The two walked past Xiao Ziyao and Xiao Zizhe, who were glaring at them angrily, and, led by a servant, headed toward the villa’s main gate.
Seeing this, Xiao Ziyao hurriedly called his father and recounted the incident, embellishing the details as he went.
Though the Lingti Clan’s main residence was called a villa, it was actually quite large—a complex of interconnected buildings forming a single residential estate. Blending Chinese and Western styles, it exuded a vintage atmosphere from the moment one entered the landscaped gardens. One had to pass through a diamond-patterned brick path lined with swaying bamboo before reaching the main gate.
Two security guards stood rigidly at attention in the guardhouse, one monitoring the surveillance screens and the other watching the entrance. Both were armed with pistols at their waists, stood over six feet tall, and wore form-fitting uniforms—and both were M2-class high-level Beast Gland Alphas.
A servant ran up to explain the situation. Han Xingqian took out his ID, handed it through the duty window, and then showed them the appointment record on his phone: “I am Han Xingqian, here by invitation to examine the young mistress.”
Dr. Chen had always been the one treating his older sister-in-law, but recently, Dr. Chen had to travel to Germany for an important academic conference and was unable to spare the time. It was also difficult to find a doctor of comparable skill to take over on such short notice. Coincidentally, Dr. Zhong from the IOA Medical Association had strongly recommended his star pupil, Han Xingqian, to him. Dr. Chen trusted Dr. Zhong Cailing’s judgment above all else, so he gladly agreed.
The security guard’s piercing gaze swept over Han Xingqian’s entire body, then shifted to the medical bag Xiao Xun was carrying: “Hello, your luggage needs to go through security screening.”
The two of them also passed through security, though the invisible communication devices in their ears were undetectable by the scanners.
After clearing security, the two were finally allowed to enter. A servant crouched down to clean the soles of their shoes, then whispered a few words to another servant standing nearby. The latter startled and hurried off down the corridor.
It appeared they were going to notify the steward.
The servant gave a slight nod and led the way, guiding the guests to the reception room.
The interior of the house was quite different from what Han Xingqian had imagined. It had a gloomy, medieval castle-like atmosphere. The wallpaper on both sides appeared to have been there for many years; though it had yellowed, it was cleaned frequently and professionally, so it didn’t look dilapidated at all. However, the lighting wasn’t particularly bright; a dim, yellowish glow illuminated the authentic oil paintings hanging on the walls.
At the end of the straight corridor, a left turn revealed a wall adorned with a massive, long oil painting. It seemed the current head of the Lingti family had quite a fondness for such luxuries.
As he passed the long painting, Han Xingqian suddenly spotted Xiao Xun in the corner.
In the dark corner of the canvas, Xiao Xun—who looked to be only eight or nine years old—stood sideways next to a woman, his gaze intensely cold and sorrowful, his face devoid of even a hint of a smile.
“This is a family portrait, painted nine years ago for the old man’s seventieth birthday,” Xiao Xun explained softly. “On the day they painted me, my older brother spilled water from the balcony, so I was upset.”
Han Xingqian ruffled his hair in consolation.
Scanning the family members in the portrait one by one, Han Xingqian’s gaze suddenly paused on the face of a Lingti omega in his early twenties. He even thought he might be mistaken, so he studied it closely for a moment.
“Is this… Professor Lin Deng?”
The Spirit-Tie Omega was wearing a white doctor’s coat, with a stethoscope still hanging around his neck. His hair was a light blue-gray, styled into a slightly longer wolf’s tail at the nape of his neck. His eyes were kindly narrowed into two crescent moons, giving him a gentle, good-natured appearance.
His features did bear a slight resemblance to Lin Deng’s, but his demeanor was quite different.
“You mean Uncle Liu? His name is Xiao Yang. He really does look a bit like Dr. Lin Deng. My dad is the fifth son, and Uncle Liu is the youngest among their full brothers.” Xiao Xun followed Han Xingqian’s gaze. “Sorry, but when naming Omegas in our family, we don’t use characters with auspicious meanings, nor do we include generational names in the middle.”
“Xiao Yang—is he home right now?”
“He left a long time ago,” Xiao Xun said. “Eight years ago, he got engaged to a Lingti Alpha from the Qi family, but the groom died suddenly on their wedding night. The doctor said it was a cerebral hemorrhage. Everyone was really upset. Uncle Liu stayed with the Qi family for a while before moving out to work on his own. I don’t know where he is now—I haven’t seen him in ages.”
“But Uncle Liu’s fiancée, Qi Qizhu, is also a very slender Lingti Alpha. Uncle Liu hates Alphas who are slender and fair-skinned—he prefers the burly, muscular type—so he’s extremely dissatisfied with his fiancée, though he keeps it to himself and puts on a cheerful face.”
Bai Chunian suddenly spoke up in protest over the communicator: “What’s wrong with a fair-skinned, puppy-faced Alpha? It’s K034 now—what kind of outdated mindset is that in your family?”
Xiao Xun paused, the corners of his lips curving slightly. “Those features look great on Brother Chu.”
Han Xingqian turned his gaze toward him. Xiao Xun’s tail was wagging gently, but when he suddenly realized Dr. Han was watching him, the wagging slowed down and eventually stopped. However, sensing that Dr. Han wasn’t actually angry, his tail began to wag happily once more.
Passing through the foyer, a servant pushed open another door, and daylight flooded in once more. A tree-lined path led to the reception room; white wooden fences were interspersed among the trees, creating a natural garden.
From a distance, Han Xingqian spotted a female omega in her thirties standing in the garden. She wore a snow-white, loose-fitting lace dress and held a watering can in her hands. Streaks of light filtering through the tree branches cast a trail of honey-colored speckles across her slender, white wrists.
However, from a doctor’s perspective, Han Xingqian noticed that her waist was unnaturally thin—likely the result of having lower ribs removed and wearing a corset.
“That’s my third aunt.”
Upon seeing Xiao Xun, Third Aunt paused for a moment, then shuffled over: “I never believed you were dead. Children always talk nonsense. Where have you been these past two years?”
Xiao Xun glanced at Dr. Han and replied softly, “I went away to school.”
“Good, you’ve broadened your horizons.” Auntie San set down the teapot, pinched Xiao Xun’s waist, and said with concern, “You’re almost six feet tall now. Studying away from home, you need to watch what you eat—three meals a day—or else no one will like you, and your uncles will get upset again.”
Seeing the chill in Xiao Xun’s expression, Han Xingqian stepped in with a gentle voice: “He eats very healthily here. Please don’t worry.”
Only then did Auntie No. 3 notice the stranger following behind them. Surprised, she quickly pulled down her rolled-up sleeves. Her face was pale, and her lips had a purplish-pink tint.
“This is Dr. Han, my mentor. He’s here to examine my eldest sister-in-law.”
“Hmm, go on then.”
Leaving the Muben Night-Blooming Garden, Xiao Xun smoothed out his T-shirt with a touch of irritation.
“You don’t really like Third Aunt, do you?”
“I don’t dislike her.”
As they ventured deeper into the main family residence, Han Xingqian noticed that every single omega, regardless of height, possessed long legs and a wasp-like waist. Moreover, many had opted for rib removal—a procedure as commonplace among them as double eyelid surgery or hyaluronic acid injections were for beauty-conscious people in the outside world.
Compared to them, the so-called “A4-waist” and “reaching around to touch your navel” trends from the outside world were laughably weak. Their waists were barely the width of a palm; a slightly stronger gust of wind might just snap them in half.
Even someone as worldly as Han Xingqian was stunned by the Lingti clan’s distorted sense of aesthetics.
In Han Xingqian’s eyes, Xiao Xun’s waist was already naturally slender—a trait inherent to the Lingti race. It seemed her body had never been subjected to external alterations, but perhaps it was precisely this nonconformity that made life difficult for her in the Xiao family.
He lowered his head and whispered comfortingly, “You look perfectly healthy right now, and you’re beautiful. Don’t ever do what they did.”
Xiao Xun’s eyes stung, and she gave a faint, hesitant “Mm-hmm.”
“Team A is about to enter the main hall.” Han Xingqian pulled up his collar to cover his mouth as he relayed their real-time location to the others.
Bai Chunian, still perched among the branches outside the villa, heard the news and beckoned to Lan Bo: “Let’s go.”
Lan Bo climbed along the branches to Bai Chunian’s back, wrapping the tip of his tail around one of Bai’s legs.
Bai Chunian, holding Xiao Xun’s sniper rifle magazine, leaped lightly toward the sprawling canopy. His innate ability, Silent Cat Stride, allowed his toes to land steadily on the slender branches without dislodging a single leaf.
Bai Chunian approached the villa with Lan Bo, bypassing the two security guards at the front door and circling around to the side of the villa.
Bai Chunian climbed with blinding speed, like a streak of white light shooting upward. Lan Bo held the sniper rifle’s magazine in its mouth, and a幽 blue arc of electricity formed between the bones of its lower body, discharging near the tip of its tail to create a dome-shaped shield around them. As they passed surveillance cameras and infrared laser security systems, the equipment would instantly short-circuit, only returning to normal once they had moved on.
True to its reputation as a family of mercenary hunters, the Lingti Clan’s security system was exceptionally comprehensive. Just as Bai Chunian reached the middle of the building, a laser scan swept toward him.
Meanwhile, the security guard at the sentry post detected a hint of something amiss and, gun in hand, circled around to the side of the villa.
“Xiao Bai.” Lan Bo released the magazine from his sniper rifle; as it fell, the tip of his tail silently caught it. He swiftly climbed up and tackled Bai Chunian to the ground, channeling his accumulated electricity to form a circular barrier that clashed with the laser scan grid.
Bai Chunian pursed his lips and leaped toward a window on the side of the building. He hung from the narrow windowsill like a cat, pulled out a magnet and a thin wire to pick the lock, and climbed inside. Just as the laser scan grid was about to make contact with them, he yanked Lan Bo inside and gently closed the window.
Just then, the security guard circling below looked up, only to see the quiet sky.
Bai Chunian let out a sigh of relief and pressed his forehead against Lan Bo’s. “We need to find the contract between the research institute and the Lingti Clan first, to see where the institute plans to sell the finished product. Don’t engage in any direct confrontation with security until I give the go-ahead. If we tip them off here, Brother Han might get detained right away.”
“Got it.”
Bai Chunian scanned the surroundings. It was a storage room filled with odds and ends, with mops, rags, and buckets piled on the shelves.
Lan Bo peered through the crack in the door: “There’s a stench.”
“What kind of stench?”
“Body odor.”
“I think I heard a sound—it seems pretty far away.” Bai Chunian checked; the door was locked from the outside. He crouched down and poked at the keyhole with a piece of wire. Lan Bo flicked his tail, and the heat generated by the high-voltage current instantly melted the lock. The door slowly swung open. They stepped out, and Lan Bo welded the lock back into place.
Xiao Xun had warned them in advance that special security guards were stationed inside the Lingti family residence to protect certain important rooms, but he couldn’t say exactly what they were, since he had never seen them himself.
Bai Chunian led Lan Bo past the coming and going servants and made their way deep into the mansion. Just then, they heard over the communicator that Dr. Han and Xiao Xun had already made contact with several parents; everyone’s attention should now be drawn to them.
Sure enough, several servants hurried past them toward the main hall. Bai Chunian led Lan Bo to slip into an empty bedroom to avoid the servants in the hallway.
Lan Bo stood guard at the door while Bai Chunian briefly surveyed the room. It appeared to be the bedroom of one of the ladies of the house; the crystal chandelier was a new model from a prestigious brand, and the entire room was lavishly and exquisitely decorated.
On the wall near the study hung many framed old photographs. In the wedding photo, the Lingti Omega smiled as she leaned against her husband; the surrounding photos documented Xiao Ziyao’s growth from childhood to adulthood.
It appeared this was the bedroom of the Xiao family’s second uncle and aunt.
There were also group photos of several of the Xiao family elders on the wall. Bai Chunian glanced casually and suddenly spotted a familiar face in one of the photos—Lingti Omega, standing at the back of her brothers, bore a striking resemblance to Dr. Lin Deng. It was clearly Uncle Xiao Yang, the sixth uncle whom Dr. Han had discussed with Xiao Xun.
But he looked even more like the researcher with smoky blue hair who had gotten out of the car with Aileen in front of the ruins of the Red Fox City breeding facility.
Lan Bo crawled over, propping his chin in his hand as he studied the Omega in the photo: “Oh, it’s that guy with the squinty eyes.”
“You remember him too, right?”
Zhong Ai was a burly, towering Alpha—he was the designer of the experimental subjects Di Yue and Gagantel. There was no mistaking him.