Chapter 5

Banquets among wealthy families had always been lavish affairs.

The torrential rain did nothing to affect the liveliness inside the Crowne Plaza Hotel, located in Jiangcheng’s largest lakeside 5A scenic area. The soothing music had been turned up, covering the patter of the rain. Priceless champagne and red wine swayed in the hands of beauties. As they chatted, they occasionally lowered their heads to take a sip, and even their dampened red lips could stir endless imagination.

Before Shu Minglan arrived, He Lingxing was undoubtedly the most dazzling “Omega” in the venue.

Because of their physiological weakness, Omegas’ bodies were relatively more delicate, and their builds were generally smaller than the other two secondary genders. This disadvantage was even more obvious for women.

According to big data statistics, adult female Omegas generally did not exceed 168 centimeters in height. Being close to that level was already considered very tall among Omegas. But even without wearing high heels, He Lingxing’s long, straight figure was clearly over 170 centimeters.

The woman’s wine-red long hair was curled into lazy waves. The French bangs on her forehead and the sweet-leaning makeup added a touch of softness to her aura.

The crystal-studded, slit black spaghetti-strap gown was almost identical to the one Shu Minglan had worn on the day she received her award. It was just that on Shu Minglan, it looked more delicate and pure, while on He Lingxing, it carried a different, alluring kind of sexiness.

The one slightly lacking point was that He Lingxing’s facial features were comparatively more aggressive. A sharp, commanding makeup look with her aura fully released would have been her best state. But in order to better disguise herself as an Omega, He Lingxing had decisively given that up.

Deliberately wearing the same outfit was, to any woman, a blatant provocation.

There were still more than ten minutes before the banquet officially began when Shu Minglan finally “arrived fashionably late.”

Perhaps because she had an overly gentle face, when He Lingxing read the original at bailiantales.com received that furious gaze, she did not feel much hostility. Instead, it was like a kitten raising its paw in front of an enemy and bluffing with a light scratch.

Shu Minglan’s outfit today was a pure white that suited her appearance very well, forming a sharp contrast with He Lingxing’s somewhat flamboyant black dress. The moment she entered, she attracted most of the gazes in the room.

Compared with a disguised Omega like He Lingxing, a real Omega was naturally more attractive to those people.

When she realized that several Alphas’ gazes had landed on Shu Minglan with either appreciation or aggression, He Lingxing saw her chance and abruptly stood up. She strode over and pressed down on Shu Minglan’s shoulder.

Then she turned her body slightly and, relying on her height advantage, almost completely blocked Shu Minglan from view, also blocking the gazes of those handsome Alphas.

This was another step of provocation.

Shu Minglan raised her head slightly to look at He Lingxing. He Lingxing also deliberately lowered her gaze to look at Shu Minglan. She had thought she would easily catch flames of anger in the other woman’s eyes, but she had not expected this heroine to hide it quite deeply.

Shu Minglan grabbed her wrist. The force was not strong, but it carried a hint of urgency. Refusing to be outdone, He Lingxing gripped her back, but accidentally touched the cold crystal bracelet around Shu Minglan’s soft wrist. She could only settle for sliding down and tightly holding Shu Minglan’s hand instead.

“President He… you’re very childish.”

The woman’s soft, smooth hand tried to pull away from her palm. The anger gradually gathering in her eyes was obvious, but it did not seem to be directed at the fact that He Lingxing was holding her hand.

He Lingxing suddenly remembered that although Shu Minglan’s character setting included face blindness, it was not so severe that she would forget someone she had only met not long ago. Judging from Shu Minglan’s attitude, her “Xingxing” alias was probably already ruined.

But He Lingxing did not care much.

Shu Minglan used a little force to break free from her restraint, but she did not move too far away from He Lingxing. Nominally, she had still come to this banquet with her own company’s CEO. Before leaving the company, she could not truly fall out with He Lingxing.

Moreover, based on He Lingxing’s attitude when she helped solve matters before, there might be some misunderstanding between them.

Thinking this, Shu Minglan felt a little guilty. She thought that her attitude just now had not been very good and was preparing to say a few words to He Lingxing to ease the awkwardness, only to see that the other woman was distracted.

Following her gaze, Shu Minglan also looked over and saw the hall doors creak open. A tall man in a suit strode out. His handsome, upright appearance and the aura of a high-level Alpha drew many people’s attention.

The man politely exchanged a few quiet words with others along the way, then soon shifted his gaze as if unintentionally onto He Lingxing and Shu Minglan.

He controlled his line of sight very well, making it hard to tell exactly which one of them he was looking at. His gaze drifted as though he were merely observing the banquet scene, but in reality, the sharp He Lingxing noticed it at once.

“The way he’s looking at the heroine is like a dog that hasn’t eaten in three months, while still pretending not to care and wanting the prey to offer herself up to him.”

He Lingxing silently complained to 520 in her mind. “If this acting can win three major awards, did he put an 800-degree thick beauty filter over the entire panel of judges in the film industry?”

【Although the description is very accurate, this is still during a mission. Host, please do not casually slander the male lead.】

The system could not help laughing, then quickly responded in a businesslike manner: 【Detected that [Male Lead Murong Feng] has officially appeared. Host, please begin the new mission—1. Properly play the vicious female supporting character and make the heroine lose face in front of the male lead, while also making the heroine unhappy; 2. Stir up the male lead’s jealousy.】

“Make the heroine lose face in front of the male lead?”

He Lingxing glanced back at Shu Minglan, only to see that the other party was also looking at her. That strange expression made it impossible to tell what she was thinking.

However, a moment later, He Lingxing quickly remembered that in this plot setting, she was supposed to be interested in the male lead. Since the male lead had targeted Shu Minglan before, the other party must know the reason.

There were many ways to embarrass someone, such as making her toast some greasy, hard-to-please man. But He Lingxing could not do something so low.

He Lingxing had played villains before, but unless the other party was truly disgusting, she could not go too far. Besides, she had to make the person unhappy and feel offended. For a moment, she really could not think of anything.

Shu Minglan’s clear eyes drifted toward He Lingxing from time to time, her purity mixed with a faint probing confusion.

And when Murong Feng finally finished exchanging those pretentious pleasantries with the others and was about to walk over, inspiration flashed through He Lingxing’s mind.

She grabbed Shu Minglan by the wrist bone and headed toward the edge of the hall. Her high heels tapped against the marble floor with crisp “dong dong” sounds. After passing several tables, He Lingxing stepped forward with her long legs and sat directly down on an empty chair, pulling Shu Minglan down with her as well.

Shu Minglan’s clothes were somewhat form-fitting, so she could not move too widely. He Lingxing’s pull made her stumble, and she almost fell onto He Lingxing. But the culprit who had nearly caused her to fall simply picked up a bunch of grapes and held them in front of her.

“Try some.”

Just as Shu Minglan was about to peel one, He Lingxing took the grapes back again and smiled under the other woman’s puzzled gaze. “Forget it. I’ll peel them for you.”

Shu Minglan: “…”

She truly did not understand what medicine He Lingxing was selling in her gourd.

Usually, when a company CEO brought an artist under them to an occasion like this, they were either harboring crooked intentions and making the artist toast others, or they genuinely wanted to introduce resources. In the end, He Lingxing really did bring Shu Minglan here and leisurely start eating with her.

Her wine-red, long curls brushed against the woman’s fair cheek. The slightly swaying curls set off her clear complexion. The warm-toned makeup softened He Lingxing’s originally aggressive features considerably, and even her lip makeup was somewhat light, like a cherry that had just ripened.

The beauty’s long, elegant fingers flexibly pinched, and the grape was squeezed out whole. She insisted on feeding it to Shu Minglan’s lips.

Once, twice—He Lingxing had thought Shu Minglan was about to start getting annoyed, but unexpectedly, Shu Minglan ate them very seriously.

In the end, it was He Lingxing who had never served anyone like this before. After finishing half the grapes, she lost steam and had no choice but to switch to a fiercer method.

She leaned slightly toward Shu Minglan. Very quickly, the Omega’s fragrance flooded the tip of her nose. The scent was sweet and fresh without being cloying. There seemed to be some kind of fruit mixed into the cherry blossoms, making He Lingxing’s heart waver for an instant. She immediately pulled away.

“You like him that much?”

After receiving the original script urgently transmitted by 520, He Lingxing imitated the original owner’s supposed manner and let out a scoff. The softness in her eyes vanished and was instantly replaced by coldness.

Like a conscientious love rival, her slender fingertips casually turned toward the direction where Murong Feng was. Her slightly cold ending tone rose. “Hm?”

Shu Minglan did not speak.

“Don’t waste your effort. He won’t like an Omega like you.”

In truth, the original script contained even harsher words involving personal attacks. He Lingxing was too embarrassed to say them to a beautiful woman with a misty expression, because she could clearly see anger in Shu Minglan’s eyes already. That meant part of the mission had succeeded.

And just as she was preparing to keep going, Shu Minglan suddenly spoke coldly:

“President He, if you like him, you can express it boldly. I’m not your love rival. There’s no need to pretend to be a staff member from another department, no need to pretend to chat happily with me when you clearly hate me, and even less need to joke about ‘pursuing’ someone you dislike.”

“My contract is almost up. Soon, I won’t be an eyesore to you anymore.”

Shu Minglan was indeed somewhat genuinely hurt. Seeing that He Lingxing had nothing else to say, she stood up and was about to walk out. But just as she got up, He Lingxing saw Murong Feng walking over like a dog that had caught a scent.

“Minglan!”

Murong Feng curved his lips and stretched out his hand to greet her, looking as though he had the manners of a gentleman. Shu Minglan clearly did not want to pay attention to him, but for the sake of appearances, she still responded.

“I didn’t expect to see you here.”

Some time ago, they had shared a stage at an awards ceremony. Although they were not particularly close, they still had enough acquaintance to exchange a few words.

The male lead, Murong Feng, currently ran a small company of his own. Later, he would slowly climb up to become a three-award-winning film emperor, and his company would also grow stronger. Right now, he was in the early stage of his career. But no matter how He Lingxing looked at him, he did unauthorized copy not seem like someone with high emotional intelligence. Shu Minglan’s meaning of not wanting to deal with him was already very obvious, yet he insisted on pestering her.

He Lingxing wiped her hands and stood up from the chair.

Part of the mission was complete. There was still a part unfinished.

Embarrassing someone was actually not a very difficult problem. The main issue was the second requirement: making the male lead jealous. She and Shu Minglan were both women, and on the surface, both Omegas. What was there for the male lead to be jealous of?

Originally, He Lingxing had wanted to wrap an arm around Shu Minglan’s shoulders. But under the male lead’s gaze, she swiftly changed her mind, placing her slender arm around Shu Minglan’s waist instead.

She had never held another woman’s waist before. She discovered that Shu Minglan’s waist was thinner than she had imagined, but not overly soft. She had probably trained. Feeling the unusual touch, Shu Minglan instinctively wanted to avoid it, but when she saw that it was He Lingxing, she relaxed.

A female Omega would not mind a touch from the same sex too much.

“Come on. I’ll take you to meet Producer Han.”

Since they had come to a banquet, they could not really do nothing but sit there and eat. Besides, this perfectly fit the character setting. It looked as if He Lingxing was unwilling to let Shu Minglan and Murong Feng talk alone.

Shu Minglan had no objections. She only lowered her eyes slightly and let He Lingxing hold her waist as they went over. She also did not notice the flash of dissatisfaction that passed through Murong Feng’s eyes.

…

In the end, the mission concluded with He [stolen content]Lingxing “accidentally” spilling wine on Shu Minglan in front of the male lead. Barely, it could be considered fully complete.

Considering that in a brainless novel, no one knew what strange things might happen in the restroom of this kind of hotel, and for the sake of her company artist’s reputation, He Lingxing did not let Shu Minglan clean herself and change clothes here. Instead, she brought her back to her own home.

He Lingxing’s home was not very far from here either. It took about half an hour by car. Although it was early autumn and the evening breeze was somewhat cool, with the car’s air conditioning on, they did not really feel it.

The two of them were not that familiar to begin with, and their interaction at the banquet earlier had not exactly been pleasant either. The entire drive into the villa district passed in silence. After they arrived at the underground garage, Shu Minglan got out of the car without saying a word, her clear eyes filled with displeasure.

He Lingxing suddenly realized that when Shu Minglan chatted with “Xingxing,” whom she had only met once, she was much more at ease and did not seem difficult to get along with at all. But when she was with “He Lingxing,” it was as if she had changed into another person.

“The bathroom is upstairs, turn left. I have a free-size outfit I haven’t worn before. Make do with it. Whether you throw it away after you go back is up to you.”

He Lingxing entered the fingerprint password, and the front door opened with the smart female voice effect of “Welcome home.”

The inside was empty, with no one there, but everywhere had been tidied clean and neat. Shu Minglan was probably thinking of showering and leaving as quickly as possible. Without even looking at He Lingxing, who had followed behind her, she softly said “thanks,” then turned and headed upstairs.

An entire evening of banquet socializing had made He Lingxing a little tired. She simply lay down on the sofa and continued handling the emails that people sent her for all sorts of reasons through her phone.

The large villa was ethereal and quiet. Only the sound of running water from upstairs entered her ears, bringing a little breath of life.

Earlier at the banquet, because the high-risk stallion male lead was present, He Lingxing had not drunk much water just in case. Her throat felt slightly dry and burning. Just as she had put on slippers and headed toward the kitchen, she suddenly heard the sound of running water stop.

Only five minutes.

Did that woman shower that quickly?

Just as her gaze shifted to her phone, a WeChat message from the account still saved as “Shushu” popped up. He Lingxing unlocked it and was about to check when an indescribable faint fragrance drifted lazily down from above, making her cheeks flush instantly.

As though she had smelled the strongest aphrodisiac, an uncontrollable heat seeped through her entire gland in that instant. For a moment, she nearly could not even hold her phone steadily. The water that had filled her cup spilled out with a splash, bringing a drop in the bucket of coolness to her burning body.

Her phone suddenly vibrated. The person on the other side seemed to have already lost the strength to type. Almost through gritted teeth, and with no telling what kind of expression, she sent a halting voice message:

“Do you have… any suppressants…?”