After Being Deceived, I Married Someone Else and Had Children Chapter 49

Faced with such a bizarre opening auction item, even some of the most worldly and experienced elites found their eyes lighting up. Collectors with particular fetishes were the first to raise their bidding paddles in excitement.

“Seventy million Federation credits!”

“Ninety million!”

“I’ll offer a hundred and ten million Federation credits — I’ve never kept a pet like this before!”

In less than a minute, the price had skyrocketed past a hundred million.

Each jaw-dropping bid drove the number higher and higher. Money, to these wealthy people, flowed like water — meaningless. In the past, even an antique vase could fetch a fortune, let alone a living Zerg right before their eyes.

If the Zerg weren’t locked inside a cage, its presence alone would have sent all these high-society elites fleeing in terror.

But now, caged, no matter how many lives it had taken, it was nothing more than a chained beast — a fierce pet they could parade around to boast of their status.

Zuo Shihuan lowered his cool gaze, leaned back in his chair, and propped his chin on his hand, looking down at the red-faced crowd shouting and raising their paddles.

The scene was as noisy as a vegetable market.

Only, what people bought in a market were daily necessities — while what they bought in an underground auction was the endless greed and desire of humankind.

Disgusted by the games of these rich men, Zuo Shihuan wanted to leave.

But Yu Lizhu’s earlier words had stirred a sliver of curiosity in him. His eyes swept across the masked audience, searching—

Where was Dr. Ji Zhaohe?

When Zuo Shihuan had first entered the Federation Academy, he had been drawn to Dr. Ji Zhaohe’s theories and ideas.

Dr. Ji Zhaohe had once proposed that thousands of years ago, humans had no distinction between Alpha, Beta, and Omega — there were only males and females. But after humanity was nearly wiped out by the interstellar Zerg, in order to survive against this overwhelmingly powerful race, humans began to evolve — abandoning part of their genetic stability to develop stronger, more extreme genes.

Just as birds, in order to fly, gave up every structure that added weight — wings, feathers, even hollow bones. Yet those hollow bones were far less sturdy than those of ordinary animals.

And birds were easier to break.

Once a bird’s wings fractured in the wild, it meant death.

Human differentiation into Alpha and Omega followed the same principle.

Alphas evolved to be stronger, smarter, more extreme — capable of battling the Zerg. But this also caused instability in their pheromonal genes. Alphas tormented for long periods by their own raging pheromones could lose emotional control, develop violent tendencies, insomnia, and mental illness. In severe cases, their lifespans were drastically shortened.

Omegas evolved along a different path. During humanity’s war with the Zerg, casualties were so great that the population of fertile women dropped sharply — humanity nearly went extinct. To boost birth rates, human genes began, without notice, to change.

You can never predict the lengths to which all-powerful genes will go to ensure the survival of a species.

Just as in the animal kingdom — when there are too few males, certain females will spontaneously become male to reproduce with other females; and when females are lacking, some males become female, all for the sake of the species’ continuation.

Omegas were born from a portion of the original male population’s genetic evolution. At their extremes, when encountering uncooperative Alphas, they would release pheromones of heat to forcibly trigger mating — and after mating, pick up their weapons again to continue fighting the Zerg, fiercer even than the female mantises of the animal world.

But after the Zerg catastrophe ended—

Some Alphas and Omegas de-evolved back into ordinary humans, returning to normal lives.

Some Alphas even looked utterly baffled — why had their Omega wives disappeared after the war?!

After all, neither an Alpha’s sensitivity period nor an Omega’s heat cycle was pleasant. Who would want to live forever under the domination of animalistic pheromones? Wouldn’t it be better to just be human?

All of it had merely been for the sake of species survival — a rapid genetic evolution that maximized human potential for a short time. The flaw was that early Alphas and Omegas had extremely unstable genes, prone to pheromone shock and early death.

Yet, some Alphas and Omegas did evolve successfully, gaining stable genetic traits — more resilient, more adaptable than their predecessors.

After years of evolution and the development of medical regulation, the defects of Alpha and Omega biology were brought under control.

Alphas became natural-born leaders — powerful and gifted, with lifespans vastly extended once they mastered their pheromonal impulses. They became figures of envy and admiration.

Omegas, however, grew complacent after years of being domesticated by Alphas. The pheromones once used to attract and control Alphas became a double-edged sword — no longer able to subdue the increasingly dominant Alphas who had evolved through battle. Omegas instead became decorative trophies in Alpha households — beautiful, fertile ornaments.

As for Betas — the moment they gave up evolution long ago, they sank into mediocrity.

But Zuo Shihuan never believed there was anything wrong with being a Beta. He never accepted that Betas were “mediocre.” That so-called label of mediocrity was merely a tool used by those in power to suppress those beneath them.

“Mediocrity” was not something that could be determined simply by whether one was Alpha, Beta, or Omega.

Through his own effort, Zuo Shihuan had clawed his way out of the slums, earning admission into the Federal Academy — a place even most Alphas could only dream of. He rejected society’s definition of Beta inferiority; he believed only in himself.

And perhaps, he believed in one other Beta — the one he admired most.

Dr. Ji Zhaohe.

A Beta of brilliant intellect and talent — a dual expert in both biotechnology and mecha engineering.

Dr. Ji Zhaohe’s papers on Zerg biology and bio-mechanical technology had once taken the academic world by storm, shattering long-held biases against Betas. He had received numerous scientific awards, and his patents alone had earned him billions in royalties.

Yet his radical and forward-thinking theories on human genetics had also drawn fierce criticism from his peers.

Dr. Ji Zhaohe had once made a sharp, cutting public statement:

“An Alpha who can’t even reach grade C— is nothing more than a genetic failure.”

The Alphas who had lived in privilege and comfort for years had begun to degenerate step by step— their physical fitness now hardly stronger than that of Betas, yet still plagued by the pheromonal disturbances of sensitivity periods. What remained of their “evolution” were nothing but flaws.

Those words instantly ignited the fury of many lower-grade Alphas. There were even calls to boycott and ban Dr. Ji Zhaohe.

Because so many Alphas held positions of power and influence, occupying key roles in the Federation, they really did manage to silence Dr. Ji Zhaohe for a time.

But during the press conference where Dr. Ji Zhaohe unveiled his Genetic Optimizer, everything changed.

The serum could increase the probability of an Alpha advancing one grade during differentiation— from grade C to grade B, from grade B to grade A.

After all, an S-class Alpha’s genes were nearly perfect— a wondrous and unrepeatable genetic miracle. Even the Genetic Optimizer could almost never elevate an A-class Alpha to S-class.

Even so, though the Genetic Optimizer was not flawless, the moment Dr. Ji Zhaohe reappeared with his creation, the once “cancelled” scientist instantly transformed into the most sought-after genius in the Federation. Media outlets swarmed to him like moths to flame.

Those powerful Alphas who had once called for his ban fell silent, quickly distancing themselves from their previous words, and now, for the sake of a few scarce doses of the serum, bowed their heads before Dr. Ji Zhaohe.

At the press conference, he finally addressed the old controversy.

Dr. Ji Zhaohe sneered, his dark green eyes cold and bored. “What’s there to explain? Even if one differentiates into an Alpha, trash is still trash— they can’t even defeat the lowest grade of Zerg.”

“In the animal kingdom, if a lion goes one day without chasing prey, another without sharpening its claws, it will sooner or later fall from hunter to hunted— and be torn to pieces.”

His gaze dimmed, lips pale and tight. “If humans stop evolving, death will catch up to them. And once dead—trash. Nothing more.”

When Zuo Shihuan watched that scene through the screen, for a brief moment, he thought he saw pain flash through Dr. Ji Zhaohe’s eyes— a fleeting, blurred ache, as if the word trash had been directed not at others, but at himself.

At that time, Zuo Shihuan had just entered the Federation Academy— a young Beta full of hope and ambition, rare vitality still burning in him, dreaming that one day he might join Dr. Ji Zhaohe’s research team.

But not long after, Zuo Shihuan was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder.

He lost everything— was expelled from school, and along with it, all his dreams, expectations, and visions for the future turned to dust. The thought of joining Dr. Ji Zhaohe’s lab never surfaced again.

Then, ironically— he differentiated into an Alpha.

From losing everything to gaining everything the world could offer— power, wealth, status— Zuo Shihuan looked at the glittering auction stage before him, at the rows of extravagant items being bid for.

Once, he could never have afforded even one of them. Now, even an item worth hundreds of millions was nothing more than a rounding error in his account.

Half-lidded eyes, he felt only emptiness.

He could buy an auction item worth billions, yet it didn’t bring him half the joy he once had— back in the slums, after a long day of scraping by, buying a bottle of fruit-flavored nutrient drink from a vending machine.

He thought he had finally stepped into the sunlight.

But this was all it amounted to.

He had merely leapt from one visible swamp into another— a swamp dressed up in a dazzling disguise. Still, he was sinking, watching the lice crawling in the dark corners inch their way toward him.

Unwillingness.

It was that unwillingness that made him, even on the brink of numbness, struggle still—hoping only that this time, he wouldn’t become someone even he despised.

***

The auctioneer’s gavel struck the podium.

The first item sold for 5.7 billion Federation credits.

The buyer wore a mask, but the cold, dark-green eyes beneath it could not be hidden— nor the proud, sharp outline of his face, nor the pale, thin lips that looked perpetually on the verge of a mocking smile.

Even standing not far from him— the Beta who had once admired and respected him—

Zuo Shihuan could only watch as he examined the caged Zerg with a detached, faintly critical satisfaction, as though it were not a creature that had slaughtered hundreds of humans, but just a slab of pork from the market.

The admiration Zuo Shihuan had once felt was gone without a trace.

His heart remained still, unruffled.

He turned his head, light brown eyes flat and businesslike, and said to Yu Lizhu in an indifferent, almost commanding tone: “I want to see him.”

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