When the call came, Fu Yu was leaning against the floor-to-ceiling window, his long, elegant fingers holding a platinum LUCKY STRIKE as he exhaled a cloud of smoke.
His aura was suffocatingly low, his expression darkening with every passing thought. It seemed as if he was on the verge of not just smoking, but strangling someone.
But when Butler Ji’s voice came through the receiver, “Mr. Ruan is asking if you’re away on business. He would like to know when you’ll be back”. The storm on Fu Yu’s face froze.
As if doubting his own ears, he asked, “He wants what?”
On the other end, Butler Ji’s voice grew slightly louder, clarifying the sentence with a full subject and predicate: “Mr. Ruan wants to know when you will be coming home.”
After a moment of stunned silence, the darkness on Fu Yu’s face gradually cleared, like clouds parting to reveal the sun.
He tugged at his collar, his voice dropping to a low murmur. “Tonight.”
Hanging up, Fu Yu crushed his cigarette and glanced at his wrist.
The cold glint of the black-framed Graff watch reflected in his eyes, making his gaze as frigid as thousand-year-old ice.
The hands had just struck the hour when three soft knocks sounded at the door. The visitor had arrived precisely on time, daring neither a second early nor a second late.
“Come in,” Fu Yu said.
The door was gently pushed open from the outside.
Assistant Wang led the group in, standing in a neat line. “President Fu, the guests have arrived.”
Following Assistant Wang, three others entered: two male alphas and one female omega. A family of three.
All three were dressed in suits and ties, with their lapels adorned with floral corsages. Their hair had been meticulously styled, slicked back and stiff, each strand perfectly in place. Their leather shoes shone as if they’d just been licked clean by a dog.
They had clearly put a tremendous amount of effort into their appearance.
When Assistant Wang first saw them, she thought they were here for a red carpet event.
The “Red Carpet Trio” was chatting excitedly, exchanging their thrill over the occasion. Though they kept their voices low, they couldn’t escape Assistant Wang’s sharply attentive ears.
“Honey, I’m a little nervous,” the husband whispered. “I feel like this fortune just fell into our laps too suddenly.”
“I’ve always told you that you were born to be poor,” the wife replied. “Now that you’re finally striking it rich, you’re still acting like this. It’s not like you’ve never made money before. The man just waved his hand and gave us thirty million yuan… One more pluck of his feathers will set us up for a lifetime! That little bastard Ruan Luo is so diligent about hanging up the phone, but isn’t he just begging his husband to send us money? I told you, as long as we have the old man in our grasp, even if we never see him again after he dies in his wealthy family, he’ll still be the cash cow in our palms.”
Assistant Wang’s blood boiled. She clenched her fists so hard they wouldn’t relax for the rest of the walk, her mind racing with curses: Fuck you, you idiots. A cash cow? I’ll give you a fucking cash cow.
So, after she delivered them to the office and completed her mission, she exited and, with a very smooth motion, locked the door from the outside.
In the sudden silence, a sharp click rang out—
The sound jolted the three, who had been basking in their sweet dreams, into a state of alarm.
“President Fu,” the middle-aged male alpha said, bowing slightly to Fu Yu.
The man and woman beside him quickly bowed as well. “President Fu.”
Just moments ago, they had been chatting familiarly about becoming in-laws. But now that they were actually facing their “future in-law,” they didn’t dare utter a single word of dissent. Instead, they could only offer fawning bows. If the Qing Dynasty hadn’t fallen long ago, they would have probably knelt before him.
Fu Yu remained silent, looking down at them coldly from his position of power.
The atmosphere was not at all what they had expected.
The three stood awkwardly, not daring to sit. The smug confidence they had worn upon arrival had completely vanished, replaced by sheer discomposure.
The middle-aged man, a seasoned businessman, was the most composed of the three. He stood as straight as a spear, offering Fu Yu an intensely fawning smile. “You don’t know, President Fu, but our entire family was beyond flattered to receive your invitation. Ever since we heard the news last weekend, we’ve been eagerly awaiting this meeting. Haha, the last time we saw you was three years ago… and it was only for ten minutes. After that, we never had another chance to see you in person. We truly never imagined we’d be honored with such a privilege again in our lifetimes.”
He poured his heart out with a desperate smile, but Fu Yu ignored him completely, his expression dark and grim.
The middle-aged man forced an awkward smile. Finally, the three of them sensed something was wrong. Their anxious heartbeats intertwined and spread, and in less than ten seconds, fine beads of sweat broke out on their noses.
The next moment, their bewildered and anxious pupils constricted in unison—
They saw this top Alpha, a man of noble and frigid demeanor who usually only appeared in financial news, staring at them as if they were dead dogs. He was stripping off his graphite-colored suit jacket, his powerful long legs striding toward them.
In an instant, the top Alpha’s aggressive pheromones, targeted at male beasts, exploded throughout the office.
Pfft—
The younger male Alpha clutched his chest and coughed up a mouthful of blood, his legs giving out as he collapsed to his knees. Terrified, he cried out, “Mom!”
The female Omega beside him, his mother, widened her eyes in panic. Even though these pheromones didn’t target Omegas, she sank to her knees beside her child, her voice trembling as she shrieked, “My child, my child… President Fu, please spare my child! If Old Ruan offended you, take it out on him! Our Taotao is just a child, sob… President Fu, what are you doing…”
The middle-aged man, a mere B-rank at best, lasted only a second longer than his son before he, too, collapsed to his knees with a dull thud. His eyes were red, his expression one of sheer terror.
But unlike the female omega, he didn’t direct his pleas to Fu Yu. Instead, he swung his arm and slapped her across the face, sending her reeling on the floor.
Blood immediately trickled from the corner of the woman’s mouth as she stared at the man in disbelief.
“You wretched woman!” the man roared. “I fucking spoiled you rotten! Who the hell do you think you are, shouting at President Fu?!”
He scrambled to his feet, grabbed her elegant curls, and slammed her head against the floor with a sickening thud. His voice trembled with rage. “Apologize to President Fu, you bitch!”
The woman, who had never witnessed such a scene, burst into terrified sobs. The man clamped a hand over her mouth, muffling her cries into desperate whimpers.
The boy, Ruan Tao, was completely paralyzed with fear. Though an alpha, he remained huddled on the floor, sobbing uncontrollably.
Fu Yu lowered his dark eyes, gazing down at the three as they exposed their ugly desperation. “Are you done?” he asked, his voice low and cold.
The middle-aged man nodded frantically. “I’m sorry, President Fu. I failed to discipline him properly. I’ve ruined your mood. I’m so sorry, so sorry.”
Fu Yu walked up to the man and leaned in, staring him down. “How many times did you ask Ruan Luo for money?”
The man looked as if he had been strangled by the air itself. His body trembled under Fu Yu’s looming shadow. He seemed to suddenly realize something, his tongue twisting in panic. “Ask… ask a few times… but he never gave me any.”
“How many times?” Fu Yu repeated, his voice low and menacing.
A foul, acrid stench wafted from the middle-aged man’s crotch. “Four… four or five times… I asked, but I never actually took his money, not a single cent… President Fu, I’m telling the truth, you can check… It won’t happen again, it won’t happen again.”
Fu Yu sneered, straightened up, and walked toward Ruan Tao, step by step.
Ruan Tao was just as “impressive,” pissing himself right there on the floor.
Fu Yu stopped in front of him, his dark shadow completely enveloping the smaller man.
Ruan Tao shook his head, sobbing, “I never asked him for money!”
Fu Yu reached out and gripped Ruan Tao’s chin. “You didn’t?”
Ruan Tao sobbed, his body shaking. “I didn’t.”
Fu Yu glanced at the middle-aged man, his voice cold. “You’ve raised a fine son. He’s a real good liar.”
The middle-aged man panicked. He let go of his wife, whom he had been holding so tightly she was nearly suffocating, and scrambled to his feet. He lunged at Ruan Tao, delivering a series of brutal slaps to his face. “You bastard! Tell the truth!”
Ruan Tao’s sobs turned into a mess of snot and tears. A front tooth fell out with a glob of saliva, clattering onto the floor. He wailed even more heart-wrenchingly, “I asked… but no, he didn’t give me any!”
His tears smeared onto Fu Yu’s fingers. Fu Yu frowned.
He let go of Ruan Tao’s chin, stood up, and pulled out an alcohol wipe, scrubbing his fingers furiously.
As he scrubbed, he asked Ruan Tao in a cold voice, “Ruan Luo has a bank card. Is it in your possession?”
Ruan Tao sobbed so hard he nearly gagged. “Yes, yes… I have it. I’ll give it back.” He trembled violently, fumbling several times before finally pulling a small wallet from his pocket. His hand shook like he had Parkinson’s as he withdrew a card and offered it to Fu Yu.
Fu Yu took the card with two fingers and meticulously wiped it clean with the alcohol wipe. “Is there still money on this card?”
“N-no, there’s nothing left…”
“How much of Ruan Luo’s money have you spent?”
“O-over five thousand. Before Ruan Luo married you… sob… he didn’t have much. There was only five thousand in the card. I-I’ll transfer it back to the card; I’ll pay him back everything.”
Fu Yu nodded.
His voice was serious and low: “With interest.”
“Yes, yes, yes, with interest, sob…”
“The three of you have been extorting Ruan Luo for three years, and you have countless other pieces of dirt on him. I have all the evidence. It’s enough to send you to prison for the rest of your lives. I’m giving you a chance for a reduced sentence here; you’ve been with Ruan Luo for a long time, so you must know some of his interests, hobbies, or wishes. List everything you know, one by one, in a document and print it out. Hand it to my special assistant. I will then consider, at my discretion, whether to go easy on you.”
“Yes, yes, yes, we can do that!” the middle-aged man declared first.
Fu Yu’s long legs strode to the floor-to-ceiling window, and he made a phone call: “Send someone to clean up. Yes, and deodorize the place. The guests were quite rude, relieving themselves all over the floor.”
The weeping trio: “…”
Before heading home, Fu Yu took a shower and changed into fresh clothes.
He also took five super-grade suppressants, each the size of a thick club, an hour early.
When he finally returned home that night, Ruan Luo was waiting for him at the dining table.
The dozen or so dishes on the table were no longer steaming, suggesting he had been waiting for quite a while.
Seeing him from a distance, Ruan Luo stood up obediently and called out softly, “Mr. Fu.”
Fu Yu’s throat tightened, and a strange sensation stirred in his heart.
He was a man with exceedingly high standards, and because of that, he would rather be alone than settle for less.
Because he refused to settle, he had reached the age of thirty without ever having dated anyone. He had never even held an omega’s hand.
Yet at this very moment, this top Alpha who had never even held an omega’s hand had somehow bypassed the entire Mariana Trench and leaped straight to the finish line. He now had an omega wife who waited for him to return for dinner with a charming, expectant gaze, a man whose appearance seemed custom-made to his exact tastes.
Fu Yu’s gaze softened. “Have you been waiting long? The food has gone cold. Let me have the maids reheat it first.”
“Alright,” Ruan Luo nodded.
Fu Yu didn’t know how many days it had been since they’d last met, but Ruan Luo looked even paler and thinner now. The dim, yellowish light-a result of Fu Yu’s specific instructions to the servants to only use low-wattage lamps- cast a soft glow over Ruan Luo, making every line of his figure seem delicate and fragile.
He looked so frail and dainty, as if he would shatter with the slightest pressure.
Fu Yu studied Ruan Luo with a carefully neutral expression. On the surface, Ruan Luo was the picture of politeness, but his eyes still darted away like a startled deer’s whenever their gazes met.
He’s still terrified of me.
Fu Yu sighed inwardly. He strode up the steps to the dining room, ready to take his seat, but hesitated at the edge of the stairs as he stared at the rectangular table.
This man, a ruthless and decisive titan of the business world, was now tasting the bitter flavor of indecision over a small omega. He was terrified that a single wrong move, like the time outside Ruan Luo’s door, would offend him again.
Fu Yu’s voice softened. “Ruan Luo, where would you like me to sit? Opposite you, or further away?”
After he asked, he saw Ruan Luo gently bite his thin, soft lower lip. “Opposite, please.”
Ruan Luo raised his head slightly. “Mr. Fu, please sit opposite me. There’s something I want to tell you.”