“Two Alphas, whichever you choose to pick.”
As night fell, the lusty cries of a newborn echoed through the operating room, but the woman wheeled out was completely devoid of color, having slipped into a coma.
When the woman finally woke up, her consciousness was already rapidly fading.
She wept as she looked at the tiny bundle beside her, extending a trembling hand to clasp Qiu Yao’s. “Auntie, if you sell that necklace, the company can survive.”
“I beg you, take my child away as soon as possible. From this day forward, he is your child.”
Tears streaming down their faces, Qiu Yao and Xu Fengying placed the necklace by the woman’s pillow, refusing no matter what and hoping only that the woman could muster the will to live for the sake of her child.
With only a sliver of strength left, the woman widened her eyes as if seeing some terrifying monster, praying only that they would hurry and take the child away so he could survive and grow up.
“The child’s Alpha father, the child’s older brother, they’ve both met with disaster, they’re both gone,” the woman’s eyes filled with despair as two trails of bloody tears rolled down, laying bare the perilous trap closing in around her and her child. “Those people will find me immediately. I beg you, take my child away, let him live, let him grow up.”
“Do not trust my family.”
With her very last breath, the woman finished speaking. Before she had time to name the child, before she could see the results of the baby’s secondary gender test, she passed away.
The final words left behind by the woman weighed heavily on Xu Fengying and Qiu Yao’s minds for a long time.
They paid off the hospital and instructed them that even if the woman’s family came looking, they were to claim that both the woman and child had perished in a car accident, leaving no survivors and unclaimed bodies, and that cremation had already taken place.
Sure enough, a few days later, a group of mysterious individuals arrived, claiming outwardly to be the family of the woman who had died in the car accident a few days prior, while in reality refusing even to state their names.
True to their agreement, the hospital handed over two urns of ashes to that group of people.
After those people departed, Xu Fengying and Qiu Yao also hurried back to Chongcheng.
They unified their story, claiming the child was an orphan they had picked up and registering him under the eldest son, Xu Xiangchuan.
As Jiao Qin was also nearing childbirth at the time, they announced publicly that Jiao Qin had given birth to twins.
Tears fell down Qiu Yao’s weathered face as she reached into an inner pocket, pulled out a red velvet jewelry pouch, and handed it to Xu Yiwen. “Xiao Wen, we failed you and your mother. We ended up having to sell that necklace to save the company, and later, when we made money and went back to redeem it, the necklace had already been resold multiple times and could no longer be found.”
“The only thing I can pass on to you on your mother’s behalf is this ring.”
Xu Yiwen’s eyes brimmed with mist, his lips pressed tight as he swallowed back his tears and accepted the jewelry pouch.
When he opened it and dumped its contents into his palm, what slid out was a ring suspended from a gold chain.
The ruby embedded in the setting pressed hard against Xu Yiwen’s palm, as if burning straight through his heart.
So, he had a father, a mother, and an older brother.
His mother, so kind and so strong, had held on until the very last moment just to protect him and ensure he could live.
Qiu Yao leaned forward to embrace Xu Yiwen, her warm tears dampening his hair. “Xiao Wen, it is your grandparents who have failed you.”
“Back then, just a few days after Xiao An was born, Xiangchuan wanted to secretly send you away. We stopped him, but we never expected that Xiao An would be stolen instead.”
“It was their fault, yet they pinned all that blame onto you.”
“It was us grandparents who were useless; seeing their grief and pain, we didn’t rebuke them, leaving you to suffer endless grievances. We have failed you, and we have failed your mother.”
Xu Yiwen gripped the ring tightly, refusing to open the floodgates to bitter tears.
“No,” he forced himself to stand firm, comforting Qiu Yao in return. “Grandma, you and Grandpa have been good enough to me.”
“My mother must have been very grateful to you,” he looked up, flashing a smile at Qiu Yao as he helped wipe away her tears. “Please don’t cry anymore. If you cry until you make yourself sick, how can you come with us to Chuncheng?”
“Good, good,” Qiu Yao wiped her own tears as well. “Grandma won’t cry. Our Xiao Wen, just like your mother, is a strong S-grade Omega.”
“Mom was an S-grade Omega too?” A vague image of a woman sketched itself across Xu Yiwen’s mind. “Grandma, do I look like Mom?”
Qiu Yao narrowed her eyes, put on her reading glasses, and meticulously studied Xu Yiwen’s features, recalling the appearance of Xu Yiwen’s mother.
“Your eyes are alike,” Qiu Yao stroked the outer corner of Xu Yiwen’s eye before tapping the corner of his lips. “Right here, your mother had very cute little dimples.”
Her palm gently rested on Xu Yiwen’s shoulder. “Your mother was an S-grade Omega, which is why you were able to differentiate into an S-grade Omega as well.”
“Xiao Wen, you were your mother’s most precious treasure.”
Xu Yiwen covered the back of Qiu Yao’s hand with his palm, the corners of his lips curling up as his voice carried a sob lodged in his throat. “Grandma, my mom, dad, and brother must have loved me very much.”
Xu Yiwen leaned lightly over Qiu Yao’s lap, listening as she hummed the lullaby his mother used to soothe him when he was still moving in her womb.
“Little bug fly, little bug fly. You are missing who?”
At that time, was his mother missing his father and older brother?
Perhaps wishing to spare Xu Yiwen excessive sorrow, or perhaps afraid that her remaining days were numbered, Qiu Yao took advantage of having a bit of energy to rush through telling Xu Yiwen everything he had long wondered about.
Qiu Yao stopped humming, paused for a moment to catch her breath, and said she wanted to explain one more thing that had always puzzled Xu Yiwen.
“Didn’t you want to know why you were made to enter a political marriage with Xihuan?”
Xu Yiwen’s expression shifted slightly. He stood up and poured a cup of water for Qiu Yao to drink.
After taking a sip and having the cup taken back by Xu Yiwen to place on the table, Qiu Yao clasped both of Xu Yiwen’s hands tightly and said:
“Arranging for you to marry into the He family was something your grandfather and I planned for you long ago.”
“Your grandfather’s health was poor back then, and he was afraid you would be bullied at home, so he instructed me that once you came of age, I should take a group photo and a handwritten letter to the He family.”
“Your grandfather and Xihuan’s grandfather were comrades-in-arms, and your grandfather once saved his life. Later, after they retired from the military, Xihuan’s grandfather went home to inherit the family estate, while your grandfather took a different path, starting his own business and opening a company.”
“Your grandfather had a high and proud spirit; unwilling to lose his backbone in front of his comrade, when the other man took the initiative to offer help, your grandfather chased him off and claimed he didn’t know him.”
“As he grew older, though, he decided that the He family folks were the most reliable after all, saying that old man He owed him a life and wouldn’t dare refuse.”
The confusion in Xu Yiwen’s heart was finally resolved, leaving him momentarily unable to believe it.
So the He family alliance that Xu Baoning had never dared to fight for was actually a path paved for the latter half of his life by his grandfather breaking away his final shreds of pride.
“It’s a pity that old man He passed away to keep your grandfather company only a few years later,” Qiu Yao paused, patting the back of Xu Yiwen’s hand. “I was terrified back then, terrified that the younger generation of the He family wouldn’t be willing to honor the older generation’s agreement.”
“To my surprise, your He parents not only agreed immediately, but told us that their two Alphas were yours to choose from.”
“Before your grandfather passed away, he had his eye on the eldest, He Xiqi,” Qiu Yao sighed faintly. “I told the He family back then that once their eldest returned from the military and reached the right age, we would have you two marry.”
“We waited and waited, but that eldest He put down deep roots in the military,” Qiu Yao raised a hand to gently brush away a faint tear track on Xu Yiwen’s face. “Your mother asked us to raise you and make sure you lived well. There was no way we were going to send you off to a military district and put you in danger.”
“So, acting on my own accord, I changed your betrothed to the He family’s third son, He Xihuan.”
“Only after he graduated and secured his footing at the He Group did we let the two of you marry.”
Listening to Qiu Yao’s words, Xu Yiwen lowered his head in silence.
His gaze slowly drifted to the ring on his left ring finger.
He had worn the wedding ring for a year; it felt almost as though it had grown into his skin, making it impossible to tell whether it had zero presence or a presence so overwhelming it had melted into his bones and blood.
He had placed the divorce agreement right in front of He Xihuan, yet he had forgotten to take off this ring.
The safety net his grandparents had fought to secure for him was linked to the matching counterpart of this ring.
The owner of the ring had only been transferred from He Xiqi’s hand to He Xihuan’s due to an unforeseen twist of fate.
He needed to take this ring off as soon as possible.
He was no longer a wailing infant; he could now take charge of the second half of his life, needing neither He Xiqi nor He Xihuan to act as his security blanket.
While Xu Yiwen remained silent inside the room, outside the door, He Xihuan was sweating profusely from sheer anxiety.
A trembling bead of sweat slid from his forehead down his cheek until He Xihuan swallowed hard and reached up to wipe it away.
A lump stuck in his throat, and he nearly choked to death on it.
Fortunately, he had always given both hands and feet to support his eldest brother’s dream, supporting his brother in continuing his service in the military.
Otherwise, his wife would have turned away.
He Xihuan clenched his fist tightly, his heart hammering violently in his chest.
Compared to the agreement the two families had once secretly forged for Xu Yiwen and his eldest brother, what shocked him even more was Xu Yiwen’s background.
And compared to the past where Xu Yiwen had almost married his eldest brother, what terrified him even more was the life Xu Yiwen had almost lost at birth, and the ordeal of almost being abandoned by the Xu family.
He regretted it. He regretted not accompanying Xu Yiwen back to the Xu family that day.