The hallway was empty, save for the dim yellow light cast by the wall lamps.
Jiang Manru stopped in her tracks because someone was standing right ahead of her.
A black evening gown. Tall. Cold and stunning.
She was leaning against the wall, as if she had been waiting for a long time.
That pair of eyes was staring straight at Jiang Manru.
Between ignoring her and turning back the way she came, Jiang Manru chose to turn around and leave.
Yet she did not get away.
Gu Yan’s movements were faster. She took a step across, caught Jiang Manru by the wrist, and pulled her into the nearby emergency stairwell.
The door closed behind them.
The stairwell was very dark, with the emergency light casting an eerie green glow.
Jiang Manru was pressed against the wall, her back resting against the cold surface. Gu Yan’s arm barred her way in front, trapping her between Gu Yan’s body and the wall.
“What are you running for?” Gu Yan’s voice carried a hint of a smile, low enough to exert pressure on the heart.
Jiang Manru caught the scent of sandalwood radiating from her.
That face had not been seen for three months.
It was still the same.
The brows and eyes were sharp, and the corners of the lips always carried a trace of an ambiguous smile. When looking at someone, her eyes would narrow slightly, resembling a shrewd fox.
“Let go,” Jiang Manru said.
Gu Yan did not budge. Instead, she lowered her head, closing in on the side of Jiang Manru’s neck. Warm breath brushed across the skin just above the scent gland, and the tip of her nose lightly grazed that spot with a vague sense of probing.
“No other Alpha’s scent.” Gu Yan raised her head, looking at her with a glint in her eyes. “Now that you are married, will you still insist on your principle of never being marked?”
Jiang Manru stared back at her, her facial expression completely different from the gentle and obedient Mrs. Bai in the lobby just moments ago.
There was no smile, no gentleness, only cold hostility.
“Why are you here?” she asked.
“To find you, of course.” Gu Yan raised a hand, helping to tuck a stray lock of hair behind Jiang Manru’s ear.
“Why are you looking for me?”
“What do you think?” Gu Yan’s hand propped against the wall beside Jiang Manru’s head, pressing her entire body even closer. “You went missing the moment you returned to the country, refusing calls and ignoring messages. I went through so much trouble to track you down. And you actually married someone else.”
Jiang Manru remained silent.
Gu Yan watched her, her voice dropping lower as she called out her name, “Jiang Manru, are you hiding from me?”
Jiang Manru met her gaze and answered, “We are already over.”
“Over?” Gu Yan let out a very faint laugh. “Did I agree to that?” She reached out, her fingertips lightly tracing across Jiang Manru’s cheek. “Three months ago, you said you wanted to return to the country and needed time to think things through. I let you go. I waited for you for three months. And as a result…”
Her fingers paused at Jiang Manru’s jaw.
“You went straight and married someone.”
“I did not ask you to wait for me,” Jiang Manru looked at her. “Marrying someone is also my own business.”
Gu Yan’s gaze darkened.
“So?” she asked. “Who is that person? That Alpha, how are they better than me?”
Jiang Manru did not answer.
Gu Yan stared at her and suddenly smiled.
There was a hint of danger in that smile.
“Not talking?” She leaned in closer, her lips nearly brushing Jiang Manru’s earlobe. “Then I will ask you another question.”
Her voice dropped even lower.
“Did you sleep with them?”
Jiang Manru’s eyelashes fluttered.
Gu Yan sensed it.
She drew back slightly, looking into Jiang Manru’s eyes.
“We did,” Jiang Manru replied with a smiling counter-question. “Our honeymoon is already over, wouldn’t it be strange if we did not?”
Gu Yan’s expression froze for a moment. But soon she chuckled again, “Then why did you not let her mark you?”
“None of your business.”
“Because it is an arranged marriage,” Gu Yan said with certainty. “A sham marriage in name only.”
“I am not.”
Gu Yan looked at her with a gaze that felt like she was watching a throwing tantrum child.
“Jiang Manru,” her voice softened. “I know what you are mad about. But you cannot just do this, find a random person to marry, and try to shake me off.”
Gu Yan reached out, wanting to take her hand.
Jiang Manru pulled her hand back.
“Do not touch me.”
Gu Yan’s hand remained suspended in mid-air.
“Are you serious?” she asked.
Jiang Manru did not want to deal with her.
Gu Yan stared at her for a long time.
“Fine,” she said. “You win.”
She took a step back, leaving space for Jiang Manru.
“But Jiang Manru,” she said, “you know I will not give up.”
“That is your problem.” Jiang Manru turned around and reached for the door of the stairwell.
Right at that moment, the door was pushed open from the outside.
The hallway lights poured in.
A person stood in the doorway.
Against the light, her face was unclear.
Yet that silhouette:
Tall and lazy. She was leaning against the door frame, unhurriedly putting away her phone.
Jiang Manru was so startled her heart almost stopped beating.
Bai Yue.
Was she eavesdropping through the crack of the door?
Bai Yue’s gaze swept past Jiang Manru’s face and landed on the person standing behind her.
The gazes of the two Alphas met in the air.
The corners of Bai Yue’s lips curved upward slightly. Not only was there no anger of catching a cheating partner, but her face was filled with the sovereign dignity of someone acting like she just happened to pass by and saw nothing.
“Been looking for you forever,” she said to Jiang Manru. “So you were in here.”
She extended her hand.
Jiang Manru looked at that hand. Slender fingers, distinct knuckles, dry and warm.
She reached out and grasped it.
Bai Yue pulled her close to her side, a movement as natural as if it had been done countless times before.
Then she looked at Gu Yan.
“And this is?”
Gu Yan looked back at her as well.
That gaze was appraising, scrutinizing.
Bai Yue let her look.
She even leaned a bit closer to Jiang Manru, her arm loosely wrapping around her waist.
That posture clearly and unmistakably declared: My wife.
“She is a friend of mine,” Jiang Manru spoke up first.
Bai Yue looked down at the person in her arms, curling her lips in a very impolite expression: “A friend?”
Jiang Manru smoothly leaned against Bai Yue’s shoulder, burying her face in the crook of her neck while her fingers tightly clutched Bai Yue’s sleeve, resembling a startled little rabbit.
Bai Yue was stunned for a moment.
Just now in the hallway, she had vaguely overheard some of the conversation. Although not all of it, it was enough to let her know that Jiang Manru was quite different from the person she usually saw.
Yet right now:
She looked down at the person in her arms. Eyelashes trembling, body slightly shivering, the knuckles of the hand gripping her sleeve even turning pale.
Obedient, soft, completely harmless.
Exactly the same as the impression she had of her.
The strange feeling in Bai Yue’s heart rose up again, but she did not show any of it on her face, merely pulling Jiang Manru slightly tighter into her embrace.
“Since she is a friend,” she said to Gu Yan, “we will chat another day. It is getting too late, my wife is tired, and we are going home.”
Bai Yue finished speaking entirely on her own accord, directly wrapping her arm around Jiang Manru to leave, giving the other person no chance to speak at all.
After walking a few steps, a light laugh sounded from behind.
“You must be Bai Yue, right?” Gu Yan’s voice rang out.
Bai Yue did not stop her steps.
“I will remember that.”
Just four words. Yet that tone made Bai Yue’s back tingle slightly.
She did not look back, continuing to walk forward while embracing the shivering little rabbit in her arms.
All the way to the end of the hallway, turning the corner.
“Alright,” Bai Yue stopped moving. “Safe now.”
Jiang Manru slowly raised her head, her amber eyes shimmering with moisture.
“Thank you,” she said, her voice small.
Bai Yue did not press her about her business with that Alpha, instead giving rise to some completely different thoughts.
The scene just now flashed repeatedly in her mind. When the door of the stairwell opened, the two of them had been standing far too close, too close for ordinary friends.
And the way that Alpha looked at Jiang Manru.
Bai Yue was all too familiar with it.
Far from feeling angry, she actually felt a bit secretly pleased.
For the longest time, she was the one acting.
Acting as a proper Alpha in front of Jiang Manru, acting as a good wife in front of everyone else.
She had been tired of it long ago.
But who told her to marry a good girl? A good girl had to be matched with a proper Alpha. This was the persona she had chosen for herself, and she had to act it out even if she had to crawl through it.
Yet tonight:
She discovered that Jiang Manru had secrets of her own.
Regardless of what kind of relationship she had with that Alpha, this matter was a massive trump card for herself.
Thinking about this, the curve of Bai Yue’s mouth deepened a fraction more.
If Jiang Manru had some unspeakable past, if that Alpha’s relationship with her was not simple, would this not serve as her own protective amulet?
From now on, she would not have to act alone.
They could act together.
You play your obedient role, I play my proper one. You have your secrets, I have mine. Neither interfering with the other.
Bai Yue’s mood suddenly turned pleasant.
She even hummed a little tune softly.
After humming a few notes, she suddenly realized something.
She tilted her head to glance at Jiang Manru. The latter was lowering her head with a somewhat apprehensive expression, probably wondering how to explain things to her once they got back.
“It is getting late, let us go home.” Bai Yue took off her own jacket and considerately draped it over Jiang Manru’s shoulders.
Jiang Manru snapped out of it, her expression gradually returning to normal. She nodded and linked her arm through Bai Yue’s.
As they left the banquet hall, Jiang Manru’s gaze instinctively drifted toward a certain direction for a split second.
And standing in that direction was Gu Yan.
Bai Yue noticed, but she did not say a word. She merely glanced down at Jiang Manru every now and then.
Sensing her gaze, Jiang Manru looked up and smiled at her. That smile remained as gentle and obedient as ever.
Bai Yue smiled too.
What she was thinking inside, however, was:
Since you have secrets too, then I will not hold back.