After dinner, Xie Cheng and Madam Fu chatted with Xie Ling and Qin Han in the living room for a while before heading back to their room.
Xie Cheng had once had an older brother, but he’d died in a car accident ten years ago. Back then, all the Xie Family affairs had been handled by that brother. Xie Cheng had left the family early on to start his own business, marry Madam Fu, and have Xie Ling.
But after the death of the Xie Family’s eldest son, Liu Yu had forcibly dragged Xie Cheng back and used Madam Fu and Xie Ling as leverage to force him to take over as family head. She wouldn’t even let him bring home the wife he’d married without her permission. If Xie Cheng hadn’t held out all these years, he and Madam Fu would have divorced long ago, and he might even have ended up married to some noble daughter of Liu Yu’s choosing.
Ever since returning to the Xie Family, Xie Cheng had been swamped with work and rarely came home.
When Qin Han finished his call home and knocked on the door to Xie Ling’s room, he found Xie Ling hugging the polar bear plushie that had been lying on the bed, working through some practice problems.
Xie Ling had a habit of hugging things whenever he was home alone—something even Madam Fu didn’t know about. But after Qin Han had caught him at it a few times, he’d simply thrown caution to the wind.
“Want one?” Qin Han watched Xie Ling finish the last problem, then held out a freshness bag filled with doughnuts.
“Hm?” Half of Xie Ling’s face was buried in the polar bear plushie’s fluffy head as he blinked at the bag. “Isn’t this the doughnuts Dad made tonight?”
Xie Cheng was a great cook, especially when it came to desserts. When Xie Ling was little, his dad had whipped up all sorts of creative sweets for him every day. But after Xie Cheng went back to the Xie Family, Madam Fu had tried learning from the recipes he’d left behind. Unfortunately, she seemed to lack the knack for desserts and could never quite match her husband’s flavor. She’d gotten pretty down about it for a while.
Qin Han chuckled. “I told Uncle and Auntie I’d be studying late and wanted these for a midnight snack, so I snagged a couple.”
Xie Ling looked puzzled. “I don’t remember you touching these at dinner. I figured they were too sweet for you. Why’d you grab them for a snack?”
Qin Han smiled. “So you remember exactly what I ate and didn’t eat, huh?”
“Well…” For some reason, that casual remark from Qin Han made Xie Ling feel inexplicably guilty. He rubbed his nose. “What can I say? Good memory’s a curse. All us geniuses are like that.”
“Yeah, you’re the best.” Qin Han seemed to be in high spirits as he dangled the bag in front of Xie Ling again. “I didn’t grab them for me. They’re for you.”
“…For me?”
“At dinner, with Uncle and Auntie there, I noticed you didn’t have any. Now it’s just us—you can eat as many as you want. Not enough? I’ll go grab more.” Qin Han smiled at Xie Ling’s dazed expression. “You do like them, right?”
Xie Ling did like them. He loved sweets; his dad had gotten him hooked. But after Xie Cheng left, Madam Fu had taken over making them for him, failing time after time. Xie Ling had walked in on her secretly wiping away tears more than once.
From then on, he’d quietly started avoiding desserts altogether. Eventually, he’d even told his mom: I’ve grown up now. I don’t like sweets anymore. You don’t have to make them for me.
That lie had held from elementary school all the way to now. Today, he’d finally gotten to taste his dad’s desserts again—but he still had to keep up the pretense.
Xie Ling pulled a chocolate-flavored doughnut from the bag and took a bite. His nose suddenly tingled.
Qin Han figured Xie Ling might want some time alone, so he said, “I’ll go make up the guest bed, then come back and do homework with you.”
“Hm?” Xie Ling had a doughnut clamped in his mouth, his cheeks puffed out like a little hamster’s. “Didn’t you say you were sleeping with me tonight?”
Qin Han paused, then gave an almost bashful smile. “Eager to share a bed with me, are you?”
Xie Ling nearly choked. “Bro, that’s not cool. You’re the one who said you sleep great holding me. How’d it turn into me wanting it?”
Qin Han hummed softly. “I do sleep great holding you. You smell so good.”
“…” Xie Ling’s ears heated up. He took a hasty bite of doughnut to steady himself. “Go make the bed already. Go on!”
But now Qin Han didn’t seem in any hurry to leave. His eyelids drooped, a hint of grievance in his expression. “I want to sleep with you too, but… our conversation earlier at the Xie Family? Your dad overheard.”
Xie Ling: “So?”
“You’re an omega, I’m an alpha.” Qin Han explained slowly and deliberately. “Hearing that kind of talk, he’s bound to get the wrong idea. If I actually shared your bed, he’d have a real problem with me.”
Xie Ling: “…You’re overthinking it. Dad knows we’re just good bros. He won’t make a fuss.”
“He will. At dinner, I felt him eyeing me the whole time.” Qin Han played up the grievance, half-serious, half-put-on. “He probably thinks I’m some pervert who wants to lock you up, strip you naked, tie you to the bed, tease you with all sorts of toys until you’re begging me, crying and screaming for more.”
Xie Ling coughed violently, nearly done in by the doughnut in his mouth. Qin Han rushed over to pat his back.
“…” Xie Ling looked utterly flustered. “What kinda crap is in your head? There’s no way Dad thinks like that.”
Your dad might not, but I sure do.
While smoothing Xie Ling’s back, Qin Han sneaked a hand to his waist for a quick grope—but his words stayed innocent. “To avoid Uncle banning us from hanging out later, I should sleep alone tonight.”
“…” Something about that sounded off to Xie Ling.
Xie Ling asked, “What if you have another nightmare?”
Qin Han’s heart softened. He looked at the crumb of doughnut still clinging to Xie Ling’s lip and smiled. “How are the doughnuts? Good?”
Xie Ling mumbled an affirmative. “Dad’s got killer skills. Want one?”
Qin Han hummed again. Just as Xie Ling reached into the bag, he felt a tickle at the corner of his mouth.
Qin Han had wiped up the crumb with his index finger and, right in front of Xie Ling, licked it off.
His red tongue left a glistening trail on his fingertip. Xie Ling’s face flushed crimson.
Qin Han sucked on his finger, lips curving. “Yeah, great skills.”
Xie Ling’s heart pounded wildly, leaving him stammering. “Th-there’s a whole bag of them! Why’d you have to taste that bit?”
Qin Han looked perfectly innocent. “Sorry, did I scare you? I just think wasting food’s a sin. Can’t let a single crumb go to waste.”
If you didn’t want it wasted, you could’ve just told me to eat it! Why’d you…!!
Xie Ling needed a moment to himself.
He buried half his face back in the polar bear plushie’s head and grabbed his pen to furiously tackle math problems.
Math makes everything better! Only math can cure all woes!
“Go make the bed already.” Xie Ling found himself shooing Qin Han away. “Weekend homework’s piling up. Don’t wanna run out of time.”
“Okay.”
He heard the agreement but no door opening.
Xie Ling turned, puzzled, to find Qin Han propped against the desk, standing less than two meters away.
“…Wh-what?”
“Nothing. Just wanted to say thanks.” Qin Han smiled, leaning down to murmur by Xie Ling’s ear. “Thanks for the sweet doughnut. No nightmares for me tonight.”
Xie Ling: “…”
~~~
“Little Lingling, Zhang Chengrui says they’ve grabbed seats. He wants two colas.”
Xie Ling had just dropped the specific brand of mineral water Qin Han wanted into the shopping basket. He chuckled at the message. “Tell him cola kills sperm. For his own good, I’ll get him two bottles of soy sauce instead.”
The two finished shopping and emerged from the convenience store near First High School, bags in hand.
It was lunchtime, and schoolmates in uniforms were everywhere, out grabbing food.
Xie Ling and Xia Yu headed toward the popular diner where Zhang Chengrui and the others had snagged seats.
As they passed an alley mouth, a scornful sneer rang out. “Give me a break. What the hell is Xie Ling? I’ve always thought that face didn’t look alpha enough. And now? An omega. I’ll make him pay someday.”
The speaker had his back to them, but his hairstyle was unmistakable. Xie Ling recognized the hedgehog head under Zhou Haoxuan’s crew from the silhouette alone.
“Well, well.” Xie Ling’s smile didn’t reach his eyes. “Zhou Haoxuan’s locked up, so Class 19’s promoting you to boss now?”
The group startled at the voice and turned to see Xie Ling standing a short distance away, watching them with a sharp, fox-like grin.
They knew that look all too well.
Whenever they saw that expression on Xie Ling, it meant a trip to the hospital wasn’t far off.
“Uh…”
“What? Scared?” Hedgehog Head shot a glare at a cowering alpha beside him and sneered. “It’s just a cheap omega who can’t live without alpha pheromones. What’s to fear?”
“Say that again?” Xie Ling shoved his shopping bags into Xia Yu’s arms.
Xia Yu juggled the load and frantically messaged No.1 High F5: SOS!!! Need backup NOW!!!
“So what if I did?” Hedgehog Head was full of bluster, firing back. “How’s it feel, Xie Ling? Getting pinned under Qin Han and kissed senseless?”
Xie Ling’s eyes narrowed.
This morning, Mu Yin had come to apologize to him. The video from Zhang Chengrui’s birthday night was originally just something she’d posted in a small private group for her own amusement, but one of her underclassmen had accidentally shared it on the school forum—and spilled a ton of gossip about Qin Han and Xie Ling from that evening.
Back then, it wouldn’t have been a big deal. After all, they were just two Alphas, and Qin Han and Xie Ling even had their own shipping thread on the forum where people gossiped for fun. But now that everyone knew Xie Ling was an Omega, the video took on a whole different tone. They worried that if a teacher stumbled across it, they might accuse Qin Han and Xie Ling of getting into puppy love, so late into the night, they’d called Liu Fei to help scrub the posts.
Unfortunately, they hadn’t acted quite fast enough. Plenty of people had already seen it.
“I get it now—you two were always at each other’s throats, but suddenly you’re all buddy-buddy,” Hedgehog Head sneered. “Turns out getting marked by him felt so damn good that it softened your temper right along with your body. Tell you what—let me take a couple bites too. I guarantee it’ll feel even better than his…”
His words cut off as Xie Ling’s fist sent him sprawling to the ground.
Xie Ling loomed over him, sneering coldly. “How about that? Feel good?”
The punch had made quite the racket. Classmates from First High School who’d barely noticed them before now came rushing over to gawk.
Knocked flat on his ass by an Omega in front of a crowd—Hedgehog Head’s face flushed beet red with humiliation. Cursing under his breath, he dragged himself to his feet, rearing back for a counterattack. But suddenly, someone yanked hard on the back of his collar.
The next instant, he hit the dirt again.
“Fuck, you moth—” The words died in his throat as a boot slammed down hard on his chest.
Hedgehog Head glared up at his attacker. The guy had sharp, neat black hair, a handsome face twisted with fury, and the foot pinning him wore a pair of sleek black leather ankle boots.
Gritting his teeth, Hedgehog Head spat, “Who the hell are you? This ain’t your business!”
Xie Ling stared in stunned silence at the man grinding Hedgehog Head under his boot. “…Yu Rong?”
Yu Rong gazed down coldly at the snarling face beneath his foot. “Xie Ling’s mine. His business is my business. Got it?”
Hedgehog Head’s mouth worked open, but before he could get a word out, a cool voice cut in. “He doesn’t.”
Yu Rong whipped his head around. Seeing who had spoken, his lips curved in an emotionless smirk. “Chairman Qin. Long time no see.”
Qin Han returned a smile that was polite but utterly devoid of warmth. “Long time no see.”
“Heard you differentiated into a top-tier Alpha.”
“Yeah. Word is you did too.”
Yu Rong snorted. “Just came from that little park up ahead. Not many people around. Wanna settle this? See whose pheromones pack more punch?”
Xie Ling tried to butt in. “No, he—”
Qin Han cut him off. “Sure.”
Xie Ling: “???”
Xie Ling shot Qin Han a look and whispered, “Wait, didn’t you say last time that if you ran into him again, you’d patch things up?”
“That was just to mess with you.”
“What?” Xie Ling hadn’t quite caught it.
Qin Han didn’t repeat himself. Instead, right there in front of Yu Rong, he grabbed Xie Ling’s hand and gave it a playful shake. “I’m off to battle.”
His voice carried a wheedling lilt—not too loud, but plenty audible to Yu Rong standing nearby. “He looks so fierce and scary. Spray on some barrier agent and cheer me on from a safe distance, okay?”
