Chapter 4 Choice

Chapter 4: The Choice

Jing Miao lay unconscious in the hospital bed for a full day and night. When he finally awoke, he received good news.

His and Xi Siyan's child, though its gender was still undetermined, had hormones in its tissue and blood that told everyone this was an Alpha or Omega possessing a purer cleansing ability than its father.

Because of the child, along with Jing Miao's own soothing ability, he became the only person who could approach the Alpha prone to sudden violent episodes.

Jing Miao smiled, filled with overwhelming happiness, and incidentally found a lifeline.

But their joy was short-lived.

The rate of Xi Siyan's physical deterioration accelerated sixfold compared to predictions.

According to the projections, the Alpha, who was originally expected to show signs of internal bleeding eight months later, suddenly lost consciousness and was rushed into the emergency room.

His life was saved, but only just.

They hung a red electronic warning sign outside the treatment room. The hourglass pattern on the right represented Xi Siyan's life, which overnight had dwindled to just one-third.

The fetus, only a little over three months old, was not yet fully formed. The vital essence that could be extracted from the mother's body was minuscule, utterly insufficient to sustain its father's life.

Each morning when he woke, that hourglass had dropped a little further.

Jing Miao lay his head on Xi Siyan's stomach, closing his eyes and speaking to him.

"Brother, do you like children?"

Xi Siyan struggled to raise a hand to touch his face, gentle and tender: "I didn't before. But if it's one you give birth to, I will."

Jing Miao fell into an unusual silence.

Xi Siyan, half-asleep, seemed to be talking in his dreams: "But Miao Miao, in my heart, you are my child."

When we fell in love, you weren't fully grown yet.

My heart ached even when you walked. My fragile, beautiful rose, you should bloom in the palm of my hand, cherished by me for a lifetime.

"Then, brother, do you like me, or do you like the child?" Jing Miao tilted his head, looking at his exhausted, barely-open eyes, his heart calm.

"I love you," Xi Siyan responded softly. "You come before all choices."

—

Jing Miao wrote a name, a date, and a few lines in a notebook.

Xi Suye.

Arriving on the 17th day of the Peach Moon, 4072, due to be born in the first month of 4073, died on the 21st day of the Late Summer Moon, 4072.

I'm sorry, my child, whom I never got to meet.

May you find your way home, even in the deepest valleys and remotest mountains.

I love you.

—

Xi Siyan underwent a long surgery and an equally long slumber.

He came to, fully aware, feeling his vitality and strength restored.

Su Wan, along with Wang Song and Professor Jin, waited outside the ward. They saw him walk over, not only intact but even spirited and vigorous.

They wept with joy.

Wang Song couldn't hold back his tears either: "Siyan! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! It's all my fault!"

Xi Siyan patted his shoulder: "If I were you, I might not have been able to do what you did. I never blamed you. On the contrary, I'm grateful to you."

They still cried, unable to speak.

Xi Siyan asked: "Where's Miao Miao?"

Su Wan hesitated, her eyes full of grief. In the end, no one answered.

It turned out he had slept for over three months.

Xi Siyan stood at the entrance of the new house, looking at the yard full of Chinese rose vines and rose bushes, not daring to take a step inside.

Xi Yucheng said: "Come home, Siyan. Come home, and you'll see Miao Miao."

This wasn't his home.

This was a whirlpool, an abyss, the place where his heart was intoxicated.

Xi Siyan didn't know what he was about to face. But he knew, whatever it was, it was a tragedy he could not bear.

Jing Miao sat in the middle of that dreamlike, beautiful room straight out of a fairy tale, holding a cloth doll and murmuring to himself.

"Little baby, be good. You keep me company, and I'll keep you company."

He was still so beautiful and pure, like the moon reflected in water.

Xi Siyan stared blankly at this person, his mind completely empty.

Su Wan, holding back tears, called to him: "Miao Miao, Mom and Dad are home."

Jing Miao opened his eyes, clear and free of any haze, and looked at the three of them.

He stared fixedly at Xi Siyan, with confusion, curiosity, delight, and unfamiliarity in his gaze—everything except love.

The boy, holding the doll, stood up and cautiously moved towards them.

Then he accidentally tripped over a toy on the floor and fell onto the carpet.

Instinct overrode everything else. Xi Siyan rushed over, caught him, and trembling, held him in his arms.

Jing Miao was silent for a brief moment before starting to wail loudly.

"It hurts! It hurts! Miao Miao hurt his leg! It hurts so much!"

Xi Siyan, flustered, held him in his arms to comfort him: "Miao Miao, it's okay, Miao Miao."

Su Wan and Xi Yucheng ran over anxiously, asking repeatedly: "Where does it hurt? Where did you fall? Tell Mom and Dad, sweetheart!"

Jing Miao stopped crying and carefully pulled up his pant leg.

His calf was slender and gleaming white, so beautiful it invited improper thoughts.

Jing Miao pointed haphazardly to a spot, staring at Xi Siyan with a childish, dazed smile: "Blow on it, pretty brother, blow on it for me. If you blow on it, it won't hurt anymore."

He had sustained a severe head injury, and a tiny blood clot that couldn't be fully removed for technical reasons remained. Under the neurological strain of losing his child, Jing Miao woke up one day transformed into a seven-year-old.

He forgot everything, both pain and joy.

The doctor said his brain was divided into three regions.

One region, compressed by the blood clot, had fallen into permanent slumber. Even if he woke, his recovery would be limited to the periphery of the clot's influence. Another region was awake, serving as the sole source of his current consciousness—only seven years old, perhaps capable of growth, perhaps forever stagnant. The third region housed his exceptional abilities, which remained intact after the accident. They still shone brightly within him but could no longer progress to higher levels.

He had truly become his child.

Transformed into the White Rose in his palm, a bud that would never bloom again.

As early as five years ago, shortly after his recovery and discharge, he led the entire research institute away from gene extraction and developed a complete antidote for AS.

Beyond innate talent, Xi Siyan had demonstrated his excellence through capability.

What they were now striving for was a vaccine that could eliminate the pheromone-based genetic suppression barrier between high-level and low-level Alphas and Omegas.

The barrier to equality stemmed from the indelible suppression embedded within genes.

Low-level Alphas and Omegas could not coexist in the same space for extended periods. They would suffer due to pheromone suppression, while high-level Alphas and Omegas would experience physiological discomfort from low-level pheromones.

The rigid hierarchy of the world was entirely rooted in genetics.

After the gene-targeting biochemical war, the upper nobility finally began to awaken. Inability to coexist would only lead to eventual extinction, so they actively supported this project.

Throughout history, countless people had researched this, yet few had achieved significant results or progress.

Over the past five years, Xi Siyan and his team poured their hearts and souls into the effort and finally made a breakthrough. They invented a short-term blocker that allowed low-level and high-level Alphas and Omegas to coexist peacefully within a limited timeframe.

This was already a groundbreaking achievement.

However, its production was complex and costly. Given current technology, each research institute could only produce one dose per month, while the number of people in need was in the hundreds of millions.

They had to advance their research further into reducing its production complexity.

The lessons from the biochemical war were seared into memory.

The central district occupied one-fourth of Eyan City-State's total area but was home to only one-fifteenth of the population qualified to live there.

High-level individuals were fewer in number than mid- and low-level ones, yet they claimed the vastest lands and most abundant resources solely based on innate talent. While survival of the fittest was an ironclad law, mid- and low-level individuals also included many outstanding people who formed the backbone of future development. If the genetic divide could not be fundamentally changed, the rebel war in the Ninth District five years ago would not have been the first, nor would it remain the most severe.

Biochemical weapons, nuclear arms, unknown destructive energies.

And the clearly foreseeable decline accompanying severe gender imbalance and falling birth rates.

With the joint support of the Eyan government and three other city-states, they planned to establish a secret transnational research laboratory. Outstanding researchers and engineers from all four city-states would go to the Tianfu Ze peace zone, developed using energy fields, and conduct at least three years of closed research in the laboratory being prepared.

This would serve both as a joint research base for the four city-states and as a strategic backup force.

Changing genetic suppression and dismantling class barriers would not receive universal support. They had to guard against high-level rulers from other city-states launching wars against Eyan, Baizi, Lisiya, and Lanwu.

The Tianfu Ze base would become the rear battlefield.

This was a long-term, grand plan with the potential to change the future. They named this plan, which carried the hope for a fair human society, the Tianfu Ze Plan.

As the lead scientist of Eyan City-State's project to eliminate the suppression barrier between high- and low-level pheromones, Xi Siyan had to go to Tianfu Ze.

This was not merely his personal achievement; the outcome concerned all of humanity, his city-state, and the future.

Perhaps it would fail, but three years of effort would not be in vain.

But what about Jing Miao?

In the face of this choice, weariness grew within him.

For the past five years, they had been together almost day and night.

During the research phase, Xi Siyan focused more on providing theories, while countless talented juniors naturally handled the derivation and experiments. Thus, he stole much time to stay in this house with his beloved.

Countless times, Xi Siyan thought of abandoning research. He only wanted to become the entirety of Jing Miao's life, to protect him and wait for a glimmer of hope.

Yet, ironically, the short-term blocker research succeeded.

Back then, the doctor said he might wake up, might grow up. But five years had passed, and Jing Miao remained the child who wholly depended on his brother.

Between them, there was only familial affection, no romantic love.

They kissed and embraced intimately. During his heat, Jing Miao would also seek his comfort, but only as a marked Omega needing his Alpha—biting the gland to alleviate the heat. In the end, he would use an inhibitor shot to dispel that drowning agony.

He did not need to bond with him because he was still a child, a simpleton.

Perhaps all these years, he had been entangled in futile efforts.

Xi Siyan began to want to escape.

If you have been loved wholeheartedly by someone, only to see their eyes devoid of desire, you will suffocate in the pain of unrequited longing.