Transmigrated as the Imperial Princess's Scumbag Alpha Ex-Wife - Chapter 4

The Eighteenth-Tier Chaotic Star System.

A meteor streaked across the sky, followed by a series of thunderous booms. Helan, who was sweeping the ground, barely glanced up, accustomed to such sights. She wiped her hands on her apron, leisurely hoisted her snakeskin bag onto her small cart, and drove toward the meteor’s impact site.

This region lay along the vast border between the Empire and the Federation—a resource-scarce, heavily polluted, and impoverished area that both nations had long neglected. It was a lawless Chaos Zone, lacking even an official name.

By the time Helan arrived, a small crowd of scavengers had already gathered, eager to salvage any valuable debris from the wreckage. They often collected fallen parts, hoping to sell them for a decent price.

But today’s scene was unsettling. Helan scanned the area and saw only two corpses.

One woman, her silver hair gleaming, was curled protectively around the other, her arms tightly wrapped around her head and chest. A massive parachute lay scattered nearby.

Unfortunately, such meager protection was no match for the impact.

In this world, the dead were worthless, devoid of any salvage value.

The crowd dispersed in disappointment, cursing the sky for its empty promises.

Helan circled the site, her interest waning. Still, having come this far, she decided to cut away the parachute’s canopy. She drew her dagger and, while she was at it, chased away a scavenger trying to strip the corpses of their clothing.

As Helan approached, the younger corpse suddenly twitched, startling her into recoiling several steps.

“Help…” The voice was faint, barely audible above the wind.

Probably just a deathbed rally, Helan thought, dismissing it. She efficiently sliced through the ropes, but as she finally severed one, a glance out of the corner of her eye revealed the black-haired girl had propped herself up and was desperately trying to kiss the woman lying on the ground.

She leaned in cautiously, pecking at the woman’s lips like a chick pecking at grain, then crossed her hands and began CPR. Exhausted, she stared in disbelief at her own hands before collapsing back onto the ground, her fists weakly pounding the earth.

She doesn’t seem quite right in the head, Helan thought.

Helan cautiously decided to keep her distance. Who knew what viruses might have fallen from the sky?

The girl continued to struggle, her voice thin and frail: “Someone, please save her! She’s still alive! I’m still alive too!”

“We can be useful! Just save us…”

Helan glanced at them again. Two frail girls with spindly arms and legs—what use could they possibly be? The Chaos Zone didn’t tolerate idlers, and she wasn’t some savior. With a soft sigh, Helan dragged the folded parachute behind her and turned to leave.

The girl’s voice faded, becoming a muddled, dreamlike murmur.

“Mom…”

Helan paused, impatiently brushing the mud from her shoes. Behind her, the girl continued to repeat those two simple syllables in a disorganized manner.

The girl gently raised her fingertips toward Helan. “Mom…!”

Too noisy. So annoying.

There was already one person at home who made this kind of racket every day. Helan frowned, unable to resist walking over to carefully examine their injuries.

Sensing someone approaching, the girl narrowed her clear black-and-white eyes, meeting Helan’s gaze for a few seconds. Suddenly, her insistent calls softened:

“Mom, I’m okay. It doesn’t hurt at all…”

“I want to eat.”

Even in this state, she’s thinking about food? Is she a reincarnated hungry ghost? Helan suppressed the tremor in her heart, took a deep breath, and strode away.

A moment later, Helan returned in her small vehicle. She checked their breathing, and after confirming they were still alive, she viciously unfurled the umbrella fabric and hauled them onto it.

The girl waiting obediently at the door spotted the approaching vehicle and the large bundle crammed into the back seat from afar. She leaped up in excitement to greet them. “Wow, Mom—!”

Helan waved her over. “Stop yelling and come help. I picked up two strays.”

When Zhu Yu woke up, the first thing she saw was an enlarged face looming over her. The girl, beaming with delight, rested her chin in her hands and exclaimed, “Wow—!”

Her tone was akin to observing some small animal. Zhu Yu instinctively checked her hands and body—they were all still there, and she appeared to be a normal human.

The girl asked, “Are you a pilot? You fell from the sky and didn’t die!”

Is that how you use the word ‘pilot’?

Fell from the sky… As her thoughts gradually returned, Zhu Yu scrambled to her feet and looked at Bai Shuzhou lying beside her.

The girl craned her neck to follow Zhu Yu’s gaze. The woman’s face was pale, her silvery-white hair spread across her neck, and her slender eyebrows were slightly furrowed. Even covered in dirt, she radiated a fragile, crystalline beauty.

“Wow—Mom! Is she a fairy who turned into a shooting star?”

Zhu Yu found this amusing. How had she gone from being a pilot to Bai Shuzhou being a fairy? The whole vibe had shifted!

Her memories were fragmented. They were currently lying on the living room floor, surrounded by scattered plastic bottles filled with colorful pills.

Zhu Yu accepted the water the girl offered and drank it in one gulp, relieving the dryness in her throat. She murmured, “Did you save us? Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it,” the woman said, approaching in her white lab coat and black apron. The light made her seem tall and reassuring.

For a moment, Zhu Yu squinted, thinking she saw her mother. But while her mother always smelled of disinfectant, this woman carried the aroma of cooking, a blend of savory scents and kitchen smoke.

Zhu Yu’s nose stung with emotion.

“Remember to pay,” the woman reminded her. “These medicines aren’t cheap.”

“Oh, right, thank you.”

Zhu Yu reached out to check Bai Shuzhou’s breathing and forehead. Her temperature had returned to normal, and the leg wound had been crudely bandaged.

Zhu Yu picked up the bottle and examined it. There was no safety certification, and the label was handwritten in messy script: Fever Reducer, Painkiller, Anti-inflammatory, Sleep Aid.

Quite the multi-purpose remedy.

“Are you a pilot?” the little girl asked, her eyes shining with unwavering persistence.

Zhu Yu noticed the woman’s guarded gaze shift toward them. Pretending nonchalance, she pressed, “Who are you people? How did you get so injured?”

“We…” Zhu Yu coughed a few times.

Those mad noble lunatics had actually dared to attack them. They likely wouldn’t give up easily. Moreover, the original Zhu Yu’s secret base was well-hidden. From her fragmented memories, their relationship with these strangers hadn’t yet reached the level of trust required to share such a secret.

They had been targeting Bai Shuzhou from the very beginning.

Is this place safe?

Zhu Yu glanced at the little girl and the faded certificates on the wall, then ventured a fabricated story. “We’re sisters. My sister was taking me to school when we encountered Interstellar Pirates. Our starship exploded…”

“Sisters?” Helan’s expression turned peculiar. She remembered Zhu Yu leaning over to kiss Bai Shuzhou earlier, but seeing her unwavering conviction, she quickly convinced herself it must have been for CPR.

Zhu Yu had a remarkably innocent face, her eyes clear and bright. She spoke with an embarrassed smile, and her tattered white shirt gave her the air of a studious student. She looked perfectly convincing as a university student.

“A university student, huh?” Helan sighed wistfully. “Which university do you attend?”

It seemed some questions never change, no matter the era. Zhu Yu gave a vague answer: “Quantum Technology University.”

There were countless Science and Technology Universities across both the Empire and the Federation, making it a safe and ambiguous response.

Helan nodded, seemingly impressed by the prestigious name. “A good school! It’s quite an achievement for a Beta to get in there.”

The remark sounded odd, but if you replaced “Beta” with “ordinary person,” it made perfect sense.

The original Zhu Yu had also been born in a remote star system, into a slum family. She understood the vast resource disparities between different regions, and the Imperial Royal Military Academy seemed like paradise to her—a place where, like a carp leaping over the Dragon Gate, one could instantly achieve enlightenment and ascend to greatness.

However, everyone seemed to assume she had been admitted to the academy solely because she was an Alpha, even if only a low-ranking one.

Zhu Yu smiled shyly.

In truth, without pheromones, she couldn’t tell the difference between Alphas, Betas, and Omegas. They all had one nose and two eyes.

Just like now, the other party had already assumed they were all Betas who had taken an illegal discount flight to smuggle themselves across borders, only to encounter Interstellar Pirates. Even if the ship had been destroyed, there would be no official report.

This place was located at the border between two nations. Helan had long witnessed countless adventurers and smugglers meeting gruesome ends far from home. Zhu Yu and Bai Shuzhou were considered lucky; at least they weren’t missing limbs or scattered in pieces.

Through the child, Zhu Yu quickly assessed their surroundings. The area was chaotic yet relatively safe, with no regular military presence and even incomplete coverage of the optical brain network.

Fortunately, due to the delayed news, Zhu Yu remained unaware that she had become a wanted criminal, accused of kidnapping the Imperial Princess.

She was still relieved that those twisted, traitorous nobles wouldn’t find them anytime soon.

The trumpet-loving, wailing child was named He Ming, Helan’s daughter from a single-parent family.

In this world, only Omegas could conceive naturally; everyone else relied on the Life Tree System for reproduction, with extremely strict application requirements.

Helan ran a small restaurant on the street, one of the few honest establishments in this era still committed to purely handmade cuisine. The prices were steep, and repeat customers were scarce.

Occasionally, she would scavenge or hunt to supplement their income, determined to provide for He Ming’s education.

Drawing on her understanding of the local situation, Zhu Yu quickly fabricated a whole story: a sick mother, herself attending school, a working sister, a broken home…

To pay for her schooling, her sister had dropped out early, Zhu Yu explained, lowering her head. Her sister had been a talented dancer, but she had recently injured her leg in a fall.

Helan’s attitude softened considerably. With a wave of her large hand, she gifted them all the medicine and even offered to rent out the adjacent courtyard for just sixty credits a day.

Zhu Yu was moved to tears of gratitude as she pushed open the gate to the courtyard next door.

A small junkyard.

A screw creaked as it turned a full rotation. The yard was piled high with miscellaneous appliances, and a small shack had been built from scrap metal and tiles. Helan generously offered, “Feel free to rummage through the yard for anything you need. It’s all free of charge.”

Zhu Yu couldn’t find a single penny on her. If this had been the old Zhu Yu, she would have been so embarrassed she’d want to dig a hole and hide. But this Zhu Yu was different!

She had grown. Standing before you now was the Scumbag A version of Zhu Yu!

It was like wearing a fuzzy mascot costume, trading shackles for a disguise. She could act without restraint, with no face to lose.

She rubbed her hands together awkwardly. “Sister, pretty sister…”

Helan’s smile vanished instantly, her hands planted firmly on her hips. “Don’t try that on me. Calling me ‘Mom’ won’t work either. It’s already a bargain—not a penny less!”

Zhu Yu: “Pretty Mom, actually, I’m from a single-parent family too.”

Helan: “……”

Zhu Yu said sincerely, “I felt an instant connection with you the moment I saw you. My mom is just as strong and independent as you are, raising our whole family on her own. She’s truly amazing.”

This time, Zhu Yu wasn’t lying. She genuinely came from a single-parent household. Her mother was a doctor who often wore a white coat, its hem fluttering as she strode forward without ever looking back, her ponytail swaying behind her. As a child, Zhu Yu had always thought her mother was incredibly cool.

If only she would occasionally glance back at me, Zhu Yu thought.

Bai Shuzhou woke up on the wooden bunk, faintly hearing Zhu Yu’s voice.

She recalled Zhu Yu’s sharp piloting skills as she executed the Interstellar Jump before the explosion, and how Zhu Yu had tightly pulled her into her arms during the crash. The emotions swirling in her light blue eyes grew complex.

Then she heard the girl’s clear, sweet voice calling out from outside, “Pretty Mom!”

Bai Shuzhou: “……”

She closed her eyes again.