Chapter 42 Exploitation and Sincerity "Yan Quan, you're lying to me, aren't you? Pretending to like me..."

(Flashback, following the confrontation in the ward, Yan Quan and Yan Ceyan break up)

"Please, I beg you, I beg you..."

Inside the enclosed, luxurious limousine, the beautiful woman kept pulling on Yan Quan's hand, her willow-leaf eyebrows furrowed in a pleading manner: "Why don't you listen to your father?"

"Why would you rather live at school than move out of your home?"

"We finally managed to enter the Yan family, and we finally got to live such a good life..." Wu Yingxue's words became more and more hurried, and the light spots reflected from her sparkling diamond earrings dazzled Yan Quan's eyes.

"Quanquan, why did you make your father angry?!"

“The Yan family is your father’s business rival. He already knows you’re an omega. Your father just sent you to get close to the Yan family’s son to gather information.”

Yan Quan stared at her mother, who was crying her eyes out, and knew that Yan Zhengdong had deliberately sent her—her mother was completely unaware of the conspiracy behind it all. She simply thought it was just a small trick in business competition.

This was a blatant "obedience test." Yan Zhengdong was condescendingly mocking how ridiculous Yan Quan's "stubborn resistance" had been these past few days.

“Your father said that only you can do this.”

“He’s not my ‘father.’ I was born without a father.” Yan Quan bit her lower lip and looked away.

"I have already broken up with Yan Ceyan."

Yan Quan choked slightly, as if she were brainwashing herself: "I don't like Yan Ceyan."

"Who cares if you like it or not!" The woman's long fingernails dug into Yan Quan's flesh, causing him excruciating pain.

"You promised me, Quan Quan! You would pretend to be an Alpha, and you would pretend perfectly! You would never be found out!"

"But you still gave yourself away! Quan Quan, you were the one who wronged Mom first! The chance to make amends is right in front of you, Quan Quan... why won't you take it?"

“Qianqian, you’ve always been the most obedient…Qianqian, from childhood to adulthood, you’ve always been the most obedient.”

"You were very obedient when you stabbed yourself in your gland... You said you would help your mother fulfill her wish, don't you remember?"

"A wish..." Yan Quan's lips curled into a hint of irony as he closed his eyes heavily and helplessly—

The Baisha Street slum is crawling with these social scum and maggots: gambling addicts with exorbitant debts, drug addicts with needle marks all over their arms, and rapists who have been released from prison and are now roaming the streets.

Of course, there are also women whose bellies grow bigger day by day, but whose biological fathers are unknown.

One of the women was named Wu Yingxue, who was Yan Quan's biological mother and Yan Quan's "mother".

Yan Quan and his mother lived together in the Baisha Street slum, at the corner of the alley, in the last room of the second-to-last floor of the first tenement building.

If Yan Quan was born a cold child who "couldn't love," then his mother was his only weakness.

In this world, Yan Quan only loves her mother.

The mother's greatest wish in life was to gain status through her son and marry into a wealthy family.

Therefore, Wu Yingxue often said that Yan Quan was her heart and soul, her life, her only treasure... In this world, her mother loved Yan Quan the most.

But sometimes, this "love" makes Yan Quan feel suffocated—physically suffocated.

When she was little, Yan Quan would often wake up suddenly in a cold sweat from her deep sleep. Then, she would be surprised to find her mother staring intently at her—

Eyes as clear as glass beads reflected a sinister, cold light in the pitch-black night: "My darling, my dearest darling..."

"Hoo... Ugh... Mom, Mom..."

When Yan Quan felt her breathing becoming difficult and her gaze slowly shifted downwards, she was horrified to discover that her mother's bony fingers were tightly wrapped around her neck.

“Yan Quan, Quan Quan… my darling… do you remember?” Wu Yingxue’s hot tears burned like flames: “Alpha, you must be an Alpha.”

"As long as you're an Alpha... then, then everything will be worth it... I can leave here. I can go find him... I can become a wealthy wife!"

"Sweetie, did you remember that?"

The hand gripping her neck tightened, and Yan Quan's breathing became increasingly shallow, her face turning red and purple from lack of oxygen: "I...I remember. Mom...Mom."

"My darling, my darling... you must fulfill this wish for your mother..."

As a child, Yan Quan would repeatedly utter a single sentence while teetering on the brink of death. It was as if, through this method, he could etch some kind of belief firmly into his bones:

"Mom, I will fulfill your wish."

...

But Yan Quan still disappointed his mother.

At the age of fourteen, when Yan Quan differentiated, he became an omega. A common omega with orange-scented pheromones.

My mother's disheveled hair covered half of her eyes, leaving only the sharp curve of her lower eyelid visible at the corner of her eye—like a cold knife from her wrist.

“Omega?! How can you be an omega? They traditionally value AO culture more than their own lives, and omegas are considered the most useless... If you were an omega, he wouldn't even give you a second glance…”

Her soft, gentle voice now sounded like the indescribable scream of some wild beast. It was as if she were slowly and brutally peeling away rotting flesh, bit by bit:

"It was you! You ruined my life!"

"My whole life."

Yan Quan loves his mother.

Therefore, Yan Quan will "help" his mother fulfill her wish.

Fourteen-year-old Yan Quan has excellent flexibility. She can look at herself in the mirror at an angle and bend her elbows around her slender neck.

Press down on the joint with your thumb and forefinger, and the sharp tip of the knife can be aimed directly at the omega gland.

With a clang, the knife fell, and a bloody flower bloomed in the air.

The glands on the back of her neck had been deliberately stabbed with a knife, leaving them bloody and unrecognizable. Bright red blood gushed through the gauze, flowing down Yan Quan's beautiful swan-like neck.

"Ugh... ooh..." Yan Quan trembled as she reached out to catch the rotting chunks of flesh that had been peeled off—pink, dark purple, and sticky blood trickled down between her fingers.

At that moment, Yan Quan gritted her teeth and endured the pain, repeating in her heart over and over again, "Don't cry, Yan Quan, don't cry..."

You're an "Alpha" now, Yan Quan.

Don't cry.

That day, Yan Quan became an omega with incomplete glands.

The damaged glands have almost lost their reproductive function and can only emit very faint, very faint... almost no pheromones.

And these are the best Alpha disguises.

And so, Yan Quan entered the Yan family and met his "biological father" as an "Alpha" son.

...

"Qiuqiu, my darling... please." Wu Yingxue continued to shake Yan Quan's arm, the painful memories of the past seemingly overlapping with the scene in the carriage today.

"Why don't you go apologize? Why don't you go and beg your father to admit your mistake?"

"It's just a breakup... Can you play the victim, beg for forgiveness, and get back together with the Yan family's son?"

“Your dad hasn’t been talking to me lately… He must be really angry. This won’t do, he even said…”

"Speak, speak—" Wu Yingxue gasped for breath, as if her already unstable mind was about to collapse again. Paranoid and insane, she was like a concubine in a cold palace.

“He said he was going to throw me back into Baisha Street. No way, this won't do—I'd rather be dead…”

"Yan Quan, Quan Quan, it's all your fault!" Wu Yingxue's face was contorted as she spoke, about to do what she had done countless times as a child, extending her long fingernails to strangle Yan Quan's neck:

"Qiuqiu, you promised—you clearly promised me! You would fulfill my wish!"

"But how could you break it again?! Qunqun, don't you love me? In this world, aren't you the one who loves me the most?"

“Qiuqiu, if you love me… why can’t you sacrifice something for me? You’ve ruined it—my life, my entire life.”

Yan Quan could have easily broken free from Wu Yingxue's grasp, but he didn't.

With Wu Yingxue's fingers tightly gripping her neck, Yan Quan's almost translucent white skin revealed bulging veins due to suffocation.

"Mom..." Yan Quan closed her eyes helplessly. Large tears streamed down her face from the corners of her eyes due to the physiological pressure.

Yan Quan knew clearly that her mother was ill. Tormented by her long-standing obsession with "marrying into a wealthy family" and her fear of the past of Baisha Street, her mother had become a living corpse.

My mother can't handle any stress right now.

Just as Wu Yingxue said, Yan Quan ruined Wu Yingxue's entire life.

Yan Quan's heavy sigh echoed in the quiet carriage. Just like when he was fourteen, Yan Quan once again compromised for his mother.

"Mom, I will fulfill your wish."

...

"Tell me, what do you want me to do?"

Several bluish-purple scratches were branded on his neck. Under Wu Yingxue's wide-eyed gaze, Yan Quan dialed Yan Zhengdong's phone number.

"I don't believe it. You went to great lengths to obtain so many secrets of the Yan family, just to... kill Yan Ceyan."

Yan Quan took a deep breath, trying hard to maintain the calm mask on her face: "What is your ultimate goal?"

"Heh, Yan Quan... so you've come to see me after all. Your so-called backbone is nothing but a joke." The person opposite him seemed to be deeply slumped in the back of their office chair, laughing smugly.

"However, you're quite smart."

“Indeed, I’m not a psychopathic killer. What use would I have for Yan Ceyan’s life (his father’s life is enough for me to vent my anger)... This is just a bargaining chip.”

“What I really want—” His knuckles rustled as he flipped through a large stack of documents: “It’s a major development zone project spearheaded by the government in cooperation with the Yan family.”

"Tsk tsk, tsk... This is billions of dollars in government funding. As long as we have it..."

Yan Zhengdong's fleeting words were drowned out by the clatter of pages turning: "But it's not the right time yet. You should stay by Yan Ceyan's side for now..."

"Oh, he secretly went to the 911 Military Hospital again a few days ago. I guess you broke up with him and made him really angry."

"Hahaha, my dear son, you are truly his nemesis."

"After we win this project..." Yan Quan took a deep breath calmly, "Will you let my mother off the hook then...?"

...and let Yan Ceyan go as well.

"Hahaha, of course. I'm a businessman, not a murderer. Once I've got the money, why would I care about that kid... (His father, on the other hand, would have to kneel down and beg me)."

"Okay..." Yan Quan said, then immediately hung up the phone. Even a single extra word with Yan Zhengdong made Yan Quan feel nauseous.

"What did your dad say?", "Did you apologize to your dad? Did he forgive you?"...

As soon as Yan Quan finished his call, Wu Yingxue's face instantly switched back to a gentle and loving expression.

The long fingernails that had just been gripping Yan Quan's neck now embraced Yan Quan and gently kissed his forehead.

"Qianqian, my darling, I knew it, you always listen to your mother the most." "Qianqian, my darling, Mommy loves you, you always manage to fulfill my wishes..."

Holding Yan Quan in Wu Yingxue's arms, Wu's sweet words echoed in his ears, yet now seemed to carry a hidden blade, cutting into a soft spot in Yan Quan's heart, causing sharp pain—

True "love" shouldn't be like this.

Yan Zhengdong uses himself to profit through improper and despicable means. Even his mother... seems to be "using" him as well.

She kept talking about "love," but used Yan Quan as a means to climb the social ladder...

Curled up in her mother's arms, Yan Quan felt nauseous for the first time. So Yan Quan suddenly stood up, pushed away Wu Yingxue's arms, and slammed open the car door.

A light drizzle was falling outside, and Yan Quan hadn't brought an umbrella. But she still recklessly rushed into the rain...

The raindrops pattered down, and Yan Quan ran faster and faster... but the nausea in his heart still clung to him like a ghost.

The raindrops pattered down, striking the camphor tree leaves along the paths of Nanzhong campus, causing them to fall in droves. The air was filled with the slightly bitter scent of camphor leaves…

It was at this moment that Yan Quan turned a corner and ran into... Yan Ceyan.

He seemed to have run all the way here, panting heavily; his white school uniform shirt clung to his taut back muscles and was soaked with sweat.

Those sharp, cold eyebrows, which always looked at people with arrogance, were now lowered carefully and obediently, and his dark eyes were staring blankly at Yan Quan.

"You..." Yan Quan's words were instantly swallowed up.

But Yan Ceyan spoke first, as if afraid that if he hesitated even a second, Yan Quan would "reject" him.

"I know you don't like me..."

"Yan Quan, you're lying to me."

"Pretend to 'like me'."

-----------------------

Author's Note: As we all know, "rain" is the perfect background music for young couples [droopy-eared rabbit head] (I recommend you go back and read Chapter 13, "Good Little Dog (Part Two)," for the same scene but with completely different emotions).

And believe me, after they get back together, it'll be all sweetness and light (though it'll be sweetness wrapped in a knife) [heart emoji]