Becoming a Scum A in an Old-School Melodramatic Novel - Chapter 27

Shen Xian rested her right hand on the handle of the electric scooter and slowed her pace. With her left hand, she grabbed Lin Qinghan’s wrist. Lin Qinghan’s first reaction was to shake Shen Xian off, but unfortunately, Shen Xian held on tightly and she couldn’t break free.

Lin Qinghan turned her head and met Shen Xian’s somewhat serious expression. Shen Xian pulled Lin Qinghan closer to her and lowered her voice as much as possible to say, “Qinghan, something seems off about those people. Take out your phone. I’ll try to hold them off. You call the police.”

Lin Qinghan instinctively wanted to turn around for a look, but Shen Xian stopped her first. “Qinghan, don’t turn around — there are people behind us too. Don’t be scared, I’m here.”

While speaking, Shen Xian kept her eyes on the two people ahead. Those two had already stopped walking and clearly intended to act in this area.

Although the original body was an alpha, she wasn’t some S-class alpha. Her pheromones could only do so much to suppress normal people. But regardless, she had to protect Lin Qinghan.

The two men in front had already started turning and were walking toward them, pulling what looked like steel pipes from inside their jackets as they walked. Shen Xian didn’t hesitate any longer and abandoned the scooter, dragging Lin Qinghan as she ran to the right.

Seeing them run, the group immediately gave chase. This area had no other exits; even running to the right led nowhere. At the end of the path was a long wall.

Shen Xian ran fast and quickly placed Lin Qinghan under a tree. “Qinghan, call the police right now. I’ll lead them away. Hide yourself and don’t worry about me.”

“Hey — Shen Xian?” Lin Qinghan frowned slightly, wanting to say something, but Shen Xian had already dashed off.

In her panic, Lin Qinghan’s hand trembled as she made the call. After quickly explaining the situation, she gave the address. When she looked up again, Shen Xian was nearly surrounded by five men.

“What’s going on? Didn’t Lin Zhixin say his sister was just an omega? Where did this alpha come from?”

“Who knows? Stop wasting time — hurry and get them to Brother Qi. He’s waiting.”

“Hey girl, you’re not the one we’re after. If you don’t want trouble, beat it. With how weak you are, trying to play hero?”

“Hahaha, yeah. If you don’t leave, we’ll take you too. But seriously, we’ve never had fun with an alpha before. Wonder if it’ll be too rough on the teeth.”

“Hmph. You won’t be calling your ancestor here a weakling in a second.”

Shen Xian peeled off the pheromone-blocking patch from the back of her neck and deliberately released her pheromones to surround the group. It worked somewhat — several of the men started to feel uncomfortable. Shen Xian wasn’t doing great either, since releasing pheromones drained a lot of energy. Overuse could lead to shock.

But Shen Xian didn’t have time to care. She had to stall until the police arrived. Without hesitating further, she launched a kick at a short man. Likely affected by the pheromones, he couldn’t react in time and was knocked to the ground.

The others didn’t waste time either and raised their steel pipes to attack. Shen Xian grabbed the hands coming at her and smashed her elbow into a man’s neck, causing him to double over in pain. Taking advantage of the opening, she raised her leg and kicked him hard.

But it was five against one. As she fought off one attacker, another with dyed yellow hair raised his pipe and slammed it into Shen Xian’s back. The blow landed solidly, the sound of metal against spine echoing audibly. Shen Xian had no time to think about the pain and, gritting her teeth, punched Yellow Hair right in the nose, drawing blood on the spot.

Seeing that Shen Xian could actually fight, and still feeling the effects of the pheromones, the men got cautious and came at her all at once.

She managed to kick one down, but the rest didn’t let up. They attacked her from all directions. Shen Xian defended with her arms while looking for chances to strike back. But they outnumbered her. She didn’t even know how many times she’d been hit. Even her once-fair face now bore wounds.

Finally, after kicking Yellow Hair down again, Shen Xian twisted around and managed to wrest a steel pipe from the short man’s hands using her elbow.

Meanwhile, by the tree, Lin Qinghan was sweating coldly in anxiety. She had heard everything those men said earlier — this had something to do with Lin Zhixin. Shen Xian was clearly protecting her now. Lin Qinghan wanted to rush out and face them herself, but she was afraid she’d only drag Shen Xian down. Clutching her phone tightly, she waited anxiously. It hadn’t been long, but every second felt like an eternity.

The men weren’t doing well either. Shen Xian was putting her full strength into every swing of the pipe. The men were getting desperate and began aiming to seriously injure her. Shen Xian felt like there wasn’t a single spot on her body that didn’t hurt.

Sensing how difficult Shen Xian was to handle, two of the thugs ran toward Lin Qinghan. Shen Xian’s eyes turned red with fury. She kicked away the three men blocking her path and ran desperately toward Lin Qinghan.

Of course, Lin Qinghan hadn’t just stood there. Seeing the men approach, she turned and ran, but still ended up cornered between the two of them.

Yellow Hair sneered, “You’re Lin Zhixin’s sister, right? If you don’t want to get hurt, come with us. Your brother owes our boss forty thousand yuan, and he said we could take you to pay it off.”

“Yeah, and we’ve never had fun with an omega before. Heard they’re even softer and more delicate than regular women. If the boss is in a good mood, he might let us have a turn too,” the short man chimed in, reaching for Lin Qinghan’s face as she looked like she was about to cry.

Shen Xian arrived just then and swung the steel pipe hard at the short man’s arm. The man screamed and squatted down, clutching his arm. From the looks of it, Shen Xian had probably broken it.

The yellow haired guy wasn’t one to mess with either. Knowing that Shen Xian wasn’t easy to deal with, he simply swung a steel pipe straight at Lin Qinghan. Knocking her out would make it easier to take her away anyway. Shen Xian didn’t even have time to think — her body reacted before her mind could catch up. She lunged forward, pulling Lin Qinghan into her arms, and in doing so, exposed her own back to the yellow haired guy’s attack. She took the full blow.

Lin Qinghan instinctively closed her eyes when she saw the steel pipe being swung at her. But the expected pain never came. Instead, someone pulled her into a protective embrace. Before she could say anything, Shen Xian had already been struck in the back, making Lin Qinghan so anxious that tears welled up in her eyes.

Shen Xian wasn’t in great shape. Over ten minutes had passed since it all began, and she had released a large amount of pheromones in order to suppress those men. Now, she was feeling dizzy, her whole body burning with pain.

When the group of the yellow haired guy’s men surrounded them, Shen Xian barely had any strength left. All she could do was instinctively shield Lin Qinghan in her arms.

“Well, well, trying to play the hero, huh? Damn it, one of my bros got his bones broken by you. Don’t worry, we’ll make sure you leave here on a stretcher today. Beat her — just don’t kill her.”

As he spoke, four of the men who weren’t too badly injured raised their steel pipes and started swinging them at Shen Xian. Shen Xian hunched over, shielding Lin Qinghan as best she could.

Lin Qinghan was crying in panic. No matter how she tried, she couldn’t believe her own younger brother would treat her like this — and now Shen Xian was getting dragged into it too.

“Shen Xian, don’t worry about me. They’re here for me — this has nothing to do with you. Please, just go. I’ll deal with my own problems,” Lin Qinghan cried, trying to push Shen Xian away, not wanting her to take the beating alone.

Still hunched over, Shen Xian held Lin Qinghan tightly and shook her head. She looked straight at her and said firmly, “What nonsense are you talking about? How could I not care about you?”

The men behind them paused for a moment, afraid they might beat someone to death. But after hearing what Shen Xian said, they felt they hadn’t hit hard enough and were about to continue — when the sound of approaching police sirens echoed from a distance.

The yellow haired guy tried to pull Lin Qinghan away, but no matter how hard he tugged, he couldn’t pry her out of Shen Xian’s arms.

“Damn it! Let’s go! You wanna get caught by the cops?” One of the bigger guys grabbed the yellow haired guy and they all fled into an alley on the hospital side.

Shen Xian’s whole body burned with pain, but her bones and organs didn’t seem seriously injured — otherwise, she wouldn’t still be standing. She figured the system must’ve helped her out, though the pain remained completely intact. Even her arms were trembling from it. Slowly releasing Lin Qinghan from her arms, Shen Xian tried her best to stand up straight. Her face was pale, drenched in sweat, and her lips were swollen — someone had punched her there.

When Lin Qinghan looked up and saw Shen Xian like this, her tears flowed uncontrollably. Shen Xian, trembling, raised a hand to wipe the tears from Lin Qinghan’s cheeks, but the tears wouldn’t stop, only streaming faster.

Shen Xian forced a smile to comfort her, but it pulled at the corner of her injured mouth, making her suck in a breath from the pain.

Lin Qinghan quickly supported her, crying as she spoke, “Don’t move around! Are you hurt anywhere badly? We’ll go back to the hospital and get some scans done.” She had seen those men swinging steel pipes at Shen Xian, and feared her bones or internal organs might be damaged.

“I’m fine… just… a little tired.” Shen Xian said she was okay, but she looked anything but fine. In fact, all her injuries had been reduced to surface wounds by the system — painful but not life-threatening. What left her so weak was the overuse of her pheromones.

Her legs gave out, and Shen Xian collapsed into Lin Qinghan’s arms. Lin Qinghan sat down on the ground, cradling her, gently patting her face in panic. “Shen Xian! Shen Xian, are you okay? Wake up, don’t fall asleep yet!”

Shen Xian leaned against her, her brows furrowed tightly, her head throbbing painfully. Just then, the police finally arrived.

Lin Qinghan quickly gave them a brief account of what had happened, and two officers helped her bring Shen Xian back to their hospital.

That night, Director Zhao happened to be on duty. When she saw Lin Qinghan rushing in with several police officers, she thought something serious had happened.

“Qinghan, what’s going on?”

“It’s my ex-wife — she got beaten up by a group of thugs while protecting me,” Lin Qinghan explained anxiously.

Director Zhao, who was mainly in charge of clinical work at the hospital, examined Shen Xian’s condition and said, “She doesn’t seem too badly hurt on the surface. We’ll check for any broken bones with a scan. As for passing out, that’s likely from pheromone exhaustion.”

When an alpha runs out of pheromones, the fastest way to stabilize them is through calming contact with their partner’s omega pheromones. The slower method is through medication that stimulates pheromone secretion, but that takes much longer.

Since Lin Qinghan and Shen Xian were already divorced, Director Zhao didn’t elaborate further. But Lin Qinghan, who worked at the hospital, understood perfectly well.

She turned to the people around them and said, “I’m sorry, can I trouble everyone to wait outside for a moment?”

Director Zhao immediately understood her intention and ushered everyone to wait in the meeting room.