What's Wrong with This Alpha? - Chapter 65

Chapter 65 – The Date

“Make something up, let me hear it?” Sheng Yunze raised an eyebrow.

Duan Yi quickly changed the subject. “Make up something erotic? You have no shame, Gege?”

“What are you listening to in your headphones all day?”

He reached for Sheng Yunze’s headphones, intending to put them on himself, but Sheng Yunze grabbed his hand. “What are you listening to?”

“Nothing!” Duan Yi protested. “I just want to know if your ears hurt from wearing headphones all day.”

Sheng Yunze immediately bristled. “I don’t wear them all day,” he retorted. “I only had them on this morning.”

Meaning: You don’t even care about me.

Duan Yi stared at him, then burst out laughing. “Why don’t you pout even harder? I could hang a teapot with a handle on that lip.”

“Tch.” Sheng Yunze shot him a cold glance.

Duan Yi had lost all interest in his homework. He just wanted to look at Sheng Yunze.

The more he looked, the more he agreed with Second High School’s decision to crown him the school beauty.

Sheng Yunze pinched his cheek. “Why are you staring at me like a lovesick fool again?”

“Ow!” Duan Yi cried in pain. “You’re the one deliberately acting cute!”

Sheng Yunze frowned. “Who’s acting cute?”

“Me! Me! Me! I’m acting cute!” Duan Yi wrenched his cheek free from Sheng Yunze’s demonic grip, cradling his face. “Why do you always pout like that?”

Sheng Yunze froze for a moment, then denied it. “I don’t.”

Duan Yi gave him an example. “You really love to pout, don’t you? Don’t you realize you always do it when you’re angry?”

He crossed his arms, struck a cool pose to mimic Sheng Yunze, and then pouted, his imitation remarkably lifelike.

The only flaw was that Sheng Yunze had single eyelids, while Duan Yi was a conventionally handsome young man with double eyelids. It was difficult for him to capture the cool, detached look in Sheng Yunze’s eyes, but the resemblance was striking nonetheless.

Duan Yi frowned in imitation. “Brother is too noble. Humans aren’t worthy.”

He then glared down at Sheng Yunze, adopting an imperious tone. “Pig, why are you so stupid?”

The moment he finished, Duan Yi’s composure crumbled. “Hey! I’m not stupid!” he protested indignantly.

Sheng Yunze rested his chin on his hand. “You’re not stupid. You’re actually quite self-aware—you know the ‘pig’ I was talking about was you.”

Duan Yi: =口=!

When Duan Yi couldn’t win with words, he resorted to physical force.

The rotating seating arrangement in Class One had cycled several times, eventually placing Sheng Yunze by the window.

To subdue Sheng Yunze, Duan Yi decided to strike at the root of the problem: his pen. With a swift motion, he snatched the water-based pen from Sheng Yunze’s hand.

“Ugh, you’re so annoying—” Sheng Yunze didn’t even finish his sentence before Duan Yi pounced on him, claws flailing. “Let me see your eyes!”

Sheng Yunze nearly toppled backward from the force of the attack. He quickly grabbed Duan Yi’s waist to prevent him from getting too excited and accidentally dragging them both out the fourth-floor window.

If I die young like this, Sheng Yunze thought, I’ll haunt Duan Yi’s ass forever.

But Duan Yi was determined to be a nuisance. Sheng Yunze had no choice but to hold him close, leaning against the wall, and warn him between breaths, “Class is starting soon. Stop bothering me.”

“How am I bothering you? I just want to see your eyes. Did you put on eyeliner today?” Duan Yi protested.

“I’ll pray at the Confucian Temple for you right now and draw you two lines myself. 0.7 or 0.5 shade? Take your pick. And keep your hands still!” Sheng Yunze threatened.

“Just let me look…” Duan Yi whined.

His foot kicked Jiang Wangshu, who yelped in pain. The auxiliary line Jiang Wangshu had been drawing shot skyward like a celestial pathway. “Can you two go fight somewhere else? Don’t drag innocent classmates into your mess!”

Sheng Yunze chimed in, “Your Second Wife says to get off me.”

Jiang Wangshu’s eyes welled with tears. “Secretary Sheng, Duan Yi has completely corrupted you! Give us back the High Mountain Flower!”

Sheng Yunze peeled Duan Yi off him and ordered, “Sit properly and stop bothering me.”

Duan Yi was pinned against Sheng Yunze’s chest, his hair disheveled from their earlier play. He looked up at Sheng Yunze and asked, “I want to go to the supermarket this afternoon. Wanna come?”

Sheng Yunze kept him pinned down, his free hand reaching for a pen as he calmly continued working on his math problems.

Duan Yi simply gave in and sprawled across Sheng Yunze’s lap.

He idly tugged at Sheng Yunze’s sleeve, then on a whim, pulled down his zipper. This guy’s really wearing two autumn school uniforms again.

Beneath the uniforms, Duan Yi spotted a black turtleneck sweater. Sheng Yunze’s pale skin looked even paler against the dark fabric.

His boyfriend was focused on his test paper.

Duan Yi had only intended to play with the zipper, but a mischievous thought suddenly struck him. His slender fingers slid from Sheng Yunze’s lower abdomen to the bulge below, then pressed down.

The pen in Sheng Yunze’s hand nearly flew off the page. Duan Yi scrambled off his lap and sat up straight, staring intently at the blackboard.

So, you dare to tease but can’t own up to it, huh?

Sheng Yunze’s face darkened.

Duan Yi swiftly grabbed his hand. “No, Brother! This is a sacred classroom!”

Sheng Yunze retorted, “Didn’t seem to bother you earlier.”

Duan Yi quickly admitted his mistake, “I was possessed just now! It doesn’t count!”

He stole a glance at Sheng Yunze, feeling guilty. “Um… does it hurt?”

Sheng Yunze retorted, “What do you think? Why don’t you try it yourself?”

Duan Yi eagerly zipped up Sheng Yunze’s school uniform and tugged at the hem, trying to cover it up. When that failed, he earnestly suggested, “Maybe you should cross your legs?”

Sheng Yunze glared coldly. “You’re dead.”

Duan Yi instantly regretted pressing down on him earlier.

The bell rang, and Duan Yi bolted for the door.

But Sheng Yunze hooked his arm around Duan Yi’s shoulder and slammed him onto the desk. There was no loud thud because Sheng Yunze had cushioned the impact with his hand, but Duan Yi’s agonized scream echoed through the classroom for days.

The entire class froze, then erupted into chaos. Seeing Sheng Yunze bullying Duan Yi, they dropped their pens and started whooping and hollering, eager for the drama.

Sheng Yunze…

Instead of putting on his headphones after class to maintain his monthly “bking” quota and secure the year-end Golden Bking Award, he was actually messing around with Duan Yi in the classroom.

The High Mountain Flower had finally descended from his pedestal!

A sight seen once in three years.

High school boys love to egg each other on, and Pingtou and the others immediately started shouting:

“Secretary Sheng, kick his ass!”

“Give him a taste of his own medicine!”

“Don’t back down, President Duan! Hit Secretary Sheng with your Your Duan Family’s Ancestral Footstep!”

Duan Yi was being unilaterally pummeled by Sheng Yunze, unable to retaliate. At first, he tried to maintain his bravado with tough talk, but eventually, he was reduced to begging for mercy.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry, Brother—I was wrong—I was wrong—I was really wrong—”

Sheng Yunze gripped the back of Duan Yi’s neck, pressing his face against the test paper, squishing his chubby cheeks. Exhausted from the earlier struggle, Duan Yi’s face was flushed.

He dropped to his knees, bending his head, “I’ll kowtow to you.”

Sheng Yunze chuckled in exasperation and released him, hearing a collective sigh from the class.

Duan Yi stood up, regaining his bravado, and pointed at Pingtou and the others, “What’s the deal? You enjoyed watching me get beaten up, didn’t you?”

He rose to his feet, once again a man of valor, and pointed at Pingtou and the others. “Don’t you guys have any classmate solidarity? Just standing there watching me get beaten by the League Branch Secretary?”

Xi Zi clutched her chest dramatically, “Fighting is affection, scolding is love, Class President! The intensity between you and Secretary Sheng just now… it’s like a predestined romance spanning three lifetimes! Besides, couples fight but make up in bed—don’t meddle in marital spats, got it?”

Although Duan Yi knew Pingtou was joking, being called Sheng Yunze’s wife still made him feel a little self-conscious.

He and Sheng Yunze had kept their underground relationship extremely discreet. In their class, only Jiang Wangshu and Hao Shanshan knew about it—and perhaps Fang Yun? He wasn’t entirely sure.

In any case, only a handful of people knew he and Sheng Yunze were dating, and Duan Yi felt a secret thrill.

After school that afternoon, Sheng Yunze went out to eat with him.

Jiang Wangshu led Hao Shanshan, like a widowed mother with her child, to the cafeteria. Before leaving, he waved his handkerchief dramatically, vividly portraying a rural woman tearfully sending her husband off to war.

“You’re insane!” Duan Yi retorted.

Several new sushi restaurants had opened near the back gate of Second High School.

When Duan Yi entered, the place was crowded, mostly with boarding students grabbing a meal.

The moment they saw Duan Yi and Sheng Yunze walk in together, their eyes lit up. They stealthily pulled out their phones, ready to snap photos.

Sheng Yunze seemed accustomed to the attention. He tossed his backpack to Duan Yi, told him to find a seat, and went to order at the counter.

The new sushi shop worker had never seen such a commotion. He glanced at Sheng Yunze, then at the female students who were sitting down but craning their necks so far forward that their eyes nearly touched Sheng Yunze’s face.

The sushi shop worker couldn’t help but ask, “Hey, you’re pretty popular at school, huh?”

Seeing Sheng Yunze’s face, he became even more certain. He teased, “Are you that… School Grass?”

A girl sitting at the counter boldly spoke up, “He’s Second High School’s School Grass!”

Sheng Yunze glanced at her. The junior covered her face with her hands, leaving only her eyes visible, her face flushed with excitement. “Um, Senior… I’m from First-Year Class Four…”

“Wow,” the sushi shop worker exclaimed. He chuckled and returned to his professional demeanor. “Is that all? Won’t this be too much for two people?”

“It’s fine,” Sheng Yunze replied, scanning his payment code.

The junior asked again, “Senior, did you come with Duan Yi?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh, oh! You and Duan Yi are really close!”

Sheng Yunze finally gave her a proper look and nodded. “We are.”

As he left, the junior and her friend let out silent screams.

Holding hands, their faces flushed, they kicked their slender legs against the floor with a frantic thump-thump-thump.

They muttered under their breath, “kswl, kswl, szd, szd!”

Like some dark magic incantation.

The sushi chef spoke up, “You two are exaggerating. Even if your School Grass is handsome, he probably has a girlfriend, right?”

The junior girl pulled out her phone and started snapping photos frantically. “Exaggerating? Hell no! I’m posting this on the forum right now—I actually talked to Sheng Yunze!”

Her best friend chimed in, “Brother, you’re new here, you don’t understand. Girls’ appreciation for handsome guys is a primal instinct etched into our genes! And when it comes to two handsome guys? That’s next-level—a family tradition! A spirit passed down through generations! The ship sails forever! The flame endures!”

The sushi chef chuckled, completely lost in the girls’ cryptic slang. He changed the subject. “By the way, when are your final exams? Business always drops off then. I wonder if I can even keep this place open…”

“You ordered a lot,” Duan Yi said, feigning concern. “You won’t be able to finish it all, will you?”

Sheng Yunze lifted an eyebrow, as if to say, Are you kidding me?

Duan Yi flushed. “I’m not that big of an eater.”

Then he grabbed a piece of sushi and shoved the whole thing into his mouth without even biting it in half.

As he chewed, he mentally sorted the sushi on the plate into different martial arts sects.

On the left was the Mount Hua School, and on the right was the Kunlun School.

“This one’s yours, this one’s mine, this one’s yours, this one’s mine…”

He divided the sushi with the meticulousness of a grade schooler.

But as he continued, his bias grew, “Mine, mine, mine, mine…”

Sheng Yunze raised an eyebrow. “Why do I get so few?”

Duan Yi blurted out, “You can’t eat this one. You’re allergic.”

Then he froze.

Duan Yi looked up at him, stammering, “Y-you told me… right?”

Sheng Yunze replied calmly, “No.”

His words carried a deeper meaning: “You know me better than my own mother.”

Duan Yi’s heart skipped a beat. “Hahaha, really? I was just guessing! I thought I remembered you mentioning it. You must have forgotten…”

He chewed his sushi with a growing sense of dread.

Of course Duan Yi knew.

In that other world, he knew Sheng Yunze’s dietary restrictions better than his own.

It was mainly because Sheng Ming, like his father, was allergic to shellfish. Duan Yi had always been extra careful about what he ate.

Duan Yi remembered the time Sheng Ming had accidentally eaten a goose barnacle. That night, he broke out in a full-body rash, and they had to call a private doctor in the middle of the night. Duan Yi was so terrified that he stayed by Sheng Ming’s bedside all night, only daring to take a short nap the next noon.

The memory was vivid, and Duan Yi’s chopsticks paused mid-air.

Sheng Yunze, thinking Duan Yi was reluctant to part with the sushi in his bowl, transferred his own pieces over. “I’m not taking it away from you.”

Duan Yi snapped back to reality. Sheng Yunze had nearly emptied his plate onto Duan Yi’s. “Then what will you eat?”

“You can trade me what’s in your bowl,” Sheng Yunze replied.

He reached for Duan Yi’s foie gras sushi, and Duan Yi’s eyes widened in alarm. “Trade something else! There’s only one foie gras sushi.” Duan Yi immediately felt protective, arguing logically, “And the sushi you gave me is only fifteen yuan, but my foie gras sushi costs thirty-five. You need to give me another piece to make it a fair trade.”

Sheng Yunze watched Duan Yi’s earnest calculations, reminded of a street vendor haggling over phone screen protectors. Something about the scene struck him as hilarious.

As Duan Yi continued to negotiate with utmost seriousness, Sheng Yunze stifled his laughter, burying his face in his wrist to hide his amusement.

Duan Yi felt like he was being mocked, but he couldn’t figure out what was so funny. Annoyed, he muttered, “What’s so hilarious about this…”

He chewed his sushi with clenched teeth.

Sheng Yunze suggested, “Let’s split it.”

“How are we supposed to do that?” Duan Yi asked.

Sheng Yunze calmly replied, “You take a bite, then feed me the rest.”

Duan Yi: =口=!

He glanced around the crowded Second High School cafeteria.

Duan Yi turned away. “This isn’t appropriate… in broad daylight…”

“Is feeding your boyfriend something shameful?” Sheng Yunze asked.

“Aren’t we supposed to be keeping this a secret?” Duan Yi protested.

Sheng Yunze grew impatient. “Just hurry up.”

Duan Yi: ……

Don’t use that commanding tone again! You sadist!

He bit off half the sushi, pinched the remaining piece with his chopsticks, and shoved it into Sheng Yunze’s mouth. “Good enough for you?!” he growled.

Sheng Yunze chewed slowly. “Not bad.”

Duan Yi bit his chopsticks, ready to retort, when he noticed two junior girls standing frozen with their phones, as if struck by lightning.

“Something wrong?” Duan Yi asked, turning halfway toward them.

The junior sister suddenly snapped out of her daze. “Ah, we… we wanted to ask about a friend… Senior’s WeChat ID…”

Her eyes, filled with shy anticipation, darted toward Sheng Yunze.

Sheng Yunze leaned back in his chair. “No QR codes.”

The second junior sister, sweating profusely, stammered, “It’s not about scanning for a small gift… it’s…”

Sheng Yunze’s eyelids flickered open. “Oh, I don’t add WeChat merchants either.”

The junior sisters were struck by lightning once more.

Duan Yi couldn’t help but interject, “Actually, I don’t mind adding WeChat merchants.”

A second blow.

The two junior sisters clutched their phones and fled.

Duan Yi, still talking, pulled out his phone. “What kind of stuff do you guys sell? Any snacks—hey, where’d they go?”

When he looked up, they were already gone.