Extra 1 Part 2
Qiao Yu x Lin Qing in the Parallel World
Qiao Yu looked perplexedly at the various bottles and jars Cong Ye had arranged on the table, all in unfamiliar packaging, but it was clear at a glance what they were.
“…Just a heads up, drinking in the office is against the rules.”
“It’s already after work hours!”
“But aren’t we still at the office now?”
Ignoring her question, Cong Ye insisted on laying out all his inventory, and he directly opened a can of beer to offer to Qiao Yu.
“Want a drink?”
“…To be honest, not really feeling it. What kind of play are you staging here?”
Facing a puzzled Qiao Yu, Cong Ye fell silent for a while. He took a swig from the can first, then sighed heavily before speaking in a muffled tone.
“Qiao Yu, when I go to sort my memories tomorrow, I want… to forget Lin Qing.”
“!”
Caught off guard by the unexpected words, Qiao Yu widened her eyes in astonishment, searching his face for any trace of jest, but all she saw was seriousness.
“…Seriously? Have you thought this through? It’s irreversible.”
“I know.”
Cong Ye nodded, his voice heavy with solemnity.
“I don’t want to forget her entirely, just some memories… that might make me fall for her.”
“…”
Hearing the sincerity in his tone, Qiao Yu remained silent for a while, the two of them falling into a contemplative silence, with only the sound of Cong Ye drinking echoing in the room.
“You see, she will never fall for me. I understand that now.”
He chuckled self-deprecatingly, placing the empty beer can aside and cracking open the next one.
“But I find it excruciating to let her go by myself. Might as well get it over with once and for all.”
“…I know you can understand me, right?”
“Understand my foot.”
Qiao Yu gritted her teeth, squeezing out a sentence fiercely, attempting to halt Cong Ye’s further remarks, but to no avail.
“Because, you’re just the same—”
“Shut up!”
With sudden outburst of anger without a target, Qiao Yu stood up abruptly, glaring down at Cong Ye, her fist clenched and then loosened.
“…Shut up, shut up.”
In the end, she sat back down, reaching for a can of beer, expressionless as she opened it and raised it towards him.
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“Keeping you company with a drink is enough, spare any unnecessary words.”
Cong Ye obediently fell silent, reaching out wordlessly to clink glasses with her, then they both tilted their heads back and drank.
This was Qiao Yu’s first encounter with alcohol. The icy liquid rolled down her throat into her belly, leaving a bitter aftertaste.
“…Not good.”
She remembered hearing a saying once: beer is enjoyable precisely because it’s not good. She didn’t understand it then, but now, she seemed to grasp its meaning.
Qiao Yu closed her eyes and drank the bitter brew once more.
After three rounds, it was Cong Ye who supported Qiao Yu out.
…This person barely drank a can of beer, how could she be this intoxicated? Besides, shouldn’t he be the one getting drunk tonight?
Cong Ye puzzled over it all, but he could only resign himself to propping up Qiao Yu’s arm on his shoulder, staggering out together.
He had considered contacting Lin Qing, but looking at the bottles on the table made him inexplicably guilty. Thinking that he could just drop Qiao Yu off at the company’s doorstep, which was the landmark for her recorded home address, Cong Ye chose to keep this to himself under the weight of that guilt, shouldering the responsibility of taking Qiao Yu home.
“…”
This is truly the worst decision he has made in his life.
When Cong Ye and Lin Qing, who stood bored at the door, locked eyes, this was the only thought in his mind.
Without exaggeration, sweat instantly broke out on his back, and for the first time in his life, he wished his eyesight wasn’t so good, just so he couldn’t see the increasingly somber expression on Lin Qing’s face.
He couldn’t help but envy Qiao Yu, who could be oblivious and drunk in such an indescribable atmosphere. Qiao Yu was currently slumped over, seemingly sensing the sudden halt in footsteps, struggling to open her eyes wide. But before she could make out anything, her head swayed, and she started to feel dizzy, uncontrollably leaning towards Cong Ye’s shoulder.
Of course, she didn’t manage to lean on him. Before she could, Lin Qing, who had hurried over, pushed Cong Ye aside with ruthless force. Cong Ye staggered back a few steps before stopping, seeing Qiao Yu being pulled over to Lin Qing’s side. Probably feeling a headache, she let out a slight groan, her brow furrowed, and she leaned awkwardly against Lin Qing’s shoulder. Finally, she opened her eyes and blinked, about to straighten up to figure out the situation, but Lin Qing promptly pressed her back down on her shoulder.
“…Friend.”
Lin Qing spoke, her voice filled with a cold, steely anger that Cong Ye had never heard before, causing him to instinctively shrink back before realizing that Lin Qing wasn’t addressing him.
“So, this is what you call meeting up with a friend?”
Cong Ye actually wanted to say that he was indeed Qiao Yu’s friend, but seeing Lin Qing’s increasingly hostile expression, he chose to remain silent. Though he hadn’t quite figured out the situation yet, he keenly realized that keeping quiet was the best option.
“What have you done to her?”
Focused on minimizing his own presence, Cong Ye was caught off guard when his name was called. Startled, he quickly responded.
“She just had a drink! She only had one can of beer! Just one!”
“Alcohol? She’s never had alcohol her whole life, and you let her drink?”
…Uh-oh. Even Cong Ye, slow as he might be, could tell that Lin Qing was very angry right now, and this anger was wavering between Qiao Yu and him, but now it was clearly directed at him, not the drunk cat.
“That…”
Thank the heavens, the drunk cat woke up at this moment.
“…What’s… Cong Ye…?”
Qiao Yu still seemed puzzled as to why Cong Ye was standing opposite her with a terrified look on his face. When she drowsily lifted her head, she suddenly caught a whiff of a familiar scent.
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Lin Qing always wears this perfume.
“Hmm…?”
She turned around belatedly to the person who was half-embracing her, and was met with a face as cold and icy as snow, staring at her with clear, cold eyes.
“How did you—”
“You lied to me.”
Before she could finish speaking, Lin Qing interjected, her eyes tinged with complex emotions.
“…Qiao Yu, you lied to me.”
Qiao Yu didn’t understand what she was saying, but upon hearing those words, the first thing that came to her mind was that scene.
【Just kidding.】
She fell silent for a while, gazing steadily at Lin Qing, nodding.
“I lied to you.”
Qiao Yu swallowed the inexplicable smile that suddenly welled up in her, and tiredly closed her eyes.
When she opened her eyes again, it was a familiar room.
Aside from her own room, it was the most familiar place, permeated with a graceful fragrance. Qiao Yu sat up, feeling a dull ache in her head, but it had improved a lot, probably because someone had given her a hangover cure.
Why was she in Lin Qing’s room?
The memories after drinking were a bit hazy, like milk diluted in water. Qiao Yu furrowed her brow, and as she was about to get out of bed, someone walked in.
“Awake, huh?”
It was Lin Qing. She sat by the bedside with a calm expression, offering the water in her hand to Qiao Yu, gesturing for her to drink.
There was no hint of anything from her expression. Qiao Yu obediently drank the water, her mind racing. No matter how she thought about it, she felt like nothing good was going to happen.
“Cong Ye already told me.”
Sure enough, Qiao Yu’s heart skipped a beat, her body stiffening as she listened to Lin Qing continue.
“No wonder I haven’t seen you leave the company.”
“You hid from me and drank with someone else. Growing up, aren’t we, Qiao Yu?”
This was clearly an interrogation, and Qiao Yu felt extremely uneasy—though she didn’t know why. She was clearly an independent adult; why did someone her own age still have to oversee her drinking? The first question that came to mind was: why did Lin Qing emphasize the phrase “hid from me”?
“…Not exactly, I was mainly… keeping him company.”
She tried to justify herself, but it didn’t seem to work at all. Whether it was her imagination or not, Qiao Yu even felt like Lin Qing’s complexion worsened.
“Keeping him company—hmph, I’ve already heard the reason.”
It was rare to hear such obvious sarcasm in Lin Qing’s words. Qiao Yu glanced over and saw a hint of mocking smile at the corner of her lips.
“He said he wants to forget about liking me tomorrow, that’s why he wanted to drink with you, right?”
“…”
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Qiao Yu was suddenly at a loss for words, her heart filled with doubt. She didn’t understand why Cong Ye would tell Lin Qing about this. Just as she was about to ask for clarification, she heard Lin Qing’s voice turn even colder.
“How pathetic, this kind of avoidance.”
“——”
Qiao Yu’s thoughts came to a sudden halt, unable to believe what her ears had just heard. Slowly, she turned her stiff neck to look at Lin Qing.
“Talking nonsense. Since he’s made a decision, why make such a gesture the day before?”
Lin Qing seemed like a different person, calmly uttering harsh words.
“And what does this have to do with you? If he wants to nurse his own broken heart, fine, but why drag you into it?”
“Forgetting about someone, is it really worth making such a fuss over?”
“If he can’t even let go of a relationship, then…”
She didn’t finish her sentence, but the meaning was already clear, as she held Qiao Yu’s hand with intent.
“Qiao Yu, you need to stay away from someone like that.”
