After finishing a repair job, it was already very late. Wang Luan had no choice but to walk home at night, crossing seven blocks.
As she walked, she was still thinking about that huge thing she had just repaired. In Little Wu District, very few people were willing to spend a large sum of money to buy that kind of new-model mecha. The owner of that household was low-level and couldn’t pilot a mecha; buying such a huge thing was mainly to put it at the door as a decoration—commonly known as flaunting wealth.
But his youngest son had secretly gone to drive it, and somehow broke it.
In this area, you could still find a few people who could repair starships, but there were none who could repair mecha. There weren’t even many people who had seen something as expensive as a mecha.
Going to the prosperous main star circle to find a specialized mecha repair technician was too expensive, so that household owner cautiously went around testing several repair technicians in Little Wu District, until he asked Wang Luan.
Thinking of the Fifth Prince’s mecha she had dismantled on a wasteland planet before, and then looking at the large payment they offered, Wang Luan picked up her toolbox and went. She spent an entire day there, contentedly dismantling part of the mecha and then putting it back together. While repairing it, she also took the chance to hone her skills again.
This day had been truly fulfilling.
Wang Luan looked up at the moon in the sky, feeling that this kind of life was very satisfying. If she could keep living so peacefully, that would actually be quite nice.
On the narrow, deserted path late at night, there was suddenly a burst of hurried running footsteps, along with a woman’s sharp cry for help.
Wang Luan snapped back to attention, stopped to listen for a few seconds, then immediately ran in the direction the sound came from.
In a chaotic area like this, such things happened often. This wasn’t the first time Wang Luan had gone to rescue a pitiful girl or boy entangled by scum.
Sometimes it was drunken hooligans harassing a passing delicate-looking beta; sometimes it was human traffickers selecting goods; there were also many even more chaotic situations.
As long as Wang Luan encountered it, she would basically go help. She always remembered that in another world, when she herself as a girl had encountered terrible things, she had once been helped by kind-hearted people. Now that she possessed this power, she didn’t mind helping others as well.
This time, it was two tall alphas chasing a slender girl wrapped in a cloak. In a dark alley not far from Wang Luan, the two blocked the girl, who could no longer run, into a corner.
Even though there were two of them, Wang Luan didn’t hesitate.
Her aptitude had once been called trash in the noble circles of Imperial Capital Star, but now, after her mental power had increased and her physique had been strengthened, in a place like this where most were low-level alphas, fighting one against many posed no problem at all.
What’s more, she was carrying quite a few dangerous weapons on her. If necessary, she could blow up this entire street.
After charging in, Wang Luan realized that these two alphas were even weaker than she had imagined. She took a running start and kicked one down; the entire process didn’t even take three seconds.
Perhaps both sides were startled by the other’s unexpected level of force. The scene fell silent for a moment. Then the two alphas—whose weakness didn’t quite match their tall builds—didn’t even release aggressive pheromones. They very quickly admitted defeat, scrambled up from the ground, turned their heads, and ran, disappearing into the darkness in the blink of an eye.
Wang Luan didn’t pursue them. She felt those two had run too fast and suspected there might be accomplices ahead.
She turned back to look at the girl leaning against the wall. “Do you need me to escort you to a main road where there are people?”
The cloaked girl pulled down the hood on her head, revealing a somewhat familiar face. On that delicate face, a pair of bright, grape-like eyes stared at her without blinking.
“Liu Luan, you saved me. You’re amazing.” The young girl said in a dreamy tone.
Wang Luan immediately felt annoyed—wasn’t this the same girl from a month ago who had asked her to repair a starship and then suddenly showed intentions of getting into a relationship!
She remembered that this sister seemed to come from a pretty wealthy family. Every time she came, she drove a different starship, and every time it happened to break down so that she needed Wang Luan to repair it. Each time, there were bodyguards accompanying her. How was she appearing here alone now?
Thinking about how those two people had run away too quickly just now—back when Wang Luan went out to save people before, those guys mostly tangled and shouted curses, on average getting beaten twice before running away—this time, the lack of fighting and lack of entanglement was simply like they were here just to complete a task.
“…Friend, those two just now weren’t people you deliberately found to put on an act, were they?” Wang Luan casually asked.
Zhu Xing hadn’t expected her to guess it. She immediately made her eyes brim with tears and started fake-crying with sobs. “How could that be? I was originally out with my family. I was shopping alone and accidentally walked too far, then ran into those two strangers who suddenly tried to grab me and even said they were going to sell me. I was so scared!”
Wang Luan was half-believing, half-doubting. Seeing her expression, Zhu Xing felt aggrieved inside, thinking about how she was so smart that she guessed it right away, yet at the same time felt happy that her own judgment hadn’t been wrong.
Thinking to divert her attention, Zhu Xing released a trace of sweet pheromones. Her pheromones carried the scent of roses.
When Wang Luan smelled the rose-scented pheromones, she indeed paused for a moment. “You’re an omega?”
Zhu Xing nodded innocently. “Yes. I often go out with my family. It’s very unsafe, so I use suppressants to restrain my pheromones and disguise myself as a beta. That way it’s a bit safer. Today… I was frightened, and I forgot to replenish the suppressant, so a little pheromone leaked out.”
There were very few omegas in this place. With omegas being so rare here, it would indeed be more dangerous for them. If that were the case, the likelihood of her being targeted by traffickers was greater.
Wang Luan didn’t want to pursue what had just happened either. She only wanted to quickly escort her to the main road, lest something really happen.
Her appearance of being eager to get rid of a hot potato made Zhu Xing feel somewhat unwilling to accept it. Standing by the main road, she saw from afar that the bodyguards who had come along this time were searching over, while Wang Luan nodded and was about to leave. Unable to hold back, she said, “Wait, Liu Luan! Do you really dislike me that much?”
Wang Luan spoke bluntly, “I can’t.”
Zhu Xing choked, feeling that she was brushing her off, yet unwilling to give up so easily. Pretending to step back, she said, “Alright then. If you really don’t like me, then let’s be friends.”
Wang Luan: Who isn’t a girl—those intentions are obvious at a glance.
Pretending to be friends was actually just being ambiguous under the name of friendship, taking a roundabout route, and in the end still wanting to head toward a romantic relationship. All the idol dramas she had watched followed this plot. She wasn’t going to fall for it.
“I have someone I like.” Wang Luan dropped that sentence and left without looking back.
What happened that night was just an interlude. Wang Luan didn’t put much thought into it. Instead, the fact that she had repaired a mecha that day caused her business to expand instantly.
After that, those who came to her for repairs included not only starships, spacecraft, and all kinds of large machinery, but also mecha. The people who came to ask her for repairs were no longer limited to Little Wu District and the nearby ring stars; there were even those from farther districts.
On this day, she received another large order to repair a mecha. The location was relatively far away, in Daquan District. Taking an ordinary starship there would take two days just on the road.
Wang Luan originally didn’t want to go, but they offered far too much money, and even included complimentary three-day vouchers for a nearby luxury hot spring hotel.
Thinking about how she had been busy every day during this period and was indeed a bit tired, and that she should relax slightly and rest for a couple of days, she finally agreed.
This trip would take at least a week. The most important thing at home was the vegetable garden. Before leaving, she adjusted the irrigation system to ensure that her garden would definitely receive sufficient watering over these days.
The irrigation system was something she had set up long ago. It was just that when she was at home, she still preferred to water by hand herself, treating it as a form of leisure. Even Yan Qiongyu quite liked the feeling of standing in the garden watering the plants, and over those days had taken over all her work.
Thinking of Yan Qiongyu, Wang Luan’s thoughts drifted for a moment.
It had been over a month. She wondered where he was now, and what he was doing… probably still stirring things up.
ততততততততততত
Yan Qiongyu, dressed in a spotless white lab coat, was observing the latest data he had obtained.
This was a research room in the CON base. There were many such research rooms within the base. Yan Qiongyu’s current clearance was not high, and there were many areas he still couldn’t enter. The place he stayed in the most each day was this laboratory.
Aside from following Doctor Weier to research mental power drugs, his other research was all completed in this laboratory. He had not requested any assistants, so progress was slow. Even Yan Mu rarely came to this lab. Only her black cat passed by the window every day, casting gloomy glances at him.
Yan Qiongyu conducted his research each day at an unhurried pace, helping Doctor Weier improve mental drugs, and carrying out omega pheromone regulation experiments according to Yan Mu’s requirements.
For Yan Qiongyu, another important thing about staying at the CON base was being able to come into contact with almost all Utopias of different models.
All forces belonging to Yan Mu needed to come to the base regularly to collect drugs. Drugs of various purposes were secretly produced here, handed over to different people, and flowed to all corners.
Some of these drugs became tools to control alphas; some became tools to seek wealth; others satisfied the daily use of the large base population of omegas within the Utopias.
The independently constructed inner harbor was docked with starships bearing the Lingxiaohua emblem. When Yan Qiongyu saw them, he knew that the head of some Utopia had come to collect drugs. And distributing the required drugs to these people was a new task he had received over the past few days.
Yan Qiongyu left the laboratory, one hand tucked into the pocket of his white lab coat, and arrived at the drug-compounding building, just in time to hear the person in charge who had come this time chatting with those beside her.
“I still like her… Why doesn’t she like me? She said she has someone she likes—she must be lying to me. If she really had someone she liked, then why is she alone every time I see her?”
Yan Qiongyu recognized this voice. Zhu Xing, S-rank mental power, was responsible for the “High Tower” Utopia. Like Qin Ling, who was responsible for the “Red Town” Utopia, she was a “Shepherd.” She had grown up by Yan Mu’s side and was one of her fanatical followers.
“No, this is the first time in my life I’ve liked an alpha. I absolutely won’t give up. Even if I have to grab her, I’ll grab her to my side. As long as we spend enough time together, she’ll definitely like me.” Zhu Xing’s tone inside the room was excited and naïve.
She was probably too emotionally stirred up and didn’t notice that someone was outside the door.
Yan Qiongyu unhurriedly knocked on the door, then pushed it open, meeting Zhu Xing’s gaze as her expression suddenly darkened.
“This is your allocated drug list. Take a look and see if there are any problems.” Yan Qiongyu held a drug list between his fingers.
Zhu Xing sat at the desk without standing up and snorted lightly. “Why is it you.”
She didn’t say anything more unpleasant. They all knew about Qin Ling’s death and understood what had happened. This child born of the Godmother didn’t look as harmless as he appeared. On the contrary, he was quite dangerous.
In just one short year, Qin Ling, the Godmother’s most trusted confidant, had died. Meanwhile, he—who had no foundation here—was fine, and had even gained the Godmother’s trust and come to the CON base. Zhu Xing was wary in her heart and didn’t want to truly come into conflict with him.
Thinking of what she had just said, Zhu Xing’s heart lifted slightly. He shouldn’t have heard her say she had fallen for an alpha, right?
After checking the list, Yan Qiongyu turned to leave. Then he suddenly turned his head back and smiled. “Ah, I accidentally heard what you were saying just now… I don’t quite understand. Do ‘Shepherds’ also fall in love with ‘sheep’? That’s really interesting.”
Zhu Xing instantly became alert, staring at him intently. “What do you want to do.”
“Of course I won’t do anything.” Yan Qiongyu chuckled softly. “Just don’t let your Godmother find out.”
