64: A Climate Spectacle
“I just got here…” Seeing the obvious teasing smile on Shen Jin’s face, Qian Kun realized Shen Jin had done it on purpose.
How had he never noticed before that Shen Jin could be sly in that quiet, bad sort of way? He didn’t mind at all that Qian Kun had heard it.
Qian Kun tried to press down the curve of his mouth, but no matter what he did, he couldn’t. In the end, he gave up and let it happen.
“How could you just admit it like that?” he said. “You practically stunned your former fiancé into silence.”
Ke Minghuai was confident and composed in front of everyone.
Qian Kun could practically picture the helplessness and confusion in Ke Minghuai’s chest when Shen Jin said those words.
As a fellow Alpha, Qian Kun could understand it. Even if it wasn’t said out loud, that guy might have waited a full nine years for Shen Jin, deep down.
Shen Jin looked at him like he was weird. “Didn’t you say not to deliberately hide it, and just let things happen?”
Yeah. Let things happen.
So far, surprisingly, no one had noticed they were “dating.”
Not a single ripple of related gossip.
Why did Qian Kun feel so certain? Because he’d been scrolling forums and Tieba lately.
He was sure he’d let plenty of details slip on purpose, casually, more than once. So why was he stuck with a bunch of classmates who were blind?
Qian Kun glanced at Ke Minghuai in the distance, who had nearly tripped in his daze, and a sudden sense of rabbits-die-foxes-grieve washed over him. His overall momentum was rising, but the situation was still unclear. He was standing right on the edge of being kicked out at any moment.
The only thing protecting him was that Shen Jin still didn’t know his real feelings.
Qian Kun was certain Shen Jin had chosen him for the contract mostly because he didn’t want feelings involved.
You could tell just from how Shen Jin had immediately proposed the agreement the moment Qian Kun denied it on the phone. If it was discovered, he’d be cut off cleanly, just like Ke Minghuai, fast and decisive.
“He keeps coming to you repeatedly. That’s not how someone treats a little brother,” Qian Kun said.
“How isn’t it?” Shen Jin stayed calm. “All these years, aside from the lab, when has Ke Minghuai ever cared about anything? He’s never liked me. If he’s been a bit more enthusiastic lately, it’s probably just discomfort from being apart.”
Qian Kun stared at the other’s unwavering back.
Never liked you?
That’s not necessarily true.
*
In the afternoon, the team events rolled on. The venue was big enough that everything ran in time slots and zones. The strongest team from each school would be selected, forming the final four, and they’d compete for the championship.
Every school sent out their elite squad. Everyone was excited. It was finally time for what they were best at, team events.
Nanhu had hogged all the spotlight in the morning. Now it was their turn!
Some people even went digging up Nanhu’s results from previous years, wanting to dampen their spirits.
They searched and searched. Why couldn’t they find anything?
Four schools, three grades, more than a hundred classes total. From top to bottom, they couldn’t find any ranking for Nanhu’s Second-Year Class Nine. Someone reminded them to search from the bottom up.
Sure enough, they found it.
Third from last.
Everyone who’d been mentally preparing for a fierce battle: “…”
We prepared so hard and this is what you bring us?
It was ranked too low.
So low that in previous years, this class basically never mattered.
Over in Class Nine’s section, Jiang Yifan and the PE rep Hou Ruixing were doing pre-match hype.
“Move it, guys! If you don’t move, you’re gonna grow mushrooms!”
“It’s time for our elite squad to hit the field. Cheer squad, stand up straight!”
You’d think they were guaranteed champions.
Zheng Zhipeng looked around. “Where’s Jin-ge? He’s not going?”
Luo Ying pointed toward the broadcast booth. It was too far to see clearly, but they’d already heard Shen Jin’s cool voice over the speakers.
“Does the student council have nobody? Why is everything dumped on Jin-ge?”
“The seniors are graduating. Student council’s about to change hands. I heard this year’s officers all think highly of Jin-ge and want to recommend him as the new president. That’s why President Ke and others keep giving Jin-ge chances to show his face.”
“That kinda sounds like spoiling him.”
“What is this, ‘I watch you grow quietly while you watch me graduate’ childhood-friends vibe?”
“It’s totally got that ‘My Childhood Friend Is the Student Council President’ feel!!”
While the Omegas were clutching their faces, they suddenly felt a chill.
Qian Kun drank the last of the water in his hand and looked away.
“Can we do this without Kun-ge?”
“Have more confidence. Even with Kun-ge, we still suck.”
Liu Qimai and the others had originally aimed for top three. Now their bar was low enough that as long as they didn’t embarrass themselves, it was fine. Qian Kun sat in his seat and got special protection, basically treated like a national treasure.
“Kun-ge, just stay right here and wait for us to return in triumph!”
Qian Kun recalled Class Nine’s past record, hovering back and forth among the bottom three, and raised a brow. “Can this Xiao Kun witness the glory of our class entering the top ten?”
“Hiss—” A bunch of classmates sucked in a breath.
That demand was a bit high. We’ll try our best.
Right as they went off to compete, the broadcast started playing a string of lavish compliments for every single Class Nine student, the masterpiece of the Alpha who’d come earlier to apologize.
He didn’t use many words per person. It was probably all improvised from what he’d observed just now.
Shen Jin took the speech script he’d just received and nearly laughed. This guy was talented too.
Shen Jin cleared his throat and read in a calm, objective tone, “Student Luo Ying, you have a face as delicate as cherry blossoms, even the sun gets shy when it sees you…”
“Student Hou Ruixing, your powerful build makes you look as reliable as a mountain…”
…
Class Nine listened with great interest, discussing as they went.
They complained that this guy’s Chinese probably wasn’t great. With adjectives this plain, couldn’t he be a little more poetic?
“The speech isn’t that great, but once Jin-ge’s voice polishes it, I’m instantly energized.”
“It sounds like Jin-ge is praising me, heh. This is a huge win.”
With Liu Qimai, Zhou You, and the others joining in, the team event went far beyond what the class expected. They came charging back, full of momentum.
“Kun-ge, we’re twentieth from the bottom. Target achieved perfectly!”
Once the final four were decided, the four-school joint sports meet came to an end.
Students gradually dispersed. There was an extra day off after the meet, and with the weekend, that made three days total. It was basically a mini break. Everyone’s face was bright with excitement, and some had already grouped up to go hang out.
The homeroom teacher stopped Qian Kun. After discussing it, they decided Shen Jin would support Qian Kun to the hospital.
Outside the venue, Ke Minghuai’s mother had arranged for him to attend a family dinner afterward, so she was already waiting here.
In the past, she would also have Shen Jin come along. As the most prominent fourth-generation heir, Ke Minghuai required Shen Jin to prepare several hours early, including selecting clothes suitable for the gathering.
That wasn’t the problem. What gave Shen Jin a headache was that his taste and Mother Ke’s taste never matched.
Whatever he chose, she always had reasons to oppose it. Her words were elegant, but they carried a faint sharpness.
By the time Mother Ke arrived, most students had already left.
Normally, this would be when her son had collected multiple medals. No mother could avoid feeling proud then.
She lowered the car window, but unexpectedly heard two students passing by talking about the 3000-meter race, about Qian Kun turning the tide.
“Ke Minghuai’s mentality is so good. As a top-tier Alpha, he lost that badly, and he still looks commanding and untouched.”
“It’s not that Ke Minghuai isn’t strong, it’s that the opponent is too abnormal.”
Mother Ke didn’t like hearing Qian Kun’s name. Yet by coincidence, two boys walked out of the stadium at that exact moment.
One was supporting the other, seemingly injured. They chatted as they walked, looking extremely familiar.
In truth, it was two childish brats bickering.
“Didn’t you say it doesn’t hurt? Walk by yourself.”
“It suddenly hurts a bit. Might be internal injuries.”
“Don’t believe you.”
“Your doubt has wounded me deeply.”
Shen Jin swung a backward kick, looking incredibly convincing.
Qian Kun didn’t dodge at all. He stood there stiffly like a wounded patient. Shen Jin halted at the last possible moment, suspecting he really might be injured, and stopped fooling around.
Mother Ke recognized Shen Jin at a glance.
After so many years as a future mother-in-law, even though the engagement had already been dissolved, she was still curious who could be this close to him.
The tall boy by Shen Jin’s side seemed familiar.
She suddenly jolted and pulled out her phone. In her sisters’ group chat, those women who were desperate to latch onto the Qian family were frantically trying to find connections, pushing their nieces and younger relatives as “suitable brides” to the Qian household.
One of them had shared a side-profile photo of the Qian family’s little crown prince at a formal dance.
She had long known the name Qian Kun, but this was the first time she had truly seen him in real life.
She’d heard “Qian Kun” was a name personally chosen by the Qian family’s old patriarch, because he’d once loved a martial arts novel’s techniques so much that he named his favorite grandson after them.
It was childish, but it also proved how adored that grandson was.
She watched with her own eyes as Qian Kun opened the car door for Shen Jin, even lifting a hand to shield the top of the frame, preventing Shen Jin from bumping his head.
So natural, as if he’d done it countless times.
How could that be? Maybe it was just someone who looked similar.
Given Shen Jin’s unremarkable family background, and the fact he’d differentiated into a Beta…
If you talked about being outstanding, there were plenty of outstanding people around someone like Qian Kun. From any angle, Shen Jin wasn’t worth the little crown prince sparing a glance.
Forget about prestigious families, even ordinary wealthy households might look down on him.
She had always been convinced that without the Ke family’s protection, Shen Jin’s future partner would only “sink” lower and lower.
So when her son had suggested re-engagement and the Shen family had played hard-to-get and refused, she hadn’t rushed to approach them again. Sooner or later, the Shen family would come begging.
Then she’d say a few polite lines and set the engagement again.
In truth, she was actually quite dissatisfied. Clearly her son could have a better match, but as long as her son liked it, she could only swallow her grievances.
The more she thought, the more uneasy she became. She messaged her son: [The Qian family’s young master is at your school too?]
Ke Minghuai replied with a single character: [Yes.]
Mother Ke’s heart sank.
When she tried to look again, the two boys had already disappeared from view.
Ke Minghuai came out more than ten minutes later. He got into the car without saying a word.
He didn’t even hear what Ke Mother was saying. He only absentmindedly pulled up the stolen photo he’d taken today of Shen Jin.
Mother Ke had been chatting with a smile about what she had just seen, until she finally noticed Ke Minghuai’s distraction.
And the person on his phone screen was Shen Jin.
For the first time, she realized her son’s eyes could hold emotion.
Now they held something she couldn’t understand.
Shen Jin brought Qian Kun to the hospital. At first, Qian Kun acted it convincingly enough.
But after the imaging was done and the report printed, even someone who didn’t understand medicine could read the conclusion: “No obvious abnormality found.”
Qian Kun had expected to be exposed. He only saw that Shen Jin had looked tired in the afternoon, his mood low, and deliberately teased him a little.
Qian Kun lowered his voice to coax him. Shen Jin’s anger showed itself as refusing to acknowledge him, treating him like air.
Even so, he still didn’t abandon Qian Kun.
Shen Jin checked in again at the self-service machine, saw the doctor, and confirmed Qian Kun wasn’t seriously hurt, just a mild sprain that would improve after a few days of ointment and massage.
Only after realizing it wasn’t entirely fake did Shen Jin’s anger ease a little.
“Ancestor, I was wrong.” On the way back, Qian Kun said every soft word he could. “Mm—”
Suddenly, he clutched his head.
It hit too fast, with no warning at all.
Shen Jin didn’t believe the boy-who-cried-wolf story at first, but Qian Kun didn’t look like he was acting. Shen Jin thought of something.
Qian Kun pressed his aching temple, rolled down the window, and stared toward the dark, heavy clouds in the distance. He squeezed out a smile. “I’ve been waiting for this day for a while. I’m taking you to see an interesting climate spectacle.”
Author’s Note:
Localized rain.
Qian Qian: Good thing he doesn’t know my feelings yet.
Jin Jin: Heh.
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