Chapter 35

Chapter 35

The silver-haired Alpha returned to the dorm and took a shower.

Fresh out of the bathroom, Meng Shijiu walked over to the desk, and See immediately jumped into his arms.

See: "How did it go?"

Meng Shijiu gave the cat's ears a couple of casual strokes.

Meng Shijiu: "Lost him."

He was already sleeping lightly in the new environment, and See had alerted him in the middle of the night about a plot deviation.

As soon as Meng Shijiu stepped out, he saw Zong Geman quietly opening the dorm door, preparing to slip away.

The silver-haired Alpha tailed him, not expecting a minor mishap—two night owls also unable to sleep.

Thinking of this, Meng Shijiu paused for a moment: "But it's fine, I'm in a good mood." The run itself was great.

The dorm was quite noisy.

Meng Shijiu glanced over the several trainees who had been filing in one after another—

Qian Chunyan really knew how to use his privileges.

He had somehow found several cadets, each carrying a pile of stuff—clothes, bedding, toiletries, everything—all moved into the dorm, completely replacing the original facilities.

The cadets were busy making the bed and organizing the wardrobe, clattering noisily.

Meanwhile, Qian Chunyan leaned against the wall, his eyes full of disdain, lazily directing: "Over there, wipe it again."

Meng Shijiu cast a casual glance and opened his terminal.

A notification that suddenly popped up caught his eye—

It was a notice from the training group chat, the gist of it being that the training originally scheduled for this morning was canceled, but the afternoon training would proceed as usual.

Meng Shijiu closed the notification, lost in thought.

A faint, sticky gaze had persisted since the cadets entered, coming from different directions.

Meng Shijiu was long accustomed to this kind of distant, attentive gaze and paid it little mind, not even bothering to lift his eyelids.

The silver-haired Alpha held the cat, his expression serene and indifferent, and lowered his head to continue checking his terminal.

Fine strands of silver hair slipped from his temples, his slightly lowered eyelashes casting faint shadows under his eyes, accentuating his picturesque brows and eyes, clearly visible to the cadets.

—The more aloof he was, the more it provoked the hidden gazes, making them tremble.

One cadet unconsciously shuffled half a step forward, his shoe sole grinding a damp mark on the floor.

"Thud."

A dull sound.

The cadets instantly snapped back to reality, looking toward the golden-haired Beta beside them, whose expression had shifted from disdain to gloomy.

Qian Chunyan's eyes usually held a seemingly genuine tenderness, but now his voice turned cold: "Get out."

The cadets dared not look around anymore, quickly bowing their heads and disappearing from the room, the air returning to silence.

Qian Chunyan kicked away the chair he had just struck, his peripheral gaze sweeping over the silver-haired Alpha who appeared unconcerned nearby.

After a long moment, he gently pulled out a smile that was radiant yet somewhat strange.

But he said nothing.

—

In the afternoon, at the C1 monitoring conference room in Yanbei District.

An eerie blue light swallowed half the room. On the light screen, surveillance feeds spread out densely like a spider's web, each grid showing real-time footage from the simulated obstacle zone.

Two military personnel sat before the light screen, operating the control console.

Behind them, a certain Alpha Major General stood as still and sharp as a blade. The crisp military uniform cut through the light and shadow, the insignia on his shoulders gleaming with a cold glint under the blue light.

Standing beside him, Jiang Yuanfen suddenly glanced back and alerted Lucas: "He's here."

Unhurried footsteps sounded from behind. Lucas turned around.

The young principal of St. Maria was walking in from outside.

The heterochromatic Alpha was dressed loosely, appearing to have just arrived. The black hair on his forehead was somewhat disheveled, revealing a few strands of dark green, like poisonous vines lying in wait.

He didn't look like someone there to observe his trainees' first surprise training match, but more like someone coming to watch the fun.

Shen Huaixu gently lifted the corner of his mouth, nodding slightly toward the two. His expressionless Beta assistant followed behind him, also offering a greeting.

Shen Huaixu took the water handed by a staff member, glancing at the group in the monitoring room, the smile lines at the corners of his eyes crinkling:

"Quite lively. Has it started?"

Jiang Yuanfen leaned against the control console with his arms crossed, the military belt accentuating his lean waistline. He carried a characteristic casualness, seeming to speak flippantly, yet being quite sharp-minded.

Hearing this, he snorted, his words not entirely mockery, more like banter between acquaintances:

"How could we? We had to wait for your arrival, didn't we, Commander Shen?"

"Living quite comfortably, huh." Jiang Yuanfen meaningfully swept his gaze over the black earring on Shen Huaixu's right ear, then looked at the Major General beside him.

"—Right?"

Lucas ignored him, his gaze withdrawing from Shen Huaixu's right hand as he turned around.

Shen Huaixu approached, stopping beside Lucas, and looked at the surveillance feed. In a voice only the two could hear, he said: "I appreciate your help."

The Alpha Major General's face remained impassive, only saying: "You'd better keep your word."

Recalling a certain bet that had made Lucas agree to be the head coach, the heterochromatic Alpha paused, then just shook his head with a smile:

"Who will win or lose is still uncertain."

—

With twenty minutes left before the scheduled arrival time, Meng Shijiu, holding a pomegranate juice someone had forced into his hands, found a nearby empty storage room and slipped inside.

The silver-haired Alpha had just lazily closed the door behind him when he spotted a certain figure leaning against a cabinet in the corner.

An unfamiliar Alpha was crouching across from the door, wearing a rumpled white lab coat without protective goggles. In his right hand, he held a broken black mecha joint, while his left hand was tinkering with it.

As he raised his arm to adjust the mecha part, the taut sleeve of his lab coat revealed the lean, muscular definition of his arm. His movements were precise and fluid. He didn't look up until he heard the noise.

The unfamiliar Alpha glanced at the white cup in Meng Shijiu’s hand, then slowly looked away. “What are you drinking?”

Meng Shijiu: “The source of all life.”

He turned the mecha joint over in his hand, head still down as he continued his work. “Any good?”

Meng Shijiu casually tilted his head back, working out a kink in his neck. “Of course it is. Why else would I hide to drink it?”

The silver-haired Alpha walked over and crouched down next to the stranger, cradling his pomegranate juice.

His silver hair slipped forward, and Meng Shijiu casually swept it back and tucked it against his chest.

His gaze fell on the damaged mecha joint in the stranger's hand.

Honestly, it was a pretty pleasing sight—

Those hands had prominent knuckles, the fingertips bearing thin calluses from long hours of tinkering with machinery. Now, they were deftly manipulating the intricate gears inside the mecha joint.

A machine-oil-stained finger gently nudged one of the gears.

The metal emitted a crisp *click*, and the core component flickered back to life with a faint glow.

*Gulp, gulp.*

The pomegranate juice was finished.

The faint hum of the mecha joint’s operation became the perfect white noise, masking the distant clamor from the training grounds.

Two Alphas crouched in a messy corner—one repairing a mecha, the other watching quietly.

Meng Shijiu raised his hand, ready to discard the empty cup.

A strand of silver hair fell onto his shoulder with the movement, the ends swaying perilously close to the ground.

The unfamiliar Alpha frowned, instinctively reaching out, but paused just before touching that silver strand.

He looked down at his fingertips, stained black with machine oil, his brow furrowing slightly. In the end, he only gently nudged the other’s forearm with the clean inside of his wrist.

“Your hair,” he reminded him quietly.

“Oh.” Meng Shijiu gathered his hair back.

“Thanks,” he said.

Before the words fully faded—

*Creak.*

The door was pushed open.

Meng Shijiu turned his head and locked eyes with the blond Beta who had just entered.

Meng Shijiu looked at his now-empty hand—

Great, he'd already gotten rid of the contraband Ye Lingxi had smuggled in.

Meng Shijiu looked at Qian Chunyan with unshakable confidence.

Qian Chunyan was just as surprised—Meng Shijiu had still been in the dorm when he left.

—The silver-haired Alpha had completely ignored him, fast asleep on the bed. Only the cat he had brought along stood guard like a shadow by Meng Shijiu’s bedside, staring him down like a thief.

Qian Chunyan found the sight of the other’s sleeping face irritating, the sound of his even breathing equally annoying. It felt like static was crawling over his skin, and the great Chairman Qian couldn't take it anymore.

He had left precisely to avoid Meng Shijiu.

The unfamiliar Alpha crouched beside Meng Shijiu also shot him a glance. His gaze swept over what was in Qian Chunyan's hand, and he suddenly spoke:

“—Smoking is prohibited in the military zone.”

Meng Shijiu, seizing the chance to act tough, nodded vigorously. Looking at Qian Chunyan, he lazily repeated, “Smoking is prohibited in the military zone.”

Qian Chunyan held an unlit cigarette between his fingers. At these words, his pink eyes narrowed to slits.

He was about to retort when his gaze suddenly fixed on the other’s face—a smear of crimson pomegranate juice clung to the corner of Meng Shijiu’s lips, standing out vividly against his cool, pale skin.

“Tsk.” He suddenly broke into a brilliant smile. He put away the cigarette and stepped closer, his voice laced with a roguish edge. “How about wiping the evidence of your crime off your face first?”

He offered the handkerchief as a casual, teasing gesture; Qian Chunyan hadn’t expected Meng Shijiu to actually take it.

The silver-haired Alpha casually wiped away the pomegranate juice with the handkerchief, the soft fabric only showing a faint, barely-there stain.

There hadn’t been much to begin with. If not for Qian Chunyan’s sharp eyes, it likely wouldn’t have been visible at all.

Qian Chunyan studied him for a moment.

“Hey.”

Qian Chunyan: “I'll ask one last time.”

The Beta’s pink peach-blossom eyes curved with frivolity. “Will you choose me or not?”

“…”

“I mean, choose me as your protector, of course.”

Qian Chunyan sneered. “The ones around you—one only has mecha parameters in his head, one’s completely unhinged, one’s haunting you like a ghost—which one compares to me?”

Before Meng Shijiu could match the descriptions to specific people.

The unfamiliar Alpha beside him suddenly cast a faint look their way, his tone inscrutable. “And one narcissist.”

At this, a sharp glint flashed through Qian Chunyan’s eyes.

He scanned the unfamiliar Alpha crouched beside Meng Shijiu, narrowed his eyes, and remembered a question he'd never gotten around to asking—

“And who are you?”

He looked down his nose at the unfamiliar Alpha still crouched on the ground, a dangerous light flickering in his pink eyes—

“When I’m speaking, since when do small fry get to interrupt?”

At that exact moment—

A broadcast crackled to life outside the window—

"Instructor Wen Hui, Student Qian Chunyan, Student Meng Shijiu, please report to the C1 obstacle area immediately... Instructor Wen Hui, Qian Chunyan..."

A two-second silence hung in the air.

Wen Hui set down his tools and the mech joint, getting to his feet unhurriedly from beside Meng Shijiu. His tall frame was bathed in light as his gaze settled on the two students who had broken the rules right under his nose—

"Shall we, you two?"

Meng Shijiu: ...

Qian Chunyan: ...