🍒Chapter 28: You can mark me right now…
After finally settling on his outfit, Shen Shuyi began looking forward to the school’s evening party.
During this time, Qiao Wan had sent him a private message.
Qiao Wan: [You’re attending the summer party, right? I remember you’re giving a speech on stage?]
Shen Shuyi: [Yes.]
Qiao Wan: [Then are you also joining the dance afterwards?]
Shen Shuyi: [I am, with my partner.]
Qiao Wan: [The one I saw with you at school last time?]
Shen Shuyi: [Yes.]
Qiao Wan didn’t reply again.
Shen Shuyi knew what she was implying, but so what? He wouldn’t like Lin Shen, and he was already married.
On the night of the party, there were far more people coming in and out of the school auditorium than before. Many brought family members, and the seats in the audience were filled with couples of every gender.
Xie Chenzhou was busy with work, so Shen Shuyi hadn’t invited him to the evening party itself, only to the dance afterwards. Mostly because in the auditorium, the audience had to sit shoulder to shoulder, and Shen Shuyi worried Xie Chenzhou wouldn’t feel comfortable.
But to his surprise, after finishing his speech, he spotted Xie Chenzhou standing quietly at the back of the audience.
Expression calm, he was clapping along with the rest of the crowd for Shen Shuyi’s speech.
Shen Shuyi’s cheeks flushed. The moment he stepped off stage, he hurried along the aisle toward the entrance where Xie Chenzhou stood.
“Mr. Xie, when did you arrive?” Shen Shuyi asked, face flushed.
“Just now.” Xie Chenzhou looked down at him and stepped forward, reaching toward an empty seat at the back row. He picked up a bouquet of fresh, vibrant flowers and handed them to Shen Shuyi.
“These… these are for me?” Shen Shuyi’s eyes widened in delight, his long lashes trembling with his blinking.
“Yes.” Xie Chenzhou’s gaze was steady.
Lowering his head to look at the bouquet, Shen Shuyi saw how beautifully it was arranged. Clearly, the person who chose it had excellent taste. It was nothing like the recycled bouquets the school prepared for students on stage.
The flowers were lush and colourful, their fragrance rich. Shen Shuyi instinctively searched among them, but didn’t find white magnolias. Instead, there were several black baccara roses as accents.
A faint disappointment flickered in his heart. He had wanted to try smelling the scent of magnolias on something connected to Xie Chenzhou, but it seemed Xie was deliberately avoiding them.
Still, it didn’t matter. The fact that he was here tonight already made Shen Shuyi very happy.
Clutching the bouquet, he walked out of the auditorium with Xie Chenzhou.
The formal outfit he wore tonight had its buttons fastened that morning by Xie Chenzhou. The iris brooch pinned at his chest had also been placed by him.
Perhaps because giving the speech had stirred his emotions, Shen Shuyi seemed more excitable and energetic than usual.
“Ah… I always used to think I was useless,” he said shyly, scratching his head. “It felt like nothing I did was ever praised. I never thought the school would choose me to give a speech as an outstanding student representative.”
He sighed. “Although… I know my grades aren’t really that great. Maybe it’s just that sometimes… I work harder than others.”
For example, those group projects where everyone struggled to finish, he was often the only one willing to stay up all night, working until the deadline to make sure it got done.
It took so much effort for him to achieve things that some people didn’t even value.
“No, you’re excellent,” Xie Chenzhou stopped and said. “At least, in my heart you are.”
“Check out the dance rules, don’t miss out!” Ahead, students in charge of organising the dance were handing out flyers.
Holding his bouquet, Shen Shuyi quickly took one. Under the bright streetlight overhead, he skimmed through the bold heading.
Truth or Lie - Thirty Minutes of Darkness
A student nearby explained: “The dance will last an hour and a half. For half an hour, we’ll hold this activity. Everyone wears masks, the lights go out, and you have to pick a dance partner in the dark. During those thirty minutes, you can only speak lies. Well, most of the time. Some might mix lies with truth, so it’s up to you to figure it out.”
“So, thirty minutes of lying in the dark?” Shen Shuyi turned to Xie Chenzhou. “Mr. Xie, do you still want to participate?” Wouldn’t he think it was too childish?
Lying? Speaking the opposite? Wasn’t this just like those noisy variety shows on TV? Third Brother would probably be good at it.
But Xie Chenzhou didn’t mind. He said he came tonight just to spend time with Shen Shuyi.
He said it was to be with him.
Shen Shuyi’s face heated again.
Mr. Xie really was a mature, steady, and thoughtful person.
At the entrance of the dance hall, vendors were selling temporary “gland disguise patches.”
These patches allowed someone to disguise as any gender. For instance, a Beta with a Beta patch became a “disguised” Beta.
Since most Betas couldn’t detect pheromones, they identified gender by observing the gland. Only an exposed gland could prove someone’s true gender. Some Omegas were tall and muscular, some Alphas short and thin. Rare, but not impossible.
Of course, the patches were crude and obviously fake, but they were good enough for games like this.
“I’ll use this one, Mr. Xie. I already look like a Beta, I can’t really disguise as anything else!” Shen Shuyi said, picking a Beta patch.
Xie Chenzhou chose one as well, also a Beta.
“You too? Mr. Xie doesn’t look like a Beta.”
“That’s a stereotype,” Xie Chenzhou said, unusually lecturing. “Who says I can’t be a Beta?”
“True…” Shen Shuyi hesitated. “Then what if I disguise as an Alpha?”
His hand hovered over the colourful patches before he finally grabbed a blind box pack. “Better let fate decide.”
Xie Chenzhou paid. They also picked out masks from another stall: Shen Shuyi chose a small rabbit mask, while Xie Chenzhou picked a fox mask.
“We both know each other’s disguises. Won’t that ruin the surprise?” Shen Shuyi turned the rabbit mask over in his hands. “But even if you don’t tell me, I think I’d still recognise you in a crowd.”
Holding the fox mask, Xie Chenzhou asked casually, “Even in the dark? Without sight or scent, you’d still know me first?”
Something flashed across Shen Shuyi’s mind and he froze.
Seeing this, Xie Chenzhou paused too.
“S-sorry…” Shen Shuyi whispered. “I remembered that night at the club… not a pleasant memory.”
“I’m sorry, I wasn’t being considerate,” Xie Chenzhou said quickly.
“It’s fine… I chose not to dwell on it.” He forced himself to adjust. “Come on, let’s go in.”
Before entering the hall, Shen Shuyi opened his blind box. It turned out to be an Omega patch.
He had thought of being a Beta, maybe even an Alpha. He never expected Omega. But since it was bought with Xie Chenzhou’s money, he stuck it on anyway.
So now, he was “an Omega.” Beside him, Xie Chenzhou was “a Beta.”
The patch had a layer of pheromone blocker, so no one could detect their true scent.
Before stepping into the dance floor, Shen Shuyi even removed the iris brooch from his chest so he wouldn’t be recognised immediately. If he was going to disguise, he would commit to it.
The dance began. The lights dimmed until the hall was almost completely dark.
Only now did Shen Shuyi realise it might really be hard to find Xie Chenzhou right away. After all, everyone had bought masks from the same stalls.
After one slow dance, the host announced: “The game begins.”
The hall went pitch-black.
“Mr. Xie…” Instinctively, Shen Shuyi reached out and grabbed the hem of his clothes.
“I’m here,” Xie Chenzhou’s low voice answered, and he pulled him close by the waist.
People were dancing everywhere. For Shen Shuyi, this was the first time he had been so consciously close to Xie Chenzhou.
His heart pounded like a drum, but beneath it all was a faint fear. Maybe because of the shadow left by that scoundrel at the Chengding Club.
He edged even closer to Xie Chenzhou. Through his mask, he lifted his head to look at the dark, glowing eyes behind the fox mask.
The only light in the darkness came from those eyes.
“The lying game starts now,” the host’s voice rang out.
Xie Chenzhou lowered his head, his breath brushing Shen Shuyi’s ear. “Shen Shuyi, did you know? Sometimes I really wish you were an Omega.”
The deep murmur made Shen Shuyi forget he was supposed to lie. Instead, he asked, “Why?”
“So I could mark you. Every day, I’d mark you.” His voice was soft, his words suggestive, yet they didn’t sound filthy at all.
Shen Shuyi felt dazed, his legs weak. Forcing himself to stay calm, he answered, “I… Mr. Xie, I am an Omega. You can mark me right now.”
It was just a game of lies, wasn’t it?
To him, lying meant saying the opposite. He hadn’t expected Xie Chenzhou to create a completely fabricated truth instead. That was far more clever, far more thrilling.
Of course, he thought. A Huada Alpha Academy graduate’s mind really does turn faster.
Shen Shuyi decided to learn from him. With a hint of defiance, he looked up at Xie Chenzhou. He too could be bold, he too could play along.
But he didn’t realise that after speaking, his breathing had already gone uneven.
His head tilted slightly back, his long neck exposed, like a graceful swan waiting for something. The most vulnerable part of him lay bare before Xie Chenzhou.
He didn’t know that Alphas had stronger night vision than Betas, let alone that Xie Chenzhou was an Enigma.
To Xie Chenzhou, the dark hall and Shen Shuyi’s exposed neck were clear as day.
He leaned closer, his breath brushing Shen Shuyi’s skin.
Memories of the Chengding Club surged back. Why, in the darkness, did Xie Chenzhou feel so much like that intruder?
The sharp edge of his nose traced along Shen Shuyi’s nape, inch by inch. His canines hovered over the Omega patch.
But unlike that night, Shen Shuyi now caught Xie Chenzhou’s faint, unique fragrance.
“Can I mark you?” Xie whispered. “My canines will pierce your gland, leaving it filled with my pheromones. For the next week, your body will carry my scent.”
Shen Shuyi almost couldn’t stand. Clutching at his shoulders, practically hanging onto him, he forced himself to steady his trembling voice. Slowly, softly, weakly, he breathed into Xie Chenzhou’s ear, word by word:
“Yes. You can.”
Translator’s Corner
Shen Shuyi: “Mr. Xie, I’m totally an Omega, you can mark me right now.”
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