Chapter 70: Ball: Cold and Professional Nurse Miss
Lin Mo looked at the picture in the post, receiving many replies: Really don’t know what’s there to show off, don’t tell me you don’t have a wife to give you one?
Veins bulged on his arm, and he laughed abruptly, only with a chill.
This fierce shouting match ended with the post being reported and deleted.
…
Tree shadows swayed gently outside the window. Ji Chen sank into the sofa, half-asleep and half-awake.
A faint fragrance lingered in his nose, and upon careful distinction, it was mixed with a slightly pungent smell of iodine.
In the haze, a slightly cool touch landed on the back of his hand, the texture soft as if sinking into a small patch of cloud.
He seemed to see a slender figure bending down. Those pale pink lips were getting closer and closer to his face… The silhouette gradually cleared, condensing into Tang Xingye’s androgynous, beautiful face.
Suddenly, a sharp pain like a needle prick pierced all romantic illusions.
Ji Chen saw clearly the scene before him. Tang Xingye held his knuckles, twisting a long silver needle and pricking his fingertip.
The huge discrepancy made a wave of disappointment surge in Ji Chen. His voice, laden with sleepiness, couldn’t help complaining: “You plan… to stab me to death in my dream like this?”
Tang Xingye glanced at Ji Chen.
Ji Chen discovered Tang Xingye’s eyes could speak, or perhaps he could capture the emotions transmitted by him.
Every time Tang Xingye held a long, useless group meeting, his expression was faint, but his eyes showed he had lost the will to live.
Now those beautiful eyes were saying: Woke up already? Boring, my work is done.
If he wasn’t mistaken, there was also a trace of extremely hard-to-detect subtle pleasure like a prank succeeding.
“You’re hiding from someone recently, specially going to places with many Alphas?” Ji Chen changed the subject, catching the cotton swab Tang Xingye threw at him, pressing it loosely against his fingertip to stop the bleeding. An Alpha’s healing ability was strong; this little blood didn’t need special treatment with a cotton swab.
Tang Xingye’s exquisite, slightly feminine face lowered his brows, looking down to fiddle with the syringe, looking exactly like a cold, professional nurse miss. Ji Chen accepted the moment of service with peace of mind.
Relying on the nurse miss’s promise, Ji Chen rarely enjoyed a short time alone, without other annoying things disturbing them.
He watched Tang Xingye pack up the syringe and pointed out the other’s abnormal path these past few days directly.
Ji Chen couldn’t guess the reason, but instinctively felt trouble had found Tang Xingye. The last incident with the camera had no follow-up. He asked Tang Xingye and got a vague answer saying it was a misunderstanding.
Misunderstanding? Ji Chen still harbored doubts in his heart. Seeing Tang Xingye unwilling to say more, he didn’t pursue it.
Tang Xingye admitted very crisply: “Mn, places with many Alphas are safer.”
“What trouble is making you so vexed? I’ll solve it for you.” Ji Chen crushed the tiny bead of blood and threw the cotton swab into the trash can.
“You’ll have huge bad luck.” Tang Xingye associated it with the car accident and shook his head gently. He looked up at Ji Chen and joked, “Why not be my sugar daddy, sponsor more projects, send me more materials.”
Thinking of the alarming consumption speed of materials in the experiment, Tang Xingye felt a bit of heartache, and simultaneously a headache; he had to make PPTs to paint cakes for sponsors again.
And the matter of the harasser—coming not earlier or later, but right when he was busiest…
Time wasn’t enough. Why didn’t a day have 72 hours?
Tang Xingye covered his somewhat tired eyes.
Ji Chen saw his action and asked, “What’s wrong?”
“Stung by my wallet,” Tang Xingye’s voice was muffled, carrying a bit of imperceptible grievance, “Don’t want to look at the balance.”
The childish statement made Ji Chen laugh, “That’s easy to solve. I’ll buy for you.”
Adding another sponsor. Tang Xingye’s brain immediately began calculating at high speed how long this new “funding” could support him. Even with someone to fall back on, in life and experiments, he seemed unable to shake off that shabby air of penny-pinching.
As he thought, a cool scent of cedar slowly enveloped him, landing gently on his shoulders and hair tips, without the slightest aggression.
Strangely, Tang Xingye’s tense nerves seemed to be smoothed gently, quietly relaxing a few degrees.
Ji Chen saw Tang Xingye still covering his eyes and asked with a smile, “Can you look straight now?”
Tang Xingye: “No. I’m jealous you’re too rich.”
Ji Chen: “…”
Ji Chen held Tang Xingye’s wrist and gently pulled down the hand covering his eyes. Tang Xingye kept his snow-white face taut, the arc of his mouth dropping by 0.1 pixels.
Ji Chen’s finger pad suddenly rubbed against his thin eyelid. The warm touch rubbed gently; the already sensitive skin quickly bloomed a patch of pink.
Tang Xingye blinked subconsciously, looking at Ji Chen inexplicably, his vision misty.
Ji Chen explained solemnly: “Doing eye exercises for you, to restore vision.”
Tang Xingye: “…”
Truly magical.
Ji Chen never thought there would be a day he would tire of stimulation and danger.
Tang Xingye looked completely mismatched with these two words, yet he stirred his emotions, his pain, his restlessness.
The docile appearance of letting people knead him reminded one of a beautiful Ragdoll cat.
Now the Ragdoll cat was unhappy, his eyes clearly writing: Let go, I’m leaving.
Ji Chen felt a slight regret. Hard to get alone time with the kitten, but the other party got bored of playing and turned to jump into someone else’s arms.
Classmates were rehearsing programs. Unknown who first noticed the figure standing quietly watching outside the window.
The visitor had black hair and white skin, standing there like an ink wash painting, carrying a distant and startling beauty. His eyes looked in faintly, emotions indiscernible, yet making the hearts of all who inadvertently met his gaze skip a beat.
For a moment, everyone tried their best to express themselves. A subtle tension of wanting to be recognized permeated the air.
As if he wasn’t a passerby watching by chance, but an invisible judge holding the promotion quota.
Rehearsal ended. Everyone panted, eyes bright waiting for the other’s comment, only to find Tang Xingye’s gaze hadn’t moved, still staring fixedly at a certain spot in the venue, brows slightly furrowed.
“What’s wrong? Is there a problem with our performance?” The person in charge felt apprehensive and hurriedly stepped forward to ask.
Although Tang Xingye didn’t participate in activities, when collecting opinions, he gave feasible and useful suggestions.
Tang Xingye shook his head gently, raised his hand pointing to a corner above the stage side, and said: “The rope is loose. If not attended to, the flagpole will fall.”
The person in charge turned pale with fright, rushed over to look carefully, and indeed found the knot there had long aged and loosened. Screwing up the performance was small; hurting someone was big. The person in charge hurriedly sent people to check all the props again.
Tang Xingye saw the hidden danger resolved and turned to leave.
To motivate students, Jing University published a comprehensive ranking every month, covering academic grades, practical results, and multiple other dimensions.
In front of the bulletin board, Tang Xingye glimpsed that familiar figure and couldn’t help greeting half-jokingly: “What a coincidence.”
Only Lin Mo knew this was absolutely no chance encounter. He had specifically calculated the time, waiting here.
Tang Xingye’s gaze turned back to the bulletin board, slowly moving up, finally freezing on the name at the very top. He narrowed his eyes unconsciously.
Lin Mo followed his line of sight and, unsurprisingly, saw his own name.
“First place, eh.” Tang Xingye dragged out the tone, emotions indistinguishable.
This remark made Lin Mo’s heart tighten inexplicably, even instantly flashing a trace of regret—he should have controlled his score if he had known.
His gaze swept over Tang Xingye, capturing that what was hidden underneath wasn’t the usual gloominess, but a burning, unyielding light. Understanding his thoughts, he suddenly felt a bit of gladness that he was first.
Perhaps due to a change in state of mind, having received too much help from Lin Mo, Tang Xingye didn’t have such strong jealousy in his heart at this moment; instead, it stirred up a competitive spirit.
If he had seen Lin Mo’s name at the start of school, he would definitely have been so angry his chest felt tight, anxious all afternoon, his mind full of why, why is he first.
In the group project, a classmate asked him curiously if he and Lin Mo were roommates.
The other party pressed, “Being in the same dorm as such a genius, don’t you feel a lot of pressure?”
“He is him, I am me. I never focus on others; comparing with myself is enough.” Tang Xingye responded calmly, dropped this sentence, and left, leaving the boy standing there feeling a trace of shame.
No negative emotions was a lie. Once Tang Xingye exited the classroom door, his expression turned cold. He wrote pages full of bad things about Lin Mo in his notebook, wrote his name on paper, tore it off, treated that ball of paper as Lin Mo, crumpled it into a mess, and only then did his anger dissipate.
Just because Lin Mo was more talented than him, should he not study? At that time, Tang Xingye made up his mind to fiercely overtake Lin Mo.
“I will also be first place.”
Tang Xingye issued a challenge to him.
Although Lin Mo wanted to answer “You will be first,” Tang Xingye’s inner desire was to compete with him and gain respect and recognition.
“I look forward to it.”
The rival’s unreserved response satisfied Tang Xingye very much.
Amidst the students’ expectations, the school anniversary arrived as scheduled.
At the two-hour-long opening ceremony, the school invited well-known alumni from all walks of life. Knowing students didn’t like listening to empty, long speeches, after offering blessings to the alma mater, the alumni shared quite a lot of dry goods (practical knowledge).
Tang Xingye took notes below, gaining much, completely failing to notice the gazes frequently looking his way from the surroundings.
After the performance ended, it was the customary anniversary ball. To add interest, the school held a masquerade ball this time. Tang Xingye scanned around and casually chose a black mask.
Tang Xingye walked into the hall, where toasts were being exchanged. Everyone wore masks; no one recognized anyone, chatting casually. Most people’s minds were on conversation, a minority focused on eating.
Tang Xingye sized up the decorative paintings on the wall, confirmed he couldn’t appreciate any inner meaning, and decided to turn to the dining table.
“Xingye.”
A Beta glimpsed him at a glance, immediately flying over like a cheerful little bird, face overflowing with unconcealable excitement.
Ai Ke?
Tang Xingye distinguished the person before him through the voice. He wondered how the other recognized him without him making a sound.
“Have you been very busy recently? Why haven’t I seen you speaking in the group chat?” Ai Ke’s voice carried concern.
Tang Xingye had been busy spinning like a top recently; that project group where cooperation had long ended was naturally thrown to the back of his mind.
He gave a vague affirmative sound, dragged by Ai Ke to the dessert station nearby. He absently picked up a delicate liqueur chocolate and put it in his mouth.
Perhaps the dessert was too cloyingly sweet, or perhaps the surrounding air was hot and the mask felt stuffy, so he took it off casually to catch a breath.
“You drank alcohol?” Ai Ke sniffed, asking in surprise.
Tang Xingye shook his head, quickly realizing it was the chocolate just now.
Tang Xingye’s rationality was still very clear, only the alcohol honestly reacted entirely on his face.
At this moment, the tails of his eyes flushed with a rich crimson, like snow stained by sunset glow, exceptionally startling.
His glazed eyes rippled with light, watery and blurred, as if holding a pool of swaying spring water, all crisp and numb.
Ai Ke’s gaze lingered on that crimson for a second, then immediately sensed the surrounding gazes becoming abruptly hot and prying in secret.
His heart tightened. He almost scrambled to grab the mask and put it back on for Tang Xingye.
Ai Ke was half a head shorter than Tang Xingye. Standing on tiptoes to act appeared somewhat strenuous, lifting his hand a bit difficult.
Although Tang Xingye’s eyes held some doubt, meeting those eyes that rarely appeared a bit anxious and serious, he still obediently accepted the mask and put it on.
Ai Ke breathed a sigh of relief. He looked around a circle, using his body to imperceptibly block some lines of sight for Tang Xingye, then turned back, leaning very close, whispering earnestly and instructing: “Don’t take off the mask…”
Before he could finish his sentence, his spine suddenly felt cold. Then his shoulder was held down by someone, and he saw a tall Alpha standing behind him, expression cold and severe.
“Who are you?”
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