IMAO Chapter 62

“Baby?” What kind of ridiculous pet name was that?

Hosea couldn’t wipe the smirk off his face. His brother was being held in someone’s arms, called “Baby,” and even carried away.

He couldn’t take it anymore.

Hosea laughed so hard his stomach hurt.

If those people who worshipped Horace like a deity saw this, their jaws would drop to the floor and they wouldn’t be able to pick them up!

Ji Chong really had the nerve to call the Iron-Blooded Emperor “Baby.”

“Baby?” Hosea exclaimed, “What the actual fuck – Baby?!”

Ji Rong: “?”

How could a prince use such vulgar language!

Ji Rong suddenly remembered something. There were too many people pursuing his father, and when they couldn’t approach his father directly, they would try to find backdoor methods. There were so many people like that!

Hosea was laughing so hard he could barely breathe. Was he so shocked that his brain had short-circuited?

Ji Rong hesitated before deciding to temporarily bury that shocking revelation deep down. He turned to Hosea and asked, “Does Your Highness know my father?”

Hosea remained noncommittal.

Looking at Hosea’s attitude, Ji Rong thought he understood. Hosea knew about his relationship with Ji Chong. The reason he paid attention to Ji Rong was because the prince was interested in his father. And the reason he swore just now was because… he saw his father with his stepfather.

This prince had no chance anymore. His stepfather and father were even expecting their second child.

How pitiful.

His dad was really something else!

“Right, what were you going to tell me earlier? Continue!” Hosea asked Ji Rong.

Ji Rong: “…” I wanted to say don’t love me, it’s hopeless, but you don’t love me, you love my dad… but that’s equally hopeless.

Hosea: “What’s wrong?”

Ji Rong: “I suddenly forgot…”

Hosea responded with an “oh,” then said, “Tell me when you remember. Let’s exchange contact information.”

They added each other’s communication numbers, and Hosea said, “Let’s head back.”

Ji Rong: “Mm.”

They returned to their seats one after another. The couple from earlier had returned to their room due to their argument, skipping dinner at the restaurant.

As soon as Hosea returned, he ordered some alcohol from the server.

“Is it alright if we drink?” Hosea asked Jiang Yuan and Ji Rong.

Jiang Yuan shook his head, “I’ll pass on the drinking…”

But Ji Rong said, “I want to drink.”

When the alcohol arrived, Ji Rong suddenly thought about what happened earlier. He might soon have a younger brother…

He picked up his glass and drank continuously until he became tipsy. He couldn’t even make out what Hosea and Jiang Yuan were saying, until Jiang Yuan looked at him and said, “Stop drinking.”

“I want to drink,” Ji Rong said, “My heart hurts a little.”

Hosea was stunned. Wasn’t Ji Rong fine just moments ago? Why was he hurting now? Although he was confused, seeing Ji Rong’s drunk state, he didn’t dare let him drink more.

Jiang Yuan asked Ji Rong, “Can you stand steady? Let’s go back.”

Ji Rong opened his eyes, looked at Jiang Yuan, and hugged him directly, shaking his head, “Can’t stand steady, I need you to support me.”

Seeing Ji Rong like this, Jiang Yuan felt confused. What was Ji Rong upset about?

He couldn’t even stand straight.

He was really drunk.

“Alright.” Jiang Yuan helped him up, one hand around Ji Rong’s waist, “I’ll take you back to your room.”

After taking Hosea’s car back to the Silver Palace, Jiang Yuan struggled a bit before managing to get him upstairs. The residence was quiet now. Marshal Alfonso was out, and Gu Bai and the others hadn’t returned yet.

“Jiang Yuan.” Ji Rong, now genuinely drunk, called out.

Jiang Yuan helped Ji Rong to the bed and was about to let go to pour him some water when Ji Rong draped himself entirely over him, pulling him down onto the bed too.

Jiang Yuan gave Ji Rong a light pat, “Ji Rong, why did you drink so much?”

Ji Rong remained silent.

Seeing his silence, Jiang Yuan was at a loss and could only say, “Then let me go, I’m heading back to my room.”

“Stay with me, I don’t want to be alone.” Ji Rong’s voice sounded pitiful.

Hearing his tone, Jiang Yuan was startled, “What’s really wrong? Why are you in such a bad mood?”

Ji Rong waited a moment before saying, “My dad found me a stepfather, and I’m going to have a younger brother.”

Jiang Yuan: “…”

So it was family issues. Ji Rong hadn’t mentioned this before. He held onto Jiang Yuan and murmured, “Can you stay with me? I don’t want to be alone.”

Jiang Yuan fell silent for a moment. He felt something was off when Ji Rong suddenly drank so much today. He said softly, “Let go of me first. I’ll get you some hot water. It’ll be better for your stomach.”

“Mm…” Ji Rong released Jiang Yuan’s hand and sat there, as if mumbling to himself.

Jiang Yuan got water for Ji Rong, watched him drink it, then went to the bathroom to prepare water for Ji Rong to wash up. After Ji Rong washed his face, he asked Jiang Yuan, “Aren’t you going to wash up?”

Jiang Yuan, who had planned to return to his room after taking care of the drunk Ji Rong: “…I will.”

After washing up, Jiang Yuan lay beside Ji Rong on the bed, staring at the ceiling helplessly.

Even an Alpha like Ji Rong had his troubles.

Jiang Yuan stared at the ceiling until drowsiness gradually overtook him.

In the middle of the night.

The person beside Jiang Yuan opened his eyes. He looked at Jiang Yuan’s sleeping profile and slowly extended his arm around Jiang Yuan so that Jiang Yuan’s head rested on it.

Ji Rong stared at Jiang Yuan, thinking to himself: He was so shameless!

Although he was indeed having trouble accepting his father and stepfather having a ‘child’, he actually had quite good adaptability… How to put it – he had long accepted that his father would eventually be with someone else, and he wanted his father to have someone caring by his side.

The drinking was partly due to this, but he actually wasn’t that drunk and could have walked back perfectly fine by himself.

Ahem.

But Jiang Yuan didn’t know that.

He was so bad, playing the sympathy card.

However…

Ji Rong looked at Jiang Yuan’s sleeping face, his lips curving slightly. Being able to sleep together with Jiang Yuan like this. Shame? What shame? If he didn’t care about it himself, it didn’t exist!

Ji Rong stared at Jiang Yuan’s face for a long while, never tiring of the sight.

“What’s that scent?” Ji Rong frowned slightly. There seemed to be a faint fragrance in the air, very subtle, somewhat like an Omega’s pheromones.

No, that couldn’t be right. Only he and Jiang Yuan were in the room. Where would Omega pheromones come from?

Perhaps he wasn’t sober yet after all.

Ji Rong thought silently as he turned his head to look at Jiang Yuan.

Early the next morning, Jiang Yuan was awakened by the sound of running water. The air was thick with Alpha pheromones enveloping him.

Jiang Yuan walked to the bathroom and pushed open the door to see Ji Rong washing something. “What are you doing?”

A clear voice rang out.

Ji Rong froze on the spot, instinctively hiding what was in his hands!

But Jiang Yuan had already seen it.

“Washing underwear early in the morning?” Jiang Yuan glanced at him, then suddenly raised his eyebrows, “Why do you have such dark circles under your eyes?”

Ji Rong: “I didn’t sleep well.”

“Oh, then go back to sleep,” Jiang Yuan thought for a moment, then asked, “About yesterday… are you okay?”

Ji Rong shook his head. “I vented it out, I’m fine now.”

Jiang Yuan patted Ji Rong’s shoulder. “That’s good then.”

Jiang Yuan didn’t question further and nodded, leaving Ji Rong’s room, leaving behind Ji “Dark Circles” Rong.

Yesterday’s impulse to keep Jiang Yuan from returning to his room to sleep had seemed great at first, but in the latter half of the night, Ji Rong started to regret it. Why did he torture himself like this? Even with alcohol in his system, he couldn’t sleep a wink all night!

How could he sleep with Jiang Yuan right beside him!

It was absolute torture!

Damn it!

After Jiang Yuan returned to his room and finished showering, someone knocked on his door. He opened it to find Ji Rong’s handsome face.

Jiang Yuan was wearing a bathrobe that exposed his legs. His legs were long and straight, with muscle lines that were not exaggerated and were pleasing to the eye.

Ji Rong couldn’t help but glance twice at Jiang Yuan’s legs before saying, “Let’s train in Star Wars. I haven’t exercised for several days.”

Jiang Yuan made a sound of agreement.

They logged into the game and prepared for mecha training.

“Jiang Yuan?” Armand was in a foul mood, but when he saw the notification that Jiang Yuan had logged in, he instantly became excited, a delighted smile spreading across his face.

He and Mu An had been spawn-killed here for ages!

Because of Ji Yang, they often played games with Jiang Yuan, added Jiang Yuan and Ji Rong as friends, and even ranked up together.

He had accidentally met his high school senior Mu An recently and had pursued him intensely. Their relationship had developed steadily into romance.

But then that scumbag who had cheated on Mu An and his affair partner[mfn]This is Xiao San, or Little Three, or third party, or mistress. Thank you, Reddit, for letting me know there is a gender-neutral term I can use hehe[/mfn] showed up stirring trouble, telling their old classmates that Senior Mu An had cheated first…

Mu An was furious. The senior, who had always been lenient before, directly posted the truth about their breakup on social media, stating that the cheating ex was too despicable.

This made the scumbag lose face, but he didn’t cause trouble. However, the affair partner did!

Today, he and his senior had planned to rank up together in Star Wars, but as soon as they started, Senior Mu An was ambushed and killed in a normal zone. Each death would reduce durability by 10%, and once a mecha’s durability reached 0%, it became unusable.

By the time he arrived, Senior Mu An had already been killed ten times. Like the Calabash Brothers saving their grandfather, he rushed in only to be pinned to the ground and killed ten times himself.

Although he was a student at the First Military Academy, he was from the Manufacturing Department! He could build machines, but his gameplay was just slightly above average, and these people had brought a whole gang with them!

Current map voice chat—

Little Red Koi: “Mu An, why are you still struggling? Delete that post, and we’ll call it even.”

“Heh, you dare to do it but won’t let others talk about it?” Mu An controlled his mecha, “What’s the meaning of telling my former classmates that I cheated first?”

“You really think they wouldn’t tell me?”

Little Red Koi: “What’s the point of discussing this now? We’ve broken up, who cheated first doesn’t matter anymore.”
Mu An: “Go fuck yourself.”
Little Red Koi: “As an Omega, can’t you speak more elegantly? No wonder that Alpha couldn’t stand you…”
Mu An: “You smear me behind my back and still have the nerve to say it doesn’t matter? You’re really despicable.”
Little Red Koi: “Mu An, the worst thing about holographic games is that when someone steps on you, your view is from below.”

With those words, their mecha stomped on Mu An’s mecha.

Mu An felt awful but couldn’t fight back. This person hired a group of killers to ambush him and still had the nerve to say such things!

The most frustrating thing about holographic games was that when you couldn’t win, you’d literally be ground into the dirt… Although there was no physical sensation, the humiliation was still real.

Armand couldn’t win either. He wanted to log off, but Mu An refused to, so he had no choice but to stay with him.

Simply put, they couldn’t win, and it was infuriating.

He was just thinking about asking Jiang Yuan for help when he saw Jiang Yuan and Ji Rong’s login notifications.

Jiang Yuan: “What’s wrong?”
Armand: “Senior and I are being spawn-killed! [Cute O crying]”
Jiang Yuan: “You’re an Alpha…”
Armand: “That’s not important, come save us!”
Jiang Yuan: “Give me a moment.”

After saying that, Jiang Yuan notified Ji Rong, and the next second Armand received team invites from both of them. They joined the team and flew straight over.

“Tch, calling more people? The others we killed earlier all logged off, aren’t you going to behave?”

“Mu An, just delete that article and I won’t kill you. Otherwise, I’ll kill you every time I see you! I’ll have the whole server hunt you down unless you change accounts!”

As soon as Jiang Yuan arrived, he heard a pinched male voice speaking on the map chat, which sounded strange.

Current [7592101]: Were they the ones who ambushed you?
Current [Mandala]: Yes, it was them [Brave A crying]

Jiang Yuan chuckled. This person even switched to a different emoticon.

Current [Little Shepherd]: Wuu wuu [Cute A crying]
Current [Little Red Koi]: “Heh, just two people? I thought there’d be more. Get lost, or we’ll pin you both to the ground.”
Current [Little Red Koi]: “We have so many—”

Ji Rong immediately activated combat mode and charged forward. Before Little Red Koi could finish speaking, they were already pinned face-down, their view instantly tumbling downward.

System Notice: [Little Red Koi] was killed by [7592102], durability decreased by 10%.

Brutal and efficient.

To others, these people might be an assassin group, but to Jiang Yuan and his friend, they were nothing but a disorganized mob.

Ji Rong’s killing speed was impressive. He was obviously familiar with this type of revenge-killing mode in normal maps…

No joke. Back when he played on his Yuan Rong account, people would gather just to watch him. He started killing them one by one, which actually kept his fans away for a while. But later, they started forming teams just to wait for him to kill them.

Within minutes, Little Red Koi was pinned down, their durability dropping to 0.

The assassin group members were stunned. Since their team’s formation, they’d encountered skilled players before, but this was the first time they couldn’t even escape with their leader!

Little Red Koi’s voice shifted several pitches. Jiang Yuan found it more pleasant now, as if they were finally speaking naturally.

“Professional assassins? Is that all you’ve got?”

[Current] Assassin A[mfn]I know the format changed but it’s the same way in the raw and I’m too lazy to decide what format to use for consistency, so enjoy the inconsistency lol[/mfn]: This was unexpected.
[Current Voice] Little Red Koi: “I paid good money for this, what do you fucking mean unexpected?!”
[Current] Wuji: As an Omega, can’t you speak more elegantly?
[Current Voice] Little Red Koi: “Elegant my ass!”
[Current] Wuji: That’s not how you were speaking earlier.

Little Red Koi seemed to realize that the assassin was mocking him. He was speaking to Mu An the same way earlier.

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