Chapter 309: Preach

Chapter 309: Broadcast

Ye Wang wasn’t a fan of milk, but since Jiang Qi had already handed him a glass, he took it without thinking and took a sip.

Jiang Qi sat down across from him and began drinking from his own cup.

Silence hung between them.

As both glasses emptied, Ye Wang twisted his cup slightly, observing his rival through the reflection on the handle. The prickly, guarded Jiang Qi from yesterday was gone. Now, he sat quietly across the dining table, like some doting housewife who would warm a glass of milk for their partner.

Ye Wang got goosebumps.

He tapped the console beside him and turned on a popular news channel, letting the newscaster’s voice break the silence and ease some of the awkwardness.

Ye Wang set his cup back on the table and pretended to focus on the news.

From his periphery, he noticed Jiang Qi stand up, reach over and grab his cup, and then wash both glasses in the sink.

When Jiang Qi was out of the kitchen, Ye Wang turned his attention back to the news.

The report covered the recent riots in the Lower District.

The Upper and Lower Districts were worlds apart, and even their news feeds differed. The channel Ye Wang was watching would never appear in the Lower District.

The news skipped over why the riots started, only mentioning that residents were dissatisfied with the large-scale searches and had gathered at the border to protest.

Just as Ye Wang was intently watching the screen, the couch sank under Jiang Qi’s weight—Jiang Qi had sat down.

He maintained a careful distance of a few feet, perched stiffly upright in contrast to Ye Wang’s sprawled posture. For some reason, Ye Wang straightened up, suddenly aware of his own slouch.

It was then that Ye Wang realized there were two cushions on the couch—and both were currently under his arms.

He tugged one free, aimed, and tossed it toward Jiang Qi. “Here.”

Jiang Qi reflexively caught it, his movements sharp and precise, like catching a bullet.

Blinking at the fluffy missile, Jiang Qi held the pillow and turned to Ye Wang. “Sir?”

Ye Wang scratched his nose. “…Never mind.”

They went back to the news.

The reporter stood behind a security line, the camera panning across the faces of the protesters at the border. The screen showed exhausted, hardened faces—a far cry from the Upper District’s poreless, veneer-perfect crowd. The Lower District’s inhabitants bore the marks of long-term pollution and radiation. Some had blackened teeth, others wore mechanical prosthetics, and a few had skin lesions. The camera swept over faces locked in rage or hollow resignation before finally settling on the banner they held.

“Give us back our homes.”

Raiders had toppled a load-bearing pillar in the slums, triggering a chain reaction. The flimsy shanties crumpled like wet cardboard. To the searchers, it was just a garbage dump they couldn’t be bothered with—but to the slum dwellers, those fragile, cardboard-like spaces were their homes.

Their only homes.

The camera pulled back from the rioters’ faces. As an Upper District media outlet, they had no obligation to explain the reasons for the unrest to their privileged audience. They only needed to show that chaos had erupted—and then that it had ended.

In the final aerial shots, a corner of the collapsed ruins was faintly visible. Amid the gray wreckage, Ye Wang spotted a blur of pink—a strangely familiar arrangement of colors that stood out starkly against the dull debris.

The commander narrowed his eyes and finally recognized what it was.

A pink plush bear—the cheap kind lining store shelves.

The slum residents likely couldn’t afford such a thing. It was probably discarded trash, dumped in the wasteland, then snagged by some scavenger dad who painstakingly cleaned and repaired it as a gift for his daughter.

Ye Wang could even imagine the girl's happy look when she received the toy bear.

The news report continued, and after the final scenes of the unrest were broadcast, it cut to commercials. The advertisement featured an expensive candy with bright, flashy packaging, and the model was a stylish, cute girl.

Ye Wang remembered that Jiang Qi’s younger sister was probably around the same age.

Without thinking, he turned to glance at Jiang Qi’s expression. “Hey…”

His old rival remained quiet, his gaze unfocused as if he were zoning out at the screen. Hearing the sound, he turned his head. “Sir?”

Ye Wang: “...Never mind.” He looked at the advertisement on the screen and blurted out: “Do you want some? The supermarket downstairs sells it.”

What he really meant was—*If your sister wants it, you could buy it for her.*

Jiang Qi shook his head, then turned back to the screen. “Things like this happen many times every year.”

Ye Wang: “...What things?”

Jiang Qi: “Buildings collapsing. Many slums in the lower districts are built without permits, one connected to another. They don’t consider basic construction rules or have the energy to worry about it. Hail, strong winds, heavy snow—any of them can knock down a whole block of houses like dominoes.”

Ye Wang studied him. “Have you experienced it?”

Jiang Qi chuckled. “When I was very young. Before I joined the gene-mod program.”

He didn’t elaborate further, and Ye Wang didn’t press. Each batch of the gene-mod program involved over a thousand children. Aside from those who were homeless or had no other way to survive, what kind of parent would willingly send their child into something like that?

Hail, strong winds, heavy snow, ruins—what had Jiang Qi had left in his hands back then, aside from an uncertain fate in the lab?

The two fell into a wordless silence until the piercing ring of a communicator broke it.

Ye Wang pulled it out and saw the caller ID: *Pei Ming*.

Pei Ming—Pei Gu’s uncle, one of the current key figures of the Pei family.

Ye Wang thought, *This can’t be good.*

Pei Gu wasn’t part of the Pei family’s main lineage, only loosely related. Unless it was something urgent, Pei Ming wouldn’t come looking for him.

And right now, the most urgent matter was undoubtedly the theft at the lower district’s lab.

Had they traced it back to him so quickly?

Ye Wang immediately grew more serious. He glanced at Jiang Qi but didn’t dismiss him, instead putting on a cheerful tone. “Oh, Uncle! What brings you to call me today? Ah, ah, whatever you need, just name it—I’ll make sure it’s done right.”

“Ah, a report, huh? Uh…” Ye Wang’s gaze flickered over Jiang Qi’s face, a quick look of surprise crossing his expression. But before the other could speak, he smoothly took over the conversation. “It’s not a big deal, really. Just thought he’s been acting a bit off lately. I was wondering if there might be an issue with the evaluation center—maybe a recheck would be good? After all, I can’t take responsibility for this. Can’t be too careful, right? Yeah, yeah, no other problems. If there were, I’d definitely tell you.”

“Oh, a speech? Cooperation, cooperation—of course I can cooperate. Don’t worry, I’ll get right on it.”

“Alright, tomorrow morning. No problem, absolutely no problem.”

Ye Wang hung up sharply.

The moment the call ended, the commander’s expression cooled, his lips twitched in a smirk. And in that same instant, he caught Jiang Qi cautiously glancing up at him. The moment their eyes met, Jiang Qi quickly lowered his gaze again.

Ye Wang found it amusing. “Pei Ming just called me. Guess what he said.”

At this point, he was done pretending in front of Jiang Qi. He didn’t even call him “Uncle,” just called him by name.

Jiang Qi managed a weak smile. “Sir, how would I know what Uncle Pei said?”

—He even followed Pei Gu in calling him "Uncle."

Ye Wang slightly raised an eyebrow and walked over behind Jiang Qi: "Honey, Pei Ming told me the lab received a whistleblowing email from me, reporting your abnormal behavior. It bore my signature, but I never wrote such a thing. Don’t you think that’s weird?"

"..."

Jiang Qi didn’t turn around, only lowering his neck further. From Ye Wang’s angle, he could see the elegant curve of his nape and the goosebumps rising on his skin.

Ye Wang: "This is seriously messed up. I have an official work email—why would I skip that and instead send an anonymous, signed email to the lab’s public address? Honey, do you think I’ve lost my mind?"

"..."

The gaze behind him was too direct, as if it could slip under his collar and dissect him layer by layer.

Jiang Qi got goosebumps all over. The composure he’d honed in interrogation rooms had utterly deserted him. He awkwardly changed the subject: "Sir, would you like some midnight snacks?"

Late at night, both Ye Wang and Jiang Qi were the self-disciplined types who disliked eating at odd hours. Bringing this up now was just making conversation—awkward and forced.

Ye Wang wasn’t deliberately trying to make things difficult for him, so he casually shifted to the front, skeptically asking, "What kind of late-night snacks can you make?"

—Was he planning to blow up the kitchen again?

Jiang Qi racked his brain for a few no-cook options: "Uh... yogurt parfait?"

Ye Wang sighed in relief.

And so, after the two drank their milk in silence, they now found themselves wordlessly sipping yogurt from their cups.

Ye Wang felt like he’d drunk more dairy in this one night than in an entire year. Sick from all the dairy, he pinched his nose to finish it before addressing the real reason for this conversation.

"Jiang Qi, Pei Ming came to me. The whistleblowing email was incidental—his main purpose was something else."

Ye Wang disliked yogurt, but Jiang Qi seemed to genuinely enjoy it. As he scraped the sides of his cup with a spoon to gather the last bits, he looked up: "What is it?"

Ye Wang: "You know the riots in the lower districts? He wants you to serve as a model and give a speech. There might be follow-up interviews too."

As one of the few lower-district-born individuals who’d earned upper-district residency—and who’d even married into the elite Pei family—Jiang Qi had always been a golden poster boy for the Empire.

He was like a "Cinderella" who’d wed a prince, offering countless other "Cinderellas" in the lower districts a false hope. The Empire would grant Jiang Qi surface-level respectability, praising him to the skies, proclaiming to the world: "See? The path upward is never closed! If you join the genetic modification program, if you work as hard as Jiang Qi, you too can seize a glorious future!"

They’d kept Jiang Qi around for this exact reason—to drag this "Cinderella" onto the stage, dress him up, and perform a carefully staged show of domestic bliss.

As for how much crap this "Cinderella" had swallowed in private—who cared?

Unfortunately, in this ridiculous charade, Ye Wang had to play the role of the prince.

Jiang Qi paused: "What speech?"

Ye Wang: "A speech to appease the crowds. Pei Ming’s assistant will send the script later. Learn it by heart tonight and deliver it tomorrow on stage."

He hesitated, then rubbed his nose: "According to the script, our marriage is blissful, our love inseparable. So I have to go with you, and we’ll need to interact... You get what I’m saying?"