DREB CHAPTER 63

Lin Sheng stood on the balcony at home, a half-burned cigarette between his fingers. Slowly, he raised it to his lips and took a drag.

On the other end of the line, Lin Zhe had completely lost patience while trying to persuade his younger brother. “He’s an ordinary Beta, and you’re competing with Lu Lianning over him?! Have you lost your mind?”

Lin Sheng responded leisurely, “Fine, I just got back. If you won’t help me investigate, I’ll handle it myself. But if things get messy and the Lu family finds out, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“Lin Sheng!” Lin Zhe’s anger flared at his attitude, and he was about to continue lecturing him when Lin Sheng abruptly hung up.

At 3:10 PM, Lin Sheng was sitting in class when his phone buzzed.

He glanced at it and saw an email from an unfamiliar sender.

He didn’t wait for class to end and opened the attachment.

It was Li Yan’s personal information.

In just over twenty years of life, the highlights of Li Yan’s past were laid out on the screen. Lin Sheng stared at them for a long time before finally scrolling down.

It was practically a tragedy. This Beta named Li Yan had never known a good life, stumbling from one hardship to the next, only to ultimately fall into the hands of Lu Lianning.

When class ended, Lin Sheng stayed in the classroom, silently staring at his phone for a long time.

–

That day, Lu Lianning had almost reached the door when he suddenly seemed to remember something. He turned his head and casually told the butler, “Don’t let him watch TV for the next few days.”

The butler glanced at him and nodded.

Upstairs, the master bedroom door remained shut. It was 8 AM, and the person still asleep inside would probably wake around 9:30.

It was almost amusing. In the past, Lu Lianning needed Li Yan to call him multiple times before he would get out of bed, always waking up with a foul temper that made Li Yan too scared to even breathe loudly. But now, as soon as dawn broke, Lu Lianning would wake on his own, moving quietly so as not to disturb Li Yan, who had been worn out from the night before.

The butler found Lu Lianning’s sudden instruction odd, as Li Yan rarely watched TV anyway.

Unexpectedly, over the next few days, when Li Yan came downstairs, he dawdled instead of going out and eventually wandered over to the television.

He didn’t really know how to use it. After pressing a few buttons and still seeing a blank screen, he looked to the butler almost pleadingly. “I… want to watch some TV…”

The butler, standing by the staircase, covered his mouth and cleared his throat unnaturally. “The TV… the TV is broken for the next few days.”

November 26th marked the engagement banquet of Lu Lianning and Song Ruan.

Both the Song and Lu families heavily promoted the event, and nearly the entire upper class of City A was present.

At the start, Lu Anling gave a speech while the patriarch of the Song family sat below, clapping with a smile.

The engagement banquet was lavish, held in a grand ballroom with glasses clinking, and even a few famous celebrities in attendance. Reporters from social media swarmed outside the venue.

Lu Lianning, dignified and indifferent, escorted a visibly nervous Song Ruan into the room. From head to toe, he was impeccably dressed as he stepped into the spotlight.

Though it was an engagement banquet, it felt more like a grand business networking event.

Meanwhile, Li Yan crouched on a curb at a street corner in the city center, hands cupping his face, his gaze fixed on the giant screen across the street.

The screen was broadcasting live coverage of Lu Lianning’s engagement party.

Li Yan watched as the petite, cute Omega leaned against Lu Lianning’s arm, occasionally glancing up at him and smiling shyly.

The overwhelming happiness on display was enough to make anyone envious.

Lin Sheng stood beside Li Yan, watching the scene for a while. The camera shifted to focus on the intertwined hands of Lu Lianning and Song Ruan, each wearing what appeared to be expensive matching diamond rings.

At that moment, Lin Sheng couldn’t help but glance at Li Yan, who was still squatting on the ground. From this angle, Lin Sheng noticed unmistakable bite marks on Li Yan’s slightly open collar. Judging by the position, there was no way Li Yan could have bitten himself.

Seeing how focused Li Yan was on the screen, Lin Sheng’s thoughts started to drift. He then asked, “Why aren’t you watching this at home?”

Li Yan replied, “I’m not allowed to watch at home.”

Lin Sheng fell silent for a moment. His eyes returned to the bite marks on Li Yan’s neck. “Is he treating you badly?”

Surprisingly, Li Yan didn’t say yes. Instead, he remarked in a calm and somewhat reflective tone, “Oh, it’s much better than it was the first couple of years.”

Lin Sheng thought to himself: Better? He’s not allowed to watch TV at home, doesn’t get any money, can’t work, and ends up with bite marks like that in bed.

If this wasn’t both mental and physical torment, then what was? If this was an improvement, what must Lu Lianning have been like before?

When Li Yan finished speaking, he noticed Lin Sheng hadn’t responded for a while. Turning to look at him, he saw that Lin Sheng’s expression had grown unusually serious. To break the tension, Li Yan stood up and shook out his numb legs. “Come on, let’s go eat hotpot.”

Lin Sheng gave him a side-eye. “What? Are you rich now?”

Li Yan laughed and gave him a push. “I told you, life’s better now, but you don’t believe me.” As if to prove it, he quickly pulled out four 50-yuan bills from his pocket, though he didn’t mention that it had taken him a month to save them.

“Which hotpot place are we going to?” Lin Sheng asked as they walked side by side. “Are we celebrating something?”

In the end, it wasn’t Li Yan who paid for the hotpot. Lin Sheng ended up inviting Du Lin and their basketball team to join them.

The group ate heartily, and Li Yan seemed genuinely different, clinking his glass with Lin Sheng several times.

At 7:20 PM, Li Yan suddenly sat up straight. By now, he no longer bothered with formalities around Lin Sheng. Drunk and swaying, he grabbed Lin Sheng’s arm. “Hurry, hurry, take me home.”

Lin Sheng frowned. “Why rush? He’s probably going to be late coming back from the engagement party, so it’s not like he’ll catch you.”

Li Yan made a pained face. “Oh, you don’t understand. The butler has a big mouth.”

Lin Sheng didn’t get it—what kind of nonsense was this? But seeing how genuinely anxious Li Yan seemed, tugging at him, he finally relented. After exchanging a glance with Du Lin and saying goodbye to the group, he led Li Yan out.

The hotpot restaurant wasn’t particularly fancy and didn’t have proper parking, so Lin Sheng had parked his car across the street.

Li Yan, thinking Lin Sheng was still upset about him leaving again, patted his shoulder and said reassuringly, “Soon, I’ll be able to stay out late and hang out with you guys!”

Lin Sheng was speechless, unable to understand why the most pitiful one, Li Yan, was the one trying to comfort him.

As they reached the car, Lin Sheng pressed the key, and the door of the silver-gray Porsche swung open. The driver was already standing nearby.

Lin Sheng slid into the backseat first, with Li Yan following. But just as Li Yan was about to close the door behind him, a hand caught the edge of the door.

Long, pale fingers forcefully pulled the door open again. Li Yan’s eyes fell on the hand, and he didn’t need to look closely to know who it belonged to—it was Lu Lianning. He had felt the strength of those elegant hands before and knew exactly how powerful they were.

With the door fully open, Lu Lianning stood there, his cold gaze sweeping over the two of them. A smile slowly curled onto his lips, sending a shiver down Li Yan’s spine.