The retaliatory countermeasure of transferring pregnancy physical symptoms had only played out in his mind, yet it still left Lu Qingcheng feeling immensely vindicated.
It was impossible to describe his current state of mind. If he truly had to put it into words, he was like a shallow puddle at the foot of a mountain that could not gather any streams, suddenly struck by a single droplet of water from a majestic waterfall high above, sending massive ripples spreading across the surface.
Amidst the lingering ripples of shock, Lu Qingcheng picked up a feather accessory and absentmindedly twirled it. Why was the air so cool, yet his body felt as though it were about to explode?
But the mere thought of pregnancy symptom transfer and that Alpha at the hospital who had utterly discarded his own dignity brought a silent smile to his lips.
However, the smile flashed and vanished. Lu Qingcheng quickly tossed aside those chaotic, redundant thoughts. Competing with other transmigrators for primary pheromones was crucial, but time management was just as important. Pulling himself together, he smoothed down his collar and headed off to his next stop.
A black luxury sedan rolled smoothly to a stop right beside Lu Qingcheng. Spotting the Maybach, he turned and briskly walked straight past it.
Qiao Buyi stepped out, caught up with him, and draped his jacket over Lu Qingcheng’s shoulders, his tone remaining as gentle as ever: “Do not catch a cold.”
Lu Qingcheng shot a sidelong glance at the jacket resting on his shoulders. In a cliché dog-blood novel, he ought to have driven right behind him begging for forgiveness instead of pulling a stunt like this on the spot.
[System]: What are you going to do about the little tadpole if you reject him?
Lu Qingcheng: “Even the little tadpole would not want its dad to be a homewrecker.”
Shoving his hands deep into his trouser pockets, Lu Qingcheng cast a sideways glare at him: “Does your Omega know you are doing all this to me?”
Having recovered from the torment, Qiao Buyi was back to normal, though his expression carried a trace of complex hesitation as he countered with a question of his own: “You know him?”
“Ha,” Lu Qingcheng scoffed, dripping with icy sarcasm. “Since when do you care?”
Qiao Buyi furrowed his brow with a bitter smile, pulled out a cigarette case, extracted a stick, and lit it against his fingertip. Glancing briefly at Lu Qingcheng’s abdomen, he put the cigarette away: “Do you even know what kind of background or identity that person has?”
He remembered that Qiao Buyi never used to smoke, yet now, he carried a faint scent of tobacco. Lu Qingcheng ripped the jacket off his shoulders and shoved it back into the crook of his arm: “Walking down a wrong road a second time might not make you any smarter, but at least it should keep you from being foolish enough to let someone get you knocked up before you realize you are the homewrecker, right?”
Qiao Buyi: “Qingcheng.”
Lu Qingcheng: “I am right here.”
Lu Qingcheng’s nonchalant attitude softened Qiao Buyi’s tone: “Qingcheng, do not worry. I will take responsibility for you. Shall we get in the car and go home first?”
“No need.” Lu Qingcheng brushed his hand away with utter impunity: “What happened between you and me was not my choice, so you do not need to take responsibility. As for the fetus, we can just get rid of it.”
[System]: Do not go looking for death.
Lu Qingcheng: You actually believe his bluff.
The system fell speechlessly silent.
“Do not be so headstrong.” Qiao Buyi pointed toward the club across the street: “I asked the club owner; that guy is just a lunatic who ran away from the hospital. The club’s guest traffic has never been higher, and while he provoked all those people, he singled you out to parade in public. He is driving you into a dead end with premeditation. You cannot abort the baby; it is terribly harmful to your body. Come back to the villa with me. As for the future, you can do whatever you want.”
On this point, Qiao Buyi was not wrong. Lu Qingcheng had even suspected the baseball-cap guy might be tomorrow’s competitor, a theory that only collapsed after he gathered all the pheromones.
Qiao Buyi’s gaze was tender as he looked at him. After a moment of thought, Lu Qingcheng walked over to the rear of the Maybach and rapped his knuckles against the trunk lid.
Qiao Buyi frowned slightly, hesitating before pressing the remote lock.
The novel had mentioned that Qiao Buyi had loved cleanliness and cars since childhood; the basket of his childhood bicycle had always been neatly stocked with maintenance tools. True to form, the trunk was clean and orderly, with a toolbox tucked neatly in the corner.
Lu Qingcheng selected a heavy hammer from inside, walked around to the front of the vehicle, rolled up his sleeves, and offered Qiao Buyi a completely harmless, innocent smile before:
“Bang! Bang! Bang!”
Under Qiao Buyi’s watchful gaze, Lu Qingcheng hammered his precious luxury car until it resembled a mangled Transformer, pausing only to raise an eyebrow at him: “Still want me to go back to the villa with you?”
With a complex expression, Qiao Buyi walked over, running his fingertips gently across the battered and bruised vehicle before taking the hammer from Lu Qingcheng’s hand. His eyes conveyed only one clear message: Watch how I deal with you.
Lu Qingcheng braced himself for an outburst from the refined scumbag, preparing for the worst. To his utter shock, Qiao Buyi executed a complete one-eighty-degree turnaround, abandoning his beloved car to become his accomplice.
The front end of the car was pounded to absolute ruins. Catching the spirit of destruction, Qiao Buyi smashed away with abandon, looking at Lu Qingcheng and laughing silently. Meeting his gaze, Lu Qingcheng was suddenly reminded of the time they had smashed a bully’s bicycle together during childhood, running hand-in-hand for all they were worth while the furious bully cursed behind them.
All that immense fear had ultimately vented itself into roaring laughter, a laughter that traveled across the winds of time to settle upon Lu Qingcheng’s face.
In Qiao Buyi’s reddened eyes, they both knew that a single grain of rice could never return to its original wheat stalk, and they could never return to their childhood.
Lu Qingcheng looked at Qiao Buyi and said: “I actually despise you.”
Qiao Buyi snapped his gaze upward in astonishment.
“You realized very early on that you were not particularly interested in human beings as a whole. Keeping me trapped beneath that big tree, enjoying the thrill of possession and control, that was your true interest.”
Lu Qingcheng turned slightly sideways, his gaze drifting toward the scattered lights within the buildings. No matter how unreasonable he acted, Qiao Buyi would always take his side.
This was not love. It was a form of destruction disguised as spoiling, a slow corruption.
Lu Qingcheng’s voice was very soft, like a puddle confessing its feelings to the flower that silently accompanied it: “An orphan abandoned by parents has no heart to begin with, yet your deception managed to plant a beating heart inside me. Lu Qingcheng hates you, and hates that heart containing you even more.”
Qiao Buyi rested both hands against the wrecked hood of the car in silence. His straight, proud spine curved downward, his arms shielding his head; from this angle, he looked as though he had been decapitated.
With immense difficulty, he forced himself back up: “So, when you toyed with other people, you were also toying with me, even if people called you a male prostitute?”
Gaze locked with gaze, the air churned with heavy undercurrents.
Lu Qingcheng suddenly let out a light laugh: “Who has the leisure to care how the scenery mocks them while they are on the road?”
Lu Qingcheng said quietly: “Let us both let go.”
His facade shattered, Qiao Buyi felt his desire for possession and control flare up even more fiercely, perhaps having festered long before this moment: “You know very well I could never let go!”
Lu Qingcheng tilted his head with a smirk, his eyes dropping to his own abdomen: “Because of him?”
Suddenly, as if struck in his most vulnerable weak spot, Qiao Buyi wore a complicated expression.
Lu Qingcheng could not help laughing aloud, which caught Qiao Buyi off guard.
He was laughing at the fact that what had actually sparked the novel’s interest in him was nothing more than a contest for inheritance, and that Qiao Buyi was far from the safe, harmless gentleman he pretended to be, he was a genuine, refined monster.
Before he could control it, a sudden spasm gripped Lu Qingcheng’s lower abdomen. The sharp pain forced him to clutch his stomach and lean heavily against the car for support, until a strong pair of arms rushed in to steady him.
Qiao Buyi: “I am taking you to the hospital right now!”
Lu Qingcheng: “No.”
Big Qiao, you ought to be thinking about locking me up right about now.
At that moment, Qiao Buyi’s tone turned exceptionally gentle: “Because you kept avoiding me, I had no choice but to agree to the marriage arrangement my parents proposed. Look, I found you after all. Do not worry, just know that I will take responsibility for you, and you can live in peace from now on.”
Lu Qingcheng could no longer process a single word. The wave of labor contractions hit him like a lightning bolt, forcing him to collapse into the passenger seat. Fortunately, it came and went quickly. Through half-closed eyes, he caught sight of an insulated lunch box inside the car.
Following his line of sight, Qiao Buyi understood his intent, picked up the box, and opened it. A rich aroma of black-bone chicken soup immediately filled the interior, making Lu Qingcheng’s mouth water.
He was starving.
“You are not like before anymore; just tell me directly whenever you want to eat something.”
Qiao Buyi sat sideways in the driver’s seat, watching him eat: “Do not go to places like that club anymore. It is bad for your health.”
“Do you really enjoy watching me reduced to the point of begging you?” Lu Qingcheng regained some of his strength, fished out the chicken tail-piece from the stew, and unhesitatingly shoved it toward Qiao Buyi’s lips.
Qiao Buyi said earnestly: “Then beg me.”
“In your dreams,” Lu Qingcheng smiled lightly: “You hate eating this part, yet every single time, you manage to let me find it. Why is that?”
It was an act of appeasement. Qiao Buyi could not bring himself to say it aloud, but his eyes gave him away.
A bitter smile touched Qiao Buyi’s lips. He could not withstand a single glance from Lu Qingcheng; Lu Qingcheng was his life’s compass, yet swallowing that chicken piece felt precisely like swallowing a poison named Lu Qingcheng.
Once Lu Qingcheng had eaten his fill, a heavy wave of drowsiness washed over him. Clutching the insulated box, he leaned back against the seat and closed his eyes.
A thin blanket was gently draped over him. Shedding his thorny armor and thoroughly fed, he looked like a sleeping beauty. As if he could never get enough, Qiao Buyi leaned down and pressed a kiss to his forehead.
“I am sorry, Qingcheng. You probably already guessed that I will lock you up. To keep from losing you, this is the only choice I have.”
Just as Qiao Buyi reached out to start the engine, his consciousness was violently stripped away.
Only even breathing remained inside the car. A moment later, dreaming that he was being imprisoned and tormented by Qiao Buyi, Lu Qingcheng jerked awake in a cold sweat.
That was close, I almost ruined the big plan!
He shoved the slumped figure of Qiao Buyi in the seat and called out his name a few times, but received no response. He had not expected the item from the club to be quite so potent.
[System]: You faked pain to trick him?
Lu Qingcheng: “Faked? Ha. Let us just say I added a little something extra to the chicken tail-piece.”
[System]: You cannot complete the task without the little tadpole’s father. Do you plan to be a homewrecker or poach someone’s corner?
Lu Qingcheng: “The sun is not up yet, and the pheromone collection task continues. As for me, I am neither a homewrecker nor do I want to poach anyone.”
The two of them had not only passed the point of no return, but had stepped onto an entirely different dog-blood highway.
Lu Qingcheng had to make the most of this opportunity to ensure Qiao Buyi owed him a debt that had to be paid back in full.
The tip of his tongue brushed against his lip, still tasting the lingering flavor of the chicken stew: “Qiao Buyi, once dawn breaks, we are even.”
The streets were largely deserted by night. Lu Qingcheng finally managed to drive the car into the bustling commercial district, as driving in an ABO world was genuinely exhausting.
He recruited two vagrants, paying them off with the remaining black-bone chicken soup and instructing them to use the nylon rope from the toolkit to suspend Qiao Buyi right between two massive stone architectural pillars.
Using Qiao Buyi’s own phone, he recorded a video announcing his final singlehood game in the style of a challenge, and blasted it to his entire contact list.
The headcount did not need to be massive, exactly nine hundred ninety-nine participants, and Qiao Buyi would be unlocked. Anyone who participated in the rescue game would receive the reward of kissing him.
Even at dawn, the group chats erupted instantly as various people were jolted awake from their sleep by phone notifications.
Qiao Buyi had always maintained an impeccable public image, once the campus idol, now an elite young professional, approachable yet never promiscuous or bogged down by scandals, which earned him a stellar social network.
Upon seeing that the man of their dreams had been blindfolded, gagged with black tape, and suspended from the pillars in the chilly, bustling downtown street, nearly everyone excitedly decided to join the game for the sake of the luxury reward.
Naturally, the first person to arrive was Lu Qingcheng. He took on the role of the game’s registration and briefing officer. Even random passersby joined in once they heard the details; word spread quickly, drawing a larger crowd by the minute as the early-morning street grew increasingly lively.
How could a grand and extravagant game be hosted by a Beta? The Alphas pushed Lu Qingcheng aside without questions and took over complete control.
The Betas who wanted to join were humiliated and rejected by the Alphas, leaving only Alphas and Omegas at the scene, exactly as Lu Qingcheng had anticipated.
Selfishly, they all wanted to become Qiao Buyi’s nine hundred ninety-ninth singlehood milestone, while simultaneously commemorating their own flamboyant, unorthodox single lives through him.
Using Qiao Buyi’s money, Lu Qingcheng purchased induced pheromones across X City and sprayed them directly into rose petals.
The participant count hit nine hundred ninety-nine.
A downpour of rose petals drifted down like a sea of blood, obscuring Lu Qingcheng’s view of Qiao Buyi. The people on the ground began to lose their rationality; under the streetlights, the simulated sea of blood carved beautiful arcs through the air as Qiao Buyi was bathed in gorgeous, scorching crimson. The idol was about to fall from grace into the mortal realm.
Beneath his calm exterior, Lu Qingcheng harbored a wild madness, a destructive nature born from rolling through blood. He was neither a man to be trifled with nor easily touched.
Before long, the Alphas and Omegas present began releasing their pheromones.
They bounced repeatedly between the states of the rut phase and temporary relief. Many realized something was terribly wrong, yet the signals sent by their bodies left them completely powerless to resist.
On the bustling street, Alphas who usually looked down on everyone else and pretty, delicate Omegas, who normally acted arrogant and proud, were reduced to absolute wretchedness.
Eventually, someone noticed the chaos and called the Pheromone Administration hotline.
By then, dawn was breaking.
Lu Qingcheng drew a deep breath: “Born a Beta, how could one not stir up a proper pheromone storm?”
Qiao Buyi’s contact list was as meticulously organized as the man himself. He quickly located Yan Xun’s phone number and dialed it without the slightest hesitation.
With a hint of mischievous mockery in his voice, Lu Qingcheng said: “Hello, your fiancé has been tied up in the XX commercial district. Whether he manages to keep his purity intact depends entirely on how fast you get here.”
Hanging up the call, he tossed Qiao Buyi’s phone straight into a nearby trash can, ran a hand over his slicked-back hair, hooked a corner of his mouth upward, and strolled away with one hand tucked casually into his pocket.
How this game ended no longer mattered to him.