Chapter 35: Not Seeking Eternal Glory, Only a Life Without Regret

Shao Lan’s lips twisted into a wicked smirk.

The kind of smirk that wasn’t just threatening—it tore straight through your soul like a demon hellbent on leaving scars.

Boss Bai felt it immediately. A chill shot up his spine, freezing him where he stood. His throat tightened; he couldn’t swallow the sudden wave of dread curling through his gut.

Shao Lan moved toward him—slow, deliberate, and suffocating. Every step was a countdown to something catastrophic.

Her eyes were razor-sharp, locked on Boss Bai’s like a predator lining up its prey. Each word she spoke sliced the silence like a dagger, measured and lethal:

“Boss Bai, you think you’ve got me all figured out, don’t you? Bet you think I can’t stomach the idea of my brother having a kid with someone else.”

Boss Bai’s silence gave him away. Of course, he thought that. Shao Lan’s possessiveness was infamous.

But what came next? Oh, he didn’t see that coming. Not in a million years.

“What I want has always been simple,” she said, her voice dripping with venomous certainty. “I want him. Only him. My brother. As long as he stays with me, as long as he chooses me, I can tolerate all his little whims and indulgences. Even this.”

Her smile widened—twisted, almost playful.

But her eyes? Ice-cold and calculating.

“You see, when someone starts to care about something, they expose their weaknesses. You’ve figured out mine, Boss Bai. But guess what? I’ve just figured out his. Maybe… just maybe, that little nephew of mine could become his weakness.”

Her tone was light, but the threat was molten, scorching through every syllable.

“Now wouldn’t that make things… interesting?”

Boss Bai’s jaw clenched, his face a storm of fury and disbelief.

Was this woman for real?

Was she insane enough to manipulate her own brother into her schemes?

Shao Lan laughed, low and sharp, before snapping her gaze back to him. “Don’t look at me like that, Boss Bai. How else am I supposed to keep the man I love? Play fair? Spare me.”

She tilted her head, mocking him with her next words. “And you’re one to talk. Didn’t you pull every dirty trick in the book to get ahead? What about Lu Zhanxing—the one who had my brother so twisted up he couldn’t think straight? You all play your little games. So tell me, why can’t I?”

“After all,” she added, stepping closer, “it’s just a game of skill. Winner takes all. The methods? Who cares if they’re noble or downright filthy? The only thing that matters is who comes out on top.”

Boss Bai was trembling now, his rage bubbling just beneath the surface, but he couldn’t move—could barely speak. When he finally spat out a few words, they came through gritted teeth:

“Despicable. Shameless.”

Shao Lan’s laughter erupted, sharp and unhinged.

Her hand darted out, grabbing Boss Bai’s chin with bone-crushing force. Her nails dug into his skin as she leaned closer, her face a mask of pure fury.

“And you think you have the right to lecture me on morality, Boss Bai?”

With a sickening crunch, she wrenched his jaw out of place. Boss Bai’s scream was silent, drowned by the agony that shot through him. He couldn’t even form words anymore.

Shao Lan’s fingers drifted downward, trailing along his neck before stopping over his abdomen. She tilted her head, her expression dripping with amusement as her voice softened, venomous but sweet.

“I heard you told the guards outside today… that you’re my partner.”

Boss Bai squeezed his eyes shut, refusing to acknowledge her.

Big mistake.

Her lips brushed his ear, her breath warm and dangerous. When she finally spoke, her voice was a sultry whisper, dripping with mockery.

“Then tell me, Boss Bai… would you be willing to have my baby?”

Boss Bai’s entire body shuddered, like he’d just taken a live wire straight to the spine.

His eyes snapped open, blazing with raw fury and humiliation as he locked his glare onto Shao Lan’s face—so deceptively innocent it made his teeth grind. He wanted to rip her apart with words, shred her smugness to pieces. But with his jaw dislocated, all he could do was seethe.

Shao Lan’s lips curled into a wicked smirk. Without warning, she grabbed his shirt and tore it open, buttons scattering like tiny bells chiming in a storm.

“Boss Bai,” she purred, her tone laced with venomous glee, “I live for this look on your face.”

Her voice dipped lower, each word sharp and cutting. “Bringing an arrogant, self-righteous Alpha like you to your knees? Watching you beg? Seeing those pathetic tears of shame roll down your cheeks? Watching you strip yourself of dignity to serve me like a dog, desperate to please me? You have no idea how much that thrills me.”

Her eyes glinted with feral heat. “It’s better than killing someone. A thousand times better. That’s why, Boss Bai, I won’t let you die so easily.”

The air shifted. Her pheromones hit him like an invisible chain, coiling tighter and tighter, dragging him toward that edge where control meant nothing. She was pulling him straight into his susceptibility phase, a nightmare for any Alpha unlucky enough to be bound to an Enigma like her.

Once she marked him, it was game over. His susceptibility would mirror an Omega’s heat—turning him into a hollow shell, mentally shackled to her, unable to fight the humiliating cravings that followed.

He’d been here before. Every time, the agony was unbearable. He’d nearly bitten his own tongue off to escape it, blood pouring from his mouth. But this time? With his jaw dislocated, there was no escape.

His vision blurred. His breaths came faster, hotter, like a firestorm raging inside his veins. Even the faintest brush of her fingertip had his body convulsing, a helpless, electric tremor he couldn’t stop.

And yet, she took her time. Dragged it out. Let him stew in his own torment, hovering just out of reach, savoring his collapse.

Paralyzed, powerless, he felt like a fish thrown onto dry sand, flailing uselessly, gasping for water. His body arched and twisted, entirely out of his control. His eyes turned to hers—pleading, desperate, betraying the very pride he clung to.

But Shao Lan? She stared back, calm and cruel, like a god surveying her worshipper.

“You want relief?” she hissed, her voice dripping with mockery. “Then behave. Obey me.”

For a moment, something wild flickered in her gaze. A mad idea.

Why stop here?

She’d pulled off miracles before—what if this was just another challenge to conquer?

The torment stretched on endlessly, stripping him of everything.

When it finally ended, he woke up drained, his body wrecked beyond repair. Every inch of him felt bruised and battered, as if he’d been torn apart and stitched back together wrong. He didn’t even have the strength to lift his head.

He didn’t need to look to know the damage; the aching emptiness inside him had been drowned, flooded with something overwhelming. Like a desert hit by a violent storm, his body now surged with an unbearable, overflowing sensation, too much to contain.

The spring burst forth in a wild, relentless torrent, overflowing with an untamed energy, and Boss Bai? Helpless as hell. Stuck there, all bark and no bite, watching it all go down with nothing but empty hands and useless plans.

Staring blankly at the ceiling, tears slipped silently from the corners of his eyes, soaking the crumpled sheets beneath him.

*

Meanwhile, Shao Lan made her move. She’d agreed to let Shao Ye meet Lu Zhanxing and had confirmed through her planted spies that Lu Zhanxing was safely out of danger.

But letting her brother head to the Imperial Capital so easily? Not a chance in hell.

She had it all mapped out—waiting for Lu Zhanxing to drag his ass back to the Eighth Star System to oversee post-war reconstruction. Only then would she orchestrate their little reunion.

Ever since Shao Ye made it clear he’d pick her over Lu Zhanxing and his sweet little sister, Shao Lan had loosened her leash on him. The surveillance, the soft imprisonment—it all went away.

With this newfound sliver of freedom, Shao Ye started poking his nose around. He got himself some wiggle room, enough to dabble in the rebel army’s projects—stuff he actually knew something about.

And there it was. The Alliance’s third-gen mechas, straight off the assembly line, replicated to the last bolt. Mass-produced and neatly stacked like deadly toys. But Shao Ye wasn’t impressed. Even with these cutting-edge war machines, the rebels were still lightyears behind the Alliance.

Why? Because most of the rebel pilots were clueless amateurs. These were grunts who’d barely figured out how to handle the basics of mechanical operations. When it came to the critical step—linking their minds to the mechas’ neural networks—they were utterly useless.

Here’s the catch: the entire damn point of those mechas was the mind-machine bond. You needed a pilot whose mental strength stayed above 50% to sync perfectly with the mech, to keep it battle-ready without crashing mid-fight.

But these rebels? They were a motley crew of untrained, undisciplined, desperate bastards. For them, staying focused for even ten minutes was like asking them to scale a mountain barefoot. Hooking up to a neural network? Forget it.

This problem had Shao Lan grinding her teeth. Retraining this bunch into mecha pilots wasn’t just a logistical nightmare; it demanded time, patience, and effort. And Shao Lan? Her patience had been ground down to dust a long time ago.

But she couldn’t afford to lose her brother’s trust. Meanwhile, Shao Ye, hungry for more freedom, knew he had to stay on her good side.

So, he pitched an idea.

Shao Ye told her that Boss Bai, back when he was building his private army, had already cracked the code for managing a ragtag crew like this.

At first, Shao Lan was skeptical. The idea of her brother actually stepping up to solve a rebel army problem? It felt like a joke.

But then Shao Ye dropped the line: “I want to make up for the care I failed to give you all these years.”

One damn sentence, and she was sold. Her suspicion melted into a giddy trust. She immediately appointed Shao Ye as the technical consultant for the mecha squad and set off to dig into Boss Bai’s so-called methods.

And damn if she didn’t hit pay dirt.

Turns out, Boss Bai’s plan was as dirty as it was genius. He’d been working on a psychotropic drug, a concoction so addictive it turned users into puppets. Miss a dose? They’d suffer brutal withdrawals—mental torment, physical breakdowns, and even outbreaks of contagious disease.

This wasn’t just a leash; it was a chokehold. Whoever held the antidote owned the army. A bunch of undisciplined thugs turned into obedient dogs with a simple, sinister chain.

Shao Lan practically bounced with excitement, eagerly rushing to tell her brother the good news, her face glowing with joy as she practically showered him with gratitude.

"Big brother, thank you for helping me," she said, her voice bright with appreciation.

But when Shao Ye heard those words, he froze, rooted to the spot. His face darkened, the light in his eyes vanishing, replaced by something far more menacing.

This… this was forbidden stuff!

Boss Bai’s plan was to turn every one of his underlings into addicts.

Shao Ye wasn’t some clueless idiot—he had come from Earth. He knew the deadly consequences of unleashing something like this. If it spread, if people started using it, it would tear this world apart. Complete destruction.

And the worst part? He couldn’t even escape the guilt. This damn, cursed idea—he had been the one to propose it.

He didn’t need to be a historical figure. He didn’t need the world to remember him. But if this went through, if Shao Lan actually used this to control the rebellion…

Countless families would be shattered. Tens of millions would die, their lives stolen by this damn poison.

And he—he would be remembered as a villain, a monster, cursed to be reviled for all eternity.

When Shao Lan saw the tortured, grim look on his face, she hesitated, sensing something was wrong.

"Big brother, what's going on?" she asked, worry creeping into her tone. "You came up with this idea. You’re the hero."

"Why do you look so upset now?"

Shao Ye snapped, grabbing her arm with an iron grip, his voice dark and dangerous as he hissed through clenched teeth, "Ah Lan, you cannot use this stuff!"

"You have no idea how dangerous it is."

"It’ll destroy the entire rebellion."

"Let me save you now—think of another way. Do not use this poison."

———TN: "Go ahead, rate it, vote for it, and drop your comments—don’t just sit there. Let everyone know what you think of this story, loud and clear."