RBNR Ch1: Alphas Stink

The scorching sun hung high in the sky.

The staircase was outdoors. Qin Bao climbed three flights of stairs under the blistering sun, drenched in sweat. The box of fresh bayberries he carried in his hands was still radiating a cool mist.

The modeling agency’s dormitory offered excellent conditions. It was a two-person room; Qin Bao’s bed was by the window. Next to the other bed sat a neatly packed suitcase, but there was no one in sight.

Someone walked past and said to Qin Bao, “You’re here? Looking for Li Nanyue? I just saw him go up to the fourth floor.”

Qin Bao smiled. “Thanks.”

Qin Bao turned around and climbed up to the fourth floor.

The room door wasn’t tightly shut. Separated only by a door, he heard Li Nanyue’s voice.

“…To be honest, his looks are just so-so. I don’t think any of the guys eliminated in the competition back then were worse than him. Isn’t it just because he knows how to put on airs? Acting like he’s all that.”

At this moment, Qin Bao still didn’t know who the other person was talking about.

It was just his good upbringing that made him hesitate about whether or not to knock.

“Backstage at the time, Leo was grinning from ear to ear, saying the company was missing exactly this type. What type? A giant baby with a resting bitch face?”

The tone was sharp and mean.

Qin Bao had participated in a modeling competition and entered the SISI agency at thirteen and a half. He had known Li Nanyue for over a year, and every time they had training, they stayed in the same dorm room, so they were familiar with each other.

But right now, Qin Bao suddenly found his voice to be very unfamiliar.

The other person in the room spoke. It was Su He, who usually had a good relationship with Li Nanyue.

Su He said, “Qin Bao is pretty arrogant, but what can you do when he gets so much work and the brands like him?”

Hearing his own name, Qin Bao’s heart suddenly sank.

Inside the room, Li Nanyue just sneered, “Like him? He’s just riding on the fact that he’s young and hasn’t fully developed yet. Those luxury brands are perverts; they just love that so-called androgynous boyish charm. In a few more years, when his Adam’s apple protrudes and his face is no longer delicate, won’t he be picked apart and rejected just like anyone else?”

Male Omegas also had a noticeable physical development period.

Li Nanyue was already an adult. After turning sixteen, his changes became obvious; his height didn’t change much, but his hands and feet had grown a size larger than before. Now he could no longer walk the runway for youth brands and had pivoted towards developing with adult brands, but those were mostly major shows with fiercely cutthroat competition.

Qin Bao, on the other hand, accepted everything because he was young and tall enough. It was common for him to fly three times a week.

Su He said, “That’s for sure. Even the most incredible Omega doesn’t have an unlimited shelf life. We won’t always be overshadowed by him. Like you, having to even give up your bed to him.”

Qin Bao stood outside the door. The bayberries in his hand were very cold, causing his palm to involuntarily curl inward a bit.

At the time, he had merely mentioned that you could see the magnolia flowers downstairs from the window, and Li Nanyue had proactively offered to swap beds with him.

“I have a bit of a pollen allergy. How about we swap?”

That was what Li Nanyue had said.

Li Nanyue continued his sneering, “A bed is nothing. You don’t even know, backstage he hogs my makeup station; his makeup has to be done first. He has to shower first, the lights have to be turned off first for sleep—says he’s afraid of the light, so I can’t even look at my phone. He says he’s busy going to school for classes, so every time he bosses me around to take his clothes to the laundry for him. When he wants to use the dorm fridge, it can only hold his drinking water; if I put takeout in it, he complains the smell makes him sick. One time I brought a nutritious meal my mom made, and he actually knew a good thing when he saw it, didn’t say I couldn’t put it in, but instead asked me to bring him a portion next time.”

Su He: “Did you bring it?”

Li Nanyue: “Only twice. After that, I just told him my mom didn’t make any. He even said he wanted to visit my house next time.”

Su He asked, “Then aren’t you going to be annoyed to death by him when you two fly to Danlong together tonight?”

“Fuck, just thinking about it makes my scalp tingle. I even packed the luggage for this giant baby,” Li Nanyue said. “If I could, I really wouldn’t want to spend another second with him.”

Qin Bao had a show in Danlong the following night.

Usually, Qin Bao’s affairs were personally handled by his agent, Brother Lu, but his wife was having a baby these next couple of days, so he couldn’t accompany Qin Bao. The company didn’t allow minors to travel abroad for work alone. It was Li Nanyue who volunteered, saying he had free time these couple of days anyway, so he could accompany Qin Bao and catch the show while he was at it.

Su He was perplexed. “Sometimes I really don’t understand what you’re putting up with all this for.”

Li Nanyue snorted through his nose, “There’s always a reason…”

Su He: “What reason?”

“Because his grandfather is…” Li Nanyue lowered his voice. “Don’t tell anyone.”

Su He seemed shocked. Qin Bao heard the sound of him gasping, “What? Are you serious?”

“It’s true. I overheard it once when I bumped into Brother Lu and the others having a meeting,” Li Nanyue said maliciously. “Now you know why he gets so much work; it’s not necessarily all just brand favor. Anyway, taking a little attitude is nothing, there’s no need to offend him. Plus, maybe one day this connection will come in handy. When that time comes, I’ll make him pay it back ten or a hundred times over—”

Bang! The room door was kicked open violently.

Both people in the room jumped in fright.

Qin Bao stood there. The teenager’s figure was slender and tall, his expression no different than usual.

He looked at the two of them and called out in a slightly arrogant tone, “Li Nanyue.”

Li Nanyue didn’t know exactly how much he had heard. His expression was very unnatural as he put on a front and asked, “Weren’t we heading to the airport at four? You’re here early.”

“Yeah,” Qin Bao said. “You said the bayberries were good last time, so I brought you a box.”

He pushed the box in his hands forward a bit.

The bayberries had been hand-picked one by one by the butler. Produced in a private plantation, they were large and juicy, packed in a cooler box with a layer of ice laid underneath.

Li Nanyue forced a smile and walked to the door to take it. “Thanks.”

Unexpectedly, just as he reached out, the box in Qin Bao’s hands dropped to the floor. The moist bayberries spilled out, rolling all over the ground.

Li Nanyue hurriedly bent over to pick them up, his expression shifting as he looked up.

Qin Bao was looking down at him condescendingly, as if it had been entirely on purpose.

Su He, still in the room, also realized what was happening, his face flushing red and then draining white.

Regarding the conversation he had overheard between the two, Qin Bao said nothing. He only asked Li Nanyue, “Where’s your passport?”

Because they were preparing to depart, Li Nanyue had his passport on him. He took it out, a bit bewildered. “What’s wrong?”

Qin Bao took it, merely glanced at the first page to confirm it was Li Nanyue’s, and raised his hands to tear it apart.

With a rip, the passport was torn in two.

Li Nanyue lunged forward, frantic and furious. “What are you doing?!”

Qin Bao announced coldly, “Li Nanyue, you’ve offended me now.”

That night, Qin Bao flew to Danlong alone.

When Brother Lu learned of the situation, he was burning with anxiety. He called to ask what happened, but Qin Bao only told him, “From now on, I won’t share a room with anyone else at the company,” and hung up the phone.

He was only fifteen, spoiled growing up at home, and undeniably lacking independence, but he absolutely refused to admit he was a giant baby. Even if he wasn’t clear on how to check into a hotel or how to liaise with the work clients, his English wasn’t bad. At worst, he’d just ask a few more questions and suffer a few more eye rolls; he could still manage everything one by one.

By the time he finished work the second night, it was already late, and a heavy rain had begun to fall over the lake city.

The call came from the capital; it was still daytime on Mr. Qin’s end. “What that person did was indeed wrong, but no matter how angry you are, you still shouldn’t have torn up someone else’s passport. It’s too capricious.”

Regarding anything related to Qin Bao, Brother Lu didn’t dare hide a thing from the Qin family. After figuring out the situation, he had definitely reported it to Mr. Qin in minute detail.

Mr. Qin had been elegant and refined his whole life, and he always taught his son the virtues of gentleness, kindness, respect, frugality, and yielding.

“Without a passport, he can’t travel abroad for work. It doesn’t just affect him; it also affects the work arrangements of others, and those other people didn’t do anything wrong,” Mr. Qin lectured. “Furthermore, your action only offered a momentary release of anger; it’s completely meaningless.”

Qin Bao was sitting in the car arranged for him by the company, preparing to head back to the hotel.

Hearing this, he answered with a taut face, “It was meaningful.”

Mr. Qin: “Meaningful how?”

Qin Bao: “It made me feel good.”

Mr. Qin was momentarily speechless and had to resort to patient persuasion. “Fine, you felt a rush of satisfaction, but how will others view you? How will they view your grandfather?”

This routine again.

Qin Bao just felt his temples throbbing thump-thump, possessing even more rhythm than he had just had on the runway.

Mr. Qin: “Your grandfather dedicated his life entirely to the Alliance and the country; do you want people gossiping about him behind his back? If people say his children and grandchildren rely on his power to act wildly and throw their weight around outside, ruining his pristine reputation, do you think it’s worth it?”

Qin Bao endured his headache. “Mouths belong to other people; how can I control what they say?”

Mr. Qin maintained his good temper. “But these things are clearly avoidable. It wasn’t that big a deal anyway. Endure it a bit, take a step back, and let it go.”

Qin Bao: “On what grounds should I be the one to endure it? Just because I’m stronger, I have to suck it up? If this is still called ‘not a big deal’, then what exactly has to happen for it to be a big deal?”

Mr. Qin: “On the grounds that you are Qin Zhenyuan’s grandson, you just have to endure it. This truly isn’t a big deal. Becoming a useful talent and making a mark on the world is a big deal; not smearing the Qin family name and maintaining our family image is a big deal.”

He had heard this speech over and over again from childhood to adulthood; Qin Bao could practically recite it backward. Unable to bear it any longer, he finally snapped the phone shut with a click.

Mr. Qin didn’t want to provoke him further and actually didn’t call back right away. He merely sent a message saying that for the old man’s seventieth birthday banquet the following day, he must remember to show up on time and not be late.

Back at the hotel, a wave of grievance and the loneliness of being in a foreign land suddenly surged up. Qin Bao threw himself face-first into his pillow. He had just fiercely pounded the bed a few times when he heard someone ring the doorbell.

“Did you not fucking see the ‘Do Not Disturb’—”

He opened the door in a rage, but upon clearly seeing the arrival, his towering fury instantly extinguished by half.

A teenager of similar age stood in the doorway. He had probably run over in the rain, as his hair was still wet.

“Surprise!”

Qin Bao was pleasantly surprised, completely stunned. “Why are you here?”

Sporting an iceberg face, the other boy childishly formed a heart shape with his fingers at him. “I missed you. I have a show tomorrow too and just landed. I grabbed a cab and ran over here while my mom wasn’t looking.”

The two didn’t live in the same city, and the last time they spoke on the phone was two weeks ago. Qin Bao had only mentioned that he would be staying here; he never expected the other boy to just come running over.

Qin Bao was left deeply speechless. “Xu Tangzhou, are you a pig? You took a cab on the road all by yourself at one in the morning? Do you know how dangerous that is?”

“Well, nothing happened, did it?” Xu Tangzhou wandered around the room in a circle and asked, “Where’s Li Nanyue? Didn’t you say he was accompanying you?”

Qin Bao found him a towel and answered gloomily, “Don’t mention him to me.”

As Xu Tangzhou dried his hair, he stared at his face suspiciously. “Did you fight? Wait, your eyes are so red, were you just crying?”

Qin Bao’s face darkened. “Bullshit.”

His friend’s sudden arrival made Qin Bao’s mood improve significantly, and the empty night came alive.

They didn’t meet often but shared similar experiences, so they had endless things to talk about. Xu Tangzhou had no intention of leaving; after reporting to his mother, he grabbed Qin Bao’s toiletries to wash up, and then the two leaned against the same pillow to chat.

Qin Bao still couldn’t hold back and recounted the incident to Xu Tangzhou. The two shared a common enemy and cursed Li Nanyue until he was dripping with dog’s blood. Xu Tangzhou even praised Qin Bao for doing a good job tearing up the passport.

“You shouldn’t pick up friends from the trash can,” Xu Tangzhou told him. “Looking at it this way, that Su He isn’t a good person either. Seeing their true colors early on is a good thing.”

Qin Bao’s mood improved even more. “Exactly.”

“But, you shouldn’t be too strict about gender when making friends. Actually, not every Alpha is annoying,” Xu Tangzhou murmured. “It mainly depends on their own personality. That older brother I mentioned is an Alpha too, and he’s quite nice.”

Qin Bao had once told Xu Tangzhou that because his childhood friends were all uniformly Alphas, they couldn’t control their pheromones well after differentiating, so Qin Bao didn’t really get along with them anymore.

Hearing this, Qin Bao predictably scoffed. “Alphas stink.”

Xu Tangzhou questioned it, “No they don’t, I haven’t noticed.”

“An Alpha’s pheromones just stink. They’re like wild beasts, only knowing how to mark their territory,” Qin Bao complained. “You haven’t noticed because you haven’t truly differentiated yet, so you can’t smell it. Otherwise, wait until you differentiate and go take a whiff; that older brother of yours might have his pheromones wildly surging out too, all stinky.”

Xu Tangzhou immediately retorted, “Impossible!”

Qin Bao wanted to roll his eyes.

Later in the conversation, Xu Tangzhou let out a yawn, his voice growing faint.

Qin Bao stared open-eyed at the ceiling for a while, then shook the drowsy person awake. “So, aren’t you even going to ask who my grandfather is?”

Xu Tangzhou mumbled groggily, “Who is it?”

Qin Bao said, “It’s Qin Zhenyuan.”

He looked at Xu Tangzhou’s face, unwilling to miss even the slightest change in his expression.

But Xu Tangzhou only let out an “Oh.” This thunderous, illustrious name seemingly held no great importance to him: “…No wonder you always finish your homework so fast. It must hurt a lot when your grandpa hits you.”

Qin Bao: “…It hurts when I hit people too. Do you want to experience it?”

“Such a pity about that box of bayberries.” Xu Tangzhou’s focus was always drifting off-track. “You’ve never personally washed bayberries for me.”

Qin Bao choked up and said angrily, “…Who told you I washed them! I would never wash bayberries for someone surnamed Li, does he even deserve it?”