Little Pink Starfish

“Zao! What the hell is going on?”
“You idiot, the alarm’s going off, damn it, is someone invading?!”
“Whether or not, hurry up and check the surveillance!”
“Not this one, not this one either…”
“Look there… kao!”

After the surveillance camera spun three hundred and sixty degrees, they finally discovered why the alarm suddenly went off.
There was only one truth:
That is, the door to the confinement room had been opened!

【Confinement Room, the little black room established by the first head of the Fang family, managed solely by the main wife of the inner residence. Any descendant of the family who made a mistake, in order to avoid corporal punishment, would undergo three to seven days of silent reflection inside. Only after admitting fault or when time was up, would they be released. It was considered a mild form of punishment.】

—At this point, we must mention why the original owner, the fake beta real alpha Fang Yuan, ended up with such a weak personality.
The truth was: the fact that he wasn’t made completely socially withdrawn already showed his strong natural mental resilience.

Fang Yuan had been bullied since childhood, treated with surface-level respect but actual indifference by the servants, neglected by his father and thus alienated. Not to mention, after the stepmother entered the house, she always “discovered” that he was being mischievous and needed to be mildly punished — this point alone caused immense damage to his personality development.

Think about it — a kid who had to be locked in the confinement room almost every month, could he possibly grow up to be a strong and imposing man? That was practically impossible. There was no way he wouldn’t have personality flaws!
Naturally, as Fang Yuan grew up, he gradually avoided being locked up by causing fewer troubles, but his innate nature was already stifled, his original self became self-abasing — completely like mud that couldn’t support a wall…

That beta stepmother, she was truly vicious.

Back to the topic, because Fang Yuan had grown used to being locked up since he was young, his alpha duke father also got used to handing over the right to handle Fang Yuan to the beta stepmother — in fact, aside from the first few times in his childhood when Fang Yuan was punished and really had done something wrong, the duke had since completely let go and entrusted it all to the beta stepmother.

Just like now — the reason that crazy pervert was called back, wasn’t it also because of the beta stepmother’s pillow talk?
As long as she said he’d done something wrong and made up a random excuse, the alpha duke dad wouldn’t question it at all, and would directly make his eldest son come home to be punished.

And so, that was how Qiguan Rui returned.
And why was this crazy pervert so obedient…?
There was only one reason.

Qiguan Rui: After I leave, will gege miss me? Looking forward to it…
↑
Just like that.

And also because of that, when summoned by Gu Bai, Qiguan Rui had no intention of cooperating with that household’s internal drama anymore — see, didn’t he just walk right out of the confinement room?

—Let’s go back to the surveillance system.

Because the alarm went off, the defense system in the duke’s mansion instantly activated in full. Countless guards popped out from all corners, raising the alert level of the entire estate by one tier.

Soon, they discovered from the monitors that the alarm was triggered by the confinement room being opened, and just as they were about to intervene with force, they saw someone walking out of the confinement room.

In an instant, the head guard slapped his forehead:
“Emma! Our duke’s eldest young master was just locked in there a few days ago! If there’s an intruder, could they have kidnapped the young master to threaten the duke? Could this be some enemy’s scheme? Could it be so-and-so did such-and-such BLABLABLA…”

Countless conspiracy theories instantly exploded in his mind.

The head guard was about to issue orders right away!
They must hurry and follow!
Absolutely must not let the young master fall into enemy hands!
Is the mecha guard squad ready? Hurry and deploy the mechas! And firepower squad! Laser squad! XX squad! XXX squad! Not a single one can be missing!
Everyone, get ready! All—!

At that moment, the figure walking out was fully revealed before them.
The guards: huh huh huh? Isn’t that the young master! Where’s the so-called captor?! Why is there no one behind the young master?

And then, a shocking scene occurred.

They saw that handsome young beta lift his foot to walk out, about to change direction, but the thick alloy door that had fallen in front of him created a blockade.

Then, the young beta moved.
He lifted his foot—

“Bang bang bang.”
The door was kicked flying.

ヾ(?｀Д′?)！！！

Was that guy hopped up on some super pill?!
Even alphas don’t usually have that much strength, right?!
That one who looked exactly like the young master… was he really the young master?
When did the young master undergo a genetic mutation?!

The guards found it hard to believe.
Because it was so unbelievable, they froze for a moment,

After all, that was the young master…
Even if it wasn’t very scientific…
But they couldn’t really stop him either, right…?

Thus, Qiguan Rui leisurely walked out the main gate.
And after he left—

Guard A: I think we just made a mistake.
Guard B: If we didn’t arrest the young master, shouldn’t we at least contact the duke?
Guard C: We just let him go — what do we do now?
Guard D: …The young master was too intense, in that instant, it was like our minds were controlled!
Guard E: If we report it now, maybe we still have time?

Then A, B, C, D, and E all hurried to contact the duke.
Unfortunately…
They couldn’t reach the duke’s communicator!

Then how about the beta mistress?
Damn, the mistress had her messages on silent, okay!

How about… the second young master?
The second young master was in isolated training.

…

The guards looked at each other again.
So… today’s incident, should we pretend it never happened?
No no no, since we couldn’t reach anyone, it’s not a big deal, just set it aside for now.
If the duke or mistress asks, we can answer them then!

Just at this moment, the head guard received a call.
He looked down at his wristwatch — his expression instantly became… expressionless.

The other guards were confused.
The head guard wiped his face: “The madam said, let the young master out, no need to keep him confined anymore.”

The guards: “……”
So basically, this was just a big coincidence, huhahaha.

The head guard’s expression immediately turned serious: “Since that’s the case, let’s conclude today’s incident as follows…”

Ten seconds later.

The beta stepmother who had just been rudely ignored received a piece of news.
It said the young master, for some reason, actually ran out of that place on his own? And because it was an internal movement, it triggered the alarm?

On the beta stepmother’s beautiful face, a hint of distortion appeared.

That bastard! How could he have such strength!
It must be that Liu Rufen scoundrel who gave that bastard some kind of military-issued disruptor or some other high-tech gadget. Otherwise, with just that bastard’s ability, there’s no way he could’ve escaped!

The beta stepmother bit her full lower lip until it bled.
No, her plan must be accelerated… she had to hurry, otherwise, if that bastard really confirmed a relationship with the General, the consequences would be extremely severe.
Her beloved son still needed time to grow!

At this time, Qiguan Rui had already returned to Gu Bai’s side.
Even though along the way, he received plenty of complex stares, he could sense that familiar scent in the air, and instead of feeling uncomfortable, he thoroughly enjoyed it.
It was like… these were all blessings for him and gege.
Even though he never needed others’ blessings.

Because Gu Bai felt slightly embarrassed from the battle mistress incident and messaged Qiguan Rui, sure enough, within an hour, he saw the shadow of his family’s crazy pervert once more.

And that crazy pervert, the moment he saw him, immediately pounced and turned into a human pendant — Gu Bai, already used to this, calmly shifted his body to let him hang more comfortably… dammit, such a reflex!

Qiguan Rui rubbed against Gu Bai’s face with satisfaction, whispering: “Gege, I missed you…”

Gu Bai’s face remained expressionless.
At this time, he must not confess.
Because according to past experience, once he confessed, it would probably trigger a certain evil switch—

Qiguan Rui didn’t mind.
As long as he could cling closely to Gu Bai, it was enough.

The two were so intimate that it was as if the past few days of separation had never happened. Their consistent persistence and repressed love made the atmosphere between them more and more entangled.
Too bad — they still couldn’t do the deed.

However, such days didn’t last long.
Because while the two were spending every day together, they suddenly received more invitation letters.
Although the primary invitee was Gu Bai as the General… but Qiguan Rui, as the duke’s eldest son, was also asked by the duke to attend with the family.

This invitation was for celebrating a marquis’s birthday.

Even though a marquis’s rank was slightly lower than a duke’s, a marquis with actual power, wealth, or strong connections wasn’t necessarily lower in status than a typical duke.
—After all, wasn’t this a world of profit?

For example, this Marquis Li — he was one with strong connections.

At his birthday banquet, those connections would surely attend, and naturally it would be a major opportunity for others lacking connections to network.

Likewise, in the Imperial Capital, as a General, Gu Bai also had to give Marquis Li this bit of face.
The Fang Duke was no exception.

As for why the Fang Duke would bring his beta eldest son… Gu Bai felt it must’ve been the result of the battle mistress whispering in his ear in advance.
Otherwise, in such an event, bringing the alpha second son instead would also make sense, right? Even not bringing either son and just going as a couple wouldn’t have been inappropriate!

Gu Bai silently lit another [candle] for Madam Fang.

In many novels, people with brain problems liked to stir up some dog-blood drama at banquets unrelated to them — if nothing crazy happened, would the battle mistress really lend a helping hand to the once-mistreated stepson at such a great networking opportunity that threatened her son’s position?

As for what kind of chaos it would be, Gu Bai thought, maybe it was something to look forward to.
Suddenly, the banquet didn’t seem so boring anymore~ (≧▽≦)/~