Stuck in the Middle

Su Yutang was no longer the person she had once been—the one who could be soothed by a few words from Lin Meng. Lin Meng was closer to Yun Huaizhu than to her, and over the past six months, Lin Meng had also made quite a few friends.

Just thinking about it made Su Yutang uneasy.

That night at the hotel, she had woken up at two in the morning.

She had slipped quietly out of bed and gone to the wardrobe facing the bed—whenever she kissed Lin Meng, Lin Meng would always glance that way absentmindedly. Could there really be someone hiding in the wardrobe?

It couldn't possibly be a ghost. If it really were a ghost, Lin Meng would have jumped three feet in the air.

The most likely thing inside was a paramour. So who could it be? Yun Huaizhu? Or someone Lin Meng had brought along?

These two were bold enough to cheat on her right in the hotel room she'd booked, sneaking around like adulterers.

Su Yutang was furious at the thought. One hand clenched into a fist as the other yanked open the wardrobe. But after searching it top to bottom, there wasn't even a ghost.

Perhaps she really had spent too long on Xia Island and become paranoid.

Even though there was no one in the wardrobe, when Su Yutang carefully sniffed the air inside, she caught a faint, barely perceptible trace of ylang-ylang. That scent was absolutely not the hotel's incense; it was someone's alpha pheromone.

No matter the rank, every alpha could fully control their pheromones and prevent them from leaking out. But whoever had been in that wardrobe had left theirs behind.

Which meant that person was deliberately provoking her.

As far as she knew, none of her acquaintances had ylang-ylang pheromones. Could Yun Huaizhu have suddenly differentiated into an alpha?

Yun Huaizhu wasn't young anymore, but there were cases showing that the latest an alpha or omega could differentiate was twenty. Maybe Yun Huaizhu really had differentiated...

Su Yutang spent the rest of the night restless and uneasy. The next day, still worried about Lin Meng, she gave her a bottle of perfume mixed with her own pheromones. She didn't know if Lin Meng would obediently spray it on, but she had to do this.

Even if it meant threatening Lin Meng, she didn't want Lin Meng to be taken from her.

She pretended nothing was wrong and waited until Lin Meng left. Then she called over the hotel manager and had them pull up the surveillance from the lounge the day before. But as luck would have it, the surveillance on her floor had suddenly malfunctioned that day—the footage from that night had all turned to black screens, as if maliciously deleted.

This only made Su Yutang more suspicious.

Using the excuse that the hotel had threatened her personal safety, she summoned the hotel's owner and gave him three days to restore the blacked-out footage, or the hotel could look forward to shutting down for renovations.

The owner, naturally terrified, did everything in his power to comply. Finally, two days ago, the hotel restored the surveillance of the corridor and the path to the elevator.

Su Yutang began watching the corridor footage. When she saw a figure come to the door and knock, she slammed the pause button and stared at that figure in the hallway.

In that moment, shock, astonishment, and a towering rage ignited in her chest all at once.

The person walked to the door and knocked. Then the door opened, and that person rushed eagerly inside. Before the figure disappeared from the camera's view, Su Yutang saw them impatiently wrap an arm around Lin Meng's waist and shut the door.

She couldn't possibly be mistaken...

How could it be? How could that person be Huo Yi?!

In that instant, Su Yutang's world seemed to collapse. She had considered Yun Huaizhu, she had considered others, but she had never, ever considered Huo Yi.

After the shock came fury. She had people investigate Huo Yi's whereabouts, and unexpectedly, Huo Yi had taken Lin Meng abroad for a trip. This person who weighed everyone's interests at every turn had actually mobilized her family's private jet to fly Lin Meng overseas?

Su Yutang immediately felt the sting of being betrayed by someone close to her. She had felt this way once before, with the nanny who had taken care of her as a child.

Back then, Su Yurong had been busy with the family business and couldn't always look after her. Aunt Lu would take her to all sorts of places, tell her bedtime stories every night, and hold her when it thundered and rained. Even the first loyal little dog she'd ever had, they'd brought home together.

She had thought she was worthy of so many people's affection, so she had liked those people in return. But she never expected that the ones who hurt her most would always be the people closest to her.

Huo Yi couldn't exactly be called her closest person, but they had grown up together and knew each other inside and out. Besides, Huo Yi usually carried herself with an aloof, untouchable air—she presented a “chaste” image to the outside world. Yet now she was despicably playing the third party in someone else's relationship!

Su Yutang could not tolerate this betrayal under any circumstances. She temporarily handed all her affairs over to Si Bingxia and immediately boarded a flight to Zurich.

...

Huo Yi had dodged to the side the moment she sensed danger, but her opponent was too fast. Even though she instinctively shifted, the punch still grazed the side of her face, and a clear red mark quickly bloomed along her jaw.

The next moment, a dense barrage of punches rained down on her. Huo Yi crossed her arms in front of herself.

She had trained before. Every punch landed on the spots that hurt the most but wouldn't cause fatal injury.

Everything happened too fast. By the time Lin Meng reacted and saw who was suddenly attacking Huo Yi, her nerves snapped taut and she rushed forward to break up the fight.

“Y-Young Miss... what are you doing? Stop, stop it right now!” Lin Meng stepped in to pull them apart. Su Yutang, afraid of accidentally hurting Lin Meng, briefly halted the fist that was about to come down.

Huo Yi had just been immersed in happiness, but because of this person's arrival, the happiness she had fought so hard to obtain vanished in an instant. When Yun Huaizhu had hit her before, it was because Lin Meng and Yun Huaizhu were deeply attached, and Yun Huaizhu had claimed the status of “official wife.”

Huo Yi had been afraid that fighting back would earn Lin Meng's disgust, so she had shown weakness and played pitiful. If she was the third party, then Su Yutang was a fourth party without even a title—what right did Su Yutang have to come at her like this?

Her status in Jing City was on par with Su Yutang's. Su Yutang hadn't even taken over the family yet; in both ability and tactics, she was no match for Huo Yi.

What right did Su Yutang have to throw her weight around in front of her?

With that thought, Huo Yi seized the moment when Su Yutang wasn't paying attention and threw a vicious punch at her. Su Yutang reacted quickly and dodged; the fist didn't land on her face, but it slammed hard into her right shoulder.

Instantly, she felt her right arm go weak.

Lin Meng had originally managed to stop the fight, but she never expected Huo Yi to suddenly strike.

Su Yutang took Huo Yi's action as a provocation, and the scene spiraled out of control.

The two of them tangled into a brawl. At first, they held back out of consideration for the ties between their families, but as it went on, they fought harder and harder, each blow aimed to kill.

Huo Yi had learned sanda too, but her strength was no match for Su Yutang, an S-rank alpha. Su Yutang had never imagined that the sanda skills she'd learned would one day be used on her own best friend.

Lin Meng's head was buzzing. She stood frozen, watching the two of them tear at each other, trading accusations and curses.

Su Yutang: “Huo Yi, we grew up together. Aside from my mother, you were the person I trusted most—and this is how you stab me in the back?”

Huo Yi's mouth was bruised and bleeding: “Who stabbed you in the back? You don't even have a title. Don't be so possessive about other people's freedom to love. Who Mengmeng likes is her business—what's it to you?”

A large bruise had appeared on Su Yutang's cheek as well. She looked like she'd completely broken down: “Shut up!”

Lin Meng stood there dazed for a long time. Only after both of them were covered in injuries did her blank, dizzy brain suddenly catch up. “Enough, stop fighting, both of you!”

Su Yutang and Huo Yi stopped instantly.

Su Yutang treated her well, and Huo Yi treated her well too... Su Yutang and Huo Yi were friends who had grown up together. Lin Meng had never wanted to destroy their relationship. But now the two of them were fighting like enemies.

Lin Meng's tears fell as if her heart were breaking: “No... I don't like either of you.”

Huo Yi felt suffocated at the sound. She immediately let go of Su Yutang's collar and ran to Lin Meng. “Mengmeng, what did you say?”

Lin Meng's voice was hoarse as she shouted, “I don't like either of you! You and I were never people from the same world to begin with. I was too foolish, thinking that as long as we got along well, we'd be friends. But I don't think I can ever fit into your world. I'm sorry...”

With that, Lin Meng ran out of the hotel corridor.

Su Yutang and Huo Yi immediately chased after her.

...

It really was her fault. As long as she appeared, she brought misfortune to others. If only she hadn't come traveling here with Huo Yi. Or better yet, if only she hadn't interfered between Su Yutang and Yun Huaizhu earlier—then none of this would have happened.

Lin Meng didn't know how long she had been running in her muddled state. When she finally came to her senses, she had already run onto a small path lined on both sides with larches. The larches had all turned golden now, their colors still faintly discernible under the evening glow.

She looked around in a panic. The path stretched out like an abyss. The branches of the great trees on either side extended over the road. In the deepening dusk, they looked exactly like monsters with bared fangs and claws.

A sudden terror seized Lin Meng. If she were back home, she wouldn't be this afraid. But here she was in an unfamiliar place—what if some wild beast or monster suddenly emerged from the trees on either side? Or a bad person?

In her panic, Lin Meng reached for her pocket, but she didn't find her phone in her pants pocket. At that thought, all the blood in her body seemed to flow backward. Her hands turned ice-cold. She searched every pocket on her body but still couldn't find her phone.

After a moment, she vaguely remembered: not long ago, when Huo Yi had been holding her hand and bringing her back to the hotel, she'd found it inconvenient to carry her phone, so she'd put it in Huo Yi's bag and asked her to hold onto it.

So right now, her phone was still with Huo Yi.

And now she was lost in this unfamiliar place...

The autumn night by Lake St. Moritz was actually getting cold. Lin Meng was still wearing the thin jacket from noon. Cold and frightened, she sat down, hugged her knees, and curled into herself.

She didn't dare look toward the dark places, so she buried her head against her knees. Because in this environment, she would see the tall tree branches and bushes as all kinds of monsters.

She remembered once, when she'd come home late from evening self-study, the weather that day had been dark and gloomy, so dark she couldn't see her hand in front of her face. Even though she was riding her bicycle on the road, the streetlights couldn't illuminate the whole path for her. Those clawing branches swayed wildly in the fierce wind, and it felt like a monster could burst out and eat her at any moment.

She had never dared walk a road with no one else on it.

Actually, when she thought about it carefully, it was strange. She was clearly afraid of interacting with others, yet she was also afraid of being alone.

Yes... to this world made of a novel, she had always been an outsider who had accidentally wandered in. If not for her interference, the relationships between these key characters in the novel wouldn't have ended up like this today.

Should she go back?

But if she went back, wouldn't she die?

Did she really have to die?

But she was timid and afraid of death. Death was a terrifying thing. She would be forgotten, and she had never properly been loved by anyone, nor had she ever tried hard to love someone else.

Last month, she had even told Lin Hongying that she'd be home by the end of the year.

If she left this world now, would Lin Hongying be very sad?

But she had never even met that person.

Just as her heart was sinking deeper and deeper, almost drowning, two overlapping voices suddenly called out: “Mengmeng, Lin Meng—”

“Where are you?”

Huo Yi's voice magnified countless times in the quiet night: “I'm sorry, Mengmeng, I was wrong! I promise you, I'll never fight with Tangtang again. We've already made up. You haven't affected our relationship at all.”

Su Yutang, though somewhat reluctant, joined in shouting: “That's right, darling! The two of us have made up. Even if you want to be with both of us, I agree. Please come out!”

Huo Yi's anxious shouting paused for a moment when she heard Su Yutang's words.

Did this person think she was being generous?

But she didn't have the energy to argue with Su Yutang right now. It was Lin Meng's first time here, an unfamiliar place, and Lin Meng had left her phone in Huo Yi's bag.

It was so late, there were no streetlights on this path, and just past it was Lake St. Moritz. If Lin Meng slipped...

Huo Yi really didn't dare think any further.

Su Yutang was about to cry from worry. Her salty tears slid down her bruised face, and the wounds burned sharply. But she had no mind for that; she just kept repeating her apologies to Lin Meng.

“If anything happens to you, I won't live either! Lin Meng, do you hear me—I was wrong. I shouldn't have gotten jealous and hit Huo Yi because you like her. But you promised me, you promised to be with me in three months.”

Huo Yi couldn't hold back when she heard this. She stepped forward as if to hit Su Yutang and grabbed her by the collar. “Can you stop shouting all that? The more you say, the more scared Lin Meng gets, the less she'll want to come out.”

When Su Yutang saw that this third party who had interfered in her relationship with Lin Meng dared to lecture her, she fiercely slapped Huo Yi's hand away. “I like her. Is it wrong that I want to be with her? That day at the hotel, I considered Yun Huaizhu, even others being with Lin Meng—but I never considered you. You were the one I trusted most. When I first brought Lin Meng to meet you, did you show even a hint of interest? And in the end, you backstabbed me like this and stole the person I like?”

Seeing her fury, Huo Yi said, “What do you mean, stole the person you like? Did Lin Meng ever say she'd be your girlfriend? You and I are both people without titles. So who she likes and who she wants to be with is her freedom. With how possessive you are over her life, no wonder she doesn't like you much!”

Huo Yi's words nearly made Su Yutang choke with rage.

But there was nothing she could do. She was born this domineering, born with everything. When she liked someone, she wanted to make them hers. If she didn't even have that possessiveness, it meant she didn't love them enough.

Just as Su Yutang was angry enough to fight Huo Yi again, a faint voice suddenly sounded: “Is that Tangtang and Yiyi?”

Su Yutang and Huo Yi looked toward the source of the voice. Because they had been so anxious searching for Lin Meng and had just been physically fighting, the two of them were now standing very close together.

As the two of them searched for Lin Meng's figure in the darkness, a person carrying the cool breath of the night wind suddenly threw herself into them.

Lin Meng looked like she had found a safe harbor. She thought she probably didn't want to die after all. She had just heard Su Yutang and Huo Yi calling for her, and for some reason, she was no longer afraid. She had moved her stiff legs and walked slowly toward the direction of those two voices.

She walked faster and faster, faster and faster... until her steps searching for them turned into a run.

She didn't want to sink into the darkness anymore, and she didn't want to endure that horrifying loneliness. She knew that the people calling to her ahead could bring her warmth, but they were also a cliff.

But she had been soaked in the cold for too long. Even knowing she would be shattered to pieces, she still wanted to covet that brief warmth.

Lin Meng threw herself pitifully into their arms. Su Yutang and Huo Yi were both stunned at the same moment. But in the next instant, they both reached out and hugged Lin Meng.

Huo Yi felt her abnormally cold arm and said with concern, “Mengmeng, it's too cold outside. Let's go back first.”

Lin Meng held them both tightly and wouldn't let go, but she didn't deny it either. Seeing this, Su Yutang said nothing; she simply picked Lin Meng up and carried her toward the hotel.

Perhaps great strength was one of the few advantages of being an S-rank alpha.

Although Huo Yi was extremely displeased with Su Yutang suddenly picking Lin Meng up, for Lin Meng's sake, she forced herself to endure it.

...

The hotel's lake-view room was very large. Lake St. Moritz at night had even more charm than during the day. Apart from the hidden, unknown dangers in the dark, everything on the surface was breathtakingly beautiful.

Lin Meng lay in the middle, while Su Yutang and Huo Yi each claimed one of Lin Meng's arms, neither willing to yield.

And Lin Meng, stuck between them, could barely even turn over.

At this moment, the scene of the three of them lying together sleeping was incredibly harmonious. No one could have imagined that five hours ago, the people on either side of Lin Meng had been fighting each other to the death.

Actually, neither Su Yutang nor Huo Yi was willing to concede. Su Yutang believed Huo Yi was the third party who had interfered in her relationship with Lin Meng, while Huo Yi believed Su Yutang was someone who had already been kicked out of the game—a fourth party who couldn't even count as a third party.

But for Lin Meng's sake, they forced themselves to put on an act as if they were still “good friends.”

After leaving that dark, terrifying environment, Lin Meng's body temperature gradually returned. When she came back to herself, she stared at the ceiling and said in a deeply guilty tone, “Yiyi, Tangtang, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it when I said I didn't like you. You're both wonderful. The one who isn't good is me. This is all my problem. The closest boundary I can accept right now is friendship, so I'm destined to let you down. I wanted you to stay away from me, so I said I didn't like you. But... my not liking you has nothing to do with either of you. I'm just too awful...”

Hearing this, Su Yutang raised her head and placed Lin Meng's hand over her own heart. “It's okay, darling. Even if you don't like me, it's okay. As long as I like you, that's enough. Just don't disappear at the drop of a hat, don't leave with others at the drop of a hat. As for Huo Yi... I'll allow you to date her, but the two of you have to report to me every time you meet. That way I can be at ease.”

Huo Yi rolled her eyes dramatically at this.

Did Su Yutang really think she was Lin Meng's official girlfriend?

Lin Meng would never accept that.

Just as she was thinking this, Lin Meng gave a slight nod. “Mm, I understand.”

Huo Yi: “?”

Hearing Lin Meng agree to her request, Su Yutang reached out and pulled Lin Meng tightly into her arms, leaving a large gap on Huo Yi's side.

As if showing off, Su Yutang planted a loud kiss on Lin Meng's cheek. “I knew it, darling, you're the best. As long as you're obedient, I'll give you absolute freedom. If you want it, I'll even find a way to pluck the stars from the sky for you.”

Lin Meng seemed to have fallen into an extremely detached state of mind. She neither denied nor refused, only nodded repeatedly. If simply nodding could make these two coexist peacefully, she was happy to do so.

Though she was timid and afraid of death, once she made up her mind, it couldn't easily be changed.

She actually found it very hard to truly hate someone. Everyone had a chance to reform in her eyes. But once she despised someone utterly, no matter what that person did afterward, she would maintain her detestation—even eight horses couldn't pull her back.

So she was destined to leave. She wanted to preserve Su Yutang's and the others' relationship before she left.

...

Yun Huaizhu had flown all over the country and negotiated most of the collaborations. Sometimes she would arrive in one place in the morning and by the afternoon be at another company signing a contract. Her high-intensity, almost suicidal work pace accelerated the company's collaboration progress several times over.

Yun Huaizhu had returned to Jing City yesterday and was so exhausted she fell asleep the moment her head hit the pillow at the hotel. This morning, she realized that after being busy for over half a month, she had forgotten to send Lin Meng a good-morning message. So she opened her phone to greet Lin Meng.

To her relief, during the days she'd forgotten to message Lin Meng, Lin Meng had still sent her good-morning and good-night messages as before. Except... sometimes it was already afternoon when Lin Meng sent her a good morning, and it was almost five in the morning when Lin Meng sent her a good night.

Was Lin Meng's work schedule completely reversed day and night now?

Yun Huaizhu let out a helpless chuckle, then opened the software monitoring Lin Meng's phone. But when she saw the message that Lin Meng had started her annual leave ten days ago, the smile on her face froze.

In Lin Meng's search history on other apps, she found the frequently searched keywords from recent days—“what to prepare for skiing in Zurich,” “things to note when skiing,” “how much are round-trip plane tickets,” “can outsiders ride a private jet,” “how much does one ride on a private jet cost”...

Besides that, a new contact had appeared on Lin Meng's phone with the nickname “.” After reading the chat records, Yun Huaizhu discovered that this person was actually Cen Jingshu, who had been missing for nearly two months!

This person seemed extremely familiar with Lin Meng, calling her “Xiao Lin jie” so sweetly again and again. And for someone who had been disciplined by a great family like hers to have the courage to run away from home, it was all because of Lin Meng.

At this point, Yun Huaizhu's face had gone completely dark.