[Pei Guangji's Affection Points +2]
?
Xin Hexue lifted his eyelids and looked through the glass window in the ward door. The Alpha turned and walked away, leaving him with nothing but an indifferent view of his back.
He couldn't help asking in puzzlement, [How exactly are Affection Points calculated?]
K: [Affection Points: the value of special emotional fluctuations, such as infatuation, fondness, pity, possessiveness, and destructiveness, that the target experiences toward the host's role.]
Xin Hexue noticed something amiss. [Why does destructiveness count too?]
K: [That is the range of values established in the rules.]
K: [The rules were drafted by humans. Humans are complex creatures.]
But K, a creation of code, could only simulate human behavior and emotions without truly understanding them.
Thus, he couldn't give his host a satisfactory answer.
Xin Hexue didn't pursue his previous question. [What about Heartbreak Value?]
K: [Heartbreak Value: the value of special emotional fluctuations, such as guilt, self-reproach, remorse, jealousy, and sadness, that the target experiences because of the host's role.]
The two types of values covered a fairly broad range.
Xin Hexue lowered his eyes, and K waited on standby for his other questions.
Even if he didn't sign the contract now, he would have to sign it later.
K had said that, besides Pei Guangji, the targets also included the childhood friends who appeared in the story.
Before going to the core district, however, Xin Hexue had one more matter to settle.
[Where's Xin Bao?]
K explained Xin Bao's movements. [He took part in some gambling last night and fell into a new trap set by Black Snake.]
[He's hiding in your apartment now.] K had access privileges in this small world and could check people's locations. [But Black Snake's people have already found out where he's hiding. They're five hundred meters from the apartment now.]
[For Pei Guangji's sake, Black Snake's people won't get rid of him immediately. They'll probably hold him for the time being, then ask Pei Guangji for a sum of money.]
[Got it.] Xin Hexue smiled. [Thank you, big brother.]
Pei Guangji returned to the private ward that evening, intending to ask Xin Hexue how he had decided.
All that remained on the table was a clean food container with a note tucked underneath.
The handwriting was strong and vigorous, its strokes flowing freely with effortless elegance.
It was completely unlike the young man's fragile, porcelain-like appearance.
"Sorry, I can't accept. I'll find a way to pay you back."
The contents of the note left Pei Guangji somewhat irritated.
His Rut was approaching, and his temples often throbbed with pain.
Pei Guangji had thought the other man was exceptionally compliant. That was the impression he had formed from the file.
Yet Xin Hexue's behavior had now defied Pei Guangji's expectations time and again.
He couldn't say exactly what it was about Xin Hexue that attracted him.
Perhaps it was the green sandalwood scent on him, or perhaps the way he had massaged his head last night really had worked.
Pei Guangji had allocated eighty million Star Coins to the laboratory, giving it one year to develop a treatment or a means of suppressing Ruts.
In any case, aside from that, to resolve the problems his Rut would bring over the coming year, Pei Guangji had to...
Have him.
Have Xin Hexue.
The Alpha's arrogant way of thinking naturally led him to an arrogant conclusion.
A private Aircraft, the kind seen only in District One, was parked in the densely populated residential area of West City—a rare sight.
It was a rainy night.
Neon lights cast patches of purple and red across the buildings at varying heights, while the chaotic colors of holographic advertisements nearly scorched the eyes.
The area was poorly managed.
Stray cats and dogs passed by carrying rats in their mouths, leaving faint trails of blood on the ground.
In the lights, purple rain drizzled down.
The special assistant stayed in the driver's seat.
Pei Guangji got out with an umbrella.
Rain pelted the mud, splashing the surface of his black leather shoes.
He found Xin Hexue outside the apartment door on the first floor.
The young man was crouched in the doorway with his arms around his knees. Through the wide-open door, paint marks left by Black Snake as a show of force were visible.
The glaring paint marks were everywhere, covered in filthy insults.
They made the young man in the doorway look all the more lonely and thin.
The ceaseless rain had chilled his face to a sickly pallor.
Without a word, Pei Guangji stepped forward and tilted the umbrella over him, sheltering him completely.
The young man stood up, looking lost and helpless. His voice was so soft that Pei Guangji could barely make it out.
"I don't have a home anymore..."
Black Snake wouldn't let Xin Bao go, and that included him.
Pei Guangji's brow furrowed tightly.
[Pei Guangji's Affection Points +1]
[Pei Guangji's Affection Points +1]
[Pei Guangji's Affection Points +1]
[Pei Guangji's Affection Points +1]
[...] After it repeated ten times, Xin Hexue finally couldn't help saying to K, [Big brother, can't you turn off the notifications? They're really affecting my performance ^-^]
The annoying, incessant notifications stopped.
Pei Guangji truly hadn't expected that a mere Black Snake would dare go this far, setting another trap to catch Xin Bao and using him as leverage to demand more from him.
Even the paint was another means of intimidation.
Apparently, far from the core district, this underground organization had gained tremendous confidence from its confrontations with the inept Sixth District government.
A slight downward tug.
Xin Hexue had caught hold of his sleeve.
"Help me."
The young man was too exhausted to have much strength left, and his rain-dampened eyelashes trembled slightly.
Pei Guangji's jaw tightened, and his Adam's apple bobbed. "I'll take care of it. Get back in the Aircraft first."
The umbrella had tilted too far without his noticing, and the rain soaked Pei Guangji's back and left side.
Yet in the cold rain, his nerve endings felt an intensely burning stimulation, and his heart clamored.
He had picked up a cat wandering the streets of the human world.
Just after sitting down inside the Aircraft, Xin Hexue suddenly said, "I forgot something..."
As he spoke, he started to jump back down to the ground.
Pei Guangji stopped him. "What is it? Stay here."
The rain was still falling, and he noticed that the tip of Xin Hexue's nose was red, perhaps a sign that he was catching a chill.
Pei Guangji opened the umbrella again.
The special assistant asked, "Young master, should I get it instead?"
Pei Guangji said, "No need."
Xin Hexue sat safely where he was.
He had told Pei Guangji that it was the citizen ID card in the top drawer of the bedside table in the first room.
In fact, it was just an excuse.
The ID card was in the second drawer.
What Xin Hexue really wanted him to find was the evidence of Xin Bao's crimes in the top drawer.
Besides gambling, Xin Bao had also molested Omegas on multiple occasions.
He had smugly developed and printed out the victims' information and photographs documenting his crimes for his own enjoyment.
He really couldn't let Xin Bao fall into Black Snake's hands.
But if Pei Guangji understood what he meant, the Federation's chaotic prisons would be enough for Xin Bao to spend the rest of his life in.
Before Pei Guangji returned, Xin Hexue had already signed the contract in a rather good mood.
[Danger.]
As soon as K spoke,
the tall Alpha pinned Xin Hexue down across a row of seats.
The special assistant hurriedly raised the partition between the driver's seat and the back.
"Ugh...!"
Xin Hexue felt that his lower back must have hit something just now, and he drew a sharp breath at the pain.
His overly acute perception of pain made his eyes mist over uncontrollably.
K: [Pei Guangji's Rut came early.]
A so-called A-class citizen of the core district, an Alpha, was no different from a beast when in heat.
Pei Guangji might already have lost his senses; he was licking Xin Hexue's neck.
Xin Hexue let out a stifled groan.
The other man bit his Adam's apple.
Xin Hexue's expression turned cold. He grabbed the Alpha's black hair, his slender knuckles whitening as he forced him to raise his head.
"You're hurting me."
As he said this, he blinked, and the mist in his eyes gathered into tears that slid down his cheeks.
Chapter 5: Face Blindness (5)
The sight of a beauty weeping under the light was a striking one.
His long lashes were butterfly wings, and his eyelids were thin. His eye sockets weren't deep-set, and the lines outlining their shape swept smoothly toward the outer corners. As the clear teardrops slid down, a pale rose color spread there.
The coloring was not vivid, but against skin like fresh snow under moonlight, it was particularly affecting.
A falling teardrop landed on the back of the Alpha's hand and quiveringly spread.
Pei Guangji's burning brain felt as though it had been dealt a blow, and his very soul trembled.
He had been in a stupor, completely ruled by his Alpha instincts, but now a sliver of clarity broke through.
Even so, he ignored the pain of his hair being pulled and didn't even notice Xin Hexue's slightly uncharacteristic coldness just now.
Xin Hexue released his hair and let his hand fall.
Forcibly suppressing the sensation of his nerve endings being violently torn apart, Pei Guangji pushed himself up and said to the special assistant in the driver's seat, "Back to the core district. No, back to District One."
In the broad sense used by the public, the core district was District One. But to the financial dynasties that had actually established their main family residences in the core district, "the core district" referred only to the area around the center of District One in the narrower sense.
Put simply, District One and the actual core district were concentric circles, with District One as the outer circle.
Pei Guangji instinctively didn't want to take Xin Hexue back to the chaotic Pei Corporation family residence.
The time wasn't right: he hadn't yet dealt with the noisy old man and his hodgepodge of lovers. If he went back to the family residence, the surroundings would be chaotic enough, and the old bastard would also meddle in his private life.
Even though Pei Guangji had always turned a deaf ear to his father's words, he had to consider Xin Hexue's feelings.
After all, he looked...