HOYSE CHAPTER 43

Chapter 43 — No, This Can’t Be Real!

The instant Rong Jing sensed danger, his reflex was to grab and subdue.

“Ah—!”

He had barely used any force when a short, sharp cry burst out. Under the light he saw the face and froze. Of course it was him.

Qi Ying’s tears spilled at once and he choked out, “Let go, let go.”

Relying on the fact that he was an Omega, delicate and weak, Qi Ying acted like Rong Jing would not dare do anything to him and all, but threw himself forward with impunity.

Rong Jing was not the original owner of this body. He pushed him away without ceremony, his voice cold enough to belong to someone else entirely. “I thought I made myself very clear last time.”

Had his act last time still not scared him off?

Qi Ying hit the wall and did not dare lunge again. His eyes brimmed and tears sliding down his cheeks. He stared at Rong Jing in silence, the look both resisting and inviting, as if he had a thousand words and endless grievances to spill. It was like everything before this had been one big misunderstanding.

Nice try.

Rong Jing had been trained for years by his two older sisters. They had drilled the tricks of green tea saints into him and taught him to spot them in a blink. Inside he felt nothing. If anything, he wanted to laugh.

Watching those artful tears fall on cue, his mind even drifted. What role is this guy auditioning for? He might actually get famous.

---

The smoke in the private room was suffocating. So Gu Xi slipped out to the restroom to breathe. When he came back, he remembered to put on his mask and stopped at the shared washbasins outside.

A decent-looking Alpha came out of Men A. He glanced at Gu Xi’s side profile, his narrow waist, and long legs. He could not see the face and still knew it was premium. He let out a whistle.

“Care to grab a drink? With a body like that, name your price.”

Gu Xi did not even look his way. He shut off the tap, dried his hands under the warm air. Those jade-white fingers beneath the dryer gleamed like fine satin. The man’s breathing hitched.

Gu Xi was used to Alphas who turned into rabid dogs when they saw him. He took a few steps, then caught in the mirror the man’s hand sneaking toward his hip.

His heat had passed, and he did not fear an Alpha who was all bark and no bite. Not every Alpha came with Rong Jing’s physique. The hand he had already readied snapped down on the man’s wrist. His calf whipped up, driving a kick into the man’s waist. The Alpha never imagined this Omega would be so fierce. Before he could dodge, Gu Xi’s fist crashed into his face, numbing half of it.

A low, mocking laugh sounded by his ear. “Alpha, huh?”

Gu Xi’s gaze slid down and paused where the man had just saluted. “What did you think you were going to do with that? With that little thing? A toothpick has you beat.”

He leaned to the Alpha’s ear, smile still cold. “Move again and I will crush it.”

The Alpha shuddered. This O was scary. From the practiced side kick and the clean punch, you could tell this was not his first time fighting an Alpha. Repeat offender Omega, great.

Leaving the restroom, Gu Xi took out an alcohol wipe and meticulously cleaned his hands, getting into every crease. He tossed the wipe after, his eyes full of disgust.

Tsss. He sucked in a breath. He rolled up his sleeve. The spot where the e-bike had hit him that afternoon, which he had not treated, had darkened to a mottled blue and purple. It looked nasty.

He turned the corner and saw an AO pair locked in silent tension. That natural pull between Alpha and Omega hung in the air. The O was tearful and fragile, a sight to make any A’s defenses crumble.

Qi Ying. Gu Xi knew the name and could match it to the face. He had seen posts on the campus forum about how Rong Jing had pursued this person, even faked being poor for years for him. Was this about to be a reunion of old flames?

The next second Gu Xi’s cool expression shifted. He swayed like a small white flower trembling in the wind, and started down the corridor, unsteady and unfocused, as if he could not see who was ahead at all.

Rong Jing had been watching to see what Qi Ying would try next. The moment he saw Gu Xi stumble, he moved without thinking, a habit from the last few days.

Gu Xi looked up at him through a daze. Rong Jing avoided his gaze. A faint scent of alcohol curled at his nose.

He had been drinking.

“Mm.”

“Uncomfortable?” Rong Jing asked in a low voice.

A muffled “yeah.” “I want to go back.”

The faint smell of wine mixed with the bluebell of the suppressor spray, not unpleasant. One hand braced on the wall, Gu Xi still seemed to stubbornly want to stand on his own. Rong Jing, eyes never leaving him, told the slack-jawed Qi Ying, “Tell the director we are leaving early.”

Qi Ying: “…”

They had only just made it to the KTV. Gu Xi had sipped the drink the director offered, nothing more than a polite taste. No one had wanted to push him. When he went to the restroom he had been perfectly lucid and had declined the escort of the Alphas loitering along the way.

Why was he suddenly all fragile and weak? Rong Jing, are you blind?

No, hold on. Was Gu Xi just letting himself be carried off by an Alpha like this? Alphas had coveted him for years. He was the Omega benchmark of the circle. Rong Jing could not fend off his charm either, apparently. Do you want to go to jail? You had better slam on the brakes!

Sensing a true crime in the making, Qi Ying bolted for the private room to fetch the others.

Elsewhere, Zhou You had already pulled the car around. Rong Jing checked the surroundings. Tonight’s gathering was low key and the perimeter was quiet. He stripped off his jacket and, just in case, put it over the head of the man who could not hold his liquor.

Gu Xi did not like being covered. Drunk, he flailed at the cloth and his confused face peeked out again. Those eyes, born to hook the soul, drifted. Rong Jing deliberately avoided them. This person was like water everywhere, and drunk he was even harder to handle. It felt impolite to steady him anywhere at all.

Treating him like a handful of trouble, he settled him into the back seat. He had just shifted to go around to the passenger side when Gu Xi caught the hem of his shirt.

One hand clutched, one pried at fingers.

Rong Jing coaxed him like a child. “Be good, let go, alright?”

The drunk man could not care less. He kept clutching.

Watching their tug-of-war like they were three years old, Zhou You reminded him, “Young master, we cannot park here long.”

Sure enough, a man who looked like security was already coming over. With a tiny headache, Rong Jing righted Gu Xi and got in with him.

Gu Xi’s head tipped to the side without deliberately leaning on him. Even so, without the slightest touch, perhaps because the two were too close, or the back seat too tight, something like a current of tension flickered in the air. 

Tension crept into the room, like a fuse waiting for a spark.

Gu Xi kept his eyes shut and held his breath. This should be it, the chance he had waited all day for.

His fingers trembled. He had never done anything like this, he was a rookie.

What are you hesitating for? If you hesitate, they will do the matches tomorrow and your chance will be gone. Just once, be insane in this life. Do not be cruel enough to strip me of even the right to choose my first time. He sniffed, the corner of his mouth bitter.

He slid a touch closer, pretending it was an accident, and fished out the pill he had prepared. He would wait for Rong Jing to look away and then…

A call came in. His guilty heart stuttered. His fingers jerked and the pill slipped.

The ringtone cut the quiet. Rong Jing noticed the capsule at Gu Xi’s feet. In the dim, the aluminum glinted, easy to spot.

What is that?

He flicked on the dome light. The soft glow snapped on. Gu Xi realized what he was looking at. His fingers curled tight. Wait, wait, Rong Jing—

Rong Jing did not wait. One hand protected Gu Xi’s head from hitting the door, the other picked up the thing wedged between their shoes. The blister had been snipped, so there was no name, only the single pill. Blue on top and red on the bottom, a combination that looked wrong at first glance.

Letters were stamped on each side, blue with an A, red with an O.

It did not feel legitimate.

They hit a red light just then. Rong Jing passed the pill forward. “Do you know what this is?”

Zhou You, not surprised in the least, said calmly, “Oh, a heat inducer.”

Rong Jing still did not get it. Never mind him, even the original owner had not known. Why would he have thought to look it up?

Zhou You explained what the pill did. The more detail he gave, the darker Rong Jing’s face went.

Which pervert smuggled this in?

Pervert? Me.

In Rong Jing’s mind there was only one explanation. Some scum-eyed pervert wanted Gu Xi so badly he would use scummy tricks to force him into heat, then do as he pleased.

What a piece of Sh***. He just got off a heat and you would force him into another, do you want him in agony?

Rong Jing never once considered it belonged to Gu Xi. Obviously some bastard had slipped it in. They were wolves, all of them, impossible to guard against. Blink and there it was.

His voice went cold. He looked at the still-oblivious Gu Xi, drunk out of his mind. Lying there quietly, soft and good, he sighed. Thank goodness he had noticed in time. That had nearly turned into a disaster.

Fuming, his liver aching, Rong Jing crushed the pill in his hand. When they passed a street bin, he lowered the window and flicked the pieces in. Perfect aim.

Gu Xi watched, eyes wide, as the opportunity he had schemed for with all that timing and setup, the pill he had prepared, went sailing away without mercy.

Gone.

No, this cannot be real!

---

PREVIOUS           TOC           NEXT