Chapter 001 Substitute Marriage 01

Chapter 001 Marriage by Proxy 01

"Young Master Zhou Younan, first warning issued. Please land immediately!"

The Zhou family's military police broadcast crackled through the comms.

Zhou Younan, in a faded black T-shirt and trousers, wished he could silence the broadcast but hadn't yet found the mute button.

His gaze remained fixed ahead, both hands gripping the aircraft's control stick tightly.

His piercing black-and-white eyes showed grim determination.

*I won’t land. I can’t land!* he thought.

This was Zhou Younan’s first time piloting an aircraft, and he was doing a terrible job. The usually stable craft lurched like a headless fly under his control, wobbling up and down, left and right.

The unpredictable flight path kept the military police at bay, but Zhou Younan knew they would catch up soon.

"Brother."

A timid voice called out.

Zhou Younan turned to look at the short-haired boy in the co-pilot’s seat, his small hands gripping the safety bar so tightly his fingertips had turned white.

"Luo Luo, don’t be afraid. Brother will take you away," Zhou Younan soothed, gently patting his head.

Luo Luo nodded hard. "As long as I’m with Brother, Luo Luo isn’t scared."

But his pale face betrayed his words, making them utterly unconvincing.

Zhou Younan knew the boy was trying to comfort him.

"Luo Luo isn’t scared, and neither is Brother," Zhou Younan murmured, as if speaking to himself.

The aircraft gradually stabilized, no longer swaying wildly. After some practice, Zhou Younan had finally figured out the controls.

He pushed the control stick upward.

The aircraft ascended at a 75-degree angle.

Hammering the acceleration button, the craft screamed forward with a *whoosh—* at incredible speed.

Ahead lay the vast, star-studded night sky—boundless, fathomless, and reeking of freedom.

The control panel displayed the aircraft’s altitude, the numbers climbing rapidly: 1 kilometer, 3 kilometers, 6 kilometers…

The sky drew closer, making Zhou Younan giddy. *If I can just escape Yao Star and the Zhou family, I won’t have to marry Imperial Marshal Wei Qing in Zhou An’s place.*

That cold-blooded, emotionless marshal, whose destroyed glands had driven him to kill two Omega wives.

"Young Master Zhou Younan, second warning issued. Please—" The spacecraft’s radio emitted a static screech.

Zhou An’s furious voice blared through the communication device: "Zhou Younan! Do you really think you can escape? I won’t let you—"

This time, Zhou Younan found the button to shut off the radio. With a press, Zhou An’s grating voice vanished.

"Brother." Luo Luo pointed at the aircraft’s screen.

Three small green blips appeared—other Zhou family aircraft in pursuit.

One of them was equipped with a loudspeaker, and Zhou An’s tinny voice pierced through the wind like a demonic incantation: "I won’t let you escape!"

A *whoosh—* accompanied the sound of a missile.

Zhou Younan jerked the stick, trying to evade.

But he was too slow.

The missile struck the right engine.

The impact pinned Zhou Younan back into his seat, his head slamming against the seatback, forcing his hands off the controls.

*Zhou An actually fired at me! He doesn’t care if I live or die!*

Zhou Younan’s fingers twitched toward the eject button—but he hesitated.

The aircraft was above a small town. A crash here could kill countless people.

"Damn it!" Zhou Younan snarled.

The unbalanced aircraft went into an uncontrolled tumble.

A gaping breach tore through the cockpit wall, letting in a rush of wind.

Klaxons wailed over the roaring wind, red emergency lights flashing incessantly.

The violent turbulence battered Zhou Younan's body, pain shooting through him.

In the dim light, he checked on Luo Luo. The boy had been knocked unconscious by the impact.

Thin, icy air from high altitude flooded the cockpit through the breach, the cold jolting Zhou Younan alert.

His hands returned to the controls.

The aircraft was in a death dive, the horizon now visible in his line of sight.

With all his strength, he pulled the control stick, wrestling the tail up.

The descent accelerated, the alarms shrieking faster. Veins bulged on Zhou Younan’s slender arms, his woodsy Omega pheromone scent dispersing into the air.

***

A month ago, he had first met the Zhou family in the Short-Tailed Star detention center.

Back then, Younan—who hadn’t yet taken the Zhou surname—had wondered why this new-money family sought him out.

The Zhous hailed from Yao Star, said to be descendants of ancient China.

Over a decade ago, they had risen to prominence in the empire through their nutrient paste, becoming empire-famous.

For someone who once lived as a trash picker, the Zhou family’s reputation was legendary. After mass production of nutrient paste began, the main currency on garbage planets became various sizes of nutrient paste packaging.

The Zhou family told Younan he was the son of their family head's younger brother, addressing him as "Young Master."

Stunned and thrilled, Zhou Younan had never imagined he was one of them.

Did this mean he no longer had to live a life of constant displacement and struggle for survival? Would he have a home now? Could he go to school, do what he loved, and go wherever he pleased?

And Luo Luo—he must bring him back to the Zhou family. The Zhou family is so big; they surely wouldn't mind one more Luo Luo.

And so, filled with hopeful anticipation, Zhou Younan returned to the Zhou family with his adopted younger brother, Luo Luo.

Upon arriving on Yao Star, Zhou Younan quickly realized that the Zhou family was nothing like he'd imagined.

In the fifteen years he had been missing, the Zhou family had always had a Young Master named "Zhou Younan."

This Young Master had just come of age last month—an Omega with the rare, ephemeral night-blooming cereus scent.

He carried the Zhou family’s bloodline and was deeply beloved by the family.

After Zhou Younan was found, that Young Master was adopted by the Zhou family head as a foster son and renamed "Zhou An."

Zhou An, resentful that his name and status had been taken by Zhou Younan, bullied him without mercy.

The Zhou family head—his uncle—turned a blind eye to it.

The side branches of the family remained silent.

Zhou Younan was deeply disappointed in the Zhou family. He felt he had made a terrible choice.

But Luo Luo now had a formal identity and could attend school normally, which made him overjoyed for weeks.

Give and take—just when Zhou Younan thought everything was still bearable, he unexpectedly learned that the Zhou family wanted him to replace Zhou An and marry Marshal Wei Qing!

Marshal Wei Qing was the youngest marshal in the history of the Tyrell Empire. With delicate features, long golden hair, and pale green eyes, he wore a red-yellow-blue ear stud on his left ear and had under-eye teardrop tattoos, exuding a dangerous allure.

With his striking appearance, Marshal Wei Qing had once been the dream Alpha of many Omegas in the empire. But after the death of his second wife, he became the Alpha Omegas feared marrying the most.

It was said that both of his Omega wives had been killed by his own hands.

Marshal Wei Qing was still young, and the Emperor arranged a marriage between him and the Zhou family. Originally, the one to marry him was Zhou An. But after Zhou Younan was found, the Zhou family switched the arrangement, making Zhou Younan marry Marshal Wei Qing instead.

This made Zhou Younan suspect that the Zhou family had only brought him back to serve as a sacrificial replacement.

Why?!

Wasn’t he also a member of the Zhou family?!

Why was he being treated so unfairly?!

***

His black hair whipped wildly in the wind, and the night before him seemed to twist with distortion.

Anger and confusion surged through Zhou Younan, unleashing a burst of strength.

Slowly, he pushed the control stick upward, raising the tail fin. The aircraft stopped falling and began to glide.

It was 2 a.m. Yao Star time, and most residents were asleep in their homes.

Zhou Younan struggled to steer the aircraft, directing its crash away from towns and villages toward the remote water chestnut farm.

Due to the rise of nutrient paste, nearly all farms on Yao Star grew water chestnuts—the raw material for the supplements. The water chestnut plants, with their bluish-pink leaves, climbed steel trellises several meters high.

Zhou Younan guided the aircraft toward the water chestnut fields.

As the ground drew nearer, Zhou Younan squeezed his eyes shut in terror, bracing for the inevitable impact.

"Crash—crash—crash—"

Row after row of water chestnut trellises were toppled by the aircraft, the earsplitting screech forcing Zhou Younan to cover his ears.

"Boom—"

The aircraft plowed into the ground, inertia carrying it forward in a long skid, flattening another swath of trellises and carving deep gouges into the earth. The violent shaking left Zhou Younan’s head spinning.

"Crunch—"

After crashing through a wall, the aircraft finally came to a stop.

The crash was over.

Zhou Younan knew his escape from the marriage had failed.

His black eyes snapped open as if he had just escaped a vacuum. He gulped for air, his heart pounding so hard it felt like it might burst from his chest. He pressed a hand against it, trying to steady himself.

Before he could recover, a portly middle-aged man in a red robe hauled himself onto the aircraft’s front cover with difficulty.

He cursed at Zhou Younan, "Hey! What the hell kind of flying was that?! Are you insane?!"

"How could you land in my farm—"

The man’s words died as he looked up and saw the destruction.

Across the farm, every water chestnut trellis was tilted at an angle, some already flattened against the ground.

The water chestnuts were a week away from ripening. If the vines touched the ground, the fruits would rot within a week.

This season, he wouldn’t just lose the harvest—he’d also have to foot the bill for repairing the steel trellises and his house.

All because of this damned aircraft!

Fury burned in the man’s eyes as he glared at Zhou Younan. "You bastard! You’re gonna pay for this!"

Zhou Younan knew things were bad. He unbuckled his safety harness and reached for Luo Luo’s.

But as soon as he stood, a wave of dizziness hit him. His vision doubled.

His legs went weak beneath him, refusing to obey. He couldn’t even take the few steps needed to reach Luo Luo.

Spotlights sliced through the darkness, beaming down from the sky. The devastated farm was suddenly flooded with harsh light, the crashed aircraft completely illuminated.

From one of the Zhou family’s aircraft, a crew member reported, "Young Master Zhou An, we've found them."

Zhou Younan’s escape had failed. Zhou An breathed a sigh of relief.

Seething with rage, he ordered, "Land immediately!"

Zhou Younan was yanked forcibly out of the aircraft by Zhou family members.

The moment Zhou An saw him, he shouted furiously. "Zhou Younan! If you run away, who’s going to marry Marshal Wei Qing in my place?! Who’s going to take my place in death?!"

Zhou Younan’s head was still swimming. He could only stammer, "You… go… yourself."

At that, Zhou An drew back his fist, ready to pummel him.

"Dakka-dakka-dakka!" A burst of intense gunfire drowned out all other sounds on the scene.

The stocky farmer emerged from the house, shouldering a machine gun taller than himself. He froze in shock upon seeing the sudden crowd that had appeared on his farm.

Then, he spat and began cursing furiously: "Who gave you permission to land on my farm?!"

"Who the hell are all of you?! You're gonna pay for my losses!"

"My water chestnuts! Aaaaaah—"

Before losing consciousness, Zhou Younan saw the farmer raise his machine gun, preparing to mow them down.