As he turned away, he became aware of something else.
The atmosphere inside the café felt different. There was no tension lingering in the air.
No hostility. No lingering scent of fear, anger, or greed that he had grown accustomed to sensing wherever he went.
Instead, the place felt strangely safe.
Hei Bao frowned.
The feeling unsettled him more than any battlefield ever had.
Ever since his mate death centuries ago, peace had become something foreign to him.
His days had been filled with endless responsibilities, bloodshed, negotiations, and the constant vigilance required to protect his people.
Somewhere along the way, he had forgotten what genuine tranquility felt like.
Yet the moment he stepped into this small countryside café, his restless heart had unexpectedly grown quiet.
It should have comforted him. Instead, it made him uneasy. Because nothing that peaceful had ever lasted in his life.
His fingers unconsciously tightened at his side.
Is this because of that stranger just now?
Even Hei Bao could no longer tell.
Just then, the bells above the entrance chimed once more.
"A-Bao!"
Cheung Qi finally caught up, slightly out of breath after being left behind outside.
The moment he entered, his eyes landed on the young man behind the counter.
His face immediately brightened.
"Yo, Hao Mingyu, bro!"
He raised his hand enthusiastically.
"It's been a while!"
The young man looked up in surprise. A smile instantly spread across his face.
"Cheung Qi?"
He laughed warmly.
"I was wondering why that expensive Mercedes parked outside looked so familiar."
He set the cleaning cloth aside before walking around the counter.
"When did you get back to B City?"
"A few days ago."
The two exchanged a friendly handshake before Hao Mingyu lightly punched Cheung Qi's shoulder.
"You disappeared again."
"I've been busy."
"You always say that."
Cheung Qi laughed sheepishly.
"Work never ends."
Hao Mingyu shook his head with a helpless smile before his gaze drifted toward Hei Bao, who remained standing several steps away.
His expression became politely curious.
"Your friend?"
Cheung Qi glanced between the two men.
Only then did he notice the unusual silence surrounding Hei Bao.
His elder cousin had not taken his eyes off Hao Mingyu.
Not once.
"A-Bao?"
There was no response.
Cheung Qi frowned.
Something wasn't right. Hei Bao rarely stared at strangers. In fact, he usually avoided unnecessary eye contact altogether.
Yet now his golden eyes remained quietly fixed on Hao Mingyu, as though trying to understand something that refused to make sense.
Meanwhile, Leo had become completely silent.
The wolf no longer paced restlessly. It simply watched patiently inside.
As if he had already found what he had spent centuries searching for.
Hei Bao slowly drew a quiet breath. His expression remained unreadable.
But deep inside, for the first time since losing Bai Lianhua, a tiny crack had begun to form in the walls surrounding his heart.
Cheung Qi awkwardly gestured toward Hei Bao.
"Uh–this is my boss."
Within the Lycan clans, revealing family ties or internal positions to outsiders was strictly discouraged.
It was a tradition born from centuries of conflict, meant to protect both their identities and their loved ones.
Outside their territory, relatives were often introduced simply as a "boss," or a trusted superior.
It had long become their second nature.
Hao Mingyu immediately turned toward Hei Bao.
His smile remained warm and respectful.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, sir."
He extended his hand politely.
Hei Bao simply looked at it, before his gaze slowly lifted to Hao Mingyu's face once again.
Without uttering a single word, he glanced at Cheung Qi's, and turned around, walking deeper into the café, ignoring the offered handshake entirely.
"..."
Hao Mingyu slowly lowered his hand.
The smile on his face faltered only slightly before he naturally hid the awkwardness behind another polite expression.
"I suppose your boss isn't very talkative."
He laughed softly, trying to ease the situation.
Cheung Qi, however, felt his ears burn with embarrassment.
"I'm... really sorry."
He bowed apologetically.
"He isn't usually like this."
At least, not this strange.
Without waiting for another response, Cheung Qi hurried after his elder cousin.
He found Hei Bao sitting beside the large window, calmly flipping through the menu as though nothing unusual had happened.
Sunlight filtered through the glass, illuminating the table.
Yet the air around Hei Bao felt noticeably colder than the rest of the café.
Cheung Qi stopped beside him.
"What was that about?"
Hei Bao didn't even raise his head.
"What?"
His voice was flat.
"I mean just now." Cheung Qi lowered his voice, careful not to attract attention.
"My friend greeted you, and you didn't even acknowledge him."
Only then did Hei Bao slowly lift his eyes.
His irises, normally a warm brown, had quietly shifted into a golden yellow again.
The change was subtle. Most humans would never notice it, but Cheung Qi did.
His heartbeat skipped. He knew exactly what that color meant.
Leo.
The wolf had surfaced.
Whenever Hei Bao's emotions became unstable, his wolf would instinctively push closer to the surface, tinting his eyes before anyone else could notice.
Cheung Qi unconsciously straightened.
"I told you I was hungry." Hei Bao's voice became noticeably colder.
"But instead of ordering, you stood there chatting."
His fingers tapped once against the menu.
"I don't like waiting."
Cheung Qi immediately understood.
It wasn't really about the conversation. Something else had disturbed him. He simply hadn't figured out what.
The safest decision was not to argue.
Not here. Not in a café full of ordinary people.
If Hei Bao completely lost control of Leo, innocent people could be caught in the aftermath.
Cheung Qi forced a small smile.
"All right. My mistake. Let's order first. What would you like to eat?"
Hei Bao closed his eyes for several seconds. His breathing gradually slowed. When he opened them again, the golden yellow had begun fading from his irises.
The dangerous pressure surrounding him lessened.
Finally, he regained control.
His expression softened ever so slightly.
"This..."
He pointed toward one of the photographs in the menu.
"The grilled beef platter. With roasted potatoes and smashed corn."
Cheung Qi nodded immediately.
"Anything else?"
Hei Bao scanned the drink section.
"Fresh cucumber."
He paused.
"With lemon and mint."
"Got it." Cheung Qi memorized the order before turning to leave.
Just as he reached the counter, Hao Mingyu looked up from the register. Concern flickered across his face.
"Is everything okay?"
His question carried no judgment, only sincere concern.
Cheung Qi offered an apologetic smile.
"Everything's fine. He just gets a little grumpy when he's hungry."
Hao Mingyu laughed.
"I can relate. I've seen customers become terrifying when they're starving."
That simple remark drew a genuine chuckle from Cheung Qi.
The tension he'd been carrying eased just a little.
"Are Sets A and C still available?" he asked.
Hao Mingyu nodded before checking the computer.
"They are."
He typed a few keys.
"Set A comes with grilled beef, roasted potatoes, smashed corn, seasonal vegetables, and soup. And Set C includes grilled chicken with rice, stir-fried vegetables,"
Cheung Qi nodded.
"We'll take one of each. And for drinks..."
He glanced toward Hei Bao, who remained seated quietly by the window.
"One fresh cucumber juice with lemon and mint, and an iced Americano for me."
Hao Mingyu entered the order before smiling warmly.
"It'll take around fifteen minutes."
"No problem."
As Hao Mingyu printed the receipt, his eyes briefly drifted toward Hei Bao.
The mysterious man hadn't looked in their direction once.
Instead, he sat silently by the window, appearing to still be reading the menu.
But Hao Mingyu couldn't shake the strange feeling from earlier.
For just a fleeting moment. When their eyes had first met. It had felt as though the stranger wasn't looking at him.
But instead he felt he had been looking through him.
As though he was searching for something he had lost a very long time ago.
The thought lingered in Hao Mingyu's mind for only a second before he quietly dismissed it.
Surely, he had imagined it.
Meanwhile, in another part of the city, Gou Feng had walked deep into a secluded forest, carrying the plastic bag of corpses.
The place was far from the main road, surrounded by towering trees whose branches blocked most of the sunlight.
The only sounds that remained were the whisper of the wind through the leaves and the occasional chirping of unseen birds
By the time he finished burying Fei Nian's corpse the sun had already begun to light even higher.
Leaning on the shovel, Gou Feng let out a slow breath.
Sweat rolled down his forehead and traced the side of his face before disappearing beneath his jaw.
The morning heat clung stubbornly to his skin.
When he had first arrived, he had removed his shirt and thrown it onto the hood of his car to keep it from becoming soaked with sweat.
Hours of digging had left dirt smeared across his hands, arms, and chest.
Fine scratches from branches marked his fair skin, while strands of white hair clung to his damp forehead.
He looked exhausted, but never cared to feel it.
After tossing the shovel aside, he walked toward a large Narra tree and slowly sat beneath its shade.
Silence enveloped him once again. His blue eyes settled on his hands, where they were stained with soil.
Tiny traces of dried blood still remained beneath his fingernails despite his attempts to wash them clean with bottled water earlier.
He stared at them for a long time.
Expressionless.
As though they belonged to someone else. The events of the past few hours replayed endlessly inside his mind.
Before burying Fei Nian's corpse, he had first severed the woman's limbs with the axe he always kept behind the seat of his car.
One by one, he had placed the dismembered remains into a thick black plastic bag before lowering them into the grave.
Even now, the sound of chopping flesh and cracking bones echoed in his ears, lingering like a haunting melody he could never escape.