Exhausted, Jiang Ruobai closed his eyes helplessly, letting the tears stream down his cheeks. He slowly curled his body into a ball, his eyes red and swollen. A sense of infinite humiliation threatened to drown him.
The handkerchief from the suit was discarded on the floor after he used it. Lying on the car seat, Jiang Ruobai was completely submerged in his own sorrow.
It was just too humiliating. Could he really endure another month of having his dignity stripped away like this?
Jiang Ruobai began to waver, a desire to retreat growing quietly in his heart.
He thought with a desperate sliver of optimism: Betas like me are a dime a dozen. There is no reason for Pei Sichen to keep me trapped. If I just beg him earnestly, perhaps he will let me go. At worst, I will go to the police. No matter how powerful the Pei family is, they would not want to get involved in a lawsuit and end up on the trending news over something like this.
Just as Jiang Ruobai was lost in these wild thoughts, Pei Sichen tossed a card into his lap.
“There are 500,000 in there. Go buy whatever you need.”
In an instant, his mind roared with noise. His lips parted, but he felt no joy regarding the money; there was only a surge of powerlessness and despair rising from within.
To Pei Sichen, this amount was nothing, but for Jiang Ruobai, it meant everything.
With this money, his wife had a chance to survive.
Jiang Ruobai pressed his lips together, his fingers gripping the thin card as if he were clutching Xinsu’s very life, even as he shattered his own dignity.
“Thank you, Young Master Pei.”
Pei Sichen chuckled, clearly accustomed to such transactions. In this world driven by material desires, so-called “integrity” was, in his eyes, merely a commodity waiting to be priced. If one could not obtain it, it simply meant the price offered was not high enough. For the “goods” in front of him, 500,000 was more than enough.
Jiang Ruobai’s face turned deathly pale.
He did not want to experience the pain of his gland being bitten again. He tried to break free from Pei Sichen’s restraint, but the man’s hands were like iron chains, trapping him in the cramped space without giving him a single choice.
Pei Sichen looked at Jiang Ruobai as if he were a foolish rabbit; he truly could not understand how a grown man could be so ridiculously naive.
“Why are you crying? Look how scared you are.”
Pei Sichen’s lips curled upward. He moved his fingers away from that fragile neck and instead rubbed the corners of Jiang Ruobai’s eyes. In his eyes, Jiang Ruobai looked like a rabbit that had been wronged but dared not resist.
Jiang Ruobai lowered his gaze. His body was already experiencing an instinctive fear of Pei Sichen. He prayed helplessly, “Young Master Pei, please… do not… bite… my gland. It is too painful.”
Pei Sichen’s expression turned cold. He gripped Jiang Ruobai’s chin with one hand and mocked him, “Jiang Ruobai, even now, you still do not know your place.”
He had always been cold-hearted, viewing all interactions through the lens of interests.
To him, the current Jiang Ruobai was merely a pet bought on a whim, not even a lover, and he had no qualification to make demands.
Jiang Ruobai’s pupils contracted, and he hurriedly apologized. “I am sorry… Young Master Pei. It is… I said the wrong thing.”
He was forced to tilt his head back. Although he could not see the man’s expression, he understood that provoking Pei Sichen now would certainly lead to dire consequences.
He tried to ingratiate himself by reaching for Pei Sichen’s hand, but the man held his wrists in a tight grip, so he settled for grabbing his fingers, hoping this act of submission would calm Pei Sichen’s anger.
Small forces exerted by Jiang Ruobai’s fingers felt like a kitten scratching, but the sensation did not linger on his hands; instead, it felt as though it were scratching at his heart.
Pei Sichen’s teeth pressed against his upper jaw, and a dark shadow surged in his eyes. He stared directly at Jiang Ruobai, his rapid breathing suggesting he was suppressing something, radiating the dangerous aura of a predator about to strike.
“Do you know what you are doing?” His suppressed breath hit Jiang Ruobai’s ear, hot and scorching. He felt an urge to handle him right here and now. However, looking at this reckless Beta and thinking of how he had been whimpering in tears, Pei Sichen felt that the man had been through enough tonight and temporarily restrained his impulses.
Seeing that Pei Sichen fell silent after that one sentence, Jiang Ruobai assumed he had done something wrong. His innocent eyes blinked at Pei Sichen, bright as gemstones.
Pei Sichen’s heart trembled, and he abruptly covered those innocent eyes with his palm.
Suddenly plunged into darkness, Jiang Ruobai blinked blankly; his eyelashes swept across Pei Sichen’s palm, the sensation clearer than the touch of his fingers. Pei Sichen’s breathing grew even heavier, dark currents flowing in his eyes.
He pinned him against the car and, without an ounce of pity, bit into that fragile gland.
“Ugh!”
Jiang Ruobai groaned in pain, his body trembling violently.
The cold, sharp scent of rum pheromones flooded the car, tightly enveloping Jiang Ruobai.
The heavy, scorching breath against his neck and his own agonizing moans could no longer be suppressed, escaping from his throat. The bloody whimpering stirred no pity in the man above him; instead, he was pressed down even harder by the overpowering, icy pheromones.
Jiang Ruobai’s consciousness blurred. He muttered, “So painful,” over and over again before losing consciousness.
Pei Sichen was enjoying the moment and failed to notice Jiang Ruobai’s condition. The wicked fire burning inside him was raging, and he had no intention of extinguishing it.
Had his driver not reminded him that they had arrived home, Pei Sichen would never have noticed that Jiang Ruobai, who had been shivering a moment ago, was now completely motionless.
Pei Sichen’s driver was a Beta just like Jiang Ruobai, but even he was affected by the threatening pheromones. His fingers trembled incessantly, and he slipped on the steering wheel several times.
Wiping the cold sweat from his face, the driver hurriedly opened the car door for Pei Sichen.
Pei Sichen stared at the unconscious Jiang Ruobai for a moment. Then, with a large sweep of his arms, he scooped the man up by the hips, resting Jiang Ruobai’s head against his shoulder, and carried him into the house as if he were a child.
The butler was waiting outside. Seeing Pei Sichen, he hurried over.
“Young Master.”
“Go call the family doctor,” Pei Sichen ordered.
“Very well.”
It was two hours later when the family doctor finished the treatment.
Jiang Ruobai’s condition was not critical; the unconsciousness was primarily caused by a high fever. Before leaving, however, the doctor warned Pei Sichen: as a Beta, Jiang Ruobai was not suited to receive his pheromones, as excessive exposure would only cause him rejection and pain.
The doctor only dared to say two sentences before seeing the murderous, cold glare in Pei Sichen’s eyes, causing him to shut his mouth in haste.
On the bed, the person shivered, wrapped in the duvet, his body curled into a ball.
The fire in Pei Sichen’s heart had nowhere to vent, and he was shrouded in a restless irritability.
Watching Jiang Ruobai on the bed with his pale lips, remembering his pathetic, pleading look, and recalling the doctor’s words, his expression grew even colder.
He began to feel that Jiang Ruobai’s Beta body was a bit of a buzzkill. If he were an Omega, would he have fainted so easily?