Transmigrated as the Top-Tier Alpha's Secretly Married Ex-Wife - Chapter 42

Chapter 42

“What’s there to explain? Qiao Yanran is being roasted by netizens. You just rest. I’ll have the company issue a statement. Don’t go out for the near future; just wait for scripts at home.”

Sister Zhou dropped off a pile of daily necessities, glanced at Mo Xian, then at Su Tuantuan, and cleared her throat. “Uh, be careful, alright?”

“Okay.”

Su Tuantuan, still sleepy, watched Sister Zhou leave, then yawned. “What do I need to be careful of when I’m at home…”

She closed the door, turned around, and looked at Mo Xian, who was taking off her down jacket. She slowly paused. “…Safety.”

Su Tuantuan: “…”

As expected of my Sister Zhou.

Is she really being this blatant?!

City A suddenly experienced a sharp temperature drop in November. Cold air struck at the end of the month, and winter arrived overnight. Su Tuantuan, with her toothbrush in her mouth, squatted by the floor-to-ceiling window, poking her head through the curtain gap.

“It didn’t feel this cold last night. Why is everyone bundled up in jackets on the street?”

Her words were muffled by the toothbrush, but Mo Xian still heard her.

Mo Xian changed into disposable slippers, put away the items Sister Zhou brought, turned on the stove, and heated milk for Su Tuantuan. “Is a sandwich okay to tide you over?”

Su Tuantuan mumbled an agreement. Only then did she notice that the trees in City A had turned yellow. The sanitation workers were sweeping, but new leaves kept falling, seemingly never-ending.

Toothpaste foam was about to spill out. She quickly ran to the bathroom to clean up.

When she returned to the living room, she had changed into a more normal set of loungewear, with the sleeves slightly rolled up, revealing her fair, slender wrists.

“When does City A get heating?”

Su Tuantuan half-tied her hair into a bun, went to grab her breakfast, and seeing that Mo Xian had made two portions, she scoffed. “Did you come here just to freeload on my food?”

Mo Xian’s cheeks were slightly red. She served the two plates of breakfast and poured the milk. “The heating starts in a couple of days and lasts until March. And no, I hadn’t eaten breakfast yet either.”

“You certainly don’t treat yourself as an outsider.”

Su Tuantuan plopped down. “You don’t, by any chance, believe what those marketing accounts are saying, do you?”

Those people were top-notch at fabricating stories from pictures. Didn’t they realize that her and He Xiyao getting together was impossible?

Everywhere, they screamed two words:

Mismatch!

“Of course not.”

Mo Xian was sincere, looking at her with complete trust. “I only believe you.”

Kid, haven’t you been beaten by society yet?

To still believe after being scammed so badly before—you really are romantically obsessed.

Her gaze was so intense. Su Tuantuan laughed awkwardly and avoided it. After biting into her sandwich a few times, she remembered Sister Zhou mentioning Qiao Yanran. Her action paused. “Right, what happened to Yanran?”

She pulled out her phone, but Mo Xian gently pressed her hand down.

Mo Xian took her phone. Her tone was gentle but firm. “Finish eating first.”

Su Tuantuan, who hadn’t initially cared much, was now even more curious.

Qiao Yanran was with Shen Jun last night. Could it be that they had sparks flying and got together, and some paparazzi saw them?

She quickly finished her meal. Reaching out to Mo Xian, Mo Xian saw her cheeks bulging like a small squirrel’s and her fingers wiggling twice. Mo Xian thought for two seconds and returned the phone to her.

Su Tuantuan opened her phone to search and finally saw the trending topics.

[Image Collapse! The Cute and Sweet Actress Qiao Yanran is Actually the Daughter of a Gambler and a Fraudster!]

Upon reading the content, Su Tuantuan nearly choked on the last bite of her sandwich.

: “The cute and sweet actress Qiao Yanran, who has achieved much professionally and always cured audiences with her warm smile, has recently been questioned by netizens. A netizen leaked information claiming that Qiao Yanran was a young delinquent in school, not only bullying classmates but also having a father who is a notorious local gambler. As a result, Qiao Yanran’s image is being questioned by the public…”

“D*mn it!”

A surge of anger rushed to Su Tuantuan’s head. She quickly drank her milk, feeling utterly furious.

The plot from the novel still happened!

She paced back and forth in the room, trying hard to recall how Qiao Yanran dealt with this in the novel…?

It seemed that at this time, Mo Xian stood by Qiao Yanran, helping her prove her innocence, and Qiao Yanran was deeply moved. Coupled with the legal support from Shen Jun’s law firm, the controversy quickly blew over.

But—

At that time, the person who did the dirty deed…

Who was it…?

Su Tuantuan was suddenly shocked.

Could it have been “her”?!

But she had never done such a thing, yet Qiao Yanran was still being maligned. So, who was the person who actually did this?

Su Tuantuan bit her finger in contemplation. Mo Xian returned after washing the dishes and saw her still pacing. The next second, Mo Xian stood in front of her.

Su Tuantuan’s steps halted. She looked up at Mo Xian.

Her eyes were filled with intense doubt. “Who is leaking this information to hurt Yanran?”

Mo Xian was stunned for a moment, wanting to ask how she knew, but remembering Su Tuantuan and Qiao Yanran were good friends, she could only offer comfort. “Her company will find out soon. You don’t have to worry too much.”

Seeing Su Tuantuan’s serious face, Mo Xian added, “Her company will take responsibility for her.”

Su Tuantuan chewed her nail, feeling this wasn’t good enough. She tried calling Qiao Yanran, but her phone was off. Clearly, Qiao Yanran wasn’t planning on responding to the public right now.

Su Tuantuan had been wary of this female lead before, but now, she only felt pity.

If the public opinion was allowed to continue this way, it would undoubtedly rip open Qiao Yanran’s wounds.

Qiao Yanran locked herself in her apartment for a day and a night.

Her agent said they would handle the online situation, but the noise online didn’t subside.

The agent said someone was deliberately targeting her, likely because she had stepped on someone’s toes earlier.

“It comes out now, not earlier or later, right after you discussed Blazing Sun with the director. This is intentional!”

“I don’t care about your past. For this matter, do not come out and clarify! Don’t say a word! The company will suppress this for you!”

Qiao Yanran lay on the carpet, the agent’s instructions echoing in her mind.

She scrolled through her tablet, reading countless comments from netizens.

: “We can overlook her family background, but campus bullying is unforgivable, right? We absolutely will not accept artists with moral stains!”

: “So Qiao Yanran has been pretending all this time? My god, how terrifying. To what extent can a person fake it, to fool everyone!”

: “Whether it’s true or not, seeing her old photos gives me a terrible impression. Short hair, sloppy, no different from a little thug…”

Her chest hurt. In her ears, she heard her mother’s screams. The scene flashed back to when she was three years old—

“Give me all the money! You slut! I’m going to beat you to death!”

The man, wearing a vest, held a beer bottle, which he smashed against the table. The woman lay on the floor in terror, begging him to stop hitting her. The woman’s face was bruised, and a handful of her hair had been forcefully yanked out.

The man, a cigarette dangling from his lips, picked up a handkerchief from the floor. He opened it, saw the small change inside, and laughed. “Isn’t there money here? Who said you have no money? I told you, you make money every day at the salon. Those men and women touch you a bit, and you earn money. How could you not earn money?”

“That’s Ranran’s money! Ranran needs to go to kindergarten! I beg you, don’t take that money…”

“Get lost!”

The man kicked the woman’s shoulder, a cigarette in his mouth, preparing to leave. He saw the child standing by the bedroom door, hugging a rabbit. He showed his yellow teeth, walked up, and twisted Qiao Yanran’s cheek. “My Ranran, why aren’t you an Alpha? But an Omega is fine, too. When you grow up, Daddy will find you a good family so you’ll be comfortable for the rest of your life!”

“Qingang! Don’t touch my daughter!”

The woman rushed up, desperately protecting the child. The child’s large eyes were filled with shock, helplessness, and confusion.

“Pfft, she’s my daughter too! I’m in a good mood today, so I won’t bother with you. I’m going to gamble a bit first. When I get back, have dinner ready for me!”

The man left, humming a tune. The woman held the child and cried. “Ranran, I’ll divorce him. I’ll divorce him…”

She did divorce that man.

It took five years to win the divorce lawsuit.

It took five years of her youth to make that man let go.

After the divorce, she raised her daughter like an Alpha.

She cut her daughter’s hair short, dressed her in shorts, and raised her to resemble a boy in every action.

But the road to divorce wasn’t easy. The woman relied on the strength of her entire family to get rid of the man.

The man frequently showed up to harass them, bringing thugs to cause trouble.

The woman’s family couldn’t take it anymore and urged her to move away with her daughter.

She moved with the girl out of the small town.

The girl was in junior high school at the time.

The girl from the small town had hair cut by her mother and clothes bought by her mother. At school, everyone treated her like a freak.

They said she was nothing like an Omega.

The Alpha and Omega boys and girls surrounded her, laughing at her, wanting to pull down her pants and take off her clothes to see how she had developed.

She fought like a small beast, grabbing one person’s neck and squeezing fiercely, biting another person’s ear until the blood ran.

After that, no one dared to bully her again.

They all knew she was a child who wasn’t afraid to die.

Later, she should have lived happily. Her mother worked as a maid in a wealthy home, and life was somewhat secure. She lived with her daughter in a basement, planning every day to save money to move her daughter out of the damp, moldy place.

Then the man showed up again.

He demanded to remarry.

The girl thought then that if she had a knife, she would definitely kill him.

But she didn’t expect her mother to agree to the man.

After the remarriage, the man still gambled every day, with added alcoholism.

Her mother left early and returned late, running a small business, saving some money. On the man’s birthday, she said she was giving him a gift.

The girl was sixteen at the time.

Every time the man drank with his friends, he would scheme, saying his daughter was pretty and that he would sell her to them if they wanted.

Her mother always smiled and didn’t object.

The girl hated her mother intensely then.

On the man’s birthday, her mother gave the man a car. It was a used car and not worth much, but the man was ecstatic.

Her mother said she wanted to take the man out for a drive. The man, showing a rare glimpse of fatherly affection, said he wanted to take the girl along.

Her mother sat in the driver’s seat, looking at the girl through the car window. She said, “This is the car I bought for him. She’s not worthy of a ride.”

The man was instantly happy, unable to tell up from down.

The girl hated her mother intensely that day.

More than any day before.

She didn’t understand why her mother was so weak, so incompetent, so utterly disgusting to her.

Until she returned home to the cold, dark house after spending a night at an internet cafe.

The police showed up and told her that her parents had both fallen into a river due to a car accident and that neither had survived.

When she went to identify the bodies, she saw the woman’s wide, staring eyes.

That was the first time she realized.

A mother is just a mother.

A mother would not abandon her child.

If her mother did abandon her one day.

It must be because her mother had suffered enough of the world’s pain.

Her mother took the devil with her.

She just left like that.

Sixteen-year-old Qiao Yanran had wished that man would die every day leading up to that moment.

But she never thought the price would be so heavy.

Qiao Yanran thought.

Was the place she existed in actually the real hell?