Change

“Hello, Miss Li. I’m here for a fitting.”

The screen by the door lit up, and a sweet, childlike voice answered in annoyance. “What’s Sister Liu doing? I’m going out this afternoon. If you come for a fitting now, what am I supposed to do if it delays me?”

“Sorry about that. Then I’ll come another day?”

The voice said unhappily, “Forget it. Since you’re already here, I might as well change first and go out to pick up my bag.”

Li Leran walked to the door and checked the surveillance feed on the screen. The person outside seemed to notice she was watching, so they pulled down their mask and revealed half their face.

Li Leran had expected someone else. Confused, she asked, “Where’s Xiao Zhao?”

“She’s sick and took leave today. I only started work recently,” the person outside said politely. “Sister Liu said Miss Li has a very slender figure, and it’s hard to find someone with your exact measurements on short notice, so she asked me to come and try.”

Li Leran was pleased by the compliment about her figure, and she no longer bothered to ask questions. “Mm-hm, come in.”

With a ding, the lock opened.

After Li Leran opened the door, she turned and walked back inside. “I’m telling you, I have more than twenty pieces this time. You’ll have to—”

As she spoke, she looked back and twisted around, and from the corner of her eye, she suddenly caught sight of another silhouette. “Why is there someone else?”

Xu Yaqing slipped in behind Wei Yin like a fish, quickly squeezing through the door and shutting it behind her. She flashed a big, fake smile. “Hi.”

Li Leran’s already oversized eyes widened even further. “Y-you, why are you here!”

Then she looked at Wei Yin. “And who are you?!”

Wei Yin took off the mask covering her chin and brushed her hair away from both sides.

“It’s you!” Li Leran wasn’t familiar with Wei Yin to begin with, and the surveillance angle was from above, so she couldn’t find any other words to express her shock. She kept saying “you” for a long time before blurting, “You, you two, why are you at my house!”

“We came to settle accounts with you,” Xu Yaqing said, stepping forward and forcing Li Leran back onto the sofa step by step. “You didn’t forget what you did, did you?”

“What did I do, what did I do?” Li Leran said, her momentum as flimsy as paper. She stiffened her neck and insisted, “This is a private home invasion. I order you to get out of my house right now!”

“Private home invasion? As if you’ve never done that?” Xu Yaqing laughed in fury. “That summer when you were nineteen, didn’t you break into my rented place and overfeed the tank of parrot fish I’d carefully raised until they burst?”

The panic in Li Leran’s eyes turned to terror. “How do you know that!”

“The only password I’ve ever liked and used since I was a kid was known by only one bastard, and that was you,” Xu Yaqing said, planting one knee on the sofa and shoving Li Leran’s shoulder, pressing her deep into the cushions. “You think I’m stupid?”

Li Leran still tried to stay stubborn. “You’re only suspecting me. You don’t have proof!”

Xu Yaqing kept dragging out old grievances. “When you were studying abroad, you went clubbing at night and left my phone number and personal information as your own, making me take harassment calls from overseas every day.”

Li Leran sneered at her. “Who knows who you offended and who took issue with you? You were flitting around, hooking up with anyone in sight. Maybe some omega you dumped wants revenge—”

“An omega?!” Xu Yaqing laughed outright. “You know you’re an omega too? In your first year abroad, you ate diet pills until you were hospitalized, then told Uncle and Auntie that I’d found you during your heat and nearly hurt you. You really think I’d like you? Don’t you think you’re full of shit?”

Xu Yaqing dragged every incident out into the open. If Li Leran hadn’t become more and more outrageous over the years, Xu Yaqing would never have cut off contact with her completely.

She had thought that with age, Li Leran would become more mature, that someone in her twenties couldn’t still be like some teenage delinquent. But age was just a number on Li Leran; it had changed nothing. After returning to the country, she showed no restraint at all and even dared to badmouth her and Hua Yu to their faces. If she wasn’t taught a lesson, she’d never know her place.

Every time Xu Yaqing said another thing, she pressed down hard on Li Leran’s shoulder. Li Leran’s strength naturally couldn’t compare to Xu Yaqing’s, and before long, she was scared into tears.

“Shut up!” Xu Yaqing raised her voice, showing no mercy at all. “Open your eyes and look at me properly!”

Li Leran hiccupped and fell silent, staring at Xu Yaqing.

Xu Yaqing let go of her and plopped down on the single sofa beside her. “Listen carefully to every word I’m about to say.”

Li Leran wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. She was resentful, but too afraid to argue back, so she huffed and turned her face away.

Xu Yaqing gave a cold laugh. “If you don’t listen, I’ll tell Uncle and Auntie every ugly thing you’ve done over the years. Let’s see if they don’t beat you to death!”

Li Leran: “You!!”

“Wei Yin,” Xu Yaqing said, pointing to the side, where Wei Yin was standing obediently like an invisible little quail, her eyes on her nose and her nose on her heart. “Say hello.”

Wei Yin looked up, full of question marks. What did this have to do with her?

Li Leran looked at Wei Yin unwillingly.

“Whether or not you find her familiar, from now on you’re not allowed to mention her in front of anyone, especially not in front of Yu Tiantian,” Xu Yaqing said coldly, curling her lips. Her presence was overwhelming. “And when it comes to me and Hua Yu, you’ll show the bare minimum of respect and manners in the future. I won’t say it twice.”

Li Leran didn’t dare retort, but she was truly unwilling to accept it. “I have a grudge against you; that’s one thing. But her—why should she help you lie to me!”

If the person at the door hadn’t been Wei Yin, Li Leran absolutely would never have let them in!

“She’s here, so I’m still showing you some respect,” Xu Yaqing said, not yielding in the slightest. Her tone turned even colder, her gaze more vicious, as if she had suddenly gone from a warm and friendly friend to a rival facing her across a negotiating table. “Otherwise, do you really think that with the little trouble you’ve caused, you’d still be sitting here quietly, clutching your little shame cloth and maintaining your fake persona in the circle?”

Li Leran’s eyes turned red. “You’re the fake one.”

“Say whatever you want,” Xu Yaqing said. After all, she was an alpha, and since her goal had been achieved, she couldn’t be bothered to keep sparring with her verbally. She stood up. “But remember this: this person, Wei Yin—keep your mouth shut. She and Hua Yu want nothing to do with you.”

Li Leran had tears in her eyes as she glared at them, but in the end, she said nothing else.

Xu Yaqing hadn’t told Li Leran everything she’d done over the years. She wasn’t just throwing a childish tantrum; there were far worse things Li Leran had done, bad enough to ruin her reputation. Bringing Wei Yin this time was mainly to warn Li Leran to keep her mouth shut.

Whether it was Wei Yin herself or what she might gossip about behind Yu Tiantian’s back, a former girlfriend was still a former girlfriend. Xu Yaqing didn’t want Wei Yin’s current situation making its way from Li Leran’s mouth to Yu Tiantian.

Everyone had already graduated. In the future, both Li Leran and Yu Tiantian planned to stay in Q City for the long term; the bare minimum rules had to be set. None of them were children anymore. How they should get along later, what each person’s bottom line was, and what Xu Yaqing’s attitude was—all of it had to be made clear to Li Leran in one go.

Wei Yin silently watched this one-sided “lesson” from beginning to end with very little presence, then left with Xu Yaqing.

Li Leran shouted after her from behind, “You wait!”

Wei Yin turned back to look at her. “Me?”

“You definitely know me,” Li Leran said, still with angry tears on her face, sounding both ridiculous and aggrieved. “There’s definitely some grudge between us. You helped Xu Yaqing bully me; I remember you.”

Xu Yaqing folded her arms and was just about to turn back, but Wei Yin held her back.

Though she held Xu Yaqing back, she couldn’t hold back her words. Xu Yaqing sneered, “Help me? So it’s fine for you to help Yu Tiantian do evil, but not for her to help me uphold justice?”

Li Leran had been cowed by Xu Yaqing and didn’t dare snap back at her, but the look she gave Wei Yin was clearly still unwilling.

Wei Yin had been in a very low mood the whole time. She kept spacing out and felt too tired to deal with the situation in front of her, so she said casually, “Then remember my face properly. Don’t open the door next time.”

Li Leran was furious. “You!”

Back in the car, Xu Yaqing drove while sneaking glances at Wei Yin.

Wei Yin was staring blankly at a small water stain on the car window.

She was also surprised that Wei Yin would actually help her. When she proposed the plan, she had assumed Wei Yin would refuse; even if she didn’t refuse, she’d at least hesitate. She hadn’t expected Wei Yin to agree without even thinking.

Xu Yaqing never kept things to herself, so she asked the first thing that came to mind.

Wei Yin said flatly, “Oh, nothing. I just wanted to curry favor with you.”

Xu Yaqing: “?? That’s a pretty niche way to put it.”

“No, what does that mean?” Xu Yaqing laughed. “What do I have that’s worth currying favor with?”

“Hua Yu.” Wei Yin answered briefly.

Xu Yaqing immediately jumped in. “Fine, that tracks. Let’s find a place to sit; I’ll explain it to you carefully.”

They stopped at a café. Xu Yaqing had already planned to quit her job and had plenty of free time, so she ordered Wei Yin a glass of milk and held an Americano while she drank.

Xu Yaqing explained Hua Yu’s condition to Wei Yin in detail, mainly the illness. “It’s not a big problem. Losing control during a heat is very common. For an alpha like Hua Yu, who has never had an omega’s pheromones used to soothe her, it makes her even more sensitive.”

“Why hasn’t she woken up yet?” Wei Yin rocked the cup, making foam rise in the milk, then poked at the bubbles one by one with her straw until they burst.

Xu Yaqing started ordering blueberry muffins as an add-on and got Wei Yin a serving of nuts too.

Looking perfunctory, she said, “Soon, soon.”

Wei Yin stopped moving the straw, sighed softly, and stared at the table in a daze.

“How’s the police situation?” Xu Yaqing saw that she was distracted and changed the topic, trying to ease her mind. “That very feminine omega—did she plead guilty?”

“Whether she admits it or not doesn’t matter,” Wei Yin said, lowering her head to sip her milk and licking the milk from the corner of her mouth. She looked troubled. “There’s surveillance, fingerprints on the container, and the pastry tested positive for her pheromones. Even if she hires the most famous lawyer in the red circle, it won’t help.”

“That’s not certain. After all, it wasn’t intentional. If a capable lawyer steps in—”

Wei Yin interrupted her. “The law clearly states that anything containing pheromone levels above the normal social concentration has to be disclosed in advance when it’s given to someone.”

Xu Yaqing thought for a moment. “But Hua Yu didn’t get seriously injured, after all.”

“A minor injury is enough,” Wei Yin’s voice grew smaller. “I just hope she can be detained for a few days.”

Xu Yaqing didn’t say anything else. Detention was one thing; what mattered more was leaving a criminal record. That omega was also a teacher, and after she was released, her work would definitely be affected.

It was hard to tell whether to pity her or despise her.

AO flirting; lucky for her, she was an omega, so the sentencing was generally lighter. If it had been an alpha who deliberately released pheromones to induce an omega into heat and caused bodily injury, or took the chance to mark the omega and so on, then actual prison time would have been unavoidable.

Thinking of this, Xu Yaqing snorted with laughter. “Wei Xiaoyin, I didn’t expect you to be so ruthless. You’re really making them sit in detention.”

Wei Yin glanced at her and said nothing, but the tight-lipped look on her face made it obvious she had no intention of backing down.

Xu Yaqing laughed to herself. “Fine. From now on, I really can’t go after you people with legal credentials.”

Wei Yin suddenly looked up and stared at her.

“How do you know I passed the exam for my license?”

Only then did Xu Yaqing realize she had blurted out something Hua Yu had told her.

Wei Yin narrowed her eyes. “Did Dr. Hua tell you? She woke up?”

Xu Yaqing opened her mouth: ...Let me think how to make this up.

But Wei Yin didn’t give her time to react. “She’s awake, isn’t she? Then why doesn’t she reply to my WeChat? Why doesn’t she answer my calls?”

Wei Yin was furious. Hua Yu kept ignoring her messages every so often; what kind of person did that? Did she not know other people were genuinely worried about her!

Xu Yaqing also wanted to agree with her; yes, why wasn’t she answering people’s calls!

But she could only force out one sentence: “She only woke up for a little while. She didn’t have her phone with her.”

“This is 2024, not 2014. Who doesn’t carry a phone?”

“But she really doesn’t!” Xu Yaqing broke down. “She really doesn’t carry it. Believe me.”

After muting her phone, Hua Yu had tossed it into the drawer. She didn’t want to look at messages and didn’t want to deal with people; what was Xu Yaqing supposed to do!

Wei Yin was very angry, so angry that she wanted to slam the table and storm off to the hospital to find Hua Yu.

But very quickly, she quieted down and pressed a hand to the chest where her heartbeat had quickened.

Xu Yaqing watched her expression and hurriedly urged her to calm down. “Don’t be impulsive. Impulsiveness is Satan.”

Wei Yin pressed a hand to her chest; a trace of confusion and dazed uncertainty surfaced in her eyes.

What was wrong with her emotions?

She hated that omega, and she was determined to teach her a lesson.

She worried, panicked, and even grew angry and impatient over Hua Yu’s condition.

None of this had ever happened to her before.

What exactly was wrong with her?