ABMSI Chapter 18

The wind blew in through the window. Duan Wei glanced at Fu Duqiu beside him, resignedly picked up a glass of milk, and followed Qiao Ying out of the room.

“You’re in love?” Qiao Ying had just sat down on the sofa when she blurted that out.

At those words, the mouthful of milk Duan Wei had just drunk almost came spraying back out. He choked a few times, eyes wide in shock as he stared at Qiao Ying. “What are you even thinking?!”

“Then what exactly were you doing in there?” Qiao Ying glared at him. “That strong of a pheromone scent—what, do you think I’m deaf and blind?”

Even if you were deaf and blind, you’d still smell it…

Duan Wei sighed, spent a moment organizing his words, and said, “I was just trying to control my pheromones, and he happened to help me a bit.”

“You need hugging and cuddling just to control your pheromones?” Qiao Ying clearly didn’t buy it.

“We didn’t hug or cuddle…”

Even as he said it, a warmth spread in Duan Wei’s chest. He knew that even if Fu Duqiu’s “top student aura” had temporarily blinded his mom, the moment she realized her precious cabbage in the backyard might get stolen, he would always be her priority.

He chuckled lightly. “It really was just simply controlling pheromones.”

“That’s good, then.” Seeing his serious expression, Qiao Ying turned her head and nodded. “Makes sense—how could Xiao Qiu possibly like you. I really was overthinking.”

“…”

Duan Wei’s smile froze instantly. He felt it might be necessary to go dig out his birth certificate—just to make sure he wasn’t actually adopted.

Unaware of his expression, Qiao Ying sighed with worry. She and Duan’s father had only this one child. She was usually busy with work, so for most of his childhood it was Duan’s father who raised him.

And their family dynamic was the classic kind: indulgent father, strict mother. Under his father’s wing, Duan Wei had grown mischievous and daring, climbing roofs and tearing tiles, excelling at everything.

Back then, Qiao Ying had thought, he’s just a Beta, and didn’t think much of it. Who could have guessed he would turn out to be an Omega?

“Now that you’re an Omega, you have to take good care of yourself, understand? The world’s dangerous these days. If you have any problems, you tell me, okay?”

“Got it, got it.” Duan Wei nodded quickly.

After chatting a bit more, he was finally released back to his room.

In just that short time, the pheromone scent in the room had faded a lot. Fu Duqiu was still seated in the same spot, a few of Duan Wei’s test papers in one hand and a pen in the other. When he saw Duan Wei at the door, he said flatly, “Congratulations, just a few more wrong answers and you’ll be racing straight to last place.”

Duan Wei immediately snatched the papers from him. All the answers had been scribbled over, and the once clean white sheets were now covered with pencil notes. Frowning, he said, “Who told you to mess with my papers?”

“Had nothing else to do,” Fu Duqiu set the pen down and pointed at the desk. “By the way, your phone’s been buzzing nonstop.”

Since the fight earlier, Duan Wei’s phone had died and powered off. After coming home, he’d left it charging in his room and completely forgotten about it.

At Fu’s words, he tossed the papers aside, unlocked the screen—and saw WeChat notifications flashing continuously.

Crap.

His heart gave a heavy thud. For days now he’d only been logging into his alt account—and that account had exactly one contact on the list: Fu Duqiu.

Sure enough, when he opened the phone, three new messages glowed on the screen:

[Are you asleep?]
[That problem from earlier actually has a better solution. I’ll send it to you.]
[Image]

Duan Wei’s grip on the phone suddenly tightened. He swallowed hard and instinctively glanced at the top right corner of the screen.

His phone was on vibrate.

Just imagining it—each time Fu Duqiu sent a message, his phone would buzz once. Three messages in a row? Even calling it a coincidence would be impossible.

His back was to Fu Duqiu, and maybe because he’d released pheromones earlier, his legs were still a bit weak. His brain spun rapidly, even coming up with an excuse about “finding a phone someone left behind.”

But when he turned around, Fu Duqiu looked completely unbothered, his expression calm as ever. After a long moment, he said, “What’s wrong? Did Lao Qin find out about the fight?”

“…” Duan Wei hesitated, glanced at the phone, then at Fu Duqiu, and shook his head. “No, it’s from Xiao Yanzi.”

Fu Duqiu tilted his head, as if thinking it over, those dark eyes fixed intently on him. Then suddenly he stood and said, “It’s about the fight? Let me see.”

Duan Wei didn’t dare let him near the phone. At once, he shut the screen off and waved his hand. “No, no, nothing like that. He just—uh—had an online relationship. Yeah, and it failed. Hahahahaha isn’t that hilarious?”

“Online relationship?”

Fu Duqiu’s gaze flickered, his eyes locking straight onto Duan Wei.

Forcing himself to meet Fu Duqiu’s eyes, Duan Wei’s smile was on the verge of stiffening completely. That steady gaze fixed on him made his scalp prickle with unease.

A faint trace of pheromones lingered between them. Suddenly, a car horn blared outside, and only then did Fu Duqiu finally withdraw his long, searching look, stepping back slightly. “Yeah, it is pretty funny.”

Duan Wei exhaled sharply, set his phone aside, and—feeling guilty—instinctively flattered him: “You don’t need online dating. I’m sure tons of people at school like you.”

“Is that so?” Fu Duqiu said lightly. “I’ve noticed you seem to pay a lot of attention to me.”

The words rang very familiar. Duan Wei remembered when Fu had asked the same thing before—back then he’d blurted out a ridiculous answer.

So he shook his head quickly. “So many people at school are paying attention to you—it’s impossible for me not to notice.”

“…” Fu Duqiu said nothing, but his eyes carefully read every flicker of Duan Wei’s expression, weighing whether the words were true.

After a long silence, he took out his phone. “Remember that girl who added me on WeChat?”

Seriously, picking the one subject I didn’t want to hear about… Duan Wei’s chest tightened again. Forcing calm, he asked, “Yeah, I remember. What about her?”

“You said she was your type,” Fu Duqiu said. “Should I introduce her to you?”

Absolutely not!

Duan Wei instinctively shook his head, then hastily came up with a better excuse. “I… I’ve actually started liking another girl recently. Why don’t you just hold onto her contact for me—I’ll ask you for it later.”

He laughed as he spoke, trying to act like some cocky, careless flirt—someone greedy and unreliable.

Fu Duqiu narrowed his eyes slightly, studying the newly-differentiated Omega in front of him.

Under the warm yellow light, Duan Wei’s face was cast in soft hues. The glands at the back of his neck still looked tender and immature, faintly releasing traces of pheromones. His lips curved just so, his head tilted with that paradoxical air of being both affectionate and callous.

Meeting that gaze, Duan Wei felt a sudden chill. Ever since he’d come back from talking to Qiao Ying, Fu Duqiu had been acting strange. He couldn’t pinpoint what exactly was off, but there was something unusual hidden in his eyes.

“Xu Jianian?” Fu Duqiu suddenly asked.

“…Huh?” The name hit him like a snapped string. He shook his head furiously. “No, no, definitely not her.”

He hadn’t forgotten the main storyline, and the last thing he wanted was for Fu Duqiu to think there was anything between him and Xu Jianian.

Before Fu could press further, Duan Wei glanced at the time and said, “It’s late, let’s sleep.”

Please, just go—if you stay, I’ll run out of lies to spin.

Fu Duqiu gave him one last glance before turning away without a word. Picking up his phone from the bed, he said, “Then I’ll head back to my room.”

“Yeah, yeah, good night.” Duan Wei quickly responded, placing a hand on Fu’s shoulder and ushering him out to the doorway.

Their rooms were separated by a corridor, pitch-black without any lights, though with nothing to trip over. Still, Duan Wei clearly felt Fu Duqiu hesitate for the briefest moment before walking forward into the dark.

Once that living Buddha was finally gone, Duan Wei slumped onto his bed with a long sigh of relief. He picked up his phone from the desk and sent a reply:

[Thanks, senior.]

Because of his guilt, he didn’t dare type much. After a long wait, a message came back:

[Still awake?]

What the—did the sun just rise in the west? Fu Duqiu was starting the conversation for once?

Duan Wei thought hard, typing and deleting several times before finally sending:

[Yeah, I was just coaxing someone to sleep.]

On the other end, Fu Duqiu’s fingers paused. The light of the screen reflected a small halo onto his face as he slowly tasted the words: “Coaxing someone to sleep…”

Then, as if afraid of being misunderstood, a new message arrived:

[Coaxing my younger brother.]

The moment he saw it, whatever faint emotion had flickered in Fu’s eyes vanished. He typed back:

[You have a brother?]

Meanwhile, Duan Wei’s eyes went wide in shock.

Fu Duqiu’s unexpected eagerness tonight was beyond anything he’d imagined. Naturally, Duan Wei wasn’t about to waste the opportunity. After racking his brain, he sent:

[Yeah, kids these days are hard to handle. But I’ve got my tricks.]

[What tricks?]

[Rewards, of course. If he behaves, he gets a piece of candy.]

After sending that, Duan Wei deliberately waited a moment before following up with:

[But you don’t need that. With me, you’ll always have candy no matter what.]

And there it was—Duan Wei’s Guide to Pursuing Love, Step 2: Cringy Pick-Up Lines.

The moment he sent it, he was overwhelmed with goosebumps, tossing the phone aside and rolling around on the bed just to shake off the cringe.

Not that he expected much anyway. Fu Duqiu was ridiculously hard to flirt with—he could already picture the reply: “I don’t eat candy.” or “Why would I want your candy?”

Sure enough, silence. No reply.

Duan Wei packed up his things for class the next day, switched off the desk lamp, and settled into bed.

But just as he lay down, his phone screen lit up. Unlocking it, he froze—there was a voice message.

No way. Did he really send a whole voice note just to scold me?

Sweet talk is fun for a moment, but get blocked and burned and it’s game over.

Trembling, he pressed play. The speaker icon appeared, and Fu Duqiu’s voice came through:

“Alright. I’ll wait.”

Maybe the phone had been held close—Duan Wei could even hear the faint vibration of Fu’s Adam’s apple as he spoke.

“…Holy shit.”

The light from the screen lit up his stunned expression. He shot upright in bed like a carp flipping over, staring at the message in disbelief.

Fu Duqiu’s not seriously out of his mind tonight, right?