2

The scene was a little awkward for a moment. Wen Ran froze for two seconds, swallowed, and said softly, "Sorry, I thought the door opened from this side."

Up close, the height difference was stark — the Alpha was genuinely tall, leaving Wen Ran completely enveloped in his shadow. Through the mask, Wen Ran felt the other was looking down at him like he was a dog. Then the Alpha let go of the door handle and turned away coldly.

Wen Ran reached out to stop the door from closing again and slipped out into the wind. It was indeed a terrace, with sofas and round tables scattered about. Beyond the glass railing, he could see the full view of Huyan Mansion — trees, ground lights, lawn, and artificial lake, all indistinct in the night.

The Alpha sat on a sofa near the railing, one long leg stretched out, smoking and looking at his mobile phone. Wen Ran stood about two meters away, downwind, but didn't smell the nicotine burn of cigarette smoke — instead, it was a faint, fresh scent laced with a hint of bitterness.

The door opened again. Wen Ran turned to see a server approaching with a glass of water. "Sir, hello. I noticed you seemed unwell earlier. This is a glass of warm water." Placing the water on a nearby coffee table, he picked up his tray. "If you need anything else, please don't hesitate to ask. I'll leave you to it."

The terrace was left with just the two of them again. Wen Ran picked up the water. His throat was extremely uncomfortable; he wanted to drink it, but he was also hesitant. After wavering for a while, he could only try asking the Alpha not far away, "Is the water here safe to drink?"

He got no response for several seconds. Wen Ran, taking the hint, was about to take the water and move farther away when the Alpha finally spoke, without looking up, "It won't kill you, anyway."

A particularly nice voice saying a particularly nasty thing.

Actually, it wouldn't matter if it did kill him. Wen Ran said, "Thanks," and tilted his head back to finish most of the glass.

He sat down on a nearby sofa, took out his mobile phone, and sent Wen Rui a message asking when they could go home. After waiting a bit with no reply, he had nothing to do but stare blankly into the night.

As if he'd seen something annoying, the Alpha made a soft 'tsk' sound, tossed his mobile phone onto the coffee table, and took a drag of his cigarette. Wen Ran looked at him. Through the thin smoke, a black mask decorated with lace trim rested on skin turned silvery-white by the moonlight, the profile revealing an excessively beautiful line.

His mobile phone buzzed with a call from Wen Rui. Wen Ran answered. On the other end was noisy clamor. Wen Rui, quite drunk, asked, "You done watching?"

"No," Wen Ran said, knowing Wen Rui was doing this on purpose. "It's not good."

Sure enough, Wen Rui laughed. "What's wrong?"

"It's disgusting," Wen Ran said. "I want to go home."

As he said this, he saw the Alpha glance sideways at him.

"Suit yourself. I'll send you the driver's number; find him yourself."

After hanging up, Wen Rui sent a string of digits. Wen Ran called, arranged with the driver to wait downstairs in five minutes, got up, picked up the water glass, glanced once more at the Alpha, then turned and walked a few steps to push open the terrace door.

Unexpectedly, someone inside was also opening the door — it was the other Alpha who'd been sleeping earlier. Seeing Wen Ran, the man politely opened the door wider and took half a step aside to let him pass first.

"Thank you," Wen Ran said. Back in the hallway, he returned the glass to a server and asked to be shown to the elevators.

The house was quiet. Chen Shuhui wasn't back yet, and Aunt Fang had already retired. Wen Ran went upstairs to his room. After showering, he sniffed carefully — the strange scent from the mansion was gone from his body.

Wen Ran sat down at his desk, piled with textbooks and exercise books. He'd be starting school soon, and he'd fallen behind a bit in his studies over the last few months post-surgery. Chen Shuhui seemed to be looking for a tutor lately, but there was no news yet.

He couldn't focus on the problems. Scenes from Huyan Mansion kept surfacing — lewd, cruel, perverse. Ordinary people's ways of finding happiness were often simple and low-cost. In contrast, the higher the social stratum, the more accustomed they became to ordinary stimuli, their thresholds constantly rising. It had to be sufficiently bizarre, sufficiently shocking, to make their nerve endings tremble even slightly.

Wen Ran realized belatedly that the most terrifying people at the evening banquet weren't those excited by the performance, but those two S-Class Alphas — how utterly commonplace must it have been for them to doze off and show such lack of interest in that kind of scene?

Terrifying. Thinking that he'd been alone and spoken with one of those Alphas, Wen Ran instantly felt a chill.

Completely losing any desire to study, Wen Ran opened his mobile phone and tapped into the browser. After a moment's loading, the last webpage he'd visited displayed — the official website of a mechanical model. The homepage featured a poster of a blue-and-white helicopter model, one and a half meters long. It was a 1:1 scale simulation transport model approved for manufacture by the League Military Headquarters. Price: 186,000. Limited to 100 units. Currently sold out.

With a mix of envy for the wealthy, Wen Ran entered the details page, looking over the pictures and text annotations back and forth a few more times. He'd been following this model since before pre-sales began, watching it preview, go on sale, and then sell out.

Grabbing a scrap of paper, Wen Ran pressed a ruler down and started sketching a perspective view. He'd only drawn a few strokes when a loud bang came from downstairs, and the line under his pen went crooked. Wen Ran went to the door, opened it a crack, and heard Chen Shuhui and Wen Rui's voices — they were arguing.

"Think you can relax just because I'm back in the country? Reports and contracts are waiting for you, and you go out drinking?"

Wen Rui said, "A few crappy companies about to go bankrupt, acting busier than a major conglomerate every day. What's the point?"

Harsh words, but true. Years ago, Wen Ningyuan, chairman of Shengdian Group, died in a car accident. Back then, Chen Shuhui was just a cellist who knew nothing about business, and Wen Rui was a playboy who'd spent over twenty years learning only how to eat, drink, and have fun. Shengdian inevitably plummeted, lingering on its last legs until today.

"Without these crappy companies supporting you, where would you get the capital to play the young master outside?" Chen Shuhui retorted coldly.

Wen Rui didn't argue back. Creak, creak — he went upstairs. Mother and son came up one after the other. Wen Ran opened his door and called out, "Mom."

Chen Shuhui's face was still cold. She only glanced at Wen Ran and informed him, "We're going to Cloud Bay for dinner tomorrow. Dress formally."

"Okay." Wen Ran looked downstairs. Aunt Fang had been woken up too and was standing by the sofa. She gave him a comforting smile, as if she'd long grown accustomed to this kind of scene.

The next afternoon, Chen Shuhui returned early from the Company to touch up her makeup and change. Wen Ran took out the suit he'd worn yesterday, sniffed it — the scent still lingered — and chose another set. After putting it on, he went to the mirror to adjust it and once again realized he and suits had no compatibility to speak of — his frame was too lean, he couldn't really fill it out.

He recalled the two Alphas he'd encountered last night and had to admit that was the kind of build suited for suits — tall, straight, every inch of muscle just right, a slender and powerful youthful physique.

Once ready, Wen Ran sat on the living room sofa for half an hour. Chen Shuhui's makeup artist came downstairs first. It was her first time meeting Wen Ran. She greeted him, introduced herself, then smiled and said, "Mrs. Chen also asked me to help groom you a bit, but I don't think it's really necessary." Saying this, she found some hair gel, simply tousled Wen Ran's hair a little, then said goodbye and left.

His first reaction was that his face was hopeless. But then he thought, when Chen Shuhui had listed his various shortcomings before, she'd never mentioned the word 'ugly.' Wen Ran decided not to think about it too much.

After about ten minutes, Chen Shuhui came downstairs, and the driver arrived at the door just then. The two got into the car together. Wen Ran sat obediently, listening to Chen Shuhui's warnings.

"When they ask you questions, don't act like a mute who doesn't know how to speak. Don't play dead."

So was he supposed to be a mute or a corpse? Unclear. Wen Ran just felt uneasy. He'd only been back in the Capital City for two or three days; he hadn't had time to take any interpersonal skills classes yet. Opportunity really didn't wait.

At dusk, downtown Capital City was already ablaze with lights. Nearing their destination, the car circled a fountain. On a huge white ornamental stone, the words 'Cloud Bay' glittered in bright gold. Among the League's 24 nations, Cloud Bay was like a symbol — only highly developed cities were qualified to host it.

Yet this top-tier establishment was just an inconspicuous corner of Boqing Group's commercial empire. And the master of that empire — the door to the Cloud Bay penthouse suite opened. Led by the manager through the foyer, Wen Ran looked at the Alpha surrounded by assistants and bodyguards on the sofa by the floor-to-ceiling window and spoke respectfully, "Hello, Chairman Gu."

Gu Peiwen wore an unremarkable plain crepe silk shirt. He looked up slightly, his eyes behind his glasses clear and steady, a faint smile on his face as one would wear for a junior. "Wen Ran?"

"Yes." Wen Ran remembered Chen Shuhui's instructions and said again, "Hello."

"No need to be so formal." Gu Peiwen raised a hand. "Have a seat."

Sitting on a side sofa, two cups of tea were promptly placed before him. Wen Ran then heard Gu Peiwen say, "Chongze is still away on business and has to miss today. Next time, I'll have him make it up."

Chen Shuhui smiled graciously. "President Gu is so busy, please don't talk about making it up."

"Courtesy still matters." Gu Peiwen suddenly sounded a bit helpless. "The younger one went horseback riding this afternoon and is probably going to be late. We won't wait for him when we eat later."

Though he said this, his tone was indulgent.

"It's the age for enjoying life, and horseback riding is good for the health too," Chen Shuhui said. "I'm always saying Wen Ran is too quiet; he needs to get out and exercise more."

"If there's a chance later, the two of them could arrange to go out and have fun together." Gu Peiwen looked at Wen Ran.

Wen Ran tried hard not to play dead, forcing a seemingly happy smile. "Mm."

"Chairman, shall we do the blood draw before the meal?" An Alpha in a white coat stepped forward from behind the bodyguards and asked Gu Peiwen.

"Right, almost forgot," Gu Peiwen said.

Chen Shuhui chimed in as well. "Yes." She turned to remind Wen Ran, "Take off your jacket and roll up your sleeve."

Wen Ran obediently took off his jacket, rolled up his shirt sleeve, and rested his arm on the sofa armrest. The doctor walked up to him, drew two tubes of blood, placed the samples in a cooler, stood up, and nodded to Gu Peiwen. "Chairman, I'll head over now."

"Alright."

After a while, service staff began coming in and out to serve the dishes. Gu Peiwen stood up. "Alright, let's have dinner."

During the meal, Wen Ran gradually reverted to being a mute. Fortunately, Chen Shuhui handled everything with ease. About ten minutes in, a slight commotion came from the main door. An assistant came over to report, "Chairman, Mr. Gu has arrived."

Gu Peiwen said, "Tell him to come over and eat quickly."

Hearing this, Wen Ran put down his utensils and looked up, a little nervous.

Before the assistant could turn to relay the message, a tall figure appeared at the corner of the living room. The Alpha, wearing a black T-shirt and jeans, walked over unhurriedly. He'd clearly just showered; his hair wasn't completely dry, his bangs falling over his forehead. On his left wrist holding the mobile phone was a black wristband. Apart from that strikingly handsome face, from head to toe he looked simple, as if he'd just stepped out to take out the trash.

"Grandpa." The Alpha walked to the seat beside Gu Peiwen and pulled out the chair.

The voice was somehow familiar, but he couldn't place where he'd heard it. Wen Ran pondered for a moment but came up empty.

"You're late," Gu Peiwen said. "Yunchi, explain yourself to our guests."

Gu Yunchi showed absolutely no intention of explaining. He only said flatly, "My apologies, Ms. Chen."

"It's nothing, please sit down and eat," Chen Shuhui said softly.

Amid the aroma of the dishes, Wen Ran caught a faint scent of shower gel from Gu Yunchi across the table. Meanwhile, he himself was dressed carefully in a suit to show respect for this dinner — by comparison, he felt like a clown with a gold-rimmed chamber pot. Fortunately, the other hadn't looked at him once from entry to seating. Wen Ran was quite addicted to this kind of disregard; one of his wishes was for people to never notice him.

Of course, that wasn't realistic, because after just a few bites, Gu Peiwen asked him, "I heard you were ill before. Have you started catching up on your studies?"

Chairman Gu would never pay attention to such a minor matter; this question likely carried other implications. Wen Ran answered cautiously, "I've only just returned to the country and haven't found a suitable tutor yet. These past few days, I've just been studying on my own."

That must have been an acceptable answer, because even Chen Shuhui didn't add anything. Gu Peiwen smiled. "It really is quite hard to find one."

Only then did Chen Shuhui say, "Yes, I contacted several well-known teachers, but they all said their one-on-one tutoring schedules were already full for this semester; there's really no room to squeeze in."

"Then go study with Yunchi. He'll be in the country during this period anyway," Gu Peiwen said calmly.

Wen Ran was stunned. In his shock, he saw Gu Yunchi finally lift his eyelids to look at him — expressionless. Those eyes were black and deep. Wen Ran immediately averted his gaze. If he'd known earlier that Gu Peiwen intended for him to study with Gu Yunchi, he would have risked Chen Shuhui's wrath and lied, saying he planned to teach himself.

"That would be wonderful if they could study together." Things were progressing too smoothly. Chen Shuhui smiled sincerely. "Wen Ran, thank Chairman Gu quickly."

Steeling himself, Wen Ran said, "Thank you, Chairman Gu."

Gu Peiwen smiled. "Just call me what Yunchi calls me."

Wen Ran then changed his address. "Thank you, Grandpa Gu."

"Chairman Gu, you've really helped resolve a worry of mine," Chen Shuhui raised her wine glass. "Thank you so much. Let me toast you."

Amid the crisp clink of glasses, Wen Ran, heart pounding, stole a quick glance at Gu Yunchi. From that extremely foul expression, he foresaw many tragedies yet to come.