Transmigrated Into a Scummy Alpha Who Stole the Male Lead's Mermaid Fiancée - Chapter 38

Returning to the basement, Yu Ke searched around and found Lan Xing huddled in a corner of one of the laboratories.

“Lan Xing?” Half of the weight on Yu Ke’s heart finally lifted as she approached. “What happened? Why are you here? Where’s Isabelle?”

The cold white light of the lab shone on Lan Xing, who sat with her knees drawn to her chest, her eyes red, remaining silent.

“What’s going on?” Yu Ke walked up to her and noticed that the lower half of her body had transformed into the shape of a mermaid. Startled, she asked, “What happened?”

A group of children followed behind Yu Ke, exclaiming in amazement, “Wow, it’s a mermaid!”

“Such a beautiful mermaid!”

The children tried to step forward but were held back by Yu Ke.

She crouched down, gently touched Lan Xing’s face, and spoke in a low voice, “My dear Lan Xing, tell me what happened.”

Lan Xing lifted her face to look at Yu Ke, her blue eyes filled with confusion. Then she lowered her gaze to her own hands, those usually pristine hands were now stained with blood. As if awakening from a dream, she murmured, “Sister, Isabelle…”

“What?” Yu Ke took her hand. The blood on it hadn’t fully dried yet, sticky and repulsive, but Yu Ke held it tightly and asked, “What happened here?”

Lan Xing pointed in a direction toward another corner of the room, where Isabelle lay on the ground, a surgical knife plunged into her chest, blood pooling around her.

Her head was tilted backward, eyes wide open, staring in Yu Ke’s direction, her expression twisted as if she had died with unresolved grievances.

“Isabelle?!” The children were utterly shocked by the scene before them. They crowded around, some of the more timid ones burst into tears, and the room instantly grew chaotic.

“Isabelle is dead!”

“How could this happen?!”

A look of concern crossed Lan Xing’s pale face. Yu Ke squeezed her hands and said gently, “Don’t be afraid. As long as you’re okay, that’s what matters.”

“Sister,” Lan Xing said weakly, “Hold me.”

“Okay.” Yu Ke knelt halfway down, first using a tissue to gently and patiently wipe the blood from Lan Xing’s hands. After cleaning them, she bent down to embrace Lan Xing, one arm around her waist and the other around her tail, lifting her entirely.

“What happened here? Don’t you dare leave!” Angel shouted. “Tell us, how did Isabelle die? Did you kill her?!”

“Isabelle knew she couldn’t leave this place alive. Staying here was her own decision,” Lan Xing said wearily. “And she had already prepared a new clone. As long as you find a way to leave this planet, you’ll have a chance to reunite with Isabelle.”

The group was half-convinced, half-doubting. One of the older children pointed at Lan Xing and yelled, “Do you dare admit it? Did you kill Isabelle or not?!”

Lan Xing remained silent. Yu Ke looked at the group of children and said solemnly, “My girlfriend is the kindest person in the world. She would never lie to you. If you still want to see Isabelle, come with us and leave.”

“I killed her,” Lan Xing suddenly said.

The children were both shocked and furious, and even Yu Ke was no exception. Her arms holding Lan Xing trembled slightly.

Isabelle was a notorious interstellar fugitive who had been involved in many infamous experiments. Yu Ke could imagine, Lan Xing must have had ample and justified reasons for killing Isabelle. Yet, she couldn’t understand why Lan Xing had confessed so frankly.

Perhaps it was Lan Xing’s sincere demeanor or her fragile, beautiful appearance that moved them. After the initial surge of anger, the group of children unexpectedly calmed down. Angel, breathing heavily, demanded, “Why did you do it?!”

“I’m sorry,” Lan Xing lowered her eyelids. “If I hadn’t done it, I might have died, and everyone here would have died too.”

Everyone exchanged uneasy glances. Lan Xing looked at Yu Ke and explained softly, “Isabelle intended to destroy this laboratory with her own hands. She cut off the oxygen supply, planning to let everyone submerged in the nutrient fluid die.”

Across the entire 19th underground floor, with all the laboratories combined, nearly a thousand people were suspended in nutrient fluid. If Isabel had succeeded, it would have been nothing short of a massacre.

“I couldn’t let her do it. And I couldn’t tolerate her… hurting me…” At this point, Lan Xing tightened her grip on Yu Ke’s hand, looking utterly distraught.

“Isabelle was our mother!” one of the children cried out. “You killed our mother!”

Lan Xing fell silent, leaning exhaustedly into Yu Ke’s embrace.

While they argued, Angel found the laboratory’s electronic surveillance feed and began reviewing it alone.

In the footage, Isabelle first injected Lan Xing with a reagent, transforming her into a mermaid form. She then connected her to wires, restraining her on the experimental table.

At that moment, an “Insufficient Oxygen” alarm blared in the laboratory, but Isabelle ignored it completely, her attention entirely captivated by the mermaid before her.

Unable to break free, Lan Xing could only endure Isabelle’s invasive actions. Angel frowned as she watched Isabelle, like a beast, press herself against Lan Xing, tormenting her beautiful, shimmering tail. The ecstatic expression on Isabelle’s face was identical to the one she wore during her experiments.

“Ugh!” Angel turned away and vomited violently.

She then rushed out, found a trash can, and continued retching into it.

“Angel?” an older child followed her. “Are you okay?”

Angel shook her head, her face pale. After resting for a few minutes, she rejoined the group.

In the final segment of the surveillance footage, Lan Xing broke free from Isabelle’s restraints, found a scalpel, and plunged it into Isabelle’s chest.

Pushing Isabelle’s body aside, she crawled slowly across the floor, reached the control panel, and reactivated the oxygen supply, silencing the alarm.

The scene that followed was exactly what Yu Ke had witnessed upon entering: Lan Xing crouched on the floor, her hands stained with blood.

After watching the footage to the end, Yu Ke silently closed the surveillance recording. Holding Lan Xing tightly, she stared at the corpse on the floor, her eyes blazing with fury, trembling with rage.

“I’m okay,” Lan Xing sighed softly. “But Isabelle isn’t dead either. Before she died, she told me she had already prepared a new generation of clones and that she would come for me again someday…”

“Don’t be afraid, my dear,” Yu Ke whispered, kissing her cheek. “Everything will be alright.”

Lan Xing leaned against Yu Ke’s embrace, feeling secure enough to remain silent and completely relaxed, letting Yu Ke hold her without exerting any effort herself.

Isabelle had shown her the genetic sequencing results and used them to threaten her, but she hadn’t told Yu Ke about this part.

The twelve children wore varied expressions, some panicked, some furious, others utterly bewildered. As the oldest among them at twelve, Domi was the group’s pillar of strength. She stepped forward and said, “Actually, Isabelle isn’t who we thought she was. Angel and I both know she sometimes uses us for strange experiments.”

Calling them “experiments” was an understatement, it felt more like violation.

At first, Domi didn’t understand. Being the oldest, she had been particularly close to Isabelle. But recently, she noticed… Isabelle seemed to favor Angel more.

Domi couldn’t comprehend it and grew intensely angry. She confronted Angel privately, demanding to know why she was stealing Isabelle’s attention.

Because of this, Domi and Angel didn’t speak for two months. Later, Isabelle intervened, explaining that she merely wanted to conduct minor experiments on them. They only needed to cooperate and keep the details secret, it was a secret shared only among the three of them.

Persuaded by Isabelle, Domi and Angel reconciled. They guarded each other’s secrets and, out of respect for Isabelle, rarely questioned the nature of these “experiments.” But this arrangement existed solely among the three of them!

Now, Isabelle had broken their pact. She had done that to another girl, something Domi found unforgivable!

“Isabelle…” six-year-old Kemi knelt beside the corpse, wiping her tears as she whispered, “I’m so scared. Isabelle’s dead… what will we do now?”

“Will someone come for us? I don’t want to be sold…”

“If you’re willing, you can come with us,” Lan Xing said weakly from Yu Ke’s arms. “We can take you to Datianxi and help find families to adopt you.”

“If we do that, our value won’t be realized,” Domi retorted, her dark eyes glaring up at Lan Xing, her voice sharp. “Every one of us here is a high-end product worth over fifty million, not something ordinary people can just adopt.”

“What do you mean?” Yu Ke interjected coldly. “Are you expecting me to help you find buyers?”

Domi looked slightly embarrassed, blinking before explaining, “You should know, most of us here are clones of princes or princesses from various kingdoms. People paid huge sums to have Isabelle create us. Now that she’s dead, you should fulfill her obligations: safely deliver us to our designated destinations. You’d earn a handsome commission too.”

Yu Ke shot her a glance. “Do you take me for a human trafficker?”

Domi fell silent, and the other children exchanged grave looks.

Yu Ke let out a soft sigh and spoke with deep sincerity, “I am not a human trafficker; I don’t engage in such dealings. I cannot comprehend your actions either. Just because others treat you as commodities, you start believing you are nothing more than goods. But in my eyes, each one of you is a living, breathing person. I can take you away from here, but the most I can do is find you a welfare home. Anything beyond that is impossible.”

The children chattered among themselves, discussing the matter, and eventually reached a unanimous decision to follow Yu Ke and Lan Xing.

It seemed they only wanted to lead them out of this factory, with no apparent malicious intent.

As for Isabelle’s death, only a few of the older children were genuinely saddened. The younger ones were too naive to grasp the meaning of death, while children like Angel had more complicated feelings toward Isabelle.

They respected Isabelle, but when they thought about the things she had done, their respect gradually soured.

Of course, the most pressing issue for them now was the rioting workers outside. From the surveillance footage, they could see that the workers had taken over every corner of the factory, searching everywhere for Isabelle’s whereabouts.

Not only that, but wherever they went, infrastructure was destroyed. Several elevators were out of order, many people were beaten to death, some took advantage of the chaos to assault women, and others set fires, blowing up several factory buildings.

It wasn’t hard to imagine the disaster that would ensue if Yu Ke and the children ran into them.

Yu Ke made her preparations. First, she led the child soldiers to the underground warehouse and had each of them carry several canisters of fuel. Children under eight carried four canisters each, while those eight and older carried six. This gave them over fifty canisters of fuel, enough to sustain their journey for a long time.

Then, she used the broadcast system to announce to everyone in the factory, “Isabelle is dead! Isabelle committed suicide out of guilt and died in her own laboratory!”

The news caused an uproar. To confirm Isabelle’s death, Yu Ke also released photos of her body, while urging, “Stop destroying the factory! We have taken over this place. Isabelle and the management here are dead! Stop the destruction! The fuel and equipment here belong to us!”

The rebels never expected this sudden turn of events.

For a moment, they couldn’t distinguish friend from foe, mistaking Yu Ke for a workers’ leader. They began cheering and happily took over the equipment.

From the surveillance footage, Yu Ke’s appeal seemed to have a significant effect, and the riot was somewhat brought under control.

Lan Zhen recognized Yu Ke’s voice and contacted her using the communication device.

Hearing a familiar voice, Yu Ke finally breathed a sigh of relief. After explaining their situation, Lan Zhen assured her that she would handle everything.

Half an hour later, the workers began to disperse, gradually restoring order to the factory.

The elevator at the end of the first-floor corridor was repaired, powered back on, and resumed operation.

Yu Ke, holding Lan Xing, stepped into the elevator. After a long wait, the doors opened, revealing Lan Zhen’s face. Yu Ke felt as if she had finally seen the light again.

“Why are you in such a sorry state?” Lan Zhen sneered sarcastically. “Useless. In the end, you still had to rely on me.”

Yu Ke handed Lan Zhen the task of holding Lan Xing, giving a few careful instructions before turning back to fetch the group of children.

Lan Zhen was right, she had indeed acted incompetently in this situation.

To protect Lan Xing properly, she needed to become even stronger.