Forcibly Marked by My Fiancé’s Best Friend - Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Inside the underground experimental base, intermittent whimpering sounds echoed through the halls. Lian Xu’s brows were knit tight, his hands gripping the bedsheets with such force his knuckles turned white. A thin layer of cold sweat coated his forehead, which was currently connected to dozens of transparent tubes.

In his dream, a dark shadow kept pushing him away.

“Get out! This is no place for you!”

“Just stay as you are and play your current role. Don’t ever dream of helping me; I don’t need your pity or your charity! I just want you out of my sight!”

Fia gritted her teeth and cranked the power to the maximum.

Through thought resonance, she was prying into his deepest buried memories. Waves of anxiety, terror, and timidity surged forth, stabbing ruthlessly into her mind and heart.

Thoughts erupted outward in a violent spray; the new ideologies and memories she tried to implant were washed away, unable to find even a crack to squeeze into. She was even beginning to feel lightheaded, influenced by the incomprehensible, complex images in Lian Xu’s mind, nearly forgetting her own objective.

“Brother…” Fia bit her lip. Nosebleeds surged out, dripping steadily. The humming sound vibrating from the machine amplified infinitely, drilling into her ears. She struggled to lift her head, clutching her chest as she let out a pained hiss, “I am your true family!”

“Why won’t you accept me?!”

“I am your family! They are just lunatics using you, don’t you understand?!”

Tears streamed down Fia’s face, as if she were suffering a devastating blow.

She couldn’t understand how a human brain—not even the size of a newborn’s fist—could carry such a massive weight of memory. Where did these unknown emotions even come from?

Why were humans always so complicated?

“The man outside is your lover, isn’t he?” Fia continued to feed her thoughts into Lian Xu, listening to the rhythmic thudding against the laboratory’s reinforced door. “He doesn’t love you, brother. He’s using you, playing with you. He’s always had someone else in his heart that he truly cares about.”

As a being birthed from precise data, she possessed thoughts but no feelings. She couldn’t express emotions correctly, but she could peer into human emotional shifts through data transmission.

That man named He Yu had weak emotional fluctuations and flat feelings. He claimed to love Lian Xu, yet the data showed his emotional peak was at zero.

“He doesn’t love you at all,” Fia said.

Lian Xu’s fingers twitched, seemingly affected by her words.

A glint flashed in Fia’s eyes as she intensified the indoctrination.

The heavy iron door groaned under the impact. A row of officers, wearing uniforms with blurred patterns and indistinguishable colors, stood guard at the entrance with guns raised.

Every submachine gun was loaded with four rounds of high-potency anesthetic.

The man known as the Leader stood in the center, his hollow eyes fixed on the iron door.

Suddenly, the noise stopped.

Fia turned back toward the entrance. The laboratory became eerily silent.

Then—bang—a bullet pierced through the forehead. Fia’s eyes widened in disbelief, staring at the tightly sealed door.

“What did you think was out there?” He Yu’s cold, sinister voice rang out from behind Fia’s head.

Clang— the door swung open.

A group of people appeared, looking identical to the officers standing guard with anesthetics. A “Leader” also stood in the center, facing the people inside the lab with an expressionless face.

“It’s your army of experimental clones,” He Yu’s voice echoed again.

He let out a cold laugh, raised his gun, and aimed at the glowing instruments on Fia’s head. Bang, bang—he shattered them.

“I don’t care what you are. If you dare touch him, I’ll make you disappear forever.”

“How is this possible?!”

“Weren’t you thrown out of the base? How did you…”

Yu scratched his ear with a look of impatience. “For that, I have to thank the message you edited.”

“‘Meet at the base entrance’… He would never say something so blunt. Now, I’ve arrived as promised. Well? Are you satisfied?”

Fia clawed at her face in a frenzy, ripping the instruments from her head and crushing them onto the floor. The hole in her brow was edged with black—the mark left by the bullet passing through.

She had intended to use Lian Xu’s light-brain to lure this man underground and eliminate him. She hadn’t expected him to not only break in but hunt her all the way to the lab.

“Hahaha—” Fia laughed, ripping out the transparent tubes connected to Lian Xu’s head. She stabbed them into her palm, clenched her fist, and began pounding her own chest frantically until a hole was smashed open.

She inserted the tubes directly into her own heart. Almost maniacally, she continued to brainwash the motionless figure on the table: “What are you even hoping for? He doesn’t love you! Nobody loves you! Except for me, nobody cares about you!”

Yu snapped his fingers. The army outside the door suddenly moved. One part engaged the guards inside, while another bypassed the crowd to restrain Fia.

“Let go of me!” Fia’s eyes were bloodshot, her face contorted. The “humans” she created actually dared to rebel against her.

Yu provoked her with a smile: “They aren’t being very obedient. What should we do about that?”

“Aren’t you afraid I’ll kill him?” Fia squeezed Lian Xu’s “heart” with her hand. “Don’t you love him? Are you just going to stand there and watch me rip his heart out?”

“Go ahead and try,” He Yu said with complete indifference.

Fia froze.

She couldn’t read a single emotion from this man. It was as if she were facing a cold, stone wall. No human scent, no emotional fluctuations.

“Your data is wrong.”

Fia looked at He Yu, confused.

The scent of white camellia flooded the entire lab. Even if she hadn’t differentiated yet, there should have been some reaction. To Fia, the thick scent was no different from breathing ordinary air.

“I am an Alpha who can release pheromones, not a common human from your database. Pheromones can control emotions, which is why you mistakenly think I have no feelings.”

“The person who created you clearly had no concept of pheromones.”

“Is that so?” Fia said. “Does it matter?”

“He’s going to die. If you care, find a way to stop me.”

Even while restrained by several strong young men, Fia remained composed enough to taunt He Yu.

Yu exhaled, leaned back nonchalantly, and crossed his arms. His gaze swept past the machinery behind Fia, a hint of a smile in his eyes.

“Wife, stop playing around.”

Fia stiffened instantly.

In disbelief, she looked down at the man lying on the operating table. His chest had been violently smashed open, a red heart beating weakly inside.

He looked exactly like someone on the brink of death.

What she didn’t know was that it wasn’t Lian Xu at all.

Lian Xu, holding a remote control, walked gracefully out from the brawling crowd. He was still wearing that elegant formal suit, clean and unscathed.

The only visible change was his neck, which was covered in ambiguous marks. Red and purple bruises bloomed across his snowy skin. The Omega, thoroughly drenched in pheromones, looked flushed and full of spirit.

Staring at the exposed marks, He Yu licked the corner of his lip with satisfaction.

If the timing hadn’t been so poor, he probably would have fully possessed this Omega by now.

The mere thought made He Yu dissatisfied, tempted to put a few more holes in Fia.

Yu walked over, pressing against Lian Xu’s shoulder and whispering into his ear: “Wife, how was my performance?”

Lian Xu reached up and turned He Yu’s face away. His expression remained neutral, but his voice was slightly raspy: “You’re half an hour later than I expected.”

“Couldn’t be helped.” Yu spread his hands with an embarrassed look. “It’s rare for my wife to be so proactive. I stayed outside for a while to savor the memory.”

Lian Xu closed his eyes and snapped: “Stop with the nonsense. Who are you putting on a show for?”

There were hardly any living people here anyway.

“This is a true revelation of my feelings!” Yu whispered, shamelessly hugging Lian Xu and nuzzling his face. “If you were really my wife, you’d…”

“Scram!”

Lian Xu couldn’t take it anymore and threw a punch.

The two subordinates, arriving late, reached the door just in time to witness He Yu being “domesticated.” They reflexively stepped back, clutching their own faces and inhaling sharply.

Fia watched the playful scene, her lips twitching. She ruthlessly withdrew her hand from “Lian Xu’s” body.

“How did you do it?”

She had followed Lian Xu closely the entire time, never leaving his side. Not only had this person managed a “golden cicada shedding its skin” escape under her nose, but he had also created a replica of himself in such a short time.

No wonder her thoughts couldn’t be implanted.

Lian Xu glanced at the nearby machinery. This must be the tool Fia used to control minds. Manipulating the thoughts of so many people was no easy task.

Let alone creating a mass of replicas.

“I did it the same way you did.”

“Impossible!” Fia didn’t believe it. “You’ve never even touched it. How could you know how?!”

Lian Xu rubbed his temples and asked, “Are you talking about that giant machine?”

That machine didn’t require prior contact. Its program was preset; it only needed a readable primary carrier to replicate.

The more complete the carrier, the more realistic the replica.

For this, Lian Xu had sacrificed two hundred milliliters of blood.

“I didn’t expect it to be so simple to operate, either,” Lian Xu said truthfully.

Yu held Lian Xu’s hand. His fingertips inadvertently brushed over the rough gauze wrapped around the Omega’s wrist. A complex flash of emotion flickered beneath his lowered lashes.

He recalled Lian Xu’s words before leaving the pitch-black room.

“I want to go see the machine connected to the test tubes.”

Yu had held the back of Lian Xu’s head, breathing heavily: “What, are you interested in human modification too? Is your new husband so unsatisfying that you’re in a hurry to upgrade?”

Lian Xu had pinched his thigh: “Get a grip.”

“The people outside are strange. They don’t look human. The problem most likely lies with that machine.”

“Mmh…” Yu groaned, supporting the Omega sitting on him. “Together… I’ll be ready soon.”

“No, it’ll be suspicious. You’re still in your rut. If something happens…”

“Are you worried about me?” Yu interrupted.

To his surprise, the other didn’t take it that way, but rather: “I’m worried you’ll be a drag.”

A few minutes later, Lian Xu had looked up slightly at the weak light seeping through the door crack and said raspily, “Go out.”

“Let me hold you a bit longer.”

“Your hand… get it out…” Lian Xu gritted his teeth, holding back his ragged breathing. “Stay here and wait for my signal.”

Yu had obeyed, waiting in the room for the signal to strike from within. Little did he know he would pass out halfway through, only to wake up and find himself dumped outside the base.

By sheer coincidence, he ran into two idiots trying to rob him—cowardly, death-fearing types who didn’t even know how to fly their own aircraft.

They hadn’t even noticed when he swiped their guns.

But it was thanks to the help of those two that he successfully found the escaped Lian Xu.

Yu’s gaze darkened. His thumb pressed gently against the edge of the gauze. “Don’t ever do that again.”