HOYSE CHAPTER 70

Chapter 70 — Do You Want To…

Haowang Hotel.

Room key 1307. Bathroom. Toilet lid.

A man sat there in deep thought, wearing only lounge pants, a cigarette pinched between his index and middle finger.

His fingers were still trembling. He took a drag now and then.

He could not calm down.

Any idea of quitting smoking had gone out the window. His face was dark.

The lethal, honey-sweet pheromones in the air were finally easing now that the “deep communication” had ended, but what was muddled was no longer his body.

He felt like he was facing the biggest test of his life.

Rong Jing was turning over a brain-splitting question. Was he… gay?

He unlocked his phone and pulled up photos of men, the type of male Omegas he had never paid attention to. He scrolled for pages and still could not appreciate the soft, the imperious, the boyish, any of the types.

The place that had perked up earlier even looked a little deflated. He was still him. His orientation had not shifted.

It was just that today he had lost the “body purity” he had kept for more than twenty years.

That was not the main point. He had spent a night drunk out of his mind, lost control of himself, and taken an Omega apart and swallowed him whole. It had been bad enough that he nearly lost his grip entirely and wanted to keep sinking.

A few hours ago he had felt like someone else. He still did not dare look straight at the chaos in the room.

From the balcony to the door there was a path of memories.

It was like a sealed valve had popped open. Once he lost the line he had always held, the slightest tease turned him inside out.

Humans are rational creatures, after all.

He had barely clawed his way back from the haze when he saw a sight that went past the limits of imagination. At the same time he saw a flower that burned its life to bloom, hiding its fatigue and pain.

He had heard an Omega’s first time could be rough. Most get hurt.

Male Omegas even more so, which is why many of them hate this sort of thing. Alphas tend to have too much need for control.

Usually it takes preparation of body and mind, and an Alpha who is patient and careful and soothing.

He had done none of that.

Full of regret and shame, Rong Jing measured with his hand. The dimensions… seemed above standard.

Crap. He had not controlled his strength just now.

Rong Jing shot to his feet. Was this the time to question his orientation?

Gu Xi had passed out on the bed. The shock had been too much. He only remembered wrapping the man tight in the quilt so he would not get chilled and then running away.

Run, for what?!

You did it. You take responsibility.

Rong Jing stubbed out the cigarette and shrugged on a random shirt.

He opened the tub and ran hot water, checked the temperature, then hurried out of the bathroom.

“Oh—”

That heady sweetness still hooked straight into his skull. It took him back to their first meeting, when he had already felt a little drunk on it.

Who would have thought there would be a day like this, where he ravaged the cold peak flower the whole book had called unapproachable.

Were the pheromones lighter now?

He seemed to remember that during a heat, if there was no marking, intimacy could still relieve the pain.

The more intimate, the better.

Feeling awkward, he cleared his throat, turned the air conditioner up, and freed the person he had wrapped like a

A traditional Chinese food
where sticky rice and fillings
are tightly wrapped in leaves,
here used as a metaphor for
being snugly wrapped up like a bundle. zongzi

from his quilt-leaf cocoon.

What met his eyes was a flawless body covered in marks. He… had done all that?

Yes, probably.

Rong Jing stared blankly at the sky outside. The power had cut out a little after eight last night. Counting it out, that made eight straight hours without stopping.

And Alphas, in these matters, were annoyingly gifted. One go could stretch on forever, and the more they matched an Omega, the more energized and reckless the Alpha became.

Rong Jing, you are a beast.

His disgust with himself grew. In this world, Alphas not only had ridiculous stamina, there were other parts of the package he did not even want to describe.

Shameful.

If this were the real world, could he apply to Guinness?

He let his mind scatter just to dull the edge of what they had done.

But the checks he needed to do still had to be done.

Gu Xi carried a red lotus, that very old-school setting, a flower that bloomed during that.

Thanks to that setting, readers used to screech about how satisfying it was.

Right now, it was scarlet and dewy.

In the last eight hours, Rong Jing had not spared that slowly opening flower, visiting it again and again.

Enough.

Rong Jing, you have some nerve.

He gently parted the petals. Thankfully there was only redness and swelling, no tearing.

He exhaled. The book was soaked in blood, as if the character was half dead, a hopeless despair that pierced through the simple words and struck straight at your heart. He had never experienced that rush of satisfaction or any sense of endearing charm from it. Instead, it had left him feeling sickened.

He lifted Gu Xi in his arms. The exhaustion had Gu Xi limp as water. Maybe because he smelled something familiar, those soft arms wrapped around Rong Jing’s neck on their own.

“You are going to want to kill me when you wake up,” Rong Jing muttered.

Gu Xi’s brows stayed knotted.

When he eased the man into the warm water, the places that had been used and used again rejected the heat at once. Gu Xi started to struggle, splashing everywhere.

He seemed terrified, let out short cries. Rong Jing soothed him for a long time before he quieted and clung tighter, a vine climbing a tree, reaching for support.

It took a lot of work to get him clean. Rong Jing ended up drenched too.

He finally got clothes on Gu Xi and was about to deal with the battlefield when a snow-white bundle latched onto him. There was no way to pull free to tidy a thing.

Gu Xi sobbed now and then in his sleep, whispering, “Go away,” and “No.”

Every time he heard that, Rong Jing felt guilty all over again.

Gu Xi’s hands, though, were locked around his waist and would not let go.

Rong Jing stared up at the ceiling. Was he telling me to get lost?

He hummed softly, the theme songs he had sung in his past life. He could only act, so all his songs were ones from his own dramas. As the lead, he would always be dragged to “sing with all his heart.”

Gu Xi slowly settled. He curled into the Alpha’s arm like a cat that had finally found its nest, lazy and warm.

Soothing him soothed Rong Jing. Watching that calm, sleeping face, he drifted off too.

At dawn, Xie Ling stood in his brother’s empty suite with a face like thunder.

He had heard that the weather here last night had been bizarre. Flash after flash of lightning, rumbling thunder with no rain. Then a blackout across the area, power not restored until the small hours.

He had called his little brother several times, got through, but no one picked up. He had come early because he was worried.

“What happened. Where is he?” he asked Zhou You, who had just arrived.

Zhou You only remembered Young Master asking him to check the hall and then telling him to get off early. He had no idea where his boss had gone.

Xie Ling remembered his own kidnapping as a child and went pale. He snapped, “Which room is the director in?”

Gu Xi woke inside a soft warmth. The scent at his nose and the touch of warm skin made him want to go back to sleep.

Skin.

He snapped awake. His whole body felt clean, except for one place that ached with the slow pressure of being stretched too far.

He looked up at the sleeping face beside him. A familiar Alpha’s handsome features were bathed in morning light, serene and beautiful.

Gu Xi flung back the quilt. They were both dressed? Should it not have been…

The hangover made his stomach turn. He was empty inside.

The memories after the drinks were blurry. Had it all been a dream?

In this moment Gu Xi became Sherlock-level observant.

He checked the red marks on his body, scanned the room, and spotted the trail of scattered shirts and pants all the way across the floor, and the too-real impressions and aches that could not be faked.

His body did hurt, yet somehow he felt refreshed, even warm. His eyes were unusually clear.

It was like a pair of warm hands had reached down into the pit to pull up his muddy ones.

It was real.

His high lasted three seconds.

Then his mood dropped like a stone.

Yes, it had been real, but it seemed like… only once.

And then it stopped.

He had, in fact, been pushed… away.

Gu Xi’s face went very dark. So I am… that lacking in charm?

The blow left him reeling.

So much for that myth that a highly matched A and O would not leave the bed for three days and nights.

So much for top-tier pheromones. So much for maximum pairing percentage.

Top 50 worldwide. The most beautiful in showbiz. All fake, right?

He had always found those labels annoying, but last night he had been grateful for them at least.

From beginning to end, Rong Jing had never once taken the initiative. Maybe he really did have no interest in male Omegas.

In Rong Jing’s eyes there had been desire and pity, but not the one thing Gu Xi wanted most.

Gu Xi patted his face.

No sulking. Even in dramas there is love after marriage.

So the order of operations was a little off. No big deal.

At least he had cracked the ice mountain. A corner of the fortress had fallen.

Rong Jing was colder to other Omegas. He was already different with Gu Xi. It was time to press the advantage. Do not give him time to think. Best to take him while the iron is hot.

Before this, he had never made a real move, kept them in the safe light of “friends.”

Next, he would not let Rong Jing blame him. He would make Rong Jing break that layer himself.

He felt the shift behind him and immediately shut his eyes to fake sleep.

Time to act.

Rong Jing felt the sunlight and opened his eyes.

Eight hours without a break, then washing and soothing an Omega, had left him with only a few hours of sleep. His body was still wired, but his mind was tired.

His dreams had been full of how to confess the farce of last night and the part where he had turned into an animal.

The more he thought about it, the worse he felt about himself.

He felt the soft head in the bend of his arm and looked down.

Warm light lay over Gu Xi’s porcelain face, long lashes casting faint shadows. Below the throat was a scene he could not handle.

Rong Jing let out a deep sigh.

There was only one thing to do. Gu Xi had been drunk first, but the main problem was still him.

By the laws of this world, doing this while an Omega’s consciousness is unclear gives the Omega the right to press charges and make the Alpha pay a price, from a few years to decades depending on severity.

Thinking that, Rong Jing gently moved Gu Xi’s head onto the pillow.

He crossed his legs on the bed, took out his phone, and started to search how to ease an Omega’s pain the first time for AO couples.

Before he typed a word, a voice spoke behind him.

Rong Jing jumped. The phone plopped onto the quilt.

It was time.

Gu Xi made a small sound and drifted up from sleep.

He saw the man sitting with his back to him and seemed to blink in curiosity.

“Rong… Rong Jing?” His hangover made his voice rough and soft.

That voice was sweet and light, far too tempting.

Rong Jing answered, guilty, “Do you remember… what happened yesterday?”

“My head hurts a little,” Gu Xi pressed his temple, as if trying to recall. “Ah, we…”

Color flooded his cheeks. His fingers twisted in the blanket. He looked like he could not believe it, shocked and at a loss, a startled deer, bewildered and heartbreakingly lovely.

Rong Jing nodded heavily. Yes. You are not mistaken.

The person in front of you did it.

He did not turn around.

He could not bear to see disgust in Gu Xi’s eyes.

Gu Xi had always treated him as his best friend. He had betrayed that trust.

Inside, silence.

Outside, the hall was noisy, voices and hurried footsteps, like something urgent was happening.

They both spoke at once.

Rong Jing suddenly turned around. “I should go turn myself in.”

At the same time, Gu Xi seemed to screw up his courage. “Do you want to keep me?”

Huh?

Right then, someone pounded the door.

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