When Number 17 raised his head again, his chin was already covered in blood.
The crew-cut alpha had him trapped in a corner and kept punching him in the face. Number 17 merely raised his arms to block, never striking back.
He Wei looked from side to side before finally concluding, “Number 17 has completely lost his soul today.”
“Maybe they’re promoting a new fighter,” Gu Yunchi said. “Whenever a newcomer comes in, their first match is always against Number 17.”
Throughout the entire fight, Number 17 barely threw any punches. When the referee finally entered the cage and called the match, he was lying quietly beneath the fence, his entire face covered in blood.
The crew-cut alpha was still planning to land a few more punches on his head, but the referee stopped him. After all, this was only an exhibition match. There was no need to take things too far.
The crew-cut alpha stood in the center of the octagonal cage and raised his fist in victory. He lifted his chin and looked around the venue before finally leaving.
Number 17 lay on the mat for a while before slowly sitting up. Almost unconsciously, he looked toward the audience again.
The greasepaint and blood on his face had mixed together, leaving him a complete mess. His cheeks were already swollen, making him almost unrecognizable.
Lu Heyang sat more than a meter above the octagonal cage, looking slightly downward. Through the black wire fence, Number 17 sat inside like a trapped beast whose claws and fangs had been broken.
Their gazes met from afar for half a second.
Number 17 struggled to turn his head away.
The referee bent down and asked him a few questions. Number 17 shook his head, hooked his fingers around the fence, and pulled himself to his feet.
Blood was still running from his nose. Number 17 stiffly wiped at the corner of his mouth and chin, then lowered his head and walked out of the octagonal cage.
“What a damn shame.” He Wei looked regretful. “Number 17 could obviously have beaten him, but he just lost like that. His acting is terrible.”
“He really wasn’t putting his heart into it today,” Gu Yunchi commented.
Lu Heyang, who had been silent all this time, suddenly asked, “When did he start coming here?”
“I heard it was last year.” Gu Yunchi took a sip of his drink. “He used to fight at other venues.”
Number 17’s back disappeared through the entrance to the corridor.
Lu Heyang withdrew his gaze and opened his phone. His fingertip slid across the screen and stopped on one message for several seconds.
Finally, he turned off the screen.
“I’m going out to make a phone call.”
He Wei let out a suggestive, strange noise. “Who is it? An omega?”
Lu Heyang stood up, completely calm.
“Yeah.”
After walking around the club for a while, Lu Heyang realized there was no quiet place suitable for making a phone call.
He wasn’t even sure where he had wandered to. There was an elevator in front of him, so Lu Heyang casually pressed the button and stepped inside.
When it reached the first floor, the elevator doors opened. Lu Heyang stepped out, passed through a short corridor, and walked outside.
It was a small alley, its streetlights casting a dim yellow glow.
Lu Heyang stood against the wall and dialed a number. About ten seconds later, the call connected.
A mature female voice came from the other end.
“Went out to have some fun?”
“Yeah.”
“I heard that as soon as He Wei came back, he’s been dragging you out to go wild every day.”
Lu Heyang chuckled softly. “Before he came back, Yunchi and I went out pretty often too.”
“Are we going to Luanshan tomorrow at noon?” The omega let out a very soft breath. “My flight lands in the early hours of the morning.”
“Yeah.” Lu Heyang paused before saying, “Stop smoking.”
“Can’t help it. I don’t want to quit.”
The omega’s voice sounded exhausted.
“I’m going to sleep. Go home early. Good night.”
“Good night.”
After hanging up, Lu Heyang remained where he was, watching as two alphas walked toward him.
The side entrance of the building was right beside him, the same place he had just walked out from. But out of the corner of his eye, Lu Heyang saw that another alpha was already blocking it.
At that moment, Lu Heyang gained a more practical understanding of just how “chaotic” the western part of the city really was.
His back was against a wall, while three alphas blocked him from the front and both sides. Their method of surrounding someone was practiced and experienced. Unless Lu Heyang had the ability to take on three people at once, there was no way he could escape.
But whether or not he had that ability, Lu Heyang had no intention of fighting all three.
These were three unknown thugs carrying knives and clubs. Going head-to-head with them and trying to prove how tough he was would not be a wise choice.
From the kind of upbringing Lu Heyang, He Wei, Gu Yunchi, and people like them had received since childhood, acting on impulse, letting their tempers get the better of them, and showing off was the most foolish thing they could do.
Now that something had already happened, the most important thing was to find a way to ensure his own safety.
“This wristband must be worth ten or twenty thousand, right?”
The blond alpha in the lead looked Lu Heyang up and down, then glanced at his wrist again, confirming that he was a wealthy student who had been pampered from birth.
With an amused tone, he said, “Where did this little young master come from? Got your wallet on you?”
Lu Heyang said nothing. He took his wallet out of his pants pocket.
He, He Wei, and the others had a habit: when they went out, they generally didn’t carry cards. They only brought cash. The phones they carried were also backup phones, with no important information stored on them. Even if they were lost or stolen, it wouldn’t matter.
Another alpha snatched the wallet from Lu Heyang’s hand. He opened it, took out all the cash, then searched through it again.
“Where are your cards?”
Lu Heyang was about to answer when, from the left—from the side entrance—there was suddenly a faint movement.
In the blink of an eye, the alpha standing on Lu Heyang’s left let out a muffled groan.
A long, powerful hand had wrapped itself around his neck.
An alpha dressed in a black hoodie quickly stepped in front of Lu Heyang. The hood of his jacket was pulled over his head, and he was tall and lean. Lu Heyang heard him say coldly, “Give his money back.”
The alpha being held by the neck immediately froze. The blond beside him cursed and pointed the tip of his knife straight at the black-clad alpha. “Who the hell are you? Why are you sticking your nose into our business?”
Another alpha reached for his phone. Lu Heyang knew he was about to call for backup, so he said, “No cards. I only brought cash.”
He lightly patted the black-clad alpha on the shoulder. The other man immediately understood what he meant and smartly released the alpha’s neck, taking half a step back while still standing in front of Lu Heyang.
Seeing that they had the upper hand again, the blond sneered and pointed his knife at Lu Heyang. “Crouch down against the wall. Take off your wristband, and your phone too. Hand everything over.”
“Give you the things and let us leave,” Lu Heyang said calmly. “That’s all I have with me.”
“Tsk. If I tell you to crouch, then crouch.” The alpha on the right impatiently extended his leg and tried to kick Lu Heyang in the knee, intending to force him down.
Before the man’s toes could even touch Lu Heyang’s pants, the black-clad alpha suddenly stomped hard on his lower leg without warning. Immediately afterward, he spun around and struck him with an elbow, knocking him straight to the ground. The man curled up and screamed in pain, while the club in his hand rolled more than a meter away.
His movements were astonishingly fast, his fighting skills professional and agile. Seeing this, the other two thugs turned and ran toward the mouth of the alley.
The black-clad alpha reacted instantly and caught one of them, punching him squarely in the bridge of the nose before grabbing him by the collar and slamming him against the wall. When he turned back to deal with the last one, he found that Lu Heyang had already pinned that alpha to the ground and kicked the knife into a corner.
“South Gate! Call someone over!” The alpha who had been knocked down first had somehow managed to make a phone call. He screamed at the top of his lungs.
“Let’s go,” Lu Heyang said.
But the black-clad alpha turned back, grabbed the man cowering against the wall, and hauled him up. In a deep voice, he said, “The money.”
The man tremblingly handed Lu Heyang’s money back. The moment the black-clad alpha took it, Lu Heyang grabbed his hand and pulled him forward. “Forget the money.”
Lu Heyang tugged the black-clad alpha toward the side door, but the other man pulled him back and said, “They’ll come out from inside.”
He instead took Lu Heyang by the hand and led him toward the other end of the alley. On a summer night, the empty alley behind the building, which never saw sunlight, was filled with a cool, damp, moldy smell. The dim yellow light swayed violently with their footsteps. Lu Heyang watched the alpha in front of him. The hood of his jacket bobbed as he ran, but never once fell off.
After turning two or three corners, the alpha led Lu Heyang into a cramped little room. He shut the old, battered door and cautiously locked it from the inside.
Both of them tried to control their breathing, but it was not easy to calm down after such intense exertion. Their panting sounded especially heavy in the darkness. The little room seemed to be crammed full of things, leaving them only a tiny space to stand in.
They stood facing each other, extremely close. Lu Heyang could smell the faint scent of blood on the other man, along with an extremely light trace of alpha pheromones.
“Are you hurt?” Lu Heyang suddenly asked softly.
The alpha had been concentrating on listening to the sounds outside. It was only when Lu Heyang spoke that he seemed to realize just how close they were standing. He instinctively stepped backward, only to immediately bump into something, producing a dull thud.
Lu Heyang tugged lightly on his sleeve. “Careful.”
After a moment of silence, the alpha finally answered, “No.”
“Thank you,” Lu Heyang said.
Silence fell again. Their breathing mingled together, and Lu Heyang could sense that the other man was extremely uncomfortable right now.
After a full half-minute, the alpha finally said, “Your phone must be important. You can’t let them take it.”
“It is important, so thank you.” Lu Heyang’s eyes gradually adjusted to the darkness. He could make out the pointed top of the other man’s hood, but the alpha’s face was completely hidden inside it.
There was a rustling sound, and something was stuffed into Lu Heyang’s hand.
It was the roll of cash that had already been crumpled into a wrinkled mess.
“Your money,” the alpha said.
His fingertips brushed across Lu Heyang’s palm, cool against his skin. When Lu Heyang closed his hand around the bills, he accidentally caught some of the alpha’s fingers as well.
It was only the briefest touch, but Lu Heyang heard the other man’s breathing immediately fall out of rhythm. In their current surroundings, it sounded unusually clear—especially with them standing so close.
At a time like this, Lu Heyang called him, “Number 17.”
The rapid breathing stopped for two seconds before becoming even more uneven.
The faint sound of insects came from outside, and a weak strip of light seeped through the gap beneath the door.
“Mm.”
After a long while, Number 17 answered Lu Heyang with a single word, low and hoarse.
Number 17 (persistent, serious, cautious): Money is important. The phone is important. They can’t be allowed to take them.
Lu Heyang (not listening at all): Mm-hmm, whatever. First, let me expose one little part of your secret identity.