Late at night, the mere thought of a cemetery sent a chill through anyone’s bones.
Even the tired driver perked up, seeing several tall, striking Alphas gathered near the cemetery entrance from afar.
Mu Xiao never expected Luo Qingcheng to invite the entire group of young second-generation Alphas from the boat just to build up courage. Had he forgotten that the contract explicitly stated that each grave visit required kowtowing one hundred times to be considered complete?
However, Luo Qingcheng was equally surprised to see this crowd. He had clearly only contacted two Alphas who left their contact info on social media accounts, not expecting them to stick together like glue, nor knowing what method they used to secure the cemetery administrator’s permission.
Seeing Luo Qingcheng approach, the five smoking Alphas instinctively snuffed out their cigarette butts.
Mu Xiao’s grave was buried with a corpse-coffin. Outsiders played blind and pretended not to know, but thinking about it at this eerie hour still evoked a slight sense of trepidation.
The Alphas understood even less why Luo Qingcheng chose this exact hour to visit Mu Xiao’s grave.
“Are you trying to rob a grave or steal a corpse?”
“Steal a corpse?” Luo Qingcheng said, biting on the words meaningfully. “Well said.”
The coffin inside the grave probably held no corpse at all. Surrounded by them, Luo Qingcheng kept his gaze fixed on the person standing at the very edge, wondering what he was thinking in his silent state.
“Jiang Heming, do you think stealing a corpse could succeed?”
All sorts of gazes suddenly converged.
Without a word, Mu Xiao’s expression grew even darker. He radiated an innate, formidable aura. Even though these Alphas were also extremely robust and tall, they paled in comparison to Mu Xiao.
Jiang Heming’s imposing momentum of beating people up on Rose Island was still fresh in everyone’s memory; nobody wanted to mess with someone who had a screw loose and violent tendencies.
Multiple pairs of long legs walked deeper into the cemetery, and for a moment only the rhythmic sound of footsteps could be heard.
As the initiator, Luo Qingcheng had to break the strange atmosphere.
“Well, I have obtained Mu Xiao’s inheritance…”
Before he could finish, the Alphas beside him first gasped in shock, followed immediately by wolf whistles and cheers, acting as if a dead body had just been resurrected.
Only Mu Xiao, standing to the side, looked like he was watching a bunch of money-grubbers. Either Luo Qingcheng was foolish or he had an ulterior motive. Mu Xiao felt deeply repulsed. He had clearly come to find Luo Qingcheng for revenge, so why was he being so aggrieved just because he couldn’t be certain whether this was that cold, ruthless Luo Qingcheng?
The boisterous atmosphere left Luo Qingcheng with no chance to explain the conditions for acquiring the inheritance.
They quickly arrived at Mu Xiao’s grave mound. There was no headstone; instead, a small sapling was planted atop the mound, with a wordless wooden plaque hanging from its branches.
Luo Qingcheng glanced sideways at the person next to him. Along the way, he had been even more preoccupied than himself. “Jiang Heming, is the time for the grave visit correct?”
Hearing himself called Jiang Heming again, the surge of hatred in Mu Xiao’s heart skyrocketed. “The time is right to bury you alive?”
Luo Qingcheng hadn’t expected such a strong reaction. He stared blankly at him and murmured, “Do you want me to die?”
Shrouded in the night, only Mu Xiao’s fair, stern face remained visible. He said coldly, “Die? That’s letting you off too easy.”
The two suddenly reached a deadlock. The mixed-race Alpha pulled on Luo Qingcheng’s arm. “Didn’t you say there’s something wrong with him? Why waste your energy arguing with him? You asked us here for something else, right?”
The other Alphas chimed in from the side as well.
Luo Qingcheng shifted his gaze away from Mu Xiao’s face. “If you are willing, please release your pheromones.”
Several Alphas looked at each other, then glanced around the pitch-black graveyard, unable to stop a shiver.
The mixed-race Alpha pulled on Luo Qingcheng again, looking somewhat embarrassed. “You wouldn’t happen to want to do it here? Isn’t this a bit…”
He continued, “It’s not that we can’t, it’s just that we all like you. You, which one of us do you choose?”
The look in the other man’s eyes clearly misunderstood something. Giving up on explaining, Luo Qingcheng gave a low chuckle. “I’m a Beta, stop trying to make me feel good.”
The mixed-race Alpha grabbed Luo Qingcheng’s shoulders. “Luoluo, we discussed this before coming here. At first, we were attracted by your Beta looks, and you know we crave Omegas more, but we just wanted to see you, to watch you smile. Even a single glance from you leaves us lingering in thought. Maybe that’s just your charm. In the past, we treated everything as a game, but this time we’re divided because we all want to monopolize you.”
The words were direct enough. Their looks and builds were passable—good for a fling, but too troublesome to take seriously.
These people’s affections could change in an instant; what remained unchanged was Mu Xiao’s inheritance. Luo Qingcheng fell silent.
Mu Xiao simply couldn’t listen anymore, his pent-up fury stirring into action. “Luo Qingcheng, do you feed on pheromones?”
Ignoring him, Luo Qingcheng turned to the Alphas after a moment of thought. “I don’t want to ruin your brotherhood either. Whichever of you provides the most pheromones, I can consider him.”
The Alpha in the floral shirt asked, “But how are you going to tell whose pheromones are more or less?”
With a gentle expression and eyes shimmering with affection, Luo Qingcheng replied, “I have a pheromone recognition system on my phone. After collecting them, it automatically analyzes your capabilities in that department. Since I’m choosing, I certainly want someone well-endowed, skilled, and enduring, right?”
“Woohoo!” they chimed in unison. “Truly, seeing you is better than hearing about you!”
“Luo Qingcheng, you truly live up to being the Beta we all fancied!”
The ambiguous fading notes intertwined with the thin mist of the mountain wilderness, echoing all around.
Mu Xiao felt his time was being insulted.
This definitely wasn’t the Luo Qingcheng he knew!
Luo Qingcheng’s candid and slightly bashful demeanor made the blood rush to the Alphas’ heads.
Locking eyes with Mu Xiao, he said, “Since you’re here to supervise me, you’d better count them properly.”
Right in front of everyone, Luo Qingcheng knelt at the grave mound and began kowtowing, taking the opportunity to ask the system about the pheromones.
[System]: You really have quite the methods.
Luo Qingcheng knew very well that if he wanted to get more pheromones, he still had to go to a special venue.
His forehead struck the soil in front of the sapling, cold and hard, and a red ring quickly formed. Every time Luo Qingcheng kowtowed, he glanced at Mu Xiao, as if checking whether Mu Xiao was keeping track of the count.
Meanwhile, the other seven Alphas stood apart behind Luo Qingcheng, desperately hoping to earn the approval of Luo Qingcheng’s phone system for their pheromones.
After knocking his head one hundred times, Luo Qingcheng was clearly in a lot of discomfort, so he had to shift gears using the collected pheromones, evenly distributing the damage caused by the kowtows among the seven Alphas who had confessed to him.
The Alphas, exerting every ounce of their pheromones and fully expecting to be named by Luo Qingcheng, were met instead with a look of disappointment and regret on his face.
“You guys are so amazing, why is it that all your pheromones combined don’t even match up to my bodyguard?”
Luo Qingcheng’s admiring gaze roamed over Mu Xiao’s face and body with a smile. “Actually, what illness does he even have? He’s just too strong to tolerate the provocations of the weak, and violence is born from that.”
He’s just too strong to tolerate the provocations of the weak, and violence is born from that.
A sentence so familiar it was carved into his bones—Mu Xiao heard it from Luo Qingcheng once again. The only difference between past and present was that Luo Qingcheng’s expression had changed.
He was smiling, a smile that could melt an iceberg, whereas in the past, he had been cold enough to drive Mu Xiao to a despairing abyss.
Mu Xiao abruptly grabbed Luo Qingcheng by the collar, pressing him fiercely. “You’ve finally exposed yourself!”
Luo Qingcheng looked as startled as a frightened rabbit, but seeing Mu Xiao provoked into anger by him, his innate nature made him want to tease him further. “You’re hurting me.”
Instead of letting go, Mu Xiao looked as though he wanted to slam him to the ground. Luo Qingcheng cast a pitiful look toward the Alphas, seeing them cowed and hesitating under Mu Xiao’s overwhelming aura.
With glistening eyes, Luo Qingcheng let out a soft, beautiful sigh. “The seven of you combined can’t even compare to him. Is that really true?”
That remark went too far. It was one thing to use him, Mu Xiao, but to drag his rejects into it.
Utterly infuriated, Mu Xiao shoved Luo Qingcheng away with a violent jerk. But instead of hitting the ground, Luo Qingcheng was caught by the mixed-race Alpha’s strong arms.
“Quick! You go first, and take back what you said about the seven of us not equaling one!”
“Right! Chengcheng, you go down the mountain first.” The floral-shirted Alpha loosened his collar. “Brothers, let’s hold him off!”
Hearing the nicknames these people used for Luo Qingcheng turned Mu Xiao’s stomach. “Trash!”
“What! If you’ve got the guts, say that again!”
Pushed out of the way, Luo Qingcheng didn’t refuse. Offering a hypocritical word of encouragement, he turned and hurried down the mountain without looking back.
The driver had almost fallen asleep waiting in the car, but seeing him get in, urged him on. “Driver, let’s go.”
Glancing in the rearview mirror, the driver confirmed, “Not waiting for the handsome guy with you?”
Luo Qingcheng didn’t hesitate for a second. “No need, he’ll find his own way back.”
With a roar from the engine, the car doors were suddenly grabbed at the crucial second.
In disbelief, Luo Qingcheng watched as Mu Xiao climbed into the car completely unscathed. His frame was excessively tall, making the standard car model feel cramped, and he forcefully wedged Luo Qingcheng against the car door.
“Drive!”
Unaware of the intricate drama between young people and facing no objections, the driver stepped on the gas and sped into the night.
Luo Qingcheng looked out the window, gazing into the distance at the seven Alphas in the night. They were too far away, reduced to mere blurred dots in the pitch black darkness.
Turning back, their eyes met with an indescribable complexity.
“What did you do to them?” Luo Qingcheng asked with a trembling voice.
“Everything you caused.” Mu Xiao had already calmed down. “Killed them.”
With a sudden screech of the brakes, Luo Qingcheng almost crashed into the seat in front, and the driver hurriedly apologized.
Luo Qingcheng raised his head and cursed at Mu Xiao, “Jiang Heming! We’re all adults, if you can’t play, don’t tag along!”
Mu Xiao sneered, reaching up to adjust the rearview mirror toward the ceiling. With his formidable body pinning Luo Qingcheng tightly so he had nowhere to run, he forced him to meet his gaze.
“Anyone who provokes me won’t die easily, but they’ll be crippled.”
The driver began to tremble all over.
Luo Qingcheng pressed both hands against Mu Xiao’s rigid chest. He clearly wanted to fly into a rage against him, yet suddenly found that the fierce man before him was somehow more comforting than those smelly, smoking men, even while acting ferocious toward him.
It must be an illusion, Luo Qingcheng reminded himself.
“What part of visiting the grave did I do wrong? So what if I used you to play with them a bit? There’s nobody else I’d even look at; if it weren’t to help you pay off your debts, do you think I’d kowtow so desperately?”
Mu Xiao’s expression froze.
Luo Qingcheng continued, “Go wherever you’re supposed to go and stop following me. I don’t want a single cent of your money back.”
He was already tear-stained and looked as though he had been ravaged to the point of shattering, yet his voice sounded exceptionally calm. This stark contrast left Mu Xiao stunned.
“Always talking about beating and killing, who can take you? In you Alphas’ eyes, because I’m a Beta, I’m just supposed to docilely accept any demand you make? Those feelings of anger, fear, and grievance aren’t allowed to exist? First I am a human being, and only then am I a Beta. Being human means I feel fear, I defend myself, I run away—do you understand?”
Whether it was emotional communication or venting, Mu Xiao stared blankly at Luo Qingcheng, watching his tear-filled eyes. They looked like a beautiful trap; Mu Xiao didn’t know when he had been dragged into it, leaving all his words stuck in his throat.
A depressed silence filled the car, broken only by the occasional navigation prompt ringing in their ears.
Luo Qingcheng cursed inwardly: Damn it, I overacted.
Fortunately, the trip wasn’t long, and they soon arrived. After everyone got out, the driver slammed his foot down on the gas pedal all the way.
Back in his room, Luo Qingcheng locked himself in, terrified that Mu Xiao would knock on his door to hash things out.
The system gave no warning that Mu Xiao had released a large amount of pheromones toward him.
Early the next morning, Mu Xiao was woken by Luo Qingcheng’s dry heaving.
Morning sickness had arrived, and it would only grow stronger from here on out.
Luo Qingcheng smoothed down his chest, listlessly stepping out of the bathroom only to crash straight into Mu Xiao’s chest. Irritated and agitated, he tried to shove him away. “Can’t you look where you’re walking?”
Mu Xiao, wearing a tank top and shorts, was about to snap when Luo Qingcheng suddenly caught a whiff of something. There was a scent coming from Mu Xiao that felt very comfortable to him, seeming to alleviate his pregnancy symptoms.
He turned around; Mu Xiao turned around at the same time, and he crashed right into him once more. “What body wash did you use? Or perfume? Let me smell.”
After how unpleasant things had been last night, Luo Qingcheng acted as if nothing had happened.
Both of them were dressed in just tank tops and shorts. Since he could remember, Mu Xiao had never been this close to anyone.
This time it was even more intimate than in the coffin, their bodies virtually bare to one another. Not only did Luo Qingcheng not let go, he even leaned against Mu Xiao’s chest, a look of greedy attachment on his face like someone finding relief from agony, acting completely natural.
Mu Xiao couldn’t understand his behavior. Two extreme versions of Luo Qingcheng were constantly fighting in his mind. He lowered his head, resting his forehead against the crown of Luo Qingcheng’s head. The strands of hair were soft and fragrant, and Luo Qingcheng’s arms slowly wrapped around Mu Xiao’s waist. Mu Xiao couldn’t help thinking of the scene where Luo Qingcheng had grabbed his most vital spot inside the coffin.
Clenching his teeth, he growled, “Luo Qingcheng, have you lost your mind?”
A low roar shocked Luo Qingcheng, who in his daze had no idea what was happening. “I… what…”
Mu Xiao’s straight spine was pulled taut, his cold, sharp voice trembling as well. “Look at what your hands are doing!”
If Luo Qingcheng grabbing Mu Xiao’s vital assets in the coffin had been out of sheer self-preservation, what was he doing this for now?
Luo Qingcheng was shocked by his own unconscious actions and quickly pulled his hands back. His face was already burning hot, but posing as a veteran of the dating scene, he quickly regained his composure and pushed him away.
His tone carried neither apology nor sincerity. “Who told you to live on the second floor? I mistook you for someone else.”
Mu Xiao found himself taking the blame yet again, two balls of fire burning in his chest—one a fire of grievance, the other a fire down below. Amid his fury and sarcasm, he snapped, “I look that much like your ex-boyfriend?”
Just because he accidentally brushed against his morning erection, the guy acted as though his chastity had been stolen. Luo Qingcheng couldn’t help teasing, “Having verified the size, it actually is a bit similar.”
Mu Xiao: “……”
He felt that if he didn’t return to his room right now, he would bite Luo Qingcheng’s neck off.
Mu Xiao wanted to lay out the whole story and clear things up, but seeing how weak and yet blissfully relaxed the other looked, the next second Luo Qingcheng slipped away again.
Luo Qingcheng had a strange feeling: the moment he came into contact with Mu Xiao, an uncontrollable urge to get close to him welled up. Overnight, Mu Xiao seemed to suddenly emit a mysterious allure, requiring Luo Qingcheng to exert considerable self-control just to act normal.
The System simply couldn’t watch any longer: Your current condition requires soothing from the father of the tadpoles. His pheromones are powerful, and his physical constitution is one in a million, which is why you’ve been affected. You’d better contact Qiao Buyi as soon as possible.
Luo Qingcheng’s voice was hoarse from heaving: Are the collected pheromones enough to offset the physical burden of the pregnancy period?
[System]: How could it be enough if you use them up as fast as you collect them?
With no other choice, Luo Qingcheng kept calling Qiao Buyi, but it always went unanswered, so he tried every possible means to track him down.
Yet, he seemed to have vanished from the face of the earth.