The Cold Alpha's Black Lotus O Strategy Plan (GL) - Chapter 11

“Mm.”

Jin Sique responded lazily.

“Come drink with me,” the person on the other end said, her voice as rough and hoarse as ever.

“I really can’t today.”

Jin Sique removed the towel wrapped around her body, draped it over her head, and roughly rubbed her hair a few times, scrubbing her face red in the process.

The other person froze before asking, “Why is your voice so hoarse?”

Jin Sique laughed softly. Brushing aside the wet hair on her forehead, she said, “I went off to enjoy myself.”

The person on the phone teased her.

“Oh? With your family’s president?”

Jin Sique smiled faintly but did not answer.

“I won’t force you to drink. Come out and sit with me tonight. We haven’t seen each other in a while.”

The voice on the other end suddenly softened.

Jin Sique paused before answering, “All right.”

Someone knocked on the bedroom door.

Jin Sique removed the towel from her head and clenched it tightly in her palm.

“Come in,” she said quietly.

Aunt Guo pushed open the door with a smile on her face. Restraining her gaze, she nodded at Jin Sique and quickly gathered everything from the bed.

“…”

Jin Sique smiled bashfully and looked away.

Beneath her black hair, her ears were so red that they appeared thin and translucent. The small glimpse of crimson resembled the tip of a flower bud extending beyond a garden wall.

Aunt Guo did not dare look any longer and gently closed the door behind her.

Only after the door shut with a soft click did Jin Sique release a breath and loosen her grip on the towel.

—

It was an evening at the end of spring and beginning of summer. The crimson clouds at the horizon had already burned into a vast mass of heat.

Jin Sique was dressed simply that day, wearing a thin hoodie and a pair of jeans. Her black hair was tied into a ponytail, and because the sunlight was so strong, she had added a sun hat.

She hurried downstairs with light, shuffling steps.

Aunt Guo was carrying the food from the kitchen to the flower room in the back courtyard.

“Sique, you’re downstairs? Come and eat,” Aunt Guo said.

Jin Sique glanced at the silver watch on her wrist, grabbed the small bag hanging in front of her, and smiled.

“There’s an activity at my club. I’m afraid I’ll be late.”

Aunt Guo looked at Jin Sique with a troubled expression.

The moment Jin Sique saw her face, she knew Lü Zhongcai must have said something before leaving.

“Then pack me a meal,” Jin Sique said with a smile.

Aunt Guo’s expression immediately brightened. She went to pack the food and placed it inside Jin Sique’s stationery bag.

—

At a barbecue restaurant, the final trace of sunlight on the horizon had nearly faded away.

A crossbody bag landed on the chair opposite Xie Ying, causing her to raise her head.

Jin Sique removed her sun hat. The fine hairs around her hairline were slightly damp, and she was smiling brilliantly and uninhibitedly at Xie Ying.

At that moment, nearly every Alpha nearby reacted to her presence and repeatedly glanced in their direction.

Even Xie Ying froze beneath that smile.

After recovering, she scoffed and slapped a plate of nearly cold skewers in front of Jin Sique.

“What an honored guest. Inviting you out once certainly isn’t easy.”

“An honored guest, exactly.”

Jin Sique smiled without showing any restraint. She grabbed a skewer with one hand, opened and closed her snow-white teeth, and tore into the meat with her mouth while twisting her wrist.

She ate no slower than Xie Ying.

“Am I competing with you?” Xie Ying asked.

Only after eating several skewers to satisfy her craving did Jin Sique say, “I was craving them. It’s been too long since I had any.”

Xie Ying teased her.

“The food in your university cafeteria isn’t good? The chef at the villa can’t cook either?”

“It’s all right.”

Jin Sique shrugged. Beneath her obedient-looking clothes was a faint trace of streetwise roguishness.

She pointed toward the crossbody bag beside her.

“There.”

“Oh!”

Xie Ying opened Jin Sique’s schoolbag and removed the lunch container resting on top of two books. Delighted, she went to borrow a metal plate from the barbecue restaurant, tossed the food around twice over the grill, and brought it back to the table.

She ate it with a small plastic spoon.

Leaning lazily against the back of her chair, Jin Sique laughed.

“You turned a plate of good food into fried rice.”

After speaking, she picked up a plastic spoon as well. She wiped it against the cuff at the crook of her arm, stabbed it into the plate, and began scooping up the pile of fried rice.

“How does it taste?” Xie Ying asked.

“Mm.”

Jin Sique nodded.

“Like barbecue seasoning.”

The two exchanged a look before slapping their thighs and bursting into laughter.

Jin Sique had not laughed so freely in a long time.

Her gums and tongue were visible as she threw herself backward, laughing and slapping the table wildly. The beer and skewers shook beneath her hands.

When they nearly fell, she hurriedly caught them and gradually finished everything she had put into her stomach.

“How does she treat you?” Xie Ying suddenly asked.

The daylight had completely faded.

The roadside stall’s lights came on, dim and yellow. It was almost impossible to distinguish which skewer held duck intestines and which held badly charred pork belly.

Jin Sique searched through the metal plate, found the duck intestines, and carefully gnawed them from the bamboo skewer.

She raised an eyebrow.

“Why are you asking?”

Xie Ying smiled.

It looked no different from her usual smile, but it disappeared too quickly, making it seem somewhat bitter and forced.

Jin Sique did not answer.

She rolled up her sleeve and revealed her slender, pale wrist.

Bluish marks covered the area that should have been completely snow-white.

Xie Ying laughed loudly and pulled up her own long sleeve.

The marks beneath it were several times more horrifying than Jin Sique’s. Bandages were wrapped around her arm, stained with blood. The wounds were terrifying and impossible to overlook.

Jin Sique’s smile abruptly disappeared.

She stared coldly at them.

“She did that?”

“She had someone else do it.”

Xie Ying smiled indifferently.

Jin Sique gritted her teeth.

“You two—”

“There’s no need.”

Xie Ying interrupted her.

“We can’t separate.”

She pulled down her sleeve to cover her arm.

“I can’t bear to leave her. In the future, don’t become like me.”

Jin Sique took a can of beer, opened it, and handed it to Xie Ying.

“I won’t.”

Xie Ying took a long drink.

After remaining silent for quite some time, she suddenly smiled.

“Not necessarily.”

“I really won’t,” Jin Sique said. “I know what I want.”

Xie Ying chuckled and sniffed.

“How did the two of you meet?”

“Don’t you already know?” Jin Sique asked in amusement.

“I’ve only heard rumors. Tell me properly.”

Jin Sique was already half drunk.

She propped one elbow on the edge of the table. Her beautiful eyes shone as she stared into empty space, her gaze somewhat hollow as though she were trying to recall something.

“Are you sure you want to hear it?” Jin Sique asked.

“Lü Zhongcai is my ideal type—her appearance, temperament, taste, and intelligence. Tell me something bad about her. Since I can’t have her, can’t I at least satisfy my curiosity?”

Jin Sique hummed and attempted to describe it.

Before they truly became involved, they had already crossed paths briefly several times.

But the person who ultimately approached the other with a request was Jin Sique.

Twenty million in debt to be repaid within one year.

Had she not taken this path, Jin Sique could not think of any other way to repay that money.

—

“Are you here to listen to the opera?”

The third time she saw Lü Zhongcai on Wangchun Street, Jin Sique finally gathered the courage to speak to her.

Pedestrians and vehicles flowed past in endless streams.

Lü Zhongcai stood amid the multicolored lights of the lantern festival, quietly holding a cigarette between her fingers.

The tall, slender Alpha looked at her coldly.

Jin Sique was only seventeen at the time. Her clothes were simple and could barely be considered clean.

Nervous and uneasy, she tried to invite Lü Zhongcai to an expensive café.

Lü Zhongcai refused.

Seeming to see through Jin Sique’s embarrassment, she smiled and lit another cigarette.

Jin Sique explained why she had approached her.

“If you need money, earn it yourself. We aren’t relatives or friends. Why should I help you?”

Lü Zhongcai found the request amusing.

Holding the cigarette between two long fingers, she took the final drag before crushing it into the ash receptacle on a roadside trash can.

“I’m leaving.”

“President Lü!”

Jin Sique hurried after her.

“I-I really need…”