Zuo Shihuan was infuriated by Gu Heng’s arrogance, but that insolent, overbearing Beta’s strength was d*mnably great. He tried to kick Gu Heng away, yet was easily subdued.
Helpless and out of breath, Zuo Shihuan finally gave up struggling. He looked up at Gu Heng, whose anger and obsession had not yet cooled, and asked with forced calm, “Then what exactly do you want?”
Even Gu Heng himself didn’t know what he wanted. In truth, this Federation Alpha had already thrown him off balance.
Just an Alpha — not even an Omega — and yet that distant, cool face, that strong, lean body, those long legs, and the faint flush in his eyes when he glared back…
D*mn it. His body reacted before his mind did.
Gu Heng’s eyes darkened. He realized he still couldn’t let go. Perhaps when he figured out why this Alpha drew him in so strongly, he might stop caring whether the man stayed or left. But right now, he wasn’t ready to let Zuo Shihuan go.
Zuo Shihuan sensed the tension and heat radiating from Gu Heng’s body and froze in alarm, face flushing with embarrassment. He didn’t dare move — afraid that one wrong motion might provoke him further. His voice softened, tentative.
“Calm down,” he said quietly. “Can you… let go of me?”
Gu Heng’s eyes flickered with frustration. Proud as he was, he didn’t want to look like someone ruled by impulse. He released Zuo Shihuan, turned aside, and sat at the edge of the bed, face shadowed, lighting a cigarette.
Silence stretched between them.
Zuo Shihuan slowly sat up, thinking Gu Heng had cooled off, only to see him smoking heavily, his expression dark and restless, gaze heavy with suppressed desire and irritation. The sight left Zuo Shihuan at a loss for words.
He wanted to tell him to take a cold shower, or at least stop smoking so much — but when facing Gu Heng, words always seemed to fail him. His thoughts tangled messily, yet nothing came out. He simply sat at the edge of the bed, hands clasped tightly, lips pressed pale.
The two of them sat side by side on the bed.
In that luxurious hotel suite, it almost looked like they had come only to sit.
Bitterness flickered in Zuo Shihuan’s eyes as he forced himself to speak evenly: “If you agree, I can make arrangements immediately.”
Gu Heng gave a cold laugh.
Zuo Shihuan winced at the tone but continued, “If it puts you at ease, I can transfer a villa in the Upper City to your name right away.”
He hesitated briefly when he mentioned the villa, a trace of nostalgia and gloom surfacing in his gaze.
“You’ll live well there,” he murmured.
Gu Heng frowned slightly. “What’s so good about it?”
Zuo Shihuan’s eyes softened as he recalled something. “There’s a quiet, beautiful courtyard. You can see a starfruit tree from the window. When it rains, the leaves turn bright green, and the ripe fruit falls with the raindrops — like little stars dropping from the sky.”
Gu Heng asked, “You lived there once?”
“…Yes.”
Zuo Shihuan admitted it. His light brown eyes seemed to look past Gu Heng, back to the past — to the child he used to be.
A small boy standing at the window, watching the car carrying his mother drive away, leaving him alone with an elderly housekeeper.
He had always played by himself; the housekeeper was too busy with chores. Sometimes he spent the whole day watching TV, other times tinkering with mechanical models.
There was a brief time of happiness — a stray white puppy wandered into the yard, and Zuo Shihuan secretly took it in. The housekeeper pretended not to see, letting him feed it leftovers.
He used to chase that little white dog around the starfruit tree. Those were his simplest, happiest days.
Until his mother found out.
She came home one day, saw the dirty little dog in the courtyard, screamed, and ordered the housekeeper to drive it out. When she learned Zuo Shihuan had brought it in, she scolded him harshly.
He could only stand at the doorway watching as his mother, in a bad mood, grabbed a broom to chase the dog away. The dog whined, unwilling to leave, but was forced out.
Zuo Shihuan thought once his mother left again, he could find the little dog and hide it better this time.
But what came instead was the test result showing he would differentiate as a Beta — and after that, his mother fell from grace. His father grew tired of her, gave her a small sum and the house they lived in, and left.
Unwilling to accept it, his mother sold the house to buy jewelry and clothes, hoping to catch another wealthy Alpha.
Of course, she failed.
The house was gone, the money swindled away, and they ended up in the slums.
After that, Zuo Shihuan never looked for the white dog again. He felt like one himself — a stray, scraping by day to day.
Ironically, years later, that same house — the one his mother had sold — had changed hands until it ended up back with the Zuo family.
When it was officially transferred to him, Zuo Shihuan saw the familiar address and felt a sharp pain in his chest. He quickly looked away, unwilling to linger.
And now, it seemed he’d be seeing it often again.
That house was close to the old Zuo residence — if Gu Heng lived there, he could visit him every day.
He imagined Gu Heng in that house like a caged bird, waiting by the window for his return, safe from the wind and rain outside.
At that thought, Zuo Shihuan’s lips curved into a faint, ironic smile.
He really did have the same selfish, greedy blood as his father. Only, unlike his father, he wouldn’t be so heartless and callous— wouldn’t toy with a handful of canaries in his palm and then toss them away one after another, treating each as a mere replacement.
Gu Heng was someone he had liked from the very first glance. He couldn’t bear to treat him like that.
Even if one day he became engaged and married to an Omega of equal social standing, started a family and a career, he would still cherish and take care of his one and only canary with the utmost care— until the canary grew tired of the comfortable, luxurious life, until the day it wanted to live differently, or grew wings strong enough to soar away.
When that day came, he would still let it go.
But after learning about the overlap between Gu Heng and that person from the past, something inside Zuo Shihuan shifted. He no longer saw Gu Heng as a completely independent being; in his heart, Gu Heng’s place had quietly fallen by one degree.
He began to see him as a pet— soft, beautiful, unable to support himself.
Even though Zuo Shihuan still had feelings for Gu Heng, and deep down he saw him as someone vibrant and unlike anyone else, he had unknowingly stepped into a role that was far more arrogant and possessive.
In his heart, Zuo Shihuan had already assumed that Gu Heng would not refuse— that he would allow Zuo Shihuan to arrange the rest of his life: the house he lived in, the job he worked, the people he socialized with— all under his control.
Just as Zuo Shihuan had gradually taken control of the entire Zuo family— the vast network of relatives, his father, Madam Zuo, and all his half-siblings— each assigned a role under his direction, no room for even the slightest error.
To outsiders, Zuo Shihuan was the perfect, exemplary heir of the Zuo family. Even with his beginnings in the slums of the lower city, he had clawed his way out through sheer perseverance and willpower. Returning to the highest echelons of the elite Zuo family, he moved with ease and grace— flawlessly, almost frighteningly so.
He looked every bit the capable, ambitious Alpha.
And for an Alpha, ambition was never a vice. Having ambition without ability was shameful; having both was admirable. Zuo Shihuan, clearly, was not lacking in either.
But more than ambition, what ran deep in Zuo Shihuan’s bones was his need for control.
Of course, “control” could be softened and called “responsibility.”
Irresponsible parents had given him a childhood of instability and chaos— and so, Zuo Shihuan learned early how vital it was to seize control of his own life, to keep even the most volatile, unpredictable elements tightly within his grasp.
When he was young, the unstable element had been his mother. So before he was even an adult, Zuo Shihuan had been the one supporting that useless mother— managing everything on his own. But even that unstable element eventually ran away.
After returning to the Zuo family, the next sources of instability were his half-siblings, Madam Zuo, and his perpetually irresponsible father.
As an adult, Zuo Shihuan learned from experience. He gradually gained complete control of the Zuo family and became the flawless heir no one could find fault with.
And now—
Gu Heng was that one unstable emotional factor Zuo Shihuan kept trying to face calmly, yet could never truly control.
He had thought he would gradually forget this reckless affection, but instead, he only sank deeper— feeling jealousy and resentment at the sight of anyone near Gu Heng.
So much so that he lost reason, doing the very things he had once despised— just like his out-of-control mother, he found himself in a bar full of strangers, drinking to drown his emotions and escape reality.
When midnight passed, he hadn’t expected Gu Heng to appear— yet there he was, suddenly, without warning.
An unstable, dangerous man who lured him toward an irreversible abyss.
But now— there was a perfect solution.
A way to stop suppressing his feelings, without falling into ruin.
Zuo Shihuan’s gaze burned into Gu Heng, the usual calm in his light brown eyes replaced by feverish intensity and anticipation.
As if— as soon as Gu Heng agreed, he would be ready. He would close the cage completely, lock it, and never open it again.
“Do you like this house?”
Zuo Shihuan’s voice was heated as he asked.
But Gu Heng’s expression suddenly changed. He pinched Zuo Shihuan’s chin, staring into those unnaturally bright brown eyes, and spoke in a cold, furious tone: “I’m not some little toy you keep in a house. If you just wanted to sleep with me, I’d do it for free— not a single cent needed. But if you keep looking at me with those disgusting eyes…”
If it were anyone else— if any other man dared look at him with the gaze reserved for a caged pet— Gu Heng would’ve already knocked him to the ground.
Yet, when it came to Zuo Shihuan, his tolerance was strangely high. He could only assume Zuo Shihuan was drunk, his mind fogged and reason lost.
Zuo Shihuan’s gaze was unnervingly calm. He frowned slightly, his tone almost innocent. “Why won’t you accept it?”
Gu Heng’s black eyes narrowed sharply. Something seemed to click in his mind— his expression darkened, dangerous, humiliated.
“Who is it,” he asked coldly, “that you’re seeing through me?”
Zuo Shihuan’s pupils contracted, his reaction far too sharp— as though his secret had been pierced. He immediately said, “No— I’m not!”
Gu Heng didn’t believe him. Those noble, black eyes turned terrifyingly deep as he gritted his teeth and seized Zuo Shihuan’s wrist.
“Zuo Shihuan,” he said, voice trembling with fury, “you’re the first person who’s ever made me this angry.”
In the past, anyone who dared anger him like this— was already dead.
Zuo Shihuan’s gaze flickered; he bit his lip and turned his face away, refusing to answer.
