The Cold Alpha's Black Lotus O Strategy Plan (GL) - Chapter 32

The bar was lively with singing and dancing. Multicolored neon lights flashed rapidly, sweeping across brows and eyes and illuminating gazes filled with desire.

They slid over waists and long legs, revealing pale skin, then across shelves crowded with liquor—everywhere reeked of alcohol and money.

“Another one.”

A slender wrist pushed an empty glass toward the bartender.

The bartender refilled it.

Xie Ying raised a hand and raked it through her hair. From the corner of her widened vision, she noticed that the figure beside her seemed to have changed.

Xie Ying: “…”

Lü Zhongcai inclined her head and calmly said to the bartender, “Whiskey.”

“All right.”

The bartender pushed Xie Ying’s drink toward her, then turned to retrieve Lü Zhongcai’s liquor.

Xie Ying: “…”

She grabbed the glass and poured it down her throat.

After finishing it, she pulled her phone from the wallet beside her and prepared to scan the payment code. Before she could, a finger pressing down on several banknotes pushed the money across the counter.

“The bill,” Lü Zhongcai said.

“…”

—

Outside the bar, Xie Ying looked back every few steps.

Holding her phone, she hesitated over whether to send Jin Sique a message.

Lü Zhongcai walked slowly with a cane, limping slightly. Yet even beneath the ghostly neon lights, her distinguished upper-class bearing remained impossible to conceal.

In this strange world of nightlife, she looked like an enormous, tempting drumstick that someone might pounce upon and devour.

Xie Ying lowered her gaze toward Lü Zhongcai’s foot, then raised it to her cold features.

Mm.

She looked extremely difficult to provoke.

Several men and women soliciting customers by the roadside were already growing restless. However, Lü Zhongcai’s distant aura made them hesitate.

There were not many perceptive people left in streets filled with pleasure and vice.

While Xie Ying hesitated, Lü Zhongcai had already reached her side.

Xie Ying narrowed her eyes with a smile and teased, “Did President Lü come looking for entertainment? Are you choosing me?”

“Miss Xie, may we talk?” Lü Zhongcai replied politely, making no response to Xie Ying’s self-mocking remark.

“…”

It was precisely this politeness and respect that placed Xie Ying under enough pressure that she found it difficult to refuse.

“A café?” Lü Zhongcai suggested.

052 advised, “Give her money and purchase her time. That is the most effective method.”

Xie Ying remained silent for a while.

Perhaps her craving for cigarettes had returned. She fumbled out a cigarette, shook it free, and took two drags before suppressing the urge to obey.

Throughout the process, Lü Zhongcai never interrupted her.

The streetlights were dim, illuminating the mist in the spring night.

“What if I refuse?” Xie Ying asked.

“When would you be available, Miss Xie?” Lü Zhongcai replied. “We can discuss it another time.”

“You mean that even if I refuse tonight, you’ll come looking for me again?”

Lü Zhongcai smiled faintly, making her answer clear.

Xie Ying exhaled smoke and gestured toward the café with one finger.

Lü Zhongcai turned her head slightly and gracefully raised a hand, indicating that Xie Ying should go first.

So elegant.

Xie Ying bit down a little harder on the cigarette and strode quickly toward the café.

The wind chime swayed.

Xie Ying placed an order at the counter. Lü Zhongcai entered several steps behind her and paid with cash.

Xie Ying picked up the coffees and asked curiously, “Do people from high society always carry cash?”

“I carry cards as well.”

After Xie Ying sat down, Lü Zhongcai reached over and took the remaining coffee from the tray.

Xie Ying: “…”

“Ask whatever you want to know,” Xie Ying said.

Then she added, “I’ll decide whether to answer.”

Lü Zhongcai nodded.

“How did you and Sique meet?”

Xie Ying raised an eyebrow slightly and took several sips of coffee.

After thinking, she asked, “You know about her background, don’t you…?”

“You can rest assured. I will not divorce her because of these matters,” Lü Zhongcai said, dispelling Xie Ying’s concern.

Xie Ying snorted.

“Whether you divorce or not, isn’t it only a matter of time?”

Lü Zhongcai interlaced her fingers on the edge of the table and looked calmly at Xie Ying.

Xie Ying’s breathing caught.

She took a hard drag of her cigarette and exhaled slowly. Leaning back in her chair, she shifted her gaze toward the window and began to remember.

“How did we meet…?”

—

“Xiao Xie, finished with work?”

“Mm-hmm.”

Xie Ying smiled and raised her brows toward her coworker.

Then she pushed open the side door with one shoulder, slung her backpack over it with one hand, and exhaled the final mouthful of smoke into the air.

She examined the cigarette butt that had burned almost to the end.

She originally intended to throw it away, but lifted it to her lips for one final drag.

The cigarette had already burned out.

“Tsk.”

Displeased, Xie Ying turned and pressed the butt into the trash can beside the door.

Then her movements stopped.

A small figure was practically half buried inside the bin, making rustling sounds like the rats that regularly gathered there, searching through discarded leftovers.

Xie Ying froze.

“Hey.”

The figure stopped, then quickly rummaged through the garbage a little longer before slowly straightening.

Xie Ying noticed that the person wore a hood over her head and a mask over her face.

Dressed entirely in black, she resembled a shadow that could merge into the night at any moment.

“Trying to act mysterious?”

Xie Ying walked over and casually tossed the cigarette butt into the trash.

“Move aside.”

The dark figure retreated.

In the dim alley, beneath the light refracted between the buildings and the sky, Xie Ying saw the beer bottle she had found.

“Is that unopened?” Xie Ying asked.

The figure paused.

Xie Ying noticed that her eyes were extremely bright, like a blazing fire that made something itch deep within the heart.

“You provide the alcohol, and I’ll treat you to barbecue. Deal?” Xie Ying asked.

The person did not move and cautiously retreated another two steps.

Xie Ying smiled.

“Starve to death or die from poisoning. Choose.”

The shadow appeared to hesitate.

Her five fingers tightened and loosened around the bottle.

Finally, she stepped toward Xie Ying and nodded.

At the roadside barbecue stall, the air was thick with smoke and the bustle of ordinary life.

Jin Sique refused to order anything. Only after she saw Xie Ying pay did she quietly relax.

“You’re very cautious,” Xie Ying said with a smile. “Were you worried I wouldn’t pay?”

She sat down and began smoking, then asked, “Are you an Alpha?”

Jin Sique’s hand stopped while removing her hood.

She even seemed ready to stand and leave immediately.

But her stomach growled loudly.

Her bottom had barely lifted from the stool before dropping heavily back down.

She removed the hood and mask and said quietly, “No. I wasn’t worried.”

Xie Ying tilted her head and examined her.

“Oh, you certainly don’t look like one. An Omega? Aren’t you too thin?”

“A Beta,” Jin Sique said.

She used a chopstick to pry the cap from the beer bottle she had found.

Xie Ying grinned.

“Oh, you’re lying to me.”

“As though I haven’t seen plenty of Alphas, Betas, and Omegas. You’re obviously a little Omega pretending to be a Beta.”

“Afraid of being deceived?”

The barbecue arrived.

Jin Sique pressed her lips together tightly, picked up a skewer, and began taking small bites.

She held her breath slightly while eating.

She ate quickly but not unpleasantly, as though exercising restraint to preserve the appearance of an ordinary human being.

“That isn’t how you eat skewers. Watch me.”

Xie Ying grabbed a skewer of duck intestines, placed the bottom end of the stick between her lips, and stripped it clean with her teeth in one motion.

Jin Sique: “…”

Jin Sique exhaled.

Imitating Xie Ying, she ate each skewer in a single bite until hot oil and chili covered her mouth.

Xie Ying burst into laughter.

After finishing one cigarette, she lit another.

Then, out of habit, she shook one free and offered it to Jin Sique.

Jin Sique’s gaze flickered, a faint light appearing in her eyes.

She reached out and accepted the cigarette.

“Thank you.”

—

“I actually knew all of this too,” 052 said.

“You could have asked me. Ah, I’m probably the least noticeable system in existence.”

Xie Ying exhaled and extinguished the cigarette butt.

She looked at Lü Zhongcai.

“That’s how we met.”

Lü Zhongcai inclined her head and handed Xie Ying the desserts she had packed from the café.

Xie Ying took out her keys and unlocked the door.

She accepted the bag and smiled at Lü Zhongcai.

“Thank you for bringing me home, President Lü. Would you like to come inside?”

“No.”

Lü Zhongcai continued, “Miss Xie, I would like to ask you about someone…”

Before she could finish speaking, the door was pulled open from inside.

Jin Sique stood behind it, looking at them in astonishment.

“Zhongcai?” she asked.

Xie Ying also froze.

Then she recovered, raised her brows with interest, and said to Jin Sique, “Oh, we happened to encounter each other. President Lü brought me home.”

“President, her favorability has dropped again,” 052 said. “Guess what Jin Sique is thinking right now?”

Lü Zhongcai frowned slightly.

“It was a chance encounter,” she said to Jin Sique.

Jin Sique’s gaze fell upon the desserts in Xie Ying’s hand.

Xie Ying loved spicy food and disliked sweets.

Jin Sique pressed her lips together and nodded.

“When… are you leaving?”

“I’ll wait for you downstairs,” Lü Zhongcai replied.

“All right. I’ll be down immediately.”

The door closed.

Xie Ying placed the desserts on the living room coffee table.

Jin Sique walked over, opened the paper bag, and looked inside.

“When did you begin liking sweets?” she asked casually.

Xie Ying tilted her head and glanced at her.

“Just now.”

Jin Sique drew in a soft breath.

“Remember to take your medicine. Put your scent-blocking patch on properly.”

“I’m leaving.”

“Honestly, although President Lü is a little dull, she’s extremely polite.”

Xie Ying brushed the loose hair beside her cheek and leaned alluringly against the sofa.

Her face, gradually becoming gaunt because of her illness, seemed to regain a different kind of vitality—like the person she had been when they first met three years earlier.

Jin Sique froze.

She turned back mechanically and looked at Xie Ying as the smile in her eyes gradually became cold.

“Hmm?”

“She’s a very elegant Alpha. What a pity.”

“Still, it now appears that she truly does suffer from pheromone dysfunction. Otherwise, she couldn’t possibly have remained so calm after walking all the way to my door with me.”

Xie Ying muttered as she reached up and tore the scent-blocking patch from the back of her neck.

Xie Ying suffered from pheromone hypersensitivity.

One symptom was extreme sensitivity to an Alpha’s pheromones.

During an ordinary interaction between an Alpha and Omega outside of heat, even a simple embrace would not usually create a social problem.

For someone with hypersensitivity, however, it was like a drop of water falling into boiling oil.

Jin Sique watched her in silence.

After a long time, she said, “That truly is unfortunate.”

“Mm. Very unfortunate,” Xie Ying agreed.

“An Alpha like that was born with a face begging to be slept with. She looks so cold and aloof, but who knows what she’s like…”

“Tsk.”

Jin Sique stiffly raised the corners of her mouth, closed the door, and left Xie Ying’s home.

—

Lü Zhongcai stood beneath a streetlight.

The light stretched her shadow until it resembled the straight edge of a sword—approaching it meant being wounded.

“What an unconvincing lie,” 052 said regretfully.

“How did you meet Xie Ying? A company president appears in an urban village late at night and escorts an unfamiliar Omega home.”

052 deliberately drew out her words in an irritating tone.

“Oh, and this Omega is a social butterfly.”

“Honestly, President, the black lotus will only assume that your heart has become restless and you wanted a taste of someone else!”

“She won’t,” Lü Zhongcai replied coldly.

“Zhongcai.”

Jin Sique’s voice came from behind.

She stood two meters away and approached one step at a time, wearing a gentle, obedient smile.

“Let’s go home.”

“What a delicate, artificial smile,” 052 said, seemingly shuddering.

Lü Zhongcai acknowledged her and allowed Jin Sique to wrap an arm around hers.

“You know Ah Ying?” Jin Sique asked.

“I know she is your friend.”

Jin Sique nodded.

Then her brows lifted in a smile, as though she had suddenly reached the expected realization.

“Oh, I understand. You must have investigated me before, right?”

“Mm.”

Jin Sique smiled gently.

“You ignored it in the past. Why did you suddenly decide to look for her now?”