Chapter 24: Monday Morning

On Monday, when Chen Youxuan arrived at school, his friends noticed a strange scratch mark on his face. Even after applying medicine, the skin was still red and swollen.

Someone asked in concern what had happened. Chen Youxuan simply said he was feeding stray cats in his neighborhood and got scratched.

Everyone praised his kindness while urging him to be more careful next time.

Chen Youxuan smiled. “Don’t worry, I already got a rabies shot.”

The group entered the lecture hall together, ready for class. Since they were in the same major, Chen Youxuan inevitably ran into that friend he used to play tennis with. The guy’s face was unscathed, but his hand was injured.

On seeing Chen Youxuan, he darkened his face, didn’t even greet him, and deliberately turned to show the wound on his hand to a nearby classmate, claiming it was a dog bite.

The two, who had been close friends, now ignored each other. Anyone with eyes could see they had fallen out. Their mutual friends tacitly split from one large group into two smaller ones, sitting apart with an invisible line between them like the Chuhai River boundary.

A girl in the front row turned around. “Youxuan, Halloween is coming. Who are you going to invite to the school’s Halloween party?”

Capital University held a large event every so often, and the Halloween party was the most famous and popular. Every year, students actively participated because it was thrilling and fun, with rich activities. Alphas and Omegas paired up to enter—there could be other combinations too. If there was no one you wanted to invite from school, every enrolled student also had an invitation to bring someone from outside.

Who wouldn’t want to use this chance to have an encounter with a friend, a crush, or a secret admirer? It was said that the confession success rate for those who attended this party together was as high as seventy percent. But there were also cases where someone shielded their beloved in front of danger, only to become strangers ever after.

Chen Youxuan had always been looking forward to this party. The person he most wanted to invite was Shen Zheming. He had gotten into Capital University precisely to have more opportunities to get closer to Shen Zheming. But unexpectedly, Shen Zheming was busy with Jushang Company’s affairs, rarely appeared on campus, and never participated in any school activities. If he invited Shen Zheming, he would most likely be rejected.

Chen Youxuan pretended not to care. “I’ll decide later. No rush.”

Even without Shen Zheming, Capital University had no shortage of other well-off Alphas. This was a good chance to get to know high-quality Alphas. The Chen family had a considerable standing in the capital; many Alphas would probably approach him on their own.

Suddenly, a friend beside him let out a whistle and teased, “Someone’s thoughts are written all over their face, don’t you think so, Sun Sirui?”

A plain-looking boy sitting not far from Chen Youxuan hit that person with a pencil case. “Don’t talk nonsense!”

“Keep pretending, everyone here knows you like Youxuan. It’s too obvious.”

Sun Sirui made a motion to cover that person’s mouth, but he didn’t put any force into it, letting all the words spill out. “You definitely want to invite Youxuan this time. Now that I’ve called you out, you’re getting anxious.”

Chen Youxuan glanced at them, then turned his head back with a blank expression. He had no interest in Sun Sirui whatsoever. That guy was just the son of an ordinary restaurant owner, whom he had met during the freshman orientation. Since then, he had been following Chen Youxuan around like a lick-spittle. Sun Sirui’s family background was too average; Chen Youxuan looked down on him.

It was fine to have Sun Sirui help with small tasks, but he didn’t want any other involvement, always feeling that Sun Sirui carried the smell of the restaurant’s air conditioning.

Before the teacher arrived, the group got more and more excited. Somehow, they started talking about Lu Shi.

“Hey, I have a fun idea. Who’s going to send an invitation to Youxuan’s brother? He just came back from the countryside and hasn’t seen the world. He’ll be so surprised when he receives it, and just when he reaches out to take it, you snatch the invitation away…”

“Forget it. Didn’t you see the post on the gossip forum? I feel like Lu Shi and his adoptive father are not easy to deal with.”

“Yeah, and no matter what, he’s still the true son of the Chen family. Regardless of his past, the bloodline is unchangeable. If you go too far, be careful that the Chen family won’t be happy.”

“Slap!” Chen Youxuan slammed his pen on the desk and opened his book. “Don’t mention him in front of me anymore. It’s annoying to hear.”

Only then did they realize they might have said the wrong thing. “Bloodline is unchangeable”—at first glance, it seemed harmless, but thinking about it, it seemed to imply something about Chen Youxuan. As if no matter what he did, no matter how glamorous he appeared on the outside, he was just a chicken dressed in phoenix feathers.

Just then, the teacher walked into the classroom, and everyone fell silent, turning their heads and shutting their mouths.

Inside the Minxing Education Building, Lu Shi was lying on the desk, earnestly writing something. Ding Wei suddenly opened the door and came in, startling him.

Ding Wei brought kimchi made by his father. Upon learning that Lu Shi had provided Ding Wei with such a good learning opportunity, Uncle Ding insisted on repaying the tuition fee to Lu Shi. Lu Shi didn’t accept it—after all, the money came from Chen Qiming. Seeing that Uncle Ding was persistent, he proposed that he wanted to eat the kimchi Uncle Ding made. He hadn’t tasted that flavor for a long time and missed it.

Upon hearing this, Uncle Ding directly delved into research on how to improve his pickling technique. Not only that, but he also made different soups and braised ribs every day, dedicated to cooking delicious meals for Lu Shi for life.

Ding Wei set the glass jar of kimchi aside and curiously craned his neck to look. “Elementary School English Calligraphy Book,” “Arabic Number Copying,” “Chinese Character Control Pen Practice”…

“Huh? Brother Lu, why are you writing this?”

Lu Shi raised an eyebrow and turned his head. “You also think my handwriting is quite good, so I don’t actually need to practice, right?”

“Uh,” Ding Wei rubbed his nose, “No, I thought you had given up on treatment long ago.”

Lu Shi: “…” Forget it, it’s impossible to reason with people who don’t understand art.

Creak— The small classroom door was pushed open again. Before Ding Wei could see who it was, Lu Shi, with a “clatter,” quickly stuffed all the calligraphy books on the desk into the drawer, then twirled his pen twice in a vain attempt to cover up.

Shen Zheming walked in, holding a notebook. He handed it to Lu Shi. “These are the problems I compiled before the competition, along with key and difficult points. You can take a look too.”

Lu Shi took it and shook his leg. “Oh.”

Shen Zheming stood there without moving. After a few seconds, he looked at the top of Lu Shi’s fluffy head. “What about that exercise book? I haven’t marked yesterday’s problems. I came over to circle a few more for you.”

Lu Shi had been practicing calligraphy all along; he hadn’t touched the competition exercises in the drawer today. He slowly felt around in the drawer. Usually, he didn’t have many things, so he could grab it easily. But he had bought several calligraphy books, which were about the same thickness as the exercise book, making it hard to judge by touch alone.

Ding Wei sat nearby, watching Lu Shi rummage in the drawer for a long time, as if there were some treasure inside. He didn’t understand and decided to help Brother Lu. Before Lu Shi could react, Ding Wei reached in and pulled everything out of the drawer, spreading it on the desk.

A gaze fell from above onto the several cartoon-covered elementary school calligraphy books on the table.

Lu Shi’s temple twitched as he suppressed the urge to throw Ding Wei off the fifth floor. The one-track-minded Ding Wei was still taking credit. “Now isn’t it much easier to find things at a glance?”

A sudden heat crept up Lu Shi’s back.

He gritted his teeth. “Really? Thank you so much.”

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