The first step to building a good relationship with a classmate is exchanging contact information.
Yu Zhen’s icy words startled Duan Xiyan. Matching the slight crystal tear at the corner of his eye, he looked rather innocent, and it was only then that he belatedly realized he had released his pheromones.
After all, these were two completely different worlds, and the newly arrived Duan Xiyan had not yet fully adapted subconsciously.
Fortunately, he still had the original owner’s physical instincts, which allowed him to immediately pull back the pheromones he had released out of excessive fright.
The scent of wood and flowers in the air gradually faded. In the dimness, Yu Zhen lowered his gaze, his expression unreadable.
He pressed his lips together, feeling the Alpha’s pheromones gradually recede from beside him. In a flash, he felt a strange sense of loss, as if a gentle embrace was slowly fading away. The residual restlessness within his body lost its soothing comfort and surged up again.
This was very wrong.
In the past, although soothing agents could not completely eliminate his discomfort, they usually relieved it by seven or eight parts. But now, after tasting the comfort of an Alpha’s pheromones, having known that sweetness, the effect of the medicinal suppression was greatly diminished.
Yet why did it have to be Duan Xiyan?
While his body’s desires and discomfort cried out, Yu Zhen’s expression grew increasingly icy.
However, the culprit behind this humiliating predicament remained completely oblivious to it.
After pulling back his pheromones, Duan Xiyan felt somewhat guilty and quickly explained, “I am sorry, I was just startled earlier. I definitely did not mean to.”
According to the plot, Duan Xiyan knew that Alpha pheromones would have no effect on Yu Zhen. After all, when the original owner and Wu Hu had previously added artificial Alpha pheromones to his water cup, the other boy had not reacted at all after drinking it.
Even so, feeling the low pressure radiating from Yu Zhen, he still asked, “Are you okay?”
Yu Zhen originally had no intention of answering him, but his gaze swept inadvertently across the corridor behind Duan Xiyan, and he said with a hint of sarcasm, “Did you bring someone else with you?”
Duan Xiyan paused.
At the stair corner at the end of the corridor, a shadowy, concealed figure was peeking over.
The moment he saw the figure, Yu Zhen’s first reaction was that this young master Duan had brought people to mess with him. But seeing Duan Xiyan’s reaction, first stunned and then stiff, he grew uncertain.
Duan Xiyan was stiff all over. Where on earth had he brought anyone? Aside from himself and Yu Zhen, how could there possibly be a third person here?
“Are you sure what you are seeing is a person?” Duan Xiyan’s teeth began to chatter uncontrollably, his speech slurred as he shrank back several inches into the window.
Yu Zhen frowned, then seemed to understand something. His brows relaxed slightly, and he calmly said, “Maybe so.”
What did “maybe so” mean?
Duan Xiyan was tense all over, a chill running down the back of his neck. He had a strong feeling that something was staring right at him from behind.
So when he felt someone following him on his way upstairs earlier, it really had not been his imagination, even though what was following him might not have been human at all.
At that moment, the sneaky figure in the stairwell pressed the shutter. A camera flash blinked on and off, startling a sparrow behind Duan Xiyan, the very one that had scared him earlier, into beating its wings and flying off.
The tightly strung cord in Duan Xiyan’s mind snapped cleanly. He scrambled headfirst through the window back into the laboratory, grabbed Yu Zhen, broke out the door, and charged downstairs with his eyes closed.
Yu Zhen was completely bewildered by his sudden move, and somehow left himself be pulled right out of the laboratory.
Finally back under the bright sunshine, Duan Xiyan breathed heavily, still shaken.
Fortunately, that thing did not follow them. He did not even have the courage to look back at the science building, feeling convinced that whatever it was was standing eerily up there looking down at him.
Duan Xiyan slowly squatted down, feeling completely numb.
After taking a moment to gather himself, he remembered that he had dragged someone down with him and quickly stood up to check on Yu Zhen.
Omegas were naturally physically delicate, let alone an Omega going through a physiological cycle. They were powerless, fragile, and sensitive, with debuffs maxed out. They simply could not handle strenuous exercise, and even an Omega without pheromones was no exception.
Yet given the emergency, Duan Xiyan could not possibly leave Yu Zhen behind all by himself; that would be far too heartless.
As a strong and healthy Alpha, how could he leave a frail and pitiful Omega alone in danger!
Fortunately, under the influence of the medication, Yu Zhen remained conscious enough not to completely lose his mobility. At that moment, his face was noticeably much paler, and his posture was rigid, clearly running on sheer willpower.
Thin and stubborn.
Duan Xiyan did not notice the complex expression in the other’s eyes, assuming only that he was feeling utterly miserable.
With all these twists and turns, it was nearly lunchtime. Once the bell rang, the fierce mob of students rushing for food would swarm out, and it was easy to imagine how crowded and chaotic it would get.
Given Yu Zhen’s current state, there was probably no way he could continue sitting through class.
With a hint of guilt, Duan Xiyan suggested, “You should just go home and rest. I will ask for leave for you at school.”
Yu Zhen had originally planned to wait until his condition stabilized a bit before heading back, so hearing this, he offered no objection.
Seeing him stay silent, Duan Xiyan assumed he was worried about falling behind on coursework and immediately gave a solemn promise, “Don’t worry, I will take notes for the afternoon classes for you.”
Yu Zhen’s expression turned somewhat peculiar.
Duan Xiyan did not notice this. A flash of inspiration hit him, and he smoothly pulled out his phone: “Let us add each other on WeChat, and I will take pictures of the notes and send them to you later.”
He admitted that sending notes was just an excuse; adding WeChat was the main goal.
The first step to building a good relationship with a classmate is exchanging contact information.
Duan Xiyan opened his personal QR code screen, boldly holding his phone up in front of Yu Zhen. He looked at him full of anticipation, but the other boy made no move for a long time.
An awkward atmosphere was about to spread in the silence when Yu Zhen said lightly, “Phones are not allowed at school.”
The small smartphone instantly felt like a hot potato, and Duan Xiyan shoved it back into his pocket. His dry smile was laced with guilt as he gave Yu Zhen a thumbs-up: “Ah right, I almost forgot. Thanks for the reminder, hahaha.”
Yu Zhen: “…”
He had been wondering why young master Duan seemed so different from before lately; it turned out he had simply become foolish.
Duan Xiyan insisted on walking Yu Zhen all the way to the school gates and watched him get into a car.
The taxi merged into the traffic, and until it had driven two blocks away, Yu Zhen finally took his phone out of his school uniform pocket.
Checking the time, exactly twelve o’clock, old man Yu should be eating at the shop right about now.
Yes, he actually had his phone with him.
But Duan Xiyan’s attempt to coax him into taking his phone out earlier had been far too obvious. He strongly suspected that if he had pulled out his phone, this young master Duan would have immediately snapped a photo and sent it to the head teacher.
Although doing that would also expose the fact that Duan Xiyan had brought a phone to school himself, such a self-destructive move of hurting the enemy by a thousand while losing eight hundred was very much something the other boy was capable of.
He had not forgotten that the person hiding in the stairwell taking candid photos back on the top floor of the science building was very likely arranged by Duan Xiyan.
Even though Duan Xiyan had looked thoroughly terrified just moments before.
Yu Zhen inexplicably recalled how Duan Xiyan had looked leaning against the window with an aggrieved expression, the tip of his nose and eye rims flushed, with two crystal tears hanging at the corners of his eyes. Even Yu Zhen had to admit that at that moment, Duan Xiyan was indeed strikingly pretty enough to evoke pity.
Yet how much of that fear and pity was genuine, and how much was fake?
With the screen timeout having passed, the phone screen darkened. Yu Zhen withdrew his thoughts, lowered his gaze to wake the phone back up, and dialed a call to old man Yu.
The call connected quickly, and old man Yu’s cheerful voice came through the speaker: “Hello, Xiao Zhen, getting out of class so early today?”
You could tell from his tone that old man Yu was eating his favorite crispy peas in the shop right now, crunching loudly as he spoke.
Yu Zhen’s expression softened slightly, revealing a hint of exhaustion: “I took a leave of absence.”
Old man Yu was extremely sharp. From those three short words alone, he picked up on something wrong with his grandson. He stopped crunching his peas and asked with concern, “What is it? Are you not feeling well?”
“No.” By the time he spoke again, Yu Zhen had already packed away that rare display of reliance, burying it right back into the deepest corner.
The grandfather and grandson had depended on each other for survival for so many years that old man Yu knew Yu Zhen’s stubborn temper inside and out. He did not call his bluff, tossed two more crispy peas into his mouth, covered the dishes on the table, and stood up, patting his pants as he headed out the shop door.
“Alright, if you took leave, come on back quickly. I did not prep your food for today, is there anything you want to eat? I will pack a portion for you at Aunt Wang’s shop so you can have something hot as soon as you get back.”
“I will take a serving of Top Scholar Beef and a serving of Green Peppers Stuffed with Meat.”
At the small diner outside the school gates, Duan Xiyan held the menu, flipping back and forth in hesitation before finally deciding, “And a bowl of Emerald White Jade Soup.”
Wu Hu sat across from him in a daze, his face practically stamped with a giant character for sorrow. It was only when Duan Xiyan asked him if he wanted to add anything else that Wu Hu took the menu, looked at it, and was so shocked his soul instantly returned to his body, nearly making him jump up: “Ordering this much? Did you not eat yesterday, Xi-ge?”
You could not blame him for reacting so strongly; Duan Xiyan had simply ordered too much. In total, it was three meat dishes, two vegetable dishes, and a soup, two of which were major dishes. Oh right, he had even ticked the brown sugar glutinous rice cakes in the corner.
With just the two of them eating, there was no way they could finish all of that.
Seeing Wu Hu react this way, Duan Xiyan also felt a little embarrassed: “It does seem a bit much.”
Of course Duan Xiyan had eaten yesterday. Madam Huang had said he spent the whole day lying in a hospital bed without eating, and fearing he might mess up his stomach by eating too heavily right away after not paying attention, she had specifically sent the butler uncle to deliver meals to him. It was a balanced mix of meat and vegetables, nutritious and delicious.
It was just that it was no different from the meals he had spent over a dozen years eating in the sanatorium in his past life.
Today he could finally eat outside on his own, and many names on the menu were things he had never eaten before, so he wanted to try every single one and accidentally got carried away.
Wu Hu looked at Duan Xiyan with some confusion, then stared back at the menu, frowning as he crossed out the Stuffed Green Peppers with two quick strokes.
Duan Xiyan felt a twinge of regret: “Is this dish not good?”
“It is good, but…” Wu Hu did not make any other changes, handed the menu back to the waiter, and looked at Duan Xiyan with a hesitation that spoke volumes.
“If it is good, why did you cross it out?”
Wu Hu’s look shifted from confusion to vigilance: “Xi-ge, you are allergic to green peppers!”
Though Duan Xiyan was an Alpha, he was fussier than an Omega in certain aspects, with his various messy allergies being the prime example.
As a good buddy who had grown up with the original owner since childhood, Wu Hu was the only person outside of the Duan family who remembered every single one of his allergies.
Duan Xiyan stiffened all over. Touched, he also felt somewhat guilty, though fortunately Wu Hu quickly threw him a lifeline.
“If you tell me it is desensitization this time, I am not believing it. You said that last time when you snuck a bite of yellow peach, and it ended up landing you in the hospital for two days while also getting me chewed out by my mom.”
“Fine then, we won’t eat it.” Duan Xiyan feigned regret, but inwardly breathed a sigh of relief.
He had almost given himself away.