Luo Zhiyu glanced at the broom behind the door.
The saying “you keep running into each other because you’re always looking at each other” was proving true again and again.
“Hello, you two.” Teacher Xu knocked twice on the door and greeted them with a smile. “At this hour, I’m not disturbing you, am I?”
Luo Zhiyu: “No.”
Yes.
Jing Ximing was sitting on the edge of Luo Zhiyu’s bed, forcing a friendly smile.
“I’ll leave the spot checks for Building 3 to you,” Teacher Xu said. “I’m going to check the building next door.”
“Don’t worry, Teacher Xu.” Xiao Yan glanced at Luo Zhiyu inside the room. “I’ll definitely fulfill my duties as a member of the Student Union.”
Teacher Xu left with complete peace of mind.
Luo Zhiyu’s hand remained firmly on the doorknob, never letting go for even a second. He was seriously considering the possibility of using the door itself to smack Xiao Yan out.
Xiao Yan rummaged through his pocket and pulled out his Student Union duty badge. Holding it by its strap, he waved it in front of Luo Zhiyu.
“Dorm inspection.” Xiao Yan wedged one foot against the doorway. “Student Luo Zhiyu, what are you trying to do?”
With his thoughts exposed, Luo Zhiyu reluctantly opened the dorm door and let Xiao Yan in.
Xiao Yan hung the Student Union duty badge around his neck and held a score sheet in his hand. A fountain pen was clipped into the pocket of his school uniform.
He was already taller than Luo Zhiyu, and the blue-and-white athletic uniform made his legs look especially long. The clear-lens glasses slightly concealed the sharpness in his youthful eyes, giving him the complete look of a model top student—an air that had not existed on him before.
He was completely different from the idiot who had squatted in front of the military-training formation during the day, watching the spectacle.
Xiao Yan moved the broom behind the dorm door outside the room before following Luo Zhiyu inside.
Luo Zhiyu was an impatient person, but he kept the dormitory surprisingly neat. The blanket on his bed was folded perfectly, and there was no trash in the trash can. On the easel beside the desk was a painting that had not yet been finished. Large patches of golden oil paint covered the entire sheet, forming something extremely abstract. Xiao Yan couldn’t tell what he was painting.
“Looks fine. No problem with the basic points.” Xiao Yan put a check in the basic-score column and looked at the two people sitting on Luo Zhiyu’s bed. “You two don’t need to be nervous.”
“Not nervous.” Luo Zhiyu hooked an arm around Jing Ximing’s shoulder. “We’re tired, so we’re sitting for a while.”
“Tired?” Xiao Yan lowered his head and flipped through the dorm inspection sheet.
“We omegas get tired more easily.” Luo Zhiyu jabbed Jing Ximing with his elbow. “We’re nationally protected, after all. Naturally, we have to be careful about everything.”
“He’s right.” Jing Ximing nodded solemnly.
The omega dormitories were much larger than the alpha dormitories. Luo Zhiyu’s dorm was in a good location, facing south with the back toward the north, and it even had a small balcony.
The moment Xiao Yan pushed open the door, he was splashed all over with water. Countless tiny droplets came pattering down from above the balcony and landed all over him.
Xiao Yan: “…”
Luo Zhiyu had apparently washed his school uniform and, without even wringing it out, hung it directly on the balcony. Water stains covered the floor.
When Xiao Yan looked up, he happened to see the name tag beneath the collar of the uniform, reflecting the light.
0301? Xiao Yan
In the corner of the balcony was a flowerpot. Seeds had been planted in it, but nothing had sprouted yet.
“This balcony is going to cost you points.” Xiao Yan wiped the droplets from his face. Luo Zhiyu hadn’t even rinsed the clothes properly; the whole place smelled like laundry detergent.
“Isn’t checking dorms just a formality?” Luo Zhiyu stared at Xiao Yan.
Xiao Yan pushed up his glasses, spinning the fountain pen once between his fingers.
“Depends whose dorm you’re checking.”
Luo Zhiyu: “…”
The open and covert rivalry between the two of them was something Jing Ximing had heard about long ago. Now he was finally witnessing it in person.
“We’ve been at each other’s throats for years.” Xiao Yan leaned forward slightly. The fountain pen in his hand lightly lifted Luo Zhiyu’s chin. “It took me this long to finally get into your room. If I don’t pick out a few problems, I’d feel like I’d wasted the opportunity.”
“You bastard, you’re taking revenge for personal reasons.” Luo Zhiyu was already thinking about which of Xiao Yan’s parents he should greet today. “You…”
“Hand over the pot!” Xiao Yan interrupted his greeting.
“How did he know we had a pot?!” Jing Ximing was horrified.
Luo Zhiyu elbowed his roommate.
“You really have one?” Xiao Yan burst out laughing. “I was just asking.”
“Hand over the pot.” Xiao Yan swept his gaze around the dorm before finally returning his attention to the two omega boys. “Not to mention, you two have been sitting on that pot through the blanket for so long. Doesn’t it hurt?”
Luo Zhiyu: “…”
“He’s right.” Jing Ximing nodded. “It is a little uncomfortable.”
Luo Zhiyu had asked before why Jing Ximing’s WeChat name was “Fence-Sitter.” Now he finally understood.
“Hand over the pot or you lose points. Hurry up.” Xiao Yan urged him on. “I have another room to check next. Don’t delay my Student Union duties. Go ask anyone in the Student Union if you want. I always handle things fairly and impartially. I never show favoritism.”
The tip of his pen had just stopped over the deduction column when the stubborn tenant reached out, grabbed Xiao Yan’s sleeve, and caught hold of his wrist.
“Bro, let’s negotiate.” Luo Zhiyu looked up at him. “This is the only pot I have.”
“I’m not in a position to negotiate with you. This is the only student job I have for earning credits.” Xiao Yan let him hold his wrist. “Luo Zhiyu, have you thought about how you’re going to bribe me?”
“You name your price.”
Luo Zhiyu came from a good family, but Xiao Yan’s family was even better. He lacked for nothing, and he was impervious to both persuasion and temptation. Most importantly, the two of them had been enemies since they were three years old.
There was nothing Luo Zhiyu could give him.
He could only bring up their old grudge.
“I’ll let you bite me back?”
Jing Ximing: “?”
After hearing the subject of “biting back” twice in one day, Xiao Yan, who had only recently finished his physiology class, suddenly looked at Luo Zhiyu a little strangely.
Being flirted with twice by the same omega in a single day—and the omega himself had never thought there was anything wrong with what he was saying from the beginning.
Luo Zhiyu mistook his distraction for rejection and immediately abandoned that strategy.
If soft tactics didn’t work, then he’d go with hard tactics.
A different kind of negotiation—one more suited to the two of them.
“Can I ask something?” Luo Zhiyu said. “What electrical appliances does No. 1 High School classify as prohibited?”
Xiao Yan glanced at Luo Zhiyu absentmindedly and opened the school’s dorm inspection notice. He read out two lines for him.
“It’s all in the freshman handbook. Did you not read it? Electric heaters, rice cookers, all kinds of cooking pots, electric blankets, refrigerators, induction cookers…”
“This fair, impartial, and dedicated Student Union member, I have fully realized my mistake. I will definitely reflect and write a self-criticism. May I ask if you accept reports?” Luo Zhiyu stood up.
He stopped hiding the pot beneath the blanket, pulled it out, and presented it to Xiao Yan with both hands.
“I want to make the campus learning environment better.”
“Sure.” Xiao Yan’s pen never stopped as he recorded the deduction in the score sheet. “Are you trying to drag another dorm down with you?”
“No. 1 High School doesn’t allow prohibited electrical appliances,” Xiao Yan said. “It’s not a safety issue. They’re afraid we’ll stop focusing our minds on studying.”
“I understand.”
Luo Zhiyu suddenly became extremely cooperative.
“Your ideological awareness is good enough now. Confess. Who else has prohibited electrical appliances? I’ll take care of all of them for you in one go.”
“Luo Zhiyu from Class 3, Grade 10 of No. 1 High School, making a real-name report against Xiao Yan from Class 3, Grade 11.”
Luo Zhiyu stood directly opposite Xiao Yan and slowly raised his hand, his momentum not diminished in the slightest. The pitiful, obedient expression from moments ago had completely vanished.
The pen in Xiao Yan’s hand stopped.
“Your dorm has a mini-fridge. You said so yourself at lunch.”
“You can take care of everything once and for all.”