During the four-day journey that followed, Yun Chuji finally completed the first draft of her great work on A-Virtue. Meanwhile, Tang Jianxi, under Yun Chuji’s enthusiastic tutelage in poetry, managed to grasp a few allusions that were utterly useless for anything other than deciphering the veiled declarations of love in Yun Chuji’s poems.
But one thing particularly puzzled Tang Jianxi. If her memory served her correctly, when Yun Chuji first arrived, she was a hopelessly semi-literate person, knowing almost nothing beyond the precepts of female virtue and conduct.
How could she have changed so much in just three short months?
She remembered that being S-rank didn’t grant a boost to intelligence.
To this, Yun Chuji replied shyly, “I’ve always had a good memory. Back then, among all my sisters, I was the first to memorize the precepts of female conduct. After I came into Miss Yun’s body, perhaps my soul stimulated it in some way upon entry. In any case, I now have a photographic memory.”
To be honest, Yun Chuji’s reputation for virtue back in her day was partly due to her ability to recite the female precepts backward and forward.
Tang Jianxi didn’t know what to say; she just found it miraculous.
To her, a photographic memory was practically synonymous with Tang Jianshen.
Add a high-powered CPU, and it would be a perfect match.
The thought of a Tang Jianshen version of her little antique made Tang Jianxi quickly shake her head, banishing the unpleasant image from her mind.
However, speaking of Tang Jianshen, Tang Jianxi felt he had been acting strangely lately.
Although the man was generally devoid of human decency, Tang Jianxi had secretly observed that he was quite human around Clarence.
But recently, Clarence had been busy rallying support within the Empire’s aristocratic circles, becoming a regular in high society—a stark contrast to his previous near-invisibility. Yet, he and Tang Jianshen had not met in public.
It was as if they were deliberately avoiding each other.
Tang Jianxi had mixed feelings about this. Both of them were exceptionally intelligent, and she often couldn’t see through their underlying intentions. She didn’t know if this avoidance was part of a larger plan or simply a fit of human pique.
She hoped it was the latter. Although Tang Jianxi disliked Tang Jianshen, she found his entanglement with an omega who was slow to break off his own engagement rather vexing.
Why him of all people?
“She’s not good enough for you,” the beta said in a low, indignant voice to the petite omega standing a meter away from him.
Helen took another step back, the gentle expression on her face vanishing completely. She was carrying ingredients for a cake, which she had specially purchased to welcome her two benefactors, Tang Jianxi and Yun Chuji.
The omega’s voice was cold, a stark contrast to her appearance. “Mr. Hawke, you have no right to say that.”
The man before her—Arthur Hawke, a volunteer at this omega settlement—raised his eyebrows high. His voice remained low, but the disdain in it was palpable. “She was injected with David’s Potion. You know what that means for those who are….”
Before those two shocking words could escape into the air, Helen cut him off icily. “I said, Mr. Hawke, you have no right to judge her.”
“But you’re an omega, and you’re pregnant. She’s about to leave for the military. What will you do with your life?”
The omega didn’t deign to answer. She turned her head and pressed a button on her optical computer. Soon, Arthur’s colleagues arrived and led him away.
Helen didn’t spare him a single glance.
She gently caressed her now very prominent belly, where a new life was growing. Its father would never know of its existence, and it would never know of its father’s.
This was a child that belonged entirely to her.
So she could take care of it just fine, without needing the pity of self-righteous do-gooders.
By the time Winona transferred from the military camp to the academy, the baby would have been born. The academy had weekly holidays and a dormitory area for families. Winona would help her take care of it.
But the thought of how Winona had been avoiding her lately made Helen’s brow furrow, a trace of sorrow clouding her delicate face.
Winona, what are you thinking?
“Winona?” Tang Jianxi called out with a hint of confusion, looking at the green-eyed woman who had zoned out for the third time.
Winona blinked and said apologetically, “I’ve been busy with training lately. I might be a bit exhausted.”
Yun Chuji glanced at the dark circles under Winona’s eyes. She knew a little about medicine, and from Winona’s complexion, it didn’t look like fatigue from overtraining. It was more like insomnia. There was also a hint of gloom on her face; she had probably run into some trouble.
Yun Chuji and Tang Jianxi exchanged a look and tacitly chose not to pursue the topic.
The arrested alphas were being held jointly by the Omega Legion garrison and the Alpha Legion on the Imperial Capital Star. As for the rescued omegas, apart from those who were in relatively good health and had been claimed by their families, the rest were temporarily housed near the Omega Legion’s main base in D-District on Golden Phoenix Star.
The whereabouts of these omegas were no secret. Since the Glory incident came to light, many omegas had donated to them. The settlement also saw a stream of volunteers—omegas, betas, and even some alphas who wanted to help. However, for the mental well-being of the omegas in the settlement who suffered from alpha-related PTSD, the Legion had rejected the alphas’ applications.
Perhaps because the omegas who had just escaped were particularly vulnerable, some, like Winona, chose to join the military to better protect themselves. Others developed feelings for the volunteers who cared for them. In recent days, an unusually high number of new couples had formed in the settlement.
There were even a dozen who had fallen in love with alphas after confiding in them online.
Psychological experts explained this as a normal phenomenon of omegas spontaneously seeking comfort and shelter after trauma.
Upon arriving at the settlement, they saw four omega soldiers guarding the gate, surrounded by a dense surveillance network. Yun Chuji and Tang Jianxi presented their entry permits, which bore the signature of the settlement’s supervisor.
Tang Jianxi’s permit was glanced at and quickly approved. But the light screen for Yun Chuji’s remained lit for a long time. One of the soldiers looked at her with a troubled expression. “We’ve never had an alpha in this settlement before.”
Tang Jianxi frowned. “She has an entry permit.”
“Yes, but some of the omegas inside might not be able to handle the stimulation.”
The soldier knew that this particular alpha was likely harmless; otherwise, their supervisor, who took pleasure in beating up alphas, wouldn’t have approved her entry. But the supervisor wasn’t as familiar with the situation inside the settlement as she was. Some omegas reacted to the sight of an alpha as if they were seeing a monster, almost immediately falling into a state of panic.
If they saw Yun Chuji…
The soldier didn’t want to take that chance.
Facing the soldier’s apologetic yet firm expression, Yun Chuji waved her hand. She had no intention of making things difficult for the soldier. “Then I won’t go in. I’ll find a hotel nearby and wait for you.”
Tang Jianxi wanted to protest, to say that there was no alpha safer than Yun Chuji, that she was even gentler than some betas. But seeing the soldier’s relieved expression, Tang Jianxi swallowed her words. She turned to Yun Chuji and said, “I’ll come find you in a bit.”
Yun Chuji smiled warmly. “It’s fine. You two have a good chat. I’m not a child. Haven’t you been wanting to meet Helen?”
Indeed, it was a shame. To avoid attracting the attention of Qi Sheng and Marco, Tang Jianxi hadn’t visited Helen once since her rescue. She had long admired this fiancée Winona spoke of, who had been willing to sacrifice herself to save her. Tang Jianxi admitted that if she were in the same situation, she would rather die with the scumbag than choose such an agonizing method, even if it did ensure the other person’s survival.
The settlement had been hastily constructed in two days after a mountain was leveled. It consisted mostly of two-story buildings, all pure white, looking so new they were almost unreal.
Winona led Tang Jianxi down a straight, wide road. Since a fifth of the residents were pregnant, there were no unmanned vehicles in the settlement to prevent accidents. Fortunately, the area wasn’t large; the longest north-south distance was only about two kilometers.
A dozen minutes later, the two stopped in front of a small building labeled B75.
The Omega Legion would provide for the omegas in the settlement for three years, free of charge, and hire teachers to teach them job skills to help them reintegrate into society. Of course, not working was also an option. After the case was tried, the compensation from the involved alphas would be enough for them to live comfortably for the rest of their lives. For these omegas who had lived in constant fear, this was, in some ways, more important than the justice and fairness being debated on the StarNet.
Helen had taken up nursing. She planned to use the compensation money to open a simple clinic near the military base, hire an omega doctor, and after a while, bring her parents over. She would likely spend the rest of her life on Golden Phoenix Star.
With Winona.
Tang Jianxi gazed at this petite and almost adorable omega, finding it hard to imagine that such a fierce determination lay hidden beneath such a delicate frame.
She was a little nervous, but years of social training allowed her to quickly put on a warm smile. “Hello, I’m Tang Jianxi.”
When Helen wasn’t smiling, she looked like a doll. When she smiled, she resembled one of those enlarged, cute virtual pet dolls designed to be eye-catching, making people instinctively like her.
“Hello, Miss Tang. I believe I should thank you in person.”
With that, Helen gave a slight bow. Tang Jianxi stood stiffly, looking helplessly at Winona.
Winona was zoning out again.
Tang Jianxi sighed silently and helped Helen up. Helen didn’t seem to notice Winona’s odd behavior. After asking why Yun Chuji hadn’t come, she expressed her regret and suggested they could meet outside the settlement tomorrow.
They chatted as they walked inside. Exquisite desserts were already laid out in the living room. They didn’t have the uniform look of AI factory products; their unique shapes suggested Helen had made them herself.
“I’m not much older than you. Let’s just call each other by our names from now on,” Tang Jianxi said with a smile, picking up a small rabbit-shaped cake. “Helen, do you like animals?”
At this, Winona emerged from her silence, a faint melancholy in her eyes. “Yes. When she used to draw comics, the main characters were always animals.”
This piqued Tang Jianxi’s interest. If there was one profession in the Empire that offered a fast track to the inner circle, it was undoubtedly the entertainment industry. In other fields, AI could generally outperform or at least match humans. But in entertainment, AI always lacked originality. The products it created were like assembly-line food—filling and decent-tasting, but inexplicably bland.
“May I see them?”
“I don’t draw anymore,” Helen said softly, with a hint of apology. “And I didn’t save my old work.”
Tang Jianxi felt it was a pity. But when she turned, she saw the melancholy on Winona’s face deepen. Combined with the dark circles under her eyes, she seemed to have less spirit than when Yun Chuji had first found her.
Tang Jianxi’s gaze slowly swept over the two of them. She lowered her head and took a sip of juice. As the visit came to an end, she said softly to Winona, “You should cherish the person in front of you.”
Winona shuddered and lowered her head, whether from embarrassment or sadness, she didn’t recover even after Tang Jianxi had walked away.
Then, a familiar gaze pulled her back. She met Arthur’s jealous and guilty eyes, nodded, and turned to go home.
Is it that obvious? she thought.
But she truly wasn’t sure if she was worthy of cherishing that person.
Veins popped on the green-eyed, blonde woman’s clenched fist. Her nails quickly broke the skin of her palm. Feeling the familiar pain, she narrowed her eyes in satisfaction.
Get instant access to all chapters now.
