MVCFO CH41

Chapter 41: Lu Cong Is Especially Easy to Coax

“Help me check this set of questions, mark the wrong ones first and give it back to me in half an hour. I’m going to time myself on another test paper.”

Lin Xiangqi dumped the workbook into Lu Cong’s hands and prepared to lock himself in the bedroom to work on his mock exam.

Today was supposedly their school’s last weekend without classes. From now on, not only would weekends be packed with make-up lessons, but even their winter vacation would be drastically shortened. But by comparison, their school was already considered to have a relatively lenient schedule. Lin Xiangqi had even heard that there was a school whose winter break lasted only four or five days—though whether that was true, he didn’t know. Right now he didn’t care about vacation at all; he only cared about how many question types he hadn’t mastered yet.

Lu Cong caught the workbook with one hand and pulled Lin Xiangqi into his arms with the other, lowering his head to nuzzle his hair as he said, “Don’t study anymore, take a break. Let’s play a round of games, okay?”

After all, it was the last bit of their free weekend. Lu Cong would’ve much rather spent it doing something else with Lin Xiangqi.

“What? Games?!”

Lin Xiangqi stared at him as if he’d just heard a ghost story, eyes blazing. “The final exam is only a week away! The real college entrance exam is just 150 days away! Get your head straight!”

As the school’s eternal top student, Lu Cong actually felt a bit guilty for once. He gently squeezed Lin Xiangqi’s fingers and said softly, “But Yan Yan, you’ve been pushing yourself too hard lately. You should relax a little. With your current state, hitting the scoreline won’t be a problem. Even a few minutes of rest would do you good.”

“I disagree,” Lin Xiangqi said firmly. “An inch of time is an inch of gold, but you can’t buy that inch of time with an inch of gold. I don’t have much time left to work hard. On the exam, a few minutes can mean answering one more multiple-choice question, you know that?”

Lu Cong fell silent: “…”

Why did that sound so familiar?

Didn’t Qin Xiao just lecture them about this not long ago?

“But—” Seeing Lu Cong’s disappointed expression, Lin Xiangqi softened a little. He hooked his arm around Lu Cong’s neck and teasingly said, “If you’re really bored by yourself—”

Lu Cong’s dark eyes lit up slightly. “Hm?”

“You could come up with a few problems for me. You know best where my weaknesses are, so you can make the questions targeted. I’ll come back down and finish them later.”

Lu Cong: “?”

“It’s settled then. Let’s both work hard!”

Lin Xiangqi planted a kiss on Lu Cong’s lips, grinning triumphantly, and dashed upstairs.

Lu Cong felt like Tom the cat being toyed with by Jerry. He let out a helpless laugh, watching Lin Xiangqi’s retreating figure, and called out, “Slow down, careful not to fall.”

Ever since deciding to become a medical student through his own efforts, Lin Xiangqi had been like a man possessed—never lazy, never needing anyone to nag him. Every day, he squeezed every second to catch up on missed work, studying so diligently it was almost frightening.

Even though as an elite Omega, Lin Xiangqi would get considerable bonus points and privileges for applying to a medical program, that didn’t mean admission was guaranteed.

He and Lu Cong had studied the entrance scores for military and capital universities and figured he’d need to score around 620 to be certain of acceptance.

After all, recruitment policies changed every year—if this year’s medical program was more selective, he’d be in danger.

Lin Xiangqi knew his recent progress was fast but unstable. There were still many concepts he hadn’t fully mastered. If faced with complex question types, he might freeze. It was all because his foundation from the past two years had been shaky.

He’d asked every subject teacher for advice, and surprisingly they all said the same thing: practice with as many problems as possible. His best advantage was a good memory—even if some hard points didn’t click, brute-forcing countless problem sets would etch the patterns into his mind.

So lately, Lin Xiangqi had been frantically working through every type of problem, with great results. The only drawback was that Lu Cong was being neglected, growing gloomier by the day.

Of course, Lu Cong wasn’t the type to nag for attention. He would simply rest his chin on his hand and silently watch Lin Xiangqi with dark, deep eyes when he worked late into the night.

But Lu Cong was especially easy to coax.

As long as Lin Xiangqi stole a quick kiss mid-study session, or sweetly pleaded, “Massage my shoulders later, they’re all stiff,” Lu Cong’s expression would instantly soften, as if forgiving the whole world. Though he’d verbally scold Lin Xiangqi for sitting too long and harming his neck, his body would lean down of its own accord to kiss him back.

Maybe it was just Lin Xiangqi’s imagination.

But ever since they had finally confessed to each other, everything seemed to go more smoothly.

His studies had no major setbacks, his health was improving steadily—even Tang Luyu was surprised to tell him that his glands and other physiological features were developing just like most peers his age.

Most importantly, life itself felt so… easy.

These days, apart from obsessively figuring out how to improve his scores, Lin Xiangqi really had no other worries.

He had thought about this change.

Aside from growing closer to Lu Cong, nothing else seemed to have dramatically shifted. Yet somehow, life had become so much clearer.

Lin Xiangqi felt as if, all this time, he’d been living in a cocoon. His world had been small, limited to this old house, this city, this little patch of earth under his feet.

But recently, that cocoon had broken open.

And Lin Xiangqi had taken the first small step… into a bigger world.

But everything still seemed the same—Lin Xiangqi was still shuttling every day between school and home with Lu Cong. The sky was the same sky, the house was the same house as before, the roads were the same ones he had always taken, and even the people didn’t seem to have changed.

Yet, no matter how he thought about it, Lin Xiangqi couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off.

This sense of “wrongness” wasn’t bad, or ominous, or foreboding in any way. It was more like his subconscious believed that something huge had shifted without him knowing—that kind of “wrong.”

But Lin Xiangqi couldn’t put it into words.

In the end, he could only attribute this strange feeling to overthinking—

Sometimes, when a person’s happiness feels too much, they can’t help but grow suspicious, worrying that their luck might run out, or that some unexpected accident might suddenly occur.

Lin Xiangqi convinced himself not to dwell on unnecessary things and to focus fully on the upcoming finals.

This exam was crucial for him. Only by scoring 620 points could his plans move forward; otherwise, all the big promises he’d boasted to Lu Cong about would be hard to realize.

Coincidentally, Qi Ye and Lu Huo were coming home for the New Year. If he reached his target score, Lin Xiangqi was thinking of mentioning it to Lu Cong’s parents as well—who knows, maybe something good would come of it.

The exams went quite smoothly.

Lin Xiangqi’s sea-of-practice-paper strategy had proven successful again. Not only was he quick at answering, but after checking his paper, he could almost predict his score.

This afternoon was the last subject. Lin Xiangqi was the first to hand in his paper in the whole exam hall.

He hadn’t meant to finish so early, but everything had gone so smoothly that he had a hunch his score would exceed expectations. Excited, he ran off to the first exam room, eager to share the news with Lu Cong.

Lu Cong’s exam room was on the first floor. Lin Xiangqi quietly packed his pencil case and snuck downstairs, pacing outside the door, trying to catch Lu Cong’s attention. He knew Lu Cong must’ve finished early too, and would come out the moment he saw him.

But instead of Lu Cong, the proctor walked out. As luck would have it, the first room’s proctor was their own math teacher.

As soon as the teacher saw Lin Xiangqi, she frowned and whispered angrily, “Why’d you finish so fast? Did you answer everything? You didn’t leave blanks on yesterday’s math paper, did you? I’m telling you—if you get another thirty points in math, I’ll give you thirty more sets of practice papers to do over the New Year holiday!”

Startled, Lin Xiangqi hurriedly said, “I did it all! I’ll get at least one-thirty this time… uh…”

He hesitated, realizing that sounded way too confident. If he fell short, wouldn’t it be embarrassing? So he quickly corrected himself: “I’ll definitely pass this time!”

The teacher grunted, but thinking of how diligent Lin Xiangqi had been lately, gave him the benefit of the doubt. “I’ll be waiting to see that.”

Lin Xiangqi craned his neck, trying to peek inside. “Teacher, where’s Lu Cong sitting? He’s the top of the grade, so he should be at the front, but I didn’t see him.”

The teacher replied, “He turned in his paper ages ago—left half an hour ago.”

Lin Xiangqi froze. “…Half an hour ago?”

That shouldn’t be.

Lu Cong always waited for him. Even if something urgent came up, he’d definitely call or text first. But when Lin Xiangqi checked his phone—no calls, no messages.

Left half an hour ago… what had Lu Cong been doing all this time?

Unease crept into his heart.

Lin Xiangqi was sure he wasn’t imagining things. He knew Lu Cong too well—not knowing something had definitely happened.

The first possible problem that came to mind was Lu Cong’s susceptibility period.

If it really was that, then Lu Cong was surely still somewhere on campus. In that state, he wouldn’t have been able to go far.

But…

If it really was his susceptibility period—why hadn’t he contacted him?

When Lin Xiangqi tried calling, Lu Cong’s phone was off. Filled with doubt, he began searching the school.

He figured Lu Cong would have avoided the teaching buildings—his pheromones were too strong. Even with a collar on, there was no way to guarantee no leakage. Knowing how cautious Lu Cong was, he would’ve definitely found the place with the fewest people.

Lin Xiangqi ran to every empty building on campus—even ones he’d never visited, like the school history exhibit. But there was no sign of Lu Cong.

He began to hesitate. Could Lu Cong have already gone home? But when he reached the school gate, he stopped in his tracks.

Maybe it was sixth sense—or maybe just the fact that he truly couldn’t think of any other place—suddenly, Lin Xiangqi thought of the equipment storage room in the southwest corner of the sports field.

The last time he’d had an episode, he’d hidden there too.

At this time of year, the lower grades were already on break, and all the seniors were in exams. The field was completely deserted. There was a high chance Lu Cong was there.

Without hesitation, Lin Xiangqi dashed toward that spot.