"Pardon?" the young man asked, his voice gentle yet tinged with concern.
He stood about the same height as Cheung Qi, clothed in a white polo shirt, slim pants, and a black apron tied around his waist.
His dark hair fell softly around his face, and his deep-brown eyes were fixed on Hei Bao, searching for a sign of what might be troubling him.
His hands moved automatically, wiping down the front desk, though his attention was entirely on the stranger before him.
"Sir? Are you all right?" he asked, his tone insistent, pulling the pack leader from the depths of his thoughts.
The whispers and giggles from the café's other patrons reached Hei Bao's ears, grounding him in the present moment.
He glanced around, his face reflecting a sense of being lost. Then he bowed to the man at the counter before slowly walking away, but as he turned around, he noticed the air around the cafe felt warm and peaceful.
It made him frown; instead of bringing comfort, the atmosphere filled him with unease.
Ever since his husband died many years ago, he had found it impossible to experience peace.
This moment felt unreal and so foreign to him.
The doorbells chimed again, and Cheung Qi appeared,
"Yo, Hao Mingyu, bro!" his voice echoed inside the café as he greeted the person alone at the counter.
Hao Mingyu's gaze swept past Hei Bao and landed on Cheung Qi. He immediately broke into a warm smile, his pure white teeth showing, and greeted his friend with genuine enthusiasm.
"Great to see you back again," He said, lifting his right fist toward Cheung Qi, and they shared a friendly fist bump.
Cheung Qi glanced nervously over his shoulder, tugged Hei Bao closer, and introduced him with a hint of pride.
"This is my boss."
In Lycan practices, personal connections and family information are kept private for security reasons within their clans. As a result, when they are out, they refer to family members as 'boss' or 'master.'
Hao Mingyu's attention shifted to the pack leader.
"Oh, I see. It's nice to meet you, sir," he said, his tone courteous but slightly curious.
Hei Bao regarded him with an unreadable expression. Without a word, he gently removed his younger cousin's hand from his waist before turning away.
His silence spoke louder than any response could have.
The lack of acknowledgment left an awkward tension hanging in the air, making everyone present suddenly aware of the uncomfortable atmosphere between them.
Cheung Qi's face flushed with embarrassment.
He quickly apologized to Hao Mingyu,
"Sorry about that, one second,"
He then hurried after his elder cousin, who was now sitting by the window, absorbed in the menu book.
"Why did you do that?" he asked, frustration edging his voice.
"Do what?" Hei Bao's tone turned icy, his eyes shifting to a deep ocean blue.
A knot of anxiety immediately twisted in Cheung Qi's stomach.
He recognized the shift in his cousin's gaze; it was a warning sign that things would turn unpleasant soon if his response or reaction proved unsatisfactory to him.
"I told you I was hungry. But what did you do? You were dilly-dallying," the pack leader snapped, his face darkening with irritation.
Cheung Qi swallowed hard, his nerves fraying, and told him that something had triggered his elder cousin's temper just now.
And, things could become dangerous if he doesn't immediately do what his cousin wants right now.
He forced a nervous smile and stepped beside him.
"Okay, okay, my bad. Calm down. What do you want? I'll order it for you right away," he said, his voice betraying his nervousness and concern for the innocent people inside the cafè.
Hei Bao exhaled sharply, closing his eyes momentarily to calm the raging fire trying to burst out of him.
Slowly, without a second, his expression softened.
"This is the last time you will bring me to this place, understand?" His tone was final.
Cheung Qi, without second thought, nodded without pressing further, wary of aggravating the volatile mood.
"I understand. What do you want?" He asked slowly.
Hei Bao opened his eyes, scanned the menu, and pointed to the item with fried potatoes, smashed corn, and grilled meat.
"That one? Got it, and for drinks?" Cheung Qi asked further, trying to keep his composure as he stood beside him.
"This one, fresh cucumber with lemon and mint," Hei Bao answered curtly.
"Okay, wait here," Cheung Qi said, heading back to the counter to place the order alongside his, hoping the tense atmosphere at their table had already eased up.
"Is everything all right?" Hao Mingyu asked, concerned, upon seeing him wearing an exhausted expression.
Chueng Qi immediately showed an assured smile and replied,
"Yes. Are your sets A and C available?" he asked, and Hao Mingyu quickly checked on the computer.
Meanwhile, in Gou Feng's location, he entered a secluded part of the woods.
Finally, he buried Fei Nian's body, although it was already afternoon, he remained isolated in that quiet forest.
The wind whistled through the trees, and the rustling of fallen leaves echoed in his ears.
Sweat glistened on his brow from the heat of the day.
When he first arrived in the dump forest, Gou Feng had stripped down his shirt and dug a grave for the corpse. His muscular arms and fair, soft, white features were visible as he worked with the shovel, a sight that could incite desire or envy in others.
With the task complete, Gou Feng sat beneath a Nara tree, his gaze fixed on the freshly covered grave.
He stared down at his hands, stained with dirt and dried blood. His expression remained blank, his eyes distant as he thought about what he had done earlier.
Before burying Fei Nian's corpse, he had first severed the woman's limbs with the axe he always kept behind the seat of his car.
One by one, he had placed the dismembered remains into a thick black plastic bag before lowering them into the grave.
Even now, the sound of chopping flesh and cracking bones echoed in his ears, lingering like a haunting melody he could never escape.
He had been doing this since he was fifteen years old.
Years have passed. Experience should have numbed him by now.
Yet no matter how many bodies he buried, he could never completely silence the quiet voice still whispering that this was all wrong.
When he accepted Hei Bao's offer all those years ago, he had never imagined his life would become so stained by blood.
He was human after all, or at least, he had once been.
But after consuming Hei Bao's blood, his body gradually changed. He became something in between, neither fully human nor fully wolf.
Few humans could survive such a transformation, and surprisingly, even Hei Bao was surprised that he survived.
He never truly understood why. The transformation should have killed him.
For weeks, he burned with a relentless fever. His body rejected and accepted the foreign blood at the same time, leaving him bedridden for nearly two months.
His hormones became unstable, his organs strained under the burden of the change, and there were countless nights when even breathing felt painful.
More than once, he thought he would die.
Yet somehow, he survived.
Whether it was luck, fate, or something else entirely, he could not say.
A part of him was grateful to still be alive.
Another part wished the transformation had finished, and his miserable life had already started.
Among wolves and vampires, the ability to transform an ordinary human into something in between was exceedingly rare.
Only those blessed with the Golden Bloodline of the Royal Lycans and the Royal Vampires possessed such power.
Hei Bao himself belonged to the third generation of the royal lycan lineage.
Most humans who attempted the transformation died before their bodies could adapt.
Gou Feng was one of the few exceptions.
The moment he accepted that blood, their lives became bound together.
If Guo Feng died, Hei Bao would lose a portion of his strength and vitality. The bond would slowly tear away at his power until it eventually consumed him as well.
At the time, Guo Feng had not fully understood what he was agreeing to.
He only knew that Hei Bao had offered him a second chance.
A way out.
A home.
Before Hei Bao found him, his world had been nothing but misery.
After his mother died, his father brought different women home almost every night.
Many of them treated Gou Feng no better than his father did. They mocked him, beat him, and forced him to survive on spoiled food or half-cooked meals that left him doubled over in agony, clutching his stomach as waves of pain tore through him.
Yet his father never stopped them. Instead, he would watch Gou Feng cry and beg for help, only to laugh before turning away.
There had even been times when his father left him alone in the house for weeks, as though he were simply waiting for his only son to die.
As though his existence was nothing more than an inconvenience.
For years, Gou Feng endured it. Despite everything, he still loved his father.
No matter how cruel the man was, no matter how much pain he caused him, Gou Feng continued to believe one thing.
'He was still his father.'