Dark clouds hid the moonlight. The factory area was quiet, and the sound of the wind in the distance carried intermittent howls. Yan Hao went up two steps on the iron ladder, poked his head out from the edge of the rear compartment, and saw Si Nan sitting on the roof of the vehicle's front. "What's wrong? Come down!"

As soon as he spoke, he saw Si Nan's figure move. He seemed to turn his head and glance at him, but Yan Hao couldn't see his expression.

Immediately after, Si Nan pulled in his legs, grabbed the edge of the driver's side window, and did a clean backflip, flipping directly from the roof into the driver's cabin!

Yan Hao was stunned for a moment by the arc of his lower back as he arched it. "Si Nan, hey!"

The next moment, the armored vehicle suddenly started, drove through the front yard, and headed towards the rear factory building in full view of everyone.

Yan Hao was almost thrown off the vehicle. Fortunately, he managed to roll when he landed and steadied himself, asking in astonishment, "What... what's going on with him?"

Hot water cascaded down with a roar, and the bathroom quickly filled with white steam.

The bloodstains on his palm were washed away by the water. The wound turned slightly pale and stopped bleeding. Si Nan let out a long sigh of relief. Just as he was about to turn down the water temperature, the dorm room door was suddenly pushed open. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

Si Nan whipped his head around. Yan Hao was standing at the door.

"You're hurt?" Yan Hao repeated, his tone now clearly nervous.

"..." Si Nan retreated a little under the showerhead. "No."

Through the bathroom glass, he could feel Yan Hao's suspicious gaze. "Are you angry?"

"No."

"...Then why did you run?"

Si Nan didn't answer.

Yan Hao's suspicion grew. Looking at Si Nan through the steam-covered glass, he suddenly felt that the other man's posture was unusually tense.

It was actually hard to see anything clearly under these conditions, but amidst the rushing sound of water, his vision seemed to become exceptionally sharp. He even suddenly noticed that the curve from Si Nan's neck to his shoulders was very delicate. Standing sideways in the water like this, his back looked very thin, his figure slender, and his whole person not very burly.

But his explosive power was very strong; it was probably due to his tight muscle fibers.

For a moment, Yan Hao was distracted, thinking, 'This body type of his, isn't it too slender even for a Beta?'

'What did he do before? He never mentions his past experiences. What kind of unspeakable secrets does he have?'

"...I said," Si Nan said slowly, "have you had enough of a look?"

Yan Hao: "?"

"Can you get out now?"

Yan Hao: "..."

Yan Hao suddenly realized something. All the blood rushed to his head at once, and he turned and walked out of the bathroom with stiff, uncoordinated limbs.

"Yo," Zhou Rong pushed open the dorm door with a cigarette dangling from his lips. He saw Yan Hao right in front of him and mumbled, "Where is he?"

The door to Si Nan's single dorm room was a lost cause. Yan Hao stood by the bedside table, feeling his heart beat a little fast, but he didn't know what that strange, stimulating feeling was. Hearing the question, he subconsciously pointed towards the bathroom.

Zhou Rong tossed him half a pack of cigarettes. "A tribute from those idiots." He then walked into the dorm and opened the bathroom door. "Hey, you..."

Si Nan had his back to the bathroom door and thought Yan Hao had come in again. "I told you..."

The next moment, he turned his head and came face to face with Zhou Rong.

In an instant, alarm bells went off in Si Nan's nerve endings. A gender awareness he had never felt before fully awakened. If there hadn't been glass in the way, he might have already grabbed a towel and strangled Zhou Rong to death in a few swift moves. "Get the hell out—!"

Zhou Rong shivered and slammed the bathroom door shut with a bang.

"Are you a woman?!" Zhou Rong, having been inexplicably rebuffed, roared at the door, "And who gave you permission to use so much hot water! Do you know how many days it's been since I've showered?!"

"Is he having an episode or something?" Zhou Rong, still fuming, pointed at the door and asked Yan Hao.

"...He was quite gentle with me just now," Yan Hao said slowly. "Maybe it's because you're more brutish."

·

"That group of people is staying," Zhou Rong said ten minutes later, sitting on the edge of the bed with his legs wide apart, smoking a cigarette.

Yan Hao was leaning his lower back against the windowsill, holding a cigarette in the exact same pose. The single dorm room was filled with the smell of nicotine.

Si Nan, while drying his wet hair with a towel, looked back and forth between the two of them, wondering why these two didn't go have a go at it if they had the time, and why they were crammed into his room in the middle of the night. But he habitually didn't ask, simply letting out a short "Ah" to show he'd heard.

"Why did you run off just now?" Zhou Rong frowned. "I was going to make that kid kowtow to you. How about I make him do it in public tomorrow?"

Si Nan said, "No need."

Zhou Rong and Yan Hao exchanged a look.

"...Are you angry?" Zhou Rong asked tentatively.

Si Nan: "?"

"Aren't all Alphas like that?" Si Nan said calmly. "It's not the first time. What else can be done? Throw them out to fend for themselves?"

He turned his back to them and ruffled his hair in the mirror, not seeing the complicated expressions that instantly appeared on Zhou Rong and Yan Hao's faces. After a long moment, Zhou Rong coughed, seeming to want to console him about something, but he raised his hand and then lowered it again, hesitant to speak.

"I know you don't want them to stay here, but we can't just kill them with one strike. If we let them go, they'll always be an unstable element. It would be even more troublesome if they deliberately came back to cause trouble..."

Si Nan nodded, bewildered.

"Moreover," Zhou Rong paused and added, "that group of people are shareholders of this Fertilizer Plant."

Even Yan Hao hadn't expected this. "Is that so?"

"Mm, the leader is called Feng Wentai," Zhou Rong mentioned the name of a very famous financial group in B City, "—he's the young master of this family, and they really do have investments in the Industrial Park. It's said that he saw Xiangzi from a distance once before and recognized him just now. He immediately apologized, started sucking up, and even voluntarily offered to hand over the Fertilizer Plant to the state as a temporary shelter."

Yan Hao exclaimed, "Holy shit. Xiangzi is really useful."

"For Xiangzi's sake, this group won't be an unstable element for the time being."

Zhou Rong preciously took the last drag of his cigarette butt. Suddenly, he saw Si Nan turn back from the bathroom and look at them suspiciously. "...What does this have to do with that guy who wants to be a rooster in his next life?"

"His grandfather is the Deputy Minister of State Security, Guo Ba, and he himself is a proper third-generation official." Yan Hao explained, "The situation is chaotic right now. That Feng guy wants to cozy up to the government, so he probably won't dare to cause us trouble for the time being."

When he heard the name Guo Ba, a trace of familiarity rose in Si Nan's heart, but the feeling was extremely faint and fleeting.

He pondered silently for a moment, as if re-evaluating Guo Weixiang in his mind. After a while, under Zhou Rong and Yan Hao's gazes, he finally let out a "Hmm," and asked thoughtfully, "Does his grandfather know about his thing with the rooster?"

·

Feng Wentai and his six bodyguards thus settled down in the Fertilizer Plant. Just as Zhou Rong had predicted, they didn't immediately start causing trouble. On the contrary, they were quite self-aware. The next day, they took the initiative to find Zhou Rong and insisted on handing over all the... money in their pockets.

Zhou Rong didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He came back hugging a wad of cash. "Are they afraid we won't have enough firewood for the winter or what? Or maybe when we run out of toilet paper tomorrow, we can just make do and wipe with this?"

"How great. I've never seen so much cash in my life." Chuncao sat on the windowsill with her legs propped up, casually folding a paper airplane. She admired it, "These guys are so rich... Why do you think they'd bring so much money with them while fleeing?"

Yan Hao sat to the side, cleaning his gun. He laughed, "Because when the virus first broke out, nobody thought it would last this long. Everyone thought it was confined to a limited area and that as long as they escaped this region, they could return to normal society. But electronic transactions are restricted in disaster areas, and many people were afraid of soaring prices..."

He was halfway through his sentence when Chuncao threw the cash airplane. It flew out of the dorm room with a swoosh and happened to hit Si Nan, who was passing by in the hallway.

"Si Xiaonan!" Chuncao slid off the windowsill with a whoosh. "Come, come, let's divide the money!"

Si Nan was just coming back from a run, wearing a form-fitting black tank top and camouflage pants, a sweat-soaked towel draped around his neck. Hearing her, he paused his steps slightly and glanced into the dorm room.

Zhou Rong was standing by the bed, and Yan Hao was sitting behind the desk. Both of them turned their heads to look at him at the same time.

Half a second later, Si Nan nodded at Chuncao and walked forward without a word.

"Hey, Si Xiaonan!"

Chuncao stopped dead in her tracks, watching Si Nan's retreating back. After a moment, she asked strangely, "What do you guys think is up with him lately? Is he always like this, or did he take the wrong medicine or something...?"

Before Chuncao could finish, Zhou Rong put down the money, turned and left the dorm, strode swiftly down the hallway, and put a hand on Si Nan's shoulder.

His movements were very swift and decisive. Si Nan turned his head to speak, but before he could make a sound, Zhou Rong suddenly swept him up in a princess carry, lifting him with ease.

"..." Si Nan said, stunned, "What are you doing?"

Zhou Rong ignored him, took a few large strides back to the dorm room, and, under Yan Hao's dumbfounded gaze, threw Si Nan onto the bed!

"You!"

Si Nan quickly propped himself up on his elbows, but just as he squeezed out one word, Zhou Rong casually scooped up the cash and said, "Yoho—" then showered it all over him.

This action was simply too shocking. Si Nan had never in his life been on a bed while someone threw money at him. For a moment, he was at a loss for words.

His lips were slightly parted, and he seemed a little angry, glaring at Zhou Rong.

Seen from the side, his prominently protruding shoulder blades from propping himself up, his half-suspended lower back, and his very long, slightly parted legs formed an exceptionally suggestive silhouette.

—Anyone who looked would find it hard to look away.

But Zhou Rong didn't notice. He pounced onto the bed, propping himself up on the sheets to look down at Si Nan. "What are you hiding from, huh? What's with the attitude these past few days?"

Si Nan: "..."

Zhou Rong was just about to lecture him a bit when, at such a close distance, he smelled something. It seemed to be coming from Si Nan's sweat-drenched skin and hair.

—He found it hard to describe the scent in words; it wasn't a simple fragrance. If he had to describe it, it was like some kind of obscure and secret aroma, veiled in a thick fog, yet it inexplicably made one's mind race.

It was just for an instant.

Si Nan suddenly reached out and pushed him away. Caught off guard, Zhou Rong staggered back half a step. Si Nan rolled off the bed and said coldly, "You want to fight?"

"..." Zhou Rong swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing. He suddenly forgot what he was going to say.

"What are you doing, Si Xiaonan!" An agile figure darted out from behind, cheerfully hooking an arm around Si Nan's neck, nearly knocking him back onto the bed. Then Chuncao grabbed a handful of money, shoved it into his arms, and said with great magnanimity, "What's this about fighting? Here, take it! Those idiots insisted on giving us money yesterday. How much toilet paper do you have left in your room? Just make do with this."

Si Nan looked down at the money, the corner of his mouth twitching slightly.

With Chuncao's interruption, Zhou Rong finally snapped out of his brief confusion. He coughed into his fist. "Alright, stop messing around. I was just joking with you."

He reached out and patted Si Nan's shoulder, using the momentum to pull Si Nan's shoulder towards him. He then waved Yan Hao over and grinned, "Come here. I didn't look for you guys just to mess around—"

"You have five minutes to go back to your rooms and pack. Assemble in the backyard garage. I'm taking you to go looting." Zhou Rong's lips curved into a roguish smirk. "We brothers are destined to get rich today."