When Wen Song arrived at the entrance of the high-end club, a light drizzle was falling outside.
The rain gathered into a string of dense water droplets that dripped onto the bluestone slabs, making a pattering sound.
He took out his phone, opened the WeChat chat interface with his boyfriend, Zhao Mingzhuo, edited a message, and sent it.
[I’ve arrived at the entrance. Please send me the room number.]
After waiting a few minutes, he received no reply.
Could he be drunk?
Wen Song pondered for two seconds and decided to call the other person.
“Beep, beep, beep.”
It went unanswered for over ten seconds, just when he thought Zhao Mingzhuo was dead drunk and hadn’t noticed the phone.
He was about to hang up when the original dialing status changed to an active call showing 00:01.
Before Wen Song could react, he suddenly heard a magnetic, cold, and unfamiliar voice coming from the other end of the phone. With a lazy, chanting tone, the person enunciated each word clearly and asked, “Wife?”
“?”
He was stunned for a second, then lowered his head to carefully inspect the dialed number and contact note.
He hadn’t dialed the wrong contact.
It was Zhao Mingzhuo.
Why was the voice on the other end completely unfamiliar?
After thinking about it, he guessed that the person answering the phone might be a close friend of Zhao Mingzhuo’s whom he didn’t know.
After a few seconds, he heard that cold, languid male voice ask casually, “Here to pick up Zhao Mingzhuo?”
The voice on the other end was exceptionally pleasing to the ear, its lazy tone feeling like a feather gently brushing against his earlobe.
Wen Song paused and replied, “Yes.”
The other person rattled off a string of numbers, which was the private room number.
“Come on up.”
After hanging up the phone, Wen Song belatedly realized that the stranger had taken verbal advantage of him just now. With that cold voice echoing in his ears, he calmly reached up to pinch his earlobe, pressed the phone screen dark to put it back in his pocket, and stepped inside the club.
Guided by the front desk, he took the elevator to the top floor.
This was his first time visiting this high-end club.
Stepping out of the elevator, he followed the hallway until he finally found the room with those numbers at the very end.
The door was not fully closed; it stood open by a tiny crack, letting the lively cheers and music spill out from inside.
Seeing this, Wen Song first raised a hand to give a polite, light knock on the door.
Then, he pushed it open slowly.
Inside the private room, intersecting lighting effects cast colorful glows across every corner. The background music pushed the atmosphere forward like rolling waves. There were at least twenty or thirty people attending this gathering, most of whom were unfamiliar faces.
An Alpha who had once crossed paths with Wen Song noticed his presence, walked over, pointed in a certain direction, and said, “Zhuo-ge is inside.”
Wen Song nodded in gratitude.
Upon seeing him, the people around him began to converse quietly with one another.
Ever since coming to Suicheng, Wen Song had long since developed the habit of completely ignoring behind-the-scenes gossip from others.
Following the direction the Alpha had pointed out, he finally spotted a familiar figure in the corner of the sofa.
Zhao Mingzhuo was clearly intoxicated, currently playing dice with other Omegas. Sitting right beside him was an Alpha who was playing on his phone and not participating in the entertainment.
Noticing his gaze, the Alpha playing on his phone lifted his head away from the device.
Through the crowd, their eyes locked across the dim private room.
The other person was wearing a thin shirt with an open collar, revealing a stretch of cold, white, slender neck and sunken collarbones.
His facial features were flawless, with superb bone structure, a stern brow, and deep eye sockets. A pair of dark eyes looked cold and clear, and as they gazed at him, the calm surface of those eyes seemed to ripple slightly.
He was a top-tier Alpha.
Furthermore, he was an Alpha full of wild, intense aggressiveness.
Wen Song was a Beta and could not smell pheromones, yet he still felt a sense of oppression.
This Alpha’s gaze was fixed squarely on him.
It made him feel somewhat uneasy.
The other person’s gaze carried not a shred of concealment, mixed with a trace of unreadable, obscure emotion.
As if he recognized him.
Wen Song searched his memory banks but found no relevant memories of this Alpha, guessing that he hadn’t met him before, otherwise, it would be impossible not to recognize someone with such a striking face.
At that moment, Zhao Mingzhuo, prompted by his friends, looked toward where Wen Song was standing.
“Xiao Song, you’re here,” Zhao Mingzhuo said, pushing away an Omega who was practically plastered against his chest.
With that, he picked up his phone and cigarette pack from the table, stood up, and made his way out of the couch area past the others.
“How did you know the room number?” Zhao Mingzhuo reached out to straighten the collar of Wen Song’s shirt, narrowing his peach-blossom eyes lazily. “I should have gone down to pick you up.”
Wen Song’s gaze swept past the other man’s slender fingers and caught a hint of strong alcohol. Lowering his eyelids, he subtly maintained some distance and replied very calmly, “I made a phone call, and your friend answered it.”
Zhao Mingzhuo came to a realization. “Oh, I went to the restroom a few minutes ago.”
Seemingly remembering something, he pointed at the Alpha who had been making eye contact with Wen Song earlier and was now being urged to drink, introducing him to Wen Song as the guest of honor of tonight’s banquet.
“His name is Guan Sui.”
“You should have heard of him.”
“He must have been the one who answered your call just now.”
Even though he had only been in Suicheng for a few years, Wen Song had heard the name Guan Sui a hundred times over.
It wasn’t because Zhao Mingzhuo mentioned him often, but rather because there were simply too many rumors circulating about him in local circles.
Word had it that he was a top-tier Alpha with an eccentric, ruthless personality, the dream Alpha of numerous Omegas. Later, he went abroad for seasoning and only recently returned.
This gathering was organized by his peers to welcome him back.
“I know.”
Zhao Mingzhuo said, “Before I leave, I’m going to go say hi to him. Are you coming with me, or not?”
Wen Song gave a small shake of his head. “I’ll wait here.”
Zhao Mingzhuo agreed. “Alright, give me two minutes.”
With that, he turned back toward the drinking table.
Wen Song’s gaze followed Zhao Mingzhuo’s retreating back and landed on Guan Sui. Perhaps because the lingering gaze was too long or because Zhao Mingzhuo had mentioned him, Guan Sui raised his eyelids while listening to Zhao Mingzhuo speak and drinking a glass, looking toward his direction.
The dim lighting made it hard to discern Guan Sui’s facial expressions.
The only thing certain was that the other man had superior bone structure and a stern temperament, maintaining a remarkably prominent presence even while sitting in the corner of the sofa.
The look in his eyes when he gazed at him resembled a beast of prey ready to pounce, one that might seize him by the neck if he wasn’t careful.
Despite lacking scent glands, Wen Song felt a chill at the back of his neck.
The single word from the phone call echoed in his ears, “Wife.”
Whether the other person did it intentionally or accidentally remained unknown.
Wen Song’s expression remained completely calm as his fingers, resting against his thighs, curled and relaxed.
Two minutes later, urged on by his friends, Zhao Mingzhuo downed another drink before he was allowed to leave.
“Let’s go,” Zhao Mingzhuo said, wrapping an arm around Wen Song’s shoulders and leaning his head against Wen Song’s neck. The posture wasn’t ambiguous, but they were pressed close together as he muttered, “I’m a little drunk. Help me out for a bit.”
Wen Song shouldered the burden, supporting the other man step-by-step out of the private room.
Behind them, Guan Sui was biting down on an unlit cigarette.
His gaze hadn’t shifted away.
He watched the retreating figure of the young man. Perhaps due to being a Beta, he looked slightly slender compared to an Alpha, yet he wasn’t frail at all, his posture straight and upright like a pine tree.
Seeing this, his friend Duan Ze leaned over and asked, “What are you looking at?”
Just as Duan Ze was about to ask who he referred to, he noticed his friend’s eyes fixed on the Beta supporting Zhao Mingzhuo ahead, and understanding dawned on him.
“Oh, you mean Wen Song? He’s the illegitimate son the Wen family brought back a couple of years ago. I heard he only agreed to come back and acknowledge his roots this time because his grandmother got sick and he needed money.”
“Don’t let his gentle and obedient appearance fool you; he actually has a deeply scheming mind. Whatever chaos is happening in the Wen family right now definitely has his hand in it.”
Wen Song’s face surfaced in Guan Sui’s mind.
A pair of clean, pure eyes resembling amber, red lips and white teeth, an outstanding appearance, and a demeanor full of expensive upbringing.
He didn’t look like someone who liked to proactively invite trouble.
“You’ve been abroad these past few years, so you don’t know how much has happened in Suicheng,” Duan Ze said. “I’ll slowly fill you in another day.”
Hearing Duan Ze talk for a long time without touching on the key point he wanted to hear, Guan Sui asked straightforwardly, “What is his relationship with Zhao Mingzhuo?”
Duan Ze said dismissively, “Zhao Mingzhuo’s boyfriend, of course.”
Thinking of the “Wife” contact note saved by Zhao Mingzhuo, Guan Sui’s eyes darkened. “Just a boyfriend?”
Duan Ze let out an ah sound. “You wouldn’t think they’re married, would you? No way. One is the crown prince of the prosperous Zhengrong Group, and the other is an illegitimate son from the margins. At most, they’re just dating.”
A family with power and wealth, boasting an extremely high pheromone grade Alpha, would absolutely never allow someone to marry a Beta who didn’t even possess pheromones.
As everyone knew, Betas had no pheromones and couldn’t provide pheromone soothing during an Alpha’s rut phase, making them generally regarded as playthings in high society.
There was a saying in their circle: Betas are just for playing around, but real marriage requires an Omega.
Zhao Mingzhuo was the crown prince of the Zhengrong Group.
When he married in the future, he would 100% choose an Omega with a high pheromone compatibility rather than a Beta who could only share a bed without providing any partner pheromones.
Thinking of Wen Song’s lowered, submissive posture, Guan Sui felt a strange ripple of emotion inside and said calmly, “As long as they aren’t married, it’s fine.”
Duan Ze instinctively asked, “What?”
Guan Sui didn’t expect Duan Ze to understand the subtext.
He merely tossed out another sentence,
“You can get a divorce even if you are married.”
Duan Ze froze, feeling that this sentence sounded somewhat strange coming from his friend’s mouth, though he couldn’t quite put his finger on why.
Guan Sui took out his phone from his pocket, checked the time, and asked, “Is it raining outside?”
Duan Ze didn’t understand why the topic jumped so fast. “It was indeed drizzling a bit when I went out to get some air earlier.”
Guan Sui pondered for a brief moment, picked up the cigarette pack from the glass table along with his jacket from the sofa, and prepared to leave.
“Are you leaving already?” Duan Ze asked curiously.
“Mn.”
“So early?”
“Mn.” His tone was extremely cold, yet carried a hint of other underlying emotions.
It looked as though he was rushing off to do something.
“Drive safe on your way then.”
His only response remained a single “Mn” accompanied by his departing figure.
All in all, Duan Ze had gathered one thing.
Guan Sui, who hadn’t touched a drop of alcohol all night and instead maintained continuous low spirits while drinking soft drinks, seemed somewhat excited right now.
It apparently started ever since Wen Song appeared.
The other man had never cared about anyone else’s business before.
Yet he went out of his way to ask about Wen Song.
Guan Sui couldn’t possibly be interested in Wen Song, right?
Besides a pretty face, Wen Song didn’t seem to have much else going for him.
If he had to mention something, that face did have quite a punch to it, and upon closer inspection, it even bore a three-tenths resemblance to Guan Sui.
Anyway,
Duan Ze figured it was probably just a casual question.
A Beta without pheromones could never truly make Guan Sui look at him in a different light.