On the second day after checking into the hot spring hotel, Wang Luan turned down Qi Liao’s enthusiastic invitation and went alone to see a modified mecha exhibition.
She went by herself. But she hadn’t even looked at two mechas when she ran straight into Qi Liao. This guy, still as overfamiliar as ever, darted to her side and said, “Aren’t we both coming here anyway? Why didn’t you agree to come with me—why did you reject me?”
“Come, come, I’ll show you around these modified mechas!” Qi Liao looked like the host as he commented on them for her.
“Look at this one. I know its owner, from my circle. He just fucking mods things blindly and ends up with some dogshit nonsense!”
“And this one, tsk tsk, shabby. These materials and he has the nerve to put them on a mecha!”
Qi Liao possessed most of the qualities that alphas have: arrogance, and a love of showing off.
Listening to his amateur and subjective nonsense, Wang Luan didn’t know why, but felt that this employer was especially annoying today, his voice particularly noisy.
After listening to him drone on for ten minutes, Wang Luan couldn’t take it anymore. She felt that if she kept listening she might not be able to stop herself from hitting someone, so she simply left the mecha exhibition and went to stroll around another materials market.
Today probably wasn’t suitable for going out. As soon as she arrived at the materials market, Wang Luan almost got into an argument with an alpha who was walking hurriedly and nearly bumped into her.
Actually, alphas generally have big tempers, and when they collide, friction often happens. But Wang Luan was so even-tempered she didn’t seem like an alpha at all. After nearly arguing with a stall owner over the quality of parts, Wang Luan felt something was a bit off.
Why was she so restless and irritable today?
Having lost the mood to buy anything, she returned to the hotel to rest, slept straight through until the afternoon, and discovered that her forehead was slightly warm, and she didn’t have much strength either.
She lay on the big bed thinking: Am I sick?
But even as she thought that, she had no desire to get up and take medicine. She just lay there, unwilling to move, even wanting to lie there until the end of time.
The last time she’d felt this dejected was the last time.
She used her somewhat sluggishly turning brain to think for a while, and suddenly understood—it should be that the alpha sensitive period had arrived again.
Mainly because she had only gone through one sensitive period before, with little experience, and she wasn’t an original model, so sometimes she wasn’t very sensitive to physiological conditions.
The moment she realized her sensitive period had arrived, she was already gradually being dominated by its reactions. She curled up in the blanket, tears streaming down all at once, and murmured, “I don’t want to live anymore. What’s the point of living?”
ততততততততততত
Zhu Xing found out which hotel Wang Luan was staying at. After carefully dressing up, she prepared to go and “accidentally” run into her. But clearly the hotel staff had said Wang Luan would come out to eat on time—so why hadn’t she shown up at noon, or at night either, and hadn’t been seen going out? What on earth was she doing shut inside the room?
In her anxiety, Zhu Xing went to knock on the door.
At this time, Wang Luan was lying on the bed, gazing at the stars outside the window, and said gloomily, “I left home young and returned old; my hometown accent unchanged, my temples grown thin with age… but I can’t even go back when I’m old.”
Hearing the knocking outside, she had no intention of getting up to open the door, instead sinking into gloomy thoughts: “Who would come looking for me at this time anyway? Maybe it’s a room package recommendation. I’m so miserable.”
Zhu Xing, who got no response after knocking, didn’t leave. She stayed nearby, waiting until Wang Luan’s originally scheduled three days were up, when the hotel staff had no choice but to open the door to ask whether the guest was all right.
“Guest, are you okay? Our records show that you haven’t gone out for two days, nor used any dining services. We’re very worried that you might be having some kind of health problem.”
Wang Luan finally sat up from the bed, glanced at the smiling staff member, and said dejectedly, “I know. The room’s expired—you’re asking whether I want to renew.”
The staff member smiled. That was the meaning, but it couldn’t be put that way. Her voice became even gentler: “If you’re feeling unwell and want to continue resting here, would you like to extend your stay for a while?”
Wang Luan sat on the edge of the bed in silence for a moment, then stood up, picked up her tool bag, and walked out, running straight into Zhu Xing, who had been waiting outside.
“Liu Luan!” Zhu Xing followed her. “You’re going back? It’s like this— to thank you for helping me twice, I want to invite you to my place to stay for a few days, okay?”
“No.” Wang Luan said. “I’m going home.”
Zhu Xing: “Hey, why are you in such a hurry to go back? Isn’t there only you at home anyway?”
Wang Luan instantly broke down, her voice choking: “You’re right, there’s only me.”
Hearing that something was off in her voice, Zhu Xing leaned over to look at her expression. The two tear tracks on her face startled her: “You—you’re crying?”
The young girl was a bit shaken. In her mind, Wang Luan had always been a taciturn alpha who liked to quietly do her own things—very capable, and a little cool. How could she cry!
But after all, she had seen many alphas in the tower, and she quickly realized that Wang Luan seemed to be in her sensitive period.
Aren’t alphas in their sensitive period usually much more irritable? Don’t they usually give off pheromones?
Zhu Xing walked beside Wang Luan in confusion. She wasn’t giving off even a hint of pheromone scent—was her control really that good at a time like this?
She watched in a muddle as Wang Luan headed outward. When they reached the door, she clenched her teeth. Whatever—she had come prepared to take her back to her own territory and keep an eye on her every day. Now wasn’t this even better?
Alphas in their sensitive period all want to be soothed by an omega’s pheromones. That way, wouldn’t it be easier for her to build feelings with her?
Zhu Xing secretly delighted, forcefully dragging Wang Luan toward where her ship was docked, thinking that if she refused she’d have people tie her up and take her away if necessary. In the end, she didn’t need to use the dozen or so burly alphas on her ship to restrain anyone—she directly led her onto the ship.
Wang Luan sat dejectedly inside the unfamiliar ship. The bright gazes of the dozen alphas and two betas around her still failed to elicit any reaction from her.
Zhu Xing, propping up her face as she looked at her, asked, “Why did you come with me so easily? Do you have feelings for me?”
Wang Luan’s tone was dispirited: “A wandering traveler, a passing guest—going anywhere is the same. There’s no one waiting for me.”
Zhu Xing wasn’t very satisfied with that answer and asked again, “If no one’s waiting for you, then when you said last time that you had someone you liked, were you lying to me?”
At the mention of this, Wang Luan showed a bit of reaction. She leaned her head back against the cushion, emotions surging all at once: “A bad-hearted kitty only likes wandering.”
Zhu Xing didn’t understand, displeased: “What bad-hearted kitty? You like cats? I’m asking about the person you like!”
Wang Luan said in sorrow: “It’s a bad thing.”
Zhu Xing said, “If that’s the case, then follow me from now on. I’ll treat you well. Just one thing—you’re not allowed to think of the person you like ever again.”
Wang Luan hugged herself in pain, feeling uncomfortable with this domineering statement: “Why does it suddenly feel like I’m Zhang Wuji.”
Zhu Xing felt that her sensitive period was very strange—she kept saying weird things she couldn’t understand, making communication difficult: “Who is Zhang Wuji?”
Immersed in the influence of her sensitive period, Wang Luan grew listless and stopped talking.
Seeing that Wang Luan ignored her, Zhu Xing felt somewhat annoyed. She suddenly waved her hand to have the bodyguards all leave, then moved closer to Wang Luan and released some rose-scented pheromones.
She wanted the strange Wang Luan to become a bit more normal, and also looked forward to her showing some infatuation and fondness under her pheromones.
Then Zhu Xing watched helplessly as Wang Luan started sneezing nonstop, and finally covered her nose in misery.
Accustomed to alphas’ reverence, admiration, and yearning toward her, such undisguised dislike made Zhu Xing both angry and pleased—angry that she was different from those ordinary alphas, and pleased that she was different from them.
“You don’t like the smell of my pheromones?” Zhu Xing asked, emotions complicated.
“Too pungent,” Wang Luan said, devoid of all desire to live.
Zhu Xing’s face turned green.
Pungent… too pungent?!
She huffed and went to the cockpit, where the two beta attendants who took care of her daily life soothed her for a while before she recovered her mood. Then, somewhat troubled, she asked, “When will her sensitive period pass? Isn’t there some kind of medicine? Something that can eliminate the sensitive period—I remember using it on some troublesome alphas in the tower.”
The two betas hesitated. “They’ve been used before, but those drugs are harmful to alphas and will affect the body. Miss, do you want to give them to her?”
“Then forget it.” Zhu Xing said matter-of-factly. “How could those in the tower be compared to her.”
A female beta attendant hesitated for a moment before speaking. “Perhaps the CON base has the reagents Miss needs. I heard that recently they’ve developed quite a few new drugs over there.”
Zhu Xing’s expression darkened. “Those are all things that person developed to curry favor with Godmother, right.”
Knowing that she disliked Yan Qiongyu, the beta attendant didn’t dare bring it up again. But before their ship returned to the tower, they suddenly received a message from the CON base midway.
The beta responsible for receiving messages carefully reported to Zhu Xing, “Miss, we need to detour to the CON base. We just received notice that a batch of new reagents has been allocated to the omegas in the tower.”
Zhu Xing: “More drugs developed by that person?”
The beta attendant said tactfully, “It’s said they were developed by Doctor Weier. He only assisted from the side, and… we just received word that Godmother has already acknowledged his status as her godson.”
Wang Luan leaned against the seat, gazing at the star river outside. She suddenly heard the sound of something being smashed coming from the compartment. She remained unmoved by external matters, focusing on her dejection.
A moment later, Zhu Xing came over with an unhappy expression and said to her, “We’re going to land somewhere later. I’m going to get some things. You stay here and don’t wander around.”
The ship landed. Zhu Xing left with her people, leaving two people to stand guard at the door to prevent Wang Luan from wandering off, but she didn’t even shift her position.
Because there was still an alpha hidden on the ship, Zhu Xing didn’t want to run into Yan Qiongyu and get entangled with him. She personally went to urge them to bring out the new reagents so they could leave this place as soon as possible.
On the glass skybridge above the reagent compounding building, Yan Qiongyu stood there, looking down at the ships transporting the new-type reagents.
This new type of reagent required testing. His mother had, without hesitation, offered up her own good children.
Perhaps because she herself had once been a test subject, her Utopia, in her eyes, was also like a massive experimental field, where anyone could become a new test subject.
Yan Qiongyu was pondering this batch of reagents, his eyes idly sweeping over the ships, when he suddenly saw that a small window on a nearby ship disengaged its concealment mode, revealing the person inside.
Although that face was pressed against the glass, squeezed somewhat out of shape, he still recognized who it was.
Yan Qiongyu: “?”
For a moment he froze, unable to maintain even the mask-like smile on his face.
Suddenly seeing Wang Luan-the-cat pressed against the glass here, meeting Yan Qiongyu’s gaze across the void.
She opened her mouth, as if wanting to say something, but very quickly, as the reagents finished being loaded, that ship rapidly started up and with a whoosh vanished from where it was.
