Ning Xi looked at Song Yize’s face, turned around, and said to him, “Oh, I borrowed it.”

Song Yize was silent for a moment, his expression looking a little off. At this moment, his face was extremely cold, and his tone sounded like he was lecturing a disobedient child. “Didn’t I tell you not to borrow clothes from others so casually?”

Ning Xi glanced at the badge on Song Yize’s chest that marked him as the head of the study committee and muttered, “Isn’t it because you committee people deduct points…”

“You actually care about point deductions ah.” Song Yize said. “Don’t you write self-reflection essays every chance you get?”

Ning Xi couldn’t understand why Song Yize was picking on him so early in the morning. He immediately felt wronged. “What’s your problem ya? I just borrowed a school uniform from my roommate. Why are you being so fierce…”

Song Yize’s end suddenly fell silent.

After a while, he slowly spoke. “The school uniform you’re wearing, is it an Omega’s?”

“You told me not to borrow from Alphas. Now I can’t even borrow from an Omega?” Ning Xi lowered his eyes.

Song Yize instinctively rubbed his nose, feeling like he had misunderstood something.

After all, he had always been well-behaved, strictly adhering to the moral standards expected of an Alpha.

It was just that one time when he let his guard down and helped Ning Xi apply a suppression patch, and now, he couldn’t seem to stop paying attention to this Omega.

This was, perhaps, retribution.

Ning Xi tilted his head slightly and asked Song Yize, “Even Omega’s are off-limits?”

Song Yize looked away. “…Just go to the Academic Affairs Office and get a uniform.”

As he finished speaking, his eyes drifted to Ning Xi’s arm and noticed the bandages wrapped around it.

“What happened to your hand?” Song Yize asked.

Ning Xi followed Song Yize’s gaze to his own arm and said, “Oh, I accidentally scraped it. It’s really nothing, but the student committee member went overboard with the bandaging.”

“You seem to get hurt all the time.”

“Indeed ah, I don’t know what’s going on.”

Resting his chin on both hands, Ning Xi watched the crowd running on the red track and casually said, “I don’t even know why I’m here.”

The midsummer sky was a clear blue, with white clouds tinged with the heat. Cicadas had already started their noisy summer chorus at this hour, creating an incessant racket.

Outside the school’s fence, the flowers were in full bloom.

He came too suddenly, without warning, without signs.

He himself had no idea what kind of life he would end up living in this book.

If Song Yize could at least keep him in one piece and stop him from dropping dead in the next second, that would be enough.

“You need to stay close to me.” Ning Xi’s words sounded light and careless, as if he hadn’t thought them through. But to him, they carried a hint of complexity. “Otherwise, one day I might really disappear.”

Ning Xi really thought this way.

Rather than facing this completely unknown world alone, he would rather believe in the absurd idea that staying near Song Yize would keep him safe.

He just wanted to live quietly.

Or perhaps, he simply needed someone to be there.

The summer air was filled with the chirping of insects, and a gentle breeze rustled the branches.

Song Yize was completely frozen in place.

He stood behind Ning Xi, staring at his thin back. The tips of his ears flushed red, and he even felt his heartbeat go out of rhythm.

Instinctively, he clasped his hands behind his back, but his mind was spinning:

Wait…

Was that… an indirect confession just now?

—

Ning Xi and the others returned to the classroom for morning reading.

The students who had just finished running were overheated and flustered, tugging at their clothes to cool down. A few impatient ones had already rushed over to turn on the air conditioning.

Sure enough, running in the late July heat really was torture.

Ning Xi sat back in his seat, which happened to be right under the air conditioner.

He shivered subconsciously and reached for his jacket to cover himself, only to suddenly remember that he had left it in the dorm.

The senior students were full of enthusiasm, especially those aiming for a good university. To stay focused, many of them stood at their desks while reading aloud.

Ning Xi didn’t have that kind of drive and barely made it through morning reading until the bell finally rang.

“Classmate Ning.” Hu Yangcai turned around and said to him, “The Academic Affairs office should be open today. You can go pick up your uniform.”

Ning Xi nodded, stood up, and asked, “Where is the Academic Affairs Office?”

“It’s in Teaching Building No. 3, the one in front of the Omega dormitory.”

I see ah.

Ning Xi loosened the collar of the school uniform.

I’ll return Song Yize’s uniform to him later.

The Aunt for the Omega male dormitory was kind. When Ning Xi told her he had forgotten something, she let him in without any trouble.

Ning Xi returned to his dorm room, picked up Song Yize’s uniform he had brought back yesterday, and left right away.

The experimental classroom was on the third floor.

On his way back, Ning Xi stopped by a small shop along the route.

Xian Chang No. 1 High School’s small shop was quite considerate. Since there was a large flow of students during school hours, it also sold steamed buns, marinated eggs, and breakfast bread.

Ning Xi grabbed a meat bun and happened to see the same sandwiches that Song Yize had bought for him last time, so he picked one up as well.

He finished his breakfast on the way back and tossed the packaging into a trash can.

Then, he stretched his neck a little and headed toward the experimental class to find Song Yize.

The experimental class was on the third floor of the teaching building.

Ning Xi had come back a little late, and by this time, the experimental class was already in self-study.

The classroom was eerily quiet, with the electric fans running and the air conditioner humming faintly. The only sound was the scratching of pen tips against test papers.

Ning Xi walked up to the experimental class’ door without paying attention to what the students inside were doing. Completely at ease, he knocked on the door and asked, “Excuse me, is Song Yize here?”

At the sudden interruption, more than forty pairs of eyes looked at Ning Xi almost simultaneously.

Ning Xi, however, seemed completely unfazed. His gaze swept over the students who had looked up, but he didn’t see Song Yize.

“He’s not here.” Zhang Qiang answered without even looking up, replying on Song Yize’s behalf.

But when he lifted his head and saw a clean, pretty little sweet O standing outside the door, he immediately smiled and added, “What do you need him for?”

Zhang Qiang noticed that Ning Xi was holding something and figured he was probably another one of Ze-ge’s little fans or he came to find Ze-ge here to confess.

Unfortunately, Song Yize wasn’t around.

Not wanting to hurt this pretty Omega’s feelings, Zhang Qiang stood up, walked over to Ning Xi, and said,

“Are you here to bring something for Ze-ge? What a coincidence, he’s not around right now. Just give it to me—I’ll pass it on to him later.”

Ning Xi had originally just wanted to see Song Yize for a bit, but after noticing the classroom’s intensely quiet atmosphere and the students diligently studying, he had no choice but to say, “Okay.”

With that, he handed the sandwich to Zhang Qiang. “Here.”

Zhang Qiang was just about to say, “Got it,” when Ning Xi suddenly placed the school uniform he had been carrying into his hands as well.

Ning Xi: “Help me return this uniform to Song Yize.”

Zhang Qiang: “?”

After a brief pause, Ning Xi added, “Tell him I haven’t washed it yet. If he wants it cleaned before I return it, I’ll come back to pick it up later.”

At those words, Zhang Qiang’s smile froze on his face.

Ren Siyu, who had been drawing a diagram, pressed down too hard and snapped the lead of the mechanical pencil.

Once again, over forty pairs of eyes miraculously turned to stare at them in unison. The air inside the classroom became more deathly silent than ever.

Completely unfazed, Ning Xi casually thanked Zhang Qiang, turned around, and left.

Meanwhile, every student in the class remained in a daze.

“That one just now was an Omega, right?”

“Did he say… return the school uniform to Song Yize?”

“God Ze lent his uniform to an Omega?”

“He also said he hasn’t washed it yet. If it’s unwashed, wouldn’t it still have all his pheromones on it…”

“The most important thing is that he even offered to wash it for God Ze! Is that something a regular AO would do!”

…

Zhang Qiang held Song Yize’s uniform in his hands, and as an Alpha himself, he could distinctly feel the strong Omega pheromones lingering on it.

Help.

That just now can’t be the real deal right…

Zhang Qiang stumbled back to his seat and poked Ren Siyu’s shoulder. “Holy shit, holy shit, class monitor, what the fuck is up with my Ze-ge ah!”

Ren Siyu’s eyes had lost all light. She stared blankly at the corrections on her Chinese worksheet and muttered, “I even saw Yize put suppression patches on an Omega before…”

Zhang Qiang: “??”

Dead inside, Ren Siyu recited the notes on the Analects of Confucius while saying, “Forget it. There’s a Chinese test later, let’s just focus on reviewing.”

With that, she covered her face with her Analects book and mumbled, “You got to take the test seriously ah…”

Zhang Qiang looked at Ren Siyu and sincerely doubted that she was in the right state of mind to take an exam.

Well, getting over heartbreak takes time. Understandable.

But what the hell was going on with Song Yize ah. He had never seen him cross boundaries like this between AOs before.

The phrase “Scum A” involuntarily surfaced in Zhang Qiang’s mind.

No, no, no, no, impossible, impossible.

God Ze was pure-hearted and ascetic, dedicating himself solely to the pursuit of knowledge. How could he possibly be a Scum A ah?

Yet right in front of him lay Song Yize’s jacket, absolutely full of Omega pheromones.

Zhang Qiang: “…”

I fucking–help ah.

Just then, Song Yize came back.

Wearing glasses, he stepped under the bright fluorescent light, his broad shoulders, narrow waist, and long legs accentuating his striking physique. His school uniform was buttoned all the way to the top, making him look proper and upright.

“This is the arrangement for the upcoming test. I’ll post it at the back of the classroom, so be sure to check it before the exam. This time, the school will assign summer study groups based on the results of our last self-study mock exam. Please treat this test as a practice run and take it seriously…”

As Song Yize spoke, he gradually sensed that something was off with the atmosphere in the classroom.

On a normal day, there would already be murmurs of complaints from the students below.

But this time, it was too quiet.

He lifted his head mid-sentence, only to find that the entire class was staring at him.

Some had amused expressions, some looked utterly shocked, some had grins stretched so wide they were nearly reaching the sky, and some were just plain dumbfounded.

Especially Zhang Qiang and Ren Siyu in the front.

At this very moment, their eyes were filled with grief and indignation, exuding an unmistakable “We have been utterly wronged” kind of tragic energy.

Song Yize: ?

What’s going on here?