relationship, as the older one, can you truly embrace, cherish, and shoulder responsibilities befitting your age?”

The words seemed to support Luo Mingyue’s stance, but when interpreted differently, they implied that Luo Mingyue was young, incompetent, and irresponsible. The age gap even raised doubts that even if they broke up, Luo Mingyue could easily start a new relationship, whereas Feng Baiming might no longer be suited for a campus romance.

Luo Mingyue mustered the greatest courage and sincerity of her life to solemnly declare to an elder who had lived half a lifetime and witnessed the complexities of human nature: “I will cherish her more than anyone else.”

She had considered saying she would love Feng Baiming forever, but the word “love” seemed too shallow before an elder. So she settled on the most fitting term, cherish.

Just like in the final moments of her past life, when she saw that person holding her cold corpse, shedding tears for someone like her, she thought from the depths of her heart, if given another chance, she would treasure her more than anyone else.

But elders never took young people’s declarations of love seriously. Since they couldn’t stop it, they let them date freely, utterly convinced that this romance would crumble under time once the honeymoon phase ended.

Five years later, Feng Baiming’s parents still weren’t entirely satisfied with this young alpha nearly five years their daughter’s junior. From an outsider’s perspective, they could appreciate her beauty, diligence, and studiousness.

But as parents, they couldn’t help but feel she was too beautiful, too young, just her appearance alone made Luo Mingyue seem unreliable, incapable of shouldering responsibility.

“Yet, who would’ve thought? Five years have passed, I’m almost thirty, and now if you don’t give them an answer soon, it’ll be my parents who start panicking.”

Feng Baiming rolled off the bed. If she lingered any longer, she’d probably waste another hour before getting up.

Luo Mingyue grabbed a hair tie from the table and pulled her hair into a ponytail, shaking her head. “Even if you’re thirty, I’d still have plenty of rivals.”

“Really?” Feng Baiming sounded uncertain.

Luo Mingyue began counting with a hint of grievance. “Not to mention the students who text you ‘good morning’ and ‘goodnight’ every day, or the ones who send you carnations on holidays but then there are those who, knowing full well you’ve had a girlfriend for five years, still give you bouquets of red roses.”

Feng Baiming’s dress slipped to the floor as she picked up a fitted, lotus-colored blouse, buttoning it while asking, “Are you jealous?”

After a brief pause, Luo Mingyue chuckled. “I just mean, even at forty, I’ll probably still have a crowd of competitors.”

Feng Baiming imagined them as middle-aged women, then elderly ladies, and couldn’t help but feel exasperated. “By then, I’ll be an old auntie only your rose-tinted glasses would still be this strong.””

Then she was pulled into an embrace from behind. Luo Mingyue fastened the last two buttons for her, their eyes meeting before she planted a kiss on Feng Baiming’s forehead and went to find her own clothes.

Still, she couldn’t resist adding, “Even when you’re old, Miss Feng, you’ll absolutely be a captivating lady.”

The young Feng Baiming couldn’t picture herself in old age, nor how she could possibly remain “captivating” in Luo Mingyue’s eyes when her skin wrinkled and her steps grew unsteady.

She also thought five years had passed. In the early days of their relationship, she had wondered: even the most loving couples would inevitably clash in daily life. Once the initial sweetness faded, they’d have to face the trivialities and personality conflicts of reality.

But five years had passed, and to her surprise, she discovered that despite their polar opposite personalities, she and Luo Mingyue complemented each other unexpectedly well. Over those five years, they had hardly any conflicts and never grew tired of each other.

Even now, as she pulled up an ankle-length skirt and sat on the bed to put on black mid-calf socks, the other woman turned and naturally knelt on one knee, taking over the task of dressing her.

She wiggled her foot, feigning complaint: “I can do this myself, you know.”

Yet, as always, the other woman looked up at her with wide, innocent eyes and said, “But I always want to do just a little more for you.”

She couldn’t help but smile, and so did her young lover. Even after five years together, they still acted like novices in love, displaying the kind of foolishness typical of the honeymoon phase.

The two little ones came running in again, their short legs carrying them as brother and sister chimed in unison: “Auntie, Auntie! Grandma says stop sleeping and come eat breakfast!”

She hopped off the bed, but before she could reach for her lover’s hand, the other woman had already grasped it tightly.

“Don’t be nervous,” Feng Baiming said. “My parents aren’t monsters, they’re very reasonable.”

The other woman hummed in response, then added, “I suddenly think I should change into something more formal.”

“But if you go back to change and make them wait longer, my parents might become a little less reasonable.”

She laughed at her own words, and her lover followed her out of the room. This time, hand in hand, they walked toward a future that might be filled with happiness, mundane troubles, or unknown challenges.

But in this lifetime, they had sworn to never let go of each other’s hands again.

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