Shiye regretted going out the moment he left. The utility costs were split evenly, and they each had equal rights to the living space. He thought, why should he be the one to spend unnecessary money just because they had a disagreement?
But now that he had slammed the door behind him, it would be too embarrassing to turn back. After calming down, he pulled out his phone and began looking for a new place.
There were quite a few shared accommodations available near the university, most of them occupied by students. Given his situation, with so many kids to care for, he was worried about being seen as unclean in a shared setting, and living alone made him uneasy. Fortunately, within an hour of posting, he received a reply.
They exchanged contact information, discussed the basics, and arranged to meet today at 2:30 PM at Aier Café.
It wasn’t yet 2 PM, and since he had some time to kill, Shiye decided to grab a seat first, not expecting such a wonderful coincidence.
The soft, pale yellow hem of her dress hung gracefully over her fair calves, each fold perfectly placed. Sunlight filtered through the lacy curtains, casting a warm glow over her silky hair, making her seem as if she were enveloped in a soft, fluffy aura.
Shiye couldn’t help but call out.
The happiest moment of Shiye’s life was when he was on his way to climb Mount Everest during summer vacation, but when she smiled at him, he felt a joy greater than climbing Everest ten times.
Without waiting for an invitation, he hurried over, pulling out a chair, and noticed the half-empty cup of coffee on the table. His expression visibly fell as he blinked and asked, “Is someone sitting here?”
“Not at the moment.”
“Can I sit here then?”
“Of course.”
Shiye’s expression brightened again as he sat down, nervously rubbing his palms on his thighs.
“I didn’t get a chance to thank you properly yesterday for helping me,” Jiang Chizao said, having already scanned the QR code and turning her phone toward him. “What would you like to drink?”
Flattered, Shiye hesitated, feeling it wasn’t right for an omega to treat him, and after several refusals, she finally settled on a cappuccino. “Next time we meet, it’s my treat.”
While waiting for the coffee to be prepared, Jiang Chizao quickly typed a few words on the keyboard, sent them and closed his laptop.
Shiye scratched his short hair awkwardly, feeling guilty. “Did I interrupt your studying?”
“Studying?” Jiang Chi replied, packing up her laptop. “I graduated several years ago.”
Shiye was a bit surprised. She looked about the same age as him and said, “Miss Jiang, you look just like a friend of mine who’s studying for his master’s at Nanhu. He’s only 21.”
Jiang Chizao smiled and took a sip of her coffee. “Are you studying there too?”
Shiye nodded, feeling like he was in a job interview. He straightened up in his chair and rubbed his palms on his pants again.
Jiang Chizao asked, “What’s your major?”
This question made Shiye uneasy; first, he struggled academically, and second, many people considered sports a waste of time.
“I’m a sports student…” he replied quickly, then added, “but the place I enjoy most is the library.”
That was true, but he didn’t mention he mainly went there to play on his phone, experiencing the thrill and anxiety of sneaking around, which brought him unparalleled joy.
“A sports student?”
Jiang Chizao discreetly appraised his exposed tan arms, interest glimmering in her eyes. “Actually, I’m quite interested in sports too. I do some exercise on my own.”
Shiye’s eyes lit up. “Really? What do you do to stay fit?”
Jiang Chizao hadn’t expected him to ask in such detail; as a top A, how would she know how an omega trains? She couldn’t very well say lifting weights. So she vaguely answered, “Just some jogging in the mornings and evenings.”
“How many kilometers?”
“About five or six, just around the neighborhood.”
Hearing this, Shiye slapped the table excitedly. “I practice running too! Five or six kilometers is just our warm-up!”
Jiang Chizao felt inexplicably slighted, taking another sip of her coffee. “Actually, I’m also quite interested in half marathons.”
“You’re also following the half marathon in Yuancheng!” Shiye was so excited he almost jumped up, pulling out his phone to find the public account. “I remember the registration is in the next few days. Have you registered? I’m still debating, but if you’re going to join, I want to try it too. I could pace you, and we should do pretty well!”
Jiang Chizao had just mentioned it casually; she didn’t expect to hit a nerve. Twenty kilometers was no joke.
She politely declined, “I didn’t sign up. My colleagues said that as an omega, I’d be excluded and wouldn’t run as fast as others. I thought that might be true…”
“They’re talking nonsense. On the track, we don’t differentiate by gender!”
“…”
Jiang Chi lowered her head, sipping her coffee, remaining silent.
Shiye discovered that registration was tomorrow. Jiang Chizao secretly let out a sigh of relief and quickly changed the subject, sharing her past experiences with painful relationships.
After listening, Shiye felt a pang of sympathy as he saw her eyes redden and fall silent. He lowered his voice, trying not to disturb her further.
“Miss Jiang, have you ever thought about why you keep encountering bad A-types?”
Jiang Chi nodded. “Because honest people don’t understand me.”
Shiye felt a sense of imbalance. “I hope you don’t mind my saying this, Miss Jiang, but you might have some misunderstandings about honest people. How can they not understand you?”
“That answer is a bit long,” Jiang Chi said after a moment of thought, lightly tracing circles on the rim of her cup. “I live on Guang’an Road, in the Chunqiu Huating neighborhood, less than ten kilometers from Nanda. Come to my house tonight, and I’ll tell you all about it.”
“It’s fine; we can talk here. I really want to hear it right now.”
Jiang Chizao lifted her eyelashes, meeting his curious wide eyes, which were bright and shiny, and laughed lightly. “In today’s society, there aren’t many honest people like you.”
Shiye was puzzled. Seeing her smile, he couldn't help but smile too, feeling his ears heat up. “You’re flattering me again; I’m feeling shy.”
—
Jiang Chi Cheng left the lab right at 2 PM. As he walked toward the café, he flipped through information on his tablet, growing increasingly anxious. His fingers moved so fast across the screen that they became a blur before he suddenly stopped.
What’s going on?
While waiting for the red light, Jiang Chi Cheng closed his eyes, a multitude of information weaving into a web in his mind, searching and searching again, but he couldn’t find a trace of that S-class alpha.
Nothing.
How could there be nothing?
It felt like it appeared out of nowhere and vanished into thin air.
The pedestrian signal turned green, and Jiang Chi Cheng opened his eyes, taking a deep breath to calm the growing frustration inside him. He followed the bustling crowd across the street. Not far ahead, the café was right next to a bookstore, and Jiang Chi Cheng quickened his pace.
As he passed the café’s shiny dark windows, a familiar figure caught his eye. His heart raced as he stopped and stepped back two paces.
At the café table, right next to the glass, a woman cupped her chin in her hands, beaming, while a man, with a shy demeanor, looked down, his lips pressed together. The scene of a handsome man and a beautiful woman was eye-catching.
Jiang Chi Cheng squinted.
If his eyes weren’t deceiving him and his mind wasn’t failing, on the left was his good roommate, and on the right was his beloved sister. Jiang Chi Cheng stood pressed against the glass, his tall frame blocking the view as he stared at them.
Yet neither of them seemed to notice, continuing their cheerful conversation.
Putting aside Jiang Chizao, this deceitful and malicious alpha, Shiye was definitely not the type to rush up and flirt with a pretty omega.
Jiang Chi Cheng’s gaze fell on Shiye’s face, which had turned a shade of red, reminiscent of someone who had drunk too much. His eyelids had a slight blush, and his cat-like eyes darted around before quickly looking down, biting his lip. If he relaxed a bit, it seemed he wanted to speak, but if he held back, it seemed he was trying to refuse.
He had only seen that expression on Shiye’s face once when they were kids. At eight years old, he was seven, and they played house—one dressed as the groom, the other as the bride—while the other children cheered. It was when Shiye kissed him on the lips.
And across from him, that S-class alpha.
The scent of strong liquor mixed with honeyed omega pheromones, filled with excitement and strong aggression.
Jiang Chi Cheng’s gaze fell on the face that resembled his own by about eighty percent. He couldn’t tell whether to feel relieved or worried, as if he had a fly stuck in his throat.
He thought: the case is solved.
Jiang Chi Cheng lit a cigarette, standing there without moving or speaking, not knowing if he was catching someone in the act or competing with someone. He stood there for nearly twenty minutes, leaving a trail of cigarette butt.
Until Jiang Chizao lightly beckoned with his finger, signaling Shiye to come closer. Shiye hesitated, and Jiang Chizao gently flicked the hem of his pants with her toes. Shiye's face flushed bright red, as if about to burst into flames, and he slowly leaned in, as if being pulled by an invisible string.
One meter, one arm's length, one foot—both of them drew closer, and Jiang Chi Cheng's expression darkened with each inch they closed in, until they were nearly touching.
Jiang Chi Cheng raised his hand and tapped three times on the glass.
“Knock, knock, knock!”
Startled, both of them inside jumped and looked out the window, meeting Jiang Chi Cheng's dark, brooding eyes under the lowered brim of his hat—one feeling awkward, the other smug.
Jiang Chi Cheng strode away, pushed the door open, and the tinkling of the wind chime rang out chaotically. His long legs took just a few steps to reach them.
Shiye was momentarily taken aback; he rarely saw Jiang Chi Cheng in public. At home, he usually wore light-colored pajamas and let his hair fall loosely, softening the innate aggression that came with being an alpha. But at that moment, that aggression seemed to be overflowing from his loose sleeves.
Jiang Chi Cheng tapped Shiye’s desk. “This is my seat.”
Shiye didn't move. “Do you know her?”
Jiang Chiqing stared at him. “Isn't that something I should be asking you?”
Shiye frowned, recalling the half cup of iced Americano on the table. Suddenly realizing, his heart raced. “So you’re Ms. Jiang's... ah, you two really do look like a couple.”
“What the hell do you mean 'look like a couple'?” Jiang Chiqing took off his hat. “We might as well be identical twins. Can't you see? She’s my sister—born of the same mother and father, we crawled out of the same womb!”
Shiye’s face shifted through shades of green and white, his eyes slowly widening as he glanced from Jiang Chiqing’s face to Jiang Chizao’s and back to Jiang Chiqing’s. “I’ve known you since we were kids! How come I didn’t know you had a sister? Do you even consider me a brother?!”
For some reason, those words seemed to please Jiang Chiqing, and he suddenly cooled down. He put his hat back on, stuffed his hands into his pockets, and said coolly, “Hmph, there’s a lot you don’t know.”
Shiye wanted to say something more, but his phone suddenly vibrated; it was a classmate calling about a house viewing. He checked the time—it was already 2:30.
He had to hurry to say goodbye and headed to the corner of the café.
Before Jiang Chi Cheng sat down, he stole a glance; the two figures were blocked by a potted plant at the corner, so he could only see their backs. He looked down at the half cup of cappuccino on the table, picked it up, took a sip, and sat down.
Jiang Chizao asked, “Do you know him?”
Jiang Chi Cheng snorted. “You think this bruise on my face is from who knows who?”
Jiang Chizao said irritably, “Didn’t you see us chatting happily? Jiang Chi Cheng, if you want to get money from someone’s wallet, you need to have some sense!”
“Hmph.”
“You saw everything?”
Jiang Chi Cheng crossed his arms and blinked, as if to nod.
Unexpectedly, Jiang Chizao grew even more smug, crossing his legs. “I told you I’m the type who can handle both ABOs. That beta is really good—handsome, well-built, and easy to fool. The key is…”
She smiled meaningfully and leaned close to Jiang Chi Cheng’s ear. “The key is he looks like a rookie, a sports major, very energetic. It must be really exciting.”
Jiang Chi Cheng’s smile seemed to freeze, disappearing inch by inch.
After Jiang Chizao finished speaking, she patted his shoulder and sat back down. “Since you know each other, make sure to give me his contact info another day.”
Jiang Chiqing didn’t agree. A faint fragrance of sandalwood wafted from his neck as he picked up a sugar cube and tossed it into her coffee.
Jiang Chizao’s expression shifted slightly. “Jiang Chi Cheng? What the hell is your problem?”
Jiang Chi Cheng picked up a spoon and stirred it gently, the faint metallic sheen of the spoon reflecting in his amber eyes.
In a cool, indifferent tone, he said, “Jiang Chizao, have you ever considered that the alpha who relies on being an S-grade, bullying both men and women, and doesn’t know how many omegas he has taken advantage of is you?”
"...."
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