HOYSE CHAPTER 67

Chapter 67 — Snapped a kick

Back in high school, Wu Fuyu got put through a real-life cautionary tale by a Cinderella-type Omega. Ever since, he kept the three male-presenting genders at arm’s length. To put it bluntly, he even developed a touch of androphobia.

“Play, do not feel” summed up the last few years of his life. He could throw money at any beautiful woman, but he would not let his heart move again.

When Wu Fuyu sensed Rong Jing’s emotions changing, he panicked at first, then spent a long stretch in self-denial. At his father’s arrangement he went to an E-series training camp for a few days of behavioral “conditioning.” 

The drills pushed him past his limits. He was exhausted, yet that sudden thrum in his chest would not fade. Maybe, in his bones, he was wired to crave something this strong, strong enough to thrill him. Maybe there was someone out there who would wind him up even more than Rong Jing.

Who cares about “later.” Right now, the person in front of him had caught his eye.

If he wanted someone, he would find a way to get them.

If they were not his, he would make it so.

That was how an Alpha spoke in this world, with actions, not words, never stingy about the means it took to reach an end.

So he started gathering intel on Rong Jing. Know yourself, know your opponent.

What he found shook him. In a very short time Rong Jing had acquired ten-odd companies and was sitting on a few hundred million in assets.

Compared to the Xie conglomerate, that was nothing. But what defied belief was the analysis from the Wu family’s market team: not a single one of those companies lacked promise. They were all either future darlings or dark horses with real potential. Where on earth had Rong Jing dug up that many gems?

An Alpha like that was not some social-media beauty you toyed with. He needed to be handled carefully.

He heard Rong Jing was on set and arrived with a “pledge gift.”

Lü Jin had been training hard for the next round of the talent show. On his way to class he was suddenly snatched. They shoved him into a pitch-black room. No sound. No sight. Only a tray of food shoved through at set times.

At first he was calm. As hours ticked by, fear seeped in. In that world with no sound and no light, it felt like his very existence was being erased. Panic bloomed from his gut. He pounded the walls, cried, screamed. No one answered.

He had no idea how long it was. A day? More? Finally, a door opened.

A tall, powerful figure filled the frame, backlit. Wu Fuyu said, “Do you know who you messed with?”

Only then did Lü Jin learn the place was a punishment room used for disciplining soldiers, part of a special forces training camp.

The camp corralled a pack of headstrong, untamable Alphas.

The experience shattered him. Physical pain was one thing; it was the mental punishment that broke him.

This Alpha, normally all swagger, came out shaking and sobbed for a long time.

He had already regretted how he treated Rong Jing back then. When Rong Jing “set him up” to haul books in the library, he had done it willingly. He was not heartless. Given the circumstances, that had been Rong Jing letting him off easy.

He was resentful, sure, but he still owed Rong Jing an apology.

Pinned in place now, he whispered, “S-sorry…”

Wu Fuyu dug in his ear. “Too soft. Didn’t hear a thing.”

Everyone around them involuntarily stepped back. Even the producer on site was cowed by Wu Fuyu’s identity and did not dare intervene.

This Alpha’s presence was suffocating. It pressed on everyone’s skin.

Rong Jing looked at Lü Jin’s trembling and thought something was wrong.

He knew his classmates. They were all full of personality. Especially Lü Jin, who had held the original Rong Jing’s mess-up against him and took any chance to bully. A guy like that would have choked on his pride before he ever apologized.

“Move your foot,” Rong Jing said.

Wu Fuyu met Rong Jing’s gentle gaze. It seemed calm, but there was a depth that made people step back, a pressure that made Rong Jing feel unfathomable.

Top-tier Alpha pheromones met. When two like that squared off, the prickling in the air was inescapable, needling everyone nearby.

After a beat, Wu Fuyu gave way.

He lifted his foot, but Lü Jin still did not dare stand, as if the Alpha behind him still had him in a T-lock.

Rong Jing bent down and held out his hand. “It’s over.”

Three simple words, and Lü Jin’s heart, stretched to the breaking point, snapped back toward normal.

He grabbed Rong Jing’s hand and stood, voice shaking. “S-sorry. I am really sorry…”

This time it was not a forced apology. It was real contrition.

“That matter was settled long ago,” Rong Jing said. He would handle his own revenge. He did not need anyone else to do it for him.

Besides, in that old incident the original Rong Jing had been in the wrong. There was no point rehashing. Best to forget each other and move on.

Still, Lü Jin kept mumbling sorry, like a looped recording.

Rong Jing was sure Wu Fuyu had done something to him.

This scumbag was more like a person than the others, but only by comparison. Behind the goofy mask, Wu Fuyu had a brain and the will to act.

Rong Jing glanced at the producer hovering nearby, then asked him to take Lü Jin aside and calm him down.

“What did you do to him?” he asked Wu Fuyu.

“What could I do? Check him if you want. Not a mark on him.” Wu Fuyu shrugged, shameless and relaxed.

He looked at Rong Jing and smiled, lazy and provoking.

If he was being this casual, he probably had not done anything crude, but Lü Jin was clearly rattled.

Rong Jing was not the type to repay evil with kindness, but the mess had started because of him. He would deal with it.

Gu Xi had felt it from the moment Wu Fuyu arrived. The Alpha’s eyes had not left Rong Jing, and inside them was a clear intent to possess.

He was a crisis that appeared out of nowhere. Gu Xi’s heart, already unsteady, grew even more restless.

He had finally nudged something between himself and Rong Jing. He would not stand by and let it go to waste.

Mo Dian had a throw blanket over his arm. Gu Xi took it, walked up to Rong Jing, stripped off that eye-sore of a trench coat, and tossed it at Wu Fuyu. He quickly wrapped Rong Jing in the blanket, covering that infuriating flash of skin.

He tied a knot at the edge and said coolly, “It is windy. You should change inside.”

Rong Jing glanced at Wu Fuyu. The troublemaker did not look at Gu Xi once. You could not underestimate the hold of the original plot. Rong Jing tilted his head up at the blazing sun. Was it not shining bright enough for you?

He wondered if Wu Fuyu had come to target Gu Xi again.

As he brushed past, Rong Jing spoke low enough for only the two of them to hear. “Be careful. Do not let him take advantage.”

Gu Xi looked back, surprised. Wu Fuyu’s interest was obvious. How could Rong Jing not see it?

Watching Rong Jing’s back, Gu Xi’s lips curved. Sometimes this Alpha was slow in a way that could make your heart shake.

Rong Jing ducked into the makeshift dressing room the crew had set up. He let the blanket fall, about to change out of his damp clothes, when he noticed a little chibi doodle in one corner of the blanket. It looked like fan art by a popular illustrator in the circle, drawn for Gu Xi’s merch. Rong Jing brushed a finger over the three-heads-tall little guy. Kind of cute.

On set, Wu Fuyu strode up to Gu Xi and held out a hand. “Gu Xi? You are really beautiful. Way better than those plastic-surgery monsters. Natural, through and through.”

Gu Xi’s face went cold. Director Liu Yu stepped in, pulled Gu Xi aside, and took Wu Fuyu’s handshake himself. He said a few pleasantries, hoping to soothe this investor who had woken up on the wrong side of the bed.

Everyone knew Gu Xi hated comments that reduced him to his looks. The man had arrived and stomped right on a landmine.

Wu Fuyu had seen every move just now. Was this not supposed to be a high-mountain flower, one who had no time for any Alpha?

He remembered how his cousin had gone mad chasing after Gu Xi, and how a string of second-generation heirs had all been turned down flat.

Did Gu Xi really look down on every Alpha?

Maybe not.

They ushered Wu Fuyu to a lounge area, and a small crowd formed around him.

Gu Xi, sick of being under that assessing stare, planned to check on Rong Jing, with the most impeccable excuse. He spotted a crew member carrying a fresh costume and took it for him.

At the dressing room door he knocked.

Rong Jing thought it was the crew guy from earlier. He had just peeled off his soaked shirt and was toweling off. Without looking back, he said, “Come in.”

Gu Xi opened the door and was greeted by a body that should not have belonged to a mortal.

Broad shoulders, narrow waist, whipcord lean with coiled power. He had already pulled on black casual pants that only made him look taller and straighter.

“Just set it down.”

…

Something felt off. Rong Jing turned and caught a glimpse of Gu Xi’s retreating back. The towel slipped from his hand to the floor.

That ghostly tug, that near-physical entanglement, flooded back again.

Gu Xi ducked into the bathroom, turned on the tap, and splashed his face to cool down.

What a body. Did God carve him by hand?

His gaze was a little unsteady. He had just patted his face dry when someone came out of Men A. Wu Fuyu.

Wu Fuyu came to stand beside him. They stood shoulder to shoulder. He pumped a dollop of sanitizer into his palm and rubbed it between his fingers as if he were washing silk.

“Just now I never properly introduced myself,” he said. “I am Wu Fuyu. Family has a little money. Broad interests. Right now my interest is getting the Alpha I fancy into my bed.”

Gu Xi had been reaching for a paper towel. “You do not need to say that to me.”

“Do I not?” Wu Fuyu looked at the mirror. “Do you know which Alpha I mean?”

Gu Xi looked up.

Wu Fuyu’s brow tipped. “The one you are thinking of.”

Gu Xi paused, then smiled. “You will be disappointed. He is not interested in your type.”

“He is not interested in me, but he is in you?” Wu Fuyu’s voice went mild.

“What are you talking about?” Gu Xi was about to deny it when he was cut off.

“Do not try to fool me. You are rattled, beauty.” Wu Fuyu leaned closer. “Tsk. You are so beautiful I almost feel bad crushing you. Tell you what. Why do you not bow out on your own?”

Gu Xi did not move. His eyes were calm.

Wu Fuyu bent nearer, his breath touching Gu Xi’s cheek. “You are actually very insecure, aren’t you?”

When he got serious about someone he wanted, Wu Fuyu’s pack-leader instincts showed. He would use every method to dismantle an enemy.

“If he is not yours, that is fine. Take him,” he said, quoting something Wu Hanqi had told him when he was very young.

There was a slice of Wu Hanqi in him. When he was serious, his usual goofy-idiot act was gone.

Gu Xi’s expression shifted.

“Do not look at me like that or I will think you are in love with me,” Wu Fuyu drawled. “It is simple. The way you could not sit still a moment ago told me enough.”

He did not actually see anything excessively intimate between them. Even when Gu Xi had wrapped the blanket around Rong Jing, it had looked more like a senior taking care of a junior. Convincing, sure, but not damning. In fact, the day they left the pheromone-matching center, he had already suspected that the Gu* and Rong* in the announcement were those two.

Rong was not a common surname, but Gu was. Others would not connect the dots. He had been on scene. He had watched them leave one after the other.

He had chased after them and lost them at first, then circled the block several times. An ambulance drove off. In the jostling crowd he finally saw Rong Jing holding an Omega close, murmuring comfort.

On that noisy street, the two of them were a world unto themselves.

If anyone was the main obstacle, it was the Omega in front of him.

When Wu Fuyu was serious, he was dangerous.

He started pressing seam by seam on Gu Xi’s mind.

“What are you insecure about? It is not your face. There are not many prettier than you. Is it your seemingly honey-trap physique, the attempt your uncle made to assault you, or your depression, anorexia, bipolar… oh, I remember now.” 

Wu Fuyu smiled slightly. “Chu Yang kept at you for a long time, did he not? I learned later, I could not help it. The person who helped you then was my father, so whatever he knows, I know. An Omega like you. No one wants you. Honestly, you are a little… dirty.”

Gu Xi’s body shook.

He was naming the things he feared most.

He feared Rong Jing learning what his body did to people.

He feared Rong Jing discovering Alphas had touched him, locked him up.

He feared most that his cursed “man-eater” constitution would bring trouble down on Rong Jing.

He did not dare make a real move. All he dared was tease Rong Jing, bit by bit.

Just then his phone rang.

He had set a special ringtone for Rong Jing. It was him.

Half his defenses had already been shredded. This stranger Alpha seemed to know his past down to the bone.

But with the ringtone, the hollow in his chest filled with a streak of warmth.

Cornered, he found his strength in that sound.

His cool eyes met the Alpha in front of him. He lifted his leg in a flash.

He chose a vicious angle and snapped a kick at the completely unsuspecting Wu Fuyu.

Wu Fuyu had no idea this was a flower you could not afford to provoke. It only looked delicate.

“Argh!!”

The pain was blinding.

He had aimed there. The key spot.

Was it broken? Was it broken? Would it snap clean off?

Wu Fuyu doubled over, hands cupped between his legs, face contorted.

By the time he looked up again, Gu Xi was gone without a trace.

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Author’s note: Comment to enter a draw for 100 red envelopes~ mwah!

Gu Xi: really wanted to add one more kick.

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