Chapter 2: 2

Ye Ci’s face was pale when he walked into the racetrack restroom.

Cold sweat dripped down his spine to wet his waistline, and cool fabric stuck to his tailbone.

Moments ago, that highly charged scene had triggered his pathological reaction.

– **** your mother. . .

– Little bastard. . . 

Even the rough tone was very similar.

In late spring in the north, the water spewing from the faucet was still cold to the bone.

Ye Ci wasn’t too cold, so he scooped up water and washed his face repeatedly. When the skin of his face became numb and itchy, turning the pink color of spring peach blossoms, he forced himself to stop.

“Augh –” After rinsing his face, Ye Ci leaned on the edge of the ceramic wash basin and retched a few times.

He didn’t vomit anything since he hadn’t eaten, but inexplicably felt more relaxed. He rinsed his mouth, wiped the water droplets from his lips, and looked up at the mirror behind the sink.

There was no one else in the restroom. In the mirror, several toilet stalls stood silent and empty.

Ye Ci was silent for a moment, and suddenly repeated the lines from ten minutes ago.

“That three thousand . . .”

“Is for, for medical expenses.”

“That three thousand is for, medical, medical expenses . . .”

He stammered.

Chu Wenlin had thought that he was embarrassing and sent him to a stuttering correction center for a month, but he still couldn’t coherently speak more than three words. Maybe it was because his speech impediment stemmed from deeper problems, and those lessons didn’t get to the heart of it. Fortunately, he had long been used to this problem since childhood. In order to avoid ridicule, he usually spoke very briefly, as if he was naturally cold and reserved.

Just now, he almost embarrassed himself in front of that gangster, but fortunately held his breath at the critical moment and covered it up.

Only seven words.

He couldn’t even say seven words.

Unreconciled, Ye Ci tried to repeat it several times. As a result, the more anxious he became, the more he stumbled, and the only gain was that his face became flushed and red, and the corners of his eyes became damp.

There were footsteps outside the bathroom.

Ye Ci pursed his lips slightly, raised his hood, and remained silent.

The visitor was a tall Alpha racer. When he entered the door, he glanced at Ye Ci unintentionally and recognized that he was the kid who had just beaten someone up.

Ye Ci’s face, which was wet and red-eyed a moment ago, switched seamlessly to a blank slate[1], eyes slanted away indifferently.

The racer looked back and didn’t intend to cause trouble.

After leaving the racetrack, Ye Ci was in a daze for a while on the side of the road.

As usual, he adjusted himself and cleaned away his weak emotions. Then he went to the market to buy some daily necessities and fruit with the money he just earned and rushed to the sanatorium where Ye Hongjun was.

It got dark prematurely in early spring. It was only five o’clock, and the streetlights in the courtyard were gradually lighting up. Half of the sky was still purple, the lake was full of glowing lights and shadow, and swans cruised gracefully on the water. The scenery was pleasant.

Ye Hongjun’s senior ward was on the third floor.

When Ye Ci entered through the door, she was falling asleep, her skin cold and sickly white, like a pale skeleton. The lingering malady was torturing her. Even her bones were thin and finely ground, and her pitifully narrow face sunk deep into the soft pillow.

The highly-paid nurses hired by Chu Wenlin did their best to serve her, even if she was unable to care for herself. Ye Hongjun was still clean and decent, and the hospital gown exuded the scent of citrus. A weak forearm stuck out from the wide cuff of the hospital gown, and the needle marks on it were densely packed.

Ye Ci stroked Ye Hongjun’s forearm with the pads of his fingers, and the bridge of his nose felt sore.

She was taking an intravenous injection, and had been stuck with needles more than 20,000 times. Although difficult to cure, it could prolong life.

However, conscientious nurses, nursing homes, and life-sustaining injections. . . 

It all cost money.

Ye Ci had a ledger, and he recorded every sum of money that Chu Wenlin spent on Ye Hongjun’s medical treatment. He planned to pay it back slowly in the future.

The rapid rise in numbers made Ye Ci gradually go from panic to numbness.

If Chu Wenlin’s conscience still existed, he should have given the mother and son assistance unconditionally.

He failed to live up to expectations.

Chu Wenlin was Ye Ci’s biological father and the eldest son of the third branch of the Chu family.

When he was young and flirtatious, because of his passion, he swore to spend his life with Ye Hongjun, who was born to a small family. He even instigated Ye Hongjun to give up her studies and run away with him. It was not until Ye Hongjun, in defiance of the world, took the risk of giving birth before marriage, that the cries of the baby and the weight of poverty gradually crushed Chu Wenlin’s illusion.

Marriage, appropriate matches, family poverty . . . he seemed to know these words for the first time, and felt regret. He was a rich young man from a life of luxury and extravagance, and could not bear the hardship. He resolutely returned to his family home to kowtow and accept punishment while the scandal was covered up, and a year later obeyed the family’s arrangements and married a well-bred lady.

Ye Hongjun cried, made noise, and begged, gritting her teeth and letting go of her restraint. Holding Ye Ci, who was rolling around in his swaddling clothes, she was ultimately unable to recover.

An Omega giving birth out of wedlock was synonymous with suffering. She grew up raising Ye Ci in the slums. By nature, no matter how many wounds she suffered, she would not linger on the memory forever and retained a bit of girlish innocence. She had gone through several boyfriends, Alpha and Beta, but they didn’t last long and their separations were ugly.

When Ye Ci was young, he tried to find the shadows of his father in those faces, but couldn’t. His surname followed his mother’s and there was no clue in this regard.

When he grew up, his thoughts about his father faded away.

The turning point happened a few months ago.

Old man Chu, who had been holding the Chu family’s power and refusing to let go, was seriously ill and admitted to the hospital. He was able to be saved, but the grandchildren of the Chu family took this as a dangerous sign and the battle for the family fortune heated up.

Chu Wenlin was mediocre in talent and selfish, and his eight-year-old son, Chu Rui, was also stubborn and stupid. In addition, Chu Wenlin’s mother, the third wife of Mr. Chu, was just a dancer when she was young. Not only was she from a humble background, but after marriage, there were even rumors of cheating. Therefore, the Third Household had never been favored by the old man Chu, and were at an absolute disadvantage in the battle for inheritance.

Chu Wenlin was unwilling to accept only the scraps that leaked between the teeth of his brothers and sisters. When he was really clutching at straws, he thought of the eldest son who could be alive or dead outside, and felt that the child might have value and could be exploited. Only then did he investigate the whereabouts of the mother and son, and came to their door for the first time.

“Mom, I, I ran, ran a race today.” Ye Ci found a piece of good news and stammered it to Ye Hongjun. “Made, made a lot of money, enough . . . to treat you.”

In front of his mother, Ye Ci completely removed his disguise.

He became obedient, his eyebrows arched softly, his eyes light, with a charming appearance.

He was carved out of the same mold as Ye Hongjun.

However, in the slums, the mother and son who were as soft as lambs could only end up having their bones broken and marrow sucked dry. Ye Hongjun was weak, so he must be strong.

No matter how soft you were, you had to pretend to be savage and grow illusory thorns.

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Ye Ci stayed in the ward for more than two hours, massaging Ye Hongjun’s limbs to slow down muscle atrophy and sweeping the floor, but unfortunately, Ye Hongjun was too weak and never woke up.

He also paced around and talked during those two hours, picking out good news about school, classmates, the handsome silver motorcycle he saw at the racetrack, how beautiful the swans were on the artificial lake in the sanatorium.

He was not really as taciturn as he appeared, but no one but his mother had the patience to listen to long, stammering speeches.

Finally, he picked up the wilted sunflower in the porcelain vase by Ye Hongjun’s bed and threw it in the trash, replacing it with a fragrant lily he bought on the way.

She often missed his visits due to her drowsiness, so Ye Ci would change the flowers every time he came.

The lily was fresh and tender.

She would know he had been here.

. . .  . . .

After visiting Ye Hongjun, Ye Ci wandered the streets until eleven o’clock, and he didn’t return to the Chu residence until Chu Wenlin went to bed.

It was good to not have to look at that scumbag.

With the passing of time, the longing for a father’s love had long been drenched in disappointment. Ye Ci hadn’t called Chu Wenlin father for several months, and he would never call him that again in the future.

Chu Wenlin was quite dissatisfied with Ye Ci’s late return, so he got up early in the morning with a sullen face.

Ye Ci turned a blind eye and went back to the bedroom after breakfast to study English. The cotton gauze curtains were drawn, the door was locked, and the light was dim.

There were dozens of rooms in the Chu family’s mansion, which was as convoluted as an ant hill. After Chu Wenlin recognized him, he sank into the depths of the Chu residence like an ant in a hole, rarely leaving a sign of his existence.

The house was big enough, but the pilet-like screams of Chu Rui, Ye Ci’s “legitimate” brother, could still penetrate the thick walls and reach his brain.

Even a trivial amount of unhappiness could elicit such a noise.

The servants coaxed and persuaded, and footsteps drifted to and fro following the call of the legitimate young master.

Ye Ci pretended not to hear it, and read the English text with difficulty.

There was no one in the bedroom, but he kept his voice very low, as if afraid that his comical spoken words would be heard by the air.

In order to treat Ye Hongjun, he dropped out of school to work for a year and a half, and his studies were severely neglected. His worst subject was English. He had difficulty speaking, and the biggest taboo in learning English was not opening your mouth. Before he dropped out of school, his English had always been a crippling subject, and he relied on the other five subjects to get good grades.

Chu Wenlin gave him the opportunity to go back to school. He should have cherished it, and shouldn’t have wasted time racing at second-rate racetracks, but . . . . 

The sound of a car came from the window.

Ye Ci walked to the window, opened a slit in the curtain, and peeped out.

In the distance, an unfamiliar car drove into the inner courtyard of the Chu residence and slowly parked.

The straight waterfall of the air grille and the little platinum figure on the hood were polished clean and bright. The body of the car was pure black, dark and expensive.

Ye Ci frowned. He had a bad feeling.

The driver opened the door, and the housekeeper, Uncle Tong, stood there in attendance. Wenlin greeted him with a loud laugh, in the warm style of businessmen who had a good relationship.

The visitor was disaffected, and only nodded slightly. Chu Wenlin handled things smoothly, and hurriedly restrained his excessive smile as he greeted the visitor.

Ye Ci knew about this person, Huo Tinglan, the head of the Huo family that Chu Wenlin tried to curry favor with. He was also an Alpha that matched Ye Ci up to 100%.

This match was quite rare and could be called biological destiny.

But Ye Ci only felt uneasy.

He was originally an A-level Alpha, but now he had become an Omega because he had a so-called “second differentiation” that normal people didn’t have.

Secondary differentiation was a relatively rare disorder, mostly caused by abnormalities in pheromone secretion during puberty. Patients generally started the second differentiation three to four years after the first differentiation, and the true glandular sex of the patient was based on the result of the secondary differentiation.

Ye Ci never knew that he had this problem. Before the start of the second differentiation, he always thought he was an Alpha.

He was recognized and brought back by the Chu family a while ago, and Chu Wenlin took him in for a series of examinations, including various infectious disease screenings and gland tests, and the results also showed that he was an Alpha . . . . a healthy A-level Alpha.

In the end, about two weeks ago, he developed a brief pseudo-Omega heat.

The heat lasted only about an hour, the symptoms were not severe, and he was alone in the bedroom when it happened. Even he himself almost didn’t realize that it was a pseudo-heat, let alone Chu Wenlin.

It was not a good thing for Ye Ci to differentiate into an Omega at this time.

Right now, Chu Wenlin just wanted to add a bloodline to the third house, so that multiple people could share the inheritance. An Alpha boy was the more preferred gender when it came to dividing the estate, and the only thing better was a good-looking Omega. For Chu Wenlin, a beautiful Omega offspring was a “good deal” up for grabs.

Ye Ci was not stupid and could think clearly about this issue, so he didn’t intend to let Chu Wenlin know, and wanted to hide it as long as he could.

However, the problem lay in the private hospital where Ye Ci was examined.

Originally, his gland test had been done, but it turned out that he didn’t know what the hospital was doing. They actually claimed that the previous gland results were wrong and that Ye Ci may not be a true Alpha.

Naturally, Chu Wenlin refused to pass up the possible opportunity, and took Ye Ci in for another examination. This time, the hospital advised them to carry out a more accurate but also more troublesome genetic testing . . . . after all this tossing and turning, Ye Ci’s Omega identity was completely exposed.

What made Ye Ci even more surprised was that Chu Wenlin, who was overjoyed, was going to “market” him to other families in exchange for commercial resources. The new head of the Huo family took the initiative to propose marriage, and the timing couldn’t be more accurate.

No wonder the Huo family was well-informed – that private hospital was one of the many industries operated by the Huo family. Chu Wenlin’s series of actions happened under the eyes of others. The Chu family suddenly produced an Omega that matched Huo Tinglan’s genes 100%. It wouldn’t be difficult for the Huo family to find out.

. . .  . . .

Ye Ci looked down through the slit in the curtain.

As an A+ grade Alpha, Huo Tinglan was almost 1.9 meters tall.

The weather in spring was difficult to predict, with the temperature at noon being a lot higher than in the morning and evening. The floor tiles were dazzling white in the sun, and looked hot, but Huo Tinglan was wearing a formal three-piece suit to show the importance he attached to this meeting. The fabric of the suit had a deep luster, and the person wearing it should look elegant and noble, but that fierce figure revealed an imposing and beast-like savage sex appeal.

An A+ grade Alpha was really like a beast in some ways . . . .

Suddenly, as if alerted by intuition, Huo Tinglan’s eyes lifted and went straight to the window of Ye Ci’s bedroom on the second floor.

They looked at each other for a moment. Ye Ci shrank back, startled, and the fingertips holding the curtain turned white.

His stomach spasmed.

His self-perception was still that of an Alpha male.

Getting up close and personal with another top Alpha . . . . Ye Ci imagined this scene and resisted until he was sweating all over.

 

[1] The actual terminology used is “switched seamlessly to a ‘coffin board'” or 棺材板, which is a Taiwanese snack. These crispy boxes of bread are usually filled with a creamy mix of chicken products, peas, potatoes, shrimp, etc. The top does indeed look like a blank slate. ⮐

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