Xi Lei was petrified, his expression slack.

His Highness Oser, who he had admired since childhood, was using his pheromones as an inescapable net, and the always-irritating Ling Yi had turned into a little white rabbit, obediently playing the role of captured prey.

When he came to his senses, he realized that he was making a very poor first impression on His Highness Oser.

He immediately dropped his defensive posture and gave him a standard military salute: “Your Highness Oser!”

After saluting, he clarified incoherently: “Your Highness, it’s true that you’re my spiritual idol, but the dream man, soulmate stuff was all fabricated by this person here…..don’t believe him!”

But Oser completely ignored his existence, slowly made a semi-circle, and stopped face to face with Ling Yi.

Ling Yi had not spent nearly as much time around him as Tang De, and during their limited contact, Oser often had a smile on his face.

Though it often contained a sneer, mockery, or ridicule…..and rarely contained any good intentions.

This, however, was the first time he had seen a layer of frost on that sculpted face.

No wonder Tang De had said this was the angriest he had ever seen His Highness.

Ling Yi looked away, avoiding eye contact.

“Your Highness gave me this car, so I went out for a drive.”

“I didn’t intend to leave without saying goodbye. Didn’t I drive it back again?”

The people hearing his words didn’t believe it, and the one saying them felt even guiltier.

One of the windows was shattered, and Ling Yi had violently broken through a checkpoint on the way out, so there were several dents and dings, as well as bullet holes and other deformations.

It was a luxury car when it went out, and a piece of scrap metal when it came back. In a word, it was tragic.

Oser opened his mouth and said in a blank tone: “Get in the car.”

He glanced at Xi Lei, who was confused about the entire situation, and said: “You too.”

Oser took up the largest area inside the vehicle, crossing his long legs. Ling Yi sat next to him and leaned his elbow on the armrest with his chin resting on one fist, trying his best to act nonchalant.

Opposite him, Xi Lei sat with his legs together and his hands on his knees, just like a primary school student.

This scene felt familiar. Just an hour ago, there were the same number of people, the same seating, and an outsider who was completely confused.

Xi Lei desperately tried to catch Ling Yi’s gaze, willing him not to act rashly: Are you crazy? You’re sitting on the same seat as His Highness Oser?!

Ling Yi simply treated the person in front of him as air. After all, it wasn’t his first time dealing with such a situation.

A lighter flared with a click. Oser tilted his head slightly, the flame flickering between his slender fingers.

From Ling Yi’s perspective, his emotions were perfectly concealed under the shadow of his long, thin eyelashes.

Ling Yi had to admit that this mere act of lighting a cigarette was enough to charm scores of Omegas.

If only the person in question wasn’t His Highness Oser.

But when the first puff of smoke slowly curled from Oser’s mouth, Ling Yi no longer harbored any appreciation.

Even Xi Lei opposite him leaned back stiffly.

Although smoking was strictly prohibited in the military academy, the instructors couldn’t help but light up a cigarette during breaks, and it wasn’t uncommon for students to catch them.

It was during such a situation that Ling Yi and his friends learned that there was a special kind of tobacco for Alphas that could enhance the effects of their pheromones.

Without it, Oser’s pheromones carried a natural sense of oppression.

And with the enhancement, it would be an understatement to call his pheromones a biological weapon.

Ling Yi held his breath as long as he could: “Your Highness, isn’t it inappropriate to smoke in a confined space?”

Oser once again exhaled white smoke: “You call this a confined space?”

Ling Yi: “…..”

The car doors were open and the window was shattered, so calling it a confined space was a bit of a stretch.

But even with the doors and window wide open, the concentration of pheromones still increased a person’s stress.

Oser’s left hand naturally came to rest on Ling Yi’s right leg.

“Xi Lei.”

“Yes!” Xi Lei replied reflexively.

After answering, an expression of delight crossed his face: “Your Highness knows my name?”

“Xi En’s eldest son, the same age as Ling Yi. You grew up under the same roof, but have a bad relationship.”

“You study at Luban Military Academy, have excellent grades, strictly abide by school rules and regulations, and have only received one warning.”

“You graduate next month, and have applied to join my guard corps.”

Oser concluded unhurriedly: “Am I correct?”

Xi Lei was flattered: “I didn’t expect Your Highness to know so much about me.”

Ling Yi smiled covertly. He wasn’t surprised that Oser had conducted a detailed investigation of everyone related to him.

Xi Lei continued: “Since you know me well, you know that I must warn you purely due to that guy’s involvement!”

“Don’t be fooled by his pretense of being well-behaved. You don’t know how bad he was in school. A person like him undermines military discipline—”

He sent Ling Yi an agitated glare, and grew even angrier when he didn’t show any remorse at all.

Xi Lei wanted to discuss this matter in depth and get an objective judgement from His Highness Oser, but from the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of Oser resting his hand on Ling Yi’s leg and gently caressing it.

No matter how he looked at the situation, it seemed like Xi Lei was a victim who couldn’t bear it anymore and went to the other party’s parent to complain.

But the perpetrator didn’t change his behavior, and although the parent didn’t take a stance, his every move revealed his tendency to protect his child.

Even if Xi Lei was an idiot, he would still be able to see that something strange was going on.

Oser flicked the ash from his cigarette and said: “Speak.”

This command wasn’t addressed to anyone, and neither of them spoke.

The surroundings fell into silence, and even Oser had no intention of adding anything further.

Xi Lei observed Ling Yi, who was also looking back at him.

After a while, Xi Lei asked carefully: “Your Highness, were you speaking to me?”

This time, Oser got straight to the point: “You didn’t go home last night. Where were you?”

Xi Lei’s expression visibly froze: “How…..did you know?”

“You won’t tell me?”

Oser gracefully brought the cigarette to his lips, puffing and exhaling. The smoke diffused in the air, and his pheromones seemed to take visible form.

Ling Yi finally understood why Oser had lit a cigarette.

This was an interrogation.

Oser’s fingers tapped rhythmically on his leg, and Xi Lei counted the taps as if counting the length of his future criminal sentencing.

His palms that were originally flat on his knees clenched into his school uniform. Beads of sweat ran down his cheeks to his chin. He struggled not to move, but in the end, he couldn’t stop them from dripping.

—Splat.

A bead of sweat fell onto the back of his hand.

Even Ling Yi couldn’t bear to watch.

“Xi Lei, where were you last night?”

He really wanted to know too.

“I…..” Xi Lei bit his lip. “I can’t say.”

“You don’t need to tell me,” Oser said serenely. “I’ll just go ask the eight students who left school with you without permission and see what they have to say.”

Ling Yi straightened his back, starting to grow tense: “What do you mean, eight students?”

Oser handed him his phone: “I suppose you know them all.”

What Ling Yi saw was a very familiar photo. He swiped backward rapidly, and one student file after another passed before his eyes.

He and Xi Lei had a bad relationship, and they each had their own small group in class. The eight people in the photos were their respective good brothers.

Why would these nine people, who never associated with each other and always clashed when they met, run away from the dormitory together?

Ling Yi recognized the severity of the matter, and his tone became serious: “Xi Lei, what on earth is going on?”

Xi Lei was very reluctant to say anything, and admitting it in front of Ling Yi would humiliate him even more. But since things had come to this point, he had no choice but to speak.

“Last night…..we went to the prison…..”

“You attempted a prison break?!”

Ling Yi nearly stood up, but Oser pushed him back down.

“Are you crazy? A group of students trying to break into prison?”

“We got to the prison and tried to climb over the fence, but the guards discovered us. We had no choice but to knock two of them out, and another one raised the alarm…..all we could do was escape.”

Xi Lei didn’t know that Ling Yi had been transferred to a different prison that night. Going to the detention center where he was previously held was simply risking his life in the wrong place.

“Your Highness, I personally organized that discipline violation. The others committed the offense under my instructions. Please hold me solely responsible!”

“I’ll hold you responsible,” Ling Yi said angrily. “Are you stupid? Leading a group of cadets to break into a prison – if you were caught, even if you didn’t go to jail, you would be expelled! Your future would be ruined!”

“You’re stupid!” Xi Lei shouted back with no trace of politeness. “If I didn’t save you, you’d die! What’s more important, a life or the future?”

“What touching brotherly love, ah,” Oser interjected sarcastically.

“We’re not brothers!” the two retorted in unison.

Oser: “Since the relationship between you is so poor, why take the risk of breaking into the prison?”

Xi Lei’s eyes flickered left and right: “Even though he lives in my house, and I can’t drive him away, and he has a bad character…..I promised my dad that I would take care of him no matter what, so I couldn’t just stand by and watch him die, could I?”

He felt embarrassed after saying this, and said rudely to Ling Yi: “But let me make it clear in advance that my friends were only there for my sake; they didn’t actually want to save you.”

“…..Tsk.” Ling Yi turned his head to the other side and ignored him.

“I’m done with you. Get out,” Oser said coldly.

Ling Yi didn’t turn his head away from the window: “Get out and get lost.”

Xi Lei: “……”

He stormed out of the vehicle, slamming the door behind him. 

“It’s your turn.”

Ling Yi thought in despair that perhaps pulling the man down by the collar and kissing him would be more effective than any explanation.

“How are my classmates?”

“So far, so good. Whether that changes in the future depends on my mood.”

Oser slowly rubbed the cigarette butt with the pad of his thumb, gaze fixed on his hand.

“If your adoptive father wasn’t in critical condition, would you have come back?”

Ling Yi’s lips moved uneasily, and his answer was indistinct: “The empire is so big. Wherever I go, I’ll still be within Your Highness’s control.”

“Be honest. I’ll put out the cigarette.”

“I wouldn’t have,” Ling Yi said truthfully.

“As I was driving down the highway with the wind blowing into my face through the broken window, I had only one thought in my mind—”

“It feels so good to be free. I spent three months in prison. Three months without being able to breathe fresh air. If there had been a second choice, I wouldn’t have turned back.”

Ling Yi lowered his eyes, aware that these words were thoroughly courting disaster.

“Your Highness wanted to hear the truth. These are my true thoughts.”

A smile finally appeared on Oser’s face.

It was a cold smile.

He twisted the cigarette twice in the ashtray and put it out.

“Ling Yi, your weakness is that you care too much. A person like you who has so many weaknesses would be easily manipulated if you escaped, and you would return to die obediently.”

“Do you know how You Lin has lived abroad for so many years without any ties or worries?”

“…..I don’t know.”

“Because his entire family was killed and he was the only survivor. Lu Hulun didn’t even spare his fiancee’s family.”

Ling Yi stared, dumbfounded. He knew that Lu Hulun was cruel and ruthless, but he didn’t expect this degree of insanity. 

“I tolerated you using me to escape the death penalty, and I knew you didn’t actually intend to keep your part of the deal.”

“But your adoptive father, the eldest son who doesn’t seem very smart, the youngest son whom you risked your life to protect, everyone you care about, your classmates and friends – can you protect them all?”

Cold sweat ran down Ling Yi’s cheeks again, but this time, it wasn’t due to the pressure of pheromones. Rather, it was because of all the terrible possibilities running through his head after hearing Oser’s words.

During the three months he was incarcerated, Lu Hulun had many opportunities to attack his family. The only reason he didn’t take action was because he wanted them to witness his death with their own eyes before settling accounts one by one.

If Tang De hadn’t appeared in time today, he and Xi Lei would have become fish on the chopping block.

Oser was right. He was too naive. The vortex he’d created would only suck more innocent people into it, and without Oser’s help, he wouldn’t even be able to survive alone like You Lin had.

Oser grasped the back of Ling Yi’s head with one hand and forced his face toward him.

His lips were roughly pried open. Unlike Ling Yi’s token peck on the lips, this was an unbridled invasion.

Foreign Alpha pheromones invaded. Plundering and domineering, they left complete destruction in their wake.

Their incompatible pheromones fiercely repelled each other, taking turns fighting for control within his body. Ling Yi trembled all over as he tried to convince himself not to resist.

Just before he could reach the limit of his endurance, Oser let him go. His face reflected in Ling Yi’s dilated pupils.

“Ling Yi, no matter where you escape to, the only one in this world who can protect you is me.”

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Chapter 9 << Table of Contents >> Chapter 11