Lu Qiwen didn’t know what he was thinking either.
He sat on the sofa, lowering his head and burying his face in his hands, feeling heavy-hearted.
If he wanted to reject someone, he should have made it clear earlier. How could he have looked into those eyes and agreed without thinking?
When Song Yu walked out of the bathroom, he saw Lu Qiwen looking deeply troubled, as if lost in thought.
After pondering for a while without reaching any conclusion, Lu Qiwen sighed deeply and looked up at the sound of Song Yu’s voice.
Song Yu was wearing simple shorts, but his straight legs were so pale they seemed to glow even indoors. His plump, round toes were damp as they pressed against the floor. The tips of his fluffy, curly hair dripped with water, trailing down his collarbone and into his white T-shirt, where the hint of a plum blossom tattoo was faintly visible on his chest.
Lu Qiwen: “…”
Seeing his frown, Song Yu thought he was upset about the wet floor. He quickly tucked the dripping ends of his hair into his shirt and hurriedly explained, “I wasn’t planning to wash my hair, but I accidentally got it wet.”
“I promise not a single drop will fall on the carpet!”
“Oh, and I didn’t get my shoes wet either. I’ll wait for my feet to dry before putting them on.” As he spoke, he cautiously tried to step back, retreating to a spot just outside the carpeted area of the living room.
His damp appearance and the way he spoke made him look like a stray puppy.
“Don’t you know how to dry yourself off?”
“I didn’t bring a towel.” Song Yu replied, looking at Lu Qiwen with an innocent expression.
Lu Qiwen stood up. Thinking he was heading to the bathroom, Song Yu quickly tried to step back again. But Lu Qiwen stopped at the edge of the carpet, reached out, and pulled him in.
“I don’t think I’ve lost my memory yet.”
Song Yu stumbled two steps forward and bumped directly into Lu Qiwen.
The other man’s clothes were now damp from the water dripping from his hair. Then, Lu Qiwen’s voice sounded from above.
“I never said you couldn’t step on this carpet.”
Song Yu, held by the wrist, didn’t dare move, silently grumbling to himself.
With your cleanliness obsession, who knows if you’d get angry?
Perhaps sensing Song Yu’s silent complaints, Lu Qiwen lightly nudged his calf with his foot, gesturing for him to sit on the sofa.
“Sit.”
Song Yu watched as Lu Qiwen left him with those words and walked straight into the bedroom.
But he wasn’t sure whether Lu Qiwen really meant for him to sit or not. After a moment’s thought, he decided it was better to wet just the carpet rather than both the sofa and the carpet.
Song Yu chose to sit right where he was, obediently waiting for Lu Qiwen.
While waiting, he couldn’t help but glance around.
Because of the hot pot they’d eaten earlier, Song Yu hadn’t had a chance to look around properly before Lu Qiwen ordered him into the shower.
The apartment was spacious, but there wasn’t much furniture. The empty living room only had a coffee table, a sofa, and a round carpet.
It probably wasn’t a place he stayed in often. After all, who would live in a place that looked almost like an unfinished apartment?
When Lu Qiwen walked out of the bedroom, he saw Song Yu sitting on the carpet like a curious child, looking around. But the moment their eyes met, Song Yu quickly averted his gaze.
Lu Qiwen narrowed his eyes slightly, feeling a bit displeased.
Before Song Yu could finish saying “thank you”, Lu Qiwen stepped onto the carpet and tossed a towel over his head. In that instant, Song Yu’s vision was filled with nothing but white.
“Thanks.” Before Song Yu could even finish the last word and pull the towel away, a pair of large hands wrapped around his waist.
Song Yu: ?!
The next second, he felt himself being lifted by the waist and then thrown onto the soft sofa.
“WTF!” Song Yu couldn’t help but exclaim in shock.
The towel slipped with the movement, revealing Song Yu’s slightly widened eyes.
Lu Qiwen looked at Song Yu like this, feeling inexplicably pleased.
He sat down beside Song Yu, leaning in close to his ear and speaking in a low, teasing tone, “I said sit on the sofa.”
“Since you weren’t willing to go up yourself, I had to help you.”
The warmth of his breath brushed against Song Yu’s neck, making him instinctively shrink his shoulders, which happened to trap the other man in the crook of his neck. Those soft lips collided right there.
“Ouch, that tickles a bit.”
“Sorry.”
The handsome alpha’s face showed a look of surprise, his mind in turmoil.
This touch was different from the last time he had been unwell.
No one lost control.
Lu Qiwen’s body stiffened slightly, as if the person who had just spoken so harshly wasn’t him.
“I was thinking if the carpet gets wet, I’d just sit on the carpet, one less thing to clean up,” Song Yu said, seeing how insistent Lu Qiwen was, and simply gave up struggling, shifting a bit to the side.
He lifted his hands, grabbing the towel to dry his hair, completely unaware of Lu Qiwen’s somewhat strange expression.
“Are you sure this sofa of yours can get wet?”
Even though Lu Qiwen had said that, Song Yu still instinctively tried to avoid letting water droplets fall on it.
Lu Qiwen lifted his phoenix eyes, his gaze slowly sliding from Song Yu’s soaked chest down to his crossed legs.
“Hey, but you know what? This sofa is surprisingly comfortable.” Song Yu said as he dried his hair, couldn’t help but shake his legs a little, a look of surprise appearing on his face as he felt the bounce.
Song Yu’s shorts were loose, and with just that slight movement, the pant legs rolled up.
“Stop moving,” Lu Qiwen said through gritted teeth.
“Huh?” Song Yu, engrossed in playing with the sofa, didn’t quite catch what Lu Qiwen said.
“I said,” Lu Qiwen suddenly turned around, pressing his right hand against Song Yu’s thigh and leaning his left hand against the back of the sofa, almost trapping Song Yu entirely between him and the sofa.
Seeing the slightly uncomfortable expression on Lu Qiwen’s face, Song Yu let go of the towel, allowing it to slip and fall onto Lu Qiwen.
Is he having another episode of that illness?!
What was it called, skin hunger?
He reached out to check Lu Qiwen’s temperature but was dodged.
Song Yu remembered what Jiang Yuanheng had said.
If Lu Qiwen had an episode, he would definitely resist in every way and refuse anyone’s help.
Song Yu frowned, but he had already helped once before, so it shouldn’t be too strange, right?
He firmly turned Lu Qiwen’s face back toward him, leaning forward slightly and pressing his forehead against Lu Qiwen’s.
“If you don’t want me touching you with my hands, then using my forehead should be fine, right?”
Lu Qiwen had thought his earlier actions would scare Song Yu away, but instead, not only was he not frightened, he even…
Is this how betas pursue people?
The handsome alpha just felt his head spinning.
“It really does feel a bit warm.” Song Yu sat back down, raising his hand to place it on Lu Qiwen’s face, his expression concerned. “Does this feel a bit better?”
“You…” Lu Qiwen’s lips parted slightly, at a loss for words to describe how he felt.
“Didn’t I tell you before that I’m a beta with no pheromones? I won’t make you uncomfortable.” Song Yu thought to himself that this man was so good-looking, yet at such a young age, he was suffering from this embarrassing condition, and he sighed inwardly.
Seeing Lu Qiwen, who was usually so arrogant and domineering, staring blankly, Song Yu figured he must be feeling embarrassed.
“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone.” Song Yu’s expression was so serious and earnest, as if he were facing some major life event.
“It’s just an illness. Everyone gets sick sometimes.”
After keeping his hand there for a while, Lu Qiwen finally recovered enough to stand up in a flustered panic, his body stiff as he awkwardly rushed into his room.
Song Yu remained on the sofa, watching Lu Qiwen’s retreating figure with a sense of satisfaction, as if he had just done another great deed.
That night, Lu Qiwen tossed and turned in his room, unable to sleep, while in the nearby guest bedroom, Song Yu was comfortably wrapped in his blanket, already deep in dreamland.
The next day, the alarm went off promptly at 6:30 a.m. Song Yu groaned in agony, rolling around in bed, unwilling to get up.
But he knew that the music salon was happening that very afternoon. If he couldn’t make it back in time, his mother really wouldn’t hesitate to skin him alive.
With that thought, Song Yu forced himself up, changed his clothes, and walked into the living room, fumbling in the dark for the light switch. Before he could even turn on his phone’s flashlight, the living room suddenly lit up with a soft, warm yellow glow.
It was Lu Qiwen.
He was dressed in a beige loungewear, his hair loose and flowing behind him. The earrings and lip piercings he usually wore were all removed, and his overall demeanor seemed much gentler. When he wasn’t speaking, he looked like a gentle beauty, a far cry from the rebellious, edgy image he had presented when they first met.
“Did my alarm wake you?” Song Yu could only think of that possibility.
“No.” Lu Qiwen’s lips, a watery shade of red, were pressed into a thin line, and the red veins in his eyes seemed to cover almost the entire whites.
“Whoa!” Song Yu was startled. “Did you not sleep at all last night?”
“No.” Lu Qiwen stood up.
He wasn’t about to admit that he hadn’t been able to sleep at all, so he had simply waited in the living room for Song Yu to wake up so he could take him back.
“I just happened to have slept enough and got up.”
“Are you sure?” Song Yu looked at those bloodshot eyes and felt like Lu Qiwen had been pulling all-nighters for days.
[Host, an alpha’s physical constitution allows them to stay awake for up to 36 hours without rest.]
The system’s voice suddenly echoed in Song Yu’s mind.
Song Yu marveled once again.
Although he knew this world was divided into alphas, betas, and omegas, the physical prowess of alphas was truly something else.
Song Yu picked up his bag from the living room, only to notice that Lu Qiwen had also changed into his clothes.
“Huh?”
“The subway probably isn’t open at this hour. I happen to have some business to take care of, so I can give you a ride.”
“Business at 7 a.m.?”
“Got a problem with that?”
“Not at all.”
How could Song Yu not know that Lu Qiwen was actually going out of his way just to take him home?
After getting into the car, he stared at Lu Qiwen’s profile for quite a while.
His gaze made Lu Qiwen tense up for a long time, his hands on the steering wheel appearing somewhat flustered.
Only after a good while did Song Yu finally withdraw his gaze, leaning against the car door to look out the window, as if having made some important decision.
It was just past eight when they returned to the Song residence, but the villa was already bustling with activity. Song Yu deliberately entered through the back door, quietly making his way back to the original owner’s room in the Song family mansion.
The room was small but tidy, so tidy it hardly seemed lived in.
Song Yu changed into another outfit. The Song family prided itself on being a scholarly household, requiring everyone to dress appropriately when appearing in the old mansion. Meal times were also strictly regulated, and once the designated time passed, no food would be served in the dining room.
Just as he stepped into the dining room, almost immediately after, Song Yu’s mother walked in.
Seeing Song Yu, she showed no surprise. While Song Yu might fall short in other areas compared to others, his obedience was his saving grace.
“You’re back.”
“Yes, I’m back, Mom.” Song Yu uttered the word without batting an eye, a term that held no meaning for him, whether in his past life or this one.
“After breakfast, go practice in the music room. You know what to do when the ladies arrive this afternoon.”
“Alright.”
Satisfied with his reply, Song Yu’s mother picked up a cup of soy milk from the table and took a sip, only to frown in displeasure. “Who made the soy milk today? Why does it taste so strongly of beans?”
Hearing this, the young woman standing beside the dining table trembled slightly. “I… I made it, Madam.”
“It… it might be because of the beans today.”
“Enough. I don’t care about the process, only the result.” Song Yu’s mother picked up the cup and poured all the soy milk into the trash bin beside the dining table, then beckoned the young woman with her bright red nails.
The young woman leaned slightly forward and approached Song Yu’s mother.
Placing the cup in the young woman’s hand, Song Yu’s mother dug her long nails into the girl’s palm. “If you make it like this again, you won’t be keeping this job.”
“Yes, Madam.” The young woman’s face paled from the pain.
Song Yu seized the moment to interrupt. “Mom, which ladies are coming today?”
Song Yu’s mother withdrew her hand and waved dismissively at the young woman. “Go.”
“Today, there will be…”
Seeing that he had successfully interrupted, Song Yu breathed a sigh of relief. From the original owner’s memories, he knew that if he interrupted before Song Yu’s mother had vented her frustration, the consequences for the young woman would likely be far worse.
Song Yu’s gaze sharpened.
Perhaps Song Yu’s mother had other intentions, like giving him a warning or putting him in his place.
Having lost his appetite, Song Yu hurriedly ate a few bites before heading to the music room.
His more than a week of practice hadn’t been in vain. Song Yu’s performance was so impressive that even his mother was taken aback.
After seeing off the ladies, Song Yu’s mother sat on the sofa with a kindly smile. “I never expected that going to university would be like unlocking your potential.”
“If you had unlocked it earlier, I might have been able to send you to a better music conservatory instead of just settling for a comprehensive university.”
Song Yu inwardly scoffed. She made it sound so simple, but hadn’t she forced the original owner to attend this university in the hopes of networking and forming connections with influential people?
But Song Yu didn’t expose her. If Song Yu’s mother wanted to put on a show of mother-son affection, he was more than happy to play along.
Little did anyone expect that during that music salon, one of the ladies recorded Song Yu’s performance and even posted it online.
In the video, the afternoon sunlight streamed across the piano. Song Yu, dressed in a pure white suit with light brown curly hair, wore a serene expression. Dappled shadows from the trees swayed gently over him as his slender fingers danced lightly across the keys like butterflies skimming water. His body swayed softly with the rhythm of the music, as if he had completely immersed himself in the melody.
As the piece ended, Song Yu finally looked up, his clear eyes crinkling slightly like a mischievous little angel who had wandered into the mortal world.
[So! Cute! Where’s my internet assistant? I need all his info within a minute!]
[His fingering is still a bit unpolished, but his integration with the music is excellent.]
Soon, details about Song Yu were dug up.
[Eighteen years old, beta, from City B, currently a freshman at B University.]
After sending Song Yu back, Lu Qiwen lay in bed for a while but couldn’t fall asleep. Just as he finally drifted off, Jiang Yuanheng’s barrage of messages exploded on his phone.
Lu Qiwen’s face darkened. If it weren’t something urgent, he genuinely wanted to drag Jiang Yuanheng over right now and kick him like a ball.
Opening the chat, the first thing that caught his eye was a roughly one-and-a-half-minute video. Before Lu Qiwen could even tap to play it, Jiang Yuanheng’s messages kept pouring in.
[Wow, Song Yu looks absolutely stunning in this video.]
[This little beta really knows how to play.]
[Looks like from tonight onward, our school’s confession wall is going to be flooded with anonymous posts about him, tsk tsk.]