After the blush on her face had faded a little, Yun Chuji returned to the living room to continue waiting.
As she waited, Yun Chuji decided she shouldn’t waste time. She went on her optical computer to look up what people needed after surgery. Following the advice she found, she took a large assortment of different flavored nutritional fluids from the food cabinet and placed them on the coffee table. Remembering the woman’s tattered clothes, she also ordered some new ones on the StarNet and had them delivered by a robot.
Since she knew the woman was an omega, she definitely couldn’t wear Yun Chuji’s clothes. The distinction between A and O was secondary; the main concern was that the alpha pheromones on her own clothes might affect the omega. After all, Xie Xiaoxiao had just spent several minutes clearing the scent from her room.
Half an hour after the clothes were delivered, Yun Chuji was propped up on the sofa, nearly dozing off, when Xie Xiaoxiao finally finished the surgery.
She glanced up, saw the nutritional fluids and clothes on the coffee table, and snorted, but she didn’t bother to wake Yun Chuji.
She took the items and went back inside.
Not long after Xie Xiaoxiao went back in, Yun Chuji was startled awake by the doorbell. She thought it was the doctor Tang Jianxi had called for her, but when she looked at the security monitor, she saw a robot.
It was pure white with a bright red cross on its chest.
Yun Chuji was confused. Hadn’t the delivery robot already been here?
Just then, Tang Jianxi sent her a message: “I called a medical robot for you. I thought about it, and this seemed most suitable for you.”
“…”
For some reason, she still felt like she was being mocked.
Due to the camera angle, Tang Jianxi had only seen the one-centimeter-long cut on Yun Chuji’s lower abdomen and believed a medical robot was more than capable of handling it. After all, in this era, most medical tasks were handled by medical robots, with human doctors only needed for complex surgeries and diagnoses.
And a medical robot was certainly capable of treating the five-centimeter-long wound on Yun Chuji’s hand.
Of course, if Miss Tang had known the wound was five times more severe, she would have likely booked an earlier ticket home.
Yun Chuji let the medical robot in and went back into her parents’ room. In less than twenty minutes, her wounds were stitched up.
But the medical robot showed no signs of leaving.
Standing at the doorway, she looked at it quizzically.
“Aren’t… you leaving?”
She still held a natural reverence for these metal contraptions.
The medical robot spoke in the gentle, approachable voice of an older sister: “Hello, Miss Yun. I have been purchased by you and will now be your exclusive medical robot. You may call me Aier.”
Yun Chuji was stunned for a long moment. Then she closed the door, patted her head, and let out a long sigh before checking the price on the StarNet.
Great. It cost three times more than the money her parents had given Miss Tang.
Sigh—
While Yun Chuji was fretting over how she could possibly repay Miss Tang, Xie Xiaoxiao’s eyes lit up at the sight of the robot.
“Oh my god, that Tang Jianxi finally decided to buy me this model!”
She skipped over to it excitedly. In that instant, Yun Chuji’s peculiar sixth sense foresaw a very bad scenario.
She could only hope the medical robot’s AI wasn’t that intelligent.
—Her hope was dashed.
Like owner, like robot. Aier displayed the air of a chaste and virtuous machine, swiftly dodging Xie Xiaoxiao’s adoring touch. It positioned itself beside Yun Chuji—ignoring her own half-step back—and announced firmly, “Aier’s owner is Miss Yun. Without Miss Yun’s permission, no one may operate Aier.”
Xie Xiaoxiao’s head turned stiffly toward Yun Chuji. A cold smile spread across her face.
“Tang Jianxi, you’ve done well.”
She then dropped her previous demeanor, once again displaying the professional arrogance of Dr. Xie.
“That omega is unconscious now. Her identity is unknown, her situation is unusual, and we don’t know how effective the surgery will be.”
After saying this, she gave Yun Chuji a sidelong glance.
“So… thank you for your hard work?”
Xie Xiaoxiao’s expression twisted for a moment. For the nth time, she couldn’t understand how Tang Jianxi had been duped by an alpha like this. And now she even seemed quite concerned about her. She must have lost her mind.
“What I mean is, that omega can’t be left alone right now, so I’ll be sleeping at your place tonight.”
“So, do you have a spare room?”
Yun Chuji finally understood. She pointed to the room she had just come out of. “That one’s fine. The clean bedding is in the closet. Please help yourself.”
Xie Xiaoxiao grunted in acknowledgment, gathered her things, and headed for the room. Before going in, she tapped her head as if remembering something and instructed, “Since you have a medical robot, have it go watch over her.”
“The anesthetic should keep her out until tomorrow morning, but she doesn’t seem like a simple person. Something might happen, so it’s better to keep an eye on her.”
Yun Chuji naturally deferred to the professional. After relaying the command to Aier, she turned to see that the doctor had already gone into the room.
Her whole body instantly relaxed. To be honest, she could feel a faint malice emanating from the doctor.
Perhaps malice wasn’t the right word.
To be precise, it was a feeling of dislike.
And she knew why.
Yun Chuji bit her lower lip and went to the bathroom to quickly wash up.
Afterward, she lay down on the living room sofa and suddenly felt homesick.
She had been trying hard to adapt to all the incongruities of this world, but she had always been a sensitive person, overly concerned with the approval and disapproval of others. The recent care from Miss Tang and her parents had allowed her to gradually relax, to forget the kind of life she was meant to bear.
Today, the woman had reminded her, and so had the doctor.
In this world, she had the ability to hurt others, and she had already hurt someone.
This made Yun Chuji deeply sad. She lay with her eyes open, staring at the ceiling in the darkness.
After a long while, she calmed down and softly recited a phrase: “Looking up, to have no cause for shame before Heaven; looking down, to have no cause for shame before men.”
Rather than feeling wronged, which leads to resentment, which in turn makes one petty, it is better to atone through actions and prove oneself through actions. That is the way of a gentleman.
Satisfied, Yun Chuji drifted off to sleep.
But the two people in the other room had not.
Xie Xiaoxiao had just finished complaining about whether Tang Jianxi had been completely wrapped around this alpha’s finger. Why else would she eagerly buy her a medical robot?
She used to only buy them for her!
Tang Jianxi, who was handling work while listening to her complain, rolled her eyes. “How is that the same? You just like to collect them. She’s actually going to use it.”
Tang Jianxi had indeed bought several medical robots for Xie Xiaoxiao before. The main reason was that Xie Xiaoxiao was good at putting on an act, insisting they were “very important for my research.” So Tang Jianxi had thrown money at her until she visited her lab one day and discovered that she was actually treating the medical robots like dolls, even dressing them up in all sorts of cute outfits.
From that day on, she never bought her another medical robot.
“But they really are important for my research! Looking at them makes me happy, and when I’m happy, my experiments go faster and better…”
Worn down by her whining, Tang Jianxi surrendered. “Alright, alright, I’ll buy you one, okay!”
Having achieved her goal, Xie Xiaoxiao dropped the playful act. Her clear eyes stared at Tang Jianxi on the screen as she said slowly, “Tang Tang, something’s not right with you.”
Hearing this, Tang Jianxi reacted like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. She immediately looked up from her documents, feigning composure. “What’s not right? I’m telling you, Xiao Xiao, one robot means one robot. Don’t try to trick me.”
“Ooh, calling me by my nickname now, are we?” Xie Xiaoxiao said sarcastically.
“You started it!” Tang Jianxi retorted forcefully.
“But you haven’t called me by my nickname since we graduated.”
Pow—
A fatal blow.
Tang Jianxi propped her forehead on her hand and said helplessly, “I’ll get myself sorted out soon.”
Xie Xiaoxiao asked curiously, “Is that alpha really that great?”
“She’s much better than you and I originally thought. And… that incident wasn’t her intention.”
Xie Xiaoxiao was skeptical. “But all the evidence points to her.”
“I know, Xiaoxiao. But it really wasn’t.”
Xie Xiaoxiao studied her for a few moments, then relaxed and smiled. “But this is good, too. At least it proves you’re moving on from the shadow of the past.”
Tang Jianxi rubbed her temples wearily. ”No, Xiaoxiao. I told you, I’ll get myself sorted out.“
Xie Xiaoxiao pouted but didn’t comment further. Just as she was about to discuss the omega’s condition with Tang Jianxi, she suddenly heard a noise from outside the room.
It can’t be, she thought.
Xie Xiaoxiao rushed into the living room and, sure enough, saw a woman covered in bandages holding a knife to Yun Chuji.
The woman lifted her eyes and said in a cold voice, “Let me leave.”
Her throat was being squeezed and the familiar knife was pressed against the small of her back. Yun Chuji felt an unavoidable fear, but at the same time, she knew with clarity that fear was useless right now.
She also knew that this woman was incredibly weak. If she fought back with force, she could easily escape.
But, catching a glimpse of the white bandages, she sighed.
“Miss, you can’t go out right now.”
“First, your body hasn’t recovered.”
“Second, in your current state, you’ll easily be caught by the police.”
“You can rest assured that we mean you no harm. Besides, you just had… surgery. You mustn’t exert yourself.”
The woman’s voice was still hoarse, and her legs had begun to tremble. “Cut the crap. I don’t want your fake kindness.”
Yun Chuji wanted to say more, but the woman impatiently pierced her clothes with the knife, pressing it against her skin once again.
Xie Xiaoxiao stared at the chaotic scene, dumbfounded. On the other end of the call, which hadn’t been disconnected, Tang Jianxi’s palms were sweating. But due to the design of the optical computer, no one but Xie Xiaoxiao could see her.
“Let her go,” Tang Jianxi said.
Xie Xiaoxiao nodded and was about to speak when she saw Yun Chuji quickly say to the robot beside them, “Aier, put her to sleep.”
The woman’s eyes widened. Her hand tightened instinctively, and Yun Chuji let out a muffled grunt.
The woman collapsed into Aier’s arms.
Yun Chuji collapsed onto the sofa.
Aier’s arms were soon stained with blood.
The sofa was soon stained with blood as well.
Before Xie Xiaoxiao could react, she heard Tang Jianxi shouting in her ear, “Xiaoxiao, save her!”
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