Chapter 55: Drinking Poison to Quench Thirst
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In another room, Xu Xingran struggled forcefully. His teeth gritted, making a crackling sound, and his initially composed and calm expression turned red from exertion.
“You’ve gone too far—”
K’s voice came with a malicious tone, “Only when you go too far, will you release your true nature.”
The restraint belt was designed not to injure wrists and joints, its strength had undergone countless tests. No matter how strong and high-quality an alpha was, it could firmly fix a person in place.
“Ugh—”
Xu Xingran had exerted all his strength, and even the blood vessels on his neck had burst.
The pheromone sensing device in the room showed a concentration that instantly reached ten to twenty times that of a normal alpha.
“It seems… you really like him a lot…”
Watching this scene, K’s voice dragged on for a long time. He seemed puzzled by Xu Xingran’s persistence towards An Lan and couldn’t understand why Xu Xingran refused to let An Lan become an omega.
Xu Xingran was still struggling when a person wearing a mask entered, extracting his blood.
The excessive loss of blood weakened Xu Xingran. Strands of hair clung to his sweaty forehead, and when he raised his head, he coldly looked at the person drawing his blood.
An imposing aura spread out, unexpectedly strong for such a young alpha. The two beta individuals drawing blood were oppressed by his gaze and couldn’t lift their heads.
On the narrow single bed, Xiao Chen tightly gripped An Lan’s wrists, pressing them against the pillow.
His gaze gradually lost focus, as if fervently yearning for something in the void.
“Xiao Chen… If you don’t wake me up now, we won’t even have classmates to be.” Now was not the time for mercy. An Lan ruthlessly used his knee to strike Xiao Chen’s abdomen, but the young alpha’s robust physique absorbed it, not showing any sign of movement.
The expression that was usually three parts mocking and seven parts indifferent was now filled with a terrifying desire.
Xiao Chen slowly lowered his body, and his nose touched An Lan’s eyebrow.
As if probing, from his eyebrow, it slowly moved down his face, reaching his chin, seemingly gently pressing upwards, with no room for refusal.
He was like a beast suppressing the desire to hunt for a long time. Once there was movement, it would rush out and tear everything apart.
An Lan turned his face away. He intended to focus and release pheromones to warn Xiao Chen.
But unexpectedly, Xiao Chen, in a pleading tone, said, “Don’t go… Don’t be afraid of me… I need you.”
An Lan paused, only then realizing that Xiao Chen, holding his hands, was trembling. His tightly closed eyes and even his clenched teeth showed resistance to his instincts.
Xiao Chen, like a wild beast wandering for a long time, was slowly overwhelmed by exhaustion, lying on top of An Lan. He tightly embraced An Lan.
His arms exerted force, and An Lan was nearly unable to breathe due to the constriction.
But An Lan could hear his intense heartbeat. His blood flow became faster and faster, and the emitted pheromones were like a thick cocoon, enveloping An Lan.
An Lan concentrated his mind, recalling the day when Gu Liyu taught him how to suppress Xiao Nan’s pheromones.
He had to resist, surrender to any enemy would be acceptable, but this person must not be Xiao Chen.
He forced himself to focus, constructing in his mind a non-existent target. Just as he was about to release his pheromones with all his might, Xiao Chen curled up entirely, burying his head in An Lan’s neck.
An Lan heard a series of forceful breaths; it was Xiao Chen smelling his pheromones.
It was a satisfied sound. Xiao Chen’s hand then shifted to grasp An Lan’s head, fingers sliding into the strands of hair at the back of his head, gently tugging, careful not to cause any pain. His warm breath adhered to the pulsating artery on An Lan’s neck, repeatedly breathing in.
“Sorry…” Xiao Chen’s hoarse voice sounded.
An Lan slowly raised his hand and patted his back.
“I don’t want to touch you… I don’t want to treat you like this… but I can’t help it…”
An Lan touched the sweaty back of Xiao Chen’s head. “You can. I believe in you.”
No longer avoiding him, An Lan’s cheek lightly touched Xiao Chen’s forehead.
“You don’t know how many terrifying thoughts I have in my mind… I want to tear you apart… want to destroy you… and also want to possess you…”
An Lan paused; he certainly understood what Xiao Chen meant by “possession.”
“They drugged you to enter the susceptible period. You’re just being controlled by your instincts.” An Lan softened his tone, comforting Xiao Chen as much as possible. At this moment, An Lan was more concerned about Xiao Chen than himself. He didn’t know what kind of drug the other party had used on him or how long its effects would last. What method would Xiao Chen need to truly calm down?
Do they really have to mark each other?
“If I could just be controlled by instinct like this…”
Xiao Chen released An Lan, turning to the other side and curling up.
An Lan saw his shoulders trembling, even hearing the sound of his bones.
“Stay away from me!” Xiao Chen said coldly.
The usually dominant Xiao Chen now seemed like an injured wild beast, desperately trying to squeeze into an unseen crevice.
The air carried a faint scent of blood; Xiao Chen bit his own hand, trying to use pain to wake himself up.
But in this place, there were no secrets, no crevices to hide. That lunatic might be eating chips and drinking cola, watching them.
Suddenly, An Lan remembered that when Xiao Chen lost consciousness due to excessive use of suppressants, he woke up listening to Su Songning’s song.
“I don’t know what else can help you. Even if I close the door, it’s just struggling in a different place.”
Turning to the side, An Lan hugged Xiao Chen from behind.
At the moment An Lan tightened his embrace, Xiao Chen trembled as if struck by electricity.
“…Get lost!”
He tried to fiercely collide his arm backward against An Lan, but at the moment of impact, he softened and lost strength.
“Do you think… entering the susceptible period for alphas is child’s play? Don’t overestimate my patience… Don’t overestimate your own strength…”
“I have no strength, except to accompany you.”
An Lan covered Xiao Chen’s eyes with his hand, the warm palm making Xiao Chen completely still, as if something deep in his soul had been seized.
“Don’t think about who the person next to you is, don’t think about where this is… don’t think that your body is hot or there’s a fire burning in your heart. Just listen to my voice.”
Xiao Chen forced out a bitter smile.
“Your voice… is poison.”
Drinking poison to quench thirst is the deadliest.
“This city has millions of lights, brighter than the stars in the sky. It’s flowing, waiting for someone, not yet sensing the telepathy, not yet understanding your color. This city… becomes dim, this city… withers away…”
An Lan’s voice was soft, and at first, Xiao Chen couldn’t dare to listen to it.
Gradually, however, Xiao Chen suddenly understood. An Lan was singing Su Songning’s final work, “Silent City.”
“You are so bright, so good at being yourself. Young me watching you, it’s like watching a warm dream… Time has passed, I haven’t seen you again. You exist in another life, and I watch you from afar… This silent city… has finally become a yellowed old poem…”
Xiao Chen trembled even more violently, his throat choked, starting to sob.
He had gotten used to being strong. Even when he returned home that day, saw his mother with delicate makeup, wearing the most beautiful dress, lying on the bed as if sleeping, his heart was pierced, but he couldn’t shed tears because his younger sister would be back soon.
When the police and ambulances arrived, he took Xiao Le far away on his bicycle.
Since then, no one comforted him, no one protected him. He had to straighten his back, lift his proud head. He wasn’t afraid of the crown falling because he never had one; he was just afraid of shedding tears, seen by his sister, seen by the opponent.
When all kindness couldn’t distinguish its purpose, when all smiling faces had ulterior motives, Xiao Chen felt the most beautiful thing for the first time: a phone with a lucky cat phone case.
That phone stored his mother’s last song.
And a very faint, very faint scent of bamboo leaves.
Xiao Chen knew that it was the smell of another alpha because it was full of tenacity. It seemed gentle but refused to compromise. Xiao Chen listened to his mother’s song while touching his nose to the screen of the phone, as if he had found another self in this world.
An Lan was still singing that song.
Su Songning’s singing was full of regret, while An Lan’s voice was calm and resigned.
Xiao Chen turned around, holding An Lan’s wrist and placing it behind himself, like a child, he nestled into An Lan’s arms.
An Lan’s eyes also turned red, and he gently rested his chin on Xiao Chen’s head.
“Thank you. I know you did it to save me…”
“Don’t stop, you sing beautifully. If you don’t comfort me… I might do something bad.”
Xiao Chen’s voice was hoarse, like the desert exposed to the scorching sun, yet it carried a hint of aggrieved childishness.
An Lan held him, gently patting his back, singing that song.
But at this moment, the door suddenly opened.
Two people in white coats with masks walked in.
“What do you want!” An Lan was about to sit up but felt a wave of dizziness.
It seemed that the ventilation in this room released a sedative again. An Lan watched as they took Xiao Chen away.
“Don’t touch him… What do you want!”
The broadcast in the room sounded: “Good child, take a little nap.”
An Lan’s vision darkened, and he collapsed.
In another room, Xu Xingran watched this scene. The tension in his muscles eased, but he still frowned, staring at the screen.
“See, I treat you so well. I didn’t let anyone touch your little lover,” K’s voice rang out.
Xu Xingran sneered, “You’re using Xiao Chen to stimulate my protective and possessive instincts towards An Lan.”
“Yes, that way, the concentration of aplus in your pheromones will be high enough.”
“What about Xiao Chen? What do you want to do to him?”
“We wouldn’t miss the aplus of a high-quality alpha. Of course, we need to collect samples as much as possible.”
Loss of blood made Xu Xingran dizzy.
In a mocking tone, K said, “Rest well, my ‘partner.'”
Xu Xingran’s mouth twitched slightly. He said indifferently, “You don’t need any partners.”
“Don’t think like that. Just as you said before, the aplus of a high-quality alpha isn’t something you can get just by wanting it. You have to be willing to give it.”
“You just enjoy controlling top alphas.”
Xu Xingran slowly closed his eyes; he needed time to recover.
“I am sincerely willing to cooperate with you. Student Xu, when you wake up, I will give you the best omega in the world.”
The police were actively searching for An Lan, and the pressure on them increased. Not only An Lan was missing, but also Xu Xingran and Xiao Chen.
Both the Xu and Xiao families were pressuring the police. The case was related to Eve’s Apple, and the entire police force in the jurisdiction was involved. In the USB drive that Xu Xingran left in the VIP room of the bar, they found a large number of alpha families related to Eden with customization business.
This included Han Li.
Han Li’s envoy, Uncle He, was also under investigation by the police.
The more they dug, the more terrifying it became. The customized service of “Eden” had long been prevalent secretly among alphas.
Once those alphas set their eyes on a beta, they would pay a large “deposit” to “Eden.” This “deposit” might not be in cash but an exchange of interests. It could be a request for a powerful alpha to arrange someone within “Eden” to a specific position or detailed information about an important person.
This included the matters of the Xiao family.
As Xiao Yun and Xiao Chen’s father, Xiao Hongwen, sat in the interrogation room, listening to Uncle He’s confession, he was not only shocked but even panicked.
He was shocked that his wife had been plotting to obtain his other son’s heart all along. He was panicked that his confidante had been manipulated by another organization, constantly revealing the secrets of the Xiao family.
In an unpleasant tone, “Eden” knew far more about the Xiao family than Xiao Hongwen.
Xiao Hongwen covered his eyes, trembling, and asked, “Can my son… still come back?”
The captain instinctively asked, “Which son?”
“Xiao Chen.”
“… We will do our best to find him.”
At this time, in the corridor of the police station, a middle-aged man in a gray-blue suit and hair walked by the window.
He wore frameless glasses, with handsome and intelligent features. Moonlight fell on his cheeks, as if applying a layer of cold glaze.
At this moment, Gu Liyu passed by him from behind.
The man spoke, “What are you planning?”
Gu Liyu stopped, looking at the man, and replied indifferently, “If I say it out loud, it won’t be a plan.”
The man’s expression did not relax; instead, he turned around and looked at the teenager in front of him.
Compared to his elusive life experiences, this teenager was too green and too tender.
Even if he had no expression, the man could still see that the teenager was worried and nervous.
However, even so, the man couldn’t see through this teenager.
He was like the deep sea in the dark, vaguely undulating, unable to measure the height of the ink-colored waves, nor the depth.
“Xingran has never defied me. I told him not to get too involved in ‘Eden.’ But he has put himself in it. Is that boy An Lan really that important?”
“Someday, he will control everything you control. If he wants to surpass you, it starts with ‘defying’ you.” Gu Liyu replied.
The man squinted his eyes; he wanted to say, “You are too arrogant,” but in his heart, he hoped that his son could indeed start with “defying” him, breaking out of the framework he had designed, and creating another world.
“The family motto of the Gu family is ‘Always Prepared.’ Liyu, are you really prepared?” Xu Zhongshuang asked.
“Everyone only knows the first half; the second half is ‘Take Risks Forever.'”
Gu Liyu’s expression remained cold, the kind of cold sharpness like an unattainable snow-capped mountain. He knew his goal clearly and wouldn’t stop until he achieved it.
Even if the cost was the melting of ice and snow, exposure to the sunlight, losing everything, he would not waver in the slightest.
Xu Zhongshuang was filled with fear towards “Eden,” but in Gu Liyu’s eyes, he didn’t see this emotion.
It was the gaze of a hunter, calm yet revealing a desire for bloodshed. Perhaps, while adults were still unaware of the danger around them, these children had already sprung their fangs, fiercely embedding them into the body of a colossal prey.
Gu Liyu left, leaving Xu Zhongshuang lost in thought about those words.
“You… have really gone mad…”
However, Xu Zhongshuang had to admit that the thorn called “Eden” must be pulled out, even if the bone might shatter, even if blood would flow like a river, even if the cost was his own son. If not removed, the invaded Xu family would inevitably become a plaything for “Eden.”
Xu Zhongshuang still remembered the information the police revealed to him, every conversation with Xu Xingran, how he instructed his son, even details like their breakfast, were transmitted to “Eden.”
Even Xu Zhongshuang’s several cousins were clients of “Eden.”
When Gu Liyu walked out of the police station, his phone trembled. It was a message from the deputy captain: Your guess is correct.
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