Gu Chengyan extinguished his cigar and raised a hand to gently stroke Geng Nuo’s cheek.
“Good boy.”
“What is your name?”
“Geng… Geng Nuo.”
General Gu seemed entirely indifferent to his answer. He picked up the wine he had not finished drinking earlier and drained it in a single gulp.
His palm moved to the back of Geng Nuo’s head, grabbing his hair and forcing him to face him once more. Without a moment’s hesitation, he pressed his lips against Geng Nuo’s.
Caught completely off guard, Geng Nuo’s brain could no longer think, leaving him unable to care about anything else as his weak hands batted helplessly at the other man’s chest. However, Gu Chengyan effortlessly pried open his teeth and poured all the wine straight in.
The fiery liquor, with a pungency no less fierce than the cigar, overwhelmed Geng Nuo all over again. He tried to push the alcohol out, but instead bumped against a thicker, hotter tongue. The man pressed his advantage, driving straight in and forcing Geng Nuo to open his throat and obediently swallow the bitter brew. Only a few drops, failing to be swallowed in time, slipped down the corner of his mouth.
Choking, he wanted to breathe, wanted to cough, yet could only humbly scavenge for the thin air the other man supplied. After a moment, the burning spiciness and dry cough inexplicably subsided.
Everything dissolved into the most primitive bodily reactions.
When their lips and tongues parted, a thin thread of saliva stretched between them. The hand gripping the back of Geng Nuo’s head slowly moved to his cheek, a broad, thick palm cupping his jaw.
Geng Nuo panted heavily. The wafer-thin half-uniform failed entirely to conceal the rise and fall of his breathing.
Red was splashed everywhere on him. The rims of his eyes were flushed a delicate pink, welling with teardrops; his cheeks were flushed bright red from held-back breath, and even his neck was stained with a crimson hue, to say nothing of the exposed skin further down. But the reddest of all were his lips, parted slightly with the tip of his tongue faintly visible, damp, glossy, and exceedingly alluring.
Gu Chengyan surveyed this masterpiece with satisfaction.
Earlier, when Geng Nuo had a cigar in his mouth, he had thought lips looked better when they were damp.
He was right.
Geng Nuo was too drained of strength to spare a thought for anything else, until a teasing, mocking whistle from nearby gradually pulled him back to reality, bringing a wave of endless shame with it. Yet his head remained firmly controlled in General Gu’s grip, making his instinctive urge to lower his head look more like he was trying to nuzzle into the other’s palm.
His face grew even redder, thoroughly baked through.
Gu Chengyan stared at his face, the amusement in his dark eyes undisguised. With a wave of his hand to the side, he made a shooing gesture, and the others wisely cleared out to find another private room to enjoy themselves.
Only the two of them remained in the room.
Geng Nuo was held up by the chin, his eyes desperately cast downward, his lashes fluttering as he never dared to meet Gu Chengyan’s gaze again.
The moment the door closed, he heard the sound of Pix hurrying over anxiously at the entrance. Even though Pix was suppressing his volume, the panic in his scattered words was still audible.
Geng Nuo faintly caught the tail end of a sentence: “Boss Pix, what are you afraid of? General Gu is quite satisfied right now.”
Outside the door, a tall, upright man casually brushed aside a server who had crowded too close, frowning in disgust. “Get away from me, you reek of perfume.” Having spent the entire evening drinking alone unlike the other three who were surrounded by beauties, he raised his chin toward Pix. “Boss Pix, General Gu is probably going to be busy for a while. Why don’t you find us some more entertainment?”
Pix didn’t know this man’s identity, but seeing that the other three followed his lead, he had no choice but to take them away.
Soon, the sounds from outside faded entirely from the room, leaving only the sound of two people breathing inches apart. Geng Nuo was practically hanging on General Gu’s body, and the man was staring straight at him.
Am I still alive?
Alive.
Yet Geng Nuo had no idea what he was supposed to do next.
He didn’t have to worry for long.
“You’re a bit more sensible than the last one.” Gu Chengyan pinched his cheek and jaw, inspecting him like a piece of merchandise. The next second, wrapping an arm around his waist, he scooped him up in a single-handed lift.
Geng Nuo let out a startled gasp. Because Gu Chengyan had been seated the whole time, he hadn’t realized there was such a stark difference in their builds, yet this man could hoist him completely off the floor with one arm.
Suspended in midair, Geng Nuo still barely managed to match the other’s height.
Geng Nuo: “…”
Normally, he would have harbored some resentment toward the damned Alpha biological traits, but right now, the only thing supporting his entire body was the confinement around his waist, pressing his soaked front directly against Gu Chengyan’s chest.
Terrified, Geng Nuo could only loosely wrap his arms around the other’s neck.
Gu Chengyan clamped onto him and strode inward. The inner section of the private room was a bedroom suite spanning over three hundred square meters. Before Geng Nuo could even make out the interior decor, he was tossed onto the bed.
He bounced twice on the massive, soft mattress and steadied himself. Gu Chengyan lowered his gaze to look at the water stains on the front of his shirt and let out a single tsk.
Geng Nuo shrank his neck; he couldn’t be blamed for that.
“What is that hanging around your neck?” Gu Chengyan glanced down.
Lowering his head, Geng Nuo saw that the glass bottle necklace had slipped out at some point and might have dug into the other man. He hurriedly shoved it back inside his collar and scuttled to the center of the headboard, curling up tightly.
The bedroom door was already closed, sealing out any sounds from within and blocking out anything from outside. If Gu Chengyan chose to kill him here, it was debatable whether news of his miserable death would ever reach the outside world, let alone whether a single scream could break through this door.
How is he going to torture me?
Geng Nuo’s mind inexplicably began to wander.
Why did he choose me instead of an Omega? Could he have some special fetish? A book I picked up once said that some Alphas are born with strange, unnatural habits, holding a particular obsession with Betas to the point of wanting to tear them apart and devour them flesh and bone?
Devour flesh and bone?
Does he like eating people?!
It wasn’t entirely impossible. After all, Imperial General Gu Chengyan was renowned for his… infamous reputation.
If people said he ate people, Geng Nuo might actually believe it.
General Gu seemed to have only asked that in passing without expecting an answer. He neatly stripped off his shirt, tossed it aside, and walked around the room bare-chested, searching for something.
Geng Nuo huddled against the headboard with his knees pulled to his chest, staring nervously at the pacing Gu Chengyan like a doomed chick waiting for slaughter.
This silent stillness was nothing short of torture. Geng Nuo’s courage was entirely spent; his previous rebellious, death-defying attitude had shattered into dust the moment he was thrown onto the bed.
He was so frightened his eyes grew red.
In the bedside drawer, Gu Chengyan found what he was looking for.
It was a small rectangular plastic packet.
He frowned as he inspected it for a long while, seeming somewhat displeased.
Upon seeing what it was, Geng Nuo widened his eyes, his pupils trembling slightly as he quietly inched toward the other side of the bed.
Of course he knew what that was.
No… what does General Gu want to do?!
Geng Nuo had been agonizing over whether he would lose his life, but it seemed the first thing he was going to lose was his backside?!
Nonsense! Betas are not the receiving party; how can a Beta do that kind of thing with an Alpha?!
Since the dawn of the galactic era, humanity possessed three genders. Conventional family structures were primarily AO, BO, and BB, with AO being the norm. Betas lacked reproductive capabilities, though they could impregnate Omegas; a BB union produced no offspring, making them feel more like bachelors pairing up to get by.
AB relationships existed only in the weird, whimsical rumors of the upper-crust nobility, but those were extreme exceptions and had nothing to do with ordinary folk like them at the bottom.
General Gu Chengyan came from a humble background; could he have picked up the bizarre fetish of mounting Betas too?
No way, no way. Geng Nuo comforted himself. What’s so great about mounting a Beta anyway?
…What if he really had it?
Wait.
Geng Nuo suddenly recalled He Fei’s assessment of him.
He didn’t look like a Beta at all on the outside. Ever since he was young, many people had mistaken him for an Omega. If he didn’t actively clarify, it was very easy for others to misunderstand.
Perhaps General Gu had misunderstood as well.
He wasn’t an Omega, he was a Beta!
Which Alpha would ever want to mount a Beta? As long as he told him the truth, maybe…
Maybe what?
Would he feel deceived, fly into a rage, and have to kill him to vent his anger?
At the thought of this possibility, Geng Nuo grew horrified.
Or maybe I should just let myself be mounted? What’s the big deal about a Beta getting mounted? Betas are naturally…
My ass!
Gu Chengyan stared at the small rectangular packet for a long time, looking somewhat reluctant. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of Geng Nuo shrinking into himself like a quail, burying his face between his knees.
Playing innocent now, are we?
Gu Chengyan had no patience to play push-and-pull games with him, so he directly unleashed his pheromone suppression.
“I don’t accept just any kind of initiation tribute.” Gu Chengyan looked at him and uttered something utterly baffling.
Geng Nuo looked completely blank in response, much like how he remained utterly unfazed by Gu Chengyan’s pheromones.
Gu Chengyan pondered: Is there some method that makes them immune to pheromones? He couldn’t even catch a single whiff of any scent from this little server.
“Are your pheromones that weak?” Gu Chengyan walked over to the bed, took off his jacket, and tossed it onto a nearby sofa. His scrutinizing gaze carried a pressure that made it hard to look him in the eye, and he said coldly, “If you can’t release them, don’t let me smell a single trace of an alien scent.”
See! He really does take me for an Omega!
Geng Nuo looked up with hopeful, pleading eyes, his lips parting.
“I, I…” I don’t have any pheromones.
Could he say that out loud?
Gu Chengyan half-narrowed his eyes. “You were pretty spunky just now. What are you putting on an act for now?”
He had no intention of chatting any further. Tearing open the packaging with his teeth, he knelt with one knee on the edge of the bed.
As the tall, imposing Alpha frame loomed closer, Geng Nuo’s psychological defense utterly collapsed. “Wait!”
He couldn’t accept this. He was a Beta…
Right, rumor mills seemed to mention that General Gu wasn’t fond of Omegas, maybe he didn’t like Omegas, which was why he treated Lord Wright so ruthlessly.
But I’m a Beta.
Right, I’m a Beta!
Sensing he had grasped the crucial point, Geng Nuo felt instantly injected with a shot of adrenaline. “General Gu, wait! I’ll confess! I’m not an Omega, I’m a Beta, really! I didn’t mean to break in here, I was wrong…” I was just here to deliver wine and cover up my failed escape attempt.
His gaze held a sincerity mixed with a defiant streak of self-righteousness, convinced that the truth would make the other let him go.
“Oh?” Gu Chengyan paused his movements, raising a brow in unexpected surprise.
Pausing as if to double-check, he asked, “You’re a Beta?”
Geng Nuo, holding back two pools of tears, nodded vigorously, thinking that surely this would make the man drop the idea.
Instead, Gu Chengyan stared at him and suddenly let out a laugh.
The smile carried a somewhat cruel excitement. He tossed the half-ripped condom onto the floor, lunged forward, and enveloped Geng Nuo in his shadow.
“I was wondering,” he reached out to stroke Geng Nuo’s cheek, “no wonder you didn’t react to my pheromones.”
Gu Chengyan lowered his head and buried his face in Geng Nuo’s neck, taking a light sniff. There was only the scent of alcohol.
He was quite satisfied. “And no weird smells either.”
Geng Nuo stiffened all over, staring blankly at him before looking down at the condom discarded on the floor, failing to process what had just happened.
Why did he throw it away?
Seeming to read his confusion, Gu Chengyan offered a rare, patient explanation: “The condom was a bit small.”
“Since you’re a Beta, you don’t need those precautions anyway.”
After all, he couldn’t get pregnant.
Besides, with so many nobles coming and going at Shark Club, Pix certainly wouldn’t use someone with a disease as an initiation tribute.
“Wait…”
No? Nooo?!
Driven into the corner, Geng Nuo watched the light fabric of his clothes turn into scraps under Gu Chengyan’s hands. In his panic, he tried to scramble naked from beneath Gu Chengyan, only to be dragged back by his ankle.
The moment he turned his head, a beast-like, ferocious giant member came into view, hitting Geng Nuo with a hundred-and-first percent impact.
Gu Chengyan was amused by Geng Nuo’s dazed, shocked expression. Shifting his gaze down to inspect the boy’s lower half, he paused, fell silent for two seconds, and asked, “Are you even of age?”
Geng Nuo flushed with anger and embarrassment, covering himself up. “This is the normal size of an adult Beta!”
Gu Chengyan didn’t look entirely convinced.
“Well, that’s a pity. You’ll never get the chance to grow now.”
Geng Nuo’s expression turned a mix of humiliation and fury.
Gu Chengyan pulled him closer.
“I’m a Beta!” Geng Nuo shouted desperately, kicking his slender legs wildly into the air. “I’ve never done this before, how can a Beta do this with an Alpha!”
Slap!
A heavy smack landed on his backside, raising a crimson flush on the skin. Geng Nuo’s cry instantly turned into a choked sob.
Rumor had it he didn’t like Omegas, why didn’t anyone mention he liked mounting Betas? If I’d known, I wouldn’t have said anything, wuwuwu.
Do Betas all play this game? Putting on such a flamboyant display in front of people just to play the virgin now. Gu Chengyan figured his amateurish act was put on with impressive realism.
His gaze shifted upward, catching a vague, ambiguous bruise right at the junction of his right waist and hip. Gu Chengyan’s eyes darkened, chilling a few degrees.
“Never done this before?” Stooping down to stroke the bruise and pressing down firmly on it, he sneered, “Then what about this? Whose bed was this left in?”
Geng Nuo whimpered in pain, turning tearfully onto his side to look at the bruise above his backside. Recalling the sequence of events, it must have been left when Yuan Bingqing shoved him into the stair railing.
The location was peculiar enough to be entirely covered by clothing.
“No, this is…”
Before he could explain, Gu Chengyan twisted him back around, pressing his large palm squarely over the bruised spot, using it as solid evidence to fuel his own guess, and let out a cold scoff. “Looks like you prefer it from behind?”
“…”
Why didn’t this man ever listen to people talking?
In fact, after that, Gu Chengyan not only refused to listen to a word he said, but also made it impossible for him to even speak.
Geng Nuo sank into a semi-conscious haze, crying until he lost all his strength, reduced to clinging to Gu Chengyan’s shoulders like a doll being manhandled at will.
At his most ruthless, the best he could do was take a bite out of Gu Chengyan’s shoulder.
Gu Chengyan hissed, prying his mouth open and finding two small sharp teeth with his fingers. “Bite me again, and I’ll pull your teeth out.”
Geng Nuo kept his mouth open, letting out a wordless whimpering sound.
Gu Chengyan released his hand, sliding his tongue inside to suck and lick at those two sharp fangs. Geng Nuo tilted his head back, feeling a powerful yet soft sensation against his tooth tips. Not daring to bite down, grievance-filled tears silently slipped down his cheeks.
This only further stoked Gu Chengyan’s appetite.
Geng Nuo was half out of his mind. The small glass bottle hanging from his neck swung back and forth repeatedly, pressing red marks into their skin as they squeezed tightly together. Yet compared to the lip prints and finger marks left behind by Gu Chengyan, those were practically too microscopic to notice.
And so the night passed.