The Cold Alpha's Black Lotus O Strategy Plan (GL) - Chapter 26

Three years earlier.

At an industry finance salon, sharply dressed financial elites moved through every corner of the banquet hall.

An Alpha in her thirties approached Lü Zhongcai with a glass of champagne and clinked it against hers.

“It’s surprising that LE Fund would send someone so young to serve as CEO.”

Lü Zhongcai surveyed the decadent surroundings.

“I assumed domestic industry salons would at least involve the exchange of useful information.”

The Alpha said, “Please forgive the poor impression. However, it seems your position has not yet been formally recognized here?”

“The onboarding procedures are somewhat complicated,” the assistant who had remained beside Lü Zhongcai explained. “Your nationality transfer has not yet been completed. It may take several more days.”

Lü Zhongcai smiled and slightly raised her champagne glass toward the Alpha.

“And you are?”

The Alpha froze.

After finishing her champagne, she turned away with an indignant expression.

The assistant said, “She was the executive assistant to Lin, the previous CEO. The branch has intense factional struggles, so you…”

Lü Zhongcai idly played with the champagne flute before placing it on the circular bar.

She turned and walked away.

The assistant hurried after her.

“P-President… President Lü, where are you going?”

“To get some air.”

Lü Zhongcai stopped beside the floor-to-ceiling windows.

Looking out at the scenery, she answered the phone that had been vibrating continuously.

“Cai Cai, is your new job going smoothly?” Meng Yuqing asked.

Moonlight from outside was reflected in Lü Zhongcai’s eyes, along with a small figure beneath it.

Jin Sique wore the banquet hall’s staff uniform and was stationed at the outermost entrance, guiding arriving guests.

It was deep winter, and a thin layer of snow covered City A.

Wearing only a light uniform, Jin Sique smiled as she welcomed each guest with an outstretched arm.

“It’s going all right,” Lü Zhongcai replied.

Meng Yuqing said worriedly, “Mom knows you’ve been troubled by the onboarding process lately, but you can’t ignore your health.”

“Your medical examination showed that the pheromone concentration in your gland is too high. You refuse to go to the hospital for pheromone extraction, and you won’t date anyone.”

“Are you trying to suppress yourself until you go insane?”

“Intensive mental activity allows me to remain focused and clearheaded at work,” Lü Zhongcai replied. “Besides, long-term pheromone extraction would damage the gland’s internal environment.”

“What nonsense are you talking about?” Meng Yuqing snapped.

“I’m telling you, Lü Zhongcai, I’m giving you one month.”

“If you don’t start dating, I’ll go to your company’s headquarters and cause an enormous scene. Then you can return home and mine coal!”

The call ended with a beep.

Jin Sique stood beneath the falling snow with both hands cupped in front of her, breathing warm air into them in small puffs.

“President Lü,” the assistant approached and said. “It’s beginning.”

Lü Zhongcai inclined her head and walked toward a circular seating area.

High-ranking elites in suits were smoking the first round of cigars, sitting with crossed legs and appearing relaxed while cautiously exchanging the latest industry information.

Lü Zhongcai lifted the cigar to her nose and gently smelled it.

After several rounds of opinions, it was finally her turn to speak.

“After I assume my position, LE will no longer invest in bubble industries.”

“Is there no hope left for the property market?” someone asked.

Lü Zhongcai’s lips curved slightly, indicating that she would say no more.

The others immediately began whispering among themselves.

After the salon ended, the guests gradually departed, exchanging business cards they had not had time to trade earlier or moving on to the next entertainment venue.

The atmosphere had clearly become more relaxed, and personal topics gradually took priority.

Only after being asked about her romantic and marital status for the umpteenth time and rejecting several invitations did Lü Zhongcai finally find an opportunity to escape.

“Antisocial.”

“Quiet and arrogant. LE’s employees are probably going to suffer.”

“She’s single…”

Lü Zhongcai shook open her coat and draped it across her shoulders.

An attendant opened the banquet hall’s heavy doors for her.

Light emerged like a wall being split open, widening from a thin line and falling across Jin Sique.

Jin Sique turned around in confusion and watched Lü Zhongcai approach, her entire figure wrapped in strands of light.

“Why have I been seeing you everywhere lately?” Lü Zhongcai asked.

Jin Sique looked slightly dazed.

“I-I work here. Guiding guests pays two hundred yuan a day. If I can become a server inside the main hall…”

Lü Zhongcai seemed to gain a new understanding of just how desperately she needed money.

“What is your objective?” she asked.

Jin Sique blinked.

“…What?”

Lü Zhongcai continued speaking with her as they walked.

Jin Sique led her toward her car, and the two stopped beneath the heavy snow.

Dressed as a server, Jin Sique occasionally had to bow to guests who came to retrieve their vehicles.

“President Lü, do you need me to call a designated driver?” Jin Sique asked.

The tip of her nose had turned bright red from the cold.

“You drank alcohol.”

Lü Zhongcai glanced at her watch, opened the car door, and sat in the back seat.

“The driver went to the restroom.”

Jin Sique looked at her through the window.

She bent down slightly, and a strand of hair slipped from the bun at the back of her head and fell beside her lips.

The white mist of her breath carried a faint grassy fragrance.

Because of her work, she wore light makeup.

Her slightly pale cheeks had become damp and pink beneath the cold snow, like peeled lychee flesh.

Her slightly melancholy fox eyes seemed filled with stories.

When she bent down and looked at someone, her smile and eyes were breathtakingly beautiful.

Jin Sique confirmed that Lü Zhongcai was all right.

Only after the driver hurried back did she say goodbye.

“Then I’ll leave first, President Lü.”

“Would you like a blanket to keep warm?” Lü Zhongcai asked politely.

She assumed Jin Sique was not permitted to accept gifts from guests.

As expected, Jin Sique bowed.

“Thank you for your kindness.”

“Oh, this is for you.”

She searched through her clothes.

A moment later, she tossed something through the car window, and it landed on Lü Zhongcai’s lap.

The driver started the car.

Jin Sique watched Lü Zhongcai leave, then immediately wrapped her arms around her shoulders and rubbed them vigorously.

The image in the rearview mirror receded before being swallowed by the wind and snow.

Lü Zhongcai withdrew her gaze and began responding to several people from the salon who had contacted her using the business cards they had exchanged.

China’s culture of personal connections was a profound subject.

Lü Zhongcai had gone abroad to study when she was barely a teenager and had only returned to work in the country within the past year.

She still needed to learn how to integrate into this relationship-oriented society.

The people around her also seemed reluctant to welcome a female Alpha who had lived abroad for many years and carried a distinctly British air.

She exchanged only a few perfunctory words during each call before ending them.

“Did you know that young server just now, President Lü?” the driver asked.

“We’re acquainted, more or less.”

“It’s so cold. An Omega will suffer in weather like this,” the driver said. “She doesn’t look very old either.”

Lü Zhongcai gave a quiet acknowledgment.

She unwrapped the candy Jin Sique had given her and placed it in her mouth.

It was orange-flavored, carrying the faint fragrance of citrus peel.

A trace of warmth and a light grassy scent remained on the wrapper.

Lü Zhongcai chewed the soft candy as though savoring the tiny trace of grass hidden within it.

However, before she could fully appreciate the taste, that faint, seductive temptation vanished like a firework after a brief, brilliant display.

Pop.

Gone.

—

“Did I interrupt you, Zhongcai?”

Jin Sique stood to one side with her hands lowered, asking uneasily.

“Keep pretending,” 052 said. “Go ahead, black lotus. Keep acting like an innocent little white flower.”

“These tricks might fool the president, but they don’t fool me!”

Lü Zhongcai raised a hand and politely gestured for Miss Bai to move aside.

“No. Why did you come?”

Jin Sique nodded and smiled at Miss Bai.

“Hello. My surname is Jin.”

Miss Bai looked at the East Asian Omega before her.

It was the first time she had encountered an Omega who seemed to embody so many contradictions.

She possessed the stereotypical softness and sensuality associated with an Omega.

Yet her slender neck, straight back, and slightly hesitant fox eyes gave her a quality that made others want to look more closely.

Miss Bai made a sound of acknowledgment.

“Hello. You can call me Bai.”

“I came to bring President Lü a late-night meal,” Jin Sique said. “Miss Bai is welcome to join us if you don’t mind.”

“Oh, did you make this?”

Miss Bai discreetly examined Lü Zhongcai and Jin Sique.

“An elder at home prepared it,” Jin Sique said with a smile.

She placed the dishes on the table one by one and took out a pair of chopsticks for Lü Zhongcai.

She then casually offered another pair to Miss Bai.

Miss Bai raised a hand in refusal.

“Ah, I won’t disturb the two of you.”

“Goodbye, Boss. See you tomorrow.”

The office door closed.

Lü Zhongcai casually locked it and moved her wheelchair beside the circular bar.

Jin Sique brought the food over.

“Would you like a drink?” Lü Zhongcai asked.

Jin Sique smiled.

“A glass of whiskey.”

Lü Zhongcai opened the liquor cabinet, took out a bottle of whiskey, and poured two glasses.

Jin Sique pulled both glasses toward herself and redistributed the evenly divided whiskey into one larger and one smaller serving.

“I don’t mind,” Lü Zhongcai said.

“No. You. Cannot.”

Jin Sique raised one finger and spoke one word at a time.

She pushed the glass containing less whiskey toward Lü Zhongcai.

They sat facing each other in silence.

After finishing the late-night meal, Jin Sique packed everything back into the lunch bag.

While tidying, she asked as though casually, “Are you going home?”

Lü Zhongcai pointed toward the desk.

“I’m waiting for an email.”

She meant that she would not be returning that night.

Jin Sique slowed her movements.

“Pay attention to the black lotus’s body language,” 052 warned. “She’s deliberately stalling.”

Lü Zhongcai glanced sideways.

Seeing Jin Sique staring thoughtfully at her phone, she asked, “What is it?”

“I…”

Jin Sique pressed her lips together.

“I thought you were returning home, so I sent Xiao Wang back.”

052 complained wildly, “It isn’t even that late. She can simply take a taxi home. Don’t concern yourself with her. Listen to me, President—”

“I’ll accompany you home.”

Lü Zhongcai switched off the computer.

052 nearly went berserk.

“Ahhh! My president, when will you finally see the black lotus’s true face?”

At ten that night, the financial tower remained brightly illuminated.

Only the lights in the president’s office suddenly went dark.

“She left?”

“She left.”

In the administrative work area, streams of data continued moving across the analysts’ screens, and files covered the desks.

Everyone looked toward the private elevator reserved for the president.

Once they confirmed that Lü Zhongcai had left, the area instantly erupted into disorder.

They quickly tidied their desks and prepared to go home.

Neither woman spoke during the journey.

Jin Sique leaned against the backrest, her arm wrapped around Lü Zhongcai’s forearm as she stared out the window, no one knowing what she was thinking.

“Ah…”

052 sighed throughout the journey, but Lü Zhongcai could not ask why.

After showering, Lü Zhongcai felt that it was still early.

For someone who treated overtime as routinely as eating, it truly was.

When Jin Sique came out, Lü Zhongcai was using her laptop to respond to emails from the eastern side of the Atlantic.

Lü Zhongcai looked up.

“How is the lawsuit progressing?”

Jin Sique sat on the edge of the bed.

“The trial begins next week. There’s new evidence, and Lawyer Zhang says he’s very confident.”

Lü Zhongcai acknowledged her, closed the laptop, and indicated that it was time to sleep.

Jin Sique turned slightly and looked at her.

Her full, perfectly shaped lips pressed into a straight line. She appeared hesitant to speak.

“Zhongcai…”

She raised a hand and touched the gland at the back of her neck.

Her implication was obvious.

052 spoke in a calm, peaceful voice.

“Spring has arrived. Once again, it is the season when animals mate…”

Then she suddenly screamed hysterically.

“I told you she had ulterior motives! It hasn’t even been half a month, and she’s asking you to mark her again!”

“How can you tolerate this?”

Lü Zhongcai: “…”

“Zhongcai?”

Half of Jin Sique’s face was concealed in the shadows beneath the lamplight.

The corner of her mouth twitched stiffly and slowly.

“Can we use… those things?”

Lü Zhongcai’s gaze focused on Jin Sique.

She straightened her upper body slightly.

“Sique?”

“May we?”

Jin Sique’s voice was extremely soft, like a cat’s.

She climbed onto the bed and crawled toward Lü Zhongcai on all fours.

Her supple waist, scattered hair, and lips and cheeks flushed scarlet with shame—

The grassy fragrance faintly filled the entire room.

Lü Zhongcai suddenly remembered the grassy taste she had chewed long ago, at the moment she first felt tempted.

“Of course.”

Her gaze abruptly changed.

“Go and bring them over.”

Two flames seemed to ignite inside Jin Sique’s pupils.

She stood.

Her waterfall of long hair swept across her waist, tracing a leaping symbol.

An invisible sliding door was built into the bedroom wall.

When Jin Sique pushed it open, an extensive collection of objects appeared.

Leather, hemp rope, fabric, and metal.

Collars, long whips, short whips, wax candles…

Lü Zhongcai leaned against the headboard, one bent finger resting beneath her chin as she leisurely watched Jin Sique.

“Choose for yourself.”

Jin Sique stood before the wall.

Her breathing quickened, and her chest rose and fell.

Her ashamed gaze swept across the entire display, both restrained and unrestrained.

“I…”

“I can’t choose, Zhongcai…”

Lü Zhongcai glanced sideways.

“You can’t choose?”

“I-I can’t…”

Jin Sique turned around and bit her lip as she looked at Lü Zhongcai.

“I want all of them.”

A faint scent of gunpowder rose inside the room.

Beginning beside the bed, it gradually pressed against and overwhelmed the grassy fragrance in the air.

Lü Zhongcai supported her upper body and sat up.

She opened the bedside drawer and took out a retractable metal cane that had been prepared long ago.

She slowly extended it to its full length, braced it in her palm, and shifted her weight onto her uninjured leg.

She could already move short distances without the wheelchair.

Jin Sique’s gaze flickered.

She clearly had not expected Lü Zhongcai to recover so quickly.

“Come here.”

“Kneel.”

Jin Sique obeyed each command.

By the time she finished, sweat covered her entire body.

“Look at me.”

She raised her head and stared at the Alpha before her.

Her eyes shimmered with tears that threatened to fall.

“Zhongcai…”

“What should you call me?”

Lü Zhongcai bent forward slightly.

She raised her hand.

The metal cane was cold and hard as it pressed beneath Jin Sique’s cloud-white jaw.

“What happened today?” Lü Zhongcai asked.

Tonight’s behavior was clearly unexpected.

The two of them rarely became intimate more often than once every half month.

When they were busy, each would use suppressants to endure it.

The longest interval had occurred when Jin Sique was occupied with her final examinations while Lü Zhongcai handled an international acquisition.

They had gone more than three months without intimacy.

Yet when those three months ended, Jin Sique had still been the frantic one.

Restraint seemed to be a verb carved into Lü Zhongcai’s bones.

“I wanted to thank you for what happened with Chen Gang.”

Jin Sique tilted her head back.

Under the influence of the gunpowder scent, her pheromones poured out almost uncontrollably.

Sweat and arousal soaked every part of her body.

Perhaps Omegas were creatures like this.

Give them the slightest stimulation, and they became an inexhaustible spring.

“You lied.”

Lü Zhongcai crouched and carefully examined Jin Sique’s expression.

“The case involving Chen Gang and your roommate hasn’t even gone to trial yet.”

Jin Sique’s hands were restrained behind her back.

She breathed rapidly, her face flushed while her eyes remained dark and gloomy.

Lü Zhongcai pulled open the collar of her shirt with one hand, revealing the view beneath her long neck and below the first button.

—

“What is this?”

Inside the café, Jin Sique sat with her knees pressed tightly together and her hands clasped before her, not daring to touch the document on the table.

“This is my medical report,” Lü Zhongcai said.

Jin Sique made a confused sound.

“What?”

“You may read it.”

Lü Zhongcai gestured that she could look freely.

Jin Sique picked up the medical report.

The complicated indicators exceeded her understanding, but the final diagnosis was written clearly.

“Glandular dysfunction?”

Jin Sique asked, “What does that mean?”

“A rare illness,” Lü Zhongcai explained. “My body responds sluggishly to an Omega’s pheromones, and the pheromones produced by my gland cannot be released through ordinary physiological activity.”

“I am an S-class Alpha. If my pheromones cannot be released, they may harm me or, in more serious cases, cause a significant impact on society.”

“The doctor advised me to attempt a romantic relationship.”

“Within an intimate relationship, lovers naturally develop the desire for physical closeness because of love. A relationship may allow me to release my pheromones.”

“The alternative is to undergo direct pheromone extraction at the hospital, but that is not a permanent solution and is harmful to the body.”

Jin Sique’s face gradually burned red.

“Wh-What do you mean?”

“You appear to be an exception,” Lü Zhongcai said as she looked at her.

“Grass-scented pheromones. Yours were the first Omega pheromones I had ever smelled.”

“If you are willing, we can sleep together. In return, I will resolve the debt your adoptive parents left behind.”

Jin Sique froze.

The heat rapidly drained from her burning cheeks, leaving behind a trace of bewilderment.

“I will not investigate your past, but before anything begins, you must undergo a medical examination.”

Lü Zhongcai pushed a medical examination card toward Jin Sique.

“The treatment will be a lengthy process,” she said. “You may take your time considering it.”

“I will send the detailed conditions to you by email.”

“While the relationship remains in effect, I expect us to remain faithful to each other.”