57: Control Group
That slow, lingering hand-holding rubbed Shen Jin raw enough to draw a thin sheen of sweat.
He didn’t know if it was just his imagination, yet the whole process felt faintly… suggestive.
Shen Jin only wanted it to end as soon as possible. He couldn’t stop himself from focusing all his attention on that hand.
Before and after, Qian Kun remained a person with clear boundaries. Besides, there was nothing about him worth lingering over anyway. This had to be narcissism plus a misfiring imagination.
“Does your head still hurt?”
“A little.”
Qian Kun lied with a straight face. The cool, soft warmth cupped in his palm felt like a hamster that had stolen cheese.
Their voices were low. To cover up the untimely movement under the desk, Shen Jin used his other hand to pretend to take notes. Since the new student was still being introduced, his behavior ended up feeling even more conspicuous.
You Jia was assigned to the only empty seat in class. After the rearrangement, the extra seat landed on Zhou You, who’d been sitting alone. After sitting down, You Jia greeted the quiet, elegant-looking Zhou You.
He realized Shen Jin was seated on his other side. The surprise quickly turned into delight. In a completely unfamiliar place, seeing an iceberg-level beauty was enough to make anyone excited.
Before he could speak, Qian Kun’s cool, shallow glance swallowed his words whole.
He’d already been driven away by Qian Kun several times. Even if he had goodwill, no one could withstand this repeated bitter winter attitude.
From a hidden angle, he thought he saw overlapping hands. His mouth parted, yet before he could look closer, Shen Jin shifted his straightened back and blocked the view entirely.
Qian Kun noticed this Omega staring at Shen Jin. What kind of bee behavior was this, going around sampling nectar?
Stinging here, stinging there, checking which spot tasted sweeter?
The reaction surprised him. Since his side was blocked, was this Omega planning to turn elsewhere?
Shen Jin froze under Qian Kun’s gaze. “?”
If Shen Jin ever differentiated into a Beta, his usual cool, slightly steely demeanor would actually pair well with a soft, delicate Omega.
With Shen Jin’s personality, he matched comfortably with all six genders.
Liu Qimai had once shared a forum link, polling how many people wanted Shen Jin to differentiate.
The results were unexpected. Over ninety percent voted yes. Plenty of Omegas were among them. Rumor had it they even made a group chat called “Sticking to Ice God Isn’t Just a Dream.”
Qian Kun released his grip, irritation flashing across his expression.
Shen Jin looked over in question. Qian Kun gestured that it was nothing.
In the next moment, he stood and walked straight toward the back door.
When Hu Shengqiang asked, he replied, “Not feeling too well.”
Hu Shengqiang remembered how often the Qian family had raised concerns with the school. After a few reminders, he let him go.
Only You Jia sat there trembling. If disgust could be quantified, he figured he was at -100. No, that was optimistic. Maybe -1000.
*
That night, Qian Kun didn’t return to the dorm.
Before Shen Jin could ask, a photo arrived from the other side. It showed a piece of equipment that looked like a large MRI machine, with a row of screens recording various bodily data.
[If this still doesn’t find anything, then heaven truly wants me dead.]
The young master had a decent sense of humor. It didn’t match the low-pressure aura he’d had when leaving class.
It looked like a more thorough physical examination.
Shen Jin replied with a few messages. He then noticed the group chat was exploding with discussion.
They were talking about Ke Minghuai having a fiancée.
Ke Minghuai had been campus heartthrob for three years, a collector of awards, someone many admired. Today, that top heartthrob dropped a bombshell.
The topic had been fermenting all afternoon. Shen Jin rarely checked the forum, so he hadn’t known.
It started with a senior crying after returning to her classroom. While friends comforted her, she accidentally revealed that Ke Minghuai had personally said he already had a fiancée and wouldn’t accept anyone else.
No one had even seen him date. How did he manage a triple jump straight to engagement?
Ke Minghuai had been single all these years. How could he suddenly have a fiancée? This was everyone’s question.
It felt too abrupt.
Some people asked those close to him. They couldn’t say much, only that the person did exist.
Shen Jin frowned and opened Ke Minghuai’s chat window. After hesitating for a long time, he still didn’t send anything.
Thinking of the agreement, he asked Qian Kun: [There’s something I want to ask Beika. Can I contact him?]
He asked first out of courtesy. He didn’t use the real name, since Qian Kun hated rabbits.
Qian Kun was about to lie down on the machine when he heard a distant prompt. Under his mother’s teasing gaze, he checked the message, skimmed the group chat, and replied: [Nope.]
Casual and direct.
Typical Qian Kun-style answer.
What were you thinking?
Ke Minghuai set this trap precisely to drag you back in.
All seasoned foxes. What’s with this charade?
They’d crossed paths enough times. Qian Kun understood Ke Minghuai’s regret all too well.
After finishing the exam, Qian Kun immediately headed back to the dorm.
Liu Manning flipped through the reports and saw her son rushing back to school. “Back when we were abroad, you complained your roommate had body odor and moved out on the first day. Didn’t you swear you’d never live in a dorm again?”
“Foreigners smell stronger.”
“Then why did I hear he didn’t have that problem at all?” Liu Manning exposed him mercilessly.
Qian Kun glanced at his mother and gave an unreadable smile.
When he didn’t want to do something, he always had countless reasons.
He returned right on time. Opening the door, he found the dorm pitch dark. His roommate had already gone to sleep.
Qian Kun watched the figure on the bed for a moment, then moved quietly, turned on the desk lamp, and sat down. He reviewed the investigation report he’d had the bodyguard send earlier. From the address You Jia and his mother chose to move to, to their arrival at Nanhu and Class Nine, everything looked reasonable on the surface, yet it all followed a strange pattern.
What countermeasure could completely eliminate this hidden danger?
Or perhaps, when his head hurt, he should do the opposite?
Qian Kun felt like he was grasping at something.
The sound of his roommate turning over broke his train of thought.
He planned to check whether Shen Jin had kicked off the blanket. In the dim light, he saw Shen Jin’s back to him, the snow-white nape exposed. There, like a shy bud, was that absolutely tempting gland.
Alphas often said glands were the most alluring part. No Alpha could resist such top-tier temptation.
Qian Kun was different. He’d always believed marking was an uncontrollable, beastly act, an insult to his self-control.
During sleep, unless there was an issue, people removed their suppressor patches. They couldn’t be worn long-term anyway. At night, with lights out, no one could really see.
Qian Kun watched for a moment. His eyes reddened slightly. He quickly looked away and moved farther off.
Shen Jin slept deeply tonight. It was just that today’s mosquitoes were a bit numerous, buzzing in his ears.
It was still the recent post-rain weather warming up again. The autumn tiger reluctantly refused to leave, creating their rampancy.
Shen Jin was too lazy to wake up and swat them. He felt sleeping was more important.
Drowsily, he glanced at the tightly closed bathroom door, hearing splashing water sounds. Had he been washing for a long time?
Shen Jin fell asleep again.
When Qian Kun came out, hair not yet dried, he saw his roommate waving that down-soft snow-white arm, as if swatting mosquitoes.
Qian Kun checked the dorm and found a large hole at the bottom of the window screen. They must have drilled in from here.
Qian Kun closed the window, turned on the AC, grabbed the anti-itch balm, and climbed the ladder. With extraordinarily gentle movements, he applied it to the mosquito bites on Shen Jin’s body, then sprayed mosquito repellent around him.
Late at night, he left the dorm. He remembered the small shop owner lived right behind the shop. Having scammed him out of so much money, occasionally helping once should be appropriate, right? Fair exchange.
The owner occasionally encountered students with needs in the middle of the night, but none who’d only knocked a few times yet sounded like an earthquake.
He came to open the door with great anger, just about to curse loudly when he saw outside the door was an Alpha with a cold expression.
Wasn’t this that extremely wealthy young master? Mainly, he just looked very expensive and always felt things sold to him couldn’t be too cheap.
“Student, is there something you need?” The owner’s attitude did a 180-degree turn. For this kind of long-term stable cash cow, VIP treatment was mandatory.
“Electric mosquito swatter.” Voice clear and light, carrying natural authority.
The owner had originally wanted to scam again, but seeing the other’s particularly strong aura at night, he honestly reported a real price.
This time he’d be a good person. Scam him next time.
Qian Kun glanced at the owner unexpectedly. Not that he didn’t know, just too lazy to quibble.
He took the electric mosquito swatter and climbed the wall back to the dorm.
Before long, crackling sounds rang out in the dorm. In the darkness, a red light constantly roamed until the last mosquito was eliminated.
Shen Jin slept exceptionally deeply today. He dreamed more than usual, perhaps tied to the first scene of the novel he’d encountered that day.
The opening scene. The protagonist shou, You Jia, came from poverty. His father owed enormous gambling debts. He worked part-time while studying, often bullied, yet stubborn as a weed.
He always liked the Alpha who had once been locked up with him as a child. As time passed, he forgot what the Alpha looked like.
Later, they had several chance encounters. In places he never knew about, the Alpha helped him multiple times.
Feelings grew quietly. On the first day of transferring schools, he was seated beside a noble young master no one in class dared to sit with.
When he introduced himself, the class was noisy. The young master woke from sleep. They locked eyes for a long moment. You Jia heard his own heart pound.
The young master was named Qian Kun, casual and distant. He sat alone in the last row. You Jia became the one-in-ten-thousand lucky person, beginning a long unrequited love.
The story’s leads were the two of them. It was an inspirational unrequited-love novel.
The protagonist shou knew the massive gap between himself and his deskmate. He started with academics, step by step becoming a top student, striving in every area to get closer to the god in his heart.
He secretly loved the dazzling, aloof person beside him.
Hoping one day to receive a glance back from the other.
The original Shen Jin was the control group. He had a beauty so striking it could attract almost anyone, yet he lived too freely and treated feelings lightly.
The original had tried every method to seduce Qian Kun, because Qian Kun was the only one who didn’t care about him.
Qian Kun never even spared him a glance. He’d once said coldly, “You want me to look at you? Are you worthy? Should I look at your filthy soul or your clumsy acting?”
In Qian Kun’s eyes, even the most beautiful face held no attraction.
He preferred the hardworking, upward-striving protagonist shou, whose looks were merely neat.
The contrast was meant to highlight the gong’s character.
Shen Jin absolutely hadn’t expected that in the plot, not only was he cannon fodder, but he was also cannon fodder who failed to seduce his fiancé and was driven from the Ke family, then tried to seduce the protagonist gong and was pushed away in disgust.
Because he didn’t remember he was cannon fodder, he had always lived as himself.
Now look at this.
On the most important first meeting day of the protagonist couple, the novel’s opening chapter, the most explosive plot point, what was he doing?
Not only had he touched the protagonist gong, but he also had f*cking held hands with him.
Right in front of the protagonist shou.
Ha.
Qian Kun finished washing up and hesitated over whether to wake Shen Jin. Thinking about how Shen Jin had been disturbed by mosquitoes earlier, he couldn’t bring himself to.
As he was about to leave, he noticed Shen Jin tossing restlessly, sweat beading on his forehead.
Shen Jin jolted upright and saw Qian Kun wiping his sweat, that handsome face right in front of him.
Thinking of the disaster he had caused, cutting off Qian Kun’s destined romance with his own hands.
Do you know? Yesterday’s transfer student was actually your canon partner.
He shuddered and blurted out, “Let’s break up.”
Author’s Note:
Qian Qian: ???
Qian Qian: Say something I want to hear or I’ll deal with you later.
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