A Short-Lived Cannon Fodder Alpha Just Wants to Be a Salted Fish - Chapter 29

Life in the 11th grade officially began.

Compared to the 10th grade, the curriculum was tighter, and evening self-study sessions became mandatory. Some teachers seemed to have been “infected” by Qi Jin, as they also began developing a fondness for holding late lectures.

However, the atmosphere in the class was excellent. Most students in this class had a serious case of “social butterfly syndrome.” Coupled with Qi Jin’s repeated emphasis that she wouldn’t tolerate childish behaviors like forming cliques or isolating classmates, the students got along very harmoniously.

Wen Yuan found it quite miraculous. Qi Jin had taught Class 1 before; with such an upright teacher around, why was Chu Yihan friendless, isolated, and bullied back then?

“Teacher Qi wasn’t the homeroom teacher then, so she didn’t have the final say. At that time, the people in the class were annoyed by her and wouldn’t listen to her at all,” Chu Yihan explained, clearing up her confusion. “And as for having no friends—it was because I didn’t want to make any.”

If those words came from anyone else, it would sound like a defensive boast, but Chu Yihan’s tone made it sound like a simple statement of fact. She just wasn’t willing.

The better-behaved she looked, the bolder her words were.

Wen Yuan remembered when she first met Chu Yihan, Shi Ran had said Chu Yihan’s aura was more like an Alpha’s. Wen Yuan hadn’t agreed back then, but now she felt that Chu Yihan really did have that vibe sometimes.

“Why didn’t you want to make friends?” Shi Ran asked, winking playfully. “And why do you want to make them now?”

Ji Xingyao chimed in: “Are you a ‘Ten Thousand Whys’ book? My goddess’s grades are so good, she basically looks down on those ‘small fry,’ so she just didn’t want to be friends with them!”

“Hey, then do you think the Little Academic God looks up to you?”

Ji Xingyao’s grades were at the bottom of Class 2, so Qi Jin had arranged for her to sit with Chu Yihan.

“I’m different from them! Even though my grades aren’t great, I’m pretty and have a good personality…”

“Stop, stop, stop. Your narcissism is giving me goosebumps.”

Since becoming front-and-back neighbors, the “fated rivals” bickered constantly. Wen Yuan and Chu Yihan had long grown used to it.

Chu Yihan hadn’t answered those two questions yet. While Shi Ran and Ji Xingyao were bickering, Wang Xin approached again, clutching his textbook to ask Chu Yihan a question.

Shi Ran leaned toward Wen Yuan and whispered gossip: “Does Wang ‘Sanjin’ have a crush on the Little Academic God? He comes to ask questions every three days—even more frequently than you do.”

Wen Yuan’s gaze slowly swept over Wang Xin’s large head, which was bent so low it almost touched Chu Yihan’s. She pursed her lips. “Who knows.”

“I have that feeling too,” Ji Xingyao leaned in and whispered. “He gets so close every time. Is it really necessary?”

“Exactly.”

Wen Yuan caught a different detail: “Your ears are quite sharp.”

They were speaking softly, and neither Wang Xin nor Chu Yihan had reacted, yet Ji Xingyao had heard everything.

Ji Xingyao waved her hand. “I have dog ears.” She paused, gave Shi Ran a subtle look, and continued the previous topic: “I don’t think he’s a good match for my goddess.”

Shi Ran nodded, taking Ji Xingyao’s hand. “Great minds think alike.”

Girls’ friendships could always be established this simply.

In the past, if an Alpha came to ask questions, Chu Yihan would be very careful about the distance. But Wang Xin was a Beta; his pheromones were said to smell like plain boiled water. If it weren’t for his good grades, he would be very easy to overlook.

Wen Yuan was twirling her pen. Her strength was a bit too much, and the pen flew from her fingertips, landing—quite coincidentally—right on Wang Xin’s leg.

Wang Xin was startled. He straightened up and took a step back, clutching his chest. “What was that?”

“Sorry about that, my hand slipped.” Wen Yuan pointed to the pen on the floor. “Monitor, could you pick that up for me? Thanks.”

Wang Xin breathed a sigh of relief when he saw what it was, picked it up, and handed it to Wen Yuan. During this interval, Chu Yihan had already written down the key steps. Wang Xin took the book, thanking her repeatedly, and pulled a small tangerine from his pocket to give to her.

After Wang Xin left, Shi Ran and Ji Xingyao gave Wen Yuan a synchronous thumbs-up. “Smooth. Very smooth.”

Wen Yuan was speechless. “My hand really slipped.”

Shi Ran: “A guilty person gives themselves away.”

Ji Xingyao: “Trying to hide what’s already obvious.”

Chu Yihan turned around and placed the tangerine Wang Xin gave her on Wen Yuan’s desk. “A gift of flowers to the Buddha.”

Wen Yuan: “??”

In the end, Wen Yuan was too lazy to explain. She was starting to lose track of whether she had actually slipped up or done it on purpose. She peeled the tangerine and stuffed the segments into her mouth until her cheeks were bulging. After one bite, she realized it was incredibly sour.

Luckily, she had a high tolerance for sourness, or her features would have certainly distorted.

“Is it sweet?” Chu Yihan asked.

Ji Xingyao: “It must be sweet. Look at how she’s eating it without stopping.”

There was one segment left. Wen Yuan managed to keep a straight face, swallowed the rest, and used all her acting skills to nod. “Sweet!”

She held her hand out to feed it to Chu Yihan. “Here, open wide.”

Shi Ran: “Ahhh! Favoritism! You didn’t even leave a segment for me.”

Chu Yihan froze slightly, her long lashes trembling, and her red lips parted slightly. A flash of mischief crossed Wen Yuan’s eyes as she stuffed the segment into Chu Yihan’s mouth.

Chu Yihan lowered her eyes and bit into the tangerine. Her teeth grazed past Wen Yuan’s fingertips almost imperceptibly.

Like an electric current, Wen Yuan’s breath hitched, and she slowly withdrew her hand.

Looking at Chu Yihan again, her small face was crumpled from the sourness, her brow knit tight, and tears were even squeezed out of the corners of her eyes.

Wen Yuan threw her momentary heart-throb to the back of her mind and laughed heartlessly. “Hahaha!” While laughing, she pulled a bottle of soda from her desk, unscrewed it, and handed it to Chu Yihan. “Are you still going to side with them to tease me?”

Chu Yihan was too sour to speak. She took the soda, poured half into her own empty cup, gave the bottle back to Wen Yuan, and took small sips from her cup.

Just looking at Chu Yihan’s expression made one’s mouth water. Shi Ran swallowed, still feeling the phantom sourness. “Good thing you didn’t leave any for me.”

Ji Xingyao’s imagination was wild: “I thought Wang ‘Sanjin’ had a secret crush, but it turns out he wanted to sour you to death so he could take first place.”

Shi Ran gasped in coordination: “So that’s how it is!”

Across the aisle, Zhang Lili and Lin Meng were dying of laughter. Wen Yuan took several gulps of soda. Feeling the sourness in her mouth fade, she summarized: “So, don’t take things from Wang Xin next time.”

Chu Yihan had recovered by now. She blinked at Wen Yuan, her eyes watery and tearful. She looked both aggrieved and easy to bully.

“I won’t.”

Just as she spoke, the bell rang. This period was the class meeting.

Qi Jin stepped into the room in her high heels and announced: “Friday is Mid-Autumn Festival, so we have one day off, followed by the weekend for a total of three days. After consultation, the school leadership decided to use the two weekend days for an autumn trip.”

The words “autumn trip” were like a drop of water in hot oil; the room erupted in cheers and heated discussion.

Qi Jin tapped the podium. “If you have plans for Mid-Autumn and don’t want to go, report it in advance. Here is the itinerary. The first day is Mount Jingou—we’ll go down the mountain by drifting, so bring dry clothes to change into. We’ll stay one night at a guesthouse in the mountains and return the next day.”

“Our class is assigned to the second and third floors. The room layouts are different; you can arrange the assignments yourselves.”

Qi Jin swept her gaze over the excited students and poured a bucket of cold water on them: “Boys and girls cannot room together, and Alphas and Omegas cannot room together either. Monitor, go get the floor plan. Report the final assignments to me.”

Before leaving, she added: “Teacher He can’t go because of her pregnancy, so write a travelogue for her after the trip. No less than 800 words.”

In the past, there would have been groans, but since it was for He Xun, the students happily agreed: “Okay! We’ll write 1,600 words to make ‘Auntie He’ jealous!”

Once Qi Jin left, Wang Xin returned with the floor plans. He had the cultural rep draw a rough map on the blackboard and asked everyone to come up and write their names in the corresponding slots.

The room was filled with excitement. There were standard rooms, single rooms, and one room with a large bed.

Ji Xingyao clamored to sleep in the big bed with Chu Yihan so she could be close to her goddess.

Shi Ran teased her: “And then scare the Academic God away with your sleep-talking and snoring? Little Academic God, don’t listen to her. For the sake of good sleep quality, pick a single room immediately!”

“Psh! You’ve never slept with me, don’t talk nonsense.”

“I wouldn’t want to sleep with you anyway!”

One second they were best friends dissing Wang Xin together, and the next they were bickering like elementary schoolers.

Hearing Shi Ran mention sleep-talking, Wen Yuan instinctively glanced toward the front row. Chu Yihan was bent over, writing something. Occasionally, Ji Xingyao would grab her and shake her twice, causing her long, dark hair to sway gently in front of Wen Yuan’s eyes.

“Are you guys still debating?” Zhang Lili returned from registering and teased Wen Yuan. “Hey, that large bed room is still empty. You and Shi Ran should take it.”

“There aren’t many single rooms left,” Chu Yihan reminded them. “Don’t you Alphas prefer single rooms?”

“Yes, yes, yes. I don’t want to sleep in a big bed with ‘Little Bird’,” Shi Ran said, pulling herself out of her argument with Ji Xingyao. “This bird’s pheromones are too strong. She’s been unintentionally releasing pheromone pressure in her sleep lately; a single room is better.”

Wen Yuan gave a huff.

Ji Xingyao asked curiously: “What do your pheromones smell like?”

“Hey, want to know? Not telling.” Shi Ran hurried to register her and Wen Yuan for single rooms.

“Tch.”

With no one left to bicker with, Ji Xingyao focused on pestering Chu Yihan for the large bed. Wen Yuan thought of the night Chu Yihan had a nightmare and used her as a body pillow. She said leisurely: “Is your heat cycle coming up soon?”

“Me? No.” Ji Xingyao turned her head, only to realize Wen Yuan was looking at Chu Yihan. The question was meant for her.

“Yes,” Chu Yihan said, suppressing the urge to smile. “It’s better if we don’t share a room. In case my heat starts, it will affect you.”

Ji Xingyao let out a disappointed “Ah” and glared at Wen Yuan, then asked in shock: “How do you know her heat is coming?”

Wen Yuan arched an eyebrow. “Just a guess.”

Vague! Ji Xingyao didn’t believe it. She was about to press further when Chu Yihan stood up.

“There are two single rooms left. Let’s go register.” Chu Yihan headed toward the podium.

Ji Xingyao followed quickly: “I want to be right next to you!”

After Chu Yihan returned from registering, Wen Yuan remembered to ask her: “When I sleep, do I really release pheromones randomly?”

Lately, Shi Ran had been saying she was woken up by Wen Yuan’s pheromones, but she remembered when she slept with Chu Yihan, Chu Yihan hadn’t woken up.

Chu Yihan lifted her eyelids and looked at her deeply. “No.”

Before Wen Yuan could interpret the meaning behind that look, Shi Ran gave an “Ehh”: “Alphas don’t release pheromones at Omegas randomly, unless they want to—”

“Want to what?”

“Want to force it.”