Chapter 2: An Unwanted Privilege

The moment Mateo finished speaking, the corridor fell quiet for a few seconds.

A few students nearby who were picking up their cards stole glances at them, excitement shining in their eyes.

Xu Zhou looked at the tall, red-haired boy in front of him.

Mateo wasn’t wearing his uniform jacket. His loose team hoodie hung off his frame, but it couldn’t hide the powerful build of a top-tier football player. Broad shoulders, narrow waist.

His skin was a healthy tan. His brow bone was high and deep. When his pitch-black eyes fixed on someone, they blazed with wildness.

And there was a faint old scar at the corner of his mouth. It made him look wild and fierce.

Xu Zhou didn’t speak.

His long lashes were still damp with sea spray, trembling slightly as he blinked. The redness at the corners of his eyes, brought on by exhaustion, looked especially striking under the corridor’s cold white lights.

He looked at Mateo. Not angry. He didn’t even bother to shake off the laziness that seemed baked into his bones. He just leaned half his weight onto the handle of his suitcase, thoroughly spent.

“Senior.”

Xu Zhou’s voice came out thick with a hoarse nasal quality from the long trip. It didn’t sound like a challenge. It sounded like a complaint.

“I’ve been on a boat for ages. My arms and feet ache. I can barely lift my own suitcase.”

The smug grin on Mateo’s face froze for a second.

“What?”

“Are you still going to stand here and pick a fight with me?”

Xu Zhou tilted his head up slightly. His beautiful, watery peach-blossom eyes looked straight at Mateo. The red at the corners looked soft and tired.

He mumbled in a very light voice, as if he had every right to say it:

“Since you’re my roommate, you’ll have to help me carry my suitcase upstairs later.”

Mateo’s Adam’s apple moved hard.

He stood frozen, his dark eyes locked on Xu Zhou’s unfairly pretty face. The tips of his ears turned bright red in an instant.

What did he mean… help him carry his suitcase?

He was the crown prince of the Gulf. All his life, people had carried things for him. How dare this new sponsored student order him around in such a matter-of-fact tone?

But with Xu Zhou’s misty peach-blossom eyes looking at him, Mateo couldn’t say a single harsh word. He only felt something furry brushing against his chest, tickling him relentlessly.

“Wh-Who’s going to carry your suitcase for you!”

Mateo forced his voice louder, making it sound fierce, but his body awkwardly stepped half a step to the side, clearing the path he’d been blocking.

Xu Zhou pressed his dry lips together and decided not to tease him further. He turned and slid the black card toward the registration teacher.

“Teacher, can I really not switch to a normal dorm? I’ll take any regular room. I’m not picky.”

The teacher broke out in a cold sweat and started typing frantically.

“I really can’t, student. The modification permissions are with the student council.”

“The student council does not accept unscheduled dorm change requests.”

A cold voice like shattered ice came from the corner of the corridor. Ethan Hawthorne stopped in front of the registration counter.

His short, cool blond hair was combed perfectly, catching a metallic sheen from the cold lights. His bone structure was hard, his features deep. His pale gray-blue eyes held no warmth at all, like a lake frozen over.

The student council uniform fit him to perfection. The silver tie clip sat at the most precise angle. He gave off a clean, cold air that bordered on obsessive-compulsive.

Ethan glanced down at the tablet in his hand, then looked up at Xu Zhou.

The instant he took in Xu Zhou’s face, his cold gaze flickered and stopped for half a second.

The boy before him wore his school jacket loose, collar open, showing a wide stretch of pale, delicate collarbones. Exhausted, he leaned half against the suitcase. The corners of his eyes were red.

He looked like an overblown, damp rose, beautiful enough to hurt, and yet he was lazily, unguardedly lounging toward Mateo.

“The penthouse suite at Arden Mansion isn’t part of the normal allocation pool.”

Ethan withdrew his gaze, his voice flat. He turned the tablet around to face Xu Zhou.

“The system logs show that someone used top-level permission to add your card to the whitelist. The authorizer is Gu Yanli.”

Hearing the name Gu Yanli, Joey sucked in a sharp breath.

Ethan looked at Xu Zhou.

“Do you know Gu Yanli?”

Xu Zhou looked at the bold, flowing D.Gu signature on the screen, then moved his gaze away without any expression.

“No.”

“You just looked at that line.”

Ethan studied him with those pale gray-blue eyes.

“I was looking at my picture.”

Xu Zhou was too tired to speak quickly.

“It came out really stupid. President, can I return it?”

Ethan: “…”

There was no avoidance in Xu Zhou’s eyes. Only pure, honest annoyance.

“Since it’s not compliant.”

He picked up the gold-embossed black card, placed it on Ethan’s tablet screen, and pushed it forward gently.

“Then please cancel it for me now, President. I didn’t bypass the system, and I don’t want privileges. Just give me a normal dorm card. I want to sleep.”

His tone was too open, with a soft, worn-out trailing note. It sounded like he was negotiating, or maybe being spoiled.

The corridor went dead silent again.

This was a privilege people would break their necks trying to get. He didn’t want it for even a second. He threw it back in the student council president’s face.

Mateo watched from the side and felt his heartbeat running out of control.

He had assumed this guy used some trick to get into his suite. But now, watching Xu Zhou act like he couldn’t get away fast enough, an odd mix of irritation and itch surged up from the bottom of his heart.

“You look down on my place?”

Mateo stared at him, grinding his teeth, but his voice unconsciously lowered.

Xu Zhou turned his head to look at him, his voice very quiet.

“I mind the noise. Senior, you look like you’re noisy.”

When Xu Zhou’s watery peach-blossom eyes swept over him, Mateo almost choked on his words again.

“You!”

Ethan looked at the black card pressing down on the tablet.

His slender fingers hovered at the edge of the screen for two seconds, then deliberately moved away from the red freeze key.

Gu Yanli’s direct approval could not be canceled unilaterally by the student council. It had to go through the school board’s review process.

“Until the investigation is complete, the permission cannot be revoked unilaterally.”

Ethan put away the tablet, his voice returning to its businesslike coldness.

“Tonight, you must stay at Arden Mansion.”

Xu Zhou’s brow finally knit tightly.

He sighed, then collapsed onto the handle of his suitcase, resting his chin on the back of his hand. In a voice almost like a murmur, he said to Ethan:

“President, you’re so merciless.”

Ethan’s pale gray-blue eyes contracted suddenly.

His fingers tightened slightly around the tablet, but his face kept the cold mask of a rule enforcer.

“Staying overnight without registration after curfew counts as one violation. Tonight, go back and rest.”

Xu Zhou turned to look at Mateo.

“Senior, can you at least not be noisy tonight?”

Mateo stared at his lazy, boneless little-cat posture. All the anger in him had already vanished. His ears were red enough to drip blood.

He took two strides over, grabbed the black card off the counter, stuffed it into Xu Zhou’s jacket pocket, and casually picked up Xu Zhou’s sticker-covered suitcase.

“I’ll put on headphones as soon as I get back to the room! I definitely won’t make any noise!”

Mateo turned his face away, covering his panic with a rough, gruff voice.

“It’s a two-bedroom suite with great soundproofing! Stay put in your guest room. Don’t wander around!”

With that, he lugged the suitcase and strode off toward the elevator, his long legs moving fast, ears still bright red.

Xu Zhou stood in place, patted the hard black card in his pocket, and curled the corners of his mouth slightly.

Having someone carry his suitcase wasn’t too bad after all.

He turned to Joey, who was still frozen like a wooden chicken.

“Didn’t you say earlier that friends should hurt each other?”

Joey nodded numbly.

“…Yeah.”

“Then tonight, you go stay in the Arden penthouse for me. Consider that me hurting you.”

Joey stumbled back three steps and waved his hands like crazy.

“…I’m not worthy. I still want to live a few more years.”

Xu Zhou followed behind Mateo, waving lazily.

“I’m going up to sleep now. See you tomorrow, Joey.”

Joey watched the tall, wild crown prince carrying the old suitcase in front, while the beautiful, refined transfer student followed slowly behind. He was a total mess where he stood.

…Is this really a sponsored student?

This is like they’ve brought back an ancestor to serve.

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