Chapter 4

Shu Baiyu looked at the pink color and fell silent for several seconds. Then he reached out, picked it up, and casually removed his hood.

His hair was already slightly long, and it fell loosely around the raised gland at the back of his neck, half concealing it.

Sitting beside him, Lu Xingzhou only had to lower his eyes to see the deep bite marks left on Shu Baiyu’s gland.

When he had given Shu Baiyu the temporary mark the night before, he had not restrained his strength. Nor had he harbored any romantic thoughts. He had simply opened his mouth and bitten down to help him.

As a result, the marks he left were far deeper than usual.

Even now, a red ring remained around the gland. Anyone who saw it would think this Omega’s partner lacked both manners and consideration.

Lu Xingzhou had not expected Shu Baiyu to leave the house like this. He froze.

“…You didn’t put on a suppression patch?”

Shu Baiyu lowered his head, swept his hair aside, and slapped the pink suppression patch onto the back of his neck with a sharp smack.

Then he raised his head.

“It’s on now.”

Lu Xingzhou’s expression became slightly complicated.

He could already imagine the rumors about Shu Baiyu that would soon spread throughout the university.

Shu Baiyu did not think anything was wrong at all. After applying the suppression patch, he put everything else away.

Since there happened to be a native resident of the ABO world beside him whom he could ask, he consulted him.

“Do I need an inhibitor injection today?”

Lu Xingzhou paused again.

“Did you take one yesterday?”

Shu Baiyu shook his head.

Lu Xingzhou was completely stunned.

He turned and gave Shu Baiyu his full attention, looking him up and down.

When Shu Baiyu approached him today, Lu Xingzhou had not detected a strong pheromone bailiantales.com scent. Now that he checked again, Shu Baiyu still did not carry any particularly obvious pheromones.

He did not seem to be in heat at all.

Yet the pheromone scent Lu Xingzhou had detected in the restroom the previous night had been extremely strong. Combined with Shu Baiyu’s condition at the time, it could not possibly have been anything other than the onset of heat.

Then why did Shu Baiyu now look as though nothing had happened?

Shu Baiyu merely felt Lu Xingzhou’s gaze travel over him several times.

Remaining perfectly calm, he turned toward him.

“Am I beyond saving?”

“…”

Lu Xingzhou withdrew his gaze, concealing all other emotions beneath his thin eyelids.

“You’d better go to the hospital for an examination.”

Shu Baiyu replied, “I’m not sick.”

Lu Xingzhou said nothing more.

However, his thoughts involuntarily returned to the previous night.

He had heard Shu Baiyu murmur something while experiencing the onset of heat.

“It smells so good…”

Lu Xingzhou’s lips tightened, and something flashed through his eyes.

Could Shu Baiyu smell his pheromones or not?

Was the innocence he was displaying now genuine stupidity, or… was he pretending?

Shu Baiyu was sitting only one seat away from him. After asking the question, he did not spare Lu Xingzhou another shred of attention.

Most of his sleepiness had already faded.

After applying the suppression patch, Shu Baiyu twisted his neck, taking a moment to adjust to it. He then raised his head and surveyed the classroom.

He had no idea how far the lecturer had gotten.

Most of the students had lowered their heads to play [read the original at bailiantales.com]with their phones or had simply fallen asleep on their desks. Very few were seriously listening.

The lecturer also continued teaching as though he saw nothing, each side minding its own business.

After scanning the classroom, Shu Baiyu quickly found Qi Yan, the protagonist Alpha of the novel he had transmigrated into.

Qi Yan was easy to locate.

He was one of the few students in the classroom actually paying attention to the lecture.

Shu Baiyu’s gaze had only been directed toward him for several seconds when Qi Yan seemed to sense it and turned around.

Their eyes met.

Shu Baiyu showed no reaction.

Qi Yan, however, immediately frowned and swiftly turned back around, unwilling to look at him for even another moment.

Bored, Shu Baiyu withdrew his gaze.

He stared at the blackboard for a while before laying his head back on the desk.

When he woke again, someone was tapping on his desk.

Two crisp knocks sounded.

He raised his head and saw Lu Xingzhou withdrawing his hand.

The dismissal bell had apparently rung long ago.

Shu Baiyu watched the students filing out of the classroom and sat there expressionlessly for a moment before remembering that he needed to let Lu Xingzhou pass.

Wei Li was already standing at the rear door, leaning against the frame and secretly observing the two of them.

After stepping out from the corner, Lu Xingzhou walked directly toward him.

Shu Baiyu checked his phone.

It happened to be just the right time to eat an early lunch.

A few seconds later, he also stood and left the classroom.

The two people who had just met up at the back door walked unhurriedly, chatting as they went.

Shu Baiyu followed behind them.

He heard the loud-voiced Wei Li hook an arm around Lu Xingzhou’s neck and say, “I barely ate any breakfast. Why don’t we go to the cafeteria and eat first?”

Shu Baiyu lowered his head and silently followed them.

They were heading in the same direction.

They could also show him the way.

The two in front did not seem to notice that someone was following them. Wei Li continued talking entirely on his own.

It was not until his wandering gaze happened to glance backward that he realized something.

He stiffly turned his head and whispered into Lu Xingzhou’s ear, “Brother Lu… I think someone’s following us…”

Hearing this, Lu Xingzhou glanced sideways.

From the corner of his eye, he saw the round head once again covered by a hood, along with several long strands of bangs sticking out.

He calmly withdrew his gaze.

Wei Li, however, was both excited and nervous, muttering continuously.

“This is the first time. The first time anyone’s followed me… No, my damned charm has actually driven someone to stalk me. How should I handle this?”

He rubbed his hands together and turned toward Lu Xingzhou.

“Brother Lu, why don’t you give me some advice?”

However, Brother Lu, who normally showed no interest in the outside world, now glanced at him.

“My advice is not to overthink it.”

Wei Li choked but refused to give up.

“Look, that person has clearly followed us the entire way. He looks like an Omega too. Huh? He also seems a little familiar…”

Just as he prepared to look more carefully, Lu Xingzhou suddenly said, “Shu Baiyu.”

Wei Li: “!”

It really was him!

Wei Li stiffly scratched his face and glanced awkwardly at Lu Xingzhou.

“No… Why is he following us? He can’t possibly just happen to be heading to the cafeteria too…”

Lu Xingzhou’s expression remained unchanged.

“I don’t know.”

Shu Baiyu knew nothing about the various conclusions the two people ahead had drawn within the past minute.

He kept his head lowered and followed them all the way to the university cafeteria.

At the entrance, he parted ways with them.

Wei Li had been watching him the entire time. When he saw Shu Baiyu enter the cafeteria and decisively walk toward the window in the farthest corner, he muttered to himself:

“…He really did come here to eat.”

Lu Xingzhou paid little attention.

Only when Shu Baiyu joined the line for the seafood congee window did something faintly flicker in his eyes. Afterward, he showed no other reaction.

Shu Baiyu had not been paying attention to them at all.

The moment he entered the cafeteria, he spotted the sign for seafood congee. Only after joining the line did he realize how long it was.

However, since he was already there, leaving to choose something else would be troublesome.

He silently stood at the end of the queue.

What he did not expect was that the two Alphas ahead of him would restlessly look around as though they had attention-deficit disorder.

Eventually, they noticed him.

They immediately exchanged meaningful looks and jostled the person standing straight in front of them. When he turned around, one of them even gave a teasing whistle.

“Hey, Qi Yan. That little Omega is here again.”

Qi Yan’s brows knitted tightly together.

He was clearly already extremely irritated by Shu Baiyu’s habit of constantly intruding into his life.

Without even turning around, he gave the two snickering Alphas a cold warning glance.

The two Alphas obviously did not take him seriously.

When he ignored them, they turned their teasing toward Shu Baiyu instead.

“Oh, so you’re his ex-boyfriend? You still haven’t given up?”

The Alpha who spoke first had a sturdy build, while the other was slightly thinner.

However, both wore improper expressions. Their eyes repeatedly traveled over Shu Baiyu’s body.

Shu Baiyu recognized Qi Yan.

He had not expected to encounter him here.

Then he remembered the plot of the original novel.

Unlike Shu Baiyu, the original character really had followed Qi Yan all the way to the cafeteria.

While waiting in line, he was harassed, and Qi Yan ultimately stepped in to help him.

After that, the original character’s affection for the protagonist Alpha increased, and he clung to Qi Yan even more tightly.

Shu Baiyu had no desire to follow the original plot, so he directly chose to ignore them.

“I heard you were the first person he ever dated. He’s supposedly our university’s heartthrob, so what was he like? Did he sleep with you? Was it so good that you can’t stop pestering him?”

Seeing that Shu Baiyu did not react, the Alpha’s gaze became increasingly obscene.

“Why are you wearing a hood? You’re dressed so conservatively. How are you supposed to seduce an Alpha like that? Come on, let me teach you…”

As he spoke, he abruptly reached toward Shu Baiyu.

Wei Li had occasionally been watching Shu Baiyu’s side of the cafeteria. The moment he noticed something unusual, he told Lu Xingzhou.

Lu Xingzhou had personally witnessed Shu Baiyu beating up an Alpha that night.

After seeing what was happening, he did not immediately step forward to stop it. Instead, he observed Shu Baiyu’s every movement.

He raised his eyelids slightly, looking as though he were watching a show.

Qi Yan was standing in the line.

Almost the instant the two Alphas reached out, he could no longer tolerate it and turned around.

His voice was icy.

“Are you two insane?!”

Before he could intervene, however, he saw the hood being pulled from Shu Baiyu’s head.

The pressure surrounding Shu Baiyu abruptly plummeted, and his eyes darkened.

The arm that the Alpha had stretched out to grope him was suddenly seized and twisted.

“Aaagh—!”

A miserable scream rang out.

The other Alpha was kicked directly in the crotch.

His face contorted as he clutched himself and hopped around in agony.

Qi Yan had only stepped in because he could not tolerate the two Alphas’ behavior.

Even though he disliked Shu Baiyu’s excessive pestering, he would never allow something like this to happen.

Instead, he witnessed this scene.

A chill immediately ran through his lower body.

As though experiencing the pain himself, he instinctively pulled his legs together.

The disturbance was not small.

People throughout the cafeteria gradually turned to look.

The two Alphas knew they were in the wrong. Their faces turned red, and they could only flee the cafeteria in disgrace.

Shu Baiyu ignored everyone else’s stares.

Only when his gaze swept over Qi Yan did it slowly pause.

Qi Yan’s expression darkened.

He knew that even after this, Shu Baiyu still would not let an opportunity to approach him pass.

Before Shu Baiyu could speak, Qi Yan made himself clear.

“I already told you. I won’t have any further contact with you.”

Unexpectedly, Shu Baiyu merely said, “Oh.”

He looked at Qi Yan.

“Are you still in line?”

Qi Yan froze.

“…What?”

Shu Baiyu glanced at the way he was now standing outside the queue and gave him one second to react.

Then he walked directly past him.

Afterward, he raised his eyes and silently counted the number of people remaining in line.

He nodded.

Good.

Three fewer people all at once.

It would be his turn sooner now.

Qi Yan, who had somehow been pushed out of the queue: “…?”

By the time Shu Baiyu finally received a bowl of seafood congee, several minutes had already passed.

He was about to carry it away and find a seat when a pair of legs suddenly appeared before him.

Following the long legs upward, he saw Lu Xingzhou’s aloof, frigid face.

Lu Xingzhou had already extended an invitation.

“Want to eat together?”

Shu Baiyu looked at him and then at Wei Li, who was running toward them.

He directly refused.

“We’re not close. I won’t.”

Lu Xingzhou’s brows shifted slightly.

Before he could speak, Wei Li caught up.

“Lu Xingzhou, why did you run over here? It took me forever to save us seats…”

They were standing close together, and Wei Li made no attempt to lower his voice.

Shu Baiyu had only taken a couple of steps when he heard Wei Li call Lu Xingzhou by name.

His footsteps immediately stopped.

After being rejected, Lu Xingzhou had not pursued him.

He had just turned to leave with Wei Li when hurried footsteps suddenly tapped against the floor behind him.

Then Shu Baiyu caught up while carrying his steaming bowl of congee.

Without showing the slightest awkwardness, Shu Baiyu asked, “Where are we sitting?”

Lu Xingzhou could not help raising one eyebrow.

“Aren’t we strangers?”

Meeting Wei Li’s curious gaze beside them, Shu Baiyu replied without changing his expression:

“You heard me wrong. We’re close.”

Lu Xingzhou gave no other response.

Only his gaze seemed to draw out a long, meaningful “Oh.”

Wei Li had not heard their earlier conversation and found their exchange extremely strange.

“…What are you talking about—close, not close? Wait, is the congee not cooked?”

Lu Xingzhou returned to the seats Wei Li had saved.

Without treating himself as an outsider at all, Shu Baiyu dropped into the chair directly beside him.

Lu Xingzhou merely cast him a calm sideways glance.

Then he showed no further reaction.