Chapter 6: The Beta Who Hates Alphas

Jiang Nianxing paused. “I… I didn’t…”

“You’ve been going on about how he cried and stuck out his tongue. Is it normal to pay that much attention to an alpha?” Lu Jinxia pressed. “Or do you have a crush on alphas?”

“No, that’s way too horrifying.” Jiang Nianxing shook his head vigorously. “No way.”

Yet those words took root deep in that iron alpha’s heart.

That afternoon, the five of them headed to vocal class.

Yu Sui’s expression was grim. His talent for music hadn’t unlocked yet.

While the others had moved on to segmentation exercises, Yu Sui was still learning the basics—what it meant to warm up his voice and how to use chest resonance.

He couldn’t wrap his head around it. He recognized every word, but put together, it might as well have been gibberish.

The teacher let out a soft sigh, thinking it was a shame such a handsome young man was wasting his potential.

The entire afternoon dragged on for Yu Sui like sitting on pins and needles.

Especially when he saw his teammates getting praised by the teacher. Even newcomer Shen Anliu was fitting in seamlessly. Only Yu Sui hadn’t even gotten past the basics.

“Practice this on your own in private.”

At five o’clock, the vocal teacher stood up with his water cup in hand. “I’ll go check on the training room next door.”

Yu Sui opened his mouth, but he felt utterly humiliated.

“Don’t rush it since you’re just starting out.” Shen Anliu noticed his scrunched-up face and tried to comfort him.

“Aren’t you a 4S? Your talent should be way better than ours,” Jiang Nianxing said, puzzled. There was no malice in his words.

But Yu Sui, with his deep prejudice against alphas, refused to believe it.

He broke into a cold sweat inwardly, though his face regained its calm.

Seeing him relax, Shen Anliu breathed a sigh of relief. He was about to offer to help him find the knack.

But the next second, Yu Sui spoke up in a hostile tone. “Of course it’s easy. I just don’t feel like cooperating.”

“What do you mean by that?” Jiang Nianxing bristled.

“The literal meaning.” Yu Sui looked at them with utter disdain. “You think you’re worthy of standing on the same stage as me?”

“You!” Jiang Nianxing hadn’t expected him to say something like that in front of everyone. “Don’t forget, we’re your seniors in terms of experience. If you don’t want to debut in a group, why even join the company?”

“To watch low-tier alphas like you make fools of yourselves, obviously.” Yu Sui swept his gaze over them one by one, his heart pounding with anxiety at the thought of getting beaten up.

Shen Anliu opened his mouth, his eyes dimming.

Right. Even if Yu Sui didn’t reject him personally, the gap in their levels…

Lu Jinxia felt a headache coming on. The young man was putting on the worst alpha traits imaginable. How was he supposed to get close like this?

He Baiyan had kept his head down, studying the lyrics without saying a word. But when he heard that, he lifted his gaze to Yu Sui. “If you’re not going to cooperate, I’ll apply to the company to replace you.”

Yu Sui’s expression froze at those words.

If he got replaced, what would happen to his mission?

“Do low-tier alphas only know how to tattle?” Yu Sui pushed on, determined to stir up more hatred.

In the plot, his indiscriminate attacks only made the others band together more tightly, forging team spirit and camaraderie—and deepening their hatred for him. Once they learned he wasn’t an alpha, their revenge would be even fiercer. After all, alphas were proud by nature. How dare someone toy with them like that.

The plot was full of holes, but none of that mattered. The key was to ship the protagonists.

He Baiyan had always been aloof, but now his eyes sharpened.

His dark eyes were like ink that wouldn’t dissolve.

Yu Sui knew he was thinking back to his childhood. In elementary school, a classmate had snitched on someone else, but pinned it on him instead, leading the whole class to isolate him.

From then on, He Baiyan had become a lone wolf, his personality growing even more withdrawn.

Yu Sui averted his gaze slightly and kept going. “Snitches like you, no one wants to pl—”

“Bang!”

He Baiyan shot to his feet and strode over to Yu Sui in a few steps.

His reaction stunned the others into silence.

They’d known the captain for so long, but this was the first time they’d seen him lose his composure.

Yu Sui flinched in fright. He swallowed the last word and stared at him warily. “What are you going to do?”

“Your progress is too slow. As captain, it’s my duty to help a teammate.” With that, he grabbed Yu Sui’s arm and dragged him out.

“Captain…” Shen Anliu stood up, frowning. He sensed something off about He Baiyan and grew worried for Yu Sui.

At the address, He Baiyan glanced back, his expression calm. “Fighting within the team is a major taboo.”

Shen Anliu relaxed a little at that and had nothing more to say.

He didn’t mind Yu Sui’s words himself, but he couldn’t let others treat him the same way.

The door slammed shut with a “bang.”

Jiang Nianxing finally snapped out of it. “Holy shit, He Baiyan actually has emotions?”

Lu Jinxia shot him an idiot look. “Something’s wrong with him.”

He was surprised too. Logically, Yu Sui’s barbs were nothing compared to the vile things their previous teammates had spewed. So why had the captain reacted like he’d stepped on a landmine?

He racked his brain, trying to recall what Yu Sui had said.

Tattletale…

A glint of suspicion entered Lu Jinxia’s eyes.

Yu Sui desperately wanted to cry out for help, protocol be damned. But a beta like him in character couldn’t bow to an alpha he supposedly despised.

He struggled, but the man wouldn’t budge an inch.

Dragged along, the two of them ended up in the dance studio.

The surrounding rooms were all empty. Yu Sui’s heart hammered away. If the man decided to beat him, heaven and earth wouldn’t hear his cries.

His back went rigid, his frightened eyes blinking nonstop.

Once inside the room, He Baiyan released him and shut the door. “Have you broken down the choreography for the group song yet?”

Yu Sui hadn’t even glanced at it.

He eyed He Baiyan warily.

“Are you afraid of me?” He Baiyan let out a short, mocking huff of laughter. “What, is a 4S alpha scared of a lower-ranked one?”

He closed in on Yu Sui step by step.

Yu Sui backed away on instinct.

His back hit the wall. There was no escape.

He asked the system inwardly what to do. This guy seemed way too dangerous.

“Yu Sui, are you really an alpha?”

The question halted his exchange with the system cold. His breath caught. If his true identity got exposed too soon, he’d be done for.

“O-of… of course.” His voice lacked conviction, trembling noticeably.

He Baiyan had suspected him from the start. Now, he was all but certain.

“Is that so?”

He murmured ambiguously, then added, “I’ll teach you chest resonance later.”

With that, He Baiyan left the dance studio.

Yu Sui slowly slid down the wall, squatting in the corner. He ruffled his own hair. “He’s a sharp one, huh.”

[He’s one of the protagonist gongs, after all. Gotta be clever.]

“What do I do?” Yu Sui asked. He was completely at a loss.

[Sorry, no props here to unlock vocal skills for you.] The system sighed. [We’re not on that track, after all.]

Yu Sui choked on that.

He stood up, reminding himself of his persona. Why should he listen to the guy?

But as he opened the door, there was He Baiyan, his well-defined hands still dripping with water. He’d clearly just come back from the bathroom.

“Trying to run?” The man fixed him with a stare and advanced.

Yu Sui retreated without thinking. “I…”

“Don’t know what chest resonance is?” He Baiyan kicked the door shut behind him and gestured for Yu Sui to come to the sofa nearby.

Yu Sui steeled himself and went over, staying silent at the question.

“Then we’ll have to use some crude methods.” He Baiyan’s tone was even as he pulled Yu Sui down to sit beside him.

One hand clamped onto his chin. His thumb pried open Yu Sui’s lips, forcing his teeth apart.

“What are you doing?” Yu Sui glared at him and tried to pull away, but the man was too strong. He stood no chance.

He Baiyan felt a ticklish warmth against his fingertip—the slick heat of Yu Sui’s tongue.