Chapter 62

Ruan Tang looked at the chrysanthemum tea and Suppressant the footman presented, feeling utterly helpless.

These were all excellent items for ruining the mood, cooling one's temper, and exercising restraint.

In all his years, he had never encountered such an otherworldly Alpha—one who, simply because an Omega had exchanged a few teasing remarks with him from a distance, would send that Omega Suppressant and chrysanthemum tea...

Ruan Tang was rendered completely speechless and could only comfort himself by thinking that perhaps this was precisely what made Auston endearing. At the very least, this behavior proved he was a man who kept himself spotless and clean—a far cry from the likes of Ruan Ming.

"Madam." Auston stepped forward, leaning in to quietly catch the scent of Ruan Tang before presenting the items in his hands.

Ruan Tang took the items and immediately waved him off. "Fine, I understand. Thank His Lordship for me. It's getting late—you should head back and rest early too."

Auston saw him urging him to leave. Though reluctant to part with Ruan Tang's scent, as a footman he dutifully complied. "Yes."

And withdrew.

However, as he left Ruan Tang's room, he couldn't help but think to himself: wasn't Ruan Tang perfectly fine just as he was? Hadn't they gotten along wonderfully before?

Why did he have to go and be like this?

It had gotten to the point where he didn't even dare come see him anymore. Fortunately, he still had his disguise.

As expected, Omegas were the kind of creatures you simply couldn't indulge. He would have to keep his distance from Ruan Tang from now on.

......

Ever since Ruan Tang had risen to power and taken the chairmanship of the Omega Protection Association, there was no telling how many people harbored hatred behind his back, eager to drag him down.

This time, his charge into the Ruan Family home, his rampage through the household, and his brazen dragging away of Xia Ruzhi had been so sensational that before the dust had even begun to settle, someone had seized the moment and uploaded a video of Ruan Tang publicly beating Xia Ruzhi online. They openly accused him—an Omega male—of showing absolutely no protectiveness toward a more vulnerable Omega female, going so far as to resort to violence. Was such a person truly capable of upholding Omega rights, advancing the interests of Omegas nationwide, and working for the welfare of Omegas?

The video had been trimmed at both ends. His appearance while beating Xia Ruzhi was too savage, too unhinged—startling everyone who watched. Comments flooded the internet: "Holy crap, what is this? This Ruan Tang looks so gentle and soft—was he really this vicious all along? So scary... there was nothing but killing intent in his eyes when he hit her..."

"I heard the person being beaten is his stepmother. I don't know what grudge they had, but even so—as an Omega male, there's no need to be this cruel and vicious toward a delicate Omega woman, is there?"

"I'm getting the feeling this Ruan Tang has the same violent tendencies as his husband. Birds of a feather flock together, after all..."

"Really too cruel, too fierce. I've never seen an Omega this fierce..."

"Can someone like this really shoulder the heavy responsibility of being chairperson of the Omega Protection Association?"

All manner of manipulation was underway, trying to steer public opinion toward the belief that Ruan Tang was unworthy of the Omega Protection Association chairmanship.

When the brothers Ruan Zhuoxu and Ruan Xi saw this news, they were at their maternal grandparents' home—the Xia Family—discussing plans to rescue Xia Ruzhi. They wanted to pull strings to get her out before she could be convicted. Upon seeing the news, everyone in the Xia household rejoiced, feeling a long-overdue sense of vindication.

"Look at this Ruan Tang—look how arrogant, how brazen he was. And look... someone's coming for him now, isn't they? Let's see if he can keep being so smug after this. Treating Ruzhi like that is nothing short of treason—she is his stepmother, after all." Grandfather Xia read through the trending topics and felt a rush of satisfaction. "He thought becoming chair of the Omega Protection Association made him something special? He's still green behind the ears. There are plenty of people waiting to bring him down... so unfilial, so petty—let's see how he cries in the future!"

He gloated over someone finally dealing with Ruan Tang, almost able to picture it: Ruan Tang dragged from his chairmanship, reduced to nothing once more. And once Auston died, with no one left to protect him, Ruan Tang would be left to crawl and grovel at his daughter's feet.

Ruan Xi immediately chimed in agreement. "Grandfather is right. This Ruan Tang has done nothing but wicked deeds. It's high time he received his comeuppance."

Ruan Tang's fortune should have long since run out. He refused to believe that Ruan Tang could remain triumphant forever, that the god of luck would stand by his side for all eternity.

And now, just as the saying goes—the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind. Ruan Tang had struck at their family, and now the ones waiting to strike at Ruan Tang had arrived.

"All right, enough with the schadenfreude." Ruan Zhuoxu looked down on his grandfather and younger brother's petty, small-minded behavior and frowned. "Our urgent priority right now is rescuing Mother. We can't let her actually be convicted and sentenced, or our entire family is finished."

These past few days, they had been running themselves ragged for Xia Ruzhi's sake. But Ruan Tang's side had been equally relentless, exhausting every connection and pulling every string, determined to see Xia Ruzhi locked away.

Ruan Ming's stance remained frustratingly ambiguous, and Ruan Zhuoxu and Ruan Xi's circle of connections alone was far from enough to match Auston's towering authority and influence. They had already hit wall after wall and were nearly at a dead end.

They could only hope Grandfather Xia still had some means to rescue Xia Ruzhi.

The Xia Family had been in decline for years. It was only by clinging to the Ruan Family that they had managed to regain a glimmer of vitality.

They rose and fell together, and the foundation of the Xia Family's glory lay in Xia Ruzhi—their daughter who had become Madam Ruan—and Ruan Zhuoxu, their grandson and heir to the Ruan Family...

"Don't worry, don't worry. I've already lined up the right connections on your mother's end. Ruan Tang won't be able to convict her—she'll definitely get out. If Ruan Ming can ignore his own wife, could I, as her father, abandon my own flesh and blood?" Grandfather Xia sat back with an air of supreme confidence, as if everything was firmly under control.

He hadn't even deigned to put Ruan Tang—the son born of a common woman—into his consideration.

So what if Ruan Tang had Auston behind him? Auston was nothing but a mad dog on its last legs, doomed to a few more days of yapping at best. How could he compare to the powerful patron Grandfather Xia had secured?

Grandfather Xia was brimming with confidence, but Ruan Zhuoxu furrowed his brow, a trace of worry on his face. He was about to say something—"But..."

At that very moment, a group of uniformed Star Patrol officers and military soldiers burst straight into the Xia Family residence. "Is Mr. Xia Zhongming here?"

"Who are you? What do you think you're doing, barging into our home? Security! Security! Why didn't you stop them?" Grandfather Xia had long grown accustomed to treating the law with utter contempt. Upon seeing the Star Patrol, he immediately adopted a commanding tone and turned the question back on them.

They were nothing but a pack of low-ranking civil servants—did they think they could reach the heavens?

They were nobility with connections above.

The Star Patrol officer paid him no attention whatsoever, treating him as though he were invisible, and repeated the question: "Is Mr. Xia Zhongming here, or not?"

"I am. What do you want? Who's your superior?" Xia Zhongming furrowed his brow and asked with clear disdain.

The leading Star Patrol officer gave a silent hand signal. Without a moment's hesitation, two auxiliary officers rushed forward from behind and clamped light-energy cuffs onto Grandfather Xia's wrists. "We have evidence of your involvement in the conspiracy surrounding the incident that befell Major General Ruan Yang years ago. You are suspected of conspiring to murder an Imperial Major General, disrupting military affairs, undermining the judicial system, and bribing government officials... Please come with us."

Ruan Tang had not made public the details of what happened to Ruan Yang back then, but the investigation had continued all along. The military was nothing like the Imperial Capital—the Xia Family's reach couldn't extend that far, and Ruan Yang had connections aplenty. Once he had regained consciousness and demanded a thorough investigation, the ties between this affair and the Xia Family were turned inside out in no time.

Xia Zhongming's face went deathly white. He had never imagined this matter would be dug up. Cold sweat broke out across his body and he nearly fainted on the spot.

"You must have made some kind of mistake. Our Xia Family is a distinguished noble house with no connections in the military whatsoever. And Ruan Yang is my eldest brother—how could my grandfather possibly harm Major General Ruan Yang? There's no benefit in it for him!" Ruan Xi shot to his feet to defend Grandfather Xia.

Xia Ruzhi was already locked up. If Grandfather Xia was taken away too, and Ruan Ming refused to intervene, their entire family would be truly finished.

Ruan Xi refused to let them take Grandfather Xia.

The Star Patrol officer gave him a cold look and replied with icy firmness, "Whether there was benefit in it or not—you know that better than anyone."

A mistress's father harming his rival's children—did that even need a reason? No benefit?

"The evidence against Xia Zhongming is now essentially conclusive. This case involves a vast web of connections—the Imperial War Ministry, the Dixing Public Security Department, and even His Majesty the Emperor have all taken this matter with the utmost seriousness. Furthermore, it was Major General Ruan Yang himself who personally filed the charges against Xia Zhongming. If you are unsatisfied, you may appeal directly before His Majesty."

The Star Patrol officer left those words hanging coldly in the air and, without another word, forcibly dragged Xia Zhongming away as though he were a common criminal.

Ruan Xi watched Xia Zhongming being hauled away, his face draining of color as he nearly collapsed to the floor.

......

Since Ruan Tang had dared to charge into the Ruan Family home with such brazen audacity, he had long since had both the confidence and the contingency plans in place, fully anticipating that someone would seize this incident as an opportunity to strike at him.

Facing those who maliciously manipulated the narrative, questioned him, and slandered him, he didn't respond with a single word.

But a few hours later, the story of how Xia Ruzhi had risen to power as a mistress and plotted against the original wife and her children spread across the internet.

The entire chain of events was laid out in crystal-clear detail. Suddenly, everyone online with a capacity for critical thought, with a conscience and empathy, was furious.

They had long suspected there must be a deeper grudge behind Ruan Tang's attack on Xia Ruzhi—they simply hadn't known the specifics, and had thought Ruan Tang was excessively harsh.

But after learning what Xia Ruzhi had done all those years ago, they felt that Ruan Tang was not the slightest bit vicious or unhinged—in fact, he hadn't beaten Xia Ruzhi nearly enough.

They had simply never encountered a woman more vicious and repulsive than Xia Ruzhi.

"I said it from the start—Ruan Tang hitting someone that hard, with his current status and position, there was no way there wasn't a reason behind it. Holy hell, this bitch was this malicious? And this morning people were actually saying Ruan Tang was too harsh and sympathizing with her... I think Ruan Tang wasn't harsh at all. If someone had done that to my mom, I wouldn't just beat her—I'd probably chop her up..."

"Holy crap. The son was like that, and the mother is like this too. The Ruan Tang family must have committed some unforgivable sin in a past life to encounter such a vicious mistress and her spawn."

"I really wonder what those people who maliciously spun the narrative this morning—saying Ruan Tang was unfit to be Omega Protection Association chair—were thinking. Were they paid shills for the vicious mistress-stepmother? Something felt off to me the moment I saw those trending topics. A personal grudge is a personal grudge—using a personal grudge to claim someone is incompetent at their job? How does that make any sense?"

"With all due respect, after what happened, Ruan Tang only hitting her already shows incredible restraint. Can those trying to paint him as having violent tendencies just get lost? His own mother was driven to that state—if he could still hold back, still maintain gentlemanly composure and keep his fists to himself against the person who destroyed his family, that's when I'd say he was truly beyond hope and unworthy of being Omega Protection Association chair!"

"Everyone who was spinning the narrative this morning can take a hike."

"My heart aches for Ruan Tang. He's an Omega too—what kind of people and situations has he had to endure?"

And not long after, the news of Xia Zhongming—Ruan Tang's stepmother's father—being suspected of bribing officials and conspiring to murder an Imperial Major General also shot to the trending topics...

As the Empire's youngest Major General and the public face of the Imperial War Ministry, Ruan Yang had no shortage of fans.

Though in recent years, following Ruan Yang's accident and his comatose state, his fans had all retreated into silence, quietly reminiscing on his personal forum about the Major General who had been praised for his model-like looks and extraordinary abilities.

But once this news broke, all of Ruan Yang's fans erupted...

Never had they imagined that Ruan Yang's accident was no accident at all—that he had been deliberately harmed. Ruan Yang was an Imperial Major General with a military rank, and the fact that someone could do this to him within the military spoke volumes about the Xia Family's viciousness, darkness, and suffocating reach.

If even a noble, even a Major General, couldn't be guaranteed safety, what hope was there for ordinary citizens?

Conspiring to murder a Major General was a grave crime.

In an instant, the citizens of the entire Empire and all of Ruan Yang's former fans exploded with outrage. Many immediately co-signed a petition demanding that the state and the courts severely punish the entire Xia Family, follow the trail to unearth their protectors, and not allow the heroic soldiers who had fought and bled on the battlefield for the Empire to suffer injustice and despair.

"Disgusting—couldn't be more disgusting. They had the audacity to target an Imperial Major General. The corruption in the upper echelons is unfathomable."

"I always wondered how Major General Ruan Yang could have ended up like that—I thought it was heaven's jealousy of a brilliant talent. Who knew it was deliberate harm all along... Ruan Ming's first wife, Tang Yun, truly suffered, and so did the children. Thank heaven the Major General still had a brother like Ruan Tang who never gave up seeking the truth and exposed everything! That scumbag man and his worthless mistress can both go rot."

"Severe punishment is a must, and they have to dig further up the chain. If this could happen to a Major General, is there any security left in the entire Empire?"

"Death penalty, death penalty! And they must drag out every last person connected to this!"

All the events laid out together, crystal clear and irrefutable. Ruan Tang didn't even need to stand up and say a word—simply presenting the truth was enough for public opinion to naturally and firmly stand on his side.

What Xia Ruzhi and her father's family had done was far too vicious, far too horrifying—it shattered every moral boundary the public held.

Even some of those die-hard sympathizers who insisted the victim must be at fault—who believed Ruan Tang couldn't possibly be entirely clean or innocent—were silenced by the irrefutable evidence, unable to utter another word of slander against Ruan Tang or defense of the Xia Family.

Everyone deeply despised the way families like the Xia Family placed themselves above the law and treated it as nothing, and they hoped the Empire would investigate this matter thoroughly.

Those who had sought to use this incident to topple Ruan Tang from the Omega Protection Association chairmanship not only came away empty-handed but actually shot themselves in the foot. Instead, Ruan Tang gained widespread sympathy through this affair and won an even higher level of public support.

As the incident continued to ferment, Xia Ruzhi and her father became synonymous with "vicious mistress" and "untouchable corruption."

Just hearing those two names evoked disgust and revulsion, prompting many people who happened to share their names to feel deeply ashamed and rush to the civil registry to get their names changed.

The affair was so far-reaching that even Ruan Ming was branded a "scumbag" and "disgusting," with some people convinced he was Xia Ruzhi's accomplice. They flocked to his Star Blog daily to curse him to hell and call him an ungrateful, treacherous wolf.

Many more banded together to boycott the Ruan Family's businesses across every industry, and their calls were growing ever louder.

Within mere days, the stocks of the Ruan Family's corporate groups across all sectors plummeted by fifteen percent.

The entire Ruan Family descended into chaos.

Ruan Zhuoxu's wife was also a noblewoman of distinguished birth. Proud and haughty by nature, she had already despised Xia Ruzhi's status as a mistress-turned-mother-in-law when she married into the family. But she had accepted because Xia Ruzhi was already Madam Ruan, and Ruan Zhuoxu was the heir to the Ruan Family.

After Xia Ruzhi and the Xia Family's successive downfalls, she could no longer bear being constantly dragged into association with Xia Ruzhi, being berated every day, and feeling that such a mother-in-law was a disgrace.

Without a moment's hesitation, she leveraged her own family's standing to force Ruan Zhuoxu into a divorce, took the children with her, and changed their surnames to match hers the instant the divorce was finalized.