ALSACW – Chapter 142

The outermost ring of C-District.

C-District was located in the north, spending seven months of the year in winter. The inner ring had urban climate control, so one hardly felt the cold, but the outermost ring, of course, had no such facilities.

Similarly, the temperature-controlled clothing that was standard for everyone in the inner ring was a luxury item in the outermost ring. People wrapped themselves in thick, heavy layers, giving Yun Xuan his first taste of an atmosphere in this era that still felt human.

After his escape from prison, the imperial family had been sending people to find him.

But he had been laying his groundwork for three years and naturally had his own channels. He managed to evade them, but it was clear he could no longer go to the inner or even the middle rings. So, he came here.

His swollen belly had flattened; the child who had perished during the experiment had been removed from his body.

Was he sad?

Yun Xuan didn’t know.

He had lost the ability to love. Even looking at his two other living children failed to stir the slightest parental affection. To him, they were like things that had suddenly fallen out of a nightmare.

There was a knock on the door.

Yun Xuan opened it to find the landlord.

He was a middle-aged male beta with a kind face. Besides renting out rooms, he also ran a small restaurant nearby, and he delivered Yun Xuan’s daily meals.

Yun Xuan took the meal for the day and noticed a few square pastries inside. He looked at the landlord questioningly.

The landlord gave an honest smile, radiating the unguarded kindness of someone from the lower class. “These are a new snack my wife developed. She saw you eating only fruits and vegetables every day and was worried you didn’t have much of an appetite, so she made you some hawthorn pastries. Don’t worry, she’s a very good cook.”

Yun Xuan was silent for a moment, then handed the meal box back. “No, thank you. I won’t be eating today.”

The landlord was suddenly at a loss. He clutched the meal box, trying hard to salvage the situation, but just as he was scratching his head in frustration, Yun Xuan closed the door.

The landlord’s face flushed red. He knew that he and his wife had meant well but had done the wrong thing. This tenant, who was exceptionally generous with his money, was clearly not from around here. He’d heard that the inner ring was a prosperous place with many rules.

Perhaps they had violated some taboo.

The landlord left, dejected. He couldn’t help but think of another person who had come from the inner ring, but that person hadn’t had so many rules.

Yun Xuan had neither the mood nor the interest to speculate about some insignificant person. The landlord’s feelings were of no concern to him; he simply detested this kind of presumptuous concern.

It reminded him of his sister.

He had seen Yun Chuji’s recent activities on the star-net. She was running around putting out fires, promoting anti-alpha spray and firearms as an alpha herself, and even helping and encouraging betas to form self-defense groups, urging everyone to remain calm.

Like a true saint.

Her hands were so clean, as if no trace of blood or hatred could ever stain them.

Yun Xuan returned to what he was doing before opening the door. He was writing a letter, a letter to the Empress.

He had written many such letters before. The Empress hadn’t replied, but she had relaxed the efforts to capture him.

From the events on Qinglan Star, he already knew the Empress’s bottom line was the imperial family first, and the Empire second.

After sending that letter, Yun Xuan continued writing another one, this time to the Howard family.

In it, he instructed them to continue escalating their reign of terror over AOs, forcing the Empire’s betas to turn to their side.

As for the letter to the Empress, it was simply about maintaining a posture of ignoring this situation.

After all, compared to letting the imperial family become a parasite on the Empire, making betas the public enemy of the Empire was clearly the more advantageous choice.

And so, from his corner, Yun Xuan silently wove a great, poisoned web, intending to drag everyone into a mire of sin.

At night, he grew hungry.

The hunger made him involuntarily think of the meal he had rejected. The details of its aroma, previously ignored, now surfaced at the most inopportune time.

He felt a surge of irritation, yet he knew this irritation was the prelude to his surrender to his appetite.

Yun Xuan put on his coat and went out with his only remaining AI bodyguard.

People in the outermost ring couldn’t afford AIs. Even if they could, the quality of the materials was completely different. Compared to the AIs of the inner ring, the things here were, at best, crude machines.

This was also why he dared to come to the outermost ring alone—he was, of course, aware that law and order here were close to the law of the jungle.

It was just that now, he was the predator.

At night, even the outermost ring was bustling. There were couples holding hands on dates, partners kissing in the shadows, alphas out for a stroll, and betas running late-night food stalls.

Motorcycles roared down the gray-white roads. Gaudy signs flashed with intensely vivid colors that would hurt one’s eyes after looking for too long.

Yun Xuan walked in silence. His omega appearance and the AI behind him were completely out of place in this chaotic scene. Many eyes gathered on him, but he paid them no mind until his hunger made him irritable. He commanded the AI to fire a shot at the most brazen alpha.

A direct hit to the left eye.

He fired again.

The right eye was gone too.

After two shots, the stares vanished, and so did the noise.

Yun Xuan thought about the route to the landlord’s restaurant, completely indifferent to the death and injury he had caused.

However, amidst the silence, a sound still emerged—after all, machines do not fear.

Between the cloyingly sweet promotional voice of a female android and the roaring of heavy metal music, there was another sound that was out of place with everything else.

“Everything else” didn’t just include these strangely shaped, steel-clad buildings, this agitated yet numb atmosphere of life, or the faint smell of vomit in the air.

It included this entire world.

The voice said, “Before we study the history of the Federation, we need to have a certain understanding of the Federation’s gender system. A society with a two-gender system has many differences from our current society of six genders, but also many similarities.”

“For example, in the pursuit of a higher birth rate to ensure the continuation of the species, the union between men and women was, for much of history, a responsibility. This responsibility even led to the creation of many creation myths and theories on the origin of the world.”

“For instance, the ancient Huaxia civilization had a saying: ‘The interaction of yin and yang, the union of man and woman, is the natural order of heaven and earth.’ The meaning of this phrase is…”

It was Yun Chuji.

Yun Xuan recognized her voice. He followed it forward. No one dared to block his path; no one even dared to move.

He found the source in a fruit shop.

The fruit in the shop was scattered on the ground, a characteristic sight in the outermost ring. But on the wall, a light screen was incongruously mounted. A few young people were gathered around it, and from the way they were paused, it looked like they were taking notes.

“What are you all doing?”

These young people had also heard the gunshots just now but hadn’t paid them much mind. After all, although firearms had been largely eradicated by the Empire a few years ago, they had undoubtedly started to resurface recently. Firefights were once again becoming a daily topic of conversation for the people of the outermost ring.

Thus, they didn’t realize what a dangerous person this pale, beautiful omega was. In fact, because of his pale, handsome looks, one alpha was particularly eager to answer, “Teacher Yun is giving us a lesson. She was supposed to come here this month, but she’s busy with the beta situation in the inner ring, so she can only teach us online.”

“What does she teach you?”

“Um, just the stuff they teach in school, but Teacher Yun teaches it much better than they do. She went to B-District for the past two years and only came to C-District last year. I heard that because of her, B-District had several hundred more students get into inner-ring schools this year.”

The alpha’s words were full of admiration for Teacher Yun, but the innate alpha desire to show off made him rack his brain for something new to say. “But, Teacher Yun also teaches us some ancient things. That stuff is so hard to learn, all winding and complicated, but it’s pretty interesting once you understand it.”

Another alpha chimed in, “Teacher Yun taught us a poem the other day! ‘Before me, I see no ancients; behind me, I see no one to come. I think of the endlessness of heaven and earth, and alone… alone…’”

“Alone, my tears fall,” Yun Xuan finished.

At that, all of them stared with wide eyes. This was just something Teacher Yun taught them in her spare time to cultivate their character. As far as they knew, no one else in the entire outermost ring had ever heard of it.

Some had guessed it was something nobles used to show off their literary talents, so parents had urged their children to study it hard in order to curry favor with the nobility in the future.

But Yun Chuji had denied this rumor, saying it was just a lost culture.

But why did this omega know it?

Yun Xuan had little patience for their questions. He didn’t want to live for very long, only intending to die after he had finished stirring up trouble. Because of this goal, he held a deep loathing for all living things.

But at that moment, Yun Chuji was still speaking on the screen. It was a live broadcast. Someone on the screen was asking a question, asking what yin and yang meant.

Yun Chuji smiled and explained. After she finished, she began to talk about the Federation’s gender system.

Truly a saint.

A sarcastic smile touched Yun Xuan’s lips.

But he was also aware that this sarcasm was directed more at himself.

Just then, an onlooker who knew the situation caught sight of Yun Xuan’s smile and thought the madman was about to start killing again. There was no law and order to speak of in the outermost ring; the police here spent their workdays catching up on sleep and harassing young omegas.

He gritted his teeth. His younger sister was among those young people. He couldn’t just stand by and watch.

Just as he was about to rush forward, Yun Xuan turned and left.

He left with his AI, followed by the young alpha’s voice asking for his star-net ID.

The young alpha was quickly slapped and, before he could get angry, was told how dangerous the omega was.

And so, the light screen in that fruit shop never lit up again.

But none of this had anything to do with Yun Xuan anymore.

He was no longer hungry.

Back at his place, he took out his light-brain and made a call.

It took a long time for the call to be answered. “Sorry, I just saw…”

Yun Xuan said, “Why are you teaching?”

Yun Chuji paused, then asked in confusion, “Elder Brother?”

Yun Xuan repeated, “Why are you teaching?”

“Where are you? Are they allowing visitors at the prison already? Are you okay now?”

“Why are you teaching?”

Yun Chuji probably realized that Yun Xuan wouldn’t listen to her until she answered his question. Although she didn’t know how he knew she was teaching, it wasn’t something difficult to talk about. “Because the people in the outermost ring shouldn’t have to live like this. The suffering they endure is deliberate, but I can’t solve it. So I can only help them have a slightly better life as much as I can. If they can learn, I believe that one day they’ll be able to build a better outermost ring for themselves. This method is slow, but it’s the only one I have right now.”

“You could become an official.”

“I’m not suited to be an official.”

Yun Xuan fell silent for a moment. Yun Chuji seized the opportunity to ask him how he was doing.

“I escaped.”

“I’m continuing to plot a war from behind the scenes. I’m having the Howards torture AOs and carry out terrorist attacks across the Empire.”

“I’m not in prison.”

I’m not doing well at all.

This time, it was Yun Chuji who fell silent.

“Why… are you doing this?”

Yun Xuan smiled faintly, his gaze falling on the half-written letter. He murmured, “How would I know?”

Yun Chuji launched into a long speech. She was questioning him, accusing him, bewildered, and guilty.

Yun Xuan listened, but he wasn’t really hearing her.

He sat in this rented room, the gentle texture of the beige fabric sofa beneath him. The flower by the window had been dead for days, looking as if it had been scorched by fire.

Yun Xuan remembered the day before he left for the academy. Yun Chuji had come to see him off and had even embroidered a scented sachet for him. He had hung it from his waist, next to the one his wife had given him.

Yun Chuji, like any innocent young girl in the world, had asked, “Elder Brother, what’s the academy like?”

“The academy is a place with many teachers and many students.”

“And lots of books!”

Yun Xuan chuckled. “Yes, and lots of books.”

“Mother said that after you come back from the academy, you can take the provincial exams. Elder Brother, will you become a high-ranking official in the future?”

The smile on Yun Xuan’s face widened. He bent down slightly to look at his sister, who only came up to his chest, and said gently, “Becoming a high-ranking official isn’t that easy. But if I can’t, I’ll just be a teacher at the academy.”

“Wow, then won’t you get to read lots of books every day, Elder Brother!”

“That’s right. So many I’ll never finish them all.”