A Charming and Cool Guy Finds Himself in a Chaotic Situation [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 2

The banquet continued to rage on.

Yu Mianfeng never socialized, nor did he deign to mingle with others. Whatever he desired, countless people would naturally step forward to present it to him on a silver platter.

Manufacturing a perfunctory excuse to bid his parents farewell, he walked away with hurried strides, utterly ignoring the crowd around him. He needed to track down the Protagonist Gong and complete his mission even if he was just going through the motions to fulfill the plot.

After weaving through the winding corridors and arriving at a secluded, quiet corner, Yu Mianfeng finally halted his steps.

He had no idea where the Protagonist Gong was currently hiding. The original plot merely dictated that the villain would accidentally run into the Protagonist Gong at the banquet, but it failed to specify the exact location. Perhaps these trivial, minor details were areas that the overarching plot couldn’t quite micromanage.

Where should I start looking? Yu Mianfeng pondered calmly.

“Where could he be…?”

“What are you looking for, Mianfeng?” Lu Yibo’s voice suddenly echoed from behind. There was no telling exactly when he had started following him.

Yu Mianfeng’s frame stiffened slightly. Instead of turning around immediately, he merely shifted his eyes to look at the mural on the wall beside him.

【Ha, you could always tell him you’re looking for a disobedient dog…】

The male voice that had fallen silent for a short while resurfaced, dripping with its trademark passive-aggressiveness.

Comparing the Protagonist Gong to a dog was actually a remarkably accurate analogy. Well, in terms of personality, at least.

The original plot made no mention of the Protagonist Shou and the villain having any entanglements at this specific juncture, so Yu Mianfeng merely intended to offer a brief, vague excuse to brush him off.

“I’m looking for something I accidentally lost,” he said, turning around to face Lu Yibo.

The Protagonist Shou didn’t seem to comprehend the underlying subtext of his words.

“Lost?” Lu Yibo’s face filled with deep thought. “Is he a piece of your personal property?”

Staring at the absolute seriousness on the Protagonist Shou’s face, Yu Mianfeng felt his headache intensifying. He needed to shake this guy off; at the very least, he absolutely couldn’t let the Protagonist Shou meet the Protagonist Gong right now.

Yu Mianfeng seamlessly shifted the subject: “…I remembered incorrectly.”

Knowing when to stop, Lu Yibo didn’t press any further and bid him farewell with a graceful smile.

After walking for a long time and repeatedly confirming that no one was tracking his movements, Yu Mianfeng lowered his head, pulled out his communicator, and opened his chat log with the Protagonist Gong. He had fired off a barrage of messages earlier.

Did you receive the invitation? Get over to the Yu estate. Have you arrived yet? Where the hell are you? —Answer me. —. —Since I can’t seem to find you, perhaps I ought to put a dog leash on you.

Despite sending these classic, demeaning insults typical of a routine villain task, he hadn’t received a single syllable in response.

If it had been anyone else, Yu Mianfeng might have assumed the person was ignoring him on purpose. But this was the Protagonist Gong the very same Protagonist Gong who was deliberately enduring humiliation and plotting meticulously just to establish a tight relationship with the villain.

Yu Mianfeng found the situation somewhat mind-boggling.

Normally, the Protagonist Gong wouldn’t dare leave his messages unanswered. Even when Yu Mianfeng hurled abuse at him to fulfill the plot requirements, the Protagonist Gong would predictably fire back two separate messages begging him not to be angry, adopting a thoroughly submissive and yielding posture.

【Careful now, don’t accidentally satisfy his degradation kink. 】

The two of them, one a protagonist and the other a villain, shared a profoundly bizarre dynamic.

The protagonist’s attitude was highly ambiguous; he seemed thoroughly obsessed with harassing the villain under all sorts of creative pretexts. If it weren’t for his mandatory villain missions, Yu Mianfeng would have severed all contact with the guy permanently.

He was incredibly annoying. Yu Mianfeng rarely graced him with a reply, spending the vast majority of his time single-mindedly executing his villainous tasks to humiliate the man. Yet, defying all logic, the Protagonist Gong never took offense. Instead, he eagerly kept throwing himself at Yu Mianfeng with boundless enthusiasm. It looked as though he was using a subtle, persistent brand of proximity to strike back against the emotional abuse, entirely driven by the crushing weight of the Yu family’s absolute authority.

Yu Mianfeng had never possessed any desire to pay attention to such underlying dynamics. However, in the eyes of onlookers, the situation read entirely differently.

Yu Mianfeng utterly loathed Alphas who lacked basic boundaries. Normally, he left them on ‘read’ without a response, and if they aggravated him enough, they simply earned a permanent spot on his block list. He had always maintained this exact attitude toward people no physical contact, no acknowledgement.

Precisely because of this, onlookers found his actions regarding the humiliation of the Protagonist Gong… incredibly bizarre.

When interacting with the Protagonist Gong, Yu Mianfeng merely delivered vague, ambiguous insults in a perfunctory manner. He couldn’t care less either way, but his actions consistently left everyone else sweating with anxiety.

Alphas were defined by their volatile, short-fused tempers, lacking the intrinsic, cool-headed rationality of Betas.

Was he triggered by the announcement of the engagement? Even if he was, he still needed to obediently crawl out of hiding so Yu Mianfeng could execute his task.

Lowering his gaze, Yu Mianfeng found an empty stretch of wall in the deserted corridor and leaned against it. He focused entirely on bombarding the man’s chat box, yet the screen remained completely dead.

Sighing, he smoothly exited the chat interface and instead launched a traditional MOBA game. Such games were long obsolete in the modern era of fully immersive holographic gaming, but Yu Mianfeng deeply enjoyed this specific flavor of raw competitive adrenaline.

As Yu Mianfeng focused entirely on the screen, ruthlessly slaughtering his opponents across the digital battlefield, the voice in his mind finally couldn’t hold back any longer.

【Darling, does this count as quiet quitting? 】

Yu Mianfeng executed a flawless double-kill counterattack, responding icily: 「Don’t use such disgusting terms to address me.

The man let out a cold laugh: 【As if you can control me… Someone’s coming. 】

Almost the exact instant the warning left the entity’s mouth, Yu Mianfeng canceled his recall sequence and unleashed a fluid combo string to slaughter his final opponent. Standing directly over the enemy’s corpse, Yu Mianfeng re-initiated his recall, responding: I know.

【…Let me remind you one more time that I am a dog. 】

Yu Mianfeng deeply appreciated this rare, fleeting moment of absolute tranquility. There were no active villain missions to execute, no obsessive suitors hounding his steps, and no annoying voice inside his mind orchestrating harassment.

Regrettably, uninvited guests always arrived in rapid succession.

Beside him, the tightly shut door of a private lounge was silently pushed open. Yu Mianfeng’s sharp senses detected the movement instantly, but true to his consistently detached nature, he didn’t grant the intruder so much as a single glance.

The individual standing inside the doorway remained perfectly still, waiting with immense patience.

Yu Mianfeng continued to lean lazily against the wall, entirely absorbed in his mobile game. A Beta’s lip color was naturally very pale, reflecting a stark ruthlessness that matched his habitually expressionless face perfectly.

From the looks of it, he hadn’t even found the opportunity to share a kiss with his new fiancé yet.

Sensing that scorching gaze fixated heavily on his face, Yu Mianfeng felt a wave of impatience. The ‘Pentakill’ graphic flashed across his screen as his jubilant teammates swarmed ahead to demolish the enemy nexus. Yu Mianfeng closed out the application, staring blankly at the cold, detached reflection of his own face in the dark glass.

He utterly loathed Alphas.

They were vile animals entirely ruled by their primitive emotions, constantly utilizing their inherent physical advantages in an offensive attempt to dominate him. They emerged in endless, overlapping waves, and while he had long since grown accustomed to the phenomenon, it still failed to stop him from feeling thoroughly disgusted whenever he encountered it.

Yu Mianfeng snapped his head around with lightning speed. Clenching his fist, he threw a vicious punch straight into the intruder’s face, ruthlessly grabbing the man’s lapels in an instant, fully prepared to initiate a violent brawl.

In that exact split second, he finally recognized the face before him.

It was the Protagonist Gong, Jiang Henggu.

The man who had been missing for half the evening had been hiding directly behind the crack of the door, covertly spying on him. Yu Mianfeng had wasted an immense amount of time searching for him, never expecting they would run into each other under these circumstances.

The momentum of his flying fist didn’t waver in the slightest; Yu Mianfeng withheld absolutely none of his physical power, his expression remaining perfectly cold.

The Alpha’s chest locked up tight the instant contact was made. Only then did Yu Mianfeng notice that Jiang Henggu was wearing nothing but a tight-fitting compression shirt underneath his loosely draped outer jacket.

Possessing zero desire to waste precious time, Yu Mianfeng merely wanted to execute his villain task as quickly as possible. But just as he attempted to yank his hand back, the Alpha’s fingers locked firmly around his wrist.

Yu Mianfeng tried to wrench his hand free, only to find himself completely anchored in place.

A provocation?

Yu Mianfeng’s brow drew together. According to the plot, they were indeed scheduled to exchange blows today, but that physical altercation was supposed to occur after the villain delivered his explicit insults to the Protagonist Gong.

While Yu Mianfeng’s performance in his mecha combat classes was completely peerless—leaving every Alpha at the academy eating his dust Betas suffered from an absolute, biological disadvantage against Alphas when it came to raw physical strength.

…Being shackled by the constraints of the plot filled him with equal parts disgust.

Seeing that he couldn’t break his wrist free, Yu Mianfeng’s expression turned freezing cold. Channeling the exact cutthroat attitude he utilized during academy combat trials, he drove a vicious kick straight toward the man.

The physical force behind his strike was by no means small, yet Jiang Henggu took the impact entirely raw. Leveraging the moment of impact, the Alpha ruthlessly dragged Yu Mianfeng straight through the open doorway.

The door clicked shut.

The interior of the lounge was pitch black, devoid of any light source, leaving only two blurred silhouettes visible in the gloom.

Relying entirely on the mental map he had memorized in the split second before the door closed, Yu Mianfeng drove his knee viciously into the back of Jiang Henggu’s leg. As the Alpha’s lower stance buckled under the impact, he crashed heavily to the floor with a dull thud. Simultaneously, the overhead lights flooded the room with brilliant illumination.

…?

Yu Mianfeng stared down in utter bewilderment at the Alpha kneeling before him. The ceiling lights cascaded over his form, casting stark shadows across his sharp facial features.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he demanded, his brow drawing together.

“Letting you vent your anger. You look like you’re in an atrocious mood.”

Jiang Henggu pushed himself up from the floor with a cold smirk, the wild, rebellious aura radiating from his expression creating a violent contrast with the submissive words slipping from his tongue.

【Heh, this guy desperately wants to simp for you, but he also desperately wants to maintain some semblance of a backbone while doing it. That is the exact breed of simp that the simping community despises most. 】 The entity in his mind stated with immense disdain.

Jiang Henggu possessed a classically handsome face with sharp, star-like eyes and a perfectly defined jawline. When his lips were pressed thin into a humorless line, his presence radiated a crushing sense of oppression. However, he was remarkably fond of smiling especially when standing before Yu Mianfeng.

Right now, a playful, amused smirk tugged at the corner of his lips. “Are you feeling any better?”

Yu Mianfeng stared at him for two solid seconds before delivering a perfunctory, flat response: “No.”

“Then what should we do? How about I find a whip so you can lash me a few times? Just avoid the face and you can do whatever you want whatever it takes to make you feel better.”

Those words failed to achieve any actual, pacifying effect. Jiang Henggu’s pupils were intensely dark, resembling shards of cold iron; when he fixated his unmoving stare on someone, the sheer weight of his presence was immensely stifling.

Jiang Henggu scrutinized the youth before him for a fleeting moment before suddenly letting out a low chuckle, as if he had just processed an incredibly amusing joke: “Then again, you’d probably find the mere act of lifting a whip to strike me far too much of a hassle.”

Yu Mianfeng merely concluded that the man’s psychological state was profoundly abnormal.

Jiang Henggu’s subsequent actions validated his suspicion instantly. The Alpha suddenly hoisted his hand, reaching out to gently brush aside a stray lock of Yu Mianfeng’s loose hair. Yu Mianfeng twisted his torso away instantly, ruthlessly slapping the hand down.

Is he trying to instigate a fight? The Protagonist Gong and the villain were indeed fated to brawl due to escalating friction. Yu Mianfeng reasoned.

Intending to spark the mandatory conflict, he swung a careless kick toward the man’s legs. This time, however, Jiang Henggu was fully prepared; he anchored his lower body firmly, remaining completely unmoving even as the boot connected with his shin.

Yu Mianfeng instantly lost all interest, deciding instead to utilize unreasonable bickering to ignite the mandatory argument.

“Why didn’t you answer my messages?”

“What if I told you I did it on purpose?” Jiang Henggu fired back, his tone dripping with provocation.

Remaining entirely expressionless, Yu Mianfeng raised his leg and drove another kick straight into him.

That specific movement was exactly what Jiang Henggu had been waiting for. He took the strike entirely raw, and before Yu Mianfeng could retract his leg, the Alpha locked his fingers firmly around Yu Mianfeng’s calf, hoisting it upward with a sudden jerk.

Yu Mianfeng had always maintained a flawless, perfect score in his hand-to-hand combat classes. His reflexes triggered instantly, stabilizing his balance seamlessly as he shifted from defense to a fluid counteroffensive.

The two crashed heavily onto the floor, rolling frantically across the wood planks.

Yet, just as they locked into a posture that signaled an all-out brawl, Jiang Henggu abruptly hoisted both hands into the air in a gesture of absolute surrender.

“I yield,” he stated with immense finality.

Yu Mianfeng’s raised fist froze mid-air.

Jiang Henggu’s breathing sounded incredibly heavy. With Yu Mianfeng straddling his waist, he could distinctly feel the violent, rhythmic expansion of the Alpha’s chest cavity. Furthermore, the flush crawling up Jiang Henggu’s face looked profoundly abnormal.

Yu Mianfeng wavered slightly, terrified that he might actually beat the Protagonist Gong to death, which would force him to navigate a chaotic mess of derailed plotlines.

…?

“Are you insane?” Yu Mianfeng demanded after a moment of tense deliberation.

Jiang Henggu offered no verbal reply, his ragged panting remaining deeply heavy, resembling the coarse breathing of a wild beast.

Something prominent suddenly pressed upward beneath him. Jiang Henggu let out a muffled groan, shifting his legs uncomfortably.

Straddling his waist, Yu Mianfeng registered exactly what was happening in an instant.

【The two of you look like you’re engaged in some deeply creative roleplay right now. Heh, playing this dirty right in front of my face… I’m actually starting to feel a little jealous. 】

「Do you desperately want to act like a dog too? Yu Mianfeng barked back internally, intending to sting him.

【Who the hell wants to be your dog? Don’t flatter yourself… Oh, you’re talking about me failing to warn you about that matter earlier? Fine, if I’m a dog, then I’m a dog, hehehe. As if you can control me anyway. Do you actually like dogs? Woof, woof, woof? 】

The expression settling onto Yu Mianfeng’s face turned so chillingly cold that he looked entirely prepared to commit murder.

The voice inside his mind continued its relentless, chattering monologue: 【You literally just announced your formal engagement to the Protagonist Shou moments ago, and now you’re locking bodies this intimately with the Protagonist Gong. Haha, are you planning to enjoy a couples’ combo platter? Honestly, it’s not like it’s impossible. Either way, they both completely adore you…】

Yu Mianfeng refused to let the entity continue its noisy chatter. He lowered his eyes, fixating his gaze entirely on Jiang Henggu.

Alphas truly are wild beasts ruled entirely by their primitive heat. He processed this reality once more.

With a blackened expression, Yu Mianfeng channeled every ounce of his physical power to grasp the Alpha’s collar, hoisting half of Jiang Henggu’s torso completely off the floor before driving a brutal kick straight into the man’s frame, sending him flying several meters away.

【Ooh, a little spicy. I like it. 】 The entity inside his head let out a sharp whistle.

Yu Mianfeng ignored him completely, casting a haughty, downward stare at the distant Jiang Henggu: “If you’re sick, go get medical treatment.”

He stood perfectly straight, resembling a resilient pine tree, though his hands curled into tight fists instinctively. When he had been clutching Jiang Henggu’s collar moments ago, the man had backhanded his wrist, locking it in a crushing grip.

The sensation dragged a highly unpleasant memory screaming back to the surface.

During his middle school years, Yu Mianfeng had been forcefully pinned in a crushing embrace by an utterly inexplicable Alpha suitor. The patch of skin where their bodies collided had burned with a scalding heat, generating a bizarre, toxic illusion that urged his body to continue the contact.

Being so young at the time, he had been entirely incapable of matching the physical capabilities of a towering Alpha whose raw strength vastly eclipsed an ordinary human’s. Furthermore, because he was enrolled in an elite noble private academy, his personal security detail hadn’t been permitted to accompany him inside the facility, leaving him completely devoid of assistance.

As the minutes ticked away, every ounce of physical power drained from his body. He had been effectively held hostage, pinned ruthlessly against the wall while the Alpha pressed his nose directly against his neck, inhaling his scent with frantic excitement.

That suitor had been a textbook Alpha chauvinist who had previously voiced countless derogatory remarks targeting Betas, yet he had smoothly learned how to behave obediently under the crushing weight of the Yu family’s absolute authority. In Yu Mianfeng’s memory, that individual should have loathed his very existence, yet the hand the Alpha had forcefully driven toward his chest had been immensely cruel and unyielding.

Back then, the system hadn’t entered its hibernation phase yet, screaming frantically inside his mind to draw his weapon.

He had complied with absolute, chilling rationality.

Yu Mianfeng fired three separate shots. One round tore straight through the Alpha’s lower abdomen, while the remaining two shattered the bones in his arm.

The Alpha collapsed onto the floor, clutching his stomach as he writhed in a widening pool of blood. When the academy faculty members finally swarmed the scene after hearing the gunfire, all they found was a young Beta leaning casually against the corner of the wall, staring down at the bleeding body with a detached expression. His finger twitched slightly against the trigger, looking as though he was calmly deliberating whether to fire a few supplementary rounds.

Every single onlooker had shuddered in absolute horror.

That specific incident was the legendary shooting that had completely rocked the entire Capital Planet, subsequently providing the military faction with the perfect political leverage to enforce strict regulations targeting firearm abuse. Regrettably, the Alpha hadn’t died; the moment he was discharged from the medical facility, he was permanently relocated to an outer star system—an intervention orchestrated entirely by the Yu family. The aristocratic community had remained in a state of chaotic turmoil for a prolonged period following the scandal.

In reality, Yu Mianfeng had never actually intended to execute the suitor, entirely held back by the subtle, unspeakable public discourse regarding interactions between Alphas and Betas.

The moment the Alpha collapsed from the gunshot wounds, the system had stated to him with absolute, chilling calm that anyone who discovered this specific secret of his could not be permitted to live.

Direct physical contact with an Alpha would trigger a severe, allergy-like hypersensitivity reaction within Yu Mianfeng’s body, leaving him temporarily stripped of all motor functionality. It was an reality that was profoundly terrifying to navigate.

Yet, Yu Mianfeng hadn’t fired another round. He merely closed his eyes the moment the panicked instructors swarmed his position, releasing his grip on the weapon as his hand throbbed with numbness from the firearm’s heavy recoil.

The system isn’t nearly as impartial and selfless as I originally imagined, he had reasoned.

【Xiao Yu, you are the entire purpose behind my existence. I will always prioritize your well-being above all else. 】 The system’s gentle voice had echoed inside his mind.

「Does that include the mandatory plotlines?

【…I’m sorry. 】

Yu Mianfeng hadn’t been the least bit surprised by the system’s response.

The emergency medical transport sent to rush the Alpha into a stabilization capsule arrived simultaneously with the Yu family vehicle dispatched to collect Yu Mianfeng. The crowd watched blankly as Yu Mianfeng departed without granting so much as a solitary glance toward the Alpha locked inside the intensive care unit.

Once his parents processed the full context of the situation, they immediately escorted him to undergo a comprehensive physical examination at the Yu family’s private medical facility. The diagnostic results were generated remarkably fast.

It was an entirely novel pathology, completely undocumented in medical history. The physicians officially designated the condition as “Hyper-reactive Non-Beta Contact Syndrome.” When the patient experienced skin-to-skin contact with an Alpha or an Omega, their tactile sensory receptors would amplify exponentially. The resulting sensory overload carried zero physical pain, manifesting instead as something akin to pure sexual euphoria.

Given that every member of the Yu household was a Beta, and Yu Mianfeng had always harbored an intense dislike for physical closeness, the underlying condition had managed to evade detection until that fateful day.

Furthermore, this specific pathology remained entirely incurable, even within the cutting-edge medical paradigm of the interstellar era. Given that he represented the sole documented case in existence, it was impossible not to suspect that the system’s plot mechanics were actively manipulating his biology.

The system’s explanation was a critical distortion within the world-line threads, immediately following which it entered a prolonged, indefinite hibernation cycle to perform an automated internal audit. Shortly thereafter, an annoying mental intruder materialized inside Yu Mianfeng’s consciousness.

To this very day, Yu Mianfeng had yet to see any signs of the system awakening. As for the ongoing medical research targeting his syndrome, no effective progress had been made. The physicians had simply drilled a single instruction into his head: minimize physical contact with others at all costs.

The moment touch occurred; his body would generate… an intensely powerful physical reaction.

Moments ago, booting Jiang Henggu away had been the absolute best solution Yu Mianfeng could formulate.

A firearm remained securely holstered against his side. Unless driven into an absolute dead end, he had no desire to open fire, held back by a highly specific motivation.

Yu Mianfeng knew with absolute certainty that given an Alpha’s enhanced biological resilience, a simple kick like that amounted to practically nothing.

After a long silence, Jiang Henggu’s breathing gradually smoothed out. He fixated his unmoving stare directly on Yu Mianfeng, his legs shifting as his voice took on a layer of mockery that even he himself failed to consciously register: “You truly are ruthless… Do you genuinely loathe me that much? The only reason you commanded me to come tonight was to force me to witness your engagement. You did it on purpose.”

It was a flat statement of fact; Jiang Henggu had long since deduced the answer to his own question. Why was he forcing the words into the open now? To intentionally invite further humiliation? Jiang Henggu felt entirely like a defeated hound.

Yu Mianfeng merely wanted to execute his plot mission, delivering his response without a shred of hesitation.

“Correct. He and I have harbored deep feelings for one another for a long time.” Channeling the exact dialogue scripted for the villain in the original plot, Yu Mianfeng stated: “I extended that invitation to you tonight for that explicit purpose.”

“Do you genuinely love him?” Jiang Henggu demanded.

The Alpha’s hands curled into tight fists against his thighs. He was currently navigating his rut, desperately praying that Yu Mianfeng wouldn’t utter a single syllable capable of snapping his remaining self-control. His mindset was practically one of begging. Anyone in the universe could deliver this reality to him, but it absolutely could not come directly from Yu Mianfeng’s own lips.

Under Jiang Henggu’s intense scrutiny, the expression on Yu Mianfeng’s face remained entirely frozen: “Naturally.”

Time seemed to grind to an absolute halt in that exact moment.

Jiang Henggu slowly lowered his head, concealing his expression entirely from Yu Mianfeng’s view. One stood while the other sat, the disparity in their positions immensely stark.

The aura radiating from Jiang Henggu’s form felt far too volatile and unhinged. Yu Mianfeng needed to maintain a safe, physical distance from him. Close-quarters combat wasn’t his weak point, but given an Alpha’s terrifyingly superior physical parameters, if the man truly lost his mind, Yu Mianfeng would be entirely incapable of pinning him down.

Perhaps this is some sort of golden finger cheat the plot granted to the protagonist. Who could say for sure? Either way, he was merely a villain.

The crisp sound of leather soles grinding against the wooden floorboards echoed with absolute clarity in Jiang Henggu’s ears, dragging his drifting consciousness back to reality. The youth’s chillingly detached attitude acted as a volatile catalyst, sending a surge of adrenaline tearing through the Alpha’s senses.

“What exactly do you take me for?” Jiang Henggu suddenly muttered into the absolute silence.

…?

Before Yu Mianfeng could even formulate a response, Jiang Henggu lunged forward with explosive speed. Despite Yu Mianfeng’s lightning-fast reflexes, he was ruthlessly tackled straight into the floorboards.

Yu Mianfeng acted with instant finality, driving his knee upward while twisting his torso in a sharp counter-lock, attempting to wrestle his way into a dominant position. Jiang Henggu refused to loosen his grip, the two of them rolling frantically across the floor several times before their momentum finally ground to a halt. Without a shred of hesitation, Jiang Henggu pinned both of Yu Mianfeng’s wrists down with a single hand.

Yu Mianfeng launched a violent, frantic resistance.

He was pinned flat against the wooden floorboards, the back of his head resting against the freezing ground, his hands securely locked above him while his legs were pinned tight beneath the Alpha’s weight. He watched blankly as the man ruthlessly tore a strip of fabric from his own outer jacket, binding Yu Mianfeng’s wrists securely together with a brutal, unbreakable knot.

The sheer disparity in their raw physical strength was blindingly obvious.

Yu Mianfeng had never found himself in such a pathetic, compromised position. His hands were securely bound above his head, his lower body was pinned flat, and his legs were forcefully driven apart by the man’s knee. Any attempt to struggle was entirely futile.

In the original work, a villain’s ultimate destiny was to be utterly defeated by the protagonist.

Yu Mianfeng scrutinized the man before him for a fleeting second before turning his head away with an air of supreme, icy arrogance. Jiang Henggu, however, dug his fingers ruthlessly into the youth’s jawline, forcing his face back around to lock him in a burning stare.

Clenching his teeth, Jiang Henggu practically roared every single syllable: “I will never become a homewrecker, Yu Mianfeng! I am eternally incapable of forcing my way into someone else’s relationship!”

In this exact moment, Jiang Henggu resembled a complete lunatic, frantically and single-mindedly venting the chaotic emotions thrashing inside his chest. He didn’t seem to require an actual response from Yu Mianfeng. He had known it all along; he should have processed it long ago. He shouldn’t have waited until the details of this marriage alliance were delivered directly from the boy’s own mouth.

“Don’t touch me,” Yu Mianfeng commanded in a freezing tone.

He wasn’t the least bit surprised to hear such words from Jiang Henggu.

Jiang Henggu was an illegitimate child. His mother had dragged her terminally ill body to a remote fringe planet to give birth to him, passing away mere years later. He had struggled frantically just to survive on that brutal edge of space, enduring a truly pathetic existence, until a stranger suddenly tracked him down one day to inform him that he was actually the biological son of a prominent noble on the Capital Planet.

Happiness never descended from thin air.

The noble’s legitimate heir had been assassinated, and the remaining illegitimate offspring had long since been systematically eliminated. The clan desperately required a successor, and after immense deliberation and pulling extensive political strings, the noble finally discovered that he still possessed a surviving son tucked away on a fringe planet.

Jiang Henggu’s transition from the edge of space to high society hadn’t been nearly as glamorous as the public imagined. Standing at the absolute bottom of the elite young master circles, enduring constant humiliation and mockery was standard routine though things had normalized slightly after he became Yu Mianfeng’s personal follower.

Prior to that transition, he had witnessed every imaginable brand of filth, yet he possessed an intensely rigid moral compass. On the fateful day he stumbled upon a grotesque family scandal, he had sworn an oath that he would never interfere in another person’s relationship.

In the original plotline, the Protagonist Gong was supposed to spiral into a prolonged phase of self-destructive despair precisely because of the marriage alliance between the Protagonist Shou and the villain. It wasn’t until much later, when he discovered that the engagement had been entirely coerced through the villain’s tyrannical leverage, that he would formally launch his pursuit of the Protagonist Shou.

Yu Mianfeng’s gaze drifted across Jiang Henggu’s eyes. The man’s psychological state was unmistakably unhinged. It looked as though he had been thoroughly driven over the edge by the announcement of the engagement.

If it weren’t for the absolute restrictions enforced by the plot, Yu Mianfeng would have been more than happy to grant both of them permanent peace. But right now, he was entirely forced to submit to the narrative.

The aggressive, invasive movements of the Alpha hovering on the absolute brink of a psychological breakdown suddenly froze. Out of the chaotic fog consuming his mind, he detected a incredibly faint trace of pheromones a scent so hauntingly familiar that it triggered an instant wave of intense loathing. It was lingering right behind Yu Mianfeng’s pale neck, nestled against his disheveled hair. The sheer disgust made him want to vomit on the spot.

Resting right there was a single boutonnière, which had snapped off and fallen onto the floorboards during their physical struggle, pressed flush against Yu Mianfeng.

Given that Yu Mianfeng was a Beta, this specific pheromone scent could only belong to someone else.

An absolute, burning rage consumed Jiang Henggu. Trembling violently, he reached his fingers out, desperately intending to fling the offensive object away.

His brain let out a sudden, deafening ring.

The exact fraction of a second those fingers brushed past the skin on the back of his neck, Yu Mianfeng finally used the hidden blade concealed against his person to slice cleanly through the fabric binding his wrists.

While Yu Mianfeng’s face carried a faint, flushed warmth triggered entirely by the physical contact, his expression remained perfectly blank.

He slid his hand down toward his waist, drawing his firearm and locking his fingers around the grip in a single, seamless motion, aiming the barrel directly at the Alpha hovering above him with terrifying speed.

Before Jiang Henggu could even form a physical reaction, his gaze drifted downward in utter shock, locking eyes with those deep, sea-blue irises that looked as though they had been dipped in pure ice, completely devoid of human emotion.

A sudden, paralyzing chill surged straight up his spine.

The barrel of the firearm held securely in the Beta’s hand was leveled directly at his chest.

With absolutely zero hesitation, Yu Mianfeng pulled the trigger.