In the end, Chu Tao never even got a taste of Su Jingtong’s cake.

He considered returning it, but he worried that Su Jingtong’s reputation—already not the best—might suffer if people saw that his gift had been returned, possibly leading to gossip.

After some thought, Chu Tao decided against it to protect Su Jingtong from potential rumors.

Besides, returning it might only lead to more unnecessary entanglements.

Jiang She finished his orange juice, but his expression remained dark.

He wasn’t worried about Chu Tao being pursued by someone; after all, it was natural for someone he admired to have a lot of admirers.

But he couldn’t get past the fact that Chu Tao had a high compatibility with Su Jingtong.

To Jiang She, Chu Tao was also a typical alpha—someone who could be influenced by Omega pheromones, affected by attraction.

Chu Tao might seem cold, but he was actually kind-hearted and soft. If Su Jingtong kept pursuing him persistently, Chu Tao likely wouldn’t know how to turn him down.

After cleaning up, Chu Tao washed his hands, feeling a bit empty in his stomach.

He hadn’t eaten much at lunch, not expecting such intense physical activity in the afternoon, so he was already feeling a bit hungry.

There was a whole cake in front of him, and its sweet aroma drifted out through the gaps in the packaging.

The fresh scent of cherries mixed with the creamy fragrance, making it irresistible.

Chu Tao swallowed and mumbled, “The cake looks pretty good.”

When he opened the cake box, a ring of fresh, juicy, bright red cherries sat on top of the white cream, neatly arranged and tempting.

Chu Tao genuinely loved sweets, and the sight of the cake made his mouth water.

He couldn’t help swallowing, his Adam’s apple moving slightly.

Dai Wenjian turned his head and, seeing Chu Tao’s cake, was envious. “Wow, that’s some VIP treatment. When will someone bring me cake like that?”

His deskmate teased him mercilessly, “Are you as good-looking as the class leader?”

Dai Wenjian looked hurt. “Have we really entered a world where looks are everything before we even graduate?”

His deskmate snickered. “What else did you expect?”

Jiang She noticed Chu Tao’s interest in the cake and felt a pang of jealousy. He stood up, leaned over, and took the cake off Chu Tao’s desk.

Being tall, he placed his arms on Chu Tao’s shoulders, his chin nearly touching Chu Tao’s ear.

Chu Tao instinctively flinched, momentarily distracted from the cake by Jiang She’s pheromones.

Jiang She set the cake on his own desk and said coldly, “I’ll eat this. I’ll get you an even better one after school.”

Chu Tao turned his head and pressed his lips together. “No need. Besides, don’t you dislike sweets?”

Jiang She huffed, muttering, “I didn’t think it was sweet—more sour, really.”

Chu Tao: “…” So petty!

To avoid wasting it, Chu Tao could only watch helplessly as Jiang She, who didn’t even like sweets, forced himself to eat the entire cake.

When Jiang She sliced into it with a plastic knife, blueberry jam oozed out from the soft cake, and Chu Tao couldn’t bear to look.

If only Tao Song had given him this cake instead.

Then he could’ve enjoyed it guilt-free, maybe even let Jiang She have a small bite.

Feeling frustrated, Chu Tao sent Tao Song a WeChat message—

“Tao Song, you need to step it up.”

But with the school’s signal blocker, the message didn’t go through.

Chu Tao sighed softly.

Jiang She, meanwhile, was taking big bites of cake and gulping down water, his face scrunched up as if eating the cake was some kind of torture for him.

Chu Tao looked at the mess of cream and could only hand him a bottle of water.

It was almost funny—originally, the cake was meant for Jiang She, who had refused it outright. Yet, after all that, he still ended up eating the cake Su Jingtong made.

“That was so sweet. I probably won’t need to eat for two days,” Jiang She muttered after finishing, wrinkling his nose.

He crumpled the cake box and tossed it into the trash.

Chu Tao sighed regretfully, “You should have just let me eat it. I could always find a way to pay Su Jingtong back later, or even get my brother to help return the favor. It’d be easier between Omegas.”

Jiang She looked down at Chu Tao, his voice calm. “You really wanted it?”

Chu Tao nodded.

Jiang She crooked a finger. “Come with me for a second.”

“What for?” Chu Tao asked, but he followed Jiang She out.

The freshly cleaned hallway was spotless, with traces of water still drying on the floor. The wall they had just wiped down together gleamed, reflecting the soft light above.

The air smelled faintly damp, with a hint of lemon from the detergent used for mopping.

With cleaning done, each class had returned to self-study. Only a few people lingered, putting away their cleaning tools. The senior section was quieting down.

The hallway was empty, no one in sight.

With Yang Liu absent, Chu Tao was in charge of keeping order in the class. Now that he was outside, the classroom had gotten noisy again.

Anxious to go back and keep things under control, he said, “I can’t go off-campus with you; the class still needs to study.”

He thought Jiang She was about to buy him a cake.

But then Jiang She suddenly leaned down and brushed a quick kiss on his lips.

In the wide-open hallway, where school leaders and the discipline office could check at any moment, and where even classmates could walk by on their way to the bathroom, Jiang She kissed him openly.

Chu Tao was stunned. “Jiang She, you—”

“This is the only way you’ll taste it, understand?” Jiang She said, pressing Chu Tao back against the freshly cleaned wall and deepening the kiss.

He still had traces of cream on his lips, the sweet flavor mingling with the rich taste of cream, and he held Chu Tao close, his teeth grazing Chu Tao’s lips.

The wall was cold against Chu Tao’s back, and he was tense, his mind racing. His whole body froze, allowing Jiang She to kiss him however he pleased.

Just one wall separated them from the noisy classroom, where classmates chatted, while outside, they kissed passionately, daringly.

Jiang She gently teased Chu Tao’s lips with his tongue, urging him to open his mouth.

The taste of cake lingered, and Chu Tao couldn’t help meeting his tongue for a moment, only to have Jiang She seize it, encouraged to deepen the kiss.

Jiang She’s Alpha pheromones intensified with his excitement, leaving Chu Tao’s eyes watery, his ears flushed red.

Jiang She’s kisses were usually soft, but today he was a bit rough, pressing harder than usual.

Chu Tao felt his lips tingling, and felt it beginning to swell.

“Jiang She, are you crazy—mmph,” Chu Tao mumbled in a low voice.

“You still want Su Jingtong’s cake?” Jiang She murmured, tightening his grip around Chu Tao’s waist and pulling him closer.

Young, full of intense energy, Chu Tao could feel Jiang She’s arousal immediately.

This was an alpha’s way of asserting dominance. Jiang She’s pheromones grew stronger, as if waiting for the right moment to strike, like a predator hunting its prey.

Chu Tao gritted his teeth and said, “I’m hungry!”

It was ridiculous how jealous Jiang She could get. He didn’t even get a single bite of the cake, yet Jiang She still had to find ways to mess with him.

He raised a hand to touch his lips. They were warm and tingling, surely from the kiss that had made them swell. He didn’t know how long it would take for it to go back to normal or if anyone in the class would notice.

Jiang She lowered his gaze slightly, his tone somewhat aggrieved, “But I didn’t accept it last time.”

Last time, he had known he liked Chu Tao, so he decisively rejected Su Jingtong, not giving him even a chance to fantasize.

Chu Tao paused, staring at Jiang She’s slightly furrowed eyelids and the loneliness in his eyes. All the anger he felt melted away instantly.

“You liked me back then?”

At that time, he hadn’t liked Jiang She yet. Watching Su Jingtong and Jiang She talking, he had just been a passive observer, his mind only occupied by the irritation of being kicked out of the classroom.

But he vaguely remembered that before Jiang She returned to the classroom, he had seemed to mention something.

“I’m single.”

Chu Tao had been confused at the time, thinking Jiang She was overly sensitive, wondering why he felt the need to announce his single status.

“Yeah” Jiang She muttered.

He pulled Chu Tao’s hand away and looked at his flushed, damp lips.

The marks where Jiang She had bitten were gone, but the swelling had left Chu Tao’s lips even redder.

Chu Tao’s skin was pale, and his lips naturally stood out. With his lips slightly parted, his tongue brushing against his teeth, there was a unique allure.

Chu Tao patted Jiang She’s chest and said softly, “I really shouldn’t have accepted it, and I shouldn’t have wanted to eat it. I didn’t consider your feelings. I’m sorry.”

He had never been in a relationship, so he knew there would be things he wasn’t good at.

This time, he had indeed gone too far, not thinking from Jiang She’s perspective.

He had always thought of Jiang She as someone who didn’t care about small details, but no matter how good someone’s temperament was, they could still be sensitive and impulsive when it came to relationships.

Jiang She was no different from anyone else—he could get jealous, feel dissatisfied, and long for attention and to be treated as unique.

All along, it had been Jiang She who treated him differently, but he had always been good to everyone else, constantly thinking about others and worrying about causing trouble for them.

In reality, no matter how well you treated people, not everyone would like you, and no matter how badly you treated them, not everyone would hate you.

Sometimes, it was okay to be a little selfish.

Chu Tao tilted his head and took the initiative to kiss Jiang She, his eyes sparkling, “You’ve swollen my lips. Can we forget about it now?”

Jiang She’s chest itched, his mouth dry. He almost couldn’t resist biting down on Chu Tao’s gland to leave a mark.

Apologetic Chu Tao, the vulnerable Chu Tao, completely different from his usual serious self, had a subtle, alluring charm in his eyes and expression.

He probably didn’t intend to show this side of himself, but Jiang She was shaken to the core.

He ruffled Chu Tao’s hair, his voice low, “I’m not mad at you. I just couldn’t get past how high his pheromone match with you is.”

Chu Tao blinked innocently, “But his match with you is also pretty high.”

Jiang She responded, “But I’m not attracted to him. When he followed me, I had no feelings for him at all. I didn’t even want to touch his hand.”

Chu Tao quickly replied, “Then I definitely wouldn’t be attracted to him.”

After all, his pheromones only reacted to Jiang She.

Su Jingtong’s pheromones only affected him physically, but Jiang She’s attraction was more psychological. The satisfaction and joy he felt from intimate gestures with Jiang She, the taste of it, was beyond words.

Jiang She paused, as if recalling something, and asked curiously, “But is there anything special about the two of us? Why is our pheromone match with Su Jingtong so high? Doesn’t that mean we’re also a special match?” Then, he quickly refuted his own thought, “No, alpha pheromones repel each other. If you weren’t using suppressants, with that kiss just now, we’d probably end up fighting.”

Chu Tao furrowed his brows, feeling like he was starting to grasp some kind of pattern.

He understood pheromones better than Jiang She. He remembered the old professor saying that the purpose of the mental glands wasn’t clear, and the connection between people with mental glands and specific others hadn’t been fully understood.

There were too few samples, and many people didn’t care to find that specific person. They often ended up with a highly compatible partner and spent their lives together.

Looking back, perhaps the condition for the mental gland’s reaction was a perfect match in pheromones, something that couldn’t be explained by genetics for now. But maybe through one or more Omegas, the pattern could be discovered.

Chu Tao had a vague feeling that not just Su Jingtong, but another Omega with a high match to him would likely have the same result with Jiang She.

This was the key to the mental gland’s reaction.

He wasn’t sure yet, but once he got home, he could talk to the professor about this discovery. Maybe they could figure out some kind of pattern.

“What are you thinking about?” Jiang She asked.

Chu Tao snapped back to reality, mumbling, “I was thinking that if we’re caught, we’ll be in big trouble. Let’s go back to class.”

He broke free from Jiang She’s embrace, straightened out his wrinkled school uniform, and lowered his head, covering his lips with one hand as he headed back to class.

As soon as he entered, the classroom quieted for a moment.

But when everyone saw the class president wasn’t going to take charge of the discipline, they quickly resumed their cheerful chatter.

Chu Tao grabbed a tissue, pressed his finger to his lips, and kept his head down, trying to avoid being noticed.

Fang Sheng teased, “Tsk, did the class president catch a cold after going out?”

Chu Tao felt embarrassed and helpless; Fang Sheng probably guessed what they had been doing outside.

Jiang She kicked Fang Sheng lightly and shot him a glare. “Just Study!”

Fang Sheng raised his hand in surrender, “Alright, alright, can’t mess with a man whose blood is up.”

The redness on Chu Tao’s lips didn’t completely disappear until the last class of the day.

Starting from the third year, they had fixed evening self-study sessions.

The evening study session ended at 9:30 PM, and there was an hour break from 5:30 to 6:30 for everyone to eat and relax.

Jiang She insisted on taking Chu Tao to a cake shop outside the school.

Sitting at a small table in the cake shop, Jiang She ordered four types of corner-cut cakes: durian mille-feuille, tiramisu, cheese blueberry, and strawberry ice cream.

These were the best-selling cakes at the shop, visually appealing, smooth in texture, and with just the right level of sweetness.

Jiang She scooped a spoonful of the ice cream cake and fed it to Chu Tao: “This is good, but there’s something even better. It’s honey-glazed cherries made by a private chef. Next time, I’ll take you to try it.”

Chu Tao glanced around to make sure no one was paying attention to them, then opened his mouth and ate the ice cream.

“No need. I wasn’t always eating desserts before.”

Song Mian was very strict about their candy intake when they were young, fearing it would harm their teeth. She controlled their pocket money strictly, and even when they grew up, she didn’t let them indulge. She always felt that boys shouldn’t be spoiled or have everything handed to them. If they got everything too easily, they wouldn’t have resilience in the future.

Jiang She took a sip from the spoon that Chu Tao had bitten.

It had a strong strawberry flavor, but it was still too sweet for him.

“I want to feed you a bit more so you can gain some weight.”

Actually, that wasn’t the case. It was just that Jiang She wanted to fulfill all of Chu Tao’s wishes.

Chu Tao smiled with his almond-shaped eyes, “It’s hard for me to gain weight.”

Jiang She said naturally, “Because I wasn’t the one feeding you before.”

Chu Tao paused for a moment, then smiled, “Hmm, maybe.”