It felt like falling into an endless dream.
Even before opening her eyes, Yan Mian still couldn’t hear a thing.
Until a muffled female voice sounded: “Hasn’t she woken up yet?”
The voice was very familiar, yet Yan Mian couldn’t quite place its owner.
“She differentiated already. There’s no way she’d recover that quickly.”
In her hazy state, a shadowy figure seemed to materialize before her eyes.
Yan Mian’s mind jolted, and the next second, she forced her eyes open with effort.
The ward was bright and spotless, thick with the scent of disinfectant. Warm sunlight streamed in gently. Qiao Qiao leaned against the window, biting into an apple she’d plucked from the flower basket, and asked casually, “What about you, then?”
Zhu Lexing had peeled half an apple and sliced it into neat pieces on a plate. She paused at the question before replying, “I don’t know.”
Last night, not long after Yan Mian had passed out, the police had shown up.
The two of them were rushed straight to the hospital, where the doctor ran full-body checkups. The results were straightforward: Yan Mian hadn’t encountered any mishaps during her forced differentiation. She had become an Omega.
Zhu Lexing, on the other hand, was perfectly fine.
She hadn’t lingered long in Shi Ruofeng’s room, and the inhibitor shot had postponed her own impending differentiation.
Even until dawn, her bones had felt out of joint, the pain excruciating.
But the agony an Omega endured was far worse. Looking at Yan Mian’s face, Zhu Lexing figured it wasn’t so bad after all.
Qiao Qiao let out a sigh. “Man, it’s really been rough on you—peeling all those? They’ll brown before you know it. Haven’t you had enough already?”
Zhu Lexing replied, “I only did it ’cause you like them. Go ahead and eat.”
Qiao Qiao couldn’t help thinking Zhu Lexing had some “sinister ulterior motives.”
She checked her watch. “The police should be here soon for your statement. I heard Lin Yang didn’t cop to a single thing.”
Zhu Lexing sneered. “If she had, she’d be looking at least ten years inside.”
The bar’s surveillance was busted. So was the hotel’s. The Lin Family moved like human signal jammers—wherever they went, the cameras conveniently failed. Everyone involved had clearly been gotten to in advance; they all claimed total ignorance no matter what they were asked.
The argument at the bar had happened too far away for any clear witnesses, aside from Li Nian. Instead, plenty of people had seen Zhu Lexing threatening Lin Yang with the jagged stem of a broken glass. The whole night had been spent going in circles over that one detail.
Lin Yang had come prepared this time, too.
She’d crafted herself a persona of devoted admirer, claiming she’d only gone to the bar because she was so smitten with Zhu Lexing that she just had to see her.
Her stonewalling made Zhu Lexing’s skin crawl.
Anyone with eyes could see she was lying through her teeth. Even when pressed on other matters, Lin Yang would just squeeze out a couple of crocodile tears and demand to speak to Lin Song.
Zhu Lexing had seen that stubbornness coming.
“She’s disgusting,” Qiao Qiao said, clearly repulsed by Lin Yang’s antics. She frowned, then asked, “What about her dad? He’s just letting her get away with this? Yan Mian didn’t get hurt, but…”
Zhu Lexing kept peeling the apple. “Who knows?”
After Lin Qingxing arrived, Zhu Lin had a brief outburst. He’d grabbed the man by the collar and snarled, “If anything happens to Little Mian, the Lin Family and I are far from done.”
But Jiang Yue had talked him down, and he’d quickly regained his composure. Before long, he’d even apologized to Lin Qingxing, saying he’d been too impulsive. Things weren’t settled yet—no need to burn bridges.
The whole situation was lopsided in the most delicate way.
Zhu Lexing hadn’t been there herself, but Li Nian had filled her in that morning. It all felt predictably par for the course.
Even Yan Mian’s own mother was acting like that. Why would outsiders stick their necks out?
But was “normal” the same as “right”?
Qiao Qiao opened her mouth to say more, but a low, raspy female voice cut her off: “…Water.”
Zhu Lexing snapped to attention first. She quickly brought the straw from the pre-prepared cup to Yan Mian’s lips. Drinking straight from it risked spilling on her clothes or getting too close; a straw was perfect.
Qiao Qiao stood. “I’ll leave you two alone. Get some good rest, Yan Mian.”
Once she was gone, the ward fell quiet with just the two of them. Yan Mian took only a small sip before going still again.
Zhu Lexing set the cup aside and sat by her side. After a moment of silence, she tugged the blanket higher.
“The police are looking into what happened last night,” Zhu Lexing said. “Someone will be by soon to take your statement. Just tell them the truth. It’ll be fine.”
Yan Mian gazed at Zhu Lexing’s face. The girl’s eyes brimmed with unmistakable concern. Her memories of the night before were a foggy blur. All she could really recall was that the last person she’d leaned on was Zhu Lexing.
And it was Zhu Lexing who’d injected her with the inhibitor.
She had no reason to hurt her.
Yan Mian parted her lips. “Yesterday, in that room… I smelled another Omega’s pheromones.”
Zhu Lexing nodded. “That was Shi Ruofeng. You know… the one Lin Yang was talking about before.”
It was only after Qiao Qiao arrived that Zhu Lexing had gotten the basic rundown on Shi Ruofeng’s background.
It was another messy saga of wealthy family drama.
Shi Ruofeng had been taken in by Shi Ling only after her mother—the “other woman”—had died. In personality, she was a lot like Yan Mian: aloof and distant, with stellar grades. But unlike Yan Mian, she wasn’t just up against a “Zhu Lexing.”
Shi Ling was the sort of breeding-obsessed Alpha cancer who was dead set on spreading his genes far and wide. His illegitimate daughters could form their own board-game league, and most of them had been brought into the Shi Family while still young.
Even with only half his blood, years of living in the Shi Family had convinced them they were its rightful owners.
And they showed Shi Ruofeng no mercy, despite her similar status. They treated her with open hostility.
Yet Shi Ruofeng had nowhere else to go.
She was a member of the Shi Family, Shi blood running through her veins—a caged bird with clipped wings.
No one could protect her. No one was willing to.
That was her life until recently, when Shi Ling ran into trouble with an investment. He lost his entire family fortune, his house was auctioned off, and he came within a hair’s breadth of jumping to his death. It was then that Lin Song stepped in, claiming he could lend Shi Ling some money.
The sum wasn’t enough to pay off all the debts, but it bought Shi Ling some time to breathe.
Lin Song had only one condition.
Shi Ruofeng would go with him.
By the time Qiao Qiao reached this part of the story, Zhu Lexing could no longer contain her seething rage.
Qiao Qiao, however, explained, “She’s fine. Nothing will happen to her.”
Only then did Zhu Lexing remember the Shi Ruofeng she had seen the night before. The girl had clearly just entered her Differentiation Period. If Lin Song had done anything to her, her differentiation couldn’t have happened only last night.
Zhu Lexing had no intention of telling Yan Mian any of this.
Yan Mian was perceptive and deeply empathetic. Given her own fragile health, Zhu Lexing didn’t want to burden her with such a grim tale.
All she managed to say was a stiff reassurance: “Li Nian is with her. She’ll be fine.”
Yan Mian wasn’t clear on Li Nian’s role in all this.
But from Zhu Lexing’s tone, it was obvious Li Nian was unharmed. She let out a quiet breath of relief.
In the very next moment, though, her heart leaped back into her throat.
Yan Mian stared at Zhu Lexing and suddenly said, “Zhu Lexing.”
“…Huh?” Zhu Lexing snapped back to the present. She remembered how Yan Mian had called her name the night before in just the same way, as if on the verge of saying something—but she never had. “What’s wrong?”
Yan Mian began, “Short…”
The door swung open.
Two men in uniforms stood in the doorway, looking mildly surprised. “You’re awake? Good. Come with us to the station, then. Time to give your statements.”
“Lin Song’s already there.”
On the way to the police station, Zhu Lexing mulled over the entire chain of events.
First: Why had Yan Mian gone to that hotel? Who had put her up to it? Lin Yang? No way.
If Lin Yang had asked her directly, Yan Mian would have turned to Qiao Qiao for help instead of going along with it.
Her last encounter with Lin Yang had been lesson enough about the woman’s ruthless tactics.
Second… this couldn’t possibly have nothing to do with Lin Song.
But the whole affair had unfolded too abruptly, riddled with illogic at every turn. For instance, why were Yan Mian and Shi Ruofeng in the same hotel? Why had Lin Yang shown up out of nowhere to provoke a fight? And why give Zhu Lexing the wrong room number on purpose?
If they’d been in separate rooms, Zhu Lexing never would have found them on her own.
Too many things didn’t add up. Stringing it all together, it felt like a slapdash scheme cooked up on impulse.
From her brief interaction with him last time, though, Zhu Lexing didn’t peg Lin Song as the impulsive type.
He had to know that if he got dragged into this, a single charge of “intentionally inducing premature differentiation in an Omega” would be enough for the Lin Family to bury him.
She knew they were both unhinged—and the unhinged didn’t bother with logic.
Still, Zhu Lexing couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off about the whole thing.
When she faced Lin Song, he’d probably just deny everything outright.
Playing dirty was their specialty, after all.
Lin Song wasn’t in the holding cell.
He had no evidence placing him at the scene; he was just there for questioning. No need for handcuffs.
Unexpectedly, Lin Yang was with him too, sipping tea meekly—though a flicker of tension occasionally betrayed her eyes.
The pair looked utterly at ease, as if they’d dropped in for afternoon tea.
Zhu Lexing cut straight to it. “Why isn’t she locked up? I already told you—she—”
