Chapter 13 [The Secret is Discovered by the Little Beast]
The next day.
Xing Lie woke up in a bed he hadn’t slept in for a long time. Opening his eyes, he saw the exact same decorations and furnishings in the room as before, and a peculiar feeling welled up in his heart.
Gray curtains, a balcony filled with potted plants, a black-and-white checkered rug, a soft single sofa, a floor lamp, an oddly shaped painting on the wall, a wooden desk…
When he left back then, he carried hatred and resentment, swearing he would never return to this place that brought him so much pain. Swearing he would never again share a roof with that lunatic You Yuanyuan.
Yet it had only been three years, and he had taken the initiative to move back in.
All for a hidden, eagerly anticipated secret.
Xing Lie sat up in bed and took out his phone. Someone had sent him several voice messages.
The bedroom was as quiet as before. Outside the window was the forest, and the breeze blowing in carried the same familiar scent.
He clicked on the voice messages. The sound of two people talking came through. The background was extremely quiet, so clear that even their breathing could be heard.
—Shi Yuefeng: “You, what is your name?”
—”…You… Yuan… Yuan.”
—Shi Yuefeng: “You, tell me, why can’t you release your S-grade Alpha pheromones anymore?”
—”Because… I regressed and differentiated into an S-grade Omega.”
Xing Lie’s pupils instantly dilated in shock. Even though he had suspected this for a while, hearing it with his own ears was still incredibly shocking.
The blood in his body seemed to start boiling in every limb and bone, and his breathing lost its rhythm. A medley of inexplicable, excited, and fanatical emotions churned in his heart.
A low, husky chuckle rumbled from his throat, like a devil laughing as he stepped out of hell.
No wonder You Yuanyuan had been constantly avoiding him recently, refusing to see him;
No wonder his height had decreased, his waist had gotten slimmer, and his feet had gotten smaller;
No wonder he went looking for an Omega with pheromones similar to Snow Mountain Cold Cotton.
All these seemingly illogical changes finally had a rational explanation.
You Ye, oh You Ye, I’ve caught your little pigtail.
The wildness in Xing Lie’s eyes became even more pronounced, a perverse smile curling on his lips. He looked like a hunter who had finally pinned down his prey’s tail, contemplating where to make the first cut.
It had been a long time since anything had made him this excited and thrilled.
He closed his eyes to savor this rare feeling. When he opened them again, the look in his eyes gradually returned to normal.
An interesting toy must be played with slowly.
There were still a few more voice messages. He continued playing them.
—”Don’t leave me alone in the barren mountains and wild forests, Mom… where are you?”
—”Cold, it’s so cold in the tree… there are snakes.”
—”Please don’t make me eat the rabbit…”
—”I don’t want to…”
Xing Lie’s smile gradually faded, his gaze darkening as he looked out the window.
Was You Yuanyuan having a nightmare, or recalling his childhood?
Had he also been thrown into barren mountains and wild forests, forced to fight wild beasts, forced to sleep in trees, and forced to eat raw meat to survive?
Could a cold-blooded and ruthless person like him also feel fear? Also feel pain?
Xing Lie had always thought he understood You Yuanyuan very well, but now he was finding that person increasingly incomprehensible.
You Yuanyuan slowly opened his eyes. Suddenly seeing someone in front of him, he subconsciously adopted an offensive posture. But upon realizing the person so close was Shi Yuefeng, he lowered his guard.
Shi Yuefeng was leaning in very close, smiling gently, his gaze as soft as velvet.
Had he actually slept so deeply last night that he didn’t even notice Shi Yuefeng waking up before him?
“You, it turns out your eyes are this beautiful,” Shi Yuefeng maintained his bent-over posture, looking at him. “Like crystals formed from ice and snow, beautiful in their piercing, pure coldness.”
Only then did You Yuanyuan notice that his sunglasses were now in Shi Yuefeng’s hand. Avoiding Shi Yuefeng’s gaze, he took his sunglasses back and put them on.
Shi Yuefeng smiled apologetically and took a step back to maintain some distance.
You Yuanyuan didn’t bicker with him over it because Shi Yuefeng didn’t treat him as an Omega. After all, if one Alpha said such things and acted like this toward another Alpha, it would just be taken as a joke. But if an Alpha said and did such things to an Omega, it would be a sexual innuendo.
Standing up, You Yuanyuan felt a bit dizzy. The scent of Shi Yuefeng’s red wine pheromones was truly too intoxicating. He currently felt as if he had been out drinking all night; waking up, he just felt somewhat unwell.
It was currently 6:30 AM.
After washing up in the bathroom, You Yuanyuan tore off the specially made barrier patch he had worn for a day and applied a new one. Afterwards, he followed Shi Yuefeng out and got into the nanny van.
Today, Shi Yuefeng’s itinerary was to film a scene on Jiuan Street.
In the car, Shi Yuefeng handed You Yuanyuan a carton of milk and said, “Do you feel a bit dizzy, like a hangover? Drink some milk, and you’ll feel better.”
Very considerately, he tore the transparent wrapper off the straw and inserted it into the milk carton.
You Yuanyuan hesitated before taking it. He felt a bit anorexic today and had no appetite for food, but unable to withstand the dizziness, he planned to force himself to drink some. Giving a faint word of thanks, he drank half of it, finally feeling the uncomfortable sensation disappear.
Shi Yuefeng simply watched him with a smile, his beautiful eyes shining brightly.
As they neared Jiuan Street, the area behind the cordoned-off section was densely packed with people. When the crowd saw Shi Yuefeng’s nanny van, they let out excited and thrilled screams.
They were all chanting a single name: “Shi Yuefeng!”
They all held their phones up, ready to snap close-up, unedited photos of their idol the moment he stepped out of the car.
You Yuanyuan disliked crowded scenes because too many pheromones mixed together smelled truly awful.
The nanny van came to a steady stop. He got out first. Waiting for Shi Yuefeng to step out, he opened an umbrella and walked beside him.
Countless phone cameras aimed at Shi Yuefeng and him, flashing continuously.
The corners of Shi Yuefeng’s lips curled up slightly as he looked at You Yuanyuan gently. “Standing next to you makes me feel a bit insecure about my own looks.”
Suddenly, a Beta fan charged in like a maniac, frantically screaming Shi Yuefeng’s name, throwing her arms open to pounce on him.
Without even blinking, You Yuanyuan wrapped an arm around Shi Yuefeng’s shoulders and stepped sideways, casting a cold glance at the Beta before continuing his long strides forward. As expected, the fan lunged at thin air and was then forcibly restrained by the security guards.
He had never engaged in celebrity worship and truly couldn’t understand why someone would be so madly obsessed with another person. He didn’t see anything particularly special about Shi Yuefeng; he wasn’t even as handsome as that little beast Xing Lie.
The filming location was the snack street on Jiuan Street. This was a scene where the Alpha male lead and the Omega female lead reunited after a five-year separation.
Currently, the camera crew was filming a scene of the female lead happily buying snacks with her colleagues on the street.
Shi Yuefeng, playing the male lead, inadvertently smelled the familiar scent of the Omega’s pheromones and saw the female lead, who had supposedly died of a terminal illness five years ago. He then learned that the female lead had faked her death just to break up with him.
You Yuanyuan just watched from the sidelines. Beside him was Shi Yuefeng’s team, on the other side was the director’s team, and behind him were the fans of the male and female leads.
He stood there with straight legs and a straight back, his gaze fixed forward. Even as several hours passed, with people constantly walking around, moving about, and talking continuously, he maintained the exact same posture.
The August weather was extremely hot, and several people in the crowd even suffered from heatstroke. However, You Yuanyuan remained standing silently in place. Even as sweat trickled down his forehead and soaked his back, he showed no reaction whatsoever.
The face beneath the sunglasses was exquisitely cold, the jawline smooth and beautiful. His entire being exuded an unearthly aura, looking like an independent immortal isolated from the world.
Finally, the morning shoot wrapped up. There had been no unusual movements around them, and You Yuanyuan guessed they were probably going to play some underhanded little trick next. After all, on such a bustling street with countless eyes watching, they wouldn’t dare do anything too blatant.
Shi Yuefeng and the director stood under the eaves of the snack street discussing the script, with You Yuanyuan standing by Shi Yuefeng’s side.
Suddenly, without any warning, a flower pot plummeted from upstairs. The trajectory of its fall was perfectly aligned with Shi Yuefeng.
The surrounding people screamed in terror, shouting, “Watch out!”
Shi Yuefeng himself had no idea where the danger was coming from. Looking up in confusion, he couldn’t understand the surrounding panic.
The next second, just as the flower pot was about to smash onto Shi Yuefeng’s head, a fist shot out with extreme speed, striking so fast it left an afterimage. The flower pot shattered into pieces before it even hit the ground.
The ceramic flower pot shattered all over the floor, dirt and shards mixing together in a messy scatter.
Everyone’s hearts leaped to their throats as they stared at the shattered flower pot on the ground, unable to imagine if such a heavy object had smashed into a head, would it have cracked the skull open right then and there?
And the person who smashed the flower pot remained as steady as Mount Tai. He didn’t even raise his head or spare it a glance; he simply punched it out with extreme speed—steady, accurate, and ruthless—smashing the flower pot away. Then he effortlessly retracted his hand. Every motion was as smooth as flowing water, seemingly effortless.
Moreover, to shatter a ceramic flower pot filled with dirt with a single punch required immense force. And the movement was so fluid, fierce, clean, and swift.
Everyone’s gaze fell on You Yuanyuan, revealing expressions of awe and amazement.
At this time, both the director and Shi Yuefeng looked quite pale. Shi Yuefeng, especially, had a very ugly expression on his face. However, as an actor, he quickly managed his expression, smiled, and told the director he was leaving first.
The director broke out in a cold sweat. Exhaling a breath, he told him to go home and rest for the afternoon, and they would resume filming tomorrow.
Clearly, the director was also suffering from extreme lingering fear.
You Yuanyuan walked beside Shi Yuefeng, holding the umbrella for him. The two men walked out of the crowd’s gaze with long strides.
After getting into the nanny van, the assistant closed the door and hurriedly asked Shi Yuefeng if he was badly hurt.
Shi Yuefeng looked somewhat exhausted. Propping up his head, he appeared utterly dispirited. Suddenly, he looked at You Yuanyuan’s hand. Without a word of explanation, he grabbed the hand that had just punched the flower pot and asked with concern, “Is your hand hurt?”
You Yuanyuan quickly pulled his hand back. He wasn’t accustomed to excessive physical contact with others. Besides, he was now an Omega; his body’s instinctual reaction was to avoid intimate contact from an Alpha.
“This level of impact isn’t enough to injure me,” You Yuanyuan’s voice was crisp and cold, yet carried a calm emotion.
Shi Yuefeng indeed saw that there wasn’t a single scratch on his hand and felt slightly relieved. He then said, “Let’s go, we’ll get something to eat. We aren’t going to film this afternoon.”
“I won’t eat. I have no appetite.” You Yuanyuan leaned his back against the seat. He truly had no appetite whatsoever; it was a clear feeling of anorexia.
Earlier at the snack street, with so much delicious food looking and smelling amazing, he hadn’t had the slightest desire to eat; instead, he felt disgusted by it.
This kind of anorexic situation rarely happened to him.
The nanny van was already on its way back to the apartment.
A glimmer of light surfaced in Shi Yuefeng’s eyes. Reverting to his gentle, friendly demeanor, he joked, “If I didn’t know you were an Alpha, I would almost think your Omega heat period was approaching.”
You Yuanyuan’s gaze beneath his sunglasses paused, a trace of embarrassed panic appearing. Fortunately, the sunglasses hid it, so no one could see.
Shi Yuefeng smiled. “Because whenever the Omega actors I work with are a few days away from their heat, they lose their appetite. If they can’t eat, they buy vitamin drinks to sustain their daily physical needs. Apologies, why am I telling you this? You aren’t an Omega.”
His eyes were very bright, looking at You Yuanyuan with a smile.
You Yuanyuan remained expressionless, but he radiated an icy aura that pushed people thousands of miles away. With every word Shi Yuefeng spoke, his heart would tremble slightly. There was even a sense of repulsion in his heart.
Having been an Alpha for thirty-something years, he had only experienced susceptible periods; he had never experienced a heat period. He heard that when an Omega went into heat without the soothing pheromones of an Alpha, they would crazily want to be taken, and this could last for seven consecutive days.
Taken…
You Yuanyuan felt panic at those words. He absolutely had to hurry up and collect Xing Lie’s soothing pheromones.
The nanny van stopped, arriving at their destination.
After getting out of the car, You Yuanyuan walked briskly ahead, while Shi Yuefeng watched his back with a smile.
Upon entering the apartment, You Yuanyuan suddenly stopped, his expression instantly turning grave.
He smelled the scent of other Alpha pheromones in the house. Differentiating carefully, there were nine A-grade Alphas.
Yet, the floor was spotless, and there were no signs of anything being moved. It was eerily and unusually quiet. They hid themselves very well.
No wonder there were no major moves outside today; it turned out they were waiting here.
You Yuanyuan clenched his fists. It had been a long time since he had a major workout. With his heat period approaching and feeling restless and irritable, he might as well use these pieces of trash to vent!
Translator’s Note:
- Catching your little pigtail (抓到你的小辮子): A common Chinese idiom meaning to discover someone’s secret, weakness, or flaw, giving you leverage over them. Xing Lie is absolutely delighted to have found You Yuanyuan’s “pigtail.”
- Unedited/Raw photos (生圖): A modern slang term used in fandom culture to describe untouched, unedited photos of a celebrity, usually taken by fans or paparazzi, showcasing what they actually look like in real life.
- As steady as Mount Tai (穩如泰山): An idiom used to describe someone who is exceptionally calm, steady, and unshakeable in the face of danger or chaos, just like the famous Mount Tai in China.
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