After Agreeing to Go on a Parenting Show With My Omega Ex-Girlfriend – Chapter 40

Caring to Death¹.

Seeing that Qi Song was momentarily speechless, perhaps taking her words seriously, Yu Luo let out a light laugh. “I’m teasing you.”

Even if the current Qi Song was willing to mark her, she also…

Yu Luo sighed almost inaudibly.

The small boat docked on the shore. At night, the guesthouse was brightly lit, illuminating a patch of the nearby lake surface.

It was past eight in the evening, and the first-floor living room, which should have been somewhat quiet, was surprisingly lively.

Seeing Yu Luo’s family enter, the guests all called for them to come and sit:

“Teacher Yu, Teacher Qi, we’re having a tea party², come, come.”

After all, they were recording a variety show. It was already improper to have been absent for half of dinner, and it was even more difficult to refuse now.

So Yu Luo gracefully pulled Qi Song and Taotao to sit down on the sofa.

A program was playing on the large TV screen in front, but none of the guests were watching. They chatted relaxedly while eating snacks and drinking beverages.

Qi Song listened for a few sentences and realized that the theme of this tea party seemed to be sharing sweet past memories.

Her heart skipped a beat, and sure enough, the next second she heard Ren Zhi say:

“Teacher Yu’s family was absent for too long today. You must now 「self-punish with three cups」³ and share a little something sweet from your past.”

Xiao Hua[ then added, “Exactly. Teacher Yu only recently announced she was married with a daughter; we don’t even know when you two started dating. Don’t hide it, hurry up and tell us so the audience can enjoy it.”

The drinks in front of these two were low-alcohol cocktails sponsored by the brand.

It was unclear whether they were tipsy or just excited from the conversation, but they spoke to Yu Luo much more casually than usual.

Yu Luo blinked, feeling that given the atmosphere, it was a bit inconvenient to refuse.

So she turned her head to glance at Qi Song, her smiling eyes seeming to say, “Can I share our story?”

Qi Song’s heart constricted.

「Sharing our story」—Is Yu Luo going to describe how she picked up the original owner, that pitiful little dog, and brought her home, and how she meticulously tamed her?

Qi Song’s first reaction was to refuse. Because she wasn’t the protagonist of that memory at all.

Like the other guests present, she was just a bystander, a listener, who would marvel or sigh at a strange story that belonged to someone else.

Thinking this way, the bit of jealousy from the afternoon seemed to rear its head of its own accord again.

But in Yu Luo’s eyes that awaited an answer, amidst the guests’ jeers of 「What are you two wives making eyes at each other for」, she had no choice but to push the acting skills she had honed over many years to their limit, to a degree that could probably even deceive Yu Luo, who understood the original owner.

A faint smile touched the corners of her lips, and she nodded calmly.

In that momentary pang of pain, Qi Song dazedly realized the price of that one hundred million.

Yu Luo felt that something was slightly off with Qi Song.

She tightened her grip on the hand intertwined with her own, turned her head to look at Qi Song a few more times, but then felt that what she had just seen was perhaps an illusion.

Qi Song isn’t good at acting in front of me and is always easy to see through, so she set her mind at ease—it should be nothing.

So, amid everyone’s expectant urging, she had no choice but to slowly begin, “We’ve known each other for many years……”

Yu Luo didn’t particularly like sharing those precious and private past memories in front of others. So she didn’t tell the story in detail, only giving a few vague summaries.

But the woman’s clear and cool voice contained a gentleness, and anyone could hear how much she cherished the past.

The guests present were all listening intently; only Tang Yu and Qi Song were trying hard to watch the program on the TV that no one else cared about.

Fragmented words and phrases like 「Qi Song in her youth」, 「came to my home to stay」, and 「we relied on each other」 unavoidably touched her ears, and Qi Song’s complexion turned paler and paler with them.

In a bit of a panic, she grabbed a can of the low-alcohol cocktail from the table and drank it, mouthful after mouthful.

In the past, Yu Luo had also mentioned their history to her in a nostalgic tone. But at that time, she only felt it was a scumbag girl faking deep affection, so she didn’t care much.

But at this moment…… she seemed to care a little.

Even, caring to death.

Qi Song clenched the can in her hand.

Where did the emotions start to go wrong? Was it just from that bit of jealousy she felt in the afternoon, or had it been brewing silently even earlier?

The hand that was reaching for who-knows-which can of alcohol was pressed down.

Qi Song paused and turned her head to look at Yu Luo, seeing a bit of helplessness in the woman’s eyes as she said softly, “You’re a lightweight, you’re not allowed to drink anymore.”

After speaking, she raised her hand and concernedly touched Qi Song’s slightly flushed skin. “You’re not already drunk, are you?”

Yu Luo noticed that when her fingertips touched Qi Song’s cheek, Qi Song’s entire body trembled slightly, and she then subconsciously leaned back, as if her subconscious was unwilling to have physical contact with her.

Yu Luo was slightly taken aback.

Her fingers froze in mid-air, curled slightly, and then she withdrew them as if nothing had happened.

The tea party ended amidst cheerful laughter, and the guests took their kids back to their rooms to rest.

Yu Luo walked straight into the camera-free bathroom and beckoned to the long-silent Qi Song with a hooked finger, saying softly, “Come here.”

Qi Song somewhat wanted to refuse.

But under the woman’s gaze and command, her feet involuntarily started moving in that direction.

The bathroom light turned on, and the door was closed.

“I feel like ever since we finished talking with that little girl, you haven’t been quite right.”

Yu Luo raised a hand to tidy Qi Song’s hair and said in a gentle voice, “Are you unhappy, or are you not feeling well? Can you tell Jiejie about it?”

Such patient and tolerant guidance.

Qi Song’s lips moved slightly, and when she spoke, her voice was a little hoarse, “I……”

I’m not unhappy or unwell. ……I’m just powerlessly, little by little, being enveloped by a sudden jealousy.

From the moment she learned of the deep past between Yu Luo and the original owner in the afternoon, she had tasted jealousy for the first time.

She had thought it would be a fleeting touch, like a dragonfly on water, leaving no trace.

After that, she had calmly gone for a walk with Yu Luo and Taotao, calmly pondered whether there was a problem with Yu Luo’s suppressants, just like every day before, diligently playing her role in the three-month limited contract, and feeling some inconsequential curiosity about the things she encountered.

But…… it was only during the tea party just now that she discovered that the jealousy hadn’t actually faded.

It was like sugar water being boiled in a pot; under a continuous, uncontrollable heat, it gradually became viscous and stagnant, its color turning a dark, ruined brown. Eventually, the water vapor evaporated, leaving only a hard, burnt layer that enveloped her entire heart.

Just like at this very moment, Qi Song gazed at the boundless gentleness contained within the woman’s eyes under the warm light of the bathroom.

She felt herself uncontrollably wanting to sink into this gentleness, only to be deeply pierced by this very gentleness.

She seemed to have once again touched that feeling of jealousy without any barrier.

It turns out that an emotion like jealousy is like an addiction; there is only zero times and countless times.

Thus, the answer to the question she had previously posed in her heart—was she merely jealous that the original owner was taken in by someone, or was she also jealous that the person who took the original owner in was Yu Luo—seemed to become somewhat clear.

Qi Song’s breathing grew heavier.

She couldn’t remember how many cans of cocktails she had drunk, nor did she know how poor this body’s tolerance for alcohol was. But now, her whole person was already a bit dizzy, and the emotions in her heart seemed to have fermented even more intensely and surged with the alcohol.

Jealous, sour, longing, and also containing a lingering trace of softness.

Seeing Qi Song’s words stop short, and a bit of forbearance and helplessness surface in those eyes, Yu Luo’s chest tightened.

She subconsciously wanted to comfort the other party in the old way.

So her hand slowly stroked the top of Qi Song’s head, rubbing it gently.

Then her rosy lips parted, and she said softly, “Relax…… can I kiss you, okay?”

After saying this, she stood slightly on her tiptoes and slowly leaned in.

In the time it took for those lips to press against hers, Qi Song was flustered, her entire being felt as if it were being subjected to death by a thousand cuts⁴—

She belatedly realized: it turned out that as long as she wanted to, she could have avoided all of this.

In the past, for her numerous kisses with Yu Luo, she had always explained them away by saying Yu Luo kissed too quickly for her to react, and in the crude but convenient and cunning conclusion of 「the original owner’s love-struck brain’s influence」, she had calmly handled the many over-the-line intimacies between them.

But at this very moment, she clearly felt that—in every single moment before that kiss landed, she actually could have pushed her away in time.

But, this time, she still didn’t.

And so, their lips finally pressed together.

In the other’s softness and body heat, Qi Song’s heart pounded painfully, and the tip of her nose suddenly stung.

The existence of this kiss slapped her face in the air with a crackling sound—

All the past instances were not because she was caught off guard, but because she was wanting to refuse, yet still welcoming⁵.

It wasn’t that she couldn’t control this body, but that she had, intentionally or not, indulged the wanton influence of the original owner.

The moment their lips gently brushed, Yu Luo felt Qi Song’s entire body trembling.

She slowly pulled back and saw that the young woman’s eyes were already red-rimmed.

Her chest couldn’t help but seize up.

For the first time, in their tried-and-true comfort that had been repeated thousands upon thousands of times, Qi Song not only didn’t feel any better, but she even looked more distressed.

This brought her a strong sense of unfamiliarity and uncontrollability.

The two of them each guarded their own unspeakable secrets, and thus it was difficult to touch the true source of pain or pleasure in the other’s heart.

A deep sense of loss and unease suddenly rose in Yu Luo’s heart. Her throat felt tight, and she had to struggle to take a breath before saying:

“What’s wrong……”

Negative speculations couldn’t help but flood her mind. Her brows knitted, and her tone was somewhat pitiful as she pleaded, “Qi Song, can you tell me? Even just a little bit……”

The woman’s usually clear and calm voice was now trembling slightly.

Qi Song saw the color drain from Yu Luo’s cheeks, making her look somewhat lost and crestfallen, as if she had always been vaguely afraid or worried about something in her heart.

A watery mist filled those beautiful eyes, and the mist quickly condensed into crystalline teardrops that slid from the corners of her eyes, shattering on the floor.

As if along with that shattering, a certain restraint in Qi Song’s heart was painfully struck loose.

So much so that in the next second, a strong impulse struggled to escape from it.

All the jealousy and sourness, the entanglement and helplessness, all vanished into thin air in an instant.

Whether this body was controlled by the original owner or by her suddenly became unimportant.

At this moment, all that remained was the woman’s trembling breath and the trace of desolate red at the corner of her eye.

Qi Song clearly shouldn’t have said anything, clearly should have firmly hidden all her emotions, concealed any existence that might expose her as unusual.

But in the woman’s downcast expression, under the ravages of alcohol’s influence, and in the irresistible instinct of heartache, she lost all reason.

Her hand dropped, stroking Yu Luo’s waist and pressing the person into her embrace.

It was as if she naturally knew that such a tight embrace was what could give Yu Luo the most security.

Her cheek brushed against the dampness of Yu Luo’s tears from the hug. In the alcohol-tinged gust of wind, she was about to drown in that dampness.

Qi Song couldn’t wait to save herself. So a whimper like that of a small animal couldn’t help but escape her throat. Hurriedly, recklessly, while checking her own emotions, she unabashedly recounted them truthfully by the woman’s ear:

“Jiejie, don’t be sad…… I’m just a little sour inside, no, I’m very sour…… sob, and my heart aches so much, and my heart is so moved……”

The young woman’s voice was a little choked up. The intermittent, sincere, and clumsy words echoed throughout the bathroom, leaving Yu Luo stunned.

It was hard to tell if it was because of that “Jiejie,” or because of those unprecedentedly frank words.

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The author has something to say:

A little dog definitely can’t hold it in. As soon as Jiejie gets sad, she’ll spill everything cleanly-

Qi Song: I’m quitting alcohol.

Yu Luo: This brand is pretty good, I’ll buy ten dozen and put them in the fridge.

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