However, it wasn’t long before the smile on Tang Jianxi’s face froze as the full realization of what she had done washed over her, replaced by a wave of chagrin.
She raised a hand to cover her eyes, thinking, Where did my self-control go? The self-control I was so proud of, that kept me from seeking out an alpha for seven years?
She hadn’t even seen Yun Chuji in person or smelled her pheromones. A single video was enough to make her act on impulse.
Of course, Tang Jianxi hadn’t been lying. There was a certain connection between permanently marked AOs. The strongest it had been was the first day, when she had taken Yun Chuji home. Her heart had clenched uncontrollably as the little antique walked slowly ahead, as if waiting at any moment for a word to make her stay.
Tang Jianxi had restrained herself then.
Today was the second strongest it had been.
And she hadn’t managed to restrain herself. She had impulsively started searching for news of Yun Chuji.
Whether it was fortunate or not, Tang Jianxi knew about the S-rank alpha training, so she found her quickly.
After finding her, things spiraled even further out of control. Even now, the corners of her mouth kept turning up on their own, which gave her a bit of a headache.
She felt that her hot-and-cold, back-and-forth attitude was a bit scummy.
Every time she made a resolution, it fell apart the moment she encountered this person. It was as if the heart she presented to Yun Chuji and the one she used to examine herself were completely different. In front of Yun Chuji, she couldn’t help but show her softer side, a more omega side, a more Tang Jianxi side.
Tang Jianxi let out a breath, staring wide-eyed at the snow-white ceiling. It was as white as Yun Chuji’s neck.
She now understood her situation clearly.
If she couldn’t manage to never see Yun Chuji again for the rest of her life, then sooner or later, she would fall. She would fall into that little antique’s vortex, without even a struggle, just foolishly and defenselessly falling in love.
And the only thing she could do was try her best to make the process a little slower.
After all, there were truly important things to be done right now.
Having accepted reality, Tang Jianxi calmed down completely and refocused her mind on work.
It was already past closing time, but the lights in the Tang Group building were still blazing. For some time now, most of the employees had been working overtime to compete with the Third Princess. A price war was not easy to control; one wrong move could lead to a total loss, which was a common occurrence.
What was even stranger was that the rival company seemed completely unconcerned with profits, pouring all their earnings into advertising. With that kind of execution, if it weren’t for a thousand-year-old fox like Tang Jianshen holding the line, the Tang Group’s inhibitor business would have likely shrunk significantly.
And now, a question was floating in the minds of everyone at Tang Group: where was the other party getting so much money?
No matter how much they cut costs or used inferior materials, an inhibitor still had to inhibit heat. If they were just selling vials of saline solution, no amount of advertising would convince a single omega to buy it.
The imperial family was wealthy, but the Third Princess was not the Crown Princess, so the resources she could mobilize were limited. And while her maternal family was indeed one of the empire’s top aristocratic houses, the current Empress had given birth to eight children—three omegas and five alphas. The competition was fierce, and it was rumored that the Empress wasn’t particularly fond of her arrogant and domineering third daughter, preferring her gentle and honest eldest son.
So, where was the Third Princess getting so much money?
Not just Tang Jianshen, but Tang Jianxi too was investigating secretly, but she couldn’t find the source of the Third Princess’s funds. If the empire didn’t prohibit private mining of B-grade or higher minerals, Tang Jianxi would have suspected the Third Princess had stumbled upon a violet-gold mine.
But this wasn’t her primary task. That fellow Tang Jianshen would probably find a way. What she was mainly busy with now was something else.
Just as she was thinking about it, a message came through on her comm.
After reading it, Tang Jianxi’s expression was extremely complicated. She had finally found out Winona’s identity.
But the truth was even more outrageous than her most outlandish hypothesis: how did an omega from the outermost ring of B-District get through the checkpoints to the third ring of S-District?
Tang Jianxi knew the empire’s regulations clearly. According to the rules, people from the outermost ring were, in theory, never supposed to be able to pass through the wall at their border.
At this moment, the air of conspiracy surrounding the silent, wound-covered omega she remembered grew even thicker.
Her young yet world-weary face, her perpetually restrained anger and hatred—it all seemed to be the result of some heavy oppression. Not to mention the faint scent of blood that clung to her.
Xie Xiaoxiao had secretly tested it. Winona’s knife had the blood of many people on it.
Tang Jianxi couldn’t sit still any longer. She immediately drove to the place where she had settled Winona.
When she arrived, for some reason, Tang Jianxi found herself hesitant to open the door. After all, the identity information also stated: Genetic test: alpha. Differentiated as omega.
That short line of text foretold an extremely tragic story, especially in the outermost ring. The thought of such tragedy made Tang Jianxi’s heart turn cold just imagining it.
But the door opened before her.
The omega, wrapped in bandages, stood before her and frowned. “Why aren’t you coming in?”
“I…” Tang Jianxi wanted to explain something but didn’t know how to start. Besides, the doorway wasn’t a good place to talk, so she entered the house first.
The house wasn’t large, but it was perfect for someone like Winona who needed to hide her identity. It was in a rare area within the inner fifth ring with few AI staff, and comm detection wasn’t very sensitive. With a few tricks, one could easily slip through the cracks. Tang Jianxi had stocked the place with enough supplies for Winona to recuperate here for at least half a year without any worries.
However, judging by the emotions she occasionally showed, Winona was far from being without worries.
Combined with the information she had just received, Tang Jianxi was almost certain that Winona had come to the inner rings not to pursue the easy and affluent life like other people from the lower classes, but for a more urgent and yet unspeakable purpose.
The two sat facing each other. Tang Jianxi spoke first, finishing the sentence she had left hanging at the door. “I know your identity.”
But Winona didn’t panic at her words. On the contrary, her previously agitated expression relaxed considerably. “As I thought, you’re a person of great means.”
In an instant, Tang Jianxi was surprised to find that the thorns and chillingly fierce aura that had always encased Winona had vanished. She had become soft, even fawningly so. She adopted the posture of a former prostitute, inviting people to do as they pleased with her, as long as they paid the price she wanted—
“Miss Tang, can you help me find someone?”
“As long as you can help me find her, you can make me do anything.”
Faced with this version of Winona, Tang Jianxi felt uneasy. She had come today prepared for a long battle, even planning how she would indirectly pry the truth out if Winona denied it. But now the tables had completely turned. Winona had handed over the initiative with both hands, as if she had been waiting for this very moment all along—waiting to witness Tang Jianxi’s great means, and then offer up every chip she had in exchange for help.
Tang Jianxi took a large gulp of water and then asked, “Who is this person?”
Winona smiled sadly at the question, her green eyes shining with a light of both longing and despair. She said, “My former fiancée.”
Afterward, Winona told Tang Jianxi a story.
The story began with a sweet pair of childhood sweethearts. One’s genetic test was omega, the other’s was alpha. They grew up together. One was the future owner of an appliance repair shop, the other the only daughter of a hoverbike shop owner. No matter how you looked at it, even in the outermost ring, this young couple was destined for a beautiful and happy future.
They promised to get married after they differentiated.
But when the time for differentiation came, fate played a cruel joke on them.
Winona differentiated into an omega.
The process was so miserable that when her fiancée, Helen, secretly came to see her, she started crying uncontrollably before she could even say a word. More than half an hour later, she finally managed to say through her tears, “Winona, how could they do this to you?”
Yes, how could they do this to her?
Those people, who were reliable neighbors when they called her to fix their appliances, were the very same people who, just yesterday, had joked with her that they would take her to see the splendor of the omegas in the Red Leaf District after she differentiated.
Winona had just blushed and replied, “I’m not going. Helen is enough for me.”
The alphas in the shop had all laughed, saying she would definitely be wrapped around Helen’s little finger in the future. Winona didn’t have time to deal with them; her cousin Jimmy had broken the refrigerator again, and she had to fix it quickly, or they would lose money on the job.
And yet, they had done something like this.
Winona stared blankly as Helen cried. Her brain told her she should be comforting her fiancée right now.
But… was she still her fiancée?
Her omega father had already cleaned her body, but the marks of the abuse were still so stark. She had a strange intuition that she would carry these marks for the rest of her life.
So, she said, very coldly and rationally, “Helen, let’s break up.”
“You’re going to differentiate in three months. You need to find a new alpha.”
Helen looked up in disbelief, then cried even harder. “No, Winona, I can’t abandon you.”
Then, she had a wild idea. “Maybe, maybe I’ll differentiate into an alpha!”
“Then we can still get married.”
“Winona, wait for me. We can still get married.”
Winona was exhausted at the time. She didn’t want to tell her how small the probability was of both of them having an error, or perhaps the real reason was that she was just as fanciful as Helen.
If only we could still get married.
But Winona didn’t get to wait three months.
As soon as her wounds had healed, her alpha mother sold her to the Red Leaf District for ten thousand star coins, enough to upgrade some of the shop’s equipment.
Winona didn’t feel much pain. She just felt numb, very numb.
That’s probably what happens when the pain becomes too much.
At first, her omega father would occasionally come to see her, bringing some news about Helen.
She hadn’t found a new alpha.
She had differentiated. She was an omega.
But since she was an only daughter and her parents had always doted on her, they managed to fend off the covetous single alphas.
Later, her omega father came less and less.
She learned that her cousin had differentiated into an alpha.
Helen still hadn’t found an alpha.
Her own younger brother had differentiated into an alpha.
And then, her father never came again.
Winona passed her days in the Red Leaf District. On her first day there, she was injected with David’s Secret Potion. Her body went into an uncontrollable heat, and she sought pleasure like a base female animal. Of the money she earned each day, only a small portion was left for her, just enough to keep her from starving.
She felt like she had probably become an animal.
A domesticated animal, at that.
Until the leader of the Lone Wolf Gang sought her out. The alpha sat in the only chair in the room, looking her up and down, then said, “Tsk, not bad looking. No wonder that little beauty was willing to sell herself to buy you out.”
Hearing this, Winona didn’t react at first. In the Red Leaf District, she always tried not to think, as it made things easier.
She mechanically served the alpha. He raised an eyebrow, seeming a bit disgusted, but ultimately didn’t refuse.
After it was over.
The alpha’s rough hand caressed her face as he said lewdly, “You taste really good. That little girl Helen has good taste.”
“Helen?”
What did Helen have to do with this?!
She asked eagerly, almost humbly.
And then she received a piece of news that violently ripped her from her numbness: Helen had sold herself to an upper-class alpha, on the condition that the Lone Wolf Gang leader rescue her from the Red Leaf District.
Winona had forgotten how she accepted this news, but it seemed she had never truly accepted it at all.
Not when she was gathering information in bed, not when she was plotting to kill the Lone Wolf Gang leader, not when she successfully obtained the access card, not when she was wandering around the inner rings like a headless fly until David’s Secret Potion started acting up again and she cut out her own gland.
During all those times, pain had completely consumed her soul.
There was only one thing on her mind: she had to find Helen.
Because, as people from the outermost ring, everyone knew tacitly that for an omega, there was something worse than ending up in the Red Leaf District: being sold in a package deal by a gang to an upper-class alpha.
The Red Leaf District was at least in the place where you grew up; your life had some measure of security.
But once you were sold, it meant you had become nothing more than a plaything.
Of course, the gangs would never admit this. They all said they were taking the omegas to the inner rings to live a good life.
But not a single one of the omegas living that “good life” ever returned to their hometown. In this age of extremely convenient communication, not even a single message ever came back.
It was easy to imagine that it was just another hell.
Tang Jianxi listened to the story and remained silent for a long time.
Then, as if she had figured something out, she said gently, “Have you heard of an organization called Spartacus?”
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