Chapter 1: Typhoon Passing Through

Hong Kong, the night before the typhoon made landfall. The waters of Victoria Harbour were rising steadily.

Causeway Bay, basement level of “Kowloon Bing Sutt.”

This was the largest underground gambling den in Hong Kong, also the money pit of Hung Hing Triad’s Sang Biu.

The casino, usually buzzing with noise and activity, was dead silent tonight. Flickering overhead lights illuminated the wreckage strewn across the floor—seven or eight Shen family bodyguards lay sprawled in pools of blood.

And the Shen family’s second young master, Shen Xiuming, who usually strutted around so arrogantly, was tied up and pressed into the center of the room, snot and tears smeared across his face, trembling like a quail waiting for slaughter.

“Is the Shen family out of people?”

Sang Biu sat in a grandmaster’s chair. This A-rank Alpha standing nearly two meters tall was covered in muscle, one foot grinding viciously against Shen Xiuming’s cheek, the other hand gripping a machete and slapping it against his palm, his fierce gaze fixed on the stairs leading to the surface.

“Pay your debts, it’s only right. I gave your Shen family two hours, and you send some pretty boy to negotiate with me? Who are you looking down on?”

Before he finished speaking, a figure slowly emerged from the entrance.

The newcomer wore an impeccably tailored Italian suit, holding a black long-handled umbrella in his hand. The moment he closed the umbrella, that cold, fair face was fully exposed under the dim light, silver hair flowing like liquid mercury across his shoulders, a few damp strands casually clinging to his cheek.

Beautiful enough to stop hearts, yet utterly unattainable.

Several of Sang Biu’s underlings behind him stared straight ahead, their vulgar whispering especially grating in the silence:

“Who’s that? Absolute top shelf.”

“Look at that waist and that face, I’d die on him and call it worth it.”

“Shut your dog mouth, that’s the Shen family eldest young master, you want to die?”

Sang Biu also lost himself for a moment, his gaze lingering on Shen Yanzhou’s silver hair and slender waist before he bared a mouthful of yellowed teeth. “Fair skin and silver hair, born with such fine looks so you’re the number one beauty of Hong Kong, the Shen family’s eldest young master?”

“Brother Biu flatters me.” Shen Yanzhou couldn’t be bothered with those sticky, disgusting stares. He walked to the gambling table, pulled out a chair, and sat down with elegant ease, his words carrying the languid coldness of someone long accustomed to power.

“I’m here to take that waste home.” He glanced at the coward on the ground.

“Take someone?” Sang Biu laughed in fury, standing up.

“Shen young master, your brother was smuggling goods at my dock, got a batch of my medicine seized by the police. Do you know who that shipment was for? The Fu family’s eldest young master, Fu Sihan.”

“That debt, fifty million! One cent less and I’ll cut off his leg!”

The more Sang Biu thought about it, the angrier he got. He had finally managed to hook up with the Fu family through this shipment, only to have Shen Xiuming ruin everything. His violent Alpha pheromones erupted instantly Shen Xiuming on the ground rolled his eyes back and fainted dead away, and even those few underlings who had spoken out of turn turned pale, their knees going weak.

Yet Shen Yanzhou, standing at the very center of this storm, merely frowned in disgust, pulling out a refined silver cigarette case from his pocket, extracting a slender menthol cigarette, lowering his head, and catching it between his lips.

Sang Biu was completely stunned. Even an A-rank Alpha of the same level couldn’t remain so composed and unbothered under his full pressure.

“Fifty million?” Shen Yanzhou looked at him through the curling smoke. “Biu, that batch of goods was never seized by the police.”

He pulled out a stack of photos from his inner suit pocket, flicking his wrist.

“Rustling,” the photos scattered across the gambling table.

“It was your trusted lieutenant ‘Ah Bao’ who pulled a black-on-black, swallowed your goods and sold them to the Vietnamese gang, then pinned the blame on the Shen family. As for evidence…” Shen Yanzhou tapped one of the photos with his cigarette-holding finger.

The photo showed Ah Bao caught in the act of making a deal at the dock.

Sang Biu’s breathing grew rapid. He turned back, glaring viciously at that sweating crew-cut man.

“B, Biu! He’s lying, he’s trying to drive a wedge between us!” Ah Bao screamed in defense.

“Of course, I know Brother Biu values loyalty.” Shen Yanzhou flicked his cigarette ash. “So before I came, I conveniently reported the case to the West Kowloon Regional headquarters, sending the coordinates where the goods were hidden that is, Ah Bao’s hideout to Superintendent Li of the Serious Crimes Unit.”

He raised his wrist to check his watch. “By my calculation, they should be catching him with the goods and the evidence right about now.”

“You dare call the police?!”

Sang Biu exploded in rage, veins bulging at his temples. The fury of having his rules broken made him completely lose his reason. He couldn’t care less about the truth anymore all he knew was that this person had broken the rules of the streets, actually daring to collude with the police.

Killing intent instantly flooded his brain.

“Die!” He roared, swinging his blade straight at Shen Yanzhou’s face.

Yet Shen Yanzhou sat in his chair without even blinking.

He was gambling, and he was waiting.

An A-rank Alpha in a violent rage, while terrifying, often overcommits and leaves no room to change moves.

Shen Yanzhou’s gray eyes locked onto the muscle movements of Sang Biu’s wrist. Just as the blade was about to touch his hair, he raised the black umbrella in his hand—the seemingly blunt tip sprang out an extremely thin military spike, pressing against Sang Biu’s vulnerable carotid artery.

If Sang Biu’s blade pressed down another half inch, the spike would pierce his throat first.

“Why aren’t you cutting?” Shen Yanzhou tilted his head slightly, looking at this giant before him, covered in cold sweat and frozen stiff.

“Seems your intuition saved you.” He slowly rose, the umbrella tip never leaving the other’s fatal point, pressing forward until they stood within a breath of each other.

Sang Biu stared in horror. He couldn’t smell anything on Shen Yanzhou—no Alpha dominance, no Beta mediocrity, and certainly no Omega sweetness.

No matter how much pheromone pressure he released, he got no response at all.

The fear of facing the unknown was more terrifying than facing death itself.

Sang Biu’s teeth chattered. “Y, you’re an S-rank Alpha? No, that’s not right…”

Shen Yanzhou looked at him calmly, his hand gripping the umbrella handle applying slight pressure, the sharp tip piercing Sang Biu’s rough skin, crimson beads of blood seeping out.

“I’m not an Alpha.”

“I’m an Omega with even defective pheromones.”

“I thought this wasn’t exactly a secret in Hong Kong.”

“How is that possible?” Sang Biu’s eyes were filled with humiliation.

“How does it feel? Being trampled underfoot by an Omega you looked down on, and still needing me to clean house for you?”

“You crazy…”

Before he could finish cursing, Shen Yanzhou swiftly retracted the umbrella, reversed his grip, and the heavy handle smashed hard against his temple.

Sang Biu collapsed with a thud.

“Too noisy.” Shen Yanzhou pulled out a white handkerchief from his suit pocket, wiped his fingers, and looked toward the surrounding underlings.

Almost simultaneously, the piercing wail of police sirens drifted down faintly, growing denser and denser it seemed Superintendent Li’s side had closed the net.

The few underlings in the basement who had still been restless, hearing this commotion and then looking at their twitching boss on the ground, scrambled to crawl into the dark corners, not even daring to breathe loudly.

“Carry your boss away. If you’re lucky, it’s just a concussion.”

Shen Yanzhou stepped over the wreckage strewn across the floor, walking to the unconscious Shen Xiuming. The moment he approached, his brow furrowed in disgust a pungent stench of ammonia overpowered even the metallic smell of blood.

Truly a useless idiot.

Shen Yanzhou pressed the umbrella tip viciously into the soft flesh of Shen Xiuming’s cheek.

.

.

.

“Waste, get up, roll back to the Shen family.”

The Peak, Shen family mansion.

The brilliant lights of ten thousand homes in Victoria Harbour spread out below the mountain.

When Shen Yanzhou returned home it was already past midnight. He washed away the smell of blood and changed into a robe before walking downstairs.

However, when he entered the brightly lit living room, what greeted him was a scalding hot teacup.

“Crash!” The fine blue-and-white porcelain shattered at his feet, hot tea splashing onto his ankle, instantly reddening his skin.

“That mad dog Sang Biu you dare to provoke? Are you tired of living, or do you want to drag the entire Shen family to be buried with Hung Hing? There are rules on the streets, you broke the rules, who will dare do business with the Shen family in the future?” Second Uncle Shen Hong raged, pointing at his nose and cursing.

“If Xiuming hadn’t been blessed with great fortune, he would have been killed by you today!”

Shen Yanzhou stood in place, his gaze drifting lightly past him to land on his cousin curled up on the sofa playing pitiful, his entire body reeking of that foul odor.

“Some people’s hearts are truly filthier than a basement full of mud.”

“Instead of shouting at me here, you might as well go check what stupid thing your precious son actually did. Smuggling contraband, and getting played like a pig for slaughter. If I hadn’t discovered it early, he’d be picking up soap at Stanley Prison right now.”

Shen Hong opened his mouth, looked at Shen Xiuming’s cowardly appearance, and couldn’t get a word out for a long while.

“Enough.” The Shen family patriarch, who had been sitting upright in his grandmaster’s chair with eyes closed, finally opened his eyes, his sharp gaze falling upon his most capable grandson.

Beauty, intelligence, cunning, methods Shen Yanzhou was top-tier in every aspect.

Unfortunately, he was an Omega whose pheromones had no scent.

“You handled the matter well.” The old man’s voice betrayed no emotion. “But Yanzhou, you alone control the Shen family’s largest ocean shipping lines, yet you have no Alpha backing who can hold the scene. When I die, which of those old foxes on the board will submit to an Omega?”

“So?” Shen Yanzhou raised his head.

“Marriage alliance,” the old man replied.

Shen Yanzhou laughed out loud, his eyes full of absurdity: “And who is it this time? That idiot from the Su family who only knows how to play with young models? Or that soft-legged shrimp from the Tang family who faints at the sight of blood?”

A gleam flashed in the old man’s cloudy eyes. “The Fu family. Fu Sihan.”

The air instantly froze.

The Fu family’s eldest young master, Fu Sihan, was quite the famous figure in Hong Kong.

Rumor had it he had thrown his own uncle into the open sea to feed sharks, and the number of Betas and Omegas he had ruined was countless.

Hearing that name twice in one night truly inauspicious.

“So, Grandfather wants me to go to my death?” Shen Yanzhou said angrily.

“This is your best choice.” The old man avoided his gaze. “The Fu family initiated the marriage proposal. He doesn’t mind that you’re a scentless Omega, and even specifically named you.”

Named him specifically? That Fu Sihan who he had barely even met a few times?

“Yanzhou, this is for the Shen family, and also for yourself.” The old man walked over, patting his shoulder. “First get engaged, meet in a few days. If you refuse, then those shipping lines your father left behind… I’ll have no choice but to hand them over to Xiuming to manage.”

Using his parents’ legacy as leverage again.

Shen Yanzhou’s hand at his side clenched suddenly. He looked at this old man spouting “family righteousness,” looked at the second uncle and Shen Xiuming beside him with their gloating expressions.

This family had long since rotted through.

Since you want to push me into a pit of fire, since you’re certain I’ll act like a weak Omega and let myself be manipulated…

Shen Yanzhou took a deep breath, walked to the old man, straightened his collar for him, and smiled:

“Fine, since he thinks so highly of me.”

“Then I’ll marry.”

 

Translation Notes:

Kowloon Bing Sutt (九龙冰室): A classic Hong Kong-style cafe, often associated with triad and underground culture in fiction. “Bing Sutt” refers to a traditional ice house/cafe serving cold drinks and light meals.

Sang Biu (丧彪): A triad nickname. “Sang” means “mourning/funeral” (suggesting death/violence), “Biu” is a common suffix in triad nicknames. The character is fictional.

Gambling and waiting:  Shen Yanzhou is calculating that Sang Biu’s rage makes him predictable and overcommitted, leaving openings in his attack.

Defective pheromones: In ABO dynamics, Omegas typically emit distinctive pheromones. Shen Yanzhou’s lack of scent makes him an anomaly neither fully Alpha nor typical Omega, which adds to his mystique and intimidation factor.

Stanley Prison: Hong Kong’s maximum-security prison, infamous in popular culture. “Picking up soap” is a prison slang reference to vulnerability to sexual assault.