The news of Jiang Chen being hand-fed because of his injury had been witnessed by Yang Xiu and a few others, which essentially meant the entire class now knew about it.
When he returned to the classroom for his afternoon nap after lunch, he noticed quite a few Omegas casting envious glances his way.
Yang Xiu, who sat nearby and had grown closer to Jiang Chen through planning the school anniversary performance, came over to interrogate him directly about the experience.
He figured Jiang Chen was probably pretty easygoing…after all, he got along so well with the class monitor. “Hey, Jiang Chen, how did it feel to be fed by the class monitor?”
In reality, however, Jiang Chen was ice-cold. “How about you try injuring your hand too?” he countered. “I’ll have him feed you.”
Jiang Chen was so used to Gu Xin feeding him that he hadn’t thought much of it at first. But now that everyone was teasing him about it, both openly and covertly, it annoyed him. This was between him and Gu Xin. Why were these outsiders asking so many questions? Were they trying to get Gu Xin’s attention?
Knowing that Jiang Chen wasn’t actually as cold as he looked on the surface, Yang Xiu grew bolder. “Do you know how many Omegas dream of being fed by the class monitor? You’re the only one in the whole class who has this privilege. Won’t you share a little gossip with us?”
Jiang Chen let out a dry laugh, turning even more ruthless and unyielding than Gu Xin when forcing him to do homework. “Not. Sharing.”
Though Yang Xiu was frustrated enough to smack him with a textbook, he held back and tried a different tactic. “Come on, sharing joy makes it twice as joyful.”
Jiang Chen remained completely unmoved, his heart as hard as iron. “Bro, I got hurt. I didn’t fall in love. What ‘joy’ are you talking about?”
Yang Xiu choked on his words. “Who’s your bro? I am a delicate, fragile little Omega!”
Liu Sen, Jiang Chen’s bespectacled seatmate, burst into laughter. Yang Xiu glared at the two of them. “Zero camaraderie!”
Jiang Chen thought to himself: Who wants camaraderie with you? Gu Xin is my childhood friend, not yours.
Liu Sen leaned in and whispered to Jiang Chen, “Yang Xiu is so fierce.”
Yang Xiu snapped his head back around. Jiang Chen shrugged expressionlessly while Liu Sen quickly buried his face in his textbook, pretending to read.
Once Yang Xiu finally ignored them, the two seatmates exchanged a knowing smirk.
Jiang Chen’s reputation as the fierce “boss” of Number 19 High School was slowly crumbling after the hand-feeding incident. Of course, it also proved one thing beyond a doubt: his relationship with Gu Xin was incredibly close.
Meanwhile, Gu Xin had already met up with Wei Meng to get the full story of how Jiang Chen got hurt.
As he had suspected, Number 19 High School was quite a distance from here, so Jiang Chen’s former classmates wouldn’t normally be hanging around this area. Since most of them had gone to different schools anyway, the only suspects left were the three Sophomore Alphas they had clashed with recently.
Three Alphas bullying a single Beta…how utterly pathetic.
Monday’s afternoon classes left Jiang Chen groggy and fighting off sleep.
When the dismissal bell finally rang, he began packing his schoolbag at a snail’s pace. Before he could finish, Gu Xin walked over to his desk. “I have basketball practice tonight. The coach said we’re staying late for an extra session, so I’ll probably head home pretty late. You go on ahead.”
Jiang Chen didn’t think twice about it. “Alright, got it.”
His hand was too sore to ride his bicycle, so his only option was to hail a cab.
Since Gu Xin was heading to basketball practice, Wei Meng and Jiang Yibai naturally went with him. Walking out of the school gates entirely on his own felt strange to Jiang Chen.
He opened a ride-hailing app, but traffic was gridlocked during the after-school rush. The cars couldn’t pull up to the gate, meaning he would have to walk a few hundred meters down the road to catch his ride.
As he walked and waited, he spotted two boys from the Freshman basketball team standing at the bus stop. While they weren’t close friends, they occasionally played pickup games with Gu Xin during lunch, making them casual acquaintances.
Jiang Chen walked over and asked, “Aren’t you guys supposed to have practice tonight?”
The two boys shook their heads. “No, the coach had a family emergency and couldn’t make it. Practice was rescheduled for later this week.”
Jiang Chen paused. “Oh, I see.”
Then where on earth did Gu Xin and Wei Meng go?
Jiang Chen’s brain whirled at lightning speed. Within three seconds, it clicked.
Gu Xin and Wei Meng hanging out together definitely had nothing to do with studying. And if they were playing basketball, there would be no reason to lie to him. That left only one possibility: his incident from Saturday. He had just mentioned it to Wei Meng at noon, and by evening, the three of them had vanished. They had actually learned how to lie to his face.
Jiang Chen immediately canceled his ride order and dialed Gu Xin’s number. No answer.
He tried Wei Meng. Still no answer.
What a mess.
Convinced that Gu Xin and Wei Meng hadn’t left the school grounds, Jiang Chen couldn’t help but worry. They had definitely gone to get revenge on those three Sophomore Alphas.
His wounds were starting to scab over, so running made them sting, but walking briskly wasn’t a problem. No wonder Wei Meng had seemed off today; he hadn’t nagged him about how they were going to get even. It turned out they had a whole secret plan.
Jiang Chen hurried back to the classroom. The students on duty were still cleaning up, and as luck would have it, it was Yang Xiu and his seatmate.
“Yang Xiu, did you see Gu Xin and Wei Meng?”
It was a total coincidence…Yang Xiu had just gone downstairs to empty the classroom trash bin and had actually spotted them.
“Weren’t you with them?” Yang Xiu asked. “I think I saw them heading over toward the old basketball courts.”
Jiang Chen pressed, “With who?”
“I didn’t really recognize them,” Yang Xiu replied. “They didn’t look like Freshmen. Probably Sophomores or Seniors.” His sharp eyes had already memorized every attractive Alpha in the Freshman tier, so those flashy-looking guys definitely weren’t from their grade.
“Thanks,” Jiang Chen said, spinning on his heel and bolting.
Yang Xiu was left entirely baffled. They usually get along so well, so why is he running back to find the class monitor now? He really couldn’t comprehend Alpha-Beta friendships that involved hand-feeding at noon but a total communication breakdown by the afternoon.
Number 3 High School boasted a massive campus, complete with academic buildings, an administrative block, a football field, indoor and outdoor basketball courts, tennis courts, and swimming complexes.
The school, which was nearing its centennial anniversary, also contained a small plot of abandoned property waiting to be redeveloped. It used to be the staff quarters and the old academic building, but it had been fenced off since last year to keep students out.
Beneath the old academic building lay an outdoor court and a first-floor storage room.
Hardly anyone ever came down here.
School let out at 5:10 PM, and by now, the campus was practically deserted. To make matters worse, autumn days shortened quickly. Only a few faint rays of the setting sun remained, and the shadow of the new academic building blocked out what little light was left, leaving the old grounds dark and chilly.
Jiang Chen figured Gu Xin and Wei Meng must have challenged those three Sophomores to a showdown here. He knew exactly what was about to go down.
But where was he supposed to find them in this sprawling maze?
The outdoor courts were empty, which meant they had to be indoors…either a first-floor classroom or the sports equipment storage room further back.
Jiang Chen was breaking a sweat from walking so fast. He didn’t want Gu Xin fighting on his account. Gu Xin’s hands were meant for better things, not for throwing punches. Besides, Gu Xin didn’t know how to fight…what if he got hurt? How could a delicate scholar possibly stand a chance against thuggish brutes?
A gust of autumn wind blew past, making Jiang Chen shiver in his short-sleeved uniform.
In this desolate, ghostly place, there wasn’t a soul in sight. Where had Gu Xin and the others gone?
Suddenly, a sharp yell cut through the air, followed by a string of breathless curses: “Fck… dammit… stop hitting me, stop hitting me! I yield!”
Following the sound, Jiang Chen navigated around to the back of the old building. He had to squeeze through a gap in the chain-link fence. As he bent over to slide through, the wire snagged his back, scraping his injury and making him hiss in pain.
The closer he got, the more brutal the groans became. Cold sweat beaded on Jiang Chen’s forehead. If Gu Xin had been beaten into that state, he was going to murder those bastards.
Tracing the noise to its source, he finally spotted them inside the wide-open sports equipment room.
There were six people in total: Gu Xin, Wei Meng, Jiang Yibai, and the three Sophomore Alphas.
However, the scene playing out was entirely different from what Jiang Chen had feared.
The one kneeling on the ground, clutching his side, was the Sophomore guy with the dyed purple hair. Gu Xin stood directly across from him, casually curling his fingers in a “come at me” gesture.
“Again,” Gu Xin said, his voice dropping to a cool baritone. “Best two out of three. We’re not done yet.”
His eyes were razor-sharp as he locked onto his opponent, radiating an absolute aura of dominance. His gaze was entirely devoid of warmth…a side of Gu Xin that Jiang Chen had never seen before.
Jiang Chen paused, quietly withdrawing the foot he had been about to step forward with. He pulled back into the shadows of the wall, choosing to stay hidden.
Jiang Yibai was off to the side recording a video on his phone, while Wei Meng stood guard like a colossal bodyguard. Built like a tank, Wei Meng towered over the three Sophomore Alphas, exerting a massive physical pressure just by existing.
Gu Xin hadn’t even released a single drop of oppressive Alpha pheromones, yet he was completely dominating the guy in front of him. It turned out his years of martial arts training hadn’t gone to waste after all.
The purple-haired Alpha pushed himself off the floor and lunged at Gu Xin. Gu Xin tilted his head slightly, effortlessly dodging the incoming fist. Sinking his weight, he drove a powerful counter-punch straight into the purple-haired guy’s abdomen. The Alpha stumbled backward several paces before losing his footing and crashing right out of the makeshift ring they had drawn on the floor with white chalk.
Seeing the seat of the guy’s uniform pants coated in white chalk dust, Jiang Chen nearly snorted out loud.
Jiang Yibai stepped closer with his phone camera. “Senior, you lost. Do you still want to keep going?”
His camera panned across the other two Alphas, who had already been beaten into literal bruised pulp, groaning as they nursed their faces. Jiang Chen could barely recognize these miserable wrecks as the arrogant trio that had cornered him on Saturday.
The purple-haired guy was clearly the ringleader, and the other two took their cues from him. Nursing their own pains, they scrambled over to pull him up, whispering urgently in his ear.
After a brief huddle, the three of them decided they wanted absolutely no more of Gu Xin.
“We yield,” the purple-haired Alpha gasped, clutching his stomach. “We won’t trouble that Beta ever again.”
Jiang Yibai’s sharp eyes caught sight of Jiang Chen lurking nearby. “In that case, Senior, you need to apologize directly to my buddy. Otherwise, I’m uploading this video tonight with a caption about how you guys are bullying the Freshman class valedictorian. Who do you think the school administration will believe…you, or the video footage?”
The three Sophomores froze. They thought this was a test of physical strength and fighting prowess, but it turned out they were being outsmarted too.
Jiang Yibai waved toward the shadows. “Jiang Chen, you’ve been hiding there long enough. Come on out, the Seniors want to apologize to you.”
Jiang Chen finally stepped into view. Under the sheer intimidation of Gu Xin’s crew, the three Sophomores lowered their proud heads.
The moment Gu Xin saw Jiang Chen, his face twitched slightly. He hadn’t expected his very first arranged schoolyard fight to be caught red-handed by Jiang Chen, and a wave of awkwardness washed over him.
Jiang Chen walked up to the three Sophomores.
Acting as the spokesperson, the purple-haired guy muttered, “Junior, what happened on Saturday was our fault. We shouldn’t have grabbed your bike, caused you to crash, or tried to lay hands on you…”
Hearing this, Gu Xin’s fist clenched tightly again. “You guys grabbed his bicycle too?”
The purple-haired guy flinched backward. He was genuinely terrified of this Freshman who looked lean but packed terrifying power. “Don’t hit us anymore! We promise we won’t cross paths with you guys again.”
Jiang Chen had originally wanted to throw a few punches of his own, but seeing the purple-haired guy’s swollen face and battered state, he realized they looked far worse than he did. There was no satisfaction left in beating them up.
Besides, he didn’t really want to get violent in front of Gu Xin. “Fine. Just apologize properly.”
The three Sophomores chanted in unison, “We’re sorry.”
Jiang Chen’s demeanor suddenly turned surprisingly calm. “Get lost then. If I ever catch you bullying other students again, it won’t end this easily.”
The trio practically scrambled over one another to escape, squeezing through the gap in the fence at the same time in their desperate rush to get away from these terrifying Freshmen.
With the troublemakers gone, only the four of them remained in the quiet lot.
Gu Xin shook out his hands; punching people hard was a two-way street for the knuckles.
Jiang Chen walked over to Gu Xin, his expression dark, staring at him in dead silence.
Wei Meng shrunk his neck, exchanging a frantic look with Jiang Yibai. It was time to clear out…this was the calm before Jiang Chen threw a massive temper tantrum!
“Uh, Chen-er! My mom called me home for dinner, I gotta run!”
Jiang Yibai, being incredibly quick-witted, immediately played along. “Yeah, I need to go edit this video. Old Gu, I’m heading out first.”
Once the space cleared out, Jiang Chen tucked his uninjured hand into his pocket, eyeing a visibly flustered Gu Xin. “Top of the class, huh? Look at you, quite the capable fighter.”
Gu Xin cleared his throat weakly, looking down as he picked up his jacket from the floor, not daring to meet Jiang Chen’s gaze. “In the future… if you ever need to fight someone, you can call me along. I think I hold my own pretty well.”
Jiang Chen rolled his eyes at him, keeping his face stern. “We’re high schoolers now. Who fights anymore?”
Yet deep down, a faint, undeniable trace of happiness bloomed in his chest. Xin-bao’s very first schoolyard brawl hadn’t been for some Omega. It had been entirely for him.