Qin Junlan was sick.
She had made a conscious effort to train her frail body from the beginning, but the time had been too short to see any real improvement. Before the training could show any results, she had already caught a cold.
Thinking back, there were multiple reasons why she had fallen ill.
First, her original body was physically weak. Second, she had just finished a fight, broke into a sweat, and was chilled by the wind right after. The third reason was that she had fallen into the water the night before.
Last night, after bringing Bai Lansheng back from the riverbank, she had dried herself off, changed into clean clothes, and gone straight to bed. When she woke up the next morning, she almost collapsed onto the floor beside her bed.
Qin Junlan lay back down. It took several minutes before the dizziness faded. She touched her forehead and found that it was not hot.
She sat up but quickly lay back down again. This odd behavior naturally caught Bai Lansheng’s attention.
When Qin Junlan met her thoughtful gaze, she suddenly felt uneasy. Could Bai Lansheng have noticed that she was sick? Was she planning to take advantage of her weakness and kill her?
She winced slightly at the thought.
The system thought Qin Junlan had brought this on herself. It still stood by the opinion it gave yesterday.
System: Your mission is Bai Lansheng. All you need to do is keep an eye on her and stop her from doing anything wrong. There is no need to waste time on other matters.
Qin Junlan: You keep asking me to monitor her. Have you ever considered creating a feature that turns Bai Lansheng into a wearable accessory I can carry around?
System: That feature does not exist. Bai Lansheng is a person, not an object.
Qin Junlan: A person has an independent mind and cannot be controlled completely. Even if someone is locked up in prison, their thoughts cannot be imprisoned. The more I try to control Bai Lansheng, the more she will shut herself off emotionally.
System: Aren’t you afraid that if you leave her alone, she might try to end her life again?
Qin Junlan: I don’t believe she truly wants to die.
System: You saw her jump off a building with your own eyes. What makes you think she didn’t mean it?
This question touched on something Qin Junlan did not want to discuss, so she brushed it off with a casual response.
“Just a feeling,” she said.
She stared at the ceiling absentmindedly, feeling as though it was spinning above her.
Her silence lasted too long. Bai Lansheng could not help but start overthinking. Was this shameless woman planning something again?
Time passed slowly. Sunlight began to fill the room, but Qin Junlan still showed no signs of getting up. Bai Lansheng began to feel discomfort in her lower abdomen. Her anxiety only made it worse, but she did not know how to express it. Her face turned red from holding it in, while Qin Junlan remained motionless like a log.
Finally, Bai Lansheng could not hold back anymore and muttered softly, “Didn’t you say we would run every morning?”
She regretted saying it right away and wished she could take it back.
That Bai Lansheng spoke first actually surprised Qin Junlan.
But her head was still spinning.
She really did not want to get up.
So she said nothing.
She glanced at Bai Lansheng and noticed that her eyes were red.
This was serious. Bai Lansheng looked ready to fight.
Qin Junlan finally gave in and sat up, clearly reluctant.
They went through a morning run that felt unbearable for both of them. Qin Junlan felt dizzy, and Bai Lansheng simply hated running.
While running, Qin Junlan thought to herself that she had set her own trap and fallen right into it, painfully.
After they finished running, her dizziness seemed to fade, probably due to the increased blood circulation.
Qin Junlan opened the bag from the night before, gave Bai Lansheng a bottle of water, and took out some bread. That bread would be their food supply for the next few days.
Eating the same bread again made it feel tasteless. Qin Junlan chewed without appetite, finding it harder and harder to swallow.
Oddly enough, Bai Lansheng, who used to eat with difficulty, was now eating slowly in small, delicate bites.
They were still in the middle of breakfast when someone interrupted them.
Someone had taken down the broken door and squeezed into the room. Many more people stood outside.
Qin Junlan took one look and recognized them. They were the group she had encountered yesterday in front of the grocery store.
The first man to enter bent over repeatedly, trying hard to flatter.
She remembered him. He had been the loudest yesterday, but when she walked by, he went completely silent like a frightened quail.
Now he looked energized and full of arrogance. He led a burly man into the room and said respectfully, “Boss Tietiger, watch your step.”
There was no threshold. Only a broken door panel. Yet he brought his bravado right into her home.
Qin Junlan immediately sensed their bad intentions. Tietiger was clearly their leader.
There was no furniture in the room, so she and Bai Lansheng sat on the bed while eating. It was easy for people to misunderstand what they were doing.
Tietiger spoke with sarcasm in his voice.
“Eating breakfast this late? Don’t tell me your legs were too weak to get out of bed earlier.”
Qin Junlan calmly finished her last bite of bread. She brushed the crumbs off her hands and then gently pretended to dust off non-existent crumbs from Bai Lansheng’s body.
She tapped Bai Lansheng’s nose and smiled indulgently.
“Look at you, eating like a little child.”
She could be sarcastic too, if that was what they wanted.
When dealing with crude people, showing disinterest made them even more irritated.
Just as she expected, Tietiger was infuriated. The veins on his forehead popped out.
“You dare act smug in front of me? You really think I can’t do any…”
“Right. Our boss is not afraid of you,” Rongzai interrupted proudly.
Rongzai was full of himself. He had been humiliated by Qin Sisi last time and mocked by his friends. Now he finally had a chance to regain his pride. He could already imagine how pitiful Qin Sisi would look once Boss Tietiger taught her a lesson. She would never act arrogant again.
But in his excitement, Rongzai missed the change in Tietiger’s expression. The next moment, Tietiger slapped him so hard that he hit the wall.
Tietiger’s eyes shifted to Bai Lansheng, gleaming with desire.
Rongzai had his own petty thoughts, but Tietiger had bigger ambitions. He had heard that Qin Sisi brought back an Omega, which was why he agreed to help Rongzai stir up trouble.
Now that he saw her in person, he realized just how beautiful this Omega was. He was determined to have her.
“So it’s true. She is an Omega.” Tietiger turned to Qin Junlan. “Give her to me, and I’ll forget how you just disrespected me.”
Bai Lansheng’s shoulders tensed. She clenched the bread in her hand.
She silently cursed the shameless woman next to her.
She had tried to minimize her presence when these people came in, but this scoundrel had teased her in front of them, completely exposing her.
Qin Junlan frowned. She realized she had handled things the wrong way.
Tietiger offered again. “If you want, I can trade something with you, or give you some Sokka. Just let me have her for a few days. I’ll give her back afterward.”
Bai Lansheng trembled. Her lips turned pale. She remembered this man. In her previous life, he had also tried to take her by force.
Qin Junlan stood up, blocking Tietiger’s greedy gaze. When she noticed that he still tried to peek at Bai Lansheng, she grabbed a blanket and covered Bai Lansheng’s head completely.
“No. She is mine,” Qin Junlan said coldly.
Bai Lansheng froze for a moment. The trembling in her body suddenly stopped.
Now that he could no longer see the beauty, Tietiger reluctantly looked away. He glared at Qin Junlan and cracked his knuckles loudly. He punched the air in front of her face as a form of provocation.
“You think being an Alpha means you can beat me? In District D, I am the strongest.”
Qin Junlan remained calm. She silently planned several counterattacks in her mind, preparing for a fight.
Physically, she was at a disadvantage. Her strength lay in being an Alpha, while Tietiger was only a Beta.
Tietiger did not expect Qin Sisi to fight back. He decided to use force to teach her a lesson.
Just as the fight was about to start, someone called out from outside.
“Boss Qin, Brother Plast is looking for you!”
That sentence paused the entire confrontation. After a moment of hesitation, Tietiger left reluctantly.
Before walking out, he made sure to leave a final message.
“Little beauty, if you ever get tired of living in this dump, I’ll come take you away.”
With that, Tietiger and the others left. Since Plast was asking for him, he had to show respect.
After they were gone, Qin Junlan pulled the blanket off Bai Lansheng’s head. Her hair was a tangled mess. Qin Junlan reached out to smooth it for her.
“I’m sorry,” she said quietly.
Bai Lansheng looked at her in surprise.
Qin Junlan continued to gently fix her hair, silently reflecting on her mistake.
She knew about the differences in the ABO world. But in reality, she had underestimated how dangerously attractive an Omega like Bai Lansheng could be to others.
After Tietiger and his men left, another group of people finally managed to come inside.
They had rushed over as soon as they heard that Tietiger was bringing people, but were blocked outside by his gang.
“If you’re going to fight with Tietiger, count us in,” one of them said.
“Sure, they might have more people, but we’re not weak either.”
“Exactly. Let’s fight. Who’s afraid of who? Let them see who really runs District D.”
“Of course our boss is the strongest.”
The group was full of energy and righteous anger. Qin Junlan looked at each of them one by one.
She silently recited their names in her mind. Xiaoling, Huamei, Binbin, Yanshi, Dahai, Adong, and A’tao.
They were all Betas.
Like Green Hair from earlier, they were all from rough backgrounds, streetwise and scrappy.
They knew Tietiger was stronger, yet they still showed up to support her.
That kind of loyalty had to be remembered.
Qin Junlan said, “Thank you all for coming.”
The group immediately became shy and a little awkward at hearing her gratitude.
Qin Junlan gave a small smile. She was starting to get an idea of how to reduce her darkening score.
Bai Lansheng blinked slowly, confusion clear in her blue eyes.
This shameless woman didn’t hand her over.
She was even chatting with others like it was nothing.
This entire scene was so strange.
“Sister-in-law, are you alright? Did they scare you?” the youngest, Binbin, asked kindly.
Bai Lansheng looked at the eager-faced Binbin but didn’t respond.
The rest of the group, seeing Binbin approach, immediately understood his intentions. If sister-in-law was happy, the boss would be happy too.
They quickly crowded around her, surrounding Bai Lansheng completely. She had no idea how to react.
They had started out just trying to check if she was okay, but somehow the topic began to shift.
“Sister-in-law, don’t be scared. I’m not like Tietiger. I have a very delicate heart.”
“Hey, what kind of thing is that to say? Sister-in-law, look at me. I’m better looking than him. When I go to the salon, all the girls call me ‘Handsome Guy.’”
“Sister-in-law, let me tell you, good looks don’t matter. That’s all for show. You need something else. You know what I mean? Something deeper?”
Bai Lansheng’s expression froze. No, she definitely did not want to know.
Qin Junlan was also at a loss for words. They had started off sounding sincere, but somehow it turned into them all trying to sell themselves.
Bai Lansheng could not help but glance at Qin Junlan with a look asking for help, though she didn’t realize she was doing it.
Qin Junlan chased the group out one by one, then turned to Bai Lansheng and said, “Brother Plast is a higher-up in the gang I’m part of. He wants to meet me. I’m not sure if it’s good news or bad, but I want you to come with me.”
Bai Lansheng was stunned. She was being asked so politely?
“Tietiger is not a good person. I don’t think he’ll give up that easily. Those people just now said they would protect you, but I don’t think they truly can. Staying with me might still be dangerous, but I believe it’s safer. What do you think?”
She was being asked again, gently and respectfully.
Those gray-brown eyes were too focused, making Bai Lansheng feel too flustered to meet them.
“You’re not a good person either.”
“That’s true. So, what’s your decision?”
She hesitated.
“Hmm?” Qin Junlan prompted softly.
That voice.
Bai Lansheng instinctively touched her ear.
“I…”