Every time Xu Ze had a fever, he would have many dreams, all of them pretty much the same, some good and some bad.
He was led into that unfamiliar residential area while holding someone’s hand. A voice urged him, “Be good, don’t talk, and smile when you see people, okay?” Xu Ze raised his head, but he couldn’t see the other person’s face.
It was really hot in the dream, and Xu Ze found it hard to breathe. Suddenly, cold water poured down on him and blurred his vision. A child’s voice yelled in his ear, “You deserve it.” Xu Ze tried to wipe his face, but the water kept flowing no matter how hard he wiped.
The surroundings suddenly became quiet again. Someone gently wiped his face with a tissue and said to him, “Don’t worry, I’ll keep you company until the sun dries you out.”
Xu Ze opened his mouth and wanted to agree, but no sound came out of his throat.
Struggling to open his eyes, he saw light filtering through the curtains. His head felt abnormally heavy. Xu Ze needed half a minute to recover before he remembered where he was. He immediately turned to look at the bed beside him; it was empty.
“Awake?”
Xu Ze looked up following the sound and saw Lu Heyang leaning against the table a few meters away. He couldn’t see his face clearly. Xu Ze sat up and asked, “Are we going to be late?”
He noticed that his voice was hoarse, his nose was stuffy, his head was spinning, and his glands were a little hot.
“No.” Lu Heyang walked over to open the curtains slightly and said, “You had a fever in the early morning.”
So there was an explanation for his physical discomfort. However, Xu Ze’s focus was on something else entirely and he asked, “Did I disturb you?”
Due to his stuffy nose, his voice had a slight nasal tone. Lu Heyang stood in the streak of light coming in and looked out of the window. It had rained heavily last night and today the weather was clear. He replied, “Yeah, it was noisy.”
Xu Ze gripped the white bedsheets. He was about to apologize when he heard Lu Heyang say, “I took your temperature and gave you a fever reducer.”
Xu Ze couldn’t remember; he had no impression of it at all. He could only recall a scene of being under the dim wall light, his eyes half open, with a blurry figure in front of him, and it felt like he had something in his mouth—he thought it was a dream.
“Thank…”
Lu Heyang interrupted him indifferently, “When I took your temperature, you licked my finger.”
Xu Ze completely froze.
“Get up and wash up. Pack your things to check out, then have breakfast.” Lu Heyang raised his hand and opened the curtains halfway, letting in the light and brightening the room.
Xu Ze had completely lost the ability to think and only responded with an “okay”.
Even after breakfast, as he got on the bus and arrived at the base, he still hadn’t come back to his senses.
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.
He had no intention of forcing himself to recall the details of the early morning hours—it didn’t matter how he licked the fingers or how long he licked them. Lu Heyang had told him he licked them, and Xu Ze believed it without question.
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Xu Ze walked past Lu Heyang with his head down, but was stopped, “Looking for something?”
He paused and raised his head. Lu Heyang held a tiny notebook in his hand and said, “An omega picked it up. Your name is on it.”
“Thank you,” Xu Ze reached for the notebook.
However, Lu Heyang moved his hand back, so that Xu Ze couldn’t grab it. Xu Ze showed a slightly puzzled expression. Lu Heyang looked at him and asked, “Is the fever gone?”
Originally, it had been better, but when he mentioned it like that, Xu Ze’s back instantly broke out in a sweat and heated up again. It was the type of shame that made him unable to face him. He averted his gaze, avoiding looking at Lu Heyang’s hand, and replied, “It’s better.”
Only then did Lu Heyang hand the notebook back to Xu Ze.
Xu Ze took the notebook, paused, and said, “I’m sorry.”
“Why are you sorry?” Lu Heyang asked seemingly seriously.
He didn’t smile, but Xu Ze felt that there was a small smile in his eyes that was hard to discern.
“I shouldn’t have… licked your…” Xu Ze said, glancing at Lu Heyang, then quickly turned his head and continued, “…finger. I didn’t know what I was doing at the time, I’m sorry.”
In his opinion, this was a very offensive act, regardless of whether the person was an alpha or an omega.
“You really didn’t know what you were doing,” Lu Heyang said, “It’s okay, don’t worry about it.”
Xu Ze raised his eyes to look at him. Lu Heyang’s expression looked natural, which was different from a person who felt resentful. Xu Ze pursed his lips and nodded, grateful that this incident didn’t bother him.
It was around 4 pm when they returned to the Preparatory School. He Wei got off the school bus and complained that his neck hurt. He wanted to go home and sleep right away, and couldn’t wait even a moment.
He carried his luggage and walked toward the parking lot. He stopped after a few steps, turned around to look at Lu Heyang and Gu Yunchi who were standing next to each other, and asked in disbelief, “You guys aren’t planning to go back for the last class, right?”
“No.” Lu Heyang said, “Today is Friday.”
He Wei was confused, “So what?”
“We’re going to the Westside,” Gu Yunchi answered while typing on his phone, “I’ll reserve the seats. You have three seconds to decide whether you’re coming or not.”
After Gu Yunchi finished speaking, Lu Heyang started counting the seconds calmly, “3, 2…”
He Wei was swayed without a fight, “GO GO GO, I’ll go!!”
Then, over Lu Heyang’s shoulder, he suddenly said, “Xu Ze, are you still going back to class?”
Lu Heyang and Gu Yunchi turned around to see Xu Ze walking toward the school gates with his backpack. Upon hearing He Wei call him, Xu Ze turned around. The intense sunset shone on his face, yet it gave him a clean and refreshing feeling. This time, Xu Ze didn’t look at Lu Heyang, he just nodded at He Wei, “There’s still one more class.”
“So diligent,” He Wei sighed, “If you were my dad’s son, how happy would he be.”
It was an unintentional joke, but Xu Ze’s expression suddenly stiffened for half a second before he said, “I have to go.”
“Bye!” He Wei waved at him.
Xu Ze had walked forward less than two meters when he heard He Wei asking Lu Heyang with no good intentions, “Who exactly was the omega you called last time? Why don’t you ask her out today and we’ll take a look?”
“Do you really want to see her?” Lu Heyang asked.
Xu Ze lowered his eyes to the ground and quickened his pace. Before long, he couldn’t hear the remainder of their conversation.
“Uh-huh! I want to see her!” He Wei nodded vigorously.
“But you’ve already met her,” Lu Heyang said.
He Wei’s eyes widened. Lu Heyang continued, “You often see her on the news too.”
The corners of He Wei’s mouth began to twitch as Lu Heyang finally said, “Her name is Lu Qingmo.”
“Oh…it turns out to be our beautiful diplomat Sister Lu.” He Wei couldn’t laugh, “I just said, how could you… never mind. It’s me who’s too naive. Naive people always get hurt easily.”
“Get some help,” Gu Yunchi said.
The three of them had dinner and then changed their car to drive to the Westside. As they got off the elevator and entered the club, a tall, sturdy alpha bumped into Lu Heyang. He didn’t bother to apologize before walking forward without looking back.
“Was that intentional?” He Wei asked in a hushed tone.
“It wasn’t.” Lu Heyang turned his head slightly and saw that the alpha had walked over to a corner. A few other people were standing in the corner. One of them, an alpha in a black shirt, had his back to them, with one hand resting on a nearby game machine, and a cigar between his fingers.
“The person who bumped you was a bodyguard,” He Wei was quite sharp in this regard, “I reckon someone important has arrived. We should be cautious tonight.”
Inside the arena, the seats were already packed full. Gu Yunchi had reserved front-row seats for them. A few minutes after the three of them had taken their seats, the first match began. Lu Heyang noticed that the VIP seats were empty the whole time.
Shortly after the second match started, four alphas came out of a narrow passageway and walked toward the VIP seats. The alpha in the middle wore a black shirt and sat down on the sofa, while the other three stood guard behind him. The lights in the arena dimmed, making it hard to make out the person’s appearance.
“Tang Feiyi,” Gu Yunchi took a sip of water and said coldly, “So it’s him.”
Lu Heyang was no stranger to this name. Tang Feiyi’s father had been involved in the underworld with illegal weapons and drug trafficking but had later cleaned up his assets through business ventures. He had crossed paths with Gu Yunchi’s family in the business world, but the Gu family’s power remained strong and unaffected. Now, Tang Feiyi had taken over most of his family’s business. On one side, he was creating the image of a businessman and on the other side, he was doing his father’s old business. He went back and forth between illegal and legal means and belonged to the category of not to be trifled with.
“Let me spill the tea,” He Wei held his phone after being informed by the ticket seller.
“Tang Feiyi has invested in the underground club, and this boxing ring is owned by him exclusively. He is considered to be the big boss. Also, he makes bets every time he comes, and his bet has to be the biggest that night.”
“In the past few months, he has only bet on one person every time.” He Wei raised his head, “Can you guess who?”
As he spoke, the whistle blew, signaling the end of the second match. The names of the next pair of boxers appeared on the screen.
One of them was Seventeen.
The lights brightened slightly, and Lu Heyang turned to see Tang Feiyi’s face.
It was a youthful face, with upturned lips and narrow eyes that showed a sinister aura.
Tang Feiyi was leaning on the sofa with his legs crossed, slowly turning a signet ring on his right ring finger. He tilted his head up to stare at the fighters’ names displayed on the screen.
“No way. Everyone knows Tang Feiyi likes to play with alphas,” He Wei lamented, “How many has he crippled, and now he plans to hurt Seventeen!”
Lu Heyang moved his eyes away from Tang Feiyi’s face and also looked at the screen. In addition to the names of the boxers, the screen also displayed the biggest bettor of the match—Tang.
“Seventeen has a nice figure, he’s so young, and can fight well. Wuwu.” He Wei was still feeling pity at the side when the lights dimmed and the third match was about to begin. Just as Lu Heyang was about to shift his gaze toward the competitor’s tunnel, He Wei underwent a dramatic change as he cursed and exclaimed, “Fuck! What is this! What the hell is this?!”
Immediately after, Lu Heyang heard the loudest and most enthusiastic cheers he had heard in the past few times here. He saw Tang Feiyi put his leg down, lean forward, and look in the direction of the competitor’s tunnel with an indescribable smile on his face.
Author’s note:
Lu Heyang, wake up, your love rival is here.
L-LOVE RIVALLLL?!!!!?? QAQ SO EXCITING
Tang Feiyi seems to be a very sinister person but AJEPWGWJWNW SOMETHING’S WRONG WITH ME, I IMAGINE HIM AS A HOT BAD GUY AAAAA
You’re not alone orv
You are not alone.2
I’ve already fallen for him. 🥹
your honor, in my defense i’m just a girl 🎀
Also, I live for Lu Heyang’s teasing to Xu Ze (:3」∠)
THANK YOUUU FOR THE CHAPTEERRR
This novel really makes me happy /sigh/
+1! It’s really good… Thanks for your hard work translator-nim! (doububu, not you Keighty, but you do great work too (◠‿・)—☆ )
LOL😭😭😭
This novel is so good, it gets better every chapter!
Idc what anyone says i enjoy it when an author adds love rivals it gives it more drama
I wasn’t expecting a love rival but I’m all eyes now.
Thank you translator for your work
I admit that I am not a fan of too much angst and drama, but if it helps the ML to get the MC, I am all for it 🤭