The next morning, the golden autumn sunlight of the Imperial City streamed through the enormous floor-to-ceiling windows of the presidential suite, spilling across the rumpled gray-blue bedding.
Qi Xing woke amid aching weakness and an unusually full, lingering sense of intimacy.
The soul of a powerful cultivator who had lived for more than five hundred years allowed his mind to clear the instant he opened his eyes.
The scent gland at the back of his neck was still faintly hot, with a domineering, rich red-wine pheromone lingering inside—one that had nonetheless been doing its utmost to remain gentle and restrained. It was the temporary mark Huo Shaoyan had left behind last night.
“Mm…” Qi Xing shifted, and this pampered Omega body immediately protested. His lower back and entire body ached terribly.
When he turned his head, he met a pair of deep, tranquil eyes veined with red.
Huo Shaoyan had not slept at all.
He had stayed on his side and watched over Qi Xing the entire night. Three buttons had popped off his white shirt, exposing his strong chest, where several scratches streaked with blood were still faintly visible—the work of a certain little fox who had been out of his mind last night.
“Awake?” Huo Shaoyan’s voice was terribly hoarse, low and rough with something like a hangover.
“Shaoyan…” Qi Xing blinked his slightly swollen, peach-blossom eyes. Rather than showing the bashfulness common to an Omega after receiving a temporary mark, he wickedly curled his lips and rubbed one long leg against Huo Shaoyan’s beneath the covers. “Morning, Mr. CEO. Last night… was pretty exciting, huh?”
Huo Shaoyan’s expression darkened instantly. He sat up abruptly, reaching out to pull the slipping quilt securely back over Qi Xing’s shoulders while glaring at him through clenched teeth. “Little Xing, you nearly lost half your life. Can you give me a break first thing in the morning?”
The terrifying events of last night still haunted him, but this little tyrant had woken up and immediately started teasing him again as though he had no bones in his body.
Qi Xing obediently burrowed beneath the covers, leaving only his head exposed. His delicate chin rested on the edge of the quilt as he beamed at Huo Shaoyan. “I heard you, you know. Who was it that kissed me and said, ‘You really have me wrapped around your finger’?”
Huo Shaoyan’s body went rigid, and a suspicious blush visibly climbed up the tips of his ears.
He turned away somewhat awkwardly and tossed out stiffly, “You heard wrong. I’m going to shower, then I’ll order breakfast. After we eat, I’m taking you to the hospital for a complete examination.”
Watching Huo Shaoyan’s nearly fleeing back, Qi Xing laughed so hard his whole body trembled. The exhaustion left over from last night was instantly replaced by delight.
However, the moment Huo Shaoyan shut the bathroom door, the amusement in Qi Xing’s eyes gradually faded.
He raised one long, fair hand and pressed it over his heart.
In the hazy confusion of last night, he had thought he saw the person he had held closest to his heart in his previous life. That was why he had said, “I’ve been waiting for you for so long.”
“Huo Shaoyan… whose reincarnation are you, or are you simply yourself?” Qi Xing murmured, a complicated glimmer flashing through his peach-blossom eyes.
In the interstellar era, could Alpha-Omega soul compatibility truly be so high that even a powerful cultivator like him from his previous life would mistake Huo Shaoyan for the emperor who had once made everyone kneel with a single word? Even as a mortal, he was still so intimidating. Qi Xing did not know whether it was the drug’s effects or something else that had nearly made him unable to distinguish illusion from reality.
Half an hour later, Huo Shaoyan emerged from the bathroom in a fresh, dark-colored shirt. By then, he had already returned to his usual appearance as the calm, self-possessed, untouchable head of Huo Corporation.
Who knew what President Huo had been doing while slacking off in the bathroom for half an hour.
The dining table was already set with warm rice porridge and several delicate side dishes brought by his executive assistant.
Huo Shaoyan pulled out a chair and sat down. As he elegantly stirred the porridge in his bowl, he said with an indifferent expression, “Will from the Wang family completed the paperwork for an amputation at three this morning at Imperial City First Hospital. The bones in one of his wrists were crushed. That hand will be useless for the rest of his life.”
Qi Xing raised an eyebrow as he drank his water.
He had done it himself, so naturally he knew exactly how much force he had used.
“Also…” Huo Shaoyan lifted his eyes, his dark gaze steeped in the ruthlessness and coldness unique to a business emperor. “The Wang family’s funding chain collapsed at eight this morning. All three multinational projects controlled by Huo Corporation have withdrawn their investments, and the official notice from the Financial Crimes Investigation Division was delivered to the Wang family estate half an hour ago. Within three days, there won’t be a Wang family left in the Imperial City.”
That was the price of touching Huo Shaoyan’s person.
He had struck like thunder, leaving no way out for the scumbag who had brought disaster upon himself.
Qi Xing propped his chin on his hand and watched the man in front of him, who was brazenly protective of his own. He could not help feeling that Huo Shaoyan looked outrageously handsome like this. It really seemed as though he loved Qi Xing so much.
“Shaoyan, you’re incredible. Are you taking revenge for me?” Qi Xing deliberately blinked at him, his voice cloyingly sweet.
Huo Shaoyan set down his spoon, pulled out a tissue, and naturally and skillfully wiped a bit of porridge from the corner of Qi Xing’s mouth. His dark eyes fixed heavily on him. “Qi Xing, that shoulder throw you used last night was very clean. Even a professionally trained Beta bodyguard might not be able to throw a two-hundred-pound Alpha like that. Where did you learn it?”
When the executive assistant saw the report from the scene last night, he had been completely dumbfounded.
A weak Omega who was ill and had been dosed with a powerful drug had actually thrown a tall Alpha around without giving him any chance to fight back—and even ruined his hand. Who would believe that?
Under Huo Shaoyan’s scrutinizing, probing stare, the smile at the corners of Qi Xing’s lips widened.
He suddenly leaned forward, bringing them within mere inches of each other. That faint, cool rose scent began to tease the senses again.
“Want to know?” Qi Xing extended the tip of his tongue and lightly licked his slightly dry lips. His peach-blossom eyes were full of slyness and provocation. “Take a guess.”
Bang!
Huo Shaoyan crushed the tissue in his hand into a ball. He stared fixedly at the audacious little tyrant who was always setting fires wherever and whenever he pleased, his Adam’s apple bobbing hard.
In the end, Qi Xing had brushed the subject aside in the most shameless—and deadliest—way possible.
Huo Shaoyan drew a deep breath and forced himself to look away. His voice was so low it was almost unrecognizable. “Eat your porridge. After you finish, we’re going to the hospital. Don’t let me catch you talking nonsense again.”
“Yes, sir, President Huo.” Qi Xing grinned like a cat that had gotten its way, but inwardly he was thinking that life from here on out was going to get more and more interesting.