Forcibly Marked by My Fiancé’s Best Friend - Chapter 10

Chapter 10

A long queue snaked outside the entrance of the Medical Center. Group Leader Xie Shata, clad in her white lab coat, stood at the door with the Star Tower’s elite medical team behind her. Because of a single order from Lian Xu, her team had to drop everything to test the pheromone thresholds of these new trainees.

In a typical year, medical intervention was only utilized when a serious discrepancy occurred during pheromone testing.

But this year, the scale was unprecedented. Looking at the seemingly endless line, Xie Shata took a sharp breath, feeling as though she might black out and faint on the spot.

“What’s the trainee count?”

“Two… two hundred and eighty.” Behind her, a medic stared at the trainee files on her optical computer in shock. She had never seen such a massive number.

Xie Shata’s lips twitched. With such a workload, did Lian Xu think she and her team had lived too long and were ready to be laid to rest?

“Fine…” Xie Shata said through gritted teeth. “Divide them into ten lines. One person per line. Be quick. We must finish everything before lunch.”

“Understood!”

Following the order, the two hundred and eighty trainees were split into ten groups and led to their respective treatment rooms for pheromone extraction.

Lian Xu, delayed by the confrontation at the training ground, arrived late, followed by the highly irresponsible Instructor He Yu. After greeting Xie Shata, Lian Xu headed toward the medical room furthest inside.

“Doctor Xie, long time no see.” Yu also smiled and greeted her, acting like a peacock displaying its feathers to anyone in his vicinity.

Xie Shata glanced at him sideways: “The General is busy sharing the Emperor’s burdens; we commoners have to run about, so naturally, we don’t meet.”

A year apart had made Xie Shata quite sharp-tongued; He Yu wondered who she’d learned it from. He remembered her being a gentle lady a year ago. Now, she seemed… a bit savage.

The battlefield was truly a strange place, turning so many gentle and beautiful people into what they were now.

He couldn’t help but wonder: if he hadn’t followed Yin Zhuo’s arrangement to go to the front lines, would he be this eloquent now?

Xie Shata stood up and walked toward where He Yu was standing.

Yu raised an eyebrow, silently preparing himself to avoid any physical contact with her.

To his surprise, Xie Shata bumped his shoulder hard as she passed, then bent down to open the cabinet by his leg to pull out a roll of hemostatic bandages.

Seeing the large roll of bandages, the trainee in the room instinctively covered the gland at the back of his neck. It’s just a pheromone draw, he thought, surely there won’t be that much blood!

However, the trainee was mistaken. The bandages weren’t for him, but for a heavily injured officer behind a blue blackout curtain that they hadn’t noticed.

Since the war ended, the general wards of the Medical Center were full, and the treatment rooms had opened their doors to accommodate patients who needed quiet recovery. Consequently, there weren’t many vacant rooms left for testing, so they had to make do.

Yu’s gaze turned inquisitive; the person on the bed felt strangely familiar.

“He’s injured. He can’t hear,” Xie Shata explained to He Yu.

She then turned with a gentle expression to the trainee sitting on the stool: “Wait a moment. His situation is special, so I need to change his bandages first. Don’t worry, it won’t affect your progress.”

The trainee nodded blankly: “O-okay.”

In the Star Tower, male and female trainees usually trained separately, only merging for joint drills during the last few days of each month. However, as reserve forces selected to kill enemies on the front lines, their training was rigorous. On the field, there were no genders—only allies and enemies.

The male trainee had mostly seen sturdy female Alphas on the field; he had never met a woman as gentle as this medic. Is she a Beta or an Omega? he wondered. Definitely doesn’t seem like an Alpha.

As her blonde hair brushed her shoulders, a sweet fragrance wafted toward him. The trainee felt as if he were bathing in a spring breeze.

Xie Shata pulled back the curtain, pushed the medical cart to the bed, rolled up her sleeves, sanitized her hands, and began changing the bandages.

“Where did Group Leader Lian go? He vanished right after saying hello.”

The man who gave her this assignment was actually hiding elsewhere? This kid had to be doing it on purpose.

“Next door.” He Yu, tired of standing, pulled over a chair and sat next to the male trainee. “A trainee has an abnormal pheromone threshold; he’s over there keeping an eye on things.”

Xie Shata nodded. So that was it. Because of that Omega who refused to admit there was an issue, Lian Xu was going through all this trouble to retest everyone.

“You’re not going over to look?”

“What’s there to see…” Just as he spoke, He Yu suddenly recalled the last thing Lian Xu had said at the training ground. He paused for half a minute before speaking again. “It’s been a long time, Doctor Xie. I’m here to catch up with you.”

Xie Shata’s hand tightened around the bandages. If it weren’t for her professional ethics and immense patience as the medical head, she would have loved to wrap the bandages around He Yu’s mouth, tie him up, throw him onto the next bed, and give him a sedative.

This was the same man who, upon learning Lian Xu was going to the battlefield, had pounded on her door in the middle of the night, waking her from a deep sleep just to demand suppressants with side effects so low they wouldn’t trigger a reaction in an Omega.

His mouth was stubborn, but his heart had likely flown next door long ago.

While they chatted, the bandage change was finished. Xie Shata returned to her seat, prepared the extraction tools, and quickly took the sample. Her movements were so light and swift that the trainee only felt a quick prick on his gland. Before he even felt pain, half the syringe was filled with a transparent liquid.

“Is… is that it?”

Xie Shata nodded: “All done. Call the next person in.”

The trainee clearly hadn’t had enough; if there were no limits on pheromone extraction, he felt he could do it again. But when he caught the Instructor’s meaningful smile out of the corner of his eye, his mind went blank. He didn’t dare have any more stray thoughts and immediately ran out to call the next person.

Once the trainee was out, Xie Shata took advantage of the brief quiet to ask a question she had been curious about: “I heard the relationship between the Premier and Group Leader Lian is… not quite ordinary?”

“How so?”

“I mean… they are in that kind of relationship.”

Yu tilted his head, his smile unreadable: “Which kind?”

Xie Shata thought for a moment and said directly: “I heard the Premier is Group Leader Lian’s fiancé.”

“Oh, that.” Yu licked his back teeth. It seemed he couldn’t escape those three words—fiancé—anywhere he went. It was like a curse. “Who told you that?”

Xie Shata waved it off: “Don’t worry about how I know. Just tell me if it’s true.”

He Yu remained silent for a few seconds before giving a casual, light hum of affirmation.

If anyone else had asked, he would have left them to be dealt with by Yin Zhuo, as the Cabinet Premier had never publicly announced he had a fiancé. But since it was Xie Shata asking, there was no reason not to admit it.

Xie Shata looked at He Yu in disbelief.

So it was true?!

It was actually true!

Group Leader Lian really was the Cabinet Premier’s fiancé!

The shock of this news was no less than when she had first heard of her appointment as Group Leader of the Medical Team. The creation of the Command Center out of thin air had sent the Cabinet crashing down from its ivory tower. Most of the political power was handed to the Command Center, including the most vital asset—the Star Tower.

As a branch within the Star Tower with status equal to the Military Base, the Medical Center was a piece of power the Cabinet had fought desperately to control. Now, the Cabinet not only had to give up control of the Military Base but also watch as the Medical Center they had coveted for years was absorbed into the Command Center.

She didn’t know if the Cabinet ministers had fainted from rage, but her own soul had nearly left her body back then.

The moment she received news of the Command Center’s formation, she was called to the A-Tower meeting room and met the rumored Commander. The Star Tower Medical Center was renamed the Command Center Medical Group; the hierarchy was clear. The Commander even appointed her as the Group Leader in front of the Emperor.

Wealth and status had dropped from the sky onto her head without warning. After all, she was just an obscure medic who had barely survived the battlefield. When she heard the appointment, she was stunned, trapped in a fog where she couldn’t distinguish reality from illusion.

Now, hearing He Yu calmly admit that Lian Xu was the Premier’s fiancé, that dreamlike feeling returned.

This was even more unbelievable than her joining the Command Center.

The Cabinet Premier and a core member of the Command Center… Everyone in the Star Tower knew that from the day the Command Center was established, it became a thorn in the Cabinet’s side.

But that wasn’t the most important part; the Commander surely had his reasons for such an arrangement.

Xie Shata was more concerned with something else. She looked at the lounging He Yu.

“You and the Premier are as close as blood brothers. Yet, knowing Group Leader Lian is the Premier’s fiancé, you… to him…”

He Yu frowned, slightly puzzled: “Me what?”

“You like him!” Xie Shata blurted out, unable to hold it in. “You like your best friend’s… fiancé. You don’t steal a brother’s wife. Where is your moral compass?”

“Oh. Who said I liked him?”

Xie Shata: “…”

Pounding on a door in the middle of the night just to get suppressants for Lian Xu—that’s not liking him? Ignoring your own injuries and braving a torrential downpour to carry a feverish Omega to the Medical Center, staying by his bed until the fever broke—that’s not liking him? There were countless other instances; if she listed them all, she could talk for a whole day.

“Did I do something… to make you misunderstand that I like him?” He Yu said with a smile, his tone careless.

With his relaxed expression, it truly sounded like he was discussing an irrelevant piece of gossip. It made one wonder if those things had even happened, or if he was just someone listening to a story.

But Xie Shata still felt something was wrong. The two had known each other since the Star Tower Academy. Yu didn’t seem like the type to meddle in others’ business, nor did he seem like the type to help a friend look after a fiancé.

“Then why are you so good to him, so… caring?”

He Yu remained noncommittal.

But he said: “I can’t stand seeing pitiful, weak people. Is there something wrong with wanting to help?

“Yin Zhuo and I grew up together. I treat him like an older brother. He’s busy with Cabinet affairs, so I’m just looking after Lian Xu for him.”

Xie Shata didn’t quite believe He Yu was that kind-hearted.

Sure enough, a second later, he said: “I’m teasing you. You actually believed that?”

“I knew it…”

Before she could finish, He Yu added: “It’s just for fun.”

“Seeing him like a little dog… giving him a little sweetness and watching him wag his tail and treat me like a master… isn’t that interesting? Besides… Yin Zhuo doesn’t like him. The engagement was only set because Lian Xu drugged Yin Zhuo’s tonic, forcing him into a marriage. How could I ever have feelings for someone like that?”

Just for fun.

Seeing him like a little dog…

Each word was like an icicle, piercing even her, a mere bystander, with a bone-chilling cold. She couldn’t imagine how terrible Lian Xu would feel if he actually heard those words.

Xie Shata shrank her shoulders.

Thump, thump, thump—

Suddenly, the sound of hurried footsteps echoed from outside the medical room.