Chapter 108: Make You Call Me Brother (28)
Gu Yinnian chased Xiao Ji into the broad daylight of the crowd.
With people coming and going, squeezing and bustling against each other, even though he was standing right beside Xiao Ji, he couldn’t say any sweet, coaxing words.
And what was even more annoying was that just as he wanted to secretly explain the situation with the jacket first, another unexpected situation occurred not far away.
Two Alphas had started fighting.
As members of the event’s organizing committee, neither Gu Yinnian nor Xiao Ji could turn a blind eye to this.
So the two of them, each holding onto their own pent-up anger, went to deal with the sudden situation in the venue first.
This busy period lasted until the event was completely over.
The event budget wasn’t small, and the chaotic mess left on the floor couldn’t be cleaned up relying solely on the student council members. Yun Zhou hired people from a housekeeping company and extended an invitation to the dozen or so student council members still present:
“Everyone worked hard tonight. I’m planning to bleed my wallet a bit and treat you all to hotpot. Anyone want to go?”
An Alpha heard this and immediately asked, “Don’t we need to go back to the dorms?”
Yun Zhou raised an eyebrow. “Tomorrow is Saturday, who cares if you go back or not?”
The Alpha asked again, “Then where are we sleeping tonight?”
“At my house,” Yun Zhou said.
As everyone knew, Yun Zhou’s ability to become the Vice President of the Student Council was partly due to his proactive work ethic, his many ideas, and his decent capabilities. But another part was due to his wealthy family background; he was a famous rich second-generation student at the school, generous to a fault, and his home was right here in the city.
As soon as he said this, everyone except Xiao Ji and Gu Yinnian raised their hands.
Yun Zhou looked at them. “You two aren’t going?”
Without waiting for Xiao Ji and Gu Yinnian to answer, he bluntly declared, “Then forget it. If you two aren’t going, I’m not going either.”
Hearing this, everyone turned their eyes toward the two.
And so, Gu Yinnian and Xiao Ji were driven onto the pirate ship like herded ducks.
The private room at the hotpot restaurant had a large round table.
Xiao Ji casually pulled out a chair and sat down. Gu Yinnian sat directly to his right, and An Jing unapologetically sat down to Xiao Ji’s left.
Amidst the chatter and laughter with the others, Xu Xiaolin casually pulled out the chair next to Gu Yinnian.
Except for Xiao Ji, anyone who could secure a place in the school student council wasn’t exactly the silent, reticent type.
Everyone was highly sociable. From the moment they sat down until the food was served, the talking and laughing at the table never ceased.
The group, who hadn’t dared to drink during the event to maintain order and ensure logistical services, finally let loose and started drinking openly.
After a few rounds of drinks, someone suggested playing a game—passing the parcel to the beat of a drum. Whoever ended up with the item had to either perform a talent or, if they had nothing to perform, submit to a truth-or-dare challenge dictated by the drummer.
For the first round, Yun Zhou was the dealer, turning his back to the crowd and beginning to clap his hands.
A red apron served as the ‘flower’, starting its journey around the circle of hands.
The first unlucky soul was a Beta wearing glasses.
He looked refined, but when it came to performing, he didn’t suffer from stage fright in the slightest. Adhering to the principle that as long as he wasn’t embarrassed, it was the others who would be, he sang the school anthem with passionate fervor, completely out of tune, yet deafeningly loud.
However, with someone setting a good precedent, the people who followed loosened up considerably.
Those who could dance danced, those who could recite poetry recited. Regardless of whether there was any artistic appreciation to be had, the main focus was just letting loose.
But when the apron passed into Xu Xiaolin’s hands, she maintained her reserve:
“I don’t have anything to perform, Senior Yun can set a task for me.”
Yun Zhou’s alcohol tolerance was average, and at this moment, he was feeling dizzy and tipsy. He casually blurted out, “Express your gratitude to the Alpha who lent you the jacket.”
Up until this very moment, Gu Yinnian’s jacket was still draped over Xu Xiaolin.
Xu Xiaolin glanced at Gu Yinnian. “How should I thank him?”
Men and women, AA and OO—when faced with this kind of situation, the natural instinct is to watch the fun and stir the pot. Soon someone yelled out:
“Kiss him!”
Consequently, the crowd blindly started cheering in agreement.
Xu Xiaolin blushed and looked toward Gu Yinnian.
Gu Yinnian felt like he was sitting on pins and needles. He hurriedly said, “Don’t mess around, this isn’t appropriate, I don’t accept this.”
Xiao Ji sat back in his chair, watching the farce unfold before him with an expressionless face.
An Jing noticed that Xiao Ji seemed to be getting unhappy. He proactively poured him some wine and considerately used the serving chopsticks to place a small piece of dessert into Xiao Ji’s bowl.
Gu Yinnian was practically suffocating. Amidst the crowd’s jeering, he picked up his chopsticks, originally intending to snatch that small dessert from Xiao Ji’s bowl into his own mouth.
But unexpectedly, Xu Xiaolin launched a sudden ambush, leaning right into his face and nearly kissing him on the cheek.
Startled, Gu Yinnian instinctively dodged. His hand slipped, and the chopsticks flew out of his grasp, plunging straight into An Jing’s hotpot.
The red oil in the pot splashed out, splattering a few drops onto An Jing’s shirt.
If this had happened with anyone else, it would genuinely just be a matter of apologizing, and the situation wouldn’t develop too terribly no matter what.
But the relationship between Gu Yinnian and An Jing was like a powder keg, ready to explode at the slightest spark.
So, when Gu Yinnian and An Jing suddenly and inexplicably started fighting, everyone was left dumbfounded.
An Jing had a sturdy build. Without releasing pheromones, whether Gu Yinnian could gain the upper hand against him was truly hard to say.
Xiao Ji was quick-eyed and swift-handed. He grabbed the fist An Jing swung toward Gu Yinnian, pushed An Jing away with a backhanded shove, and then hoisted Gu Yinnian over his shoulder in one fluid motion.
He had had enough of this noisy, chaotic environment. He raised a hand to block An Jing, preventing him from recklessly grabbing at them again.
Then, glancing at Xu Xiaolin, he said to Yun Zhou, “He’s had too much to drink. I’m taking him away first.”
With things having escalated to this point and everyone having consumed alcohol, Yun Zhou naturally wasn’t going to attempt an on-the-spot mediation. He simply agreed.
Xiao Ji carried Gu Yinnian all the way out of the hotpot restaurant. Once on the roadside, he set the struggling Gu Yinnian down.
Blown by the wind, Gu Yinnian’s already buzzing intoxication worsened. He said unreasonably:
“Why didn’t you let me beat him? Does your heart ache for him?”
Xiao Ji looked at Gu Yinnian calmly. “He’s not as easy to beat as Ren Pu.”
Xiao Ji phrased it tactfully, but Gu Yinnian wasn’t stupid, and this concerned an Alpha’s pride: “So you just assume I can’t beat him?!”
Xiao Ji then said, “You can’t fight. If you lose, you go to the hospital; if you win, you go to jail.”
Gu Yinnian was unrelenting: “Who’s spouting that bullshit?!”
Xiao Ji: “The poster at the entrance of the campus police station.”
A sense of powerless frustration, of having nowhere to vent his anger, rose within Gu Yinnian: “He’s always coveting you! Showing off to you in public, sending me messages every few days! Even when I don’t reply, he’s so damn persistent!”
Lashing out at Xiao Ji like this was completely unreasonable.
Xiao Ji had already acted impeccably, but he couldn’t control An Jing’s actions.
So Xiao Ji simply said two words: “The jacket.”
Gu Yinnian was instantly silenced, but that sense of powerlessness only deepened.
He opened his mouth, and it took him a long while to explain the whole story of the jacket to Xiao Ji.
Xiao Ji said, “I know, it wasn’t your fault.”
Gu Yinnian wanted to ask, ‘Then why did you give me the cold shoulder all night?’
But he couldn’t say it, because Xiao Ji wasn’t at fault regarding An Jing’s behavior either, yet he found himself unable to stop throwing a tantrum at Xiao Ji right now.
Xiao Ji stood facing Gu Yinnian. After a long time, he sighed and touched his cheek:
“How about we just make it public.”
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