ABMSI Chapter 76

With Duan Wei fussing over him for the past few days, Father Duan was finally discharged, and Duan Wei could at last return to the normal misery that was 12th grade.

Because he’d been running meals back and forth before, he’d naturally fallen behind a bit in his coursework. Everything else was manageable… except math. If you miss one chapter in math, even catching up on six won’t save you.

One lesson missed beats six made up.

Meanwhile, Fu Duqiu—who’d been practically glued to him these days—was completely unaffected. When the monthly exam results came out, he was still leagues ahead of everyone else, leaving the second-place student far behind in the dust.

Duan Wei was used to it by now. And after spending time together these days, his relationship with Fu Duqiu had naturally improved.

Maybe noticing that Duan Wei wasn’t fully comfortable with their… dynamic, Fu Duqiu didn’t force anything. He didn’t push closer, just occasionally joked around like during the dinner that night. The rest of the time, he behaved normally.

Duan Wei quite enjoyed that. As long as Fu Duqiu didn’t cross the invisible line, he could accept just about anything.

“Brother Duan, what are we eating for lunch?”

It was the end of the month, time for a seating shuffle again. Just like last semester, Peng Yan ended up in front of Duan Wei. As they say, “Front seat like flowing water, deskmate like iron.” And sure enough, Fu Duqiu remained seated right next to him.

“No idea.” Duan Wei stretched lazily, having finally finished all his makeup work in one go. He lay slumped over his desk, ready to nap for the rest of eternity. Seeing this, Peng Yan whispered sneaky-quietly, “Brother Duan… wanna hit the internet café?”

Thinking back, it felt like centuries since Duan Wei last went messing around in an internet café with his fellow delinquents. He paused, then nodded.
“How many of us?”

“You, me, Rat Dog and Mountain Monkey, the usual crew.”

They were all dumb nicknames used between bros — a group of tight buddies all from the same school. Duan Wei glanced at the schedule. The afternoon classes were all review sessions; go or don’t go, it made little difference. So he agreed.

Peng Yan immediately pulled a phone out from the desk compartment.
“Great, they already ditched class. I’ll tell them to save us seats.”

There were many schools near No. 1 High, but only one internet café. Classic case of too many monks, too little gruel — seat saving was life or death. But just as Peng Yan was about to text them, Fu Duqiu suddenly looked up from his test paper and said: “Save one for me too.”

“Huh?”
Since Fu Duqiu never participated in their truancy operations, Peng Yan stared wide-eyed. “You’re going to the internet café?”

Fu Duqiu: “Mm.”

“Alright, three seats then.” Duan Wei accepted on Peng Yan’s behalf.

Peng Yan nodded, ready to send the message, when Fu Duqiu suddenly added:

“My spot has to be next to Duan Wei.”

Duan Wei: “…”

Peng Yan: “…”

The sudden silence between them didn’t bother Fu Duqiu at all. Apparently, he thought he’d said something perfectly normal. Duan Wei, however, wanted to roll his eyes straight through his skull.
Great. Here he goes again…

It was Peng Yan who finally broke the quiet.
“Seats in the café are all random, you know.”

It’s not a freaking library.

Thus, the three of them coordinated long-distance reservations. Soon after, the bell rang. As luck would have it, today was a school open-day, which meant no obstacles — they went straight into the internet café smooth as butter.

As expected, the café was packed, and there were plenty of familiar faces from No. 1 High. Since the whole “seat saving” issue made Duan Wei suspect Fu Duqiu had never been here before, he took the lead up front, glancing back repeatedly to make sure he didn’t lose him.

Fu Duqiu followed quietly behind. Even outside school grounds, the scholarly aura still clung to him, painfully out of place against the smoky, neon-lit background. It gave Duan Wei a bizarre feeling — like he was corrupting an upstanding student.

Rat Dog and the others had saved them seats further inside. When Duan Wei sat down, several boys immediately looked up. Some were Alphas, some Betas. Fu Duqiu only swept his gaze over them once, then calmly took the seat beside Duan Wei.

“Brother Duan,” Rat Dog whispered, lowering his voice, “why’s the school prince here?”

Naturally they all knew him — he was a walking campus headline.

“Uh…” Duan Wei couldn’t think of a reason on short notice. So he simply said,
“He’s just here to relax.”

Hearing that, the boys all nodded.
“True, top students must be under a lot of pressure. Makes sense.”

“What are we playing?” Peng Yan pressed the power button. “LoL?”

Duan Wei put on his headphones and hummed in reply, but then immediately frowned and looked to the far right. He spotted an Alpha blowing out clouds of smoke and yelled,
“Mountain Monkey!”

“Got it!” The Alpha instantly understood what Duan Wei meant even though nothing was said, and obediently put out his cigarette.

While organizing his earphone cord, Fu Duqiu glanced—subtle, sharp—at the Alpha called “Mountain Monkey.”

They called him Monkey because he was skinny, but ironically had a very attractive face. He’d only been here a few hours and already several Omegas had come up to ask for his contact info. He rejected all of them.

Fu Duqiu withdrew his gaze without a trace and quietly asked Duan Wei,
“Who’s that?”

“Who?” Duan Wei blanked for a second, then realized and laughed. “Oh, him? Class 10’s heartthrob. A buddy of mine. Come on, Peng Yan, invite me!”

Then as if remembering something, he turned to Fu Duqiu.
“You playing?”

Seeing that the boy’s eyes contained only the game, Fu Duqiu didn’t press further. He simply nodded.
“Playing.”

This was the first time Duan Wei had ever played games with Fu Duqiu. It felt oddly fresh. And that novelty only intensified after Duan Wei saw Fu Duqiu’s rank.

“The school prince is Diamond?!?” an Alpha exclaimed.

Fu Duqiu replied calmly, “I haven’t played in a long time.”

“You guys really haven’t seen the world.”

Duan Wei chuckled as he entered the lobby. His rank flashed brightly on the screen—King of Glory’s Highest Rank: Top King.

“What the hell? Duan-ge, when did you sneak up there?!” Peng Yan shouted.

Duan Wei proudly waved his hand.
“Played casually over winter break. No idea how I ended up there. Sigh… the air up here is too thin to breathe.”

The table full of boys collectively shuddered at his smugness.

Their ranks were wildly different, so they could only queue casual matches together. After they loaded into the game, Duan Wei, the almighty Marksman King, said to Fu Duqiu:
“Play support for me, yeah? Can you use Nautilus?”

“Okay.”

With that settled, Duan Wei picked his best ADC. He might suck at everything else in life, but in games he steamrolled—MVP and highest damage, every single time.

Mountain Monkey had skipped class all morning to play, and unsurprisingly lost several matches. Even though it was only casual mode, when Duan Wei wiped the field, Monkey practically howled,
“Holy crap, Duan-ge, you’re insane! I’m sticking with you from now on!”

“Sorry, we’re incompatible. Get to Grandmaster first,” Duan Wei replied coldly.

“I don’t care. You’re carrying all my ranked games from now on!” Monkey refused to give up. A hulking Alpha actually acting clingy—what a sight.

The net café buzzed with noise. While Peng Yan was happily playing, he suddenly noticed that Monkey had somehow squeezed himself between Duan Wei and Fu Duqiu, begging Duan Wei to boost him.

Duan Wei was annoyed to death and finally surrendered.
“Fine, fine, fine. I’ll call you when I’m boosting. Happy?”

“Deal!”

The moment that word landed, Fu Duqiu’s eyelids lowered. He wanted to say something, but swallowed it, quietly asking instead,
“Can you… carry me too?”

His tone wasn’t fawning like Monkey’s, but it was very serious. Everyone froze. Even Monkey was stunned—his perception of the cold school genius shattered.

Duan Wei was also surprised. Their relationship was good enough that he would’ve carried Fu Duqiu even without being asked, but he still asked,
“You wanna hit King too??”

That didn’t quite match Fu Duqiu’s vibe.

“Yeah.” Fu Duqiu replied faintly, then fell silent.

A row of boys faced their screens. Only Peng Yan sighed softly, thinking: What a disaster.

After a moment of awkward quiet, Monkey chuckled.
“Then we can trio! I’m top lane, super tank, super manly!”

“Sure,” Duan Wei agreed without hesitation. He turned to Fu Duqiu.
“I’ll play ADC, you support, he’s top. Strongest team in the whole server—who dares oppose us!”

He high-fived Monkey with dramatic enthusiasm.

Smack.

Fu Duqiu’s brows tightened. Something was clearly simmering.

Just when Peng Yan thought a fight was coming, Fu Duqiu suddenly stood up and said in a calm voice,
“I’m going to the restroom.”

Then he walked away.

Silence settled instantly. Watching his back, Monkey finally sensed something was off and quickly scurried back to his seat to behave.

Duan Wei stared at the exit, confused. Fu Duqiu showed anger and calmness in the exact same way. Duan Wei genuinely couldn’t read him.

Peng Yan saw Duan Wei’s expression and finally thought he’d noticed Fu Duqiu’s mood.
“What’s wrong, Duan-ge? Aren’t you gonna go after him?”

“I want to, but I don’t even know what I did wrong!” Duan Wei panicked.

Peng Yan wanted to say, Who cares, just go coax him, but before he could, Duan Wei muttered,
“Is it because I made him play support? If he wants to play carry, I can switch!”

Peng Yan: “…Never mind. Don’t go.”

Just let the world burn. I’m tired.

Meanwhile, Fu Duqiu stood outside the restroom corridor, staring at his reflection—expression dark, unreadable.

He felt an unfamiliar irritation, worse than when he got worked up during New Year’s basketball. Yet he and Duan Wei weren’t anything. He had no right to show this emotion.

He didn’t understand why, but when Mountain Monkey leaned close to Duan Wei, something primitive surged up inside him—he wanted to grab Duan Wei and hold him tight, not letting anyone else touch him.

The possessiveness was both strange and disturbingly familiar. Even before, he’d never had such sharp territorial instinct.

Fu Duqiu frowned slightly, suddenly realizing the likely reason.

His susceptible period was probably on its way.

—

Author’s Note:
His susceptibility period is coming, so… you know 😉 (Identity reveal is on the way too.)