After the Divorce, My Wife Is Impossible to Coax - Chapter 48

Chapter 48

This was Lu Shen’s first time at the Wei Corporation. Her previous meetings with Wei Ruicheng had taken place at his private properties, specifically that villa tucked deep in the mountains.

The Wei family company was built in S-City’s Science and Technology Innovation Park. The surrounding architecture was a forest of skyscrapers, almost all occupied by tech, medical, and biotech enterprises, injecting a dense atmosphere of scientific research into the district.

Many high-achieving students majoring in pharmacy longed for a position at this company. When Lu Shen entered, she saw many people dressed neatly in business attire, clutching folders in the outdoor plaza, preparing for interviews.

This modern, fifteen-story building was just like the side Wei Ruicheng presented to the world: respectable and polished, attracting countless talents to chase after it. Yet, his inner self was exactly like that villa—unable to see the light of day.

The first floor was the reception area. Sunlight spilled through the glass windows, making the white walls look bright and spacious. The air was filled with a faint scent of disinfectant and the fresh fragrance of plants. There was also a conference center that frequently hosted research lectures and exchange activities. As an SSS-rank Alpha, Wei Ruicheng possessed a natural gender advantage. Shortly after his rank was elevated to SSS, he became the chairman or a voting member of many biology and pharmacy associations, as well as a deputy of S-City’s political assembly.

Such superior social status provided great assistance to his business.

Generally, the higher the pheromone level, the stronger the body and the higher the IQ. He Linghan was even more superior than him, suppressing him at every turn in S-City, which had become a needle stuck in his heart. He knew his rank was stolen, while He Linghan was a genuine SSS-rank Alpha. Every time he faced He Linghan, his back broke into a cold sweat; he didn’t dare resist a single word she said.

“Dr. Lu,” Wei Ruicheng’s assistant was an Alpha woman in a black professional suit skirt, wearing black-framed glasses. She was quite tall and gave off a sense of pressure standing before Lu Shen.

She led Lu Shen toward Wei Ruicheng’s office. The elevator stopped on the tenth floor.

“It’s best not to go in just yet,” she pushed up her glasses and led Lu Shen to a spot near the window right next to the office. It was perfectly positioned to hear the conversation inside clearly.

Inside were the financial heads of several laboratory equipment companies. Because Wei Ruicheng had been in arrears for equipment fees for some time, they had coordinated to come and demand payment together.

“President Wei, we are just small companies. If the Wei Corporation continues to… delay payments, we will no longer be able to provide any experimental equipment to your company.”

The Wei family had been short on funds lately, mainly because Wei Ruicheng had invested a vast amount of capital into the R&D of the E-agent. Furthermore, he had promised Lu Shen he would promote the new inhibitor, which was equivalent to starting a new project requiring manpower and money.

In addition, the patents for some of the Wei family’s stable drugs were about to expire. Other companies were watching like tigers, waiting to carve up his cake.

There was no longer a genius like Lu Ming to help him continuously develop new drugs to stabilize competition, nor was there the massive dowry of a second He Tingbai to help his cash flow. His current wife’s family background could not compare to the He family.

Misfortunes never come singly—the truth about his rank had also been discovered, which was why these small companies dared to climb over his head.

Lu Shen felt the office suddenly fall silent.

“President Wei…” an Alpha’s voice trembled, as if he had seen something terrifying, or as if invisible hands were strangling his throat, making it impossible to speak.

“Do you think I’m some kind of ant you can bully?” Wei Ruicheng’s voice was dark and heavy, sounding as though it could wring out filthy black water.

Clearly, he was using his pheromones to suppress the other Alphas. Lu Shen listened quietly. That drug had major side effects, but it was indeed effective; Wei Ruicheng’s pheromone concentration was much higher than that of ordinary Alphas, exerting an overwhelming pressure on others.

This was the first time Lu Shen had felt him use pheromones to oppress someone. In the past, she had always seen Wei Ruicheng looking quite weak, so she hadn’t had a strong realization of his craving to raise his pheromone rank.

“President Wei… let’s talk this through properly…”

“Everything is negotiable…”

Lu Shen heard the thump-thump of something hitting the floor. If she didn’t believe in science, she might have felt she was in a horror movie; a chill crawled from her feet up her back.

“That’s the sound of knees hitting the floor,” the Alpha assistant next to her pushed up her glasses again, answering her unspoken question.

Lu Shen looked down at the hard marble floor. She could imagine those Alphas shivering and curling up on the ground, their gazes helpless and fragile. But she didn’t feel much sympathy, because this was still mild compared to what Omegas went through.

High-level Alphas suppressed low-level ones, and those low-level Alphas would go back and suppress Omegas twice as hard to release the frustration and anger of being suppressed themselves. Ultimately, it always landed on the Omegas.

Years ago, when Lu Shen hadn’t differentiated, Jiang Nian was profoundly relieved. She felt being a Beta was best—least affected by pheromones and unable to form permanent markings with AOs.

If you differentiate, it doesn’t matter; Shen-shen can be whatever gender she wants, Lu Ming had muttered to herself, squatting in a corner.

“If one day Dr. Lu can make Alphas exempt from suppression as well, I imagine the world would be better,” the assistant said.

“Have you been suppressed by him too?” Lu Shen asked.

“President Wei likes to see others in a state of submission,” the assistant didn’t answer directly, only implicitly confirming it. “He believes that’s the only way people won’t betray him.”

“Then he is far too naive.”

They heard Wei Ruicheng ask one of the managers if his Omega son was married yet. The man immediately begged for mercy, asking Wei Ruicheng to let his son go.

“President Wei, I only have this one Omega son, I beg you to show mercy.”

Lu Shen was very familiar with this routine. Lu Congwen was the same way, liking to mark Omegas at will, just like a stray dog urinating to mark territory; Alphas can mark many Omegas, after all. However, few parents would plead for their Omega children. If it were Lu Congwen, he wouldn’t even spare a glance, and might even pinch his nose in disgust, accusing his own Omega child of “seducing” Alphas.

“Because this person’s glands are injured and he can no longer have children,” the assistant timely explained.

“No wonder.” Now it was easy for Lu Shen to understand. When there is only one choice, a biological Omega is naturally valued.

Wei Ruicheng sneered. He pinched the chin of the Alpha begging him and lowered his voice. “Never mind your Omega son—soon, I’ll be able to mark even you.”

Every Alpha in the office instinctively shuddered. Even though it was summer, it felt as though all the heat in the vicinity had been swallowed by fear, making it suffocating.

Being marked… this was a worry Alphas never had to face. They only ever enjoyed marking Omegas. A marked Omega must rely on their Alpha’s pheromones to get through every heat cycle, otherwise, it is agonizingly painful. Once the roles are reversed… enjoyment turns into hell.

The assistant outside was the same. Lu Shen felt her shoulders shrink; her body under the suit was trembling slightly, her eyes behind the lenses showing helplessness and dread, despite her large stature.

There is never true empathy in this world unless it actually happens to you, is there?

Not long after, Lu Shen heard the Alphas compromise. They agreed to let Wei Ruicheng delay payment for another six months and promised to continue providing qualified experimental equipment.

When they came out, Lu Shen was quickly pulled by the assistant into the corner of the pantry. The elevator was right there, and they could feel the listless state of the Alphas—lifeless, as if their essence had been drained.

This was the result of continuous suppression by high-level pheromones. Both body and spirit would be devastated. The law of the jungle was particularly evident in this world.

At this moment, Lu Shen missed An Zhaoyu a little. She missed that rebellious streak that refused to be manipulated, and her bright, flamboyant smile.

Once those people left, the assistant brought Lu Shen to see Wei Ruicheng. He didn’t waste time and took her directly to the basement experimental area. It seemed the “fire in the back house” was indeed urgent; otherwise, given his nature, he would have surely tried to disgust Lu Shen first.

This floor was divided into several zones by isolation doors. Normal technical staff had to swipe cards to reach their respective areas. When Wei Ruicheng brought Lu Shen down, many people greeted him.

“Hello, President Wei.”

“Have you eaten, President Wei?”

Wei Ruicheng put on a refined appearance, nodding slightly and asking if they had eaten or if the “little boss” had ordered milk tea for them, making him look very approachable. In the realm of being a sanctimonious hypocrite, few did it better than him.

Every department in the Wei Corporation had one or two Omegas, and Omegas were always featured in event photos. Thus, the Wei Corporation had a good reputation for gender equality.

The lab used for R&D of the E-agent was one of the rooms here so as not to seem conspicuous. Through the glass, Lu Shen saw a middle-aged Alpha male inside. He was holding a pipette, adding liquid to a culture dish, with a pile of scattered pipette tips of different sizes beside him. One end of the lab held a high-speed centrifuge, an incubator, and an electrophoresis apparatus. On the clean bench, test tubes and analytical balances were neatly arranged—it looked newer than the ones at the medical center.

It would be great if this environment were given to Fu Xinglan. Lu Shen felt it was a waste. She and Wei Ruicheng washed and disinfected their hands, put on shoe covers, gloves, and caps, and changed into lab coats before entering.

“This is Dr. Lin Bin, a doctoral student from your mother’s time. You can call him Uncle,” Wei Ruicheng introduced them. “This is Lu Shen, Lu Ming’s daughter.”

The way he said it made it sound as if Lu Shen wasn’t a doctor herself, but Lu Shen didn’t care about his words. She noticed the flash of obsession and resentment in this Alpha’s eyes when her mother was mentioned. It was normal. During Lu Ming’s active period, almost all papers published in biological and medical journals were hers; others were few and far between, all suppressed by her.

“From now on, you two will collaborate to complete the E-agent as soon as possible,” Wei Ruicheng glanced at them both, then left.

“Dr. Lin,” Lu Shen decided to call him that. He didn’t look like someone who had much clinical experience. “Can I take a look at your research progress?”

Finding out what results Wei Ruicheng had already achieved was Lu Shen’s primary purpose for coming. Lin Bin handed her a few pages regarding the current components of the E-agent.

“If I remember correctly, the active ingredients here are similar to the chemical components my mother researched years ago to increase Alpha pheromone concentration,” Lu Shen observed for a while and gave a conclusion.

“The line of thought is the same: increasing Alpha pheromone concentration,” Lin Bin said perfunctorily, his gaze shifting away.

“President Wei wants a drug that can mark Alphas. How could the line of thought be similar?” Lu Shen looked at him seriously. “Alpha pheromones are ligands, and Omega pheromones are receptors. The marking process is the recognition and binding of ligands and receptors.”

“Blindly increasing Alpha pheromone concentration only gives them an advantage in marking Omegas and more obviously suppressing other Alphas. But it is only suppression. Ligand to ligand, and receptor to receptor, cannot form a mark.”

“Then you tell me what to do!” Lin Bin said, sounding like he was giving up.

To mark an Alpha, it is necessary to make the Alpha produce receptors and the Enigma produce corresponding ligands. Since Alphas already have ligands, this means one needs to find another type of receptor in an Alpha’s body for which the ligand only exists in an Enigma. This was Lu Shen’s experimental logic. But she couldn’t tell Wei Ruicheng, because this was no different from altering the human genome.

To complete the act of “marking,” it requires not only the binding of ligands and receptors but also making the marked party develop a dependency. In Lu Shen’s eyes, this was a disguised addictive agent.

The act of AO marking, which seemed normal to everyone, was no different from drug use to Lu Shen. Because in all her years of medical study, the only substance besides marking that, once touched, requires contact every so often—and causes agonizing pain if not touched—is narcotics.

Pheromones after a permanent mark are like a legal mental drug for an Omega, making one unable to leave the other from that point on. It sounds romantic, but it is actually malicious. Removing a mark is like drug detoxification; of course it is difficult.

“I have another question,” Lu Shen didn’t answer him, using a pen to point at the data on the paper. “Where did this data come from?”

Normally, drugs entering the market need to go through animal testing, pre-clinical trials, and lengthy three-phase clinical trials to get approval step-by-step. Data must come from these trials. Where did the data for Wei Ruicheng’s illicit research come from? Did he dare try it on himself just because there were no problems in mice?

Back then, many of Lu Ming’s drugs were turned into abandoned half-finished products because they couldn’t pass clinical trial ethics reviews.

Lin Bin stared at her strangely for a moment. “You don’t know?”

Should she know? Lu Shen was about to answer when she suddenly froze. Someone like Wei Ruicheng was terrified of death; he certainly wouldn’t test the drug on himself. He must have found someone, but that is illegal domestically.

Years ago, he and Lu Congwen tricked Jiang Nian into going abroad. If Jiang Nian were a citizen of this country, they would have been sentenced for human trafficking. But Jiang Nian wasn’t, so…

Yes, Lu Shen should have known, because Jiang Nian was one of the subjects Lu Ming’s drugs were tested on at the time.

“This data was all obtained from foreigners. We only need to finish the animal work and then hand the test reagents to President Wei. After all,” Lin Bin said sarcastically, “there isn’t a second lunatic like your mother in this country who would personally take drugs abroad to test on people, right?”

No. Lu Shen trembled all over. Her mother had no idea Wei Ruicheng had been using people abroad to test drugs. She had simply discarded the drugs used on mice; she hadn’t expected Wei Ruicheng to steal them all.

The only time Lu Ming went abroad to test a drug was because a certain psychiatric drug had severe side effects and she intended to destroy it. Wei Ruicheng didn’t want to see the drug go to waste, so he lied to her, saying there were volunteers in an overseas hospital willing to undergo clinical trials. Not long after she arrived, she turned the nursing home where Jiang Nian was staying upside down. Everyone inside ran out, and she left with Jiang Nian. After that, she never entered a lab again.

Her mother was a bit crazy, daring to do anything, and her personality was strange, but she wasn’t evil. She wouldn’t harm others for no reason.

An Zhaoyu led District One on two or three missions today, and her off-duty time was a bit late. The sun was almost down. She sighed; it had been a long time since she went on a mission with Lu Shen. The doctors on emergency duty at the medical center rotated between departments in the inpatient building. Unless there was a special case—like an animal, which usually went to Lu Shen—she had to wait for Lu Shen’s rotation or apply manually.

Fu Xinglan told her that Lu Shen wasn’t in the inpatient department today but had gone to the Wei Corporation. Upon hearing this, An Zhaoyu didn’t even change out of her flight suit; she drove her sports car all the way to the Wei Corporation.

Before she could burst in to demand Wei Ruicheng hand her over, Lu Shen came out. Lu Shen walked slowly out of the gate. The sunset floated on the ground, melting with the clouds into a fiery red, yet she was shrouded in gloom, as if she had experienced an unspeakable storm—exhausted and heavy-hearted.

“What’s wrong? Lu Shen,” An Zhaoyu quickly noticed her abnormality and jogged toward her.

Lu Shen shook her head, not wanting to say a word. Her figure looked extremely lonely, as if the bustle of the street had nothing to do with her. This sense of desolation, as if one had abandoned the entire world, reminded An Zhaoyu of Lu Ming in the stone city.

“Lu Shen, can I give you a hug?” An Zhaoyu placed both hands on her shoulders. “If you don’t speak, I’ll take it as your silent consent.”

Then, An Zhaoyu carefully pulled her into her arms. On such a hot day, An Zhaoyu was covered in sweat from being muffled in her flight suit, yet Lu Shen’s body was icy cold. An Zhaoyu didn’t ask why; if Lu Shen wanted to speak, she would.

Lu Shen felt the continuous heat radiating from the person in front of her. Finally, a splash of color broke into her blue eyes—An Zhaoyu’s curly hair fluttering gently in the wind, like a red flag. She softened her body, as if shedding her burdens, and gave her entire weight over to An Zhaoyu.

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