Transmigrated As The Cannon Fodder Ex-Wife Of A Scumbag Alpha - Chapter 24

By the empty wall, Zhao Jing remained sprawled on the ground, gasping for air.

It wasn’t just that Meng Ze’s kick had shifted his internal organs, the overwhelming pressure of the Alpha’s pheromones in the air was completely unrestrained, leaving him without even the strength to lift a finger.

An Alpha’s pheromones can suppress not only Omegas, among the same sex, an Alpha carrying superior genes possesses a natural dominance that can make an opponent drop to their knees and beg for mercy without the Alpha lifting a hand.

This was a major reason why many great families obsessively pursued elite genes. As long as the matching rate was high enough, the probability of producing high-quality Alpha or Omega offspring was greater. Consequently, some families were even willing to overlook class prejudices, take Yu Shu’en, for example, if it weren’t for the 85% compatibility between Zhao Zhiyi and Meng Ze, Yu Shu’en wouldn’t have even spared Zhao Zhiyi a glance.

Zhao Jing’s mind was a chaotic mess, unsure of what else he would suffer. Suddenly, he felt someone stop in front of him. The person flipped him over with the tip of a shoe. When the expensive, handmade leather shoe became stained with blood, the owner clicked his tongue in distaste: “How much do you owe?”

“I…” Zhao Jing struggled to open his eyes, but his vision was a wash of crimson. He knew it was his own blood matting his eyes, rendering him unable to see the other man’s face clearly. “Three… three million.”

Meng Ze looked down at him from a height.

Zhao Jing continued: “As long as you… you help me pay back that three million, I promise… I promise I’ll never appear in front of you again. I absolutely… absolutely won’t disturb Zhao Zhiyi’s life again!”

Meng Ze lowered his thin eyelids and raised a hand to loosen his tie. He squatted down, resting his arm on his knee. His pitch-black eyes were like bottomless pools, and a faint smile played at the corners of his lips: “That kind of talk might fool a college kid like Zhao Zhiyi who hasn’t even graduated yet, but there’s no need to show off those tricks in front of me, is there?”

“It’s true, really!” Zhao Jing swallowed hard. “Just give me three million and I’ll leave immediately, immediately!”

Meng Ze looked down and lit a cigarette.

The rising smoke blurred his features. Zhao Jing thought he was considering paying him off to get rid of him and couldn’t help but feel a secret joy, this heir of the Meng family, rumored to be so formidable, was nothing special after all. If he could get money once, he could certainly get it a second time. It was all thanks to that wretched brat Zhao Zhiyi being an Omega, otherwise, how could he have fetched such a good price?

Zhao Jing licked his dry, cracked lips and was about to speak when he suddenly let out a blood-curdling scream. Meng Ze had pressed the cigarette, which was still more than half-unburnt, directly onto his arm!

“I shouldn’t have remembered the position wrong,” Meng Ze said. “Zhao Zhiyi has a cigarette scar right here. You burned him, didn’t you?”

Zhao Jing had long since lost track.

When he drank too much and beat people, he used whatever was at hand. Perhaps he really had burned Zhao Zhiyi with a cigarette, but he didn’t remember.

“You’re still delusional enough to try and negotiate terms with me… it seems you don’t quite understand what kind of person I am.” Meng Ze reached out, gripped Zhao Jing’s jaw, and squeezed hard. With a crack, Zhao Jing’s jaw dislocated, and his scream was cut short.

“You’re very noisy. Can you be quiet?” Meng Ze said. “At your age, has no one taught you that you have to take responsibility for your own actions?”

Meng Ze stood up, pulled out a handkerchief, and slowly wiped the blood from his fingers. With his foot still stepped on Zhao Jing’s back, he casually tossed the blood-stained handkerchief onto Zhao Jing’s body and pulled out his phone to make a call: “…Yeah, come and clean this up.”

Before long, two bodyguards in black arrived. They efficiently hoisted up the unconscious Zhao Jing, cleared the scene, and asked, “President Meng, how should we dispose of this person?”

Meng Ze said calmly: “Buy him a plane ticket.”

“…Huh?”

Zhao Zhiyi sat in Meng Ze’s car, unconsciously biting his fingernails.

How would Meng Ze deal with Zhao Jing? He wouldn’t just give that scumbag money to go away, would he? He’d be fuming if that happened.

“What are you thinking about?” Meng Ze opened the car door and got in, looking at the disheveled Zhao Zhiyi.

Zhao Zhiyi shrank back slightly. “Sorry, I got your car dirty.”

“It’s fine.” Meng Ze instructed the driver: “Go to the nearest hospital.”

“No need!” Zhao Zhiyi said hurriedly. “It’s just a few minor scratches, no need for a hospital. I can just use a Band-Aid… Hiss! What are you doing!”

Meng Ze pressed down on the bleeding scrape on Zhao Zhiyi’s forehead. “Can you really just put a Band-Aid on a wound like this?”

“Why don’t you want to go to the hospital?”

Zhao Zhiyi turned his head away: “I don’t like the smell of disinfectant.”

Meng Ze didn’t press further and said, “Stop at a pharmacy.”

The driver complied. At the pharmacy, Meng Ze bought some supplies to treat the wounds and said to Zhao Zhiyi, “Stretch out your hand.”

“I can do it myself…” Seeing Meng Ze’s somewhat stern gaze, Zhao Zhiyi lost his nerve again. “Fine, I can’t.”

He obediently held out his hand, letting Meng Ze treat his injuries.

Most were just scrapes, though the skin over his knuckles was fairly badly damaged. Meng Ze used a medical cotton swab to clean the grit and dust from around the wounds and wrapped them in gauze. Zhao Zhiyi: “If you wrap them like that, won’t I turn into a mummy!”

Meng Ze: “Isn’t that good? At least you won’t be able to get into fights for a while.” He lifted his lashes. “The other hand.”

“…Oh.” Zhao Zhiyi said, “Don’t make it sound like I’m some kind of brawling enthusiast. Didn’t you say before that I have a good temper?”

“Then I take back what I said.”

Zhao Zhiyi pouted secretly.

“Done,” Meng Ze said. “Lift your hair yourself.”

Zhao Zhiyi hadn’t cut his hair in a while, so it was a bit long. He brushed his bangs up, revealing a smooth forehead and soft features. He looked very docile right now, enough to make one wonder if the person who had violently beaten Zhao Jing earlier was actually someone else.

The wound on his forehead had likely been caused by Zhao Jing pressing him against the concrete ground, it was relatively serious. Meng Ze applied some anti-inflammatory medicine, making Zhao Zhiyi grimace in pain. Meng Ze frowned and fished something out of his pocket to stuff into the boy’s mouth.

“…What is it?” Zhao Zhiyi gave it a tentative lick and his eyes widened slightly. “Fruit candy? Strawberry flavored.”

He raised an eyebrow. “You actually carry candy around with you?”

“Yu Tao gave it to me.” Meng Ze efficiently applied a medicated cotton pad to his temple. “Are you injured anywhere else?”

Zhao Zhiyi lifted his clothes and looked left and right: “Probably not? A weakling like Zhao Jing, I could take on ten of him with one hand.”

A vein throbbed in Meng Ze’s temple. He pressed Zhao Zhiyi’s hand down: “Did you not watch a single one of the online classes I told you to watch?”

“…Oh.” Zhao Zhiyi remembered he was an Omega and shouldn’t do things like that in front of an Alpha.

He smoothed his clothes back down, biting the fruit candy and saying muffle-voiced: “How did you deal with Zhao Jing?”

Meng Ze didn’t answer that question, but instead asked, “Do you have time right now?”

“Huh?”

“Fly to Rong City with me.” Meng Ze checked his watch and said, “I’ve had someone book the nearest flight. We should arrive around 2:00 PM. Although we can come back tomorrow, I suggest you ask the dessert shop for a day off.”

“…Huh?”

Zhao Zhiyi had a quick lunch with Meng Ze near the airport before boarding the plane with him… and they brought Zhao Jing along too.

A poor student like Little Zhao had never sat in first class, it was a very novel experience, and he once again marveled at Meng Ze’s immense wealth. However, there was one thing he was unhappy about: “Why does Zhao Jing get to sit in first class too? He should be in the cargo hold!”

Meng Ze: “Humans can’t sit in the cargo hold.”

Zhao Zhiyi tutted: “He’s getting off far too easy, that piece of trash.”

He looked out the window at the vast airport runway and whispered, “You must be very busy, right? You didn’t really need to make a special trip to Rong City.”

“The company won’t go bankrupt without me.” Meng Ze pinched the bridge of his nose, looking a bit exhausted. “I haven’t been to Rong City in many years, consider it a trip to clear my head.”

Zhao Zhiyi thought, Who are you kidding?

This man clearly hadn’t slept well last night, and flying back and forth was exhausting. No one does that just to “clear their head.”

“So, what are we actually going to Rong City for?” Zhao Zhiyi was also getting a bit sleepy and let out a yawn. To catch that grandson Zhao Jing today, he had gotten up very early and hadn’t had enough sleep at all. He muttered, “You don’t think just dumping Zhao Jing back in Rong City will solve everything, do you…”

Meng Ze pulled the hood of Zhao Zhiyi’s coat down to cover his eyes. “If you’re tired, sleep for a bit. Why so many questions?”

Zhao Zhiyi: “…”

He’d been dismissed for being a chatterbox.

He moodily shut his mouth. Being only in his early twenties, he fell into a deep sleep easily and soon drifted off, leaning lopsidedly against Meng Ze’s shoulder.

Meng Ze looked sideways at his face, which looked very sweet and innocent while asleep.

Rare, clear winter sunlight streamed through the window. Fine fuzz was visible on the youth’s cheek. Meng Ze reached out and held Zhao Zhiyi’s left arm, rubbing a spot a few inches above the elbow joint.

He knew that beneath the covering of his clothes, there was an ugly, hideous scar on that smooth, white skin.

The distance from A City to Rong City wasn’t very far. When Zhao Zhiyi woke up groggily, the plane was about to land. He followed Meng Ze off the plane, feeling both familiar and strange toward this city.

Familiar because the original host grew up here, strange because it was his first time here.

People were already waiting at the gate. Watching their well-trained manner, Zhao Zhiyi was curious: “You have subordinates here too?”

“There’s a branch office here.” Meng Ze asked, “Are you tired? Do you want to rest for a bit?”

Zhao Zhiyi: “Do you have other plans?”

“Yes,” Meng Ze said. “If you’re not tired, let’s go see an old friend of Zhao Jing’s.”

When they arrived, Zhao Zhiyi realized who the “old friend” Meng Ze mentioned was.

He looked at the cramped, old storefront in front of him. Red lights were on, and the hanging sign was faded and crooked, blown by the wind. It read: “Xingwang Mahjong Parlor.”

“…Isn’t this a gambling den?” Zhao Zhiyi was stunned.

In the original host’s memory, if you needed to find Zhao Jing, you went to Xingwang Mahjong Parlor, you’d find him every time. On the outside, it looked like a senior activity center, but the basement was actually a private casino where a crowd of gamblers gathered. Gambling breeds greed, so the owner also ran a loan-sharking business.

Zhao Zhiyi was wrapped in Meng Ze’s scarf… even though he said he wasn’t cold anymore, Meng Ze still bundled him up tightly.

Behind them stood several burly bodyguards, holding a limp and dejected Zhao Jing.

Probably because they looked like they meant trouble, as soon as they reached the door, the boss came out, shirtless and covered in tattoos. “You guys look like new faces. Haven’t seen you around before, have I?”

Meng Ze looked completely out of place, not just in this mahjong parlor, but in this whole street with its dirty environment, illegal structures, and power lines tangled like spiderwebs.

He stood at the door without going in, just tilting his head slightly. The bodyguards threw Zhao Jing inside.

“This man says he owes you three million,” Meng Ze said. “Is that true?”

The boss frowned and flipped Zhao Jing over, then immediately scoffed. “It’s this bastard. Haven’t been able to find him anywhere these last few days.”

“Hey.” The boss patted Zhao Jing’s face. “Remember what I said last time? If you still haven’t paid me back by the end of this month, I’m cutting off one of your fingers. If you still haven’t paid the month after that, I’ll cut off another… Didn’t you say your son had latched onto a sugar daddy? Hurry up and have your son pay me back!”

Zhao Jing said in terror: “I-I’m trying to find a way to pay you back!” He pointed tremblingly at Zhao Zhiyi: “He’s my son! He has money, ask him for it!”

Zhao Zhiyi stood behind Meng Ze, the grey scarf covering most of his face, leaving only a pair of clear, dark tea colored eyes visible. The boss glanced at him, then turned back and slapped Zhao Jing: “Who the hell are you trying to fool?! You could father a son like that?!”