After Mistakenly Marking My Ex’s Older Sister, the Disabled Alpha Stood Up - Chapter 23

The night was deathly still, broken only by the steady patter of water in the bathroom, each drop seeming to stretch time itself.

Tonight, Yan Qingruo was bathing unusually slowly.

Jin Yunxi paused in her wheelchair, her voice cool and clipped:

“I have some urgent work to handle tonight. You don’t need to come to the study.”

Her tone carried a chill, wrapped in frost. Yet beneath that aloofness lingered a faint, awkward thread of expectation.

She waited a moment, lips pressed tight, then wheeled herself into the study. When she closed the door, she did so with a sharp click, louder than necessary.

Five minutes later, she turned her wheelchair back around, unlocked the very door she had sealed, and left it ajar—contradictory, secretive, restless.

Her fingers idly shuffled through papers on the desk, but not a single word made sense.

Instead, Yan Qingruo’s figure surfaced unbidden in her mind.

That woman who had sworn she would “heal” her… Tonight, she truly didn’t come?

Was she chatting with that Shu Xiyue?

The image rose vivid in her imagination—two people laughing and talking heatedly through a screen, their exchanges too warm, too intimate.

The thought made her temples ache. Jin Yunxi kneaded her brow, shoved the files aside with sudden force, and wheeled herself to the window. She let the cold moonlight spill across her body, as though it could scatter the inexplicable irritation tightening her chest.

When the study lamp finally went dark and the night swallowed everything, she collapsed into bed, clutching at her hair in frustration.

Was Yan Qingruo’s heart truly given to Shu Xiyue?

And Shu Xiyue—was she also an Alpha?

Hadn’t Yan Qingruo once claimed she felt nothing for Alphas?

One question after another surged up, and every one of them was about that maddening woman.

She yanked open a drawer. Pills clattered out of a bottle, and the last SSRI capsule slid down her throat.

【Primary Effect: Immediate relief of depression, anxiety, and related symptoms. Side Effects: Sexual dysfunction; potential activation of latent violent tendencies.】

I’ll need to buy more soon, she thought grimly. The supply is running out too quickly.

But at least, it bought her a night of dreamless sleep.

________________________________________

The next morning, her assistant delivered a message:

“Secretary-General, the man who attacked Madam at the supermarket—Harris—claims he has a way to cure her aftereffects. He’s being held at Dark Fortress Prison.”

Dawn broke, scattering the night’s shadows. A Lincoln limousine waited silently outside Jin Yunxi’s home, the low purr of its engine jarring in the still morning air.

Dressed in black, she glided out in her advanced wheelchair, careful not to wake anyone, and entered the car.

Her phone buzzed suddenly. For an instant, a tiny spark of secret hope unfurled inside her chest.

Yan Qingruo? Had she woken and come to stop her? To cling to her?

Good. At least she knows enough to care. After all, I’m going to the palace for her sake.

The driver, glancing into the rearview mirror, startled at the sight of the Secretary-General sitting upright, the corners of her lips faintly tilted upward.

“Secretary-General, are you alright? Do you need anything?”

A beat later—“Nothing.”

Her voice snapped shut again.

On the screen, the sender’s name blazed uncomfortably bright: Su Yuening.

Jin Yunxi frowned, leaned back, and adjusted her glasses. The air in the car felt suddenly stifling.

If there’s anything you need, just say the word, Su Yuening’s message read—direct, confident, brisk.

Once, they had fought side by side in the financial markets, manipulating global capital and winning staggering victories. Su Yuening had served as a CEO abroad, only recently returning to the country.

Jin Yunxi had planned to bring her into the Jin Corporation as a professional manager, to shoulder some of the burden. Leaving everything in Jin Hua and Jin Yunhan’s hands felt far too reckless.

A moment later, her phone rang.

“First of all, congratulations on becoming Secretary-General,” Su Yuening said, her tone easy. “And I hear you’re married now. Funny, though—I expected you to end up with your white-moonlight, Yan Qingmei.

What happened?”

Jin Yunxi pressed her lips together. A fleeting shadow of helplessness crossed her eyes.

“Not something I can explain in a few words.”

Su Yuening chuckled. “Never thought you’d marry a Beta.”

She herself was a Beta, yet she had always assumed that an S-Class Alpha like Jin Yunxi would naturally choose a top-tier Omega.

But then she’d seen Yan Qingruo’s face on television, and suddenly it all made sense.

Yan Qingmei might have delicate features—like a pure white lotus, a tender spring bud—beauty enough to startle.

But compared to her elder sister, there was no contest.

Yan Qingruo’s beauty was dazzling, transcendent.

Su Yuening had glimpsed her once at a Yan family banquet: the woman’s gaze shifting like light, lips curved in an effortless smile. Every movement, every expression brimmed with irresistible allure.

A face like that was unforgettable. One glance, and it carved itself into memory like a brand.

________________________________________

At Dark Fortress Prison, Harris, smug with his bargaining chip, refused to give information. He demanded good wine and food, served to him for days.

Though her stomach turned with disgust, Jin Yunxi complied.

________________________________________

That night, in the palace’s inner offices, warm lamplight spilled across the desk. As always, Jin Yunxi worked through state documents for Queen Lin Ruxi.

The queen sipped her tea, glancing up now and then. Her eyes lingered on Jin Yunxi with a subtle, ambiguous glimmer.

Sensing it, Jin Yunxi quietly averted her gaze, as if she hadn’t noticed.

“Quarreled with her?” Lin Ruxi’s voice was soft, but sharp as a blade, cutting straight into Jin Yunxi’s chest.

Jin Yunxi looked up, her briefly softened brows knotting again. “No such thing.”

The queen’s lips tilted faintly, amused. She hadn’t named anyone, yet Jin Yunxi’s reflexive denial revealed all.

“When you meet Harris, I’ll be there too,” Lin Ruxi added. Leaning down as she passed, she brushed Jin Yunxi’s hair back behind her ear, her breath warm against her skin.

“Make sure you keep that calm, refined composure of yours when handling affairs. And don’t forget,” her whisper lingered, “the promise you made me during the election.”

________________________________________

Dark Fortress Prison was built for criminals—damp, oppressive, crawling with hostility. Jin Yunxi, seated in her wheelchair, was pushed through the corridors.

Whistles and crude jeers echoed around her.

The new inmates, mostly Alphas, mistook the striking woman in the wheelchair for an Omega—prey to a starving pack of wolves.

The older prisoners, however, smirked in silence, watching the scene unfold. But when Jin Yunxi’s cold gaze swept over them, the mockery froze in their throats, fear stark in their eyes.

“Daring to behave so brazenly in front of the Secretary-General?” the guard barked, striking with his whip.

“Add ten lashes to all of them,” Jin Yunxi ordered coolly. A line of guards saluted sharply, then strode in, batons scraping against the ground.

Moments later, the air split with screams.

The new prisoners collapsed into groveling submission, banging their heads against the floor, their pleas and wails deafening.

Deeper inside lay the cells for high-risk criminals. The space was brighter, cleaner, the security tighter.

Harris, the man who had stabbed Yan Qingruo at the supermarket, awaited her there. The moment he saw Jin Yunxi, his eyes glittered with insolent amusement.

As a foreign spy, he felt triumphant that he had chosen the Secretary-General’s wife as his target.

His lips twisted in a cruel grin.

“Honored Secretary-General, I hear your wife is a Beta. Shouldn’t you be thanking me?”

Jin Yunxi’s brows furrowed.

Harris leaned closer, voice lewd, vicious:

“Heh. Didn’t Miss Yan become even more wanton after that ripening agent? Doesn’t she please you better in bed now? Like a little whore—open to anyone?”

His words dragged Yan Qingruo through the mud, every syllable sharp enough to make Jin Yunxi’s blood boil.

Jin Yunxi’s voice cut, cold as steel:

“Say that again, and see what happens.”

Jin Yunxi, however, showed no panic. She wheeled calmly to the man bound upright in the shape of a cross, and tapped the floor lightly with her cane—her face betraying not the slightest trace of anger.

She gave a cold smile, one so sharp that Harris’s eyes lit up. What a stunning Alpha. Though his hands were tied, he brazenly thrust his hips forward in a crude, humiliating gesture.

At her side, assistant Jin Fan cast him a look laced with one part pity and nine parts schadenfreude.

This man is doomed.

Jin Fan knew Jin Yunxi better than anyone—an iceberg on the surface, but beneath it lurked a volcano capable of annihilation, a living bomb waiting to detonate.

The prettier the secretary-general’s smile, the uglier the end awaiting her opponent.

This was the calm before the storm.

“Reinforced steel cane, one hundred percent unbreakable.” Jin Yunxi flicked the shaft with a sharp snap.

The very next instant, Harris heard the sickening crack of his own leg bone shattering.

The cane lashed down mercilessly, again and again, drawing from him a howl that shook the dungeon.

Bang. Bang. Bang. Blow after blow, until she had struck forty-nine times.

“Secretary-General, that should be enough exercise for today,” her assistant reminded. Whenever Jin Yunxi felt stifled by work or troubled by her moods, she would come to Dark Prison Fortress to release her fury.

The doctor had said R-type psychotropics could not be taken often. She needed another outlet.

Usually, those flogged here were condemned male Alphas—wife-beaters, serial killers, adulterers who had murdered their wives.

Jin Yunxi finally paused. Harris was gasping for air when she asked coolly,

“Guess what my daily exercise is?”

Confined to a wheelchair, unable to run or jump—what kind of training could she possibly do?

Harris’s pupils dilated in fear, his head shaking frantically.

“This is one of my daily routines.” Jin Yunxi raised the cane again and struck with such force that the wooden tip snapped with a sharp crack.

“Bring me something sturdier.” She took her time, pulling out a handkerchief to wipe her fingers. Her assistant quickly presented a spiked whip, whispering, “Your Majesty is here—she’s watching through the interrogation slit.”

Jin Yunxi acted as though she hadn’t heard. She swung harder, her voice steady as she said, “Not enough. I haven’t reached my quota for today.”

All the frustration stirred up by a certain someone, all the side effects of her medication, and all the latent brutality that illness had dragged to the surface—at this moment, it all erupted.

Well then. Lin Ruxi liked her polished and refined, didn’t she? It was time to show her another side.

After all, Jin Yunxi had never been a “good person” in the strict sense.

Harris staggered back under the blows, blood splattering. His groin was soaked red, the blood trickling down his thighs and pooling on the floor.

At last, he broke. Barely clinging to consciousness, he hung his head and rasped, “I… I have a drug that can restore her memory. But it may have side effects. Let me go, heal me—and I’ll give it to you! Damn it… Jin Yunxi, you’re a demon! No, a madwoman!”

Never in his life had he seen such a violent Alpha.

Jin Yunxi froze mid-swing. Her hand hung suspended, doubt flickering across her face.

At that moment, Lin Ruxi emerged, her lips curved in a knowing smile. “I didn’t expect my secretary-general to have this side.”

Jin Yunxi gave a thin, bitter smile. “This is who I am. Sorry to disappoint you.”

Lin Ruxi shook her head slowly, her emerald eyes glinting. “No. On the contrary, I find myself even more intrigued.”

After a beat of silence, she fixed her gaze squarely on Jin Yunxi. “You don’t want Yan Qingruo to regain her memory, do you?”

The words struck like a hammer, nailing squarely into Jin Yunxi’s most guarded secret.

Her body stiffened. Both hands clenched the wheelchair’s armrests so hard her knuckles turned white.

Seeing this, Lin Ruxi’s smile deepened. With a graceful wave, attendants came forward, wheeling Jin Yunxi into the Warden’s office.

The warden quickly rose, bowed, and withdrew, though not without a glance of envy at Jin Yunxi.

Now only the two women remained.

“You’re afraid she won’t heal you, aren’t you?” Lin Ruxi murmured, pacing slowly before her.

According to Dr. Yaqi, only repeated intimacy with Yan Qingruo could gradually heal her, like climbing a mountain—step after step, countless times.

But Lin Ruxi knew another, faster way. To spend one night with an S-class Omega.

“I have a method,” Lin Ruxi said, her tone suddenly light and coaxing. “One that doesn’t require Yan Qingruo—and will heal you much more quickly.”

She stepped closer, lifting a slender finger to tilt Jin Yunxi’s chin upward.

Forced to meet her eyes, Jin Yunxi found herself staring into pools of bright green, drawing nearer and nearer. Flustered, she spun her wheelchair back in retreat. “Your Majesty, you’re an Alpha—don’t forget, so am I.”

Not that it mattered—even if she wasn’t.

Her mind flashed, appalled, to Lin Ruxi’s notorious peculiar tastes. Surely she wouldn’t try that here—

“Is that so?”

The sound of fabric rustling filled the air. Jin Yunxi’s chest tightened. She wheeled back hastily, but the garments Lin Ruxi shed fell one by one—straight onto her lap.

Jin Yunxi frowned and turned her chair sharply, intending to escape.

But Lin Ruxi moved like a leopard, pinning the wheelchair firmly in place.

“Your Majesty, I’m nothing more than a lowly secretary-general.”

“Lowly? The right to torture belongs to the Warden. Tell me, Xiao Xi, who gave you the power to use it?” Lin Ruxi’s voice carried the weight of command. She had indulged Jin Yunxi long enough. It was time she repaid that leniency.

“And besides,” Lin Ruxi leaned in, her voice a low murmur, “I am an S-class Omega. You, Xiao Xi, are the perfect match for me.” Then, in a whisper that unveiled her deepest secret: “One night with me, and your pain will be gone. Yan Qingruo angers you, but I can give you everything. The Jin Group, a stable position—even the Warden’s chair, or Prime Minister, if you wish—they could all be yours.”

As Lin Ruxi spoke, her fingers traced lightly along Jin Yunxi’s cheek.

That secret had been buried so long, she’d nearly forgotten it—until she met this S-class Alpha. Suppressed needs stirred awake at the sight of her.

Especially during the election: though crippled, Jin Yunxi had stood among her peers with the elegance of a bamboo swaying on a cliff’s edge—resolute, radiant, unforgettable.

Lin Ruxi’s fingertip rested beneath her chin, her eyes narrowing. Beautiful, brilliant, unmarred by genetic defect—her disability was acquired, not inherited.

At last, Lin Ruxi had found the finest gene stock for the empire’s heir. She would not let her slip away.

Jin Yunxi’s eyes widened, blazing with shock and fury. Gritting her teeth, she spat each word: “Your Majesty, restrain yourself. I do not like Omegas.”

“Oh? I don’t believe that.” Lin Ruxi’s hand slid from her collarbone down to her thigh. “An S-class Alpha, enduring every susceptibility period alone? Impossible.”

“And your pain—don’t you need an Omega’s pheromones to ease it?”

“You underestimate me. My legs are not the problem,” Jin Yunxi snapped, forcing steel into her voice despite the fire in her veins.

“Is that so?” Lin Ruxi twirled gracefully, and with a fluid motion, lowered herself into Jin Yunxi’s lap. Her full curves pressed down as her arms looped around Jin Yunxi’s neck.

“Is that so…” The words stretched languidly from her lips, dripping with mockery and challenge.

Then—abruptly—the phone rang, shattering the suffocating silence.

Instinctively, Jin Yunxi’s eyes darted to the glowing screen. A flicker of panic betrayed her as she reached out to end the video call request.

That fleeting lapse did not escape Lin Ruxi’s notice. Her smile curved sharper as she entwined her fingers with Jin Yunxi’s, locking her hand in place—and with a languid slide upward, she accepted the call.