Zhuang Xiaoyue’s shift in attitude toward him had actually been visible for quite some time.
Pei Xingzhi first became aware of it during an outing the two of them took together.
Alliance University was different from other schools. Due to its special nature, its campus was located in the heart of the capital, an area that was practically the most expensive piece of land aside from the central government district itself.
When the land was expensive, the things on top of it naturally cost even more.
If he hadn’t gotten into this school, Pei Xingzhi probably never would have imagined that a glass strawberry four or five centimeters in size could sell for nine thousand yuan.
So when he accidentally shattered a glass strawberry casually displayed on the counter while roughhousing with Zhuang Xiaoyue, he hesitated for the first time upon hearing the price after volunteering to cover the damages.
Nine thousand was a bit too steep for him.
In the past, he might have been able to scrape it together, but after paying his dormitory fees, he barely had anything left. His dad had secretly sent him money a few times, but Pei Xingzhi had transferred every bit of it to Zhuang Xiaoyue under various pretexts.
Zhuang Xiaoyue’s family circumstances were visibly impoverished, and it wasn’t uncommon for Omegas to go astray over money. Although Pei Xingzhi didn’t quite trust those people like Gu Xiang, he really didn’t want Zhuang Xiaoyue to get dragged into another incident like that because of money.
So, essentially, all his money was now on Zhuang Xiaoyue.
Pei Xingzhi scraped together every last bit of his funds, even using the review cashback from his last takeout order that he hadn’t redeemed yet, and still only managed to gather less than five thousand.
The server stood quietly to the side, holding the payment device, the corners of his mouth curved into a perfectly appropriate smile as he watched Pei Xingzhi frantically scramble to gather the money.
He had seen incidents like this far too many times to be surprised anymore.
“Sir, are you ready to make the payment?” the server asked with a gentle smile, his tone and pace of speech pleasant and comfortable.
But Pei Xingzhi had no mind to appreciate his good service. He looked up at him, then lowered his head and tapped the screen a few times with trembling fingers. The person on the other end of the chat window still hadn’t responded. His gaze flicked sideways at the server, and the head he’d just lifted dropped back down instantly. The corners of his mouth twitched a few times, but he still couldn’t manage to pull together a smile in response.
He shifted his gaze and cast a pleading look at Zhuang Xiaoyue.
“Xiaoyue, can you lend me four thousand first?” Pei Xingzhi kept his voice low, trying not to make his situation too conspicuous. “I’ll pay you back when we get back.”
Zhuang Xiaoyue kept his head down, fingers fidgeting nervously with the hem of his clothes. When he heard Pei Xingzhi ask to borrow money, he looked up at him, letting everyone see the tears on his face, then immediately lowered his head again and slowly forced out a few words in a voice thick with sobs.
“I… I don’t have any…”
It wasn’t common to see a Beta asking an Omega for money. The server raised an eyebrow, his lips parting and closing as if he wanted to say something, but out of professional decorum, he kept his mouth shut and showed no other emotion. He simply urged Pei Xingzhi again.
“If you’re unable to pay the full amount at once, sir, we do support installment payments. There will be a bit of interest involved, of course. Would that be acceptable to you?”
Pei Xingzhi pressed his lips together, biting his lower lip as he wrestled with the decision for a few seconds. In the end, he chose the installment plan.
After what had happened, neither of them was in the mood to continue shopping. Pei Xingzhi walked out of the mall, and Zhuang Xiaoyue, holding a paper bag, jogged a few steps to catch up from behind.
With the matter resolved, Zhuang Xiaoyue’s mood had returned to normal, and he followed behind Pei Xingzhi the whole way, apologizing to him.
Pei Xingzhi glanced at the bag in his hand, his face cold as he strode forward as if he hadn’t heard Zhuang Xiaoyue’s voice behind him, and finally turned at the elevator entrance to head for the stairwell.
Zhuang Xiaoyue followed Pei Xingzhi inside, and seeing him standing still against the wall, immediately stepped forward to grab his hands and looked up at him to apologize.
From that upward angle, Pei Xingzhi could see the tears on his face and the tear-filled eyes. Perhaps because his skin was too sensitive, Zhuang Xiaoyue’s nose was red, and his pitiful appearance made it hard for anyone to stay angry at him.
“Xiao Zhi, it’s not that I didn’t want to give you the money, I was just too scared earlier. Can we go pay it back now?” Zhuang Xiaoyue’s voice was a bit hoarse, and tears dripped onto Pei Xingzhi’s hand, the cold, damp touch softening his heart a little.
“I had the shopkeeper glue the strawberry back together.” Seeing Pei Xingzhi’s expression relax, Zhuang Xiaoyue immediately pulled the strawberry out of the paper bag like he was showing off a treasure.
Pei Xingzhi looked at the glass strawberry with its clearly visible cracks, his eyes flickering, and after a few seconds of silence, met Zhuang Xiaoyue’s gaze.
“Did you glue it?”
“Mm…” Zhuang Xiaoyue lowered his head, seeming a little embarrassed.
After all, Zhuang Xiaoyue was an Omega, so it was normal for him to be scared. Pei Xingzhi consoled himself with that thought.
“Forget it, let’s just leave it at that.” Pei Xingzhi gave in on his own. Arguing with Zhuang Xiaoyue wouldn’t solve anything anyway. Who told him to let his hero complex get the better of him and insist on shouldering the compensation alone? He’d just take this as a lesson.
After this incident, Pei Xingzhi unconsciously reduced the transfers he made to Zhuang Xiaoyue. Although Zhuang Xiaoyue didn’t say anything, his attitude toward him grew noticeably colder.
Pei Xingzhi didn’t take it to heart, only thinking that Gu Xiang’s incident had left a shadow on Zhuang Xiaoyue. He didn’t believe Zhuang Xiaoyue would really treat him as just a tool.
So when he was trapped in the utility room with Xie Nanyi because of Gu Xiang’s blockade, Pei Xingzhi deliberately waited a long time before sending a distress message to Zhuang Xiaoyue.
He couldn’t smell pheromones, and only now did it suddenly dawn on him that Zhuang Xiaoyue had probably sensed something at the time.
He didn’t know where Gu Xiang had gotten Zhuang Xiaoyue’s whereabouts, but Zhuang Xiaoyue thought he had tipped him off.
Zhuang Xiaoyue had never considered him a friend at all.
He had thought he could soften everything with his sincerity, but the truth told him it was all just his own fantasy.
He was just an ordinary Beta, unable to work miracles like a savior.
The verification had reached its conclusion, but Pei Xingzhi wasn’t happy.
This so-called friendship was just him deceiving himself. He had long known it was impossible, yet he still insisted on believing he could create a miracle.
Pei Xingzhi slowly crouched down, burying his head in his knees.
He just felt a little sad.
“Are you growing mushrooms?”
Xie Nanyi’s voice came from the doorway, and Pei Xingzhi stiffened, burying his head even deeper into his knees.
His eyes must be swollen from crying. If Xie Nanyi saw him like this, it would definitely become a dark history he’d remember for the rest of his life.
“Why aren’t you answering again, did you fall asleep?” Seeing no response, Xie Nanyi asked again.
The sound of footsteps grew closer, and Pei Xingzhi shuffled aside in an extremely awkward posture.
“You’re awake, so why aren’t you answering?”
Xie Nanyi crouched down beside him and reached out to tug at his arm.
“Get up.”
“I don’t want to.” Pei Xingzhi’s voice was muffled, the end of his sentence rising slightly.
“Don’t be childish.” Xie Nanyi withdrew his hand, observed him for a moment, then grabbed Pei Xingzhi by both arms and lifted him straight up into the air.
His body suddenly suspended, Pei Xingzhi’s mind failed to keep up with his muscle memory, and he slapped Xie Nanyi with a sharp “smack.”
The blow left them both a bit awkward, frozen for a full seven or eight seconds before either reacted with their next move.
Pei Xingzhi shook off Xie Nanyi’s hand. It was already like this, if Xie Nanyi was going to see him, then so be it. He didn’t have anything more embarrassing left anyway.
“Anger gone?”
Seeing Pei Xingzhi puffing out his cheeks and staring at him with bright, intense eyes, Xie Nanyi couldn’t help but let out a soft laugh.
Just moments ago he’d looked like he was at death’s door, and now he was suddenly full of energy. Just like the little dog he’d raised as a child, even if he’d just scolded it, give it a bit of food and it would come wagging its tongue right back over.
“I wasn’t angry.” Pei Xingzhi tilted his head up to glare at Xie Nanyi before returning to a level gaze. Xie Nanyi was too tall, looking up at him robbed Pei Xingzhi of any presence, so he had to resort to this method to show his defiance.
“I wouldn’t get angry over Zhuang Xiaoyue.”
He’d sensed it coming long ago; this was just grief now.
“Gu Xiang marked Zhuang Xiaoyue.”
“What?”
Pei Xingzhi, who had been putting on airs just moments before, snapped his head up to look at Xie Nanyi at those words. He stepped forward, closing the distance between them on his own initiative, grabbing his collar and demanding he repeat himself.
“Gu Xiang has already marked Zhuang Xiaoyue, it’s a permanent mark.” Pei Xingzhi’s rudeness didn’t anger Xie Nanyi. He patiently pried Pei Xingzhi’s fingers apart and folded his hand into his own palm.
“When did this happen?” Pei Xingzhi’s throat ached, something rolling through his chest and leaving only a dense, stabbing pain behind. “He’s a low-grade Omega, how could he be marked?”
“Before my first meeting with you. Gu Xiang used some special means…” Xie Nanyi paused, then added: “It wasn’t good for Zhuang Xiaoyue…”
Before the first meeting…
Pei Xingzhi gripped Xie Nanyi’s hand, squeezing so hard his fingertips turned white.
“Didn’t you already sense it long ago? Why are you still this upset?” Xie Nanyi let him squeeze his hand, gently patting his shoulder to let him lean against him.
The matter of Zhuang Xiaoyue and Gu Xiang wasn’t hard to investigate. Xie Nanyi only needed a rough look to understand the whole story.
Zhuang Xiaoyue really did lack money, a gambling father, a gravely ill mother, a younger brother in school, and himself as an Omega. In any other setting, it would be the standard opening for a pitiful little Omega.
But unfortunately, Gu Xiang wasn’t his “fierce Alpha.”
Gu Xiang was just an unloved child of the Gu family. The money he used to buy Zhuang Xiaoyue wasn’t the nine hundred thousand he claimed, at most, it was only about a hundred thousand.
A hundred thousand thrown into the bottomless pit of Zhuang Xiaoyue’s family wouldn’t even make a sound.
Gu Xiang looked stupid, but he wasn’t truly stupid.
The contract he signed with Zhuang Xiaoyue clearly stated ninety thousand, and the remaining eighty thousand did indeed pass through Zhuang Xiaoyue’s hands.
But Gu Xiang had used it all to buy his own admission slot.
Zhuang Xiaoyue was very smart, but he had grown up too poor. Things that others treated as common knowledge, he had never even heard of.
So when Gu Xiang told him that without enough money, a low-grade Omega like him would be rejected from the Alliance University even with sufficient exam scores, Zhuang Xiaoyue believed it.
He wanted to escape that den of misery, by any means necessary.
He kept ten thousand for his mother’s medical expenses and gave the remaining eighty thousand to Gu Xiang, asking him to “buy back” his admission slot.
It wasn’t until Zhuang Xiaoyue entered the Alliance University that he realized Gu Xiang had deceived him. But his “indenture contract” was already signed, if he broke it, he would owe Gu Xiang ninety thousand in compensation.
Under pressure from all sides, Zhuang Xiaoyue agreed to Gu Xiang’s demand for a permanent mark. As a low-grade Omega, he couldn’t undergo a true marking. He didn’t know what method Gu Xiang had used, but after a night of torment, when he woke again, the mark had already formed.
It was a one-sided mark belonging only to Zhuang Xiaoyue. He had become a dog at Gu Xiang’s beck and call, a dog that could never leave its master for life.
Ninety thousand wasn’t enough to buy a university admission slot, but ten thousand bought out Zhuang Xiaoyue’s entire life.
A pitiful story.
But how innocent was Pei Xingzhi in all this?
Xie Nanyi carried Pei Xingzhi to the sofa, crouched before him, and slowly told him Zhuang Xiaoyue’s story. Pei Xingzhi hadn’t yet recovered from the shock, and Xie Nanyi could feel his sorrow just by looking at him.
He crouched in front of Pei Xingzhi, gently stroking his cheek.
“I had someone change your dormitory. You should have already moved by now. Do you want to go check if you left anything behind?”
“Thank you.” Pei Xingzhi let out a long sigh. “Can you do me a favor?”
“What?”
“I want to find a lawyer for Zhuang Xiaoyue, one who can win against that contract.”