A Disguised Scum Alpha Marked Her Aloof Ex-Wife - Chapter 4

An eighteenth-rate chaotic star system.

A meteor streaked across the sky, followed by a series of rumbling booms. Helan, who was sweeping the floor, had long since grown used to it. She wiped her hand on her apron, leisurely picked up a snakeskin sack, hopped onto her little cart, and drove toward the place where the meteor had fallen.

This place lay along the long border between the Empire and the Federation. Resources were scarce, pollution was severe, and it was so poor that neither country could be bothered to manage it. It belonged to a chaotic no-man’s-land that did not even have an official name.

By the time Helan arrived, several people hoping to scavenge something had already gathered there. They often recovered broken parts from crash sites. With enough luck, they could sell them for a decent price.

But today’s situation was a little strange.

Helan swept her gaze around and saw only two dead people.

One of them was tightly holding a silver-haired woman, curled around her, cleverly protecting her head and heart. A huge parachute lay scattered beside them.

Unfortunately, there was no way anyone could survive a fall like this.

In this world, dead people were worth the least. They had no recycling value.

The crowd dispersed with curses, grumbling that pies really did not fall from the sky.

Helan circled the site, equally uninterested. But since she had already come, she decided to cut away the parachute fabric. She took out a dagger and, while she was at it, drove away the people trying to strip clothes off the corpses.

Just as she approached, the younger corpse suddenly moved.

Startled, Helan abruptly backed away several steps.

“Help…”

The voice was very faint, scattering as soon as the wind blew.

Probably just a final burst of life before death.

Helan had no interest in paying attention to her. She cleanly began cutting through the ropes. However, after she finally managed to cut one, she glanced over from the corner of her eye and saw that the black-haired girl had actually propped herself up and was trying to kiss the woman lying on the ground.

She leaned close carefully and kissed her several times, like a chick pecking at rice. Then she crossed her hands and began doing CPR. In the end, exhausted, she stared at her own hands in disbelief, weakly pounded the ground, and collapsed.

She looked mentally unstable.

Helan cautiously decided to stay away from them. Who knew whether people who fell from the sky carried some kind of virus?

The girl was still struggling, her voice thin and small. “Can someone save her? She’s still alive. I’m still alive too.”

“We’ll be useful. Please save us…”

Helan looked at them a few more times.

Two thin-armed, thin-legged little girls. What use could they possibly be?

The chaotic zone did not support freeloaders. She was not some savior.

Helan let out a low sigh, dragged the folded parachute cloth, and turned to leave.

The girl’s voice faded as well, becoming as confused as sleep-talking.

“Mom…”

Helan’s steps paused.

Somewhat irritated, she rubbed the mud off the toe of her shoe. Behind her, the girl was still uttering those two simplest syllables in a disorderly way.

She lifted her fingertips weakly toward Helan.

“Mom…!”

Too noisy.

So annoying.

There was already one at home who shouted like that every day.

Helan frowned, but before she knew it, she had walked back over and was carefully examining the two people’s injuries.

Sensing someone approach, the girl narrowed her clear black-and-white eyes and stared at her for a few seconds.

Then her troublesome call suddenly became very soft.

“Mom, I’m fine. It doesn’t hurt at all…”

“I want to eat.”

Even in this state, she was still thinking about food. Was she a starving ghost reincarnated?

Helan forced down the tremor in her chest, took a deep breath, and strode away.

A moment later, Helan drove her little cart back again. She checked their breathing and, after confirming that both were still alive, viciously spread out the parachute cloth and moved them onto it.

The girl waiting obediently at the door saw the little cart from far away, along with the big bundle stuffed in the back seat. She jumped up in surprise and ran over to welcome her.

“Wow, Mom——!”

Helan waved her over. “Stop wowing. Come help. I picked up two people.”

……

When Zhu Yu woke up, the first thing she saw was an enlarged face.

The girl propped her chin in her hands, beaming with delight.

“Wow——!”

Her tone sounded very much like she was examining some kind of small animal. Zhu Yu instinctively touched her own hands and body.

Still there.

She was still in a normal human shape.

The little girl asked, “Are you a pilot? You fell from the sky and didn’t die!”

Was that how the word pilot was supposed to be used…?

Fell from the sky…

Her thoughts slowly returned. Zhu Yu hurriedly sat up and looked at Bai Shuzhou, who was lying beside her.

The little girl stretched her neck and followed Zhu Yu’s gaze. The woman’s face was pale, and her long silver-white hair was scattered along the side of her neck. Her slender brows were faintly furrowed. Even with her whole body dirty, she still possessed a translucent, fragile beauty like colored glass.

“Wow——Mom! Is she an elf made from a shooting star?”

Zhu Yu found it a little funny.

How was she a pilot, but Bai Shuzhou became an elf?

The genre changed completely when it came to her.

Her memories were still a little fragmented. At the moment, the two of them were lying on the living room floor. A few plastic bottles were scattered nearby, filled with colorful pills.

Zhu Yu took the water the child handed her and drank it all in one go. The dryness in her throat eased. She said softly, “Did you save us? Thank you.”

“What are you thanking me for?”

A woman wearing a white smock and a black apron walked over. Under the light, her figure looked tall and broad, giving off a sense of reassurance.

For one brief instant, Zhu Yu narrowed her eyes and thought she had seen her own mother.

Only, her mother always smelled of disinfectant. What drifted over with this woman’s footsteps was the fragrance of food mixed with cooking oil and smoke.

Her nose suddenly stung.

The woman said, “Remember to pay. These medicines aren’t cheap.”

“Oh, okay. Thank you.”

Zhu Yu reached out and checked Bai Shuzhou’s breathing and forehead. Her body temperature had already returned to normal. The wound on her leg had also been simply treated and was wrapped casually in gauze.

Zhu Yu picked up one of the bottles and looked at it.

There was no safety certification. The label stuck to it was even handwritten, and the handwriting was extremely sloppy:

Fever-reducing, pain-relieving, anti-inflammatory sleeping pills.

Quite a lot of functions.

“Are you a pilot?” The little girl’s eyes sparkled as she very persistently continued asking.

Zhu Yu noticed that the woman’s gaze had also drifted over. It carried a certain wariness as she pretended to ask casually, “What kind of people are you? How did you get hurt like this?”

“We…”

Zhu Yu coughed a few times.

Those lunatic nobles had actually dared to attack them. They probably would not give up easily. Besides, the original Zhu Yu’s secret base was very well hidden. From her few memories, their relationship should not have been close enough for her to share that kind of secret with them.

They had been after Bai Shuzhou from the very beginning.

Was this place safe?

Zhu Yu glanced at the little girl and the faded certificates on the wall, then experimentally began making things up.

“We’re sisters. My older sister was sending me to school when we ran into interstellar bandits on the road. The starship exploded…”

“Sisters?”

Helan’s expression became a little strange.

She still remembered the way Zhu Yu had leaned down to kiss Bai Shuzhou earlier. But seeing Zhu Yu look so firm, she very naturally convinced herself.

It was probably mouth-to-mouth resuscitation!

Zhu Yu had a very clean-looking face. Her eyes were clear, and when she spoke, she smiled shyly. Coupled with that torn white shirt, she looked utterly scholarly. Calling herself a student presented no flaws at all.

“A university student, huh,” Helan said with emotion. Then she asked, “Which school?”

It seemed that from ancient times to the present, adults always asked the same old questions.

Zhu Yu answered vaguely, “Quantum Technology University.”

There were plenty of tech universities. Whether in the Empire or the Federation, there were several. It gave her room to advance or retreat.

Helan nodded, seemingly very satisfied with this famous name. “Good school! For a Beta to get into that kind of school, that’s impressive.”

It sounded a little strange.

But if Beta was replaced with ordinary person, it became much easier to understand.

The original Zhu Yu had also been born in a remote star system, and from a slum family no less. She could understand the huge difference in resources between regions. To people like them, the Imperial Royal Military Academy was practically a heaven-like existence.

It was like a carp leaping over the dragon gate and instantly attaining immortality.

But everyone seemed to think she had only gotten into the Imperial Royal Military Academy because she was an Alpha, even if she was only an inferior Alpha.

Zhu Yu smiled very shyly.

In truth, without pheromones being released, she could not tell the difference between Alpha, Beta, and Omega at all. Everyone had one nose and two eyes.

Just like now, the other party had also preconceived that she and Bai Shuzhou were both Betas, that they had taken an illegal budget flight to smuggle themselves across because they wanted to save money, and that even if the ship exploded, there would be no official report.

This place was located on the border between two countries. Helan had long since seen far too many adventurers and stowaways die in foreign lands.

Zhu Yu and Bai Shuzhou were already considered very lucky. At least they were not missing pieces, scattered here and there.

Through the child, Zhu Yu quickly figured out the surrounding situation.

This place was chaotic enough to be relatively safe. There was no regular army stationed here, and even optical-brain signals did not have full coverage.

Fortunately for her, news traveled slowly here. Zhu Yu still did not know that she had already become a wanted criminal, charged with kidnapping an imperial princess.

She was even secretly relieved that those perverted, traitorous nobles would not be able to find them anytime soon.

The little trumpet child who loved shouting “wow, wow, wow” was called He Ming. She was Helan’s daughter, and they were a single-parent family.

In this world, only Omegas could conceive naturally. Everyone else had to rely on the Tree of Life system in order to reproduce, and the application requirements were extremely strict.

Helan ran a small restaurant on the street. It was one of the few honest shops in this era that still insisted on purely handmade food. The prices were on the expensive side, and there were not many repeat customers.

Occasionally, she would also go out scavenging and hunting to supplement the household income, determined to support He Ming until she could leave this place.

Combining all the local conditions, Zhu Yu quickly fabricated an entire story.

A sick mother.

Herself, still in school.

An older sister who worked to support their broken home…

In order to put Zhu Yu through school, her older sister had stopped studying very early. She had originally been very talented in dance, but now, unfortunately, she had injured her leg again.

As she spoke, Zhu Yu lowered her head.

Listening to this, Helan’s attitude softened quite a bit. With a broad wave of her hand, she gave them all the medicine for free and even took the initiative to say that she could rent the small courtyard next door to them.

Only sixty dollars a day.

Zhu Yu was moved to tears with gratitude.

Until she pushed open the gate of the neighboring courtyard.

A small garbage dump.

The screw creaked as it turned once. The courtyard was filled with all kinds of broken appliances and scraps. A little hut had been built out of sheet metal, bricks, and tiles.

Helan said very generously, “If you’re missing anything, just dig around the yard yourselves. I won’t charge extra.”

Zhu Yu searched herself from head to toe and could not even find a single coin.

If it were before, she probably would have been so embarrassed that she wanted to dig a hole and hide in it.

But this Zhu Yu was no longer the old Zhu Yu!

She had grown.

Standing before you now was the scummy Alpha version of Zhu Yu!

It was like putting on a fluffy mascot costume. By using disguise to replace shackles, she could act recklessly. There was no face left to lose.

She rubbed her hands together shyly.

“Sister. Pretty sister…”

Helan’s smile vanished instantly. She planted her hands on her hips. “Don’t try that with me. Even calling me Mom won’t work. This is already very cheap. Not a single cent less!”

Zhu Yu said, “Pretty Mom, actually, I’m also from a single-parent family.”

Helan: “…”

Zhu Yu said sincerely, “The first time I saw you, I felt especially close to you. My mom is also heroic and capable like you, holding up an entire family by herself. She really is amazing.”

This time, Zhu Yu was not lying.

She really did come from a single-parent family. Her mother was a doctor and often wore a white coat. When she walked, the hem of the coat flew behind her, and she never looked back. Her ponytail swayed behind her. When Zhu Yu was little, she had always thought her mother was especially cool.

Though it would have been even better if she had occasionally looked back at her.

Bai Shuzhou woke up on the wooden plank bed and faintly heard Zhu Yu’s voice.

She remembered the way Zhu Yu had sharply piloted the starship into an interstellar jump before the explosion, and how she had tightly pulled Bai Shuzhou into her arms as they fell. The thoughts in her pale blue eyes became very complicated.

Then she heard the young woman outside, clear and perfectly enunciated, call out sweetly:

“Pretty Mom!”

Bai Shuzhou: “…”

She closed her eyes again