A Stand-in Alpha Awakens - Chapter 15

At 9:10 PM, the bell ending the third period of evening self-study at Liancheng No. 1 High rang punctually.

As the ringing ceased, the quiet campus suddenly burst into life, with a massive swarm of laughing and chatting students pouring out of the teaching buildings. Among them, the Mingzhi Building for freshmen was the first to plunge into darkness, followed by the classrooms in the Xiuyuan Building for sophomores, which went dark one by one.

Jiang Lu and Liang Shuang followed the crowd down from the fifth floor. After exiting the building, they headed straight for the small on-campus supermarket. Their previously purchased snacks weren’t finished yet, but they were all sweet, and eating too much of them had become cloying. The two of them agreed to buy some cup noodles or self-heating mini hotpots to improve their standard of living.

“I really don’t understand what the school leadership is thinking. We are high schoolers who are growing and in desperate need of energy, yet they let us go to sleep feeling hungry. It’s simply inhumane!”

“Aaah, I’m seriously starving to death. Hey, hey, classmate, please leave a box of that flavor for me, thank you!”

“Sigh—the weight I worked so hard to put on over the break has disappeared in just a few days! I hate it!”

“Stop the ‘humble-bragging.’ Hey, someone grab me a butter bun. If I don’t get something to eat, I’m going back to gnaw on your bedframe…”

The supermarket was packed with students buying late-night snacks. It was shoulder-to-shoulder, and the air was thick with constant grumbling.

Listening to the complaints around her, Jiang Lu turned to look at Liang Shuang, who was stacking different flavors of cup noodles in her arms. Her expression froze. “You… you don’t intend to eat instant noodles every single night, do you?”

Liang Shuang shook her head. “I plan to eat them for three days first.”

Jiang Lu: “…” She hadn’t thought that far ahead.

After paying and squeezing out of the supermarket, Liang Shuang nudged Jiang Lu with her shopping bag and finished the second half of her thought: “On the fourth day, I’m planning to climb the wall to go buy food outside.”

The streetlights on campus weren’t particularly bright, but the lights cast from the rooftops were sharp and cold. Seeing Liang Shuang’s dead-serious expression, Jiang Lu recalled the food stalls they had frequented during their freshman year. “Are you serious?”

“Mhm,” Liang Shuang nodded. “Coming with? If not, you can keep watch for me.”

Jiang Lu remembered back in the first semester of tenth grade when Liang Shuang was the discipline monitor. She caught people for breaking classroom rules during class and caught people for violating school policies after class—she had been as impartial and iron-faced as Justice Bao.

Looking at her now… Jiang Lu chuckled. “Liang Shuang, you’ve changed.”

“In what way?” Liang Shuang asked dismissively, her expression not shifting an inch.

Jiang Lu replied, “In the past, you would never have said anything about climbing a wall to buy food.”

Liang Shuang nodded and explained, “But in the past, I was never hungry at this hour. My body is telling me I need to eat—and I need to eat a variety of flavors.”

“That’s true,” Jiang Lu sighed understandingly. Since this semester started, she couldn’t speak for others, but her own metabolism was moving incredibly fast; she found herself hungry before she knew it.

Liang Shuang, sharing the sentiment, looked at Jiang Lu’s profile. She wanted to pat her shoulder, but since both her hands were occupied with bags, she bumped her with her shoulder instead. “Hey, I just thought of a famous quote: ‘People who don’t know how to change can change nothing.'”

“Huh?” Jiang Lu asked, baffled. “Does that apply here?”

The stiffness of Liang Shuang’s face softened as the corners of her mouth turned up. “Whether it applies is up to you. I’m just sharing a famous quote with you, though I don’t remember who said it.”

“Fair enough. I’ll keep it in mind. Thanks for sharing.” Jiang Lu repeated it in her mind as she quickened her pace toward the dormitory.

Hot water was supplied continuously in the dorm building, but that was only for washing. If you wanted boiling water for noodles, you had to go to the boiler room in front of the dorm building yourself.

Lin Tingting and Chen Xueyao weren’t back yet. Liang Shuang and Jiang Lu opened the door to their room and immediately saw two pieces of clothing piled on the balcony floor—they looked like they had fallen off the rack. Liang Shuang recognized them as the uniforms she had washed before dinner and let out an irritated “tsk.”

Jiang Lu put her things down and grabbed the kettle from the corner. “Re-wash them. I’ll go get the water.”

The boiler room wasn’t crowded. When Jiang Lu walked in, the place happened to be empty—and so was the hot water. The electronic screen showed the water temperature was only just over 50°C; she would have to wait.

Jiang Lu didn’t feel like walking to the other boiler room, so she set her kettle down and leaned against the corner wall, looking down at her watch.

After climbing over the wall near the teaching building, Su Mengrui had been waiting near the supermarket, keeping an eye on the dorm. She had noticed Jiang Lu the moment she approached the building with her shopping bags, but because she couldn’t reach Song Wushuang and saw Chu Zishan nearby, she didn’t dare act recklessly.

At this time of night, there were two thousand students moving around the dorm area. She didn’t stand out much among them, but if she caught even one person’s attention, things would become complicated and troublesome. Having lived high-profile for over a decade, this was the first time Su Mengrui was troubled by her own lack of discretion.

Walking in the shadows with her head down, Su Mengrui followed the base of the wall through the narrow path behind the dorm and circled into the small lane beside the boiler room. Having studied at No. 1 High for three years, she knew the school beneath her feet better than any of the busy juniors.

Therefore, just as she climbed through the boiler room window and saw Jiang Lu standing under the ceiling light in the outer room, she felt more than just smug—she was delighted. God truly loves me. He gives me good luck every time. I get exactly what I wish for!

Su Mengrui was overjoyed. She crept forward a few steps, then stopped to tidy her clothes. Her white, slim-fit short-sleeved shirt had gotten dirty while climbing the wall, and her white shoes were stained with mud from the landing. It wasn’t much, but… the more she looked, the more it bothered her. Just as she was debating whether to find something to wipe them with, she heard the sound of water boiling nearby. Her heart skipped a beat and she looked up.

The Alpha leaning against the wall moved. Under the bright light, Jiang Lu stood before the stainless steel counter, filling her kettle with hot water. As the steam rose, Su Mengrui’s heart pounded violently.

No, I can’t let her leave.

Intuition told her that if she missed this moment, she would regret it for countless days and nights. Su Mengrui took a deep breath and walked quickly toward Jiang Lu, who had just finished capping her kettle.

The surveillance camera in the corner had a fixed angle and couldn’t rotate. The Omega had estimated the range and wisely didn’t charge directly into the frame. However, her footsteps were obvious. When Jiang Lu heard the sound, she turned her head in confusion to look at the figure emerging from the wall. In her calm eyes, a deep sense of loathing flared up the moment she recognized Su Mengrui’s face.

As their eyes met, Su Mengrui’s excitement and agitation were completely extinguished by that ice-cold gaze. In that instant, she seemed to see through the person in front of her to their previous two encounters—and the Jiang Lu from before.

Su Mengrui keenly felt the change in Jiang Lu’s attitude. In these three “encounters,” the little Alpha clearly hated her more each time. Unfortunately, she wasn’t a person who knew when to quit, nor did she plan to give up.

Su Mengrui offered a nonchalant smile and raised her hand in greeting. “Junior Jiang Lu, what a coincidence. We meet again.”

Jiang Lu glanced toward the door, her tone mocking. “Are you here looking for your ‘good friend’ Chu Ziyan? Then you should go find her at the Zhaixing Building.”

“No, I’m here for you.” Su Mengrui continued walking forward. “But even I didn’t expect to find you so easily. What did I say? There really is fate between us.”

Jiang Lu suppressed her nausea and ignored the last word, withdrawing her gaze in disgust. “For me? Didn’t you say it was all a misunderstanding and that you’d never come looking for me again? It’s not very nice to deceive Senior Chu like that.”

Su Mengrui hadn’t expected Jiang Lu to know about the promise she made to Chu Ziyan at noon. She felt awkward deep down, but acted indifferent on the surface. “Oh, so you know about that.”

If it were possible, Jiang Lu would have preferred to never know anything about them for the rest of her life. From the end of class until lights-out, there were only thirty minutes. Jiang Lu didn’t want to waste time on disgusting people. She glanced outside the boiler room, let out a sneer, and prepared to leave.

“Jiang Lu, wait!” Su Mengrui watched the cold, hard Alpha and spoke up anxiously. “Do you really not want to hear about my identity and why I came to find you?”

Jiang Lu stopped at the glass door. She checked the time, and a reply from Liang Shuang popped up on her watch: Okay, no rush.

9:18 PM. There were still more than twenty minutes until 9:40 PM. If she forced out two minutes, it seemed possible…

Having changed her mind, Jiang Lu reached down and set the kettle full of boiling water by the wall. She proactively walked toward Su Mengrui, who was pressed against the wall. The latter didn’t expect Jiang Lu to approach so suddenly. Before the smile in her eyes could blossom, a hand with long, slender fingers clamped directly onto her throat.

Like a hawk grabbing a chick, the Alpha pinned the Omega against the wall. “When I was very young, my mother taught me that I shouldn’t use my advantages to bully those who are weaker.”

“She was right, and I’ve always lived that way. Unfortunately, she forgot to tell me that some people only look like humans—just like how some Omegas only look like Alphas.”

“Su Mengrui, you shouldn’t have come to find me alone.”

With a click, a small window on the wall opened. Jiang Lu let go and tilted her chin at Su Mengrui. “I’m more generous than you. How about I give you thirty seconds to escape?”

In the novel, Jiang Lu had heard similar words before being thrown into the basement by Su Mengrui’s bodyguards:

Inside the luxuriously yet anciently decorated villa, the little Alpha, woken by a splash of ice water, crawled up from the floor in a daze. However, just as she was about to stand, the Omega looking down at her kicked her back to the ground.

Su Mengrui found it incredibly amusing. She squatted down and looked at the girl lying on her back, pinching her chin like she was teasing a pet. “Little Strawberry, let’s play a game. Didn’t you keep saying you wanted to go home during dinner? How about this: I’ll give you ten seconds. If you can reach that door within ten seconds, I’ll agree to let you go home. How about it?”

The villa’s hall was massive, and Su Mengrui had many bodyguards. The outcome of that game had been obvious.

Just like now.

The thirty-second countdown had ended a full minute ago. In the alley behind the boiler room, Jiang Lu expressionlessly pinned Su Mengrui to the ground and delivered a hard punch.

Su Mengrui gasped in pain, her head lolling as she glared at the Jiang Lu pinning her down. “You fucking dare hit me?”

On top of the wall, where there was almost no light, the head that had witnessed the entire scene silently retracted.

Bai Yue, having accidentally seen a major piece of “gossip,” carefully climbed down the folding ladder. She turned and gestured for the man behind her to carry the ladder back and put it away.

“Miss Bai, do you need me to…” Before the man could finish, Bai Yue, standing in front of the car, waved her hand. “No one is to speak a word of what happened tonight.”

The man hesitated. “Then…”

Bai Yue’s gaze turned cold. “Especially not to the Old Matron.”

The man lowered his head. “Understood.”

Bai Yue glanced back at the wall she had just peaked over and shook her head with a trace of regret. Originally, she had intended to have someone report another “complaint” to the Old Matron.

She hadn’t expected it—the little Alpha was truly fierce!