The Alpha’s Hidden Marriage, Public Obsession (GL) - Chapter 9

By the time Lin Yulan returned to the Lin household, it was already quite late. She had originally planned to wait until the next day, when Ming Zelan was more relaxed, to tell her about Jiang Xue already being involved with another Alpha.

To her surprise, Ming Zelan hadn’t gone to bed early at all. Instead, she was still awake, sitting with her husband and complaining loudly about their daughter.

“Darling, you have no idea how much your daughter drove me crazy today. I told her to marry Xiaoxue, and she gave me conditions. She even said I’m not allowed to plan a wedding ceremony. Can you believe that? She’s clearly trying to make me explode.”

Ming Zelan grew more agitated the more she spoke.

“I finally managed to convince Xiaoxue to marry into our family. Do you know how much effort that took? And now your precious daughter does this. How am I supposed to look Xiaoxue in the eye from now on? Who gets married without a wedding? How will the rest of the family treat Xiaoxue? They’ll tear her apart. I don’t care what it takes. This is your fault for spoiling her. If you don’t make her take back what she said, don’t even think about sleeping in our bedroom. You can sleep in the garage.”

Lin He rubbed his temples and mumbled under his breath, “How is this just my fault? It’s not like you didn’t spoil her too. Why am I the only one getting blamed for this?”

“What did you just say?” Ming Zelan turned and glared at him. “Go ahead and say that again, louder this time.”

They only had one daughter, Lin Yulan. It wasn’t that they hadn’t wanted more children, but Ming Zelan had experienced severe complications giving birth to Lin Yulan and nearly died. After that, they never tried again.

Naturally, Lin Yulan became the center of their world. They cherished her like a fragile treasure, always careful not to hurt or upset her. They had barely ever scolded her, let alone raised a hand to discipline her.

“Calm down, sweetheart,” Lin He said gently. “Omega bodies age faster when they’re stressed. If Ah-Yu doesn’t want to marry her, then let her be. She’s always liked that Omega named Qu Mengxin. You’re the one forcing her to marry someone else. Of course she’s going to resist.”

The moment Qu Mengxin’s name came up, Ming Zelan’s temper flared again. She had never opposed Lin Yulan’s feelings for Qu Mengxin. In fact, she had even liked that Omega at first. She had secretly encouraged the relationship, trying to show that she wasn’t the kind of person who looked down on others. She never cared about matching family backgrounds. As long as someone genuinely cared for her troublesome daughter, she would have no complaints.

But in the end, it was obvious Qu Mengxin didn’t care about Lin Yulan.

Leaving the country without saying a word was one thing. But allowing her own parents to speak harshly to Lin Yulan? That was something Ming Zelan couldn’t accept. She and her husband had never spoken a single harsh word to their daughter. They wouldn’t even raise their voices at her.

There were so many wealthy Omega families lined up, hoping to marry into the Lin family. They hadn’t even gotten a chance, and yet Qu Mengxin’s family had the nerve to look down on them?

Ming Zelan would never be able to swallow that insult.

“Don’t bring up that Omega again,” she snapped. “Didn’t you see how clearly she rejected our daughter? My daughter can chase after someone she loves, but she’s not going to throw herself at someone who doesn’t want her.”

Lin He didn’t know what to say. He genuinely hoped Lin Yulan would find happiness. That’s why he never pressured her into any kind of arranged marriage. All those so-called family alliances meant nothing to him. But his wife was right too. No matter what kind of trouble Lin Yulan caused, she was still their precious daughter. They couldn’t let anyone mistreat her.

If Lin Yulan really ended up marrying Qu Mengxin, she would probably be the one suffering in that relationship.

Just as he was about to say something, his gaze lifted slightly and landed on their daughter, who was sneaking in from the front door and tiptoeing toward the stairs.

Lin He froze.

Lin Yulan froze too.

Ming Zelan noticed his gaze and turned her head. Her expression darkened immediately.

“Mom… Dad… What a coincidence. I didn’t know you were both still up. I won’t disturb your meaningful conversation. I’m heading upstairs to sleep now.”

Before Ming Zelan could get up, Lin Yulan darted up the stairs, shut her bedroom door, and locked it behind her.

Only after confirming her mother wouldn’t come knocking did Lin Yulan finally let out a breath of relief. She flopped onto the bed like a lazy cat and stared up at the ceiling. Now even Lin He was starting to side with that manipulative Omega, Jiang Xue. It felt like everyone was turning against her.

Lin Yulan just couldn’t understand. What was so great about an Omega like Jiang Xue, who was full of schemes?

The more she thought about it, the angrier she got. But with no one nearby to vent to, simply ranting in her mind wasn’t enough. She sat up and called Xia Ran.

“Hello, darling. It’s me.”

Xia Ran nearly got goosebumps from head to toe. She cringed and replied in disgust, “Miss Lin, can you act normal for once? You’re a woman with a fiancée now. If your fiancée hears you talking like this, even if I’m innocent, people will think I’m stealing someone’s future spouse.”

“I don’t have a fiancée,” Lin Yulan snapped. “I’ve never admitted to marrying her. I’ve said it so many times already. Why do you keep bringing her up?”

Xia Ran sighed. “Whether you admit it or not, the truth is you’re still going to marry her. Unless…”

“Unless what?”

“Unless you can find Qu Mengxin. But you know that’s impossible. It’s been so long. If she really cared, she would’ve contacted you by now.”

Lin Yulan lowered her eyes and didn’t respond. She pushed her fingers through her hair, brushing it back before yanking at it in frustration. She was too angry to sit still. She grabbed a pillow and imagined it was Jiang Xue, that scheming Omega, then started punching it over and over again like it was a human-sized plush version of her enemy.

From the other end of the phone, Xia Ran heard a constant thumping noise and frowned in confusion. She couldn’t even begin to guess what Lin Yulan was doing.

But she was extremely curious.

When the thumping finally stopped, Xia Ran couldn’t hold back any longer.

“Miss Lin, what is that sound on your end? It sounded really strange. You’re not doing anything inappropriate on the phone, are you?”

“What are you thinking?”

“Then what’s making that noise?”

“I’m beating someone up,” Lin Yulan said.

“Beating someone up? What are you even talking about?”

Xia Ran was completely confused. Since when did beating someone sound like that?

Sensing her confusion, Lin Yulan added, “Next time, I’m going to have someone take a full-face photo of that woman. Then I’ll order a custom plush of her online. When she makes me mad again, I’ll punch her in the face anytime I want.”

A long string of imaginary punctuation marks floated over Xia Ran’s head. From a certain perspective, the fact that Lin Yulan came up with this kind of way to vent her frustration really did make her… somewhat of a genius.

“Why aren’t you saying anything? Are you secretly laughing at me under the covers?”

If she hadn’t mentioned it, Xia Ran might have held it in. But once she did, Xia Ran burst out laughing. She didn’t even try to hide how much she was mocking her, and was just one step away from saying, “Wow, you’re really something.”

Lin Yulan didn’t want to be like this either. But aside from expressing her anger in this ridiculous way, she had no better option.

It wasn’t like she could actually hit Jiang Xue. She was an Alpha. No matter how much she disliked Jiang Xue, it would never be acceptable for her to lay a hand on an Omega.

“Is it really that funny?”

Xia Ran finally stopped laughing. She wiped away the tears that had come out from laughing too hard and said with exaggerated sympathy, “I feel bad for you… for like one second.”

Lin Yulan went quiet. That’s even worse than not feeling bad at all.

“So, when are you two getting married?”

Lin Yulan had always been blunt with Xia Ran, so she answered honestly.

“My mom wants us to register the marriage sometime this week.”

“And what about the wedding? If you’re registering so soon, when does she plan to hold the ceremony?”

“There won’t be a wedding,” Lin Yulan replied coldly.

Xia Ran was surprised.

“No wedding? Was that your mom’s decision?”

That couldn’t be right.

It definitely didn’t sound like something Ming Zelan would agree to. From everything Xia Ran knew, Ming Zelan clearly liked Jiang Xue. Even though the two families weren’t evenly matched, she had gone against everyone’s objections to push for this marriage. That alone showed how satisfied she was with her future daughter-in-law.

So if it wasn’t Ming Zelan’s decision, then it could only mean…

“You’re the one who told your mom there wouldn’t be a wedding?”

Lin Yulan didn’t respond, which was as good as an admission.

Xia Ran didn’t know what to say. She didn’t have a good impression of Jiang Xue and found her calculating, although that could have been due to not knowing her well. Still, as an Omega, this might be the only wedding Jiang Xue would ever have. And she wasn’t marrying into just any family. Without a proper wedding, she would have no standing in the Lin household. No one there would take her seriously.

In other words, Jiang Xue’s life after marriage would be even harder than it already was.

“Ah-Yu, do you realize what you’re doing?”

Lin Yulan suddenly felt annoyed, and her voice turned sharp.

“I know.”

“Then why are you still doing it?” Xia Ran asked. “Are you trying to drive her to the edge?”

She didn’t know Jiang Xue well. They rarely interacted in school. But any Omega who relied on scholarships to survive, who had to constantly restrain herself and could never afford to do what she wanted, clearly didn’t come from a privileged background.

Children like that often carried emotional scars from their upbringing. Their mental health could be fragile. If pushed too far, there was a real chance they could make a drastic, irreversible decision.

Seeing that even Xia Ran was now defending Jiang Xue, Lin Yulan felt even more wronged. She couldn’t hold back and suddenly shouted.

“You all think I’m the one pushing her. But has anyone stopped to ask if I even want to marry her? She’s the one who insisted on marrying into this family. Why is everyone acting like I’m the villain here?”