From the moment she discovered that Yan Qiongyu had bought her more than a dozen sets of clothes, yet had only prepared two sets of everyday wear for himself, Wang Luan knew he would not be staying here for long.
On the morning of the fifth day, just like his sudden appearance, Yan Qiongyu suddenly disappeared again.
The flower arrangement in the living room, originally a combination of hyacinth beans and pumpkin blossoms, had already withered, but Yan Qiongyu had never replaced it. Now the dried, withered flowers were gone, replaced by a large bouquet of passionately bright red roses, so red that they caught one’s eye at first glance.
Just beneath the vase, a note was pressed down, with a line of poetry written in the script of her hometown: “May we live long, though a thousand miles apart, sharing the same moonlight.”
It was clearly left by Yan Qiongyu. She did not know when he had practiced his handwriting; it was unexpectedly very beautiful.
Wang Luan looked at it for a while, then put the note away, changed into her work clothes, slung on her tool bag, and headed for the spaceport where flying vessels docked.
These past few days, because she was unwilling to leave a patient alone at home, she had turned down a lot of work. Many of her regular clients had sent her messages, urgently calling her back. Since Yan Qiongyu had left, she might as well go take a look today.
Wang Luan thought to herself that men really did affect making money.
Wang Luan went straight to the spaceport. At the same time, a passenger spacecraft had just departed from the port, heading into the sea of stars.
Yan Qiongyu was wearing the same clothes he had arrived in. After five transfers between spacecraft, he arrived a day later at a large vocational spaceport.
On his encrypted smart brain, there was a message from a stranger two days earlier, simply listing an address and a time.
As the time approached, a spacecraft quietly docked at the VIP port to replenish energy. Yan Qiongyu boarded this private spacecraft at that moment.
The owner of the spacecraft had just received his video request to come aboard and hurried out.
Seeing him, Yan Qiongyu took off his hat and smiled. “Doctor Weier, long time no see.”
The owner of this spacecraft was precisely Doctor Weier Ting. The last time the two had met was at the Wang residence, when Doctor Weier had come to observe and study Wang Luan and Yan Qiongyu because of a mental power enhancement report.
Later, when Wang Luan and Yan Qiongyu disappeared on the Imperial Capital Star, he naturally returned to the Weier family’s A3 star system.
“My child, long time no see. I never expected to run into you here. What a surprise.” Doctor Weier’s face was full of delight, his expression toward Yan Qiongyu still gentle and kind.
During that period at the Wang residence, Yan Qiongyu had deliberately displayed some of his talent in pharmaceutical research before him. Doctor Weier had praised him several times as a genius, saying outright that it was a pity for him to stay at the Wang residence. If not for the time being too short and various concerns, Doctor Weier had almost wanted to take him on as a student.
“I found my mother a year ago, and this past year I’ve been staying by her side learning. I thought Doctor Weier would have heard this news from my mother,” Yan Qiongyu said politely, draping his scarf and coat over his arm, conversing with Doctor Weier in a modest and gentle manner.
Doctor Weier said, “Is that so? I actually didn’t know. Thanks to your help before, my research has made some progress. I’ve been buried in the laboratory all year. Your mother also has her own matters to attend to and hasn’t contacted me much. This time, it was because of some potion improvements that she invited me over.”
So it turned out he had indeed been in contact with Yan Mu all along, and their interactions were even more frequent than he had previously guessed.
Having confirmed his suspicion from Doctor Weier’s words, Yan Qiongyu continued, “I also heard from my mother last week that Doctor Weier would be coming over. I was originally planning to wait at the CON base. These past couple of days I happened to have some matters and passed by here. Calculating the timing, I thought it would be about right. I didn’t expect to really run into Doctor Weier. It works out perfectly to travel together with you, Doctor.”
Doctor Weier replied with gratification, “It’s a good thing that you and your mother have been reunited. In the future, you can help her more. From what you’re saying, your mother is planning to let you conduct research at the CON base? That’s good. Your abilities can only be fully brought into play there.”
In Doctor Weier’s eyes, Yan Qiongyu was a good child with a gentle disposition, longing for freedom and familial affection, even softer-hearted than his mother. He had never imagined that when he lied, he could do so with such ease.
Over the past year, Yan Qiongyu had indeed stayed by Yan Mu’s side, but Yan Mu had always been on guard against him.
She was someone who placed great importance on her own safety, and Yan Qiongyu simply could not find an opportunity to kill her.
Yan Mu was not easy to deal with, and she also had a group of fanatical followers around her.
They were all omega boys and girls not very old, completely brainwashed by her, around fifteen or sixteen years of age. Every single one of them was her loyal and devoted “guard dog.”
These were the people Yan Mu trusted the most, whom she had separately arranged in different places.
For example, Qin Ling, who often stayed by Yan Mu’s side and showed strong hostility toward Yan Qiongyu the moment he appeared, was the administrator of that small town.
The so-called “Utopia” was not just one place, or rather, the Utopia did not merely refer to a specific location. In this region far from the Imperial Capital Star, Yan Mu’s “Utopias” were scattered everywhere.
That town where omegas raised alphas like dogs was only one corner of the Utopia. Over the past year, Yan Qiongyu had successively visited several “Utopias” with different models.
There were Utopias where only omegas existed, without a single alpha in sight;
There were Utopias where alphas, omegas, and betas coexisted, appearing normal on the surface but with a clear hierarchy that placed omegas at the top;
There were Utopias where many alpha miners existed, enslaved and tortured by omegas;
There was an Utopia where a single alpha and a single omega formed a family, appearing loving and harmonious, no different from the outside world
These were all the most ordinary places within Yan Mu’s sphere of influence, inhabited by her ordinary “citizens.”
There were also more important places, such as schools specifically used to cultivate omegas and brainwash them, the CON base used to produce drugs, and various locations used to sell drugs for smuggling and amassing wealth. Yan Qiongyu had never had the chance to go to these places.
This time, after hearing that Doctor Weier was coming, Yan Qiongyu took the initiative to propose going to the CON base to help with drug research, and because of the abilities he had displayed, Yan Mu’s attitude softened.
The drugs produced at the CON base were diverse, and the most important type was the mental-class drug used to control alphas.
Once injected with this drug, an alpha’s mental power would be destroyed. They would still possess strong physiques, but their minds would become so fragile that omegas could easily control them and drive them to collapse.
Whether pain or pleasure, it would all be controlled by omegas.
However, controlling alphas whose mental power had been destroyed did not satisfy Yan Mu. She also hoped to possess even greater power.
What Yan Qiongyu showed her was a future in which omegas possessed physical and mental abilities surpassing those of alphas. Therefore, even though Yan Mu did not believe him, she could not help but feel tempted.
It was precisely Yan Mu’s growing regard for Yan Qiongyu that made Qin Ling feel jealous and uneasy. She firmly believed that Yan Qiongyu would one day harm the godmother she respected most, and so, upon discovering that Yan Mu intended to let Yan Qiongyu intervene in their most important drug, Qin Ling decided to secretly deal with Yan Qiongyu.
A few days earlier, under the pretext of going out together with Yan Qiongyu, she entered an area frequented by star bandits, intending to use someone else’s hand to kill Yan Qiongyu.
Unfortunately, Yan Qiongyu had also been waiting for this opportunity, deliberately guiding her inflated jealousy.
In that killing game where the mantis stalks the cicada while the oriole waits behind, Qin Ling died, and Yan Qiongyu suffered a bit of just-right injury—this was the outcome.
He did not immediately return to Yan Mu, but instead came to seek out Doctor Weier, in order to use him as a way to reach the CON base.
Yan Mu was still hesitating over whether or not to let him go to the CON base. Yan Qiongyu did not want her to continue hesitating. This easily deceived Doctor Weier was his persuader.
Yan Qiongyu guessed that Yan Mu had probably lied to Doctor Weier about many things. Doctor Weier very likely did not know that there were so many “Utopias,” nor did he know that in one of Yan Mu’s Utopias, alphas were raised like dogs.
Yan Mu could lie; of course he could as well. This was not difficult at all.
Doctor Weier’s interactions with Yan Mu over the years had mostly been due to helping research various drugs. The CON base was a place he had often visited in his early years, and Yan Mu also basically met him here.
This time, Yan Mu was also waiting for him at the base. When she saw Yan Qiongyu disembark together with him from his spacecraft, she was momentarily surprised, but quickly returned to a natural expression and greeted the two of them.
She and Doctor Weier appeared to be friends with a good relationship. After familiar pleasantries, Yan Mu looked at Yan Qiongyu and spoke in a gentle tone: “I’ve been looking for you these past few days.”
“Sorry, Mother. I’ve been recuperating from injuries outside these past few days. I felt a bit better today and was afraid you’d worry, so I came back immediately,” Yan Qiongyu said as he walked to her side.
“About that child Qin Ling…” Yan Mu looked at him with a smile, waiting for his explanation.
“Although she caused me to be injured, she has also received her punishment. I don’t blame her,” Yan Qiongyu said magnanimously.
He believed that these past few days were enough for Yan Mu to investigate the entire matter. No matter how she investigated, she could only find that Qin Ling had wanted to kill him, only to bring about her own demise and be killed by star bandits, while he narrowly escaped death.
Whether or not Yan Mu believed in his innocence, she could only accept it, after all Qin Ling was already dead. Those who were already dead had no value to her—Yan Qiongyu understood this point very clearly.
Yan Mu gave him a deep look. “What a pity. That child was raised by me.”
Her pity only went that far. She would not even ask him one more question on behalf of Qin Ling, who had regarded her like a god, lightly brushing aside her death.
“Truly worthy of being my mother,” Yan Qiongyu said by Yan Mu’s ear, his voice barely audible.
Yan Mu let out a light laugh. “Good child, you’ve done even better than I imagined.”
The black cat in her arms stared motionlessly at Yan Qiongyu with its pair of green eyes. One of them was a slightly paler green, the pupil emitting a cold, inorganic gleam.
Yan Qiongyu met the black cat’s gaze for a moment. Clearly it was just a cat, yet every time it looked at him, he would feel as though he were being carefully examined and coldly dissected by a person.
He never doubted his own 3S-level mental perception, so there must be something strange about this cat that so often stayed by Yan Mu’s side.
He still remembered a message Yan Mu had given him when he was young. In the image, Yan Mu had also been holding a cat—though not this one.
“Since you’re here, then come take a look with us,” Yan Mu said. “I look forward to the strength you’ll display.”
“Of course. As you said, I’ll do even better than you imagine,” Yan Qiongyu replied as he walked at her side.
Seeing the mother and son speaking softly together in an intimate manner, Doctor Weier felt gratified.
That such a talented genius could leave the oppressive environment of the Imperial Capital Star and freely display his abilities—this truly was a happy thing.
Only, he recalled the last time he had seen Yan Qiongyu at the Wang residence. At that time, he had come to pick up Miss Wang Luan of the Wang family. That Miss Wang Luan, who had just finished her tests, had held onto Yan Qiongyu’s wrist and walked forward slowly. He had deliberately quickened his pace, provoking Miss Wang Luan to tightly grab his clothes. Their steps matched each other, and the two young people looked to be on rather good terms.
“I just remembered—back then, you disappeared together with Miss Wang Luan of the Wang family. Do you know where she is now?” Doctor Weier suddenly asked.
Yan Qiongyu looked surprised, as if he hadn’t expected him to bring up Wang Luan. With regret yet composure, he said, “I’m not too sure. We parted a year ago. Has she really not returned to the Wang family all this time?”
ততততততততততত
“Liu Luan, after the spacecraft is fixed later, could you accompany me on a trip to the Liuhua District?”
Wang Luan was twisting a component in her hands. Hearing this, she turned back to look at the speaking female beta, utterly puzzled. They weren’t very familiar—just a few spacecraft repair jobs between them.
“Aren’t there your companions on the spacecraft? Can’t you go together?” Toward female betas, the gender closest to women in her original world, Wang Luan’s attitude was gentle.
Zhu Xing stamped her foot in embarrassment and anger. “You! Do you even understand what I mean?!”
Now she understood.
Having understood, Wang Luan was so startled that she grabbed her ray gun. She briskly packed away her tools, saw Zhu Xing standing near the door, and braced one hand on the window before flipping out through it.
Seeing her jump out the window to escape, Zhu Xing’s expression was indescribable. She leaned at the window, laughing and crying as she shouted, “Was that really necessary?!”
Wang Luan called back, “Remember to transfer the repair fee to my card!”
A rather tall beta man poked his head in and asked, “Miss, she didn’t agree?”
Zhu Xing replied irritably, “She was scared off. What do you think?”
The man did not understand. “Why would you like that kind of alpha, Miss? If you like alphas, there are plenty over there for you to choose from.”
“You don’t understand!” Zhu Xing lay against the window. “She’s so different from other alphas.”
The man muttered, “What’s so different about her? If she knew you were an omega, she might agree right away.”
Zhu Xing was a little unhappy. “I saw with my own eyes that she rejected a pretty omega last time!”
Walking along the road, Wang Luan thought of how she had been confessed to by an omega older sister last time, and then thought of this beta younger sister hinting at her this time. She painfully covered her forehead and muttered, “What a sin. Yan Qiongyu.”
Realizing whose name she had unconsciously muttered, she pressed her forehead again, feeling an even worse headache.
It was all this damn gender’s fault, making her lose her sisters.
