Chapter 33

Chapter 33

"No." Fearing Ying Xi might overhear and trigger something uncontrollable, Li Yang pressed a finger to his lips, signaling Wen Yun to lower his voice, then his expression turned serious.

"It’s not me; it’s about the post."

"Right, right, I forgot." Wen Yun stifled a laugh. "Why else? Of course, it’s because you like that person. Wanting to kiss them is a subconscious, uncontrolled urge, but your rational mind refuses to admit it. These things don’t happen without reason. For example, do you want to kiss me?"

To get a quick answer from Li Yang, Wen Yun even puckered his lips and leaned in: "Do you?"

Li Yang immediately shook his head, completely uninterested in Wen Yun.

But did he like Ying Xi?

Li Yang furrowed his brow, finding it unlikely. He tried to argue, but no words came out.

After some thought, he still struggled: "There’s really no other possibility?"

"There is." Wen Yun nodded, speaking utter nonsense with a straight face. "Someone gave him a magic potion that made him think that."

The teasing remark confirmed to Li Yang that Wen Yun knew the question was about him. He helplessly buried his face in his hands.

"Is there a magic potion that makes people forget things? I’d like to use it on you."

"My lips are sealed." Wen Yun smiled, knowing his concern. "Relax, I won’t tell anyone that you want to kiss Ying—"

Meeting Li Yang’s wide, panicked eyes, Wen Yun quickly corrected himself: "I’ve already forgotten what you just said. Don’t worry, don’t worry."

He changed the subject: "So why were you two late together this morning?"

Li Yang, mentally reeling from questioning whether he truly liked Ying Xi, answered instinctively: "We live together…"

"You live together?!" Wen Yun gaped. "Now that I didn’t see coming. How did that happen?!"

Li Yang: "..."

He was doomed.

Not only did Wen Yun know they lived together, but he also knew Li Yang wanted to kiss Ying Xi—and was convinced he liked him.

He was a ticking time bomb, bound to explode one day and reveal everything to Ying Xi.

Li Yang seriously considered solutions before turning to Wen Yun with a look that perfectly mimicked an orange cat meme wielding a knife, plotting assassination.

"You know too much. We really need that magic potion."

Wen Yun drew a finger across his lips in a zipping motion: "Relax, I really won’t say a word."

Ying Xi was unusually quiet this time, sitting perfectly straight in his seat, eyes downcast, deep in thought.

Li Yang had been worried he might keenly notice his odd behavior, but seeing this, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Ying Xi kept replaying the moment Li Yang was on top of him—his subtle expression, and how his gaze fell to his lips when he leaned in.

Did he want to kiss him?

This question plagued Ying Xi for the entire class, unanswered.

He took out his phone and logged into the school forum, looking for relationship posts.

The school didn’t allow dating before graduation, but they turned a blind eye to many situations.

As long as couples weren’t officially together or overtly showing affection, they were generally ignored.

After all, these were children from wealthy families; there was no need to meddle.

The school forum was filled mostly with gossip and relationship posts.

Ying Xi clicked in, and at the very top was a "crush" post.

"Does anyone know who this is? He’s exactly my type—so handsome, so cute... I want to pursue him. Please share his contact info."

He accidentally tapped it and quickly saw a familiar face.

The photo was zoomed in several times, the boy’s figure blurry, but his face was somewhat clear, with clean, striking features.

He seemed surprised when the photo was taken, his eyes wide and round, dark and bright, and his slightly messy hair made him look truly adorable.

It was Li Yang.

Below, a string of comments questioned his cuteness. Ying Xi’s fingers flew across the screen, reporting each one.

There were also many comments revealing his name and class information; he reported them all without batting an eye.

Finally, he didn’t even spare the post itself, directly messaging the moderator to request its deletion.

"We don’t have the authority to delete posts," the moderator quickly replied.

Ying Xi: "This is Ying Xi."

"Understood. It’s been deleted for you ^_^." The moderator’s attitude completely changed.

No one dared to provoke Ying Xi; he was the most untouchable person in the entire school, feared by all.

They feared his family, but even more, Ying Xi’s unpredictable and inscrutable personality.

Many believed Ying Xi’s smile was more unsettling than his expressionless face.

The former was terrifying; the latter was something people had grown accustomed to.

Wen Yun had just opened the forum and clicked on the post, seeing Li Yang’s photo, when the post suddenly vanished before he could reply.

He froze, refreshing in confusion, thinking his phone had glitched. Realizing it had been deleted, he turned to look at Ying Xi.

No doubt about it, Ying Xi must have deleted it.

Wen Yun put down his phone and said meaningfully to Li Yang, "I think Ying Xi is quite jealous and possessive, don’t you?"

"Not really." Li Yang inexplicably recalled the cat tail from his dream, answered casually, and opened a shopping app to search.

And there it was, surprisingly.

A pink and white cat tail, palm-sized, that wiggled up and down when a switch was pressed.

"What are you looking at?" Wen Yun asked casually.

Li Yang showed him: "This is so cute!"

Wen Yun glanced at it—it was a wiggling cat tail.

He hadn’t thought much of it at first and was about to tell Li Yang to buy whatever he wanted. But as the words reached his lips, his gaze stopped at the title, his expression instantly freezing, his face flushing red. He stammered for a long time, unable to squeeze out a single word.

"What’s wrong?" Li Yang noticed his strange behavior, looked down, and was drawn to the "embedded" in the title.

What did "embedded" mean?

Wen Yun’s face was so red he naturally couldn’t answer. The comments section was uniformly positive, offering no clues. Li Yang simply searched on Baidu.

A moment later, his face was several times redder than Wen Yun’s.

Damn it, why did he search for a cat tail in the first place?

And this shopping app—was this the cat tail he wanted? It just popped up.

Li Yang hurriedly shoved his phone into the drawer, but the books were sloped and too slippery, and the phone slid right out.

He reached out to catch it but was a step too slow.

The person standing beside him happened to catch the phone and handed it back, screen facing up.

Li Yang’s eyelid twitched as he watched, helpless, as the screen, pressed by fingers, stopped on the shopping app.

In an instant, the cat tail image appeared. Ying Xi paused, then released his hand and murmured, "You like this?"

"I don’t." Li Yang shook his head frantically, trying to explain, "The shopping app recommended it to me; I didn’t search for it."

He was practically confessing.

Li Yang was so embarrassed that even his neck began to turn a widespread red. He hoped Ying Xi hadn’t seen those three words.

"It’s quite cute," Ying Xi said.

Li Yang mumbled a perfunctory reply, just wanting to end the topic quickly.

Fortunately, Ying Xi didn’t press further and slowly walked away.

Li Yang breathed a sigh of relief and exchanged a look with Wen Yun.

Both silently lowered their heads.

After a long while, Li Yang sighed and quickly exited the shopping app.

He really just wanted to search for a clip-on cat tail to see what it looked like. What a mess this was.

＊

Li Yang spent the entire morning feeling out of sorts. He didn’t even dare to open his phone during lunch, and the image of the cat tail in his mind grew clearer and clearer.

It was cute, yes, but...

"Excuse me." A tray appeared opposite him, and a male Beta sat down with a smile, introducing himself: "I’m from the class next to yours. My name is Li Qianshan. Nice to meet you."

Li Yang slowly chewed his food, not immediately realizing he was being spoken to, and mumbled an indistinct "Mmm."

Li Qianshan had clearly prepared his lines: "Really? You’re also surnamed Li? What a coincidence! Can we get to know each other?"

As soon as he finished speaking, he realized Li Yang hadn’t introduced himself, and he had spoken too hastily. Uncomfortably, he looked away.

His friend, who had given him advice, gestured for him not to look over and kept waving, signaling him to continue as planned.

Li Qianshan cleared his throat, but before he could speak, footsteps approached, and someone stood before him with a tray.

"Who are you? Why are you sitting here?"

"Huh?" Li Qianshan looked up, recognized Li Yang’s friend Wen Yun, and quickly stood up to apologize: "Sorry, I only noticed Li Yang and didn’t realize this seat was taken."

Wen Yun said pointedly: "Aren’t there many empty seats nearby?"

They hadn’t rushed to eat after class, deliberately missing the peak lunch hour. The cafeteria now held only a third of its usual crowd.

"I needed to talk to Li Yang," Li Qianshan scratched his head.

Li Yang, whose mind was still full of cat tails, finally snapped back to reality. He looked up and softly said, "Me? Is there something?"

"I wanted to get to know you," Li Qianshan mumbled. "I was smitten with Li Yang at first sight. I wonder if there’s a chance for us to develop something."

Wen Yun tilted his head towards Ying Xi, who was waiting by the boba tea counter, and remembered something: "Were you the one who posted on the forum?"

"Yes, did you see it?" Li Qianshan was furious at the mention. "Someone reported and deleted the post. I called the moderator, but they wouldn’t say who. Luckily, I already saw Li Yang’s class and information."

"What post?" Li Yang didn’t quite understand. He was curious why he, an ordinary, unremarkable Beta, would be sought out, even if people were considering marriage partners.

"Someone made a 'missed connections' post with your photo. I was about to show you when it got deleted." Wen Yun lifted his chin, gesturing for Li Yang to look behind him. "I bet he reported and deleted it."

Hearing this, Li Qianshan angrily turned to glare at the culprit, only to meet Ying Xi’s icy face. All the insults he had prepared got stuck in his throat.

This person looked familiar... He remembered now.

There was a saying at school: *If you see a cold-faced, handsome, and elegant Alpha, don’t think about striking up a conversation. Just stay far away.*

Ying Xi reported his post?

Li Qianshan’s mind went blank. Tentatively, he ventured, "So the rumors about you and Li Yang... no, they’re not false, are they?"

He expected Ying Xi’s usual cold silence, but instead, Ying Xi glanced at him and said, "There has never been anything false between him and me."

Wasn’t that a roundabout admission that it was true?

Li Qianshan froze on the spot, then after a long moment, awkwardly chuckled and stammered, "I have something to do. I’ll... I’ll go now."

He grabbed his tray and sprinted back to his seat, plopping down and making a throat-slitting gesture, saying in horror, "Ying Xi and Li Yang are real. Good thing I didn’t say too much, or I’d definitely end up like this."

"No way," his friend said, intrigued. "People at school have discussed it, but not many believed it."

"Ying Xi said it himself—there’s nothing fake between him and Li Yang," Li Qianshan squeezed out through gritted teeth. "And he was the one who reported my post looking for Li Yang. That’s even more solid proof."

"What’s been on your mind?" Ying Xi opened a boba tea and handed it to Li Yang, noticing he was eating much slower than usual today.

"Nothing. Thanks for the tea." Li Yang avoided his gaze, thanked him, and took a sip of the tea.

He couldn’t keep thinking about that strange cat tail.

Li Yang finished his meal with his head down.

Back in the classroom, he borrowed a Mary Sue novel from Wen Yun, successfully clearing his mind.

But then, Ying Xi started acting strange.

From leaving school to getting into the car, his gaze was very intriguing.

After they got home, Ying Xi picked up a gift box from the table and handed it to Li Yang: "It’s what you like. Open it and see."

His bad feeling came true at that moment. Li Yang yelped and threw the gift box away.

"I don’t want this. You keep it."

Ying Xi caught the gift box in his arms, and it happened to open, revealing a fluffy, short cat tail.

"Why not?" Ying Xi said softly. "This toy is quite cute."

Li Yang’s cheeks burned crimson. Only when Ying Xi took it out and wiggled it back and forth in front of him did he realize this was not *that* kind of toy. He was momentarily speechless, flustered by his own wild thoughts.

"The seller also included cat ears," Ying Xi said, pulling out a pink cat-ear headband.

He tried it on himself, then seemed to remember something and handed it to Li Yang: "I think it suits you better."

"No." Li Yang didn’t dare to look directly. His barely suppressed thoughts immediately expanded, and he frantically pushed it away: "I don’t want it. You bought it, you use it."

The dream was about to merge with reality. Li Yang looked up and stopped him: "Maybe don’t use it."

Though he was quite curious to see Ying Xi wearing cat ears in real life.

The boy had already put on the cat ears and looked at him in confusion at his words.

At that moment, the stark contrast between his cold, deep features and the adorable pink accessory on his head was striking.

Li Yang felt as if he’d been knocked down.

He slowly lowered his hand and, after a long pause, managed to say, "It... it suits you."

It looked much more real than in his dream.

Li Yang hastily looked away, then couldn’t resist stealing another glance. Meeting Ying Xi’s smiling expression, he felt like he’d been caught doing something bad and instinctively covered his eyes, not daring to look again.

"I’ve been thinking you seemed off today," Ying Xi mused, picking up the cat tail. "You wanted to see this, didn’t you? Too shy to say?"

Wanting to see it was true.

But he was embarrassed because he was thinking of a different type of cat tail.

Li Yang shook his head: "Put it away. I’m really not curious."

Ying Xi tilted his head, completely devoid of his usual cold detachment, leaving only a disarming cuteness that made it hard not to look at him.

Li Yang avoided his gaze, stammering nervously due to his tension: "I-I’ll go wash some fruit."

He opened the fridge, but Ying Xi had already taken out the fruit before him.

"I’ll go. You wait here."

What landed in his palm was a cat tail with an incredibly soft texture.

Watching Ying Xi’s retreating figure enter the kitchen, Li Yang blinked, then blinked again, unable to resist gently squeezing it.

So soft.

He was amazed by the softness of the material, continuously stroking and wiggling it. Hearing the doorbell, he instinctively opened the door.

The boy standing at the door held a short pink cat tail, his face beaming with an uncontrollable smile, eyes bright and lively, clearly delighted with the tail.

Li Xu mistakenly thought she had interrupted something and quickly pulled the door shut: "I’ve come at a bad time."

Li Yang’s mind went blank for a moment. He realized that if the door closed, something inexplicable would happen.

Without thinking, he grabbed the doorknob: "Auntie, why are you closing the door? Come in."

"I’m sorry for interrupting," Li Xu said, pulling the door more forcefully, trying to avoid looking at the cat tail in Li Yang’s hand. "You two continue. I’ll come back tomorrow."

She had misunderstood, as expected.

Li Yang was on the verge of tears, pulling the door even harder: "Auntie, we weren’t doing anything. This is a cat tail."

"I know, I know," Li Xu replied, though her thoughts were spiraling in an uncontrollable direction.

"Auntie, it’s really not what you think. This cat tail just moves; it has no other functions." Li Yang finally managed to pull the door open, struggling to stand on his wobbly legs, and turned on the cat tail’s switch in front of Li Xu.

The cat tail swayed left and right. Li Yang eagerly showed Li Xu the clip on the back: "Auntie, look, there’s no strange... design on the back."

He paused for two seconds at the end, feeling slightly awkward.

Li Xu saw it, her gaze sharpening: "Ah... it’s *that* kind of cat tail."

She had indeed misunderstood, and quite ridiculously so.

Li Yang let out a huge sigh of relief, finally letting go of the doorknob, and stroked the cat tail with a dry laugh.

"Ying Xi just bought it to play with. We’re not that bold."

Their commotion was quite loud. Ying Xi emerged from the kitchen, carrying a fruit platter, with pink cat ears on his head. His cool expression melted like an ice sculpture, transforming into a brilliant smile.

"Yangyang, the fruit’s ready. Come here."

Li Xu was astonished, her eyes wide with shock: "Are you Ying Xi?"

The thing on his head was far too cute.

Could her son, who had been cold and ruthless since childhood, be taking a different path now?

This extreme contrast wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Those cat ears instantly brought Li Xu’s dismissed thoughts back. She took out her phone, zoomed in, and snapped a photo of Ying Xi’s face.

Then, Li Xu gave a mysterious smile and waved.

"Yangyang, Mom’s leaving now. You two can continue."

Li Yang’s body, which had relaxed for only a few seconds, immediately tensed up again. He reached out in despair to stop her.

"Auntie, it’s really not like that! Don’t leave yet—listen to my explanation! This cat tail is..."

It’s really pure!

TAT.

The door had already closed. Li Xu, believing the two were fostering their relationship, quickly left, not giving Li Yang a chance to explain the truth.

The boy’s brain crashed. He stood petrified, wishing he could grow wings and fly far away from this heartbreaking planet.

It was over.

After half a minute, Li Yang looked at the culprit in despair: "Auntie misunderstood."

"Misunderstood what?" Ying Xi, still wearing the cat ears, stopped in front of him, tilted his head, pointed to his own head, and gently invited, "Don’t you want to touch them?"

The cat tail in his hand was still wiggling. Li Yang sat in the chair, eyes vacant, in no mood.

"No need. Take them off."

Why were these past few days crazier than a dream, completely out of control?

He really needed to stay away from Ying Xi.

"Just touch them. They feel very good," Ying Xi said, putting down the fruit platter. He took Li Yang’s hand and gently placed it on the cat ears, his lips constantly smiling. "You try."

The soft fur brushed against his fingers like cotton candy, making Li Yang, who had wanted to resist and pull his hand away, unable to resist giving it a little squeeze.

The texture was so good. If it weren’t for the fact that this toy always caused such serious misunderstandings, he probably could have played with it indefinitely.

Ying Xi looked up at the boy, who couldn’t let go, and asked expectantly, "Isn’t it nice to touch?"