After The Mission Failed, The Scumbag Alpha Ran Away - Chapter 50

50: Is My Posture Unattractive?

Jiang Youbai’s limbs were still weak and trembling. She struggled to stand up straight, her face still etched with sorrowful grief as she looked at Chi Ruo.

Chi Ruo couldn’t stand seeing Jiang Youbai like this—not just couldn’t stand it, but genuinely despised and loathed it.

She took a step back and asked, “Jiang Youbai, what right do you have to mourn for me as if my heart has died? If you don’t think being mentally raped by an Alpha for a lifetime is tragic, then don’t act like being physically raped is tragic either.”

“Today, I was raped simply because they’ve decreed that Betas and Omegas are meant for this—they believe I should feel ashamed of such violence. Alphas have defined gender, defined that under these conditions, Omegas and Betas should feel humiliated by such acts, while the Alphas who commit the violence face no consequences.”

Chi Ruo grinned fiercely, her face covered in bl00d, making her look like a vengeful ghost clawing its way out of hell.

At some point, the Chi Ruo who used to hide and cry at home after being bullied by Alpha nobles had stopped shedding tears.

“I only feel rage, Jiang Youbai! What difference does it make whether I’m a Beta or an Omega? What difference does it make if I’m a council member or a commoner? What difference does it make if I was raped or not?! Every single day, I live under this oppression, and my fury has never once diminished—I reject their definitions of me, and I reject your pity and sympathy now.”

She stared coldly at Jiang Youbai, who stood speechless, her eyes burning with icy wrath.

“Of course, what happened today hurt me—but it is not shameful! It will never negate my worth or dignity. You’re an Alpha. From an Alpha’s perspective, you think my life is over, that I should be mired in this humiliation forever. Then how are you any different from those Alphas out there? If that’s how you see it, then get out. Now.”

“Go back to your Alpha world!”

Jiang Youbai pressed against the transparent wall as if leaning against the barrier between her and Chi Ruo.

They relied on each other for survival, always moving forward side by side, yet there was forever this barrier between them.

Jiang Youbai choked back a sob, shaking her head, still unable to utter a single word.

What could she even say? At this moment, any words from her would sound unbearably hypocritical to Chi Ruo.

As an Alpha, she had inherently squeezed Chi Ruo out of resources, inherently dictated the entirety of Chi Ruo’s existence as a Beta. Before this, she had never felt pain over the injustices Chi Ruo suffered. Now, to feel pain over Chi Ruo’s differentiation into an Omega and subsequent rape by an Alpha would be nothing but performative pity.

The long-standing, pervasive discrimination and exploitation, versus the sharp, eruptive pain of this moment—Jiang Youbai had no right to compare which was more tragic, especially when she had always ignored the former, while the latter had occurred precisely because of the former.

Because Alphas were seen as superior to Omegas and Betas in every aspect of power, Omegas and Betas were expected to feel shame over being marked. So when power wielded marking as an act of violence, Omegas and Betas were meant to feel even more ashamed, even more as though they had been ruined.

Jiang Youbai’s voice trembled as she looked up into Chi Ruo’s eyes and asked, “Do you need me to bail you out?”

“No, but I need you to pass along some information.”

Jiang Youbai took a step back. “Alright.”

The pain born from her identity as an Alpha was hypocritical, but the help offered out of friendship was not.

She said to Chi Ruo, “Chi Ruo, whatever you want to do, I’ll help you. That’s how we’ve always been, and that’s how we’ll always be.”

“You’re my only family.”

Chi Ruo smiled, and Jiang Youbai couldn’t tell whether there was more mockery or indifference in that smile.

Chi Ruo raised her hand, clad in laser handcuffs, and tapped against the transparent wall. “Do you remember, years ago, when I couldn’t enter the Lower House because I was a Beta noble, and you cried while making peace with me, running around to pull strings for me?”

Jiang Youbai said, “I remember.”

“Back then, all the powerful families in the capital came to kick us while we were down, eyeing our assets, manpower, and wealth. We won then. Now it’s even harder—we can’t afford to lose.”

Jiang Youbai pressed her hand against the transparent wall, overlapping with Chi Ruo’s. She said to her, “Alright. We absolutely won’t lose.”

Chi Ruo said, “You don’t need to pass along too much information. First, transfer all my assets before I’m convicted. Also, the interrogation room is bugged, though not in real-time. Remember to find a way to delete this part of the recording later.”

The interrogation room’s bugs weren’t active in real-time—this was actually to facilitate the use of extralegal interrogation methods. Jiang Youbai took a deep breath. “I’ll take care of the police station for you.”

“I know that if we want to wage a public opinion battle, there’s one research paper that could be of great help to us. During the time you were marked by Lou Huaiche, the doctor has been conducting research. Although his advisor tried to stop him, I personally funded his work. His paper and findings—find a time to release them when you can.”

Though it was hardly the right moment, Chi Ruo still let out a light chuckle. “But he still couldn’t finish his Ph.D. He was expelled from the university because he insisted on writing that paper.”

Jiang Youbai said, “Right now isn’t the time to worry about whether he can graduate.”

“It’s fine, you can care about it.” Chi Ruo lowered her hand. The laser shackles trembled, having already reached the maximum damage threshold, and no longer burned her skin.

She instructed Jiang Youbai, “Remember to liquidate the assets when transferring them. All of my wealth has been used to acquire the Energy Group—store it in the warehouse at my place.”

Jiang Youbai’s mind was in chaos, completely unable to grasp the meaning behind Chi Ruo’s words.

She turned and walked out, her thoughts a tangled mess. Just as she stepped into the hallway of the police station, she ran straight into Jiang Qingxian.

Jiang Qingxian hesitated, then finally said in a low voice, “I’m sorry.”

Jiang Youbai asked, “Why are you apologizing to me? You should be saying that to Chi Ruo.”

She had no patience for Jiang Qingxian at the moment. Preoccupied with deleting records and making arrangements for Chi Ruo first, she brushed past Jiang Qingxian and headed straight for the exit.

Jiang Qingxian watched Jiang Youbai’s retreating figure, her lips parting slightly before she finally turned to the Alpha guard beside her and said, “Report this to His Majesty, and suspend Bai Mu’s duties for now.”

She couldn’t let Jiang Youbai truly overthrow the Empire.

Though she felt guilty toward Jiang Youbai and Chi Ruo, and though she despised herself for conforming to this environment, Jiang Qingxian still acted.

Vaguely, she felt herself swept along by a powerful current, dragged into a darkness with no future in sight—utterly powerless to resist its pull.

Jiang Youbai had just stepped out of the police station when she saw Lou Huaiche waiting for her outside the door.

Lou Huaiche took in Jiang Youbai’s unusually disheveled appearance and could easily imagine how disheveled Chi Ruo must have been inside the station.

She walked up to Jiang Youbai and asked, “Does Chi Ruo need my help?”

Jiang Youbai’s face was pale, and though she tried to force a smile, she couldn’t quite manage it. “Not for now. I need to figure out how to delete the surveillance footage from the interrogation room first…”

Lou Huaiche said, “No need. Just now, while waiting outside, I had my people find a way to get into the station, steal the USB drive, and smash the surveillance equipment.”

Jiang Youbai replied weakly, “Thank you.”

Lou Huaiche stared at Jiang Youbai and asked, “What did Chi Ruo say to you?”

For a period after Jiang Youbai’s death, Lou Huaiche often invited Chi Ruo and Ning Yunze out for drinks, so she was somewhat familiar with Chi Ruo.

Lou Huaiche had a vague premonition that Chi Ruo must have had a message to convey to her.

The request wasn’t meant for Jiang Youbai to handle but for Lou Huaiche, who would inevitably wait outside, inquire about the situation, and get involved.

Jiang Youbai pressed her forehead as dizziness washed over her again, making her words slightly slurred. “Chi Ruo asked me to pass on a message—to release the previous thesis on mutual marking between Alphas and Omegas… Also, to liquidate all her assets and use the funds to purchase energy modules.”

The night was deep, the sky clear as a mirror, with two moons hanging high at the horizon.

In the evening breeze, Lou Huaiche smiled gently. “Jiang Youbai, your job of passing on the message is done.”

Jiang Youbai could no longer withstand the dizziness. Frowning, she struggled to focus her vision as her body swayed unsteadily.

Lou Huaiche caught the fainting Jiang Youbai, her gaze bright and sharp as she looked toward the police station.

Chi Ruo had used Jiang Youbai to send Lou Huaiche a message—

No matter how this matter is handled, Chi Ruo will support Lou Huaiche, ensuring that the military forces hovering over the lower city district have sufficient resources to carry out a massacre.

From these words, Lou Huaiche could almost picture Chi Ruo dressed in a red gown, sitting with her legs crossed and laughing wildly: “Those Alphas—which one of them is stronger than me, Chi Ruo?”

The capital was in upheaval.

Chi Ruo, the head of the lower house of parliament, had differentiated into an Omega in a bar and was forcibly formally marked by two patrol guards belonging to the Crown Princess. Chi Ruo killed them, and immediately after the incident, the patrol squad arrested her on charges of aggravated homicide.

The incident occurred at 11 p.m., and by midnight, it had already taken the top spot on trending lists across all social media platforms in the capital.

At 12 a.m., the upper and lower houses of parliament jointly issued a statement declaring that Chi Ruo, having differentiated into an Omega, no longer met the requirements for parliamentary membership. Without waiting for a medical institution’s assessment, they removed her from parliament.

By 2 a.m., the Alpha-dominated cabinet and upper house demanded the removal of related hashtags from the internet and ordered the police to file a lawsuit to bring Chi Ruo to justice as quickly as possible.

At 3 a.m., without disclosing the interrogation process or investigation results, the police filed a lawsuit against Chi Ruo with the court.

Five minutes past 3 a.m., the Imperial Supreme Court, composed of eight Alphas and two Betas, announced it would hear the case.

Despite the frantic efforts of the Alpha-dominated cabinet and upper house to suppress the matter, discussions on social media platforms remained at the top of trending lists, quickly reclaiming their spots even after being taken down.

Under the hashtag #ChiRuo, countless Betas and Omegas across the empire protested vehemently. By 5 a.m., thousands had spontaneously gathered in silent protest outside the police station and courthouse, holding signs that read “No to injustice” and “No to covering up the truth” as they stood on the streets.

The sight of former Beta parliamentarian Chi Ruo stepping out of a police aircraft, covered in bl00d and disheveled, only fueled the protesters’ fury.

A little past 5 a.m., the sky over the capital was not yet fully bright. The moon hung low in the west, and a thin rain fell, the mist and drizzle weaving together into a silent, seething rage.

Chi Ruo, under the guard of numerous Alpha escorts, ascended the steps of the courthouse. Her red dress, already torn and tattered, was quickly drenched by the rain.

She tugged at the laser shackles on her wrists and glanced back at the dense crowd outside the courthouse, at the protest signs raised high under the dim light.

She let out a hearty laugh, loud enough to be heard by the Alphas behind her and by the hovering media drones broadcasting the scene.

“Are you Alphas afraid now?”

Standing in the rain, her red dress was strikingly vivid, like a flame burning fiercely against the downpour.

The bloodstains on Chi Ruo’s body melted in the rain, mingling with the water and dripping continuously, making the nearby Alphas feel as though she were some kind of vengeful ghost.

The Alpha closest to her warned, “Chi Ruo! Look at the state you’re in—don’t you know when to shut up and spare yourself the shame?”

Chi Ruo turned her head, staring straight at the Alpha, her face twisting into a sharp, mocking smile. “I look unsightly now? Yes, I’m oppressed and tormented. I’m furious and full of hatred—of course I don’t look graceful.”

Her voice rose higher, piercing through the rain and the gloom of the sky: “But what about you? Does your high-and-mighty, predatory demeanor look any better?”

Fearing her words would incite further anger among the capital’s citizens, the Alphas quickly hustled her into the courthouse.

From start to finish, the trial was a farce—even in the empire’s history, there had never been such a hasty, ludicrous spectacle of a trial.

No evidence, no testimony, no investigation, no lawyer.

At ten in the morning, the protesters gathered outside the courthouse were violently dispersed by the Imperial Patrol.

Half an hour later, despite repeated objections from a Beta judge, the remaining eight Alpha and Beta judges reached a unanimous verdict: Chi Ruo was sentenced to death.

Chi Ruo immediately appealed for a retrial, but the court rejected it.

She was temporarily imprisoned in the empire’s highest-security facility, classified as a top-tier criminal.

Public outrage erupted. For a week, Omegas and Betas in the capital protested—to no avail.

During that week, Jiang Youbai swiftly transferred Chi Ruo’s assets and attempted to rally Beta nobles from various factions to join in protesting the verdict.

But those profit-hungry, jackal-like Beta aristocrats all chose to shut their doors, refusing to involve themselves in the matter.

Even if they knew this was the Alpha conservatives striking back against the new faction, not a single person dared to speak up.

Through the remnants of her and Chi Ruo’s information network, Jiang Youbai learned a piece of news: Jiang Qingxian and the old emperor had promised to cede some power to the newly risen Beta elites in the capital. The terms of the deal were unknown.

Jiang Youbai didn’t even need to think about what those terms were—it had to be non-interference in Chi Ruo’s case.

As Jiang Youbai, once again at a loss and overwhelmed, sat in the Chi residence piecing together all the information in a desperate attempt to find a way out—

Lou Huaiche, who had been missing for two or three days, appeared before her with a disguised Lou Chuxue in tow.

Lou Huaiche asked Jiang Youbai, “At a dead end?”

Jiang Youbai smiled bitterly. “At a dead end.”

“Don’t look for a way out from within this, Jiang Youbai,” Lou Huaiche said to her. “A week ago, before Chi Ruo was imprisoned, she bribed a guard to pass on a message and a code. The code is for the energy source warehouse.”

Lou Chuxue, her face bright with a radiant smile, peeked out from behind Lou Huaiche and added, “The message was: Take me away, take me away from this rotten world, top to bottom.”

“Things were urgent, and with Jiang Qingxian’s people watching closely, it was already difficult for Chi Ruo to get the message out. There was no extra time to notify you,” Lou Huaiche explained. “Today, we finally seized the opportunity by having the military stir up some trouble at the border.”

Jiang Youbai had been sitting slumped in a chair in the Chi residence’s living room. Hearing this, she slowly raised her head.

Suddenly, she smiled. “Good.”

Jiang Youbai had lived in the capital for over twenty years. She had never touched the center of power, but she understood the empire’s gradual decline.

In the past, she had lived a lifeless existence, struggling under the old emperor’s gaze. The idea of succession had been a distant future, let alone overthrowing the empire.

Half a year ago, she had leaped from the high tower and ceased to be the empire’s princess.

But now, Jiang Youbai finally felt that she had truly escaped the shadow of the prince and achieved a kind of rebirth in a certain sense.

Whether it was rebirth or self-destruction didn’t matter to Jiang Youbai at this moment.

What mattered was that this was Chi Ruo’s wish, and so Jiang Youbai would choose without hesitation to stand behind her and help fulfill that wish.

Jiang Youbai and Chi Ruo were symbiotic—if Chi Ruo’s vitality were extinguished by the Empire, Jiang Youbai wouldn’t survive either.

For the past twenty years, they had walked forward side by side like this, and in the time to come, it would only continue this way.

Lou Huaice smiled faintly, her eyes blazing: “Your Highness—welcome to join us.”

Lou Huaice was dressed in a sleek black outfit. She leaned over, resting her hands on the sofa where Jiang Youbai sat, and said earnestly, “First, we need to break someone out of prison to rescue Chi Ruo. The plan that Lou Chuxue and I came up with is this: find someone, implant them with a Federation communicator, and have them enter the prison to confirm Chi Ruo’s location and condition. Then, when Chi Ruo is sent to the execution ground in half a month, we’ll coordinate from inside and out.”

Jiang Youbai first asked, “A Federation communicator? Is the signal strong enough?”

Then she followed up with another question: “How do you plan to get me inside?”

Lou Huaice replied, “Jiang Qingxian. She’s already caught wind of my movements and intentions. We just need to make her believe that you’re the one actually in contact with the Human Federation.”

“The Human Federation’s technology is advanced. Centuries ago, during the war, they took most of the classified research and fled.”

She tossed Jiang Youbai a file on Bai Mu’s personal background: “Luckily, your current identity is just a member of a registered mercenary group in the Lower City District. Let Jiang Qingxian investigate as much as she wants—her authority isn’t high enough, so she’ll have to report it to the old emperor. Even if she isn’t in a hurry, the old emperor will be.”

“As for Xiao Ning, on the day of the prison break, Lou Chuxue will lead the team to rescue you and Chi Ruo, while I’ll go to the Crown Princess’s residence to get Xiao Ning.” Lou Huaice’s gaze was unwavering. “I’m taking Xiao Ning away from this world with me.”

Half a month later, another bombshell shook the capital, further destabilizing the already chaotic situation.

The Imperial Palace’s chief steward and the cabinet prime minister jointly issued a statement accusing Bai Mu, the Beta brought back by Chi Ruo from an illegal organization in the Lower City District, of being the deceased Alpha prince, Jiang Youbai.

Before the people of the capital could process this series of events, another shocking revelation followed.

Due to collusion with the Human Federation, Jiang Youbai was charged with crimes against humanity by the Imperial Palace’s chief steward and the cabinet prime minister, who filed an appeal with the Empire’s Supreme Court. The police soon arrested the former prince at the border of the Lower City District as she attempted to flee the Upper City District.

The trial of the former prince was conducted in secret, but the verdict was announced immediately after the court session concluded.

Just like the trial of Chi Ruo a month earlier, the court announced the final verdict for Jiang Youbai on the same day: death by execution.

Originally, Jiang Qingxian had intended to temporarily detain Jiang Youbai to extract more information about the Human Federation. However, the old emperor, in a rare moment of lucidity, personally attended the trial and pronounced the sentence.

Jiang Youbai was not immediately transferred to prison for detention. Instead, the old emperor secretly moved him to an interrogation room.

After repeated interrogations failed to uncover the secret of Jiang Youbai’s resurrection, the old emperor descended into another bout of madness.

Many noble Alphas refused to believe that Bai Mu was truly Jiang Youbai resurrected from the dead, insisting instead that Chi Ruo had merely found someone who resembled the prince. Even Jiang Qingxian’s initial report to the old emperor had only stated that Bai Mu, as Chi Ruo’s associate, had colluded with the Human Federation.

But the old emperor, lost in delusions and hallucinations, stubbornly believed this was indeed Jiang Youbai. He was utterly convinced and insisted that the cabinet and the palace declare Bai Mu to be Jiang Youbai, hoping to extract the secret of immortality from him.

When Jiang Qingxian repeatedly tried to intervene during the interrogations, the furious old emperor lashed out: “Have you grown too ambitious? You don’t want me to live, do you? You want to seize my throne for yourself, is that it?”

The interrogation room was filled with ministers and guards, all witnessing this spectacle.

Jiang Qingxian, publicly rebuked, was momentarily stunned, never expecting the old emperor to turn on her so suddenly. As she stood speechless, the old emperor flew into a rage: “Confine her! Lock her up in her princess residence!”

The old emperor, likely confused, had forgotten that he had long ago granted Jiang Qingxian and the eldest prince the status of imperial heirs. His mental illness had been well concealed, and aside from the chief steward and Jiang Qingxian, no one else in the room was aware of it.

Thus, the attending ministers simply assumed he was growing increasingly obstinate. When the old emperor ordered Jiang Qingxian confined to her princess residence, they interpreted it as her having angered him and being stripped of her imperial heir title.

In early June, the Crown Princess was deposed and placed under house arrest in her residence.

This farce, which had lasted over a month, showed no signs of concluding. Instead, it escalated further.