Chapter 41: Not Even One Shot is Enough
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The time difference between China and abroad happened to be opposite, so when Shen Yao arrived home, it was exactly noon. As he opened the door, he noticed that the furnishings inside the house were neatly arranged as usual.
However, his steps slightly paused, and he sensed that something was off. The coffee table seemed to have been forcefully bumped, tilting at a slight angle.
Shen Yao remembered that after he left with Chen Shuang, Guan Shu had stayed alone in this room, probably causing the furniture to become disarrayed.
Being a bit OCD, Shen Yao had to ensure order and tidiness. Without thinking much about it, he reached out to straighten the coffee table and then walked towards the bedroom.
Pulling open the drawer, his phone was neatly placed on top. He plugged it in to charge. The first thing he did after returning home was to take a shower in the bathroom.
He needed to adjust to the time difference, and he didn’t plan on wasting any daylight. Shen Yao picked up his phone, which was halfway charged, and called a taxi to the dance troupe.
Sitting in the dance studio, he had a cup of black coffee beside him, and once his phone turned on, he received a series of missed calls.
Glancing at them, he ignored every single one and continued to watch the video of his mother dancing.
Zhuo Ran quickly walked in, and when she saw Shen Yao, she finally breathed a sigh of relief. Her tone unconsciously carried a hint of reproach, “I wanted to call you to ask if you arrived home, but you didn’t answer in the evening, and the next day when I called you, you still didn’t answer… The dance troupe couldn’t find you either. If you hadn’t called to take a leave of absence, I would have been so worried that I might have called the police!”
“I had some other important things these past few days.” Shen Yao apologized and smiled, “I should have let Auntie know in advance, but I accidentally forgot.”
“As long as there’s nothing wrong.” Zhuo Ran placed a hand over her chest, and after carefully looking at Shen Yao from head to toe, she felt much more relieved. “Are you watching your mother’s practice video again?”
She had come today because Shen Yao had called her at noon, wanting to understand the meaning behind this dance through her.
Behind every dance choreographed by the dancers, there was often a story. Every movement shining on the stage carried the emotions the dancers wanted to express.
Zhuo Ran shared the same wish as him. She knew how long Lan Ying had prepared for this dance, and she hoped Shen Yao could step on stage and perform, fulfilling this long-cherished dream.
She wanted to help Shen Yao adapt and complete this unfinished dance, but he refused. Zhuo Ran could probably understand what Shen Yao was thinking. He wanted to do everything by himself, from start to finish.
“When Ying Ying was preparing this dance… you happened to be four years old.” Zhuo Ran gently spoke, “She danced for you, for many people. She said as long as you’re happy, you can do anything.”
When Lan Ying said those words, her eyes curved with starlight, harboring beautiful hopes. As the daughter of a nanny, she had grown up in the Shen household since she was young. She and her husband had been childhood sweethearts, always protected and always exuding beauty and charm. Everyone around her liked her.
Zhuo Ran sat on the floor of the dance studio and joked, “Little Yao Yao is still so young, how could he understand?”
“Our Yao Yao is very smart. Whatever you tell him, he understands,” Lan Ying smiled. “He enjoys watching me dance and he likes dancing too.”
Her hand rested on the barre, wearing a flowing sundress that was gentle yet not frail.
Lan Ying thought for a moment and became even happier as she laughed, “If he can’t understand now, I can dance for him in the future. Not only can I dance for him, but I can also teach him how to dance.”
Zhuo Ran told Shen Yao everything. She worried that he would be upset, but she also felt that she should tell him.
She stayed with Shen Yao a little while longer before getting up to leave. After reaching the doorway, Zhuo Ran turned her head once again.
In the dance studio, Shen Yao held his phone with his pale fingers. He lowered his head, his eyelashes lightly drooping, making it hard to discern his emotions.
Zhuo Ran felt that Shen Yao resembled Lan Ying in some ways, but also not quite.
Shen Yao practiced in the dance studio until late. He kept dancing without interruption, and his body was covered in sweat.
He first went to the bathroom to wash his face before picking up his backpack and heading downstairs. The weather had finally cooled down a bit recently, with significant temperature differences between day and night. He needed to wear a light jacket to keep warm in the late hours.
Shen Yao put on his jacket. During this time, Shen Fulin had been calling him numerous times, probably about the shipment issue. Things had calmed down a bit these past few days, most likely because they found out about his connection with Yan Zhixing. Shen Yao didn’t want Shen Fulin to know about his return to China, so he didn’t arrange for a driver to pick him up.
Walking towards the designated pick-up and drop-off area, Shen Yao took out his phone to prepare to hail a cab. His original pace was steady and unhurried, but at a certain moment, he paused and then suddenly accelerated. In an instant, Shen Yao swiftly ran towards the bright lights of the main road while manipulating his phone with his fingers.
The alpha following behind him no longer concealed himself when he saw this. He threw off the hat from his head, revealing a ferocious expression. His breath was heavy, like a dog with a broken leg that had just been thrown out of a cage.
The alpha chased after Shen Yao’s back, emitting several chilling laughs from his mouth. Then, with extreme hatred, he roared, “Shen Yao! You b*stard! Why are you running when you see me? Are you feeling guilty?”
Shen Yao’s expression remained calm; he knew he couldn’t outrun the alpha behind him. He just needed to wait for an opportunity. The footsteps behind him grew closer, and it felt like the stench of decay and rot was also drawing nearer.
The alpha’s contorted face reached out, his fingers about to touch Shen Yao’s arm. Unexpectedly, Shen Yao lifted his elbow and forcefully struck the alpha’s nose and eyes with all his strength.
The alpha, consumed by hatred, didn’t anticipate Shen Yao’s resistance. He took a blow to the most vulnerable part of his face and let out a howl of pain, instinctively covering his face and taking a few steps back.
Shen Yao didn’t stop there; he continued with his next move. He raised his leg.
Bending his knee, he gathered strength and then kicked out fiercely, aiming at the softest and least protected area—the abdomen.
“Ah… Ah!”
Omegas were inherently disadvantaged in the presence of alphas, but this time, under Shen Yao’s unexpected resistance, the alpha was knocked down to the ground, curling up in pain.
Shen Yao maintained a steady breath, never letting his guard down. His phone had fallen to the ground when he made his move, but he didn’t bother to pick it up. He seized the opportunity and hurried towards the brighter area.
Self-defense techniques were taught to him bit by bit by Guan Shu during high school, just in case. He had remembered them all, and now he had actually put them into practice.
However, in a split second, Shen Yao’s footsteps were forced to a halt.
Several alphas stood in front of him, resembling the kind of thugs often seen on the streets with their hair dyed in various flashy colors.
Upon seeing him, the thugs whistled with great delight, their greedy and lecherous gazes sticking to him.
Shen Yao stopped in his tracks and slowly began to step backward. His gaze started to shift towards his phone lying on the ground, hoping to find the right opportunity to snatch it back.
“Why aren’t you running? Go ahead and run!” the alpha who had been knocked down on the ground said, clutching his stomach as he slowly got up. He raised his face under the streetlight. Shen Yao showed no surprise or fear on his face; he had recognized this face long ago.
Back then, he and Xu Yibai had sent him to the police station. Due to lack of solid evidence, the alpha had only received a four-year sentence, the maximum limit.
The alpha’s figure had become much leaner, and his back was more hunched. The hair on his head resembled short thorns, indicating that he had recently been released from prison.
“Hu Bin,” Shen Yao knew his name all along, and he asked softly, “How was the air inside?”
When he mentioned this, Hu Bin’s entire face changed. Hu Bin approached Shen Yao, along with a few thugs, cornering him against the wall. He sneered and without any mercy, kicked Shen Yao’s abdomen.
Shen Yao slid down the wall, his face turning pale, almost transparent, with cold sweat on his forehead.
“Don’t hurt him too much,” one of the thugs tutted discontentedly, saying, “We’ll have our fun later.”
“You asked me about the air inside? Wasn’t it you who f*cking sent me in there?” Hu Bin grabbed Shen Yao’s hair, forcefully pulling him up from the ground. His contorted face resembled that of a malevolent ghost. “When you lied to the police and said I tried to rape you, why didn’t your face even blush? It was you who asked me to take you to the storage room, wasn’t it? You said I could do anything to you? And what about the scent of pheromones in that warehouse? Wasn’t it you who said you were afraid of pain, so I had to forcefully lure you into heat using pheromones?”
“Everything was your idea, wasn’t it? But in front of the police and Xu Yibai, how come you suddenly turned into an innocent little bunny who knows nothing? What about me raping you? Wasn’t it you begging me to f*ck you?”
Indeed, Hu Bin had wanted to sleep with Shen Yao back then, but he didn’t have the audacity to directly rape him. At most, he would send harassing messages every day, which eventually led to his number being blocked, forcing him to switch to another number.
Crying and wailing when he was imprisoned, he realized that no one was listening to his explanations. That was when he finally understood that he had fallen into the trap set by Shen Yao.
Hu Bin came from a somewhat well-off family. He clung to his father’s leg, crying and wanting to use money to get out, only to receive a slap in the face. That was when he realized the gravity of the trouble he had gotten himself into.
He endured his sentence, waiting for his release, but he never heard any news about Shen Yao and Xu Yibai’s romance, nor did he hear about them spending time together. Hu Bin blamed all the wrongs on Shen Yao. He even felt that he had spent four innocent years in prison, and his grievances could never be washed away.
Since Shen Yao accused him of rape, he would let Shen Yao experience what it truly meant to be raped. Not only would he rape Shen Yao, but he would also mark him for life, making that wretched Shen Yao cry and apologize to him, begging on his knees.
“Hoo…”
Just as he was thinking this way, Hu Bin became increasingly excited. He gripped Shen Yao’s hair harder and harder, as if he wanted to tear his scalp off.
He had already prepared his passport and plane ticket. This time, everything was foolproof.
Shen Yao had been enduring the pain, his lip bitten to the point of bleeding. Finally, he heard the roaring sound of a car approaching, getting closer and closer. The corners of his mouth slightly relaxed.
“So what?” Shen Yao’s beautiful face remained cold and icy. He showed no compromise or retreat, raising his eyes to look at Hu Bin. “I’ve already shown great mercy by not killing you.”
Hu Bin spread rumors about him and sent him so many disgusting messages. Shen Yao believed he had already shown kindness.
He timed his message to Xu Yibai perfectly, and he timed when Xu Yibai would arrive because he needed a witness.
Hu Bin’s eyes turned crimson, but suddenly he remembered that Shen Yao was now in his grasp, at his mercy.
He raised a sinister smile and lifted his hand to strike another slap.
“Bang!”
A bullet pierced through the air, precisely hitting his knee. His hand didn’t land, and Hu Bin let out a piercing scream that seemed to reach the heavens.
Hu Bin fell to the ground in pain, rolling and writhing while clutching his leg. His throat let out a burst of agonized screams, and copious amounts of blood poured endlessly from his wound.
As he helplessly rolled, his body was about to reach Shen Yao’s shoe when a pair of cold, hard military boots met him head-on, kicking him several meters away as if dealing with an inanimate object.
“Get lost!”
Hu Bin’s vision darkened, and he coughed up blood. He weakly opened his eyes and saw a fierce-looking Alpha. With furrowed brows and a chilling gaze, the Alpha’s sharp shoulder insignia seemed to pierce through his eyes.
Guan Shu had never been so enraged before. He held onto Shen Yao, who had turned pale and was unsteady on his feet. Veins bulged on Guan Shu’s arms, but he restrained his strength, protecting Shen Yao.
He could even feel Shen Yao’s body trembling slightly. Guan Shu felt his blood flow in reverse, eroding his sanity.
“It hurts… Guan Shu.” Shen Yao buried his face in Guan Shu’s neck, reaching out and embracing him with all his strength, as if he had found a source of reliance. “It hurts so much.”
Had anyone ever treated Shen Yao like this?
He, an omega who was completely defenseless, being cornered like this, with that group of b*stard alphas staring at him. Not only did they hit Shen Yao, but they had even more vile things planned.
If Guan Shu hadn’t arrived in time, if he had been even a step late, Guan Shu didn’t even dare to think about it. The suffocating feeling had already enveloped him completely.
How dare they? How dare they treat Shen Yao like this?
Guan Shu lowered his head and gently kissed Shen Yao’s forehead. He patted his back soothingly with the back of his hand.
“Don’t be afraid.”
Guan Shu raised his hand, and the icy muzzle slid across each of the thugs who attempted to escape, freezing them in their tracks, reduced them to trembling messes.
Finally, the muzzle aimed at Hu Bin’s head from a distance, and Guan Shu’s hand was steady, without the slightest tremor.
His gaze held no warmth; his eyes were like raging tigers. Gripping the gun, Guan Shu waited until Hu Bin was consumed by terror before he spoke, questioning him coldly:
“With which hand did you touch Shen Yao?”
“And with which foot did you kick him?”
According to the rules of law enforcement, Guan Shu had no right to open fire indiscriminately. But he felt that even one shot was not enough.
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