The conference hall was too bright. Cameras flashed like lightning, reporters whispering in low waves that rolled across the room. The air felt charged, hungry. Shen Yaojin could almost feel the city waiting for him to stumble.
Lu Zhiyuan stood at the podium, tall and composed as ever, his presence alone enough to quiet half the noise. But today, it wasn't about him.
Today, it was about the omega standing beside him.
Yaojin felt the weight of every stare. He remembered different stares from years ago—classrooms, corridors, cafeteria corners. Back then they had been mocking, dismissive. Today they were curious. Suspicious. Calculating.
He almost preferred the old ones.
Zhiyuan's fingers brushed lightly against his wrist. Not possessive. Not restraining. Just there.
Stand.
Zhiyuan's voice carried easily across the hall. "We're here to address the recent allegations regarding my spouse and their supposed impact on my company."
Supposed. The word cut cleanly.
Murmurs rippled.
Yaojin stepped forward before he could overthink it. His heart was pounding hard enough he wondered if the microphones would catch it.
"I won't deny my past," he said quietly, but the room fell silent anyway. "I was bullied. I was isolated. There were rumors about me long before I ever stood here."
A reporter shifted. Pens paused.
"But marrying Lu Zhiyuan was not manipulation. It was an arrangement decided by our families. I did not climb my way here. I was placed here."
His hands stopped shaking.
"And I will not apologize for surviving."
Silence followed. Then a few claps. Then more.
Zhiyuan didn't look at the crowd. He looked at Yaojin.
And something in his gaze changed.
Across the city, Lin Meiqi watched the broadcast replay on a wide screen in her penthouse. The applause echoed through her speakers like mockery.
She set her wine glass down too hard. It cracked but didn't shatter.
"He's learning," she murmured.
Her assistant stood nearby, nervous. "The sympathy metrics are rising."
"Of course they are." Meiqi's smile was thin. "People love wounded birds. They just love breaking them more."
Meanwhile, in a sterile hospital corridor washed in pale light, Qin Haoran removed his gloves slowly, expression unreadable. A nurse handed him a tablet.
"You have a visitor waiting in Room 312."
He frowned slightly. "I don't take visitors during rounds."
"It's Mu Chenyang."
Haoran paused.
He entered the room without knocking. Mu Chenyang was sitting upright on the hospital bed, scrolling through financial news on his tablet as if he weren't recovering from exhaustion-induced collapse.
"You should be resting," Haoran said evenly.
"You should mind your own business," Chenyang replied without looking up.
Silence settled between them—not awkward, just measured.
"You're Zhiyuan's friend," Chenyang said finally.
"Yes."
"They say you're heartless."
Haoran checked his chart calmly. "They say many inaccurate things."
Chenyang finally looked at him. Sharp eyes. Observant. Not fragile in the way people expected omegas to be.
"Good," Chenyang said softly. "I dislike people who underestimate me."
Something flickered in Haoran's gaze. Not warmth. Not yet. But interest.
Later that evening, the three omegas gathered in a private lounge, away from cameras and headlines. Zexu sprawled across the sofa dramatically while Yaojin sat beside him, shoulders finally relaxing.
Chenyang arrived last, freshly discharged, still looking mildly irritated by the concept of hospitals.
"You look alive," Zexu teased.
"Unfortunately," Chenyang replied dryly.
Yaojin smiled faintly. "You met Haoran?"
Chenyang's expression shifted just slightly. "He's… controlled."
Zexu's eyes lit up. "Controlled is your weakness."
"I don't have weaknesses," Chenyang said flatly.
"You absolutely do," Yaojin murmured.
Chenyang shot him a look, but it lacked bite.
Across town, the three alphas met in a private club where no one dared to record anything.
"She's not stopping," Bai Lianyi said, swirling his drink lazily. "Lin Meiqi is escalating."
"She can escalate," Qin Haoran replied calmly. "It won't save her."
Zhiyuan leaned back, eyes dark. "I've already begun acquiring her father's hidden shares."
Lianyi smirked. "So we're ending this."
"We are," Zhiyuan confirmed.
Back in her penthouse, Meiqi typed carefully. Deliberately. A single post drafted and revised three times before she hit publish.
Rumors spread faster than truth. And this one was crafted to detonate.
Within minutes, notifications exploded again.
Speculation. Whispers.
Pregnancy.
The word crawled across social feeds like wildfire.
Yaojin didn't see it immediately. He was standing alone on the balcony later that night, city lights stretching endlessly below him. The wind was cool, steady. His chest felt heavy but not crushed.
He placed a hand absently over his stomach, frowning slightly.
He didn't know why.
Behind him, Zhiyuan stepped out quietly.
"You did well today," he said.
"I was shaking," Yaojin admitted.
"I know."
Yaojin glanced at him. "You still let me speak."
Zhiyuan's gaze softened almost imperceptibly. "Because you're not weak."
The word lingered between them, heavier than it should have been.
Yaojin looked back at the skyline.
Somewhere out there, people were twisting his life into stories for entertainment.
Somewhere else, someone was planning the next blow.
And in a quiet hospital office, Qin Haoran found himself staring at a patient file longer than necessary.
Mu Chenyang.
Interesting.
The city wasn't done with them yet.
It was only just beginning.