In the dimly lit room, a few strands of sunset light filtered in, casting a reddish glow on faces while the light-proof walls created a stark boundary of darkness.
The room was quiet, making the omega woman’s sobs all the more distinct. Yet the other person in the room wore an expression of pure joy, their features twisting into a bizarre, manic grin under the ominous sunset an unsettling sight.
“Are you really going to marry Pei Qing?” The nearly forty-year-old omega woman trembled as she mechanically smoothed the jet-black hair of the person before her. She seemed to hold back for a moment before stifling her sobs and pulling the beta into a tight embrace, her voice urgent.
“Pei Qing and his omega wife have a 98% compatibility rate! No matter how hard you try, he’ll never develop feelings for you. The mutual attraction between pheromones is irreversible.”
“To become Pei Qing’s beta. How could you degrade yourself like this?”
The beta’s lips curled in a faint smile, their face split into light and shadow by the dim interior and the sunlight outside. They replied carelessly, “How is this degrading? It’s Pei Qing we’re talking about.”
“Pei Qing, the man they call the ‘Royal Throat.'”
The omega woman’s voice was gradually drowned out by her weeping. After two choked interruptions, she finally managed to speak in broken phrases: “What does that matter? You know I never wanted you to bring the family any benefits!”
“Enough!”
The words were cut off sharply. In the mirror, the beta’s eyes darkened with swirling resentment, their gaze full of bitterness as they turned to their sobbing mother.
“Never wanted? Why wouldn’t you want me to bring benefits to the family?”
Their voice was sharp, like a dull knife sawing relentlessly at flesh until it drew blood, leaving nothing but pain.
“Mom, is it because I’m a beta that you don’t want it?”
The omega mother’s breathing slowed under the beta’s cutting words. She remained silent, tears streaming silently down her face.
Betas were the second gender forsaken by God.
Once, this beta had been groomed as the family’s sole heir.
They had trained at the Dimension Base, hailed as the Empire’s Blade, educated to become the most loyal and noble idealist of the empire sworn to trample over the bones of traitors, usurpers, and opportunists to restore the glory of the Terran Empire.
But then, they presented as a beta.
They understood all too well what that meant.
Everything was gone.
Alpha or omega, why did it have to be a beta, seen as a “defective product” for lacking pheromones?
The beta covered their face with their hands, tears slipping between their fingers. Swallowing their resentment, their tone grew even harsher and more irritable: “So what if Pei Qing has a 98% match with that omega? If he truly cared so much about them, if pheromones really could bind alphas and omegas together forever, then the child in my belly wouldn’t exist!”
At the mention of the child, memories from years past resurfaced in the beta’s mind.
Three years ago, after presenting as a beta, they had naturally lost their eligibility to become Pei Qing’s arranged marriage partner.
Meanwhile, just days after his differentiation results came out, another candidate differentiated into an omega. Tests showed a 98% compatibility rate with Pei Qing, making them the natural winner of this selection process.
At that time, the beta was locked at home, forbidden from leaving. His father took away all the books he usually read, removed the piano he had been practicing, and withdrew him from school.
The reason? As a beta, he no longer needed to learn the skills reserved for the elite.
Because he would never re-enter that social stratum again.
In the empire, betas were considered fit only for the most basic labor. Lacking pheromones, they were seen as incomplete humans, ostracized by alphas who controlled the majority of resources, and widely subjected to employment discrimination.
In marriage, as the alpha population grew and omegas received increasing societal protection, traditional alpha-omega households gradually evolved into alpha-beta-omega arrangements.
Omegas were too fragile, requiring meticulous care, and their scarcity made them exceedingly precious.
Thus, alphas often preferred to have betas bear the suffering of childbirth in place of their delicate omega spouses.
During an alpha’s frenzied rut, when an omega couldn’t endure, a beta would serve as their substitute.
Betas had no pheromones, so alphas felt no tenderness or affection for them. Omegas, too, wouldn’t feel threatened or neglected by a beta’s presence.
Most betas had no choice but to become “vessels” for alphas and omegas to bear children legally acknowledged “third parties,” the sanctioned outsiders in alpha-omega love.
While that omega reveled in luxury within the Pei family, he confined at home for three years as a beta could only watch idly as his siblings pushed him out of the power structure.
How could he accept that?
No longer able to endure his imprisonment, the beta deceived his doting omega mother into letting him escape.
Normally, a “vessel” beta would never have the chance to carry their own child
but he was different.
Right now, he had one in his belly.
His mouth twisted bitterly, yet his eyes burned with an almost startling intensity, his grin widening.
He refused to live as a mediocre lower-class nobody. He refused to watch those inferior to him seize power while he remained a pitiful worm gazing up at them…
Amid his laughter, a sinister arrogance flickered in his gaze, sharp enough to pierce his own reflection—as if staring at another version of himself, one who wielded authority, rising to new heights with the Pei family’s backing.
A pale bolt of lightning split the sky, thunder crashing in its wake.
The room flashed white under the sudden glare, and in the mirror, the beta’s beauty was breathtaking.
Slowly emerging from his memories, he thought of how worried his mother had been for him these past days. His voice softened as he hugged the startled omega, patting their back absently.
Beta said solemnly to the mother who had always doted on him,
“Mom, I won’t let you down.”
After learning he was carrying Pei Qing’s child, even his father who had shown him no kindness since his differentiation suddenly broke into a smile.
This proved beyond doubt that he could reclaim his rightful place through this child.
“That omega only has a slightly higher compatibility rate. Trust me, and they’ve been married for three years now. Even the highest pheromone match would have grown stale by now. It won’t be long before…”
“Mom, I’m going to live a good life. Don’t cry. This is supposed to be a happy occasion.”
The mirror reflected Beta’s face a visage of decadent allure, captivating to anyone who saw it. Everyone would praise his beauty, like a bowstring capable of strangling a man alive, brimming with ambition and desire.
*
Seven years later.
Another stormy night with thunder and lightning.
A bolt of lightning split the sky, and rain poured down in torrents.
Seven-year-old Pei Ningyu couldn’t sleep that night. Tossing and turning, he finally decided to grab his blanket and go find his older brother.
Since joining the Dimensional Base, his brother was always busy. Even past midnight, a lamp would still be lit in the study, or he’d be in the mecha bay testing newly installed equipment those intricate, complex machines Pei Ningyu could never understand.
The small figure clutched a corner of his blanket, dragging it along the floor as he made his way down the long hallway. He pushed the study door open a crack, peering inside for any sign of his brother.
But his brother didn’t seem to be home tonight.
Pei Ningyu pouted. After a moment of thought, still feeling wide awake, he decided to resume his daytime adventure game.
Under the cover of night, the familiar “grand adventure” he’d played countless times suddenly felt much more thrilling. The house at night held an inexplicable allure.
Pei Ningyu darted through the corridors, pushing open every door and shouting inside, “Aaaah! The Zerg are coming! Warrior Pei Ningyu is here to protect everyone!”
Then he’d slam the door shut and wait for the adults or servants inside to rush out in a fluster to chase him.
He’d scamper away in a flash, leaving them fuming helplessly behind him they could never catch him anyway.
Strangely, tonight, after “exploring” several doors in a row, none of the rooms seemed occupied. But that did nothing to dampen Pei Ningyu’s excitement.
Frowning slightly but still brimming with enthusiasm, he continued onward.
Open door… close door… move forward… open another door…
Pei Ningyu repeated the process with unflagging energy.
Following the carpet down the hallway, he turned into a side path he didn’t usually take.
Everything was eerily quiet. A single flickering wall lamp cast dim light down the shadowy corridor, as if on the verge of going out.
Pei Ningyu’s small figure surveyed the unfamiliar surroundings curiously before proceeding.
At last, he came upon a door he’d never seen before its surface marred by peeling rust, as if no one had ever bothered to maintain it. He pushed it gently and found it unlocked.
All the other rooms nearby were tightly shut, seemingly unused. Only this one bore traces of recent entry.
The interior was pitch black, yet Pei Ningyu felt no trace of fear. Deep in his subconscious, this was his home every room belonged to him.
This was what his father and elder brother had taught him since childhood.
Seven-year-old Pei Ningyu stood in the dark room, peering inside.
“The insectoids have just attacked the empire’s borders. I am Colonel Pei Ningyu, here to take charge of ”
Suddenly, with a *click*, the overhead light flickered on, casting a wavering yellow glow over the small figure of Pei Ningyu. He stopped speaking and looked around.
Now he could see the room in its entirety walls marred by weathering and blotched with dark brown stains, floorboards scratched and gouged from the dragging of furniture.
The room was sparsely furnished, dominated by heavy mahogany pieces that looked even more ominous under the dim light. It seemed like the manor’s outdated decor from years ago, a style long out of fashion in the empire.
On the gilded nightstand, a half-eaten, cold meal sat abandoned. From Pei Ningyu’s height, standing on tiptoe, he could just make out the darkened grains of rice floating in a greasy mixture.
Half the grains had hardened from dehydration, their once-plump sheen gone, as if left there for ages.
Finally, Pei Ningyu’s gaze settled on the bed. A figure lay there, barely conscious, slowly lifting their eyes after a long pause.
They were breathtakingly beautiful.
The most beautiful person Pei Ningyu had ever seen was his mother.
Omegas were often frail and sickly. By the time he was five, his mother could no longer get out of bed. Yet even then, she always wore a faint smile, offering candies to him and his brother.
Because of this, Pei Ningyu rarely spent long stretches alone with her. Most of his memories were of his father gently coaxing medicine into her mouth, comforting her in her illness.
In his mind, his parents had always been deeply in love.
But the person before him now somehow, they were even more beautiful than his mother. Dazedly, Pei Ningyu reached out. “Are you sick too?”
“My mom is always in bed too.”
At his words, the person jolted awake from their daze, their cat-like pupils constricting sharply.
Before Pei Ningyu could finish speaking, a pair of bony, rough hands shot out and seized his throat in a death grip.
“Die! Die! Just die !” the person shrieked wildly.
Seven-year-old Pei Ningyu was yanked forward, his head slamming against the bedframe. The sound of clinking chains followed the person’s movements, ringing sharply with each jerk.
The grip was so tight Pei Ningyu could barely breathe, his small body nearly lifted off the ground.
Wave after wave of dizziness crashed over him. His vision whited out, his body convulsing as his legs kicked helplessly before going limp.
Just as he was about to lose consciousness .
The man seemed to regain some clarity, or perhaps remembered something. His hands stopped moving as he began making muffled grunting sounds, as if suppressing something in his throat.
It sounded like joy, yet also like weeping.
With adoring hands, he cupped Pei Ningyu’s face, nearly crying from happiness as he called out repeatedly: “Baby, I know it’s you, it can’t be wrong. Baby Ningyu. is it really you?”
Pei Ningyu lacked the strength to respond. The brief suffocation had plunged him into unbearable weakness. He coughed violently, his once-purple face gradually returning to normal, yet he still couldn’t form complete sentences.
Seeing Pei Ningyu unable to speak and the red marks left on his neck, the man was filled with remorse and anxiety. Remembering something else, he began sobbing again.
Holding Pei Ningyu close, he stroked his back repeatedly: “Baby, I’m your mother.”
He cried out urgently, almost neurotically: “Baby, I’m your real mother… not that omega.”
Soon he fell into mechanical repetition, muttering words like “mother,” “bitch,” “omega,” and “Pei Qing” under his breath.
This man was the beta who, seven years ago, had defied his mother’s objections to marry Pei Qing.
Those seven years had proven his grand ambitions futile. Pei Qing and his omega wife remained as devoted as ever no one could come between this couple with their 98% compatibility rate, not even a beautiful beta.
Whether the beta regretted his choices remained unclear, but his current state spoke volumes about his suffering.
The once-groomed heir had lost his former glory after seven years of hardship. Only faint traces of that proud beta remained in his worn features.
Now chained to a bed with barely any room to move, he whiled away his remaining days in endless loneliness and darkness.
In the shadows, he chewed over memories. Had he obeyed his mother and stayed home, he might not have reached the family’s inner circle, but at least he wouldn’t have ended up so wretched.
Back then, he’d been certain the child in his womb would reclaim his position as Pei Qing’s wife. Yet after the birth, Pei Qing hadn’t even acknowledged the child.
Meaning that child would never be a young master of the Pei family just a servant’s offspring.
Recalling the past, the beta sniffled, muttering: “I don’t regret it. I don’t.”
“Ha ha ha!” Suddenly he laughed through tears, “This is just the beginning! As long as Ningyu lives, I’ll have my chance to turn things around.”
So what if Pei Qing refused recognition?
The beta grinned at the small figure of Pei Ningyu before him, his laughter growing shriller as if witnessing some hilarious joke until he nearly rolled on the bed clutching his stomach.
When the laughter subsided, he slowly composed himself. Pointing at Pei Ningyu, he spoke solemnly:
“They’d never imagine Ningyu is my child.”
“I won’t be trapped here forever.” The beta’s hysterical sobs and laughter pierced the silent night.
Soon, it dissipated into the silent darkness as if it had never existed.
He looked down at the terrified Pei Ningyu, his eyes brimming with tender affection, his voice softening once more: “Ningyu, you must remember I am your mother.”
“Mother loves you. Mother will be waiting for you.”
*
After this incident, Pei Ningyu suffered from a high fever for days, hovering on the brink of death.
During those nights, he dreamt repeatedly of that deranged beta, calling out his name “Ningyu” in the dreams, begging him to save him.
The omega held the feverish Pei Ningyu in their arms, weeping in anguish.
Pei Qing was heartbroken.
Yet neither Pei Qing nor the omega noticed anything amiss.
Later, Pei Ningyu followed the expected path attending school, growing from seven to twenty years old, basking in the admiration of those around him, thriving effortlessly as the second young master of the Pei family.
However, Pei Ningyu never saw that beta chained to the bed again. It seemed he had completely forgotten the incident.
As he grew, Pei Ningyu’s features became increasingly striking his dark, ink-like eyes almost too intense to meet, his beauty fierce and overwhelming. His temperament matched his appearance capricious, volatile, and utterly untamed. Sheltered by the Pei family, he never faced hardship in the first half of his life.
Unlike those gentle, delicate omegas, everyone was certain he would eventually present as an alpha.
Just like his father, Pei Qing, who had risen to the position of Imperial Prime Minister before dying in the line of duty and being buried with state honors or his elder brother, who had become a general at a young age.
He was the alpha most likely to become a core figure in the next generation of the Empire’s military, elevated to unattainable heights by both the Crown Prince and the Pei family.
That beta from the past had long faded from memory, silently dying within the Pei household. Even his maternal family declined, eventually leaving the capital.
Had anyone who once knew that beta seen Pei Ningyu now, they would have been struck by the uncanny resemblance.
The same breathtaking, almost intimidating beauty, the same raven-dark eyes swirling with desire. One moment, he could be all smiles; the next, the cold withdrawal of his expression could send chills down one’s spine.
Yet no one remembered that beta. Even Pei Qing, who had impregnated him, had passed away too soon to witness Pei Ningyu’s growth.
As intellectual labor increasingly replaced physical work, alphas making up 40% of the population contributed to 90% of the total social production value.
Betas, meanwhile, were relegated to the lowest-tier jobs in society, their labor undervalued, their promotions and rewards perpetually secondary, forever barred from the upper echelons.
But Pei Ningyu never once entertained the possibility that he might present as a beta. Not even for a moment.
He would be an alpha, like his father and brother, destined for a future beyond anyone’s reach.
His potential would be limitless.
It seemed fated.
