Chapter 20
Lin Xiaogu remained completely unresponsive in Luo Yu’s arms. Only after a long while did she softly murmur in acknowledgment.
Luo Yu held Lin Xiaogu’s emaciated back, her nose stinging with emotion. However, she quickly composed herself, took a meal container from her bag, and placed it on the bedside table.
Supporting Lin Xiaogu, she slowly helped her sit up.
“I didn’t know what you liked to eat, so I made some light vegetable congee. Try to eat a little, all right?”
Lin Xiaogu had no appetite whatsoever.
After going so many days without eating, she could no longer even feel hunger. But she did not want Luo Yu to worry, so she accepted the container and said softly, “Thank you for going to the trouble.”
“It was nothing.”
Luo Yu’s gaze unintentionally passed over the two pillows on the bed, and her expression shifted slightly.
Combined with the matching couple’s items she had seen when entering, she had already guessed most of what had happened.
Lin Xiaogu had probably suffered a breakup…
But her reaction was far more severe than that of an ordinary heartbroken person.
Luo Yu hesitated for a long time but ultimately could not bear to ask what had happened.
Lin Xiaogu had gone without food for three entire days. The moment she suddenly ate something, her stomach immediately rejected it.
After only a few bites, a dull pain began spreading through her abdomen. Nevertheless, she forced herself to swallow.
Luo Yu looked as though she wanted to say something but continued holding back.
When Lin Xiaogu finished, she set the congee aside.
She knew what Luo Yu wanted to ask and understood her hesitation, so before Luo Yu could speak, she said, “Xiaoyu, do you remember the person who brought me to the procuratorate on my first day?”
“General Yu Baiyi?”
Luo Yu recalled the scene from that day.
“But isn’t she already engaged to the Lin family’s heiress…?”
Her voice trailed off.
“No. It couldn’t be…”
Looking at Lin Xiaogu’s unnaturally calm expression, Luo Yu seemed to realize something. Her heart gradually sank.
She truly did not know what to say.
Luo Yu could only bring the conversation back to the day they first met.
“Actually, I already felt something was strange that day. Perhaps it’s an occupational habit, but I always unconsciously pay attention to people’s movements and subtle expressions.”
“When she brought you in that first day, I thought her behavior and the way she looked at you revealed an inexplicable possessiveness… But later, when she said you were relatives, I didn’t think much more about it.”
Luo Yu paused.
“Looking back now, it really was rather strange.”
So it had been that obvious?
Even Luo Yu, who had only met them once, had noticed it. Then the prosecutor must have…
If everyone at the procuratorate had known about their relationship since the first day, then everything that happened afterward…
Lin Xiaogu’s thoughts became like tangled clumps of dog fur, impossible to sort out.
“So are the two of you now… broken up?”
The moment Luo Yu finished asking, before Lin Xiaogu could respond, several knocks sounded at the front door.
There was clearly a doorbell, yet the person outside insisted on knocking. Each strike was heavier than the last, making both Lin Xiaogu’s and Luo Yu’s hearts tighten.
“It’s all right. I’ll take a look.”
Luo Yu went to the entrance and switched on the electronic monitor.
The moment she saw the person standing outside, she froze.
The corridor lights behind the visitor cast a long shadow.
Against the backlight, Yu Baiyi’s face was as cold as though it had been covered in frost.
Luo Yu took a deep breath and opened the door.
The entrance suddenly swung open, and the two women stared at one another.
Yu Baiyi initially froze when she saw Luo Yu standing inside, seemingly surprised by her presence. Then, as she realized what it might mean, disgust appeared on her face.
Luo Yu noticed the expression but forced herself not to react.
Betas instinctively feared Alphas, especially an S-rank Alpha like Yu Baiyi.
Nevertheless, Luo Yu suppressed her fear and met Yu Baiyi’s eyes directly.
For some reason, she had a premonition that for Lin Xiaogu’s sake, she could not surrender here.
“Hello, General Yu,” Luo Yu said. “May I ask why you’re here?”
Yu Baiyi’s expression shifted for an instant.
After a while, she seemed to hear something absurd and laughed coldly.
“This is my home, yet you’re asking why I’ve returned?”
Her voice sank.
“Move aside.”
Without waiting for permission, Yu Baiyi stepped past Luo Yu and walked directly into the apartment.
She surveyed the living room as she asked, “Where is Lin Xiaogu?”
Luo Yu quickly stepped forward and blocked her path.
“Xiaogu has a fever and is in very poor condition. She’s resting right now.”
The implication was clear.
Lin Xiaogu did not want to see her.
Only then did Yu Baiyi turn her attention fully toward Luo Yu and begin examining her carefully.
After a moment, Yu Baiyi suddenly leaned close and sniffed beside Luo Yu’s neck. She then quickly drew back and asked in a condescending tone, “I can’t smell any pheromones. You’re also a Beta, aren’t you?”
Luo Yu pressed her lips together and did not answer.
“Lin Xiaogu, you’re truly something.”
Yu Baiyi suddenly scoffed and stood in the middle of the room, looking around.
Her gaze ultimately settled on the bedroom door. After staring in that direction for a long time, she abruptly raised her voice.
“I’ve barely left, yet you’ve already been unable to wait before inviting someone else into our home?”
Yu Baiyi continued, “Were you so desperate to break up with me because even this Beta can satisfy you?”
Inside the bedroom, Lin Xiaogu’s body began trembling slightly.
Luo Yu’s expression had already become extremely ugly. She said righteously, “General Yu, Xiaogu is in very poor condition. Please don’t say things that will upset her. If you only came back to say these things… then please leave.”
Yu Baiyi stared at Luo Yu for a while.
“I recognize you. You’re Xi Bingye’s assistant, aren’t you? What, you couldn’t compete with Xi Bingye, so you decided to steal my lover instead?”
Luo Yu frowned and said heavily, “Please show some respect—to both me and Xiaogu.”
Yu Baiyi laughed coldly.
“When you were stealing my lover, why didn’t you think to show me some respect?”
“Xiaogu and I—”
“Xiaogu and I were always deeply in love until you appeared… along with Xi Bingye. Then she suddenly wanted to break up with me. You say there’s nothing between you, but do you take me for a fool?”
Luo Yu stared at the woman before her in disbelief.
She could not understand why Yu Baiyi was behaving like this.
She had clearly explained that Lin Xiaogu was in terrible condition, so why did Yu Baiyi insist on saying such things to hurt her?
Even if the two of them had broken up, had they not once loved each other?
If they truly had, how could Yu Baiyi bear to say such cruel things when Lin Xiaogu was at her weakest?
Luo Yu steadied herself.
“General Yu Baiyi, even if you don’t believe me, you should believe Xiaogu. You were together. You should understand her better than anyone and know she would never do such a thing.”
“I used to think I understood her too.”
Yu Baiyi looked toward the bedroom and deliberately raised her voice.
“But people’s hearts are impossible to predict. No one knows what she’s really thinking. Perhaps she had already been planning to break up with me for a long time!”
The words fell like a feather silently landing on water, producing not a single ripple.
The bedroom remained quiet.
There was no sound at all.
Luo Yu could no longer endure it.
She stepped forward and stood in front of Yu Baiyi, blocking her view of the bedroom.
“General Yu, please leave. Now!”
Yu Baiyi scoffed.
“There are still some of my injections in the wardrobe. You two should make good use of them. Perhaps once you become an Omega, Lin Xiaogu will like you even more.”
Still unsatisfied after saying that, she continued, “Luo Yu, was it? You’ll pay for what you did today. Just wait.”
Luo Yu said nothing.
Only after Yu Baiyi left did Lin Xiaogu’s tightly pressed lips begin to tremble.
Luo Yu returned to the bedroom and looked at her with concern.
Lin Xiaogu gently shook her head.
“Thank you. But Luo Yu, you didn’t need to do any of that for me. Yu Baiyi, she…”
Lin Xiaogu understood Yu Baiyi’s vindictive nature.
She also knew that since Yu Baiyi had said she would make Luo Yu pay, she would certainly follow through.
Lin Xiaogu did not want Luo Yu to be hurt because of her. She could not allow it.
Although she did not finish speaking, Luo Yu already understood.
Luo Yu reassuringly patted the back of her hand.
“It’s all right. As long as I’m still working at the procuratorate, she won’t dare do anything to me.”
“Besides, what she said was far too cruel. Even if you could tolerate it… I couldn’t.”
“Luo Yu, don’t be angry,” Lin Xiaogu said softly. “She isn’t worth becoming angry over.”
And don’t become angry because of me either…
I’m not worth it.
“I’m not angry,” Luo Yu replied gently. “I’m only afraid you’ll be wronged.”
Lin Xiaogu smiled bitterly.
“That won’t happen anymore.”
Because they had already broken up.
From this moment onward, Yu Baiyi would no longer exist in her life.
Yu Baiyi also would not need to worry about being ridiculed by others anymore.
When Lin Xiaogu suggested breaking up, Yu Baiyi must have felt relieved, hadn’t she?
Lin Xiaogu imagined the situation from Yu Baiyi’s perspective.
If a burden that had followed her for years suddenly offered to leave, she would probably feel relieved too.
This was the best possible ending for both of them—making no pointless attempts to hold on and offering no unnecessary resistance, simply allowing everything to take its natural course.
“However…”
Luo Yu recalled what Yu Baiyi had said and asked in confusion, “What were those injections she mentioned in the wardrobe? And what did she mean about becoming an Omega?”
Lin Xiaogu felt no emotion as she replied expressionlessly, “She previously injected me with a substance that could temporarily make me emit pheromones. She also said that after enough injections, I might undergo a secondary differentiation and become an Omega.”
Lin Xiaogu spoke without the slightest emotion, as though she were describing something that had happened to someone else.
Luo Yu, however, was completely stunned.
“What…? Emit pheromones? Secondary differentiation into an Omega? Xiaogu, what are you talking about?”
Luo Yu looked at Lin Xiaogu.
Only then did she notice that beneath the loose collar of Lin Xiaogu’s clothing, there was a needle-like bruise on her fair neck, surrounded by a faint bluish-purple discoloration.
“Those injections you mentioned… are they inside the wardrobe?”
Lin Xiaogu nodded.
Luo Yu opened the wardrobe and took out the safe stored inside.
“What’s the password?”
“I don’t know either.” Lin Xiaogu shook her head. “She never told me.”
Luo Yu considered it.
“What is your birthday?”
“0614.”
Luo Yu tried it.
“That isn’t correct.”
“Xiaoyu, try 0117.”
“All right.”
Luo Yu entered the four digits.
A moment later, the safe opened.
Lin Xiaogu’s gaze slowly dimmed.
The password to the safe…
Was Yu Baiyi’s own birthday.
Luo Yu removed a sealed plastic bag from the safe.
Inside were several unopened syringes. The liquid they contained was pale yellow and highly fluid, emitting a sharp odor similar to disinfectant.
That color.
That smell…
Why did they seem familiar?
Luo Yu felt as though she had seen them somewhere before.
It couldn’t be—!
In a flash, she suddenly remembered something.
She quickly stuffed the sealed bag into her pocket, hurried forward, grabbed Lin Xiaogu’s arm, and pulled her to her feet.
“Come on! We’re going to the hospital!”
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