A week had already passed since that birthday filled with the smell of curried fish balls.

Even staying in the Kowloon Walled City, Shen Yanzhou did not idle around. First, he leaked some news to the outside world: the second young master of the Shen family, Shen Xici, had met with a sudden accident, and he, Shen Yanzhou, was forced to leave Hong Kong for a few days to handle family matters personally.

In reality, Shen Yanzhou had not left Hong Kong at all. He was merely hiding out in this lawless land while handling company business remotely, waiting for the hidden predators to take the bait.

Yet weirdly enough, this past week had been far too quiet.

According to his calculations, even if the news he put out was believed by others, Huo Tian shouldn’t have bought it. The moment Huo Tian realized the contract he obtained by kidnapping Shen Xici was just two useless pieces of paper, given his personality, he would definitely launch a dragnet search throughout the Kowloon Walled City. However, the Walled City was inexplicably peaceful.

That was, aside from the local thugs and gangsters everywhere who constantly sized him up with filthy looks.

Even now, when he went up to the rooftop at night to watch the airplanes, he couldn’t avoid being stared at by several gangsters squatting on the roof, smoking, with their hair dyed in all sorts of colors.

“Hey, Brother Qiang, look over there. Where did that absolute stunner come from? His skin is so pale, he looks prettier than those female celebrities!” a monkey-thin thug spat, his eyes filled with greedy, brazen lust.

The man called Brother Qiang stroked his chin, making no effort to hide the malice in his eyes as he intentionally joked in a coarse, gravelly voice:

“Pretty he may be, but he looks too proud. A high and mighty young master like him probably wouldn’t know how to bow his head even if you stepped on him. His backbone is too stiff!”

“Brother Qiang, what do you know? Guys like him usually walk around with their noses in the air. Stripping away that privileged young master exterior and making him kneel on the ground crying and begging for mercy is exactly what feels the most fucking satisfying!” the lackey beside him laughed maliciously.

The unbearable, filthy words floated into Shen Yanzhou’s ears. He did not care about these gutter rats at all, so naturally, he didn’t notice that the two had developed vile intentions and were planning to walk over and touch him.

Before their dirty trick could succeed, they were glared back by a man who had just come upstairs carrying ice cream.

The crude words in Brother Qiang’s mouth got completely stuck in his throat. His legs went weak, and without even bothering to pick up the cigarette he dropped on the ground, he slapped the thin thug on the forehead. The two then scrambled and ran for their lives toward another staircase, looking exactly as if a ghost were chasing them.

Sanqianwan put on a compliant face again and walked up to Shen Yanzhou, bowing his head submissively. “Master, try the ice cream.”

Shen Yanzhou took the ice cream and bit into it. The soft vanilla flavor melted on the tip of his tongue, cold and sweet, which barely managed to suppress a bit of the persistent, rotten, moldy smell of this place.

Just then, a massive Boeing passenger plane roared past, almost brushing against the densely packed, illegal structures of the Kowloon Walled City.

In this lawless place, planes always flew incredibly low. They were so close that it felt as if one could touch the huge landing gear just by standing on tiptoe.

The vibrations only finally subsided after the tail of the massive plane glided into the distant night sky.

The man turned his head to look at him. “Have you ever watched planes from a rooftop before?”

Shen Yanzhou swallowed the ice cream in his mouth, withdrew his gaze from the distant night sky, and shook his head. “Who had the time for that?”

He lived in a hypocritical world of vanity and profit, where he was either plotting against others or guarding against being plotted against. He had no time or mood to run to the roof of a slum to watch pieces of metal land.

“Why did you suddenly bring me here? Do all the people in your Walled City like to come up here?”

The man nodded. “The people in the Walled City watch planes fly over their heads every day. All they think about is how to make money and how to escape this dark, hopeless place.”

“I used to always like sitting here and watching the planes, too.”

In reality, he used to stand on this rooftop to watch people.

“Because you didn’t look very happy that day, I thought this might make you feel better.”

Shen Yanzhou shook his head. “Boring.”

Watching planes was even more boring than looking at the ocean.

Hearing these words, the man lowered his head silently. It seemed he had messed up out of good intentions again; it turned out Shen Yanzhou didn’t like looking at the sky.

Looking at the man’s slumped head, Shen Yanzhou ultimately couldn’t help but awkwardly clear his throat. “Ahem…”

The man raised his head anxiously, thinking he had caught a chill from the wind.

Shen Yanzhou avoided his gaze, casting his eyes randomly down toward the deep alleys below that were as crowded as an anthill. “Looking at this kind of pointless stuff isn’t as practical as getting something to eat… Didn’t you say before that there’s an old lady at the street corner who makes really delicious stewed beef brisket with radish?”

“Is she still there?”

“Yes. I’ll take you.”

Going down from the ninth-floor rooftop led to a narrow stairwell that never saw the light of day. After crossing two alleys that twisted like rotting intestines, they saw a food cart at the street corner.

Two greasy folding tables were set up in front of the cart. A large iron pot was bubbling, the old broth brewed thick and shiny, with large pieces of beef tendon rolling inside. The white radishes had soaked up the brown sauce, cooked until they were crystal clear and translucent.

The old lady selling the brisket stirred the pot with long chopsticks. Hearing footsteps, she looked up.

Her gaze first landed on Sanqianwan, and then, moving past his broad shoulders, fixed onto Shen Yanzhou’s cold, exceptionally striking face.

The old lady paused, and then a smile broke out, causing the wrinkles on her face to bunch up. Teasing in old-school Cantonese, she joked, “Hey kid, have you changed your ways today? Usually you bring a bunch of hoodlums to eat noodles, but today you brought such a handsome guy?”

Sanqianwan subtly moved over, blocking the old lady’s scrutinizing gaze.

“Keep it down, Granny,” the man said in a lowered voice. “Two bowls of radish beef brisket. Make his bowl tender, add extra beef tendon, and no cilantro.”

The old lady laughed even louder, deftly using scissors to cut the brisket. “I know, I know. Look at you, so protective, you really dote on your wife.”

Wife? What did that mean?

Shen Yanzhou glared at the man. The man smiled and explained to the old lady, “He’s my boss.”

The old lady smiled understandingly and stopped talking.

Steaming porcelain bowls were served on the table.

Shen Yanzhou picked up his chopsticks and lifted a piece of beef with tendon attached.

It melted right in his mouth.

There was no fancy presentation like in high-end restaurants, just the purest aroma of meat mixed with the spices of star anise and dried tangerine peel. The white radishes underneath were even more delicious than the meat; with one bite, the piping hot, sweet meat juices instantly splattered inside his mouth.

Sanqianwan sat opposite him. He didn’t touch his own bowl, just staring at him intently as he ate.

“Is it good?”

“It’s alright.” Shen Yanzhou swallowed the meat, his lips flushed red from the steam.

“By the way, what’s wrong with the old lady’s legs?” he asked in a low voice.

From the knees down, the old lady’s legs couldn’t quite straighten out. They hung limply like that, requiring her to support herself with one hand just to stand firmly.

“Eight years ago, the boss of this territory changed. The local gangsters came to collect protection money. The rules changed, and they demanded two hundred dollars more each month.”

“Back then, Granny had to pay off her son’s debts, and even her funeral savings were completely drained. She really couldn’t come up with that money.”

“Because she couldn’t pay, her stall was smashed. Two thugs took steel pipes and broke both of her legs. She didn’t have money for the hospital back then, so she ended up crippled like this.”

“Then what about her son?” Shen Yanzhou asked out of curiosity.

“In prison,” the man said, his eyelids not even lifting as he lowered his voice. “He was a degenerate gambler. He owed money to loan sharks, and while being chased for the debt, he accidentally stabbed someone. He got fifteen years.”

Shen Yanzhou’s hand holding the chopsticks paused slightly.

He didn’t ask further, lowering his head to finish the last piece of radish in the bowl.

When leaving, Sanqianwan stood up, fished a few crumpled bills out of his pocket, and pressed them under the greasy bottom of the bowl.

Supporting herself on her limp legs, the old lady limped out from behind the steaming pot. Her cloudy eyes looked at Sanqianwan, showing a hint of cautious, tentative hope.

“Ah Ye,” the old lady’s voice trembled slightly, “how is my boy doing lately?”

The man’s expression didn’t change as he fabricated a lie: “He’s still in Thailand. He’s running a business with a big boss and doing pretty well. Why didn’t you use the money he asked someone to bring you last month? If your legs aren’t good, close the stall early and go back to rest. Why stay up all night?”

“Use it for what? I already have one foot in the grave.”

The old lady waved her hand with a smile, wiping her hands on her greasy apron, the wrinkles on her face smoothing out with her grin. “I have to save the money for him. Who knows when he’ll be able to marry a beautiful bride.”

As the old lady spoke, she used her heavily calloused hands to carefully flatten the bills on the table, folded them neatly, and tucked them into her inner pocket.

The two turned around and walked into the deep alley. Most of the streetlights in the Walled City were broken.

“Why didn’t you tell her the truth? Also, that old lady’s money, was it you…” Shen Yanzhou asked.

Lying to her that it was sent back by her son?

Sanqianwan stopped his tracks, cutting off his words.

He looked up, glancing at the pitch-black sky. Summer rain in Hong Kong came without warning, and the typhoon hadn’t completely passed yet.

“Master, it’s too late. It looks like it’s going to pour. I’m afraid the path back to Jiang Xu’s place is blocked.”

His gaze fell on Shen Yanzhou’s cold face. “How about we find a motel to stay at tonight?”

The paths in the Walled City were intricate and complex. Sanqianwan pulled Shen Yanzhou along and found an hourly room with a relatively decent environment.

Even so, the air was still thick with the long-standing smell of cheap tobacco.

After Shen Yanzhou finished showering, he put on a bathrobe. His skin, steamed by the hot water, flushed a very faint, endearing pink. His silver hair was dripping wet, and the water droplets slid down his pale neck, soaking the thin fabric on his chest into a suggestive dark color.

He felt a bit hot and wanted to go to the balcony to smoke a cigarette and catch some air.

The buildings facing each other in the Walled City were built too close together, so close that one could clearly see exactly who lived in the opposite room and what they were doing.

The household opposite hadn’t even bothered to draw the curtains, or perhaps they did it on purpose for people to see.

Under the dim, flickering incandescent light, two naked bodies were tightly entangled.

The Omega was forced to kneel face down on a ragged spring bed, while the Alpha behind him was like a beast in heat, covered in sweat, moving like a pile driver.

This kind of thing was not something he was seeing for the first time in the Walled City.

Shen Yanzhou lowered his head, just placing the cigarette between his lips without lighting it yet, when the man opposite who was right in the middle of the act suddenly raised his head.

A murky, lewd gaze pierced straight through the less than two meters of open air, fixing heavily onto Shen Yanzhou’s collar and his beautiful face, which was flushed cold and elegant from the steam, the corners of his eyes tinged with a faint pink.

The man’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. He seemed triggered by the extreme contrast of this clean flesh, catching his breath sharply as his movements suddenly became even more vicious and wild!

His eyes stared dead at Shen Yanzhou, as if the person he was wantonly handling at this moment wasn’t the Omega in front of him, but the unattainable, silver-haired beauty across the window. He even kept his eyes locked onto Shen Yanzhou while making disgusting sounds of excitement.

Before Shen Yanzhou could even frown, a well-proportioned, warm, large hand reached around from the back of his head and firmly covered his eyes.

The rough, thin calluses on the man’s palm brushed against his delicate eyelids.

His vision instantly fell into darkness. The only things left in his ears were the increasingly frenzied noises from across the way, and the heavy, incredibly suppressed breathing of the man behind him.

Sanqianwan lowered his head, his scorching lips almost touching Shen Yanzhou’s ear, his voice dripping with a dark, furious rage that sounded like he wanted to skin the man opposite alive:

“Don’t look. It’s dirty.”

With his eyes covered, Shen Yanzhou gave a quiet nod, replied with a soft “Okay,” and returned to the room.

The man then pulled the moldy curtains shut, completely blocking out the bare skin and the obscene gazes opposite, and turned off the light in the room.

The cramped motel room fell into darkness.

The two lay fully clothed on a bed that wasn’t very large. Although there was a bit of distance between them, Shen Yanzhou could clearly feel that Sanqianwan beside him was incredibly hot, like a powder keg that could explode at any moment.

The commotion from the opposite unit seemed to quiet down gradually, the neighbors apparently losing interest because the curtains had been drawn.

However, sleeping wasn’t easy either.

The floorboards in the Walled City were as thin as a crisp piece of paper. Just a few minutes after it grew quiet, the ceiling overhead suddenly let out a dull thud, followed by unmistakable noises coming from upstairs one after another without any attempt at concealment.

“Creak… creak…”

Those sticky sounds unique to adults late at night crashed down recklessly through the thin floorboards.

“Ah… honey… you’re amazing!”

“…”

The dirty talk and moans grew more explicit, heavy, and hurried with every sound.

Sanqianwan’s breathing completely fell apart.

In the darkness, he rolled over, reaching out with his broad, rough palm to cover Shen Yanzhou’s ears tightly.

His palm was full of burning sweat, and his chest heaved rapidly.

Shen Yanzhou could even feel that the hands pressed against his ears were trembling slightly, right down to the fingertips.

With his ears covered, the unbearable cries from upstairs instantly became muffled, leaving only the sound of the man’s heartbeat right next to him in his world.

In the darkness, Shen Yanzhou slowly opened his eyes.

Those elegant, silver, phoenix-shaped eyes were currently shimmering with a layer of glistening light. He didn’t push away the man’s hands covering his ears, but instead shifted slightly under the covers.

Then, he firmly grabbed the collar of the man’s black tank top.

His fingers pulled down with a slight force.

Sanqianwan’s entire body froze, forced to lean down following his pull, until their noses were almost touching.

Shen Yanzhou tilted his head slightly, his warm lips brushing past the edge of the man’s palm in a barely noticeable touch. His long silver hair fell scattered across the pillow, and his whole demeanor carried a post-shower laziness, looking like a satisfied, alluring cat.

Clutching the man’s collar, he asked softly in an extremely calm yet entirely natural tone:

“Are you having a really hard time holding it in?”

“Do you want to do it?”