The Cold Alpha's Black Lotus O Strategy Plan (GL) - Chapter 27

Two years earlier.

“You got what you wanted. Isn’t that a good thing?”

Xie Ying casually pulled out a cigarette and offered it to Jin Sique.

Jin Sique raised her eyes. Her hand lifted halfway before she glanced at the cigarette and seemed to pause for several seconds.

Then she brushed it aside.

“Huh?”

Xie Ying looked puzzled.

“What’s wrong?”

“My voice,” Jin Sique said.

Xie Ying shrugged with a smile.

“Fine. Protect your voice.”

Then she lit the cigarette herself.

Leaning against the balcony, she smiled with captivating charm.

Jin Sique crouched like a child on the ledge beneath the floor-to-ceiling window, her face propped between both hands.

One moment she laughed, the next she cried. Then she held her head and rubbed it forcefully several times.

“I… I…”

“I don’t understand you.”

Xie Ying narrowed her eyes and expertly blew out a smoke ring. The rings spread one after another through the air, gradually expanding before fading away.

“What is there to hesitate about?” Xie Ying asked.

“President Lü is paying off your debt. She has an incredible face, an amazing body, and she’s a top-class Alpha who’s fierce enough in bed.”

“Oh, right.”

Xie Ying tapped Jin Sique’s forehead with the finger holding the cigarette.

“Most importantly, she’s clean. What are you still dissatisfied with?”

Jin Sique abruptly raised her head.

“What do you mean?”

“Clean.”

Xie Ying picked up the medical examination card from the table and clicked her tongue twice.

“You’re clean too, aren’t you?”

“She chose me because I’m clean?” Jin Sique murmured.

Xie Ying stuffed the examination card back into her hand.

“Don’t give her your heart, Sique. When will you finally listen to even half of what Sister Ying tells you?”

“This is only a transaction.”

Jin Sique’s breathing quickened slightly as she stared at the person before her with resentful eyes.

—

Why aren’t you angry? Jin Sique asked silently.

Why weren’t you angry about those diary entries and photographs?

She stared fiercely at Lü Zhongcai while countless violent waves surged through her heart.

Again and again, she silently questioned Lü Zhongcai’s back.

The passion hidden beneath her seemingly calm expression threatened to burst forth, constantly urging her to reveal everything in her heart.

Why are you always so calm? Why? Why?

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” Jin Sique said.

She looked at Xie Ying calmly.

“My thoughts are a mess?”

“What are you confused about?”

Xie Ying had her back to her.

“You’re simply greedy.”

“You like her, so you want her to like you too. A purely physical relationship can no longer satisfy you, can it?”

Jin Sique pressed her lips together.

Xie Ying laughed.

“Don’t lose yourself in this. People like her have met every kind of person imaginable.”

“The moment you take it seriously, you lose. Understand?”

—

The next day, Jin Sique underwent a medical examination.

The results of the full physical would take one week.

During that week, she did nothing.

She knew she was clean, and she knew what it would mean once the results came out and she handed them to Lü Zhongcai.

But she had no choice.

The debt collectors had already traced her to her home.

Everything inside had been smashed. They had even threatened to break her arms and legs.

Yet that was not the most terrifying possibility.

The most terrifying fact was that she was an Omega.

There were far too many ways to torment an Omega.

She could not even hold a stable, long-term job.

She could only hide in Xie Ying’s rented apartment, surviving through temporary work, short-term jobs, and Xie Ying’s help.

“Sooner or later, you’ll discover that your pride is completely worthless.”

“How many people have you been with?”

“If you want money, earn it yourself. Why should I repay your debt when we’re neither relatives nor acquaintances?”

She wanted both dignity and money.

Jin Sique stared at a point in the empty air, crazed stubbornness shining in her eyes.

—

“This is my medical report,” Jin Sique said.

Lü Zhongcai accepted it, flipped through the pages, and placed it aside.

“May I take this to mean that you’ve accepted my proposal?”

“Yes.”

Jin Sique looked at her with a gentle, obedient smile.

“President Lü, I have one more condition.”

Lü Zhongcai raised her eyes. Her noble features remained calm.

“As long as the request is not excessive, I will try to satisfy it.”

“I don’t want to spend three years in an ambiguous relationship where I’m merely being kept by you,” Jin Sique said.

Lü Zhongcai examined her, apparently unable to understand what she meant.

“Speak plainly.”

“I am the last remaining dignity of Wangchun Pavilion.”

Jin Sique’s tightly clasped hands trembled as she looked at Lü Zhongcai.

“What I need is… after the relationship ends, I must still be able to…”

“As though none of it ever happened, I want to return to the place where I belong.”

“What do you mean?” Lü Zhongcai asked with a frown.

Jin Sique: “…”

Still frowning, Lü Zhongcai took a palm-sized red booklet from the bag beside her.

“With a term of three years, I would like us to maintain this relationship in the form of marriage.”

Jin Sique: “…”

“Wh-What?”

She thought she had misheard.

“Marriage,” Lü Zhongcai said.

Jin Sique: “…”

That winter, Jin Sique and Lü Zhongcai registered their marriage and began living together as spouses.

“I won’t deliberately conceal our relationship,” Lü Zhongcai said. “However, I’ll try to ensure it doesn’t intrude upon your personal life.”

“After three years, you will still be Jin Sique. You will no longer be Mrs. Lü.”

The wind and snow howled.

The driver hurried around the front of the car and opened the door for Jin Sique.

Lü Zhongcai stood in the endless snow wearing a long coat.

Behind her was a sacred, castle-like mansion covered in white, resembling the Garden of Eden.

The wind made it difficult for Jin Sique to remain standing.

She turned her head sideways and lifted an arm to shield herself from the snow.

In her confusion, a strong arm suddenly pulled her into a warm embrace.

Lü Zhongcai held her tightly.

“What’s wrong?”

Jin Sique raised her face and looked at her.

After a moment, she shook her head.

The wind and snow had reddened the tip of her nose and her cheeks. Her long hair whipped wildly, covering one side of her face.

When Lü Zhongcai reached out to remove the strand of hair, Jin Sique once again heard her own frantic heartbeat.

Emotions were difficult to control with reason.

Over the next two years, Jin Sique continually learned how to control her feelings.

Yet the string she had believed she controlled so well had snapped merely because of someone whose identity was still unclear.

No.

Perhaps even before this, she had already sensed it faintly.

—

One month earlier.

Outside the psychological counseling room.

“Dr. Qin.”

Jin Sique hurried forward and stopped Qin Ming, who had just finished work.

After explaining why she had come, she said, “As her legal spouse, I believe I have the right to know her true condition.”

Qin Ming looked at Jin Sique.

“President Lü didn’t tell you?”

Jin Sique frowned, looking serious.

“She did, but you know how emotionally restrained she is. I need to confirm it again.”

Qin Ming frowned, clearly hesitating.

Jin Sique bowed to her.

“You took away one of her shirts. Did you extract pheromones from it for testing?”

“She has glandular dysfunction. I need to understand the exact state of her condition.”

Qin Ming studied Jin Sique.

After several seconds of silence, she said, “It may be better for you to know, so you can prepare yourself.”

“The pheromone matching results show that the compatibility between the two of you is ninety percent.”

“However, President Lü’s reaction is clearly far weaker than what a normal Alpha should display toward an Omega with such a high level of compatibility.”

“Has her disorder worsened? Or…”

Qin Ming looked at Jin Sique.

“Apart from your sex life, how well do the two of you get along in everyday life?”

Jin Sique pressed her lips together.

After hesitating several times, she answered in embarrassment.

“We… We are not in love.”

“Uh…”

Qin Ming looked awkward.

“…I’m sorry.”

Jin Sique left the hospital and walked dejectedly through the streets.

The spring wind seemed cold enough to penetrate her bones.

—

“I’m sorry, Zhongcai.”

“I failed to handle the situation at the university properly and made you help me with so much.”

“Can you forgive me?”

Jin Sique asked carefully, hope flickering in her eyes.

Question me, interrogate me, punish me… Anything is fine.

Just don’t remain this calm…

“It wasn’t your fault,” Lü Zhongcai said. “As long as our marriage remains in effect, this is my responsibility.”

Jin Sique froze.

Then her smile slowly spread.

That answer had also been… exactly what she expected.

“Let’s sleep.”

“All right.”

Jin Sique turned over and slipped from Lü Zhongcai’s embrace.

She stared at the cold floor illuminated by pure white moonlight.

Her eyes were as cold and hard as the tiles.

—

Jin Sique had practically been dragged onto the bed.

She had entered heat.

Under the manipulation of those objects that humiliated her beyond endurance, she had entered heat.

It was not time yet.

It had begun early.

Her legs were as weak as noodles.

Every part of her body—even her fingers and toes—was completely powerless. She could only be handled like a puddle of filthy mud.

She felt dirty.

She felt that the version of herself wagging her tail and begging for affection possessed no dignity.

Because of the pheromones, liquid ran down between her thighs and into her palms. Her mouth shamefully formed words that begged for pleasure…

And even though she had been reduced to such a state, Lü Zhongcai remained fully dressed, with only two buttons disturbed.

She had believed…

At least in bed, Lü Zhongcai needed her.

Jin Sique smiled.

The gunpowder scent in the air was so sharp that it made breathing uncomfortable.

Yet no matter how unbearable it became, an Omega who had been marked would still become the slave of the Alpha who marked her.

It made her resemble an animal stripped of reason, repeatedly infatuated with and longing for the person who had marked her.

Jin Sique was covered in sweat and completely naked.

Like a ruined rag, she lay half-collapsed at the foot of the bed while Lü Zhongcai framed and composed photographs across her body.

“I must look terrible right now.”

Hearing this, Lü Zhongcai lowered the camera.

“You don’t.”

She had obtained another photograph she found satisfactory.

“May I see those photographs?” Jin Sique asked quietly.

“Which ones?” Lü Zhongcai asked.

“The ones you took before and now.”

Jin Sique struggled to support herself.

Her body revealed dazzling yet dark marks like patches of light passing through gaps between branches and falling upon the earth.

They glistened across her skin.

Her voice was hoarse.

“I want to see them.”

Lü Zhongcai frowned.

“They’re gone. I deleted them.”

“Did you?”

Jin Sique suddenly laughed coldly.

“Did you truly delete them?”

Lü Zhongcai’s brows tightened further.

“Sique?”

“You don’t trust me. Is that it?”