After an Alluring Alpha Provokes an Unhinged Omega 60

Chapter 60: I Miss You

“Yan Wei, I don’t like you anymore.”

The words fell, and the thick air seemed to suddenly solidify. The stuffy summer night was torn open by an invisible cold crack, as if winter had arrived.

Under the dim yellow light, Jiang Mi’s bangs were gently lifted by an unknown airflow. Fine beads of sweat clung to the soft fuzz of her hair. Those always-clear eyes were now dark and lifeless, and the corners of her eyes and the tip of her nose were stained with a pathetic blush. It made these cruel words seem to carry a hint of a desperate truth.

Yan Wei stared at Jiang Mi motionlessly.

Time seemed to stand still. After a few seconds, the corner of her lip suddenly twitched very slightly, like a frozen crack. But Jiang Mi didn’t think it was a real smile, because the coldness almost seeped into her bones.

Yan Wei’s gaze was locked on her, so close, yet so far. The corner of her lip twitched for a moment, and the almost-imperceptible curve was so cold. The emotions in her eyes were churning, a scene that was completely unfamiliar to Jiang Mi.

Yan Wei didn’t seem surprised by her words at all.

In this deathly, cold, and suffocating embrace, there seemed to be only a kind of finality.

Jiang Mi couldn’t help but shiver, a fine tremor running from her fingertips to her spine.

Yan Wei suddenly moved. She approached step by step, and the shadow in front of her completely enveloped Jiang Mi. Her hair, carrying her scent, blew onto Jiang Mi’s face.

She looked at her very closely.

Jiang Mi was startled by the sudden touch, her eyelashes trembling rapidly—

In that instant, Yan Wei only felt something sharp pierce her heart.

But Yan Wei’s expression was exceptionally calm.

“Say it again.”

Jiang Mi took a deep breath. “Yan Wei, I don’t want to like you anymore.”

Yan Wei’s gaze was on her lips, staring without blinking, at every word from beginning to end… until Jiang Mi finished speaking.

Her face was terrifyingly calm.

So calm it was almost cracking.

Yan Wei raised her hand without any warning. Her cool fingertips first brushed against Jiang Mi’s ear, and then her entire palm pressed against it, with a temperature that brooked no refusal, cupping Jiang Mi’s cheek.

“Do you remember what I said to you?” Yan Wei’s voice was steady, with almost no fluctuation.

Her thumb brushed against Jiang Mi’s lips, leaving a faint, itchy sensation, but it didn’t give Jiang Mi a chance to open her mouth and answer.

Yan Wei leaned closer, her warm breath brushing against Jiang Mi’s sensitive earlobe. Her voice was extremely light, like a small feather falling with a chill. “Mimi, I’ve never lied to you.”

Jiang Mi’s heart suddenly tightened, and another kind of mental string was also stretched to its limit.

She vaguely remembered—If one day you want to leave me, you’ll let me do as I please, okay?

She heard Yan Wei say lightly, “Go back and rest. Get a good night’s sleep.”

Jiang Mi’s throat was blocked.

She didn’t know what kind of response she was expecting from Yan Wei. Rage, pleading, or something else? But it definitely shouldn’t have been this light “rest.”

She loved Yan Wei. There was no doubt about that.

But she wasn’t happy. She was very unhappy.

“Yan Wei,” she began, her voice hoarse, “I’m not happy. I’m… very unhappy right now.”

The moment her words landed, she clearly felt Yan Wei’s fingers, cupping her cheek, stiffen very slightly.

After a moment of dead silence.

“So, you’re planning to leave me?”

“If I can…”

Liking Yan Wei was really so tiring. She also needed love. She didn’t want to like her anymore, but unfortunately, she still couldn’t.

Then.

Yan Wei silently took a step back. She reached into her bag, took out a cigarette case and a lighter. The metal lighter made a crisp “click” sound. The first time, the flame flickered and then went out.

She pressed the wheel again with unusual steadiness, and the orange flame finally licked the end of the cigarette.

She lowered her head, took a shallow drag, and then slowly exhaled.

When she looked up again, her gaze passed through the curling smoke and looked straight at Jiang Mi. The thin smoke, as if it had a mind of its own, under her cold gaze, drifted towards Jiang Mi in wisps, silently drilling into Jiang Mi’s nostrils, and perhaps, also invading her internal organs.

The redness in Jiang Mi’s eyes had subsided a lot. Her voice was a little hoarse, but very clear. “I think… we both need some time to think, and then… sit down and have a serious talk about the problems between us…”

She paused for a moment, as if she were gathering her strength to spit out the last two words, “and the future.”

The future? This word floated in the air, seeming a bit empty.

She didn’t know if she and Yan Wei would have a future, or how long they would go.

She also didn’t know when she had started to become pessimistic. That premonition was getting stronger and stronger, so strong that her nose would tingle whenever she saw Yan Wei.

It was an uncontrollable emotion.

She didn’t want to be separated from Yan Wei.

It was precisely because of this that she needed this space to breathe. They needed a buffer period, a chance to resolve the knot in their hearts with Yan Wei.

Time seemed to freeze under the dim overhead lights of the parking lot.

Two minutes, not long, not short.

Only the dull “thud” of goods being roughly thrown into a truck in the distance.

Then.

Yan Wei said, “Okay.”

**

In the empty parking lot, only Yan Wei’s white car was left.

She was slumped in the driver’s seat, extinguishing the cigarette in the ashtray. When she raised her hand, she caught sight of a dark red spark still stubbornly flickering. She narrowed her eyes, and her slender, fair fingertips pressed down hard, completely crushing the spark.

In the silence, that sentence exploded in her ear again, “Yan Wei, I don’t want to like you anymore.”

Didn’t I know it all along? This day had come even later than she had expected.

Don’t want to like her anymore?

But, Jiang Mi, how can I make you understand that it’s too late to back out now?

Or, how… can I make you never say this sentence again?

She tilted her head up and looked out the window for a long, long time.

Just before the sky turned white, the car’s taillights finally lit up.

Jiang Mi had just fallen asleep when her alarm went off at a little past six in the morning. She struggled to open her eyes and sat on the bed for a long time before she could barely prop herself up.

She grabbed the phone by her bed and dragged her feet towards the washstand.

Before she had walked far, her phone vibrated, and the screen lit up with a new message from Zhao Jia a few minutes ago: All of today’s schedules have been canceled.

Below the text, another sentence popped up:

[The company notified me verbally. They said the boss personally called, and the other party has no objection. Rest well. But… I don’t think it was the boss’s idea.]

[This is good too. You can finally get a good night’s sleep.]

Zhao Jia sent another voice message. When she opened it, it was a relaxed voice, “Don’t think too much! It’s our first time doing this, we even forgot to breathe. Now that someone is helping us clean up, it’s so much easier! You should rest. Don’t think about anything.”

Jiang Mi stared at the phone screen, her lips pursed. She turned and fell back onto the bed.

From the time she had returned to the hotel until now, she had barely slept for half an hour. But whether her eyes were open or closed, Yan Wei’s figure was always in front of her—standing not far away, a cigarette between her fingers, flickering, her expression so complex that she couldn’t understand it at all.

How could she not think…

Jiang Mi fell heavily back onto the bed, her fingers unconsciously sliding through her WeChat list.

The pinned Yan Wei dialog box was blank, with no movement. The next second, her phone buzzed, and a text message suddenly popped up on the screen.

Sender: Mo Yun.

Her heart suddenly tightened. She opened it.

[Mimi, are you free today? If you’re resting, come over for a meal?]

Jiang Mi’s mood sank again.

Even she had just found out that she was resting today, so Mo Yun’s message should also be a coincidence, right? But Jiang Mi had a faint sense of unease.

Jiang Mi exited the message interface, her gaze sweeping over the familiar avatar pinned at the top of WeChat. Her fingertips hovered in the air for a moment, and finally, she moved away.

She didn’t want to take the initiative to contact her.

She switched back to the messages and replied to Mo Yun: [I’m sorry, Auntie. I have something to do today, so I won’t be coming over.]

It was still the same meaning. At this time, she didn’t want to have any more unpleasantness with Yan Wei because of her family matters.

Mo Yun’s reply was very calm. She told her to rest well and then mentioned Mo Xi—she had won an award in a ballet competition.

She sincerely congratulated Mo Yun.

Mo Yun’s reply came after a long time.

[It wasn’t in vain that I raised her so carefully. Most of the time, she’s still quite promising.]

This sentence was like a fine thorn, unexpectedly piercing Jiang Mi’s heart.

She subconsciously thought, What about Yan Wei?

Isn’t Yan Wei promising?

Why has she never praised Yan Wei?

Jiang Mi clenched her phone. To give her a day of rest, it wasn’t just her day’s work that had to be adjusted, but also the staff of the business partners. She believed that Yan Wei had a guilty conscience… but there was too much between them—and it wasn’t just the distance created by being busy.

The mother-daughter bond between Mo Yun and Mo Xi, Yan Wei’s secretive past, the dark shadows that lingered in her heart… she knew nothing about them.

This made her feel like a bewildered bystander by Yan Wei’s side. All she could give was a submissive body and a silent, obedient companionship. She was like a machine.

She was in a lot of pain. She couldn’t wait any longer.

She needed to understand Yan Wei.

In the evening, Jiang Mi still called Jiang Youshu.

From the receiver, the first thing that came was the sizzling sound of stir-frying. Hearing her question, she replied, “Wait a minute,” and then the sound of footsteps and a door closing.

It was quiet.

“Why did you think of asking this?” Jiang Youshu’s voice became clear again.

Jiang Mi tried to speak softly, “I’ve been working with Yan Wei for a while, and I’m a little curious about her. Mom, do you know about their family’s past? Before they moved. I heard you and Auntie Mo were also very close.”

The other end of the line was silent for a few seconds. “We were. We’ve still been in contact all these years. But some things, it’s not appropriate to tell a child like you…”

“Why not? Yan Wei and I are friends, and Auntie Mo is so good to me… I just feel that Yan Wei always seems unhappy, and Auntie Mo also seems to have a lot on her mind.” Jiang Mi tentatively pressed on, “Is there something… wrong? Dear mom, just tell me.”

“Mmm… their relationship is still not good?” Jiang Youshu sighed. “It’s been so many years. Yan Wei and Mo Xi are so old now, and Mo Yun still hasn’t let it go. It’s really become a heart disease.”

How could it not be?

Jiang Mi recalled her later contacts with Mo Yun, and the words from Yan Wei and Mo Xi… even the news of Mo Yun’s suicide. Wasn’t that a heart disease?

But why?

“This matter… actually has something to do with Yanqi.” Jiang Youshu’s tone changed. “Let’s talk about it in person when you get back. My pot is still on the stove, and the guests are about to arrive.”

The two words “Yanqi” were like a fine needle, unexpectedly piercing her eardrum.

How long had it been since she had heard that name?

Jiang Mi’s heart suddenly skipped a beat, and her ankle reflexively shrank. She was afraid that Jiang Youshu would notice something. “…Can’t you just reveal a little bit? Mom! Dear mom!”

It was like she was actively asking to be tickled. Now her heart was in a state of suspense, so uncomfortable.

Jiang Youshu seemed to take a breath, and then mercilessly said, “You can come back and hear it yourself. You said you were coming back in July. Did you come back? How’s your health lately? I saw a video of you online, and you’ve lost a lot of weight. Have you not been eating well? Huh?”

Jiang Mi was immediately defeated. “…You’re busy, you’re busy. I’m not in a hurry.”

The phone was quickly hung up.

Jiang Mi threw her phone onto the bed in frustration and scratched her head.

In the following days, when she called Jiang Youshu again, Jiang Youshu no longer paid attention to her on this matter, just using the excuse of her coming back to brush her off. At the same time, Jiang Mi still received concerned messages from Mo Yun.

One day, Mo Yun found out her event location from somewhere and said she had made fish soup for her and sent it to the door. She really couldn’t bear to refuse again and asked Zhao Jia to get it.

But in fact, Jiang Mi was under a lot of psychological pressure, because every time she saw Mo Yun, she would think of Yan Wei.

She would think of Yan Wei’s disgust and resistance towards Mo Yun, of Yan Wei’s cold and angry look at her, of Yan Wei saying to her on the phone—This is not your business.

This was clearly not a good sign for her and Yan Wei’s relationship.

She and Yan Wei needed a process of reshaping and strengthening.

She was waiting for Yan Wei’s message.

Always waiting.

Just like that, until the night before the Spring promotional event in Huai City.

Yan Wei sent a message.

Before she saw it, she had vaguely glanced at it and saw that there were only three words. She guessed it was probably—See you tomorrow.

So she didn’t have any expectations when she opened it.

But when she opened it, Yan Wei’s dialog box said.

[I miss you.]

For a moment, Jiang Mi’s heart softened. She even felt that all the problems would be solved. Tomorrow, she and Yan Wei would definitely have a good development.

She hadn’t expected that it would be the “beginning” of the end of a relationship.

Yan Wei also hadn’t expected that her premonition would one day finally come true.