After school on Monday, Xu Ze went to the club. During this period, whenever he had free time, he would come over to work part-time. Yesterday, when he went to the nursing home, Zhou Zhen told him that they had switched Ye Yunhua to a new medication. It was a little more expensive than the previous one, but it was more effective, and the side effects would also be reduced.
His expenses were increasing day by day. Relying solely on one match a week was already too difficult, especially since Xu Ze was occasionally assigned to participate in free exhibition matches.
A little after ten, Xu Ze returned to the backstage area. He took off his cap and drank some water. A fighter pushed open the door to grab his bag and, before leaving, said quietly, “The boss is here.”
Xu Ze turned to look at him, but the fighter had already hurried out. Xu Ze barely hesitated before immediately going to the locker to get his schoolbag. However, just as he straightened up, the door was pushed open. A tall alpha bodyguard stood by the door and expressionlessly informed him, “The boss will be here soon. Wait here.”
“Okay.”
Xu Ze placed his schoolbag on the table.
A few minutes later, Tang Feiyi entered the room. He locked the door behind him, walked over to the table, and threw a stack of photographs in front of Xu Ze. Tang Feiyi sat down in a chair and lit a cigarette. After exhaling a mouthful of smoke, he raised his eyes and looked at Xu Ze.
Xu Ze picked up the photographs and looked through them one by one. His expression barely changed, but it was obvious that he was looking at them very carefully.
Because every photograph showed him and Lu Heyang.
Lu Heyang supporting him while he was drunk and helping him into the changing room; the two of them restocking the drink machine together in the lobby; Xu Ze applying chalk to Lu Heyang’s pool cue in the billiards hall…
Some were close-up shots, some were taken from farther away; some were blurry, others clear. There were probably a dozen or so in total.
The more carefully Xu Ze looked, the darker Tang Feiyi’s expression became.
Xu Ze had never been someone who cared excessively about anything.
“Done looking?” Tang Feiyi shook the ash from his cigarette and asked.
Xu Ze stacked the photographs together, running his fingertip along the edges as though he had obsessive-compulsive tendencies, trying to align the uneven edges perfectly.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“I was wondering why you stopped asking for more matches. Turns out you’ve latched onto a cash cow.”
Tang Feiyi leaned back in his chair and looked Xu Ze up and down.
“What, you’ve been in the Preparatory School for more than two years and finally figured things out?”
Hearing the implication that Tang Feiyi had already investigated Lu Heyang, Xu Ze suddenly fixed his eyes on him.
Tang Feiyi, however, laughed again.
“What are you so nervous about?”
“He doesn’t need you worrying about him, anyway. After all, he’s Gu Yunchi’s friend.”
Tang Feiyi tossed the cigarette butt onto the floor. This was what infuriated him the most. Those two alphas had an unusual relationship with Gu Yunchi, yet he couldn’t find any personal information about either of them. Being able to keep their identities that secret meant their families had to have at least Alliance-level connections.
A powerful opponent wasn’t the problem. You could always find their weakness eventually.
The real problem was that you didn’t even know how powerful your opponent was.
Xu Ze looked at him, still wearing that same quiet, indifferent expression.
Tang Feiyi stood up and walked over to Xu Ze. He took the photographs from Xu Ze’s hand and slapped the stack against his face.
“How much have you managed to get out of these rich young masters?” he asked mockingly. “Why do you still have to come here to work?”
“That’s my business.”
Xu Ze turned his face slightly away, a faint crease appearing between his brows.
“It has nothing to do with you.”
“Nothing to do with me?”
Tang Feiyi slammed the photographs onto the table. He suddenly grabbed Xu Ze by the throat and shoved him backward, pushing him until Xu Ze’s back struck the wall.
Tang Feiyi’s grip was extremely hard, and his voice was low and vicious.
“Who was the one who recruited you in the first place so you’d have a way to make a living? And who was the one who lent you the money for your grandmother’s surgery when you needed it urgently? Why didn’t you say it had nothing to do with me back then?”
Xu Ze’s face quickly flushed from lack of air. He didn’t struggle, only said calmly and with difficulty, “I already paid you back.”
He didn’t believe he owed Tang Feiyi anything.
Even if he hadn’t come here to fight, he would have found somewhere else to fight. If it weren’t for that contract, and if he hadn’t known that breaking it would only lead to Tang Feiyi harassing him even more relentlessly, Xu Ze would have left long ago.
S-rank alpha pheromones spread through the room, provoking Tang Feiyi into tightening his grip even harder.
He sneered.
“He’s only playing around with you. You don’t actually think he’s going to get serious with an alpha like you, do you? It’s just for fun and something new. You’re a poor alpha with no father or mother. What kind of dream are you having? Be careful you don’t end up not even knowing how you died.”
Those words couldn’t hurt Xu Ze very much.
After all, he had never dreamed of anything like that, nor did he think there was anything fun or novel about him that would interest Lu Heyang.
As for being “a poor alpha with no father or mother,” Tang Feiyi wasn’t wrong.
Xu Ze didn’t want to explain or argue. With his throat being squeezed tightly, he didn’t even have the ability to speak.
Xu Ze half-closed his eyes and frowned. Tang Feiyi wasn’t actually going to kill him. Not struggling or fighting back was the most appropriate way to resolve this. Otherwise, it would be easy for the situation to turn into an endless struggle.
Every second of oxygen deprivation felt unbearably long.
Xu Ze could feel his heartbeat speeding up and slowing down erratically. By the time Tang Feiyi finally released him, Xu Ze could no longer stand. He bent over and began coughing violently, his chest heaving.
Xu Ze wiped at his eyes.
When he looked up, he saw Tang Feiyi returning to the table, picking up those photographs, and setting them on fire with a lighter.
The glare of the flames was blinding. Xu Ze rubbed his eyes again, then stared at the burning photographs until Tang Feiyi threw them onto the ground.
After Tang Feiyi opened the door and left, Xu Ze straightened up and walked a few steps before crouching down in front of the pile of ashes. He picked up one photograph that hadn’t burned completely and wiped it with his hand. The photo was still warm. All that remained was Lu He Yang’s profile and Xu Ze’s hand in the lower-right corner.
Xu Ze stood up, put the photograph into his backpack, rubbed his neck, and silently left the locker room.
The next afternoon, during swimming class, more students had started attending again because the end of the semester was approaching. After finishing his training, Xu Ze looked around the swimming center but couldn’t find Lu He Yang. Xu Ze returned to the locker room, took a shower, then stood in front of his locker and opened his phone. He wanted to try sending Lu He Yang a message, telling him that he was waiting for him in Locker Room No. 4 after class so he could return his clothes.
Xu Ze tapped Lu He Yang’s name in his contacts and typed and deleted his words repeatedly. It was such a simple thing, but somehow he felt that no matter how he phrased it, something was wrong.
He was so absorbed in thinking that Xu Ze didn’t even notice an alpha walking up beside him.
A few seconds later, Xu Ze heard someone ask, “Are you writing an essay on your phone?”
Xu Ze’s hand jerked, and he almost dropped his phone. He turned around somewhat flusteredly, and Lu He Yang was standing beside him. He had just come out of the pool, and water was still dripping continuously from the ends of his hair, droplets tracing lines down the smooth contours of his muscles.
“Did I scare you?” Lu He Yang smiled and reached out to pat Xu Ze’s back, as if comforting a frightened child. “Sorry.”
Xu Ze came back to his senses and shook his head, answering Lu He Yang’s first question. “I’m sending a text.”
As he spoke, he raised the phone screen slightly. Lu He Yang glanced at it and asked, “To me?”
“Mm.” Xu Ze nodded. “I wanted to return your clothes.”
As soon as he said it, he remembered why Lu He Yang had lent him the clothes in the first place. Xu Ze immediately turned his head away and went to retrieve his backpack from the locker. He had deliberately put the T-shirt in a bag and kept it separately in the second compartment of his backpack.
“No need,” Lu He Yang said.
Xu Ze froze and looked at him again. He wanted to explain that he had already washed the clothes clean, but in the end, he said nothing and simply nodded.
“The clothes were new. I washed them and tried them on, but the shoulders were a little too small.” Lu He Yang explained, “They fit you well. If you’re willing, you can keep them.”
He didn’t say ‘You can wear them,’ nor did he ask ‘Do you want them?’ Instead, he used the word ‘willing,’ leaving Xu Ze plenty of room to decide. Yet that only made it impossible for Xu Ze to refuse.
Xu Ze was quiet for a while before saying, “Thank you.”
He didn’t think much at all about why Lu He Yang would have brought out a piece of clothing that didn’t fit him properly. Whatever Lu He Yang said, Xu Ze listened to and believed without question.
A stray strand of hair fell onto Lu He Yang’s forehead. Xu Ze noticed it and raised his hand, pointing at Lu He Yang’s face. “There’s some hair.”
Lu He Yang didn’t move. He simply looked at him. Xu Ze paused, then reached out and gently removed the stray strand. A droplet of water rolled down the bridge of Lu He Yang’s nose, and Xu Ze casually wiped that away too.
For some reason, the surroundings suddenly became very quiet. Xu Ze vaguely sensed that the atmosphere had become strange—so strange that he lowered his eyes, not daring to meet Lu He Yang’s gaze.
Lu He Yang’s eyes swept from Xu Ze’s eyes to his lips, then lower, before stopping.
He moved imperceptibly closer and pulled the towel around Xu Ze’s neck aside.
A long purplish-blue mark stretched across the center of Xu Ze’s neck, standing out starkly against his pale skin.
The strange atmosphere disappeared. Xu Ze realized what Lu He Yang had seen. He hadn’t paid any attention to the strangulation mark all day, just as he never cared about the injuries he suffered while boxing. But in front of Lu He Yang, Xu Ze couldn’t help caring.
He tried to gather the towel around his neck and wrap it more securely, but Lu He Yang caught his wrist and stopped him. Then, with his other hand, he pulled the entire towel away from Xu Ze’s neck.
“What happened?” Lu He Yang asked.
He looked very calm. Xu Ze assumed Lu He Yang was simply asking casually, so he told a clumsy lie. “I had a match yesterday and got a little hurt.”
Of course, Lu He Yang wasn’t that easy to fool. Choking someone by the neck was like pulling someone’s hair or scratching them with fingernails in a boxing ring—all things boxers simply wouldn’t do. Besides, in that underground boxing club, choking someone was too boring and too low-level.
“Is that so?” Lu He Yang looked at Xu Ze’s obvious avoidance and said, “Xu Ze, look at me.”
Xu Ze nervously blinked once and raised his head to look at him.
Before he could meet Lu He Yang’s eyes, Lu He Yang’s hand closed around his neck.
Calling it choking wasn’t really accurate, because Lu He Yang barely used any force at all. His grip was very light, loosely encircling Xu Ze’s neck as he pushed him one step backward against the locker.
Xu Ze’s carotid artery throbbed rapidly and strongly against Lu He Yang’s palm. The web between Lu He Yang’s thumb and index finger happened to line up perfectly with the strangulation mark on Xu Ze’s neck. Xu Ze didn’t resist at all. It was almost a kind of blind obedience. He looked at Lu He Yang’s face, but Lu He Yang was no longer looking at him. He was staring only at his neck.
Lu He Yang asked Xu Ze, “Can you tell me who did this?”
He already had an answer in his heart, but he wanted to hear Xu Ze’s answer.