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After getting off the plane, Lu Chengyu and Lu Qingmo went straight to a restaurant to have dinner with the Wei Clan. Lu Heyang came home after attending a lecture at the Military Engineering Institute, where Lu Chengyu's assistant was just then delivering his luggage and documents.

Generally speaking, Lu Chengyu rarely attended private gatherings — wherever the Chairman of the Council appeared was always tied to politics or diplomacy — so Lu Heyang could guess that the Wei Clan had come tonight with an agenda.

Most likely the Chengxi project. Wei Lingzhou wanted to make one more push for it. And Lu Chengyu's acceptance of the invitation might mean the winner of the project had not yet been decided — that there was still room to maneuver.

A little past ten at night, Lu Heyang came downstairs for fruit after his shower and noticed a faint light in the second-floor living room. Walking over, he saw Lu Qingmo curled into the sofa, only the floor lamp beside her switched on, a bottle of red wine on the small tea table in front of her.

Hearing footsteps, Lu Qingmo turned, cradling her wine glass, and smiled: 'Not asleep yet?'

She hadn't removed her makeup, hadn't changed out of her work clothes — it couldn't have been comfortable — but Lu Qingmo seemed unable to wait even a moment, as if she had to vent in this way, and now.

'Reading.' Lu Heyang sat down on the other sofa. 'Did Dad go to Luan Mountain?'

'Probably. I'm not sure.' Lu Qingmo leaned back and took a sip.

Lu Heyang sat quietly, saying nothing. After a while, Lu Qingmo lifted her head, gazing up at the dim chandelier: 'They're telling me to start preparing for pregnancy.'

'Career. Marriage. Reproduction.' Lu Qingmo counted them off one by one. 'Not a single one is mine.'

From beyond the floor-to-ceiling window came a faint tapping — raindrops striking the glass. It had started to rain.

'I hate rain the most,' Lu Qingmo said, dazed.

When it had been, she couldn't clearly remember — only that it was after learning she was to be engaged to Wei Lingzhou. Another night just like this one, the rain falling harder and harder, her car flying down the road, Han Inspector in the passenger seat.

Later the car was forced to a stop. A dozen blinding headlights pierced the curtain of rain, shining from every direction, trapping them in the middle. Lu Qingmo's hands trembled as she undid her seatbelt. She said to Han Inspector: 'Don't get out of the car.'

Han Inspector reached over and wiped the tears from her face. 'Okay,' he said.

Bodyguards came to hold an umbrella over Lu Qingmo and led her to Lu Chengyu and Wei Lingzhou. Only seconds later, a tremendous crash came from behind. Lu Qingmo turned in panic and saw the wrecked car flip over the guardrail, crashing into the wild grass beside the suburban road.

She opened her mouth soundlessly. By the time her mind caught up, her legs were already stumbling forward. The passenger seat was full of broken glass. Blood ran down Han Inspector's forehead, his leg pinned by something — his faint, agonized groans quickly swallowed by the rain.

Blood seeped down the car frame and pooled into the mud below. Lu Qingmo reached out a hand but couldn't bring herself to touch him. Raindrops struck her body like dense, countless footprints. What she had actually thought in that half-minute, Lu Qingmo had forgotten — perhaps nothing at all. She turned back, stumbling, running, and dropped to her knees before Lu Chengyu. At last her throat found a voice: 'Dad…'

'I'm sorry, I'm sorry…' Where exactly she had been wrong, she didn't know. Lu Qingmo's pleading became a wail: 'I'm sorry, please save him, I'll listen to you from now on, please save him…'

The rain blinded her. She felt only that her father stood impossibly tall, immovable as a mountain. At last Wei Lingzhou helped the mud-soaked her to her feet, considerate: 'Enough. Get back in the car. I'll have someone pull him out.'

Back in the car, Lu Qingmo strained to look out, but the window was blurred with rain. She reached out to wipe it, wiping uselessly for a long time, before realizing that rain on the outside of a glass cannot be wiped clean from the inside.

That night's downpour never stopped for several whole years, endlessly pouring over her body, her face. Sometimes Lu Qingmo thought she shouldn't be so hung up on it — she had struggled, she had tried, only later she hadn't dared — but why did the regret never cease?

Lu Heyang knew what had happened. The entire scene that day had been recorded by a special camera installed in the bodyguards' vehicle. At what seemed a chance moment, he had seen that footage — so it wasn't chance at all. Someone had deliberately shown him the video as a warning.

No freedom. No resistance. Compliance. Acceptance.

Strip away every edge, become a smooth, round chess piece.

And then, slowly, they would all fully adapt to this class, melt into it, become the next one holding the pieces.

'I wasn't wrong.' Lu Qingmo closed her eyes briefly, like someone wrongfully condemned stubbornly insisting on their own appeal. 'I wasn't wrong,' she repeated.

Lu Heyang lowered his eyes, stood, took the wine glass from Lu Qingmo's hand and set it on the tea table. 'Go rest.'

He helped Lu Qingmo back to her bedroom, then went downstairs to knock on the housekeeper's door, asking her to help Lu Qingmo remove her makeup and change into sleepwear.

He had originally planned to read for another half hour after eating his fruit, but Lu Heyang sat at his desk for a while, then finally closed his book, picked up his Mobile Phone, and sent Xu Ze a message: Are you busy?

Xu Ze's reply came quickly: No.

Lu Heyang called him. The moment the line connected, he heard a pen drop on Xu Ze's end.

'Reading?' Lu Heyang asked.

'Doing a test paper.' Xu Ze answered. 'Just don't have anything on hand right now.'

After a few seconds of Lu Heyang's silence, Xu Ze hesitated, then asked: 'Are you in a bad mood?'

Lu Heyang smiled faintly: 'Why do you ask?'

'…' Xu Ze said. 'A feeling.'

'Did you sense anything else?' Lu Heyang leaned back in his chair.

'Nothing else.' Xu Ze answered honestly, his voice carrying a trace of uncertainty — not knowing whether he should have asked. 'Why are you in a bad mood?'

Lu Heyang countered: 'It's not something happy. Why would you want to know?'

'I want to…' Xu Ze seemed to struggle for the right words. Finally he said, 'help you carry a little bit of it.'

His own shoulders were already crushed under a weight so heavy he couldn't straighten his back or lift his head — and still he wanted to carry some of Lu Heyang's.

The fingertips of the hand Lu Heyang had resting on his knee moved slightly. He raised his hand to press his brow, paused a moment, then said: 'I'm not in a bad mood. I just wanted to call you.'

Xu Ze wanted to ask 'really?' — not 'really wanted to call me?' but 'really not in a bad mood?' — but he only said 'mm,' a sound of trust.

'When you're in a bad mood, you can call me too.' Xu Ze spoke slowly, sounding both earnest and cautious.

'Okay.' Lu Heyang looked at his desk. 'I won't keep you. Get back to your test.'

'You weren't bothering me.' Before Lu Heyang hung up, Xu Ze said softly.

Lin Yumian came out of the shower and saw the Mobile Phone on the bed lit up. He picked it up — a message from the housekeeper. The first, sent a minute ago: Sir, the Chairman of the Council has arrived.

The second, three seconds ago: Almost at your room.

Tossing the phone back onto the bed, Lin Yumian went to the nightstand drawer, took out a small pill bottle, unscrewed the cap, shook out a blue pill, and put it in his mouth.

Before he could reach for a glass of water, the door was pushed open.

Lu Chengyu took his time, looking him up and down, then stepped closer, raised a hand, and held his palm open beneath Lin Yumian's chin. 'Spit it out.'

Lin Yumian said nothing, pressed his tongue up, trying to swallow the pill. Lu Chengyu simply gripped his jaw, forced his mouth open, and slid two fingers of his other hand into Lin Yumian's mouth to retrieve the pill. As his hand withdrew, his fingertips lingered, stirring with deliberate, suggestive slowness inside Lin Yumian's mouth.

His jaw ached from the grip. Lin Yumian watched Lu Chengyu crush the pill between his fingers, smelled the faint alcohol on him. They did not meet often — Lu Chengyu rarely came while sober. The Chairman's sober hours were all spent on official business; only after drinking did he briefly step away from the arenas of fame and fortune, to come to Luan Mountain for a few hours.

Even those few hours, Lin Yumian found excruciatingly hard to endure.

'What good is this.' Lu Chengyu patted Lin Yumian's cheek with the back of his hand, asking offhandedly.

Lin Yumian turned his face away. 'If it's useless, why won't you let me take it.'

The Marking Blocker — an exceptionally expensive, targeted medication used between an Alpha and an Omega who have already completed the marking bond. Alphas are always adept at using their Pheromone to make the Omegas they've marked submit or lose composure, thereby deriving both psychological and physical pleasure.

'Because it's a banned drug.' Lu Chengyu slowly undid his cufflink.

'You just wanted to ban it.'

A few years earlier, on Lu Chengyu's decision, the Marking Blocker had been classified as a League banned drug, no longer produced or sold. Lin Yumian had never believed Lu Chengyu had banned it recklessly just because he himself was taking it; he had always believed Lu Chengyu did it to protect the interests of the upper Alpha class.

'But you still got your hands on it.' Lu Chengyu sat on the edge of the bed, his long legs resting casually on the carpet. He undid his tie as he glanced up at Lin Yumian. 'You had Jiang Wen helping Heyang with things.'

A statement, not a question — meaning he had known clearly for some time.

'Didn't you already know,' Lin Yumian said.

'Then do you know Tang Feiyi has his sights on him?' Lu Chengyu tossed his tie carelessly onto the foot of the bed. 'Jiang Wen and Tang Feiyi have an old grudge. You should know that too.'

'Jiang Wen has his limits.' The Alpha's Pheromones thickened in the air. Lin Yumian steadied his breathing with effort. 'Heyang is an adult now. He'll handle things himself.'

'Yes, an adult. A grown man.' Lu Chengyu stared up at Lin Yumian, his calm tone carrying a hint of something unspeakably licentious. 'When I was eighteen, I'd already gotten my future sister-in-law pregnant.'

The words caught Lin Yumian off guard; for a moment he couldn't react. By the time his brain had taken in every character, his whole body had already been dragged by the wrist and pinned to the bed. Lu Chengyu gripped the side of Lin Yumian's face, pressing it to one side, and bit down on the vulnerable scent gland exposed at the back of the Omega's neck.

'I heard the S-Class Early Admission schools have been announced.' Chi Jiahán asked between bites. 'Which ones are you applying to?'

'Universities in the Capital City, or somewhere nearby.'

'That's still a lot, though. You have to pick a few.'

'Still looking,' Xu Ze said.

Tuition. Subsidies. Scholarships — unlike the others, what Xu Ze focused on wasn't only the major or the school.

'Are you actually sleeping enough every day?' Chi Jiahán knew the question was unnecessary — Xu Ze clearly looked drained.

'Enough,' Xu Ze answered.

Chi Jiahán didn't plan to bring up borrowing money again — there was no point. Right now it was only that Ye Yunhua's monthly medical expenses had grown; for Xu Ze that wasn't exactly desperate. The truly desperate situation had come half a year earlier, with Ye Yunhua's surgery, which had led Xu Ze to exchange an emergency loan with Tang Feiyi on the condition that he fight at the Underground Club.

'Has Tang Feiyi come looking for you lately…'

Before the sentence was finished, Chi Jiahán saw Xu Ze suddenly frown, clap a hand over his mouth, turn his head to one side, and let out a muffled sound from his throat — like the dry heave of nausea.

'Stomach upset?' Chi Jiahán set down his chopsticks.

Xu Ze took a few breaths, shook his head.

'Then why would you feel like throwing up? What is it?'

'I don't know.' Xu Ze lowered his hand. 'It's been like this when I eat, these past few days.'

'Let's go to the medical office after this, it must be a stomach issue.' Something suddenly occurred to Chi Jiahán, and he said offhandedly, 'It's not like you could be pregnant.'

He was only joking, but unexpectedly Xu Ze paused for a few seconds before answering quietly: 'How could an Alpha get pregnant.'

Chi Jiahán found Xu Ze's reaction a little strange — he couldn't say why. He picked up a bite of food and said casually, 'That's not necessarily true. Didn't you take biology? The probability is very, very small, but some Alphas have a less-regressed reproductive cavity, so pregnancy is possible — they just can't carry a fetus to term, so you have to catch it early and terminate.'

After ten seconds of Xu Ze's silence, Chi Jiahán set his chopsticks on the table and stared at him: 'Is this a possibility for you?'

Still no answer. Everything was clear. Chi Jiahán's feelings were too complicated to put into words. Lu Heyang had come to school this semester a number of times you could count on one hand; Xu Ze was practically like a fool being duped body and heart by a scumbag Alpha who appeared and vanished like a dragon's head, never its tail — quite possibly getting off work at the Auto Repair Shop at two in the morning only to go to bed with Lu Heyang afterward.

How vast the gap between them, how small the possibility of a future — Xu Ze knew it, Lu Heyang knew it, Chi Jiahán knew it too. So he couldn't understand why Lu Heyang had drawn things so close with Xu Ze. Apart from playing around, Chi Jiahán could think of no other reason — even though Lu Heyang wasn't the sort to play around casually.

But whether played earnestly or casually, the result for Xu Ze wouldn't differ much.

'After school, come with me to the hospital,' Chi Jiahán said coldly.

'Can't today.' Xu Ze's face showed nothing — no panic, no unease. He only said, 'I have to go to Chengxi tonight.'

The manager had called him directly last night, mentioning the Breach of Contract Incident. Xu Ze felt, oddly, a sense of relief. This thing had to be dealt with eventually — endless avoidance and ignoring wouldn't help.

After school in the evening, Xu Ze rode his bike to the subway station, then transferred to a bus. Arriving in Chengxi, before entering the Underground Club, Xu Ze stopped at a roadside pharmacy.

The shop was small and shabby. The clerk wore a perfunctory, dust-grey white coat, sat behind the counter playing on his phone, and didn't look up when he heard someone come in.

'Hello, do you have…' Xu Ze faltered for a moment before continuing, 'do you have pregnancy tests?'

The clerk, still looking at his phone, unsurprised, fished a box of pregnancy tests from a corner of the shelf behind him and tossed it onto the counter: 'Thirty.'

Xu Ze picked it up and saw printed on it: Omega-use pregnancy test.

He had no knowledge of this area; it was the first time he learned pregnancy tests were actually divided by sex. Xu Ze pushed the box back slightly and asked: 'Do you have one for Alphas?'

The clerk finally glanced up at him, then set down his phone, stood, and rummaged from an even more out-of-the-way corner of the shelf for an Alpha pregnancy test, placing it on the counter: 'Forty-five.'

'Thanks.' Xu Ze took out his phone to pay.

The clerk pulled out a black plastic bag, put the pregnancy test inside, then opened a drawer and pinched out a small card, placing it in the bag as well, and finally tied it shut.

The card flashed briefly into view, but its title was conspicuous — dark red, brightly proclaiming six large characters: 'Painless Abortion Surgery.'

Xu Ze silently picked up the bag, stuffed it into his backpack, then walked out of the pharmacy, heading toward the Underground Club.