“Thanks for walking me home. See you tomorrow,” Fang Rou said, opening her door and waving at Xia Chunxiao.
“See you tomorrow,” Xia Chunxiao said softly, adding a sentence in her heart: Sister Fang Rou.
Looking at the woman’s glowing smile, her heart started acting up again, entirely beyond her control.
“You should hurry home, too.”
“Alright.” Xia Chunxiao opened her own door as well.
“I just got back, and I’m starving.” Vaguely, she heard a woman’s voice coming from the opposite apartment, where the door hadn’t been fully closed yet. She turned around.
At the doorway, Fang Rou, who had been watching her to make sure she went inside safely, paused for a moment, then looked back and asked, “Alright, what do you want to eat?”
After that, she turned her face back, smiled politely at Xia Chunxiao, and the door clicked shut.
Xia Chunxiao stood at her doorway for a brief moment, looking at the closed door. Lowering her eyelashes, she closed her own door as well.
That night, Xia Chunxiao tossed and turned, completely unable to fall asleep.
How could such a thing happen? She had just fallen in love with someone, only to find herself already nursing a broken heart.
She had just finished serializing a novel and had nothing on her plate right now. She originally planned to brainstorm her next book, but her mood was so weighed down by dejection that she couldn’t gather any inspiration.
Her mind felt like it was tangled up in a mess of chaotic threads, pulling this way and that. One second, that gentle face flashed across her thoughts; the next, a heavy wave of intense guilt weighed down upon her heart.
“Go to sleep. Once you’re asleep, you won’t think about all this messy nonsense,” she muttered to herself.
Yet, the harder she forced herself to sleep, the easier it was to dwell on all sorts of random things, and the more awake she became.
In the end, Xia Chunxiao decided to look for some ASMR to listen to.
She opened the streaming app and clicked into the livestream marked as the most popular one for falling asleep.
To her surprise, it turned out to be a gaming livestream. The moment she entered, a barrage of gunfire echoed in her ears.
She blinked in a daze, feeling as though her ears had suffered a critical hit. The screen was so flooded with gift special effects that her eyes began to blur.
“What kind of livestream uses a ‘fall asleep’ title for a game stream? Annoying!” She took off her headphones, shook her ringing ears, and typed a bullet-comment to vent her frustration.
Perhaps she stood out rather sharply amid the sea of sycophantic praise, because she was immediately retorted to by a dozen comments.
“Idol, it’s just a trick to lure you in so you get killed,” the streamer chuckled softly on stream.
It was a very pleasant voice, magnificent like orchestral instruments, yet carrying an undeniable arrogance.
It was a strongly marked Alpha voice, possessing the distinct traits of a top-tier Alpha.
Soon enough, the barrage of comments was once again buried under gifts and endless flattery.
Viewers were saying how amazing the streamer’s voice sounded, how distinctly “Alpha” it was, and telling the streamer not to get angry at all the fools in the world.
Xia Chunxiao didn’t know if the streamer was responding to her or not, but her emotional state was always steady like a capybara. Even if people scolded her, she wouldn’t mind; she rarely argued with people on the internet.
After all, none of them were particularly important people.
In modern society, Alphas and Omegas remained the privileged classes. Compared to Betas, Alphas possessed an all-around superiority in both cognitive thinking and physical stamina. Their smaller population ratios also caused society to hold these two secondary genders in extremely high regard.
Take this streamer, for instance. Her gaming skills were undeniably top-tier. Even though she didn’t show her face, her attitude was abrasive, her way of scolding people was sarcastic, and she treated her audience and opponents with equal harshness.
Yet, relying solely on her voice and gameplay, she still managed to drive the crowds into a frenzy of adoration.
Xia Chunxiao simply felt a bit bored. She didn’t care for gaming, and those fans and everything else had nothing to do with her.
She planned to exit the stream and look for another one to help her sleep.
Just as she was about to leave, however, she heard a voice.
“The wontons are ready. Do you want to eat them now?” Through the streamer’s unmuted microphone, another woman’s voice could be faintly heard.
Xia Chunxiao’s hand, which had been poised to exit, froze.
“Sister, you should have knocked before coming in,” the streamer’s voice rang out.
“I’m sorry, I was worried you were hungry and slipped my mind for a moment,” the other woman’s voice immediately followed with an apologetic tone.
After that, the microphone was muted, and Xia Chunxiao could no longer hear anything else. But that gentle voice…
She couldn’t possibly mistake it.
It was Fang Rou’s voice.
In the end, she didn’t exit the livestream. She simply watched the streamer, who hadn’t stopped playing games and had only muted her mic. Xia Chunxiao had no way of knowing whether they were still talking, but the game continued, meaning this person probably didn’t go eat the wontons Fang Rou made right away.
If she left them out any longer, the wontons would swell up in the broth and lose their delicious texture.
Besides, this streamer’s tone was far too fierce. How could anyone speak to their own Omega like that?
At this moment, other viewers in the chat also started asking questions: [Was that the streamer’s Omega just now?]
The streamer didn’t answer. Xia Chunxiao stayed in the livestream the entire time, and by the time the match ended, about half an hour had passed.
As soon as the game ended, the streamer directly ended the broadcast.
She never answered the questions in the chat.
Xia Chunxiao looked at her phone screen, which now showed that the broadcast had ended, and finally, she silently clicked the follow button for the streamer, whose username was simply a smiling face.
That smiling face (^_^), probably her sister’s lover, was an Alpha. As the saying went, Alphas and Omegas were a match made in heaven, while she was merely a Beta.
Yet, this (^_^), seemed not to treat her sister very well.
Lost in a jumble of random thoughts, Xia Chunxiao didn’t seem to fall asleep until the sky began to grow light.
However, after sleeping for less than three hours, she woke up again.
Insomnia caused by overthinking was always like this. Besides, she remembered that Sister Fang Rou had mentioned coming over today to drop off some cookies for her.
She mustered her energy, went to the bathroom to wash up, and even washed her hair.
After blow-drying her hair, she rushed over to her wardrobe to search for an outfit.
Unfortunately, because she hadn’t really stepped outside in about a year, she hadn’t bought many clothes. Most of them were older pieces she already owned, and the majority were strictly black and white.
Looking into her wardrobe, Xia Chunxiao thought it was a truly pitiful selection.
In the end, she picked out a white T-shirt and paired it with a pair of jeans.
Eyeing her unstyled, loose hair, she thought for a moment and tied it up into a high ponytail.
Noticing the pale color of her lips in the mirror, she fished out a tube of lipstick and applied some. It was a temperature-sensitive color-changing lipstick, and shortly after application, it quickly shifted into a Barbie pink shade.
Fortunately, her skin was fair, so it didn’t look terrible.
Xia Chunxiao examined her face closely, feeling a momentary sense of unfamiliarity.
She had lost quite a bit of weight over the past few years. Originally, she had actually been a slightly chubby girl, but this past year, likely because she basically only ate one meal a day, she had grown even slimmer.
Looked at this way, she actually looked rather pretty.
She smiled as she looked at herself in the mirror with her facial features fully revealed.
She could see the shadows of her parents in her face; she had indeed inherited their best traits. It was just a pity that she was only a Beta.
“Ding-dong.” The doorbell rang.
Xia Chunxiao bolted from her bedroom to open the door.
Taking a deep breath, she pulled the door open, her gaze locking onto a pair of curved almond eyes.
Today, Fang Rou was wearing a water-green dress, her hair pinned up with a wooden hairpin, making her look like a court lady stepping out of a classical painting.
Seeing her open the door, Fang Rou offered her a soft, gentle smile.
Xia Chunxiao’s heart skipped a beat, telling her loud and clear that she was utterly captivated by this woman.
Looking at Xia Chunxiao with her features completely uncovered today, a flash of astonishment crossed Fang Rou’s eyes. This girl was truly gorgeous, a level of beauty rarely seen among either Alphas or Omegas. She didn’t possess the extreme fragility of an Omega, nor the aggressive edge of an Alpha.
Her facial features and temperament struck the most exquisite balance.
She looked like a stunning traditional landscape painting: blacks were black, whites were white, delivering a striking visual impact that only felt beautiful rather than repelling.
As a fashion designer with her own studio and some international renown, Fang Rou looked at Xia Chunxiao, and her momentarily drained well of inspiration suddenly surged back to life.
“These are the cookies I baked.”
She took out a small bag and handed it to Xia Chunxiao. Xia Chunxiao was immediately greeted by the rich, fragrant aroma of butter and milk.
“Thank you.” Xia Chunxiao accepted them, handling the bag gently and politely, taking care not to brush against Fang Rou’s fingers.
“I baked cranberry and raisin flavors, and tomorrow I’m planning to make some snowflake crisps. Do you prefer dried fruit or nuts?”
Xia Chunxiao’s face slowly flushed red again.
Fang Rou let out a soft laugh.
Xia Chunxiao felt her face grow even hotter, the heat spreading all the way to her ears.
She somewhat regretted tying her hair up so neatly today.
“I like dried fruit,” she replied softly.
Xia Chunxiao decided she would head out later today to buy a gift in return for Fang Rou.
“Alright, then see you later. I need to get to work.” Seeing the girl’s shyness, and mindful that they weren’t all that familiar with each other yet, Fang Rou considerately said goodbye.
Xia Chunxiao felt a pang of disappointment, but she nodded and softly whispered goodbye in return.
Watching the woman’s figure disappear into the elevator, Xia Chunxiao opened the paper bag.
The cookies were still slightly warm. She picked one up and took a bite, instantly blown away by how delicious it was.
How could there be such a wonderful sister in the world? She was gentle, beautiful, and even knew how to bake little desserts.
After finishing the cookies, she headed out to the mall, intending to buy a return gift.
She let her hair down again, put on a hat and a face mask, and left home.
She had previously come across a brand of traditional Chinese jewelry online, and that was her destination.
She bought Fang Rou a silver hairpin, very exquisite and detailed. She especially loved the charms hanging from it, which were several tiny butterflies that fluttered like real insects in motion.
She figured Fang Rou would like it.
As for her other neighbor, she had completely forgotten about him.
Happily carrying the gift back home, she listened to the sounds outside, feeling a slight urge to knock on the door, yet fearing that the person opening it would be that other woman.
In the end, she simply waited quietly, intending to give Fang Rou the gift tomorrow when she brought over the snowflake crisps.
Crunching happily away on the cookies, with the delicious dessert melting on her tongue, her mood improved significantly. She ate every single cookie without wasting a single crumb.
That evening, Fang Rou came home from work after stopping by the supermarket to pick up some groceries, planning to make spicy stir-fried crab, which Xie Qi loved.
Upon unlocking the door, she found the apartment dimly lit; Xie Qi hadn’t returned yet.
She frowned slightly. Xie Qi only had one morning class today, so why wasn’t she back yet?
She sent Xie Qi a message saying she would be making spicy stir-fried crab tonight, and Xie Qi replied with a simple “okay.”
Turning on the lights, she noticed that the bag of cookies she had baked that morning, left out for Xie Qi to take, was still sitting untouched on the table, exactly where she had left it.
She called Xie Qi, but it rang for a long time before being picked up.
The background noise on the other end was so loud it almost drowned out her voice.
“Are you coming home for dinner tonight? I made spicy stir-fried crab.”
“Not eating. I’ve already eaten.”
“Alright.”
The call disconnected, and Fang Rou let out a bitter laugh.
“Do you still have money to spend? I’ll transfer some more to you,” she texted Xie Qi, sending along a transfer of 200,000.
Since the other person was probably at a bar, she figured she’d need some pocket money.
Even though she was a young lady from a wealthy family, her cards had been frozen by her parents, so there was no telling if she still had cash on hand.
Xie Qi was still young, and since Fang Rou was much older than her, she felt it was her duty to take care of her.
A long time passed, but Xie Qi neither accepted the money nor replied.
Looking at the dishes on the table, Fang Rou deliberated for a moment before walking over to knock on the neighbor’s door.
Xia Chunxiao opened the door, looking rather surprised to see Fang Rou standing there.
“Would you like to have dinner with me? I made way too much food, but my girlfriend had something come up at the last minute and isn’t coming back tonight,” Fang Rou said.
Xia Chunxiao wanted to refuse, she felt a bit too shy about going over to someone else’s place, but seeing Fang Rou’s crestfallen expression, her heart softened. Suddenly, she found herself nodding in agreement.