Auction: “Help me ask if they can include a freebie.”
The river of stars was vast. Fragments of celestial bodies, both large and small, swept past the starship, and its glass windows reflected a man’s handsome face.
The cheers of humans, the roars of star beasts, and the falling sound of the auctioneer’s hammer—this auction was fast approaching its climax.
Having already completed the task of purchasing a birthday gift for his younger sister, he was currently leaning listlessly against the viewing window, his long legs casually crossed as his gaze fell upon today’s centerpiece: that massive star beast just hauled up by the machinery.
The star beast was locked in a special cage. Its remaining three eyes were blood-red and its heavy breath dripped with bloody saliva. A massive electric shock collar was locked around its neck, and its tough outer shell had been brutally stripped away. One of its broken tails stood high up, dimly retaining the shadow of its once awe-inspiring presence.
Ever since the Empire and the Federation jointly signed an agreement banning the keeping and breeding of star beasts, such trafficking had correspondingly gone underground. Chu Yanyan hadn’t seen such a ferocious star beast in a long time, which was why he straightened his back and began to seriously appraise the creature.
“Snap out of it? Still thinking about Ying Yu?” The female Omega sitting on the sofa propped her chin in her hand and let out a soft tsk. “He’s thoroughly dead. You just attended his funeral, so you can finally rest easy now.”
The handsome male Beta sitting next to Chu Yanqi and talking to her covered his mouth. “Eh? Is that Ying Yu, the one who was always going against President Chu and you? He actually died?”
The group of people gathered around instantly burst into chuckles. “Your news is way too outdated. How long ago was that?”
“It’s just that my big brother is obsessed, saying things like how there’s no corpse, no funeral portrait, and that Ying Yu’s lover is nowhere to be found, so he thinks he’s not dead yet.” Chu Yanqi shrugged, the burn scars on her back looking particularly gruesome.
“I can tell. Unless Ying Yu dies by his own hands, he’ll never feel at ease. But if Ying Yu were still alive, why hasn’t he shown up? With an explosion of that scale, there’s no way he could have survived. Someone like that deserves to die without a whole corpse.”
Chu Yanyan smiled faintly and shook his head. Leaning on his cane, he opened the glass panel in front of him. “Xiaoqi, the deceased deserve our respect. Since he’s already dead, why dwell on it?”
At such close range, he could even smell that exhilarating scent of blood.
The Omega beside him was quick-witted and immediately handed the bidding remote control to Chu Yanyan.
“You like this kind of stuff?” Chu Yanqi’s bright, striking features scrunched up into a knot. “Your aesthetic taste is seriously problematic.”
“President Chu still has an eye for quality,” a Beta ventured to say, emboldened. “Star beasts of this caliber are said to be extremely difficult to capture alive, and the feeding costs are very high either way; ordinary families simply can’t afford them. The last one fetched a sky-high price just as a corpse.”
The crowd nodded in agreement. They had been instructed early on to wait hand and foot on this brother and sister, especially the older brother—an obscure, penniless nobody who had fought his way up from the black market after the truce between the Federation and the Empire, starting from scratch to become one of the reigning authorities of the black market. Even the older generation of those major black market families didn’t dare to neglect him.
No one knew how many ruthless methods this seemingly gentle, warm-tempered, and polite Alpha had used behind closed doors to make people wish they were dead.
Chu Yanyan casually pulled out a cigarette case, admiring the cornered beast’s struggle before slowly sliding one out. “It’s only interesting if it’s vicious.”
Before his voice even faded, the star beast’s massive claws swished past right in front of his eyes, kicking up a fierce gust of wind. If its claws and teeth hadn’t been completely trimmed in advance, Chu Yanyan and the Omega bending over to light his cigarette would likely have been in grave danger.
A blue flame leapt up, and the tobacco crackled as it burned.
“Like a madman such as Ying Yu? The one who crippled one of your legs and left such a huge scar on my back? If you hadn’t been lucky, you don’t even know how many times you would have died.” Chu Yanqi wrinkled her nose and took a sip of wine. “See that? If any of you really want to become my sister-in-law, you’ve got to be fierce with him.”
Chu Yanyan remained calm and collected, slowly exhaling a cloud of smoke as he smiled without a word. He was exceptionally handsome; just standing quietly there was enough to make everyone else skip a beat, though they didn’t dare stare for long.
A sudden wave of jeers rose from the auction floor below. Chu Yanyan’s fingers tapping against his cigarette case paused slightly. He looked down at the increasingly agitated star beast in the arena, as well as the disheveled man dragging a large cart of flesh and blood as he stumbled into the venue.
The man was unkempt, sporting a stubbly beard. Dressed in rags with a vacant gaze and sluggish movements, when the camera swept over the slave identification code on his neck, the Omega standing beside Chu Yanyan let out a sneer.
Nothing more than a mediocre slave.
Yet, this face was terribly familiar to Chu Yanyan.
Why would this person be here?
When Chu Yanyan was first starting out, he knew that Ying Yu was accompanied by a man. The two were extremely intimate, practically eating and sleeping together to the point that even without knowing Ying Yu’s appearance, this man had indeed been photographed a few times.
The man’s brows and eyes were serene, his features distinct. Even though he had an ice-cold appearance, his pair of green eyes were exceptionally captivating—precisely the type Chu Yanyan favored.
Because of this, Chu Yanyan couldn’t help taking a few extra looks at those photos, and just like everyone else, he had secretly sent people to investigate this man’s identity.
The result was a one-way trip with no return.
Chu Yanyan himself had also been warned by Ying Yu through a few straightforward assassination attempts to stay away from his people.
He really had almost fallen victim to his recklessness back then.
After all, no matter how deep the conflict, people usually liked to put up a polite front, but Chu Yanyan hadn’t known back then that Ying Yu was simply a lawless madman.
A madman could not be explained by conventional logic.
And he had no idea how someone close to Ying Yu had ended up reduced to a slave.
Could Ying Yu really be dead? Chu Yanyan stared at the dirty man in the arena. Logically speaking, before Ying Yu died, this man should have stayed with him.
Chu Yanyan narrowed his eyes.
The numbers on the virtual screen kept climbing higher and higher. Without a second thought, Chu Yanyan directly added a high bid, causing the crowd to cast sideways glances toward his box. Even Chu Yanqi frowned—this simply wasn’t Chu Yanyan’s usual style.
Regardless of everything, paying this price to buy a star beast was still far too extravagant.
After pausing for a moment, the numbers locked into place and turned gold, proclaiming the end of the auction. The whirring sound of machinery echoed, the collar slowly lowered, and the deafening roar of the star beast rang out. The slave froze in shock, hurriedly running toward the door on the other side, while the heavily sealed doors completely cut off any possibility of escape.
The atmosphere in the arena was heated. Many spectators stood up directly to jeer loudly, either cheering on the star beast or mocking the slave’s cowardice.
Chu Yanqi whistled. “Big Brother, it’s time to inspect the goods. Let’s see if your money was well spent.”
“Do you think this slave can last ten minutes, President Chu?” someone nearby asked curiously.
Chu Yanyan lowered his eyes to conceal the cold emotion in his gaze. He curved his lips into a leisurely smile and remained silent.
“I bet five minutes max,” Chu Yanqi laughed, leaning back into the arms of the Alpha beside her. “Little handsome, want to make a bet?”
“This slave clearly has injuries on him already, you’re making it too hard for me, Miss Chu.”
“Exactly. Look at him—he has no way of fighting back at all.”
“Then I bet three minutes!”
“Two minutes!”
Chu Yanyan bit down on his cigarette, listening to their discussion, his gaze sinking. “I bet he survives.”
Since he was Ying Yu’s pillow-mate, he ought to have some skills.
As soon as these words left his mouth, the few companions drinking with him instantly shut their mouths, not daring to speak further.
“Ah?” Chu Yanqi touched her chin in surprise. “If you lose, you’re lending me your new flier to play with for two days.”
Chu Yanyan smiled. “I’ll give it to you outright.”
Having lost its restraints, the star beast caught the scent of food and lunged at the man like a maniac. The man acted as if he hadn’t reacted at all until the very last second, when he barely managed to dodge the star beast’s bloody jaws.
The virtual screen instantly froze on the man’s emaciated and filthy face, the choke marks and slave brand on his neck standing out with painful clarity.
Whether it was sheer luck or not, the man actually anticipated the direction of the star beast’s attack, frantically shoving the cart of meat and blood over. Taking advantage of the star beast being distracted, he scrambled on all floors toward the opposite entrance, hammering frantically at the door while looking around anxiously at the surrounding audience.
He seemed to be asking for help, and the only response he received was a chorus of jeers.
“You’re going to lose, Big Brother,” Chu Yanqi laughed.
Chu Yanyan crossed his arms, his gaze cold. No one would go out of their way to invite trouble by helping a slave; he knew that better than anyone.
If he couldn’t carve out a path for himself through his own efforts, this man’s doom wouldn’t be today, but it wouldn’t be far off either.
Sure enough, as the floor beneath his feet vibrated slightly, the star beast’s battered body leaped forward in a single bound, arriving right in front of that slave.
Although the man relied on the terrain to dodge the monster’s giant jaws a few times, he was ultimately cornered against the wall by the starving star beast. On the virtual screen, he was trembling all over, tears streaming down his face—the picture of utter wretchedness.
Seeming to realize the disparity in their strength, the man numbly closed his eyes, his deformed right hand hanging limply at his side in a posture of silent surrender to death.
Ying Yu actually fancied someone like this?
Chu Yanyan sighed in disappointment and extinguished the cigarette at his fingertips. Before the people in the private box could figure out what he meant, the roar of the star beast was interrupted by a gunshot.
The giant monster’s fatal weakness was pierced by a single bullet, and it crashed heavily to the ground. The spectators looked at each other in dismay, everything seeming to return to silence before screams erupted and well-trained security personnel hurried inside.
Chu Yanyan casually tossed back the gun he had snatched from the auctioneer’s bodyguard, wearing an innocent expression.
He picked up a drink nearby and drained it in one gulp. “I told you, I bet he would live.”
The Omega quickly refilled his cup and flattered him, “President Chu’s marksmanship is truly precise.”
Chu Yanyan took a sip of his wine and acted as if nothing had happened. “Have your boss turn it into a specimen and send it to him.”
Amidst Chu Yanqi’s disgusted sounds of disapproval, he lowered his head as if inadvertently, the wine glass in his hand tilting slightly as golden droplets slowly dripped down.
Before the slave could react, he was drenched in wine across the face, yet he still stared blankly upward. The blood stains and alcohol on his face blended together, making even those jade-like eyes look completely dull and lifeless.
Ying Yu, oh Ying Yu, I never expected you to fall so low today, with even your little lover reduced to such a ghost-like, inhuman state.
Could it be that retribution really exists in this world?
“Help me ask your boss if I can have a freebie included when I buy this star beast.” Chu Yanyan placed his hand on the railing and asked softly.
“Such a pitiful person,” Chu Yanqi sighed. “He’ll definitely think it would have been better to die in the star beast’s jaws later on.”
“Well, you can’t expect me to return empty-handed.” Chu Yanyan flashed a gentle smile toward the man, yet his eyes held no warmth whatsoever—they were like glaciers.