Ficorpio
Chapter 1
“Baby, it’s your boyfriend calling.”
“Mmm… Don’t answer…”
Julian Bennett lay sprawled limply across the bed.
He had applied several layers of ointment afterward, but even though his backside felt icy cold, the heavy ache left by being impaled had not diminished in the slightest.
As for the culprit who had tormented him into this state, he was currently standing on the balcony, smoking a cigarette and speaking to someone on the phone.
“We’ll lock down the Southeast Asian shipping capacity ourselves. Sign long-term contracts with both eastern ports. Forget the shipping company—we’ll handle it…”
He seemed to be speaking in some kind of southern dialect.
Julian didn’t understand a single word and had no intention of satisfying his curiosity.
The man was over six feet four, and in bed he could switch effortlessly between five languages. Clearly, he was someone important.
Adrian Sterling. Thirty-two years old. Born in the Bay Area.
Although Adrian was also a Beta, he was in an entirely different league from a useless Beta like Julian, whose height barely reached five feet eleven and whose weight was only around 132 pounds.
Rumor had it that Adrian had spent years building his power overseas. His foundations were so deep that even the major Alpha families within the Federation were wary of him.
In short, he was the sort of ruthless figure who had influence in both legitimate and criminal circles.
In his previous life, Julian had worked as a waiter at CrazyClub. Once, Manager Wang had privately warned the male escorts there.
Adrian Sterling was famously abstinent and uninterested in beauty, the manager had said. They were absolutely not to provoke him, or they would bring disaster upon themselves.
What complete nonsense!
If Adrian was truly abstinent and uninterested in beauty, then what exactly had happened to Julian over the past three days and three nights?
Seventy-two full hours!
Not a moment of rest the entire time!
Even Julian himself hadn’t expected a useless Beta like him to last that long.
No wonder he’d survived dozens of jobs in his previous life. He really was built different.
Still…
Julian suddenly remembered something.
He snatched up his phone, hurried onto the largest online forum in the Federation, and typed out the question that had been troubling him during those seventy-two hours:
I’m a Beta, and my bed partner is also a Beta. Is it possible for him to knot with me?
The post immediately attracted a wave of ridicule.
Reply 2: LOL. This again? It’s practically a monthly classic.
Reply 3: Seriously, can you people stop? Every month, a few delusional Betas come running to the forum with these questions that violate basic biology. Search the old posts before asking, okay? Countless idiot Betas have already asked this!
Reply 4: No need to be so hostile. Maybe the poster’s still in elementary school and hasn’t taken sex education yet. It’s normal not to know.
Reply 5: Still in elementary school? Fine, listen carefully. Knotting is only possible under one of the following conditions: one, an Alpha and an Omega; two, an Alpha and another Alpha; three, an Alpha and a Beta. Other than that, two Betas or two Omegas absolutely cannot knot. Understand?
Reply 6: Elementary school? I checked his old posts. He’s just a bizarre Beta with a hole in his head. Last month he was asking why his Beta boyfriend refused to sleep with him!
Reply 7: I’m dying. How much does his boyfriend hate him to refuse to sleep with him?
Reply 8: So the poster finally managed to get laid by his boyfriend? That’s quite an achievement. Hahaha!
Reply 9: According to publicly available data from the World ABO Organization, the average IQ of Betas worldwide is only ninety-four. So everyone should be a little more understanding toward these poor Betas. It’s not their fault they don’t know any better.
The replies that followed were mostly Alphas and Omegas looking down on Betas while mocking him.
Julian didn’t take it too personally.
That was simply how the world worked. Alphas and Omegas were born superior.
Betas made up sixty percent of the Federation’s population, but unless they were someone like Adrian Sterling, a once-in-a-generation anomaly, most Betas had very little say in anything.
Since the forum hadn’t provided the answer he wanted, Julian switched to an encyclopedia site and searched for information about knotting.
Back when he’d taken sex education, the textbook had offered nothing but a dry explanation and a flat cartoon diagram when the lesson reached that subject. Everything else had been left to the imagination.
Julian had never been able to imagine it at all.
He hadn’t expected the encyclopedia site to have an animated simulation.
Eyes bright with excitement, he clicked on it.
A few minutes later, he exited the video with a strange expression.
That was really strange.
He remembered it clearly. During those seventy-two hours, there had been one particularly obvious incident that had been exactly like the process shown in the video.
But how could two Betas possibly knot?
Forget it. Forget it.
Maybe the commenters were right. As a Beta, he should stop entertaining impossible fantasies.
Chapter 2
According to the research, the probability of an adult Beta undergoing Secondary Differentiation into an Omega was one in a million. In his previous life, Julian had only lived to the age of twenty-two, and he had remained a useless Beta until the very end.
The only possible explanation was that the older man, who stood six feet five, was so absurdly imposing that Julian’s senses had tricked him.
There was no point dwelling on it.
Counting the seventy-two hours he had spent with Adrian, it had now been a week since Julian’s Rebirth.
For the past seven days, he had found one excuse after another to stay and work at CrazyClub. He simply didn’t want to return to the suffocating old Bennett estate.
In his previous life, after the Bennett Group went bankrupt, Julian’s parents had died suddenly in an accident. The family lost its source of income, and the mansion was repossessed by the court.
Julian had been forced to move in with his elderly grandparents and his Omega twin brother, who was only a few minutes older than him, at the old Bennett estate—a house no one had lived in for decades.
Yes, Elliot Bennett was his fraternal twin brother.
From the moment they were born, Julian had never once beaten Elliot at anything.
Whether it was looks or talent, Elliot outshone him in every possible way. Julian, meanwhile, was mediocre in both respects and had been sickly since childhood.
The entire family had placed all their hopes in Elliot. For Julian, all they ever had were sighs and disappointed shakes of the head.
At fifteen, Elliot fulfilled everyone’s expectations and differentiated into an S-rank Omega.
Julian, who had grown up surrounded by medicine bottles, differentiated into a useless Beta.
After the whole family moved into the old estate, life became increasingly difficult for the people who had grown accustomed to wealth.
His grandparents began patiently persuading Julian day after day.
Elliot was an extraordinarily rare S-rank Omega. In the future, he was practically guaranteed to marry into one of the top Alpha families.
Julian was only a useless Beta. No matter how much he studied, he would never amount to anything. He might as well suspend his education and work to support his Omega brother through university.
Once Elliot became a wealthy family’s wife, the entire family would enjoy the benefits.
Looking at the white in his grandparents’ hair and the shabby furniture around the house, Julian remembered the comfortable life they had once led.
In the end, he believed them.
He submitted an application to suspend his studies and found a job that paid three thousand dollars a month.
His first month’s salary wasn’t even enough to cover Elliot’s food expenses for a week.
There was nothing Julian could do. Elliot attended Royal University, the highest-ranked university in the Federation, and anyone who enrolled there became a walking money pit.
With no other options, Julian borrowed from every lending platform he could find, one after another, and then borrowed again to pay off the previous loans.
After that, he took on job after job just to repay the debt, forcing himself to become a master of time management.
It wasn’t until the university sent him an expulsion notice that he finally woke up.
His education was ruined beyond repair.
And how had Elliot treated him in return?
After becoming engaged to the son of a wealthy S-rank Alpha family, that ungrateful bastard had turned around and called Julian a bloodsucker.
Elliot hadn’t even let him into the engagement party. Instead, he had thrown a severance letter at him and told him to get as far away as possible.
Not long afterward, Julian had caught his boyfriend of three years cheating on him.
Unable to withstand the blow, he had run out into the street and been hit by a car.
He had died.
He never would have expected the heavens to give him a second chance.
Unfortunately, the opening had not been ideal.
Adrian Sterling was a top-tier VIP at CrazyClub. Three days ago, he had accidentally drunk too much, and the owner had personally ordered Julian to escort him to a room.
Then, for no apparent reason, the older man had dragged Julian into seventy-two straight hours of exhausting physical activity.
The man’s body was far too powerful. No matter how much Julian protested, Adrian had refused to stop. Several times, Julian had genuinely thought he was going to die, only to somehow come back to life afterward.
Tsk.
No matter how he looked at it, Julian had been cheated badly.
No. He couldn’t let this go.
According to club policy, he could demand payment from Adrian in a situation like this.
The only question was how much the male escorts at the club usually charged.
Julian opened the WeChat account of a Beta coworker and got straight to the point.
Julian: Brother Deng, if a client asks you to spend three days and three nights with him, how much would you normally charge?
Deng: ?
Julian: A client asked me to consult him about the price.
Deng: We don’t charge by the day. We charge by the number of times. The price also depends on whether the client is an Alpha or a Beta. For an Alpha, it starts at eight thousand per time. Betas are cheaper—five thousand minimum.
“!!!”
Julian felt as though an entirely new world had opened before him.
He had assumed escorts were paid according to how much time they spent with a client. He hadn’t realized payment was calculated by the number of times!
Julian: Got it, got it. Thanks!
After closing WeChat, Julian silently began calculating the number of times.
He spent all afternoon doing mental arithmetic, yet he still couldn’t remember exactly how many times the older man had made him—
Chapter 3
In the end, he simply rounded up and counted ten times per day.
That meant three days came to thirty times.
At the Beta rate, he could demand a total of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars from Adrian!
Hahaha!
He was rich!
The man on the balcony finished his call and walked back into the room.
Julian immediately gritted his teeth and forced himself upright.
“Sir, were you satisfied with my service over the past three days?”
Adrian walked toward him and answered in a low, magnetic voice.
“Mmm.”
Julian quietly exhaled in relief, then activated his model-waiter persona.
“I’m glad you’re satisfied. In that case, let me calculate the cost for you. According to club policy, fulfilling a client’s special requests falls under personalized service, which is charged by the number of times.”
“However, since you’re one of our top-tier VIP clients, I’ll give you a discount. For these three days, we’ll count thirty times in total. The remaining few times can be my complimentary gift to you.”
“Using the standard rate of five thousand dollars per time, the total comes to one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Sir, how would you like to pay?”
Adrian: “…”
Adrian Sterling’s cool gaze moved slowly over the young man’s face.
He was a Beta, but his features were strikingly handsome. His eyes were clear and bright, his frame slender and soft, and his skin—usually pale as porcelain—was now covered in marks left by an Alpha.
The only flaw was his awful mushroom haircut. It dragged down his looks and made him seem a little slow.
In truth, Adrian remembered very little of the first part of the three days, when his susceptibility cycle had erupted without warning. Later, once his pheromones settled and his mind cleared, he had still lost himself in the moment more than once. But afterward, he hadn’t felt particularly attached. He was thirty-two, after all.
He should have walked away. There was no reason to get tangled up with a Beta he’d never known.
But every time he looked at the young man’s guileless, slightly foolish expression, he found it hard not to feel sorry for him.
Apparently, once you reached a certain age, you couldn’t stand watching a kid go astray.
Adrian’s expression turned stern. “How are you calculating five thousand per time?”
Julian Bennett answered politely, with patient earnestness. “Our club has different rates for personalized services. It’s eight thousand per time for Alpha clients and five thousand for Betas. Since you’re a Beta, sir, you’re being charged the Beta rate.”
At that, Adrian’s eyebrow lifted almost imperceptibly.
Julian didn’t notice. But the older man sat there with a straight face and said nothing, and Julian’s confidence began to falter.
Before long, he gave in first.
“Do you think a hundred and fifty thousand is too much? What’s your budget? We can work something out.”
“…”
There was room to haggle over five thousand dollars?
Adrian parted his lips. “And what would a yearly package cost?”
“A-a yearly package?”
Julian stared at him, startled.
He’d thought the older man considered him too expensive. Turns out he hadn’t had enough and wanted to book Julian for a whole year!
“Sir, could you wait a moment? I’ve never done this before, so I’m not sure what to charge for a yearly package. Let me ask a coworker. I don’t want to overcharge you.”
Adrian said nothing.
Interesting.
Julian hurriedly pulled out his phone and called for backup.
One More Bowl: Hey, Brother Deng. It’s me again. My client’s a Beta, and he’s asking how much I’d charge for a yearly package.
Deng: …
One More Bowl: Brother Deng?
Deng: Forget it if he’s a Beta. Most Betas are broke and stingy. If I sign a one-year contract to be exclusive to him, I can only serve him for the whole year, and the rate’s still five thousand per time. I can’t even break the contract without paying double. What if he signs and then doesn’t come to me once in a hundred years? Am I supposed to stop doing business?
Deng: I’m a Beta too, but most of the Beta clients I’ve had are broke bastards who want everything for nothing. And he wants a yearly package? Not even a dog would take that deal!
Julian read the messages from start to finish, then fell silent.
Adrian worked overseas. How many times could he come home in a year? And even if he did, what were the odds he’d come find Julian to sleep with him every time?
There was no way Julian could sign an exclusivity contract with the older man!
Wait.
That wasn’t right.
He was only a part-time waiter, not a male escort.
Who said he was going to sell his services in the future?
At last, Julian’s not-so-sharp mind found its way back on track. He hurried to refuse.
“Uh, sir, I’m sorry. I’m not actually an escort, so I can’t sign a yearly contract with you. You just need to pay the full one hundred and fifty thousand for these three days.”
Adrian’s lips curved slightly. “If you’re not an escort, and we both agreed to it, why should I pay you?”
“!”
Was the older man trying to get away with using him for free?
Oh my God!
How could he bully an honest guy like this?
Julian’s expression was so vivid that, for once, Adrian was in a good enough mood to tease him.
“If everyone could sleep with someone and then claim to be an escort so they could charge for it, couldn’t I pretend to be one and demand money from you?”
Julian’s thoughts stalled.
He didn’t know!
He’d never done anything like this before!
He didn’t know anything!
“Let me ask you something else.” Adrian delivered his final blow. “How many times did you enjoy yourself over those three days?”
Julian bit his finger and shook his head, dazed.
“I—I can’t remember.”
“Then who did it more often—you or me?”
That was a good question!
Only then did Julian remember that he might actually have been the one who’d done it more often.