Killing Marriage [ABO] - Chapter 30
Chapter 30; Moonlight
It must be said that the inside information Wei Jiangling had dug up was quite reliable.
Soon, major media outlets began to publish articles from various angles, analyzing the benefits of the “Two Babies in Five Years” policy, testing the public’s reaction.
In reality, the Marriage Monitoring Center had already been using various methods to get all married citizens to have “one baby in three years” while trying to push them toward “two in five.” Everyone knew the official stance. It was just that this time, it was brought out into the open and became a rigid regulation.
The scandal over the couple’s intimate video had died down, but public resentment was still simmering. Now, with the “Two Babies in Five Years” policy, a new storm was brewing.
Ren Zhong read the news and the arguments in the comment sections, and his heart sank.
Perhaps his mood was affecting him physically, but he woke up feeling utterly exhausted and couldn’t muster the energy to do anything.
Since he wasn’t feeling well, he didn’t force himself to do his recovery exercises. He took a leave from the rehabilitation center and went out for a stroll to relax.
He no longer needed two crutches; a single cane was enough for his daily life. In a few more days, this high-end cane, custom-made by Zhang Qingyuan, would also be honorably retired.
As soon as he stepped out, he ran into his neighbors, the mother and daughter, Mi Tong and Mi Li.
“Hi, Uncle Ren!” Mi Li waved excitedly at him. Who knew where this little rascal got so much energy from? She was always bursting with it.
She ran over to Ren Zhong and asked, “Uncle Ren, when are you going to take me to the shooting range to shoot a gun?”
“Huh?” Ren Zhong was confused.
Mi Li explained, “Mommy said that if I could finish the Bluebird Variation, she would reward me by letting me go to the shooting range with you. Didn’t you agree?”
Mi Tong followed up, looking apologetic. “I’m sorry, Captain Ren. I forgot to mention it to you earlier. I saw you were very busy these days, so I didn’t want to bother you.”
As she spoke, she gave Ren Zhong a subtle wink.
Ren Zhong understood. This was a common trick parents used to refuse their children’s requests. Mi Tong’s wink meant she wanted Ren Zhong to play along with her.
“Let’s wait until I’m not so busy,” Ren Zhong said, not wanting to contradict Mi Tong. After all, it was her child, and how she chose to raise her was her business.
But seeing Mi Li, who had been full of sparkles in her eyes, wilt, Ren Zhong felt a bit bad. He added, “I’ll take you when I’m free,” leaving some room for a change of plans.
Children’s moods change faster than turning a page. As soon as Mi Li heard Ren Zhong agree, she was happy again, singing and skipping, running circles around him and making joyful little sounds.
Just then, Shang Liwei came running out of the house. “Tongtong, the Marriage Monitoring Center has sent an important notice. It says we both need to go to the city’s western branch on the next business day with a health checkup report from the last three days.”
The only reason the Marriage Monitoring Center would request a face-to-face meeting with a couple and their health reports was to pressure them to have a baby.
If they missed this meeting, a negative note would be added to both of their files. Mi Tong was a compliant and obedient person; if the government said to go east, she wouldn’t dare go west. Shang Liwei would have to find a new job one day, and she couldn’t let this be a hindrance.
They had to go to this meeting.
“The next business day? That’s the day after tomorrow, isn’t it?” Mi Tong checked the notification on her phone app. “A health report from within three days… The checkup center is closed on Sunday, so we have to go today.”
Shang Liwei’s thumb tapped the phone screen. “I’m checking the online booking system for the health center… There are a few spots left for today, but we have to leave right away. It’s a forty-minute drive to get there.”
“But today is Li Li’s first ice-skating lesson, and we’ve already booked with the teacher. It’s really not good to cancel at this point,” Mi Tong said, looking troubled. “The coach was recommended by the ballet teacher, so we’d be offending both of them.”
The two of them, in perfect sync, turned to look at the idle Ren Zhong.
Ren Zhong’s eyes scanned their faces, and he understood again. “Alright, send me the address. I’ll take her.”
“Yay!” Mi Li jumped for joy.
…
The ice rink.
More people were practicing ice skating in the summer than he had expected. In the massive rink, the outer circle was filled with kids doing speed skating, running lap after lap. The inner circle was for figure skating, with kids spinning lap after lap.
“I thought you were learning ballet a while ago. Why did you switch to figure skating?” Ren Zhong asked.
Mi Li was carrying her small bag and skates, and she deliberately slowed down for Ren Zhong.
“Actually, the ballet teacher thought my body wasn’t good enough. She said ballet is all about having a good turnout and body proportions now. After training for a while, she saw I wasn’t good enough, but she didn’t want to reject me directly, so she passed me on to the figure skating teacher.”
She was less than eight years old, so it wasn’t too late to learn anything.
“Uncle Ren, look at the one with the stick, and the one in armor in front of the goal! It’s so cool!” Mi Li excitedly ran to another part of the rink, jumping to watch the kids practicing.
Ren Zhong walked over and said, “That’s not armor; those are just protective pads. They’re playing ice hockey.”
“I want to play that,” Mi Li said, her eyes shining. She wasn’t this excited when she saw the kids doing figure skating spins.
Ren Zhong said helplessly, “Wanting to learn is one thing, and what your mom wants you to learn is another. Let’s stick with the coach you booked for today.”
He brought Mi Li back to the figure skating rink and met the coach for the day.
“Hello, my name is Shen. Just call me Coach Shen.” The coach was a male Omega in his thirties, with a slightly tired face, but you could tell he had been a handsome person in his youth.
Ren Zhong felt like he had seen this person somewhere before. A sense of familiarity lingered in his mind.
The coach was kind and patient, meticulously teaching Mi Li how to put on her skates and explaining all the precautions for getting on the ice.
“Before you learn to skate, you have to learn how to fall. When you fall, protect yourself and others as much as possible so you don’t get hurt…”
Coach Shen took Mi Li to the edge of the rink and practiced falling for a while. Mi Li quickly figured out how to skate on the ice by herself. She was a quick learner, and her movements were a good imitation of the coach’s.
Ren Zhong watched them from the sidelines. His eyes were fixed on the name tag on Coach Shen’s chest.
“Shen Hengchen.”
The name felt so familiar. He had to have seen it somewhere.
Ren Zhong racked his brain for a while and finally remembered where he had seen the name.
In Zhang Qingyuan’s photo album, there was a picture of his junior high school uniform signed by all his classmates. The name signed over the heart was “Shen Hengchen.”
In the class group photo, the two of them were always standing closest to each other. It wasn’t until Shen Hengchen got married and became pregnant that he disappeared from Zhang Qingyuan’s photos.
Ren Zhong, having been in the military, had the necessary investigative skills and memory.
He suddenly remembered the passionate essay Zhang Qingyuan had used to persuade him to join KFM.
His Omega classmate from junior and senior high, who used to be a figure skater, got matched and married, retired, had three children, was raped and abused by her husband, and was found bleeding on the side of the road by Zhang Qingyuan, who rushed him to the hospital…
He was probably talking about Coach Shen.
It wasn’t that Ren Zhong’s mind was going to strange places. All the clues pointed to a very clear fact.
This Coach Shen was once Zhang Qingyuan’s “white moonlight” and was even a major driving force behind his decision to join KFM.
Ren Zhong felt a sudden sense of discomfort.
His discomfort wasn’t directed at Coach Shen. He felt nothing but respect for a person who, after being ravaged by such a cruel experience, was still working and living hard.
What made him feel uncomfortable was Zhang Qingyuan. The feeling came out of nowhere. He suddenly felt that the face that had seemed so pleasing to the eye when he was kissing it a few nights ago wasn’t so pleasing anymore.
He even felt like cursing Zhang Qingyuan in his mind.
Suddenly, a chord that had not been struck in Ren Zhong’s mind for a long time rang out.
Fatigue, weakness, drowsiness, loss of appetite, mood swings, easily influenced by his own pheromones, a significant decrease in resistance to Alpha pheromones…
He had experienced these symptoms before, but since it had been five years, they weren’t as clear now.
His subdermal implant was about to expire.
When he got into the military academy at fifteen, Ren Zhong immediately got a subdermal implant. Not long after the first one expired at twenty, he got a second one, and the dosage was slightly higher. It should have lasted for six to seven years…
Ren Zhong’s eyelid twitched.
This matter was like a suddenly ringing alarm clock, telling him that time was passing by at an alarming speed.
Ren Zhong was almost twenty-seven.
He still thought of himself as being in his early twenties, at the prime of his life, a time when he could be active on the front lines of the military and “be youthful.” But in the blink of an eye, his second implant was on the verge of expiring.
Has it really been that long?
Ren Zhong felt a strong sense of crisis.
Perhaps for an Alpha of this age, the golden age of career development was just beginning.
Even Alpha men in their thirties could be forgiven for acting like kids. People would use the phrase “Alphas are boys until death” to excuse their immaturity and irresponsibility, giving them maximum indulgence.
But Omegas were different. Starting at this age, all the anxiety would be placed on their backs. The military might refuse his request for another implant, citing his “reproductive age” and “married status.”
Without the implant, he would go into heat, get pregnant, and lose everything he had accumulated in the military over the years.
Ren Zhong’s eyes fell on Coach Shen on the ice rink.
Coach Shen was the same age as Zhang Qingyuan, yet he looked so much older because he had three children one after another. He even looked older than Ren Zhong, with a tiredness on his face that he couldn’t hide. This was why Ren Zhong hadn’t recognized Shen Hengchen right away.
After all, there wasn’t much left of the youthful years captured in the photos on this person.
Was this the same destination for all Omegas?
After the figure skating lesson, Coach Shen and Mi Li were both very happy. Mi Li, who had just been complaining that she wanted to play ice hockey, was already making plans for her next lesson with Coach Shen.
Coach Shen smiled, wiping his slightly sweaty forehead. “You’re Mi Li’s family, right? I’ve been in contact with her mom before, so it’s okay if I continue to communicate with her mom for future lessons, right?”
“Mhm, thank you for your hard work, Coach Shen,” Ren Zhong said, helping Mi Li put on her skate guards and pack up her skates. “Her mom had to deal with something urgent today.”
Coach Shen nodded. “Ms. Mi told me. It’s related to that new ‘Two in Five’ policy. I understand. If I didn’t already have three children, I would have been called in for a meeting too.”
“So many people are openly opposing it. I wonder if it will be implemented,” Ren Zhong said to himself, watching Mi Li go to the vending machine to get a drink.
“What good is the public’s opposition? The opposition to the ‘Compulsory Marriage Matching Act’ was so strong back then, but didn’t it still get implemented?” Coach Shen said with a bitter smile. “Once something like this starts, there’s no turning back.”
Ren Zhong said faintly, “That’s true.”
Then he added, “But there will come a day when it will be taken back.”
He asked Shen Hengchen, “If compulsory marriage matching were to be abolished, what would you do?”
“Me? I would definitely live with my children. The money I make as a coach isn’t a lot, but it’s enough to feed four mouths.” Shen Hengchen smiled. If he had a future, his plans would absolutely not include a husband, only an ex-husband.
Such a stubborn person was someone anyone would like.
“Then I wish you could get what you want, Coach Shen,” Ren Zhong said with a smile.
Waving goodbye to Coach Shen, Ren Zhong turned and asked Mi Li, who was in front of the vending machine, “Do you want to go to the shooting range?”
Hearing this, Mi Li didn’t even care about the drink she had just bought. She took two steps in one and rushed to Ren Zhong. “Yes! Yes! Yes!”
“Then let’s go. We’ll go now,” Ren Zhong said, taking out his phone and dialing the number of an old comrade.