HOYSE CHAPTER 21

Chapter 21 — I, Gu Xi, Will Take Your Surname. Heh.

Gu Xi felt as if a strong wind had blown through, leaving him a little disheveled.

In the few seconds while they were staring at each other, the blond punk seized his chance. With his free hand he fumbled across the floor, found the phone he had dropped and hit 1 to place a call.

Rong Jing’s eyes narrowed. He took one long step and pressed his knee onto the blond’s still-twitching hand, pried the phone away, and lifted it. From the earpiece came Wu Fuyu’s voice, faint but distinct: “Hello, hello? What is going on?”

Muzzled with tape, the blond strained his throat. “Mmm—mmm—mmm—mmm!” Save me, they are going to do something to me, call the police!

Unfortunately, no one could understand those noises.

Rong Jing hung up at once. Over in the hall, where his father was calling him over to meet another round of uncles, Wu Fuyu stared at the abrupt disconnection and assumed the other idiot had misdialed. “What the hell,” he muttered. “Drunk again? Boring.”

Letting the blond bolt now would be asking for trouble. Outside, the place was thick with guests. Who knew what garbage he would spew if he got loose.

Rong Jing met Gu Xi’s eyes again. Whatever had happened by the pool had already nudged them into silently recognizing each other as on the same side.

They looked down at the punk at the same time, shared one brief look, and split the work. Gu Xi kept an eye on him while Rong Jing, following the original owner’s memory, slipped to a utility room and came back with a coil of jute rope, which he handed over.

Gu Xi glanced at the rope, then looped it around the blond’s chest, threaded it through both wrists, passed it under his hips… Halfway through, the blond seemed to understand exactly what Gu Xi was doing and started thrashing in panic.

Rong Jing: … I do not read that many books, but come on, this looks like a bondage rig from a training session.

Any Alpha tied up this way would feel utterly humiliated, and no wonder a self-styled expert like the blond was fighting like mad. He had probably never been treated like this in his life.

Gu Xi pinned him with one knee and cut off the struggling.

At first his hands were awkward, but he got smoother fast, and in the end he even tied a neat little bow.

In under five minutes, they had the half-naked blond, hairy thighs out, socks and shoes still on, bundled and dragged into a stall. Of course they poked two holes in the woven sack over his head so he could breathe.

Gu Xi washed his hands three times, as if he could scour away every trace of Alpha scent only by being thorough to the point of obsession.

Rong Jing noticed that the person in front of him seemed to loathe Alpha touch. Judging from how even three washes felt insufficient, if there had been any more contact just now, would he have scrubbed himself raw?

He did not interrupt Gu Xi’s manic hand-washing. When Gu Xi finally came back to himself, embarrassment flickered across his face. He pulled his carrot-red hands back, dried them, and the two of them slipped out of the restroom, dodging cameras all the way to the outside. From a distance they could see guests trickling out through the guesthouse gates.

At some point a thunderstorm had swept through. The air held the mixed scent of wet earth and grass. They both drew a deep breath. Like kids who had just done something wicked, co-conspirators escaping into the night, they could not help the smiles tugging at their mouths.

They tipped their heads back to the moon, half-veiled by clouds, and sighed in unison. “Ah.” The air outside felt good.

They exchanged a glance and both laughed. Strangers though they were, something in them was in tune. A wordless understanding passed between them.

Rong Jing remembered the doubt he had shoved down earlier. “Where did you learn that kind of tying?”

The lightness that came with doing a bad deed well was wiped from Gu Xi’s face. A thin film of haze slid over his eyes, tugging at things he would rather not remember.

He could have brushed it off, yet he did not want to lie to the person in front of him. “Someone did that to me once.” Will you think I am disgusting?

Rong Jing could sense how much had been omitted. Everyone carries secrets. There is no need to pick at someone else’s scars.

So he changed the subject cleanly. “By the way, has anyone ever told you that you look like Gu Xi?”

The voice was different, and by the pool earlier there had been no time to look closely. Besides, he barely cared about his own face, why would he study another man’s?

However just now, watching the profile beside him tilt toward the moon, the thought had surfaced. If you erased the clusters of angry pimples and all that pitted texture, and took off the heavy glasses, the features did line up. Gu Xi was a touch more striking, that was all.

Gu Xi’s heart lurched and almost blurted no, wrong person. Yet an overly fast denial would be like shouting there is no silver buried here.

This guy’s eye was too sharp. He had rushed today and barely did any prosthetics, but his current face was one he could barely stand himself. How could the man be seeing through the mask to the essence?

While Gu Xi scrambled for a cover story, a world-shaking “Woof!” cracked the night. Something large was barreling toward them. Rong Jing froze, then smoothed his expression and said, “I will go ahead.”

Gu Xi looked at the leash whipping through the air and the dog galloping toward its favorite bone. He covered his mouth and chuckled. Fortunately, Rong Jing ducked into the car and escaped disaster.

Xie Ling was not in the car at the moment, so Rong Jing had moved earlier.

Ji Leping sat on the edge of the seat, rigid. He had no idea what he had done to get summoned by a young master of the Xie family. One glance at Xie Ling’s ice-carved face made him quake. “Brother Xie… were you looking for me?”

Xie Ling had just heard a thunderbolt from Zhou Xiang. His brother might be gay.

It started when Rong Jing came to the office. Zhou Xiang had asked what sort of Omega he liked, and Rong Jing had replied, why could it not be an Alpha. Add to that the way he had glanced at a certain critical spot just now. Most A’s do not look at that on another A.

Piece by piece, their suspicion might be… real.

From Ji Leping he learned that his brother’s orientation had been normal at first, up until… he got dumped.

What is wrong with my little brother? He is obedient and sensible, handsome, eight-pack abs, and aside from the occasional minor headache he is the sort of little brother others envy. The idiot is blind.

Qi Ying? Never heard of him.

He had no interest in extras’ names. He simply told Zhou Xiang that for all projects carrying Xie money, that eighteenth-tier nobody was not to appear.

Zhou Xiang: “… Yes.” Sir, if you spent half the effort on finding yourself an Omega partner that you spend on your brother, you would have been coupled up ages ago.

Ji Leping: … Sorry, Qi Ying. Better you than me. We are not even friends.

Xie Ling felt his wayward kid might still be bendable. He had only just bent, there was time to fix it.

There is a type, after all, who get hurt by one gender in the real world and run to their own for comfort. Xie Ling kept telling himself there was still time.

“Ji—” Ji what again? He had already forgotten the classmate’s name.

“Ji Leping,” he supplied immediately.

“Right. Keep an eye on him for me. Do not do anything else. If you see an Alpha getting close, or one starts hovering, report it. If necessary, you can intervene to keep things from escalating.” He would solve it at the root.

Ji Leping did not like the sound of that. “That is… basically surveillance, is it not?”

If Rong Jing finds out, who gets taken out first, you or me? I probably die faster.

Xie Ling said, “A film with a budget no less than one hundred million, at least the third male lead.”

Ji Leping wavered. He was only a collateral Ji. The family’s foray into entertainment this year was a test balloon. They would not throw that kind of resource at him.

“Add a TV drama,” Xie Ling said. “Male supporting or sub-lead.”

“Me, me…” Ji Leping’s heartbeat was getting loud.

Xie Ling lobbed another grenade. “And a new variety show on Pineapple TV.”

There is very little money cannot solve. If there is, double it. If double fails, triple.

Ji Leping folded under the sugar rounds. “No more, please, I am in. I am so in. Please let me do it!”

Dad. Can I call you Dad.

It was not that he had no principles. It was that Father Xie’s offers were too good. The man had no principles where his brother was concerned.

Xie Ling was decisive. With this handled, he was ready to go.

“Wait,” Ji Leping said. “Why not just invest in Rong Jing directly?”

He found himself oddly envious of Rong Jing. This silent shield-bearer in the background felt… warm. His side of the Ji family lived a daily reenactment of palace intrigue. Even as an outsider branch he still got splashed sometimes. Seeing brothers like this in a rich house was rare.

Xie Ling let out a small, cold laugh. “In his dreams.”

Act? He could come home and inherit.

No talent. Four years of study and still a mess, cannot even face a stage.

What good is liking it? Does liking it put food on the table?

Unless one day Rong Jing had the ability to change his mind, he would let the boy run headfirst into a wall. Bleed all he wanted. He would not interfere.

---

Wu Hanqi declined a ride in his son’s Lamborghini. He had not gotten where he was by peacocking but by being low-key and exact.

He walked to his own car and had just reached for the handle when a beautiful young man darted from the side. Barely past adulthood, he carried the soft, sweet scent of an Omega and looked up at him with pleading eyes. Even a Beta would find this dewdrop beauty hard to refuse.

What was most striking was that his face had a faint, twenty-percent echo of the entertainment industry’s Gu Xi.

“Could you give me a lift?” He was one of the little stars at the banquet. In this flashy world, who did not want a shortcut? And here stood Wu Hanqi, a titan who almost never showed up in magazines or media. Even a brush with someone like him could change a person’s life.

The young man’s damp-lashed prettiness, framed by the moist air after the storm, made him look like a flower after rain.

Wu Hanqi regarded him with calm, deep eyes that barely rippled. Just when the boy’s heart seemed about to leap out of his throat, he said lightly, “Get in.”

The boy slid into the car, giddy to realize a man of Wu Hanqi’s stature was driving himself.

He had no way of knowing that it was not for lack of a driver. Wu Hanqi preferred to keep his hands on the wheel. He did not trust anyone else.

The boy sat in the back seat, tense, stealing looks at the man driving in silence. The other said nothing, as if he truly meant only to give him a ride. He did not seem interested, but if he was not, why let him in at all?

He could not stand the quiet and began to edge forward, ready with a breath like orchids.

“Impatient, are we?” Wu Hanqi asked, smiling without smiling.

He had seen too many who recommended themselves to the pillow. It did not faze him. The boy flushed with shame, then almost died when the next sentence came.

Wu Hanqi glanced in the rearview mirror and said two flat words. “Strip. Now.”

Strip, as in… what he thought?

He assumed this was inspection. Men of this tier often examined the wares before purchase. If he dared knock on the door, he had the goods to match. It was not his first time, though it was the first time he had ever been this nervous.

There was no one else in the car. Hands trembling, he undressed piece by piece.

Wu Hanqi gave him a cursory look and, right as humiliation blended into a prickle of thrill, said in that same faint tone, “I thought only your face had been under the knife. But it seems the nipples, the hips, and there… all done?”

He paused. “What on you is real?”

Cosmetic work was common in the industry. Micro-adjustments barely counted, but to someone who had seen every sort of monster, one glance could separate fake from true.

“Put your clothes on. Get out.”

From the first self-offer to now, this had been no more than a passing amusement to him. He stopped the car on the mountain road. With tears pooling, the boy tugged his clothes back on with shaking fingers.

Wu Hanqi looked over his shoulder, voice still naturally elegant. “I do not mind artifice, but if you cannot even do fake properly, there is no point in appearing at all. Right?”

The boy stared at the lofty smile, panic and shame twisting together. The night around them was so dark that even the gentleman before him seemed like a ghost.

He regretted trying to hook Wu Hanqi. What big shot was easy to fool? Fear slid cold down his spine.

Wu Hanqi did not care. He only chuckled. “Forgot to mention. It is hard to be my lover. I am… picky.”

The boy tumbled out. The car slipped away. Only then did his tears fall for real, not the kind he could summon for show, but the kind rooted in fear.

Wu Hanqi drove on a ways and then slowed. Up ahead, a back he knew caught his eye, and his gaze focused. He pulled out his phone, checked a locator, saw the red dot hovering near his car, and smiled.

Gu Xi walked along the mountain road with his head down, the glow of his phone painting his face.

He was buried in a shopping app, picking out essentials for special-effects makeup: scar wax, extensors, sulfur latex. He had ended up in a forum brawl today and had not had time to do a proper “face,” but next time he would not let Rong Jing spot him so easily. He bit his lip and added the most expensive items to the cart. Normally he saved every cent. Spending this much hurt, but he pressed buy anyway.

Next time, if you recognize me again, I, Gu Xi, will take your surname. Heh.

He was thinking that when he heard a sound behind him. He checked the shadow at his feet and saw a car following. He looked up, heart tightening as a familiar face appeared.

The darkness was thick. The wind whispered through the trees. The man’s refined voice carried a hint of something darker.

“Get in,” Wu Hanqi said. “I will give you a ride.”

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