The Honest Man Was Targeted by His Ex-Boyfriend's Alpha Brother - Chapter 10

The crisp sound of a hand striking flesh echoed through the room. A small stack of project proposals flew off the manager’s face, scattering across the conference room floor. In the vast space, there was a deathly silence; no one dared to move.

Pheromones thick with suppressed rage threatened to overflow. Hua Yunlian’s neck was flushed, and the veins in his throat were taut.

“Women in the slums do not use sanitary products because they ‘do not like them’?” His handsome face was chilled to the limit, his words hissed through gritted teeth. “Manager Zhou, is it not exhausting to open your eyes every morning?”

The manager, who was usually arrogant in front of his subordinates, now looked as if he wanted to bury his head into the floorboards. “Director… Director Hua, please give me another chance! I am an Alpha; I truly do not know much about these matters.”

“No need.” Hua Yunlian stood up and elegantly donned his suit jacket. “Hiring you is less productive than hiring a piece of roasted pork.”

The staff rose in unison, watching him stride out. The iron-faced Assistant Lu gave Manager Zhou a thin smile. “After you.” Generally, when Assistant Lu smiled like that, it meant the only thing left in that person’s office would be the load-bearing walls.

Once Hua Yunlian vanished, the board members began to whisper.

“The Young Master is in this mood for at least half of every month. It is terrifying for everyone!”

“Indeed. Once he hits his rut, he just disappears entirely.”

“Privately, he goes through Omegas like he is collecting blind boxes, yet he does not care for a single one. He is far too willful.”

“So what if he is willful? He is an S-class Alpha; he is naturally superior to ordinary people in every way. Do you not feel his decisions carry more weight than the Eldest Young Master’s?”

“That is true. Leadership requires decisiveness for a company to go far.”

“Lately, he has been even more temperamental. Everyone, just be careful.”

The Doctor’s Burden

“Doctor! Doctor!”

The office door was thrown open. The scent of men’s cologne mixed with ink-scented pheromones failed to fully mask the smell of overnight alcohol. A well-dressed man, carrying a child under ten years old, rushed to Chen Wang’s desk. “Dr. Chen, please! You must save him!”

It was Li Yingzhuo. He looked frantic, his hair disheveled. “He is my only nephew. I beg you, save him!”

Seeing the child was unconscious, Chen Wang’s expression shifted. He quickly handled his other patients and moved into action. After a period of emergency treatment, the child was moved to the intensive care unit in stable condition.

“Fortunately, there is no internal bleeding. It is just external trauma and malnutrition, otherwise it would have been grave.” Chen Wang tucked the child in and looked at the pale Li Yingzhuo with a frown. “What exactly happened?”

Li Yingzhuo slumped into a chair, exhausted, and let out a long sigh.

“Niannian is my nephew. His father is a chronic alcoholic who beats his wife and child every time he drinks. My sister has a poor relationship with our family, so she did not come to us. She simply abandoned the child and fled.”

“If Niannian’s neighbor had not found a way to call me, I would not have known that…” Li Yingzhuo took a deep breath to steady his emotions. “That animal could be so cruel to a ten-year-old child!”

Chen Wang felt a pang in his heart as he looked at the unconscious boy. An abusive, alcoholic father. A missing mother. This family dynamic would be a shadow over the child’s entire life. He felt a deep sense of empathy. “The child absolutely cannot continue living with someone like that!”

Li Yingzhuo took off his glasses to wipe the lenses. When he looked up, his eyes were red, as if he were heartbroken over his nephew’s plight. “I know. I am his uncle. I will find a way.”

Chen Wang advised, “The child needs to stay in the hospital for rest. If you agree, please complete the admission procedures.”

“No!” Li Yingzhuo refused firmly. “The father is a paranoid madman. He has gone insane over the custody battle. I cannot let the child stay out in the open. Once he wakes, I am taking him home. For the next while, we may come to the hospital frequently. I will have to trouble you to continue treating Niannian’s wounds.”

Chen Wang saw he could not be persuaded. He reluctantly agreed to the request. This ink-scented Alpha seemed like a busy elite lawyer; Chen Wang wondered if he could truly care for a young child.

To his surprise, Li Yingzhuo actually brought the child back for follow-ups on time over the next few days. Although they were always in a rush, the child’s condition visibly improved. One day, while Li Yingzhuo was away, the boy, his face covered in bandages, leaned into Chen Wang.

“Brother,” he whispered.

Chen Wang was writing a medical record. “Yes?”

The shy child tugged at his sleeve. “Brother, this is for you.”

Chen Wang opened his hand. It was a small glass wind chime shaped like a fish tank. Inside, there was a blue water effect and a tiny orange fish. It was charming and innocent. It lay in his palm, emitting a faint, clear sound.

Chen Wang’s eyes widened slightly. It was the first time a patient had ever given him a gift. A strange sense of honor and pride spread through his heart. “Oh, thank… thank you.” Before he could finish, the child ran out of the office.

Chen Wang dazed for a moment. He held up the wind chime. The afternoon sun filtered through it, reflecting a dreamlike glow onto his pale, handsome face. Working in this old hospital seemed a little less dull now.

He eventually decided to hang the chime on his bedside lamp. Every morning and night, he would hear that delicate, crisp sound. It felt like a purifying instrument from a healing class. It made a realist like Chen Wang briefly contemplate the deeper meaning of his profession.

He hesitated, but eventually sent a message to Li Yingzhuo.

[Lawyer Li, domestic violence against a minor is a serious matter. As a doctor, I cannot ignore it. Do you agree to let me report this to the police?]

The status bar immediately showed “typing.” A long time passed before a reply came.

[Dr. Chen, I reported this a long time ago. The process is slow and takes time. Thank you for your concern. Furthermore, I am a senior partner at my firm. I will never allow a villain to bully my nephew.]

Relieved that action had been taken, Chen Wang felt that Li Yingzhuo was a responsible uncle. Compared to the entitled Hua Yunlian, the difference was staggering. Dreaming of a life free of debt, he looked up legal fees. He discovered that for a lawyer of Li Yingzhuo’s caliber, the consultation fee alone was 5,000 per hour.

Chen Wang’s heart and wallet felt equally cold. Then, the lawyer sent a long follow-up message.

[But we are friends, and friends do not talk about money. Do you not also know the secret of my sister’s failed marriage? We both have something on each other now, Dr. Chen. So, if you or your friends have legal issues, consult me. I will help you.]

Chen Wang was overjoyed. His fingers hesitated over the screen, but he cautiously deleted the half-written question he had started. Li Yingzhuo was indeed helpful, but Chen Wang remained wary. Crucial secrets were for his ears only unless absolutely necessary.

The Confrontation

When he finally finished his taxi shift and returned home, it was 1:30 AM. His body felt heavy and exhausted. A cold front had arrived, and the air outside was biting. He noticed his bedroom door was ajar. Holding the handle, he peered through the crack, and his heart suddenly constricted.

“Director Hua… Director Hua… why are you in such a rush?”

A strange Omega was on the bed, his breathing ragged. He sounded delighted, like a concubine receiving her first visit from the emperor.

Everything in Chen Wang’s bedroom was in shambles. Books, clothes, pillows, and blankets were strewn across the floor. The room reeked of two different pheromones.

The man, his back tall and ominous, seemed to be nearing his rut. He looked unstable, his hand frequently pinching the bridge of his nose. The Omega was clearly afraid of Hua Yunlian. He released intense mating pheromones, but received no response. Emboldened, he reached out a trembling hand to undress the Alpha.

Slap.

The man struck his hand away without mercy, leaving a red mark on the Omega’s delicate skin. The Omega froze, terrified by the look in the man’s eyes. Hua Yunlian grabbed the Omega by the collar, his breathing heavy. “Comfort me,” he commanded.

The Omega scrambled to release soothing pheromones. Not daring to touch Hua Yunlian’s clothes, he began to strip his own.

Hua Yunlian closed his eyes, his head thudding with pain. These Omegas’ pheromones smelled like cheap, choking perfume to him, making his throat feel constricted and his mood more volatile. He shoved the Omega off the bed. The bedside lamp crashed to the floor, and the fish tank wind chime shattered.

Chen Wang, who had intended to stay out of it, finally burst in. His face was cold and pale. “What are you doing!”

Hua Yunlian was in a daze. The dim light outlined his Slavic features. A flicker of confusion crossed his amber eyes. He suddenly smiled. “Brother Chen Wang, you arrived just in time.” He sat on the bed and gestured to him. “Come and serve me. I am not feeling well.”

Standing in the middle of the wreckage, Chen Wang’s hands shook with rage. “You are not well? Are you not feeling quite ‘well’ already?”

The Omega on the floor had not given up. He looked at Chen Wang with a cheeky smile. “Brother, shall the three of us do it together?”

Chen Wang hit his breaking point. He smashed a vase nearby and let out a sudden roar. “Enough!”

The atmosphere changed instantly. The Omega turned pale, finally realizing why no one ever successfully climbed into Director Hua’s bed. Seizing the moment of tension, he scurried away.

Hua Yunlian sat on the bed—which was still tainted by the other Omega’s scent—and looked at the furious man. Whether he had been drinking or not, his eyes were bloodshot. He slowly grinned as if he were losing control of his expressions. “Brother Chen Wang, are you jealous?”

“Jealous?” Chen Wang walked toward him, his expression colder than it had ever been. “Why would I be jealous? You surely do not think that because you ‘kept’ me, I would like you or fall in love with you?”

As Chen Wang’s shadow fell over him, the smile vanished from Hua Yunlian’s face. Chen Wang stood on the broken glass of the wind chime, staring down at him. A string snapped inside him, and fueled by despair and collapse, he screamed, “Hua Yunlian!”

“You are nothing but an animal with a filthy private life! You would even sleep with your former sister-in-law just to humiliate Hua Jingchen!”

“You have no sense of shame! No one will ever truly care for you! You will never receive love!”

With a roar of fury, Hua Yunlian hurled Chen Wang to the ground. They became a chaotic, violent tangle of limbs, like rabid beasts. Soon, both of their backs were cut by the shattered glass.

“That is right!” Hua Yunlian’s face was manic, his eyes so bloodshot they looked ready to drip blood. He was still laughing. “I am an animal! Haha!”

Chen Wang punched him, but the man didn’t even care that his lip was split. “What is your ‘love’ worth? Is it so precious?” Hua Yunlian regained the upper hand, pinning Chen Wang down and choking his fragile throat. He shook with laughter. “Chen Wang, you are just someone to be fucked. You are not fit to mention love to me!”

The feeling of suffocation intensified. Chen Wang’s body convulsed as his eyes began to roll back.

Hua Yunlian stared at his own hands. His skull felt as if it were splitting. Suddenly, he hallucinated that his human hands had turned into coarse paws with sharp, knife-like claws and spotted fur.

No… he was human. He was not an animal… he was human!

A look of immense grief crossed Hua Yunlian’s face. He let out a cry of terror, and Chen Wang managed to shove him off.

“No… no!” Ignoring the glass shards in his skin, Hua Yunlian frantically felt his face and body, descending into a mental breakdown. He began to howl in pain. “It cannot be like this!”

Chen Wang, clutching his throat, was terrified. Those fierce eyes, like a wild beast’s, locked onto him. Seeing the fear in Chen Wang’s eyes, Hua Yunlian’s expression froze. He stood up and grabbed him.

Seconds later, the door slammed shut. Chen Wang had been thrown out, followed by a thin jacket. It was snowing. It was the first snow of the year.

Chen Wang walked alone through the howling North wind, chilled to the bone. Shards of broken glass fell from his clothes, stained with blood, reflecting the dim light on the ground. He didn’t notice.

Many years ago, it had been a snowy day just like this. Chen Wang had failed an exam due to a fever, dropping from first place to out of the top ten. The result was a cursing from his mother and a beating from his father. Amidst his sister’s helpless cries, he was driven out of the house, hungry and bruised.

He had been staggering through the streets with a high fever then. Tears fell as he longed to go home.

Chen Wang lifted his face, letting the cold snowflakes kiss his cheeks. Fortunately, no one was around. He wrapped himself in his thin jacket, crouched down, and buried his face in his legs.

Hot tears began to fall once again. He just wanted to go home.