ABO setting.
Twenty years ago, the Rong family dismissed a servant who had sticky fingers. The servant held a grudge and deliberately switched the babies, forcing Luo Nanjue to grow up in the slums for decades, coming close to death hundreds of times.
Twenty years later, the Rong couple have long since grown attached to Rong Ning, the child who took another's place. Even after the truth comes out, they still favor Rong Ning, going so far as to give Luo Nanjue a hostile welcome on his first day home.
As the whole family and the fake young master's intended stand grim-faced around the table, the person who walks into the hall is nothing like they imagined.
If Rong Ning, whose omega pheromones smell of jasmine, can be called pretty in a modest way, and perhaps even touching when he lowers his head and weeps, then Luo Nanjue, whose omega pheromones smell of red wine, is stunning without the need for euphemism. He is like a wild rose growing unchecked. One glance from him is enough to leave Pei Qi, the fiance who had just comforted Rong Ning and vowed never to break off their engagement, completely transfixed.
In the suffocating silence, Luo Nanjue raises an eyebrow at the supposedly related family members glaring at him around the table. Without hesitation, he pulls out a document and walks over to the Rong family patriarch, who has come to supervise because he cares about blood ties and fears his descendants might behave disgracefully.
"I've come to make a deal with you, Diplomat Rong." He smiles, his sharp edges only making him more captivating. "You must have heard of Mr. Sun from the Tigerhead Gang. I'm his second-in-command. I've run the gang's business all these years, but I lack a legitimate identity, so I can't enter the upper district."
The old master Rong thinks for a moment. "What do you want?"
Luo Nanjue gives him a radiant smile. "I want to live with you at the old residence, without having to pretend with these relatives who don't acknowledge me. Once you've seen what I can do, I want the chance to compete for the position of heir."
To the astonishment of Rong's father, who still hadn't been entrusted with the family's core assets and shares, the old master Rong actually nods with a smile.
"All right. I have great faith in you."
Later, Pei Qi, who had once declared in public before Luo Nanjue returned home, "I would never fall for that country bumpkin," pursues him desperately, stripped of all dignity, and can only watch Luo Nanjue walk toward his accomplished cousin.
Rong's father and mother, who favored Rong Ning, are stripped of their inheritance rights by their own son. They go from being haughty people sitting in the living room, waiting to bestow charity on Luo Nanjue, to dependent guests forced to bow and scrape.
The day Rong Ning finally can't take it anymore and joins Rong's parents in causing a scene at Luo Nanjue's engagement banquet, disaster strikes. Mecha fire rains down from the sky, and interstellar mercenaries storm in with guns, taking all the guests hostage.
Beside Pei Jincheng, the other male lead of the engagement banquet, who has inexplicably passed out, Rong Ning stares in disbelief as a dark-skinned mercenary, fresh from blowing someone's head off, kneels on one knee to light Luo Nanjue's cigarette.
He bows his head in submission and addresses Luo Nanjue as "Alliance Leader."
Core Theme: Stand on your own and pursue your ambitions