The Adult Ceremony

That evening, members from all three schools appeared at the izakaya as if by unspoken agreement.

The hostility and tension from the beginning of the joint training camp had gradually faded into familiarity.

It had only been a few days, yet it somehow felt as though several years had passed.

The teenagers looked at one another.

Faced with those familiar faces—whether they had found them annoying before or not—not a single harsh word could be spoken tonight.

At first, everyone occupied separate corners of the restaurant.

Each group drank on its own.

But after several rounds of alcohol, nobody knew who started it.

People began wandering all over the place.

In every corner of the izakaya, there might be a Hongtie High student sitting there, arm slung around someone from Imperial Capital No. 2 High who had been calling them nouveau riche just two days ago.

Or perhaps a student from Yicheng Affiliated High loudly shouting:

“Why did you only lose to us by four points?!”

Teacher Wu ended up adding an absurd number of random contacts over the course of the evening.

Fortunately, he didn’t get drunk.

This time he had learned his lesson.

He secretly diluted his alcohol with water.

Whenever a drunk teenager challenged him to drink, they would finish an entire cup while he only took a sip.

Later that night, Teacher Wu received a phone call.

Without attracting anyone’s attention, he slid open the wooden door and stepped into the corridor.

The cold winter wind immediately rushed toward him.

The scent of snow and ice swept away the warmth clinging to his body.

Standing beneath the eaves, the black-haired Beta instinctively shivered.

He shrank his neck slightly.

Thankfully, the high collar of his sweater prevented the movement from looking too pathetic.

Facing the empty courtyard, warm white mist escaped from his lips.

Only then did he lower his head and pull out his phone again.

The sender wasn’t a friend.

In fact, they had only added each other two days ago.

According to Li Ying, the person worked in airport VIP services and happened to be on the night shift.

Wu Qie had completed this extremely satisfying act of bribery for the price of one thousand yuan.

In the video, the proud and noble Visay twins had just completed security inspection and were boarding their private jet.

Cold winds whipped their trench coats into waves behind them.

As the coat belts fluttered in the air, Bijita Visay, who had already stepped onto the boarding stairs, suddenly turned his head.

His emerald-green eyes looked toward a certain empty patch of air behind him.

There was nothing there.

It was as though he was looking at someone through empty space.

Or perhaps staring into the void itself.

There was no anger.

No regret.

His handsome face remained as cold as ever.

Wu Qie watched as Bijita Visay and Rhine Visay entered the private jet.

The cabin door closed behind them.

The moment it shut—

He leaned back against the wall.

Then slowly released a long breath.

Finally.

It was over.

Wu Qie thought.

The next morning, everyone packed their luggage and boarded their respective school buses.

Since practically everyone had drunk too much the previous night, the entire group was suffering from collective hangovers.

While teachers cursed and complained nearby, the students shuffled forward with pale faces, floating footsteps, and heavy dark circles beneath their eyes.

Wang Jiajia hung from Gao Fan’s shoulder.

“I swear I’ll never drink again.”

“Shut up.”

Gao Fan pressed a hand against his temple.

“My head hurts enough already.”

Wu Qie had been following behind them toward the bus.

Just as he was about to board, someone called out from behind.

Turning around, he discovered Zhou Kai standing there with both hands in his pockets and his usual expressionless face.

Beside him stood Jiang Xilu.

Half his face was buried inside his outdoor jacket.

The exposed half was red enough to be alarming.

Jiang Xilu stammered helplessly.

Zhou Kai kicked him impatiently from behind.

“This guy has something he wants to say to you.”

“He followed you around like a stalker yesterday.”

“He watched you play on your phone in the corridor after leaving the izakaya.”

“Then he followed you to the restroom too—”

“AHHHHHHH!”

Jiang Xilu nearly exploded.

Wu Qie: “…”

That had indeed happened.

After respectfully seeing the Visay twins off with both eyes, he had gone to the restroom.

Jiang Xilu had been there too.

However, he certainly hadn’t looked like someone who wanted to talk.

He had removed his pants at lightning speed.

Relieved himself at lightning speed.

Washed his hands at lightning speed.

And escaped at lightning speed.

The only thing he had said was:

“Teacher Wu.”

“What is it?”

Jiang Xilu pulled out his phone.

At the same time, he accidentally yanked the zipper cord clean off his jacket.

Amid Zhou Kai’s speechless clicking of his tongue, he shoved the phone directly under Teacher Wu’s nose.

“Teacher, please add me on WeChat!”

His voice was so loud that just as Wu Qie accepted the phone in confusion, another voice drifted out from inside the Hongtie High bus.

“If you shout any louder, people are going to think you’re saying, ‘Teacher, please date me.'”

Zhao Shu poked half his body out of the bus.

His expression was spectacularly foul.

“Jiang Xilu.”

“Did you forget he’s my fiancé?”

The Alpha teenager looked down from above.

“If you forgot, I’ll remind you again.”

Wu Qie nearly snapped his head up.

The moment he finished typing his WeChat ID, he barked back with almost equal ferocity:

“!”

Zhao Shu raised an eyebrow.

At that moment, a gust of cold wind swept through.

Wu Qie returned the phone to Jiang Xilu and glanced at Zhao Shu.

Whatever Zhao Shu had been planning to say instantly got stuck in his throat.

Still unwilling to lose momentum, he let out a loud snort before retreating back into the bus.

“…”

Wu Qie’s nose had already turned red from the cold.

He had no intention of standing outside any longer listening to these children argue.

After sending Jiang Xilu away with a professional smile, he boarded the bus.

The bus was warm.

Zhao Shu stood in the back talking with Wang Jiajia and the others.

His bag occupied a seat nearby.

Everyone had already taken their places.

There was only one empty seat left.

The window seat beside Pei Qingyu.

The driver climbed aboard and shouted for everyone to fasten their seatbelts.

Wu Qie hesitated.

Then glanced toward Duan Bairui, who sat diagonally behind Pei Qingyu.

At that moment, Duan Bairui was leaning over the seatback, chatting with the Alpha.

Sensing Teacher Wu’s gaze, he froze.

Then quickly stood up.

“Teacher Wu, I-I-I can switch seats with—”

“No need.”

The calm voice of the Alpha interrupted him.

Both Duan Bairui and Wu Qie looked over.

Pei Qingyu’s handsome face remained flawlessly composed.

There wasn’t a single clue to his thoughts.

He looked at Duan Bairui.

“It’s only a few hours.”

“Why make such a big fuss?”

“Oh…”

Duan Bairui sat back down awkwardly.

From the rear seats, Zhao Shu noticed the commotion and immediately joined the battle.

He demanded that Pei Qingyu move to the back and sit with Wang Jiajia instead.

Pei Qingyu lazily lifted his eyelids.

“No.”

“I get carsick.”

“I don’t sit in the back.”

Zhao Shu burst out laughing.

Since when did this childhood friend of his suffer from motion sickness?

“If you’re so carsick, why didn’t you just start walking down the mountain last night?”

Pei Qingyu responded with a sarcastic smile.

Wu Qie pressed a hand against the seatback.

‘Can I sit down now?’

Thankfully, Coach Sun Mi stepped in and ordered everyone back to their seats.

Pei Qingyu shifted slightly to the side.

Making room for him.

And so Wu Qie sat in the only remaining seat.

The moment he sat down, he felt the faint presence of Alpha pheromones surrounding him.

The scent of cedar.

In winter, it blended so naturally with the icy air outside that it was almost impossible to distinguish.

He turned slightly toward the window.

Then closed his eyes to rest.

The bus started moving.

About an hour and a half later, the vehicle had gone from noisy chaos to complete silence.

The hungover teenagers had complained about their headaches before promptly passing out.

The bus jolted as it rolled over a pothole.

Pei Qingyu, who had been resting with his eyes closed, opened them.

In the surrounding quiet, he turned to look at the black-haired young man beside him.

Since the moment the bus departed, Wu Qie had remained unusually silent.

His head rested against the window.

His eyes were half-lidded.

He wasn’t asleep.

Nor was he looking at his phone.

“Teacher Wu, are you planning to stay like this and never speak to me again for the rest of your life?”

The teenager lowered his voice.

His tone sounded deeper than usual.

Hearing him speak, Wu Qie stirred slightly.

He wasn’t startled.

Those calm, emotionless eyes shifted toward him.

After a brief pause, as if he hadn’t heard the teasing at all, he suddenly asked:

“Did you notice that this isn’t the road to the airport?”

Pei Qingyu didn’t answer.

Which meant he had noticed.

Knowing this wasn’t some insane mass kidnapping orchestrated by a lunatic, Wu Qie relaxed slightly.

He scratched at his stiff jaw.

“What exactly do you know?”

“Where are we going?”

“The holiday ends tomorrow.”

A string of questions followed.

Yet throughout all of them, the teenager merely watched him with the same unchanged expression.

Only after Wu Qie fell silent did a faint smile appear.

“You only arrived in Jiangcheng last year.”

“Maybe you don’t know this.”

“In Upper Jiangcheng, the Zhao family hosts a coming-of-age banquet on their ship every year.”

Pei Qingyu answered leisurely.

“We’re on our way to the docks, Teacher Wu.”

The next day.

Hongtie High School, Jiangcheng.

Morning was always the busiest time on campus.

Xu Cixin carried a bag of sachima pastries while hurrying toward the office building, trying to finish breakfast before morning reading period began.

She never expected that roughly a hundred meters away from the building, her otherwise ordinary workday would suddenly become far more eventful.

Beneath the old banyan tree in front of the office building, a tree rumored to be over a century old, stood two exceptionally tall and handsome foreign men.

Identical faces.

Perfect physiques.

Golden hair like that of sun gods.

Features so flawless they seemed to have stepped directly out of Mount Olympus.

They wore casual clothing.

Isolation patches attached to the backs of their necks clearly revealed their secondary-gender status.

The moment they stepped from beneath the shade of the tree, every movement radiated elegance and nobility.

Teacher Xu, who already had a partner and was perfectly satisfied with them, paused.

…

Appreciating beauty wasn’t a crime.

Looking didn’t hurt anyone.

Even though she knew perfectly well that these twins, beautiful enough to seem unreal, should have appeared in places like Marseille, Paris, Wall Street, or Hollywood—

Not in a private high school in a coastal Chinese city.

Her hurried steps unconsciously slowed.

Under the sunlight, Xu Cixin narrowed her eyes slightly and watched cautiously as one of the handsome Alphas approached.

Unlike his brother, he appeared to suffer from some kind of disability.

One emerald-green eye had been replaced by a glossy black prosthetic eye.

Under the sunlight, it reflected a strange yet dazzling brilliance.

His Chinese was unexpectedly fluent.

Not a trace of an accent could be heard.

He introduced himself as “Lyle.”

He claimed to be Wu Qie’s closest friend from high school and his former basketball teammate.

Unfortunately, after Wu Qie graduated from graduate school, they had lost contact.

The heartless Beta had left America without informing any of them.

He hadn’t even left behind a single message.

This had caused them tremendous sorrow.

Now that they had finally settled their affairs, they had immediately rushed to China.

After tremendous effort, they had discovered where Wu Qie worked and come looking for him.

That was the entire story.

The structure of the explanation sounded suspiciously similar to:

“Write a four-hundred-word letter to your friend Li Hua in China. No restrictions on style.”

“We’re genuinely here to collect a debt.”

The Alpha with mismatched eyes smiled gracefully.

“May I ask whether this beautiful Omega lady knows Wu Qie?”

“Would you be willing to take us to his office?”

The Alpha smiled warmly.

Elegant.

Refined.

Xu Cixin replied:

“Oh.”

At that moment, her mind contained only one thought:

‘Could my Li Ying actually be the last Alpha in the world who still hasn’t realized Teacher Wu’s charm?’

That was a close call.

Blinking, she said:

“Teacher Wu led a training camp a few days ago.”

“He should be returning today.”

“His office is over there.”

“You can wait in the reception room. They provide tea free of charge—”

Before she could finish speaking—

Something entered her peripheral vision.

Behind them, a black Maybach slowly drove into the campus.

The blue license plate looked extremely familiar.

“Oh.”

Xu Cixin pointed behind them.

“Speak of the devil.”

“That’s the Wu family’s car.”

“Teacher Wu should be here.”

The moment those words fell—

The quieter twin, who had remained silent the entire time, slowly narrowed his eyes.

The smiling one instantly lost his smile.

Like a hunting dog catching the scent of a rabbit, he immediately turned around.

A chill ran through Xu Cixin’s heart.

Almost instinctively, she tightened her grip on her handbag and took two steps backward.

Her Omega instincts were screaming at her.

Something dangerous was hanging in the air.

Something felt deeply wrong.

These two people—

At that moment, the Maybach came to a stop nearby.

Click.

The car unlocked.

The atmosphere suddenly became tense and strange.

Within that strange silence, Xu Cixin caught the faint scent of agarwood.

Perhaps it was only her imagination.

Yet the rich woody fragrance felt different from ordinary pheromones.

It seemed to invade every inch of her senses.

The car door opened.

A tall, mature Alpha stepped out.

He wore an immaculate suit.

His polished leather shoes touched the ground with a crisp sound.

Zhao Guipu straightened beside the vehicle.

Removing his gold-rimmed glasses with one hand, he looked toward the silent Visay twins and the stunned Xu Cixin.

Then he smiled calmly.

Just like the deity most often worshipped by sailors and fishermen—

The one who always descended from the heavens amidst monstrous, life-devouring storms.