After Breaking Up with the Alpha Villain, I was Forcibly Marked - Chapter 24

“No, he can’t possibly be my ‘Fated Pair’.”

Hearing Wen Chengmin’s high praise for this “Fated Pair,” Gao Chang didn’t feel overjoyed; instead, an inexplicable surge of unease rose in his heart. Instinctively, he rejected the baseless speculation that the Omega he had met only once was his “Destined Mate.”

If he only had one Fated Pair, that person could only be the “Protagonist Shou” of the book Xing Xiyan.

Setting aside Xing Xiyan’s unique aura, Gao Chang had clearly felt the signal from his System the first time they met. If Xing Yizhao were truly the destined one, the System wouldn’t have failed to pop up and remind him. Even though the System had ignored him from the start, he still held onto a tiny shred of hope in its judgment.

In short, anyone could make a mistake, but the System couldn’t.

Coming to this conclusion, he let out a secret sigh of relief, successfully convincing himself to set aside his doubts for the moment.

“It’s not entirely impossible…”

Witnessing the shifting expressions on the Alpha’s face, Wen Chengmin sighed helplessly. He assumed Gao Chang was so deeply in love with the undifferentiated youth who left those marks that he was willing to deceive himself rather than believe another Omega was his Fated Pair. He chose to say no more.

Not long after Wen Chengmin left, Chen Mujue, dressed in a deep grey suit, appeared at the entrance of the terrace. His pace was steady and efficient; in just a few moments, he had crossed the distance and stood before Gao Chang without even breaking a sweat.

“Young Master, I heard you accepted several interviews yesterday?”

Chen Mujue adjusted his glasses, his voice as level and emotionless as ever. Gao Chang felt a jolt of anxiety; Chen Mujue rarely asked him anything directly. Usually, when he did, it meant something bad had happened.

Gao Chang sat up on the lounge chair and took a hot drink from an attendant. “That did happen. There were too many of them; no matter how much I tried to shoo them away, they wouldn’t leave…”

Having heard the explanation, Chen Mujue understood. He picked up a ten-centimeter sensor wand and tapped the light screen held by the attendant, enlarging it to half a meter.

On the interface of the Empire’s most popular social media platform, a series of trending tags appeared, each marked with the “Hot” icon. Almost every single headline featured Gao Chang’s name, filling an entire page. Each post seemed unrelated, yet they all pointed toward his experiences from a few days ago.

Coincidentally, these posts were all published the day before the day after he left the hotel. It looked as though someone was intentionally pushing the narrative of public opinion.

The top six headlines were:

• #The Gao Heir’s Forced Possession of a Beautiful Youth: Eight Days and Seven Nights of Deprivation#
• #Young Master Gao Admits Ex-Boyfriend Cheated Before the Wedding: A Green Meadow Atop His Head#
• #Richest Heir of the Empire Appears with Current Partner after Rut: High-Profile Declaration of “Marrying No One But Him!”#
• #Fast Entry! Young Master Gao and 57th Boyfriend’s Secret Hotel Meeting: Private Video Leaked#
• #The Gao Family’s New Daughter-in-law Freshly Minted: It’s Actually Him!!!#
• #Shock! The Cheating Omega Fiance is Pregnant; Is the Father the Second Master Lu?!#

Scanning the top hot posts, Gao Chang was violently choked by the hot drink he hadn’t yet swallowed. “Fuck! How did this become ‘forced possession’ by me?!”

And what was this about his “ex-boyfriend” and the Second Master Lu? How did he not know that the pregnant Omega had anything to do with Lu Yunzheng?

Before he could react further, Chen Mujue clicked on the fourth post and hit the play button on the interview video. In the video, a reporter held a microphone to the dark-haired, blue-eyed young Alpha and asked:

“In your heart, who is more important: your ex-boyfriend or your current boyfriend?”

“It’s a feeling that’s hard to put into words…”

The Alpha fell into a long silence, as if lost in thought. After a moment, he added: “Actually… the current one is more important.”

The reporter then asked: “If a boy not only lost his purity to you but is willing to give you his everything, how would you treat him?”

This time, the Alpha thought for a very long time, appearing to reminisce about his journey with his boyfriend. Only after the reporter’s loud reminder did his eyes fill with “deep affection” as he said: “Of course… I’ll marry him.”

As soon as he said those words, the camera which had been focused on his upper body suddenly zoomed in. It instantly magnified the swollen bruises on his lips and the hickeys on his neck and ears. Some had faded, but more were fresh. They were a mess of bruised red and purple, spreading from his jaw to his Adam’s apple.

The part below his Adam’s apple was hidden beneath a black collar. Despite being partially covered, any keen-eyed person could see at a glance how intense the battle had been.

At the end of the video, the reporter asked about their future: “Is the boyfriend you are with now the only… only… ONLY marriage candidate who will accompany you forever?”

“Who else could it be but him!”

Perhaps the reporter’s questioning was too slow, or perhaps Gao Chang had finally adapted; he didn’t even wait for the reporter to finish before snapping out the answer. As he spoke, his handsome face was full of urgency, and his blue eyes were shimmering with a bright, crystalline moisture.

He gave a vivid performance of a “Deeply in Love Simp Alpha” who was full of infinite longing for marriage.

Chen Mujue closed the video and turned to the shell-shocked Alpha. “Not only does the Master know about this, but the Head of the Evig family also sent a letter this morning. He demands that the Young Master keep his promise, take responsibility for his grandson… and complete the wedding on a chosen date.”

Gao Chang was dazed. “Wait, how did I become the one taking responsibility?!” Shouldn’t it be Xing Xiyan taking responsibility for him?!

Chen Mujue clicked the first post and scrolled through the comments, neutrally relaying the netizens’ sharp critiques: “The youth is merely a physically weak undifferentiated person, while the Young Master is a SS-rank high-quality Alpha. No matter how you look at it, it seems the Young Master was overcome by passion and forced himself on the boy.”

“Ha, well, I’ll tell you right now you’re all wrong.”

The memories of a few days ago flashed through his mind. Gao Chang instinctively touched the bandage on his neck. He accidentally brushed the glands on his nape, and the dull, gathered pain instantly radiated outward, making him afraid to breathe too deeply.

“What does my old man say?” Gao Chang lowered his hand and walked to the screen.

Following his direction, Chen Mujue switched to the post about Lu Yunzheng. “The Master naturally hopes the Young Master will settle down and plan for his future family. If the Young Master is unwilling, he will settle it through other means.”

Looking at the series of “paparazzi” photos of the Omega and Lu Yunzheng together, Gao Chang recalled the Omega’s extreme panic right before he fainted. It was indeed a suspicious reaction.

He snapped out of it and let out a lazy yawn. “Then tell him there’s no need to ‘settle’ it. I’ve decided to marry Xing Xiyan.”

Thinking of the System’s stubborn nature of only appearing at specific times, he added: “Make sure the wedding is grand. The louder and more extravagant, the better. Ideally, let everyone in the Empire know.”

Chen Mujue was slightly taken aback, but then a look of relief crossed his eyes. “I will arrange it.”

Inside the Lu Family Villa.

“Second Young Master, we contacted the posters of those hot threads and tried to negotiate. They still refuse to take them down…”

The lackey stood in the middle of the trashed study, wiping cold sweat from his forehead. He reported the situation with his head lowered, not daring to look at the dark-faced Alpha before him. Ever since those posts about the Lu family’s second son were put on the hot list, the usually easy-going Lu Yunzheng had spent the entire day in a rare, towering rage.

“Tell them money is no object! As long as they delete those reports, they can name their price!”

Lu Yunzheng’s fury intensified. His pheromones rich and heavy like strong liquor mingled with his rampant anger, violently sweeping through every inch of the study and silently threatening everyone inside.

The lackey swallowed hard, his voice trembling. “We mentioned it. Their response was that those threads have already been bought out by someone else. Whether they are removed depends on the buyer.”

“Who is it?!!”

The red veins in Lu Yunzheng’s eyes became more prominent. He turned his head with a terrifying, sinister look, looming over his subordinate.

Feeling the oppressive gaze, the lackey’s limbs went numb. “They… they won’t reveal it.”

Lu Yunzheng frowned, mentally reviewing everyone worth suspecting. He eventually singled out the most likely candidate his older brother, Lu Zhiya. He lowered his voice and asked tentatively, “Has my brother made any moves lately?”

“The Eldest Young Master is currently in the Federation. So far… no messages have been sent back.”

Sensing the pressure around him decrease, the lackey relaxed slightly and poured out all the information he had.

So it wasn’t him. He eliminated the most likely first option. After a long silence, Lu Yunzheng thought of another person.

“And the First Madam?”

“The First Madam’s condition is frequently relapsing. The doctors have arranged a private room for her with nearly twenty nurses watching her around the clock. She basically stays in her ward all day.”

At the mention of the Lu family’s First Madam, a flicker of lingering fear passed through the lackey’s eyes. No one in the Lu household could have imagined that the once-formidable Omega would one day go mad pouncing on anyone she saw, scratching and biting while muttering incoherent nonsense.

Lu Yunzheng’s doubts deepened. Aside from a few people who knew him well, he believed he had always been airtight toward the outside world and rarely made enemies.

Who is designing this for me?! Putting the exact stain he most wanted to erase on public display.

He paced to the window, his gaze falling on the small garden below, where flowers bloomed and birds sang. In a voice too low for the lackey to hear, he whispered:

“If it’s not them… who could it be…”