Chapter 34

Chapter 34

An unprecedented fury and the shame of being exposed erupted like a volcano. Yu Chen shoved Shi Jian away and turned his back like an ostrich, as if that could deny the physical arousal he’d just experienced at the boy’s feet.

But his rage still burned fiercely. Yu Chen’s eyes were bloodshot, his breathing ragged like a bull’s.

Shi Jian’s laughter was quick and triumphant. The break room was so small that Yu Chen couldn't escape the sound, no matter how much he wished to. He was so annoyed he longed to stuff something into that detestable mouth to silence every noise he despised.

“Hah, you must be so tormented by me that you’re spouting nonsense. Do you think dredging up the past will make me pity you and let you off? Dream on! You’ll rot in solitary confinement until you lose your mind!”

Yu Chen gritted his teeth. An E-level Alpha, how dare he act so high and mighty over him?! He’d make sure this bastard learned his place!

Shi Jian slowly curled his lips and whispered, “Then why won’t you turn around? Hiding from me? Or are you afraid that the moment you see my face, you’ll lose control in an instant?”

“Shut up!! Just shut the fuck up!!!”

“Why aren’t you attacking? I’ve been waiting.” Shi Jian raised a delicate brow, his gaze drifting downward meaningfully.

Yu Chen squeezed his eyes shut in humiliation. The slightest movement sent sharp pain radiating through him…

But there was no way he’d relieve himself in front of Shi Jian. He could only endure, agony twisting inside him.

Leaning against the wall for support, Shi Jian’s physical weakness did nothing to diminish his mocking superiority. He hadn't expected his words to truly expose this silver-spoon brat’s secrets. Just the thought that Yu Chen had been tormenting him out of some twisted "if I can’t have you, I’ll ruin you" mentality made him burst into maniacal laughter.

His laughter was laced with self-mockery and scorn—

Wasn’t Wen Yuan the same? Didn’t he want to drag Shi Jian down to hell with him?

All of them were drowning in their self-proclaimed suffering of unrequited love, performing their misery. But what had he done to deserve this? Just because of an accident from Secondary Differentiation, he had to swallow every bitter consequence—why?

Why?

Shi Jian hated it. He wanted to cry, but no tears of vulnerability came. He could only laugh maniacally, the corners of his eyes wet with reflex tears.

The sound was piercing like the wail of a wronged woman's ghost, more grating than fingernails on a chalkboard. Yu Chen couldn’t take it. He tied his jacket around his waist, gritted through the throbbing pain, and turned to leave.

“Running away with your tail between your legs,” Shi Jian taunted, wiping away his tears.

Yu Chen couldn’t meet his eyes, hardening his heart to spit venom: “Even if I liked you before, it was only because you were an S-class Omega. Pursuing you would’ve given me returns far beyond the effort, bred superior offspring—but now? Look at you. Pathetic. Forget bonding with an Alpha, even someone half a rank above you could make you grovel with just a whiff of their pheromones.”

“Why would I still like you? Because you’re an E-level? Don’t delude yourself.”

“E-level…” Shi Jian murmured, then suddenly laughed at himself. He lifted his head, malice dripping from his words: “Too bad even E-levels look down on you. Your Highness, you’re lower than my rank.”

He watched with satisfaction as Yu Chen’s back stiffened. The man didn’t dare respond, walking away with a stiff-legged stride.

An E-level Alpha was indeed a crippled rank, despised by all.

But what about an A+ like you, so proud of your genes? Didn’t this E-level still wound you time and again? And aside from solitary confinement, he’d faced no real punishment.

Shi Jian smirked. He knew what awaited him next—that was why he acted without fear.

“Twenty days this time. You’ll come out insane.” Muye hadn’t managed to stop him. He was exhausted dealing with this little lunatic and could only offer one last warning on the way to the detention block.

He’d escorted this troublemaker down this path countless times. The First Military Academy’s strict rules meant nothing to him. He knew the consequences, yet stubbornly charged ahead anyway—was it admirable or infuriating?

But Muye had taught many cadets with this same defiance. They either broke halfway or emerged tempered into steel. The generals who rose to prominence on the battlefield were never the meek ones.

Shi Jian seemed indifferent to everything except killing Yu Chen. To Muye’s rare plea, he only coldly stated: “As long as I walk out of solitary alive, I’ll kill him. Either I go mad, or Yu Chen dies—or he kneels and begs forgiveness. There’s no other outcome.”

Muye lost his temper. “Can’t you just let it go?!”

Then, softening, he tried another angle: “Do you even realize whose son Yu Chen is? You’ve damaged his scent gland, disfigured him—do you think Yu Wei and the First Military District will let this slide? Anyone else would’ve been tortured to death a thousand times over! But you? A few days in solitary, well-fed, like some pampered concubine in confinement!”

“Have you ever considered that if not for your father’s connections behind the scenes, you wouldn’t even be standing here threatening me?”

At the mention of Shi Cangfeng, Shi Jian’s icy expression flickered. He fell silent. Muye thought he’d gotten through—but then the boy said, “But if my father hadn’t sent me to the academy, none of this would’ve happened. I don’t blame him for the bullying, so he can’t blame me for causing trouble.”

“Unless he tells me to stop himself.”

But if he ever heard those words from his father, Shi Jian didn’t know how he’d react.

He might go even more insane.

Or his heart might just… stop.

Muye’s eyes widened. Wait, wasn’t he supposed to be a daddy’s boy? How was even Shi Cangfeng’s name not enough to sway him?!

Defeated, Muye sighed and led Shi Jian to his cell.

One last attempt: “Use this time to reform. Come out a new man.”

Shi Jian ignored him, lying down on the bench like he owned the place.

Muye left in despair.

Once the footsteps faded, the boy on the bench opened his eyes.

Shi Jian forced himself to relive every agonizing moment at the academy—the humiliation, the isolation.

Thanks to his photographic memory, even long-passed events remained vivid. He remembered every word from Yu Chen, Fu Yan, and the rest. Every averted gaze. Especially the fragments he’d glimpsed on the school forum—just recalling them made him dry-heave convulsively.

His empty stomach convulsed in pain, but he needed this. The pain kept him lucid. Before his senses shut down completely, he had to sear these memories into his mind. Better a violent, vengeful madman than a complacent fool being slowly boiled alive.

He’d lied to himself for too long—pretending the insults didn’t matter, that as an Alpha now, he should accept their rules, that enduring four years obediently would make things better. He’d almost believed it.

But Shi Jian couldn’t lie to himself anymore.

He couldn’t pretend he couldn’t fly when he saw those green butterflies scattered on the ground.

He had wings. Always had.

The dark cell wrapped around him like a cocoon—both sanctuary and prison. His strength seemed pitiful against these impenetrable walls. Any resistance was futile. Even carving prison-style tally marks into the floor with a dagger felt meaningless, like he’d never break free.

Yet he never stopped trying. Even bloodied, he’d fight for that moment of freedom when his wings finally unfurled.

He didn’t know how many more tears or breakdowns it would take to reach his dream. But he wouldn’t give up. His true enemy wasn’t Yu Chen—it was everything that tried to break him. He’d make them kneel.

Twenty days passed quickly for the cadets, marked only by monthly evaluations.

For Shi Jian, it was hell. Forced lucidity through painful memories, only to spiral back into sensory chaos. In that split second, he was a hair’s breadth from true insanity.

At the exam grounds, before hundreds, a gleaming crescent blade flew—aimed straight for Yu Chen’s face.

He dodged, but a second blade buried itself deep between his shoulder blades.

The towering figure collapsed like a felled tree. Blood arced two meters high, a crimson mist filling the air.

From within the haze, a ghost-pale, hollow-cheeked face slowly came into focus.

Beneath a beauty so rare it seemed otherworldly, a pair of cold blue eyes smoldered with killing intent. Anyone who accidentally met that gaze shuddered involuntarily, their blood freezing the moment they were stared at, as if their life dangled by a thread, just as the red-haired Alpha’s had.

Yu Chen was rushed to the best hospital in the central district for emergency treatment, while Shi Jian was hauled back to solitary confinement, this time facing a forty-day imprisonment.

As Yu Chen lay on the operating table clinging to life, Shi Jian was already planning his next move.

He would be faster.

Forty days later.

Muye led the morning training session. As Yu Chen rounded a bend, a sudden dread seized him, and a sharp, panicked pain stabbed through his chest.

Instinctively, he turned his head—only to see that unforgettable, hauntingly beautiful face twist into a faint, ghost of a smile. The next second, a dagger plunged deep into his chest.

On the edge of life and death, the first thing Yu Chen felt wasn’t the searing pain.

As he collapsed, his blood surged downward, pooling in one place as the other man licked the blood from the blade.

It hardened stiffly.