The brain tumor had already pressed against her optic nerves, and she had lost her vision long before being hospitalized. Her eyes appeared murky because of it. Although Sui Yuesheng knew she couldn’t see anything, he still found himself unconsciously holding his breath when she looked his way.

Her gaze felt like a sharp arrow, piercing straight into his heart. Under such scrutiny, all lies were exposed.

He instinctively averted his eyes, unable to meet her gaze any longer.

The hospital room was very quiet, with only the ticking of the wall clock breaking the silence. After a long pause, he finally spoke the truth.

The reprimand Sui Yuesheng had imagined did not come.

His grandmother simply sighed deeply and then, with trembling hands, patted his head and gently stroked it, as she used to do when he was a child, trying to soothe him to sleep.

Then she spoke, her voice low and reminiscent of another sigh: “I’m getting older, truly becoming more useless. I still have to rely on you to save me in this way.”

Sui Yuesheng sensed a hint of ominous meaning in her words. He felt a bit at a loss and didn’t know how to respond. In the end, he just lied to his grandmother, saying that the alpha who was about to become his husband was particularly handsome, not only wealthy but also very good to him. He said that once he married, he would have milk every day and an endless supply of meat.

His grandmother then smiled and patted his head again, saying, “Is that so? That’s wonderful, my little one is going to live a good life.”

Having told the lie for so long, Sui Yuesheng started to believe it himself.

Time flowed like water. The old lady, despite her illness, managed to stay with him through his seventeenth birthday, but she ultimately did not survive the sweltering summer.

One morning in August, she was unusually energetic. After getting herself ready, she pressed the call button above her bed and requested to be discharged.

Sui Yuesheng hurried over after receiving the notice, seeing the doctor’s troubled gaze and the barely noticeable nod in his direction, which made him understand everything with a “buzz” in his head.

— His grandmother was having a final surge of vitality.

So he took her home.

She appeared particularly spirited, as if time had momentarily reversed, returning to her lively state before she became ill. Despite her blindness, she instructed Sui Yuesheng to clean up the house and then lay down on the bed, asking him to find someone to take a photo of her.

At that time, Sui Yuesheng had already sensed something but tried to ignore the surge of panic in his heart, perfectly complying with all of his grandmother’s requests.

The next morning, he got up early, cooked a pot of soft, easily digestible porridge, but when he opened the door to call her, he found that his grandmother had already passed away in her sleep.

She left peacefully, with a faint, almost imperceptible smile on her lips, as if she had never been disturbed by illness and had simply died of old age.

Sui Yuesheng stood there dazed for a moment, futilely reaching out and gently pushing her slightly cold body.

…She would never wake up again, never touch his head and smile as she called his name.

Sui Yuesheng’s nose felt a bit sore; he wanted to cry but couldn’t. He opened his mouth suddenly, and all that came out was a faint cry, like a lonely little beast.

Since his grandmother had been hospitalized, all expenses had been covered by the contact. The family savings hadn’t really been touched. Sui Yuesheng spent all the money he had on a small grave in a suburban cemetery and erected a short tombstone. He then knelt in front of the grave and bowed three times.

He directly skipped work, returned home in a daze, ate a little hastily, and then went to sleep. The next morning, the all-knowing contact, somehow aware of the news, knocked on his door right on time and informed him that they could set off.

According to the contact, he didn’t need to bring anything; everything would be prepared upon arrival in Kyushu. Sui Yuesheng didn’t listen, instead packing a few sets of clothes and covering the simple furniture in the house with cloth. He then slowly walked around the house, as if he wanted to remember it forever.

Before the contact’s patience ran out, he locked the door and turned to say, “Please wait a moment; I have something else to take care of.”

“What else do you have to do?” The contact’s expression was full of suspicion.

“Don’t worry, I won’t run away. Even if I wanted to, there’s nowhere to go.” Sui Yuesheng saw the distrust in the contact’s eyes and added, “If you’re worried, you can come with me.”

The contact nodded.

So they both went to the old grocery store at the end of the long street. The owner, half awake, was sitting on a broken wooden stool behind the window. Sui Yuesheng, used to this, knocked on the window.

“Look for what you want yourself…” The old man opened his eyes and, seeing Sui Yuesheng’s figure, immediately glared at him, “Where have you been these days? The store is full of things to do, and you’re not coming in to work?”

“Grandmother passed away yesterday, and I went to handle her affairs.” Sui Yuesheng pressed his lips together. “I’m going to another place. I came today to resign. I don’t want this month’s salary, but I need you to do me a favor.”

A diligent worker like him was hard to find. The owner was somewhat reluctant, but seeing that Sui Yuesheng was determined to leave, he couldn’t stop him and, with a gloomy face, said, “What is it?”

“Since I’m leaving and don’t know when I’ll be back, grandmother’s grave is not far from here. I’d like to ask you to help with weeding it every year.” Sui Yuesheng finished speaking, rummaging through his pocket but only finding a few coins.

The money had been spent on the funeral. He turned around awkwardly, and the contact, almost as if by fate, took out his wallet and casually handed a few hundred yuan, slamming it down on the window with a loud sound.

The old man wanted to get angry, but when he saw the contact’s identity, he suddenly understood.

He realized Sui Yuesheng’s destination and where the money for the old lady’s hospital stay came from—For people like them, who struggled at the edge of survival all their lives, illnesses in old age meant lying in bed at home. Minor illnesses might get better on their own, but serious ones would end in death, which might not be such a bad thing.

After a while, he tremblingly took the money: “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it as long as I’m here.”

The implication was that he wouldn’t be able to help after he passed away.

Sui Yuesheng also knew what kind of situation the old man’s son was in. After thanking him, he turned to leave, but the old man suddenly spoke again: “Be careful on the road.”

Sui Yuesheng paused, looking at the store where he had worked for four or five years. The old man wasn’t actually a bad person, just harsh with his words, but he was good at heart, occasionally giving them a little extra.

“I will.” He didn’t turn around and walked straight out with the contact.

At that time, Sui Yuesheng didn’t know that the path he was about to take was entirely different from what he had imagined.

The journey to Kyushu turned out to be much harsher than he had anticipated.

Human trafficking, no matter how grand the operation, was still something that couldn’t be seen in the light. Under the contact’s guidance, Sui Yuesheng, along with other omegas from the same city, took several nights of bumpy rides to a small coastal town, and then stayed in a shabby little inn for about a month.

The inn was cheap, and naturally, the environment was far from ideal. The bed sheets had yellowed stains, and the cups provided for guests were coated with a thick layer of scale. Among the omegas traveling with him, one who appeared to be from a good background constantly frowned and complained. Sui Yuesheng, however, adapted well and didn’t utter a single complaint.

Half a month later, the cargo ship arrived.

The conditions on the ship were much worse than in a hotel. To avoid detection, the group of stowaways wasn’t allowed on the deck and had to stay in the lowest level of the ship’s hold, where everything—eating, drinking, and relieving themselves—took place in the same cramped space.

What was called a cabin was actually just a partitioned-off area with wooden planks, about the size of a prison cell, crammed with four or five people. The food was blackened bread and watery porridge with just enough grains to count, served twice a day, barely keeping them from starving.

The hold was perpetually damp, and occasionally rats would scurry by. Given such harsh conditions, taking a bath was clearly a luxury.

Like the other omegas, Sui Yuesheng endured it with gritted teeth, but the delicate omega couldn’t take it any longer. On the first day of moving into the cabin with Sui Yuesheng, he developed a rash all over his body and cried every day.

Sui Yuesheng found it annoying and yelled at him a few times, but to no effect, so he gave up. A few days later, the others in the cabin couldn’t stand it any longer and beat up the delicate omega, which finally quieted him down.

Not long after, the delicate omega used all his charm to flirt with the alpha crew member who brought their food. Sometimes he would go out with the crew member and return covered in bruises and scratches, but in return, he got better food than the others and occasionally a small piece of fruit.

Probably because Sui Yuesheng was the only one who hadn’t beaten him, the delicate omega was particularly close to him. Sometimes he would move close to Sui Yuesheng and gesture, saying that the crew member had taken him up on deck to see the vast sea and the salty sea breeze…

Sui Yuesheng glanced at him and couldn’t be bothered to reply.

The cargo ship sailed through the boundless sea, occasionally stopping in cities. The number of people in the hold increased day by day. When Sui Yuesheng boarded, he had noticed that more than half of the cabins were empty, but as the journey continued, the cabins gradually filled up.

Life in the hold, cut off from daylight, made it impossible to gauge the passage of time through natural changes. Sui Yuesheng could only roughly calculate the days by the twice-daily meal deliveries. By the time he counted to October, the cargo ship finally stopped.

On a dark and windy night, it quietly docked at a remote pier in Taiqing.

The other omegas got off the ship one by one. Some even knelt and kissed the dirt beneath their feet when they touched land. When Sui Yuesheng tried to disembark with them, he was stopped by the smuggler, who then called out several omegas by name.

“You haven’t reached your destination yet. Your husbands live in a more prosperous place.”

Then he had the group of omegas taken to the ship’s bathroom for their first bath in months.

Cleaned-up omegas changed into fresh clothes and then boarded a truck that night.

Sui Yuesheng blended in among them and discreetly observed—the two alphas escorting them were tall and burly, while the remaining omegas looked significantly more refined. The delicate omega who had been in his cabin was among them, curiously looking around.

They remained in the truck’s cargo area, but this time, the food was much better than on the ship. They could eat their fill at each meal, and one night, everyone even got a full cup of milk.

Everyone drank it eagerly, except for the delicate omega who pouted. He had a sensitive stomach and would throw up milk at home, so he handed the milk to Sui Yuesheng.

Sui Yuesheng didn’t mind and drank it for him.

That night, when he was woken up by the need to urinate, he groggily heard the two alphas discussing.

“Qiang Ge, there are a few good-looking ones in this batch, especially the one with gray hair and blue eyes. If it were up to me, it would be a waste to marry them off. We should auction them off in the black market, as per the old rules.”

The one called Qiang Ge disdainfully clicked his tongue and spat out of the truck window. “Do you need to tell me that? The boss already arranged it. The brothel is short on people, so they’ll pick first, and the rest will be auctioned off.”

“Let’s both pay attention. After this trip, we’ll make a good amount of money,” he said with a lecherous laugh. “But at least you said something sensible this time. There are a few truly beautiful ones in this batch. If they’re picked by the brothel, we can save up and enjoy them a few times ourselves.”