Are you crazy?

For a long time, Wu Qie couldn’t say a word.

Even after the students hurriedly helped pull him up from the overturned desks, he badly wanted to explode in anger.

But he was afraid that the moment he opened his mouth, what would come out would be a weak sound completely unbecoming of a teacher’s dignity.

All his focus was on his tightly clenched molars.

His lips were pressed together so firmly they almost formed a straight line.

—Which made Wu Qie’s expression look extremely unpleasant.

Not caring that there was still a thick-skinned Alpha nearby coughing up blood, Zhao Shu tossed his phone to a classmate and told him to call an ambulance.

Then he took Wu Qie from another student’s hands.

Wu Qie resisted slightly.

But there was no helping it.

The student who had originally been supporting him was extremely self-aware.

The moment Zhao Shu approached, the guy didn’t say a single unnecessary word and immediately handed over the “support duty.”

When they arrived at the infirmary, Wu Qie thought the school doctor must feel quite helpless too.

After all, the infirmary existed mainly to serve students.

Yet within just a few days, the doctor had already seen Teacher Xiao Wu who taught geography twice.

And every time, that very famous student Zhao Shu was accompanying him.

And every time—

He was injured.

Last time it was his wrist.

This time it was his waist.

Because the atmosphere when everyone entered the infirmary was very gloomy and no one spoke, the school doctor—who had just heard some fresh gossip earlier that day—suddenly felt an inexplicable urge to liven things up.

“So what happened, Teacher Xiao Wu? Where did you get hurt this time?”

“With Zhao Shu watching over you, how did you still manage to get injured?”

This question was the perfect example of bringing up exactly the wrong thing.

Zhao Shu’s face had already turned dark while being asked.

When the doctor finished speaking, he saw the black-haired Beta—who had been supported by Zhao Shu—pause for a moment.

A brief blank confusion appeared on his face.

Then he raised his hand and brushed away the young Alpha’s arm that had been supporting his waist.

At that moment, Zhao Shu’s face turned completely dark.

Dark like the bottom of a pot that had burned dry and then been roasted over fire for another half hour.

“I fell.”

While speaking, Wu Qie slowly moved onto the hospital bed and chose a position that didn’t hurt as much before lying down.

The doctor leaned over, poking here and pressing there, performing a routine examination.

In the end he concluded that Wu Qie’s waist probably wasn’t broken, but there was still a possibility it had been sprained.

During the check, he bent down and lifted the hem of Teacher Xiao Wu’s shirt to take a look.

Then he sharply sucked in a breath.

Zhao Shu stood behind him and couldn’t see anything.

Hearing the doctor making such a fuss annoyed him.

He frowned deeply.

Standing with his hands on his hips, the Alpha raised his voice and asked the black-haired young man on the bed—

“Why the hell did you come over earlier?”

The person being blamed unfairly was lying on his side with his back facing Zhao Shu.

He was holding his phone, telling Teacher Wang—who he had a barely decent relationship with—to go check on Class F and see whether the injured student had been successfully sent to the ambulance.

When he suddenly heard Zhao Shu speak, his voice on the phone paused.

A few seconds of silence passed.

Without turning his head, the black-haired young man replied in a normal tone—

“The one lying here right now is me.”

“I haven’t complained about anything.”

“Can you talk less nonsense?”

There was a rare trace of impatience in his voice.

So rare that even Zhao Shu froze for a moment.

In Zhao Shu’s limited understanding, even when Wu Qie had been threatened before regarding Pei Qingyu, the Beta had only shown helplessness and endless compromise.

Wu Qie had always seemed completely unrelated to the word impatient.

But now—

He really did sound impatient.

……

Rarely, Wu Qie noticed that the person behind him didn’t immediately argue back.

The only movement was someone dragging a chair over.

Then sitting down behind him with a very obvious thump.

Holding the same side-lying position for a long time was tiring.

But since there was someone glaring at him behind his back, Wu Qie didn’t feel like turning over to face him.

So he simply closed his eyes and endured it.

After all, Zhao Shu didn’t look like someone with much patience.

Wu Qie believed he would leave soon.

While waiting, Zhao Shu’s phone kept ringing.

One of the calls was probably from Lin Zuwen.

The voice on the other end spoke endlessly.

Zhao Shu calmly replied with only two sentences—

“It’s none of your business.”

“He deserved it.”

Then he hung up.

As the class bell rang, the news that an Alpha in Class F had harassed an Omega and then been beaten into the hospital by another Alpha spread so fast that even the wild ducks in the lake behind the school probably heard about it.

Even outside the infirmary now, in the hallway—

People were discussing it.

“So the old metal anti-bite collars are still the most reliable—”

“Those things are heavy and ugly. Most young Omega masters prefer treating them as fashion accessories now…”

“But Lin Zuwen’s lace one… that was way more decorative than functional, right?”

“What nonsense are you guys talking about? What does the collar style have to do with anything?”

A sharp and indignant voice suddenly interrupted.

It sounded like an Omega speaking from personal experience.

“Trying to lift someone’s anti-bite collar before it’s even confirmed loose—is that something a person with a functioning brainstem would do?”

Messing with an Omega’s anti-bite collar—

In earlier times, it was basically like a man publicly groping someone in the street.

Crazy.

Unbelievable.

After that question, the hallway fell silent.

At the same time, Wu Qie’s neck finally couldn’t tolerate staying in that position any longer.

He turned over.

Facing the other side.

“Why haven’t you left yet?”

Zhao Shu had been looking down at his phone.

Hearing that, he raised his head.

Completely unaware that he had just won a silent cold war, he put down the phone and leaned closer.

“Does your waist still hurt?”

“That’s none of your business.”

“Why are you still here? Shouldn’t you go look after Lin Zuwen?”

“Are you angry?”

“What would I be angry about?”

“Then should I apologize?”

“I didn’t know it was you who rushed over earlier.”

“When Alphas fight each other, staying away is common sense, right?”

Zhao Shu clearly didn’t understand Wu Qie’s sour expression.

“You’ve been pointing your butt at me the whole time.”

His tone sounded like he was describing a duck, or a dog, or a cat at home—

Getting angry at its owner for not receiving the food it wanted.

The whole complaint had zero intimidation.

Just fluffy and unreasonable.

“Don’t point your butt at me,” Zhao Shu said.

“I stayed in that position because my waist hurts,” Wu Qie replied calmly.

“But I’m fine. I won’t die.”

“You don’t have to sit here guarding me like a tomb keeper watching over my grave.”

“……”

Zhao Shu thought for a long time before reaching a conclusion.

“Are you unhappy about what happened earlier?”

“No.”

Only helplessness.

In this world, no one could remain calm when dealing with someone who simply refused to understand what you were saying.

Zhao Shu couldn’t tell whether he liked hearing that answer or not.

He stretched his long legs.

“Lin Zuwen is my friend.”

“With things ending up like that, it’s hard not to take care of him.”

Wu Qie didn’t understand why Zhao Shu suddenly felt the need to explain this.

But he didn’t bother asking.

He just responded casually—

“Mm.”

Seeing Wu Qie’s indifferent attitude, Zhao Shu raised an eyebrow.

“I’m serious.”

“Omegas should be cherished a bit.”

“Look, I’m even being mocked in the group chat right now.”

As he spoke, he unlocked his phone and held the screen directly in front of Wu Qie’s face.

Wu Qie still found the whole thing extremely baffling.

He didn’t see what was worth showing.

But he glanced at it anyway.

Zhao Shu was showing him a group chat he shared with his friends.

There were eight people in it.

The group name was—

“Since We’re Already Rich Playboy Heirs, Can We Stop Studying?”

Wu Qie suddenly found that stupid name weirdly funny.

He let out a small laugh.

The black-haired young man’s slightly narrowed eyes and lifted lips made Zhao Shu inexplicably think of a stray cat living on the nearby hills behind his house.

All its usual gentleness was just a disguise to avoid being chased away.

In reality, it had a terrible temper and was hard to please.

Zhao Shu’s gaze fell on the corner of Wu Qie’s raised lips.

He thought—

It didn’t look bad like this.

Before his brain could catch up, he suddenly blurted out—

“Lin Zuwen joined later.”

“He’s not in the group chat.”

Wu Qie gave him a strange glance.

At the top of the chat, someone with the ID “Lin Shen Jian Lu” had sent several photos of Xie Yi being carried onto a stretcher with blood all over his face.

He tagged Zhao Shu and said that maybe Brother Guipu might show up at school again today.

Zhao Shu replied like a furious dog—

telling him to f*ck off.

Wu Qie vaguely remembered that the sender was probably Lin Chen from Class B.

He usually hung around Zhao Shu and Pei Qingyu.

There were also people like Zhou Tong from Class C and Liang Wenjin.

A bunch of Alpha youths always walking around arm-in-arm like gangsters.

The rest were probably older.

For example Zhang Gengxin, the guy who ran a bar.

He was jumping around the chat like a melon-eating spectator begging the students to send more pictures.

After Lin Chen posted more photos, he kept tagging Zhao Shu nonstop and mocking him for failing to even take care of the Omega right under his nose.

[Liang the Prodigal of Jiangcheng: Uh… maybe it’s because he already has a fiancé.]

[Zhou Tong: Breaking news. I heard the fight happened in Zhao Shu’s fiancé’s class? Causing chaos in your fiancé’s class for another Omega? What kind of crazy love-triangle drama is this? We’re all in school—why is only your school life this exciting? @Shu]

[Zhang Gengxin: Wait, Zhao Shu really has a fiancé now? I heard that this morning but thought it was bullshit.]

[Liang the Prodigal of Jiangcheng: It’s real. A teacher at our school.]

[Zhang Gengxin: Another teacher from your school?]

[Liang the Prodigal of Jiangcheng: “Another”?]

“See?” Zhao Shu said.

“If I hadn’t stepped in to help Lin Zuwen earlier, they’d probably twist it into something else.”

“Like saying I became heartless because of you.”

Wu Qie couldn’t be bothered responding.

Meanwhile the chat kept updating.

None of the messages had any substance.

[Lin Shen Jian Lu: If you can’t take care of our only Omega, then let me do it.]

[Zhou Tong: If you can’t take care of our only Omega, then let me do it.]

[ABO’s A: If you can’t take care of our only Omega, then let me do it.]

[Buzz Lightyear: If you can’t take care of our only Omega, then let me do it.]

The meaningless message chain continued until it reached Zhang Gengxin.

He copied the sentence too, then added—

“Oh wait, cancel that. I have a partner already. I can’t.”

Wu Qie silently cursed idiot in his head.

At that moment, as the screen scrolled down, he saw a somewhat familiar ID—

[Pei: If you can’t take care of our only Omega, then let me do it.]

“……”

Wu Qie withdrew his gaze from Zhao Shu’s phone.

Expressionless, he stared blankly ahead for a moment.

Then suddenly said—

“My waist hurts.”

And lay back down again.

Zhao Shu was completely confused by his sudden mood swing.

He had no idea how someone who had just been laughing at the chat suddenly changed faces in a second.

He turned the phone toward himself, thinking someone in the chat must have said something outrageous.

But it was just meaningless spam.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the Beta curled up on the bed pulling the blanket over himself and covering his head.

Zhao Shu: “?”

Until he scrolled to the very bottom of the chat history.

In an instant, the confusion on his face changed.

He couldn’t quite describe the feeling.

Zhao Shu’s expression darkened.

He put down the phone, reached over, and yanked the blanket off Wu Qie’s face.

Then he grabbed the man’s chin and forcefully turned his face back toward him.

“Pei Qingyu was just copying the message mindlessly.”

“He probably didn’t even read what he sent.”

“And that’s what made you upset?”

“I accidentally shoved you into the infirmary and you weren’t even mad.”

“But Pei Qingyu copy-pasting one sentence makes you upset?”

“Seriously?”

“Are you sick or something?”