GBROTAH CH16

There weren’t many people in the library, but most seats were occupied by books, notebooks, and even laptops used to reserve spots. Xie Yuanxing and Fang Zhi finally found two adjacent seats. Just as they sat down, someone approached.

They expected a confrontation over the seats, but instead, the person’s face was slightly flushed as they handed over a simply but cleanly packaged letter. Xie Yuanxing stared at the suspected love letter for two seconds, puzzled, then looked up at the person blankly.

The girl holding the letter, though a little red-faced, spoke openly, “Could I trouble you to give this to Senior Shen?”

“You’re roommates, right?”

The recently issued clarifying post had made it clear: the car belonged to Shen Bianye, and picking up his roommate, a junior, had nothing to do with “sponsorship.” But because of this post, the fact that Xie Yuanxing was Shen Bianye’s roommate was now known to almost half the school. It was hard to “stake out” Shen Bianye, and few dared to approach him directly. Finding Xie Yuanxing was much simpler.

Xie Yuanxing nodded, “Yes, give it to me.”

The girl handed the love letter to Xie Yuanxing and smiled brightly: “This letter has the scent of my pheromones. If he likes it, my contact information is inside. If he finds it bothersome, he can just throw it away.”

“Thank you for your trouble.”

Fang Zhi, watching him accept the love letter, waited for the girl to leave, then asked with some surprise, “Are you going to deliver it? I thought you wouldn’t agree.”

“It’s no trouble. I’ll just deliver it on the way.” Xie Yuanxing seemed uninterested in discussing the matter further, and as he spoke, he reached for a notebook and pen on the table.

Fang Zhi smiled, his voice very gentle, without any offense: “Given your relationship with Shen Bianye, won’t he be angry if you pass him a love letter?”

Xie Yuanxing’s movements paused, his gaze landing on Fang Zhi, surprisingly sharp and direct. Fang Zhi noticed his change, apologized with a smile, and pointed to the back of his neck, “Your hickey there is a bit high; your collar doesn’t really cover it.”

Xie Yuanxing pursed his lips, reached up to pull his collar higher, and said blandly, “He and I are not what you think.”

Fang Zhi: “You mean you’re not together, right?”

Xie Yuanxing nodded. Not knowing how to explain, he simply said, “This matter, it’s complicated. You’ve indeed misunderstood.”

Fang Zhi, however, looked relieved. He said warmly to Xie Yuanxing, “Since you’re not a couple, can you give me a chance to pursue you?”

“We’re both Betas. I won’t let you have a scarred neck.”

“Actually, I noticed you during military training. You stood out from the crowd.” He smiled, “How to put it, it was like a black flower growing in a field of green grass, making it hard for me not to notice you.”

“After spending some time together, I always feel that the real you isn’t like this. You should be more vibrant, and your heart isn’t lifeless.”

Xie Yuanxing remained silently for a moment, then held up the scratch paper in his hand. “Are we still going to study today?”

Fang Zhi was startled, then chuckled, “Of course.” Just then, his phone rang inopportunely. Fang Zhi picked it up, his expression first surprised, then hesitant, his gaze wavering between his phone and Xie Yuanxing.

Finally, he clutched his phone and smiled apologetically at Xie Yuanxing, “Sorry, my department head just messaged me. They said I have to be on duty in the office at noon this month.”

“Tutoring you might have to be postponed.”

Xie Yuanxing’s expression was calm, “It’s fine, you go ahead.”

Fang Zhi picked up his belongings, and before leaving, as if remembering something, he sat down and fiddled with his phone for a moment, “Wait for me.”

A moment later, he naturally stood up. Turning back, he said to Xie Yuanxing, “I promised to tutor you, but I couldn’t. I still feel a bit bad about it.”

“I just contacted a high school senior I’m close with. He got into S University, and his Linear Algebra grades in freshman year were excellent. I’ll recommend him to you. If you don’t understand anything, just ask him on WeChat.”

Xie Yuanxing: “No need, I…”

Before he finished speaking, Fang Zhi interrupted, “It’s fine, I’ve already told him and asked him to add you.”

“Your basics are fine, it won’t take up much of his time. After the final exam, just treat him to a meal.”

With that, Fang Zhi quickly left the library, his back hurried, as if the student union was pressing him urgently. Xie Yuanxing understood that he hadn’t been the chosen one, but it was okay; he was already very used to such things.

He took out his phone, which had just vibrated. WeChat displayed, “X is requesting to add you as a friend.” After accepting the friend request, the other party’s Moments were blank, and the profile picture was black, showing nothing.

X: “You can ask me anything you don’t understand. Shall we start now?”

Xie Yuanxing pursed his lips and slowly typed: “Can we do a voice call, or video?” This question wasn’t for the convenience of explaining problems, but to confirm something.

X: “…It’s not very convenient right now. Ask away, I can explain clearly by typing.”

X: “Or wait for me, is half an hour okay?”

Xie Yuanxing felt like laughing, wanted to directly ask if waiting half an hour was to buy a voice changer online, but was afraid that directly exposing him would make the young master fly into a rage. He was too lazy to bother and didn’t want to care why the young master was doing this on a whim. There was barely any time left in the afternoon, and he hadn’t even done a single problem.

Xie Yuanxing: “Never mind, no need. Let’s just start.”

He said he could explain clearly by typing, but he actually also used handwritten scratch paper. The linear algebra homework that gave Xie Yuanxing a headache seemed so simple in the other’s hands that it required no thought. After going through all the exercises in the homework, Xie Yuanxing breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you. Let’s stop here for today.”

X: “Mm.”

Xie Yuanxing thought their conversation was over, but then he saw the “对方正在输入中…” (The other party is typing…) repeatedly appear at the top of the screen.

X: “Are you and Fang Zhi very close?”

Xie Yuanxing’s lips curved, a sign he was about to play a trick. He poked his fingertip on the screen and typed: “What’s wrong? Do you like him?”

The other side replied quickly, almost instantly.

X: “Are you sick?”

The next second, the other party retracted a message.

Shen Bianye was thoroughly disgusted, and then he remembered his purpose in approaching Xie Yuanxing under another identity: to get closer, and thus learn what Xie Yuanxing liked and how to make him happy. It wasn’t that he desperately wanted to coax Xie Yuanxing; he couldn’t bring himself to do it, so he simply used another persona online. What did it matter if a sophomore senior from S University coaxed Xie Yuanxing? It had nothing to do with Shen Bianye. To make it more plausible, he even paid Fang Zhi to cooperate. And once X made Xie Yuanxing happy, Shen Bianye could also get a taste of sweetness. He was truly craving it. As for tutoring, that was just a bonus; establishing a good relationship between X and Xie Yuanxing was the most important thing. So he quickly retracted that message.

X: “You’re overthinking it. Or do you like him?”

Xie Yuanxing: “So-so. At least I don’t dislike him.”

X: “Then what kind of person do you dislike?”

Xie Yuanxing: “I dislike people who swear. For example, people who call me ‘sick.'”

X: “…..”

X: “If I’m not mistaken, I just tutored you.”

Xie Yuanxing had no psychological burden: “Thank you. You’re a good person.”

The other side was silent for a long time this time, until Xie Yuanxing walked with his bag and sat down in the classroom, before his phone vibrated again.

X: “Then can you not dislike me?”

Xie Yuanxing didn’t take this sentence to heart and casually replied that he could.

After class in the afternoon, Xie Yuanxing went straight back to his dorm. Shen Bianye wasn’t back yet, but a bento box was sitting on his desk. He slowly opened the bento box. As he unwrapped the package, Xie Yuanxing felt like a piglet being raised by Shen Bianye. Once the piglet was full and fat, it would be time for Shen Bianye to eat meat.

Opening the exquisitely packaged bento box, the tender, juicy steak inside made Xie Yuanxing’s eyes light up, and he immediately felt that being a piglet wasn’t so bad after all. He was eating when Shen Bianye walked in from outside. Xie Yuanxing remembered the love letter in his bag. With food still in his mouth, he turned to grab his bag, pulled out the love letter, and handed it to Shen Bianye, “A girl asked me to give this to you.”

Shen Bianye frowned, “Love letter?” After getting an affirmative answer, he directly said, “Throw it away.”

Xie Yuanxing: “Aren’t you going to look at it? It’s someone else’s sincere feelings, after all.”

Shen Bianye scoffed, “I told you long ago, I won’t look at anyone’s love letters.”

“Do you know how many love letters I used to receive every day at first? If I looked at every single one, would I be a radio announcer at a broadcasting station?”

“And at first, they even stuffed things into the gaps of my car—room keys, condoms, underwear, everything with the love letter.” He said, both speechless and amused, “I don’t know which genius put an iron music box in the bag with the love letter. It hung on my car door for a day and literally broke off my car door handle.”

Xie Yuanxing was dumbfounded, chewing on a broccoli stalk, he mumbled, “Then why didn’t you check the surveillance and make them pay for it?”

Shen Bianye tutted, “Didn’t bother. They’re all students; if I found them, they probably wouldn’t have money to pay anyway. Besides, I wasn’t driving a Bugatti anymore then. A Mercedes door handle doesn’t cost much to repair.”

The person in front of him, with the broccoli stalk still in his mouth, had forgotten to swallow it. His lips held the small piece, and a hint of a tender, red tongue was faintly visible, looking at him as if in desire. Shen Bianye’s eyes darkened. Driven by some impulse, he wanted to coax the person to maintain this astonished state for a moment longer, so he casually brought up his own embarrassing story.

“But I also did some other things.”

He’s so pale, how can his tongue be so red?

“During the freshman welcome party, I signed up for a performance. When it was my turn to go on stage, I slipped away. I didn’t go up, but I put the broken car door handle on the stage and projected a PPT slide onto the screen.”

Colorful.

Looks very tender.

Would it taste good?

He spoke, staring at Xie Yuanxing’s pink tongue, not even paying attention to what he was saying, the words coming out of his mouth without passing through his brain. Xie Yuanxing, on the other hand, was shocked and pressed, “And then? What did the PPT say?”

To speak, the broccoli stalk he hadn’t noticed in his mouth had long been swallowed. Shen Bianye tutted lightly, a little regretful, but continued, “Nothing much, just something like:”

“Please leave my car door handles alone. I’m afraid one day I’ll go bankrupt from repeatedly repairing my car.”

“And stop sending love letters. I really can’t go through them all. I’m not planning on dating; I’m preparing to become a wizard by thirty.”

Xie Yuanxing stared at him blankly, murmuring, “That’s… too…”

How to describe it? Doing something like that in front of so many people was utterly rebellious and wildly arrogant, yet subtly… cool.

“Didn’t you get scolded?”

Shen Bianye honestly replied, “Not by the school, because they knew my car door was broken. But I got heavily scolded on the forum.”

“But I didn’t read it. My dorm mates told me. There were criticisms, praises, and adulations.”

But Shen Bianye knew that what he did was impulsive. His condition wasn’t good then; his family matters were a mess, and he was holding in a lot of anger. When he saw the broken car door handle, he really wanted to find the person directly, but he eventually decided against it. If he directly exposed them, the high repair costs, the charge of intentionally damaging property, and the strange looks from others throughout four years of college were not something an ordinary student could bear. But he still held his anger and staged this stunt, putting the broken car door handle on the welcome party stage, which was also a form of warning. Now, that pent-up frustration was long gone; when he mentioned the heavy iron music box, all that remained was amusement. He didn’t know where that strange thing came from, “Goddamn iron-like love,” it didn’t even make a sound when wound.

Xie Yuanxing listened to him talk about the forum and could already imagine the storm of controversy at the time. In fact, Shen Bianye had a very effective and completely un-scolded solution: find that person and make them compensate. Others wouldn’t dare to stuff random things into Shen Bianye’s car again. But Shen Bianye didn’t choose that solution. Xie Yuanxing wasn’t surprised.

After spending so much time together, he could tell that Shen Bianye, aside from occasionally having a young master’s temper, speaking harshly, sometimes being overly arrogant, and having a difficult personality, was fundamentally not bad. He was kind and generous. Xie Yuanxing sometimes felt like his opposite: gloomy, unkind, and incredibly stingy. Comparing goods means throwing them away; comparing people means death. Fortunately, Xie Yuanxing never dwelled on this; he accepted his unkindness and his stinginess.

Shen Bianye waved his hand in front of him, “What are you thinking? Secretly laughing at me?”

Xie Yuanxing was speechless, “Nothing.”

He then remembered the girl who asked him to hand over the love letter, casually saying he could throw it away, implying she already knew about this incident. Then why…

“You said you wouldn’t read them, so why do people still send you love letters?”

Shen Bianye shrugged, “I don’t know, but fewer are directly handed to me now; they’re all passed on. People who know me usually handle them for me.”

“Actually, the guys and girls who send them don’t even care if the love letters end up in the trash. Some don’t even write anything inside.”

“I heard an Omega in our class say it’s like sending me a love letter has become some new fashionable check-in trend.”

Xie Yuanxing looked at the love letter in his hand and quietly placed it in the trash can. He didn’t understand, but he respected it.

There was one last question, Xie Yuanxing was a little curious, “What did you mean on your PPT by ‘becoming a wizard by thirty’?”

“What’s a wizard?”

Shen Bianye was surprised: “Baby, don’t you use the internet?”

As soon as these words slipped out, Xie Yuanxing fell silent, and Shen Bianye also fell silent. An awkward atmosphere briefly spread. Shen Bianye touched his nose and coughed, “Cough cough, don’t mind it. I got used to calling you that when my pheromones were out of whack. My mouth was faster than my brain just now.”

Compared to the person saying “don’t mind it,” Xie Yuanxing was much calmer. “I know. Continue.”

Shen Bianye explained, “It’s just a meme, right?”

“If you’re still a virgin at thirty, you’ll become a wizard.”

This raised Xie Yuanxing’s level of surprise to its highest, and he looked at the other party with suspicious eyes. He felt like he was re-understanding Shen Bianye. Shen Bianye was displeased with his reaction and snorted, “What’s with that reaction? Do you think I don’t look like one?”

“My pheromone disorder is incurable, so I won’t live past thirty. It’s not like I can fall in love and make my wife a widow later, right?”

Xie Yuanxing was speechless. “…You’re quite responsible.” This was the first time he learned of such serious consequences for Shen Bianye’s pheromone disorder. Yet, Shen Bianye’s expression showed no resentment about possibly not living past thirty; he mentioned it casually, as if it were a trivial matter. So Xie Yuanxing’s reaction was also subdued, showing no surprise, no further questions, and no pity.

Shen Bianye’s eyebrows slightly raised, a hint of smugness in his eyes, “Of course.” As he spoke, he appraised Xie Yuanxing from head to toe. “You wouldn’t happen to not be one, would you?”

Xie Yuanxing replied with a question instead of an answer: “What do you think?”

Shen Bianye’s gaze swept over Xie Yuanxing inch by inch, like a beast selecting the most succulent and tender part of its prey. After a long moment, he spoke in a peculiar tone: “I think you’re a virgin.”

A tender body that would tense under his gaze. He’s so nervous he’s clenching his hands, yet he tries to act calm.

The hint of a tender, red tongue he’d just glimpsed resurfaced, and the thoughts in his mind instantly turned intimate and lewd. He wondered, inexplicably, if a greenhorn virgin would cry in fear when using his tongue to eat his stuff. He wanted to see Xie Yuanxing cry, very much.

Shen Bianye pressed his tongue against the roof of his mouth, suppressing those thoughts, silently cursing, Damn, this pheromone disorder, is it turning him into a pervert? He used to be a very upright person, not just upright, but also low in desires. Now, all these uncontrollable, messy thoughts, what kind of filthy things were they?

Shen Bianye’s tone was peculiar and flirtatious. Xie Yuanxing glanced at him. “Your pheromones are acting up again.”