The True Record of a Flirty Omega's Failed Balancing Act - Chapter 4

Chapter 4

◎ I love you, you will always be the happiest child ◎

Xu Guiyi was woken up by Ning Chanyue’s arm pressing down on her.

After last night, Xu Guiyi gave Ning Chanyue a bath and then they fell asleep together on the not-so-spacious sofa. When Xu Guiyi opened her eyes again, she saw that both of Ning Chanyue’s arms were tightly wrapped around her, as if she was afraid that if she let go, Xu Guiyi would disappear again.

Then, Xu Guiyi smelled the pheromones coming from an unknown source. The sandalwood scent was mixed with a jasmine scent, a rare and strangely harmonious blend.

The absurd memories of last night rushed back like a tide. Xu Guiyi frowned and reached out to touch the back of Ning Chanyue’s neck to confirm. But as soon as her fingers touched the scent gland, she heard Ning Chanyue’s soft hum and she leaned into her arms, tightening her grip, as if she wanted to embed herself completely in Xu Guiyi’s embrace, making it a little hard for Xu Guiyi to breathe.

Of course, this angle also allowed Xu Guiyi to see the scent gland on the back of Ning Chanyue’s neck more clearly.

There was a row of teeth marks on the slightly swollen scent gland. Xu Guiyi’s heart sank.

Perhaps it was due to her moment of distraction, or perhaps it was due to the intimacy of their pheromones after being separated for so long.

But undeniably, she had marked her.

Xu Guiyi looked up again, and Ning Chanyue’s innocent face in her sleep came into view. A ray of early morning sunlight shone through the curtains, falling perfectly on Ning Chanyue’s cheek.

It made her already beautiful face even more gentle and moving, like a fresh, pure jasmine flower.

Yes, it wasn’t just the pheromones. From the first time Xu Guiyi saw Ning Chanyue, she felt that Ning Chanyue was like a jasmine flower. Even just standing there, Ning Chanyue gave Xu Guiyi a sense of inexplicable peace.

As for why she felt at peace, Xu Guiyi knew the reason all too well.

Thinking of this, she suddenly sighed and abruptly moved her gaze away from Ning Chanyue.

Because fate was playing tricks on them, because… of that damned 98% pheromone compatibility.

She still remembered the joy she and Ning Chanyue felt when they first found out about this result in the hospital, believing that they were destined to be together.

But what about now? Xu Guiyi gave a self-deprecating smile. Now it seemed that such a high compatibility was more like a cage that bound them both. It made Ning Chanyue, even after she had found her own happiness, still subconsciously crave her mark in moments of confusion. It made herself, even when she was unwilling, subconsciously fall for Ning Chanyue’s pleading eyes after not being with an omega for so long.

Or maybe… their love for each other from the beginning wasn’t because their souls connected, but simply because of a genetic and animalistic drive.

“Ring ring ring….”

A noisy alarm clock interrupted Xu Guiyi’s thoughts, reminding her that her busy and tiring day was about to begin. When she turned off the alarm, she also heard Ning Chanyue’s gentle moan as she started to wake up.

Ning Chanyue tried to open her eyes. After rubbing her half-closed eyelids, she saw Xu Guiyi, whom she was hugging, and her eyes suddenly lit up. The corners of her mouth curved into a smile. She squeezed into Xu Guiyi’s arms again, as if she were hanging on her, and then a kiss without desire landed on the corner of Xu Guiyi’s lips.

Why was she so clingy, like a little puppy?

“Just sleep a little longer. Last night… was so tiring.” Ning Chanyue’s voice was hoarse, either from just waking up or from the intensity of the night before.

Xu Guiyi, however, slightly pushed Ning Chanyue away. “I have to take my sister to the center, I can’t be late.”

“Center?”

Ning Chanyue subconsciously thought it was some kind of extracurricular training center. But her sister seemed to be of kindergarten age, and Xu Guiyi didn’t seem like the type to force her sister. Besides, her sister had been sick recently.

Then she heard Xu Guiyi say—

“Yes, the rehabilitation center on Heping Road.”

The smile on Ning Chanyue’s face froze. “Yufu Rehabilitation Center?”

When Xu Guiyi nodded, Ning Chanyue’s mood, which had been floating on clouds since she first opened her eyes and saw Xu Guiyi, instantly sank.

When she was a student at the Nancheng Academy of Fine Arts, she had heard of this center’s reputation. This center specialized in treating congenital diseases in children, with a particular focus on cerebral palsy. Many well-off people in the country would send their children with cerebral palsy to this center for rehabilitation. Could Xu Guiyi’s sister also have…

So she couldn’t help but confirm, “What’s wrong with your sister?”

“Cerebral palsy,” Xu Guiyi confirmed Ning Chanyue’s guess without any emotion. After saying that, she didn’t give Ning Chanyue any time to react. She patted Ning Chanyue’s wrist, signaling her to remove her hands from her body. “I need to take Pei’an to wash up, or we’ll be late.”

But when Xu Guiyi got up, Ning Chanyue grabbed the corner of her shirt again. “I’ll take your sister. I’m free this morning, you can rest at home.”

“How will you go?”

“I’ll get a taxi. I’ll take good care of your sister.”

After all, she was staying at Xu Guiyi’s place and had been so persistent last night… Ning Chanyue wanted to make a good impression.

So before Xu Guiyi could speak, Ning Chanyue jumped off the sofa, put on the heels she had worn yesterday, and prepared to wash up so as not to waste her sister’s time.

“No need. An’an gets very carsick and is only used to my electric bike. Plus, after I drop off my sister, I have to ride the bike to my tutoring job and class. It’s not really possible for you to take her on the electric bike. And you’re a big star now, it’s not convenient for you to go out.”

Xu Guiyi rejected her without a second thought.

Ning Chanyue was clearly a little disappointed at not being needed by Xu Guiyi. She lowered her eyelids and reluctantly let go of the corner of her shirt.

But just as Xu Guiyi was about to open the bedroom door, Ning Chanyue suddenly called out to her again. “Hey, Guiyi, I’ll make you dinner tonight. My cooking skills have improved a lot over the years.”

Xu Guiyi’s hand on the bedroom door paused.

What she really needed right now was for Ning Chanyue to leave.

But she didn’t say it out loud, because she knew that the law stipulated that to protect omegas during a temporary mark, an alpha couldn’t just kick them out and had to show them a certain degree of care, otherwise they would face the appropriate punishment.

Although this temporary omega of hers was quite special, both to the public and to her.

But in the end, she nodded and agreed to Ning Chanyue’s request.

……

The campus of Nancheng Medical University was famous for its beauty in the country. The clock tower in the center of the campus was covered in ivy, which looked like a green waterfall from a distance. The water lilies in the lotus pond next to it stretched out their petals, and the branches of the camphor trees rustled in the evening breeze. The setting sun shone through the leaves, casting a golden light on the stone paths. Not only did the students like to stroll on the campus after dinner, but the local residents did as well.

Just like now, a bright moon hung over the treetops. On the lawn below, groups of people were chatting, and a few puppies were chasing and playing.

And of course, there were Xu Guiyi, Cheng Yuxin, and Xu Pei’an, who was lying on the lawn next to them, staring blankly at the stars.

“I haven’t seen An’an in a while. How is her condition now?”

Cheng Yuxin didn’t mind the dirt. She sat down and leaned against a tree, touching Xu Pei’an’s head as she asked Xu Guiyi.

“The doctor said her illness might be quite serious. It would be a great success if she could recover enough to take care of herself and be literate. As for anything else… I don’t dare to hope.”

Xu Guiyi didn’t mind saying these things in front of her sister, because her sister could only understand some simple commands and words. Such complex sentences probably sounded no different to her than the barking of the puppies next to them.

Cheng Yuxin looked at Xu Guiyi, then at Xu Pei’an. She playfully waved her hand in front of Xu Pei’an’s eyes, but Xu Pei’an’s thoughts were somewhere else. She didn’t react at all, not even blinking.

Cheng Yuxin said with admiration, “I really admire you. You’ve been running around with your sister for the past four or five years, and you have to make money and study. I think I would have had a breakdown.”

Xu Guiyi was silent for a moment. She just smiled and rubbed her sister’s chubby cheek. Her eyes were softer than the ripples in the lake. After playing with her sister, she said, “As long as she can grow up safely, that’s enough.”

This wish was not difficult to achieve, but in fact, Xu Guiyi didn’t think this way at first.

At that time, she planned to abandon her sister and let her fend for herself.

She still remembered the car accident five years ago. She was not yet out of danger, with multiple fractures. Her body was full of tubes. Every movement caused excruciating pain. She was like a living corpse that could only breathe.

Faced with the deaths of her parents, high medical bills, her girlfriend Ning Chanyue cheating and getting married, and a baby sister with cerebral palsy due to a difficult birth and lack of oxygen, there were a few moments when she really wanted to pull out all the tubes from her body and fall from the window like a piece of trash.

Wouldn’t that save her from the pain of facing such devastation? Wouldn’t she be able to reunite with her parents?

So when the nurse first held her sister for her to see, her first reaction wasn’t love. Instead, she thought the baby was a little ugly. After all, her sister, who was less than a month old at the time, looked like a little monkey, with pinkish-yellow skin wrinkled all over.

But the nurse would occasionally bring the baby over for Xu Guiyi to hold. Perhaps after spending so much time with her, she one day looked at her and inexplicably felt that the baby’s eyes looked a little like her mother’s.

She continued to play with her sister, but one day, she turned her head and noticed the magnificent but gentle sunset outside the window in her peripheral vision. She suddenly wondered, would her mother be watching her from heaven?

Yes, her mother had also suffered a lot while pregnant with her sister. If she knew that she had recklessly abandoned her sister, would she be disappointed in her?

That night, the night before she was discharged from the hospital, she lay in bed for a long time.

Just before being discharged, she finally took the baby from the nurse’s arms, wiped the drool from her sister’s mouth, and promised the nurse that she would raise this child well.

After that, as an older sister, she took on more and more of the responsibilities of a mother, and without realizing it, she raised Xu Pei’an to where she was now.

Just like now, she once again wiped the drool from her sister’s mouth caused by facial twitching and said to Cheng Yuxin, “I used to think that I was definitely the happiest child in all of Nancheng. But in the past few years, I realized that my life was just a twist of fate. So now, I just want to do my best to make my sister the happiest child in all of Nancheng.”

After Xu Guiyi finished speaking, the phone in her pocket vibrated twice.

She threw the tissue she used to wipe her sister’s mouth into the trash can and opened her phone.

It was Ning Chanyue.

lemoon: But I already made dinner [sad]

Xu Guiyi didn’t reply and turned off her phone screen.

“Who is it?” Cheng Yuxin, who was standing by, leaned in gossipily before Xu Guiyi could turn off the screen. “Oh, someone is waiting for you to go home for dinner? A girlfriend?”

Cheng Yuxin’s tone was teasing. She blinked curiously, ready to hear Xu Guiyi’s love story.

“Don’t get too close to me,” Xu Guiyi half-jokingly pushed Cheng Yuxin away and added, “It’s not a girlfriend, just a high school classmate who’s staying with me temporarily.”

“Oh, a high school classmate—”

Cheng Yuxin’s voice drew out, clearly not believing that the usually reclusive Xu Guiyi would let someone stay at her house. After all, even though their friendship was so deep, when she had missed the dorm curfew once and wanted to stay at Xu Guiyi’s place for the night, Xu Guiyi had flatly refused her.

Xu Guiyi nodded. She was a little glad that Cheng Yuxin was a beta and couldn’t smell the slightly different pheromones on her body, which allowed her to get away with the lie so easily.

“Since you have a guest at your place, do you want to go back early? Your bike should be fixed by now.”

Yes, the reason Xu Guiyi was still at school so late was that her bike had broken down.

This afternoon, she had picked up her sister from the center and brought her to school. Cheng Yuxin played with her sister while she went to class. But after class, when she wanted to ride the bike home with her sister, she found that the handlebars wouldn’t turn. She had no choice but to push it to a repair shop outside the school. Fearing that her sister would be hungry, she accepted Cheng Yuxin’s invitation to eat dinner with her at the cafeteria.

It was almost six o’clock then. As soon as she started eating the rice noodles from the cafeteria, she sent a message to Ning Chanyue, telling her not to make dinner anymore.

Although it seemed like it was a little late now.

Xu Guiyi looked at her sister, who was yawning, and said to Cheng Yuxin, “Let’s go back now. You can get back to the dorm early to rest. I’ll go check if the bike is fixed.”

Xu Guiyi said goodbye to Cheng Yuxin, but as soon as she picked up her sister and walked two steps, Cheng Yuxin, who was supposed to be walking back to the dorm building, turned around and skipped to her. She scratched her head, laughed, and said, “I want to eat the fried chicken strips from the school gate. Let’s go together.”

But going there would cost Cheng Yuxin another hour of rest.

……

“Girl, I was halfway through fixing your bike and I found that we don’t have a part here. I’m afraid it won’t be ready today. I’m really sorry. I’ll go get the parts first thing tomorrow morning and fix it for you. This one’s on me, I won’t charge you a single cent!”

The old lady from the repair shop saw Xu Guiyi coming for her bike. She chuckled and said this long string of words with an accent.

“But I need to use it tonight. I can’t get home without it.”

Xu Guiyi looked at her bike, which had been disassembled into two halves, and frowned unhappily.

“Take the bus, or have your friend send you?”

The old lady pointed at Cheng Yuxin, who was standing next to Xu Guiyi.

“Me?”

Cheng Yuxin also pointed at herself.

But she looked around and found that both the old lady and Xu Guiyi were looking at her.

Since she had nothing to do tonight anyway, Cheng Yuxin nodded. “Alright.”

But when the electric bike arrived at Xu Guiyi’s building, Cheng Yuxin looked up and saw a gaze from Xu Guiyi’s balcony, a gaze that was as steady as a nail staring at her. She regretted her decision a little.

This burning gaze made her feel uncomfortable, but why did she feel… that the person on the balcony looked a little familiar.

“Is that the high school classmate you were talking about?” Cheng Yuxin pointed to the balcony and asked.

Xu Guiyi nodded in affirmation. But as Xu Guiyi walked with her sister toward the building, Cheng Yuxin seemed to have a sudden realization. She looked up again, wanting to find that person, but found that the person had already disappeared from the balcony.