Chu Huaize acted like a man of noble character, successfully killing his own thoughts in his heart.
He lowered his eyes to look at the sleeping Qi Yang, his gaze completely filled with affection.
“I’m a little sorry for today. Can you forgive me?”
Qi Yang gave a vague, mumbled hum and continued to sleep soundly against Chu Huaize’s shoulder.
Chu Huaize wasn’t familiar with Qi Yang’s house, and he only knew a little bit about his own place. There weren’t many rooms, so he would just search slowly.
Supporting Qi Yang with one hand, Chu Huaize pushed open a bedroom door with the other. He tried two rooms, but the interior layouts were both extremely simple, looking just like guest rooms.
That’s strange. There were a total of three bedrooms, and two of them were decorated like guest rooms. Were Qi Yang’s parents really this minimalist?
In the end, he finally walked into Qi Yang’s room, which was the smallest one of all.
Chu Huaize had assumed Qi Yang would live in one of the two largest rooms.
The blue-toned bedroom made everything look cold and distant. Qi Yang’s wall-to-wall bookshelf was packed with study materials and classic literature, and only a single obscure hidden compartment seemed to hold books other than textbooks. The single bed beside it showed some signs of someone having sat on it; Qi Yang must have gotten down from there just moments ago.
The room was rather empty, lacking any extra decorations. Since he was still carrying Qi Yang, he couldn’t wander around any further.
Chu Huaize carried Qi Yang over and placed him on the bed, thoughtfully pulling the blanket up over him.
Squatting down, Chu Huaize looked at Qi Yang in front of him. Qi Yang was dreaming beneath the blanket, his expression alternating between crying and laughing as he occasionally muttered a few words in his sleep, “You… get lost…”
Naturally, Chu Huaize didn’t think he was talking about him, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t talking about the version of him in the game.
“Forgive me, all right?”
“I’ll take your silence as forgiveness.”
Naturally, Qi Yang wasn’t going to reply to his words right now, and staying crouched here wasn’t a solution either. He stood up, preparing to leave.
Chu Huaize rose to his feet and watched Qi Yang for a little longer. Qi Yang showed no sign of waking up whatsoever. Stepping out of the room, he gently closed the bedroom door behind him.
On the coffee table in the living room, a few items were still scattered haphazardly. After tidying everything up, he returned home with deep reluctance.
Reuniting with an old friend, things had long since changed and people were no longer the same.
Qi Yang’s sleep was quite restless, yet it wasn’t too bad either. When he woke up from his slumber, he vaguely remembered that he seemed to have forgotten someone, and that right before falling asleep, he had been watching a horror movie.
“This is killing me! I actually fell asleep—what about Chu Huaize?” Qi Yang sat up in dismay, then buried his face in his hands, berating himself for being so frivolous. How could he possibly fall asleep in front of an Alpha? He wasn’t taking his own safety seriously at all.
Qi Yang turned around, preparing to get out of bed, when he noticed a piece of paper resting on the bedside table. It must have been taken from Qi Yang’s desk, and it was a note left behind for him by Chu Huaize.
Qi Yang felt embarrassed as he got up to freshen up. Letting someone watch a horror movie at his house, only to fall asleep and have that same person carry him into his bedroom—it was simply humiliating.
Qi Yang glanced out the window; the sky had already turned dark. He sat up from the bed, staring blankly ahead with unseeing eyes to collect his thoughts.
Once he had processed things enough, he picked up the note lying on the bedside table.
The handwriting on the note was as pleasing to the eye as ever: I packed the cookies for you in a clean bag. Remember to drink some warm water when you wake up, and I’ll go to school with you tomorrow morning.
Qi Yang stared at the note, unable to snap out of it for a long time. So this was what it felt like to be reminded of things by someone. He had been relied upon for too long, almost forgetting that he too could lean on someone else for a change.
Qi Yang woke up at a very awkward time—he woke up at nine o’clock at night, which was an awkward time node where it was neither time for dinner nor time for sleep.
Qi Yang got up from bed, planning to put on his VR glasses and play for a while. There was no warm family atmosphere in the house, and since he didn’t want to watch TV, he could only play this somewhat comforting game—at least there were still people who could accompany him to play.
Qi Yang muttered to himself, “I might as well play the training camp mode to hone my skills.”
Before putting on the glasses, Qi Yang stretched his body briefly to avoid physical fatigue from staying in the game too long, and then he put on the equipment to enter the game.
After logging into the game interface, Qi Yang looked at his avatar model—this was a handsome face he had specifically researched and modeled for several days.
Observing the head of white hair on his game model, Qi Yang fell deep into thought. Should he change it to green?
On second thought, he decided against it; it was a bit too avant-garde and he wouldn’t be able to pull it off.
He adjusted the brightness of his built-in room to daytime.
Qi Yang deliberately searched out a sea of flowers to practice sniping. Why a sea of flowers?
Because this place had butterflies. Since he couldn’t beat real people, he might as well bully the butterflies.
In the end, Qi Yang abandoned this decision. When it came down to it, his heart softened after all; such a beautiful creature as a butterfly should be left for appreciation.
He picked a training ground and lay prone there to practice sniping for half a day, firing away relentlessly at the targets.
His mind was completely filled with the head of that Peanut For Me. Every single shot represented his bitter hatred toward him, resenting him for not giving him a decent gaming experience.
Before long, Qi Yang started feeling bored. He checked the time and realized he had actually played games for two hours—time really flew by.
Qi Yang took off the equipment, cleaned up everything, and calculated the time. His parents should have finished their experiment by now.
After washing up, he lay back down in bed and took out his mobile phone, which was always neglected. The pinned messages hadn’t changed by even a fraction.
Qi Yang looked at the very last pinned message, which was still a video call from about twenty-five minutes ago.
Silently, he thought of those two parents who cared for him through an electronic screen.
Right at that moment, a video call pinged his phone just like it always did.
Qi Yang tapped open the phone, but instead of seeing his parents appearing side by side on the screen, a haggard-looking woman came into view. Her features were delicate, but long hours of research had left her complexion devoid of rosy warmth, making it look rather dull instead.
She forced herself to perk up and greeted her son.
“Xiao Qi, are you nervous about school starting tomorrow?”
Qi Yang adjusted his mindset and spoke in a tone designed not to worry his parents, “How could I possibly be nervous? If someone ranked first like me is nervous, then how are the rest of them supposed to survive?”
Even though Pei Yi was so exhausted that her eyes were on the verge of closing, she still forced herself to stay awake and chat with Qi Yang, “That’s true.” Regarding her unannounced departure that morning, Pei Yi still felt quite guilty, “Xiao Qi, I’m sorry. The kids in the lab said they made a new research discovery, so we left in a bit of a rush and didn’t get to say goodbye to you.”
Qi Yang looked relaxed and showed no sign of blame at all, “It’s fine. Aren’t we talking now?”
Pei Yi stretched lazily and let out another yawn, “Doing research today was so exhausting~ Lao Qi has already fallen asleep, but I figured my precious son would be lonely without seeing his beautiful mother, so I decided to grace you with my presence and check in on you. Did you miss me?”
Qi Yang smiled helplessly, “I did. Hurry up and go get Empress Mother’s beauty sleep, otherwise you won’t be able to compete with those twenty-something girls.”
Pei Yi feigned indignation, “Hey? How can you compare me to those kids? How old does your mother look?”
Qi Yang suddenly remembered that he was going to live at the school dorms, so he felt he should report this to his mother, “Oh, right, we have to stay at the school dorms this semester.”
Pei Yi didn’t react much upon hearing this and even fully approved. To liven up the atmosphere, she proactively teased Qi Yang, “Just in case, since we’ll be super busy this semester, have fun playing at school… You’d better find some little boyfriend to keep you company, but remember to protect yourself well and don’t do anything you’ll regret.”
Qi Yang found it somewhat hard to accept these words. What kind of parents encouraged their child to get into puppy love? The Pei family?
“Mom? Other people’s parents try to stop their kids from dating early, but you’re doing the opposite—telling me to find a little boyfriend? Aren’t you afraid I’ll get pregnant out of wedlock?”
Hearing this, Pei Yi actually paused to think about it seriously.
And then the words she spoke next still left Qi Yang unable to calm down for a long time, “Let’s hold off on having kids for now; you’re too young, and you won’t be able to raise them if you have them. Wait until mom finishes her work and can help you raise the child, then you can have one.”
The voice on the phone paused for another moment.
“The most important point: find an Alpha! You must find someone even more reliable than your dad, and use your dad as the benchmark.”
“Why can’t I find a Beta?”
The voice on the screen replied to Qi Yang without a moment’s hesitation, “Alphas are physically stronger and can protect you, so you won’t have to work hard to protect them. After all, being an Omega means you’re at a relatively weaker disadvantage physically.”
Pei Yi waved her hand dismissively, “Oh well~ genders don’t really matter. Finding someone who truly loves you is the most important thing. So, just as long as you don’t bring an Omega home for me, that’s fine.”
Silently in his heart, Qi Yang offered a prayer for his mother. She must have fried her brains doing experiments and started talking nonsense in the middle of the night.
“Don’t worry, your son doesn’t like Omegas. Aren’t you afraid that puppy love will affect my studies? I’m going to stubbornly defend my rank as the top student in our grade. I won’t be like dad, whose willpower wasn’t firm—he got captivated by a beauty right away and happily settled for second place in the grade the whole time. That’s wrong.”
The woman waved her hand reassuringly, “Our family has money; it’s enough for you to spend for several lifetimes. Besides, our Xiao Qi is so sensible—you handle your studies all by yourself without your parents ever needing to worry.”
Then she refuted his final point, “Don’t talk nonsense, will you? I was clearly much better than your dad. Back then, I was always first place; it’s just that he had certain subjects that stood out more and made him more eye-catching across the whole school. Who didn’t know your dad was a notoriously flamboyant show-off back then? If it weren’t for me, he might not even have managed to hold onto his second-place ranking in the grade.”
Pei Yi watched Qi Yang nod, then delivered her satisfying final sentence for the day.
“Studying isn’t the only way out; it’s just a shortcut. Studying happily is what matters most. Don’t put illusory pressure on yourself, you have your parents backing you up. Anyway, all the money at home is saved up for you.”
Qi Yang nodded to show his agreement, then urged Pei Yi to go to sleep.
“Mom, go to sleep early. Remember to come back and visit me soon.”
Pei Yi waved at Qi Yang and then hung up the phone, “Mm, good night, Xiao Qi.”
The whole process only took about fifteen minutes, but Qi Yang was already quite satisfied. Electronic parents were still parents, especially when they were played by real people.
Qi Yang put down his phone, suddenly feeling an urge to look at his childhood photo album. He got up and went to the bookshelf to find the photo album.
The album had been placed in a rather out-of-the-way spot. Qi Yang could never truly let go of his parents; his subconscious always kept telling him, your parents love you very much, very much.
He couldn’t bring himself to lose his temper at his parents; he knew it was useless, feeling rather like punching cotton.
He flipped through the slightly yellowed photographs. A happy photo of the three of them together looked somewhat glaringly bright. How long had it been since he had smiled that happily?
He couldn’t remember anymore.