Chapter 33: Every Villain Has Their Match Part 1

Wei Tingxia still drooped his eyelids. He had nearly gone mad with hunger before, but now that he was finally full, exhaustion overwhelmed him. He desperately wanted to close his eyes and sleep, yet a pile of messy issues loomed before him, making any rest uneasy.

“You want me to say that I’m the Second Prince.”

Yan Xinfeng turned around, his gaze calm. “I’d rather hear it from your own mouth.”

“Yes.”

Wei Tingxia answered too straightforwardly. Once the word fell, a few seconds of dead silence followed. Yan Xinfeng was visibly stunned.

He had anticipated that prying out this answer would be far more difficult. He had expected denial, evasion, deflection, or even needing to resort to threats and bribes. The last thing he expected was for Wei Tingxia to admit it so directly, as if bone-tired and too weary to utter another word.

Yan Xinfeng sought out a pair of eyes hidden in shallow shadows, and in them, he saw lingering exhaustion and boredom.

Heavy drowsiness weighed on Wei Tingxia’s eyelashes. He hadn’t even changed his posture, still leaning against Yan Xinfeng’s shoulder as before—docile, clingy.

Yan Xinfeng remained silent for a long time. Instead, Wei Tingxia roused himself from the fatigue, lifted his eyelids, and scrutinized the alpha’s shifting expressions before commenting, “You look like a lost puppy right now.”

Wei Tingxia’s mouth was as sharp as ever. Yan Xinfeng snapped back to attention, pinched the man’s chin, and confirmed once more, “You’re really the Second Prince?”

Wei Tingxia didn’t resist. “Mm-hmm.”

“I thought the Second Prince was an alpha.”

As the words landed, Yan Xinfeng recalled the unfamiliar scent he had detected earlier. The puzzle solved itself.

His voice deepened. “You dosed yourself with disguised pheromones?”

By now, the conversation had fully awakened Wei Tingxia. He slowly propped himself up.

After all, they had just shared an intense exchange, and changes in his pheromones couldn’t be hidden. Since Wei Tingxia dared to admit he was the Second Prince, he wasn’t afraid of Yan Xinfeng turning hostile, so he continued, “Yes.”

In an instant, countless suspicions flashed through Yan Xinfeng’s mind—from the moment Wei Tingxia appeared up to now, every detail of the past three years shrouded in gloom.

The wound had healed, but that didn’t mean Yan Xinfeng had forgotten. The knife Wei Tingxia had plunged into him had been coated with top-grade wound suppressant, nearly letting him die wounded in the Bug Mother’s nest—utterly merciless.

Even if love had clouded Yan Xinfeng’s judgment, he couldn’t ignore this brutal reality. He had to consider whether he held any place in Wei Tingxia’s heart.

“Heh…”

A curt, cold laugh squeezed through Yan Xinfeng’s teeth. His right hand roughly traced up Wei Tingxia’s waist and abdomen in an almost brutal confirmation, pressing heavily on the scar from the omega’s left broken brow.

“You can pilot a mecha—probably very well.”

Yan Xinfeng’s voice was low, still husky from lingering desire. His fingertip ground against the scar with enough force to cause pain.

“Your public identity is alpha. You were appointed deputy commander of the Border Military District. Your Father Emperor seems to have high hopes for you…”

He listed each secret Wei Tingxia had kept from him, each thread of the massive lie woven over three years, his voice low, each word like a blade quenched in ice.

“Three years, Wei Tingxia. A whole three years.”

The murmured whisper brushed Wei Tingxia’s ear. Yan Xinfeng seemed intimate as he lifted the omega’s head, staring into those bright black eyes.

“You disguised yourself as a fugitive omega and appeared before me, luring me to mark you. What was your goal?”

The air solidified into something tangible upon those words, heavily pressing on their chests.

Wei Tingxia blinked slowly, taking in all of Yan Xinfeng’s emotions.

“You’re angry,” he said. “You think I betrayed you.”

Yan Xinfeng laughed in absurdity.

“Shouldn’t I be?” he countered. “Wei Tingxia, what exactly are you after?”

The question sounded all too familiar, like interrogating a criminal. Wei Tingxia narrowed his eyes, recalling the ordeals he’d endured these days and eyeing the culprit responsible. A surge of nameless rage flared up.

How dare Yan Xinfeng pin all the blame on him?

Wei Tingxia held back no longer. He slapped away Yan Xinfeng’s hand and snapped back sharply, “You dare ask what I want? You think you’re the pitiful one? Don’t package yourself as some heartbroken alpha, Yan Xinfeng—you’re not that innocent! Do you even remember what you are? You’re a space pirate!”

“So what if I’m a space pirate?”

Yan Xinfeng raised his voice too. “You’ve been living off one for three years. You’ve been sleeping with one for three years. You even let one mark you! Even if you have kids later, they’ll be yours and a space pirate’s—”

The words cut off abruptly. A crisp slap echoed in the air. Yan Xinfeng’s head jerked to the side. He held the pose, all unfinished accusations shattered by the slap, leaving only dead silence.

Wei Tingxia lowered his hand, chest heaving violently, vision blackening for a moment. He thought that dying from anger here would be such a waste, so he gradually evened his breathing.

But Yan Xinfeng wasn’t done.

“I get it,” he said calmly after a moment. “You think my status doesn’t match yours, that it shames you as Second Prince, so you want to deal with me quickly and go back to being your alpha prince—maybe snag a princedom too, right?”

To hell with that.

Wei Tingxia sneered coldly but said nothing.

Yet his silence, to Yan Xinfeng, was admission.

“Aren’t you afraid I’ll spread the news?” he asked. “If the Empire learns you’re actually an omega, all your hard work will be for nothing.”

It was indeed a tough spot, but Wei Tingxia showed no panic.

“You won’t say anything,” he said.

Yan Xinfeng arched one brow. “Why?”

Wei Tingxia replied calmly, “Because if they find out I’m an omega, they’ll force me to wash off the mark and marry me off to whoever benefits the Empire. I don’t want to marry, so I’d kill myself the day before the wedding.”

Yan Xinfeng’s fingers clenched white at those words. He could already picture Wei Tingxia’s lifeless fall.

Wei Tingxia was right. He wouldn’t breathe a word, even if just to prevent Wei Tingxia from pulling the trigger if things went south. Yan Xinfeng couldn’t bear the consequences.

Watching his expression shift, Wei Tingxia got the answer he wanted.

“Yan Xinfeng, I’m tired,” he said. “I want to sleep.”

If they kept arguing, the whole base would know soon enough. This knot wouldn’t untie overnight—it needed time. Besides, Wei Tingxia hadn’t decided whether to tell Yan Xinfeng the full truth.

“…”

Yan Xinfeng silently opened the mecha cockpit and jumped down first. A moment later, he returned with a fresh set of clean clothes. Once Wei Tingxia dressed, Yan Xinfeng supported his arm and led him out of the mecha.

The corridor was empty—Yan Xinfeng must have cleared everyone out with some excuse.

Thus, after many days, Wei Tingxia once again lay comfortably on Yan Xinfeng’s bed, with the diligent little puppy wiping his feet.

“Good night, Yan Xinfeng.”

Gazing at the Collapse Index Chart materializing before him, its line trending downward, Wei Tingxia murmured as he drifted off. He really was worn out.

…

Yan Xinfeng didn’t sleep. Dozing off now would be abnormal, even sick. He tossed the towel to the Smart Butler and left the bedroom, heading straight for the training ground.

Aside from routine patrols, all the space pirates had returned to their rooms. The base corridors echoed only with Yan Xinfeng’s footsteps.

In the training ground, he cranked the heavy pressure environment to max and shattered a mobile combat dummy rated for average forging strength with one punch.

Fire burned in his chest, but he couldn’t vent it on Wei Tingxia, so he channeled it into training.

Shattered metal chunks flew, thudding dully against the energy barriers.

Yan Xinfeng didn’t pause or glance at the results. Under max pressure, his body tensed like a fully drawn hard bow. Only when he hit the room’s limit and the overhead lights flashed did he stop.

The irritability subsided for now. Yan Xinfeng exhaled, reset the settings to zero, and went to the bathroom to rinse off.

Wei Tingxia’s words and actions replayed in his mind, unconsciously furrowing Yan Xinfeng’s brow.

They had gone further than expected today. Wei Tingxia had a hair-trigger temper—one spark and he’d explode. Yan Xinfeng’s anger would only make him angrier, even if the issue wasn’t Yan Xinfeng’s fault.

Stopping in time was for the best, avoiding rash regrets.

Still, Yan Xinfeng harbored some doubts.

After three years together, he knew his omega well enough to sense something off in Wei Tingxia’s reaction.

They had scrapped before, even physically, but that slap was pure impulse—Wei Tingxia pushed to the brink.

Had hunger driven him that far?

No, that didn’t fit. They’d played extensively just days ago; Wei Tingxia wouldn’t be that desperate. Besides, he’d known his alpha was a space pirate from the start. Yan Xinfeng hadn’t forced him—the bonding was mutual.

So why had Wei Tingxia gotten so furious—and stabbed him?

Yan Xinfeng couldn’t figure it out. After drying his hair, he returned to the bedroom and found it empty.

A faint floral scent lingered where Wei Tingxia had slept. A casually torn scrap of paper lay on the pillow. Yan Xinfeng picked it up and saw a stick figure flipping the bird, with an ancient emoticon beside it: ).

The Second Highness had fucked and left—a true freeloader, payment just a scrap of trash paper.

Staring at it, Yan Xinfeng was certain that if he didn’t live past three hundred, Wei Tingxia’s antics would be the death of him.

He crumpled the paper into a ball and tossed it in the trash, then gave up on sleep. Dressed, he left the bedroom. He needed to dig into what the Empire’s Second Prince was doing at the Border Military District.

…

Two minutes later.

The bedroom door burst open again. Yan Xinfeng, en route to the study, returned with a grim face. He went straight to the trash, fished out the balled-up paper, smoothed it carefully, and locked it in a drawer.

Wei Tingxia’s scent filled the room like midsummer blooms. Even after he left, faint tendrils tugged at Yan Xinfeng’s wrist.