After nearly a month of close guidance, Yu Luoyan had evolved from someone who didn't know how to talk back to Que Tang’s criticisms to someone who could hold her own in a discussion.
"The project has finally taken its initial shape. You’ve worked hard." Que Tang felt quite gratified by Yu Luoyan’s growth; they hadn't wasted each other's time. She also felt fortunate that she had chosen to spend a thousand points at the beginning to exchange for the "High-Level Manager Decision-Making Mode."
Hearing that the case was finally approved, Yu Luoyan’s heart felt complicated. From initially not wanting to lose to the other woman, to becoming both mentor and friend, and yet still being love rivals—she truly didn't know how to define the woman before her. The only thing she knew for certain was that her heart was currently filled with an inexplicable sense of loss.
"So, is this enough?" Despite her cold tone, Yu Luoyan’s expression was one of anticipation for praise, which made Que Tang’s eyes crinkle with a smile.
Yu Luoyan was momentarily dazed by that smile.
"Of course it’s enough," Que Tang nodded with a laugh. "If I, the partner, have approved it, there shouldn't be much opposition within your company. From now on, you won't have to work so hard running back and forth every day."
"..." Yu Luoyan silently packed away her documents.
"But if you have any questions, you can still come find me. Neighbor." Que Tang shifted the atmosphere, playfully using a different title.
Upon hearing this, Yu Luoyan’s eyes couldn't help but light up with sparks of joy, but she looked away in the next moment. "Que Tang, who do you think you are? A saint? To go this far just for the sake of 'atonement'?"
She remembered how she had initially made a scene, insisting she had to surpass her, and had thrown a tantrum for an entire afternoon to make Que Tang stay when she had already planned to transfer back to the headquarters.
She had acted so childishly and willfully, only daring to do so by relying on Que Tang’s gentleness.
Back then, Que Tang said she stayed to atone for her sins. Surely she had atoned enough by now? After all, if one were to be honest, it had always been Song Aotian’s fault. Que Tang was also a victim...
If she continued her unreasonable behavior, wouldn't she only push her further away?
"Hmm? Aren't we friends?" Que Tang was slightly surprised. "I thought we could at least be called friends by now... I suppose I was mistaken."
"Friends?" Yu Luoyan turned back to her, her eyes full of hope. "So it’s not atonement, but friendship?"
"I thought our interactions lately were enough to call us friends..." Que Tang gave an embarrassed but tolerant smile. "But even if we aren't—"
"No, so I can bother you as a friend?" Yu Luoyan, who always maintained a high-handed and uncompromising posture regardless of the occasion, could no longer be bothered with maintaining her etiquette. For the first time since marrying Song Aotian, she felt happy.
Yet this happiness was not built upon the husband she once thought would be her source of bliss. Instead, it came from... her husband’s mistress, the woman she had always regarded as a rival and opponent.
But during this time spent with Que Tang, she finally understood: if a person does not love themselves first, others will not truly love them. Love should not be a total sacrifice of one's own life, but a part of life to be enjoyed.
In the past, she had sacrificed her life, career, and friends for Song Aotian, only to end up with a pathetic result. She would never again be so foolish as to give her all for someone who wasn't worth her heart.
"You can," Que Tang smiled elegantly. "And... Miss Yu, the results of your secret cooking lessons aren't bad."
Yu Luoyan’s cheeks instantly flushed with embarrassment. Originally, she had started learning to cook out of spite, hoping to win Song Aotian back, but later it had all become a means to get Que Tang to open her door.
"I think the current Miss Yu is someone Mr. Song will definitely fall in love with again." These past few days, Song Aotian had stopped asking her out as enthusiastically as before. For one, she never gave him face and rejected him mercilessly; for another, Song Aotian couldn't lower his pride.
He was no longer the fledgling salesman who had to endure the scrutiny of his superiors; he was now an entrepreneur with assets worth hundreds of millions.
"Is that so?" Yu Luoyan didn't look as happy as Que Tang expected. Her pensive expression made Que Tang feel as if the female lead was undergoing a spontaneous "blackening"...
When Yu Luoyan returned to Yu Xia, she intended to take the cooperation case to discuss it with Song Aotian. When she reached his office door, his secretary blocked her way, looking awkward and nervous.
"The General Manager is... busy right now." The secretary hadn't expected the chairman's daughter, who never appeared at the company in the afternoon, to show up today. Ever since the Chairman went into semi-retirement, the General Manager had become increasingly reckless, though he usually had enough sense to meet his "outside friends" when the young miss wasn't around.
Yu Luoyan said expressionlessly, "Move."
"Young Miss..."
"Do you know what this company is called?" Yu Luoyan asked coldly.
"Yu... Yu Xia," the secretary answered tremulously.
"Then you know who the boss is."
"Your father..." The secretary tactfully moved aside and returned to her desk.
She stepped past the secretary and pushed open the door to the General Manager's office. A girl with disheveled clothes was sitting on Song Aotian’s lap. Anyone with eyes could tell what they were doing in that large executive chair.
The expressions of the couple, interrupted by the sound of the door, turned from pleasure to horror.
"Yu Luoyan!" The man’s roar was accompanied by the woman’s scream.
"Song Aotian, is this your so-called love for Que Tang?" Yu Luoyan watched coldly as they turned their backs to her to straighten their clothes. Once the girl was decent, she immediately grabbed her handbag and rushed past her out of the office. As she passed, the strong scent of cheap perfume made Yu Luoyan think of the fruity fragrance on Que Tang.
If she had still harbored a final shred of marital affection or hope, it vanished the moment she opened that door. A man who kept telling her he had fallen for another woman who was better than her—she had accepted that, for the other woman was indeed so excellent that it was impossible to hate her. But this man, who claimed to love someone else, was simultaneously sleeping with another woman.
She just wanted to sneer now. To laugh loudly at her past stupidity. And she actually did it.
She bent over, laughing uncontrollably, as tears slipped from her eyes and fell onto the carpet, staining it with dark spots.
"Are you crazy?" Song Aotian glared at her. Seeing that her laughter was drawing people outside, his embarrassment turned into rage. "You've seen it all now. Do you still not plan to divorce me?"
Yu Luoyan abruptly stopped laughing and stood straight. There was no longer a trace of emotion in her eyes as she looked at him. "Fine. Hand over your shares in Yu Xia, and I'll sign."
"By what right?" Hearing this, Song Aotian was like an enraged beast, his eyes bloodshot as he glared at her. "If I hadn't worked like a dog for Yu Xia, how could it have survived until today?"
Yu Luoyan coldly pulled a stack of documents from the folder she had been holding and threw them on his desk. "These are the company's internal accounts from last year. Song Aotian, do you really think the Yu family are fools? Don't forget, your surname is Song, not Yu." She mocked him with a cold sneer. "If you don't cough up the Yu Xia shares, fine. I'll make this information public."
These were all things Que Tang had taught her, step by step.
"You... very well." Song Aotian gritted his teeth, took a stack of documents from his briefcase, and pulled the Yu Xia stock certificates from the safe. "You sign the divorce, and I'll stamp the transfer to you at the same time."
"Did you remove the clause requiring me to give you ten percent of Yu Xia's stock?"
Song Aotian quickly signed the stock transfer. "I knew you wouldn't sign that divorce agreement; this one is the real one. Our assets will be completely separate." After signing, he tossed the stocks onto the desk. "Is that enough?"
"I will have my lawyer confirm there are no issues with this divorce agreement before I sign." Yu Luoyan’s eyes showed no ripple of emotion; she was as calm as if she were handling routine business.
Song Aotian grabbed his suit jacket and stormed out of the office in a rage.
She picked up the divorce certificate, gripped it tightly, and turned to leave the office.
"Meow~ The male lead's favorability for the female lead is negative one hundred. The female lead's blackening value is seventy."
Que Tang immediately spat out a mouthful of lunch soup. Fortunately, she was dining alone so no one was sitting opposite her. She quickly wiped it clean with a tissue. "Didn't I just have a pleasant chat with her this morning about how she could win back the man's heart? How did it hit negative one hundred just because I went out for lunch?"
"Meow~ The female lead and the male lead have already had a showdown to divorce."
"Then the male lead should be happy. How am I supposed to play with negative one hundred! Does this mission really require me to sell my chastity—bah, my integrity?"
"Because the female lead also forced the male lead to cough up the Yu Xia stocks. This was all taught to her by the host... Meow~"
"...So it was my own doing." Que Tang silently scooped up a mouthful of rice and stuffed it into her mouth.
"Finding life in death, host, don't worry too much, meow~"
"Hearing you say that makes me even more worried." Que Tang rolled her eyes. "Well, the die is cast; it can only be this way. Anyway, I hated this male lead from the start. It’s better to let the grown-up female lead torment him."
"Meow~ Host, don't get ahead of yourself. The female lead has blackened now; she might even torment you without recognizing her own kin."
"I feel like that sentence is a prophecy." Que Tang keenly sensed the underlying meaning. Usually, when this stupid cat was so certain, it meant the upcoming situation was not optimistic.
"Meow~ You're overthinking it, host. I'm just kindly reminding you. Unlike you, who abuses animals all day. Narrow-minded human!"
"..."
When Que Tang got home after work, she saw a tall woman at Yu Luoyan’s door. She nodded politely and opened her own door.
"Are you Que Tang?"
"Uh... yes." She turned back. "And you are?"
The other woman was already tall, and with high heels, her sharp aura was overwhelming. Seeing her features, which were similar to Yu Luoyan’s, Que Tang guessed she was likely a relative.
"I am Yu Luoyan’s cousin." She looked down at Que Tang from her height. "I heard Song Aotian wants a divorce because of you. You don't look like much."
"Er—" Never having met someone so direct, Que Tang was momentarily at a loss for words.
"Zhiyao, why are you here?" Yu Luoyan stepped out of the elevator and first saw Que Tang standing at her door with an awkward expression. Following her gaze, she realized it was her cousin.
"Cousin. The things you asked me to buy are here." Seeing her appear, Yu Zhiyao softened her attitude and handed over a brown paper bag. "I'm leaving." Before going, she gave Que Tang another look, one filled with a heavy warning.
Que Tang forced a smile and waved. Only after the elevator doors closed did her expression return to a natural curve.
"Did my cousin say something just now?" Yu Luoyan, who had taken in all of Que Tang’s expressions, asked with concern. "But don't mind whatever she said; she didn't mean it."
"It’s fine. She cares about you." Only then did Que Tang return to her usual gentle self, habitually soothing her. "How was your day?" Since she couldn't enter the other's home, she simply leaned against her own doorframe, posing for a long chat.
But her neighbor across the hall didn't seem to be in the right headspace. She pursed her lips, stole a glance at her, and looked down. "I'm getting a divorce."
"I see." Que Tang nodded. "After the contract is signed, I'll be heading back to America soon."
Yu Luoyan snapped her head up.
"I mentioned it before. Did you forget?" Seeing her expression, which was like that of an abandoned fledgling, Que Tang couldn't help but step forward and rub the top of her head. "The dignified Miss Yu, soon to be single again—are you afraid no one will want you?"
Yu Luoyan remained silent.
"It’s okay. You have to believe you can handle it, no matter the situation." Que Tang encouraged her.
"Que Tang... you won't marry Song Aotian, will you? A man like him isn't worth your devotion." Yu Luoyan grabbed her hand, mentioning the man who had always stood between them. She could no longer tell if she felt more pain for herself or more pity for Que Tang.
"Of course not. I've moved on." Marrying that scumbag was absolutely impossible. Que Tang squeezed her hand. "Get some rest. I'm going in too. I still have some handover matters to deal with. Goodnight." She pulled away without hesitation.
"Goodnight," Yu Luoyan answered softly, staring at her back.
The next morning, as Que Tang was going downstairs, a figure rushed up and hugged her.
"Que Tang, let's get married. Yu Luoyan has signed the divorce papers. I can finally give you a status!" Song Aotian looked at her excitedly.
"Meow, the female lead's blackening value is full."
Hearing the notification, Que Tang instinctively looked up. Sure enough, she saw a familiar figure by the window of Yu Luoyan’s home. She pushed Song Aotian away, trying to mend the situation.
Her forehead was covered in metaphorical black lines. This time, she was truly in trouble. The female lead was definitely going to torment her and the male lead to death together.
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Transmigrated as the Mary Sue: The Villainess's Revenge System | Chapter 59 | A Cold Awakening | Novela.app | Novela.app
