Ordinary Beta

“I’m sorry. We should break up.”

“You’re a good person.”

“Being with you is comfortable and easy.”

“But he’s a very powerful Alpha.”

“I like the pine-needle-and-sea-salt scent on him.”

“And I don’t want to live my whole life relying on suppressants.”

“The sense of security an Alpha gives an Omega is something no matter how good a Beta is, he can never replace.”

It was already early autumn. The streets were filled with the fragrance of osmanthus blossoms.

Amid the flow of passersby, Wu Qie stood calmly and listened to his boyfriend—correction, his ex-boyfriend’s—breakup declaration.

Pedestrians passing by cast sympathetic looks at him.

But once they clearly saw that one side of the broken relationship was a beautiful, youthful-looking Omega,and the other was merely an unremarkable Beta, plain in both appearance and clothing, those looks shifted into something closer to expectation.

Wu Qie looked at Lan Yin.

Objectively speaking, Lan Yin had been a wonderful partner.

He was cheerful and optimistic. Lively and adorable.

He never checked up on Wu Qie or caused unreasonable scenes.

He always smelled soft and sweet…

As the drummer of a resident band, Lan Yin had many fans.

He also had many pursuers who assumed he was extravagant with money.

Among them were no shortage of outstanding Alphas.

Sometimes, Wu Qie himself wondered what Lan Yin had seen in him.

“Because A-Qie is a Beta.”

“You don’t release pheromones to oppress people.”

“It makes you gentle.”

Lan Yin had always said it like that.

Now, thinking back, the warmer that smile had been when those words were spoken, the more poignant it felt in hindsight.

But Wu Qie wasn’t particularly surprised.

Morally questionable as it was to admit, looking at his ex-boyfriend’s face now—that beautiful face filled with guilt, drooping like a drowned puppy—he even felt a subtle, twisted sense of relief.

Like a boot that had been hanging overhead had finally fallen.

An ordinary face.

A middle school geography teacher’s job. A regular schedule of work, holidays, and grading.A regular, rule-abiding personality.

Wu Qie was just a Beta.

Among ants, he was a lifetime labor ant.

In a beehive, a tireless worker bee.

They were the most numerous and most mediocre group in society.

Without them, social stability would collapse.

But their contribution was only to maintain the most basic operation of civilization.

“Lan Yin, don’t cry.”

Wu Qie let out a slow, silent breath.

He realized he could even smile.

Although he was already twenty-four, Lan Yin’s appearance was deceptively youthful.

The black-haired Beta raised his hand, gently ruffling Lan Yin’s hair like he would a student.

“It’s okay.” His voice was calm beyond expectation. “As long as you’ve made up your mind.”

As he spoke, he handed over the gift he was carrying.

Today was Lan Yin’s birthday.

That evening, the band had a birthday-themed performance. They didn’t actually have much time to meet.

Wu Qie taught during the day. By the time he finished after dark,Lan Yin’s band would already be rehearsing for the show.

If he counted carefully, the time they usually spent together was often just that short lunch break at noon—

They had never even gone to see a movie together.

Rather than lovers, they were more like lunch companions.

Wu Qie felt it was rather pitiful himself.

That morning, after finishing his last class, he had rushed to the mall to pick out a gift for Lan Yin, planning to give it to him before returning to school for afternoon classes.

He hadn’t expected it to become a parting gift instead.

Lan Yin glanced at the shopping bag in the man’s hand.

When he saw the four-leaf-clover-shaped brand logo,
he froze.

He let out a small “Eh?”

He couldn’t understand how Wu Qie—a middle school teacher—had managed to buy a luxury watch that would cost Lan Yin two years of salary, without eating or drinking, just to afford the basic model.

But the man in front of him only smiled.

“Take it.”

“I bought it for you anyway.”

“Last time I saw you flipping through that magazine and even taking photos.”

Lan Yin’s lips trembled.

In the end, he whimpered and threw himself into his ex-boyfriend’s arms.

He cried pitifully, complaining that if Wu Qie were an Alpha, how great it would be—even if he were an Omega, Lan Yin said he would still be willing to be in a same-s*x relationship with him.

“I just don’t want to go through heat alone!”

“You can’t even smell me!”

“It makes me look stupid and miserable!”

He cried so hard that he sounded like a sobbing toy train.

Wu Qie could only pat his shoulder and murmur,

“Alright, alright,” smiling bitterly.

But what choice did he have?

He was just a painfully ordinary Beta, as if he had been born only to make up the numbers in the world.

But Betas weren’t bad.

Wu Qie genuinely believed that.

…

On the way back to school, his mood was not good.

After all, it was a breakup he had truly invested feelings in.

He didn’t want to talk to anyone.

Didn’t want small talk.

Didn’t want to explain to his colleagues why he’d returned so early after saying he was having lunch with his boyfriend.

He bought a sandwich at a convenience store, entered through the school’s back gate, found a shaded spot behind an outdoor basketball court, and sat down to eat in silence.

His family had only shifted their business focus to Jiang City a year ago.

His relatives and childhood friends were all still in Ning City.

Here, aside from colleagues and Lan Yin’s circle, he had almost no social life.

There was no one he could talk to about how stifled he felt.

He took out his phone.

As expected, aside from his mother asking whether he could come home for dinner, no one had contacted him.

Wu Qie replied with a casual “Okay” and began scrolling through short videos of cats and dogs.

He was happily watching a video of a dog warming itself by a fire and burning its butt—when suddenly, a loud crash sounded behind him.

It was like something hard had smashed into something else.

Then came a sharp “bang” as it burst apart.

Wu Qie: “…”

This was Hongtie Middle School of Jiang City.

Located in the city’s prime district.

In a city where every inch of land was worth a fortune, Hongtie stood right next to the most prosperous commercial center.

As a private school with a long history, it gathered the best faculty from across the southern region.

It had produced countless industry elites and provincial top scorers.

The Hall of Fame at its centennial celebration had been spectacular.

High tuition and strict academic requirements kept most ordinary people outside its gates.

In such an environment, it was normal for bizarre things to happen—things that would never occur in ordinary schools.

Wu Qie warned himself repeatedly not to meddle.

Old money and the affairs of the powerful were things someone like him—the foolish son of a rural landlord, and not even from this village—should stay far away from.

But after holding back again and again, he still couldn’t help it.

He turned off his phone and looked through the mesh fence into the basketball court.

A chaotic Alpha brawl was unfolding at the center of the court.

Like two wild beasts rolling and tearing at each other on the ground.

A tall Alpha student in a third-year uniformwas straddling another Alpha of a slightly lower rank, his fists raining down on the other’s face mercilessly.

Overpowered, the Alpha pinned beneath him couldn’t break free, thrashing like a dying fish.

When the violent struggle finally forced the attacker to pause, an impatient expression crossed the handsome, aggressive face.

He raised his fist, aimed at the bridge of the other’s nose, and slammed it down with a brutal crack.

Blood sprayed instantly, splattering across the boy’s brows and staining his eyes red.

The one beneath him stopped struggling completely, his body going limp.

Cries erupted around them.

From the crowd, a slender student—their secondary gender indistinguishable—screamed and rushed forward, grabbing the Alpha’s elbow from behind.

“Zhao Shu!”

“Zhao Shu, stop!”

“I’m fine!”

“I’m fine—he’ll die!”

Interrupted, the Alpha turned with a ferocious expression, eyes bloodshot.

But when he saw the fear and urgency on the slender boy’s face, the sharp hostility in his brows eased slightly.

He looked back at the one beneath him.

Already beaten beyond recognition.

Pulled away by the slender boy, the Alpha who had been pinned finally managed to sit up.

His body swayed. Blood poured from his nose like a broken faucet.

“Zhao Shu!”

Amid the cry, the Alpha moved like a rabid dog off its leash.

He glanced once at the person on the ground—then suddenly, without warning, lifted his leg and delivered another kick.

The kick sent the man flying more than a meter.

He collapsed face-down and didn’t get back up.

“Say it again.”

A cold voice rang out.

The boy’s voice, just past puberty, was low, hoarse, magnetic, and filled with vicious menace.

“What exactly were you planning to do after Lin Zuwen differentiated into an Omega?”

Outside the basketball court, Wu Qie’s head buzzed.

Before he could think, he called out:

“Hey.”

…

Every person on the court turned toward the sound.

Separated by the fence stood a black-haired young man, wearing a hoodie and jeans.

From this distance, his face wasn’t clear.

But Hongtie students wore standard uniforms.

So that man had to be a teacher.

The teacher enthusiastically called out to the bloodied student, asking why he hadn’t submitted the last homework assignment
and telling him to go to the office and make it up immediately.

Such a clumsy attempt at mediation.

So clumsy that Zhao Shu couldn’t be bothered to argue with him.

He tried to recall which subject this poorly dressed, meddlesome teacher taught.

He couldn’t remember.

He turned his head away, staring at the corner of the basketball hoop.

“Get lost.”

The bloodied Alpha, granted amnesty, ran like a defeated wolf.

From start to finish, the boy’s gaze never lingered on the black-haired teacher outside the court for even a single extra second.