The July weather was exceptionally sultry. Heavy, dark clouds hung low in the sky, carrying the threat of a torrential downpour that refused to break, suffocating and leaving people gasping for air.
Li Mo reached out to wipe the sweat beads from his forehead, then picked up two bowls of white porridge. He handed one to the sallow, disheveled woman before him, and bent down to pass the other to a ragged child with mud stains on his face who stood beside her.
After handing over the porridge, he pulled a pack of wet tissues from his pocket and casually wiped the child’s face clean. There was not a trace of disgust or impatience on his face; in fact, a flicker of deep pity welled up in his eyes.
“Quick, hurry and thank the gentleman,” the woman urged the child, turning back to look at Li Mo with eyes full of gratitude.
Crouching behind the woman, the child was raggedly dressed, but his eyes were bright. He raised his gaze to look at Li Mo and timidly murmured, “Thank you, gentleman,” before immediately shrinking back. Li Mo smiled gently at him and told him he could come back for more if it wasn’t enough.
With that, the figures of the child and the woman vanished into the crowd, disappearing in the blink of an eye. Yet, people like them were dime a dozen here. The woman and child had actually been in a relatively better situation; some didn’t even have a decent set of clothes, wearing oversized pieces of fabric riddled with large and small holes that offered no more protection than wearing nothing at all.
This was Sector 69, the residential area for the empire’s lowest-tier plebeians. Due to the harsh environment, low educational levels, and technological backwardness, it was the least developed part of the empire. Most people scraped by on basic social welfare, but this still fell short of securing the most basic survival needs for the residents here.
A sudden flood a few days ago had only added insult to injury, compounding an already dismal situation.
Gazing at the long line waiting for porridge, Li Mo sighed. While he couldn’t claim a deep understanding of economic development, he knew all too well that those free-loading bureaucrats steered clear of the districts populated by these lower-class plebeians. At the same time, from the bottom of his heart, he genuinely pitied the ordinary people living here.
Their lowest-tier status doomed them to high social insignificance. Even if they possessed talent and capability, they would still face contempt and disdain simply because they could never shed their lowly status.
At this thought, Li Mo sighed once more, a touch of powerlessness washing over him, before he immersed himself back into the task of distributing porridge.
Suddenly, a familiar figure flickered into the corner of his eye.
The man wore a tailored black suit, his leather shoes polished to a pristine, mirror-like shine. On his wrist flashed a modest yet luxurious mechanical wristwatch. His tall, muscular build stood out starkly amidst the crowd, trailing a sleek black luxury car that clashed completely with the impoverished, backward, and chaotic environment of Sector 69. It was impossible not to notice him.
Li Mo’s gaze shifted instantly, though the change was subtle so minute that even a close look into his eyes would reveal no trace of anomaly.
Many around them had their attention caught by the newcomer, but Li Mo did not rush to turn his head and verify whether the figure was indeed the person in his mind even though he was already ninety-percent sure. Instead, after handing out a few more bowls of porridge, he only pretended to discover the other party by chance.
As expected, the man who had arrived was Huo Jingsi: an S-grade Alpha, the eldest son of the empire’s Marshal, the chairman of Zhaohui Base (the empire’s largest base), one of the leading candidates for the Allied Governor-General, and…
His nominal husband.
Why nominal? Because a few years ago, he and Huo Jingsi had entered into a contract marriage, having never even laid eyes on each other prior to that arrangement.
“Why are you here?” Li Mo handed his current task over to an assistant standing by at attention. A look of pleasant surprise filled his eyes as he looked at Huo Jingsi, casually wiping his hands on his clothes before walking toward the man with a warm smile.
“Why wouldn’t I be able to come if you could?”
Huo Jingsi strode toward him as well. After just a few paces, his polished leather shoes were stained by the mud left behind by the floodwaters. Anyone could tell that shoes of that caliber were exceptionally expensive; the cost of cleaning and maintaining them after such mud damage would be a hefty sum. Yet Huo Jingsi didn’t even glance down, acting as though he cared nothing for such trivialities.
He smiled gently at Li Mo, then raised a hand to straighten the collar that had been rumpled from physical labor. Once it was neat, without a hint of aversion, he curved his knuckles to wipe away a bead of sweat sliding down Li Mo’s temple, before his palm dropped and gave a playful, lingering pinch to Li Mo’s backside: “You’ve had a tough few days, haven’t you?”
“It’s fine.”
Li Mo’s temples throbbed sharply at the slightly intrusive gesture. Damn it, can this man have a shred of basic decency and propriety…
With practiced naturalness, he nudged Huo Jingsi’s hand away from his backside, turned his gaze back to the refugees around them with a look of heartache, and abruptly steered the conversation: “No matter how hard it is for me, it’s nothing compared to how hard these people have it.”
While he genuinely pitied the residents here, he wasn’t deliberately putting on a theatrical expression. He knew that at this very moment, in certain hidden corners, there were no fewer than three cameras trained on him and Huo Jingsi from various angles. He knew Huo Jingsi had brought them along, and he also knew that Huo Jingsi knew he knew about the cameras. Therefore, he had to cooperate with the “cameramen” by projecting precisely this expression.
Especially since these photographs would grace the front pages of the empire’s largest newspapers in a few days, occupying the most prominent columns.
He could already picture how the news reports would spin it: while trumpeting his personal visit to the disaster zone to aid the victims, they would heavily emphasize his identity as “the wife of Huo Jingsi, one of the leading candidates for the next Allied Governor-General.”
In a sense, his attitude toward these plebeians mirrored Huo Jingsi’s attitude toward them. Unlike the decisive and ruthless persona Huo Jingsi typically projected to the public, Li Mo’s mild, polite, and egalitarian treatment of even the lowest-tier plebeians symbolized the warm and populist side of Huo Jingsi.
This played a vital role in bolstering Huo Jingsi’s campaign for Governor-General. After all, under the auspices of the incumbent old Governor-General, nearly 40% of the voting ballots for this election still rested in the hands of these ordinary citizens. Securing this block of votes would make capturing the position of Governor-General as easy as reaching into a pocket and taking something out.
Public opinion manipulation was the most potent weapon for winning the support of the common people, which was precisely why Huo Jingsi had shown up here today.
“Sir, Sir.” A childish voice chimed in beside his ear. Li Mo lowered his head to see the same little boy who had accompanied the woman earlier, holding a wild flower he must have plucked from somewhere, looking a bit shy and awkward.
“What is it?” Li Mo pulled his hand away from Huo Jingsi’s grasp, squatted down to steady the child’s shoulders, and asked with tender concern, “Did something happen?”
Clutching the flower in his hands, the boy extended it toward Li Mo, a hint of timidity coloring his features: “Sir, Mom asked me to tell you that all of us are deeply grateful to you and your gentleman. If not for you two, the floodwaters would have swept us away, and no one would care if we died.”
With that, he handed the flower to Li Mo, looked up at Huo Jingsi, and continued, “Mom said we have no way to repay your kindness, but we will always remember you.”
When he finished, the boy glanced back. Following his gaze, Li Mo saw a large group of refugees sitting in the distance. They were looking at him and Huo Jingsi with eyes brimming with boundless gratitude.
Though Li Mo kept his expression calm on the surface, his internal emotions were immensely complicated as he met those gazes.
Meanwhile, while the child spoke, Huo Jingsi listened intently on the surface, but his fingers resting at his side tapped lightly twice, as if signaling someone.
Pretending not to notice Huo Jingsi’s gesture, and feigning deafness to the continuous “click-click” sound of cameras behind him, Li Mo said nothing.
He accepted the flower from the child and returned it with a heartfelt embrace, causing the shy little fellow to scamper back with a blushing face.
“How are the post-disaster reconstruction efforts coming along?”
Once the child left, the two men resumed talking about business.
Because Li Mo pitied the refugees, Huo Jingsi channeled that compassionate expression onto his own spouse, which served as a tacit public declaration—he supported his wife’s endeavors, and upon assuming the role of Governor-General in the future, he would continue striving to protect the rights of commoners and vulnerable social groups.
“We’ve only managed to raise one million star-coins so far, but money isn’t our most pressing need right now. Consumables like food and medicine are running dangerously low. Based on our current reserves and daily consumption rates, conservatively speaking, we’ll run out in another three to four days.” Li Mo frowned, his tone heavy with worry as he forced a wry smile, “The Red Cross has reached out to quite a few people recently, but most of them claim they don’t have the funds.”
The people they approached were mostly wealthy aristocrats living in economically prosperous, resource-rich districts. Normally, even if these individuals—who fancied themselves superior from birth harored class prejudices deep down, they would still be willing to shell out a bit of money or donate essential supplies just to maintain a facade of friendly civility. Yet for reasons unknown, this time they were utterly unwilling to part with a single coin, with some acting so arrogant they couldn’t even be bothered to put on a polite pretense.
Though Li Mo kept his thoughts to himself, inward scorn burned bright against such arrogance.
Seeing his furrowed brows and troubled expression, Huo Jingsi pulled him into his embrace, completely oblivious to the brief, sub-second rigidity in Li Mo’s body. He patted Li Mo’s back reassuringly and told him not to worry: “You don’t need to stress over the money; leave that matter to me to handle.”
Li Mo relaxed slowly within his embrace and replied, “Alright.”
After all these years, he still hadn’t quite grown accustomed to Huo Jingsi’s embraces.
The man’s chest was solid and warm, and whenever he pressed against it, he could always hear the steady, powerful thumping of a heartbeat vibrant, fervent, and overflowing with raw vitality.
For anyone else, falling into such an embrace ought to evoke an overwhelming sense of security brought forth by an S-grade Alpha. But he was different; his marriage to Huo Jingsi was never forged for the sake of wealth, a worry-free future, or out of inherent benevolence that made him willing to endure hardship in a place like this just to play along with Huo Jingsi’s act.
He had come for the sole purpose of killing Huo Jingsi.
And the more he felt Huo Jingsi’s overwhelming strength, the more cautious and meticulous he had to be. Killing an Alpha of such formidable power transformed into a feat of near-impossible difficulty.
The longer he spent interacting with Huo Jingsi, the more deeply he felt that truth.