Why Did the Top Alpha Suddenly Stop Acting Out? - Chapter 3

The car fell into silence once more. Ye Shuyi gazed at the snowflakes drifting outside the window, when suddenly, the face of that girl from the bar flashed through her mind.

That girl and Yi Qian.

Truth be told, even before the blond man had grabbed her, she had already noticed the tussle between Yi Qian and the girl in the booth. At first, Yi Qian had seemed impatient, but after the girl said something to her, her expression instantly brightened with delight proof enough that their relationship was anything but ordinary.

It was just like back then, when Yi Qian would be angry and no one could calm her down except for Ye Shuyi. The moment she spoke, Yi Qian’s expression would soften immediately.

Ye Shuyi exhaled quietly, the falling snow outside reflecting in her eyes, masking some of her emotions. She deliberately sidestepped the question and countered, “And what identity is Miss Yi using to ask about my relationship with someone else?”

“Business partner? Old classmate?”

“If it’s the former, I don’t think I’m obligated to answer. If it’s the latter, I can still choose not to.”

Yi Qian propped an elbow against the car window, tilting her head to study Ye Shuyi with a deliberately careless smirk. “Then… how about the identity of an ex-lover?”

Ye Shuyi froze for a split second before quickly recovering. She turned to meet Yi Qian’s gaze, her eyes curving like a fox luring its prey, her voice laced with a hint of allure. “Oh? Does Miss Yi still have lingering feelings for me? If that’s the case, I might consider telling you.”

Yi Qian was momentarily captivated, but the words snapped her back to reality. Flustered, she averted her gaze and straightened up, her arm slipping from the window and nearly causing her to bump her head against the glass. Like a snake caught by its weak spot, she stiffened instantly, pretending to be composed as she stared at the falling snow outside. “Don’t flatter yourself. Since you’ve entered the world of talent management, I assume you keep up with entertainment news.”

“Of course I do,” Ye Shuyi replied, her expression half-amused, half-serious. “Miss Yi’s romantic scandals are practically a daily headline hard to miss. I suppose it really was just me overthinking things. I thought they were all for my benefit.”

Ye Shuyi turned away, the smile vanishing from her face as she issued a dismissal. “You have an early schedule tomorrow. You should go home and rest.”

Yi Qian wasn’t sure how she ended up stepping out of Ye Shuyi’s car. By the time she regained her senses, she was already sitting on her couch with an open bottle of red wine in front of her, absentmindedly swirling the glass in her hand. Ye Shuyi’s words still echoed in her mind:

“I thought you were doing it all for me.”

At first, she had wondered if Ye Shuyi had figured something out, but judging by her reaction afterward, it must have just been a joke.

Making jokes was one thing, but acting so eager to go home and see that “Song what’s-his-name” was downright infuriating.

Irritated, Yi Qian downed the wine in one gulp and muttered to herself, “So she came back just to flaunt her relationship in my face?”

She poured herself another glass and was about to drink it when her phone on the table dinged with a new message. She immediately set the glass aside and grabbed her phone, only to see it was a text from Fang Xin.

Fang Xin: So? Are you two together now?

Yi Qian typed rapidly on her keyboard: 【Not together. There’s a wild woman at her place.】

Fang Xin:

【……】

【Don’t forget, to her, you’re also a wild woman now.】

【So what exactly happened?】

Too lazy to type, Yi Qian simply called instead. The other end picked up quickly.

She gave Fang Xin a concise rundown of what had happened after leaving the bar.

After listening, Fang Xin fell silent for a moment, as if trying to process her emotions, but ultimately exclaimed in disbelief, “So not only did you fall asleep on the way to her place, but you also asked her to take you home right at her doorstep?”

“Good grief, you just handed over a golden opportunity on a silver platter.”

Hearing Fang Xin compare Ye Shuyi to a piece of meat, Yi Qian lowered her voice in warning, “Just a reminder using fewer metaphors isn’t illegal.”

Fang Xin: “……Fine, a golden beauty then. Happy?”

Yi Qian swirled the wine glass on the table. “What else was I supposed to do? Stand there like Edison’s first lightbulb?”

As for falling asleep in the car that wasn’t entirely her fault. She’d always had poor sleep quality, and lately, work had been nonstop, leaving her barely any time to rest. Today was supposed to be her day off, a chance to finally relax, but then Ye Shuyi had appeared out of nowhere, instantly jolting her brain cells awake and banishing all drowsiness.

Yet somehow, in the car, she had slept incredibly well.

Or rather, she always slept well whenever Ye Shuyi was around.

Fang Xin massaged her temples. “My dear, did Ye Shuyi explicitly introduce that woman as her girlfriend?”

Yi Qian frowned. “No.”

“Then,” Fang Xin sighed, “how do you know they aren’t just like us?”

As if the alcohol had addled her brain, Yi Qian blurted out without thinking, “What’s ‘like us’ supposed to mean?”

On the other end, Fang Xin clenched her fists and took a deep breath. Patience is a virtue, she reminded herself before snapping, “How did I end up with such a hopeless childhood friend?”

Yi Qian fell silent for a moment, then leaned back against the couch, staring blankly at the ceiling. Her voice was eerily calm. “But she didn’t have childhood friends. Before meeting me, she didn’t even have a single friend. She was always alone.”

Fang Xin: “That might’ve been true before, but don’t forget you two broke up three years ago. Anything could’ve happened since then. People change.”

The conversation lulled into silence. Yi Qian turned her head toward the snow drifting outside the window. She remembered clearly the night she first met Ye Shuyi, snow had been falling just like this. That night’s snow had intertwined their fates, two parallel lines suddenly colliding. But tonight’s snow was it a continuation of their past, or the beginning of a new divide?

After hanging up, Yi Qian gathered her things and went to wash up. By the time she finished, it was past midnight. The snow outside had stopped at some point, leaving only remnants clinging to the tree branches, swaying in the wind.

She had just settled into bed when her phone on the nightstand buzzed urgently.

Glancing at the caller ID, she answered. Before she could speak, Manager Zhang’s wailing voice came through: “Oh, you little troublemaker, what kind of mess have you stirred up this time? The internet’s exploding because of you again!”

Yi Qian initially wanted to ask what was going on, but then the scene from the bar flashed through her mind. She suddenly realized something and anxiously asked, “So Ye Shuyi resigned?”

“Resigned? Why would she resign?” Manager Zhang sounded confused. “Miss Ye just called to tell me you shouldn’t respond to the situation on your own, she’ll handle it.”

“Listen, kid, since you agreed to have her as your manager, you better behave. Don’t make her clean up your mess on her first day!”

Before he could finish, Yi Qian cut in, “You should get some rest, old man. I’m hanging up now.”

She opened Weibo and saw the hashtag #ScumbagAlphaYiQianBeatsUpManForPrettyOmega trending at the top of the list.

Clicking on it, the pinned post was a video of her punching the blond guy in the bar. The video, posted an hour and a half ago, had already surpassed a hundred million views.

[This time, the scumbag alpha threw the first punch. No excuses for her brain-dead fans now. ]

[This video’s edited to hell.  Let’s wait for the full story.]

[But she called her “wife”!!! (Don’t mind me! Shipping everything just doubles my happiness!)]

[Anyone who’s followed Yi Qian’s romantic scandals knows she calls every pretty face “baby.”]

[The girl who pulled Yi Qian away is GORGEOUS!! My patience lasts three seconds, I need her info NOW!!]

Seeing that none of the comments targeted Ye Shuyi, Yi Qian sighed in relief. She rewatched the video, focusing on the blond guy, and frowned.

She’d crossed paths with him at the bar before a spoiled rich kid obsessed with his reputation, constantly hitting on omega women. Fang Xin had once turned him down, only for him to spread rumors that she was desperately chasing him.

Given his temper, he wouldn’t let this go easily.

Rubbing her temples, she decided to clean up her own mess and called her father.

The next morning, Yi Qian was jolted awake by her phone. Seeing Manager Zhang’s name, her mind immediately jumped to the idea of her manager resigning. Her grogginess vanished as she answered, “What is it?”

Manager Zhang’s voice was thick with sleep. “Kid, Miss Ye—” He let out a long yawn.

Yi Qian held her breath. After a few seconds, she gritted her teeth. “Spit it out already.”

Startled by her tone, he swallowed the rest of his yawn. “Miss Ye said you weren’t answering her calls, so she asked me to tell you to get up. You have costume fittings for Secret Crush at 8 a.m. Don’t be late.”

Yi Qian checked her call log and coldly replied, “When did she even call me?”

“I don’t know, that’s what she told me,” Manager Zhang said earnestly. “I said, little ancestor, you can’t be this willful. You need to get along with people properly.”

Yi Qian: “……”

Clearly, Ye Shuyi had no intention of getting along properly.

She had just checked her call log, aside from the two missed calls yesterday, Ye Shuyi hadn’t called her at all. How could it be that she wasn’t answering her calls?

Including last night, this person had already had Manager Zhang relay messages twice.

So that’s how she wants to play.

Ψ

She let out a cold laugh and said, “I got it. That’s all. Hanging up now.”

She ended the call, opened her contacts, and set her phone to only accept calls from Ye Shuyi. Then she put her phone down and burrowed back under the covers to sleep.

She had been sleeping very little these past few days, but she didn’t fall asleep again. Every now and then, she picked up her phone to check the time, watching as the minutes ticked by. Manager Zhang called a few more times, but the system automatically rejected the calls. He also tried several voice calls on WeChat, but she ignored them, letting the ringtones play out until they stopped on their own.

Around 8 o’clock, that familiar ringtone finally sounded again. Yi Qian cleared her throat and answered, “Hello.”

It was already 8, but Ye Shuyi’s voice was unusually calm. “Where are you?”

Yi Qian kept it brief. “At home.”

Ye Shuyi was silent for a moment before replying coolly, “Is this how you usually treat your work? Coming and going as you please, showing up late or not at all whenever you feel like it?”

Yi Qian wanted to say of course not despite the constant gossip about her, she had never been careless about her work. But under the circumstances, explaining would be pointless, and this was exactly the reaction she wanted.

She replied nonchalantly, “You could say that. Mainly, I just realized my car broke down, and I can’t get a taxi here. I was going to call and let you know, but someone wasn’t answering my calls, and I’m not in the habit of having others relay messages for me, so I just let it go.”

All this was just payback for Ye Shuyi’s earlier behavior. Ye Shuyi sighed silently. “Yi Qian, are you a child? Gambling with your career like this can you not be so childish?”

Yi Qian raised an eyebrow, adopting the tone of a spoiled rich kid. “You know my family situation well. This career means little to me.”

Silence fell on the other end. Time stretched on, and Yi Qian’s heartbeat quickened involuntarily. She glanced at her screen the call was still connected…

After what felt like forever, the other side finally spoke. “So, are you coming or not?”

Yi Qian exhaled quietly. “Of course I want to go, but my car’s broken down, and I can’t get a taxi.”

The unspoken message: If you come pick me up, I’ll go.