After A Crazy Omega Took Me In - Chapter 4

The milk tea shop paid its wages daily. They were never short-staffed, so they could tell Jin Xu to leave whenever they wanted.

Sometimes, they would pay her at the end of her first day, then tell her the very next morning that business had entered the slow season and ask her to come back after a while.

But how long was “a while”?

Three days?

Ten?

Half a month?

Or not until spring next year?

Jin Xu could not afford to wait that long.

She still had to support herself.

That was why she had saved up some money and bought a battered guitar from a secondhand market. She found time to practice every day.

Whenever she was close to starving, she could sing at a bar. She was beautiful and had a pleasant voice, so she could always earn enough to fill her stomach.

By the time she returned to the villa, it was already past eight in the evening.

Jin Xu stood at the entrance and looked through the open door into the darkened house.

Shi Lian still had not returned.

She lowered her eyes to her phone. Her message remained unanswered.

So she called.

The first call was rejected.

So were the second and third.

On the fourth attempt, the other end was exceptionally noisy. Amid the laughter and teasing, someone asked Shi Lian who was calling so late.

Was it her lover?

Could she be her lover?

Jin Xu deliberately softened her voice, making herself sound gentle and harmless, lending an air of intimacy to their relationship.

“Sister, when are you coming home?”

All Jin Xu could hear through the phone was the woman’s uneven breathing, each breath sounding as though it were falling directly beside her ear.

It was beautiful.

Without showing any change in expression, Jin Xu turned on the recording function.

The surrounding jeers pressed through the electronic noise little by little.

Then she heard the woman’s careless voice.

“Come pick me up.”

——

Shi Lian seemed to be drunk.

Even her voice was soft and gentle.

There was no ridicule, no cutting words, and no cold reminder that Jin Xu’s affairs had nothing to do with her.

Shi Lian was so adorable when she was drunk.

So obedient.

As though, with a little coaxing, Jin Xu could do anything she wanted.

A little over ten minutes later, Jin Xu stood outside an upscale business hotel frequented by the wealthy.

Her worn school uniform looked completely out of place there.

The lobby manager merely glanced at her.

There were plenty of beautiful young Alphas her age who came here hoping to try their luck and see whether some wealthy older Omega might take them home.

But what could powerful older women not obtain?

Especially when it came to attractive Alphas.

Jin Xu tightened her injured hand around the umbrella handle and looked down at her phone.

The message she had sent ten minutes earlier saying that she had arrived had received no response.

She closed her umbrella.

The instant she stepped into the hotel, warm air enveloped her entire body. Yet before comfort could reach her, an unfamiliar burning sensation swept over her instead.

She had been cold for so long that even the slightest warmth felt scorching.

As she approached, an employee stopped her. The disdain and contempt in the whites beneath the woman’s eyes were impossible to miss.

“Miss, if you wish to enter, you can apply for a membership card over there. One card costs two hundred thousand.”

Jin Xu sighed softly.

“Sister, I’m here to find someone.”

“Who? Give me the room number.”

“Shi Lian. Room 508.”

Someone went inside to notify them and soon returned, leaning over to whisper something into the manager’s ear.

No one paid Jin Xu any further attention.

Was this what Shi Lian wanted?

She had told Jin Xu to come and take her home, but perhaps she had never intended to leave with her at all.

Maybe she only wanted Jin Xu to wait here.

She only wanted to see Jin Xu standing in her worn school uniform while exquisitely dressed people brushed past her on every side.

A young person’s pride was their most precious possession.

It was also the easiest thing to crush.

Yet Jin Xu stood there openly and calmly, as still as a statue.

Eventually, a commotion broke out ahead.

Faint voices drifted over.

Someone had acute gastroenteritis.

An ambulance had been called.

Jin Xu remained outside the crowd and looked from a distance at Shi Lian, who was surrounded by people and curled tightly into herself as she was carried out on a stretcher.

It seemed as though everyone cared about her.

But no one noticed the look Shi Lian sent through the thick crowd toward Jin Xu.

The corners of her eyes were flushed.

Her gaze was so soft and aggrieved, like someone who had been bullied outside.

Someone’s coat had been draped over Shi Lian.

Whenever she felt insecure, she liked hiding half her face inside a coat. But she probably disliked this person’s pheromones, because she held the garment far away from herself.

What was Jin Xu supposed to do?

Her lips curved, and she gave Shi Lian an obedient yet helpless smile.

She could not even force her way into the surging crowd.

No one knew that she and Shi Lian were acquainted.

She could not pull Shi Lian into her arms and gently soothe her, the way she had on countless nights when the woman came home drunk.

Shi Lian seemed to realize that Jin Xu would not come over.

She bit her lip and lowered her eyes. Several tears clung to her thick lashes.

She turned her head away in a sulk and refused to look at Jin Xu, only to cast another secretly dependent glance toward her at the very end.

Shi Lian had been the one who left her waiting outside.

Shi Lian was also the one who had never intended to go home with her.

How could she still look so aggrieved?

Shi Lian.

Jin Xu’s brows lifted in amusement. Beneath the hazy lights, her expression appeared especially bright.

She had just lifted her leg to follow the gaze that remained fixed upon her when a perfectly manicured hand appeared in front of her.

It was slender and pale, with distinct knuckles. A black card rested between the pads of the thumb and forefinger.

Jin Xu instinctively raised her eyes and saw a face that looked very expensive.

The woman appeared to be in her thirties. Her skin was flawless and smooth, without a single visible wrinkle.

She smiled at Jin Xu as though certain that her prey was already hers.

The lobby of an elite hotel.

A battered school uniform.

A beautiful, fragile, young Alpha.

Every detail placed Jin Xu firmly in the position of prey.

She blinked.

How should she answer?

Should she say she had a home?

That home belonged to Shi Lian.

So she smiled and spoke several words the woman could never have expected.

“Sorry, Sister. I already have an owner.”

Not a home.

Not a girlfriend.

An owner.

Someone was already keeping her.

They simply did a terrible job of it.

The woman seemed about to say more when she noticed the Alpha’s gaze following the crowd ahead.

Then she caught sight of a pair of eyes.

The corners were flushed red, and the thick lashes were wet with tears. Yet those beautiful peach-blossom eyes drooped and narrowed slightly, reflecting a cruel and gloomy chill.

Ah.

So she belonged to Shi Lian.

The woman gave a quiet snort, withdrew her black card, and turned away with elegant composure.

Young Miss Shi had enjoyed wealth and luxury for half her life, yet she had raised even a pet to the point of collapse.

How did she still have the nerve to glare at someone else like that?

So possessive.

So unreasonable.

Only one person could accompany Shi Lian in the ambulance, and that person would never be Jin Xu.

She watched from behind as an unfamiliar woman climbed into the vehicle beside Shi Lian, then hurried toward the hospital alone.

The rain was pouring.

Some droplets seeped through the cheap umbrella and fell onto her thin school uniform.

The cold sank into the gaps between her bones, bringing a sharp, cutting pain.

By the time she finally reached the hospital, a bodyguard stopped her outside the ward.

Through the narrow opening in the door, she could vaguely see the person surrounded inside as everyone fussed over her.

Shi Lian lacked neither love nor people willing to care for her.

Whether Jin Xu came or not did not really matter.

The young female bodyguard looked down at her.

“What is your relationship with Miss Shi?”

What relationship did they have?

Jin Xu considered it for a moment.

They had no relationship at all.

She was the child Shi Lian kept at home.

A pet.

An optional source of amusement.

The orphaned daughter of her former lover.

The silence lasted so long that the bodyguard frowned impatiently and prepared to send her away.

Only then did the pale girl raise her bright, gentle almond-shaped eyes and smile.

“She adopted me. She’s my stepmother.”

The air seemed to freeze.

The bodyguard stood there stunned.

After a long while, she gave a few perfunctory coughs.

“Sister, could you please go in and tell my mother that I’ve arrived? I’m waiting outside.”

Even after standing in front of Shi Lian and seeing her cold expression, the bodyguard’s head was still buzzing.

How had she actually come in and told Shi Lian something so absurd?

How could Miss Shi possibly have such a grown daughter?

Miss Shi was so gentle and considerate that she would give her own coat to a staff member.

How could someone like that let her daughter wear something so thin in weather only a few degrees above freezing?

The bodyguard secretly watched Shi Lian’s expression.

Shi Lian actually had an extremely gentle face.

Her peach-blossom eyes were alluring without seeming vulgar. Even while ill and pale, she still carried an unmistakably refined elegance.

There was even something tender and wife-like in every movement she made.

The bodyguard became momentarily lost in thought.

Had Miss Shi truly possessed a daughter, she probably would have been an exceedingly indulgent mother.

The kind who spoiled her daughter completely.

No matter what her daughter did, she would never become angry. She would merely say softly, “Of course you can.”

Outside the ward, Jin Xu clearly heard Shi Lian’s voice turn several degrees colder.

“Tell her to get lost.”

Was that all?

Jin Xu’s lips curved.

Her exhausted body, which had been close to collapsing after so long without rest, suddenly seemed much lighter.

Sister had not denied their relationship.

Should Jin Xu change how she addressed her now?

Probably not.

Once someone became her mother, it would be very difficult for their relationship to progress any further.

What could possibly be more intimate than a mother?

Perhaps because she was in such a good mood, when the bodyguard emerged from the room with an awkward expression, Jin Xu quietly thanked her.

Then she walked alone to a bench at the far end of the corridor.

Overwhelming exhaustion threatened to swallow her whole.

Half her clothes were wet, and her stomach, empty for far too long, cramped faintly.

But it did not matter.

She was very good at enduring things.

She sat there, far away from the crowd, and gradually drifted into a shallow sleep.

Footsteps seemed to stop in front of her.

Jin Xu struggled to open her eyes and looked up in confusion at the person standing there.

Beneath flame-red hair was a conflicted face.

Jin Xu stared for a long while before managing to force a complete sentence from her mouth.

“Chen Ran?”

“Mm.”

Chen Ran frowned.

The discomfort on her face disappeared and was quickly replaced by deliberate coldness.

“Why are you sleeping here? Do you not have a home?”

“Mm-hm.”

Jin Xu smiled. Her beautiful almond-shaped eyes were faintly red with fever and covered in a hazy, unfocused sheen.

“I don’t have a home anymore. Will Young Miss Chen take me in?”

She was far from clearheaded now.

She was merely instinctively going along with Chen Ran’s words.

Only by indulging the tsundere young lady could she avoid being bullied.

She failed to notice how suggestive her tone sounded.

Nor did she notice the red creeping across the girl’s ears.

“You—! What nonsense are you saying? Jin Xu, has the fever made you stupid? How could I possibly—”

The words stopped abruptly.

The girl drew a soft breath, as though the remaining phrase, “take you home,” had suddenly become too difficult to say aloud.

It sounded too intimate.

Too frivolous.

Jin Xu really was no good!

On the bench, Jin Xu laboriously raised a hand and touched her forehead.

It was so hot.

She really did have a fever.

How was she supposed to endure it this time?

She had never considered falling ill while already inside a hospital to be fortunate.

After she turned sixteen, hospitals could no longer treat her pain.

She had nothing to offer in exchange.

“Hey… how are you feeling right now?”

Chen Ran spoke hesitantly.

Jin Xu’s face was far too pale and fragile, as though she could not withstand the slightest pressure or harsh tone.

She was genuinely ill.

She was suffering.

“So cold. And so hot.”

The feverish Alpha’s voice was hoarse, yet soft and gentle, as though all that remained of her emotions was hazy dependence.

“I’ll be fine after I sleep.”

“What do you mean? You’re not planning to see a doctor?”

The girl’s brows knitted again. An indescribable feeling filled her chest.

“Mm-hm.”

Jin Xu nodded carelessly.

Then another faint smile bloomed across her face.

“Didn’t Student Chen Ran already know that I can’t even afford food?”

Chen Ran pressed her lips together and was just about to say something else when an icy voice sounded from afar.

“Jin Xu.”

She turned and saw another pale face.

An expensive cashmere coat was draped over the woman’s shoulders. Without makeup, she appeared slightly haggard, and her beautiful peach-blossom eyes drooped softly.

She looked very gentle.

As though the faint chill in her voice had only been an illusion.

After speaking those two words, the woman said nothing more.

The person who had been sitting on the bench rose unsteadily and no longer spared Chen Ran a single glance.

Jin Xu followed behind the woman on weak, wavering steps.

Only after walking several paces did she seem to remember Chen Ran.

She turned back, and the brightness in her smile now carried a touch of genuine warmth.

“Goodbye, Student Chen Ran.”