Feng Yu felt as if the entire world had gone mad.
No, scratch that. It wasn’t the world that had gone insane. It was Xie Wangyuan, who was already seated comfortably at a mahjong table.
Yes.
A mahjong table.
The room they entered was nothing like what anyone had imagined. It wasn’t the “final test,” nor was it some hedonistic, debauched multi partner playground.
Instead, the room was spacious and bright, the air conditioning set at a pleasant temperature. Several small carts were arranged neatly along the walls, loaded with snacks and drinks and beside them… several full mahjong tables.
It was unmistakably a mahjong room.
Feng Yu simply could not have predicted that such an elaborate, grand banquet, a carefully orchestrated event involving dozens of Betas, mountains of paperwork, endless waiting and three separate rooms, was not meant for selecting a “male companion,” nor the bed partner or lover everyone assumed.
What Xie Wangyuan wanted… was mahjong buddies.
Feng Yu stared as Xie Wangyuan rested his cheek lazily in one hand, tapping the table to call each dumbstruck Beta to sit down. One after another, the Betas sat, each wearing the same broken expression.
Then Xie Wangyuan turned in his direction. That handsome face, the one that had just moments ago made Feng Yu blush and lose control of his heartbeat, tilted slightly toward him. Long fingers tapped the surface lightly.
“You. Sit here.”
Feng Yu, moving like his limbs belonged to someone else, stiffly took the seat directly across from him.
With the addition of Xie Wangyuan and Ren Yi, the numbers were perfect, three full tables.
For this outfit, Feng Yu had starved himself for two days. Before coming, he had painstakingly styled himself, groomed himself head to toe and filled out that humiliating questionnaire with more seriousness than he had filled out his college entrance exam forms.
He had racked his brain over each question, wondering whether his experience, preferences and skills would satisfy Xie Wangyuan’s criteria. He had even secretly felt relieved that, before becoming an influencer, he had only dated one Omega in a pure, innocent relationship, with no overly intense experiences that might make him seem too wild or too inexperienced.
And now…
And now that same Alpha would never know that the heart belonging to a young man, who had been imagining all sorts of wild possibilities just minutes earlier, had completely shattered the moment he saw a mahjong table.
Not only shattered, It had been fed to the dogs.
Maybe his mother had been right after all. When she said to him, “Be grounded, don’t take crooked shortcuts,” she truly knew what she was saying.
Stomach growling, anger simmering, Feng Yu gave up on maintaining his appearance. He grabbed a packet of snacks from the nearby cart, ripped it open and chewed with loud, aggressive crunches.
But even that didn’t calm him. He lifted his head to glare, only to meet Xie Wangyuan’s gaze again.
“Let’s keep things simple tonight,” Xie Wangyuan said lazily. “Nothing too complicated. Play with free chi and pong, upper seat eats, classic push over win. How’s that?”
If this had happened five minutes ago, locking eyes with Xie Wangyuan would have made Feng Yu’s heart squeeze painfully with excitement but now? Now all he wanted to scream was:
If you don’t know how to play complex mahjong, just say you don’t know how to play it!!
Of course, he only dared scream that in his head.
Out loud he said, “Alright, Second Young Master Xie.”
But very soon, Feng Yu discovered that the young man inside him hadn’t fed his hopes to just any dog… He had fed them to a completely useless dog.
How could someone set the rules himself yet not even know who was sitting upper seat or lower seat?!
Feng Yu’s soul hurt but that wasn’t even the worst part.
He then realized that the Beta sitting beside him, the one he originally thought was Xie Wangyuan’s lover, was just as terrible at mahjong.
Remembering the dismissive, superior smirk that Beta had given him earlier, Feng Yu, now stone cold sober emotionally, wanted to grab him by the shoulders and shake him violently:
Your mahjong skills are THIS awful and you still dare to look down on other people?!
Meanwhile, Ren Yi held a one wan tile, a two wan tile and a four wan tile, completely unsure which one to throw. Then he got glared at again for no reason.
Ren Yi: “?”
Truly, no matter where you go, playing your tile too slowly will always earn you scorn.
Not wanting to be disliked, Ren Yi tossed out the two wan.
Feng Yu wasn’t from City C, he came from a region where mahjong was practically a family tradition. Since childhood, he had learned from watching his mother. His academics had always been terrible, but when it came to tile memory, he was exceptional.
Now that his mind had cooled, Feng Yu could also see the bigger picture clearly: He didn’t know whether Second Young Master Xie actually liked men… But he did know that this entire banquet was nothing but a performance.
Only this group of desperate, foolish Betas, who had come hoping to sell their bodies for a wealthy benefactor, had taken it seriously.
Feng Yu suppressed the thoughts he shouldn’t have had and realized that his current life was actually pretty good. He earned enough money for himself and he could even give his mother a bit to use as pocket money from time to time.
Still… an extra “thigh” to cling to was always one more path forward. Especially if that thigh belonged to someone like Xie Wangyuan.
Romantic fantasies were out of the question now. He didn’t dare think that way anymore but when it came to the mahjong table… he had confidence.
Unfortunately, as the saying goes, ‘When it rains, it pours…’
The Beta who sat down beside him had absolutely no sense of awareness. Every time Feng Yu deliberately threw a tile to bait someone, this Beta either chi’d it or pong’d it immediately.
Feng Yu: “…”
He felt like he would never put this much effort into anything else in his life ever again.
Four players at one table.
Two absolute beginners.
One complete liability.
And in that terrible environment, Feng Yu still managed to push through, working miracles and helped Xie Wangyuan win round after round, feeding him winning tiles over and over.
Xie Wangyuan, with an unlit cigarette between his teeth, glanced at the steadily growing pile of chips in front of him. One brow lifted slightly.
He pushed over his tiles lazily.
“Won again.”
“What? Yuan ge, your luck is insane tonight!” Ren Yi groaned as he counted out his chips and slid them over. “Why haven’t I won even once?!”
Feng Yu, caught between wanting to speak and wanting to die: “…”
Honestly, could these clueless rookies have even a shred of self awareness?
All night long, Feng Yu’s brain spun at high speed. He had to wage mental warfare against that hopeless teammate, spar with the two completely unskilled amateurs and at the same time carefully adjust his play so that his tricks wouldn’t be too obvious. It was exhausting, like juggling fire while walking a tightrope.
By the time the pale light of dawn crept through the windows, Feng Yu finally succeeded in carrying Xie Wangyuan to the finish line, turning him into the player with the most chips among all three tables.
Task completed. His brain promptly shut down, leaving him limp in his chair, feeling as though he hadn’t just stayed up one night, but several days straight without sleep.
Xie Wangyuan, however, was still full of energy. After playing mahjong the entire night, he finally seemed satisfied. He casually swept over the tall pile of chips stacked beside him.
As the tokens clattered and rolled across the table, he said, “The restaurant downstairs has breakfast ready. If you want to rest, there are rooms on this floor. If you want to go home, cars are arranged to take you back. These chips are just for fun. Whatever amount you have left, leave your contact information outside. Later, I’ll transfer a sum of money…”
He paused, tapped his knuckles on the table twice, then added, “Call it a companion fee or something else, interpret it however you want.”
That jogged Feng Yu’s memory of his confiscated phone and personal belongings. He muttered under his breath, “Hush money.”
His voice was tiny, almost inaudible, but he was sitting too close. He saw the Alpha across from him lift his eyes ever so slightly, which told Feng Yu that his snark had been heard loud and clear.
Feng Yu’s heart clenched in alarm but the next moment, he heard something like faint amusement in Xie Wangyuan’s voice. “As long as you know what should be said and what shouldn’t.”
That was enough. Feng Yu exchanged glances with the other Betas nearby. They all understood.
No one here would be stupid enough to leak anything. They were all here with questionable intentions to begin with. If the outside world ever found out that they had come hoping to climb into Second Young Master Xie’s bed, only to end up at his mahjong table instead…
They weren’t celebrities, but they still had reputations. This level of humiliation? No one could afford it.
Honestly, if the gossip ever broke out, it might even be better for the public to misunderstand and believe they’d actually slept with him. At least having a rumor of being entangled with Xie Wangyuan offered some tiny, pathetic advantage.
As for the actor at the other table, whose face had turned pitch black, he was probably regretting every choice he had made tonight.
He’d taken the massive risk of sneaking here despite the danger of paparazzi catching him yet he hadn’t even managed to sit at the same table as Xie Wangyuan, let alone speak a few words with him.
One by one, Betas slowly rose to their feet, hesitating as they prepared to head to the restaurant for breakfast.
Feng Yu’s mind felt wrung dry. An entire night of snacking had done nothing to ease his hunger. He stole a glance at Xie Wangyuan and, seeing no sign of hostility, also stood up to leave.
But then Xie Wangyuan tapped the table again. “You! What was your name again?”
Feng Yu instantly straightened as if shocked by electricity. “F… Feng Yu. Second Young Master Xie, just now I was only.. ”
“Tch.” Xie Wangyuan impatiently cut him off. He pulled a tissue from the table. “Got a pen?”
Feng Yu blinked. “N.. no. I don’t.”
Ren Yi patted his pocket. He had run straight here after yesterday’s meeting and apparently a pen had come along for the ride. He tossed it to Xie Wangyuan.
The tissue paper wasn’t ideal for writing on, but Xie Wangyuan still scribbled a phone number onto it. He skipped signing his name and handed it directly to Feng Yu. “If I’m short on players next time, I’ll call you.”
Feng Yu accepted it with both hands, reverently almost. “Th.. thank you, Second Young Master Xie. Thank you, Young Master Ren.”
After a whole night at the mahjong table, he had naturally figured out Ren Yi’s identity. He almost wanted to go back in time and slap his earlier self, he had actually mistaken the dignified Young Master Ren as Xie Wangyuan’s secret lover.
He didn’t know when that “next time” would be, but connections were built step by step. Opportunities accumulated little by little.
Mahjong had its own social rules. His mother had never lied to him.
By the time Xie Wangyuan and Ren Yi finally collapsed into bed to sleep, the extravagant banquet had already dominated several trending searches for hours, sweeping through almost every news section. At this point, the whole city was nearly aware of it.
People’s curiosity was simple and predictable.
Tell them Yu Xile had a new scandal, many wouldn’t even blink. Say some rich young heir partied abroad, they’d barely be surprised.
But combine the words powerful family, playboy Alpha, private clubhouse, multi Beta gathering, mysterious entry forms, Beta “companions” chosen one by one…
Just mash any three of those terms together and millions would scramble to take a bite.
It was Monday, too. Office workers dragged themselves to work feeling like mourners heading to a grave. With a major wealthy family scandal to gossip about, they were more than happy to slack off and snack on drama all day long.
Qin Shi was no exception.
After finishing his morning meeting, Qin Yu passed the pantry and overheard a few employees whispering excitedly about Chunshui Xifeng and a certain “grand feast.”
He checked his watch. Eleven thirty in the morning.
On the top floor, he moved toward his office, but the people in the secretarial department were all hunched over their screens, utterly absorbed in whatever they were watching. Not one of them noticed his arrival.
Qin Yu pressed the handle of his office door, then paused and turned back.
He Rui, a Beta and Qin Yu’s assistant, had skipped the morning meeting to finish some of the other tasks Qin Yu assigned. With the shift nearly over, he decided he might as well kill some time watching gossip with the others.
He was in the middle of a video when the light above him suddenly dimmed. He looked up.
He Rui froze for a second, then hurriedly locked his screen but the video continued playing in the background, narrating loudly:
“…According to an insider from the clubhouse, dozens of Betas left the venue crying, their clothes in disarray. Among them was someone suspected to be a currently popular idol! And in the end, Second Young Master Xie kept ten Betas by his side! Furthermore, sources claim that throughout the entire night, not a single person exited that extravagant banquet hall, which means they must have been… ”
He Rui: …
The room became as silent as a graveyard at midnight. He Rui unlocked his phone again, paused the video and stood up slowly. “President Qin…”
Qin Yu’s face remained expressionless, completely unchanged from usual. His gaze drifted across the desk without comment and he walked away.
Only after hearing the adjacent office door close did He Rui finally exhale and collapse back into his seat.
He glanced at his phone screen again, displaying the image of a handsome Alpha with disheveled clothes. He muttered, confused, “Is… is this the type of Alpha that’s trending now?”
One of the junior secretaries beside him grinned. “What type or not, Alpha is Alpha. They’re always popular! Especially someone like Second Young Master Xie. He looks like he’s very… capable.”
Another piped up, “He is good looking. The Xie family has strong genes, that’s true but wow, his private life is so wild. Ten people! If each gets only an hour, he wouldn’t have any time to rest!”
“People like him don’t need rest! The more indulgent they are, the more energetic they get. It’s practically unnatural.”
The nearby office door suddenly opened again.
The group immediately sat upright, silent like frightened chickens. Footsteps approached steadily.
“He Rui.”
The voice was cool, distant.
“Come to the southern resort area.”
✦ ✧ ✦
Vynellia
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
This translator has been caught working for free again. Scandalous.
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
✦ thank you for reading ✦
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ChaptersChapter 1 · A Beta who looks particularly attractiveChapter 2 · Illegitimate child? BetaChapter 3 · Am I going to kick a hornet’s nest?Chapter 4 · A banquet that only Betas can attendChapter 5 · The young man’s heart was wastedChapter 6 · What’s so fun about Beta?Chapter 7 · Your dad has too many loversChapter 8 · Date with a ‘beautyChapter 9 · Long Time no see…Chapter 10 · He’ll definitely be the dominant oneChapter 11 · Seeing Qin Yu was like a dog seeing a bone.Chapter 12 · Young Master Qin, what a coincidenceChapter 13 · I don’t like things that other people have touched.Chapter 14 · Just call him “little brother”Chapter 15 · Are you going to pursue Xiao Mei O?Chapter 16 · The dead are deadChapter 17 · Qin Yu, aren’t you going to take responsibility?Chapter 18 · Xie Wangyuan and his dog are not allowed insideChapter 19 · Got into his carChapter 20 · He really gave me a hard timeChapter 21 · You actually Like that beta?Chapter 22 · Like an Alpha catching his wife cheatingChapter 23 · How do you want me to repay you?Chapter 24 · An Alpha without pheromonesChapter 25 · I’m determined to get my hands on Qin YuChapter 26 · Whatever service you needChapter 27 · Honey, shall I put it on for you?Chapter 28 · Mr. Qin has a rather unique aesthetic senseChapter 29 · Who says Qin Yu is hard to deal with?Chapter 30 · Please teach me, Teacher QinChapter 31 · These are all he can lose.Chapter 32 · I’m looking for someone who has “disappeared”.Chapter 33 · A new meaning in his lifeChapter 34 · Your birthday is in a few days, right?Chapter 35 · Just the two of us.Chapter 36 · It was like Qin Yu’s O-selection banquetChapter 37 · He saw himself clearly in his eyesChapter 38 · Do those Betas really make you this comfortable?Chapter 39 · Qin Yu, you just wait.Chapter 40 · I’m to blame for stealing tonight’s main characterChapter 41 · If you have only one piece of clothing left, you winChapter 42 · I admit defeatChapter 43 · He is my lover!Chapter 44 · What kind of cult is Yuyuan?Chapter 45 · There are no other BetasChapter 46 · Go to bedChapter 47 · Susceptible periodChapter 48 · Qin Yu, are you a damn dog?!Chapter 49 · It would be best to lock us up completelyChapter 50 · I’ll give you five million, leave my sonChapter 51 · Other Alphas smell awfulChapter 52 · He can’t possibly be like those stupid Alpha dogsChapter 53 · Only youChapter 54 · Go ahead and say what you just said again if you dareChapter 55 · I thought you were going to meet someone at night.Chapter 56 · Swallow it.Chapter 57 · Service fee for the second young masterChapter 58 · He touched it himself and showed it to meChapter 59 · To make an Alpha no longer need an OmegaChapter 60 · They’re kindly taking me in?Chapter 61 · Qin Yu is different.Chapter 62 · HelpChapter 63 · At times like this and that with Qin Yu.Chapter 64 · We will never abandon themChapter 65 · My wife’s surname is QinChapter 66 · Two numbersChapter 67 · Qin Yu and dogs are not allowed insideChapter 68 · Eat a lotChapter 69 · It’s a must-eatChapter 70 · Batian misses youChapter 71 · Earn money to support your wife.Chapter 72 · I hug you like a crossChapter 73 · Use these to exchange for a wish.Chapter 74 · Extra 1Chapter 75 · Extra 2Chapter 76 · Extra 3Chapter 77 · Extra 4Chapter 78 · Extra 5Chapter 79 · Extra 6Chapter 80 · Extra 7Chapter 81 · Extra 8Chapter 82 · Extra 9Chapter 83 · Extra 10Chapter 84 · Extra 11Chapter 85 · Extra 12