Xiao Shuqing and Yu Siyuan were entirely oblivious to what happened at the law firm after they left.
The two made their way over to the notary office, and by the time they finished the entire process, it was nearly noon.
Yu Siyuan had ordered the ingredients for lunch ahead of time on his phone. When they finally arrived home with their freshly bathed and groomed massive dog, the delivery driver arrived at almost the exact same moment.
Their division of labor was clear: Xiao Shuqing headed into the kitchen to steam some meat for Saisa, while Yu Siyuan cooked right beside him.
The kid was clearly a seasoned professional. His knife danced across the cutting board at lightning speed, his process meticulously organized. First, he finely chopped the green onions, ginger, and garlic, tossing them with various seasoning sauces to marinate the fish. Next, he swiftly washed the rice, dumped it into the rice cooker, and set the timer. After that, he immediately turned his attention to prepping the beef for the meatball soup.
A meat dish, a vegetable dish, a pot of soup, and a fresh pot of rice—he managed to pull everything together in under half an hour.
In the end, Xiao Shuqing looked at the single plate of steamed salmon and single plate of chicken breast that had taken him thirty minutes to complete, and then at the spread of color, aroma, and flavor the kid had laid out on the dining table.
Sinking under a profound sense of self-inflicted shame, he took his seat at the table.
The stir-fried smoked pork with green bamboo shoots utilized a Sichuan-style cured meat. With one bite, the savory, fragrant, and spicy flavors exploded across his taste buds.
The steamed sea bass was marinated with chopped chili peppers, which locked in the fish’s natural freshness without letting it taste bland—perfect to pair with rice.
Finally, he ladled a spoonful of beef soup over his rice.
In all his years, Xiao Shuqing had never eaten home-cooked food this delicious. It tasted like it was made by a chef, yet lacked the heavy, overpowering grease of restaurant food; it felt comforting like home cooking, but with a depth of flavor that far exceeded standard home fare. In short, it spoke directly to his stomach.
The two ate face-to-face in silence. For a while, the only sounds in the room were Saisa crunching away heartily at his food and the quiet clink of soup spoons against bowls.
Right in the middle of their meal, the phone resting on the sofa suddenly began to ring.
The notification chimes went off one after another, sounding exceptionally frantic.
“So many messages out of nowhere. Is it something for work?” Xiao Shuqing got up and fetched the phone for him.
The Alpha shook his head. “Probably not. I set all my work group chats to mute. Hm, it’s Fu Bao. I wonder what’s wrong.”
He unlocked his phone to read the messages.
The more he read, the tighter his brow furrowed, and even his chewing slowed to a crawl.
“What’s wrong?” Xiao Shuqing asked, noticing his sudden change in demeanor.
To his surprise, the usually mild-mannered and soft Alpha suddenly slammed the phone onto the table with a sharp thwack, looking furious. “Fu Bao said someone is spreading rumors about the two of us in class. They are so bored.”
The kid scowled, the beauty mark centered on his forehead flushing a deeper crimson from his irritation.
Xiao Shuqing was inexplicably reminded of a video he had seen before: a rabbit’s owner kept placing a bunch of wooden sticks in front of it, and the little bunny got so angry it stopped eating its hay, puffing up its belly until its entire body expanded by a whole circle.
Yin Yu had been the one to send him that video.
At the time, Yin Yu had texted: Even though it’s probably furious, it’s so Alpha-ing cute, ahhh! Evil humans, how could they tease it like that, hahaha! I could watch this all day!
Back then, Xiao Shuqing hadn’t quite understood: What’s so funny about that? How is that cute?
But now, looking at the kid in front of him who was too angry to even finish his meal.
The man pressed the back of his hand to his lips to hide his rising smile, quietly averting his gaze.
“Professor Xiao, are you actually laughing?”
The kid was incredulous.
He looked up, his amber eyes wide with profound bewilderment.
Cough. Caught red-handed.
The man quickly forced his smile down, picked up the largest piece of fish, and placed it into the boy’s bowl. “Eat up. Don’t let the fish go to waste.”
Yu Siyuan: “??”
His confusion was practically visible to the naked eye.
Xiao Shuqing: “?”
Fine. Deflecting failed. And the joke really wasn’t funny.
He turned back and wiped the amusement from his expression. “Cough, sorry, I zoned out a bit just now. What’s this about rumors? Tell me.”
Only then did Yu Siyuan remember the matter at hand. He slid the phone over to face him.
Fu Bao: Yuanyuan, Ah Zheng just messaged me to ask about you and Professor Xiao. I’ll copy and paste it for you.
Fu Bao [Forwarded]: What’s the deal with Yu Siyuan and that Omega of his? I heard rumors going around saying that the Omega was married before and just had his mark surgically removed. I don’t mean anything by it, just wanted to give you guys a heads-up. This story is spreading like wildfire. They know I’m close to you, but they don’t dare ask you directly, so a bunch of them have come to ask me.
Fu Bao: There are a few other chat logs, I’ll forward them to you.
Xiao Shuqing tapped open the forwarded chat logs. They were filled with foul language and eye-searing vitriol.
He had only casually fabricated a sentence or two back then, but these people had managed to stitch it together into a full-blown narrative. They had woven together characters, backgrounds, and every minute detail, adding plenty of oil and vinegar to cook up a plot so melodramatic and exaggerated it bordered on ridiculous.
The rumors claimed he had married the wrong man, that his former Alpha had cheated on him, and that the mistress had even shown up at his door, causing him to miscarry from sheer rage. Supposedly, Yu Siyuan had been secretly, bitterly in love with him for a long time but had always been rejected because Yu Siyuan was too poor and saddled with massive debts. Later, when the mistress came to usurp his position with a heavily pregnant belly, he was completely abandoned by his Alpha. Seeing that Yu Siyuan had nearly paid off his debts, he had then shamelessly crawled back to cling to him.
To summarize it in a single sentence: he was thoroughly shameless, and Yu Siyuan was completely blind.
Tsk, tsk, tsk. A blind Alpha and a wretched Omega made a perfect pair—locked together for eternity.
After reading the messages, Xiao Shuqing stroked his chin. Spreading sexual rumors, their tactics really lacked originality.
Just as he was about to comment on it, another text popped up at the bottom of the chat box:
Fu Bao: Yuanyuan, make sure you don’t tell your partner about this! Especially the stuff Ah Zheng sent! I knew an Omega before who had rumors spread about him by an Alpha who couldn’t get him to date him. He ended up with severe depression and it took years to get under control. He was self-harming for an entire year.
Since Yu Siyuan had leaned in closer while Xiao Shuqing was reading, both of them saw the message at the exact same time.
Sensing something, Xiao Shuqing turned his head. Sure enough, Yu Siyuan was staring at him, his two eyes wide and round.
He looked completely shocked and utterly at a loss.
Xiao Shuqing: “I don’t think I’m quite that fragile.”
The moment the words left his mouth, Ruan Fu—as if he could somehow hear him through the screen—sent another message:
Fu Bao: Don’t take it lightly. Omegas have very sensitive minds, unlike Alphas. Omegas care a lot about this kind of stuff; it’s very easy for them to overthink and get stuck in a dark place they can’t get out of.
Xiao Shuqing: “?”
He helplessly pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m almost thirty. An old man. My emotions are very stable—”
Before he could even finish his sentence, the little Alpha next to him suddenly seemed to snap out of it. With a sharp smack, he slammed his palm flat over the screen.
He then rapidly snatched the phone away, his fingers flying across the screen as he typed furiously.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. He fired off several messages in a row before sheepishly sliding the phone back over.
“Um, I’m sorry.”
Pfft.
The way he carefully handed over the phone looked exactly like a guilty child surrendering contraband to a teacher.
Besides, Xiao Shuqing had already read everything anyway, so why bother pushing the phone back over now?
“Um, Professor Xiao, don’t care about what they say. The stuff they made up is so low-class, anyone can see it’s fake. Only an idiot would believe it. The people who choose to believe it are either malicious or stupid. We won’t waste our anger on big idiots, okay?”
The Alpha tilted his chin up slightly, staring at him without blinking, his expression earnest and innocent.
Xiao Shuqing’s lips curled into a smile. Brushing a stray hair from his temple, he took the “surrendered” phone. “Did Ruan Fu teach you to say that?”
The Alpha’s gaze tracked his movements closely. “Some of it was what Fu Bao said, but I added my own interpretation too. I thought what he said made a lot of sense. Um, actually, I have other reasons too, do you dislike hearing this kind of reasoning? I heard that Alphas who talk like this give off ‘mansplaining dad’ energy.”
Hearing the phrase “mansplaining dad energy,” Xiao Shuqing couldn’t hold it in any longer and burst out laughing.
“You’ve managed to ask and answer your own questions entirely. You aren’t very old, but you certainly overthink things,” he said. Without a second thought, he hit the button to place a WeChat voice call to Ruan Fu. “But today, I need to teach you a new trick. You only talk things out when you’re too weak to win. When you have the power to crush them, you don’t talk—you just drop the hammer.”
Yu Siyuan’s eyes widened in sheer astonishment.
Before Yu Siyuan could even manage a word, Ruan Fu’s ecstatic voice exploded from the receiver: “Seriously? We’re going after Tao Jing? How are we doing it! What can I do for you guys—wait, no, what can I do to destroy him?”
“I’ll need you to collect as many of the rumors as possible; the more, the better,” Xiao Shuqing replied calmly. “Also, see if you can get concrete proof that Tao Jing is the one spreading them. You can try to bait him into talking, or use a bit of reverse psychology to trick him into sending chat logs. I’m going to consult a lawyer and have a formal demand letter drawn up.”
The person on the other end of the line practically rubbed his hands together in glee. “Are we suing him? Oh, right, doesn’t this already count as defamation and infringement on personal reputation rights? Do it, sue him! We can finally settle the score for what he did to our Yuanyuan back then too!
“Every single day, he’d tell everyone that Yuanyuan was secretly in love with him and chasing after him. Even if Yuanyuan gave him the tiniest, most insignificant thing, he just had to post it online for show, terrified that people wouldn’t know! Wasn’t it just because our Yuanyuan was ranked first in the grade, and getting gifts from him fed his ego? He leeched off Yuanyuan’s reputation while simultaneously telling everyone Yuanyuan wasn’t good enough for him. Utterly sickening! I’ve wanted to take him down for ages!”
Before Yu Siyuan could even process what was happening, he realized his best friend had just aired out all of his dirty laundry in one clean sweep. He hadn’t even had time to stop him.
He turned his head with utmost caution, only to see the exquisite man opposite him raise a single eyebrow.
“Oh?” Xiao Shuqing said. “He bullied Yuanyuan too? Then I suppose I’ll just have to be a little more ruthless.”
Ruan Fu’s voice grew even more manic over the receiver, howling to know what “more ruthless” meant, but Yu Siyuan could no longer hear a thing.
The only things left in his line of sight were the Omega’s long hair, the slight curve of his lips, and the arch of his brow from just a moment ago.
Until.
The man hung up the phone and waved a slender, pale hand in front of his face, snapping his fingers twice. “Earth to Yuanyuan. What are you spacing out for now?”
Yu Siyuan hurriedly dropped his gaze in a panic. “I’m not.”
“Not curious? Ruan Fu begged me for so long, and I didn’t say a word to him.”
The man rested his chin in one hand, watching him quietly. A few stray strands of his long hair brushed against the edge of the table. There was a teasing, playful glint in his amber eyes.
“C—curious,” Yu Siyuan heard his own voice stammer.
The man let out a soft huff of a laugh. He slid the phone over to him and tapped open an audio recording.
The next second, a crisp, clear voice echoed from the speaker: Yu Siyuan, didn’t you always like me? Or do you think I’m dirty now just because someone else marked me?
It was the recording of the phone call from the day Tao Jing had cornered him at his company and he had called Xiao Shuqing.
“If everyone finds out that the inspiration for all the rumors he fabricated actually came from himself, wouldn’t that make for a spectacular show?”
The man’s voice remained perfectly steady as he looked at him.
But Yu Siyuan could swear he could hear the thumping of his own heart.