Chapter 60

Chapter 60

Qian Chunyan watched the silver-haired Alpha walk back into the room, his gaze sweeping up and down the figure before narrowing his eyes. "You alright?"

Meng Shijiu walked to the bedside without looking at him. "What makes you think I'm not?"

Qian Chunyan stayed silent. He got up and walked to the window. As expected, he saw a certain figure still lingering downstairs. A hint of mockery flashed in the Beta's eyes.

"You don't understand him."

Meng Shijiu flopped onto the bed with a soft *thump*, burying his face in the quilt and lying completely still, only his hand fumbling around to pull out his terminal.

He rolled over, turned on the terminal, and said flatly, "And you do?"

Footsteps drew nearer. The mattress dipped as a pair of fiery peach blossom eyes leaned in.

Qian Chunyan batted Meng Shijiu's hand away, peered into those calm eyes, and suddenly laughed. "I'm just messing with you. Who's familiar with that jerk?"

Meng Shijiu only managed to furrow half a brow before lazily looking away. "I'm going to sleep. Get off."

That brilliant golden hair swayed lightly, shimmering under the light with the fluffy sheen of a lion's mane.

Qian Chunyan braced himself against the headboard with one hand, looking down at him. "Sleeping this early? Get up and play with me for a bit."

The silver-haired Alpha, who'd been displaced, sank into the soft quilt. His skin, freshly washed, still held a faint steam-induced flush. His tied-up hair had already dried, somewhat disheveled and coming loose.

The collar of his pale yellow pajamas was askew, making his skin appear even more delicate and fair, like a Ragdoll cat.

Meng Shijiu glanced at the spot Qian Chunyan occupied. "Play what?"

Qian Chunyan hadn't actually thought of anything; he was just being a pest. After looking around for five minutes, he finally found an exquisite chessboard in the cabinet and cocked an eyebrow at the "Ragdoll cat." "Chess."

Meng Shijiu glanced at the chessboard and put down his terminal. "Fine."

Qian Chunyan slowly smiled. "...You're so nice."

...

Ten minutes later.

"I'm not playing anymore," Meng Shijiu said.

Qian Chunyan: "You're cheating."

Meng Shijiu: "So what if I am?"

Qian Chunyan: "No way."

Meng Shijiu rattled off: "You're cheating too. Didn't Wen Hui make you clean for a week? Have you even gone the last two days?"

Qian Chunyan: "You haven't gone at all!"

Meng Shijiu: "Of course I haven't. I practice what I preach. Unlike you, you went for one day and then stopped."

Qian Chunyan: "...If you're so brave, lose next time and come sweep the floors with me."

Meng Shijiu snorted. "I'm not brave."

He tossed his piece onto the board and stood up.

Three seconds later.

Qian Chunyan: "...I'll spot you two pieces."

Meng Shijiu settled back down. "You should have said so earlier."

See: ...Are you two in elementary school?

Ten minutes later.

Qian Chunyan: "This round doesn't count."

Meng Shijiu: "...You're a sore loser. I'm not playing with you anymore."

Qian Chunyan: "..."

Qian Chunyan: "Fine, fine, fine... I lost, I lost."

Qian Chunyan crossed his arms and leaned back. "What do you want? Just say it."

Meng Shijiu reached out his hand. "Lend me your forum account."

Qian Chunyan narrowed his eyes. "Why?"

Meng Shijiu: "Will you lend it or not?"

Qian Chunyan, wary: "Don't try to be cute. Tell me why first."

Meng Shijiu: "My account got banned. I want to log in to check something." A half-truth.

Qian Chunyan looked at his expressionless face, paused for a moment, and handed over his terminal.

Meng Shijiu took it.

Qian Chunyan's gaze followed Meng Shijiu's movements—

Once this guy got the other's terminal in hand, he didn't spare him another glance, lazily lying back on the bed, the very picture of heartless ingratitude.

Qian Chunyan: Hmph.

...

As soon as Meng Shijiu logged into Qian Chunyan's forum account, Qian Chunyan leaned over, wanting to see what he was up to.

Meng Shijiu turned his shoulder, angling the screen away to block his view.

Qian Chunyan feigned anger: "—Isn't this *my* account?!"

Meng Shijiu lifted his face and gave Qian Chunyan an apologetic smile. Then, with lightning speed, he wiped the smile off his face and scooted back a few steps, putting more distance between them.

Meng Shijiu: "A bet's a bet, you know."

Qian Chunyan pulled Meng Shijiu closer, his tone impatient. "Fine, fine, I won't look, okay?"

His fingers, however, took the opportunity to dive into that soft mass of silver hair and ruffle it wildly. The strands were cool and smooth like silk, slipping through his fingers.

Meng Shijiu browsed on one side; he messed with the hair on the other.

While ruffling, his mouth still refused to stay quiet.

"Since when do Alphas have hair that long?"

"You're really an Alpha?"

"Every day it's just eat and drink with you, but you never gain an ounce."

"Not an ounce of flesh on your face, is someone mistreating you?"

...

"...You'd make a perfect... specimen." Qian Chunyan moved in closer and closer, his pink eyes locked on Meng Shijiu's face without blinking, until Meng Shijiu raised an elbow to push him back.

Meng Shijiu tossed the terminal back into his lap: "Can't you ever say something positive and uplifting?"

Qian Chunyan caught it: "...Tch."

Seeing Meng Shijiu roll over and grab his own terminal back, Qian Chunyan was puzzled: "Aren't you going to sleep?"

Meng Shijiu smoothly opened his terminal: "Yep."

Meng Shijiu: "I'm not sleeping. I'm taking it back."

Meng Shijiu: "I'm a man of my word."

Qian Chunyan: "..."

"You're a real genius."

...

On the screen before Meng Shijiu, the account he claimed was banned was quietly displayed.

This was actually a lie that could easily be exposed—whether Qian Chunyan asked to see his account at the time, or if Chairman Qian checked the real-name information in the backend—though against the rules, noble academies didn't seem to care much for those either.

—Meng Shijiu probably wouldn't have gotten away with it so smoothly.

The account "NoForumForYears" had a bunch of DMs. Meng Shijiu was about to turn off the DMs, but as he casually scrolled through the interface, his scrolling suddenly stopped at a particular message.

[Lan Feng]: "Hello, are you Meng Shijiu?"

...A bit weird.

The student council wouldn't need to ask, and ordinary people wouldn't be able to find out.

Meng Shijiu clicked on the profile named "Lan Feng" to check it out.

...The profile had a decent following and a number of posts, mostly about mecha technical analysis and a popular full-immersion game. Meng Shijiu even spotted a post analyzing his own gameplay.

He clicked on that post.

—It wouldn't open; it was locked.

After the "Insufficient Permissions" message popped up and faded, the screen jumped to the previous post—a battle replay from a popular sci-fi full-immersion strategy game.

In the video, the game character swept across the battlefield with an almost overwhelming force. The command ship cut through the enemy's deployment with surgical precision. Every support craft's movements were perfectly timed, as if the game itself was in on the slaughter.

The game ended under such a dominating pace... so quickly it was chilling.

A pure flex.

At the end of the recording, the victory symbol reflected in Meng Shijiu's light-colored eyes like a cold flame.

The moment Meng Shijiu closed the post, a DM from [Lan Feng] popped up immediately.

[Lan Feng]: "Thanks for the like ^^"

Meng Shijiu: ?

He opened the post again and realized he had accidentally liked it earlier.

[NoForumForYears]: "No problem"

He exited the private chat page and was about to delete his old analysis post, but then, on a whim, he clicked into the likes section of his own post.

The update page refreshed, revealing a new entry.

"User [Lan Feng] just liked this post"

Talk about returning the favor.

Meng Shijiu couldn't be bothered to delete the post anymore, and another message from Lan Feng came through.

[Lan Feng]: "Playing God?"

For some reason, Meng Shijiu sensed a hint of teasing in those two plain words.

[Lan Feng]: "So... you're No. 32 from the training match?"

[NoForumForYears]: "I'm No. 32. Are you the '100,000 Whys'?"

The other person seemed busy and didn't reply immediately. Meng Shijiu clicked to exit, ready to sleep.

After he fell asleep, messages from the user now named "100,000 Whys" came flooding in one after another.

[100,000 Whys]: "Just went to change my name. Still there?"

[100,000 Whys]: "Playing God?"

[100,000 Whys]: "Wait..."

[100,000 Whys]: "Big shot, I really have something important"

The other party has tipped your post 10,000 star coins.

[100,000 Whys]: "Please notice me!"

...

Today's forum was still bustling. The SM forum seemed to have become livelier since Meng Shijiu arrived at St. Maria, and even more so after coming to Yanbei for training.

As for who the person "going on a rampage" on the training field was, it was easily uncovered, and everyone's reaction was... typical.

"It's No. 19? Oh, that's fine then."

"Alright, feeling satisfied now."

"Hahahaha I knew it."

"That's fair then :)"

"Okay, can we get the competition footage from one of the generals?"

"Anyone got the tape?"

"Can someone drop the link to that post with the tape?"

...

After the heavy rain, summer in Yanbei began to show its true colors. The wind sweeping across the training grounds carried the distant, sun-soaked scent of grass and trees, like crumbled mint candy.

The month-long training camp had been underway for a few days. By the end of the first week, the initially restless and boiling atmosphere had settled, becoming as calm as a groomed and gentle horse.

As the Combat Department’s so-called "cheerful and enthusiastic" bombardment of Meng Shijiu intensified, coupled with the fact that he didn't seem to mind or resist, the students of St. Maria gradually adopted an "if you can’t beat them, join them" mentality. This was reflected in—

Greeting Meng Shijiu whenever they encountered him on the road.

Frequently orchestrating "chance encounters" just to say hello.

Running up to him during training sessions to strike a pose and "greet" him.

...

There was no other way. St. Maria’s style had suddenly become simple and unadorned, revolving entirely around greetings—at least from Meng Shijiu’s perspective.

Perhaps because they were away from St. Maria, these nobles’ reach wasn't long enough to fully restrain the restless hearts... Despite occasionally drawing disdainful glances from many, some still eagerly popped up in front of Meng Shijiu.

As for others...

...It was unclear what Cui Suifu had done, but he kept Shen Huaixu so busy that he couldn’t find time to see Meng Shijiu for nearly a week. Meanwhile, Cui Suifu himself stuck to Meng Shijiu like a guard dog fixated on a bone, never leaving his side.

...Until a week later, two people arrived in Yanbei’s 16th District.

One was Yue Xuanli, returning from her rut leave.

The other was Jue Ning.

—The stern Alpha who had mouthed "See you at the training camp" to Meng Shijiu in the auditorium, only to appear a full week into the camp.