The sympathy in Luo Xuan’s eyes deepened and Wu Yuan hated it. He hated being stared at with a gaze like that. As if he was a disobedient and stubborn child who did not want to admit his mistakes. As if he was nothing more than a flailing ant on the verge of death, and all Luo Xuan did was watch with a pitying and compassionate gaze.

He clenched his fists and his voice came out almost in a growl, as if clawed from his chest cavity. "...Answer me!"

"I have proof, if you so insist," Luo Xuan told him gently, yet Wu Yuan still reeled back in shock as if someone had poured boiling oil over his skin. His chapped lips parted without a word, quivering. What... did this person just say? He had proof? Proof that... Wu Yuan was really the murderer who had caused his own father’s death? Without waiting for Wu Yuan to react, the man continued, "But this is not the kind of proof that can be presented to the police. After all, they would only deem it as..." his lips curled in distaste. "...a fallacy."

"What..." Wu Yuan’s eyes were hollow, so was his voice. "What do you mean?"

But Luo Xuan merely heaved out a sigh. "Wu Yuan, do you want to know what will happen to you after this? First, you will be sent into a drug rehabilitation center and be given psychotherapeutic treatment. They will try to treat your dependency on drugs and then... they will discover that the so-called dependency doesn’t exist in the first place. No matter what they do, they will never be able to flush those drugs out of your system. Do you know why, Wu Yuan?"

Wu Yuan’s breathing picked up its pace. His gut instinct told him that what Luo Xuan was going to tell him would be extremely detrimental for his sanity, yet he could not help but be caught by the hook like a trapped fish, "W–Why?"

And sure enough, the next sentence Luo Xuan said was akin to a thunderclap striking him right on the head. "Because they’re a part of you. Wu Yuan, you are born with those substances in your body."

Wu Yuan parted his trembling lips without a sound. His entire body was exuding thick disbelief and incredulity. How...?

As if he noticed nothing, Luo Xuan turned his wistful gaze outside the window as though recalling some distant past. "AX-03 is a miraculous drug that enhances an Alpha’s capability and prowess. But this drug also comes with a fatal side effect; once consumed past a certain limit, it will cause permanent damage to the gland. Just like a firework — it’s bright, dazzling and beautiful, yet destined to be short-lived and fleeting. But what if... what if Alphas could form an antibody to nullify this limit? With this theory in mind, a group of researchers started a secret experiment.

"Starting from the period when the human’s body was the most malleable to modification, they fixed their attention on children who showed potential to manifest as an Alpha. They fed those children small doses of AX–03 on a regular basis and hoped that they would all grow up to be a superior Alpha — no, an entity even stronger than a superior Alpha."

Luo Xuan’s voice was soft and unhurried, gentle and tilting. It was as if he was recounting a dark fairy tale that only existed in mythical lands. Wu Yuan could feel dread crawling up his spine, yet he could not seem to draw his attention away. "What happened to those... children?"

"They went insane," Luo Xuan let out a mirthless laugh. "They became like rabid dogs once their manifestation period neared and in the end, those poor children were eliminated in the name of failed products. But those people still did not give up. They set their target on another more resilient material." He finally tore his gaze off the window and looked at Wu Yuan whose complexion had become deathly pale. "You’re smart. I am sure you already guessed the answer, Wu Yuan."

Wu Yuan’s chapped lips moved, his voice was barely a whisper. "...Fetus?"

"That’s right," Luo Xuan nodded in full appreciation. "Pregnant women and men, whose baby was not even fully formed yet."

Wu Yuan’s frame shook. He was starting to see where Luo Xuan was going with this topic. If... If what he said about Wu Yuan was true, then wouldn’t it mean his mother was... "Impossible..." he hissed in agitation. "My mother... she was not that kind of person! She couldn’t possibly—"

"Duan Ying," Luo Xuan cut him off, leaving Wu Yuan petrified on the spot. "A renowned professor in the study of pheromones and its influences toward human’s growth. She was also one of the leading researchers in this secret experiment. Twenty years ago, when AX–03 started to be banned in multiple countries for its destructive side effects, the research organization was disbanded and Professor Duan, together with a few other leading researchers, destroyed all of the data they had gathered for years and disappeared overnight. At the same time, that batch of people with their experimental babies... all of them were hunted down to be killed."

At this point, Wu Yuan could only stare at Luo Xuan in the mixture of disbelief, denial and numbness. His mother, Duan Ying, died when he was a mere five years old child. By now, Wu Yuan’s memory of her had started to become fuzzy, he could not even remember her face clearly anymore, but... but he could still remember how gentle and loving she was. She used to hold him in her arms and taught him how to read and write. He remembered it vividly.

As for Professor Duan, the researcher who was involved in the inhumane experiment that had killed tens if not hundreds of innocent people... she was utterly foreign to Wu Yuan. It was as if he was listening to someone else’s story – someone else who only shared the same name as his mother.

But now that he listened to Luo Xuan’s words, a distant memory suddenly surfaced in his mind. His mother, teaching him to read story books with her warm and gentle voice. Then she ruffled his hair and said, "Baobei[1], in the future, you have to become an Alpha, okay?"

Her voice reverberated in his ears, again and again, and the initially warm tone became steely, almost as if it held some kind of unfulfilled obsession.

No...! His mother... his mother was not that kind of person! He refused to believe that she could be so callous as to... to consume drugs regularly when she was conceiving him! He did not want to believe it!!

Seeing that he was immersed in self-denial, Luo Xuan gently slapped him with another hard reality. "Haven’t you realized anything strange, Wu Yuan? For example, you very seldom get sick even when you’re drenched in rain all night long, you’re not affected by Alphas’ pheromones like your peers and... your wounds. Didn’t they always heal faster than normal?"

.

[1] Baobei: baby or treasure