Hua Sheng had disliked Zuo Xingyun for a long time.
As the school tyrant of Third High, Hua Sheng reigned supreme. Which senior brother or sister from any school didn’t greet him with a respectful, “Good to see you, Brother Sheng”?
Even Brother Nan from the vocational school next door had to take a detour and tread carefully around him, terrified of accidentally provoking Hua Sheng and getting chewed out.
Hua Sheng was accustomed to being overbearing and arrogant.
As the youngest child in the Hua family, he had grown up under the tyrannical torment of his older brothers and sisters. They would snatch Hua Sheng’s lollipops away while lecturing him about the importance of sharing, deliberately devouring them right in front of little Hua Sheng to rub it in.
Having suffered endless bullying, Hua Sheng vowed that one day he would become a robust muscle man with an eight-pack, destined to overthrow these autocratic and tyrannical bullies.
Consequently, he started forming alliances, using snacks to bribe underlings back in elementary school.
When online gaming became all the rage in middle school, Hua Sheng bought them game skins and carried them through ranked matches, successfully winning over a loyal group of fanboy followers.
Foolish with money, fiercely loyal, and exceedingly generous, Hua Sheng was popular wherever he went. Upon entering high school, he immediately captivated thousands of young girls, catapulting himself into the role of a spoiled little tyrant in the eyes of his female classmates, a cool and reliable big brother to the boys, and the absolute number-one slippery troublemaker in the teachers’ eyes.
After living life as an ordinary beta for over a decade, he suddenly presented as an omega on the night of his fifteenth birthday.
Worse still, he was an inferior omega who was extremely susceptible to alpha pheromones.
The stronger an alpha’s pheromone, the greater its impact on Hua Sheng.
If certain malicious individuals ever found out that the young master of the Hua family was an inferior omega, they might try to suppress him using their pheromones.
To prevent such a scenario, the Hua family concealed Hua Sheng’s omega identity, regularly administering suppressants and applying pheromone-blocking patches to disguise him as a standard beta.
Two years flew by. At eighteen, Hua Sheng had hidden his identity impeccably. Aside from his monthly heat cycles, he remained almost completely unaffected by alphas.
His career as a school tyrant was thriving, his underlings were multiplying, and he even began to think that passing himself off as an alpha would be an absolute breeze.
After all, they all called him Big Brother anyway.
The Big Brother rubbed the bridge of his nose, as he had been feeling a bit irritated lately.
Ask around to see who rules Third High, fearless and bold, that is none other than our Brother Sheng!
The plump little underling orbited Hua Sheng, dishing out the usual rainbow-colored flattery. Nobody knew which desperate illiterate had come up with this slogan. One percent of it rhymed, while ninety-nine percent radiated an awkward, eighth-grade syndrome intensity that made one’s head spin.
Hua Sheng covered one ear, frowning as he snapped, “Cut it out with the chanting. It is so humiliating.”
“Hehe.” Chubby chuckled good-naturedly, picking up Hua Sheng’s insulated thermos to eagerly pour him a glass of water.
“Spit it out, what do you want with me?” Hua Sheng closed his eyes to rest, massaging his temples with his thumb, striking the posture of an inscrutable mafia boss.
“Brother Sheng, you have no idea,” Chubby said, his brow furrowing as he began massaging Hua Sheng’s shoulders while lodging a complaint. “Dazhi got beaten up!”
“What?” Hearing this, Hua Sheng snapped his eyes open, looking genuinely astonished. “Who did it? When?”
Chubby opened his mouth, hesitating as he clicked his fingernails against the tabletop, clearly harboring some unspeakable difficulty.
“Speak,” Hua Sheng said, his brows knitting together.
Dazhi was his middle school classmate. They had known each other for five years, sharing the title of academic rock-bottom comrades and serving as his trusted right-hand men who had traversed far and wide to expand his territory.
And someone had actually beaten him up?
Who was it? How dare anyone lay a hand on his people right under Hua Sheng’s nose?
“Well, that whole thing…” Chubby stammered awkwardly. “A transfer student joined the neighboring class last semester, Zuo Xingyun. Brother Sheng, do you know him?”
“Oh, right!” He slapped his forehead, adding, “He is actually in your class, Brother Sheng.”
Hua Sheng narrowed his eyes, knitting his brows as he tried to recall.
Zuo Xingyun.
That name came up constantly in his ears, praised in the words of every subject teacher and printed at the top of every posted grade ranking.
A freshman who transferred in this semester and immediately snagged first place in the entire grade. That test paper layout and those answering templates were stamped out of the exact same mold as the official answer keys.
To top it off, Zuo Xingyun’s Chinese essays and English handwriting model sheets were plastered at the very end of the hallway on every single floor.
“Hmm, I think there is someone like that,” Hua Sheng muttered, rubbing his chin in thought. “I never really paid attention to him, though.”
Chubby wailed pathetically, “It is him, it is him, it is definitely him! Dazhi didn’t even provoke him, but he just attacked him anyway! He beat Dazhi until his face was completely swollen, aiming right for the most noticeable spots. How vicious! How is Dazhi supposed to face anyone like that? That is why he hasn’t been able to come to school for days.”
Hua Sheng was startled, then narrowed his eyes with rising suspicion.
Watching Chubby’s tearful, heart-wrenching performance, it was impossible to tell whether his words were true or false.
“Why would Zuo Xingyun beat him up? There has to be a reason.”
Chubby’s crying paused abruptly, and his eyes began to dart around evasively.
“Did Dazhi try to collect protection money from him?” Hua Sheng stared straight into his eyes, his sharp left canine tooth gently biting down on his lower lip, which was a habit he had since childhood. When he was little, he had watched animal documentaries and thought tigers baring teeth looked intensely imposing. To make himself look more intimidating, he had picked up the quirky habit.
“No way, absolutely not.” Chubby denied it instantly, shaking his head like a rattle-drum as he raised his right hand in a vow. “Really, no. You said we aren’t allowed to do that anymore, Brother Sheng, so we haven’t. Truly.”
Hua Sheng looked at him skeptically.
Chubby immediately straightened up, wearing an expression of utmost sincerity.
Hua Sheng tilted his head slightly, spinning the thumb ring around his knuckle. He had picked this up from movies, believing every mafia boss apparently needed a ring symbolizing power and status.
He arched a single eyebrow and let out a scoff. “Well, that guy sounds kind of interesting.”
Dazhi was in the class next door, even more rebellious than him, refusing to wear the school uniform, dyeing his hair yellow, and always pulling pranks behind the teachers’ backs. When his head teacher couldn’t handle him anymore, they would turn to Hua Sheng, asking him to use his influence as a good friend to talk some sense into him.
In truth, only Hua Sheng could command him. Dazhi was the brother who had written detention letters and scrubbed toilets alongside him back in middle school, the one who had kindly taken him in when he ran away from home.
Hua Sheng had countless underlings, but he only chose to be close with people who clicked with him. As for Zuo Xingyun, he lived in a completely different world.
An ordinary alpha with a faint tea-scented pheromone that was almost entirely unnoticeable.
He wore his school uniform impeccably, standing straight with a proud posture like a sturdy green pine tree.
Even in the sweltering heat of summer, he wore an ugly, suffocating blue-and-white short-sleeved uniform with the top button fastened all the way up, wearing half-rimmed glasses. He looked like nothing more than a pedantic, book-smart nerd.
Zuo Xingyun was a ghost, popping up everywhere unexpectedly. The cafeteria, the playground, the dormitory building, and even the restroom; Hua Sheng kept running into him by sheer coincidence.
They were in the same class, too. Hua Sheng sat in the back corner near the door, while Zuo Xingyun sat in the front row on the far left, placing them on an exact diagonal from each other.
They had zero interaction and never spoke to one another.
A guy like that actually threw punches?
Interesting.
As for why he disliked Zuo Xingyun, it was probably because whenever the teachers finished chewing Hua Sheng out, their next sentence was guaranteed to be, “Why can’t you learn a thing or two from classmate Zuo?” or “Zuo Xingyun is your role model.”
Comparing him unfavorably to someone else was deeply annoying.
Or perhaps it was because Zuo Xingyun usually acted like a mute, yet always showed up in the teachers’ office to ask questions whenever Hua Sheng was getting scolded. Hua Sheng felt like Zuo Xingyun’s gaze held three parts casual indifference, three parts callousness, and four parts mockery.
He felt thoroughly insulted.
Hmph, just some poor, pretentious nerd.
He recalled being chewed out in the office just last week.
The math teacher had earnestly urged him to study hard and at least try not to sleep through classes. Hua Sheng had slouched lazily against the office desk, his eyes wandering, letting the lecture go in one ear and out the other.
Just as he was dying of boredom, Zuo Xingyun walked in with a straight, upright posture, holding a blank math test paper, clearly there to ask a question.
Hua Sheng impatiently stepped half a step to the right to clear the way.
Who would have thought that Zuo Xingyun would take a long stride forward and almost crash right into Hua Sheng?
Quick as lightning, Hua Sheng flashed away to the right.
As a result, his position of standing by the office desk getting scolded transformed into standing awkwardly by his own desk getting scolded.
The moment she saw Zuo Xingyun, the math teacher’s expression instantly morphed into a warm, affectionate smile. She leaned forward, resting her upper body across the desk to explain math problems to Zuo Xingyun, with Hua Sheng trapped squarely in the middle.
His face flushed red and pale by turns. He could not escape, sitting down felt inappropriate, and standing stranded in the middle felt painfully awkward.
With nothing to do, he glanced left and right, picking at his fingers one moment and scratching his head the next. Amidst the sleep-inducing explanations of math problems, he suddenly locked eyes with Zuo Xingyun.
Zuo Xingyun was looking straight at him, a trace of playful amusement lingering in the depths of his eyes.
At that memory, Hua Sheng slammed his hand on the desk and kicked his stool aside.
The rusted, battered chair crashed against the dust-covered concrete floor, sending up a swirling cloud of fine gray dust.
Chubby jumped in surprise, turning his head in bewilderment.
In the setting sun, Brother Sheng’s natural curls glowed brilliantly. His straight bridge of cartilage split the golden light, casting a deep shadow across the side of his face.
His long, thick eyelashes fluttered twice, followed by the upward sweep of his clenched right fist.
A surge of passionate agitation welled up in Chubby’s chest as he watched Hua Sheng coldly and sharply draw his thumb across the bridge of his nose, turning his light-colored eyes toward him in the sunlight.
“This Zuo Xingyun looks like he is finally due for a lesson.”