Low-Grade Omega - Chapter 2

Seeing the person he hadn’t laid eyes on in five years, Li Yao froze for a heartbeat. The facial features of the man before him had completely shed the youthful innocence of his memories, replaced by the mature, predatory edge unique to a top-tier Alpha.

He pulled himself out of the memory quickly, masking the deep-seated hatred in his eyes behind a calm facade.

Li Yao removed the cigarette from his lips, casually wiped a stray smear of blood from the corner of his mouth, and gave a careless smirk. “Well, if it isn’t my ex-boyfriend. What wind blew you out here?”

Ji Yicheng scrutinized him in silence. His calculating, probing gaze felt as if he were appraising a piece of merchandise on a shelf.

A sharp sting pierced Li Yao’s heart, and the shallow, dismissive smile on his face vanished.

Having dated Ji Yicheng for over a year, he knew better than anyone the man’s infuriatingly fastidious habits.

This Alpha was a serious germaphobe. Intent on revolting him, Li Yao raised a hand still stained with blood and grime, lightly patting Ji Yicheng’s cheek. He spoke in a mocking, flippant tone, “People only come here to watch boxing for the thrill. So, Great Head of the Ji Family, did you enjoy the show? For the sake of our past relationship, why not throw a tip my way?”

“Are you that desperate for money?”

Ji Yicheng knit his brows in disgust, looking down at the Omega with a disappointment he couldn’t hide.

As expected, no matter how beautiful the exterior, it couldn’t mask a core that was rotten to the bone.

How had he been so blind to ever fall for such a materialistic, hypocritical, inferior Omega?

“I am, very desperate,” Li Yao replied, looking the noble, high-and-mighty Alpha straight in the eye with a sarcastic smile. “After all, not everyone is as lucky as you, Head of the Ji Family, to be born in Rome. I actually have to scrap for every penny.”

How could an inferior Omega from the slums like you ever be worthy of my son?

The contemptuous, biting words of that person suddenly echoed in his ears. For a fleeting second, he felt dragged back to that suffocating, hopeless rainy night.

Li Yao felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar, and he instantly lost all interest in tangling with Ji Yicheng.

He put the cigarette back between his lips and, with a flick, easily sparked his lighter.

“It seems the Great Head of the Ji Family has no intention of tipping me.”

He took a deep drag, his beautiful, flirtatious peach-blossom eyes narrowing slightly. Shrouded in a haze of smoke, the Omega looked blurred and ethereal, appearing reckless yet inexplicably captivating.

The acrid smell of nicotine was unpleasant, aggressively invading the senses. The Alpha instinctively took a step back in distaste.

Ji Yicheng’s brow furrowed. He felt a jarring sense of dissonance. The Omega in his memory had been delicate and pretentious, always hating the smell of smoke, let alone smoking himself.

He studied the Omega silently, as if trying to find a trace of his former self beneath this wild, defiant exterior. Unfortunately, he was destined for disappointment.

Li Yao caught his reaction and let out a cold laugh, flatly dismissing him. “If you came here to laugh at me or kick me while I’m down, you’ve achieved your goal. I won’t keep you.”

He straightened his back, not even bothering to maintain a fake smile, and walked right past the Alpha toward the dressing room door. As he left, he casually tossed the burnt-out cigarette butt into the trash.

Ji Yicheng’s dark gaze followed him, settling on the hand covered in fine scars, made even more gruesome by the dried, clotted blood.

A memory flashed through his mind—a hand similarly covered in scars, but slick with sweat and pulsing with veins, radiating an inexplicable, raw energy.

He rubbed his fingertips together, feeling a sudden urge to pull Li Yao’s hand into his own palm.

And he followed that impulse.

Ji Yicheng grabbed Li Yao’s wrist, pulling him back forcefully.

The Omega’s muscles tensed instantly, like a startled, bristling little animal.

Before the Omega could lash out, Ji Yicheng spoke. “Be my lover, and I’ll give you money.”

This Omega might be inferior at his core, but that face was truly stunning. Those peach-blossom eyes, simultaneously affectionate and cold, with their slightly upturned, reddened corners, hit his aesthetic preferences with surgical precision.

Ji Yicheng had to admit that even though he knew how contemptible this Omega was, he still felt an inextinguishable desire for him.

He didn’t know why he was offering a mistress-like arrangement so easily, but his subconscious told him that if he didn’t keep the Omega here today, they would likely never cross paths again.

He felt a faint sense of reluctance toward such an ending.

“What did you say? Be your lover?”

The Omega seemed unable to process the information for a moment, his eyes widening in surprise.

Ji Yicheng gave a slight nod and waited quietly for a response. He thought he wouldn’t be surprised regardless of the answer, yet his heart began to race instinctively, so much so that he nearly forgot to breathe.

Li Yao thought he had misheard, but when the confirmation came, the hatred in his heart erupted uncontrollably.

If this were five years ago, he would have slapped the Alpha and walked away. But now, he rationally suppressed his surging emotions. Curling his lips into a smile that didn’t reach his eyes, he said, “Fine. However…”

The Alpha’s expression softened slightly at the positive answer, but Li Yao’s tone shifted. He hooked his finger around the Alpha’s tie and yanked hard, forcing the tall man to lower his head.

The Omega leaned in, his lush, beautiful lips brushing against the Alpha’s ear as he whispered suggestively, “If you want to sleep with me, you’ll have to give me a price I’m happy with.”

Warm breath fanned over the sensitive earlobe, sending ripples of tingling heat through him. The Alpha’s eyes darkened, and his voice turned husky. “Five million for two years. Is that enough?”

Li Yao pursed his lips, the corners of his mouth pulling down.

Five million… it was enough to buy ten of his worthless lives. As expected of the elite upper class, he was truly generous.

Li Yao felt hollow and lost inside, and the strength in his fingers gradually faded.

He let go of the tie, turned his face away with indifference, and lowered his eyelids. “Deal.”

Ji Yicheng made a call immediately, instructing his assistant to draft a sponsorship contract in duplicate.

The terms were relatively humane; there was no requirement for Li Yao to live with him, which made Li Yao breathe a small sigh of relief.

Without hesitation, he signed his name, selling the next two years of his life for five million.

Once the assistant collected the contract, the five million was transferred to his account on the spot.

Li Yao looked at the massive sum in his bank balance, but the void in his heart only grew.

So, money was this easy to make…

He curled his lip in self-derision and looked up at the Alpha, who had remained silent the entire time.

“So, Sugar Daddy, do you want it now, or will you wait until you’re in a better mood to enjoy your little lover?”

Since Li Yao was willing to sell himself for money, he wasn’t going to be a hypocrite about it after the transaction was done.

He watched Ji Yicheng’s reaction. The man seemed startled by his bluntness, his expression blank as he pressed his lips thin.

Seeing this, Li Yao began to unbutton his shirt, completely ignoring the assistant who hadn’t left yet, acting as if being watched during intimacy was of no consequence.

His shirt was only half-unbuttoned when the Alpha finally moved. He caught Li Yao’s hand, looking down at him from his superior height.

“I don’t like lovers who are too forward. The first thing you must learn as my lover is to be obedient.”

Li Yao dithered for a moment. Right, Alphas were creatures with a terrifying need for control, especially in bed; they preferred absolute dominance.

Ji Yicheng was no exception.

“Oh, well that saves me some effort then.”

Li Yao leaned back against the sofa, lying flat with an air of “do as you wish.”

Sensing the shift in atmosphere, the assistant tactfully made his exit, softly closing the door behind him.

Without a third party, the air in the room wasn’t romantic or suggestive; instead, it dropped to a freezing point.

The two remained in their positions, locked in a stare-down, as if whoever looked away first would be the loser.

Eventually, Li Yao’s eyes grew tired and he blinked, lowering his gaze. He spoke with a lazy yet biting sarcasm, “A beauty is lying before you with his clothes half-off, yet you just stare without doing anything. Could it be that in the five years since we broke up, the Great Head of the Ji Family has become… dysfunctional?”

As he spoke, his gaze drifted toward Ji Yicheng’s lower half, his lips curling into an ambiguous smirk.

It turned out that one really shouldn’t go looking for trouble. Li Yao hadn’t even enjoyed his triumph for a few seconds before the grim-faced Alpha gripped his chin, forcing him to look up. Then, a kiss descended, vicious and hungry, as if the Alpha wanted to tear him apart and swallow him whole.

Alphas never learned how to be gentle. It was like this five years ago, and even now, he couldn’t break the habit of biting during a kiss.

Just before he ran out of air, Li Yao shoved the Alpha off him. Gasping for breath as if he’d just escaped death, his peach-blossom eyes, shimmering with the moisture of arousal, glared at the man.

“Are you a dog?”

Without a doubt, the wound on the corner of his mouth that had just begun to heal had been torn open again, and his lip had been bitten through by the Alpha.

The fact that the Omega had forgotten his place and cursed at him didn’t make Ji Yicheng angry. Instead, it further stoked his desire for conquest.

The Alpha’s hot palm pressed against the Omega’s flushed cheek, his thumb pressing firmly into the wound on his lip. The raw desire in his eyes nearly drowned the Omega.

The dressing room of an underground boxing ring was clearly not a suitable place for business. Ji Yicheng hooked one arm around Li Yao’s waist and the other under his knees, easily picking him up in a bridal carry.

The sudden loss of balance made Li Yao instinctively reach out to wrap his arms around the Alpha’s neck. By the time he regained his senses, the Alpha was already carrying him straight out of the dressing room.

Outside, the loud, aggressive music was deafening. There were plenty of familiar faces in the crowd, and several people had already noticed them. Their expressions shifted from confusion to shock and disbelief.

Li Yao felt like he had lost all dignity. Glaring at the hard line of the Alpha’s jaw, he hissed through gritted teeth, “Put me down!”

The Alpha only glanced down at him once, ignoring his words entirely. He carried him out of the underground ring in a dominant, overbearing manner.

When he was finally placed in the back seat of the aircraft, Li Yao didn’t say a word. He turned his back to the Alpha sitting beside him, leaving him with nothing but a cold view of the back of his head.

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