The Overworked Beta and the Paranoid Alpha 59

Chapter 59: Insufficient Chain of Evidence

They looked like white porcelain bowls, distributed on the ceiling, in the corners of the walls, next to decorative paintings, in any place you could see or imagine. They formed a surveillance network denser than a spider’s web, ensuring the security of all of I.F.A.D.’s confidential information and its staff.

Of course, I.F.A.D.’s camera surveillance network was not without its weaknesses—to protect privacy, there were no cameras in the residential area’s rooms and bathrooms.

It was said that the previous director of I.F.A.D. had once wanted to install cameras even in the toilets, but this proposal was quickly rejected by 95% of the headquarters’ staff. After all, no one wanted to be stared at by a camera while showering or taking a dump. Besides, this proposal would also increase the surveillance burden on I.F.A.D.’s internal network system, so it was quickly rejected.

In the corridor of the residential area, an Omega staff member was walking drowsily to the tea room.

Yesterday, he had been forced to work overtime until four in the morning, which caused him to oversleep this morning and miss the morning shift, losing half a day’s salary. He had originally planned to stay in bed and not go to work today, but for some reason, perhaps the blood of a workhorse was burning in his veins, after much thought, he still got up and went to work.

But before clocking in at the office, he had to go to the tea room and down a 550ml cup of Americano to wake himself up, otherwise his eyelids really couldn’t hold up.

Just as he was floating down the road like a ghost, he suddenly bumped into something and fell to the ground. The pain from his lower back hitting the cold floor completely woke the Omega up.

“Are you okay?” a gentle male voice said.

The Omega looked up. Before he could see who had bumped into him, he smelled a strange Alpha pheromone scent. It was the smell of coconut mixed with lemon. It was very fresh, but the Omega had no impression of this pheromone. Could it be a new agent?

“I’m sorry,” the person in front of him said again.

Only then did the Omega see the person who had bumped into him. It was a young and handsome Alpha, with a head of fluffy blond hair and a pair of blue eyes. The Omega looked at him, and for a moment, he felt like he was back on his annual leave, watching the sunset by the sea.

Watching the golden sun slowly merge into the azure sea.

Seeing a group of colleagues whose faces were greener than sour cucumbers and who were worn out by work every day, it was a rare sight to see a different face. The Omega felt refreshed, his back no longer hurt, and his shoulder joints were also flexible.

“Do you need me to help you up?” the Alpha said apologetically.

“Uh, no, I can get up myself,” the Omega quickly got up.

“Ahem,” until another strange cough was heard, the Omega subconsciously turned his head and saw another strange Omega, looking at him with displeasure.

“Can we go now?” the other Omega’s tone was filled with arrogance and disdain.

“It’s good that you’re okay,” the Alpha said gently and politely. “If you’re okay, I’ll be on my way.”

“See you next time,” the Omega waved goodbye.

He watched the Alpha follow the other Omega into a room numbered A-637 not far away.

The moment he closed the door of room A-637, Romeo raised his hand and fiddled with the work ID he had just stolen from the Omega passerby’s pocket.

“How can the staff of I.F.A.D. have no anti-theft awareness at all?” Romeo sneered.

“I should have recorded you just now,” Claire complained. “I’ll play it back for you, so you can see how pretentious you were.”

With that, she quickly took out a palm-sized portable computer from her luggage. Heaven knows how much effort she had spent to bring this thing in. The security device of I.F.A.D. was really troublesome. She would not give this device a very high rating.

She turned on the computer and connected to I.F.A.D.’s public WiFi. There was a small program she had set up in the computer, which could hard-control I.F.A.D.’s internal network system for fifteen minutes without anyone noticing. Within these fifteen minutes, no matter where they went, the tens of thousands of surveillance cameras controlled by the internal network would not notice their tracks.

“That’s amazing?” Romeo said, watching Claire’s computer screen with curiosity while blow-drying his hair.

“Of course,” Claire said proudly. Alright, in fact, Della had contributed sixty percent to this program. Claire had just borrowed her design without her permission while she was not paying attention, and then modified it. Unfortunately, Claire had no shame in stealing intellectual property. She would only feel that she was very smart.

The program was still loading. Claire had nothing to do and did not forget to find fault. “You still have time to blow-dry your hair. Are you going to a fashion week?”

“It’s all because of you,” Romeo said. “The agreed-upon code was to randomly curse at the person closest to you, ‘You son of a bitch!’ and then splash water on that person’s face. And what happened?! You splashed it on my face!”

“Don’t you think it’s very dramatic?” Claire said.

“Not at all,” Romeo said. “Why don’t you splash it on your own face? That would be more dramatic.”

In the time it took for the two to bicker, Romeo’s hair was dry, and the small program had finally successfully connected. A fifteen-minute countdown began on the computer screen.

Play was play, but they had not forgotten their business.

“By the way, you haven’t said where we’re going,” Romeo said.

“To a place where we can query confidential information,” Claire said, opening a file on the computer. A 6D map appeared on the computer screen. Claire tapped the keyboard a few times, and finally a red dot appeared on the map.

“We’re going here,” Claire said.

Wen En and Della found an empty tea room.

There was free tea and coffee in the tea room. “Have a seat,” Wen En said. “Red tea or coffee?”

“Red tea, thank you,” Della said, sitting on a round stool by the dining table.

Soon, Wen En came over with two drinks. A cup of reddish-brown hot red tea was placed in front of Della. Wen En picked up the other cup of dark brown hot Americano, took two sips, and the bitter taste made him frown. “So what did you want to ask me?” Wen En said.

“I found something strange, which is…” Della said mysteriously, “Didn’t you notice? When we were in the meeting, whenever we mentioned the person named Qiuyue, Claire’s attitude was very strange.”

Wen En thought for a moment and said, “It seems so.” Claire’s state today was indeed strange.

“So, who do you think this Qiuyue is?” Della swirled the cup. The tea leaves were brought up by the tea and floated up and down in the water. Della thought for a moment and said, “Could it be her ex-boyfriend?”

“Cough, cough, cough!!!” Wen En choked on a mouthful of hot Americano and almost spat it out. He finally managed to swallow the coffee with some effort and said, “Impossible, right? Qiuyue is an Omega!”

Even if he’s an Omega man… he’s still an Omega! It’s forbidden in the palace!

“How is it impossible? Some people are just into that,” Della said. “When we were on a mission at the auction, I even saw a young male Alpha go into a room with an Alpha whose hair was all white. Compared to that, two young Omegas like Qiuyue and Claire are not that shocking, right?”

Wen En: “…No, I’m a conservative. I still think it’s a little shocking.”

“Alright, no more jokes,” Della took a sip of red tea and said, “Then what do you think is the connection between them?”

Wen En put the cup on the table, propped up his chin, and fell into thought.

He reviewed all the personal information he had seen about Claire before. It was basically her work history, or information about her identity changes. But the column for parents, siblings, and relatives was blank.

This was very abnormal.

The current reproductive technology was very advanced, but technology was not magic. It couldn’t create a person out of thin air. No matter what reproductive technology was used to create offspring, the empire’s identity information had to register the person’s biological father and mother.

Even abandoned orphans were no exception. Orphans could determine and register their biological father and mother through DNA testing.

But Claire’s personal information did not have this registered. Della and Wen En had only just noticed this bug, because before, there had been other complex and numerous information waiting for them to sort through, and this bug had been overlooked.

“Someone deliberately erased it,” Della said.

“Who could it be?” Wen En thought for a moment and said, “Could it be Qiuyue? How did he do it?”

Wen En thought for a moment and came up with a guess that shocked the entire tea room. “Could it be that Claire is Qiuyue’s illegitimate daughter? Qiuyue doesn’t want others to know their relationship, so that’s why…”

“Stop!” Della couldn’t listen anymore. “Your guess is much more fake than mine, okay?”

“How is it fake?” Wen En said. “Don’t you think they look a little similar?”

“Not at all.”

“Let me show you.”

Wen En took out the special communicator from the headquarters, searched through the data folder, and finally pulled up the front-facing photos of Claire and Qiuyue. Wen En arranged the two photos side by side and said:

“Look, look at the facial features, the jawline. Isn’t it very similar?”

Della’s eyes widened. It was true.

“But Claire is blond, and Qiuyue has black hair. Claire is obviously a Westerner, and Qiuyue is an Easterner,” Della said. “Your guess has an insufficient chain of evidence. Rejected.”

“No, no, Della, as a mixed-race Easterner with a younger sister, I can tell you responsibly that Qiuyue is not 100% pure-blooded Easterner. Of course, Claire is not 100% pure-blooded Westerner either. Look at this face shape, this brow bone. It definitely has Eastern genes,” Wen En said.

“Wow, are we studying human origins?” Della said.

“In any case, I stand by my guess,” Wen En said.

“There must be some kind of blood relationship between them. It could be father and daughter, or siblings, or cousins.”

“Speaking of father and daughter,” Della couldn’t take it anymore. “Don’t tell me you’re serious. Qiuyue clearly looks to be about the same age as Claire. How can you bring up a father-daughter relationship?”

“Hmmm…” Wen En thought for a moment and said, “Alright, then the probability of them being siblings is greater.”