After Saving My Cannon Fodder Omega - Chapter 17

Whether it was due to lack of sleep, Chi Wei felt like her brain—which never turned particularly fast to begin with—was moving slower and slower, struggling like a bicycle pedaling up a steep slope.

Feng Zhi had just unraveled the truth. Recalling her previous relentless questioning at the hospital, Chi Wei’s answers, and the fact that she’d just been mocked by Xie Yueyue, her desire for gossip was practically exploding. Yet, she didn’t dare ask another word.

Xie Yueyue, on the other hand, saw things clearly, but because she saw so clearly, she was the one most burdened by worry.

At the round table laden with dishes, the three sat in silence after laying down their chopsticks. In fact, only the bowls in front of Chi Wei were empty. The other two, preoccupied with their own thoughts and lacking an appetite, had barely touched the three bites of rice in their fist-sized bowls.

Having not received a reply from Xuan Nian, Chi Wei looked up at the empty seat opposite her. The image of Ming Rui’s departure flashed in her mind, making her head throb dully.

“So? What do you say? Shall the three families gather for some fun tomorrow night?”

Hearing Chi Wei’s smiling inquiry, Xie Yueyue turned to look at her. “Three families? Sister Chui, are you really not afraid of making Sister Ming die of anger?”

Feng Zhi’s failure to realize Ming Rui liked Chi Wei was one thing, but now that she knew, her reaction speed in such matters had improved as if hitched to a rocket.

Originally, her first reaction to Chi Wei’s suggestion was the same as Xie Yueyue’s. But hearing Xie Yueyue say it first, she now stubbornly knit her brows to take the opposite stance: “What’s wrong with three families? Every year we have events and she doesn’t participate; it’s clearly her not wanting to play with us, alright? We can’t unconditionally accommodate her just because she spoke up first.”

Chi Wei was about to speak when Feng Zhi continued: “Is it supposed to be that if she can’t join, we all have to go our separate ways and can’t get together? What kind of logic is that? If you don’t want her to be angry, then don’t come. I’m coming.”

“Feng Zhi…” Xie Yueyue had only intended to raise her concerns; she hadn’t expected to become a target.

Feng Zhi glared at her: “Anyway, I like it when it’s lively.”

Xie Yueyue: “…”

Chi Wei shot Yueyue a sympathetic look and tried to soothe Feng Zhi with a smile: “Don’t be like that. What’s going on? Why such a big temper?”

Feng Zhi narrowed her eyes, looking guardedly at Chi Wei: “Xiaoyu, are you trying to play favorites? My temper is big because she just called me stupid! Didn’t you hear? She insulted me!”

Chi Wei had wanted to smooth things over, but seeing Feng Zhi being so “rationally” furious this time, she didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “That was her being wrong. Calm down. Think about it—she’s called you ‘Sister’ for so many years. Don’t lower yourself to her level. Just insult her back.”

Xie Yueyue: “…”

Hearing Chi Wei mention the “Sister” title, the anger that was about to subside flared right back up: “Exactly! Look at her—she’s called me ‘Sister’ for years, and now both you and Ming Rui still call me ‘Sister’ every chance you get. But when it comes to her, it’s just ‘Feng Zhi, Feng Zhi.’ What does that mean? Tell me, what does she mean by that?!”

Xie Yueyue: “…”

Chi Wei looked at Yueyue, whose face was flushed red from Feng Zhi’s pointing finger, and said blankly: “I don’t know. Don’t you know?”

“I didn’t before, but I do now,” Feng Zhi snapped. “She thinks I’m stupid! She thinks calling me ‘Sister’ is embarrassing!”

Xie Yueyue covered her face helplessly. Listening to Feng Zhi’s furious voice, she whispered under her breath: “…How could she get it so wrong?”

Chi Wei leaned back against her chair and burst out laughing at the scene.

Feng Zhi glanced at the laughing Chi Wei, then noticed Xie Yueyue—whose upper face was covered by her hand—with her lips moving incessantly. She looked suspicious: “What are you saying? As an Alpha, can’t you be a bit more upright? Are you secretly cursing me?”

Xie Yueyue truly hadn’t expected Feng Zhi to argue with her so seriously; her cheeks turned even redder.

Seeing Feng Zhi was for real, Chi Wei tried to turn her rusty brain to figure out how to mediate. But before she could find an answer, Feng Zhi—growing angrier the more she thought about it—suddenly stood up: “Good lord, the more I look at her, the angrier I get. Xiaoyu, add three seats for me tomorrow; my whole family is coming. I have a hair appointment this afternoon, so I won’t stay with you. Bye!”

“Alright. Cool down and drive slowly. Safety first,” Chi Wei nodded helplessly.

Feng Zhi gave a short response, opened the door, and left.

Hearing the loud bang of the door closing, Xie Yueyue looked at Chi Wei with utter despair: “Sister Chui, do you think I still have a chance?”

Chi Wei looked at the pitiful Xie Yueyue: “If you keep it an unrequited crush, definitely not. If you make it clear… maybe?”

Xie Yueyue sensed Chi Wei’s sympathy. Remembering Sister Ming’s crush that ended before it even truly began, she took a deep breath and stood up: “I’ll think about it more. I promised to accompany my mom for a manicure this afternoon; she’ll be calling to rush me soon. I have to go too.”

Chi Wei curled her lips into a smile: “Focus on your driving and stay safe.”

“Okay.” Xie Yueyue put on her coat, grabbed her phone, and left.

The smell of gunpowder in the room dissipated in an instant.

Chi Wei massaged the sides of her forehead, poured herself some warm water to rinse her mouth, and walked over to sit in a chair by the window.

Xuan Nian’s message arrived slowly this time, but it was good news: she said she was already on her way back.

Chi Wei carefully stroked the text message with the soft pad of her right thumb.

“Miss Chi, please wait a moment. I am already on my way back.”

“Already on the way…” Chi Wei murmured softly with curving eyes. Looking back, this seemed to be the most common phrase in her chat history with Xuan Nian.

Except back then, the person “on the way” wasn’t Xuan Nian; it was her.

After Xuan Nian’s accident, she had pored over the chat logs between them thousands of times, savoring them until she remembered even the punctuation marks between the words.

She remembered clearly—it was when spring returned to the earth, just as the drab world was beginning to regain its color. Chi Wei had snatched a hard-to-get box of white strawberries from Xie Yueyue. They were incredibly sweet yet refreshing. The first person she thought of while holding that box of strawberries was Xuan Nian.

So, she had excitedly told Xuan Nian she was coming to deliver some delicious treats. Xuan Nian was busy at the time and told her not to rush, saying she could just bring them when she came for dinner at the tavern that night.

But how could Chi Wei wait?

She had sent back a smiling voice note saying she was already on her way. In reality, she was frantically putting on her shoes with one hand while holding her phone.

…Come to think of it, how did they even start talking back then?

As Chi Wei thought, the corners of her eyes grew damp again. Her eyes, already red from lack of sleep, were irritated even further by the frequent dabbing of tissues.

Leaning against the chair back with her head propped on her wrist, she began to reminisce. Before long, she was so exhausted she started dozing off with her eyes closed, her head nodding, unable to keep her eyes open.

And while Chi Wei was unable to open her eyes, Xuan Nian’s white car flashed by below, driving into the parking lot behind the tavern.

Chi Wei nodded off, losing track of time, until a knock sounded at the door. The server waiting outside opened the door and entered: “Director Chi, our boss has an urgent matter and cannot meet you today.”

“What?!” The drowsy Chi Wei snapped awake, gripping the armrests to stand straight. “But wasn’t it agreed upon?”

The server delivering the message was all smiles: “We are truly sorry, Director Chi. For lunch today, we can waive your…”

“Don’t speak yet.” Chi Wei rubbed her aching eyes and picked up her phone to message Xuan Nian. Halfway through editing, she felt it was too slow and initiated a voice call instead.

When Xuan Nian’s phone rang, she was sitting in her office upstairs. Coincidentally, her office was directly above the private room where Chi Wei was.

Chi Wei hadn’t known or spent much time with Xuan Nian in her past life, but she had certainly entered her office more times than the server in front of her. While making the call, she opened the door and headed straight upstairs.

The employee responsible for conveying the message had worked at the tavern for over six months. Seeing Chi Wei for the first time and observing that she didn’t stop at the end of the second-floor hallway—looking as if she intended to charge directly to the third floor to find the boss—the employee was frightened out of her wits and ran to stop her.

Xuan’s Tavern had three floors: the first floor was the main hall, the second for private rooms, and the third was for management offices plus three massive private rooms that were rarely opened. The layout of the third floor was unusual; the boss’s office and the private rooms were separated, so guests and staff didn’t use the same stairs to go up.

A guest seen only once in six months could actually find the internal passage to the boss’s office? It was impossible not to be shocked.

Chi Wei turned around on the solid wood stairs, her left hand gripping the rosewood railing behind her: “The fact that I can find this place and have contacted your boss in advance means I’m not some ‘Person A’ who just happened to be passing by. Are you sure you want to stop me?”

The two staff members in uniform exchanged a look, their faces showing hesitation.

Seeing them waver, Chi Wei didn’t care about anything else. She turned quickly, took the stairs with her long legs, reached the third floor, and walked straight to Xuan Nian’s office door.

Separated by only a door, Xuan Nian sat behind her desk, her mood at rock bottom.

Half an hour ago, while waiting at a red light, she had seen Chi Wei’s message about waiting to meet her, and her mood had been quite good.

At the time, she thought “Little Tiger Tooth” was also there. She couldn’t help but tap the moon avatar, wanting to ask “How was lunch? Was it to your taste?” To her surprise, she had just sent an emoji and hadn’t even had time to type when a glaring red exclamation mark popped up on the screen.

Below the failed message was a small line of text: Vanilla Moon has enabled friend verification. You are not her friend yet. Please send a friend verification request first. You can only chat once the other party has accepted.

Xuan Nian was stunned staring at the words “send friend verification.”

The previous message had been sent by her, the other party hadn’t replied, and then she’d been deleted as a friend—why? What exactly was that “Little Tiger Tooth” thinking?

It wasn’t the first time Xuan Nian had been deleted as a friend, but it was the first time she felt this angry. Her normally well-managed emotions were burning fiercely, and even downing two glasses of water couldn’t extinguish the fire.

In this emotional state, she certainly couldn’t go see a guest. So, after failing to adjust her mood, she didn’t care how many people were waiting or if “Little Tiger Tooth” was among them—she simply found an employee to go and see the guests out.

But she never imagined that this “guest” would not be so easy to send away.

Chi Wei stood at the door, tidying her collar and the hair falling by her cheeks. She lit up her phone and sent the invitation again.

The next second, the exact same ringtone sounded on both sides of the door, which offered some soundproofing, but not much.

Xuan Nian was far from the door, and because the ringtone in front of her drowned out the sound from outside, she didn’t realize the person inviting her to a voice call was already at her doorstep.

The moment Chi Wei initiated the call, she lowered the ringtone volume. She then put her hands behind her back, leaned her ear toward the door, and looked with a smile at the two people following far behind.

“The boss isn’t here?”

The server: “…”

The call attempt ended. Chi Wei switched to a video call request. Then, she raised her hand and knocked. Without waiting for the person inside to agree, she twisted the handle and walked right in.

Xuan Nian, who had been leaning against her chair back with furrowed brows, staring at her phone waiting for the call to time out, sat bolt upright and looked at the suddenly opened office door.

“Boss Xuan, it’s truly difficult to get an audience with you.”