Chapter 43: Waiting Part 1

On Sunday night, Zhu Lexing boarded her return flight. Even along the way, she was still mulling over that phrase: “intimate Alpha.”

The more she thought about it, the stranger and more unreasonable it seemed. She asked the System: 【What’s really going on with Yan Mian?】

【Compared to Yan Mian, the Host’s mental state is far more concerning.】

Zhu Lexing: ?

What was wrong with her mental state? She was perfectly fine! She could even belt out a karaoke song in public.

The System continued: 【You’ve already fallen for Yan Mian, so—】

Zhu Lexing cut it off instantly: 【Who said I like Yan Mian?】

Zhu Lexing refused to engage with the System any further. It seemed on the verge of saying more but ultimately fell silent on the matter.

Yet the topic of “liking Yan Mian” didn’t end there with the System.

The next day, in the No. 1 High School Cafeteria.

The moment Xu He spotted Zhu Lexing, she demanded: “What did you two get up to yesterday? Confess and you’ll get leniency—resist and face strict punishment!”

Xu He was referring to Yan Mian’s Moments post from the day before.

It was a set of nine beautifully edited seaside photos. Beneath the hazy lights, the ocean looked even more majestic, the beach teeming with indistinct silhouettes, all captured with impeccable style. Tucked among them was a faded, yellowish double portrait.

Anyone who knew Yan Mian would know her Moments feed was a wasteland overgrown with weeds from sheer neglect. Her rare posts were either nine-image rants or that selfie with Zhu Lexing.

What else could this mean but that they were together now!

The others clearly shared the same suspicion, but with Xu He having spoken for them, they all leaned in eagerly, primed for the gossip.

Zhu Lexing tried to explain: “We just went to a concert. The flowers were an impulse buy on the way, and the photos were snapped on the way…”

“The fireworks were ‘on the way’ too, right?” Qiao Qiao chimed in.

The birthday fireworks hadn’t exploded onto the hot searches, but they’d made a splash in local news. Pushed by big data algorithms, everyone had seen the short video featuring Yan Mian’s name in glaring pinyin.

Zhu Lexing, staunchly believing that denial bred truth, insisted: “Yes.”

The group wore identical looks of disbelief. Zhu Lexing drew a deep breath, deciding that if you can’t beat them, join them. She turned the tables on Qiao Qiao: “And what about you?”

Qiao Qiao went abruptly silent, her gaze flicking instinctively to Xu He. Xu He flushed for no apparent reason, stammering incoherently. In those few seconds, the world fell utterly quiet.

Zhu Lexing mentally dubbed the pair the “Mute Couple.”

On the way home—an unusual occurrence—she received a message from Yan Mian right at that hour.

It was two videos. In the darkness, candles flickered atop a Little Sheep Cake. Yan Mian wore a birthday hat, the candlelight illuminating her face. The camera wobbled in a circle; Ning Yan was clearly the one filming. Before she could even start the birthday song, Yan Mian blew out the candles.

Everyone froze on the spot.

Yan Mian said: “I’ve already made my wish.”

Ning Yan let out a “Wah—!” and the video cut off. Compared to two days earlier, Yan Mian’s decisive demeanor in the clip was night and day.

Zhu Lexing replayed it over and over, listening to “I’ve already made my wish” several times. Her heart turned to mush. Biting her lip, she typed:

—…Eating it today?

—Video from two days ago. Ning Yan just sent it to me.

Her fingertips tapped and poked at the screen. Suddenly, Zhu Lexing sensed an ambiguous, indefinable tension.

Unwilling to dwell on it, she typed directly: Why not make a wish?

—Can’t I make a second one after the first?

—It’s different.

—…How is it different?

—First one’s a wish. Second one’s greed.

—It might not come true anyway. Why are you so superstitious?

She deleted the last line.

Seconds later, Yan Mian sent a rolling, cute cat emoji—like a playful punctuation mark at the end of the line. Then came another:

—This weekend… will you come again?

Zhu Lexing took it as an invitation. She held her breath, furrowing her brow to craft a reply—

—Got a small exam this week, can’t take off. Next week work?

She stared at the message for several seconds before firing off a perfunctory: We’ll see.

Yan Mian replied with a simple “Okay.”

Zhu Lexing figured her response counted as a gentle letdown, but Yan Mian seemed blissfully unaware. The very next day, before evening study hall, she called.

Over the line, Yan Mian now seemed the one taking the initiative. She chatted about her recent daily life and homework problems. Zhu Lexing listened intently, jotting notes with pen and paper.

Toward the end, she brought up the fireworks from that day.

“Ning Yan asked if my name was up there.”

“She said… those were confession fireworks.”

Do all Betas share a single brain? Their logic was identical.

After a few seconds of silence, Zhu Lexing said: “Xu He asked me the same thing.”

“How did you answer?” Yan Mian pursed her lips, feeling inexplicably tense.

Zhu Lexing’s instinct was to dodge the question, but Yan Mian pressed again. She had no choice: “Of course I said… no. What else would I say?”

Yan Mian’s tone carried a hint of regret: “Is that so?”

Zhu Lexing hated playing guessing games with people’s thoughts. The current situation was driving her mad. She even wanted to ask outright what answer Yan Mian was hoping for, but a flicker of timidity held her back.

After hanging up, Zhu Lexing went straight after the System: 【Is there really no glitch with Yan Mian’s favorability?】

The System replied: 【No.】

Zhu Lexing immediately tried to pull up Yan Mian’s Favorability Interface to shove it in the System’s face.

But the usual three major sections, paragons of sleek design, had dwindled to just one.

【Comments Section】

Zhu Lexing blurted in shock: 【What does this mean? Now I can only see the Comment Section?】

【The System is undergoing an estimated one-month maintenance period. Please wait patiently, Host…】

【Your System needs a whole month for maintenance? What a failure—】

Before she could finish cursing, the System said: 【After maintenance ends, a mysterious gift will be sent to the Host.】

Zhu Lexing fell silent.

Although the System was extremely unreliable, it was still an otherworldly force, so the gift it sent should be pretty cool.

Zhu Lexing decided to tolerate it for now and curse it out after receiving the gift if it turned out to be lousy.

After all, things had come to this; what else could she do but make do?

Meanwhile, Yan Mian had somehow learned about Qiao Qiao’s confession, but she didn’t care about Qiao Qiao herself—she was more interested in Zhu Lexing’s name.

Zhu Lexing, recalling her own embarrassing ID: “…”

She cleared her throat lightly and said, “A name is just an external thing. I’m planning to change it to a new one, and I’ll tell you once it’s done.”

Yan Mian agreed. That very night, she saw Qiao Qiao sharing a screenshot of her battle record. The character named “Fugitive Alpha from Dragon Country” had earned MVP with an outstanding performance, and in Qiao Qiao’s past screenshots, Tyrannosaurus A had always held a steady spot.

Xu He wasn’t around, but Tyrannosaurus A was.

After hesitating for a moment, Yan Mian took the initiative to ask Qiao Qiao about it. But as soon as she sent the name, Qiao Qiao replied with a string of hahahas.

-You think Zhu Lexing’s name is stupid too, right?

-I told her to change it before, but she wouldn’t. Why did she agree as soon as you suggested it?

In the past, Yan Mian would have bristled at such a message and chosen to ignore it, brushing it off perfunctorily.

But today, she replied: I didn’t tell her to change it. The name is very cute; there’s no need.

Qiao Qiao sent a question mark.

Then she immediately forwarded the screenshot to Zhu Lexing.

Even without Yan Mian around, Zhu Lexing still had Liu Su’s loving chicken soup to enjoy in the evening. She was focused on slurping it down when she saw the message and casually tapped it open.

Then Qiao Qiao’s incredulous voice rang out: “Zhu Lexing, you still claim you’re not together with Yan Mian—”

The moment her voice trailed off, Liu Su looked toward Zhu Lexing.

Zhu Lexing stared at the screen.

The living room fell into a deathly silence.

After a long while, Zhu Lexing said awkwardly, “She… she’s just talking nonsense.”

With that, she quickly opened the chat record Qiao Qiao had sent and showed it to Liu Su.

Admittedly, Yan Mian’s words had caught her completely off guard. Zhu Lexing couldn’t imagine what state of mind Yan Mian must have been in to call her crazy ID “cute.”

But with Liu Su right there, no matter how surprised she felt, Zhu Lexing schooled her expression into perfect neutrality. Like Yan Mian, Liu Su only noticed that ridiculously long name.

Zhu Lexing could only offer an awkward explanation, which earned her a peal of silvery bell-like laughter, followed by a warm hand gently stroking her hair.

Liu Su didn’t say much more. Zhu Lexing had no idea what she was thinking, but she could tell she’d muddled through this one. The next day, she changed her name to Zhu Lexing.

Real-name gaming—who else but her!

That night, Zhu Lexing received a friend request from 【YANMIAN】.

-…The original name was taken.

Zhu Lexing nearly burst out laughing.

For a long time after that, Zhu Lexing kept up daily contact with Yan Mian. Yan Mian was swamped with work and hadn’t logged into the game since adding her as a friend, but Zhu Lexing was diligent about it. She sent Yan Mian every skin she had and every prop she’d gotten.

She didn’t know why she was doing it, but she wanted to, so she did.

Days blurred by amid schoolwork and their steady chats. When Zhu Lexing stood on the sports field with snowflakes drifting onto her hair, she realized winter had arrived.

Tomorrow, Yan Mian’s competition would begin—a total of five days. Zhu Lexing couldn’t skip classes every day to stay by her side. Even though everyone around her would have cheered that on, after half a year of hard work, suddenly letting it all go to waste would just feel pointless.

Even so, Zhu Lexing booked a ticket for the final day. After paying, she glanced at the time—it was about when Yan Mian would be getting out of class—and switched back to their chat.

As the eve of the exam drew near, Zhu Lexing surprisingly didn’t want to tell Yan Mian “good luck.” Too many people said that to an Omega; she didn’t want to be just one more. After mulling it over, she decided to send Yan Mian a red envelope instead.

But Yan Mian didn’t claim it. She sent back a screenshot instead. In it, the last messages from 【Auntie Liu】, 【Uncle Zhu】, and 【Mom】 were all unclaimed red envelopes.

What drew the eye most, though, was the pinned chat at the top. It wasn’t labeled with a name but with a single star.

Zhu Lexing stared at her own avatar: “…”

Dazedly, she started to zoom in, but the photo was withdrawn. A few seconds later, Yan Mian seemed to catch on and sent another screenshot—this one of the chat now unpinned.

This clumsy cover-up left Zhu Lexing speechless.

Carefree as she was, she couldn’t help wondering right then if Yan Mian really harbored other feelings for her.

Zhu Lexing had heard that Omegas could develop dependencies on an Alpha’s pheromones, but Yan Mian’s behavior had never hinted at anything like that, so she’d assumed she wasn’t one of them.

Yet her attitude right now… it did feel special.

Unable to puzzle it out, Zhu Lexing simply sent a standard good-luck emoji.

Yan Mian replied with a cat sticker, as usual. Zhu Lexing had no clue where she found so many cats.

Gazing at the little cat on her screen, Zhu Lexing hesitated before typing: Do you like cats a lot?

Yan Mian paused.

-It’s okay.

-…Oh.

-Don’t go adopting a cat just because I said it’s okay.

Zhu Lexing, whose thoughts had been read like a book: “…”

-I didn’t say that!

-I didn’t even think it! You’re imagining things!

-Yeah. I like cats, but I don’t want to keep one.

Zhu Lexing knew better than to press the topic just then.

But she couldn’t help asking: Why?

-I had one when I was little.