Xiao Feng sat beside his father.. on one of the stone benches placed beneath the shade trees in the palace courtyard.
The space was open and calm, with servants passing by occasionally and sunlight filtering softly through the leaves above.
To anyone watching from a distance, it would have looked harmless.. almost warm. Like a father spending quiet time with his son, perhaps offering advice now that the boy had just been married.
"This should belong to me soon," his father said quietly.
He didn't explain what he meant. But he didn't have to.
Xiao Feng knew. He was talking about the palace, about the throne, about power.
His father wanted it so badly that some nights he couldn't sleep, yet he had never dared to make a direct move. Emperor Li was too strong. Too dangerous. Anyone who challenged him didn't last long.
And for reasons Xiao Feng had understood for a long time now, his father would never be the one to face Emperor Li himself.
If he had been capable of that, it would have happened years ago. The truth was simple: his father feared him, so instead of facing him, he looked for other ways.
Ways that didn't put his own life at risk.
Years ago, when Xiao Feng had been barely sixteen, his father had summoned him. Back then, the call alone had made his stomach twist.
His father never called for him without a reason, and the reasons were never good... Usually it meant someone had accused him of something he hadn't done- his brothers, his sister, or the woman who he called a mother, always eager to see him punished or driven out.
That day, his father had looked at him for a long moment before speaking.
"Emperor Li is an evil man who should be erased."
For once, Xiao Feng had agreed with his father without hesitation. Emperor Li ruled through fear. People lived as though one wrong step could cost them their lives.
Executions were common. Mercy was rare. Even small mistakes were punished harshly. So yes, Xiao Feng had agreed. For the first time, he thought he understood his father.
His father had continued.
"But I am certain that after I endure everything, after I risk my life to rid the Ming Empire of him, other Alphas will rise to claim his place," he said. "They won't care that I was the one who did the work. They won't care that I should be the one to sit on that throne."
His voice hardened.
"But among them, there is only one who truly threatens me. One who would never step aside. One who would fight until the end."
He spoke the name like a curse.
"Wang Shaohong."
The hatred in his voice had stunned Xiao Feng.
Everyone knew his father and Wang Shaohong were close. They had laughed together, shared meals, spoken as allies, worked closely in the government.
Xiao Feng had grown up believing they were very close friends. So why did his father sound like this now? Had all of it been pretense? Smiles worn to hide envy? Politeness masking resentment because Wang Shaohong's pack stood higher and stronger?
Xiao Feng hadn't understood then. Not until his father spoke again.
"For that reason, we will not start with the Emperor," he said calmly. "We will start with Shaohong and his son. They are the only real threats in that pack. Once they are gone, their pack will fall under me. And then… then we can deal with that so called Emperor."
The way he said it made Xiao Feng's blood turn cold.
"It's not easy to act within that pack without being caught," his father went on. "Otherwise, I would have destroyed them myself already. So I need you to..."
He had paused for a second before continuing..
"I want you to get close to them, Especially Wang Yuan. Become his friend. Earn his trust. And when the time comes, you will strike."
Xiao Feng couldn't breathe.
"What I mean by striking is that...," his father had continued, as if explaining something ordinary, "if you are invited to a meal, you will poison the food. All of it. And you will eat as well, because if you don't, they'll suspect that you had something to do with it. But don't worry. I will have the antidote ready. We'll arrive in time to save you. The rest will die."
By the time his father finished speaking, Xiao Feng was frozen in place.
His chest felt tight. His thoughts tangled. Fear crawled through him, slow and suffocating. He couldn't even tell when he had stopped breathing.
But as terrified as he was, and as much as he wanted to refuse, Xiao Feng had no choice. His father did not ask, he had decided.
From that point on, Xiao Feng was taken along to meetings held within the Bluemoon pack, solely so he could encounter Wang Yuan and spend time in his presence.
Most people barely knew Xiao Feng existed. He had never been allowed to leave the packhouse freely, never allowed to mingle or form connections.
After being introduced.. Yuan's father encouraged that Feng make friendship with Yuan.
He believed it would be good for Yuan to have someone close to him. Yuan had no friends, and that fact had always bothered Alpha Shaohong.
They were forced to attend lectures together. Forced to train together. Even more humiliating, Xiao Feng's father personally requested that Yuan teach Feng, guide him in combat, train him privately, help him improve because Xiao Feng was weak, poorly trained, and lacked the qualities an Alpha was supposed to possess.
At first, Yuan was distant. Cold. Dismissive.
But it didn't bother Xiao Feng much, he told himself that -that coldness wasn't directed at him specifically, because that was simply Yuan's nature.
He treated everyone the same way. Anyone near him felt like an inconvenience, an irritation he tolerated only when necessary.
Still, Xiao Feng was forced to persist.
He initiated conversations that were ignored.
He visited regularly, only to be dismissed or left standing awkwardly with no response.
Even when it was clear that his presence was unwanted, he stayed. He followed Wang Yuan when he walked away.
Slowly, and intentionally, he began doing things that were meant specifically to irritate Yuan.
He talked when he was told to stay quiet. He disrupted routines. He asked unnecessary questions.
Every instruction he had been given, every lesson he was supposed to follow, he intentionally ignored.
When Yuan asked him to stay back, he stepped closer.
He pushed boundaries he knew Wang Yuan wanted untouched.
He had told himself that... If Wang Yuan insisted on treating him like an annoying fly, then Xiao Feng would become exactly that-- buzzing, persistent, impossible to ignore.