One thing Tang Jianxi and Yun Chuji had in common was that they both had a dazzling older brother.
However, unlike the sibling relationship between Tang Jianxi and Tang Jianshen, who grew up competing with each other, Yun Chuji had always been full of admiration for her brother. Even in this life, after reading more books and seeing through to the inhumanity inherent in his seemingly normal actions, she could still attribute it to the problems of their era.
In that era, any normal man would do such things. In fact, these actions themselves were draped in the silken robes of aesthetics and morality. Fickleness, heartlessness, and manipulation could all be easily glossed over with the word “romantic.”
An individual could not be judged against such a backdrop.
What’s more, her elder brother at the time had held grand ambitions of governing the country and bringing peace to the world. He had hoped to sweep away the corruption in the Great Liang Dynasty’s officialdom, clarify the tax system, and bring peace and happiness to the common people.
But the elder brother of today was someone Yun Chuji could no longer understand. This world was not their world, and this country was not the one they were born in. They had been here for less than half a year, so governing the country was out of the question. Why, then, was her brother in such a hurry to step into the center of power?
Was it for pleasure?
Absolutely not. In terms of basic necessities, the life of even the people in the outermost ring of this era was better than that of the Yun family, a clan of gentry landlords.
Was it to get ahead?
That was even more nonsensical. Getting ahead required motivation, be it family honor, peer competition, or leaving a name in the annals of history. But this family was not their family, these peers were not the peers they grew up with, and as for history books—in this era, everyone with a personal terminal would leave behind their own history.
To carve one’s name into everyone’s history, one would have to make a move against the Empire itself.
So, was her elder brother going to make a move against the Empire?
Yun Chuji didn’t know. She just had a faint, terrible premonition.
For her, simply bearing the changes in identity, gender, and era was oppressive enough. Yet her brother also had to face the ferocious Third Princess. But he seemed far too calm.
So calm, in fact, that he was using the excuse of visiting her to bring the exiled Third Princess back to the Imperial Capital Star.
Grandmother Chu said nothing about this, nor did the Empress of the Empire.
It was as if the decision to exile her to Golden Phoenix Star had become a winter fruit, forced by the changing seasons to meet its demise.
Yun Chuji was now able to get out of bed and walk around. If she pushed herself, she could even go to the starship port to pick them up.
But given the excuse the two of them were using for coming all this way, Yun Chuji not only couldn’t push herself, but she also needed to act as if her injuries were still severe—this was an instruction from her elder brother, which Yun Chuji accepted with a complicated heart.
However, the arrival of the Third Princess and her brother also indirectly led to a reunion between the Tang family and their daughter-in-law, who, despite all being in S-District, rarely saw each other.
After all, the Third Princess was still a princess. If it were truly inconvenient, that would be one thing. But if everyone was nearby, and you avoided seeing her when she came to your home to visit your relative, that would be a blatant show of disrespect to the imperial family.
Given that the Tang family’s feud with the imperial family hadn’t reached the point of tearing all pretenses aside—in fact, the current Empress was a senior schoolmate of Ms. Tang Ji’s, taught by the same professor—the Hall and Tang families could even be considered distant relatives if one stretched the connection. So, the day before the Third Princess and Yun Xuan arrived in S-District, the entire Tang family gathered at Tang Jianxi’s home.
Tang Ji still wore her usual stone-faced expression. But out of lingering jealousy from her husband constantly praising that daughter-in-law of hers during their rare time together, a faint, genuine killing intent could be seen when she directed that stone face at Yun Chuji.
However, Yun Chuji, busy being lovey-dovey with her fiancée, didn’t feel an ounce of pressure from her future mother-in-law. For the past few days, Tang Jianxi and Tang Jianshen had been busy setting fires in Clarence’s backyard. Through a combination of enticement and deception, and with the two Tang siblings personally making the pitches, several alphas had been persuaded to try and get in touch with the currently popular Sixth Prince.
The indirect consequence of this was that Yun Chuji hadn’t seen her fiancée in almost a week. Video calls alone couldn’t satisfy her craving; in fact, they only made her crave more—a review from Miss Yun Chuji, a novice personal terminal user.
After several failed attempts to release her cold aura, Tang Ji smoothly gave up on the fruitless endeavor and inconspicuously moved closer to her husband, who was reading a student’s thesis.
Besides, she couldn’t really find anything to criticize Yun Chuji for.
After all, behind her stood three omegas Tang Ji didn’t dare to provoke. Furthermore, this whole mess had been stirred up by the Tang and Chu families in the first place, yet Yun Chuji was the one who suffered. Feeling guilty, Tang Ji had given Yun Chuji a large sum of money as compensation, only to be left speechless when Yun Chuji asked, “Is this Jianxi’s dowry?”
Dowry, what dowry! A little brat who hasn’t even graduated shouldn’t be thinking about marriage all the time, thank you very much—from Ms. Tang Ji, who had suddenly developed a fear of being a mother-in-law ever since her daughter decided to get married.
Based on the current situation, it was a harmonious and warm family evening. The Tang family and their resilient, disabled daughter-in-law were all gathered together. What was especially praiseworthy was that everyone was in a happy, loving pair.
Ah, except for the human-shaped walking air conditioner, Mr. Tang Jianshen.
Mr. Tang Jianshen had no love life. And after his sister gave him an in-depth education on his ex’s behavior of neither rejecting nor accepting suitors—essentially keeping a school of fish—he had become firmly convinced that not only were alphas rarely any good, but omegas couldn’t claim any outstanding performance in this area either.
He had now become a proud asexual, successfully achieving a beautiful picture of being paired up with his own shadow.
But as Tang Jianshen watched Tang Jianxi and Yun Chuji being all lovey-dovey—you feed me a strawberry, I’ll feed you a piece of cake—and his mother and father over there casting flirtatious glances at each other—the professor sharing his ideas, the entrepreneur sighing in admiration—an indescribable sense of disparity welled up in his heart. To resolve this feeling, Tang Jianshen decided to let work invade his personal life.
Thus, with a great sense of the bigger picture, he started the conversation: “How should we receive the Third Princess tomorrow?”
Tang Jianshen was certain he saw the words “Why are you bringing this up now?” clearly in both his sister’s and his mother’s eyes.
Tang Jianshen sneered inwardly but maintained his professional demeanor on the surface, looking at his family with elegance and composure.
This wasn’t a question designed solely to ruin the atmosphere—though it certainly had that effect.
How to receive the Third Princess was a matter of delicate balance.
They couldn’t be too distant. After all, Lucia, who was now publicly championing A-Virtue, was technically on the same side as the Tang and Chu families.
But they couldn’t be too friendly either. The Tang and Chu families were well aware of Lucia’s true nature. For now, they had only reached a temporary strategic consensus with her and had no possibility of long-term cooperation. At the same time, they didn’t want outsiders, or Lucia herself, to think that such a possibility existed.
The balance was difficult to grasp.
And the most crucial part of it all rested on the protagonist of this visit: Yun Chuji.
Yun Chuji naturally knew this. She had been preparing for this visit ever since the news came five days ago, mulling over the intricacies again and again. By now, she had a clear understanding of the upcoming visit.
“Tomorrow, let Jianxi and me host the Princess and my elder brother. Brother Tang, Teacher Chu, and Auntie Tang, you can just watch from the side.”
This was to distance the Tang family from the Third Princess as much as possible, especially since the two sides had once clashed fiercely over the Warm-O affair.
There was nothing wrong with this suggestion, of course. But while the Third Princess needed to be kept at a distance, there was no need to deliberately maintain a distance from Yun Chuji’s brother.
So Tang Ji said, “Since your brother is pregnant, it wasn’t very appropriate for him to travel from Golden Phoenix Star to the Imperial Capital Star in the first place. For the baby’s safety, they probably won’t be traveling much for a while. Even if Lucia returns to A-District, Mr. Yun should stay in S-District to rest for some time. When that happens, you can bring Mr. Yun to our house for a proper meal. If Mr. Yun needs anything, you can have Jianshen help you arrange it. He’s familiar with many omega doctors.”
Of course, the reason for his familiarity was to facilitate OO relationships.
But there was no need to explain that part in detail.
Yun Chuji didn’t refuse. She couldn’t even figure out her own alpha body, let alone take care of her omega brother. It was better to leave professional matters to the professionals.
The family then discussed the details thoroughly. Aside from Professor Chu, who withdrew from the conversation early to go to his room due to his lack of interest and understanding of such worldly affairs, everyone else made ample preparations for the visit from the Third Princess and Yun Xuan the next day.
And then, it was time for bed.
Tang Jianxi’s house was huge, more than large enough to accommodate her entire family. So, after the discussion ended, Tang Jianxi quickly pulled the patient, one Yun Chuji, up to the third floor, which was exclusively theirs.
Tang Ji watched their retreating figures with complicated feelings, but ultimately comforted herself with the thought that her child was grown up.
Besides, if that rascal Yun Chuji didn’t want her wound to reopen, she would have to behave herself.
Tang Jianshen, meanwhile, returned to his room alone to continue working—his enthusiasm for the task of backstabbing his ex grew with every new thing he learned about him.
The door to the third floor slammed shut with a bang.
Yun Chuji eagerly pressed her lips to Tang Jianxi’s, her lips and tongue diligently exploring this source of sweetness that one could seemingly never tire of. Tang Jianxi closed her eyes, carefully supporting Yun Chuji to avoid touching her wound. This gunshot wound was different from the one Winona had inflicted; the bullet had been specially designed to target S-rank alphas.
After a long moment, Yun Chuji rested her head on Tang Jianxi’s shoulder, breathing heavily.
Her voice was soft as she said, “What should I do? I still miss Jianxi so much.”
Tang Jianxi let out a soft laugh. Her fingers moved nimbly, and soon she found a way to solve Yun Chuji’s absurd longing.
Yun Chuji’s whole body stiffened.
But she still indulged Tang Jianxi’s actions, merely catching the fabric on her lover’s shoulder between her teeth and exhaling fiery breaths.
Tang Ji was right. Yun Chuji was indeed being rather well-behaved.
But in Yun Chuji and Tang Jianxi’s relationship, the one who wasn’t well-behaved was always the older one.
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