After the typhoon passed, Kowloon Walled City resembled the masticated remains left behind by a giant beast.
This was the appendix of the world, abandoned by God. Tangled electrical wires hung like moldy veins, wrapping layer upon layer around dilapidated tenement buildings and shielding an already gloomy sky.
A pitch-black Maybach S680 silently cut through the heavy curtain of rain, coming to a steady halt before an iron gate covered in vibrant graffiti.
“Young Master Shen, we’ve arrived. This place is too filthy; how about I carry you” The bodyguard in the driver’s seat spoke with a tense voice. He was about to open the door and unfurl an umbrella, but he was stopped by a voice from the back seat.
“No need,” Shen Yanzhou said softly. “Someone is waiting.”
In the deep shadows of the alley, a man saw the headlights cut out. He flicked away his cigarette butt and walked over. This was the information broker Shen Yanzhou had been waiting for: Jiang Xu.
He was the most troublesome broker in the Hong Kong underworld, an notorious A-Class Alpha who walked the line between the light and the dark.
Jiang Xu possessed a deceptive face: bedroom eyes, thin lips, and even a beauty mark at the corner of his eye. He looked like a romantic rogue from an 80s or 90s Hong Kong film one who would choose a beauty over a kingdom. However, his aggressive tequila-scented pheromones served as a silent warning to every living thing within a hundred meters:
This was a venomous snake that wouldn’t just bite it would smile while chewing your bones to dust.
It wasn’t their first meeting, but every time Jiang Xu saw Shen Yanzhou, he couldn’t help but wonder how someone could be born so ethereal. Standing in a sewage-stained alley wearing a black silk shirt, Shen Yanzhou looked like a white rose blooming in the dead of night.
“Young Master Shen.” Jiang Xu stepped toward him, the distance between them borderline offensive.
As a top-tier Alpha, he knew exactly how to leverage his advantages. His thick, domineering tequila pheromones acted like invisible tentacles, greedily wrapping around Shen Yanzhou, searching for even the slightest crack of arousal or fear in this “odorless” Omega.
“You certainly are punctual. Not a minute late.” Jiang Xu smiled like a scoundrel. “In this heavy rain, I thought you’d make a lonely man like me wait a bit longer.”
“Jiang Xu.” Shen Yanzhou lifted his head slightly. “The places you choose always have such… unique taste.”
“You wrong me.” Jiang Xu spread his hands dramatically, a playful smirk dancing on his lips. “Legitimate business is discussed in the office towers of Central. Only dealings involving lives and desires are worthy of the sewers of Kowloon Walled City.”
“Lead the way.”
“Right this way, my great benefactor.” Jiang Xu stepped back and pushed open a concealed door disguised as a discarded electric meter. He gave an exaggerated, perfect English gentleman’s bow, looking like a demonic butler guarding the gates of hell.
“Welcome to the Devil’s Backyard.”
The elevator was an industrial freight lift with no markings. The walls were mottled with rust and dried, unidentifiable brown stains. The air was stagnant. With the heavy thud of engaging gears, the car began a rapid descent.
In the cramped space, the tequila scent on Jiang Xu became even more pungent. He leaned against the elevator wall, pulled a pack of cigarettes from his jacket, and tapped one out. Just as he was about to light it, he seemed to remember something and held the lighter out toward Shen Yanzhou.
“Care for one? This is the good stuff. Helps you forget your troubles.”
Shen Yanzhou turned his head away in disgust. “Get that away from me. Smoking in a confined space… did a dog eat your manners?”
“Tsk, Young Master Shen is as hard to please as ever.” Jiang Xu wasn’t annoyed. He tucked the cigarette behind his ear, his gaze becoming meaningful. “This place was dug fifty meters deep. We spent a fortune just to avoid the police department’s radar.”
“Who built it?” Shen Yanzhou asked, watching the red floor numbers jump on the display.
“You’ve been in Hong Kong all these years, Young Master; surely you can guess?” Jiang Xu pointed beneath his feet. “Almost all the real estate, suppressants, and pharmaceutical factories in Hong Kong are in the hands of one family. This place might hang the names of a few puppet gangs the Green Dragon, the Hongmen but seventy percent of the monthly turnover goes into the same offshore account.”
Shen Yanzhou’s eyes flickered. He uttered two words: “The Fus?”
“Bingo (Hai ya).” Jiang Xu snapped his fingers, leaning forward with an overwhelming sense of pressure. “The Fu family’s methods are ruthless. They tolerate this underground auction house as a trash can for the bored elite to vent their bestial instincts. It keeps them from causing trouble outside and dirtying their Hong Kong.”
Shen Yanzhou let out a cold, cynical laugh.
That family again. He was about to “marry” into the Fu family for the sake of his own clan’s interests, yet here he was in a black market tolerated by the Fus, buying a tool to cuckold his “fiancé.”
This absurd twist of fate was truly poetic.
When the elevator doors opened, they revealed a massive, circular underground colosseum. The dome was twenty meters high, hung with extravagant crystal chandeliers that lit the space as bright as day.
The air was a complex cocktail of smells: expensive Cuban cigars, the cloying sweetness of haute couture perfumes, the sting of high-proof alcohol, and at the very bottom the raw, musky scent of blood, sweat, and fluids, poorly concealed by artificial fragrances.
Jiang Xu took an exquisite black feather mask from a waiter’s tray and presented it to Shen Yanzhou with both hands. “You know the rules. No one uses their real face here. It’s for the protection of big figures like yourself.”
Shen Yanzhou took it and tied it deftly behind his head.
The pure black mask covered his cold features, leaving only his silver eyes and thin, cherry-blossom-pale lips exposed. Rather than hiding his beauty, the “half-concealed” mystery made him appear even more hauntingly alluring, possessing an almost forbidden aesthetic.
Jiang Xu watched him, his Adam’s apple bobbing hard. If it weren’t for the commission and if he didn’t fear the Shen family and the power behind this man he would have pinned him against the wall right then and there. He wanted to tear away that dignified skin and see if the blood inside was hot or cold.
“This way, please,” Jiang Xu’s voice dropped an octave, turning raspy.
As they followed him to a second-floor VIP box, Shen Yanzhou did not sit immediately. He walked to the glass window, swirling a glass of ice water he had no intention of drinking, and looked down at the circular seating below with icy indifference.
The floor was packed with men and women wearing all sorts of masks.
“See the one in the pig mask?” Shen Yanzhou pointed a slender finger toward the lower left, his tone suggesting he was looking at filth.
“I see him. Interested?”
“Director Li from the Urban Construction Bureau,” Shen Yanzhou said coldly. “That turquoise ring on his left ring finger was bought by his wife at Sotheby’s last month. The news made a huge deal about it being their twentieth-anniversary gift. Heh, look at the Beta boy he’s holding now looks barely legal. What exactly is that hand, usually used for signing permits, doing right now?”
Jiang Xu tutted. “The old bastard has had that taste for years. He even killed one last time; rumor has it the Hongmen smoothed it over for him.”
“And over there.” Shen Yanzhou shifted his gaze. A woman in a peacock feather mask sat there, clutching a whip, staring at the stage with trembling excitement. “Zhao Wan’er, heiress of the Zhao Group. In public, she brands herself a ‘Fighter for Omega Rights,’ weeping before the media about Alpha brutality. In private, she loves nothing more than torturing disobedient Alpha man-servants. Look at her, she’s probably soaked through already.”
Shen Yanzhou withdrew his gaze and set the glass on the table. “Truly rotten.”
“I didn’t expect to meet them in a place like this watching them huddle together to sniff each other’s asses.”
“Don’t be such a killjoy, Young Master Shen.” Jiang Xu leaned back on the sofa, crossing his legs. His eyes burned as he stared at Shen Yanzhou’s pale chin. “The people might be rotten, but the goods are top-shelf. We have a ‘specialty’ tonight that you’ll never guess. I nearly lost half my life pulling strings for this one.”
At that moment, the lights in the arena dimmed abruptly, leaving only a single spotlight focused on the center of the stage. An auctioneer in a tuxedo and exaggerated clown makeup leapt out, his voice shrill and high-pitched.
“Honored guests! Hungry souls! Welcome to the climax of the evening: The Alpha Hunting Grounds!”
“Want the strongest bodyguard? Want the most durable bed partner? Want to improve your family’s weak genes? We have it all! In this place, money is the only law!”
“Lot Number One! B-Class Alpha, 8% body fat, three-hour endurance test”
A young, muscular Alpha coated in essential oils was pushed out. He had clearly been drugged; his eyes were glazed, and a chain was fastened around his neck. He writhed like a dog in heat for the crowd.
“One million!” Zhao Wan’er was the first to raise her paddle, shrieking with excitement.
Shen Yanzhou took one look and turned away in disgust, his impatience mounting.
“This is the ‘specialty’ you spoke of?” He let out a cold sneer, his voice lazy yet venomous. “That ‘dead muscle’ was built on protein powder, wasn’t it? He looks like dry firewood. Aside from panting like a dog, I doubt he can even get it up. Jiang Xu, do you think I’m bored? Did you bring me here to see a display of trash?”
Jiang Xu nearly choked on his wine. He looked at Shen Yanzhou helplessly. “Young Master Shen, that mouth of yours is more poisonous than the torture devices in this market.”
The next few lots were even more pathetic. Some were grotesque, and one even had his legs go weak from the roar of the crowd the moment he stepped on stage, drawing a wave of mockery and insults.
“Lot X-5… starting bid, five hundred thousand”
“Too hideous.” Shen Yanzhou closed his eyes and rubbed his temples, feeling physically nauseous. “Even with the lights off, I have standards. Staring at a face that failed to evolve past an ape would probably kill my ability to go into heat in a second.”
He stood up, his tone icy. “I’m leaving. This is a waste of time.”
“Don’t rush, don’t rush.” Jiang Xu grabbed Shen Yanzhou’s wrist. Feeling the chill of the skin beneath his palm, his heart skipped a beat. He quickly turned serious. “It’s about time. The main event is coming. If you don’t like this one, I’ll write my name backward.”
Before the words had finished hanging in the air
The jarring heavy metal music blasting from the speakers cut off abruptly. Every light in the arena was extinguished in an instant.
Darkness fell without warning, and the rowdy crowd went silent. Then, a terrifying, suffocating aura swept through the space alongside a massive, rising alloy cage.
It wasn’t a normal pheromone. It was a storm of gunpowder, rust, blood, and absolute ferocity. Several low-level Omegas and Betas in the front rows turned deathly pale; some even clutched their chests and gagged, their bodies going limp as if they were being forcibly triggered into a heat cycle.
Even Jiang Xu, an A-Class Alpha, sat up straight. The smile vanished from his face, replaced by extreme vigilance and shock. His hands clenched his knees, veins bulging.
“Shit…” Jiang Xu hissed through grit teeth. A fine sweat broke out on his brow, and his pupils contracted violently. “What kind of monster is this? This pressure, he’s definitely above S-Class.”
In the entire arena, only Shen Yanzhou remained standing gracefully by the window.
Because he was an “odorless” Omega. This was God’s greatest cruelty to him, yet in this moment, it was his greatest mercy.
“Next,” the auctioneer’s voice trembled. He was genuinely terrified; his teeth were practically chattering. “The finale of the night. Number: X-9. Grade: S-Class or higher.”
A harsh, blinding white spotlight sliced through the darkness like a sword, hitting the man in the cage.
He sat cross-legged in the center of the cold, steel cage. His muscles were tight, fluid, and packed with explosive power like a heavy bow drawn to its absolute limit. His hands were pinned behind his back by alloy chains as thick as a wrist, and he wore a bite-inhibitor collar. Yet, as he sat there, his spine was ramrod straight; there wasn’t a trace of subservience or a desire to please.
A silver mask covered the upper half of his face, leaving only a jawline as sharp as a blade. His thin lips were pressed into a cold, unapproachable line.
Sensing a gaze from the second floor one that held no fear, but was instead filled with scrutiny and judgment the man in the cage slowly lifted his head.
Across a vertical distance of ten meters. Across the noise and the silence. Across the iron bars and the glass. Across the boundary of light and shadow.
Those eyes crashed into Shen Yanzhou’s vision without warning. They were deep, pitch-black, and as still as an ancient well. There was no rage of a trapped beast, and no fear of fate.
“I want him,” Shen Yanzhou said softly, his eyes locked onto the man.
Jiang Xu snapped out of it, looking at Shen Yanzhou with a complex expression. “Young Master, you want him? Even I can feel how dangerous he is.”
“I want him,” Shen Yanzhou repeated. “No matter the price, I will win that man.”