The White Moonlight is Both Competitive and Predatory - Chapter 5

“Your eyes are so red. You really do look like a rabbit.”

Yan Chi blinked in astonishment. He was surprised once again, almost thinking he had misheard.

However, Ji Yueting just stood there with a casual yet upright posture. A lingering smile played on his lips, but his expression was entirely sincere.

His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. Yan Chi suddenly felt that it was no big deal. Since Ji Yueting had made the offer, why should he refuse?

“Then I look forward to seeing you next time,” Yan Chi said.

That night, perhaps because he had met Ji Yueting again, Yan Chi’s sleep was filled with dreams. Fragmented and noisy memories rushed in one after another, causing him to recall many things from the past.

Yan Chi remembered that his childhood felt very long, like a piece of candy melted by intense heat. One end was constantly being pulled and stretched, leaving him with less and less room to breathe. The vast, boundless future seemed to have no end.

This was the reality for children in the orphanage, especially for a child like him who was growing up and beginning to understand the world.

Being adopted was every child’s dream. In the summer of his seventh year, he finally waited for his adopter.

A bright and elegant Omega entered the room. With just one look, she bypassed a dozen little children and looked toward young Yan Chi standing in the corner. She smiled, waved, and called the child over.

“What is your name?” the Omega asked as she leaned down with a beaming smile.

The child pursed his lips, his expression awkward and his fair face flushed red. “Fang Chi.”

“Chi” was the only character his biological parents had left him. Because the director of the orphanage was surnamed Fang, that became his name.

The Omega did not mind his shyness. She reached out and gently patted his head. “As a courtesy, my name is Yan Lan. I felt a connection the moment I saw you. So, would you like to come home with me and be my only child?”

After a brief hesitation, the little fellow moved closer and said in a soft, sweet voice, “Yes.”

After that, Yan Chi had a home of his own.

Yan Lan was a strong woman with a clear career plan. Due to unsuccessful romantic experiences in her youth, she had decided early on never to marry or give birth. However, she loved children and longed to be a mother. Under a friend’s recommendation, she visited the Hongshan Orphanage, took away a cute little boy, and renamed him Yan Chi.

Yan Chi was a good boy from the start. Within half a semester at his new school, he had caught up with everyone else. He called Yan Lan “Mom” and brought home perfect test papers, quietly tucking them under her dinner plate and watching her with bright, expectant eyes until she exclaimed in surprise during the meal.

Their life was stable and happy. Although Yan Lan was busy, she always made time for Yan Chi. She took him to travel around the world, enrolled him in various interest classes, and never missed a single parent-child activity at school.

Everything felt like walking on clouds—soft and beautiful. Looking back as an adult, Yan Chi felt it was almost too good to be true.

However, a car accident at the end of Yan Chi’s first year of high school brought everything to a sudden halt.

On a rainy night, their small car collided with a heavy truck driven by a fatigued driver. Under the force of the impact, the car flipped over. Yan Lan, who was in the back seat with him, instinctively shielded Yan Chi. She suffered a skull fracture and extensive internal bleeding.

She bled so much that when Yan Chi opened his eyes, the entire world looked red.

The lights of the ICU stayed on all night. With one eye bandaged, Yan Chi stared at the light. The long night ended, but his mother never came out. A white cloth was pulled over her, and a black hearse drove to the door.

The funeral arrangements were made quickly. Yan Chi stood alone in the middle of a crowd, facing relatives who were as greedy as wolves.

“Yan Lan is gone, so her inheritance should be reasonably distributed,” one said.

“Yes, she was so capable and made so much money. She just had a bad temper and looked down on us relatives. But in my opinion, her son is still young and cannot handle things while he is in school. He needs adults to help him,” another added.

“What do you mean ‘her son’? That little thing was adopted. We are Yan Lan’s true family.”

The gossip felt like sharp blades entering his ears. Yan Chi trembled and took a deep breath. His weak shoulders looked even thinner against the black fabric of his clothes.

His aunt shook with anger at the relatives’ comments, arguing with them incessantly as tears fell like broken strings of pearls. Yan Chi stepped forward, gently pressed her shoulder, and said hoarsely, “Auntie, it is okay.”

Then, he called the security guards and sternly had those people kicked out.

In this world, the person who spends the money is the one who has the say. Yan Lan had written her will early. Half of her estate was donated, and the other half was left to Yan Chi. That massive sum was enough for her beloved child to live the rest of his life without worry.

Everything afterward seemed to happen on a fast-forward track that Yan Chi could no longer remember clearly. The cremation, the burial, the notarization, and the signing. A bit of rain, a gust of wind; summer came and went, and everything continued as usual, but he was alone again.

When September arrived and Yan Chi returned to school, the results for the second-year class divisions were out. New subjects, new classmates, and a new classroom—a completely strange and unknown future awaited him.

One of the new students had found out about his family situation and spread the news at the start of the semester. Soon, the entire class knew he was a complete orphan.

The inquiring gazes directed at him were not necessarily malicious, but Yan Chi found them agonizing. Every second in the classroom was difficult to endure. During breaks or evening self-study gaps, he would take a book and hide alone on the stairs leading to the rooftop.

It was a good place. It was quiet and empty, allowing Yan Chi to escape reality for a moment.

After the monthly exams in the second year, Yan Chi was surrounded by a group of people from the senior basketball team near the sports field. The leader was an Alpha who was tall and sturdy. He had confessed to Yan Chi and pursued him before, but without any success.

“Yan Chi, just agree to be my partner. I will definitely treat you well, really.” The basketball captain refused to give up, approaching with his teammates while laughing.

As a Beta, Yan Chi could not smell the Alpha’s pheromones, but the strong scent of sweat made his sensitive nose twitch and his stomach churn. “No.”

Yan Chi did not want to say another word to him.

People came and went on the basketball court, but no one bothered to intervene in this corner. After all, the students at this school were either rich or influential. The basketball captain was notoriously arrogant and overbearing, and no one wanted to invite trouble.

“Go away, I have to go to class.” Yan Chi gritted his teeth and turned to leave, but the group quickly blocked his path.

The teammates jeered and laughed. “Hey, do not be in such a hurry to leave, Student Yan! Just say yes. The captain’s family is very wealthy. There is nothing you cannot have.”

Yan Chi clenched his fists, feeling disgusted by them. Just as the basketball captain’s expression grew heated and he reached out to grab Yan Chi’s wrist, a basketball flew straight at them. With a loud thud, it broke through the crowd.

“What the hell! Who was that?”

“Me.” The culprit was a tall Alpha standing to the side. He was holding a phone and appeared impatient. “What are you doing?”

The basketball captain was originally furious and wanted to demand an explanation, but once he saw who it was, he immediately lost his nerve. He and his teammates all began to smile sheepishly.

“Ji… Ji Yueting, are you here to play ball too?”

When did a young master from a family like Ji Yueting’s ever play with people like them? It was true that their families were wealthy, but there were levels to wealth. Ji Yueting stood at the top of the social hierarchy. They could only look up to him and try to please him; they could not afford to offend him.

After a moment, the basketball was respectfully tossed back. Ji Yueting patted it with his free hand and asked instead, “I said, what are you doing?”

“It is nothing. We were just having a heart-to-heart with a Beta classmate to promote classmate feelings.”

“Wait, where did he go?”

Where? They were a bunch of fools. Yan Chi did not care for their nonsense and had already run away.

Stepping onto the familiar stairs, he finally breathed a sigh of relief. He leaned on his knees and gasped for air as sweat slid down his chin, wetting his white school uniform collar.

That was close. If not for that student, he would not have known how to escape.

By the way, that student looked very familiar. What did the basketball team call him? Ji Yueting? Yan Chi thought while catching his breath. His head felt dizzy, and he only vaguely remembered that this was a prominent figure in the senior year.

Due to his physical constitution, Yan Chi sweated very easily. Summer was already hot, and since he had just run in a hurry, he was now drenched. Sweat droplets stung his eyes, making them sour and painful. Yan Chi sat on the steps and rubbed his eyes, suddenly feeling very aggrieved.

He was, after all, only seventeen years old.

When Yan Lan was still around, Yan Chi would talk to her about any troubles. The Omega was delicate, but she always made him feel safe. But now, he had no one.

Why was he not the one who left back then? It would have been better if it were him. Yan Chi wondered how many times he had thought this.

The sweat continued to flow, and Yan Chi could not wipe it away fast enough. His eyes became red and painful. In the end, he could not distinguish whether it was sweat or tears flowing down. He only felt the salty bitterness at the corners of his mouth.

“Oh?” A voice suddenly interrupted Yan Chi’s chaotic breathing. “So you are hiding here to cry by yourself. Should I not have come?”

A boy stood at the bottom of the stairs with a casual expression, holding a new, unopened bottle of water.

Yan Chi opened his blurry eyes and asked in a confused voice, “Are you… Ji Yueting?”

“You still recognize me,” Ji Yueting laughed. He stepped up the stairs and placed the water firmly by Yan Chi’s ankle. “This is for you. Stop crying. I wanted to call out to you downstairs, but you ran faster than a rabbit.”

Yan Chi kept his eyes red and did not speak.

“Your eyes are so red. You really do look like a rabbit.”

“…”

“Anyway, those guys are no good. If you do not like them, just avoid them,” Ji Yueting said dismissively. “If he looks for you again, just tell him you are my friend. He does not have the courage to make things difficult for you.”

As Ji Yueting spoke, he raised his phone again, looking somewhat impatient.

“Okay,” Yan Chi replied softly.

His task complete, Ji Yueting turned around gracefully. “I am leaving.”

He moved quickly and descended the stairs with ease, leaving Yan Chi with only a view of his dark hair and a bottle of cool mineral water covered in condensation.

That bottle of water was the sum of all Yan Chi’s first impressions of Ji Yueting, and it was also the first sound of his heart skipping a beat. The impact was so heavy that even though his interactions with Ji Yueting were rare later on, it did not affect the significance of that bottle of water in Yan Chi’s heart.

The alarm clock rang.

Yan Chi opened his sleepy eyes and, like most people, reached for his phone before fully waking up. After turning off the sleep mode, the first message to appear was from WeChat.

Yan Chi squinted and clicked on it. Once the app loaded, the white cat profile picture with the name “Ji Yueting” jumped to the top.

Ji Yueting: Good morning.

Ji Yueting: Chichi did not sleep well last night and is not awake yet. [Image]