Chapter 47

Chapter 47

The mountain road hummed with the roar of engines; someone had blocked it off for a motorcycle race. Beams of light spiraled upward, tracing the winding path at breathtaking speeds, transforming into streaks like meteors during sharp turns.

Shen Yanzhi was one of the riders, his alpha eyes gleaming with excitement and thrill. Under the cloak of night, he failed to notice a figure had appeared ahead of him.

Lu Mingye casually tossed a steel spike onto the road.

As Shen Yanzhi’s motorcycle raced over it, a tire burst with a loud bang. The bike instantly went out of control, defying all his efforts to steer it. He and the bike crashed together, though his protective rider suit automatically activated upon impact—inflating to cushion the fall and reduce friction with the ground.

The helmet’s protection was superb; though sparks flew as it scraped against the asphalt, Shen Yanzhi’s head remained perfectly still inside.

Both man and machine skidded to a violent halt just before crashing into the guardrail.

Shen Yanzhi let out a sigh of relief. Though largely uninjured, his body ached from the suit's constricting pressure. Struggling to move, he tried to reach the deflation button.

Suddenly, a hand seized his raised wrist. Startled, Shen Yanzhi tensed—rescue personnel couldn't have arrived this quickly.

The hand released him, and the next moment, his helmet was forcibly removed. He found himself staring at a masked figure. From the build, the figure was clearly a male alpha.

This was definitely not emergency services.

Trapped by the inflated suit, he couldn’t reach anything. In the next instant, the stranger placed a mini stun baton against his head.

Shen Yanzhi: !

Lu Mingye gathered the remaining steel spikes from the ground and tossed them down the mountainside. Then he hoisted Shen Yanzhi over his shoulder, scaled the guardrail, and followed the edge of the road until a small aircraft hovered in mid-air. He carried his captive inside.

—

On a neighboring mountain, Chen Zui lowered his telescope and activated his own aircraft, following them from a distance.

Ao Tian: “He’s your mission target.”

Chen Zui: “Does he have some grudge against Shen Yanzhi?”

Ao Tian: “Nope. In the original story, Shen Yanzhi is a radiant, sunny, brilliant favorite of heaven—widely adored. Lu Mingye is just pure evil. He can’t stand beautiful things; he wants to ruin them. So in the early stages, he’s a full-blown villain—no tragic backstory, no psychological issues. His character is just innately like this. You know how it is in those melodramatic novels—characters are often written in extremes.”

Chen Zui could understand. Some people were just innately bad seeds.

“What happens later?”

“Later, he realizes that no matter what he does, Shen Yanzhi remains relentlessly optimistic and unyielding. So he goes insane, breaks Shen Yanzhi’s legs, and locks him up. Unexpectedly, they both enter their rut cycles at the same time, and he ends up… sleeping with Shen Yanzhi. After that, Shen Yanzhi gets pregnant and runs away.”

Chen Zui was surprised. There was even a “pregnant and on the run” trope.

“And that still leads to a happy ending?”

“Yep. While Shen Yanzhi is gone, Lu Mingye realizes he’s in love. So begins the ‘burning battlefield to win back wife’ trope. After repeatedly saving Shen Yanzhi and even donating a kidney to save their child, Shen Yanzhi forgives him. They reconcile. As melodramatic as it sounds, this is actually a redemption story.”

Chen Zui nodded, not really getting it but accepting it. He didn’t have strong feelings about these characters—they were just author's creations, constrained by their plot when you thought about it.

Chen Zui: “By the way.”

Ao Tian: “Hm?”

Chen Zui: “Since this is my first mission, is there a beginner's package?”

Ao Tian: …You really stick to your guns, don’t you!

Ao Tian hesitated. Ao Tian stammered. Finally, it gritted its teeth: “Yes. Just wait.”

If you don’t spoil your own host, who will? Today, it would be a domineering system!

—

Inside an abandoned warehouse, Lu Mingye tied a Shen Yanzhi, stripped of his rider suit, to a chair. He gripped Shen Yanzhi’s chin, studying his face—one that usually wore a radiant, infectious smile, the kind that made people feel happy just seeing it.

It affected him too.

But he hated happiness.

He was sick of that foolish, cheerful face.

Lu Mingye snorted, releasing Shen Yanzhi’s chin to tap his face with moderate force a few times. Shen Yanzhi gradually woke, pupils dazed before finally sharpening on Lu Mingye’s mask.

Shen Yanzhi jolted fully awake.

“Who are you?”

“Why are you doing this?”

“Such unoriginal questions.” Lu Mingye sounded bored. “Do you want me to say the classic line—‘scream all you want, no one will come to save you’?”

Shen Yanzhi frowned, ignoring the crazy talk. “What do you want?”

Lu Mingye tossed and caught a dagger idly, strolling back and forth. “What do I want… Let me think.”

He caught the spinning blade neatly and stopped, snapping his fingers with the other hand. “Got it.”

He tucked the dagger into his belt, then picked up a wooden stick from a pile of junk nearby. He hefted it a few times to test the feel, then turned back to Shen Yanzhi, who was staring at him intently.

“How about I break your legs?”

He gestured with the stick, the whoosh of air making Shen Yanzhi swallow nervously. This guy seemed like a complete madman.

Lu Mingye lowered the stick, tapping it lightly against Shen Yanzhi’s leg. “Break this leg, and you’ll never ride a motorcycle again. No more basketball. Swimming probably too? Not sure—want to test it out?”

He grinned beneath the mask. “Why aren’t you smiling? Go on, smile.”

Shen Yanzhi: “What do you gain from this?”

He was holding onto his composure surprisingly well.

Lu Mingye: “Gain?”

He raised the stick and let it thud against Shen Yanzhi’s leg again. “It amuses me.”

That was gain enough.

Lu Mingye’s grip on the stick tightened. He swung it back abruptly, his voice cold. “Say goodbye to your legs.”

Shen Yanzhi hadn’t expected the lunatic to actually go through with it. “Wait—!”

Lu Mingye’s raised arm was caught mid-swing—so suddenly and forcefully that his arm emitted a creaking sound, pain shooting through it.

How did someone get here? Alarmed, his free hand flew toward the dagger at his waist.

Shen Yanzhi’s pupils contracted. A cold sweat trickled down his temple as he stared fixedly at another masked figure now standing behind Lu Mingye. Were they working together?

Lu Mingye, who had grabbed the dagger, threw his arm back for a stab.

As a result, this wrist was also caught.

Shen Yanzhi: Not on the same side.

After struggling briefly, the restrained Lu Mingye gave up. Since he couldn’t win, struggling was pointless. However, his shifty eyes showed he hadn’t surrendered completely and wasn’t ready to give up.

“You want to break his leg?” Chen Zui asked.

Because they were so close, it almost seemed like he was whispering into Lu Mingye’s ear right under Shen Yanzhi’s nose, adding an unexpected hint of intimacy.

Lu Mingye tilted his head away uncomfortably. “What, are you offering to do it for me? Or seeking revenge for him?”

His attitude showed no fear, which caught Chen Zui’s interest.

Lu Mingye heard a soft chuckle.

The hand gripping his wrist, the one holding the wooden stick, tugged his arm higher. Then he heard the person behind him say leisurely, “Breaking a leg is boring. Let’s just crack his skull open instead.”

As soon as Chen Zui said this, both Shen Yanzhi and Lu Mingye froze.

Shen Yanzhi even gasped—this guy was a real fiend. “Let me go, and I can give you a lot of money. Or whatever you want. We can talk this through.”

He tried to reason with the two.

But Chen Zui ignored him. Tightening his grip on Lu Mingye’s hand, he gradually brought the wooden stick closer to Shen Yanzhi’s head.

“One hit. I guarantee one hit will make his head burst open, blood and brains flowing out. He’ll be stone-cold dead.”

Chen Zui’s tone even carried a hint of glee.

“I believe you’ll like it.”

As he spoke, he gripped Lu Mingye’s hand and suddenly pulled it back, then swung it hard toward Shen Yanzhi’s head.

“Don’t!”

It was Lu Mingye who shouted this. Shen Yanzhi, unable to bear the situation any longer, closed his eyes and shrunk his neck.

Lu Mingye’s voice cracked in panic.

It was clear he was genuinely panicked and frantic. His chest heaved violently, making him look quite inviting to touch.

The wooden stick stopped dead still just beside Shen Yanzhi’s head. It only lightly brushed Shen Yanzhi’s ear, leaving a red mark.

Shen Yanzhi opened his eyes, panting heavily. His expression held a mix of raw fear and the relief of having narrowly escaped death. He glanced at Lu Mingye with mixed feelings—though unnecessary, he felt genuinely grateful to him at that moment.

As the only one present who wasn’t frightened, Chen Zui clicked his tongue in disappointment.

“Fine, as you wish.”

He first wrested the stick from Lu Mingye and then released him. The moment he was free, Lu Mingye immediately threw a punch at Chen Zui. Chen Zui dodged by tilting his head, but Lu Mingye snapped a kick. Chen Zui caught Lu Mingye’s ankle and pulled it upward, bending Lu Mingye backward sharply.

Perfectly straight.

Unexpectedly supple.

He could easily place Lu Mingye’s foot on his own shoulder and maintain this standing position, just like that.

—

—

Enter.

But not now.

He shoved Lu Mingye off, not gently at all. Lu Mingye fell to the ground and rolled twice before stopping. By the time he got up, Chen Zui had already vanished.

Lu Mingye stamped his foot angrily!

Then he looked over at Shen Yanzhi, who was trying to reach the dagger that had fallen on the ground. Lu Mingye walked over, picked up the dagger, and Shen Yanzhi scrambled back in fear.

Lu Mingye had no patience left tonight. He wiped his prints off the dagger with his clothes, tossed it to Shen Yanzhi, picked up the wooden stick from the ground, and left.

Left behind, Shen Yanzhi took a while to believe the two madmen had really gone. With great effort, he picked up the dagger and cut the rope binding him.

“Where did these two psychos come from…”

Shen Yanzhi muttered, clutching the dagger warily as he left the abandoned warehouse.

—

Lu Mingye returned to his residence. Who was that man?

Why did he appear so quickly and so coincidentally? Had he been watching me all along?

At this thought, he glanced around the room, sensing eyes on him.

He couldn’t stay here anymore.

Lu Mingye left the house and flew his hovercar to the nearest hotel.

As he entered the elevator, there was already a man inside—a tall male alpha in a dark shirt and a gray long coat.

Since the man stood near the buttons, he asked Lu Mingye what floor he needed after he stepped in.

Although the man was handsome, his fake-friendly gesture annoyed and disgusted Lu Mingye.

He must be irritated inside that I made him wait a little longer, holding him up.

What a fake!

He didn’t reply but instead raised his hand and slammed it on the button for the 16th floor.

The elevator rose smoothly.

The cabin was very quiet.

The two alphas’ gazes occasionally met on the polished elevator walls but darted away. Even with scent blockers, alphas are naturally sensitive to each other’s pheromones, so they could just catch each other’s scents.

Lu Mingye: Rose scent?

An alpha with a rose fragrance—quite the tough-guy-with-a-soft-scent vibe.

He felt a bit scornful.

Chen Zui, on the other hand, caught a whiff of a sweet cream scent. It was his first time encountering something like pheromones, so he found it intriguing and sniffed again curiously.

Cloyingly sweet.

Ao Tian was deeply disappointed with his pheromones because he had strongly recommended that Chen Zui choose a cold pine scent, saying that 7 out of 10 dominant alphas had a cold pine scent—it was in vogue.

As their eyes locked again on the elevator walls, the elevator suddenly stopped and the lights cut out.