While Madam Gu Yun wasn’t the brawny type Yun Chuji had encountered at the alpha training camp, she had nevertheless toned every muscle that needed it.
In short, she was the compactly muscular type. Despite her age, she looked as if she could take on three people at once. One could expect nothing less from the wife of an omega marshal.
Yun Chuji had once quietly asked Tang Jianxi if this was their family’s aesthetic. Tang Jianxi had denied it, adding that only her grandmother, the Marshal, liked alphas like that.
Well, as expected of an omega who could become a marshal.
Over the past month, however, Yun Chuji had gotten along very well with this grandmother. Gu Yun had even taught her some boxing techniques, which helped alleviate one of her regrets—that she could only defeat most people through raw instinct.
“You’re right. I’ll be sure to discuss it properly during my next stream,” Yun Chuji replied.
Hearing this, Gu Yun grew even more enthusiastic. If she had known the term “a friendship that transcends generations,” she would have used it to describe how she felt upon meeting Yun Chuji.
For so many years, all her friends and relatives had criticized Chu Meng for being too domineering. She had insisted their child take her surname, and not only was she rarely home, but she had also forced her alpha wife, who should have been out building a career, to stay home and raise their child. She was the quintessential negative example of an omega.
But Gu Yun just wanted to say—and in fact, she had said it countless times: “I’m truly so happy!”
Gu Yun believed that giving was a higher and more stable form of love than receiving. She found joy in Chu Meng’s happiness and in being able to make her son happy. It wasn’t a sacrifice; on the contrary, she reveled in it.
But Gu Yun had never known what words to use to accurately describe her state of mind, until her cute and clever granddaughter-in-law presented her with the book, The Great Principles of A-Virtue.
The two of them spent nearly an hour discussing how to better spread A-Virtue throughout the Empire. Finally, still not quite satisfied, Gu Yun patted Yun Chuji’s shoulder and said, “Granddaughter-in-law, you’re a good alpha. I have high hopes for you.”
But Yun Chuji herself did not have high hopes for herself.
She realized with despair that it was time for her daily training.
“Can’t… I just not go?” Yun Chuji attempted to resist.
Gu Yun shook her head with a gentle smile, as if they were still in the middle of their profound conversation. “No, you can’t.”
Yun Chuji hung her head and dejectedly left the small house, heading for the training ground a kilometer away.
This was the one thing she found most difficult to adapt to—learning to use high-tech weapons.
Yun Chuji had originally thought that being willing to learn how to fight already made her a rather progressive woman, one who possessed a certain ability to protect herself in this treacherous world.
However, this was a high-tech world.
Fists couldn’t stop bullets, and neither could a skull.
After an analysis by her two grandmothers, they concluded that the stir Yun Chuji had caused was enough to attract the attention of those with access to the Empire’s regulated weapons. So, they had immediately sent her to a military training ground, making her practice marksmanship for two hours a day with one of their guards.
But Yun Chuji really wasn’t cut out for it.
As someone born and raised in ancient times, it took all her composure just to not scream at the sound of a gunshot.
Asking her to operate such a dangerous object was even harder than asking her to dance in the street.
Moreover, modern weapons had evolved into bizarre forms. The one Yun Chuji was training with, at least, could be a knife, a handgun, or a rifle, and it also concealed a bomb.
It was, one might say, a one-stop product for murder and arson.
But for Yun Chuji, just figuring out how to transform the weapon between its different forms was incredibly difficult, and Chu Meng’s requirement was for her to master every single one.
Only then, they said, would she have the basic self-defense capabilities and counter-surveillance awareness to face a potential assassination attempt.
And only when she learned how to use these weapons would she be allowed to leave the military district.
Facing the instructor’s impassive expression, Yun Chuji took a deep breath and picked up the weapon that was the source of her torment.
By now, she had mastered assembling the knife and the handgun. All she had to do was learn how to assemble the rifle and achieve an average score of eight rings without the auto-aiming scope, and she would be free.
Yun Chuji focused with all her might.
And failed.
She focused again.
And failed again.
She repeated this cycle of failure until, for the first time that day, she succeeded.
The instructor glanced down at his watch. “Not bad. Five minutes faster than yesterday.”
Yun Chuji’s expression relaxed, but then the instructor added, “Continue. You have one hour and eighteen minutes left.”
“…Alright.”
Resigned to her fate, Yun Chuji disassembled the pile of metal, turning it into component parts, then reassembled them back into a weapon.
When she returned home, Tang Jianxi, who had been out for a while, was also back. Seeing Yun Chuji’s half-dead state, she laughed with a distinct lack of sympathy.
Yun Chuji drooped her eyes pitifully and opened her arms just as pitifully.
Tang Jianxi glanced at her grandmother, who was bustling happily in the kitchen, then took a few steps forward and embraced the person asking for a hug.
“I improved by twelve minutes today,” Yun Chuji said, her meaning clear.
Tang Jianxi understood immediately. Her eyes curved into crescents as she gently kissed Yun Chuji’s left cheek. “That’s amazing.”
The aroma of dinner wafted from the kitchen. With her beloved in her arms, Yun Chuji squinted in satisfaction and buried her head deep in Tang Jianxi’s shoulder.
Although the world outside was filled with hostility towards her, if that level of hostility could be exchanged for this degree of happiness, then it still seemed like she had come out far ahead.
As long as the hostility was directed only at her.
“Are there still a lot of people protesting on the streets?”
Tang Jianxi hesitated for a moment before finally nodding.
“It will pass soon.”
“Grandmother must have been under a lot of pressure to protect me.”
Tang Jianxi rubbed her chin against Yun Chuji’s cheek and said softly, “We’re doing the right thing.”
As they were speaking, Gu Yun emerged with the dishes. With a complete lack of tact, she interrupted the clingy young couple. “Time to eat. You can be affectionate after dinner.”
Yun Chuji’s face turned red, as did Tang Jianxi’s.
They obediently released each other and went to the kitchen to bring out the rest of the dishes and the main course.
Gu Yun had developed a habit of cooking after retiring from the military. She didn’t possess Yun Chuji’s innate talent for disastrous cooking, and after years of practice, her culinary skills were quite commendable.
The three of them enjoyed a wonderful dinner, the storms of the outside world seemingly held at bay by the high walls of the military district.
After the meal, since the robots at her grandmother’s house could only perform cleaning tasks and, for security reasons, there was no smart home system that could be easily hacked, the task of washing dishes fell to Yun Chuji and Tang Jianxi.
Yun Chuji washed while Tang Jianxi dried. The kitchen was silent save for the sound of running water.
The last bowl passed from Yun Chuji’s hands to Tang Jianxi’s.
The bright overhead light cast a halo around the edges of the water droplets on the bowl. Yun Chuji dried her hands.
As if asking an idle question, she said, “Are Mom and Dad doing okay?”
Tang Jianxi paused, placing the bowl in the cabinet.
She turned around and, looking straight into Yun Chuji’s eyes, said, “Not great, but not terrible either.”
Yun Chuji hummed in acknowledgment, then took Tang Jianxi’s hand. “Let’s go.”
She knew that “not great” meant her parents had lost their jobs because of her, and that her younger sister, who was about to take her major exams, had to take a leave of absence from school due to ostracism and verbal abuse from her classmates.
She also knew that “not terrible” meant that none of them believed they were doing anything wrong, and while they understood the people retaliating against them, they did not condone their actions.
Because their address on the Imperial Capital Star had been leaked—by one of the Yun family’s own relatives—they were temporarily staying on Golden Phoenix Star under Tang Jianxi’s arrangements. They would return with Yun Chuji once everything had calmed down.
Yun Chuji didn’t know how long that would take. The situation felt as endless as her painful daily firearms practice.
But at the same time, she was making progress every day, even if it was just a little.
Yun Chuji thought of the comments in her livestream chat and turned to Tang Jianxi with a smile. “Do you remember I have a friend named Feng Ling?”
Tang Jianxi tilted her head in thought, then said, “That male alpha you met at the training camp?”
Yun Chuji nodded emphatically, a hint of regret in her smile. “I was in such a hurry when I went back to the Imperial Capital Star that I didn’t get to see him. But he sent me his shop’s exclusive barbecue seasoning. I left it at my house in A-District. I wonder if Mom brought it with her.”
“Ah, I’m getting off-topic.” Yun Chuji tapped her head. “I’ve seen him in the stream these past few days. He, a group of classmates from the training camp, and Teacher Gu Qing—they’re all in the stream encouraging me.”
Tang Jianxi knew what she was trying to say. She stopped walking, opened her light-brain, and pulled up a chart. On the pie chart, the blue section had grown from a negligible speck to a noticeable slice of the filling.
“It’s not just them. There are many other alphas. Although their numbers are still small compared to those who are cursing you, it’s a lot more than before.”
“Wow,” Yun Chuji exclaimed. “You even keep track of this!”
“Jiang Xiu does. It’s her job.”
At the mention of Jiang Xiu, Yun Chuji felt a pang of guilt. After all, Miss Jiang had aimed to turn her into the king of internet traffic. And now, while she had indeed become the king of internet traffic, that traffic was, just as Jiang Xiu had lamented before, unmonetizable.
It felt like she was wasting the woman’s professional skills.
However, when Yun Chuji recalled how Jiang Xiu had brazenly told her that she had once pursued Tang Jianxi, her guilt dissipated by more than half. The words that finally came out were light and airy, “Miss Jiang, is she satisfied with her work?”
Tang Jianxi pulled her by the hand toward the media room, replying without turning her head, “I pay her a salary.”
“Oh.”
“But are we still watching a romance movie today?”
“Hmm… how about a romantic comedy?”
“…Alright, we’ll watch a romance movie.”
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