Title: 顶级掠食者 (Alpha Predator)
Author：水千丞 (ShuiQianCheng)
Translator: K (@kin0monogatari)
Protagonists ：沈岱 (Shen Dai -MC), 瞿末予 (Qu Moyu -ML)
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The encounters in life are really unexpected. For example, Shen Dai never imagined that one day he would be invited into this house. After all, he was thrown out like garbage from the same place before.
In his childhood memory, he had the impression that this place was like a splendid ‘palace’. It was so big, so bright, it had a curved spiral staircase, and he would not be worried about losing any living space at all. For the first time, he found out that a staircase could be placed inside a house. With him standing in such a house, looking up, he was worried if the huge crystal chandelier above would fall on the top of his head. So he bowed down his head, afraid of accidentally peeing out of fear on the bright floor.
After a span of about twenty years, he is back here again. The house is still located in the inner quiet area where the land price is expensive. The community was developed a long time ago. So, the style and design concept of this villa are already outdated. Its exterior walls have been refurbished. It was changed to the French-style stone paint that has become fashionable in recent years. The flowers and plants were also carefully maintained to keep their original state. However, the dry fish ponds, stone steps and flower beds in the courtyard still have mottled traces of old age. At first glance, it still looked expensive and stylish, but it was no longer worth the attention of details.
Those rumours circulating on the Internet are not groundless. The falling stock price couldn’t be hidden. It appeared that the You family may really be going on a downfall.
He came here two times. And both times were involuntarily. Today, he was half ‘invited’ to get into the car by a bodyguard.
Because he was so impressed with this house back then, the memory of his biological father by blood is blurry. But one thing for certain is that he was definitely not as old as he was now. This man used to be the heir of a high-profile business conglomerate family, an Alpha with A-class pheromone, graduated from a prestigious school, young and handsome, and married a wife of the right match.
Frustration had melted into a person’s spirit. Every texture of it that was engraved on the face cannot be hidden.
Shen Dai stood in front of You Xinghai and looked at him silently in response to You Xinghai’s gaze on him.
You Xinghai frowned. His Alpha’s splendour and patriarchal status still somehow made him uncomfortable facing Shen Dai’s calm gaze. He was ready to imagine that Shen Dai would berate himself, talk of his misfortune, or at least show obvious hatred towards him. But the young man in front of him was too calm.
Not long after he was forced to make this decision, all the information about the child appeared on his table – Shen Dai, 27 years old, Omega male, single, master of materials engineering from HKUST, working at Xingzhou Group Rare Earth Research Institute, family members are Omega father and a grandmother.
The timid little boy 20 years ago had turned into a calm adult. Thinking of his background and the demands he was about to make, You Xinghai couldn’t help but feel a little guilty.
Shen Dai looked around, found a chair and sat down. He then took out his mobile phone and replied a few messages relating to work.
You Xinghai frowned and cleared his throat.
Shen Dai raised his head and spoke neither humbly nor arrogantly: “Mr. You, what are you looking for me for?”
“…You have grown up.” You Xinghai has also experienced ups and downs in the business sea, but at this time, he could only use irrelevant conversations to ease the embarrassment.
Shen Dai wanted to laugh a little but he spoke calmly instead: “Mr. You, if it’s not you wanting something from me, it’s impossible for you to take the initiative to look for me. Let’s get to the point.” Usually, this kind of drama where a scumbag father actively seeked out an illegitimate child after many years would mean it was the last resort where the You family no longer had any other option. However, if something had happened to the real young master of the You family, it was impossible not to hear about it.
You Xinghai couldn’t avoid it anymore: “I’m not ‘asking for help’ really. I just want to make a deal with you.”
“Go on.” The reason why Shen Dai got into the car was mainly out of curiosity. In a society ruled by law, it’s nothing like a movie. If he yelled in protest in the street, the bodyguards wouldn’t dare to do anything to him but he came here simply because he wanted to know what You Xinghai wanted from him and maybe he would get the pleasure of letting out a little grudge on him.
You Xinghai flipped through the folder in front of him: “You owe money. Seven million, which is a lot of money.”
“Yeah, do you want to help me pay them?” Shen Dai showed a sarcastic smile.
“I can help you pay them.”
Shen Dai’s pupils shrank violently: “What do you mean?”
“My son originally had a very important engagement, but now he couldn’t fulfil it. I need you to return to the You family and get married in his stead.”
This sentence is too dramatic, too absurd and too wild. Shen Dai could only react after five seconds: “Are you serious?”
“Am I joking if it involves my status?”
“Why wouldn’t he go and get married?”
You Xinghai’s face suddenly became gloomy and it seemed difficult for him to say: “He was ‘marked’ by someone else.”
Shen Dai was silent. He didn’t resist in his heart. Marrying a stranger sounded bad, but could it be worse than carrying a huge debt? His life and his grandmother’s old days were all oppressed by this debt and there was no hope for them. If he could climb out of the quagmire at some price, how could he not take a gamble?
Shen Dai took a deep breath before saying: “About the marriage, what are the requirements?”
“The requirements… It depends on your future husband. Whatever he asks of you, you have to do it.”
Shen Dai’s slender eyelashes trembled rapidly. Without much hesitation, he slowly raised his eyes and looked at You Xinghai: “I want ten million.”
You Xinghai narrowed his eyes. He was not surprised, but also obviously unhappy.
If the truth is as what You Xinghai had said, then his requirement will definitely be accepted. The very important marriage contract came from the You family’s mouth must be related to the fate of the rise and fall of the family business. So, it is necessary to pay for the only precious Omega son. As a result, You Baiyue was ‘marked’ by someone else. This was a great shame for both the You family and the party that is arranged to be married. The ‘mark’ can be washed off, but the bite marks left on the glands cannot be erased by modern medicine. Which family with head and face could accept such humiliation. The marriage is bound to be broken.
Shen Dai thought of You Baiyue’s delicate and beautiful face that was active on social media. He obviously looked very smart, so why did he lose his mind suddenly? One of the most absurd mistakes an Omega could make when he was young was being ‘marked’ before marriage. However, in another way of thinking, if You Baiyue deliberately used this method to resist marriage, such as if the other party is old, ugly, disabled, has odd kinks, or has violent tendencies, these risks are entirely possible.
He was caught to save the market. Even if the You family’s share price had been cut in half, it would not be impossible to pay him 10 million yuan.
Sure enough, You Xinghai simply said, “Yes.”
Shen Dai regretted it very much. He regretted not increasing the price, but he was still very brave to name the price. However, he still has doubts about the credibility of this matter in his heart. Nonetheless, his hope is that he wanted to repay the debt. That is his most urgent desire now.
He stood up: “Then it’s settled. How will you arrange it later? I have to go back to work so I’ll head off first.”
You Xinghai looked at him in surprise: “You don’t have any other questions?”
“No, as long as you would really give me money.”
“…Aren’t you asking who your future Alpha husband is?”
Shen Dai lowered his head and glanced at his mobile phone. After paying so much attention to another pile of information, he said without looking back, “It doesn’t matter.”
At a young age, he is burdened with debt and has a bleak future. He has long lost any expectations and fantasies about marriage and love in his life. Therefore, even if the other party may be so bad that You Baiyue has to resist marriage in the most extreme way, as long as he could get a house to let his grandmother live a good old life, he might as well just sell himself. At least, he recognizes it as it is.
It doesn’t matter who the other person is.
After leaving You’s house, Shen Dai went straight to the research institute. Although they had more free time to do scientific research and didn’t need to clock in, it was not good to be absent from work for no reason in the morning.
He joined Xingzhou Group through the talent plan just after graduating from university. Since his mentor was the person in charge of one of the projects of the Rare Earth Research Institute, the graduate courses were basically completed in the laboratory. In fact, his salary is high among his peers, but in the face of seven million in debt, he only feels distant and hopeless.
He has seriously thought about it. If he wants to turn his life around, one is to suddenly get money falling from the sky, and the other is to obtain a patent. As his gender is of that that has no advantage in the workplace and scientific research, and he also does not have a top genius mind, he prefers the latter. Nonetheless, after a decade or two of struggle, he didn’t expect the former to become his reality instead. It is too ironic to think about the motto of ‘studying hard changes fate’ that he believed in since childhood.
“Brother.”
“Morning brother.”
“Morning.”
As soon as he entered the research institute, his younger brothers and sisters greeted him one after another.
“You’re here really ‘early’, you can go straight to lunch when you’re done.” A mocking voice sounded from behind him, “Shen Dai, it’s rare for you to be late.”
This is his college classmate Cheng Zimei, a female Beta. The two have been friends for many years and comrades-in-arms with common academic ideals.
“I have some errands to run for a while in the morning. Is our mentor here today?” Shen Dai put on his lab coat and poured himself a glass of water.
“No, these are the batch of materials just sent by Wansheng Mine, do you want to see it?”
Shen Dai looked at his watch: “I’ll see it in the afternoon, let’s go eat first.”
The Rare Earth Research Institute has its own canteen, but they walked a few more steps today to eat in the large canteen of the group headquarters building. Many kinds of dishes are collectively sold there. There are naturally more choices of good food in the large canteen to eat.
The two ate a meal and chatted while eating.
At this time, he heard a small commotion at the gate. Shen Dai looked back and saw a group of people in suits and leather shoes rushing in. The lunch break is usually a time when social animals are more relaxed, so they don’t look like they are here to relax and eat. It looked more like they were there to inspect.
The cafeteria was very large. From Shen Dai’s distance, he could hardly see the face, but he still accurately captured a superior height and beautiful silhouette at a glance.
“Why did the crown prince come to the staff cafeteria to eat today?” Cheng Zimei held her chopsticks in her mouth and stretched her neck to look over at the other side.
Shen Dai’s eyes silently followed the tall man who was surrounded by a group of people, trying to get a few complete but unclear glimpses of the face among the moving heads until he passed through the cafeteria and entered a room. He couldn’t smell his pheromones at such a distance, but Shen Dai still felt some restlessness in his body.
Cheng Zimei asked herself again: “Maybe they’re busy, so they invited the person to have a work lunch.”
Shen Dai’s observation skills are very strong. He noticed that most of the people who paid special attention to those people during this time were Omegas. There was no way that it could be ignored. Omegas are the kind of creatures that have engraved a curtain wall in their genetic instincts. An S-class Alpha walked by with such a state of leaving a faint trace of pheromones in the air would really be thought-provoking for them.
What’s more… That person is the heir of Xingzhou Group. Qu Moyu is an S-class alpha full of halo.
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Next Update: 2022.04.01
*Translator’s Note: I started this translation because of course I am a fan of Shui Qian Cheng. It is still currently ongoing on Shui Qian Cheng’s weibo, you guys can visit her weibo page to read the raw novel but the ‘parking lot’ (mature) version is available on her haitang page. I also began this translation because I feel lonely while anxiously waiting for her updates every weekday(s) and I had no one to discuss this story with so please… discuss this novel with me. By the time I began this translation, Shui Qian Cheng had released Chapter 63 on her weibo. I’ll try to update on weekdays, Saturday and Sunday off. TQ. -K
★ If you missed reading this in the description, do note that the chapter title with (M) at the beginning means it’s a mature/smut chapter.
*Proofread by 2022.12.24* I will proofread other chapters when I’m free.
