Like an angry, puffed-up little cat

Jian Yixun especially hated delicate-looking boys—this had been common knowledge ever since he started his undergraduate studies at University B.

Back during military training, when Jian Yixun was still a freshman, a senior in his fourth year—someone who looked gentle and scholarly—cornered him in the men’s bathhouse to confess, even going so far as to touch him.

Jian Yixun snapped and beat the guy up, nearly getting himself disciplined.

After that, every single pretty, gentle-looking boy who tried to confess to him met a closed door without exception.

Although Jian Yixun had the kind of physique considered top-tier in gay circles, the things he said when rejecting people were truly unpleasant.

Over time, others had the desire but not the courage, and no longer dared to risk their lives by confessing to him.

But now, looking at Xu Shuche’s utterly bullied appearance, there was very little disgust in Jian Yixun’s heart.

Instead, he found him kind of… interesting.

If he didn’t know that the redhead had only been foul-mouthed and said a few nasty things, Jian Yixun would have suspected he’d actually beaten Xu Shuche.

At this moment, Xu Shuche seemed to have already pulled himself together.

His expression returned to its usual cool detachment.

He glanced at Jian Yixun and very deliberately put some distance between them.

Most of the time, people were the ones crowding toward him.

Today was the first time someone had actively avoided him.

Jian Yixun felt extremely displeased.

He forcefully stuffed the pack of tissues into Xu Shuche’s hand.

“Take it.

You’re about to cry.”

“I didn’t.”

The corners of Xu Shuche’s lips lifted slightly, revealing a faintly mocking smile.

“I just happen to be a person with decent manners, and I can’t stand filthy words coming out of a dog’s mouth.”

The redhead, blocked behind Jian Yixun, heard this and seemed to realize he was being compared to a barking dog.

He bared his teeth and tried to jump out, only to be stopped by Jian Yixun.

“Talking badly was his fault,” Jian Yixun said, after all being in the wrong.

It was the first time in his life he’d apologized so humbly.

“But you don’t need to take your anger out on me, right?”

Xu Shuche narrowed his eyes slightly and let out a soft laugh.

His thin lips moved.

“Birds of a feather.”

After saying that, he brushed past the two of them lightly and left the stepped classroom.

The redhead spat hard onto the ground and promptly earned another slap from Jian Yixun.

Jian Yixun had been dragged into that sarcastic mess and was already full of anger.

“Don’t come to the basketball team tomorrow.

Go wherever you want.

We don’t need idiots on the team.

You’re expelled.”

The redhead’s face changed instantly.

He had heard that Jian Yixun hated Xu Shuche’s type the most.

Originally, he thought he could act as a pioneer and curry favor with the basketball captain.

He hadn’t expected to flatter the wrong end of the horse.

It was all Xu Shuche’s fault.

The moment he thought of Xu Shuche’s cool, aloof, high-and-mighty expression, resentment surged up in him.

Cursing Xu Shuche under his breath, the redhead hurriedly chased after Jian Yixun as they left the stepped classroom.

Xu Shuche didn’t go straight to Building A.

He stood in the stairwell for a while, calming the heart that had been pounding wildly from emotional agitation.

“Sissy” and “effeminate” had been high-frequency labels used to describe him in high school.

There were even harsher insults like “pervert” and “eunuch.”

So now, hearing the redhead say those things, his first reaction wasn’t anger.

It was numbness.

What counted as feminine?

What counted as masculine?

Why was masculinity loved by everyone, while boys who were just a bit gentler had to endure personal attacks?

This was a question he often couldn’t figure out in high school.

Back then, he would spiral thinking about it, even developing depressive symptoms before the college entrance exam.

Later, after taking medication regularly for a while, his emotions finally stabilized again.

Xu Shuche sighed.

After feeling his heartbeat return to a normal rhythm, he slowly headed toward Building A.

Building A, Room 201, was a meeting room.

There were already about a dozen people seated inside.

At a glance, aside from one of his roommates, he didn’t recognize anyone else.

His roommate was named Qu Chao.

He was also quite delicate-looking.

Over the past year, he’d barely stayed in the dorm, yet had always harbored some inexplicable hostility toward Xu Shuche.

Now that he saw Xu Shuche enter, he deliberately raised his voice while talking to the people around him, openly flaunting the fact that he had friends with him.

Xu Shuche ignored him outright.

Out of habit, he tucked himself into an inconspicuous corner and slowly drank the strawberry fresh milk in his hand.

The meeting room door opened and closed softly.

Several professors from different departments walked in with materials and stood at the podium, talking in low voices.

Seeing the professors arrive, everyone else put away their phones and books.

A gray-haired elderly professor had just cleared his throat and was about to speak when the meeting room door was suddenly shoved open again.

Jian Yixun was still wearing a sports tank top.

His hair was damp and plastered to his scalp, with water droplets still dripping down his cheeks.

“I’m sorry, Professor Li,” he said, panting as he bowed to the professors on the podium.

“I got held up on the way just now.

I didn’t mean to be late.”

He hurriedly lifted his head to glance at the remaining empty seats, then walked straight toward Xu Shuche.

Xu Shuche had been staring out the window, spacing out.

Suddenly, a hot body appeared beside him, startling him.

Before he could react, a pair of long, carelessly stretched legs barged into his view.

Since the girls were all seated in the front rows, and no one paid attention to the back row, Jian Yixun lifted the hem of his tank top and roughly wiped the water off his forehead.

When Jian Yixun lifted his shirt, Xu Shuche saw several very eye-catching, well-defined abs.

His gaze lingered there for a moment.

After satisfying his eyes, he calmly looked away, as if nothing had happened.

The body really was good.

Worthy of the nickname “gay-circle eye candy.”

But the personality was exactly the type Xu Shuche disliked.

Jian Yixun wasn’t done after wiping his sweat.

His restless long legs curled up, and his knee slammed heavily into Xu Shuche’s leg.

Xu Shuche frowned and shifted slightly to the side.

“What?

Senior’s still mad at me?”

Jian Yixun snorted, his voice dripping with mockery.

“How about I apologize to you again, Senior?”

This little brat kept calling him “Senior,” sounding polite as hell.

But what he said was utterly unruly.

Xu Shuche didn’t even look at him.

“No need.”

“Senior, are you still drinking that?”

Jian Yixun pointed at the strawberry fresh milk in Xu Shuche’s hand, which only had a bit left at the bottom.

“I’m kind of thirsty.

If you don’t mind, can you donate it to me?”

“…I drank from it.”

Xu Shuche frowned, trying to dissuade him, feeling that this person was truly strange.

Didn’t he hate contact with men?

How could he propose something like “let me drink something you already drank”?

“So what if you drank from it?”

Jian Yixun looked genuinely confused.

“Who on our basketball team hasn’t shared saliva before?”

Good lord.

You straight men are terrifying.

Shock flashed through Xu Shuche’s eyes.

He neither said “okay” nor “not okay.”

Jian Yixun seemed to take it as consent.

He reached out, grabbed Xu Shuche’s wrist, lowered his head, and bit onto the straw Xu Shuche had used.

Xu Shuche’s wrist tightened painfully.

He let out a soft, muffled sound.

“It hurts.”

Jian Yixun froze.

“Huh?”

Xu Shuche coldly pulled his wrist free from Jian Yixun’s palm.

Jian Yixun watched as a red mark slowly surfaced around the originally fair wrist.

It did seem like he’d grabbed it just now.

But he hadn’t used any force at all!

Jian Yixun was baffled.

Usually, he and his basketball teammates shoved and jostled each other all the time.

Punch here, slap there—no one ever complained about pain.

So why was Xu Shuche like a porcelain doll, turning red at the slightest touch?

“Senior, I really didn’t use any force,” Jian Yixun said, feeling like he’d been falsely accused.

“Are you the Princess and the Pea?

Why do you turn red just from a touch?”

Xu Shuche bit his lip in embarrassment and shot him a vicious glare.

“You’re so annoying.

Are you done yet?”

Hearing this accusation—completely lacking in lethality and almost sounding like sulking—Jian Yixun felt as if something had lightly scratched his chest.

A fine, lingering itch spread.

Searching for something to say, he went on.

“That was actually pretty good.

I always thought milk tea was something girls liked, so I never tried it before.”

After saying that, he paused and added.

“I didn’t mean you’re a girl, Senior.”

Xu Shuche blatantly moved even farther away from him.

“Stay away from me.”

Jian Yixun was completely confused by the scolding.

Horseplay and sharing a bottle of water were things he did all the time with his basketball buddies.

How did it turn into “something wrong with you” when it came to Xu Shuche?

He had been pretty annoyed.

But when he looked up and met those beautiful, angry phoenix eyes, the retort he wanted to throw back suddenly stuck in his throat.

Not a single word came out.

Xu Shuche looked like an enraged little cat.

This thought popped inexplicably into Jian Yixun’s head.

“…For this research task, the school will divide you into several groups and have you select topics together.

This is University B’s first collaboration with Imperial College.

I hope the physics students and the students from the School of English can cooperate well.”

After the gray-haired Professor Li finished speaking, he heard faint murmuring.

His sharp gaze landed in the direction of the sound.

He saw Jian Yixun with his head lowered, apparently busy with something, only the fluffy back of his head bobbing.

He coughed heavily.

“Jian Yixun.”

Jian Yixun had been planning to tease this easily-ruffled senior a bit more.

Unexpectedly, he got called out.

He shot to his feet.

“Here.”

“What are you busy with down there?”

Professor Li had taught him since undergrad and all the way into graduate school.

He appreciated Jian Yixun’s clever mind but was also often infuriated by his unruliness.

He knew full well the kid wasn’t doing anything good.

“I just said you’d be divided into groups.

Do you already have someone in mind, so you don’t need to listen?”

Jian Yixun cleared his throat.

“Uh, well…”

For some reason, Qu Chao suddenly became lively.

He waved toward Jian Yixun from several rows away.

“Junior, junior, I think we’re quite suitable!”

He’d put on lip balm today.

Under the lights, his lips looked especially glossy, making his features even more striking.

Jian Yixun’s gaze landed on his face.

Then unmistakable disgust spread across his brows and eyes.

It was as if he wasn’t looking at a pretty boy, but at a universally despised fly or rat.

When Qu Chao caught his look, he froze.

Then his mouth drooped, and he looked at Jian Yixun pitifully.

Seeing Jian Yixun sitting so close to Xu Shuche earlier, he had thought Jian Yixun was no longer homophobic.

Half jealous, half secretly pleased, he’d been about to test the waters.

Instead, he was looked at like trash.

Jian Yixun scratched his head irritably.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Xu Shuche’s wrist, where the faint redness hadn’t yet faded.

His mind went blank for a moment.

The words slipped out.

“I already have someone.”

“I’ve decided to group up with Senior Xu.”