"…" Rong Xuanyu stared at the screen below for a few seconds of hesitation, then couldn't help but glance back at her Guangnao. She went back and forth several times before sinking back into thought.
Which to deal with first—now that was a good question.
Rong Xuanyu lamented that the message had come at the worst possible time, unaware that on the other end, the handsome-faced young man had stayed up all night just to time his message perfectly for her.
Then a second friend request notification went "ding-dong" as it jumped onto the screen:
[I saw the note you left. Add me.]
Hiss… pretty cold and aloof, huh.
Rong Xuanyu suddenly recalled the way the kid would act cute and play innocent—dimples sinking deep, those jade-green eyes misted with watery haze, gazing at you with such longing that your heart would practically melt.
But.
Rong Xuanyu could only say she was sorry.
She finally understood why those trash men all liked to use the "hang her up" tactic.
To prevent herself from being irrational enough to type with her dick, Rong Xuanyu forcibly suppressed the urge and shut down her Guangnao. She swept out of the room like a whirlwind, picked out a pair of ball-crushing pants from the original owner's "premium collector's edition" collection, squeezed into them with her eyes closed, and even remembered to give her big bird a proper home.
Whoosh—
Rong Xuanyu pulled open the door, put on a smile to face life, and strode off toward the assembly ground.
At that moment, roll call was underway on the training field.
The head instructor stood at the very front of the platform, face lean as iron, gaze as sharp as a snowfield eagle.
After the head instructor's gaze swept past the mech class one formation for the nth time, Chen Jiafeng couldn't help but curse.
"Damn it!"
It wasn't the instructor's fault for keeping looking their way—every class had a fixed number of people, and once everyone formed up into a square, any squad missing a corner would stand out like a sore thumb.
The deadline was almost up, and there was still no sign of Rong Xuanyu's ghost. Chen Jiafeng's knuckles cracked as he clenched them, gnashing his teeth as he cursed Rong Xuanyu's name.
"Rong Xuanyu, you're something else." The red-haired Alpha laughed in fury.
As time at the academy stretched on, training had become more than just strict—originally, being late or skipping training only cost you points, but now if you kept playing with fire, it wasn't just Rong Xuanyu who'd die—everyone in the dorm would be implicated!
The head instructor's gaze locked firmly onto mech class one, and he was walking over with clear intent. Seeing that things were about to reach a point of no return, Li Guanqi and He Yan's expressions also turned grim.
Though their family backgrounds were prestigious and they had no reason to fear an instructor with a colonel's rank, the more distinguished their noble families were, the more they valued their descendants' education.
If they got a mark against them right at enrollment, not only would they fail to explain themselves to their families, but their clans would become the laughingstock of their social circle.
"Everyone, fall in and count off!"
The formation moved quickly to assemble, and the gap in the ranks became all the more glaring and conspicuous.
The boulder in Chen Jiafeng and the other two's hearts rose, sweat beading at their temples, as they felt the instructor's knife-like gaze carving into their backs.
Sure enough, the instructor's brow furrowed, frost spreading across his face as he pointed over. "That spot…"
"Colonel Sar."
Sar's words were abruptly cut off. He turned around in fury, but upon seeing who it was, his face immediately bloomed into a smile.
"Oh? Student Jiang." He immediately straightened his posture and gave Jiang Buli a standard military salute.
Jiang Buli returned the salute.
In that brief instant, Rong Xuanyu appeared out of nowhere, immediately filling the empty spot and blending seamlessly into the formation.
All four of them let out a sigh of relief at almost the same time. Rong Xuanyu secretly glanced at them from the corner of her eye, only to be met with two synchronized eye-rolls in return.
As for Li Guanqi, he clearly wouldn't make such an undignified expression. He closed his eyes and steadied his breathing—clearly just as furious.
Rong Xuanyu: "…"
The truth was, she'd calculated the timing so she wouldn't be late—who would've thought she'd get stuck in the crotch halfway through the run?
The head instructor, thrown off by the interruption, looked back and found everyone had arrived. He narrowed his long, narrow eyes and buried the suspicion in his heart.
Today was the young master's first day on the job—making a show of power by punishing people was clearly not a wise move.
With that thought, he let out a hearty chuckle, pretending he hadn't noticed anything, and introduced to mech class one on his own:
"Let me introduce everyone—this is Jiang Buli, student council president of the third-year division. From today onward, he will be taking over my position to further strengthen your physical conditioning."
Wha—what?
Rong Xuanyu whipped her head around and came face to face with a half-smiling gaze from the platform.
"…" Let me explain myself.
The head instructor finished handing over his duties, gave a respectful military salute, and trotted off.
Rong Xuanyu swallowed hard, feeling as though a sword were hanging over her head, her mind restless. She looked at the sky, looked at the ground—anything but meet Jiang Buli's eyes.
Today's kid was a bit different, which made Rong Xuanyu inexplicably uneasy.
Just as she had a bad feeling, sure enough, the female Alpha's eyelids lifted, and she saw the kid raise a hand and point. The crowd on both sides parted in unison, and Rong Xuanyu, hiding behind the formation, suddenly had nowhere to run.
Rong Xuanyu: Wha—what do you want.
Jiang Buli smiled darkly, and her three good roommates silently sidestepped half a step away.
"…" Rong Xuanyu.
Then I'd have to die, wouldn't I?
"Classmate Rong, you're late."
Rong Xuanyu: What…? Didn't you help me sneak in?
Sunlight streamed from behind him, gilding the top-tier Alpha's slender waist and long legs with a golden edge, casting those clear, sober emerald eyes after a night of drinking into something deep and mysterious.
"I…"
Unsure of what Jiang Buli was playing at, Rong Xuanyu was about to say something to ease the tense atmosphere when she saw him turn to the guards and say:
"Hang her up."
!!!
Rong Xuanyu was shoved toward the standing frame in utter bewilderment, caught so off guard she had no time to react.
Two stern-faced guards dutifully removed their bayonets, pointing the blades at her to prevent any act of rebellion.
If Jiang Buli hadn't walked over right then and waved his hand for them to lower their weapons, Rong Xuanyu truly would have thought she was about to die on the spot.
Rong Xuanyu's lips parted several times, but with outsiders present, she ultimately swallowed back everything she wanted to say.
She watched in silence as Jiang Buli bound her hands tightly with hemp rope, hooked them onto the metal clasp at the top of the frame, and then yanked hard.
The tall Female Alpha's arms were bound high above her head. With such a violent lift, her heels instantly left the ground, leaving only the tips of her toes able to touch the floor.
If she let her feet rest flat, her wrists would inevitably lose proper blood flow; if she kept standing on her toes forever, the agony there went without saying.
The feeling of never being able to stand firmly on solid ground was certainly unpleasant, yet not a trace of anger appeared on Rong Xuanyu's face, as if she were a wall of defense that could never be broken.
Jiang Buli's hand trembled, a thick sense of powerlessness surging and churning in his gut.
"I treat you like this, and you're not angry? Why?"
Rong Xuanyu was about to habitually say she wasn't angry, but suddenly her mind hit a snag.
Right, why can't I be angry?
A beast of burden can be a placid person, but it can't be a dead one!
Her high ponytail fell forward, veiling her eyes and brows. She didn't know how to answer, vaguely remembering that the child was still upset, so she pressed her lips together and gave him a perfunctory smile.
But in everyone else's eyes, her eyes curved like crescents, filled with starlight.
Jiang Buli's eyes suddenly stung. He turned aside and took a deep breath to steady his disordered breathing.
She's bewitched me again.
Jiang Buli barely maintained rational thought, suppressing the sudden dull ache in his chest.
He steadied himself for a few seconds, returned to his cold demeanor, rose onto his toes to reach Rong Xuanyu's wrist, and deftly removed her Guangnao.
Rong Xuanyu slowly conjured a question mark.
Then she watched as Jiang Buli's slender fingers spread, the emerald ring gently covering the screen. When he lowered it again, Rong Xuanyu's Guangnao had already unlocked itself.
Rong Xuanyu mentally lit a candle for herself: …I'm screwed.
Jiang Buli operated Rong Xuanyu's Guangnao as if no one else were there. After opening the "Friend Requests" column, he let out a cold snort.
"Read but not replied?" he asked icily.
Rong Xuanyu tried to explain: "I didn't mean not to reply. I had something urgent."
"What?"
"…" What a vicious question. Rong Xuanyu, who had been answering fluently just moments ago, fell instantly silent.
"Hm? Why aren't you talking?"
Rong Xuanyu was about to lose her mind. How was she supposed to answer that! Was she supposed to tell him it was all because that damn bird wouldn't behave?
She silently swore that once she got back, she would turn that damned Xue Luling into a bird with a mind of its own.
The Female Alpha's speechlessness added another layer of unease to Jiang Buli's heart.
Last night's chaos, intoxication, probing, and flutter of the heart—truth and falsehood intertwined so thickly that Jiang Buli couldn't tell how much of his own pulse was real, nor could he see how much delight the Female Alpha truly felt.
Xu Weiyan at least was bad in an obvious way, but she was like a guide fish, luring passing travelers to willingly wade into a man-eating swamp, where one step in meant utter ruin.
She was the one who left her contact information, and she was also the one who wouldn't accept the friend request.
Jiang Buli clenched his fist weakly. Why was it that every time, he was the one begging like a lapdog for someone's favor, and the moment they tossed him a scrap of attention, he was dizzy with infatuation?
Even now, he himself didn't understand why he was so fixated on Xu Weiyan.
A rotten person, wasn't he?
Jiang Buli laughed bitterly at himself, but soon his expression turned vicious, his entire face filled with resentment and obsession.
He leisurely pulled out the hem of Rong Xuanyu's shirt, his fingertips slipping inside to trace her firm waist and abdomen.
Rong Xuanyu flinched at the sudden cold touch, instinctively retreating and staring at him in shock.
Seeing her dodge so clumsily, Jiang Buli's mood brightened like the sun after rain.
Yes, just like that.
The feeling of holding the reins.
He swept a glance around, then elegantly retrieved the fountain pen from his shirt pocket.
Rong Xuanyu swallowed. "Wh-what are you doing."
"Hiss…"
She found out soon enough. Her belt hung loose around her hips, and a person had slipped inside her shirt. From Rong Xuanyu's angle, the fabric bulged, the subtle movements looking utterly obscene.
"Ha…"
Rong Xuanyu couldn't bear it, twisting the rope knots tighter as she felt each stroke traced stroke by stroke at the spot low on her abdomen, near her pubic bone.
It was an indescribable sensation—numb yet tingling, as if countless tiny ants were crawling through her bones.
Another long, drawn-out breath, and the belt buckle clicked and clacked. It was over—this prolonged torment.
Rong Xuanyu opened her eyes in a daze, staring at him with a vacant, unfocused gaze.
She was about to say, "I only see you as a child," but swallowed the words back. She suddenly remembered that her biological age was actually younger than Jiang Buli's.
So she changed it to: "I only see you as a friend."
It was just a single word swapped out, yet the meaning shifted completely.
Jiang Buli's heart trembled, his eyes bloodshot as if soaked in crimson. He grabbed Rong Xuanyu by the collar, his trembling voice betraying the turmoil within.
"It doesn't matter."
With that, he released her and walked toward Class One of the Mecha Division without looking back.
At that very moment, Li Xiao, a hulking mass of muscle, was gleefully gloating to his companions:
"See this weakling? We don't even need to lift a finger."
If Rong Xuanyu were here, she would surely recognize him—this was the "sewer guy" she'd smelled on her way to wash up.
Jiang Buli, burning with unvented rage, suddenly caught sight of a group of grinning, smirking fools.
"Everyone, listen up! Fifty kilometers with full gear—starting now!"
The entire class fell apart. Li Xiao's voice cracked as he stammered, "Is it too late to volunteer for the hanging punishment instead…"
Training proceeded at full intensity. The moment it ended, Rong Xuanyu ignored everyone and walked into the restroom by herself.
With trembling hands, she undid her belt, unclasped her camouflage pants, pulled down the zipper, and tugged off her underwear.
As expected, the three characters "Jiang Buli" were carved into her skin in bold, flamboyant strokes. Rong Xuanyu, as if possessed, touched it—then yanked her hand back as though bitten by a snake.
The strikingly beautiful, sharp-featured Female Alpha suddenly flushed crimson.