Chapter 16: Dark-Skinned Rugged Honest Man 16

Tonight, the Li Family Villa was in complete chaos from top to bottom.

The Male Master was approaching his heat period, yet he had vanished without a trace right under everyone’s noses.

Even the villa’s surveillance cameras showed no abnormalities; Qi Yu had simply disappeared into thin air.

The villa covered a vast area, with layers upon layers of rooms, halls, and large decorative items that made the search extremely difficult. The butler had also sent people to check the nearby areas and the company, but they didn’t dare make a big fuss.

After all, Qi Yu was an omega and a powerful widower with influence. If news of his disappearance during his heat period leaked out, just the salacious rumors and public opinions in society could drive him to his death.

The Qi Family’s high-society couple valued their reputation even more. They were already dissatisfied with Qi Yu venturing out to do business and wield power in public; if they found out about this, they would definitely try every means to contact those old folks in the company to seize power.

Not to mention the Li Family’s old patriarch—that sly old fox who toyed with power would never tolerate his family having a scandalous daughter-in-law that tarnished the Li Family’s reputation and future.

The situation seemed to have reached a deadlock.

Jiang Rang suddenly remembered a policy that the Old Teacher had mentioned a while back, one of the Federal Government’s recent initiatives.

Among them was a protection policy for omegas.

In this world, there were three main gender categories: alphas, who were born with leadership abilities and immense power; ordinary betas, who toiled diligently through life; and omegas, who were excessively delicate and prone to pregnancy.

Omegas made up the smallest proportion. They were like flowers in a greenhouse—fragile, sensitive, and prone to overthinking. If not cared for properly, they could easily spiral into extremes, even seeking self-destruction.

As a result, omegas had become almost precious rarities. Currently, aside from Juecheng at the Federal Government’s center, they were extremely scarce in other regions.

To protect them, every successfully differentiated omega was required to wear a miniature Central Positioning Device engraved with a number.

This device could monitor the omega’s location, physical condition, emotional fluctuations, and even more private details like hormone levels and genital information in real time.

The device’s location permissions were uniformly controlled by the government, while the open permissions were generally held by family members, spouses, and the omega themselves.

That meant as long as they found the permission key that Qi Yu had left with him, they could definitely locate him.

The butler clearly knew this too, but the haggard Mr. Butler sighed softly and said, “No one has seen what Mister’s permission key looks like.”

Indeed, something as vital as one’s life wouldn’t be casually shown to others.

The atmosphere grew even more tense.

Outside, the sky darkened further, without a trace of moonlight. The dark curtains hanging softly by the carved windows were tugged up and dropped by the stifling hot evening breeze.

A servant hurriedly went to close the windows, letting out a cry of surprise.

Outside, a torrential downpour had begun. Every raindrop fell like silver needles with barbs, fused with eerie lightning streaking across the sky, lashing fiercely at the earth.

In the nearly suffocating oppressive atmosphere, the butler suddenly seemed to remember something. His serious, bleary eyes fixed on Jiang Rang, and his tone carried a hint of certainty.

He said, “Xiao Jiang, you’ve been at the villa for over a month now, and you’re Mister’s most trusted personal attendant. Did Mister ever mention to you… or instruct you to always carry something specific with you?”

This question fell amid the sound of rain, like a fish desperately thrashing as it was about to suffocate in a plastic bag.

In an instant, a thin current shot up Jiang Rang’s spine, and he suddenly remembered one thing.

During this time, the ring that Qi Yu had forced him to wear at all times.

The young man dazedly and woodenly lifted his wrist, staring fixedly at the silver gleam shimmering on his middle finger.

The butler caught on immediately; the middle-aged man’s voice trembled slightly as he said, “Mister actually gave it to you! Quick, take it off and check if there’s a permission code inside the ring.”

Jiang Rang tremblingly removed the ring and held it up to the overhead light. The cold white glow was nearly blinding, but the young man still clearly saw a string of tiny, densely packed unfamiliar numbers engraved slantingly inside the ring.

The bewilderment and panic in his heart made the beta feel like he was soaking in some strange acidic brew. He couldn’t identify his own emotions as a single question kept swirling in his mind.

Why had Qi Yu never told him this was the permission key?

Even as so-called compensation, he wouldn’t gamble with his own safety and privacy like that.

Hadn’t he considered that a poor beta like him might succumb to greed and sell the ring?

Jiang Rang had no romantic experience at all; he could even be called terribly obtuse in such matters.

The young man seemed plunged into a chaos unlike any he had ever known. Everything before his eyes dissolved into a hazy mist, one laced with the slick moss scent of the forest, twisting and contorting into a massive beast eager to devour him bit by bit.

Perhaps even the beta himself was unaware that he had been dodging the issue from the start, even though the answer lay right within his grasp.

It was like Pandora’s box—something no one dared to touch or even contemplate.

As if the moment it was opened, everyone would drown in the flood.

Jiang Rang reflected that he was nothing more than a powerless, dirt-streaked, narrow-minded nobody. He had his own path to follow: cure his dad’s illness, nurse A Liu back to health, marry A Liu someday, and maybe even raise a cute child together.

That would be more than enough to fill a lifetime.

It should be his lifetime.

His phone buzzed abruptly. Jiang Rang tapped to answer on instinct. The screen displayed an unfamiliar number—likely from a landline.

After a moment’s hesitation, he picked up. The butler was already coordinating with the Qi Family’s dedicated team for tracking; they didn’t need him at the moment.

“Hello?” Jiang Rang said softly. “Hello, who’s this?”

The line crackled with noise. Whoever held the phone on the other end sounded startled at the sound of his voice, producing a harsh scraping sound, but they quickly composed themselves.

“A-Rang, it’s me.” The voice was gentle and soft, like a summer night’s breeze rustling over young stalks of rice and wheat.

The connection was slightly distorted, yet in an instant, Jiang Rang could picture him: Hang Liu in a white shirt, carrying a bamboo basket, looking up at him with that tender smile.

The tall, sturdy youth gripped his phone tighter, his heart skipping a couple of beats.

Perhaps it was the pang of being so close to home yet feeling timid, or maybe Hang Liu’s unexpected call had thrown him off balance. Jiang Rang’s throat worked visibly, and it was a long moment before he managed a hoarse question. “A Liu, why are you calling? Is Dad okay? Do you need money? I’ll send some over right away.”

There was a brief silence on the line, followed by the young man’s low, chuckling laugh, tingling through the connection straight to the beta’s ear.

“Silly A-Rang.” Hang Liu’s voice carried a fine, fragmented mirth like ripples in spring water. “Dad and I are both doing great. We don’t need money—you sent so much already, and we still have plenty left. Don’t push yourself too hard. We can’t spend it all out here in the countryside anyway.”

Jiang Rang could almost feel the young man’s breath brushing close to his ear. Heat crept into his wheat-toned earlobes.

He seemed utterly embarrassed, letting out a quiet “mm” before covering the phone’s mic and hurrying upstairs to his room, like a snail retreating into its shell.

He had just reached the door when Hang Liu’s smiling voice came through again.

“Why’d you go quiet, A-Rang? Aren’t you curious why I called?”

Jiang Rang froze. He cleared his throat awkwardly. The hand clutching the phone was sweating so much it grew slick.

The beta murmured, “I don’t know.”

The voice on the other end seemed to draw near then far, hazy and indistinct, but Jiang Rang could hear the heartfelt laughter.

It was a good while before the soft male voice returned, laced with a misty affection. “Because I miss you too.”

Thud—

A strange noise echoed from inside the room door, faint and unremarkable.

But the beta had no attention to spare for it now; his entire focus was on the man on the phone.

The tall youth’s gentle, subdued voice filtered through the door crack, slithering in like venomous snakes to gnaw at the man within, inflicting agony beyond endurance.

Outside the pitch-black small room, the gale and downpour raged ever more wildly. Lightning danced like silver serpents across the sky, while torrents of rain poured through the open window, drenching the cozy little home—steeped in the youth’s scent—with a salty, clammy chill.

The long-haired omega knelt before the darkened door. His black hair, smooth as silk, hung fully soaked, strands clinging to his flushed and gaunt face and neck.

His sheer white shirt was drenched too. He ought to have been freezing, even surrounded by the youth’s piled clothes, even huddled in the nest thick with the youth’s presence. Yet he shivered uncontrollably from the cold.

From outside, the youth continued speaking in that tender tone—so indulgent toward that wretch. He patiently coaxed him, humored his teasing, promised to earn heaps of money so they could live in a big house.

He said he would love him too.

Qi Yu’s flushed cheeks pressed sickly against the door, his sharp, fragile jaw grinding painfully into the wood.

He could scarcely feel the pain anymore. Obsessed and fixated, he listened like some pathetic, shadowy interloper, wallowing in his own wretchedness.

His heat period had set his whole body aflame with red, unleashing the tidal surge of desire within him completely out of control.

He even fantasized that the beta was speaking to him.

Only like this could he feel the soothing pleasure of those words, and only like this could he achieve that mind-shattering climax, finding his salvation.

Qi Yu let out a soft breath. The dark moisture pooling beneath his eyes trickled down with the rainwater, sliding into the hollow of his neck.

The low voice outside fell silent.

The door lock clicked. The omega recoiled abruptly, as if he’d finally realized something. He frantically scrubbed the filthy rainwater from his cheeks with his pale palms.

It still wasn’t enough.

He was still a wretched mess—unsightly and hideous.

So he raked his fingers through his hair like a comb, desperately trying to smooth out those beautiful, raven locks.

This was all he had: his pretty face, his glossy black hair, his wealth and power, his omega identity. Beyond that, he had nothing left to bewitch the beta with.

The glaring light from outside stabbed at the omega’s eyes, forcing him to squint.

But an omega in heat was sensitive beyond all reason. The instant he caught his lover’s scent, his pheromones erupted like a flood. The thick, viscous mossy aroma grew so dense it seemed ready to drip from the air.

Every hair on his body ached to possess the other completely, leaving not a single inch untouched.

Qi Yu knelt on the damp floor, slowly lifting his flushed neck. He offered the young man a fragile, bewitching smile.