The Wolf disappears

Finding Xiao Zai proved more difficult than Chu Yun initially thought.

He took several laps of the estate without finding nor hide nor hair of him. It was possible that Xiao Zai was also in motion, and this was why Chu Yun couldn't find him. But after burning several incense sticks of time searching for him, even Chu Yun had to admit defeat.

Hua Nanyi was equally as elusive at first, but eventually he found her in the kitchens catching up with the other servants she was friends with.

"Nanyi have you seen uh, His Highness?" He changed his term of address for Xiao Zai at the last minute. While everyone around the palace was used to his casual relationship with Hua Nanyi, maybe it was a good idea for them to see Chu Yun showing his husband the proper deference in public -- considering the latest developments.

"I apologize, but I haven't seen him," Hua Nanyi said, turning back to her conversation.

Chu Yun was about the leave the kitchen when a young boy in the back, with neat hair and bright eyes said, "I saw him leave the estate, he was riding the black mare that young master usually favours."

Xiao Zai had left the palace? And riding Little Butterfly, no less?

If Chu Yun wasn't feeling so magnanimous, on account of his unfair judgement of him, he would be inclined to curse him.

"Do you have any idea where he might have gone?" he asked, smiling pleasantly through his annoyance.

The young boy looked a little panicked. "Ah, apologies, to uh, young master, master, Master Chu...uh Second Master, but this servant didn't see."

Several of the servants around him were trying to hold back their smiles watching him try to come up with a proper term of address for Chu Yun now that he was 1) a married man, 2) no longer part of the household of the Prince of Jing, 3) still an alpha.

Chu Yun had bigger problems right now. He thanked the servants for their time and left, headed for the stables.

The palace of the Prince of Jing was located in a sprawling estate just outside of Lanzhou, in a village that boasted some of the most fertile farmland in all the kingdom. Several noble families had estates in Jinglin.

For all its bucolic countryside landscape, there was almost nothing to do in Jinglin. And with Lanzhou a scant hour away, there was little incentive to create such entertainment.

Chu Yun doubted that Xiao Zai would have stayed around Jinglin and its walled estates.

With great resignation, he saddled a much inferior horse than Little Butterfly, and set off to Lanzhou, where he hoped to find Xiao Zai.

---

Red Beauty was sure he had never met someone quite like him. The man was currently sitting by the window, drinking his wine in silence, declining all offers for company, while very much taking up a private room in a brothel.

"He must have lost his lover," Purple Beauty, told him, whispering the words into his hear from behind her handkerchief. "That's why he's so reluctant to ask for our company, his body yearns, but his heart aches."

Her words painted a vivid picture in Red Beauty's mind. He could imagine the handsome stranger running his long fingers reverently over the robes of his long departed love. His only reminder of someone who was gone forever.

The handsome alpha's heart urged him to remain loyal until the grave, but his body had urges he couldn't control. And so, he had wandered here, into the Fragrant Spring Field, after much reluctance.

Red Beauty couldn't help admiring his royal profile as he sat in front of the open window, his sleek hair shining under the bright noon sunlight.

The handsome alpha paid for his room and them immediately went down into the first floor, to sit among the other costumers and entertainers.

Red Beauty had tried to approach him, as had Purple Beauty, and a number of other courtesans, but without much success. The alpha with the cold eyes turned them all away.

The Fragrant Spring Field brothel boasted some of the most beautiful omega and beta courtesans in all of Lanzhou, so the man's long lost love must have been an incredible beauty for him to be able to resist them so stoically.

Naturally, that only made Red Beauty want him more. Something he rarely felt towards the brothel's patrons. Who, more often than not, would crawl on their hands and knees for one of his rare smiles, and if pushed to it, cry pathetically while begging him to let them knot him.

No, Red Beauty wasn't going to give up without a fight. He was the famed Red Peony of Lanzhou, the omega who, when faced with an arranged marriage to an elderly, perverted alpha, said, "I'd rather be the whore of every man for a day, than be the whore of a single man for a lifetime," and walked straight into the Fragrant Spring Field, looking for employment.

He walked up to the stranger's table and sat at his side, making sure to showcase his bare shoulders, and the tantalising view of his exposed collarbones. "Is young master sure there's no extra service our humble establishment can provide for him? This lowly one would be delighted to-"

The stranger cut him off, "More wine."

Red Beauty's smile almost slipped. He wasn't a fucking waiter.

Just as he was leaning over the table in what he knew was an extremely seductive manner, someone irrupted through the brothel's doors.

The newcomer was almost as tall as Red Beauty's silent stranger, but while the stranger's eyes were tantalisingly cool, like a lake frozen in the winter, the newcomer's eyes blazed with the heat of a wildfire. He was an alpha too, as were most of the brothel's clientele, but instead of inviting, his crisp orchid and pine scent was sending out a single clear sign: "Back off."

As if that wasn't unusual enough, he made a beeline for the stranger's table, completely ignoring Red Beauty, and grabbed the other alpha by the collar of his iron grey robes.

"I search for you everywhere, and this is where I find you?" The man's lips curled up, revealing the sharp points of his canines. "Barely a week after our wedding and you're already visiting brothels?"