The Cold Alpha's Black Lotus O Strategy Plan (GL) - Chapter 6

“The brain MRI shows no abnormalities,” the attending physician said, holding Lü Zhongcai’s latest examination report. “Your concussion has also improved, although it will still take time to recover. Are you experiencing any other problems?”

Lü Zhongcai sat in her wheelchair, her brows faintly furrowed.

Inside her mind, 052 laughed wildly.

“Hahahahaha!”

Jin Sique looked at Lü Zhongcai worriedly.

“What exactly is happening?”

“I really can hear another voice inside my mind,” Lü Zhongcai said.

After looking through the report, Jin Sique asked in confusion, “Is there any other kind of examination you can perform?”

“I would like a more comprehensive screening,” Lü Zhongcai said.

The attending physician turned and exchanged a glance with the nurse beside him. After thinking for a moment, he said, “We can invite specialists in Alpha neurology and psychiatry to conduct another consultation.”

Jin Sique froze and anxiously tightened her grip on Lü Zhongcai’s shoulders.

Aunt Guo urgently asked, “What does that mean?”

“You suspect that I have a psychiatric disorder?”

Lü Zhongcai pointed at her forehead with a bent finger.

052 said, “President Lü, I think it would be best if you didn’t expose my existence. Not only would that be detrimental to our great cause, but it might also alert the black lotus and make her suspicious of you.”

Lü Zhongcai turned to look at Jin Sique.

Jin Sique was wearing the same clothes as yesterday and was watching her with a worried expression.

A marked Alpha and Omega could sense some of each other’s emotions. Lü Zhongcai could feel that Jin Sique was worried and frightened.

“Zhongcai…” Jin Sique said.

Lü Zhongcai nodded, indicating that she should not worry. She then turned to the doctor.

“All right.”

…

“There’s something wrong with her brain?”

The girl on the other end of the phone spoke in a mysteriously playful tone.

“Was it caused by the accident? Could she have become stupid?”

Jin Sique thought for a moment, remembering that she had seen Lü Zhongcai replying to work emails yesterday.

“Probably not.”

The girl gave an acknowledging hum.

“I’ll be coming back next month. Remember to pick me up at the airport.”

Jin Sique’s eyes curved into a smile.

“I know, Xiaoyue.”

She paused.

“Has there been any news about her?”

Chen Xiaoyue fell silent for two seconds.

“I’m sorry, Sique. I’ve done everything I can to search, but there’s still no news of Mengzhen.”

Jin Sique adjusted her expression and smiled.

“It’s all right. I understand.”

After ending the call, Jin Sique’s smile disappeared. She turned her gaze toward the consultation room of the Alpha Psychiatry Department.

Inside the room, a bizarre and absurd conversation was still taking place.

“An S-class Alpha?”

Qin Ming stood beside the window, reading Lü Zhongcai’s examination report.

“As far as I know, there are fewer than a hundred S-class Alphas in the entire country. President Lü, it appears that you truly do need psychological counseling.”

Lü Zhongcai inclined her head politely.

“I can control my emotions.”

Qin Ming shrugged, indicating that they could begin.

The young doctor sitting beside Lü Zhongcai began asking her some basic questions to determine whether she suffered from any psychological or neurological disorder.

However, none of Lü Zhongcai’s answers revealed any problems.

Qin Ming walked over.

“Briefly describe several of the conversations you’ve had with the voice inside your mind.”

Half an hour later, Qin Ming asked, “She has been teaching you to commit crimes?”

052 said, “I recommend that you not tell outsiders about me, President Lü…”

“Yes,” Lü Zhongcai said. “She told me either to mark an Omega permanently or to destroy her directly.”

The young doctor asked, “Is that what you truly want to do?”

052 answered, “Of course!”

“No,” Lü Zhongcai said coldly.

The young doctor glanced at Qin Ming before asking, “Is there anything distinctive about this voice? Has she ever introduced herself?”

052 said, “If you absolutely need something to call me, you can call me 052.”

“She calls herself 052,” Lü Zhongcai said.

Qin Ming burst out laughing.

The doctor: “…”

“What kind of expression is that?” 052 demanded angrily.

“Reversed, it means two hundred and fifty,” Lü Zhongcai said.

The doctor coughed.

“Are there any other distinctive features?”

Lü Zhongcai pursed her lips.

“Her voice is extremely familiar. It sounds very similar to mine.”

052: “…”

Qin Ming froze.

She then snatched the notebook from the young doctor’s hands, ushered him out of the consultation room, and solemnly emphasized to Lü Zhongcai, “I need you to recount everything that has happened since yesterday one more time, especially that dream.”

052 said, “President Lü, I really don’t think you should do that. You’ll harm me, and you might be dragged into the laboratory of some mysterious organization to be dissected and studied… Wait! Wait!”

—

“Hello.”

The young doctor closed the door and turned toward Jin Sique, who was walking toward him.

“Hello, Mrs. Jin.”

Jin Sique froze. With her hands folded in front of her, she smiled faintly at him.

“Did Zhongcai introduce me to you? You don’t need to address me that way. You can call me by my name.”

The young doctor was a Beta. The moment he caught sight of Jin Sique, he could hardly tear his gaze away.

He laughed awkwardly.

“I-I think I should still call you Mrs. Jin. President Lü is an S-class Alpha, so I…”

The young doctor smiled helplessly.

To an Alpha, their Omega partner was an extremely private possession. In an Alpha’s presence, any friendliness or intimacy directed toward their Omega could be regarded as a provocation.

Therefore, most people would not approach an Omega who already had an Alpha.

Medical personnel in particular strictly obeyed these ironclad rules. After all, no one understood more clearly than they did how difficult an out-of-control Alpha could be to handle.

Moreover, Lü Zhongcai was a top-level S-class Alpha.

If some minor detail ignited her emotions, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Jin Sique smiled.

“It’s all right. Zhongcai wouldn’t care about something like that. How is she?”

The young doctor said, “She appears to be in fairly good condition. Although she’s in a wheelchair, she seems very… Um, anyway, she’s doing quite well.”

“The things you discussed…”

Jin Sique carefully considered her expression and tone before asking with a worried and timid look, “Could you tell me about them? I’m very worried about her.”

The young doctor shook his head.

“I’m sorry. That information is confidential.”

Jin Sique could only thank him and stop asking.

She returned to the waiting area, sat down, and began looking at her phone.

Zhu Wanqing had sent her a message saying that she had already answered attendance for her and that Jin Sique did not need to hurry back to the university.

Jin Sique sincerely replied with her thanks.

She exited WeChat, opened a media application, and put on her earphones. She selected a Peking Opera aria and played it on repeat.

She hummed along softly, expertly tapping the rhythm against her knee with her fingers.

—

“It sounds absurd, doesn’t it?”

After recounting everything, Lü Zhongcai looked at Qin Ming, who appeared to be around thirty years old.

“Have there ever been cases like mine before?”

“Of course, there has never been one exactly the same.”

After speaking, Qin Ming smiled mysteriously and deliberately left her explanation unfinished.

Lü Zhongcai raised an eyebrow slightly.

Although she looked at Qin Ming with perfect politeness, the oppressive presence of an Alpha still made the hairs on Qin Ming’s body stand on end.

“Don’t be so intimidating, President Lü. I’m only an ordinary Alpha.”

Qin Ming raised both hands in surrender.

052 said angrily, “Who does she think she is? Hurry and attack her with your pheromones! Let her experience the fury of an S-class Alpha!”

Lü Zhongcai politely said, “You still haven’t introduced yourself.”

“I am the director of the Alpha Psychiatry Department. You can call me Dr. Qin,” Qin Ming said. “President Lü, although an Alpha with your condition is rare, such cases are not completely unheard of. I have a hypothesis, but I need some basic data to support it. Please come with me.”

Lü Zhongcai moved her wheelchair and followed Qin Ming into the laboratory next door.

The laboratory was filled with test tubes and various instruments. The walls and desks were piled high with obscure medical books.

Qin Ming asked, “You and your wife are deeply in love, aren’t you?”

052 gave a disdainful snort inside Lü Zhongcai’s mind.

“The black lotus is only pretending.”

“I believe that she loves me very much,” Lü Zhongcai said.

Qin Ming turned around in amusement.

“And what about you? Do you love her?”

“I needed an Omega wife to deal with my family’s endless pressure to marry.”

Lü Zhongcai guided her wheelchair toward the window and stopped, looking down at the crowds below the sixth floor.

Dressed in a white coat, Qin Ming glanced at the tiny silver glint sparkling beneath Lü Zhongcai’s neatly arranged collar.

“So you don’t love Jin Sique?”

“That is correct,” Lü Zhongcai said.

052 shouted inside her mind, “Yes! Yes! Very good! A qualified scumbag Alpha should only desire her body! So what if she’s the female protagonist Omega? If she dares to betray you, she’ll still end up being tortured!”

Qin Ming pointed toward Lü Zhongcai’s collar.

“What is that? May I take a look?”

Lü Zhongcai lowered her eyes, her gaze narrowing dangerously.

Qin Ming explained, “I need a personal item to extract a pheromone sample. Your body is currently weak, and I don’t want to draw your blood. What do you think, President Lü?”

052 said, “Quack doctor?”

Lü Zhongcai removed the necklace from around her neck.

It was a very thin, simply designed silver chain. When she pulled it from beneath her collar, a gemstone-set ring hanging from the bottom was revealed.

“A ring?”

Wearing gloves, Qin Ming curiously accepted it and examined it.

“Mm. My wedding ring,” Lü Zhongcai said.

Qin Ming smiled. She carefully placed the necklace and ring together inside a petri dish, poured blue extraction solution over them, sealed the dish, and waited.

“It looks as though you’ve worn it for a long time,” Qin Ming said.

“Since getting married, I’ve only removed it while bathing.”

“Oh?”

“I don’t love Jin Sique, but I respect our marital relationship,” Lü Zhongcai said.

The smile on Qin Ming’s lips gradually widened.

“Several years ago, Country M published a treatment report concerning an extreme Alpha. When dealing with the relationship between herself and her Omega partner, the Alpha underestimated the intensity of her own emotions. After their breakup, she dismembered and consumed her Omega.”

052: “…”

Qin Ming continued, “After regaining her senses, that Alpha tortured herself to death in an extremely brutal manner. I know you don’t want to hear the details. It’s almost lunchtime, and I don’t want to remember them either.”

“Even doctors are afraid of things like that?” Lü Zhongcai asked curiously.

“I’m a psychiatrist, not a surgeon who needs to wield a scalpel,” Qin Ming replied.

Lü Zhongcai looked toward the petri dish.

“So?”

“Do you have a personal item belonging to your partner?” Qin Ming asked.

052 exclaimed triumphantly, “It’s useless! The settings and characters of the inner and outer worlds are entirely independent. Neither side currently possesses the ability to investigate the other. Only a third-party transmigration system like me can bring the two of you—”

Lü Zhongcai ignored 052.

After a moment of silence, she said, “Someone will need to retrieve it. It isn’t exactly a personal accessory, but extracting pheromones from it shouldn’t be a problem.”

“That will work,” Qin Ming said.

Several minutes later, a white shirt wrapped inside a transparent plastic bag was delivered to the laboratory.

Qin Ming switched to a larger petri dish.

The two women stood there watching over a shirt, creating an indescribably strange scene.

“You two still did it last night? As expected of an S-class Alpha. Even with a broken leg, you can still…”

Qin Ming teasingly trailed off.

Lü Zhongcai remained cold and solemn.

“No.”

052 snorted.

“Yes, our president is simply that formidable. You’d better not imagine anything strange, or we’ll remove your disrespectful head and kick it around like a ball.”

Lü Zhongcai said helplessly, “Be quiet.”

Qin Ming: “?”

“Are the two of you talking?” Qin Ming asked.

052 said, “Hmph.”

“Mm,” Lü Zhongcai answered.

“It will take approximately ten minutes,” Qin Ming said.

Lü Zhongcai took out her phone, imported a document into a reading application, selected automatic page turning at triple speed, and began rapidly reviewing it.

052 said, “President Lü, could we reduce the reading speed?”

Qin Ming asked, “You’re working that hard?”

“Too much work accumulated during my hospitalization,” Lü Zhongcai replied.

A message appeared on her phone.

Are you all right?

Lü Zhongcai switched to the messaging application.

It was from Jin Sique.

Lü Zhongcai had already been inside the consultation room for more than two hours. Jin Sique was apparently worried that something serious had happened, so she had quietly sent her a message.

“What did your wife say?” Qin Ming asked. “We normally don’t recommend bringing phones inside. Look, I didn’t bring mine. It helps keep the consultation environment quiet and relaxing.”

Lü Zhongcai replied:

I’m fine. Contact Old Li and have him take you back to school.

Jin Sique immediately responded:

No! I can copy the notes when I return, but I can’t miss any information about your condition.

“The results are ready,” Qin Ming said.

She held two brief reports that had been printed due to the limited time available. After looking through them, she handed them to Lü Zhongcai.

“Pheromone gene sequencing technology is already highly developed. There’s no need to worry about deviations or errors.”

Lü Zhongcai glanced at the reports and remained expressionless.

Only 052 began screaming frantically inside her mind.

“Impossible! Impossible!”

She resembled a squeaking toy chicken that had gone insane.

Qin Ming said, “Now I can explain my hypothesis to you. Do you remember the case I mentioned earlier?”

—

Half an hour later, Lü Zhongcai quietly finished listening to Qin Ming’s entire explanation. She operated the control panel on her wheelchair and left the consultation room.

Before seeing her out, Qin Ming said, “I recommend coming here twice a week. Although I’ve never treated a patient exactly like you, I can attempt to provide treatment.”

The consultation room’s door automatically closed.

Jin Sique had remained outside the entire time.

Aunt Guo had returned home to pack food. Apart from several other family members waiting around in boredom, the Alpha Psychiatry Department’s waiting area was nearly empty.

Jin Sique noticed Lü Zhongcai immediately.

She hurriedly stood, approached her, and bent down anxiously.

“How did it go?”

052 said, “Tell her the truth! Data can’t be wrong. Once she learns the truth, she’ll become completely devoted to you!”

“There’s nothing seriously wrong,” Lü Zhongcai said. “It’s merely an aftereffect of the concussion causing intermittent auditory hallucinations. I need to rest, and it will gradually improve.”

Jin Sique slowly straightened.

Without drawing attention to the movement, she removed the Bluetooth earphone from beside her ear.

A gust of wind swept past. Her long hair fluttered as she stood in the corridor, looking indescribably obedient and moving.

“Really? That’s wonderful.”

—

That afternoon, inside a quiet café, Lü Zhongcai brought her own fish congee, ordered a cup of coffee, and sat in her wheelchair.

“What?”

Lu Baimei nearly sprayed the chicken soup in her mouth across the table.

Lü Zhongcai turned aside to avoid it, her brows furrowing faintly. She raised her bowl of fish congee to prevent Lu Baimei from spraying it.

Using the same cold and detached voice as Lü Zhongcai, 052 said inside her mind, “Disgusting commoner! Move your hand away!”

“Thought dissociation?”

Lu Baimei pressed her palm against Lü Zhongcai’s forehead.

“My dear president, did the accident make you stupid?”

Lü Zhongcai leaned backward to avoid her.

“Possibly.”

Lu Baimei burst out laughing.

“Hahaha! I’ve only ever heard of schizophrenia.”

“Thought-dissociation disorder,” Lü Zhongcai explained. “According to Qin Ming’s hypothesis, I must have suffered some kind of unacceptable emotional shock before the accident. Afterward, my cerebral cortex became excessively active and split off an alter-ego consciousness.”

“What kind of emotional shock?” Lu Baimei asked.

“I have a concussion and lost the relevant memory.”

Lu Baimei asked enthusiastically, “What happens now? What exactly is this alter ego? Do you have two personalities? Which one of you is currently talking to me?”

“The alter ego exists only inside my brain and cannot control my body,” Lü Zhongcai explained. “She is my dark side.”

Lu Baimei: “?”

“Does she have a personality? Describe her.”

“Stupid, lazy, evil, and completely lacking ambition,” Lü Zhongcai said.

052 protested, “I admit that I’m evil, but I refuse to admit that I’m stupid and lazy!”

Lü Zhongcai did not respond and continued, “She is also extremely noisy.”

“Doesn’t that perfectly correspond with you?”

Lu Baimei slapped her thigh.

“Our president is intelligent and diligent, kind and ambitious, with dreams and ideals. Damn, I understand now! 052 is your dark shadow.”

Lü Zhongcai did not deny it.

“She claims that I exist inside a book and that after separating from Sique, I will inevitably end up homeless.”

“Hahahahaha!”

Lu Baimei laughed loudly.

“How could that possibly happen?”

She suddenly froze.

“I understand! Do you read online novels? Transmigration into books and systems are standard story elements.”

“I don’t,” Lü Zhongcai said.

Lu Baimei explained, “I recently read one about an Alpha who transmigrated into a world where only male and female sexes existed. She became the world’s only Alpha, and no one except the female protagonist could relieve her during her heat.”

“The female protagonist also happened to be the only person affected by that Alpha’s pheromones.”

Lu Baimei laughed.

“You must think the story developed in an extremely explicit direction, with the entire novel consisting of the two of them doing this and that at different times, in different places, and under different circumstances, right?”

“…”

Lü Zhongcai finished her congee, opened her laptop, and connected to an international meeting room. She quietly waited through the two-minute countdown before the meeting began.

“It’s a trick used by authors,” Lu Baimei continued. “They flirt with the boundaries to attract readers. Then, because of various circumstances, they prevent the two characters from actually sleeping together. The protagonists spend every day and night on the verge of an emotional explosion, while the readers who identify with them are driven insane from frustration.”

“Oh, and characters with this kind of setup are normally like you—stubbornly refusing to admit anything while pretending to be aloof and noble.”

“The system is a wonderful tool for padding the word count, but it also serves another purpose. It gives the protagonist ridiculous orders that fall outside her established character and usual behavior, creating opportunities for the two leads to meet and interact…”

Lü Zhongcai looked at the laptop screen.

People had already begun entering the meeting room. Unlike their usual habit of politely exchanging greetings, everyone maintained a tacit silence while straining their ears to listen.

“You enjoy reading books like that?” Lü Zhongcai asked.

“Hahaha.”

Lu Baimei waved dismissively and lowered her voice.

“I absolutely love them, but you have to turn your brain off. By the way, do you browse PO and Huashi? I have lots of novel collections from those sites… You understand, don’t you? When a single Alpha goes into heat, she inevitably has certain needs…”

“I read legally purchased copies,” Lü Zhongcai said.

She adjusted the watch face on her wrist and pointed it toward Lu Baimei, interrupting her endless chatter.

Lu Baimei looked at it.

“It’s two in the afternoon. So what? Oh, right. Why did you ask me to come here today?”

Lü Zhongcai turned toward the laptop screen.

“Everyone, allow me to introduce Lu Baimei, the branch’s newly promoted chief financial officer.”

She continued without pause.

“Very well, Novi. Regarding the acquisition…”

Lu Baimei froze.

She leaned backward and finally saw seven or eight faces on Lü Zhongcai’s screen, all desperately suppressing their laughter.

Every person was making the exact same movement, struggling to prevent their cheeks from swelling with amusement.

Lu Baimei: “……………………”

—

“She’ll be discharged in two weeks.”

That evening at Jingwan Villa, Jin Sique wore soft loungewear while speaking to an elder over the phone.

“You and Dad don’t need to worry. I’ll take good care of her. Mm…”

Aunt Guo finished arranging the bowls and chopsticks, then stepped out of the kitchen to indicate that dinner was ready.

Jin Sique smiled warmly and patiently listened to the person on the other end of the call.

“There’s no need. Yes, we’ll come back during the National Day holiday. You and Dad don’t need to make another trip. Zhongcai is too busy with work.”

“All right.”

“I understand. You and Dad should rest early too.”

After ending the call, Jin Sique returned to the dining area.

Aunt Guo was holding a small boning knife, carefully removing the meat from a plate of braised ribs for her.

“Are the Old Madam and Master doing well?” Aunt Guo asked.

Jin Sique accepted the knife from her.

“They’re doing quite well. They just completed their physical examinations, and everything was normal.”

Aunt Guo nodded. She took another plate and continued removing the meat.

“You should go and rest,” Jin Sique said. “I’ll prepare everything for Zhongcai.”

Aunt Guo was already elderly, several years older than even Lü Zhongcai’s parents.

Because she had no children, she had remained with the Lü family all these years. Although they were not related by blood, she was closer to them than family.

Jin Sique inclined her head slightly, a gentle smile hanging on her lips.

“Go and rest.”

The living room fell silent.

Jin Sique casually set down the delicate boning knife and picked up her chopsticks to eat.

She had only taken a few bites before stopping.

Throughout the entire day, her mind had been filled with thoughts of Lü Zhongcai’s behavior that morning.

Her phone vibrated.

Jin Sique casually glanced at it and answered.

“Hello.”

“Number Ten, Xinjie Street. Are you coming?” the person on the other end asked.

Jin Sique looked at the tall antique clock in the living room.

“No. I have to return to school tomorrow.”

“Don’t say that!”

The person on the phone wailed.

“Xiaoqing ate something bad and can’t perform. Come and fill in for her just this once. Consider it your older brother begging you. Can you do it?”

Jin Sique remained silent.

“Sique? Do me this favor.”

“It wouldn’t be very convenient.”

Jin Sique smiled as she lazily played with a pair of silver chopsticks.

The other side was silent for several seconds.

“One performance of The Drunken Beauty. Twenty thousand. How about it?”

Jin Sique’s smile deepened.

“The Houming Troupe earns two hundred thousand for a single engagement, yet you’re only offering me twenty thousand?”

“…”

“Sixty thousand!”

The person on the phone spoke through gritted teeth.

Jin Sique immediately stood.

“Deal.”

—

“Honestly, no one is more suitable to play the Imperial Consort than you.”

Monkey smiled while dipping a brush into a palette of greasepaint and applying the makeup to Jin Sique’s face.

After finishing the makeup, Monkey clicked his tongue appreciatively. Raising his fingers in an orchid gesture, he slowly stepped back two paces.

“This truly stirs something in my heart.”

Jin Sique sat before the dressing mirror, straightened her headdress, and examined her makeup from both sides.

By the time her makeup was finished, a large group of people had already gathered backstage around her.

Someone approached carrying an opera costume. With an exclamation, they adopted a Peking Opera tone and sang melodiously, “Our Imperial Consort Yang is finally dressed!”

“Troupe Master, The Legend of the White Snake is almost finished, and A Stroll in the Garden and an Interrupted Dream is nearing its end. Has our Imperial Consort finished preparing for her scene?”

Jin Sique stood.

A crimson mark adorned her forehead, and her eyes shone as brightly as the moon. Her smile was dreamlike.

Her kingfisher-feather phoenix crown shimmered. Her ceremonial robe was embroidered with a phoenix flying through peonies. Her jade belt drifted around her like that of an immortal, while scattered winter plum blossoms decorated her folding fan.

Her foxlike eyes glistened as though filled with water.

Dressed from head to toe in precious finery, she was the perfect image of an imperial consort.