Chapter 24: A Meeting of the Adulterers
Jiang Zhaosheng was kneeling in front of the wardrobe door, his ink-black long hair falling and covering most of his back. Hearing the door open, he didn’t even bother to look back, assuming it was Samuel returning.
Having been pampered and held in the palm of that Italian man’s hand for so long, Jiang Zhaosheng hadn’t even realized that he had developed a bit of a willful “eldest young master” temper in front of him.
As the footsteps drew closer, Jiang Zhaosheng furrowed his brows, about to lash out, when his chin was suddenly grabbed from behind and roughly tilted upward—
“Zhaozhao, which ‘adulterer’ did you mistake me for?”
Jiang Zhaosheng completely hadn’t expected to be treated this way. His face was filled with disbelief, which instead made him look rarely bewildered.
There wasn’t much flesh on his cheeks, and the pinch made his philtrum perk up slightly. When he instinctively looked up, his long eyelashes fluttered, and his unvoiced scolding turned into a short gasp.
The high fever made his head groggy, but the face of Shang Yan appearing out of thin air made one thought eerily clear:
This auction’s third-rate security? Samuel, can you actually do your job or not?
The scene before him was so high-impact that Lin Xuan’s brain completely stalled.
“So obedient… you even knew to hang a tag on yourself.”
Shang Yan sneered, his free hand hooking the choker on Jiang Zhaosheng’s neck, dangling the black metal tag before his eyes—
“This is the spot. It’s missing my name.”
Realizing Shang Yan’s malice, Lin Xuan used his own body to shield Jiang Zhaosheng completely.
“Get out!”
Shang Yan ignored the expulsion, casting a condescending glance his way:
“You can’t handle his current situation. What he was dosed with isn’t a normal drug. It’s a Dual-Way Induction Agent. Ever heard of it?”
Lin Xuan’s eyes showed confusion, but his body remained stubbornly in place.
“It’s normal that you haven’t,” Shang Yan “explained” kindly, his gaze secretly sticking to Jiang Zhaosheng. “Simply put, it doesn’t pick a gender, but it forcibly induces a heat similar to an Omega’s.”
“……Get lost.”
Jiang Zhaosheng squeezed two raspy words through his teeth and pulled open a drawer under the wardrobe. Inside were several sterilized packaging bags.
“Then can’t we use a suppressant!”
Lin Xuan recognized the packaging of a suppressant, and his eyes lit up.
Jiang Zhaosheng’s fingers trembled as he tried to pry off the needle cap.
His emerald eyes were blurred by physiological tears. He stared fixedly at his hands, trying to gather the strength that was rapidly draining away.
Shang Yan’s face instantly darkened.
“Don’t use that!” he shouted sternly, losing his composure for the first time since entering. “Ordinary suppressants will cause a backlash after use. Do you want to fall into a total breakdown?”
Jiang Zhaosheng’s movements paused, and the syringe slid from his hand. Shang Yan picked it up and threw it far away, then kicked the drawer shut.
Lin Xuan was also stunned, looking at Shang Yan and then at the weak Jiang Zhaosheng with suspicion.
“Then… then what should we do?”
Shang Yan took a step forward, ignoring Lin Xuan, his gaze locked tightly on Jiang Zhaosheng:
“Jiang Zhaosheng, you know very well if what I’m saying is true. You can feel it yourself, can’t you?”
His bangs were completely soaked with sweat, clinging to his smooth forehead. Jiang Zhaosheng lowered his head, his long hair hanging down and hiding his expression.
Of course he felt it.
The restlessness rising from every bone, the urge to be controlled and possessed, was clashing with his reason, making him want to surrender his logic and give in several times.
Heaven knew how much willpower he was consuming just by staying here, restraining himself from moving even a step closer to Lin Xuan or Lin Xuan.
He wanted to be touched… wanted skin-to-skin contact… wanted to hear “praise”… from whom?
Expectation and disgust tore at him repeatedly… Jiang Zhaosheng could no longer hear clearly what Lin Xuan and Shang Yan said afterward.
When Samuel pushed the door open and walked in, he smelled the scent of white musk—
Jiang Zhaosheng was wrapped in a dark yukata from the wardrobe, his damp long hair scattered, with traces of water still on his face. He was sitting upright behind the large mahogany office desk.
“Regarding that Omega…”
Samuel’s gaze shifted secretly. Under the edge of the desk, in that shadow… it seemed a bit too crowded.
With his sharp senses, he even caught a faint, unpleasant wet sound.
There was someone under the desk.
Samuel’s face instantly darkened. In his mind, he had already flipped the table in a rage and torn the audacious “rat” under the desk into pieces.
Hiding in the wardrobe, Lin Xuan noticed this eerie silence and held his breath, his heart pounding wildly—if nothing else, why wasn’t he the one hiding under the table?
Not long ago, Shang Yan had propped up Jiang Zhaosheng’s clearly weak body from behind and gestured to Lin Xuan:
“Help me take off his pants.”
He had almost fought the man, but Shang Yan had said something extremely… crude.
He couldn’t remember the details clearly, only that Jiang Zhaosheng was also startled, looking like a stressed cat in his arms, his pupils snapping shut.
In short, it was Shang Yan under the desk now.
Jiang Zhaosheng closed his eyes, almost certain that Samuel had found out.
One of his hands reached down viciously to grab Shang Yan’s hair and pull, while the other had to pretend to rest naturally on the desk, his fingertips even maintaining the illusion of a casual, light tapping.
There was nothing under the yukata. He could only press his palm against Shang Yan’s forehead in a futile attempt to stop him.
However, the expected thunderous rage did not descend.
Samuel stood in place, his chest rising and falling slightly, staring at Jiang Zhaosheng with a complex gaze. Anger, jealousy, and a deep sense of powerlessness battled fiercely in his heart.
Is it some Omega? When was they brought in? Why do this? Was Stellina into Omegas all along?
Regardless, he couldn’t flip that table… at least not now.
Once the pretense was shattered, given Stellina’s unyielding nature, it might truly be over between them.
Samuel walked forward a few steps, stopping exactly at a distance where he couldn’t see under the desk. His gaze fell heavily on Jiang Zhaosheng’s face, deliberately ignoring the unnatural, occasionally swaying desk, as well as his lover’s clenched jaw and flushed eyes.
He took a silent deep breath, suppressed his furious mood, and spoke naturally:
“I found some things regarding that dead Omega. The current leads aren’t very clear. You need to be extra careful.”
Jiang Zhaosheng bit the soft flesh inside his cheek hard, forcing himself to focus on Samuel’s words while fighting against the bastard under the desk who was intensifying his actions because he was distracted.
“Mmph…”
Shang Yan actually started licking his fingers. Jiang Zhaosheng couldn’t look down; he had no line of sight and couldn’t escape the wet, slippery thing that felt like a snake.
If he wasn’t careful, his fingers would be bitten. Jiang Zhaosheng’s scalp tingled with disgust. He felt like his hand probably looked like it had been fished out of water… not a single patch of skin had been spared.
Shang Yan stared fixedly at that hand in the darkness.
The veins on the back of Jiang Zhaosheng’s hand didn’t bulge easily, but the tendons were distinct, appearing and disappearing shallowly with his movements, drawing the eye.
Whether it was the recessed shadow at the wrist joint or the jade-white fingers, it looked like the hand of a pampered young master who had never seen hardship. Whether it was Samuel standing in the room pretending to be deaf and dumb, or Wen Zheng’s group at school… when they held his hand, they probably wanted to wrap a rope around their own necks with it.
Finally, things calmed down for a moment. Jiang Zhaosheng squeezed a trembling sound from his throat:
“……You didn’t find anything?”
“No, the area is sealed off. My men are still searching. It’s just that I missed you too much and couldn’t help myself.”
Samuel’s gaze lingered on his sweat-dampened temple for a moment, a trace of pain flickering in his blue eyes.
Jiang Zhaosheng had no time to look at his expression. Just trying to hold down Shang Yan’s forehead with one hand took all his energy.
He felt in a daze like he was raising a large dog that desperately wanted to be close to its master, panting with its tongue out while leaning in.
Shang Yan was probably more of a beast than that.
Samuel could no longer endure the provocation of the “adulterer” under the desk. He slapped the table with a force that made a loud bang.
At the same time, a soft sound came from the direction of the wardrobe. Jiang Zhaosheng restrained himself from looking that way.
If the one inside the table was found, along with another one in the wardrobe, his image would be completely beyond saving.
“I’ve always been willing to establish that kind of relationship with you, do you understand?”
“…Hmm?”
Jiang Zhaosheng didn’t understand what he was talking about at all. He felt that today might be the lowest point of his intelligence since reaching adulthood… it was too embarrassing.
“I said, I’m willing to be your ‘dog.’ I’m willing to offer everything,” Samuel said, looking down at the desk with implication. “Stellina, including my dignity…”
“No…” Jiang Zhaosheng’s head ached as the man started bringing up BDSM-related things again. He didn’t notice Samuel’s hint at all, his fingers curling slightly. “I told you, I have no interest in that.”
So he’s just a pure hedonist? Samuel thought darkly. You’ve really changed a lot over the years.
But I still love you so much. So much that I can tolerate you having a “third party” half-covertly serve you in the room where I am hosting you.
“Samuel,” Jiang Zhaosheng looked at him for the first time, his voice a few pitches higher than usual. “Since there’s no result, can you step out for a moment? I want to sleep.”
He was able to say this whole sentence because he had suddenly pressed Shang Yan’s head onto his lap.
Jiang Zhaosheng’s complexion at this moment was like a fox spirit in a painting that had sucked up enough essence. Not a single part of him wasn’t casual—from the oversized pajamas to the scattered hair with water vapor—yet it gave off a feeling that was as seductive as it could possibly be.
Samuel suddenly changed his tone, speaking with a serious, even desperate stubbornness:
“Stellina, I know now isn’t the best time… but I can’t wait anymore.”
Jiang Zhaosheng closed his eyes from being bitten, raising a hand to cover his mouth. His head was buzzing, and he could barely understand what Samuel was saying.
Suddenly, his shoulders were grabbed and shaken hard.
Jiang Zhaosheng looked up somewhat blankly. Samuel met his wet eyes, which looked like a clear sky after rain. He couldn’t help but tidy the hair at his temples, his planned words being refined over and over until the original threat turned into humility—
“Look at me. Promise me, let me pursue you officially. Otherwise… I won’t be able to help myself.”
Faced with the fact that his beloved “played around,” he compromised. It was okay if he wasn’t the only one, and it was okay if he didn’t have a status, as long as Jiang Zhaosheng let him cross that line of friendship…
But to Jiang Zhaosheng, it sounded different. Samuel… actually dared to blackmail him at a time like this?
Shang Yan under the desk also seemed to pause at this sudden confession. Then, Jiang Zhaosheng felt him give a low chuckle—
……Instead of reining it in, he seemed to have been stimulated into some kind of competitive state by Samuel’s sudden speech.
So Alphas are just a bunch of neurotic and impulsive guys, Jiang Zhaosheng cursed in his heart, his hand on the desk clenching into a fist.
But he had no way to make Shang Yan beat it. Samuel started talking to him about the good old days. Did you know, Stellina, I still have the dress you wore when we first met? Do you still like that guy Paris’s craft? I had a few more beautiful butterfly knives custom-made for you… Using the emotional card against this madman under the desk was like competing for who came first—I am the man he loves most—it was simply ridiculous…
Shang Yan didn’t care about any of that. He couldn’t speak, so he could only use actions to show off, becoming even more unscrupulous, even carrying a provocation intended to let the person outside notice.
The scorching sensation intensified, going deeper. Jiang Zhaosheng suddenly arched his back, the tendons on the back of his hand bulging. He bit his own wrist hard to swallow a gasp back into his throat, his whole body trembling finely.
Samuel stared at him fixedly, taking all of this in… for the first time wishing this were a scene from a dream rather than what was happening before his eyes—no matter how… pitiable and moving Jiang Zhaosheng looked right now.
Jiang Zhaosheng also knew he was done for. Even a fool would know what was going on.
He could feel Samuel’s patience and reason nearing the edge, while Shang Yan under the desk… this madman.
His remaining reason told him that before he was exposed, he had to stabilize Samuel.
“……Fine, I’ll consider it.”
A startling light burst out of Samuel’s desperate eyes, as if he had found life in a dead end. He looked greedily at Jiang Zhaosheng’s forced compliance, carving that unwilling yet moving expression deep into his heart.
“Very good,” Samuel said with satisfaction, raising his voice. “I will remember the promise for you, darling.”
He gave Jiang Zhaosheng one last deep look, and when he looked under the desk, he wanted to pierce through it and hack the person to pieces.
The soft sound of the door closing came.
Jiang Zhaosheng’s previously tense body suddenly lost all strength. He slumped back against the chair, panting heavily and staring at the ceiling with unfocused eyes. His whole person looked like he had been fished out of water.
After a while, Shang Yan slowly came out from under the desk.
He looked down at the person on the chair who looked as if he had been broken, wiped the corner of his mouth, and spoke with his usual playful tone:
“You agreed to him so quickly, Zhaozhao… it seems it was really ‘comfortable’?”
Jiang Zhaosheng slowly rolled his eyes to look at him. His gaze was cold, but because of the remaining water, it seemed to have no deterrent power, instead looking more like a fragile seduction.
Shang Yan leaned in, pinching his chin:
“Let me taste you…”
Jiang Zhaosheng turned his head and slapped him across the face.
With the sensation subsiding and his head cooling down, even looking at him felt disgusting.
“Get out.”
Shang Yan raised an eyebrow.
The wardrobe door was also slammed open at this moment. Lin Xuan rushed out and lunged at Shang Yan with bloodshot eyes.
“You too,” Jiang Zhaosheng said without looking in Lin Xuan’s direction, commanding, “Get out as well.”
Lin Xuan’s movements were like a pause button being pressed. He looked at Jiang Zhaosheng at a loss.
Jiang Zhaosheng finally sat up slowly and pulled his yukata together. He looked up, his gaze sweeping across Shang Yan and then Lin Xuan, and said softly:
“While I can still speak properly, disappear from my sight.”
Shang Yan stared at him for a few seconds, then suddenly pulled an ambiguous smile, shrugged, tidied his clothes, and was the first to walk toward the French window.
Although it was a shameful escape by climbing over a wall, he somehow managed to walk with the confidence of a “master of the house” walking through the front door.
Lin Xuan stood in place with clenched fists, his lips moving, but in the end, under Jiang Zhaosheng’s equally indifferent and cold gaze, he lowered his head dejectedly and followed Shang Yan out.
Samuel would definitely investigate the people around him today. As for whether the two of them could successfully escape, or even whether they lived or died, Jiang Zhaosheng didn’t care for now.
He sank into the large chair alone, like an exquisite doll whose soul had been drained. After a long while, he slowly raised his arm, staring at the marks left by his fingernails in his palm, and suddenly clenched his fist.
Although Shang Yan’s method just now was malicious, it had allowed him to be clear-headed for a short while.
But… it was far from enough.
The restlessness in his body could not be calmed—he knew how insidious the effects of the Dual-Way Induction Agent were. It was like burying countless sparks in his body; even a hint of a breeze would make them flare up again. The emptiness and longing were still clamoring in every part of his body, reminding him that he hadn’t reached true satisfaction.
Jiang Zhaosheng struggled to prop himself up. The hem of his yukata swayed, revealing straight but slightly trembling legs.
He moved step by step to the large floor-to-ceiling mirror in the bathroom. The mirror clearly reflected his current appearance: the flush on his face hadn’t faded, the corners of his eyes looked ready to weep, his long hair was messily clinging to the side of his neck, and the collar of his yukata was loose. He looked exactly like someone who had been loved but was still secretly begging for more.
Bang!
A fist slammed hard into the mirror. Web-like cracks exploded, splitting that seductive face into countless fragments until his expression could no longer be seen.
……Hideous.
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