A Heartless Omega Regrets It When I’m Dying - Chapter 6

“Ms. Lin, please come back in three days to collect the results of your gland examination.”

Lin Wantang nodded and thanked the nurse. As she took the painkillers, she noticed an orange candy had fallen into her palm along with them.

She looked up in surprise. The nurse lowered her eyes and smiled. “Eating something sweet will make you feel better.”

“Thank you.”

Lin Wantang accepted the candy, carefully tucked it back into her pocket, and revealed her first genuine smile of the day.

She would slowly start to be happy again, as long as she could gradually take back her love for Wen Zhiqing. Perhaps one day, she would stop caring about Wen Zhiqing entirely; then, her joy and sorrow would be hers alone to decide.

Walking out of the hospital, Lin Wantang checked her watch. It was already 10:00 PM. She likely wouldn’t be home until 11:00 PM, and she had filming the next morning. Clinging to the painkillers, she planned to wash up briefly and rest as soon as she got back.

She deliberately suppressed any thoughts of other things—like the welcome banquet, or… Wen Zhiqing.

At 10:50 PM, Lin Wantang parked in the open space of the villa’s courtyard. Looking up, she saw a narrow strip of warm yellow light leaking through the edge of the heavy curtains in the second-floor bedroom.

So, Wen Zhiqing was already back?

She had assumed the banquet would last a long time, or that Wen Zhiqing might not even come home at all.

Lin Wantang let out a faint, almost inaudible sigh and walked upstairs with heavy steps.

Reaching the bedroom door, she stared at the expensive wood. She traced the winding grain from top to bottom until there was nothing left to look at, then knocked.

There was no response from inside.

Assuming Wen Zhiqing might not be in the room, Lin Wantang opened the door. Warm yellow light spilled through the crack, washing over her and clashing with the cold white light of the hallway, drawing a blurred boundary at her feet.

After a moment of hesitation at the threshold, she stepped in, her figure fully merging into the warm glow.

Wen Zhiqing was leaning back against the headboard, her ink-like hair cascading over her shoulders. The collar of her silk robe was slightly open, revealing a small patch of fair, exquisite collarbone that gleamed like polished porcelain under the warm light.

“Sorry, I’m back a bit late.”

Lin Wantang instinctively apologized first. She took off her coat to hang it on the floor rack. As she approached, she caught a very faint scent of mint tobacco—the exact kind Qi Yishu had been smoking earlier.

She glanced at the rack. Tonight, it held only the outfit Wen Zhiqing had worn to the banquet.

Lin Wantang said nothing. She hung her coat up as usual and let out a soft sigh.

She used to love the mundane moment of hanging her clothes here because the rack held only her and Wen Zhiqing’s garments. It was proof of their life together, a sight that would bring a spark of sweetness to her heart.

But now, Lin Wantang finally understood that it was all self-deception.

She shouldn’t have cared about such a negligible scent, yet the non-pungent smell of tobacco eventually triggered a light cough.

“Excellent acting.”

Lin Wantang turned around at the sound, meeting Wen Zhiqing’s upward gaze. The warm halo of light swirled in Wen Zhiqing’s beautiful eyes, yet it couldn’t melt the layer of cold mockery beneath the surface.

“What?”

Lin Wantang was momentarily dazed. She knew this wasn’t a compliment on her professional acting—Wen Zhiqing never watched her shows. She didn’t understand why Wen Zhiqing would suddenly say this.

Wen Zhiqing hated Lin Wantang’s “innocent” act most of all. This woman did everything, yet still draped herself in a loathsome disguise, looking at her with clear, guileless eyes.

Wen Zhiqing sharpened her tone, wanting to tear away that sophisticated mask: “Every single thing that happened tonight, of course.”

Wen Zhiqing often felt she was becoming a stranger to herself when she was with Lin Wantang. She had always been a calm, taciturn person, yet she constantly fell into fits of inexplicable rage when facing Lin.

It was all Lin Wantang’s fault, Wen Zhiqing thought. Being with someone of such low character, of course she couldn’t stay calm.

Only when she saw Lin Wantang hurt could she feel her inner fire slowly dissipate. Yet, Lin’s sadness didn’t bring her true relief; Wen hadn’t been happy in a very long time. But it didn’t matter. As long as Lin Wantang was also living in misery, it was enough.

“I’m sorry, but I wasn’t acting. I couldn’t help the cough just now.”

Lin Wantang lowered her lashes. Apologies and explanations had become her biological reflex when facing Wen Zhiqing.

However, she was tired of every single “I’m sorry.”

She had done nothing wrong, yet she had to apologize for one baseless accusation after another. Such a life could no longer be sustained by love alone.

Furthermore, her once-blazing love had already been stripped of its bright topcoat by accumulated grievances and disappointments, revealing the desolate, bleak base layer beneath.

Loving Wen Zhiqing had become a very painful thing.

“Lin Wantang, it’s time to end the show, isn’t it?”

Wen Zhiqing slowly sat up, the silk duvet sliding off her like water. She stepped onto the carpet barefoot, her nightgown swaying across the floor as she slowly approached Lin Wantang. “Aren’t you tired of acting from before the banquet started until now?”

“So, you did see me back then.”

Lin Wantang gave a self-deprecating smile. At the time, she was in so much pain she was breaking out in cold sweat and trembling, but in Wen Zhiqing’s eyes, it was just a performance.

“I saw, but your acting was poor.” Wen Zhiqing smiled faintly with casual ease, her tone as calm as if discussing the weather. “For someone like you, if you were truly in pain, how could you be content to be so quiet? You’d probably broadcast your grievance to the whole world.”

Lin Wantang nodded in realization. She understood Wen Zhiqing’s perspective now.

Unwilling to explain herself over and over again, Lin Wantang simply curved her lips into a nonchalant smile. “So that’s how it is.”

“And if you didn’t have other motives at the time, why did you actively release your pheromones?”

Wen Zhiqing stared into Lin Wantang’s eyes. They were as clean as ever, but they seemed to be missing something.

“Because the gland hurt. Or because I deliberately wanted to get your attention.”

Lin Wantang offered a smile so faint it was nearly invisible. “You can interpret it however you like.”

The examiner already had the answer in her heart. Before, Lin Wantang would naively try to fill out her own answers, but now she knew her response was the least important part of the equation.

If Wen Zhiqing believed her, a blank paper would get a perfect score. Conversely, even the correct answers would earn a zero.

“What? Finally too lazy to pretend?”

Not hearing the sincere defense she expected, Wen Zhiqing was stunned for a moment, then gripped by an indignant annoyance. Her words grew sharper.

So many people at the banquet had seen Lin Wantang’s senseless jealousy and unreasonable behavior—she had even played the clown by asking Wen to go to the hospital. Despite that, Wen had purposely saved Lin’s face by not scolding her on the spot. She hadn’t expected Lin Wantang to resort to this kind of “rogue” talk now.

Lin Wantang stared blankly at her wife, who remained cold and strikingly beautiful even in her anger. Years hadn’t left a mark on Wen Zhiqing’s face, yet Lin found she could no longer remember what “Senior Wen Zhiqing” from university looked like.

“Senior, after all these years, I don’t seem to recognize you anymore. Are you still my Senior Wen Zhiqing?”

That senior used to walk with her across the moonlit campus. They would share a pair of headphones to listen to a private playlist. She would take Lin to the hilltop on the outskirts of the city to see the brightest stars.

That senior would never speak to her in such a mocking tone—not even in a dream.

She probably wasn’t that person anymore.

“No, you aren’t.”

Lin Wantang thought about it seriously. Her eyes traced her wife—who no longer held a shred of love for her—and she shook her head with a smile.

“I never lied to you; you just never believed me.” Lin Wantang pulled the gland painkiller from her inner pocket. The light brown liquid swayed gently with her movement. “Even now, seeing this bottle, you’ll only think of it as a pre-arranged prop.”

Ever since Lin Wantang started her internal monologue out loud, Wen Zhiqing had remained silent.

It wasn’t because she was moved; she simply found Lin’s behavior of talking to herself ridiculous. She hadn’t even noticed that Lin had called her “Senior” again.

When Lin finally answered her question, Wen Zhiqing found it even more laughable.

Perhaps because they had been married for so long, Lin Wantang had become perfunctory in her acting, even bringing out such a “prop” to display. Gland painkillers were only approved for purchase when a hospital evaluation deemed the pain severe. Lin Wantang was so careless she’d use a prop that could be easily exposed.

She had to make Lin Wantang pay the price, to make her remember her mistakes.

“If this is your attitude, I think we can consider a divorce.”

“Divorce?”

Hearing that word, Lin Wantang’s mind went blank. She repeated it hollowly, only truly comprehending what Wen Zhiqing had said a few seconds later.

Her first thought was that Wen Zhiqing loathed her so much she was willing to risk the stock market shock of a high-profile split just to leave. Then, she thought of Qi Yishu. Now that the “bright moon” was back, a “filthy gutter” like herself was naturally even more unbearable for Wen Zhiqing.

But after the initial shock, she found that divorce wasn’t as hard to accept as she had imagined. Since Qi Yishu’s welcome dinner, she had known she and Wen Zhiqing wouldn’t make it to the end.

Her wife, the youngest and most brilliant Omega in the business world, indeed deserved someone better.

Wen Zhiqing was satisfied with Lin Wantang’s shock. “I imagine after the divorce, with your income as an actress, you’ll only be able to afford a small apartment in the city center.”

She was certain that someone like Lin Wantang, who only knew pleasure, would never be willing to live in a tiny apartment. She was sure Lin wouldn’t bear to let go of the marriage.

Lin Wantang shook her head. Most of her acting pay had been spent on expensive holiday gifts for Wen Zhiqing. Her remaining savings wouldn’t even buy a small house in the outskirts.

But a house didn’t matter. She had lived in this luxurious villa for so long, yet her happy days could be counted on one hand.

Wen Zhiqing, however, misinterpreted the shake of her head.

Assuming Lin Wantang was refusing the divorce, Wen Zhiqing allowed a nearly imperceptible smile to touch her lips. “Since you don’t want a divorce, learn to know your place from now on.”

Don’t be jealous and throw tantrums regardless of the occasion like you did today at the Wujie Hotel. Because you simply aren’t worthy.