The "Honest" Beta Deceived Day and Night by a Twisted Obsessive - Chapter 3

Come to the utility room 

Duan Huaijing truly felt he was drunk; otherwise, why did Xie Yun’s voice sound even more chilling than usual? Before he could manage an explanation, his phone rang.

The caller ID showed: Xie Ming.

Duan Huaijing sobered up instantly. He tilted his head slightly to peek at Xie Yun’s expression. A cold gaze, like that of a venomous snake, seemed to coil around his wrist.

“Answer it,” Xie Yun said.

Duan Huaijing stole another glance at him. The man said to answer, but his expression screamed the exact opposite. Unable to figure it out, Duan Huaijing pressed the call button with the stiff, clumsy movements of an elderly person poking at a smartphone.

“Did you say something to Tong Mian? He came back crying to me, saying he’s not going to the banquet anymore!” Xie Ming started berating him the second the call connected, his tone incredibly foul.

This kind of treatment was a daily occurrence. Duan Huaijing knew Xie Ming looked down on him from the bottom of his heart, but he desperately needed money, and the Xie family was generous. For that reason alone, he didn’t dare cross the man.

Duan Huaijing kept his head low, as if by not looking at Xie Yun, the man wouldn’t be able to see him either. The pub was noisy, so he whispered his defence: “No, I don’t even know him. I haven’t been spreading rumours.”

Xie Ming’s attitude softened slightly. He knew Duan Huaijing’s personality, he was stubborn and didn’t know how to lie. If he said he hadn’t, he hadn’t.

“Right. Got it,” Xie Ming muttered.

“Alright then.” Duan Huaijing watched the seconds ticking up on the screen, but the call remained active.

“Why is it so loud there? Where are you?” Xie Ming asked casually.

Duan Huaijing’s hand tightened around the phone. He stammered, instinctively glancing at Xie Yun, only to find himself locked in the man’s gaze.

Maintaining his gaze on Xie Yun, Duan Huaijing replied to Xie Ming: “At home, watching TV.”

Xie Yun gave him a deep, searching look.

“Oh.” His fiancé was none the wiser.

The night was thick, and the atmospheric lighting swept over them. Xie Yun didn’t expose the lie; in the illusory light, his eyes were dark and unreadable.

After hanging up, Duan Huaijing drained the rest of his drink and stood up unsteadily. Xie Yun frowned, stepping forward with gentlemanly poise to catch his arm. “I’ve called a car. It’s here.”

Duan Huaijing was overwhelmed. “No, really, it’s fine—” Realising the car was already there, he quickly corrected himself. “Thank you, Big Brother.”

“Mm.” Xie Yun helped him to the door. Once he’d handed him over to the driver, he pulled his hands into his pockets without a hint of lingering.

In the dim light of the car, Duan Huaijing looked out. He saw the tavern flickering like a galaxy of lights. Because Xie Yun was backlit, he appeared as a tall, slender silhouette standing above that galaxy.

The man was playing the role of the elder brother to perfection. Whether it was the pub or the friendly support at the door, it all seemed like a casual, helpful gesture. Seeing the younger man into the car, he even raised a hand in a small wave.

Duan Huaijing’s brain misfired, and he nodded. Then, realising Xie Yun couldn’t see him through the glass, he rolled down the window and waved back. “Goodbye, Big Brother!”

As the car drove off, he didn’t look back once. He had no idea that Xie Yun stood at the entrance for a very long time.

Leaning against the back seat, the fog in Duan Huaijing’s eyes cleared to reveal a flash of lucidity. He rolled his eyes at the empty air, pulled several tissues from the car’s dispenser, and frantically scrubbed the spot on his arm where Xie Yun had touched him.

He didn’t stop until the skin was red.

Disgusting, disgusting, disgusting!

He dropped the tissues on the floor and ground them under his shoe.

Just then, his phone pinged. A WeChat friend request. It was from Xie Yun.

Duan Huaijing clutched his phone, suddenly feeling the guilt of a child caught doing something naughty. His eyes darted around for a few seconds before he obediently hit ‘Accept’.

Xie Yun didn’t bother with small talk. He simply sent a photo of the car’s number plate. It felt like a silent rebuke for being careless, as if he had zero sense of personal safety.

Duan Huaijing thought this in his head, but his fingers picked out a few emojis and typed: “Thank you, Big Brother. Handshake

Handshake”

Xie Yun replied almost instantly: “Message me when you’re home.”

Duan Huaijing sent a polite reply and switched off his phone. Just as he closed his eyes for a nap, it buzzed again.

He thought it was Xie Yun, thinking: Is he really this chatty?

However, the screen lit up with several messages from his pinned contact.

The Eye: What are you doing, baby? 

The Eye: Why aren’t you replying? 

The Eye: Who was the man you were chatting to just now?

 The Eye: Talk to me. 

The Eye: Don’t play dead. I know you can see this.

The string of questions hit him like a physical weight, making his breathing feel constricted. A surge of irritation rose in his chest.

His brow furrowed, but he typed back a good-tempered reply: “It was my brother-in-law. I wasn’t looking at my phone. Is something wrong?”

Several more messages popped up. For what felt like the hundredth time, Duan Huaijing hovered his finger over the ‘Block’ button. One tap and he’d be free.

A cool breeze drifted in. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and curled his fingers into his palm. Then, another message appeared. Duan Huaijing suppressed his annoyance to look.

He froze.

“You have a way?” His reply was visibly more eager than before. Duan Huaijing felt as though he’d found a lifesaver. He completely forgot to ask how this contact knew his mother was forcing him to smuggle her into the banquet without an invitation.

The reply was swift: “Yes. I told you, I’ll get you whatever you want.”

The tension in Duan Huaijing’s back eased; it felt like a heavy burden had been lifted. As he typed, he realised his fingers were trembling. He switched to a voice message, his voice raspy like a traveller who hadn’t spoken for days in a desert. “What are the conditions?”

The contact’s avatar was a bizarre, black-and-red eyeball. Before every reply, the “eye” seemed to stare at him through the screen like a sinister snake. Scrolling up through their history, every time “The Eye” did something for him, a demand followed.

These demands ranged from kisses and hugs to the man insisting on biting his neck—despite knowing a Beta couldn’t be marked.

But this time, the demand didn’t come. He typed: “Are you a security guard? I suppose for you, letting someone in is just a matter of a word.”

After a while, the status changed to “Typing.”

Duan Huaijing thought hopefully that compared to previous demands, this was a minor thing. Maybe there wouldn’t be a price. Although he was Xie Ming’s fiancé in name, there was no love there, but that didn’t mean he wanted to be used by another person trying to take advantage of him.

That’s how Duan Huaijing saw it: the man was taking advantage of him. Every time they met, the man either wore a mask or stayed in the shadows. He had never seen his face.

He figured “The Eye” was just seeking a bit of novelty, finding him amusing for the moment, and would eventually stop bothering him. Duan Huaijing knew he had no background or means of his own to change his fate, so he used “The Eye’s” power and feelings for him to achieve his goals.

He looked like a fragile white rabbit caught by the neck, but if the time was right, a rabbit’s bite could hurt. He knew what he wanted, and he knew exactly what role to play to extract the most benefit.

The Eye: It’s settled. The contact quoted Duan Huaijing’s previous message: Baby’s getting smart, learning how to play dumb.

Duan Huaijing: “What is your condition this time?”

The Eye: Let me think about it for a while, baby.

This gave Duan Huaijing no sense of security. It was like a sharp blade hanging over his head. He’d rather just have the demand upfront.

“Why?”

Why was he stalling this time?

Just as the screen was about to go dark, a message popped up.

The Eye: Because I want to lick every single inch of you. 

The next day, the Xie Ancestral Manor.

In her youth, Old Mrs. Xie was a formidable and generous woman. She had a wide circle of like-minded friends, so her birthday parties were always packed with elites from every industry.

Amidst the noise, Duan Huaijing huddled in the most inconspicuous corner, nibbling on pastries. Suddenly, a woman’s loud, deliberate voice drifted from the entrance.

“Who says I can’t enter without an invitation?”

Duan’s mother stood with her head high, looking down her nose at the staff. She tossed an invitation onto the table. On the black paper with gold foil, her name and the name of the Omega behind her were clearly written.

Duan Huaijing stopped chewing. While others were shocked or disgusted by her behaviour, he only had one thought: That “Eye” really has some influence.

Duan’s mother acted as though anyone looking at her invitation was getting a bargain. Once she was cleared to enter, she snatched it back. Her shawl nearly slipped during her exaggerated movements; she adjusted it carelessly and strutted into the hall.

Following closely behind was his younger brother, an Omega. His small face was dominated by large, soulful eyes, giving him a pitiful, “damsel in distress” look. His clothes were opulent, and a thin belt accentuated his slender waist, perfectly highlighting his fragile temperament.

His brother had clearly been coached; he didn’t look around but found a seat and began chatting gracefully with those nearby. Several men in the room looked visibly charmed.

Duan Huaijing took a fierce bite of his pastry, his eyes fixed on the brooch his brother was wearing. That brooch was something he had saved up for when he first started working. He’d been too thrifty to wear it, keeping it in a drawer. Who would have thought it would end up on his brother?

They went through my things again.

He caught the subtle look of provocation in his brother’s eyes. Duan Huaijing’s hands shook with rage. He tilted his head back to drink his juice, staring venomously through the glass bottle. He wanted to rip that brooch off, gouge the boy’s eyes out, and kick him out of the party!

The crowd grew. A few minutes later, the flow of people parted to make way for two men walking side by side. The room buzzed with even more energy as everyone turned to look—Duan Huaijing included.

He saw Xie Ming waving to the crowd with a reckless grin. Beside him was Xie Yun, still wearing that stone-cold face. He gave a slight nod to the room, exuding a sense of relaxed authority in every movement.

Xie Ming whispered something to his brother and headed toward the window. Duan Huaijing was about to look away when he felt someone watching him. He looked back and saw it was Xie Yun.

Before he could even greet him, Xie Yun turned his head away. Duan Huaijing followed his gaze.

He saw his fiancé put an arm around another man’s shoulder, it was Tong Mian, the man from the phone call. It seemed he had been successfully coaxed back.

Regardless of what people thought of Duan Huaijing, he was still publicly known as Xie Ming’s fiancé. Seeing Xie Ming being intimate with another man was like having his face rubbed in the dirt.

Instantly, Duan Huaijing felt several gazes on him sympathy, disdain, and pure schadenfreude. He wasn’t jealous; he moved his gaze away calmly, his mind busy with a sharp critique.

Performance artist? Does Xie Ming think he looks like some alpha-male protector by saying “he’s mine”? Hilarious. Maybe delete that “Tomato Novel” app from your phone first, yeah?

Seeing that he didn’t have a breakdown, the crowd lost interest and returned to their networking. Duan Huaijing, being penniless and powerless, was left in peace. He stuffed another piece of pastry into his mouth. A man with a wine glass approached and sat down naturally beside him.

Duan Huaijing, thinking he was in the way, moved his chair. The man moved his chair to follow. “Don’t misunderstand, I just want to be friends.”

“Alright.”

The man laughed. “You’re too funny. No wonder Xie… cough, likes you.”

The last part was whispered, and Duan Huaijing didn’t catch it. He wasn’t good at talking to people, especially social butterflies. Fearing he might say something he shouldn’t, he kept his mouth shut.

But to an observer, especially a certain someone, it looked very different.

Duan’s mother had been keeping an eye on Xie Yun for her younger son. Seeing him decline a conversation and head in another direction, she signalled her son to seize the opportunity.

The Omega brother was at this banquet to make a name for himself among the elite. He used his pretty face to garner several admirers, but his real target was the head of the Xie Group: Xie Yun.

Receiving his mother’s signal, he straightened his clothes and ran to intercept Xie Yun. He tilted his head innocently, deliberately exposing his slender, vulnerable neck. It was a proven tactic; few men could resist an Omega’s neck. It triggered a primal urge for control.

He reached out for a handshake, his voice so sweet it was practically dripping. “Brother Xie Yun, do you remember me? I’m Duan Zhuwen.”

Xie Yun’s gaze swept over him coldly. The Omega’s heart raced at the simple look, his face flushing. He stammered, but before he could get a word out, Xie Yun looked away and dropped two words: “Never met.”

“Ah. What?” Duan Zhuwen was stunned. He had met many men today, and all of them were entranced by his looks. How could Xie Yun be so dismissive?

Before he could recover, Xie Yun brushed past him. Duan Zhuwen watched his back, frustrated but unwilling to ruin his image by chasing him. He slumped back to his seat. “Blind! What a total ‘straight’ Alpha!”

His mother rushed over. “What happened, darling? Don’t be upset. Xie Yun isn’t someone you can catch just by snapping your fingers.”

Duan Zhuwen hissed through his teeth, watching the man who just rejected him walk straight toward the person in the corner. “But he went straight to that little bitch on his own!”

Duan Huaijing was sitting in the corner when he felt a sudden chill down his spine. He sat up and looked around, but seeing nothing out of the ordinary, he huddled back over his phone.

The man beside him had stopped chatting but still made the occasional remark. Duan Huaijing answered politely.

Suddenly, his phone buzzed. A notification from the “Eye” contact.

Duan Huaijing flinched. Looking at the avatar, he felt as though he was being watched by that cold, lifeless eye.

The Eye: Come to the utility room.

Just five words, yet they were heavy with a suffocating pressure.

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