Facing the two outstanding students from No. 1 High as they exchanged evasive glances, Teacher Xu grew nervous. He took Luo Zhiyu’s test paper. “There shouldn’t be anything wrong with the questions, right? Could they have been printed incorrectly?”
Four guilty gazes slowly drifted toward the ceiling.
There was nothing wrong with the questions. The problem was that Luo Zhiyu and Xiao Yan were both very much in the wrong.
Teacher Xu really ought to have had a little more confidence in his own questions.
“Oh dear.” Teacher Xu frowned as he examined the beginning-of-term test paper in his hands. “What’s going on with this student? No wonder you thought something was strange. He chose D for all of the first four questions.”
Luo Zhiyu: “Huh?”
Xiao Yan: “?”
The two of them had been too busy feeling guilty about the questions to look at the student’s answers.
“It’s fine.” Teacher Xu set that test paper aside. “These cases are always exceptions. There are usually only one or two per grade. The other students should be fine. If you come across any similar papers while marking, put them aside for me. I’ll deal with those students personally.”
Teacher Xu: “?”
Those four scorching gazes were still fixed firmly on him. Teacher Xu somehow detected a trace of guilt in them, although he felt that couldn’t possibly be right.
“Nothing else is wrong, is there?”
The second-year student who was an exception was about to say something, but the third-year student who was an exception pressed down on his head, making them both nod together.
“You two can divide up the papers. The workload shouldn’t be too heavy.” Teacher Xu turned to leave. “Go ahead and mark them. I’ll find this student and his homeroom teacher for a little talk.”
The office door slowly closed, leaving only Xiao Yan and Luo Zhiyu inside.
“Brother Yan, just admit it. Your head was full of Ds just now, wasn’t it?” Luo Zhiyu tossed his red pen onto the desk. “What a coincidence. Mine was too. I think we’re the ones who most deserve to be called in for a talk.”
Xiao Yan: “…”
“Keep your voice down. Teacher Xu hasn’t gone far yet.” Xiao Yan lowered his voice. “And you can’t put it that way. At least our exam scores are high.”
“Right. We’re all hypocrites.” Luo Zhiyu had found an efficient way to mark the papers. Any answer that described something he had done or something he wanted to choose was wrong. As long as a student’s answer differed from his own, he could award the point. “I’m never doing this again. I never want to see these questions ever again. The more I look at them, the more I feel like I’m betraying my conscience.”
“You’ll still have them in university. The education system is quite comprehensive now. These classes continue until graduation.” Xiao Yan wrote a score on a test paper. “But the curriculum is a little different. Fan Yue and the others have gotten their hands on university textbooks and sample assignments. Those are more interesting than what we’re studying now. The systems are different. What we’re learning at the moment is just basic common knowledge, not particularly advanced ABO physiology.”
“We’ll talk about university when we get there.”
Luo Zhiyu missed the little red and blue figures from last year. On that workbook, Xiao Yan had written his name and class. The words “Class 2-3” that he had written back then happened to match the class Luo Zhiyu was currently in.
“It’s fine.” Xiao Yan put down his pen, grabbed Luo Zhiyu by the shoulders, and gave him a little shake. “If you can’t learn it when the time comes, I’ll teach you personally.”
“Sure.” Luo Zhiyu was shaken dizzy. He turned around and wrote a score of 90 on the test paper, not finding anything wrong with what Xiao Yan had said.
“Cicada, are you going home this weekend?” Xiao Yan asked. “It seems like most people are going back to school this week.”
“Yep.” Luo Zhiyu marked papers quickly, awarding points for short-answer questions as long as the students had written something. “We already agreed on this. I’m going to praise my boyfriend in front of my parents and build up his reputation. I’ll start a voice call and livestream it for you.”
“I’m not expecting much. I’ll be grateful if you don’t insult me.” Xiao Yan wasn’t holding out much hope. “By the way, I’m going out with my parents this weekend. They seem to have some kind of project to attend to. Nobody will be looking after my little brother, so my parents asked me to send him somewhere to be fostered. How about leaving him at your place for two days? You seem to like him. Let him keep you company over the weekend.”
“Really? My sister just happened to take all the cats away recently.” Luo Zhiyu’s eyes practically lit up. “Are you sure? You’re lending me your cultured parrot for two days?”
“It’s not a toy. You’re looking after him. Go to my house tomorrow evening to pick him up. Take good care of him, and don’t teach him anything strange.” Xiao Yan had found his parrot a good place to stay for the weekend. “He can recite a lot of poetry. Your parents might like him too.”
Luo Zhiyu hadn’t told his family in advance that he was coming home. On Friday evening, he hitched a ride in Xiao Yan’s family car and got out about three hundred meters from his own house. He then went to Xiao Yan’s house and picked up the cultured parrot he had met before.
“Hello.” The parrot liked Luo Zhiyu and was very clingy.
So when Luo Zhiyu got home, the cultured parrot was perched on the back of his hand.
“Where did this parrot come from?” Luo Zhiyu happened to run into his older sister, who had come home to pick something up.
“A male… classmate’s. He asked me to look after it for a couple of days.”
In truth, it belonged to his boyfriend.
Luo Sixue thought there was something strange about Luo Zhiyu using the term “male classmate,” but she couldn’t find anything else wrong with his explanation.
“Hello.” The parrot wasn’t shy around strangers. “Spring breeze turns the southern banks green once more. When will the bright moon shine on my journey home?”
Luo Zhiyu: “…” Was it homesick?
“Why does this parrot sound so sarcastic? It really seems to share the style of Xiao Yu’s family,” Luo Sixue said bluntly, expressing her impression.
“Isn’t it good to be cultured?” Thanks to his affection for Xiao Yan, Luo Zhiyu now found even Xiao Yan’s parrot quite agreeable.
Luo Sixue had only returned to collect some clothes, so she left again soon afterward. Luo Zhiyu slipped into his bedroom and sent Xiao Yan a voice call.
Call failed.
[Tangerine]: Don’t move. I’ll call you.
[Cicada]: Oh, okay.
There was quite a bit of background noise on Xiao Yan’s end. It was obvious that he wasn’t at home but at a dinner banquet organized by the project partners.
“It’s so noisy.” Luo Zhiyu propped his phone up by the windowsill and played with the parrot.
“Then I’ll go outside and talk to you.” Xiao Yan turned around and left the banquet hall without the slightest hesitation. “It’s not an important occasion.”
“Xiao Yan…”
Several betas and omegas from the families of investors and business partners had been planning to approach him for a chat, but they overheard his words.
Xiao Yu had only one child, and Xiao Yan would most likely take over the family company in the future. He had been familiarizing himself with the company’s work since his first year of high school and rarely missed industry social events like this. He was about to turn eighteen, and people in the industry had already begun considering the possibility of a business marriage for him.
“Is your birthday coming up? Should we organize a birthday banquet for you?” someone asked Xiao Yan.
“Sorry, it’s a call from my boyfriend.” Xiao Yan declined politely but distantly. He went out onto the terrace and closed the door behind him, leaving the group of people on the other side. “Ignore them. Go on, Cicada. Keep talking.”
“My parents are back.” Luo Zhiyu switched off the video. “Come on. Time for the livestream where I praise you and improve your standing with them.”
“Go have fun.” Wearing his earphones, Xiao Yan leaned against the terrace railing. “I’ve found you some assistance.”
Luo Zhiyu: “?” What did that mean?
Luo Zhiyu was quite good at steering conversations. He managed to guide the topics at the family dinner table toward business, and sure enough, Xiao Yan’s father’s name came up several times.
“His son goes to the same school as our Taotao. Didn’t they used to fight?” Someone had finally fallen into the little trap Luo Zhiyu had carefully laid. “When Luo Zhiyu was little, he used to curse Xiao Yan out at home all the time. He came up with all sorts of creative insults.”
“Taotao?” The person on the other end of the call caught an interesting name. “That’s you, huh?”
Xiao Yan’s low chuckle sounded right beside Luo Zhiyu’s ear.
[Cicada]: Go away, go away, go away.
[Tangerine]: Fairy frowning.jpg
“I remember,” Luo Yi said. “When Luo Zhiyu was at No. 19 High, he and Xiao Yan could meet only once every month or two and still manage to get into a fight. Luo Zhiyu never repeated the same insult twice.”
“You came up with all sorts of creative ways to curse me out, and you never repeated yourself.” An extremely dissatisfied voice came through the earphones. “Can I make up for it by improving my reputation twice as much on Monday?”
[Cicada]: Don’t rush. Haven’t I started rehabilitating your image already?
[Cicada]: Just listen.
[Tangerine]: Wait a minute…
“He’s not that bad once you get to know him. He’s actually got some good qualities.” Luo Zhiyu casually picked up some food with his chopsticks, pretending it was an offhand remark. “Xiao Yan, he…”
A flamboyantly colorful parrot flew out of Luo Zhiyu’s bedroom and landed right on top of his head.
“Xiao Yan is a fine-looking, dignified, outstanding, approachable, and learned young man. He’s absolutely excellent!”
Luo Zhiyu: “…”
Luo Zhiyu’s parents: “…”
Xiao Yan: “…”
Xiao Yan spent the entire evening enduring Luo Zhiyu’s accusations.
“Who were you talking to on the phone for the whole evening?” After the banquet ended, Xiao Yan’s father asked him.
“My boyfriend,” Xiao Yan answered frankly.
“Still the same one as before?” Xiao Yu wasn’t surprised in the slightest by the topic of teenage dating. “The male omega whose pheromones smell like honey peaches? You secretly brought him home once before.”
“Of course it’s him.” Xiao Yan had never been the kind of alpha to fool around with multiple partners. “He’s the only one I want.”
“If you like him, that’s good. Just treat him well.” Xiao Yan’s parents had fallen in love freely themselves and weren’t particularly interested in the business marriages popular in their industry. “We won’t interfere in these matters. High school is a precious time, and there are plenty of beautiful things worth remembering for the rest of your life. Don’t exhaust yourself with studying. Don’t let your studies get in the way of your romance.”
Xiao Yan: “?”
Xiao Yan: “…”
Xiao Yan didn’t let too many people know about his eighteenth birthday, and there was no grand birthday banquet. Fan Yue and the others booked the KTV they often visited, invited most of the student council members from their school, as well as a few friends attending university in the same city, and organized a small party.
Someone bought beer and brought some board games. Luo Zhiyu paid for Xiao Yan’s cake. The cake was decorated with two little tangerines, one green and one yellow, made from cream and food coloring, with leaves fashioned out of chocolate.
“Give me all the tangerines. You can divide up the rest.” Luo Zhiyu held his plate and sat in a corner of the private room. After Xiao Yan finished distributing the cake, he went over and sat beside him.
“Want to play Truth or Dare?” someone suggested. “That sounds more interesting.”
“Absolutely!” Yan Zihan enthusiastically agreed. “Let me hear all your little secrets. If you refuse to answer, you have to do a dare.”
“Let’s draw playing cards.” Tang Yuan shuffled the deck thoroughly. “We’ll go clockwise. Whoever draws the three of hearts has to stand up and choose truth or dare. The dares will be selected randomly from an app. Sound good?”
“Sounds good!” Jing Ximing clapped. “Let’s do something exciting. We shouldn’t have any regrets about our high school years.”
“Even though I’m only in my second year, I just want to say that my only regret about high school is probably not getting an official disciplinary notice for dating.” Luo Zhiyu whispered into Xiao Yan’s ear.
Tang Yuan drew the first card and ended up being the first player. His question was whether he liked anyone.
“I do.” Tang Yuan smiled, looking a little shy. “Last time, Luo Zhiyu introduced me to an omega whose pheromones smell like dog food. We’re in an online relationship now, and we’ve even agreed to apply to the same university.”
“Luo Zhiyu, introduce someone to me too!” someone immediately shouted.
“There’s no one left, no one left.” Luo Zhiyu fed the chocolate leaf from his slice of cake to Xiao Yan. “Let me tell you, this kind of thing is rare. You can’t just go looking for it.”
In the second round, the three of hearts landed in Jing Ximing’s hand. His truth question was to share the biggest secret he had learned recently.
“Should I tell them?” Jing Ximing asked Luo Zhiyu.
“Go ahead,” Luo Zhiyu said with a nod.
The most recent secret was that Luo Zhiyu was in a “long-distance relationship.” Luo Zhiyu had been hoping that Fence-Sitter would hurry up and spill the beans about it.
Jing Ximing glanced at Xiao Yan, who was sitting beside Luo Zhiyu. Luo Zhiyu gave him an encouraging look, which emboldened him.
“Luo Zhiyu and I bought another pot.”
Luo Zhiyu: “?”
How had it ended up being about a pot?
“You bought another one?” This was news even to Xiao Yan.
“Shh.” Luo Zhiyu had drunk a little alcohol, and it had made him particularly bold. Imitating Xiao Yan’s usual manner, he pinched the back of his boyfriend’s neck.
The third round began. Tang Yuan collected everyone’s cards, shuffled the deck again, and started the next draw. This time, the three of hearts lay in Luo Zhiyu’s palm.
“Question time.” Yan Zihan drew a prompt and handed the microphone to Luo Zhiyu, deliberately building up the suspense. “What is your ideal boyfriend like? You have five seconds to answer, and you must tell the truth.”
“Just like him.” The little hooligan withdrew his hand from Xiao Yan’s collar and patted Xiao Yan’s cheek. “I like him a lot. Right, boyfriend?”
Alcohol gave him courage. For the first time, he openly declared his teenage romance in front of other people, letting them know that Xiao Yan belonged to him.
“Bullshit! You call that telling the truth? You’re trying to fool us with someone whose pheromone compatibility with you is zero!” The KTV erupted in laughter. “Luo Zhiyu, go do a dare!”
“We don’t believe you! Come on, we want to see the dare!”
“You answered so decisively. There’s definitely something going on! Someone like Jing Ximing, who reluctantly shared his secret, was the one telling the truth!”
Luo Zhiyu: “???”
But it was true! It couldn’t possibly be truer!
“Do you actually want the truth, or do you only want to hear what you want to hear?” Luo Zhiyu rolled up his sleeves and stood up from the sofa, ready to fight the entire group.
Xiao Yan was amused by his reaction too. He wrapped his arms around Luo Zhiyu’s waist from behind and pulled him back down onto his lap, then patted him on the head in consolation.
“Let me see.” Yan Zihan picked out a dare and kept them in suspense. “If you were an omega, and the alpha closest to you right now…”
The alpha closest to Luo Zhiyu was Xiao Yan, of course. Xiao Yan’s hand was still resting on his waist.
Luo Zhiyu rubbed his hands together, eagerly anticipating the dare. After all, it involved Xiao Yan. Whatever they wanted him to do, he was pretty much fine with it.
“Give the alpha closest to you a hug and tell us what his pheromones smell like.” Yan Zihan looked up. “Can you do that?”
“That’s it?” Luo Zhiyu’s incredulous challenge rang loudly through the private room.
“Huh?”