One week earlier….
"Xiaochuan!"
Xiaochuan ignored his mother's calls for the nth time today. She'd been calling him none stop all-day, probably just wants to fill his head with some crappy story about an Omega in the market that found their true love, or just gossip about an Alpha that added another omega to his collection. But Xiaochuan didn't care, and it made him wonder why his mother cared so much about other people's lives.
A slap met the back of his head suddenly and the clothes he was currently folding fell out of his hands. He stood immediately and grabbed his head in pain.
"Mama, that hurt." He whined, giving him mother a teary look.
The woman scoffed, shooting him a hard glare, "So now I'm your mother? I've been calling you for ages, but you've been ignoring me!"
"I didn't!" Xiaochuan argued, but they both knew that was a lie.
Lin Zhiqing, Xiaochuan's mother was a very beautiful omega, standing at a height of 165cm with a beautiful slender figure, B-class omega, lavender hair and bright grey eyes that almost looked silver.
Lin Xiaochuan, 23 years old, B-Class Omega male, standing at a height of 168cm, with a small slender frame and long beautiful pink hair and eyes the same as his mother's.
They were both striking, but they lived poorly. Ever since Xiaochuan's Alpha father abandoned them for another omega, and they'd immediately left that kingdom, settling in another kingdom didn't come easily.
They've lived poorly since then. Their world hasn't always been nice to omegas, on many nights they would go to bed on empty stomachs and on many days Xiaochuan only had rags to wear. They were both working, but the money they made barely kept food on their table.
But today, Lin Zhiqing had a plan, and she could only hope that her son would go ahead with it.
"What were you calling me for anyway?" Xiaochuan asked as he resumed folding.
"I came to give you this." Zhiqing said, putting the paper in her hand in Xiaochuan's face.
Xiaochuan paused what he was doing and collected the paper from his mother's hand to read better. The first thing he noticed was the terrible hand writing. He wanted to point it out so bad, but his mother had little patience and he didn't want to get hit.
"Well?" Zhiqing pressured, looking at her son expectantly, waiting for his answer.
"What's this?" He asked.
Zhiqing snorted, giving her son a side eye. "It is what it is. It's written right there and you're still asking me. Are you blind?" She asked bluntly.
Xiaochuan rolled his eyes and read again. He knew what this was, it was mini banner for the upcoming moon festival.
The Moon's Lament.
Celebrated every year. What Xiaochuan didn't understand was why his mother was practically shoving the banner to his face when he already knew about it. Every wolf in the kingdom knew about it.
"Why are you-"
"Read the message at the bottom you dumb child!" Zhiqing hissed.
Xiaochuan read again carefully this time and finally saw the written message at the bottom of the mini banner. They were looking for dancers?
"You're going to join the dancing competition?" Xiaochuan asked confusingly and Zhiqing sighed and rubbed her head, her child was starting to give her a terrible headache.
"Not me, you." She replied calmly.
"But I'm not a dancer." Xiaochuan frowned.
"That can be fixed. You love to dance anyway." Zhiqing said immediately and grabbed Xiaochuan's shoulders. "You just have to join the dance competition child, the emperor is coming and-"
"Emperor Xiao Chengyuan will be attending the festival?" Xiaochuan asked in surprise.
"Yes, listen. This is the first time he'll be appearing in any event regarding our kingdom. His presence alone is a lot of opportunities for omegas here, including you, so you need to-"
"You want me to join the competition so hopefully, I will catch the Emperor's attention." Xiaochuan finished for his mother, already knowing where she was heading.
".....yes." Zhiqing nodded.
"And then what?" Xiaochuan asked.
Zhiqing slumped into herself and looked everywhere else except her son's eyes. She knew what she was asking of her son was quite big, but she couldn't just stand by and watch them continue to live like this.
Which was why she believed this was a chance for Xiaochuan to show off his beauty and catch the eye of the Emperor, and if not him, any other rich Alpha that will be present there.
In their world, being an Omega came with a lot of sacrifices. Even after sacrificing themselves, their bodies, some were still never lucky. A big example was Zhiqing herself, and she could only hope that her son wouldn't live in the shambles of poverty for the rest of his life.
So Zhiqing took a deep breath and sat down beside her son on the wooden foamless uncomfortable bed and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"A-Chuan, I know this is not simple, but you need to understand why I'm doing this. Look around," She gestured to their poorly built house, if it can even be called that. The wooden door was barely holding on to its hinges, they only had filmsy linen to cover the windows which barely protected them from cold. The long wide planks of wood they tied together and spred a cloth on it to make a bed, and the roof that threatened to fall off whenever the wind blew too strong and leaked heavily whenever it rained.
"Do you like the state of our lives? I'm already out of the question, but you're young, you can still find an alpha that's ready to spend his money on you." She tried to reason.
"You mean an Alpha who's going to fuck me and pay me for using my body." Xiaochuan said bluntly.
"Don't say like that my child. The world is unfair to us, but it doesn't mean we shouldn't try to find our way out, even if it means using our body to get what we want."
Xiaochuan understood what his mother meant. An omega without an Alpha was practically a snail without it's shell. Surviving would be hard, not to even talk of being cheated on. They'd barely give them enough money for the work they do, and if they complained, it could lead to physical punishment and no one would bat an eye. That's the world they lived in.
And Emperor Xiao Chengyuan was known for collecting omegas like trophies, he kept them and took care of them like delicate vases. Rumor has it that he has a whole harem full of his omegas, all fed well and properly taken care of. And maybe, just maybe if Xiaochuan was able to catch his attention, maybe he would get to live that lush life.
He shook his head and resumed folding the clothes into the basket. He heard a deep sigh behind him and knew his mother was about to say something again.
"I'm not saying you should go and join today, but there's only a week left and we can't afford to waste anymore time. It's okay if you don't want to join, I completely understand. But I hope you know that I just want the best for you." Zhiqing said softly.
"Hmm." Xiaochuan hummed in reply, hands not pausing from the folding.
Zhiqing eyed the clothes in the baskets and scoffed. "Why are you even folding those clothes? They're dirty."
"I'm taking them to the lake to wash them." Xiaochuan replied.
"Exactly, they're dirty. Why are you folding them when their dirty? Shouldn't the folding be done after washing?" Zhiqing asked and xiaochuan just shrugged in response.
Zhiqing sighed, shaking her head at her son's absurd behavior at times.
"Don't take too long at the lake, we have to go to the market in the evening and make some sales." She warmed, knowing how well Xiaochuan tends to get carried away whenever he'd go for laundry.
She'd once caught her son swimming naked in the lake, something he later confirmed that was not the first time he'd done it. The was horrifying.
"Okay mother." Xiaochuan answered.
————
Xiaochuan sighed as he finally reached the lake. He placed down the basket that containes a few good clothes and stretched his back. The walk through the forest to the lake from his house was about five minutes, but it easily turned to ten at most times because Xiaochuan gets distracted easily.
He'd stare at every damn insect on his way here and that was not even the worst of it. Aside from being distracted and making his journey longer, Xiaochuan loved to swim naked in the lake water.
He loved to feel the coolness of the water on his naked body, he loved to swim around in the water like a fish. His mother had once caught him swimming naked, the sight must've been traumatizing for her.
With that thought in mind, he began to undress, telling himself he was only going to take a few minutes, maybe five. Do the washing and go back before it gets dark.
He looked around cautiously before getting rid of every fabric clinging on to his skin and stepping slowly into the water. He shivered at first but giggled as the coolness of the water immediately seeped into his bones, giving him the feeling he was actually craving for.
He played around in the water, relaxing and smiling to himself, unaware of the set of golden eyes that had locked on him immediately he got to the lake.