Failed to Pretend to Be an Alpha and Got Marked by the Enemy (ABO, GL) - Chapter 52

Chapter 52

Yu Jing slept very chaotically, dreamed many dreams, and saw many people in them, but forgot everything when she woke up.

A sudden urge to pee woke her up. She groggily left the bed, searched for her slippers for a long time without finding them, and walked out barefoot.

The sound of the door opening startled Xiao Ye, who was sprawled on the sofa. Xiao Ye quickly tossed her phone aside and ran over, saying, “Jingjing, you’re awake? Is your head still dizzy? Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?”

Yu Jing, with sleepy eyes, shook her messy hair and asked hoarsely, “What time is it?”

“It’s still early, not even nine,” Xiao Ye replied.

Yu Jing nodded to show she understood, pushed Xiao Ye gently, and said, “I need to use the bathroom.”

“Then go ahead,” Xiao Ye said, stepping aside.

After solving her personal needs in the bathroom, Yu Jing moved sluggishly to the sink like a sloth and turned on the faucet.

“Knock, knock, knock—” Xiao Ye tapped on the door from outside, her voice coming through the door, saying, “Do you want to take a shower too? You fell asleep as soon as we got home last night, so I couldn’t help you wash.”

Yu Jing pushed back her messy bangs, saw her pale face in the mirror, stared for a few seconds, lifted her arm, sniffed her clothes like a puppy, and smelled them.

There wasn’t any bad smell of smoke, alcohol, or sweat as she imagined. Instead, a familiar, pleasant, faint cold fragrance lingered. It wasn’t her perfume or her natural scent.

Her brain still wasn’t fully awake. Yu Jing couldn’t recall for a moment how this cold fragrance got on her. She glanced at the mirror again—her skin was flawless, her eyes bright, her teeth perfect, naturally beautiful. She still looked very pretty.

But her spirit felt a bit low.

She really should freshen up properly.

Yu Jing lazily replied to Xiao Ye through the door, saying, “Then I’ll take a shower too.”

After absentmindedly showering and brushing her teeth, Yu Jing walked through the living room wrapped in a bath towel.

Xiao Ye saw she was done, eagerly brought over a cup, and said, “Drink this honey water to sober up.”

Yu Jing, feeling thirsty, took a sip, found the water temperature just right, gulped it down, licked her lips with satisfaction, and commented, “This honey is nice, with a floral scent.”

Xiao Ye picked up the honey bottle from the coffee table, sniffed it, looked at the label, and said, “It does smell good. Sister Ming Zhu has good taste. I could never buy something this nice.”

Yu Jing, about to ask for another cup, paused her outstretched hand in midair and asked, “Who did you say bought it?”

“Sister Ming Zhu,” Xiao Ye answered.

“…”

“Last night, you got drunk, right? Sister Ming Zhu carried you to the car. You couldn’t even tell who was who. Then she asked if we had honey at home, and I said no. She told me to wait, ran to a nearby convenience store, bought this bottle of honey, and instructed me to mix it with warm water for you to drink,” Xiao Ye blurted out in one breath, noticed Yu Jing’s dazed expression, and quickly asked, “You didn’t black out and forget everything, did you?”

Yu Jing opened her mouth, swallowed air, and stayed silent.

Of course, she didn’t black out…

Maybe her brain subconsciously chose to forget some things. Xiao Ye’s reminder brought most of it back now.

She remembered feeling so bad that she chugged half a bottle of beer, broke down emotionally, tackled Ming Zhu, hugged her, and sobbed loudly. After crying, Ming Zhu confessed to her passionately…

Before the confession, Ming Zhu even kissed her and licked her…

Those vivid details slowly surfaced in her mind. Yu Jing’s newly sober brain got overwhelmed by a rush of heated bl00d and became chaotic again.

She quickly lowered her eyelashes, avoided Xiao Ye’s probing gaze, tightened her grip on the still-warm empty cup, glanced at the honey bottle Xiao Ye was holding, stayed silent for a moment, and asked half-curiously, half-probing, “Besides the honey water, what else did she tell you?”

Xiao Ye recalled the detailed instructions Ming Zhu gave her before they parted last night and said, “She also told me to use a towel to cold-compress your eyes to reduce swelling faster. Let me see…” Xiao Ye leaned closer, stared at Yu Jing’s eyes, and said, “They’re not swollen anymore. They look clear and beautiful.”

Yu Jing’s mind still replayed those ambiguous moments from last night. Her face felt hot, unsure if it was red. Afraid Xiao Ye might notice something, she pushed Xiao Ye’s head away, feeling complicated emotions.

Xiao Ye touched her chin, continued talking to herself, and said, “But I felt Sister Ming Zhu was acting so weird last night. I’m your assistant, so I wouldn’t neglect you if you were drunk. She gave such detailed instructions, and her tone, how do I put it…”

Yu Jing, hooked by Xiao Ye’s dramatic pause, couldn’t help but ask, “Put it how?”

Xiao Ye gave her a meaningful look and said, “It’s just her tone, you know, like she was acting like your girlfriend, worried I wouldn’t take good care of you, all anxious and concerned.”

“…”

“She even added me on WeChat last night and told me to let her know if you felt unwell at all,” Xiao Ye said, tilting her head with a puzzled expression, “I just don’t get why she’s suddenly so attentive to you.”

Yu Jing knew exactly why, raised the cup, drank the last drop of honey water, used the cup to hide some emotions in her eyes, and lied seriously, saying, “Maybe she wants to steal your job.”

Xiao Ye’s eyes widened, and she got anxious immediately, saying, “You mean Sister Ming Zhu wants to replace me as your assistant?”

Yu Jing saw Xiao Ye seriously analyzing it, patted her not-so-sharp head, and said, “Exactly.”

Xiao Ye gave a “I don’t believe you” look, wanted to say more, but a short notification sound interrupted her thoughts.

The phone on the coffee table pinged. Xiao Ye picked it up, unlocked it, saw the new message, and instinctively said, “Huh?”

Yu Jing, bending to set down the cup, accidentally glanced at Xiao Ye’s phone screen, saw the message, and froze slightly.

MZ: “Is she awake?”

The familiar white cat avatar, the familiar capitalized initial nickname.

No doubt, it was Ming Zhu.

Xiao Ye looked up at Yu Jing, saw her staring at the phone, thought for a moment, typed a reply to Ming Zhu, and said, “She’s awake.”

Both were curious about what Ming Zhu wanted, staring intently at the chat window. It showed “typing” at the top. After a while, a new message came through.

MZ: “She drank a lot last night, so a light breakfast would be better. I ordered some takeout. It should arrive soon. If someone calls your phone, remember to go pick it up.”

The two who read the message looked up at the same time, each with different expressions and thoughts.

Yu Jing thought to herself, “I haven’t even decided yet, so why is she acting like she’s already my official girlfriend???”

Xiao Ye thought to herself, “Damn, Sister Ming Zhu is so proactive and thoughtful! If this keeps up, my assistant position might really be at risk!”

As they exchanged glances, Xiao Ye’s phone rang again.

This time, it was a call.

The system identified the number as a delivery. Xiao Ye saw the unknown number flashing on the screen and exclaimed, “Speak of the devil, that was fast!”

She answered the call. The delivery person said the takeout was at the neighborhood entrance, asking her to pick it up.

“Okay, okay, wait a sec, I’m coming,” Xiao Ye said, hung up, pocketed the phone, opened the door, and went out.

Yu Jing, still a bit dazed, sat on the sofa for a while. The door opened from outside, and Xiao Ye returned, carrying heavy takeout bags in both hands.

Xiao Ye walked in, said suspiciously, “I didn’t tell her the address. How did Sister Ming Zhu know where we live?”

Yu Jing cleared the messy stuff off the coffee table, remembered something, and said dully, “Last time, after Wu Dan Ni’s birthday party, I ran into Ming Zhu on my way back. She drove me home.”

“No wonder,” Xiao Ye said, realizing, placed the takeout on the coffee table, rubbed her sore hands, and said, “Sister Ming Zhu is so generous. How can the two of us possibly finish all this?”

Yu Jing looked at the two tall bags of food, feeling a bit speechless.

Did Ming Zhu think she was a pig?

Xiao Ye opened the bags, arranged the food containers one by one—meat porridge, millet porridge, buns, dumplings, boiled eggs, tea eggs, soy milk, regular milk… nothing fancy, but the variety was quite abundant.

The coffee table couldn’t hold everything by the end. Xiao Ye moved the bags aside, glanced at Yu Jing heading into her room, and asked, “Aren’t you eating?”

“Changing clothes,” Yu Jing said, went to her room, changed, found her phone, and quickly returned to the living room.

She raised her phone, took a photo of the overflowing breakfast spread on the coffee table, logged into WeChat, clicked on the white cat avatar, and sent the photo.

She should add some text.

Her fingers hovered over the keyboard for a long time. Yu Jing’s face heated up as she thought, but she still didn’t know what to say.

Last night, she was a complete mess. Now, fully awake, recalling the details of Ming Zhu’s confession, she belatedly felt embarrassed.

Besides embarrassment, there was an unreal, dreamlike feeling.

Ming Zhu usually seemed so aloof and detached. Who would’ve thought she could like someone…

But Yu Jing felt so ordinary. Besides her looks, she didn’t think she had anything particularly striking. Why did Ming Zhu fall for her?

Lost in thought, a new line of text appeared.

MZ: “Feeling better?”

Yu Jing, like a foreigner reading Chinese for the first time, stared at the message for a long time. Her calm heart suddenly thumped wildly against her chest.

Those four simple words came alive in her eyes, stroke by stroke transforming into Ming Zhu’s stunning face, gazing at her affectionately, asking in the gentlest tone, “Feeling better?”

Her phone slowly warmed up. As if burned, she switched it from her left hand to her right, then back to her left, repeating several times.

“What are you doing?” Xiao Ye, done arranging the containers, looked up and saw her odd behavior.

Yu Jing snapped back to reality, gripped the phone tightly with her right hand, touched her scalding ear hidden under her hair with her left, turned away from Xiao Ye, calmed her racing heart, and slowly typed.

Yu Jing: “Yeah.”

Crying didn’t solve problems, but Yu Jing realized that after sobbing her heart out last night, she felt much better, like she came back to life.

MZ: “That’s good.”

MZ: “Eat something. It won’t taste good cold.”

The problem was, did she call this “something”??? Enough food for two people to eat all day.

Yu Jing typed quickly this time, saying, “Why did you order so much?”

MZ seemed to realize she overdid it, didn’t answer directly, and said, “You can eat more.”

Yu Jing pouted and said, “My manager keeps telling me to lose weight.”

The chat showed “typing” for a while, but no message came.

Was Ming Zhu also unsure what to say?

They couldn’t see each other through the screen, but waiting like this felt awkward. Yu Jing lost patience, closed the chat, and sat on the sofa.

Xiao Ye gave her a strange look, opened and closed her mouth, hesitating to speak.

Yu Jing flipped her phone face-down on the table, met Xiao Ye’s gaze, touched her face instinctively, and asked, “Is my face not clean?”

Xiao Ye shook her head, held a food container half-open, her dark eyes darting quickly, and said, “Jingjing, does Sister Ming Zhu have a thing for you?”

“…” Yu Jing thought, “Finally, you’re catching on,” took the container from Xiao Ye, opened it for her, handed her disposable chopsticks, saw her still staring expectantly, felt a bit helpless, cleared her throat, and said calmly, “Last night, she confessed to me.”

“What??!!!” Xiao Ye screamed and jumped up.

Yu Jing, quick-handed, steadied a container Xiao Ye nearly knocked over, pulled her down, stuffed a bun in her mouth, rolled her eyes, and said, “She didn’t confess to you. Why are you so excited?”

Xiao Ye plopped beside her, swallowed the bun whole, and asked eagerly, “Did you say yes?”

Yu Jing froze at the question, pursed her lips, looked down at the steaming bun in the container, picked one up, took a bite, and said softly, “I haven’t thought about it.”

Xiao Ye’s eyes sparkled, ready to dig deeper.

“Ding-dong—”

The phone on the table chimed again. Yu Jing grabbed it casually.

After a few minutes, Ming Zhu finally replied.

Yu Jing, avoiding the suddenly energized Xiao Ye, opened the message, read it, and her face flushed red.

MZ: “Your waist is so slim I could hold it with one hand. Don’t lose weight.”

Before Yu Jing could decide if that was flirting, Ming Zhu sent another message.

MZ: “How long do you need to think? Three days enough?”