MHOMASB Chapter 14

TL: Hua

The night in the Lower City was like a torn curtain, with neon lights surging through the gaps, painting the streets in a riot of colors.

The hoverbike stopped in front of a familiar bar. Ji Xuan took off his helmet. While smoothing his hair, which had been ruffled by the helmet, he looked up at the sign above.

It wasn’t that he didn’t recognize the way here.

It was clearly something that could have been solved with a single sentence; Ji Xuan didn’t understand why Pei Yingye had to go through the extra trouble.

Noticing Ji Xuan’s teasing gaze, Pei Yingye nonchalantly took the helmet from him and snapped it into the side box: “Let’s go, don’t just stand here.”

He spoke with total flatness, and Ji Xuan didn’t intend to expose him.

The air was thick with the scent of strong liquor and perfume, and chaotic light and shadows rushed at them. The dance floor was a scene of debauchery, with low electronic drum beats making the floor vibrate slightly.

—Everything was exactly as it had been the last time Ji Xuan came.

“Wait for me here first.” Perhaps because the background noise was so loud, when Pei Yingye spoke to Ji Xuan, he had to purposefully lean down close. The clean, pleasant scent on him blocked out the surrounding jumble of pheromones, giving Ji Xuan a momentary chance to breathe.

Ji Xuan asked him, “Where are you going?”

“To find the boss. Can’t take you.” Pei Yingye led him to sit at the bar. “Because he puts on a lot of airs, and also…”

Pei Yingye’s gaze swept over Ji Xuan’s face: “And also, he loves flirting with Omegas.”

Ji Xuan leaned against the bar and looked at him quietly with a faint smile, as if asking: Since that’s the case, why did you bring me here?

But Pei Yingye said nothing. He just tapped on the counter and called over the bartender: “My friend, help look after him.”

The bartender was a young female Beta whose skin took on a healthy bronze hue under the multi-colored, blurry lights. Hearing this, her gaze circled between the two with an ambiguous look: “Leave him to me.”

Pei Yingye made a gesture and turned toward the stairwell.

People in the Lower City were much cheaper than AI, so one could only see real human bartenders in the bar, unlike the mechanical arms found everywhere in the Upper City banquets.

“But the drinks I mix definitely taste better than those emotionless machines.” The Beta skillfully poured the liquor into a shaker, the muscles in her arms tensing in smooth, attractive lines as she flipped it.

“What would you like to drink?” she asked.

Ji Xuan’s eyes swept over the obscure names on the light screen behind her. He said softly, “Anything.”

So, the bartender had to make the decision for him.

Before long, a glass was pushed in front of Ji Xuan. The bottom was a clear, transparent blue, while the top was a brilliant orange-red, like the sea under a sunset. Ji Xuan took a sip; a faint spiciness flared in his throat, but it was quickly suppressed by a wave of sweetness.

His gaze drifted toward the distant dance floor where Alphas and Omegas were whispering and pressed skin-to-skin. Some, caught in the heat of the moment, even began to kiss, drawing a chorus of cheers and catcalls.

Ji Xuan set down the glass, his fingertip tracing the rim, and asked casually, “Does he come here often?”

The bartender raised an eyebrow. She didn’t look up, as if she were used to this kind of inquiry: “Pei? He’s a regular.”

Pausing, she added, “But he basically only comes to see the boss.”

“What about 761?” Ji Xuan asked again.

The bartender’s movements stiffened for a moment before quickly returning to normal: “That one… he’s been here a few times, but he doesn’t like sitting at the bar. Usually, he goes straight downstairs.”

An interested expression suddenly appeared on Ji Xuan’s face: “I’ve seen 761’s matches. He has a good physique and fights well, but he doesn’t seem to come out often. Is he also very close with your boss?”

Seemingly deceived by his acting, the bartender took him for a fan of 761 and teased, “If you keep asking about other Alphas like this, Pei will be jealous if he finds out.”

“761, well, he’s not a resident fighter here. When he appears depends on the situation. Alphas, you know.”

Ji Xuan looked at her blankly.

The bartender let out a snort of laughter. Leaning over the bar to get closer to Ji Xuan, she lowered her voice and said, “Word is, every time 761 enters the ring, it’s because his pheromones are unstable. He’s a high-grade Alpha, you see; they have high pheromone concentrations. There are really only two ways to vent that regularly: either find an Omega partner or go brawl with your own kind. Though it kind of ruins the cool factor of our ace fighter to say so, he really only fights because he doesn’t have an Omega.”

Ji Xuan: “…”

“What, is the illusion shattered?”

Ji Xuan gave a soft laugh. “No, it’s just that hearing you put it that way, I think he’s actually quite pure-hearted.”

The bartender froze for a long moment, then suddenly burst into loud laughter.

–

It was unclear whether Pei Yingye had successfully met with the bar owner, but Ji Xuan was halfway through his drink, and he still hadn’t returned.

The bartender had been called away to the other side by a group of difficult customers. Ji Xuan was left sitting alone on the high stool, lazily propping up his head, his fingertips rubbing the rim of the glass. The contours of his features appeared somewhat sharp under the flickering lights; his nose was straight and elegant, and his lips were pale, coated with a moist sheen.

The electronic drum beats hammered down like a heavy heartbeat. All around were boisterous laughter, ambiguous whispers, and the sound of Alphas and Omegas breathing close to one another, yet he sat there quietly alone, looking like an entity completely stripped away from this chaos.

Out of place, yet impossible to look away from.

Finally, an Alpha who had a bit too much to drink found his heart itching with unbearable desire and eventually stumbled closer. His naked gaze made no effort to hide his covetousness, greedily sweeping from Ji Xuan’s eyes down to the corners of his mouth before stopping further down at the back of his neck.

“All by yourself?” the man said wantonly.

The bartender in the distance seemed to notice the commotion but was unable to break away due to the entanglement of other customers.

Ji Xuan lazily lifted his eyelids, the corners of his eyes glazed with a cold white sheen from the lights. He scanned the Alpha’s face, tilting his head without saying a word.

The Alpha propped one hand on the bar, intentionally trapping Ji Xuan between his body and the stool. An aggressive pheromone was released recklessly, like a peacock spreading its feathers: “Can I buy you a drink?”

A flicker passed through Ji Xuan’s eyes. His thumb rubbed the stem of the wine glass as his gaze brushed over the other man’s neck, yet he did not speak.

This aloof, noncommittal attitude only fueled the other man’s arrogance; he reached out his hand to touch Ji Xuan’s shoulder.

But he was blocked by a hand.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

Pei Yingye’s hand fell naturally, gripping Ji Xuan’s shoulder.

His silhouette blocked out the dancing overhead lights. Cold white light fell on his brow bone, bringing out a trace of chilling, sharp wildness.

As a 3S-grade Alpha pheromone was released, Pei Yingye took the opportunity to draw Ji Xuan half an inch closer into his embrace, a smile hooking the corner of his mouth: “Friend, keep your eyes and hands respectful. I asked him out first. If you want to cut in line, you’d better weigh your own capabilities first, don’t you think?”

Ji Xuan seemed to smell the scent of leather on the other’s clothes, mixed with a rich fougère fragrance, but upon hearing the latter half of the sentence, he couldn’t help but let out a laugh.

Between Alphas, a single grade difference can create an unbridgeable chasm. In an instant, the man’s breath hitched, and he sobered up significantly. The pheromones he had emitted were forcibly suppressed by Pei Yingye, leaving him to retreat sheepishly.

Ji Xuan’s gaze swept over the box Pei Yingye held in his other hand. The latter released the hand resting on his shoulder and placed the item on the bar counter: “Here, a half-month’s supply.”

Ji Xuan was in no hurry to check the contents. He simply scanned Pei Yingye’s face, which was partially hidden in the shadows, and teased, “If the hero-saves-the-beauty act hadn’t been so clumsy, I would have thought you were intentionally setting a trap for me just now.”

Pei Yingye’s expression changed. “What do you mean? You think I specifically found that guy to…”

“Don’t be angry,” Ji Xuan blinked. “It was just a joke.”

Pei Yingye was so exasperated he almost laughed.

“How much was it?”

Pei Yingye plopped down on a high stool and said irritably, “Five thousand.”

Then he looked up to see Ji Xuan staring at him while opening his terminal.

Pei Yingye: “What?”

Ji Xuan said with a smile, “Aren’t you going to exchange StarNet accounts with me? How else do you want me to give you the money?”

Only then did Pei Yingye huffily pull out his own terminal.

After adding the contact info, Ji Xuan called back the finally-free bartender, asking her to mix a glass of juice for the hardworking driver, Little Pei, and paid for the juice plus the cost of one glass.

Pei Yingye and the bartender were listening to him with confusion when they saw Ji Xuan’s fingers slowly move away from the stem of his wine glass—

Snap.

The head of the glass separated from its base.

Ji Xuan said nonchalantly, “I originally intended to use it to sober that guy up, but it didn’t come in handy. What a pity.”

Pei Yingye: “…”

–

The night grew deeper.

Pei Yingye reluctantly finished the cloyingly sweet mixed juice, said goodbye to the bartender, and led Ji Xuan out of the bar.

The whistling wind swept past the hoverbike. The shop windows on both sides of the aerial corridor were lit with warm yellow lights, and holographic advertisements for products flashed by in their field of vision.

The connection between the Upper City and the Lower City relied on this aerial fast-track corridor. The temperature inside was much lower than normal. Because there was no other traffic around, Pei Yingye drove very fast; even the wrist bones gripping the handlebars were tickled by the wind.

He was just about to look back and ask Ji Xuan if he should slow down when he caught a glimpse of Ji Xuan’s shoulders shivering in the rearview mirror.

Cold?

He thought.

“Do you—”

However, before the words could leave his mouth, he felt a light weight added to his back.

Ji Xuan leaned against him without hesitation. His scorpion braid brushed against Pei Yingye’s back, bringing an unignorable itch and heat. Before Pei Yingye could react, a warm sensation spread along his waistline. Ji Xuan’s arms lightly encircled his waist from behind, his palms pressed against the hem of the jacket fluttering in the wind.

Even the vibration of the bike’s engine seemed to be blocked out; all that remained in Pei Yingye’s ears was his own rapid heartbeat.

What was he doing?

Did he know what he was doing?

His hands gripped the handlebars death-tight. He didn’t look back, but he unconsciously tucked his abdomen in, tensing up like a piece of cold iron.

“Good physique,” Ji Xuan commented mischievously.

Warm breath instantly scorched from the back of his neck to the tips of his ears. Pei Yingye felt like his head, encased in the helmet, had become stiflingly hot.

Ji Xuan’s hands didn’t let go until they reached the dormitory building.

He took off the helmet and handed it to Pei Yingye. This time, he didn’t care if his hair was ruffled; he simply untied his hair and let it fall.

“Courtesy demands reciprocity. You held me so naturally before, so it would have been embarrassing for me to be coy.” He gave Pei Yingye a smile, as if intentionally explaining the reason for his actions.

Then, without waiting for a response, he walked into the dormitory building on his own.

No one noticed that in a hovercar not far away, Lance Vaughn was watching everything with a dark expression.

The seat next to him was piled with some daily necessities, seemingly the result of specifically returning to the dorm to pack up.

The terminal in his hand was flashing, and the screen clearly showed the interface of the Mars Military Academy anonymous forum—

[Subject: Fainted during mecha testing? Personally sent to the infirmary by PYY? Does that trash from the Combat Department have a new target?]

Purchase complete translation HERE.