At that moment, an impatient knock sounded on the van door.
Luo Hai quickly pushed Eugene away and buttoned up his half-done shirt. Eugene, looking thoroughly annoyed at the interruption, scowled as he pulled the door open.
This was Luo Hai’s first time seeing the van driver’s face.
The driver was a young man, probably in his early twenties, with short, bright red hair. He wore a rough, well-worn jacket and ripped jeans, and had a thin cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth. One hand rested on the door frame, while the other was stuffed into his pocket as he leaned in and glared.
“Five meters.” He pulled his hand out, spread his fingers, and held his palm out toward Eugene. “I was standing five meters away, and I could still smell that damn Alpha stink from here! You better clean this van, you bastard!”
Luo Hai studied the young man carefully. He only carried the scent of wind and dust, making him seem like an ordinary Beta. But the fact that he could detect Alpha pheromones meant he was either an Alpha or an Omega.
Yet Alphas had no reason to hide their identity, which meant…
He was an Omega.
An Omega who cursed like a sailor, raised hell like an Alpha, and completely shattered Luo Hai’s worldview.
Eugene rolled his eyes. “It’s a damn eighth-hand van, not a Lamborghini. Don’t act so high and mighty.”
“So what if it’s an eighth-hand van?!” The young man slapped the metal body, making it rattle. “Three years, not a single breakdown! Never stalls, never loses power, drives through floodwater like it’s nothing, never left anyone stranded! If it weren’t for this van, you’d be dead ten times over! And now you go and taint its purity with your Alpha stench? Have some damn respect!”
After cursing Eugene out, the young man turned to Luo Hai with a grin, as if he had switched personalities entirely. He reached out a hand. “I was yelling at him, nothing to do with you. You’re Luo Hai, right? I’m Lauren, but just call me Xiao Lau.”
Luo Hai blinked, momentarily stunned. In his twenty-nine years of life, he had never encountered a situation like this before. He hesitated, then followed Xiao Lau’s lead and shook his hand—only to be met with a grip so strong his fingers nearly cramped.
“Welcome to the Lightwing Society,” Xiao Lau grinned. “We’re still a ways from headquarters, but this van, I swear, is practically an outpost of Lightwing itself. This dumbass—”
He jabbed a thumb at Eugene.
“—has been talking about you nonstop. Telling anyone who’ll listen. And now, finally, you’re here. Let me tell you, the Lightwing Society is full of warm and welcoming Omegas—unlike this useless Alpha—”
Before he could finish, Eugene kicked him square in the ass.
“Enough bullshit! Are we going or not? Get in the damn driver’s seat!”
Xiao Lau wasn’t even mad. He just turned to Luo Hai and made a face, as if to say, See what I have to deal with? Then he flicked his cigarette to the ground, crushed it under his heel, and climbed back into the driver’s seat to start the van.
Luo Hai still felt somewhat out of his depth. He turned to look out the window. The van was driving along a rough country road, surrounded by farmland as far as the eye could see. Not a single modern building in sight, no way to tell where they were.
For the first time, he actually felt like he had been kidnapped.
“Where are we going?” Luo Hai asked.
“Lansai,” Eugene replied.
“Lansai?” Luo Hai’s eyes widened in shock.
Lansai wasn’t exactly close to Nantes. A train ride would take a full day, and driving would take at least five to six hours.
If Nantes was the wealthiest and most prosperous city in the world, then Lansai was its complete opposite.
It was the quintessential lower-district city—remote, underdeveloped, and resource-scarce, yet densely populated. Masses of impoverished people were crammed into its limits, unable to leave and equally unable to change their circumstances.
A handful of local tyrants controlled 80% of the city’s resources, while the majority barely survived, constantly teetering on the edge of starvation. Every winter, large numbers of people froze to death.
In a place like that, the starving didn’t care about law or morality. Theft and robbery were commonplace. If someone belonged to a more powerful group, even murder wouldn’t necessarily bring consequences.
The central government had little influence over Lansai—nor did they want any. As a result, the city had become a world of its own, with little cultural or economic exchange with the outside. After all, no one wanted to risk being looted—or worse, dying in a foreign place.
But for an underground organization, setting up a base there was nothing short of perfect.
No matter how hard the Nantes government racked their brains, they would never suspect that the headquarters of the Lightwing Society—a group operating primarily in Nantes—was actually located in the remote, impoverished, and dangerous Lansai. No, even if someone did suspect, no one would willingly risk their own safety to investigate it.
Eugene knew the minds of those in power all too well, and he always used that knowledge to craft meticulous, daring plans.
“So the headquarters of Lightwing Society is in Lansai,” Luo Hai murmured. “No wonder you were willing to sacrifice so many bases in Nantes. They were just a smokescreen—your trump card was never there to begin with.”
“You’re still talking to me in that tone?” Eugene raised an eyebrow. “You and I are completely tied together now.”
Luo Hai lifted his chin and narrowed his eyes at him. “Since when am I tied to you? I’m still a prosecutor at the Nantes Prosecutor’s Office, and you’re still a wanted fugitive. I was kidnapped by you—I didn’t come willingly.”
“Oh, really?” Eugene chuckled. He grabbed Luo Hai’s hand and bit his ear, lowering his voice. “For a hostage, you sure are enthusiastic, Prosecutor Luo Hai.”
He deliberately emphasized the word prosecutor, his voice sending a shiver down Luo Hai’s spine.
The van continued down the deserted country road for another three hours before Luo Hai finally saw the distant outline of Lansai.
The sun had nearly set. A dull, pale light remained in the west, wedged between the sky and the horizon. Lansai stood right in the middle of that fading glow, like a massive black monster with its jaws wide open, waiting for the unsuspecting to stumble into its trap.
As they approached the checkpoint at the city entrance, Luo Hai’s heart skipped a beat.
He had barely ever left the city before. In fact, the only time he had was when he was taken from the Oddis Orphanage in Fuba Port to Nantes.
That time, he had been fourteen years old—blindfolded, his arms bound, thrown into the back of a truck. A group of Alphas smoked nearby, watching him as he cried for what felt like an eternity, drifting in and out of consciousness. It felt like a lifetime had passed before the truck finally stopped and he was tossed out.
It had been anything but a good experience. Luo Hai had no idea how Doyle had managed to smuggle an unmarked Omega like him through multiple city checkpoints, because unmarked Omegas were strictly prohibited from crossing city borders. If caught, it was an automatic life sentence—no exceptions.
Drugs could mask scent, but the biological differences between Omegas and other genders couldn’t be erased. If anyone lifted his collar and checked the back of his neck, it would be obvious.
And now, their van had two unmarked Omegas inside. Their only Alpha didn’t even look the part.
As they approached the checkpoint, Luo Hai genuinely feared that they would be stopped and searched.
But to his surprise, Xiao Lau didn’t try to sneak through at all. He drove straight into the checkpoint, even rolling down the window as he pulled up.
“Wei Ge!”
“Yo, Xiao Lau, you’re back.” The checkpoint officer, Wei Ge, greeted him with a smile. “Smooth trip this time?”
“Smooth, smooth,” Xiao Lau grinned as he reached under the seat and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, handing it over. “Didn’t make much of a profit, but I still brought back some smokes and liquor.”
Wei Ge accepted it with an awkward chuckle. “You really don’t have to go through the trouble every time…”
“Oh, come on, it’s nothing,” Xiao Lau laughed. “You stand guard here all day—it’s the least I can do.”
Wei Ge put down the cigarettes, his smile never fading, and waved his hand, signaling for Xiao Lau to go on ahead.
He didn’t even bother to step forward and check how many people were in the vehicle—he just let them pass without hesitation.
Luo Hai was once again shocked.
“Lansai is different from Nantes,” Xiao Lau said after entering the city. He lit another cigarette, took a drag, and smirked as he glanced at Luo Hai through the rearview mirror. “The more backward a place is, the more freedom it has. Here, there aren’t so many rules. Money is the ultimate pass.”
Lansai was nothing like Luo Hai had imagined.
When the van entered the city, he had expected to see filthy streets, homeless people everywhere, and rundown, desolate buildings. But reality was quite the opposite.
Buildings crowded tightly together on both sides of the street, each one making use of every inch of available space—bars occupied the first floors, barbershops on the second, colorful clothes and bedsheets hung from third-floor windows, and the fourth floor housed a small inn with a crooked sign advertising lunch service.
People bustled around these buildings—some gathered in small groups picking through fruit at street stalls, others walked along eating dark, greasy pancakes. Mothers wrapped their crying, squirming children in thick coats, while shopkeepers casually shook out freshly washed tablecloths and hung them on lines outside their stores to dry.
The streets were narrow, barely wide enough for two cars to pass simultaneously. Xiao Lau’s beat-up old van crawled forward through the congested road. It was mealtime, and the air inside the van was soon filled with the mixed aromas of street food. At one point, a drying tablecloth almost covered the van’s side mirror.
Luo Hai stared out the window, momentarily dazed.
He had lived in Nantes for too long, accustomed to uniform buildings, neatly arranged skyscrapers, and people living strictly by the rules. It was his first time seeing freshly slaughtered fish, still dripping with blood, laid openly on a chopping board for sale. His first time seeing people crowding around a basket of nearly rotten fruit, carefully picking through it. His first time seeing someone stand in the middle of the road, hands on their hips, arguing with another person—completely ignoring the car just half a meter away from them.
Xiao Lau kept honking like crazy along the way, but when they hit the busiest stretch, even the horn was useless.
Eugene simply rolled down the window, stuck out his blond-haired head, and yelled at the crowd, “If you don’t move, I’m driving straight over you!”
The pedestrians blocking the van’s path finally grumbled and scattered.
Luo Hai had never heard Eugene raise his voice that loud before. He was startled, his eyes widening like a startled cat.
Xiao Lau caught a glimpse of his reaction in the rearview mirror and laughed so hard he nearly lost his breath.
“Once we get past this section, it’ll be fine,” he said, steering the van. “We’re almost at our turf.”
