After dinner, the three of them sat in the reception lounge and drank juice. He Wei suggested that after ten minutes of digestion, they’d go to the game room to play a few rounds of pool before going home.
“The capital is so boring.” He Wei leaned back lazily on the couch, “I haven’t had a good laugh since I came back.”
“Then get lost,” Gu Yunchi retorted.
“I’m not leaving.” He Wei looked at his phone screen, squinted his eyes, and smiled, “Chi Jiahan, Grade 2, Class 9, the youngest son of the deputy mayor’s family. A low-key and smart guy.”
As he spoke, Lu Heyang caught sight of an alpha in a black baseball cap with the brim pulled down entering the hotel reception in the distance. The alpha approached the front desk, and after a brief inquiry, the attendant led him to the elevator.
Lu Heyang sipped his juice and raised his hand to check the time: 8:25 pm.
“Chi Jiahan?” Gu Yunchi thought of it, “I heard his relationship with his family isn’t great.”
He Wei snapped his fingers sharply, “That’s great, it’s my duty to save all the beautiful and helpless omegas in the world.”
—
It was exactly 8:30 pm when Xu Ze opened the door. There were seven or eight alphas sitting in the private room, each accompanied by an omega, except for Tang Feiyi.
“Mr. Tang’s tastes are getting more and more selective.” Someone started heckling as soon as they saw Xu Ze, “A 17-year-old S-level alpha is not something just anyone can get.”
Tang Feiyi leaned back in his chair, puffed out some smoke, and nodded toward the empty seat next to him. Xu Ze followed his gesture and walked over to sit down.
“What do you want to eat? I’ll order more for you.” Tang Feiyi put his hand on the back of Xu Ze’s chair and leaned toward him.
“I’ve eaten.”
Tang Feiyi looked at his profile and smiled playfully, “Then have a drink.”
The server took a bottle of whiskey from the liquor cart nearby, opened the bottle, and poured a full glass for Xu Ze.
“Let’s start with a punishment of three shots,” an alpha said with a wink, “Mr. Tang has been waiting for you all this time.”
Tang Feiyi had told him on the phone to arrive at 8:30, but Xu Ze remained silent. He held the glass, tilted his head back, and downed the entire drink.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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“So obedient.” Tang Feiyi’s hand pressed on Xu Ze’s back, slid down and finally rested on his lower back.
Xu Ze stiffened, not making a sound the entire time.
The alphas continued to chat. Tang Feiyi kept half-hugging Xu Ze, holding a bottle of alcohol in his other hand. Whenever it was time to drink, he would pour some into Xu Ze’s glass and make Xu Ze drink on his behalf.
After drinking for over an hour, Xu Ze had lost track of how much he had drunk. All he knew was that he had drunk a lot. Even though S-level alphas naturally had a high tolerance for alcohol, he began to feel dizzy and realized that he had reached his limit and couldn’t drink anymore.
Dinner was finally over, and the alphas were getting ready to go to the lounge to play cards. It was called playing cards, but in reality, it was gambling with stakes ranging from hundreds of thousands to millions in a single game. To them, it was just a matter of a single card or the blink of an eye.
“I’m going back,” Xu Ze said.
“What time is it?” Tang Feiyi was in high spirits and didn’t want to let him go, “We’ll talk about it later. I’ll get you a room then so that you can sleep comfortably.”
“No need, I’m leaving,” Xu Ze stood up.
Tang Feiyi still smiled, but his tone turned slightly colder, “The guests are all still sitting here, leaving now would be too much of a buzzkill.”
The table fell silent, and Xu Ze stood in place. He felt dizzy and struggled to concentrate on his thoughts. He just wanted to leave the private room as soon as possible.
An alpha spoke to break the stalemate, “I heard you can box? I have a subordinate who used to train as well. How about you two fight? If you win, Mr. Tang will let you go. What do you say?”
Tang Feiyi seemed to like the idea. He lit a cigarette, gazed at Xu Ze through the smoke, and slowly said, “What if he loses?”
Another alpha immediately chimed in, “If he loses, he’ll obediently spend the night with Mr. Tang.”
The others laughed maliciously. Tang Feiyi crossed his legs and intimately nudged Xu Ze’s calf with his foot, “Your choice.”
Xu Ze looked at the drink in front of him. After a few seconds, he replied, “Fine.”
Soon, the door to the private room opened and a burly bodyguard entered, “Boss.”
“Fight with him,” the alpha pointed at Xu Ze, “If you win, you get a bonus. If you lose, leave your left thumb behind.”
Xu Ze was startled and looked at the alpha.
The alpha, however, remained calm, “I learned that your daughter was recently hospitalized. Surely you don’t want her to find out that her dad’s thumb is missing as soon as she is discharged?”
The bodyguard bowed, “Understood.”
After moving the coffee table to clear the space, Xu Ze and the bodyguard stood face to face. Before Xu Ze could look at him, the other party had already punched him. Xu Ze’s dodge was delayed by half a second, and he felt the fist graze past his ear, blasting a clear gust of air.
He straightened up and struck back, but the opponent dodged it. After just one exchange, they had sized each other up. Their skill levels were equal, the only difference being that Xu Ze had been drinking, making him weaker than usual in terms of reflexes, balance, accuracy, and coordination.
Ten seconds in, Xu Ze was hit in the corner of his mouth. They were not wearing boxing gloves, and the bodyguard’s protruding knuckles slammed directly into his face. The excruciating pain made Xu Ze’s temples throb. He let out a grunt as his head twisted. He staggered a few steps and almost fell to the ground.
“Looks like Mr. Tang will be taking this beauty tonight,” in a daze, Xu Ze heard someone nearby remark with a chuckle.
Xu Ze swallowed the blood in his mouth. He raised his shaking hand and quickly threw a feigned straight punch. When the bodyguard ducked, he followed up with a right hook that hit the opponent’s chin.
He didn’t know what to do, he hadn’t figured it out yet.
What does a thumb mean to a person—Xu Ze wasn’t sure whether the alpha was joking or serious.
In a moment of distraction, Xu Ze received another punch to the jaw. His head was spinning, and his senses went numb. He crashed onto the carpet, and before he could even try to get up, a foot stomped down on his back. Something inside his chest exploded instantly, and the sharp, stabbing pain that felt like being ground into gravel shot through to his stomach. Xu Ze wanted to throw up but could only gasp for air with his mouth open.
Half of his face was pressed against the carpet, and his baseball cap fell to the side. Through his blurred vision, he saw Tang Feiyi lounging on the sofa with an expression of pleasure from the thrill on his face. Xu Ze knew that he was waiting for him to beg, cry, or plead for mercy.
He couldn’t lose. Xu Ze took a quick breath. He suspected that his spine or ribs had been broken. He was in so much pain that he could hardly breathe, and his heart was beating fast. Gritting his teeth, he reached out and grabbed the bodyguard’s other leg by the ankle and yanked him forward. He felt like he had used up all his strength as the bodyguard fell unsteadily to the ground. Xu Ze endured the pain and turned around to elbow him in the chest.
The alphas watched them with interest while sipping their drinks as if they were watching two struggling beasts tearing each other apart.
Just when Xu Ze was about to punch the bodyguard in the face again, the door to the private room was suddenly pushed open and the hotel manager walked in with a security guard. The manager was neither surprised nor reproachful, his tone was calm and polite, “Sorry, but we do not allow fighting in the hotel.”
He bowed politely to Tang Feiyi, “Mr. Tang, I hope you understand.”
“Fighting?” Tang Feiyi swirled his drink without looking at him, “We were just having a friendly competition. How did it turn into a fight?”
“Competing in a hotel room, who’s responsible if someone dies?”
Hearing Gu Yunchi’s voice, Xu Ze froze, then quickly grabbed his cap, pulled it low over his head, and stood up.
“Yo, Young Master Gu is here?” Tang Feiyi finally raised his eyelids, “I heard that Director Gu also came to Yunwan today. Blame my bad memory, I forgot to say hello to the old man.”
“My grandpa doesn’t have time to listen to pleasantries from irrelevant people,” Gu Yunchi replied calmly. He looked at Xu Ze who was standing in the middle of the private room with his head hung low, “These two people need to be taken away for questioning about the situation. Mr. Tang, do you have any objections?”
Needed for questioning? What was there to question? Everyone present understood that this was just a crude excuse, but they also knew that for Gu Yunchi to use such an “excuse” was already a sign of respect.
Just as Tang Feiyi was about to speak, He Wei cut in, “If you have no objection, you two come out.”
“Of course,” Tang Feiyi sneered and said casually.
Gu Yunchi nodded indifferently, “There’s no need to settle Mr. Tang’s bill today, consider it as a gift from me.”
Xu Ze walked out of the private room with his head down. As he passed by, he heard He Wei whispering, “Run, everything’s fine.”
After a brief moment of confusion, Xu Ze quickly walked to the elevator. He looked back and saw that no one was following him.
After leaving the hotel, the temperature outside was slightly higher. The constant traffic noise filled his ears. His back was still aching. Xu Ze hunched over, unable to stand up straight. He took a deep breath and licked the corners of his mouth. The wound was a bit salty, and the tip of his tongue was filled with the taste of blood.
Two meters ahead, a supercar stopped at the side of the road. Xu Ze raised his head. He recognized the car model and knew that there were only three of them in the capital, one of which belonged to He Wei.
The car door slowly opened. Xu Ze walked forward slowly until he reached the side of the driver’s seat and peered inside.
The person sitting inside wasn’t He Wei.
Lu Heyang had one hand on the steering wheel. The car’s light blue ambient lighting lit his face with a mechanical coldness. He tilted his head, looked at Xu Ze with a subtle smile, and asked, “Need a ride?”
Author’s note:
Hiding talent and fame, being a low-key superhero who happens to be his ride home, hmm.
He Wei: But that’s my car Lu Heyang. Why are you driving your brother’s car to pick up alphas? Is there something going on, bro?
I’m glad Xu Ze didn’t have to do something with that weirdo 😢
Thank you very much.♡♡♡♡
Poor xu ze…ʕ´• ᴥ•̥`ʔ
All hail Lu Heyang for rescuing our baby Xu Ze!
Xu Ze dodged that bullet for now, but he may not be as lucky the next time. It sucks to be poor, owe money, that he has to practically do whatever is asked of him to earn the money. ☹
Poor babie kept getting beaten up.