Luo Qingcheng’s temporary employee dormitory was at the end of the corridor. It had no windows, and once the door was closed, the room was dead silent and eerily gloomy.
Lawyer Lin, an Alpha dressed in a suit and tie, was surrounded by the surrounding darkness. He rarely coordinated with his boss this close up, usually handling things via phone.
The blue light of the only tablet shone on Mu Xiao. His robust figure, wearing a hooded jacket and dressed completely in black from head to toe, sat on the floor with his back against a folding cot. Luo Qingcheng’s arm was pulled back behind him, hanging down over Mu Xiao’s shoulder.
He watched himself in the video, wearing a baseball cap and a mask, indulging and having a wild time with the people in the club who were plotting to seize his inheritance.
Lawyer Lin could only lower his voice to a mosquito-like hum: “President Mu, is he the person you are looking for?”
This sentence reminded Mu Xiao of Luo Qingcheng, who had once used him for experiments. He was superficially cold with an even colder and more ruthless heart. No matter how obedient he was or how much he begged, the experiments destined to end up in his body only increased in number.
Find him, and return those excruciating tortures a hundredfold!
This was the direction that kept him alive.
After watching the video, Mu Xiao simply could not find any logical consistency in Luo Qingcheng’s pretense. After all, a high-level biological research professor and an ordinary Beta employee differed vastly in speech, behavior, and logical thinking.
Luo Qingcheng’s appearance was astonishing, and observing this Luo Qingcheng up close, there were no signs of plastic surgery. Unless they were twins, even a seasoned actor could not easily explain this away.
Mu Xiao furrowed his brows in deep confusion, pondering hard.
The bunch of good-for-nothings organized by Huo Jing were not worth mentioning, but the gold-rimmed-glasses Alpha, Qiao Buyi, caught his attention. This person’s resume had been flawless without a single flaw since his differentiation; after earning his doctorate, he worked at a research institute studying pheromone-inhibiting drugs.
Lawyer Lin, having received no reply, wiped away sweat in the silence. He was thirty-six years old and had followed Mu Xiao for five years. Mu Xiao was ruthless and would stop at nothing to achieve his goals. Being in close proximity to him felt like an ordinary mortal having an audience with the King of Hell, and Lin could not figure out how the temporary worker Luo Qingcheng had managed to provoke such a living Yama.
Enduring the agonizing torture while bowing and scraping, Lawyer Lin waited a good while longer before smilingly asking for instructions: “President Mu, in your view, when would it be most appropriate to notify everyone?”
Three years ago, the original Mu Xiao had already planned this funeral for the dangerous figures around him, never expecting it to be disrupted by the present Luo Qingcheng. His peripheral vision swept over the phone on the corner of the desk.
“Leave him hanging for a few days, and see how he performs at the graveside.”
Lawyer Lin nodded: “Understood.”
Mu Xiao closed his computer and added, “Have him move into that villa.”
Lawyer Lin furrowed his brows slightly. Mu Xiao had real estate scattered everywhere, and the villa he mentioned must be a location related to the cemetery. “If he…”
“Whether he moves or not, I am looking forward to it.”
“Alright, President Mu, I will handle it right away.”
Like someone passing a level and receiving approval, Lawyer Lin fled the scene in a state of terror and joy.
The room was left with only Mu Xiao and Luo Qingcheng. Mu Xiao’s boiling inner turmoil had long since calmed down, yet he still unceasingly toyed with Luo Qingcheng’s hands.
He loved the darkness because the surprises Luo Qingcheng brought him made him even more excited in this pitch-black, lightless world.
He released pheromones toward Luo Qingcheng, but no matter the amount, they quickly dissipated. In the darkness, he still heard Luo Qingcheng’s even breathing. Previously he only had a slight antibody, but now he was completely immune.
Suddenly realizing with acute sharpness, he couldn’t rule out the possibility that Luo Qingcheng was an anti-toxin bionic person created by the Pheromone Administration, deliberately sent to approach him, because he had once tried something similar himself, and both had ended in failure.
Thinking of this, he could have ravished this sleeping beauty who was practically an enemy until not even scraps were left, yet he was unwilling to strangle his many contradictory guesses right then and there.
After all, his loneliness day and night was solely for the purpose of catching him and torturing him.
Not wanting to get overly excited, the best choice was to treat Luo Qingcheng as a dangerous opponent, with their contest to unfold under the cover of darkness.
Luo Qingcheng was still fast asleep. With a distorted mentality, Mu Xiao had bitten every single one of his fingers. Seeing two men sleeping together in the dark, Mu Xiao decided that the edge of the bed was the dividing line of their worlds; if he didn’t hold onto Luo Qingcheng’s hand, he couldn’t enter the other bustling world.
He envisioned various scenes of revenge against Luo Qingcheng: finding a few prisoners in jail to violate him, playing the recorded videos on a big screen for all the passersby to see, letting the whole world see that this upright and hypocritical Professor Luo was, when base, worse than an animal.
Or perhaps injecting him with various well-known illegal drugs to make him a rat running across the street. Once upon a time, he had tossed and turned thinking of thousands of methods of revenge, but now that they were within reach, he couldn’t pick the most satisfying one, feeling that only by using all these methods could he vent his hatred.
He had actually fallen asleep.
.
Initially, Luo Qingcheng had slept very soundly, but later he felt the perverted Jiang Heming become intoxicated and obsessed with his hands, eventually even wanting to eat them. Fear caused him to wake up abruptly, instinctively retracting his fingers. The sticky, damp sensation in his dream was gone. It was pitch black all around, and he didn’t know whether it was night or day.
Recalling how he and Jiang Heming had lain in a coffin, only to reach out and touch a quilt and a bed, the immense anxiety made him unable to judge whether the mission had failed and he had perished, or if Jiang Heming had done something to him.
His heart hammered like a drum, the nightmare lingering. All his strength felt drained, his shirt soaked front and back, and a chill swept through his entire body.
Suddenly remembering, he shouted out for the system.
The system’s voice was crisp and pleasant, a very nice male voice. Luo Qingcheng regained a bit of security in this comfort. If the mission had failed, the system couldn’t possibly be buried along with him.
Luo Qingcheng: Did I win?
System: There is a phone on the table, check it yourself.
Turning on the light, the fluorescent glare made it hard to keep his eyes open. He glanced and saw a new phone on the table.
Luo Qingcheng didn’t immediately reach for the phone, instead walking into the bathroom. While washing up, he suddenly couldn’t help dry-heaving a few times. The smell here wasn’t very comfortable, so he quickly changed into a clean, light, and thin shirt.
He walked out, massaging his dripping hair. Although he had anticipated the result, he still needed to confirm it.
He opened the text messages on the phone.
The first message: Regarding the announcement of the results for President Mu’s funeral, among the numerous guests at the funeral, Luo Qingcheng was the Beta employee who did not receive an inheritance invitation. Using only a single solitary stick of incense to burn the longest, he said goodbye with his most sincere tears and knelt for a long time with a submissive heart. This genuine affection came from the bottom of his heart and could not be doubted.
Therefore, the inheritance is gifted to Luo Qingcheng.
The second message: Mu Xiao’s huge inheritance is entirely gifted to Luo Qingcheng, but under three conditions: he must never date or marry for life, he must visit the grave no less than three times a week at midnight, and failure to comply will result in paying double penalty fees, with all assets donated to scientific research projects. (An additional clause: if there is a current romantic partner, please terminate it, otherwise it will be considered a breach of contract.)
Luo Qingcheng did not understand the final conditions set forth. The ultimate breach-of-penalty fee felt like a trap dug from the ground straight to the center of the earth. Without even meeting Mu Xiao, he had already experienced his ruthlessness; even in death, he left behind such a luxurious package, and everyone walked right into it willingly.
At this moment, a knock on the door sounded. It was Lawyer Lin arriving right on schedule to sign the contract.
In order to complete the child-bearing mission, Luo Qingcheng had to sign this perverted contract. Fortunately, he could move for free to a residence closer to the cemetery. The hateful part was that the inheritance could only be cashed out by visiting the grave once per payout, yielding 120,000 each time.
To pay off the IOU incurred on Rose Island, he needed to visit the grave three times. Lawyer Lin also specially reminded him that during the first seven days after death, he had to visit the grave every single day, and only afterward would it drop to no less than three times a week, starting tonight.
Luo Qingcheng lowered his gaze in silence, waiting for Lawyer Lin to walk out before asking the system: Did you agree to my request?
System: Transfer pregnancy physical discomforts, or give other failed transmigrators a chance at survival? You can only choose one.
How did it become a choice between two?
His hard struggle was entirely for the transfer of pregnancy physical discomforts, so that he would at most sport a beer belly without having to worry about pregnancy nausea and vomiting, his little tadpole kicking him too hard to sleep at night, or suffering from the anxiety of natural birth versus a C-section. Thirty-some weeks would pass quickly, and completing the task would be a breeze.
The scene on Rose Island inappropriately surfaced in his mind.
Faces full of yearning for life were reflected on transparent colored bubbles. They were like moonlight spots and the sun’s blood, possessing an intimately connected relationship.
Luo Qingcheng’s eyes were filled with expectation: What do they look like when they are on the verge of death?
System: Losing a baby and ultimately perishing is a cruel and bloody affair. For the healthy development of your baby, prenatal education suggests you avoid it.
Luo Qingcheng chuckled softly: I just happen to fancy this sort of thing, and my little tadpole can’t wait either.
The system was speechless, pulling up the screens of every transmigrator for him. All of those who failed their missions suffered various postpartum hemorrhages and miscarriages, a path of death.
The smell of blood and the aura of death invisibly permeated around Luo Qingcheng, tightening his throat and making him taste the helplessness of suffocation.
When he impulsively said he wanted to save everyone, it was nothing more than wanting to retaliate against all mothers who abandoned their biological children!
People who transmigrated and gave birth were all people abandoned by their closest kin!
He breathed heavily and rapidly. He didn’t want to be an orphan! He didn’t want to die!
Those who were abandoned insisted on surviving!
Luo Qingcheng yearned for the freedom to breathe, and with difficulty squeezed out a single word: Save.
System: Can you bear all the pregnancy symptoms?
Luo Qingcheng cursed with a dirty word: Save!
System: Your decision has been communicated to the main system.
He must have gone crazy for the sake of an illusory revenge.
A single word instantly drained all the physical energy he had just recovered. His whole body felt as weak and powerless as someone rescued from drowning.
He took heavy steps out of the windowless room, golden-orange sunlight falling all over his shoulders.
He finally stood in the light, breathing in fresh air.
Lawyer Lin turned back to urge him, but his mouth opened without sound.
Luo Qingcheng, bathed in the golden light, raised his head slightly, revealing a snow-white neck and a slender figure. His face possessed a genderless, breathtaking handsomeness that was thrilling to behold. Even if Luo Qingcheng asked him for all his savings account passwords and customer privacy secrets at that moment, he would have agreed without hesitation.
Luo Qingcheng lowered his gaze and saw a glowing commercial vehicle parked downstairs. He let out a long breath, “Let’s go.”
Lawyer Lin stood in the blazing sunset glow, breaking out in a cold sweat, secretly telling himself he must have seen a ghost just now!
“Lawyer Lin, may I ask if Jiang Heming, who was in my group, also stays in the dorms?”
Lawyer Lin didn’t dare to neglect Luo Qingcheng, turning back to say: “He threw punches and beat people at the funeral, and was fired as soon as he got back.”
“Then do you have his contact information?”
“He’s a person from the funeral home side. Since he made you pay a huge amount, you indeed should settle accounts with him. I’ll help you contact him later.”
“No need, thank you. I was just asking casually.”
Luo Qingcheng withdrew both hands, feeling a vague sense that Lawyer Lin was eyeing his hands.
.
Upon reaching the destination, Luo Qingcheng was somewhat startled to find it was a small villa.
Exhausted, Lawyer Lin meticulously explained all the matters to attend to. Seeing that it was getting late, his hesitation to speak upon leaving left Luo Qingcheng quite puzzled.
Luo Qingcheng closed the bamboo gate of the courtyard and was about to walk inside when a car pulled up right at the front gate.
Luo Qingcheng pushed open the bamboo gate, saw the visitor taking many bags filled with goods out of the car, and pursed his lips: “How did you know I was here?”
Qiao Buyi looked exhausted yet quite delighted: “If you caused such a big commotion and I didn’t come find you, that would be a major problem. You haven’t eaten yet, right?”
Luo Qingcheng was just worrying about what to eat when a lavish and nutritious feast was laid right in front of him. His eyes narrowed slightly: “Are you here for revenge, or to congratulate me on winning Mu Xiao’s inheritance?”
Qiao Buyi’s eyes flashed with surprise: “You won the inheritance?”
Luo Qingcheng raised his eyes to study him, then realized it instantly. Could it be that the text messages received by those participating in the inheritance gifting were different? He countered: “You didn’t get a text message?”
“I got one saying ‘thank you for participating’.” Qiao Buyi’s tall figure was surrounded by shopping bags as he stepped through the bamboo gate: “We failed, and Huo Jing will definitely come looking for trouble with you.”
“Huo Jing? Do I know him?”
Qiao Buyi’s gentle gaze gradually dimmed.