Xie Nanyi’s voice drifted over from behind the two of them, and Zhuang Xiaoyue, who had been listless just a moment ago, immediately perked up. Pei Xingzhi used every ounce of his strength but still couldn’t stop him from sliding toward Xie Nanyi’s voice.
“What happened between you two?! How did you get our Pei Xingzhi to take responsibility?” Zhuang Xiaoyue’s words were spoken with righteous indignation, if not for the fact that his gossip-hungry gaze was currently darting back and forth between the two of them.
“Xingzhi just now and I, mm-”
Xie Nanyi had barely started his sentence when Pei Xingzhi charged over from the doorway, clamped his hand over Xie Nanyi’s mouth, and swiftly dragged him out. Zhuang Xiaoyue tried to voice a verbal objection, but by the time he opened his mouth, the two were already gone.
He’d been inexplicably summoned here, taken a massive hit of Alpha pheromones, had his curiosity piqued, and then been left alone in this place.
Zhuang Xiaoyue looked at the iron door lying on the floor, then resentfully propped it back up against the storage room.
What the hell were those two up to, and how did they even break the door?
Could they have gotten into a fight?
That thought had barely surfaced before Zhuang Xiaoyue suppressed it again.
Given the two of their strength levels, if they’d really fought, Pei Xingzhi wouldn’t be standing in front of him on his own two feet.
But the sheer amount of pheromones filling this room was really a bit…
Zhuang Xiaoyue’s runaway imagination suddenly snapped back, and his hand, which was holding the iron door, began to tremble slightly.
Who said fighting only had one form…
A few classrooms nearby were still being used by others, and Pei Xingzhi didn’t want to draw attention, so he dragged the man straight into the restroom.
“Xie Nanyi!”
Pei Xingzhi practically ground out his name through clenched teeth, and Xie Nanyi could even hear the sound of his molars grating. If circumstances allowed, Pei Xingzhi probably really wanted to bite him a couple of times to vent his anger.
“Yeah.”
Xie Nanyi nodded, reached out to pinch Pei Xingzhi’s chin, and pressed his thumb against his lower lip with a bit of force. His movement was too sudden, Pei Xingzhi wasn’t on guard, and his thumb slipped smoothly into his mouth.
His knuckle pressed against Pei Xingzhi’s teeth, and Pei Xingzhi, with his finger in his mouth, was forced to open up.
“What are you doing? Take it out now!”
He vaguely sensed that Xie Nanyi seemed to be sexually harassing him, but he couldn’t just bite down to vent his frustration, so all he could do was make garbled sounds telling Xie Nanyi to take his finger out.
“Stop grinding your teeth, what if you wear down your canine?” Xie Nanyi ignored Pei Xingzhi’s fierce attitude, gave his lip a suggestive rub, and then withdrew his finger.
Pei Xingzhi’s canine was only on the right side. Because his teeth were asymmetrical, Pei Xingzhi had always thought that lone, rebellious tooth was ugly and tried his best not to show it when he spoke.
He already hated that about himself, and Xie Nanyi just had to bring it up.
“Even if I grind my canine flat, it’s none of your business!”
Xie Nanyi’s goofy, grinning attitude made Pei Xingzhi even more furious. He held back again and again until finally he slammed his fist into the wall behind Xie Nanyi.
“Ow! That hurts!”
The school restroom’s construction was anything but shoddy, the walls were covered in thick ceramic tiles, harder than an ordinary wall by a long shot. When Pei Xingzhi threw that punch, the wall didn’t have a scratch on it, but his hand took the full brunt of it.
“You’re… kabedoning me?”
Pei Xingzhi couldn’t understand what kind of logic Xie Nanyi was running on. Did his behavior really look like he was kabedoning someone?
“I was trying to punch you!” He raised his hand, red from the impact, and grabbed Xie Nanyi by the collar, pulling him close. “If you keep spreading rumors, that punch is going straight to your face!”
“But everything I said was true. Xiao Zhi really did do something bad to me. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be feeling so awful.” Xie Nanyi lowered his gaze, feigning innocence, which made Pei Xingzhi want to land that punch on his face right then and there.
“That wasn’t what I wanted! You’re the one who reacted on your own, why are you blaming me?”
Pei Xingzhi stared at him with clear, honest eyes, completely missing the deeper meaning in Xie Nanyi’s words. Xie Nanyi covered his mouth, unable to hold back a laugh.
“Xiao Zhi is such a good boy. But I really like good kids like you.”
“Pei. Xing. Zhi.”
Before the two could settle their score, Zhuang Xiaoyue started wailing about something else from down the hall. When they went over, Zhuang Xiaoyue was hugging the iron door in the corridor, shouting Pei Xingzhi’s name, while the club president stood behind him with his hands clasped behind his back, pointing and lecturing with an air of authority.
The moment he spotted Pei Xingzhi, Zhuang Xiaoyue tossed the iron door aside and ran toward him, sobbing.
“Pei Xingzhi! Your club president is insane! I didn’t even break that door, but he’s still making me pay for it, he’s clearly trying to scam me!”
Pei Xingzhi caught the sniffling Zhuang Xiaoyue as he ran over, but the iron door Zhuang Xiaoyue had thrown landed squarely on the president. The president was an Alpha, and out of defensive instinct, he caught the door with more force than necessary, accidentally leaving another fist-shaped dent in it.
Pei Xingzhi looked at the mark on the door, then raised his hand to examine his own still-red knuckles.
So this was the genetic advantage, huh, even physical ability showed the difference.
“President…”
Seeing the familiar door, Pei Xingzhi instinctively turned to exchange a glance with Xie Nanyi. Under Pei Xingzhi’s intense silent prompting, Xie Nanyi finally stepped forward on his own.
“President, I’m the one who broke this door. I was trying to sweep the floor earlier and used too much force when opening it. I’ll have someone fix it tomorrow.”
The president had assumed from Pei Xingzhi’s hesitation that he was involved, and had been ready to launch into a long lecture, but Xie Nanyi’s words cut him off. He opened his mouth, then swallowed the criticism he was about to deliver.
“So Xie Nanyi broke it. No problem, no problem, just put it back on and it’s fine.” The president chuckled, carrying the door back into the classroom. When he came out, his earlier authoritative air was completely gone.
“What are you doing here? When Pei Xingzhi asked me for the key, I thought he’d be here alone, so I just came by to check.” The president gestured at Pei Xingzhi with a cigarette between his fingers.
Pei Xingzhi forced a smile in return. Zhuang Xiaoyue tugged at his sleeve, signaling him to leave quickly. With two Alphas gathered together, Pei Xingzhi couldn’t sense it, but Zhuang Xiaoyue was feeling increasingly uncomfortable.
Pei Xingzhi understood, but since the door was broken by him and Xie Nanyi together, he felt awkward letting Xie Nanyi cover the full cost. After a moment’s hesitation, he spoke up.
“Xie Nanyi, if anything comes up, contact me. President, we’ll be going now.”
The club president wasn’t curious about Pei Xingzhi’s whereabouts and waved him off. Xie Nanyi wanted to say something, but Pei Xingzhi didn’t give him the chance. Based on last time’s experience, he grabbed Zhuang Xiaoyue and bolted, the two of them not stopping until they’d run out of the building.
“Stop… stop running…” Zhuang Xiaoyue crouched half-down, panting. If only Pei Xingzhi moved this fast when picking up food orders.
“You’re seriously lacking exercise.”
“Try being surrounded by two Alphas yourself? You’re only fine because you’re a Beta and can’t smell the pheromones, otherwise, you’d be way worse off than me!” Especially since one of them seemed to be in his rut; the Alpha pheromones were crushing him to the point of suffocation.
Pei Xingzhi made no comment on that. He couldn’t sense it anyway.
“Apparently Alpha ruts are really rough too?” The only thing Pei Xingzhi cared about was whether Xie Nanyi would suffer.
As long as Xie Nanyi suffered, he felt good.
“Yeah, the higher the pheromone level, the worse the rut gets. That’s why pheromone suppressants exist.”
“Pheromone suppressants? What’s that?” Zhuang Xiaoyue’s words successfully piqued Pei Xingzhi’s curiosity. As a Beta, his knowledge of pheromones came only from the few biology classes in middle and high school, and most of that time he’d spent studying other subjects, he’d barely listened at all.
“You don’t know?” Zhuang Xiaoyue looked shocked. “People still don’t know about pheromone suppressants these days?”
“I’m a Beta.”
“Fair enough.”
“Pheromone suppressants are basically synthetic pheromones. Since high-quality Alphas have too high a demand for pheromones, and high-quality Omegas are extremely fragile, Alphas basically rely on suppressants to get through their ruts until the two form a complete bond.”
“What if the Alpha’s partner is a Beta?” Pei Xingzhi thought of something and pressed further.
“You mean a marker? I’m not too sure about that, but it should be similar to an Omega, just without the ability to emit pheromones.”
“So a marked Beta can also trigger an Alpha’s reaction?”
“That’s probably fair to say. Why are you suddenly so interested in this?”
“Nothing, just curious.” Pei Xingzhi brushed it off casually, and Zhuang Xiaoyue didn’t think much of it, switching topics to keep pressing about Xie Nanyi.
“How were you with Xie Nanyi? Did you two break that door? I saw a footprint on it.”
“I was working on that PPT with him.” Just thinking about it made Pei Xingzhi grind his teeth again.
He’d clearly decided not to pay any attention to whatever Xie Nanyi did, but trouble kept clinging to him anyway, making it impossible to completely cut ties with Xie Nanyi for the time being.
“How does doing homework leave such heavy pheromones behind? You’re covered in his scent. You say you hate him, but privately you two are already doing a full pheromone merge.” Zhuang Xiaoyue pinched his nose and stepped back, keeping his distance from Pei Xingzhi.
He could tolerate it, but the pheromone owner’s claim of territory was too obvious, and he instinctively didn’t want to get close.
“Is it? What does it smell like?”
Pei Xingzhi raised his hand and sniffed, but as a Beta, he couldn’t detect any scent at all. However, if even Zhuang Xiaoyue, a low-grade Omega, could smell it, then he must have long been soaked through with Xie Nanyi’s pheromones.
That dog Xie Nanyi, taking advantage of the fact that he couldn’t sense pheromones, he’d resorted to such tactics. Since pursuit failed, he’d switched to forced possession.
What a dog!
“Zhuang Xiaoyue! What do you think I should do to become wilder?”
“What do you mean?” Zhuang Xiaoyue didn’t follow how the topic had suddenly jumped to this, but still played along and answered. “Maybe… smoking, drinking, getting a perm?”
“A bit outdated, don’t you think?” Pei Xingzhi gave his honest opinion.
“But it’s rebellious.”
“Fine.” Pei Xingzhi conceded.
“Wait! What are you planning?” Seeing the strange look on Pei Xingzhi’s face, Zhuang Xiaoyue’s instincts told him something bad was definitely about to happen.
“I’m going to get the most rebellious look possible! I’m going to get far away from Xie Nanyi!” Who said he was well-behaved? He wasn’t well-behaved at all!
There were quite a few barbershops near the school. Pei Xingzhi took Zhuang Xiaoyue’s advice and picked one. Upon entering, he announced with great flair, “Give me a rebellious style!”