Apex Predator - Chap 40

Qu Moyu fell into a long and deep slumber.

He had a dream. He had been walking for a very long time across a glacial expanse of pristine whiteness. There was no direction here, no point of reference – only a boundless nothingness, as far as the eye could see. He didn’t know where he had come from, or which direction he should head towards. He was so cold his whole body had become numb. All his sensory nerves had lost perception.

All of a sudden, a ball of fire appeared before his eyes, giving off both light and heat. Throwing all caution to the wind, he hugged it, only to be immediately enveloped in warmth. His limbs, which had been frozen stiff to every inch, started to thaw. His body, which had felt so heavy, had become incomparably light. This seemed to be the most wonderful and safest place on earth.

It was in the midst of such comfort that he woke up naturally. Opening his eyes, he saw a head of soft black hair looking over at a mobile phone, the back of its owner turned towards him.

He recollected for a moment, then realised he had absolutely no memory of anything since the latter half of yesterday’s dinner gathering.

This period of slumber had replenished his energy and lifted his spirits. He let out a yawn, but it was only when he saw Shen Dai’s lack of response that he noticed the black Bluetooth earphones hidden under his loose strands of hair.

Snickering to himself, he then hugged him tightly and pulled him into his arms.

Shen Dai had a shock and abruptly turned his head around. In fact, he had woken up much earlier, but he didn’t dare get up or make a sound, worried that he might wake Qu Moyu up.

“You’re- you’re awake.”

Qu Moyu caught his earphones with his teeth and tossed them aside. “What are you so focused on?” he asked, glancing lazily at the screen. On it was a video of panda cubs playfully fighting.

Shen Dai was somewhat embarrassed. “My grandmother likes looking at pandas. I often collect a few to send to her.”

“So it turns out that Engineer Shen likes pandas.” remarked Qu Moyu, rubbing his nose against Shen Dai’s gland. He inhaled the scent slowly and carefully, and at the same time he let out a sigh of contentment.

“Doesn’t everyone?” Shen Dai put his phone down and gently turned over. He cupped Qu Moyu’s head between his hands to examine it closely, then said with a smile, “Seems like you had your fill of sleep. You’re looking a lot better.”

That seemed to be the smile of someone who had finally let go of his worries. It made Qu Moyu’s heart tremble slightly. The feeling of having someone who even cared if he had gotten enough sleep was truly wonderful.

He gave Shen Dai a kiss. “I had dinner with one of the stakeholders yesterday and had too much to drink. It’s been a long time since I last got blackout drunk.”

“You mean you don’t remember anything?”

“In any case, I don’t remember how I got into the car, or how I got home.”

“So, you don’t remember when you were singing and dancing in the living room and started stripping off all your clothes?” teased Shen Dai.

Qu Moyu froze for a moment, but when he noticed the sly smile in Shen Dai’s eyes, he immediately flipped over to pin him down and started tickling his sensitive spots. “Dare to trick me, eh? You’re brave.”

Shen Dai was laughing at one moment and begging him to stop the next. The both of them tussled with each other until they almost rolled off the bed.

Once they were done messing around, Qu Moyu propped himself up with his cheek on his palm and lay next to Shen Dai. With the muscles on his bare chest rising and falling along with his breath, his dishevelled hair strewn upon his cheek, and the languid and unrestrained expression in his eyes, he looked as sexy as hell.

Shen Dai avoided his gaze, not daring to look him in the eyes. Yet he could not resist placing his hand on his waist and resting his head on the crook of his arm, feeling the warmth emanating from his skin, and the happiness of being enveloped in his ebony wood pheromones.

This is my Alpha. A voice inside him seemed to say.

Seeing Shen Dai obediently lying on his arm, with his thin and narrow jaw tilted slightly upwards, and his clear and limpid eyes constantly stealing glances and twinkling, It felt to him as if there was a tiny kitten scratching its paws inside his heart. Yet he was in no hurry to do anything at all, savouring this quiet and beautiful morning.

The two of them stayed close to each other, thoughts and feelings in tacit harmony. For a few minutes no one said a word, yet there was not a hint of awkwardness. It was as if their interactions had always been this comfortable and natural.

After a while, Qu Moyu spoke up, “It’s been a long time since I’ve slept in this late. It must be almost noon.” He wasn’t in the mood to look at his phone. It seemed that once he knew the time he would have to get out of bed, but he still didn’t want to break the tenderness of this moment.

“Well, take it as catching up on yesterday’s sleep.”

“Did you go home yesterday?”

“I did. I came back immediately after dinner.”

A feeling of happiness welled up in Qu Moyu’s heart. “So obedient” he praised, lightly stroking Shen Dai’s cheek —it was warm and smooth, and felt good to the touch.

“So did everything….go well yesterday?” Though Shen Dai had been following the news and some social media outlets closely, there were all kinds of conflicting opinions. One could clearly sense both bullish and bearish sentiments being pitted against each other within the public opinion, and it wasn’t certain if the public relations team at Xingzhou would be able to stabilise the situation.

“About as I expected. Over the next few days, we’ll try to eliminate negative voices as much as possible. With this three-day buffer, the market opening day shouldn’t be too brutal. A drop of not more than five percent would be considered an ideal outcome.”

“How about your uncle’s side? Has there been any response from him?”

“For now, he’s still pretending to be a filial son,” sneered Qu Moyu.

Shen Dai was quiet for a moment, then added, “I’m worried about you. Qu Chengchen…he always seems to be up to something.”

“Now that our grandfather has passed away, the competition between us has only just begun in earnest. I’ve always acted with caution, not wanting to give them any openings. The only time I ever slipped up was when I allowed them to steal my —” Qu Moyu suddenly felt a bit of awkwardness, not wanting to mention either the words “fiancée” or “You Baiyue” in front of him.

Shen Dai lowered his gaze.

“No matter what he intends to do, I will not let any of his schemes succeed again.”

“Everyone has weaknesses,” said Shen Dai, in a whisper.

“Of course, but why would I let them be known to my enemy?”

“Something just occurred to me,” said Shen Dai, hesitating before he continued, “It’s spring. The weather has been getting warmer and warmer.”

Qu Moyu gave him a look of puzzlement, unsure of what he was trying to say.

“Doesn’t your….rut also happen in Spring?”

Qu Moyu’s eyes noticeably darkened. His brows furrowed. Instinctively, a barrier had come up from inside his heart – Rut was an Alpha’s most fatal weakness, after all.

“What are you asking me this for?”

“Just now, talking about weaknesses. I made the mental connection.” Shen Dai knew as well that this explanation was a little clumsy. He kept trying to find a suitable time within a suitable context of conversation to casually remind Qu Moyu to be careful about his rut. Only a pity. A suitable time had come, but no matter which way he broached this sensitive subject, it just seemed inappropriate.

Qu Moyu looked at him quietly.

“I heard that top alphas spend their rut in a completely secure location.”

Despite feeling slightly tense inside, he maintained a frank and straightforward demeanour. “That’s the only weakness of yours I can think of. Your enemy would have thought of it as well. I just wanted remind you.”

“I have my own safe house,” replied Qu Moyu, having no desire at all to continue with this subject. He sat back up. “Let’s get out of bed.”

Shen Dai sighed to himself.

Although Qu Moyu would spend most of the last two days of the holidays out and being busy in the daytime, Shen Dai would wait for him to come home every evening. He had also very naturally moved into Qu Moyu’s bedroom. It seemed as if the two of them had become completely like a real married couple, sharing meals, a bed and a work-life schedule together. At the end of a busy day, they would lie in bed and make love, or hold each other while chatting, then fall asleep after wishing each other good night.

People were social animals by nature. There was no one who could resist the allure of intimate relationships. That sense of security and satisfaction of being cared for, comforted, accepted, and seen was something truly wonderful.

Shen Dai did his utmost to shower Qu Moyu with care, attention, understanding and tolerance. Being an adult who was emotionally mature and capable of love, he wanted to love him without any reservation, the way he himself wished he could be loved. Everyone had feelings, he believed, and that at this moment, he must surely have found a place in Qu Moyu’s heart.

But this blissful New Year holiday, which had seemed to him like being in a dream, had already come to an end.

On the first day back at work, Shen Dai was sat in the laboratory, preparing to start his day. Someone like him, who had never even opened a trading account before, was now checking the stock market at nine-thirty sharp this morning to check the current price of Xingzhou.

The green line was trending all the way downwards. Shen Dai stared at it for a few minutes but soon realised that it was useless to keep looking. In any case, it was only affecting his work.

“What are you looking at? You seem so focused,” asked Cheng Zimei, curiously.

“Checking out our company’s share price.”

“If it does well, we might receive stock awards this year or the next. It’s been five years already, right?

“Yeah, but it keeps falling.” Shen Dai couldn’t help but give it another glance, but there didn’t seem to be much of a change.

“It can’t be helped. Right now the whole industry is in a slump. The founder of the company only passed away a few days ago. There are many financial bloggers that are pessimistic about our company.” Cheng Zimei lowered her voice, “You really should be concerned about the share price. Who knows, one day a significant portion of it might be yours, Crown Princess.”

“If you call me that again, I’m going to…” He couldn’t think of anything he could use to threaten her at the moment.

Just then, Zhou Lan walked over, holding a box of samples in his arms. He asked, “Shixiong, Shijie, these just arrived from Gansu. Where should I put them?”

Though Zhou Lan was addressing the both of them, he kept avoiding eye contact with Shen Dai. Ever since the incident in the office, Zhou Lan had been dodging him whenever he could. Young boys were not good at masking their emotions after all, and now, it had become common knowledge within the entire laboratory that “Zhou Lan was after Shen Dai but had no choice but to give up,” leaving Shen Dai feeling quite awkward.

“Just leave it over here.” Thankfully, Cheng Zimei stepped in to break the tension, and she even cracked a joke, “Wow, Xiao Zhou, you dyed your hair! Looking handsome!”

“Thanks a lot, Cheng-shijie,” replied Zhou Lan. He gave Shen Dai a hurried glance, touched his hair a little, then forced a smile before leaving.

“What a cute little boy,” Cheng Zimei lamented. “But then again, after sleeping with the Crown Prince, how could you be satisfied with mere mortals anymore? I get it. I get it.”

“It’s not that. He was just never my type to begin with.”

“What’s your type then…Hmmm, you like types like Bai-Shixiong. The ones that are a little…” She finished with a smirk, “-a little pretentious. Well, actually, on that point, he’s a little similar to the Crown Prince.”

Bai-shixiong – this name was for him both strange and distant. An Alpha senior from his university days, Shen Dai had a good impression of him. Like him, he was one of the Professor’s students and also a top-notch talent at Xingzhou. At present he was single-handedly leading a team on a project at the Gansu mine and was the most accomplished student that the Professor had taken under his wing.

Thinking back to some things that happened during his university days, he felt a twinge of youthful nostalgia. With resignation, he replied, “Isn’t that just called cultivation and bearing? How did that turn into “pretentiousness” coming out of your mouth?”

Having said that, he could not help but be critical. Qu Moyu did come across as being somewhat… pretentious. Or at least, the version of Qu Moyu that outsiders saw was entirely different from the real Qu Moyu that he knew in person.

“That’s true! The Crown Prince must really be perfect in your eyes,” she teased. “Eh, your relationship must have really heated up over the New Year. You should strike while the iron is hot!”

Shen Dai’s face lit up as he said, “I feel like we’re starting to understand each other better. And our feelings for each other are also growing stronger.”

“Which is why you have to take advantage of the current situation. You need to understand that while you’re in a favourable position, the cards in your hand are still not enough. The Crown Prince clearly has feelings for you now, but to what extent, it’s really hard to say. To strengthen those feelings, you’ll need to have more assets.”

Listening to all this, he was a little confused.

She winked at him and said, “I don’t know how to land a top Alpha, but human nature is universal. It’ll be best if you make use of your heat to bear his child. Once you have this lifelong bond-”

“That’s not possible,” said Shen Dai. His expression had changed completely, and could be described as stern and forceful.

The last thing he would ever do in this lifetime would be to make the same greedy, selfish, and foolish mistakes as Shen Qin, and to then let an innocent child bear the consequences.

The child he would have in the future would definitely have a complete family and be showered with unconditional love.

She was stunned for a moment, but very quickly realised why Shen Dai was angry. Hurriedly tugging on his arm, she said in a childish way, “Dai Dai. I’m so sorry. I wasn’t thinking when I said it. It was only a joke. I didn’t mean it.”

Shen Dai gave a deep sigh: “It’s fine, but just don’t bring up this sort of thing anymore.”