The Cannon Fodder Alpha Who Made the Heroine Pregnant - Chapter 11

11:

A Father’s Decree

The study fell into stunned silence as Zhou Xianling’s ultimatum settled over them like a shroud. Ling He’na’s hands trembled slightly where they clutched her pearl necklace, her usual threats had been empty posturing, but her husband’s words carved reality into stone.

In the Zhou family, his pronouncements were as irreversible as carved jade seals.

Zhou Lan nearly smiled at the irony. To outsiders, her choice would appear either insane or damning: what fool would renounce billions for something as fleeting as dreams? Unless, of course, she’d committed some unforgivable transgression that stripped her of inheritance rights.

Let them whisper. This public severance was precisely the lifeboat she needed from the sinking ship that was the Zhou empire.

Her gaze flicked to Chu Zhao, hoping against hope the omega might recognize this as her declaration of independence from Zhou family sins.

But Chu Zhao’s momentary surprise hardened into that familiar, icy detachment. Of course. To someone who’d been traded like livestock in their marital alliance, this was just another Zhou family power play.

If anything, Zhou Lan’s disinheritance might simplify Chu Zhao’s eventual divorce proceedings, though the calculating glint in those phoenix eyes suggested far more intricate plans.

The Walk of Shame

The clock chimed twice as Zhou Lan found herself unceremoniously ejected from the mansion, the elaborate lunch spread left untouched.

Hunger was the last thing on her mind as she spotted Chu Zhao’s solitary figure retreating down the cypress-lined driveway.

“Chu Zhao”! Her voice cracked embarrassingly as she jogged forward, palms raised in surrender when the omega whirled around, shoulders tensed like a cornered fox. “I just—the private estates don’t allow taxis. Let me drive you”?

Her pulse thundered in her ears. This was quite literally her first attempt at friendly female interaction across two lifetimes, and it had to be with the woman whose body she had violated during a pheromone storm. The silence stretched until Zhou Lan blurted out the only card she held:

“I can help you destroy the Zhou family.”

Chu Zhao’s laugh was winter incarnate. “The prized Zhou heir betraying her own bloodline? How… theatrical.”

Undeterred, Zhou Lan closed the distance, her whisper barely audible over the rustling leaves: “Zhou Xianling’s bribery ledgers. The offshore accounts. I know where they keep the evidence.”

Shadows and Suspicions

“Is this a trap?” The razor-sharp thought sliced through Zhou Lan’s mind-reading ability. “Has she uncovered my plans?”

Zhou Lan pressed her advantage, gesturing back at the gleaming monstrosity of a mansion. “You witnessed that spectacle. Why would I walk away from billions unless… She let the implication hang like a sword of Damocles, unless those billions were about to transform into prison sentences and frozen assets.”

Chu Zhao’s delicate nostrils flared as she reassessed her opponent. Zhou Lan could practically hear the recalculations:

Typical gutter ethics, came the scathing internal verdict. Gorging on dirty money for decades, then gnawing off her own limb at the first scent of danger. That aristocratic nose wrinkled in disgust. “But if the rat’s willing to lead me to the evidence.”

Zhou Lan barely suppressed a flinch. Her path to redemption, it seemed, would be paved with far more thorns than she’d anticipated.