CH 27

Lan Yu closed his eyes, but he couldn’t sleep any more. The person next to him was like a furnace, emitting a constant source of heat, and he was wrapped in a strong Alpha scent, enveloping him closely. The left side of his body and the right side of Lu RanKong were next to each other, especially since they were both wearing only big pants and tank tops, from the shoulders to the calves, it was burning all the way down.

He was lying stiffly, not daring to move, like a quiet wax figure. He couldn’t stop regretting that he should have known it would be like this, even if he slept on a hard bed, he had to return the mattress to him.

He thought Lu RanKong had fallen asleep, but he suddenly turned his head and came to his side to sniff.

“What?” Lan Yu desperately pressed himself against the wall.

“You don’t smell the same.”

“We all used the same soap, how can it be different?” Lan Yu lifted his hand and pushed his face away.

“You smell a little better than me.” Lu RanKong said.

Lan Yu said coldly, “I’ll switch soaps with you tomorrow.”

“No need. How would I care about that being an Alpha?”

“If you don’t care, then why are you still smelling it?”

Lu RanKong laughed, turned his head and closed his eyes.

Lan Yu heard him fall asleep quickly this time, breathing lightly and slowly. He exhaled slowly and turned on his side, facing the wall without moving. The mattress beneath him was soft and his back was warm, and a feeling of sleepiness came over him.

The entire prison was quiet, and except for the guards, everyone went to sleep.

A few sharp whistles sounded, followed by the wake-up call. Lan Yu opened his eyes, and there was a brief blankness in his mind, not knowing where he was for a while.

He didn’t know where he was until he heard the guards outside shouting, “Wake up! Get up!”

He dazedly tried to rub his eyes, but found that he couldn’t move at all, and that he was being held firmly by an arm that was slung across his waist.

At some point, he had been wrapped in Lu RanKong’s arms, his back pressed against the chest behind him, and his arms and legs bound.

Lan Yu struggled outward and tried to sit up.

“Don’t move…” A low, muffled male voice sounded in his ears, with a nasal voice that had just woken up.

Lan Yu stopped struggling, painstakingly turned his head to look at him, and said, “It’s time to get up…”

“I know…” Lu RanKong’s nostrils puffed hotly on his ear.

“If you know then you—” Without finishing his sentence, Lan Yu was like a phonetic tape jammed. His waist and hip were being pressed against a hard object.

Lu RanKong sensed the stiffness of his body, took his legs off him, moved back, and said sarcastically, “As an Alpha, this is a normal physiological phenomenon, don’t say you don’t have it.”

Lan Yu’s face was smoking hot and he gritted his teeth and said, “Get your hands off…”

Lu RanKong withdrew the arm around his waist and turned around to lie flat in silence.

“Still not getting out of bed?” Lan Yu saw that he wasn’t moving and coldly urged.

“How can I get out of bed in this state? Let me lie down for two more minutes to calm down.” Lu RanKong said.

The guards were still blowing their whistles, and everyone in the room woke up and started to get out of bed and wash up.

Lan Yu was blocked in by him and didn’t want to roll over him and go back to squeeze the bathroom with the others, so he had to lie down first.

“We’re all Alphas, it’s a normal physiological phenomenon. Do you see other Alphas like you? Do I look like you?” Fearing that the others would find out, he could only reach out and twist the flesh of Lu RanKong’s thighs one by one under the covers, while lowering his voice and gritting his teeth.

Lu RanKong hissed and said, “That’s because you can’t.”

“Or we’re not as lewd as you.” The flesh of his thighs was too tight, and Lan Yu went back up, to twist the flesh of his waist, “Hurry up and get rid of it for me, so I can get down.”

“Don’t move…” Lu RanKong frowned and said, “You are touching around like this, how can I get rid of it?”

“Am I touching you?” Lan Yu yelled, and when he saw everyone looking over, he lowered his voice again and said, “I’m pinching you. Pinch! Understand?”

“Brother Bao, Brother Qiao, get up.” Liu Junjie came out of the bathroom with a cigarette in his mouth, “Only fifteen minutes, then we have to eat breakfast.”

“Mn, I know. We’ll wait until you guys finish washing first.” Lu RanKong said as he continued to lie flat on his back.

“Are you ready?” After the two of them lay down for another minute or two, Lan Yu turned his head, his gaze piercing like it was wrapped in ice.

Lu RanKong said with a bit of despair, “I don’t feel better. Forget it, let’s leave it like this, we all understand anyway.”

After saying that, he lifted the covers and jumped out of bed wearing the top of his big pants high.

Lan Yu coldly began to fold the quilt, and uncovered the bed sheet, dragged out Lu RanKon’s bedding and threw it down. Tidying up his bed, he made the bottom bunk, cleaned up, saw the others were ready to go out, then went to the bathroom to relieve himself plus wash up.

This was a single bathroom, very small, only a squat pit and a sink. On the long shelf next to the wall, there were eight identical wash cups lined up, and eight washcloths hanging below. He hurriedly washed up and came out to find everyone in the room gone, except Lu RanKong who was still waiting at the door.

“It took you five minutes to wash your face and brush your teeth, and it only took several of us together a minute.” Lu RanKong led him outside.

Lan Yu muttered, “I don’t even feel clean.”

The two of them hurriedly walked in the passage to the dining hall, and there were no more people around. A gust of wind blew through the hall, so Lan Yu covered his face with his hands and frowned.

“What’s wrong again?” Lu RanKong gave him a look.

“Nothing…”

Lan Yu didn’t use skin care products after washing his face, and now when the wind blew, he felt his face was tight and uncomfortable. But he didn’t want Lu RanKong to know, lest he would provoke him that he was making a fuss again.

Lu RanKong said softly, “Lin Lin should have no problem. He said he graduated from Sasu Royal Academy of Fine Arts, so I asked a few things that only students know, and he knew all of them clearly.”

“Such as?”

“For example, that widowed old professor would peek at Omega students bathing and pretend to be blind after being discovered by the security guard. Two years ago there was a big random physical examination and five Omega were found to be faking their identities, two pretending to be Alpha and three pretending to be Beta.”

Lan Yu, “How do you know all this?”

“I went on a mission last year and pretended to be a student at that school for half a month, so I got all the gossip.”

“What about Liu Junjie?”

The two had already walked out of the passage, and arrived in front of the dining hall.

“Liu Junjie might be the Lontan, but he is certainly not from the financial sector. Later I will go to the warden.”

“Hmm…” Lan Yu nodded his head.

Lu RanKong asked, “Do you have any requests? I’ll do it together when I find the warden later.”

Lan Yu hesitated and said, “Give me a bottle of shampoo and a shower gel, preferably with a bottle of skin cream. Also, although it’s not hot, there are a lot of mosquitoes here, so find a bottle of mosquito repellent.”

Lu RanKong stopped and looked at him expressionlessly.

Lan Yu said in annoyance, “What? Haven’t you ever seen an Alpha that seeks quality of life? Don’t keep measuring others with your standard of cheap goods.”

“I mean, I can get these things for you from elsewhere. If I find the warden, you can make more important requests, such as asking him to tell the military department more about your performance in the future, and strive for an early promotion.” Lu RanKong said in a serious tone, “If you don’t go crazy this time, you will definitely be promoted.”

Lan Yu bristled and snorted, “Wait until you become a major before you tell me that.”

“Then do you have anything you want me to pass on? Besides this…”

“No, I am a qualified soldier. Any difficulty is not a difficulty in front of my eyes.” Lan Yu said in a somber tone.

It wasn’t like he could ask for another futon, get a roll of knitting needles or something, so forget it. He wasn’t interested in promotion or anything anyway. Of course, after the completion of this mission, if they give him the commendation and he could retire, that would be great.

The two walked in silence for a while, when Lu RanKong suddenly laughed.

“What are you laughing at?” Lan Yu asked.

Lu RanKong said, “We have never been in contact with each other before, and we have never said anything serious. After spending a few days together, I never thought you would be so interesting in private.”

Lan Yu frowned and said, “In what way am I so interesting?”

“Everything is interesting.”

The two arrived at the dining hall, where a long line had formed and all the inmates were carrying their trays to receive their meals, and when Qiao Fei and Liu Junjie saw them, they started calling out, “This way, this way!”

Other prisoners who were sitting down also stood up and shouted for Boss to go there.

Lu RanKong waved a hand at them, indicating that it wasn’t necessary.

“What’s all the yelling about?” The prison guard standing by the line chided, and turned to Lu RanKong and Lan Yu, raising his hand to look at the terminal, “10 seconds later and you two won’t be eating.”

Lu RanKong took two dinner plates from the large bucket by the door, handed one to Lan Yu, and went ahead to Qiao Fei and the others. The other prisoners saw someone cutting in line and tried to tell the guards off, but once they saw that it was Lu RanKong and Lan Yu, they shut up again.

Breakfast was a bowl of thin porridge and two steamed buns, and if it wasn’t enough, they could get more steamed buns. Lan Yu took his plate and went to an empty table in front of the window and sat down, followed by Lu RanKong.

“Eat your fill, you have to go to work after breakfast.” Lu RanKong took a bite of the bun.

“What kind of work?”

“I think it’s mining, after all, this is a mining planet. Although the source of ore is almost mined, the rest is enough for this prison for a few hundred years.”

Lan Yu heard this, hugging the steamed bun and eating it in big bites.

Lu RanKong ate quickly, finished eating and whispered, “I’m going…” When the guards were not paying attention, he just went out of the canteen.

Lan Yu knew that he was going to the warden, but when he retrieved his eyes, he saw that the neighboring table’s Chen Zheng was also looking at the door. As if sensing something, he turned his head to look at Lan Yu and his cold eyes met a cold stare.

One second, two seconds.

Lan Yu narrowed his eyes slightly, and Chen Zheng lowered his head, looked at his plate indifferently, and continued to eat.

After breakfast, all the prisoners went to the square, and the prison captain began to lay out the day’s tasks.

“Cells one to five, go to the mine on the south side of the prison. Cells six to ten, go to the two mines left by the Feihong Mining Group in the west. Cells eleven to fifteen, go to the mines next to Pelican Lake on the east…”

Lan Yu listened absentmindedly, keeping an eye on the passage, wondering how long it would be before Lu RanKong returned.

“Roll call of the respective wardens in charge.” As soon as the prison captain’s words fell, the dozens of guards standing beside him scattered and went to take roll call in the area of the prisoners under their control.

The guards in charge of Lan Yu’s cell were the whistle guard and the electric baton guard. After walking up to them, the electric baton guard began to take roll call.

“Cell number eleven, 0134.”

“Present…” Qiu Dao replied.

“0135.”

“Present…” Wang Jin also answered.

“0356.”

Lan Yu replied back, “Here…”

“0357.”

After a moment of silence, the electric baton prison guard read again, “0357.”

Lan Yu saw that there was still no one there in the passage, and was thinking about what excuse to make up first, when he heard a voice from behind him, “Here…”

He turned his head and found Lu RanKong coming from behind.

“0357, where have you been?” The electric baton prison guard asked sternly.

“Officer Wang, I may have just arrived at the prison and I’m not used to it, I have a little diarrhea.” Lu RanKong lazily returned, just like any old greasy prisoner that looked like that.

“Don’t think you can pretend to be sick and get away with doing your job. These damn bastards—”

“Sir! Sir! I’m not pretending to be sick, I’m definitely going to do my job. Don’t worry Officer Wang, I’ll do my job properly under your supervision.” Lu RanKong interrupted him in a loud voice with a sincere face.

The electric baton guard didn’t say anything else and his face was a little better.

After everyone finished the roll call, they lined up and left the prison gate under the watchful eyes of the guards.

“Well? You asked about the situation.” Looking at Liu Junjie who was talking with Qiao Fei in front of him, Lan Yu asked Lu RanKong quietly.

“There is nothing unusual about the situation, Liu Junjie is the youngest son of Liu Si, the richest man on the Imperial Planet, stirring up the interstellar financial market for profit, causing many people’s families to die. Liu Si spent a lot of money to try to suppress this, but there are too many people involved, and they’re never afraid to continue to make trouble, so it finally reached the palace. The Emperor heard about it and personally supervised the case, so Liu Si could no longer suppress it and could only see his son sentenced to six years in prison.” Lu RanKong said.

Lan Yu stretched out a finger and shook it, saying, “It doesn’t look like it…”

“What doesn’t it look like?”

“He neither has the temperament nor the manner of a planet’s richest family’s son.” Lan Yu said.

“Oh?” Lu RanKong obviously got interested, “Then tell me, what should a person from the richest family look like?”

Lan Yu pondered for a moment, and when he turned his head to look at Lu RanKong again, his whole aura changed. He raised his chin slightly, and his expression was arrogant and cold, with an arrogance that no one else had. It seemed to be the type of person who grew up with the moon in his hands.

“According to your description of Liu Junjie, that’s basically what it is like.” He said.

Lu RanKong hooked the corner of his lips and asked, “What about Liu Junjie?”

Lan Yu said, “You’re also aware of Liu Junjie’s usual appearance. He doesn’t look like the son of the richest family of the Imperial Planet. This morning he smoked, and the cigarette butt in his mouth was very short, but he couldn’t throw it away and twisted the cigarette with two fingers, taking one more drag before putting it out.”

He followed Liu Junjie’s example, squinting his eyes, then using his index finger and thumb to take the cigarette butt from his mouth.

“I saw a lot of saliva on his cigarette, so it’s apparently always in his mouth. And most people who have this habit are engaged in occupations that leave no room in their hands to hold the cigarette so they hold it in their mouths.” Lan Yu puffed out a mouthful of imaginary smoke at Lu RanKong.

“If it’s a shop worker, they’re not allowed to smoke in the shop, therefore it should be a very liberal occupation. Those hands of his have smooth white skin, obviously not engaged in masonry, carpentry, handicraft and so on. I saw a thin layer of calluses between the index finger and thumb of his right hand that’s been worn out over time.”

Lu RanKong also made a motion to Lan Yu, a motion of rubbing the face of the card, “He’s a gambler, or a master cheater.”

“Then this Liu Junjie…”

Lu RanKong said, “This Liu Junjie should have come here to take the blame. QuYa Planet is too remote, so no one can recognize him if he serves his sentence here.”

The two didn’t say anything more and continued on with the group, Lu RanKong looked at him sideways and laughed again.

“What’s wrong with you again?” Lan Yu frowned.

“Nothing…”

After leaving the gate, there were hundreds of engineering tracked vehicles parked in the plaza outside, and Lan Yu and the others followed Whistle Officer Liu and Electric Stick Officer Wang to their vehicles, heading for a mine at Pelican Lake to the east.

Once everyone was on board, all the tracked vehicles departed, following a gap that had opened up under the crater and splitting into four large convoys, each heading in one direction. Lan Yu and Lu RanKong were in the first car with the rest of cell 11 in the back. As they traveled, they saw abandoned caves and derelict plants everywhere with faded signs and safety precautions on the walls.

Some of the large mining machines were just lying on the ground, covered in rust. Except for the few engineering crawlers, the entire QuYa Planet was like a dead tomb, without a single person or living thing. As far as Lan Yu could see, all the mountains were deserted, and there was no one in sight.

The prisoners seemed to be in a bad mood, sitting in silence on the crawler, and no one spoke.

The electric stick Officer Wang looked at the expressions of the people on the car and said with a smirk, “See? A few years ago, someone tried to escape while doing his job. Could he escape? Where could he have escaped to? We are too lazy to find him. Later, he found himself back in prison, starving to the point that he had only one breath left. So, when you get out, you should do your work honestly, and don’t think about anything strange. Serve your sentence peacefully, and a Star Warship will send you back to the main planet.”

Lan Yu found that when he was talking, his eyes always fell on Lu RanKong, and he secretly felt it was funny.

Lu RanKong, however, didn’t care, and nodded in agreement.

The road they traveled to the mine was built by a large group of companies in the past. Nowadays, there were not many vehicles passing by, and the road was gradually covered with gravel, so the tracked vehicles often lost the road as they went. The good thing was that after going over a mountain ridge, they could see one section of the road in the shadows again.

There were no guardrails on either side of the tracked vehicle, and the open top made it shaky for people to sit inside.

From time to time Lu RanKong also took the initiative to jump out of the car, pick up a few stones on the ground and come back again, carefully wiping off the dust on it, and looking at it lovingly.

“Li BaoZi, what are you doing picking this up?” Lan Yu couldn’t help but ask after he jumped out of the car again and picked up the rocks from the ground.

Lu RanKong put those rocks like they were his babies in his pocket and said, “Guess…”

“Not guessing…”

“Guess…”

“Go away…”

“I’m going to take it back and polish a few knickknacks.” He finally answered.

Seeing Lan Yu’s face of disbelief, he said, “Qiao, Alphas always have a little strange hobby to make them more attractive. Look at you, you have no hobbies, just like a wood without feelings, so how will you please an Omega? No blood, no flesh…”

Lan Yu snickered, “Don’t forget, I have Gu Gu waiting for me, looking forward to me, but you have nobody.”

“There are plenty of Omegas that like me, I just don’t want them.” Lu RanKong retorted.

Electric stick Officer Wang who hadn’t made a sound until then, suddenly faintly interjected, “Such a capable Alpha forcing an Omega can also be called ‘like’? That is called shameless and being a beast.”

Lu RanKong was suddenly dumbfounded.

Lan Yu turned his head in a happy mood and continued to look outside.