IMAO Chapter 128

“Child, what are you planning to do?” Fang Shi took a deep breath.

“I haven’t decided yet.” Qiu Jingming’s eyes were red, his nose stinging as he gently stroked his swollen belly with his fair hand. “Maybe I’ll keep it, or maybe I’ll… get rid of it. I don’t know…”

“Whatever you decide, just let us know if you need anything,” Fang Shi paused briefly after hearing Qiu Jingming’s response.

“Do you have enough money to go to another planet?” Fang Shi asked softly.

“Yes,” Qiu Jingming was quiet for a moment. “Mom, don’t worry about me. I’ll take good care of myself.”

The call ended.

The boy sitting on the bed suddenly started moving. He began to pack his things, while countless tear tracks still marked his cheeks. As he was packing, his communicator vibrated.

He picked it up and saw a transfer notification.

[Federal Bank: 500,000 stellar credits transferred to account, deposit complete. Current balance: 3,506,251 units]

The tears he had just wiped away started flowing again despite himself.

He didn’t lie to Fang Shi about having money. He really did have money. But Fang Shi still transferred him 500,000 stellar credits, enough to support an ordinary family for two or three years.

The money in his bank account was what he’d saved up over the years, mostly given to him by Fang Shi and Jiang Tianze. The Jiang family had raised him well from childhood. While his lifestyle couldn’t compare to those super-wealthy families, it was the best that Fang Shi and Jiang Tianze could provide.

The Jiang family had always given him generous allowances. Jiang Tianze and Fang Shi believed Omegas needed to be financially secure to avoid being deceived by Alphas, so they gave him even more pocket money than Jiang Yuan.

His classmates loved competing over luxury goods, but he wasn’t particularly interested in those things, so he saved most of his money instead of spending it.

Back then, he’d thought he would eventually leave the Jiang family, but he never imagined it would be like this.

The darkened communicator screen lit up again with three messages.

—
Jiang Tianze: I never thought you would overhear what I said to Jiang Yuan. I didn’t try to understand how you felt. I’m also responsible for this.
Jiang Tianze: Um… let us know when you arrive.
Jiang Tianze: Take good care of yourself
—

When he received the messages from his adopted son, Jiang Tianze was smoking with several colleagues. After seeing the messages, he hesitated for a long time before sending his first reply.

These past few days, he’d often thought about how things might have been different if he hadn’t said those words.

His well-intentioned lie, hoping his son would accept his comrade’s child into the family, had ended up hurting both children.

He wanted to bring his adopted son back home, but he had to consider his own son’s feelings too. He’d never admitted to being wrong in his life, but this time he truly was.

Jiang Tianze hung his head, absently tapping his cigarette with his fingertip and giving half-hearted responses to his colleagues as he smoked in silence.

…

As for Qiu Jingming’s apology, Jiang Yuan had no intention of accepting it.

Qiu Jingming didn’t cause him any harm, but the hurt to the original Jiang Yuan was real. Just because the original wasn’t here anymore didn’t mean… he didn’t know how devastated the original would have been if he knew…

He could only represent himself, not forgive someone else’s pain on another’s behalf. Let people call him heartless if they wanted.

“Xiao Yuan, do you remember that year when Jingming was bullied in class, and you rushed to his classroom to fight the student who bullied him?” Fang Qing asked Jiang Yuan. “I remember the school made you write a self-criticism report and read it in front of the whole school.”

“And then on the day you were supposed to read it, they had to call your parents again. Remember why?”

“You wrote this long report, but added one last line: ‘If anyone bullies my little brother, I’ll beat them up again!’ We laughed about that for so long!”

Jiang Yuan didn’t respond, just smiled at his aunt Fang Qing. “Aunt, I’m a bit tired. I’ll go rest in my room.”

“What’s wrong with you? Weren’t you always so good to him before?” Fang Qing frowned. She really didn’t expect that no matter what she said, Jiang Yuan wouldn’t respond or mention forgiving Jingming. He used to be so good to Jingming…

Liu Huayu cleared his throat, fist pressed against his lips, and grabbed his wife Fang Qing’s arm. “I think we’re running low on vegetables. Come on, honey, let’s go buy some.”

Fang Qing was startled, “There’s plenty in the kitchen! What are you talking about? Are you crazy?”

Liu Huayu: “But we don’t have the cauliflower you like! Let’s go buy some together!”

Before Fang Qing could react, Liu Huayu pulled her outside. Once they were far enough, Fang Qing yanked her hand away from her husband. “Why did you drag me out here?”

Liu Huayu glanced back and said, “You… what were you thinking saying all that? Don’t you know your nephew?”

Fang Qing froze, “What are you talking about?”

Liu Huayu looked at his wife and said after a pause, “We’ve watched Xiao Yuan grow up since he was little. If Song and Jingming’s marking and pregnancy were really accidental, do you think Xiao Yuan wouldn’t forgive them?”

“You mean they…” Fang Qing didn’t finish, her expression turning extremely ugly. “Why didn’t you say something earlier? Those things I said must have hurt Xiao Yuan so much!”

Liu Huayu gave her a look, “Did you give me a chance to speak? You were firing off like a machine gun. I couldn’t get a word in!”

Fang Qing muttered, “My sister’s family should have explained clearly…”

“Your sister’s family was trying to save face for both kids. How could they just say it outright?”

…

After dinner, Fang Qing felt too awkward about what had happened earlier to stay at the Jiang house, so she and her husband left early.

Jiang Tianze didn’t say anything about today’s events, and Jiang Yuan didn’t mind.

A couple of days later, with the New Year approaching, Ji Yang ran away from home to hang out with him.

They spent several days touring Red Star together, seeing almost half of it.

At noon.

The snow gleamed under the sunlight, making the whole world appear blindingly white and bright.

Ji Yang exhaled a hot breath and rubbed his hands together.

“When are you planning to go home?” Jiang Yuan asked with a smile.

Although Ji Yang didn’t say anything, he’d received several calls from home these past few days, each ending in argument. He was clearly having conflicts with his family.

“I don’t want to go back,” Ji Yang said sulkily. He looked young for his age, and with his puffed cheeks, he resembled an angry goldfish. “They’ll just nag at me again.”

“What are they nagging about?” Jiang Yuan asked, passing Ji Yang a cup of water.

“It’s about secretly changing my major! My family won’t let me study mecha manufacturing. They want me to focus on pheromone research, but I’m really not interested in that. Building mechas is so much fun! Who wants to research pheromones!” Ji Yang looked like he wanted to throw up at the mention of pheromones.

Jiang Yuan looked down at his friend and said seriously, “Pheromone research is also respectable work. With your family’s resources, you might want to consider it.”

Having talked extensively with Ji Yang, Jiang Yuan knew his family sold suppressants and could easily arrange checkups at the Puluo Research Institute. They must have connections there.

“Forget it,” Ji Yang waved his hand in the air. “I don’t want to receive razor blades every day!”

Jiang Yuan paused, looking at Ji Yang. “Razor blades?”

“Yeah, sent to the research institute by extremist Alphas. Not just razor blades, there are all sorts of things. I saw plenty when I was little,” Ji Yang said flatly.

Seeing Ji Yang didn’t want to discuss it further, Jiang Yuan dropped the subject. Ji Yang had charmed Fang Shi completely, though, He even went through old photos with her.

“This is Jiang Yuan when he was little. He was such a troublemaker!”

“Jiang Yuan, you were so cute when you were little!” Ji Yang blinked, looking at Jiang Yuan.

He flipped through several more pages of the album, then suddenly paused.

Besides photos, there was a handwritten electronic document inside.

The childish handwriting and simple words were clearly written by a young child.

[Self-Criticism Report]

[Today when I went to pick up my little brother after school, I found out he had been crying. I asked his classmates and learned that a boy in his class had thrown bugs on my brother’s head. My brother is naturally timid, so he cried. That’s why I hit his classmate and made his face swollen. I was wrong to do this. I shouldn’t have used violence against that boy. I should have thrown some bugs on his head instead.]

[Teacher says I shouldn’t hit people, but I want to say, on the first day my brother came to our home, I promised I would protect him.]

[If anyone bullies my brother again, I’ll still beat them up!!!]

Jiang Yuan glanced over the text beside him. The original owner’s childhood handwriting wasn’t particularly beautiful, just neat and proper.

He smirked, not taking it to heart, when he saw this after hearing Fang Qing mention the self-criticism report a few days ago.

He hadn’t expected the original owner to keep this in his digital photo album.

Ji Yang, still holding the album, smoothly swiped to the next page, moving past the report to continue chatting with Fang Shi.

***

Through the binoculars—

Waves of heat rolled in from the seaside.

The beautiful boy wore a sun hat, his feet bare and white as porcelain on the sand. He politely declined several Alphas who tried to chat with him as he wandered aimlessly along the coastline.

“I’ve been watching him for days. What do you think?”

“Keep it clean.” The man in the black suit didn’t comment further, just lowered his binoculars with indifference, obviously satisfied.

Beside him, a man with dyed yellow hair scratched his chin and grinned, leaning his hands on the balcony railing as he looked down at the beautiful boy walking back and forth below.

After walking along the beach and feeling sweaty, Qiu Jingming decided to head back to his hotel.

He’d been on Longluo Star for almost three days. After arriving, he’d sent one final message to Jiang Tianze saying he wouldn’t return, then changed all his contact information, cutting ties with the Jiang family.

He canceled his old communicator number and didn’t plan to contact his former friends or classmates.

His new communicator only had three numbers saved: Jiang Tianze, Fang Shi, and Jiang Yuan. Although he might never dial these numbers again in his lifetime, he still wanted to keep them.

Having these three numbers in his communicator made him feel less alone.

After his birth father died, they once gave him a family, gave him a home.

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