Yu Sheng looked toward Meng Yueyu, her pupils trembling slightly.
The two exchanged a lingering look, and neither said a word, which struck Jiang Qiu as rather peculiar. Reasonably speaking, Yu Sheng and Meng Yueyu should have only met once before.
Yet right now, the dynamic between them did not seem like that of strangers who had only crossed paths a single time.
The Alpha raised her eyes, sweeping her gaze over Meng Yueyu’s face, her brows knitting together.
Amidst the frozen atmosphere, Yu Sheng stood up, averting her eyes as she murmured, “Excuse me, I have something to attend to. Please excuse me for a moment.”
There was a faint, barely perceptible trace of avoidance in the Omega’s eyes.
Meng Yueyu let out a seemingly meaningful chuckle before finally taking a seat.
Turning to meet Jiang Qiu’s scrutinizing gaze, Meng Yueyu said with an unchanging expression, “What’s wrong, Cousin?”
“It’s nothing,” Jiang Qiu replied, having no intention of asking further.
Instead, Meng Yueyu initiated the explanation for her: “Curious about whether there’s something going on between Yu Sheng and me? It’s very simple, we have absolutely no connection whatsoever. Didn’t you see how she completely ignored me just now?”
Because it played out that way, it only made people feel more suspicious.
But even if Jiang Qiu figured it out, she intended to pretend she didn’t, after all, drawing a clear line was exactly what she ought to be doing right now. Meng Yueyu didn’t press the matter further either. Her expression sobered slightly as she sized Jiang Qiu up for a few moments.
The awards ceremony was about to begin, yet Jiang Qiu still hadn’t seen Wen Yan come downstairs. When she called, she discovered that the Omega’s phone had accidentally been left in her own pocket. After a moment of thought, the Alpha stood up and headed toward the second floor.
Unexpectedly, just as she stepped onto the stairs, the entire venue suddenly plunged into pitch darkness.
Clamor and commotion instantly erupted from the floor below. A moment later, flustered staff members hurried over to inform everyone that there had been a sudden power outage and they were currently investigating the cause.
Jiang Qiu had already reached the second floor. Turning on her phone’s flashlight, she walked over to the room where she had taken Wen Yan to drink her medicine, only to find it completely empty.
“Xiao Yan?” Jiang Qiu stepped out of the room, calling out.
No one answered her, and there was no telling where Wen Yan had run off to. Standing by the banister, the Alpha looked down, attempting to use the small beam of light to find the Omega’s figure, but it was an exercise in futility.
She originally intended to head downstairs to search for her, but suddenly heard a rustling sound coming from another room.
Jiang Qiu immediately followed the noise and walked over.
However, that brief sound was followed by absolute silence. Jiang Qiu kept calling Wen Yan’s name as she approached. But the moment she stepped into a particular room, someone reached out and knocked her phone away. The light vanished instantly, leaving nothing but vast darkness before her eyes.
Before Jiang Qiu could bend down to retrieve it, her arm was tightly grabbed, and a wave of warmth pressed against her wrist.
The Alpha froze. She couldn’t see who it was in the dark and assumed it was Wen Yan.
“Xiao Yan, where did you go? I almost couldn’t find you,” Jiang Qiu said.
The only response she received was the sound of rapid, ragged breathing in the silence.
Jiang Qiu quickly realized that this person was not Wen Yan. Thus, she tried to pull her hand back and break free from the person’s grip. As she yanked her hand away, the Alpha heard the person speak:
“Jiang Qiu, can you give me one more chance to trust you?”
Yu Sheng’s voice trembled, her tone incredibly light and soft. Jiang Qiu couldn’t tell if it was an illusion, but she caught the faint trace of a sob.
The Alpha forcefully flung Yu Sheng’s hand off, took a half-step back, and said coldly:
“No.”
“I want to explain to you.”
“I don’t want to hear it,” Jiang Qiu cut her off, her words utterly merciless.
Yu Sheng fell mute, her hand freezing mid-air as it began to tremble slightly.
In the next second, the lights in the venue suddenly surged back on. Jiang Qiu narrowed her eyes slightly, and when she opened them fully, she saw that the rims of Yu Sheng’s eyes right in front of her were flushed red. Yet the Alpha remained completely indifferent. Jiang Qiu turned around, picked up her phone, and walked away without looking back.
Yu Sheng watched as Jiang Qiu found Wen Yan, and the two walked downstairs side by side.
She stood in the corridor, staring blankly at the top of the staircase.
“It seems Miss Yu failed to rekindle the old flame with her ex-girlfriend.”
Meng Yueyu’s voice abruptly rang out from behind her. She seemed to have come just to enjoy the spectacle, her tone deeply mocking.
Yu Sheng lowered her eyes to compose her emotions for a moment before turning around.
Meng Yueyu leaned against the wall beside her, her gaze fixed on Yu Sheng. Her hands idly toyed with a tangerine lollipop that Jiang Qiu had accidentally dropped on the floor earlier, her eyes filled with nothing but ridicule. Yu Sheng took a half-step closer to her, her face darkening.
“Meng Yueyu,” the Omega said in a low, heavy voice.
The Beta pulled a lighter from her pocket and said in a lazy drawl, “I’m honored that Miss Yu still remembers me.”
“Give that to me,” Yu Sheng pointed at the tangerine lollipop.
Meng Yueyu cast a downward glance at it, then flicked her index finger. With a crisp click, a faint blue flame ignited between her fingers. Immediately following that, Meng Yueyu held the lollipop over the fire and began to burn it.
Seeing Yu Sheng approach, she unhurriedly took a step backward.
It wasn’t until the candy was charred beyond recognition and completely inedible that Meng Yueyu snapped the lighter shut and tossed the ruined treat into the trash can.
Yu Sheng’s expression thoroughly collapsed. She glared furiously at Meng Yueyu, “What is the meaning of this?”
Meng Yueyu looked at her, “Just catching up on old times.”
The Beta smiled, yet it was more terrifying than if she weren’t smiling at all.
Yu Sheng said, “I have nothing to catch up on with you. Back then, you were the one who deceived me, otherwise how could I have…”
“I’ve always felt that Miss Yu and I are very alike,” Meng Yueyu interrupted her without a shred of courtesy. “Driven by profit, stopping at nothing to achieve our goals, and highly skilled at acting.”
“I am nothing like you,” Yu Sheng denied resolutely.
“In fact, I didn’t really deceive you about anything,” Meng Yueyu said nonchalantly.
Yu Sheng was highly guarded against her, warily avoiding her gaze, not believing a single word she said.
“Didn’t Miss Yu truly utilize my cousin before? Even if I hadn’t shown up, she would have dumped you sooner or later because of that. If anything, I saved you from looking too pathetic by letting you be the one to dump her instead.”
“What makes you so absolutely certain?”
“I just am.”
“You are no longer worthy of my trust,” Yu Sheng sneered with a cold face. “Two years ago, you were also the one who told me that my family background wasn’t good enough for her, and that no one in Dominion would ever approve of us. But I’ve checked. Wen Yan’s family background isn’t much better than mine, is it?”
Meng Yueyu acted as though she had just heard a massive joke. She narrowed her eyes and said, “But she was once a wealthy young lady pampered in the palms of others, with a gentle, compliant, and obedient nature. Whereas you, Yu Sheng, are merely an Omega who has been abandoned from beginning to end, and you even have a ‘prior record’ of using other people.”
Yu Sheng’s face turned incredibly unsightly, as if her sore spot had been violently pierced. Her fingertips dug so hard into her palms that she didn’t even seem to feel the pain.
Yet, Meng Yueyu deliberately added, “The two of you simply cannot be compared.”
Yu Sheng was furious, her chest heaving violently. Not wishing to say another word, she turned around to leave.
“If you still choose to believe my words right now, there might still be a slight turning point,” Meng Yueyu spoke up before she could walk away, her voice ringing with absolute certainty. “Aside from me, no one else can help you.”
Yu Sheng’s footsteps halted.
She was unwilling to trust her again, but Meng Yueyu’s words were undeniably alluring.
Currently, Jiang Qiu avoided her like the plague. Every single attempt to approach her ended in a harsh, ringing rejection. Yu Sheng had no idea what other options she had left. The Omega had already walked herself into a dead end; if an exit presented itself at this moment, she would grasp it without a second thought.
Therefore, Yu Sheng turned around once more.
As Meng Yueyu expected, she continued, “The way I speak is indeed a bit unpleasant, but it only sounds harsh because it’s the truth. Miss Yu, the only person you can trust is me. Even if certain details had discrepancies, I am very sincerely trying to help you.”
Yu Sheng said half-skeptically, “Then what do you have that is worth my trust?”
“My cousin still has lingering feelings for you,” Meng Yueyu chuckled lightly. “Is this piece of information enough for you to trust me?”
Yu Sheng knit her brows, “Impossible. She clearly harbors nothing but utter loathing for me.”
“The more she distances herself from you, the more it proves she hasn’t forgotten you yet. Otherwise, why hasn’t she thrown away that proposal ring, and instead kept it to this very day?”
Hearing this, Yu Sheng abruptly snapped her gaze up toward Meng Yueyu.
The Beta then handed her a slip of paper with Jiang Qiu’s address written on it. “You can go and ask her yourself.”
Yu Sheng didn’t take it. “There is no need for me to continue humiliating myself.”
“Within these past two years, she hasn’t dated anyone else. If it weren’t for the family strictly demanding a marriage alliance, my dear cousin would have remained single for you indefinitely.”
As she spoke, Meng Yueyu shoved the slip of paper into the Omega’s hand. “She is merely still angry at how you played with her feelings. Are you really going to let a few harsh words make you back down? If you want to obtain her forgiveness, it wouldn’t even be beneath you to proactively become her mistress.”
After a long silence, Yu Sheng asked, “Then why are you helping me?”
Meng Yueyu didn’t say anything, only raising her eyebrows.
Why?
Naturally, because only total, utter despair would drive an Omega into the arms of someone else.
And she understood Jiang Qiu, if Yu Sheng chose to act that way, it would only lead to a more absolute and irreparable rupture.
To offer timely help in times of snow, there must first be snow.
“Believe it or not, Miss Yu,” Meng Yueyu brushed past her, leaving behind only that single sentence.
Yu Sheng stared at Meng Yueyu’s retreating figure for a long time. By the time she walked downstairs and returned to her seat, Wen Yan and Jiang Qiu were lowering their voices, whispering intimately to one another.
The Alpha lowered her head, leaning in quite close to the Omega to listen to her.
The distance between them wasn’t remarkably close, yet it was painfully glaring all the same.
Wen Yan was smiling.
She seemed incredibly happy.
For a moment, Yu Sheng felt it difficult to breathe. She retracted her gaze, her fingertips tracing the slip of paper inside her pocket, her eyes downcast as her thoughts drifted.
As she sat there dazed, a few corporate representatives approached Jiang Qiu’s side. Yu Sheng caught the movement out of the corner of her eye, and what drifted into her ears was the Alpha introducing Wen Yan beside her.
“She is my fiancée,” Jiang Qiu said.
Yu Sheng took a sharp, deep breath. It felt as though her chest and heart had been submerged into a vat of pure vinegar. She clenched her hands tightly, her head dropping even lower as she pressed her trembling lips together.
Her emotions were entirely impossible to calm, and light laughter continued to echo in her ears.
Yu Sheng could hardly distinguish which person it was coming from.
In that fleeting second, the Omega felt as though a thick, towering wall had been erected between herself and Jiang Qiu. She felt a desperate urge to flee the venue, wanting nothing more than to escape this status devoid of any title or recognition.
Yet just as she was about to stand up, someone suddenly placed a white dress hat upon her head.
Meng Yueyu pressed the brim of the hat down, tilting her lips up into a smile toward her.