DABGBTF 5

After yesterday, Xie Zheng’s assistant had hurried to coordinate with Hu Qizhi’s team. 

Coming to “One Cup” with Hu Qizhi again today was to maintain and deepen the wining-and-dining friendship¹Derived from “酒肉朋友” (wining and dining friends / fair-weather friends). It refers to relationships built purely on partying, drinking, and business networking rather than genuine emotional connection. between them.

Hu Qizhi was obviously in a skirt-chasing²Literally “hunting glamour/beauty.” It describes the act of going out specifically to hit on people or look for sexual/romantic conquests. mood today, his eyes, along with those of the other few men, darting around shiftily, exclusively staring at the scantily clad young O. 

Later, they actually managed to find three young, pretty Omega boys willing to come sit over. However, although these three were sitting next to Hu Qizhi and the others, their gazes were subtly drifting toward Xie Zheng’s face.

Not knowing who it was, someone even nudged Xie Zheng’s trouser leg with their foot under the table; Xie Zheng kicked him back. “Shoo.”

Hu Qizhi naturally noticed the little movements under the table as well. 

Xie Zheng was certainly attractive, but the Omega who liked Xie Zheng was currently sitting in his own lap. This wasn’t something to be angry about—instead, he was quite smug.

He even asked Xie Zheng with great interest, “What kind does little brother Xie like?”

Xie Zheng gave a wicked smile, didn’t speak, and looked to the side.

There weren’t many guests in the club tonight. When the waiters had nothing to do, they all gathered over by the bar. Lu Lu, however, was still working, currently taking orders for the guests at a few neighboring tables, his smile very sincere and radiant.

So happy even when working for someone else? 

What a stupid deer.

Xie Zheng picked up that glass of freshly squeezed pomelo juice and took a sip, biting the ice cubes until they made “crunching” cracking sounds.

Hu Qizhi was still continuing the topic from just now, “With conditions like little brother Xie’s, what kind can’t you find?”

“If you can’t find one, keeping one works too.” The person speaking had his belly pressed against the table. Xie Zheng knew this guy was keeping three little lovers on the outside himself, so it was no wonder he opened and closed his mouth talking about this.

“Keep one? Then it’s not certain who is taking more advantage.”

The few of them burst into laughter.

Today’s drinking party ended early. Hu Qizhi and the others left, leading those Omegas away, their intentions obvious. 

Xie Zheng, on the other hand, was not in a rush to leave. 

His mouth felt empty, so he pinched the olive slice from the wine glass and placed it under the root of his tongue to suck on.

He raised his eyes to look for Lu Lu, only to see Lu Lu happened to be walking toward him. “Uncle Xie.”

He showed Xie Zheng the thing in his palm. “I borrowed a car from a colleague, shall we go?”

Xie Zheng looked at Lu Lu’s fingers. The Alpha’s fingers were slender and conspicuous, and one could see the shape of the bones under the thin skin.

Xie Zheng: “I drove here today. Your Teacher Song lent me his car.”

Lu Lu let out an “ah.” “I’ll be the designated driver then?”

Xie Zheng raised an eyebrow very lightly. 

After a moment of silence, he smiled and nodded.

Lu Lu: “I’ll go return the keys.”

The staff breakroom was behind the corridor. Lu Lu went in and stayed for a long time, coming out only when Xie Zheng was getting a bit impatient. 

Xie Zheng got up to grab his suit jacket, but heard Lu Lu ask him, “Uncle Xie, do you know how to play cards?”

Xie Zheng raised his eyebrows, didn’t speak, and waited for Lu Lu to continue.

“The foreman is playing cards, and they’re short a person.”

Xie Zheng scoffed, “…You want me to go play cards with your foreman?”

He was just short of directly saying the three words, “Is he worthy?”

Lu Lu sighed. “He won a lot of money from me, Uncle Xie.”

Xie Zheng touched his lips. 

Lu Lu was looking for him to stand up for him, like how a student would go back to find a teacher after suffering a grievance.

Pity he found the wrong person; he wasn’t the fiercely protective Song Qingyuan. Xie Zheng was also a bad person who wanted to make Lu Lu suffer grievances.³This is a deliberate double meaning. Lu Lu comes to Xie Zheng because he feels “wronged/aggrieved” about losing money. But Xie Zheng wants to make him “suffer” in a dominant, sexually degrading way.

He looked at Lu Lu’s half-sighing, half-aggrieved face, which was truly to his appetite. At this moment, all he could think about in his mind was pressing Lu Lu’s head down to make him kneel, grabbing the soft tail at the back of his head, and forcing him to tilt his head up and take him in to the deepest.

Xie Zheng and Lu Lu looked at each other for a moment. He took out a cigarette, held it in his mouth, rubbed the filter hard with his teeth, and smiled. “Let’s go.”

The staff breakroom of “One Cup” was deep down the corridor and wasn’t considered small. On the left and right sides, there was a long sofa and an iron locker for clothes, respectively. Right in the middle sat two greasy square tables. On one table sat some bread, candy, takeout boxes, and the like. The few people in the room were sitting around the other table, which was piled with cards.

Xie Zheng couldn’t be bothered to get to know these people either. He sat down on an empty chair and crossed his legs. “What are we playing?”

His attitude could be said to be quite impolite, but with the Alpha’s oppressive aura bearing down, no one dared to say anything.

Wei Chao asked, “Do you know how to play Shengji⁴Shengji / Upgrade (升级 – Shēngjí): This is a massively popular trick-taking card game in China, also widely known as Tractor (拖拉机). It involves strategic play, trump suits, and usually requires good memory and partnership coordination.?”

Xie Zheng smiled and gave a small nod of his chin, then looked at Lu Lu, commanding, “Come, look at my cards for me.”

Lu Lu gave an “mm,” and walked to just behind Xie Zheng’s side. 

To be comfortable, Lu Lu propped his left and right hands on either side of the back of Xie Zheng’s chair. Except the back of the chair wasn’t wide, so both of Lu Lu’s hands ended up pressing against Xie Zheng’s shoulders, the young man’s body heat transmitting to Xie Zheng through the clothing.

Xie Zheng glanced back at Lu Lu’s slender fingers gripping the back of the chair, thinking, Interesting.

It wasn’t that Xie Zheng didn’t play cards nowadays, but his card buddies were either the president of this company or the boss of that company. The twists and turns involved were not something a foreman like Wei Chao could compare to. Moreover, his momentum was very fierce, he always loved to attack when people were caught off guard. After a few rounds, his score was very high—an overwhelming victory.

What took Xie Zheng by surprise was Lu Lu. The stupid deer was very good at memorizing and counting cards. After a few rounds, he even had a clear idea of what the next card someone would draw might be. With him helping to watch the cards, Xie Zheng was saved a lot of trouble.

With this kind of skill, he could still lose?

Yet on second thought, Xie Zheng understood. The stupid deer didn’t dare offend his superior—others relied on memorizing cards to win, he relied on memorizing others’ cards to lose.

He lifted his eyelids to cast a glance at Lu Lu. Lu Lu misunderstood his intention, picked up the lighter nearby, and lit a cigarette for Xie Zheng. 

Xie Zheng blew a smoke ring, and looking at Lu Lu’s features through the white mist, thought again, A bit interesting.

In just this short amount of time, Wei Chao had already lost over three hundred. He wanted to lose his temper but didn’t dare, his whole person looking completely stifled and crestfallen. Finally, he found an excuse. “Boss Xie, guests are arriving right now, it’s getting busy. How about—”

Xie Zheng: “Sure. That’s it for today.”

Bosses like Xie Zheng didn’t casually add people, and Wei Chao and the others didn’t take the initiative to ask to add him as a friend either. They just transferred the money to Lu Lu with ashen faces, tossed Lu Lu a sentence, “You transfer it to Boss Xie later,” and quickly walked away.

Lu Lu must have already spoken to Wei Chao in advance, so he didn’t say any more goodbyes, and exited the club together with Xie Zheng.

Xie Zheng calmly observed Lu Lu from the rearview mirror. 

He disdained paying attention to others, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t detect other people’s emotions. 

He clearly felt that Lu Lu was a bit unusual toward him.

Between an Alpha and an Alpha, it was like the positive poles of two magnets; theoretically, there was no sexual attraction. In all these years, Xie Zheng had only ever seen one freak⁵Refers to the ABO (Omegaverse) lore. Alphas are biologically hardwired to be aggressively territorial toward each other and only attracted to Omegas. Xie Zheng is a “freak” because he is physically aroused by other Alphas. like this—himself. 

It couldn’t possibly be that he just happened to take a fancy to an Alpha, and the other party was also interested in Alphas.

However, seeking his help to stand up for him, intentionally touching his shoulders with his hands, and taking the initiative to offer to drive him home. Moreover, even giving him juice that tasted the same as his own pheromones.

This was fucking practically an explicit sexual overture.

Xie Zheng licked his back molars, his gaze staring at Lu Lu’s face in the rearview mirror gradually darkening.

Completely oblivious, Lu Lu suddenly thought of something while stopping at a red light. “Right, Uncle Xie. I’ll transfer the money you won just now to you.”

Xie Zheng scoffed, “No need, keep it for yourself.”

“That won’t do. You won it, Uncle Xie. What kind of logic is it for me to take it?”

This little bit of money wasn’t worth wasting breath over for Xie Zheng, but Lu Lu was dead set on giving it to him. Xie Zheng cursed him for being stupid a few times in his heart, and simply opened his payment QR code.

Lu Lu scanned it and sent over five hundred yuan.

The red light turned green, and Lu Lu placed his phone on the console behind the gear shift. 

The phone screen, which had been off, let out a ding-dong sound. 

Xie Zheng subconsciously glanced over, and saw Lu Lu’s screen showing that he had received a text message from the bank.

Xie Zheng’s eyes circled over the words “Balance 2198.5,” and tugging at the corners of his lips, he couldn’t help but let out a “ha”.

Perhaps regarding Lu Lu’s overtures, he could have another interpretation. 

Maybe it had nothing to do with sex. Lu Lu was merely eyeing his status, wanting to build a good relationship with him to get into his company, or to be introduced by him to other companies, expanding his network of contacts.

Xie Zheng asked Lu Lu very bluntly, “You don’t have much money?”

Lu Lu was amused, and happily let out a pfft of laughter. “If I had money, I wouldn’t be working a part-time job.”

“Want money?”

Lu Lu’s smile gradually retracted a bit, and he answered him very honestly, “I need money.”

Xie Zheng gave an “mm,” and suddenly asked Lu Lu, “Add each other as friends?”

The smile on Lu Lu’s face widened a bit again. “Okay, Uncle Xie.”

At the next traffic light intersection, Xie Zheng accepted Lu Lu’s friend request.

Lu Lu’s profile picture had a stick-figure sika deer right in the middle of a white background. Because it was too small and also yellow, without zooming in, it practically looked like a little chick lying there.

Clicking in through the profile picture, Lu Lu didn’t post on his Moments⁶This is the social feed feature built into WeChat, similar to an Instagram feed or Facebook timeline. very frequently. The last one was from half a year ago. Looking at the background, it should be at a cat cafe. On the table was a cup of coffee with a Christmas tree latte art, and lying on the long legs under the table were three Ragdoll cats.

The caption was “Cute ^^”

—

The next day, Song Qingyuan set off, and Xie Zheng dropped him off at the station.

Xie Zheng still didn’t know why Song Qingyuan had suddenly taken a leave of absence, but he knew everyone had their own f*cked-up, miserable sh*t to deal with. If Song Qingyuan didn’t say anything, he didn’t ask, only punching his good friend once on the shoulder before Song Qingyuan turned around. “Call me if you need anything.”

Song Qingyuan smiled. “Thanks.”

In the afternoon, the driver finally drove Xie Zheng’s car over from Linyuan. 

The driver’s surname was Tian. Xie Zheng called him Lao Tian⁷Literally Old Tian. Lao (老) is a prefix placed before a surname in Chinese to express familiarity, camaraderie, or informal respect, and it does not necessarily indicate the person’s age., and he called Xie Zheng “Xie-ge.”

This was someone Xie Zheng had known since high school. When he was cornered in an alley and being robbed of his money, Xie Zheng casually lent him a hand, and ever since then, he had been fiercely loyal to Xie Zheng.

Sneaking out from under the watchful eyes of Xie Zheng’s parents wasn’t easy, and Lao Tian looked much more weathered than he did a few days ago. With a handy driver, Xie Zheng finally felt a bit more comfortable.

He had Lao Tian drive him to Hu Qizhi’s company a few times; the other party didn’t deliberately make things difficult for him, and after just three short days, they finalized this small project, and even introduced another piece of business to Xie Zheng.

A day later, Xie Zheng drank a bit of alcohol with a few newly acquainted bosses, and returned to Song Qingyuan’s place at eleven o’clock at night. 

Lying on the sofa, he felt his body become somewhat hot and restless. A warm current roamed around his lower abdomen, making his heart itch along with it.

Xie Zheng was familiar with this feeling—this was a symptom of the susceptible period.

With one leg dangling onto the floor, Xie Zheng closed his eyes and rubbed his chest a couple of times, pausing again when his hand reached downward.

He opened his phone.

[Xie]: You there?

The other party replied very quickly.

[Stupid Deer]: Uncle Xie

[Stupid Deer]: What’s up?

[Xie]: Need money? I’ve got a job here.

[Stupid Deer]: What is it?

Following this was a sparkling, head-peeking emoji sticker, which dazzled Xie Zheng so much his eyes hurt.

Word by word, Xie Zheng slowly pressed on the screen: Be kept by me⁸This is the ultimate punchline of the chapter, tying directly back to the club scene where Xie Zheng’s sleazy business partners talked about “keeping” (包养) someone. Xie Zheng is explicitly propositioning Lu Lu to be his sugar baby or have a sexual relationship with him., twenty thousand a month.

• 1
  Derived from “酒肉朋友” (wining and dining friends / fair-weather friends). It refers to relationships built purely on partying, drinking, and business networking rather than genuine emotional connection.
• 2
  Literally “hunting glamour/beauty.” It describes the act of going out specifically to hit on people or look for sexual/romantic conquests.
• 3
  This is a deliberate double meaning. Lu Lu comes to Xie Zheng because he feels “wronged/aggrieved” about losing money. But Xie Zheng wants to make him “suffer” in a dominant, sexually degrading way.
• 4
  Shengji / Upgrade (升级 – Shēngjí): This is a massively popular trick-taking card game in China, also widely known as Tractor (拖拉机). It involves strategic play, trump suits, and usually requires good memory and partnership coordination.
• 5
  Refers to the ABO (Omegaverse) lore. Alphas are biologically hardwired to be aggressively territorial toward each other and only attracted to Omegas. Xie Zheng is a “freak” because he is physically aroused by other Alphas.
• 6
  This is the social feed feature built into WeChat, similar to an Instagram feed or Facebook timeline.
• 7
  Literally Old Tian. Lao (老) is a prefix placed before a surname in Chinese to express familiarity, camaraderie, or informal respect, and it does not necessarily indicate the person’s age.
• 8
  This is the ultimate punchline of the chapter, tying directly back to the club scene where Xie Zheng’s sleazy business partners talked about “keeping” (包养) someone. Xie Zheng is explicitly propositioning Lu Lu to be his sugar baby or have a sexual relationship with him.