A Stand-in Alpha Awakens - Chapter 7

At 7:50 AM, the first bell for morning classes at Liancheng No. 1 High rang punctually.

At the same time, inside the castle-like Su family villa, Su Mengrui lay on her soft, oversized bed, toying with a strawberry-shaped red alarm clock set to go off in less than ten minutes.

She had played too hard with friends the night before and hadn’t realized she’d drunk quite so much; she didn’t get back until the early hours of the morning. With the new habits she’d picked up over the break, let alone one alarm at 8:00 AM, even eight alarms wouldn’t usually wake her at this hour.

Yet the truth was, from the moment she’d been woken up by thirst over an hour ago until now, she hadn’t been able to fall back asleep.

Instead, three empty cartons of strawberry milk had appeared in the trash can by her bed.

In the past, she would at most finish one carton before lying down to sleep again. But this morning, as if possessed, she had drunk until her stomach felt bloated before finally putting the carton down numbly.

Su Mengrui lowered her reddened eyes to look at the large strawberry clock in her hand. She exhaled a breath tasting of strawberries and alcohol, tossed the clock behind her with a dissatisfied flick of her wrist, and rolled out of bed to head to her private bathroom.

Once the discomfort of bloating subsided, the Omega’s exquisite, palm-sized face appeared in the illuminated vanity mirror.

Su Mengrui frowned at her reflection for a moment, then irritably leaned down to splash her face with water. The cool water hitting her warm skin managed to dampen her agitation slightly.

But it only lasted a few seconds before she thought of that little Alpha’s wary gaze again.

Cold, cool, and different from anyone she had ever met.

On that point alone, her uniqueness surpassed even the sunlit, pure Chu Ziyan.

She heard from Song Wushuang that the girl’s pheromones were also strawberry-scented, just like Ziyan’s.

And yet, she gave off a completely different vibe from Ziyan.

Through the mirror, Su Mengrui’s eyes envisioned that face—a face that made her blood run hot just by thinking of it—and she knit her brows in disapproval.

Someone like her… strawberry-scented? It’s truly hard to imagine or anticipate.

Su Mengrui brushed back the wet strands of hair from her forehead. She thought and thought, endured and endured, but finally couldn’t help but smile as she retrieved her phone from where it had been tossed on the floor at the foot of the bed. she pulled up the contact labeled ‘Surname Song.’

The time in the top left corner showed 7:53 AM. Having spent three years at No. 1 High, her thumb slid smoothly toward the message icon under the call button. Standing before the half-open sheer curtains, she typed:

—Contact me after class.

When Song Wushuang saw this text, she had just walked into the public restroom outside the Xiuyuan Building.

Every floor of the teaching buildings at No. 1 High had a restroom, but there were few stalls and many people. Since her new classroom was on the first floor and close to the public toilets, she didn’t bother joining the crowd inside. It turned out to be the right choice.

The public restroom was nearly empty; as she stepped in, only one Beta was coming out.

Seeing this, Song Wushuang boldly pulled out her phone to unlock it. Just as she entered the Alpha-only section, she saw the text from the person labeled “Junior CEO Su.”

Her heart skipped a beat. She immediately checked every stall to confirm no one was there before hitting the call button.

When Su Mengrui answered, she was eating breakfast in the dining room on the first floor of the villa. She swallowed a blueberry she had just put in her mouth, her voice sounding lazy: “Junior Song, I was a bit impulsive the other night. My apologies.”

Song Wushuang hurried to offer a fawning smile: “No, no, Senior, you don’t need to take it to heart. It was indeed my fault that day. I didn’t do what I promised; it’s only right that you were angry.”

Leaning back against her chair, the smile on Su Mengrui’s face remained, but her tone grew cold: “So you do know.”

Song Wushuang’s ears went numb.

Su Mengrui’s voice, carrying a current like electricity, continued to burrow into her ear: “Song Wushuang, I won’t waste words. Figure something out. I want to see Jiang Lu as soon as possible.”

The color drained from Song Wushuang’s face. Her voice changed pitch in her haste: “Junior CEO Su, school just started. At No. 1 High…”

“I know, but I don’t care. You figure it out. Don’t make me repeat myself a third time, okay?” Su Mengrui interrupted before Song Wushuang could finish. Regardless of whether the other girl agreed, she hung up immediately after asking.

Song Wushuang’s relationship with Jiang Lu wasn’t hard to find out. With two people that close, Su Mengrui felt that as long as Song Wushuang wanted to, getting Jiang Lu to leave campus once wouldn’t be a difficult task.

In less than a week, she would be heading to her new university. Before the term started, she really wanted to taste if that little ice cube’s strawberry scent was sweet or not.

Lost in thought, Su Mengrui picked up another blueberry and tossed it into her mouth.

The sound of high heels clicking on the floor came from outside the dining room. She turned toward the living room and locked eyes with the pair of eyes she hated most. The smile on her face faded briefly before growing even wider.

“Oh, Big Sister is back? Out shopping first thing in the morning?”

Su Mengrui watched the person with hair as long as a ghost’s stand there. She stood up herself. “Hey, Sis, you didn’t just get back, did you? Our Su family has house rules—no staying out overnight.”

Bai Yue acted as if she hadn’t heard, continuing her pace.

Su Mengrui quickly stepped out of the dining room to block her way: “Big Sister, I’m giving you a kind reminder. It’s fine if you don’t thank me, but why ignore me? Are you annoyed that I’m meddling?”

Bai Yue looked at her calmly.

Su Mengrui opened her mouth in exaggerated shock, looking wounded: “Ah? You don’t actually think that, do you?”

Bai Yue looked at Su Mengrui—whose acting was worse than a bottom-tier “vase” actress and whose hair stood up like a hedgehog’s. Bai Yue’s face seemed to glow where the sunlight hit it, but she remained expressionless: “The curfew set by Grandmother is 11:00 PM. You didn’t return until 1:00 AM. The surveillance at the gate caught it clearly. Are you sure you want to waste time here instead of going to Grandmother to apologize and explain?”

“The surveillance is fixed?” The fake smile on Su Mengrui’s face shattered.

“Mm-hm.” Bai Yue’s elegant eyebrows arched slightly. She bypassed the obstructive Su Mengrui and stepped into the elevator behind the living room, sliding the door shut.

Su Mengrui stared at the floor indicator on the elevator, silently cursed, and bolted up the stairs.

The Old Matron was getting older and couldn’t sit in the office every day. When she didn’t go in, she would join video conferences at 9:00 AM sharp. Most of the time, her mood was affected by the content of those meetings. When she was unhappy, her temper was formidable.

To avoid becoming a punching bag, Su Mengrui ran as fast as she could.

The elevator doors opened on the third floor, just as Su Mengrui gripped the railing of the stairs leading to the fourth. Only her hurried breathing and heartbeat remained in the quiet stairwell.

That panicked feeling was exactly like what Song Wushuang was experiencing, stunned in the restroom stall.

The difference was that while Su Mengrui felt panic and anger, Song Wushuang’s heart was filled with intense bitterness and a stinging ache.

Inside the restroom behind the Xiuyuan Building, Song Wushuang stood motionless. The screen of the phone in her right hand, pressed against the stall door, dimmed and then turned completely black.

Beneath that blackness was a happy photo of a family of three cutting and eating cake.

Last night, her parents and brother had celebrated her birthday again. She, the “birthday girl,” wouldn’t have even known if she hadn’t accidentally scrolled through her friend circle and seen this update from twelve hours ago.

Again! It’s like this again! Three people, and not a single one sent me a message to say Happy Birthday!

Song Wushuang raised a hand to wipe the tears from her eyes. As the cold, hard object brushed her face, she looked at it intently, as if just realizing there was something on her wrist.

The hands of the white ceramic watch moved silently. Jiang Lu had given this to her for her birthday last year.

But the day before yesterday, Jiang Lu had asked for everything back.

She took back everything she gave me…

Song Wushuang thought numbly, her body stiff like a short-circuited robot as she exited the stall. She washed her face at the sink, listening to the warning bell. Pressing her lips together, she walked back.

When the final bell rang, Jiang Lu looked up at Old Yan walking into the classroom and gave Liang Shuang an unexpected glance.

Liang Shuang’s face was neutral, but her long, fluttering lashes betrayed her surprise.

The “Iron-Faced Yama” on the podium was different from their first meeting; this time, he gave a brief self-introduction.

“Hello, students. I am Yan Ge, your homeroom teacher and math teacher for this semester. I’m going to write my phone number down. Please memorize it carefully and recall it immediately if you ever need it—then call me.”

Jiang Lu looked at the string of numbers on the blackboard—completely different from the one she had noted down before. She curled her lips, wrote it in her notebook, and committed it to memory.

However, as she put her pen down, Old Yan added: “To clarify, my point isn’t to encourage you to carry phones at all times. On the contrary, I hope that when you should be devoted to your studies, you can temporarily put away the things that distract you. I’ll give you five minutes to think about it.”

Three seconds later, he leaned down and pulled a medium-sized basket from under the multimedia podium, placing it on top.

The fifty students: “…”

Fine, the new homeroom teacher lives up to his name.

The next forty minutes passed in a flash. By the time Jiang Lu snapped back to reality, it was lunch. New lessons passed much faster than exams. After a morning of adapting, Jiang Lu found that the new teacher’s pace was much faster than her teachers from the previous year.

Even better, the atmosphere in the class was ideal; the level of seriousness during and after class was something she had never seen before.

Walking to the cafeteria, Liang Shuang massaged her aching neck with a sigh: “I feel a sense of urgency like we’re already seniors.”

Jiang Lu laughed and stretched her arms. “What are we eating? I want something high-calorie today.”

“Me too,” Liang Shuang said, glancing toward the dorms. “I feel like I need to stock up on chocolate or something. To be honest, I was hungry the moment the fourth period started.”

It was true. Although Jiang Lu didn’t get hungry as early as Liang Shuang, she barely made it to the end of class. For some reason, Jiang Lu felt like everyone in the cafeteria today was eating with extreme focus—just like in class, hardly anyone was chatting.

After eating, the two headed straight for the small supermarket in front of the dorms. Now that school had officially started, the shop was busy every day. Jiang Lu and Liang Shuang entered one after the other. They had to walk sideways through the snack aisle. Luckily, the shelves hadn’t been picked clean yet.

Jiang Lu looked at the coffee sticks—only one box left—and grabbed two boxes of chocolate biscuits and some fruit candy instead.

Liang Shuang saw that she didn’t grab any chocolate. Remembering how Jiang Lu used to always bring dark chocolate for Song Wushuang, Liang Shuang put back all the dark chocolate in her hand and grabbed milk and white chocolate instead. Song Wushuang loved different intensities of dark chocolate; Liang Shuang wasn’t that picky and would accept whatever Jiang Lu preferred.

Coming out of the supermarket, each carrying a large plastic bag, they headed back to the dorm. The incoming freshmen wouldn’t report until tomorrow afternoon, so the third and fourth floors of the dorm building were currently empty.

Jiang Lu and Liang Shuang walked up to the fifth floor. Just as they were about to continue to the sixth, they found someone blocking the stairs.

Song Wushuang stood there, holding a canvas bag. “Jiang Lu.”

In just one day, Jiang Lu had seen her twice. Her previously indifferent face finally showed a trace of undisguised annoyance.

Song Wushuang had spent the entire morning replaying the events of the last few days. Seeing Jiang Lu now, the arrogance in her heart had vanished, her anger had cooled, and only an irrepressible anxiety remained.

Her lips were dry, and her voice was so small she sounded like a different person compared to their argument two days ago: “These are the things you gave me. They’re all here. The original packaging is at home. If you’re not in a hurry, I’ll bring it to you after the next break. If you are…”

No one spoke.

Song Wushuang slowly finished the sentence herself: “I’ll ask for leave to go home and get it these next two days.”

Jiang Lu didn’t say a word. She reached out and took the canvas bag—which was the same model as her own—and bypassed her to keep walking up.

Song Wushuang turned around hurriedly to grab her: “Jiang Lu, wait.”

Jiang Lu looked back at her hand. The latter awkwardly moved it away, looking down as she said: “I’m sorry, Jiang Lu. I was wrong about what happened last time. I don’t have that much money right now; I can only pay back half first. Can you…”

“Can you add me back so I can transfer it to you?”

No. 1 High didn’t explicitly forbid students from bringing phones, but each homeroom teacher had their own requirements. After introducing himself in the second period, Old Yan had collected everyone’s phones in the basket, stipulating that they wouldn’t be returned until they went home for break, except for free activity time on Sunday afternoons.

Jiang Lu checked her watch, confirmed the date, and said without looking back: “The afternoon after tomorrow, then. My phone has been handed in.”

Song Wushuang opened her mouth, but ultimately didn’t push further. She gave a low “okay,” turned, and walked down the stairs toward her new dorm on the fifth floor.