Chapter 4: Faking It
1040 Words
Utter chaos erupted—plates, forks, and knives flying everywhere. Chen Lillian quickly stood and wheeled Yuan Vincent backward, trying to get them both out of harm’s way.
But someone grabbed the wheelchair’s wheel. “Don’t leave now. Other people are fighting for you, and you’re just slinking off? That’s not right.”
Up to now, Yuan Vincent had remained silent. He finally spoke, turning to Chen Lillian. “Go find cover. Don’t worry about me.”
His voice was surprisingly pleasant, Chen Lillian noted.
“No. I’m your fiancée, after all. I should protect you.” I can’t let anything happen to you, she added silently. If he dies, I lose my mining planet.
“Hah! Yuan Vincent, you’ve sunk so low you need a woman to protect you?” The man let out an exaggerated laugh.
A dark look crossed Yuan Vincent’s face.
Chen Lillian’s eyes gleamed. She caught a flying fork midair. Ignoring the man’s mocking sneer, she hurled it at him.
Thunk—
The seemingly light fork pierced straight through his clothes and lodged in his chest.
“Ahhh—!”
Screams rang out. The banquet hall fell eerily silent.
Clutching his chest, the man stared in disbelief at the fork embedded there. “How… how did you do that?”
Chen Lillian feigned innocence. “I got mad and threw it without thinking. I didn’t mean to hurt anyone—sorry! But aren’t Sentinels supposed to be tough? I’m just a normal, disabled girl. How could I possibly injure you? I suspect you’re faking it.”
That last phrase—“faking it”—landed like a bombshell, drawing the entire hall into a stunned hush. Not a sound could be heard.
Indeed, how could a disabled, ordinary person seriously wound a trained Sentinel with just a fork?
He must be faking!
Perhaps he’d harmed himself to avoid punishment for crashing someone’s engagement?
The crowd shot Zhao Pierce and his group meaningful looks, making them feel cornered. If they admitted it was fake, their reputation would be ruined; if they denied it, they’d look even weaker, having been bested by a one-armed ordinary girl.
They were caught between a rock and a hard place, never expecting this unassuming girl to turn the tables on them.
Wen Oliver broke the silence. “Zhao Pierce, you ruined Vincent and our sister-in-law’s engagement banquet. Don’t you think you owe them an apology?”
“Exactly,” Li Damian agreed. His gaze toward Chen Lillian had grown complicated. “Coming to someone’s engagement just to make trouble—did your parents or teachers teach you that’s okay?”
Zhao Pierce grit his teeth, stepping forward. As he neared Yuan Vincent and Chen Lillian, he abruptly changed direction, bowing to Yuan Zachary and Chen Richard instead. “Uncle, Uncle, I’m sorry for bringing my friends here and causing a scene.”
“Haha, it’s alright,” Yuan Zachary said lightly, patting Zhao Pierce’s shoulder. “Boys will be boys. A bit of mischief is no big deal.”
Chen Richard also smiled kindly, as though nothing serious had happened.
Chen Lillian rolled her eyes. Are Vincent and I the ones they picked up from the streets, and Zhao Pierce their real child? she wondered.
Just then, Yuan Vincent spoke up, “Uncle Zhao, my phantom limb hurts. Come get me.”
He ended a call on his lightband. Moments later, Uncle Zhao arrived from outside the hall. Everyone turned their gaze to Yuan Vincent’s empty pant legs. Only now did they recall: this was a hero who lost his legs protecting his classmates from an insectoid. Yet these classmates had the gall to barge in and humiliate him—and his fiancée.
Their expressions shifted to disapproval and condemnation. Zhao Pierce and his group remained silent.
As for Yuan Vincent, he didn’t care about their pity or anger. Without a word, he lowered his eyes and let a servant help him out of the banquet hall.
With his departure, the engagement banquet quickly fell apart.
Suddenly, Li Damian cursed, “Damn it! What’s that smell?”
Song Celeste’s cheeks flushed. “A Guide is in heat! Someone get the isolation spray—who brought an inhibitor?”
“Zhao Pierce, take your guys and leave, you hormone-driven pigs!” Wen Oliver yelled. He glared at a girl huddled in the corner, his eyes fierce. She was apparently the one going into heat.
Chaos erupted once more as dozens of Sentinels lost control and lunged toward the Guide. Yuan Zachary roared, “All Guides and Sentinels, clear the area! Move!” He charged in, throwing crazed Sentinels aside to protect the terrified girl.
Meanwhile, as an ordinary person, Chen Lillian smelled nothing. She watched with fascination as the Sentinels, triggered by the Guide’s pheromones, acted like wild beasts. No wonder the Alliance bans Sentinels from releasing their pheromones in public. This is more like a weaponized pheromone, she thought.
It took some time for the chaos to subside. The Guide was taken away, and the Sentinels who had lost control were sedated.
That night, back home, Chen Lillian dove into researching Sentinels and Guides on the interstellar net. Though she was merely an ordinary person, knowledge was power.
She read about pheromones, Guide scents, and the so-called “heat,” a monthly ordeal for adult Guides. If they didn’t use inhibitors or have a Sentinel help them “work it off,” they would die. It was that severe.
“Tsk, being an ordinary person might be easier,” she muttered.
She also learned about “mental smoothing”: high-ranking Sentinels possessed vast mental seas with countless mental threads that could easily become chaotic. Without a Guide’s help, they risked madness. A fully marked Guide was especially effective at smoothing their own Sentinel’s mental sea.
Reading all this, Chen Lillian shook her head. “Sentinels and Guides are practically primal. They’re made for each other—two halves of a whole.”
Still, her real interest lay in mechas and starships. Starships were beyond her reach for now, but mechas were openly sold on the streets.
The next morning, after breakfast, she headed to Alpha’s largest mech mall.
- Writer
