A Heartless Omega Regrets It When I’m Dying - Chapter 17

After her conversation with the private investigator, Wen Zhiqing received a message from Qi Yishu, asking if she had time to get together and chat today.

She frowned. Qi Yishu was her childhood friend of many years; meeting up to talk was a common occurrence. Yet lately, so many things had been piling up that an indescribable sense of unease was beginning to stir in the depths of her heart. Many events seemed like scattered threads—seemingly unrelated, yet giving her the feeling that they were somehow connected.

Ultimately, Wen Zhiqing went to keep the appointment.

“Zhiqing, have you been in a bad mood lately?”

Once they were seated, Qi Yishu asked softly. Wen Zhiqing lifted her eyes to look at her; there seemed to be a very faint, carefully restrained look of pleasure in the corners of Qi Yishu’s eyes, but upon closer inspection, one could detect an irrepressible air of quiet triumph.

Wen Zhiqing didn’t answer, instead looking down at the glass beside her hand.

She felt a bit irritable and hesitant about whether to ask Qi Yishu to help her analyze the recent happenings. Previously, she had never mentioned her marital issues to others; in her view, it wasn’t a matter worth bringing up. Lin Wantang was not a person worth mentioning, and there was no need to let her occupy the time she spent with friends.

She eventually shook her head, her tone flat: “Your mood, on the other hand, seems quite good lately.”

Qi Yishu also gave a slight shake of her head: “I just encountered something worth being happy about.” She paused, her fingertips unconsciously stroking the rim of her cup, and her voice lowered slightly: “Actually, I don’t even know if coming back to the country was the right choice.”

“I urged you to come back a long time ago,” Wen Zhiqing said. “You’ll definitely find smoother development here.”

“It’s not about my career.” Qi Yishu pursed her lips. “I’m just worried I won’t be able to control my emotions, and I’m worried I’ll hurt someone.”

Wen Zhiqing’s brow furrowed. Qi Yishu had always been calm and self-disciplined; she didn’t quite understand why she would suddenly say such a thing.

“What emotions?”

“The kind that, in a conventional sense, would be called ‘admiration,’” Qi Yishu poured herself a glass of wine, watching the amber liquid swirl gently. “But by the time I returned, I had already figured it out. Some feelings don’t necessarily have to be held in one’s own hand to be considered complete.”

As she spoke, Qi Yishu slowly lifted her eyes, her amber gaze reflecting a soft light: “Being able to see her on the path she chose, becoming happier day by day, is already something very much worth being happy about.”

Wen Zhiqing remained silent for a moment before finally asking: “Then why not try to hold it in your hand?” Given Qi Yishu’s beauty and talent, pursuing someone surely shouldn’t be that difficult.

Wen Zhiqing wasn’t entirely curious about Qi Yishu’s feelings; she was just suddenly reminded of how, five years ago near graduation, she had also wanted to try and truly grasp a certain emotion—only to realize on the eve of her confession that everything she loved was a mere illusion.

The moon in the water, the flower in the mirror. Some things aren’t just hard to hold; they are things one should never have reached for in the first place.

Qi Yishu took a sip of wine and didn’t answer Wen Zhiqing’s question. She looked directly into Wen Zhiqing’s eyes and gave a helpless smile.

“Zhiqing,” Qi Yishu’s voice wasn’t loud, but it was exceptionally clear, each word carrying weight: “You are my best friend.”

Therefore, she could not do anything to betray her best friend, nor could she passionately pursue the person she had kept in her heart for seven years. She could only hide the secret crush—which had long since overgrown the banks of her reason—in the dark where it couldn’t be seen, smiling as she wished for Wen Zhiqing and Lin Wantang’s fulfillment.

Qi Yishu lowered her eyes, her lips curving into a very light smile. It was a faint smile, like a fleeting ripple on a pond stirred by a night breeze.

She couldn’t say any more; she had already said enough. Some secrets are meant to stay out of the light.

Qi Yishu rarely spoke in such riddles. Wen Zhiqing sensed a subtle atmosphere, but she was never one to discuss feelings in depth, so she didn’t press further.

“Let nature take its course. I’m leaving first.”

The two sat in silence for a while longer before Wen Zhiqing spoke, then reached out to take her coat from the waiter.

Qi Yishu looked as if she wanted to say something, her hand slowly releasing the glass she had been holding. But in the end, she said nothing, merely standing up with a smile to bid Wen Zhiqing goodbye.

When Wen Zhiqing returned to the villa, Lin Wantang was seriously organizing her belongings. Two open suitcases sat in the corner of the bedroom, though they were still empty.

A few stacks of neatly folded clothes were piled beside Lin Wantang. She was organizing them meticulously, her slender fingertips smoothing out every tiny wrinkle. The warm yellow light spilled down, illuminating her lowered profile and casting a small, hazy halo on the smooth surface of the suitcase beside her.

Sensing Wen Zhiqing’s footsteps, Lin Wantang’s movements faltered almost imperceptibly. She instinctively raised a hand to adjust the collar of her pajamas, but moved it away after remembering she had already applied an Alpha-specific scent-blocking patch. She went back to organizing her clothes.

Just after returning, the pain in her gland had flared up again. This time, the painkillers seemed slower to take effect; she had to bite her lip until she tasted blood before the medicine finally worked. During that time, the crisp, sweet scent of tangerine had escaped uncontrollably, filling the room.

Lin Wantang felt a vague sense of unease; she guessed that the condition of her pheromones was becoming increasingly unstable.

While the tangerine scent was still dissipating, she had dug out a box of long-unused scent-blockers and applied one to the gland on the back of her neck. Previously, she had always been able to control her pheromones to keep them from leaking, so she never needed them. Now, she could no longer guarantee that control. Furthermore, she constantly worried about her scarred, battered gland being exposed to others’ gazes, becoming fodder for their mockery and ridicule.

With the patch on, Lin Wantang felt temporarily at ease, though she knew it wasn’t a long-term solution. When the gland pain struck, she would have to remove the patch to inject the painkillers, and the pheromones might still leak uncontrollably then.

She placed the folded clothes into the suitcase one by one. The empty black interior was gradually covered by soft fabrics, spreading out layers of light and dark colors.

“About when will the lawyer have the divorce agreement drafted?”

Lin Wantang closed the suitcase and asked softly.

She then turned around, her gaze meeting Wen Zhiqing’s emotionless, ink-black eyes. After a moment of daze, she naturally looked away.

“Are you in a hurry?”

Wen Zhiqing’s voice was also very calm, devoid of any emotional fluctuation.

To be fair, Wen Zhiqing’s voice was truly beautiful—like cold spring water soaked in moonlight, carrying a detached sense of enchantment.

Lin Wantang had listened to this voice for many years. In the past, even when Wen Zhiqing used the most vicious words to mock her, her voice remained a heart-stirring draw, like a siren’s song. Even at this moment, she felt a fleeting second of indulgence.

Wen Zhiqing, with her countless dazzling traits, was still that cold, radiant moon in the sky, enough to make any light-seeking person willingly stop and look up.

But Lin Wantang was no longer that clown willing to chase the moon.

Three years had passed, and she finally understood that a person is never a single, pure beam of light, but a mosaic made of countless shards. You can easily see the most brilliant, bright pieces, but that never means the entire picture is bright.

“I just feel that the time for us to part has come.”

She answered honestly.