Chapter 5: Going Out to Look for Work

In the morning, Ji Xu was awakened by the sensation of a finger brushing against his cheek.

His consciousness was still hovering on the edge of sleep, fuzzy and muddled, feeling only that something had lightly touched his face—warm, with a slight roughness of thin calluses.

He knitted his brows, wanting to turn over, but immediately his right wrist was lifted, and something soft was pressed onto the back of his hand.

That feeling was far too vivid—warm, dry lips pressed against the skin on the back of his hand, lingering for a moment.

Ji Xu’s sleepiness was mostly scattered by this action in an instant; before his brain could fully process it, his palm had already slapped out ahead of his thoughts.

A crisp “slap” sounded exceptionally clear in the quiet bedroom.

Ji Xu’s hand hit square on the left side of Rong Du’s face; unable to hold back his strength, the feeling beneath his palm was skin growing hot from the slap.

Rong Du’s entire body leaned back slightly, blinking as a faint red handprint slowly bloomed across his face, spreading all the way from his cheekbone to the side of his mouth.

Only then did Ji Xu wake up completely.

Supporting himself with his arms, he pushed half his body up from the pillow, his messy hair sticking up in tufts as he glared at Rong Du through sleep-filled eyes, lingering irritability and annoyance from being disturbed still resting in the depths of his gaze: “Rong Du, stop messing around.”

Rong Du rubbed the slapped side of his face with his thumb, taking a sharp breath, yet the corners of his mouth curved up into a helpless and amused expression.

Leaning his body forward, his hands squeezed up from both sides of Ji Xu’s cheeks, ten fingers pressing into the flesh of Ji Xu’s face and pushing hard toward the middle—squeezing Ji Xu’s mouth into a comical “O” shape, the flesh on his cheeks bulging out from between Rong Du’s fingers.

“You little ungrateful thing,” Rong Du rubbed his face, a laugh in his voice, “I give you a kiss and you hit me this hard?”

Being rubbed like that made Ji Xu unable to even speak clearly, struggling indistinctly: “It’s you… who disturbed my sleep first…”

He reached out to pry Rong Du’s wrists away, but hadn’t expected Rong Du as a Beta to have so much strength; after two failed attempts, he simply gave up, letting his face hang full of soft flesh as Rong Du rubbed him back and forth, his eyelids half-drooping, his eyes still holding a trace of hazy anger.

Seeing his aggrieved yet angry appearance, Rong Du finally let go.

He ruffled Ji Xu’s hair, making it even messier, the strands fluffing up like a burst dandelion.

When his fingers withdrew from the top of Ji Xu’s head, his fingertips brushed against the tip of his ear: “Alright, I’ll stop messing with you. I’m off to work, go back to sleep for a bit.”

Ji Xu let out an “Mm”, rolling over with his back to him, pulling the blanket over his head to wrap himself completely into the shape of a silkworm cocoon.

Rong Du’s low chuckle came from outside the blanket, followed by footsteps heading toward the door, the subtle click of the doorknob turning, and then a softly pressed “I’m leaving.”

The door was gently pulled shut, the latch clicking into the doorframe with an exceptionally faint sound.

Lying in the blanket, Ji Xu pricked up his ears to listen; outside fell quiet, with only the faint, distant sound of a television echoing from the floor next door.

He pulled the blanket down from his head to breathe, lying on his side facing the window’s direction.

The curtains were hung haphazardly by Rong Du—a single layer of thin white cotton cloth that didn’t even count as blackout—allowing sunlight to filter in effortlessly, plating his eyelashes and the bridge of his nose with a pale layer of gold, even lighting up the tiny fuzz on the surface of the blanket.

Staring at that curtain cloth illuminated by sunlight for a moment, his eyelids grew heavy again; rolling over to bury his face into the pillow, he fell back asleep.

When he woke up again, the sun was already high in the sky, the curtains swelling up and dropping down with the wind, light and shadows swaying back and forth on the floor.

Ji Xu felt around for his phone to take a look—9:47 AM.

Browsing through WeChat, Rong Du had sent a message at 8:15 AM saying “Awake yet? There are dumplings in the fridge,” followed by a voice note.

Ji Xu tapped to play it; the background noise on Rong Du’s end was a clamor of chatter and the clatter of pots and bowls, sounding as though he was at a breakfast stall, his voice distant against the ambient noise: “Left dumplings for you, cook them yourself, don’t starve again.”

Finishing the voice note, the corners of Ji Xu’s mouth curved; without replying, he first switched out to check his game friends list.

Chu Siran’s avatar was gray—offline.

After some thought, Ji Xu sent a message over anyway: “Gege, getting online? Want to play a couple matches?”

Setting his phone on the pillow to wait for a moment, no reply came.

So he climbed up to go to the kitchen to boil dumplings, turning on the stove and scrolling through short videos while leaning against the counter waiting for the water to boil, steam emerging from the edge of the pot lid as the kitchen slowly filled with the aroma of white flour dough.

The dumplings were frozen pork and cabbage filling; he boiled twelve, a few breaking their skins when served into a bowl, turning the broth slightly cloudy.

Carrying the bowl, he sat on the sofa to eat, glancing at his phone screen as he ate.

Just as he stuffed the last dumpling into his mouth, his phone lit up.

Chu Siran’s avatar changed from gray to colored, a message popping up: “In.”

Swallowing the dumpling, Ji Xu wiped his vinegar-stained fingers on his pants and typed rapidly: “Coming, coming!”

Chu Siran had already created a lobby, and the instant the invitation pop-up appeared, Ji Xu tapped right in.

The two didn’t speak, but tacitly selected their roles—Ji Xu still Support, Chu Siran still Marksman.

The game opened quickly; as soon as the loading screen passed, the two walked down to the bottom lane side by side.

Ji Xu talked a bit less today than yesterday; having just woken up, his voice was still slightly raspy, occasionally opening his mouth to call out ‘Gege’, but mostly doing his own tasks quietly—providing shields, blocking skillshots, controlling vision, and pinging signals.

Chu Siran remained his usual self, not saying a single word, but his mechanics were as steady as ever, turning the tide in several crucial team fights through the extreme damage output of his Marksman.

They played four matches and won four matches.

When destroying the nexus in the last match, Ji Xu glanced at the time—it was already 10:50 AM.

As the end-of-game victory icon popped up, Ji Xu let out a sigh of relief, turned on his mic and said: “Gege, I’m logging off, I have things to do this afternoon.”

Chu Siran remained silent in the room for two seconds, two letters popping up in public chat: “ok”.

Ji Xu exited the game.

Leaning against the sofa, he stretched, his joints making a light click as his arms reached above his head.

Stomach full, games won, more stars gained—his mood was originally quite good.

Yet exiting the game and seeing his chat box with Chu Siran still stuck on his morning message “Gege, getting online?”, he suddenly froze.

Having just played four matches, he hadn’t said a single extra word to Chu Siran, logging off right after winning without even typing a word of thanks.

Hesitating briefly, he felt this wasn’t very nice.

After all, having accepted someone’s 888-yuan red packet, the gaming buddy relationship still needed to be maintained—he couldn’t be calling him ‘Gege’ left and right when he was useful, only to toss him aside when finished.

Opening the dialogue box, he prepared to type a few nice words over, but before he could finish typing, a message popped up from the other side first.

It was a red packet.

Looking at that red square, Ji Xu froze.

He had just given 888 yesterday, and sending another today? Just how rich was this guy?

His thumb hovered above the screen for two seconds before tapping it open anyway.

This time it was 188—not a huge amount, but still a windfall to him.

While annoyed at himself for logging off the game too fast earlier, he rapidly typed in the dialogue box: “Thank you, Gege!” followed by three spinning stick figures.

Then he added a few more lines, saying playing this morning was great, his synergy with Gege was getting better and better, and they definitely had to play more matches next time.

While typing, his peripheral vision caught a bus pulling into the bus stop outside the window; he suddenly remembered that he still had to go out today to find a summer job—he had already planned last night before sleeping to head out today.

Ji Xu’s fingers tapped rapidly across the screen, typing out a final line: “Gege, can’t chat anymore, I’m going out!”

Without even taking time to check for punctuation marks, he pressed send, stuffed his phone into his pocket, snatched the tin box of spare change off the shoe cabinet to shove into his pocket, and dashed out the door wearing his sandals.

The voice-activated lights in the stairwell lit up from his flustered footsteps; taking three steps at a time, he ran downstairs, and by the time he reached the first floor, that bus had already closed its doors preparing to pull away.

Anxious, Ji Xu shouted, “Wait a second!”

The driver glanced in the rearview mirror, and seeing a young guy running out of breath, reopened the doors.

Ji Xu hopped onto the bus, tapped his card, found a window seat to sit down, and only looked at his phone after catching his breath—Chu Siran hadn’t replied to his last message.

Not thinking much of it, he put his phone away and rested his chin in his hand, watching the street view outside the window.

The bus swayed through the streets and alleys of Haicheng; on both sides of the road were various shops—hardware stores, barbershops, fruit stalls, agency storefronts—signboards lined up side by side.

Ji Xu got off at a bustling commercial area, walking along the sidewalk and going inside to ask whenever he saw a recruitment notice posted at a store entrance.

The first shop was a bubble tea shop; the clerk said they were fully staffed.

The second shop was a supermarket; they required local household registration as a guarantee.

The third was a fast-food restaurant; the owner glanced at his Alpha registration form, frowned and said, “Alphas here get into conflicts far too easily, hard to manage.”

The fourth was a clothing store; the person hiring was the store manager, a Beta with exquisite makeup who sized him up twice, smiling as she said, “You are handsome, but we need clothing sales guides—must have experience.”

From midday through the afternoon, Ji Xu walked through seven or eight streets, asking at no less than ten shops.

The sun grew hotter, making the asphalt road soft, feeling sticky under his soles as he stepped on it.

The back of his T-shirt was completely drenched, sticking to his spine, his bangs matted into strands by sweat.

The map on his phone showed he had already circled around the area, returning to the very street where he first got off the bus.

Squatting under the shade of a street tree by the road, he drank a bottle of water; as he poured it down his throat, water trickled down his chin, flowing down his neck into his collar.

Raising a hand to wipe it away, he looked up at the sky; the sun was blindingly bright, making him squint his eyes.

Not a single place wanted people.

Either the summer jobs were fully booked, or they disdained his lack of experience, or they simply wouldn’t hire Alphas.

Squatting there, watching people walking back and forth on the street, he felt like a blade of grass planted in the wrong place.

After squatting for a long while, he tossed the empty bottle into a trash can, patted his pants, and stood up, preparing to head back home and try his luck in a different area tomorrow.

Lowering his head to open the phone navigation to find the bus route home, as he walked, a rich aroma of barbecue suddenly wafted into his nose—cumin, chili, the charred fragrance of charcoal-grilled meat, mixed with the sizzling sound of fat dripping onto the embers.

Looking up, he saw a barbecue shop by the road—the storefront wasn’t large, the sign displaying yellow characters on a red background reading “Old Liu Barbecue”.

A few rows of plastic tables and chairs were set up outside the entrance, with one or two tables of customers sitting and eating, the skewers of meat on bamboo sticks smoked oily and glossy by the charcoal fire.

A sheet of paper was posted on the door, printed in bold black text reading: “Hiring one summer worker, 5:00 PM until closing, daily wage 100, inquire inside for details.”

Ji Xu stood before that sheet of paper for ten seconds before pushing the door open and walking in.

The air conditioning inside was blowing full blast; cold air rushed against his face, making the hot sweat on his body instantly retract as he let out a tiny shiver.

The inside was larger than he imagined, filled with eight or nine square tables, with menus and beverage posters hanging on the walls.

Behind the innermost grill stood a chubby middle-aged man wearing an oil-stained white apron, turning a row of chicken wings on iron skewers, beads of sweat on his forehead glistening under the heat of the charcoal fire.

“Boss,” Ji Xu walked up to the grill, his voice half-drowned out by the crackling of the charcoal, so he raised his volume a bit, “The hiring notice posted outside—are you still hiring?”

The boss looked up at him.

That gaze first scanned him from head to toe, then lingered on Ji Xu’s face for two seconds.

Standing there, Ji Xu’s face began to flush again from the heat waves of the grill, but he didn’t dodge the man’s gaze.

He stood up straight, trying hard to make himself look sturdy, even though standing in front of a chubby uncle probably couldn’t change the fact that he looked thin and small.

“Hiring.” The boss flipped the row of chicken wings in his hand, a puff of white smoke rising from the charcoal fire with a sizzle, “How old are you?”

“Eighteen, just finished the Gaokao.”

“An Alpha?” The boss sized him up once more, his gaze lingering on his shoulders and wrists.

Ji Xu nodded.

He had originally thought the other person would also say something like “Alphas are hard to manage,” preparing himself to be rejected.

Yet the boss grinned, revealing a row of teeth yellowed from smoking: “Alphas are good! Alphas have strength, capable of doing work like hauling boxes and lifting charcoal braziers. Besides, with your looks standing by the door, customers will be willing to come in and sit.”

He slapped the iron skewers in his hand against the rack, a few sparks of oil splashing out, “One hundred a day, 5:00 PM until closing at night, includes one dinner meal. Can you start today?”

Ji Xu froze for a second, then nodded vigorously: “I can!”

“Alright, then get familiar with the environment first.” The boss pointed to that row of display freezers in the corner, “Beers and liquors are all inside; when customers order drinks, you go get them. Skewering work is in the back kitchen; when Little Liu comes later, learn from him. The front four tables are under your care—taking orders, serving dishes, clearing tables—just be quick and nimble.”

Standing in front of the grill, the heat waves of the charcoal fire roasted Ji Xu’s face bright red, sweat dripping from his temples, yet he was smiling.

Nodding to the chubby boss, his voice carried an irrepressible rising joy: “Okay, boss!”

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