As the last class of the day came to an end, the setting sun enveloped the entire school. On the sports field, at least twenty classes were having their physical education lessons. Badminton and tennis rackets swung, startling the birds perched in the nearby trees. The swallows and sparrows fluttered up in the air, circling around before landing back in their spots, reluctant to return to their nests.
Chi Jiahan hurriedly ran forward. As an omega, his physique was slightly weaker, causing him to pant heavily after sprinting halfway across the field. When he finally reached the equipment room, he pushed open the unlocked door. The door swung inward, and the smell of rubber and chalk powder hit his face.
The equipment room was rather spacious. An alpha sat on the army-green gym mats at the far end, under the tall windows. He held a pen in his hand and had several books stacked on his lap. The afterglow of the setting sun outside the window cast a diagonal light on him, revealing a few bruises on his arms.
The alpha raised his head and watched as Chi Jiahan walked up to him.
“I knew you’d be here,” Chi Jiahan panted. When he saw the swollen right cheek and the purplish-red bruises on the corners of his mouth, he frowned, “Wasn’t the fight supposed to be on Friday? Yesterday was only Thursday, so it was earlier?”
“Mn,” the alpha responded briefly, lowering his head to read.
“Xu Ze,” Chi Jiahan called out to him in a low voice.
Xu Ze paused and set the book aside. He then lifted the end of his school shirt to reveal gauze taped to his right rib cage. His tone was flat as he said, “It’s just here, no other injuries.”
The gauze was applied roughly, appearing messy and uneven. It was clear that Xu Ze had done it himself, and the result was incredibly sloppy.
Chi Jiahan crouched down and gently pulled away a corner of the gauze. He could see numerous small wounds underneath, which had formed into blood scabs and were horribly coagulated with the gauze. It was in line with Xu Ze’s usual style—he simply and roughly pressed the gauze onto the wound, as if he didn’t care how painful it would be to change the bandage.
“Broken glass?” Chi Jiahan frowned and asked.
Xu Ze didn’t give a direct answer and just said, “They like to watch.”
“They also like to watch blocking blades with bare hands. Why don’t you give it a go?”
“Knives are not allowed on stage,” Xu Ze replied a bit seriously as he casually put down his shirt.
Chi Jiahan sat on the ground and glared at him coldly for a while before saying, “Go to the hospital after school.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“It’s alright, a little iodine will do the trick,” Xu Ze replied as he packed his books. The bell rang, signaling the end of the class. Xu Ze got up. His movements slightly affected the wound, causing him to knit his brows.
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The wind was picking up, and a group of alphas were approaching them. One of them was noticeably taller, with a cold expression, his eyes lowered as he looked at his phone. Strangely, even with his head down, he still managed to attract attention.
One of the alphas beside him knew Chi Jiahan and raised his hand in greeting, ”Jiahan.”
Chi Jiahan waved back in response.
The greeting was brief, but it still interrupted the chatter among the alphas for a few seconds. The rest of the group turned their attention to Chi Jiahan and Xu Ze. Even the alpha who had been looking at his phone raised his head.
From their perspective, Xu Ze was about half a head taller than Chi Jiahan and was facing sideways, with the wind ruffling the hair on his forehead. Xu Ze didn’t have any expression on his face, looking a little indifferent and gloomy, but the bruises on his arms were quite conspicuous and the short-sleeved school uniform couldn’t hide them.
As they walked past each other, an alpha lightly bumped into the person next to him. The person looked up for a second before turning his eyes back to the phone screen. The alpha then spoke, “Heyang, the alpha next to Jiahan, Xu Ze, also has S-level pheromones.”
Lu Heyang turned off his phone and put it in his pocket. In truth, he hadn’t seen anything just now; he just took a perfunctory look. Nevertheless, he smiled and asked, “Really?”
The alphas left behind them, but Xu Ze remained facing the right. In reality, his gaze was empty, without a specific focus, but now he wanted to turn around and take a look—this thought was quickly suppressed. Xu Ze turned to look ahead, calmly exposing his swollen right cheek and bruised mouth to the line of sight of everyone who approached him.
At the school gates, Lu Heyang said goodbye to the other alphas and stood under a tree by the roadside. Two minutes later, a sleek black convertible sports car with a pink interior pulled up in front of him. In the driver’s seat was an alpha wearing a t-shirt and sunglasses as if he had just returned from a tropical vacation. He whistled at Lu Heyang and said, “Young Master Lu, long time no see.”
“Skipping classes for more than a week without a valid reason can lead to expulsion,” Lu Heyang reminded him, tilting his head slightly and lowering his gaze.
He Wei took off his sunglasses and tossed them onto the center console, lifting his peach blossom eyes and smiling frivolously, “That would be great.”
The front passenger door slowly opened. Lu Heyang got in and fastened his seatbelt. Like He Wei, Lu Heyang took the driver’s license test when he turned 16, but he had no interest in driving to school. He Wei had previously criticized him for having this attitude because he was too dependent on his family driver.
At the end of the school day, the street was crowded. He Wei drove unhurriedly, glanced at the wristband on Lu Heyang’s wrist, and sighed, “Can’t prep school students take off their wristbands even after school?”
Alpha wristbands and omega collars would suppress and block pheromones according to their setting. One of the rules of the Preparatory School was that they must be worn during school hours to prevent pheromone conflicts. Therefore, it was inevitable that the AOs would feel the discomfort of being suppressed and confined to some degree.
“Where to?” Lu Heyang asked without answering.
“Let’s eat first.” As the car passed the school gates, He Wei looked at the imposing white stone sign and sighed, “I’ve heard that going to prep school is like going to jail.”
“It’s not that bad.” Lu Heyang adjusted the setting of his wristband to release some pheromones. Then he leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes, “It’s all about your attitude.”
Anyway, for He Wei, studying anywhere was like being in prison.
“Well, I’ll just wait for the expulsion notice,” He Wei said.
But Lu Heyang laughed, “You’ll be dragged to school next Monday.”
The Preparatory School was dedicated to producing top military, political, economic, and medical talents for the Union. To gain admission to the school, candidates had to meet two basic requirements: their pheromone level had to be A-level or higher, and they had to pass specific written and physical tests. While there were over 30,000 students enrolled in the junior and senior divisions, only about 200 of them had S-level pheromones.
After generations of selection and refinement, the descendants of people with high-level pheromones were primarily concentrated in the powerful upper-class society. As a result, the Preparatory School had always been considered exclusive to the privileged class, with most of its students coming from prominent families.
For this reason, the teachers at the Preparatory School never interfered with the students’ actions—there was no need for their involvement; parents stepped in to discipline at the first opportunity. The Preparatory School was equivalent to a micro-society, gathering the offspring of numerous bureaucrats and wealthy businessmen; parents rarely allowed their children to behave disgracefully in public.
He Wei returned to the capital this time because of his father’s promotion. Although he passed the Preparatory School exam last week, he never attended any of his classes. For the past five days, Young Master He had been an embarrassment to his father, the Union Central Bank president. It was a miracle that his family had not caught him.
“Indeed. After all, I’m no Gu Yunchi. I can’t afford to skip classes like Young Master Gu does five days a week.” He Wei shrugged his shoulders, “I’ve been wandering around lately. Let’s go out and have some fun after dinner.”
Lu Heyang didn’t explicitly refuse, he only said, “My dad is coming back today.”
“Hiss—”, He Wei took a sharp breath and turned to look at him, “Forget it. I’ll take you home after dinner. Please give my regards to the esteemed Chairman of the Union.”
“Definitely,” Lu Heyang said with a faint smile.
He Wei was about to look away when he suddenly turned towards the side of the road. After a few seconds, he raised his chin and asked, “Is that alpha also from our school?”
Lu Heyang opened his eyes and followed his gaze to the side.
On the bicycle lane, an alpha in school uniform was riding an old bicycle with his back arched. The evening breeze filled his jacket, causing it to bulge and turn into a golden hill illuminated by the setting sun.
The bicycle he was riding was extremely shabby and out of place among the luxury cars passing by, no wonder He Wei noticed it at a glance.
“Is there such a frugal alpha in the prep school?” He Wei laughed, “Interesting. Do you know him?”
Lu Heyang had a vague impression of the pale left side of the face. When he saw the bruises on the alpha’s arm, he thought of the person he had seen on the elevated walkway of the school building ten minutes ago. It seemed that his surname was Xu… He didn’t pay attention to what his exact name was at that time.
“Don’t know him,” Lu Heyang turned his head and closed his eyes again, “I don’t have time to pay attention to irrelevant people.”
Author’s notes:
No rush, you’ll have time to pay attention to your wife soon enough.
Both protagonists are not talkative, so the beginning of the story is slower and there will be less dialogue. Lu Heyang is the gong. Also, the setting is that a 16-year-old can get a driver’s license. Don’t ask why. He Wei likes to drive supercars, so he was allowed to legally drive earlier.
Translator’s notes: Hii everyone!! This is my first time translating a novel, so please let me know if you see any mistakes! This novel is one of my favorites. So I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I do! (∩˃ω˂∩)
The original title of this novel is a play on a Chinese idiom that basically means “want to speak but then hesitate”. I couldn’t come up with an English equivalent that would work as the title, so I went with the song lyrics the author used.
I previously posted this novel on my blog, and now I’m in the process of transferring it to this site. After the initial ~10 chapters, I plan to upload new chapters twice a week.
You can find me on discord or twitter.
Art for this chapter:
art by 幺三个零 on weibo (all the art I post here was used in the simp cn physical print)
The text is: Heyang, that alpha, Xu Ze, also has S-level pheromones.
The novel is already so promising, thank you translator!!
thank you for reading~
Just gonna drop a comment here to let you know that I’m looking forward for your project (which is this novel)! It seems really interesting—just by reading the first chapter. The translation is very good as well~ Keep up the good work, translator-san~
Thank you for the kind words 🥺 I’ll try my best!
looking fowards for this novel, the opening was interesting 🙂
This is already so interesting! It was the name that caught my interest so I’d say you did an awesome job with the title 😀
Thank you for translating!
I’m obsessed already. I like it when the characters show indifference to each other at first and then fall head over heels in the future
Thank you for the chapter! I’m looking forward to reading the novel 💕😊
Interesting first chapter! 😝