A Cannon-Fodder Omega’s Self-Saving Guide - Chapter 6

“Miss Xia, breakfast is ready.”

Yin Yin came over carrying a tray and glanced at the woman sitting on the sofa. The faint morning light reflected against her jade-like face. The woman’s eyes were bright and burning, her expression solemn and dignified, as if she were about to make some major decision.

She was practically a completely different person from the woman last night who had clung to Yin Yin, insisting on sleeping in the same room as her, and whom Yin Yin had only managed to push away with great difficulty. The current Xia Weichen possessed the bearing of someone in charge. For a moment, Yin Yin could feel that if Xia Weichen in this state stood on the opposite side from her, she might be a difficult opponent to deal with.

Hearing her words, Xia Weichen raised her eyes to look at her. Beneath her slightly curled lashes, her eyes shone faintly.

“Thank you, Sister Yin.”

“The coffee is warm. It won’t taste good once it gets cold,” Yin Yin reminded her, placing the tray on the coffee table.

She had just been about to turn and leave when she felt something hook onto the hem of her clothes. Immediately after, a gentle voice came from behind her.

“Sister won’t eat with me?”

Yin Yin refused instinctively. “I’m not hungry.”

“Then did Sister specially prepare breakfast for me?” Xia Weichen hooked an arm around Yin Yin’s shoulder, her soft breath gently brushing past Yin Yin’s earlobe. “Sister is so good to me.”

“Hurry and eat. I have to go to the company later. Will you be all right staying here alone?”

After signing the agreement last night, Xia Weichen had handed her a bank card without even blinking. Yin Yin had checked the balance. She was afraid that even if she sold her entire company, it still would not be worth that much.

Precisely because of this, Xia Weichen’s status in her eyes had upgraded from an Omega young lady to an extremely valuable item—one that needed to be placed carefully in a safe and meticulously protected.

This neighborhood was somewhat old, so its security and environment were not very good. Delinquents often came around. In the past, Yin Yin had relied on her status as an Alpha and had not feared these things. But Xia Weichen was different. In a place like this, an Omega could easily encounter danger.

“Then will Sister bring me to your place?” Xia Weichen asked, full of expectation.

Yin Yin poured a basin of cold water over her hopes at once. “I still think Miss Xia should return to your own home. The Xia family home is safer than here.”

Xia Weichen’s lashes lowered, hiding the original shimmering brightness in her eyes. She looked a little misty.

“The security here isn’t very good. Miss Xia is the only daughter of the Xia Consortium. Miss Xia should know that there are many people who dislike the Xia family,” Yin Yin reminded her.

“But… Sister is an Alpha. You can definitely protect me.”

Xia Weichen said this softly.

Yin Yin fell silent.

“Then… Sister, come with me. My house is very big and has many rooms. I won’t insist on making Sister sleep with me anymore.”

Xia Weichen slowly leaned her head closer to Yin Yin’s shoulder.

Xia Weichen’s hair was very soft. A faint itch slipped in along Yin Yin’s neck, as if a docile little cat were pressing against her and acting spoiled.

Although this action was a little too intimate, upon closer thought, it was still within proper boundaries. Yin Yin could not say anything about it and could only attribute it to the natural attachment instincts of an Omega.

“Then you must keep your word. We’ll stay in different rooms, and publicly… there’s no need to announce the relationship between us,” Yin Yin added.

Xia Weichen understood what Yin Yin was thinking.

Yin Yin was different from Lin Langruo. Yin Yin could not accept everything behind her with a clear conscience.

Thinking of this, and then remembering Lin Langruo’s words with her private doctor, Xia Weichen felt a faint soreness at the tip of her nose. At least two days ago, she had still trusted Lin Langruo without reservation and had offered Lin Langruo the love she herself did not fully understand.

Yet Lin Langruo had given her such an answer in return. It would be a lie to say she felt nothing at all. It was just that now was not the time to bury herself completely in resentment.

“Sister, don’t worry. I won’t make things too difficult for you. If Sister doesn’t want to worry about being seen as relying on connections through me, then I’ll simply tell others that Sister is my best friend. But as for my family, there still needs to be an explanation.”

Xia Weichen paused, then continued, “But Sister Yin, actually, there’s nothing bad about announcing our relationship. If those Omegas who keep pestering Sister hear that Sister already has me, they won’t be able to keep bothering Sister anymore.”

“It’s better not to say it.” Yin Yin shook her head. “Miss Xia knows that I’m not interested in Omegas. I will keep the company running and won’t let Miss Xia suffer a loss.”

Steam rose from the coffee on the tray. A faint bitter fragrance spread around the two of them, unexpectedly creating a warm, homelike atmosphere for no reason.

“Sister Yin, my family all calls me Chenchen,” Xia Weichen reminded her.

“Chen…” Yin Yin almost let herself be led along by Xia Weichen, but she quickly stopped the words before they came out. “When I meet Mr. Xia and Mrs. Xia, I will address Miss Xia that way.”

“Can Host really be happy like this?” After returning to her own house, the system watched Xia Weichen directing the servants to arrange the guest room, its tone worried. “When other people act as patrons, the person they keep is obedient in every way, but you…”

“She and I aren’t really in that kind of kept relationship. At most, it’s a contractual relationship.” Xia Weichen refuted it. “Yin Yin is an outstanding collaborator. How is it as complicated and dirty as you imagine?”

This house had been prepared for her by her parents when she was a teenager. It was her small home after coming of age. The reason she had rarely come here before was because Lin Langruo felt this place was too remote and too far from her company. Xia Weichen had always accommodated Lin Langruo, so although she had not really wanted to leave this place, she had still moved over to Lin Langruo’s side.

At that moment, her phone rang.

“Mom?” Xia Weichen had just answered the call when a woman’s reproachful voice came from the other end.

“Chenchen, what are you trying to do? Didn’t you say back then that you were going to marry Xiao Ruo? Why do you suddenly want to break off your engagement with Xiao Ruo now? Marriage is not a child’s game. This attitude of yours toward marriage won’t do.”

Hearing her mother Xia Qiuling’s words, Xia Weichen was still slightly shocked.

Lin Langruo actually dared to tell Xia Qiuling. She had underestimated Lin Langruo’s ability to complain first despite being the guilty party.

“Mom, I discovered that Lin Langruo isn’t a good marriage partner,” Xia Weichen said slowly. “The establishment of a marriage relationship needs to be based on love. There is no such relationship between her and me.”

“Chenchen, you…”

“I don’t love her, and she doesn’t love me. That’s all.” Although Xia Weichen had already tried her best to control herself, in front of her biological mother, a little of the grievance suppressed in her heart still overflowed. “I feel that compared to loving me, what she loves might be the Xia family, right?”

“You can’t say things like that carelessly.” Xia Qiuling was startled, but she quickly began thinking about the possibility. Although Lin Langruo had indeed been raised by her and her husband, and Lin Langruo’s father had indeed saved Xia Weichen’s father, Lin Langruo had already been fifteen or sixteen when they took her in. After hesitating for a moment, she still asked, “Chenchen, why are you suddenly thinking this way? Did someone tell you something bad?”

Xia Qiuling’s reaction also surprised Xia Weichen slightly. She had originally thought Xia Qiuling would only protect Lin Langruo, just like when the two of them had lived together: no matter who caused trouble, Xia Qiuling would only criticize her.

“I have someone I like more now,” Xia Weichen said after thinking for a moment, still concealing the affair and the poisoning. “And I’m going back out to work. The Xia family cannot be inherited by someone with a different surname.”

Even though she tried her best to conceal it, her words were still especially resolute, completely different from the delicate, dependent Omega she had been in front of Yin Yin earlier.

That was right. The Xia family could not be inherited by someone with a different surname. After her parents passed away, the one who controlled the entire Xia family had to be her, not anyone else.

After a long while, Xia Qiuling sighed on the other end of the phone.

“Chenchen, being alone will be too tiring. It would still be best for you to have a companion, someone reliable who can help you. Mom knows you’ve never liked admitting defeat since you were young, but the Xia family’s businesses are so vast. If you rely only on yourself, you won’t be able to hold everything up.”

“Before Mom met Dad, weren’t you the same?” Xia Weichen gently asked in return. Then her tone softened. “It’s fine. I can do it. Even without an Alpha, I will still do very well. Just like before the car accident—back then, without Lin Langruo taking care of me, was there anything I handled badly? From now on, I’ll do my best to learn. I won’t be as willful as before.”

Her bond with Lin Langruo had begun with that car accident half a year ago. Lin Langruo had stayed by her side and taken care of her all along. Xia Weichen had been grateful for Lin Langruo’s kindness, and only then had love begun to sprout. Before that, she had merely regarded Lin Langruo as a somewhat familiar friend.

But who could have thought that such care had already been a foreshadowing planted for the sake of seizing the Xia family?

Xia Qiuling knew that her daughter had already reached the age where she could stand on her own. She could sense that her daughter was hiding something from her. Although she still felt that what her daughter was doing was not entirely appropriate, she knew it would be better to respect her daughter’s choice.

Just as her own mother—Xia Weichen’s maternal grandmother—had once respected her decision to marry Father Xia after knowing him for only three short months. Her daughter had already reached the age where she could make decisions for herself. As an elder, what she should give was guidance, not control.

After receiving her mother’s permission, Xia Weichen continued having the servants arrange the room. Looking at the empty pale wallpaper, Xia Weichen felt it was somewhat bare, lacking some color.

“Auntie Lu, bring over that Drooping Willows in Cold Mist piece and hang it on the wall. It’ll make the room look nicer.”

Auntie Lu was the servant who had taken care of her since childhood. When Father Xia and Mother Xia were busy with work, they would let Auntie Lu look after Xia Weichen. Rather than merely being a servant, Auntie Lu cared for Xia Weichen as if she were her own daughter.

According to the original plot, Auntie Lu had jumped off a building after learning of Xia Weichen’s death from illness. It sounded reasonable, but after Auntie Lu died, there had clearly been signs that her room had been searched. The recording tape she had loved very much while alive had also mysteriously disappeared.

“Why is Miss so happy today? You’re actually willing to take out this treasure for Miss Lanyi. Before, when Miss Lanyi wanted to see it, you wouldn’t let her.” Auntie Lu smiled.

“This room isn’t for Lanyi. If Lanyi wants to come, she can sleep in the guest room herself.” Xia Weichen smiled. “It’s for someone Auntie Lu has never met before.”

Auntie Lu was surprised. “There’s someone Miss knows that I don’t?”

“I’ll introduce her to Auntie Lu once she comes.” Xia Weichen blinked. “Her meaning to me is anything but ordinary.”

“That must be true. Miss even took out Drooping Willows in Cold Mist. This was Miss’s first work after completing her apprenticeship. Even Master Yang Shuhe praised it endlessly.” Auntie Lu moved swiftly and took out a carefully preserved scroll. “Master Yang Shuhe is going to hold an exhibition in Linqi soon. Does Miss want to go see it?”

Xia Weichen lowered her eyes. “Master is coming?”

Master Yang Shuhe was a renowned contemporary embroidery master and the current owner of the famous Huanyue Embroidery House. Many famous fashion exhibitions, both domestic and international, featured her works. At the same time, she was also Xia Weichen’s embroidery teacher. When Xia Weichen was five or six years old, she had been sent to Master Yang Shuhe to learn embroidery. After she started school, she would still go over every winter and summer vacation to study under Master Yang Shuhe. Xia Weichen had extraordinary talent and soon developed excellent embroidery skills. Although her works circulating on the market could not compare to Master Yang Shuhe’s, they were still extremely valuable. However, Xia Weichen had never expected to profit from them. The reason her works circulated outside was almost always because she donated them to the organizers of charity banquets, who would then auction them off. Within the circle, this was considered an exceptionally elegant act.

The Drooping Willows in Cold Mist piece that she had asked Auntie Lu to bring out was a work from her girlhood. Back then, she had stayed in Master Yang Shuhe’s embroidery workshop and gazed at the watery scenery and mountains outside the window. That state of mind, immersed only in nature, was something she no longer possessed now. Previously, her mulberry-silk threads had been piled up in two full rooms, and she would often go inside to play with them, occasionally adding a few stitches. But thinking about it now, she had not touched any of these things for nearly half a year.

After her car accident, everything had changed.

Xia Weichen suddenly snapped awake. Her fingertips brushed over the scroll as she slowly unfurled Drooping Willows in Cold Mist. “Since Master is coming here, of course I must see her.”

After her car accident, Yang Shuhe had also contacted her and wanted to meet her. But at that time, Lin Langruo had strongly advised her not to meet Master Yang Shuhe on the grounds that her physical condition was poor. Xia Weichen had not wanted to make her master worry either, so she had given up on that meeting.

Later, she heard that Yang Shuhe had gone abroad to attend a fashion exhibition, and after that, there had been no more news of her. If Auntie Lu had not told her, she would have thought her master was angry with her.

“Master has always been thinking of Miss. It’s just that for the past half year, Master Yang hasn’t been able to contact Miss, so she asked me about Miss’s recent situation. But Miss had been staying with Miss Langruo all this time, so I didn’t know exactly how Miss was doing either.” Auntie Lu sighed, then said with relief, “Fortunately, Miss is back now. If you had a quarrel with Miss Langruo, coming back to stay for a while is good too.”

Xia Weichen smiled lightly and corrected her. “Auntie Lu, I actually already broke up with her.”

Although Auntie Lu had heard Xia Weichen’s phone call with Xia Qiuling, it had not been convenient for her to say anything before Xia Weichen mentioned it herself. Xia Weichen had grown up under her watch, and her heart leaned unconditionally toward her own young miss.

“Then Miss can stay here for a long time. Looks like Miss will have to eat my cooking for quite a while again.” Seeing Xia Weichen’s expression and knowing she was not very upset, Auntie Lu smiled. “Perfect timing. I learned a few new pastries these days. Miss can try them. I guarantee you’ll be satisfied.”

Xia Weichen had always known Auntie Lu’s cooking skills were very good. She smiled and nodded. “Then I’ll thank Auntie Lu in advance. But I’ll have to trouble Auntie Lu to prepare one extra portion. She likes light flavors, so add a little less sugar.”