Su Ling had no clue how long the man had been watching—but he knew exactly who he was.
6'2, silver hair, gold-rimmed glasses, a gold earring in his left ear. The clues were too obvious. This was Mu Zecheng.
An Alpha, the General's former adjutant—a genius strategist, the brains behind the General's best plans.
In the book, he was a good guy. Helped the General investigate the truth behind his injury, stuck by his side through everything.
But Su Ling had always kept his distance from people like Mu Zecheng—too scheming, too many hidden agendas, a mind that never stopped turning. Being around them was exhausting.
"Su Ling, nice to meet you. I'm Mu Zecheng." The man smiled, warm and bright, like a spring breeze. "Came to Nalan Star to visit General Pei. Saw you get dragged into the alley, was worried you might be in trouble, so I followed. Just wanted to check in."
That smile made Su Ling's skin crawl—it felt fake, plastic, too perfect.
Peeped at me for God knows how long, then comes out and says he was worried? If he was really worried, he would've stepped in the second I got pulled into the alley. He just wanted to dig up my secrets, that's all.
Still, Su Ling didn't hate the guy. Curiosity was human nature, after all. And the General had probably told him to look into the original Su Ling anyway. So he understood the guy's move—didn't like it, but understood it.
They took the hovercar back to the General's place together, Mu Zecheng's smile never slipping. "For the General? Marrying a Beta who's actually into him is way better than an Omega who's stuck with him kicking and screaming."
"Mm." Su Ling kept his answer short, his guard up. He didn't wanna slip up in front of Mu Zecheng, didn't wanna let him figure out he wasn't the original Su Ling.
If those low-life cannon fodder noticed he was different, it was fine—they'd just think he'd changed after marrying the General.
But Mu Zecheng was a different story. That sharp brain of his would pick apart every little thing, analyze it, find the cracks. Who knew what he'd figure out? What kind of trouble it'd cause? This was a nightmare!
Mu Zecheng tapped his finger lightly on his knee, casual and conversational. "The General's never been much for emotions, and he's got this aura—even us, his brothers, find it hard to be around him sometimes. You're not bothered by it at all?"
"Fine."
No matter what angle Mu Zecheng came at him from—the General, the Su clan, anything—Su Ling's answers were short, vague, noncommittal. One word, two at most.
When they pulled up to the house, Mu Zecheng stared, dumbfounded. He glanced at Su Ling, his eyes wide. The General let him redecorate the place like this? Did that mean he'd accepted Su Ling as his spouse, for real?
And why was everything cheap?
Then he saw Pei You sitting in his wheelchair in the living room, waiting, and Mu Zecheng's shock turned to surprise, a faint, amused smirk tugging at his lips. This little Beta had some guts—managed to get the cold-blooded war god to wait for him to come home.
The gutsy little Beta spoke up, his voice cheerful, eager to escape. "General, I'm gonna go cook dinner! Won't bother you two."
He knew they had secrets to talk about, so he bolted for the kitchen, out of sight and out of mind as fast as he could.
He had a rough idea what they'd be talking about—and he knew things they didn't. Thinking about it made his chest feel tight, a little sour.
With Su Ling gone, Pei You finally moved, his eyes flicking to Mu Zecheng, a silent order to push him into the study.
The study was the same as always—minimalist black, white, gray, cold and sterile. Finally, a familiar atmosphere for Mu Zecheng.
He shut the door tight before pulling out a wrist comm, fastening it around Pei You's wrist. "All the info's in here." The General's house had the best defense system in the galaxy, anti-eavesdropping, anti-surveillance—but that door was shut tight for Su Ling's sake, no doubt.
Pei You's body was paralyzed, but his mental power was intact. He scanned the data in the comm in seconds.
As a General, his official comm had S-rank clearance—but for certain high-ranking military brass, hacking it to track his every move wasn't even that hard.
That's why Mu Zecheng had gotten two comms from a group of space pirates. Custom-made, they couldn't connect to the Star Net—only to each other, a private line. And the storage space? Massive.
The data spelled it out plain as day: the Xie family had stolen his position, his power, everything.
Pei You's eyes turned dark, stormy, bottomless. No emotion, no light—just cold, endless darkness.
He'd fought in over a hundred battles, big and small. Taking on a Bug Queen? He'd done it a hundred times in his sleep, victory guaranteed.
But his warship's navigation system had glitched, gone dead. No hyperspace jumps, no escape. The weapons on dozens of battle tanks had malfunctioned, jammed, useless. That's what had turned the battle into a bloodbath, a massacre.
It wasn't an accident.
It was murder. Someone wanted him dead.