Transmigrated into the Villainous Scummy Alpha in a Talent Show Novel - Chapter 58

The entire hour-long ride back to the camp from the concert venue, Jiang Ming kept her head lowered. She knew Wei Xuanyue beside her was watching her with concern, but she simply didn’t have the energy to comfort anyone else.

She was trapped in the eye of the storm herself.

Xia Lian’s hand resting on Lin Qi’s shoulder had been like a knife to her eyes. She even regretted stepping out of the restroom at that exact moment. Jiang Ming’s eyes reddened silently, she didn’t want to see Lin Qi being intimate with anyone but her.

She had always been alone, believing she would never have attachments again. Yet, she never expected to meet someone from another world, bright and warm, blooming the roses she had longed for on the most barren soil.

Sniffling, Jiang Ming wiped the tears that had spilled over. Abandoning her usual politeness, she propped her feet on the seat, hugging her knees and burying her face in them. She cried uncontrollably, her body trembling faintly.

“Jiang Jiang…”

Tears welled up in Wei Xuanyue’s eyes too as she pulled the helpless, sobbing girl into a tight embrace, gently patting her slender back.

Jiang Ming lowered her legs, and with someone comforting her, her tears flowed even more freely. She clung to Wei Xuanyue as if grasping a lifeline, holding onto her desperately.

“Xuanyue, I, I’m so sad”

Her words came out between hiccups, and Jiang Ming suddenly felt like she couldn’t breathe. Her mind replayed, like self-inflicted torture, the familiarity between Lin Qi and Xia Lian. In the restroom, she had wiped away her disobedient tears and made up her mind to hear Lin Qi’s explanation to give her, and herself, a chance.

But that unacknowledged hope had plummeted to rock bottom in that moment.

Just like now in the car. Even though the air conditioning was set at a comfortable 26 degrees warm even for mid-May she felt so cold her body couldn’t stop shaking. It was as if the chill came from within, dragging her back to the most unbearable days in the psychiatric hospital. Jiang Ming shivered, barely surviving in a world devoid of light.

“Jiang Jiang, if she doesn’t cherish you, then we don’t want her! Just like how we cut off Tan Yi, throw them all away! Please stop crying, okay? It hurts me to see you like this.”

Her self-deprecating mental illness wasn’t fully healed, and with her slightly people-pleasing tendencies, Jiang Ming lifted her head from Wei Xuanyue’s shoulder, guiltily wiping the tear tracks from her cheeks. The dense pain in her chest remained, now tinged with bitterness. “Xuanyue, don’t cry.”

A layer of frost coated her eyes as Jiang Ming laughed at herself. Even Wei Xuanyue cared enough to cry for her was Lin Qi’s heart not made of flesh?

Why didn’t Lin Qi feel her pain?

But after the laughter came emptiness. Jiang Ming suddenly didn’t want to know the answer to that question. Instinctively, she wanted to run away. If it was because Lin Qi already had someone else to cherish, then the answer didn’t matter anymore.

She didn’t matter anymore.

Her fingers trembled slightly as she wiped Wei Xuanyue’s tears, as if she couldn’t control them. Jiang Ming withdrew her hand, finally calming down. Though her face was no longer streaked with tears, waves of grievance surged inside her, each pulse of panic sending chills down her spine.

The car stopped.

Wei Xuanyue was still worried. She had planned to follow Jiang Ming back to the dorm after all, even though she wasn’t crying anymore, she wasn’t smiling or speaking either.

Shaking her head and forcing her expression to steady, Jiang Ming hugged Wei Xuanyue, whose brows were still furrowed and eyes still red. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.”

“How can you possibly be okay like this?”

A mist slowly welled up in the corners of her eyes again. Jiang Ming wanted to speak to reassure her, but found her voice choked with sobs once more. She stubbornly shook her head, then realized she couldn’t hide the tremor in her voice and finally relented. “Xuanyue, let me be alone for a while, okay?”

Wei Xuanyue didn’t want to leave Jiang Ming by herself, but seeing her in such a pitiful state, how could she refuse? She sighed. “Alright, take a hot bath and get some rest early.”

Alone in the quiet space, Jiang Ming glanced around the familiar room. Lin Qi’s presence seemed to linger in every corner. Her reddened eyes suddenly caught sight of the phone on the table…

Picking it up, she knew it wasn’t right to go through someone else’s things without permission, but she was desperate to see those so-called “late-night dance practice” photos. The phone wasn’t locked. With a swipe, Jiang Ming opened Weibo.

The buzz had been building all day. Despite multiple attempts to suppress the trending topics, photos of Lin Qi and Xia Lian appearing together at the mall that afternoon had reignited the heated discussions.

Both wore masks the taller one in a white T-shirt and black sweatpants, the stunning beauty in a white knee-length dress. They weren’t holding hands or touching, just chatting while looking at each other. Their affectionate gazes, as if beholding a beloved, radiated undeniable chemistry even through the photos.

Jiang Ming knew all too well how Lin Qi’s peach-blossom eyes could make even a wooden post seem like the object of deep affection. Yet, her fingers tightened around the phone, the hard metal digging into her skin until her fingertips turned white, bitter and powerless.

Her fingers dragged across the screen almost masochistically, and soon she found the hotel photos. Though dark, how could she not recognize someone so familiar and so deeply loved? Xia Lian had indeed entered Lin Qi’s room, and it was unclear when she had left.

Originally standing by the desk while scrolling, Jiang Ming suddenly felt unsteady. She staggered back and sat on the bed, the dull thud echoing like the icy wind howling through her heart.

It felt as if an airtight net had wrapped around her heart. Jiang Ming saw the bloody truth, but the blood was from the wounds she had torn open herself.

No, she had to ask Lin Qi for the truth, to clarify everything…

Clutching at this last straw, Jiang Ming kept pressing the phone’s screen to life whenever it dimmed, sitting motionless. Each glance brought fresh tears, the new wet trails covering the dried ones, until the sound of a key turning in the lock came from outside.

Without the traces she had left behind, the person in a white shirt and tie walked in, carrying a faint scent of alcohol. She seemed surprised to find Jiang Ming still awake, momentarily frozen.

Jiang Ming deliberately lifted her head, revealing eyes red and swollen from crying. She wanted to see would Lin Qi still care for her?

“Jiang Ming, what… what’s wrong?”

The voice, always so gentle in her memories, now sounded panicked. Jiang Ming set the phone down. Though she had steeled herself to demand answers, courage faltered now. Her fingers tensed. “Why did Xia Lian go to your room at night? Why were you two at the mall together?”

After speaking up, she felt much lighter. Straightening her back like a bow stretched to its limit, Jiang Ming wiped away her tears, hoping not to appear so pitiful. Yet, her voice trembled with a desperate need for an answer, “What’s your relationship with her?”

It was a self-torturing question. Jiang Ming couldn’t accept it, her words laced with an expectation she herself refused to acknowledge.

Say it quickly you’re not that kind of relationship.

All along, Lin Qi had only wanted to take care of Jiang Ming, to give her a better life. From the very beginning, she knew Song En was the destined match. Suppressing her own desires, Lin Qi had no intention of interfering.

But now, seeing those tear-filled eyes looking at her, her heart ached unbearably. Even someone who rarely cried felt her own eyes reddening. A sourness welled up inside her, as if gripped by an unrelenting hand. Lin Qi’s gaze trembled slightly, “Senior Xia and I are just ordinary senior-junior classmates. I don’t like her. I…”

Hearing the answer she wanted, yet not the one she truly desired, Jiang Ming stared intently at Lin Qi, whose eyes and face were also flushed. Pressing her pale lips together, she remained silent.

Could she say “like”?

Should she say “like” now?

Tossing the plastic bag in her hand onto the bed, Lin Qi sat down opposite Jiang Ming. Her heart pounded like a drum, her throat tightened, and even her scalp tingled with nervousness.

“Jiang Ming, the person I like has always been ”

“Wait!”

Jiang Ming suddenly held her breath. Watching Lin Qi sit so close in front of her, she began to worry, were there dried tear streaks on her face? Did she look unattractive? And why was Lin Qi so serious? Was she about to confess?

But what if she wasn’t?

Suddenly unwilling or perhaps too afraid to hear Lin Qi’s words, Jiang Ming interrupted again, halting the unknown declaration that carried the risk of breaking her heart.

As long as the words remained unspoken, they could stay the same as before. That would be fine too.

“We can’t wait anymore.”

Just like long ago, when Lin Qi had wanted to confess but was stopped, she now understood Jiang Ming’s hesitation, her fear that the person Lin Qi liked wasn’t her.

With utmost seriousness, Lin Qi pulled her close, seeking out the gaze that kept avoiding hers. Her voice was gentle yet firm, “The one I like has always been you. It’s you. I love you.”

She repeated it three times, unable to resist Jiang Ming’s adorable yet heartbreaking expression of disbelief and secret joy. Had she really never realized how wonderful she was? As if loving her was something unimaginable.

“Y-you… really? You’re not lying?”

“Of course it’s true. I love you. I’ll love you for a lifetime. We’ll debut together, differentiate together, get married, grow old every step of my life, I want to take with you.”

A hidden joy replaced the cold wind that had long lingered in Jiang Ming’s heart. Suppressing a smile, tears streamed down her face again, this time from overwhelming happiness. For a moment, she couldn’t speak. Shifting her position, she knelt on the bed and threw herself into Lin Qi’s embrace.

The familiar woody fragrance enveloped her, like the most beautiful flower blooming on barren land. Jiang Ming didn’t know how to express her feelings, she wasn’t one for romantic words.

With that, Weiwei rose slightly from the embrace, and Jiang Ming leaned in close to Lin Qi’s lips. The other had also been crying, her lips carrying the same salty taste as her own. Yet, beneath that, she could detect the lingering sweetness of the fruit juices Jiang Ming had consumed at the celebration banquet. The delicate flavor traveled from her tongue to her brain, sending her soul soaring with joy.

This wasn’t their first kiss, but it was the first intimate moment shared openly after confessing their feelings.

Lin Qi held the back of Jiang Ming’s head, gently biting down on the daring tongue that had teased her. Even as the person in her arms trembled nervously, Jiang Ming still had the audacity to provoke her like this.

The taste of tears was bitter, yet somehow sweet on her lips. After the kiss, Lin Qi did what she had longed to do.

She trailed kisses from Jiang Ming’s cheeks to her eyes, following the tracks of her tears. In that moment, she seemed to see the pitiful figure of Jiang Ming crying alone in her dorm room, and her heart ached in response. Lowering her head, Lin Qi opened her slightly reddened eyes, starlight shimmering within them. “Jiang Ming, I love you.”

A small head nestled against her shoulder, leaving Lin Qi with only a view of Jiang Ming’s crimson-tipped ears. Smiling, she heard a muffled reply.

“Pinky promise at least a hundred years. You’re not allowed to change your heart.”

A little finger extended before her eyes, and Lin Qi’s smile widened as she hooked her own finger around it. “Pinky swear, a hundred years no changes. If I ever do, I’ll spend the next lifetime loving Jiang Ming all over again.”