8: You Catch Me?
If he still hadn’t been sure who it was before, those last three words made it painfully obvious.
Shen Jin could practically picture the way the other person said it, eyes narrowing slightly at the corners, lazy and careless.
Recently, the chat app had rolled out a new feature. When you rejected a request, you could add a reason.
There wasn’t anything to hesitate over.
They weren’t close. They had zero interaction in daily life. Why add him?
He tapped Reject and typed: [Got something you need?]
*
Under the lingering heat of autumn’s “tiger”, the outdoor temperature still shot up to thirty degrees even at night. The moment Qian Kun got home, he broke into a thin sheen of sweat.
He hated feeling sticky, so he headed straight into the bathroom.
When he came out, he saw his phone on the desk vibrating nonstop.
He’d forgotten to mute the class group chat.
The whole chat was still deep in debate over tonight’s showdown result.
Liu Qimai: [I think we can still salvage this. Settling it in one round is kind of rash. It should be three rounds minimum!]
Jiang Yifan: [So you can’t handle losing?]
Luo Ying: [So you can’t handle losing?]
Hou Ruixing: [So you can’t handle losing?]
[……]
He was trying to talk it out nicely. Why was that so hard?
Were the people in Class 9 all born to argue?
Liu Qimai didn’t want to be this humble either. Back at his old private school, he’d been a tyrant. He’d dominated for years. The number of times he’d fallen flat could be counted on one hand.
Unfortunately, he’d seen them discussing making them dress in women’s clothing and participate in the opening ceremony of the three-school joint sports meet a few months from now.
That was a bottom-of-the-kettle move that hit Liu Qimai and the other transfer students so hard, they instantly wilted.
A real man knows when to bend and when to stand. He could be A, he could be O. If you can’t beat them, join them!
So Liu Qimai dragged the other transfer students into the group chat and started swimming laps, pulling out every trick he had to persuade them to switch to something else.
He also had to keep up his “cool rich kid” image while begging Class 9 to show mercy, which was a brutal test of his verbal skills.
Qian Kun watched for a while, towel-drying his wet hair.
He was about to close the app, then remembered something.
He opened the member list, scrolled around, and locked onto a round-faced, big-eyed rabbit avatar. He sent a friend request while he was at it.
Then he screenshotted the avatar and sent it to Liu Qimai: What’s this fat thing called.
Liu Qimai was still in the trenches. When he saw Qian Kun online and not contributing at all, he started cursing:
[You’re like King Zhou of Shang. Did a fox spirit charm you until your brain fell out? We’re getting bullied into the dirt and you’re asking about nonsense!]
Qian Kun: [Aren’t you having a great time?]
Liu Qimai: [That’s called enduring humiliation for the mission. Infiltration. Do you understand?]
They traded jabs for a bit, and only then did Liu Qimai actually look at the avatar.
He’d dated plenty of omegas. He could tell at a glance where this came from.
[This chubby white one is called Huggy Bunny. There’s a matching one too, a chubby pink one.]
Qian Kun: [A matching one?]
[Yeah. The merch usually comes in pairs. One of my exes loved this. She made me grind claw machines for an entire afternoon. That said, some people just use it because it’s cute. I remember Ice Block Shen uses this one too. He’s even using the ‘male A version.’ Typical of him. He doesn’t care about gender stuff. A loner king like him doesn’t look like the type to run a couple avatar with anyone.]
Qian Kun’s finger tapped the screen absentmindedly. His pale eyes stayed on that avatar, and it was impossible to tell what he was thinking.
Before he could reply, he got Shen Jin’s rejection.
Along with two words: Got something you need?
In his entire life, he’d never been rejected.
The few times it had happened were basically all recent.
And all from the same person.
Qian Kun found it funny. He’d probably pushed that little ice block too far. Shen Jin didn’t even bother keeping up appearances anymore.
Qian Kun knew when to stop. If he tried again, he’d just get rejected again.
Better to go to school and smooth his fur the normal way.
If he really pushed too hard, Shen Jin might stop responding altogether, and then where would the fun be?
*
The Shen household.
After driving their parents out, Shen Xie’an got angrier the more he thought about it.
Some things shouldn’t be examined too closely. Once you do, you realize certain people just keep taking and taking.
He knocked on his parents’ bedroom door. Xie Yan opened it, confused.
“Why aren’t you asleep yet?”
“I want to talk to you and Dad.”
Xie Yan still thought of Shen Xie’an as a baby. She never expected he’d reached the age where he could talk heart-to-heart with them. A wave of warmth rose in her chest.
“Of course. What do you want to talk about?”
Shen Xie’an said, “It’s about the engagement. When the Ke family suggested switching the person, why didn’t you reject it on the spot? In your eyes, are my marriage and my Ge’s marriage just bargaining chips for you to climb higher?”
Shen Qing frowned. “Watch your attitude. Where did all the manners we taught you go?”
Xie Yan shot her husband a glare. She reached for Shen Xie’an’s hand, but he dodged.
She sighed. “Xiao An, a lot of things aren’t as simple as what you’re seeing. The Shen family’s liquidity depends on Ke family guarantees. Suppliers, channels, connections, all of it has their influence. If we collapse, it won’t only affect the Shen family. It affects thousands of employees too. Unemployment is already high. We can’t just think about ourselves. Besides, compared to Xiao Jin, you’ve known A-Huai longer, haven’t you?”
“Are you kidding me? What does how long I’ve known him have to do with anything?” Shen Xie’an snapped. “I might not understand all your business stuff, but I do know one thing. If I agree to this, there’s a word for it out there. It’s called ‘mistress.’”
“You don’t care if I carry that label?”
“What you’re doing, isn’t it just selling your son?”
Shen Qing got so furious he stepped forward and lifted his hand.
Shen Xie’an trembled in fear, but he didn’t run. He closed his eyes instead.
The slap never landed. Xie Yan stopped Shen Qing.
After Shen Qing’s anger surged, the pressure of an alpha’s presence nearly made Shen Xie’an unable to stand.
Shen Qing shouted, “Your brother corrupted you. How can you say something like that, just to hurt me and your mom!”
Neither of them noticed that someone was standing outside the door, which was left slightly ajar.
Like a sculpture.
Still as stone.
Shen Xie’an forced himself through the instinctive pain of submitting to an alpha and laughed.
“Why does everything get dumped on Ge?” he said. “Why can’t it be that I can’t stand your favoritism?”
“I still remember when we were little. That time at the swings, I wouldn’t stop pestering him to push me higher. He couldn’t say no, so he used more force. I didn’t hold on properly and fell. I passed out.”
“The moment you got outside the emergency room, you didn’t ask what happened. You didn’t care. You only asked if Ge did it to me, and whether he did it on purpose.”
He watched their expressions change. Of course they weren’t completely numb. Of course they felt something. They weren’t guilt-free.
Shen Xie’an knew it was working, so he slowed down even more.
“You didn’t listen to a single word of his explanation. Not even a little.”
“…”
“I’m not going to list every single thing,” Shen Xie’an said, voice shaking. “Even when you arranged Ge’s engagement, you never asked what he wanted. As the person involved, he was the last one to know.”
“Now you want him to withdraw from the engagement, and you still don’t care what he thinks. When I say I don’t agree, you’ll accept it. When Ge says he doesn’t agree, you want to ‘wait and see.’ Wait for what? A reversal from the Ke family?”
“Even a scale isn’t this crooked!”
Shen Xie’an wiped his tears away and stared at their speechless faces.
“Is Ge really your biological son?”
“What’s so wrong with him? His grades are so much better than mine. He inherited every one of your strengths. Do you even know how many people envy me for having such an outstanding Ge?”
“I asked him why he didn’t refuse the engagement if he didn’t want it. He said he was raised by the Shen family, and he had an obligation to repay that.”
“He’s never once defied you. Not once.”
“Yet because he’s too smart, you always assume the worst of him.”
“Now Ge differentiated into a beta. You didn’t say it outright, but why didn’t you take him to the Ke family banquet? Were you afraid of being embarrassed?”
“Do you think Ge can’t feel your attitude?”
“If I were him, I wouldn’t want to stay in this house for even one second.”
“Because it suffocates me.”
After throwing those words down, Shen Xie’an ran out.
There was no one outside.
He returned to his room and sat by the door, panting.
Tears kept falling.
Not for himself.
For Shen Jin.
He just thought his brother had suffered too much.
*
Shen Jin had already returned to his room long ago. He hadn’t let Shen Xie’an catch him.
He leaned against the door, dazed, staring into the distance.
The phone’s vibration slowly pulled him back to himself, and his eyes seemed to brighten a little.
Another friend request had arrived:
[The moon is really fat tonight. Sleep early.]
Shen Jin rejected it and replied with a single character:
[.]
He walked to the window. The sky was like blue velvet, scattered with stars. A round moon hung high overhead.
It really was round and fat.
A flicker of a smile passed Shen Jin’s lips, gone in an instant.
Tomorrow would definitely be a crystal-clear day.
He opened his door again and went to the kitchen to cook a pot of small wontons.
One bowl got chopped scallions and dried shrimp. One bowl got nothing at all.
He went upstairs and knocked on his younger brother’s door.
“I cooked a late-night snack. Want some?”
Shen Xie’an made a few odd throat noises, making sure his voice didn’t sound strange, then answered, “Yes!”
Ge didn’t hear it, right? The soundproofing at home was pretty good.
Later, after they were nearly done eating, Shen Jin finally spoke.
“I’m going to apply for boarding. It’ll save commuting time, and I can study more.”
Shen Xie’an froze, then said, “Okay.”
He’d always known it. His ge had stayed a day student for his sake.
*
Shen Jin didn’t arrive particularly early the next morning.
He checked the time, realized there wasn’t enough time to buy breakfast, then hung the Discipline Committee badge on his arm and hurried to the school gate.
He was one of the student council officers. Sometimes he was assigned duties like this, gate duty plus catching late arrivals.
He caught three students, wrote down their names and classes, and docked the corresponding points.
No matter how they begged, he didn’t budge.
These veterans knew he was immune to persuasion, so they gave up.
Shen Jin checked the time. Morning assembly was coming up. So he was about to leave when he heard a thud.
A backpack was tossed over the wall from the other side, landing right by his feet.
He glanced at it and didn’t hurry away.
A moment later, a figure appeared atop the wall, agile and explosive with movement.
The person noticed Shen Jin standing below.
“Yo.”
Qian Kun lifted an eyebrow, genuinely surprised.
Shen Jin pulled out his record booklet and wrote, “Second Year, Class 9, Qian Kun.”
He found Qian Kun watching him from above with a half-smile, entirely relaxed, not looking like someone who was late at all.
Shen Jin raised his eyes.
“Come down.”
In the sunlight, his eyes looked like shattered pieces of golden glaze drifting on water.
“I can come down,” Qian Kun said.
“You’ll catch me?”
0 Comments