"...What?" He Juan whispered, incredulous.

"You can’t fucking believe it either, can you, XIU?" Jia Molei’s expression was full of contempt, irony and bitterness. "It’s fortunate that I had a business nearby and coincidentally ran into her. By then, she was already entering her pre-heat. Can you imagine what would happen if an omega, a fucking politician at that, suddenly went into heat in the middle of an official event? First, the reporters would definitely talk about it. Oh, they fucking would. Didn’t they like this kind of juicy news the most? ’This is why an omega must not be trusted with a significant position in the government. They will only become a public disturbance!’" he spat out the words through gritted teeth, extreme disgust radiating from every inch of his body. "But it was not even the worst case scenario. Can you imagine it, XIU? An omega in heat in the middle of the crowd. Can you imagine how many Alphas would be affected by her pheromones? Can you imagine what would have become of her by the end of the day... if I hadn’t been there?!"

He Juan closed his eyes and took in a shaky inhale. A sharp pain pinched his palms from where his nails had sunk deeply into flesh. It took every inch of his willpower to keep his feet rooted in place instead of storming out of this place and...

And what? What could he do in a situation like this? It was not like he could pull out his gun and killed those politician bastards who—

Oh God, they were politicians. The severity of the matter finally dawned on He Juan, chilling every drop of blood inside his veins. They were fucking politicians and to think that they dared to resort to something like this in public event...!

Alas, wasn’t it also the government who had given their full support to the inhumane experiment on pregnant omegas?

Wasn’t it also the government who held the deepest and most repulsive greed, who committed the filthiest acts and was tainted with the most horrid corruption, all under the guise of pushing humanity into evolution?

All this time, He Juan had always thought that darkness lurked within the crooked shadows; a hidden corner that was ignored and overlooked by others, quietly withering into silent depravity. And it was not until recently that he learned how wrong he was.

True darkness did not conceal itself in the crook. Instead, it hailed right from the brightest place. For the more radiant something was, the more intense the darkness needed to compliment them.

Clenching his fists tight, He Juan tried to count his breathing and composed himself. It took him a few minutes before he could feel himself calming down enough not to kill the first person that angered him after he stepped out of this place. He opened his eyes and regarded Jia Molei evenly. "You have done the right thing, Doctor Jia," he said. "Without your timely assistance, this matter could have turned out a thousand times worse."

"Do I need you to tell me something like that?" Jia Molei scoffed lightly. He turned to stare at the dream-like garden capped in a layer of white in front of him with a look as if he had just swallowed something extremely bitter. "I just feel so... fuck, I don’t know. Angry? Disgusted? Every time I think that the situation couldn’t be any worse, something always happens to prove me wrong again and again. Do you know why I refuse to treat anything that has to do with secondary genders?" he suddenly asked.

"...Why?"

He Juan had always been curious about this matter. Hell, everyone in the underworld who knew this ironclad rule about Jia Molei’s clinic must have wondered about it too. However, He Juan refrained himself from asking because he could sense that it was something personal, and his relationship with the doctor was not close enough for them to discuss anything beyond the professional line.

But now... it seemed like Jia Molei was ready to share it with him?

Jia Molei reached into his pocket for the second cigarette and placed it into his mouth.

He Juan couldn’t help but advise him, "Don’t smoke too much. It will not be good for your body in the long run."

Jia Molei cast him an incredulous yet slightly amused look. His look was practically saying, ’Who is the fucking doctor here?’ Then ignoring He Juan’s heartfelt words, he lit up the cigarette and took the first inhale, and only then did he start to talk,

"My grandpa was a Chinese medicine practitioner. I spent almost all of my time with him when I was young. Overtime, I picked up a thing or two from him. I learned to hold needles properly before I could even talk. I learned to distinguish good herbs from the poisonous ones before I learned to walk. He’s a good guy, my grandpa was." There was a wistful, almost gentle look on Jia Molei’s face that He Juan had never seen before. Well, the fact that he was not cursing even once already proved how much he cherished his grandfather.

"Do you know how thin the line is between good and foolish, XIU?" He chuckled bitterly. "My grandpa was a good guy. Too good in fact, that he became a little foolish. Back then, it was post-war time. Many people were sick and injured, but they couldn’t get treatment because they were too poor. To salvage that, after my grandpa closed his clinic for the day, he would continue to make house calls and provide consultation and medicine for people who could not afford his service. He did them all pro bono for almost ten years. Can you imagine that?"

"Mn," He Juan said gently. "He sounds like an amazing person."

"He was." Jia Molei let out a soft laugh, slightly hoarse as if he was suppressing some kind of emotions within him. "Once, I aspired to be like him. I also wanted to be a good doctor that could help people in need without charging them even one cent. But then... he was killed."

He Juan turned his head in surprise to see Jia Molei pressing his lips tight, the cigarette crushed between his fingers. "He saved an Alpha and in return, that fucker killed him because they claimed that the medicine my grandpa prescribed messed with their pheromones. They said..." he took a deep breath and bit out, "They said that my grandpa was a charlatan, XIU. And they killed him, threw his body into the river and let him rot there."

He Juan grimaced, not expecting the story to take such a dark turn. "What a bastard."

"Fucking bastard." Jia Molei cursed wholeheartedly and continued saying, "In the end, that fucker died not long after because of a deadly tumor in his gland. Allegedly, they’ve gotten it way before they saw my grandpa. I heard they died quite miserably. Tumor in your gland can be very nasty, you know."

"Deserved that," He Juan commented lightly.

"I was too young for all that shit. For years... for years I despised Alphas. I thought they were self-centered bastards who should go to fuck themselves." He grumbled in a low voice, "I was lucky that I didn’t manifest as an Alpha otherwise I would have killed myself since day one."

He Juan coughed to mask the laughter that almost escaped his lips. Somehow the thought of Jia Molei killing himself because he manifested as an Alpha was too... unimaginable. "But..." He piped in, recalling all of the Alphas he had encountered before. "You’re kinda right in that aspect, Doctor Jia. Alphas are self-centered bastards." Of course, except for some rare exceptions like Marius.

Jia Molei cast him a slightly amused look. "Not you."

"Hmm?"

"You’re different from other Alphas."