The sky was covered with dark clouds, and it looked like a heavy rain was about to pour down. Pedestrians hurried along the road, everyone keeping their heads down, going their own way.
Jiang Fu lowered his head, fiddling with his phone as he replied to messages. He glanced at the time and realized the bus was already late.
So he exited the chat with his mom and hesitated over whether to message his homeroom teacher that he might arrive a bit late.
Time passed second by second. Another thunderclap boomed in the distance, and with the torrential rain, complaints immediately rose from the people around him.
Jiang Fu’s expression remained calm. He stepped back a few paces, half his body tucked under the bus stop shelter, but the pouring rain still soaked his shoulder.
A few more minutes passed, and the bus still hadn’t come. Jiang Fu took a jacket out of his backpack, preparing to dash into the rain—if he waited any longer, he would completely miss this morning’s exam.
Through the misty haze of rain, Jiang Fu’s gaze caught sight of a half-grown child on the sidewalk.
A little boy in blue clothes was throwing a tantrum with his mother. After the two exchanged some words, the boy, face streaked with tears, ran wildly toward the road and at that very moment, the traffic light turned red, and a black car came speeding toward them.
Jiang Fu’s pupils contracted sharply. There was no time to think; his body reacted on its own, lunging forward to yank the boy back by the arm.
Another thunderclap exploded beside his ear. The high beams blinded Jiang Fu’s eyes, forcing them shut into a squint, and in a daze, he seemed to see a flash of white sweep past before him.
No time to think. Sharp pain shot through every part of his body, followed by a violent spinning sensation. The feeling of weightlessness made him gag, his ears rang with a “wuu” sound, and everything before his eyes went pitch black. He could see nothing.
After a long while, he finally heard the crowd’s cries of alarm, and felt the sting of raindrops hitting his face. Lightning flashed across the sky before his eyes, and amid the rumble of thunder, he heard someone shout: “Kid! Kid! Someone call an ambulance!”
Jiang Fu coughed a few times, and with difficulty managed to speak: “…No need, cough cough, I’m fine…”
“Huh?! He’s awake, he’s awake! Kid, are you hurt anywhere? Let’s get you to the hospital did you injure anything…?”
Jiang Fu pushed against the ground and struggled to sit up. By now the rain had weakened, falling gently on his face, nothing like its earlier fury.
Jiang Fu turned his head and in the crowd, he saw a face identical to his own, also sitting on the ground, surrounded by onlookers chattering questions from every direction.
Their eyes met, and both froze in place.
Jiang Fu couldn’t help touching his own face, an unfamiliar sensation then looked down at these hands: fair and smooth, clearly not his own at a glance.
“…”
Before he could even process this, the little boy was dragged by his collar and planted in front of him by his mother, who said sternly: “Quick! Apologize to this big brother! Do you have any idea you almost got hit by a car?! If it weren’t for these two big brothers, you’d be dead already! Do you understand?!”
The little boy was now crying miserably, snot and tears streaming, unable to say a word. His mother angrily slapped him twice, and still not satisfied, kicked him a couple more times.
After scolding the child, the woman hurried to take him to the hospital.
Jiang Fu said in a low voice: “It’s fine, I’m okay, there’s no need to go to the hospital.”
He paused for a moment, then got up from the ground, and saw that another middle-aged man was now helping “himself” walk over slowly.
The man was the driver. He and the woman both thought it would be best to go to the hospital for a checkup—if something were wrong inside his body, it would be a big problem.
Jiang Fu and “himself” exchanged a glance and said at the same time, “No need.”
“……”
What a damned coincidence.
After much persuasion, the two men were finally sent away, and the crowd that had gathered slowly dispersed. The heavy rain had completely stopped, it had come fast and gone fast too. The dark clouds in the sky gradually cleared, and sunlight began to blanket the earth.
The two of them sat silently on the nearby flower bed.
Jiang Fu heard the man speak in his own voice: “Right now, I’d really like someone to come tell me this is all a dream.”
Seeing that Jiang Fu wasn’t responding, he continued talking to himself: “Is this my punishment for doing a good deed? Heaven above bears witness shouldn’t the police officer be rewarding me with a little red flower instead?”
Jiang Fu: “……”
Suddenly, Jiang Fu felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, and at the same moment, the phone on his own body also chimed once.
The two silently exchanged phones. Jiang Fu unlocked it and saw a message from his homeroom teacher, asking why he hadn’t arrived yet. Jiang Fu briefly explained his situation, but omitted the absurd truth.
The homeroom teacher gave a few words of caution, then granted him half a day off.
“I feel like I’ve seen you somewhere before, Jiang Fu.”
Hearing the man call his name, Jiang Fu turned on the front-facing camera and saw a handsome face.
As it happened, he recognized this face too.
Jiang Fu called out his name with perfect accuracy: “Quan Zebai.”
Quan Zebai let out an exaggerated “Whoa.” “I didn’t expect you to know me. What an honor.”
Jiang Fu patted the water off his body and stood up from the steps. “Let’s go.”
Quan Zebai followed behind him, gazing at his own profile. “Go where?”
“Back to school.”
Quan Zebai froze in place and asked in disbelief, “Back to school? Just like that?”
As he spoke, he pointed at the two of their bodies.
Jiang Fu looked back at him. “Do you have a better idea?”
Quan Zebai thought about it, and it seemed he really didn’t.
This matter was simply beyond comprehension, it couldn’t be explained by science, morality, or common sense. Maybe theology could explain it?
While he was lost in thought, Jiang Fu had already walked a long way ahead. He hurried to catch up, his eyes glued unblinkingly to his own face.
Jiang Fu held back for a while, but couldn’t take it anymore, and said coldly, “What are you looking at?”
Quan Zebai answered frankly, “Looking at this face of mine. It looks pretty handsome from this angle.”
Jiang Fu stopped in his tracks and turned to look at him. “You’re using my body right now. Can you keep it under control?”
“What did I do? Am I not controlling it?”
“Do you want other people to find out about this?”
Quan Zebai thought about it, if everyone found out, they’d surely think the two of them had gone mad, or they’d be captured and used for some kind of experiment.
So he shook his head decisively.
Jiang Fu: “Then act the part.”
By the time the two returned to school together, the first class had already begun. That’s right—the two of them attended the same school, and not only that, they were in neighboring classes.
What an eerie twist of fate.
Jiang Fu took one last quiet look at the man, then turned and pushed open the classroom door.
Quan Zebai also knocked on his own classroom door. The sound of lecturing inside paused for a moment, followed by a stern female voice: “Come in.”
Quan Zebai walked in, and every gaze snapped toward him in unison.
Li Mengya stood at the podium. Seeing her student standing there drenched from the rain, she couldn’t help feeling a little worried, but she trusted that since this good student had shown up here safe and sound, it meant he had already handled whatever had happened.
So she said nothing more, just nodded for him to return to his seat.
Quan Zebai, carrying a backpack that wasn’t his, returned to a seat that wasn’t his, sat down, and endured the baptism of the entire class’s stares.
He decided that today was truly a shitshow of a day.
After listening to the lecture for a while, staring at the neatly written homework in Jiang Fu’s handwriting, Quan Zebai started to zone out. He wasn’t a good student to begin with, and often found his mind wandering mid-lesson.
This time, inevitably, his thoughts turned to Jiang Fu, the top student of Linyang No. 1 High School, a genuine academic star whom everyone studying here knew.
Quan Zebai touched the back of his neck, feeling somewhat unaccustomed something was missing there, and it felt strange.
Only then did he remember: Jiang Fu was a Beta, with no gland.
So this was what it felt like without a gland. In theory, a Beta’s body was physially weaker than an Alpha’s, but the muscles on Jiang Fu’s arms were in no way inferior to his own.
This contrast made Quan Zebai truly feel the absurd reality that this body was not his own.
Taking advantage of the teacher turning to write on the blackboard, he pulled out his phone and tried searching online, but the results were all things like “Looking for fic recs!”, “Is your brain broken?”, and “Recommendations for XXX psychiatric hospital”, not a single normal reply.
Quan Zebai absently doodled on Jiang Fu’s homework, unable to help musing, “Could it be that we have to go through that car accident again before we can swap back?”
He thought it over and decided it actually made a lot of sense, so he pulled out his phone again, planning to message Jiang Fu, only to discover he didn’t have the guy on WeChat.
He finally made it to the end of class, but just as he set off to find Jiang Fu, Li Mengya called him back and told him to come to the office.
Quan Zebai knew this teacher—she taught the experimental class, was highly capable, and was said to be very strict.
The moment he arrived at the office, Li Mengya gestured for Quan Zebai to sit down, looked him over worriedly, and asked, “Are you hurt? Didn’t I give you the afternoon off? Why did you come back for class?”
She didn’t seem nearly as strict as the rumors suggested but then he remembered that he was currently wearing Jiang Fu’s body, and as the teacher’s prized student, it was only natural for her to show extra concern.
Quan Zebai quickly said, “I’m fine, teacher. Nothing seriously wrong with me.”
Hearing this, Li Mengya relaxed, took a stack of test papers from her desk, and handed them over. “This morning’s test.”
Quan Zebai took them and was about to turn and leave when Li Mengya stopped him. “Oh, right, the financial aid you applied for last time has been approved. It’ll be deposited into your bank card in a few days.”
Financial aid?
Quan Zebai didn’t ask any further questions, gave a sound of acknowledgment, and pushed the door open to leave.
The moment he stepped out, he saw Jiang Fu standing not far away, apparently waiting for him.
Quan Zebai walked over with the test papers and shoved them into his arms. “Here. A reward for being late.”
After taking them, Jiang Fu pointed at the back of his neck. “Something feels a bit off here.”
Quan Zebai looked over and saw that the area around the gland was slightly red. Who knows what he was thinking, but his hand reached up and touched it, asking, “Here?”
A warm sensation came from that spot, and Jiang Fu instinctively slapped away his wrist.
Both of them froze.
Quan Zebai recovered first and said, “Sorry, I didn’t know touching you like that would make you uncomfortable.”
Jiang Fu was taken aback. “Why?”
Quan Zebai looked at him strangely. “You can’t just touch an Alpha’s gland randomly, didn’t you know? Did you never take a physiology class?”
Jiang Fu didn’t see anything odd about not knowing, and replied simply and plainly, “Betas don’t need to learn that.”
Quan Zebai found it amusing and crossed his arms. “I think you just weren’t paying attention, hm? Mr. Top Student? Model Pupil?”