The moment Tang Jianxi spoke, Winona—who hadn’t so much as blinked after downing three bottles of twenty-five percent alcohol Landa wine—instantly froze. Helen, who had been eating as if she were an uninvolved bystander, also stopped moving.
They were as still as if they’d been injected with the strongest possible anesthetic.
Tang Jianxi tugged at Yun Chuji’s clothes from within her embrace. With a resigned sigh, Yun Chuji carried her to the small sofa in the private room. It was as if Yun Chuji’s body had become Tang Jianxi’s personal chair; she leaned against her as if boneless. Combined with the reek of alcohol clinging to her, it took all of Yun Chuji’s love to suppress the urge to scold her for this absurdity.
But seeing Tang Jianxi’s slightly furrowed brow, Yun Chuji sighed again and, with resignation, began massaging the acupressure points on the back of her head with one hand.
Fine, just this once.
As she continued the massage, Yun Chuji suddenly became aware of their position… Although Winona and Helen weren’t paying them any mind at the moment, merely standing aside to check on Tang Jianxi.
Still, one couldn’t behave so improperly in front of others just because they weren’t looking. Otherwise!
Before she could finish that thought, Tang Jianxi, resting in her arms, let out a soft groan. Yun Chuji immediately looked down, asking anxiously, “What’s wrong? Are you uncomfortable?”
—Fine, just this once.
Tang Jianxi’s brow furrowed even more tightly. Landa wine was a popular drink among the upper-class omegas of S-District, known for being smooth on the palate with a lingering kick. Among the alcohols suitable for omegas, it was considered a good choice for both its taste and its intoxicating effect. Tang Jianxi had originally planned to take things slow, get Winona drunk on the sly, and then interrogate her about her recent strange behavior before playing matchmaker.
But her luck had finally run out. Tang Jianxi, who reigned supreme among her omega peers in S-District’s inner ring and was known as the “Great O Who Can’t Be Felled by a Thousand Cups,” had met her match in Winona from the outermost ring of B-District, who had been chugging thirty-five percent alcohol Kaiwei wine since the age of twelve. Unsurprisingly, she was utterly trounced.
To be honest, she had never imagined that alcohol could be chugged straight from the bottle.
Now, the alcohol she had gulped down was churning deep in her stomach, crashing against its walls like waves against a reef. Tang Jianxi buried herself deeper into Yun Chuji’s embrace, relying on the faint pheromones seeping from her partner’s skin to soothe her jangling nerves.
“My stomach hurts,” Tang Jianxi mumbled.
Yun Chuji sighed for the third time and ordered a glass of honey water from the AI server. The two women, who had been frozen in place, were now drawn to Tang Jianxi’s sorry state, looking completely at a loss.
They truly hadn’t expected things to develop like this.
The guilt was compounded by the fact that Tang Jianxi had been acting out of genuine concern for them.
It seemed that Tang Jianxi’s attempts to help them never ended well.
Winona’s expression was grim, the aura of self-loathing around her so heavy it seemed to physically bend her frame. She released her lower lip, which she had been biting so hard that a trace of blood was visible. She was about to speak—to apologize, to admit her fault, to atone—or to use some other, more severe term for what would follow.
Just as she opened her mouth, Yun Chuji glanced at her and cut in, “What exactly happened between you and Helen?”
Winona instinctively glanced at the woman beside her. Her heart began to ache out of habit, and her jaw tensed.
This was a face she had known her whole life, once a symbol of her dreams and her future. But now, through a cruel twist of fate, it had become a rusty nail driven deep between her past and her present.
The most tragic part was that she was the cause of the rust.
Helen didn’t avert her gaze, meeting Winona’s eyes directly. Her expression remained gentle, and like a clear lake, she reflected all of Winona’s misery.
Winona was the first to look away.
“That’s not important. Miss Tang’s condition is what matters now.”
Feeling the hand still secretly tugging at her clothes, Yun Chuji took the honey water from the AI server, her heart easing slightly. As she carefully helped Tang Jianxi drink, she said, “No, it is important. Isn’t this why Jianxi drank so much in the first place?”
Winona bit her lower lip again.
The silence in the private room was excruciating. What was meant to be a farewell party among friends now felt like it was spiraling out of control. To be sure, this was partly because Tang Jianxi hadn’t found the right way to break the ice and had only made things more chaotic. But it was also because of her.
She couldn’t bring herself to be a proper friend or a lover.
This party, which was supposed to be for her, had been missing a key ingredient from the start: she had never made a genuine attempt to enjoy it.
Ever since rescuing Helen, she hadn’t been able to be around anyone. She couldn’t even open up to the person she loved most. She had always remained silent, thinking she was protecting Helen, only to realize each time that not only was she failing to protect her, but she was the very source of her suffering.
It seemed she was incapable of bringing her happiness.
“Helen’s mothers don’t want me to be with her.”
“They would rather disown Helen than let her be with an omega like me.”
Winona said, revealing the bitter truth.
Because of her, Helen had already lost her freedom and self-respect. Now, she was about to lose her family as well.
Helen fell silent. Her eyelashes trembled, and her pale neck was as white and rigid as plaster. She slowly exhaled. “So that’s the real reason my mothers are sick, isn’t it?”
After escaping Johnsen’s control, Helen had been trying desperately to contact her family. Making a deal with the Lone Wolf Gang had been her own willful decision. She knew her mothers would be heartbroken, and she had been prepared to never return.
When she was rescued by a stroke of luck, she wanted to make it up to them. She had even resolved to compromise on anything and everything—except Winona.
Except Winona.
But her mothers kept putting off their visit to Golden Phoenix Star, and they never accepted the money she sent.
The excuses they gave—that they were sick and wanted her to use the money for herself—were highly unusual.
Yet Helen never suspected a thing. This was partly because Winona was putting on a brave face, and partly because she could never have imagined that the mothers who loved her most would abandon her over her mistake.
She had been raised to be too naive and sheltered, not at all like an omega from the outermost ring.
Winona lowered her head, silent.
But her silence was a tacit admission.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“…”
“Is it because you agree with them?”
“…”
Helen’s words struck Winona like a sledgehammer, beating her further into despair. Finally, she spoke, her voice hoarse. “You’ve already sacrificed enough for me. You could have had a better life. If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t have gone through any of this.”
The room was silent for two minutes.
Suddenly, the delicate, pregnant omega let out a cold laugh, making both Yun Chuji, who was watching the drama unfold, and Tang Jianxi, who was only pretending to be drunk, shudder involuntarily.
It seemed things were getting a little out of hand.
Helen walked up to Winona and poked her shoulder with a slender finger. “So, you owe me.”
“You’ll owe me for the rest of your life.”
“If you want me to find an alpha and settle down, fine. I can do that. But don’t you forget that you owe me. So don’t even think about leaving my side. Even if I find an alpha, just as you wish, you’ll have to stay right there with me.”
Helen’s jet-black eyes stared at Winona, her finger leaving a conspicuous red mark on Winona’s pale shoulder. Her cherry-red lips slowly formed the words: “You cannot leave me.”
Yun Chuji gasped.
Tang Jianxi gasped too, but since she was still half-drunk, the sharp intake of breath was poorly controlled and she broke into a coughing fit.
The tense atmosphere was broken. The two women, who had been locked in a standoff just moments before, immediately turned their attention to Tang Jianxi.
“Jianxi, are you all right?”
“Miss Tang, are you okay?”
Tang Jianxi gave a weak wave and forced a smile. “I’m fine. Please, continue.”
She said that, but continuing was impossible. This was, after all, an intensely private matter. Even though Tang Jianxi and Yun Chuji were their benefactors and friends, they couldn’t completely lay bare the side of themselves they only showed their lover.
Still, what they had revealed was more than enough to surprise the two onlookers.
No wonder. If even Tang Jianxi and Yun Chuji could see what was going on, how could Helen have missed it? She simply chose not to press the issue, confident that Winona would never leave her without permission. And for her, that was enough.
Of course, Tang Jianxi wasn’t nearly as drunk as she appeared. While it was true this was the most intoxicated she had ever been, she still had enough sense not to do any real harm to herself. Her earlier display had been Plan B—a ploy for sympathy—after her attempt to get Winona drunk had failed.
Under Helen and Winona’s worried gazes, she climbed out of Yun Chuji’s arms, instantly shedding her fragile, helpless demeanor and returning to the dining table with strength and independence.
After finishing the silver thread fish soup Yun Chuji had ladled for her, Tang Jianxi delivered her closing statement. “Well, now that everything’s out in the open, you two should take good care of each other. It wasn’t easy for you to finally be together.”
Winona kept her head down, saying nothing. Helen ladled her a bowl of soup and said softly, “Yes, we will.”
But recalling what Winona had said, Yun Chuji couldn’t help but ask, “What about your mothers, then?”
Helen’s expression faltered for a moment before she answered calmly, “I’ll talk to them. They have each other, after all. But Winona only has me, and she’s the only one I can accept.”
Hearing this, Winona, who had been silently sipping her soup, froze. She looked at Helen in shock, her lips trembling. Her green eyes resembled a melting popsicle, looking as if they might dissolve into tears at any moment.
Helen smiled and reached out to stroke Winona’s hair.
Seeing this, Yun Chuji whispered quietly in Tang Jianxi’s ear, “I think Miss Winona and Miss Helen will be together for life.”
The corners of Tang Jianxi’s lips curled up at her words. She raised her glass. “Come, let’s toast to a long and happy life for Winona and Helen!”
Helen cheerfully drained her glass of juice.
Winona was still flustered, but before she could remain that way for more than a few seconds, Helen was holding a glass to her lips and making her drink.
Of course, Yun Chuji realized with a start. All along, Helen had been the more resolute one.
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