Chapter 4
Of course, killing was out of the question. No matter how dissatisfied Pei Xingzhi was, he could only vent his frustrations verbally. After complaining, he still obediently followed his teacher's instructions.
Perhaps his previous behavior was too insulting to Xie Nanyi, because Xie Nanyi seemed to have given up on bothering him and hadn't lingered around him for almost a week. Pei Xingzhi had been quite relaxed these past few days, and his appetite had improved as well.
There was only one film appreciation class a week, and Pei Xingzhi thought that Xie Nanyi would skip class because of her personality. His smile immediately vanished the moment he saw Xie Nanyi.
"Xiao Zhi." Xie Nanyi smiled warmly, pointing to the empty seat next to her, indicating that he should sit down next to her.
This was supposed to be a long class, and normally there should be almost a row of empty seats in the classroom. But today, for some reason, the seats in the classroom seemed to be arranged in a specific order. Apart from Xie Nanyi, there were only a few scattered empty seats. When Pei Xingzhi looked over, the people next to the empty seats immediately put their things on the empty seats to indicate to Pei Xingzhi that the seats were already occupied.
Such a deliberate act makes it obvious who did it.
Pei Xingzhi looked up and glared at Xie Nanyi, who, without any shame, continued to point to the seat next to her.
Pei Xingzhi turned to Zhuang Xiaoyue and gave her an ugly smile, pleading for her to save him.
Zhuang Xiaoyue shuddered as she looked at Xie Nanyi's face, avoided Pei Xingzhi's gaze, and pushed him forward.
"You're in the same group, so you can sit together. I'm going to find my group."
Zhuang Xiaoyue dodged Pei Xingzhi's struggling hands and ran away without looking back. Pei Xingzhi had no choice but to bite the bullet and sit down next to Xie Nanyi.
"Xiao Zhi, you seem to have gained weight recently." Xie Nanyi said with a tender expression, but his words made people want to punch him.
"..."
Pei Xingzhi didn't want to talk to him. After glaring at him, she gripped the book and moved to the side, trying to get as far away from him as possible.
If you can't afford to mess with him, can't you at least avoid him?
The professor who taught the appreciation class was a man in his sixties, thin and small but with a very refined air. He spoke with an air of authority that was both dignified and intimidating. As soon as he entered the classroom, everyone immediately fell silent and looked up at the podium.
"Xiao Zhi, are you angry?" Xie Nanyi touched Pei Xingzhi's fingers on the desk and whispered.
Pei Xingzhi quickly withdrew his hand from the table and moved it to the side, deliberately ignoring Xie Nanyi's words.
Taking advantage of the black screen on his phone, Pei Xingzhi couldn't help but pinch his cheek.
Is it really that obvious that I've gained weight?
"Xiao Zhi, have you missed me these past few days?" Xie Nanyi completely ignored Pei Xingzhi's indifference and continued to speak to him naturally in a low voice. "Xiao Zhi, I know you don't believe me, but I have no reason to lie to you. My mark doesn't lie, you see."
"I don't want to see it!" Pei Xingzhi said reluctantly, afraid that he would go crazy in class and cause blood to splatter. "Can you please stop bothering me!"
"Xiao Zhi, don't you want to talk to me?"
"Don't call me Xiaozhi anymore, I don't want to talk to you." The manic mood crept into Pei Xingzhi's body again. He could never control his emotions whenever he met Xie Nanyi. It was as if Xie Nanyi was deliberately igniting his anger, and every word she said made his anger even more intense.
"Listen to the lesson properly." Pei Xingzhi sat up straight and stopped paying attention to Xie Nanyi, but Xie Nanyi was clearly not the kind of person who would leave just because he ignored her. Although she stopped talking, she stared straight at him.
"Could you please stop staring at me..." Pei Xingzhi felt a chill run down his spine from his gaze and reached down to push his leg. "Look at the blackboard."
"Xiao Zhi won't let me speak, but can't I even look at you?" Xie Nanyi's words were full of affection. The classmate who had been eavesdropping couldn't help but turn around and look at them, then revealed a smile that was hard to decipher.
"What do you think?" Xie Nanyi pulled the classmate who had turned around to ask for his opinion.
"I think you two are a good match." The student in the front row showed no embarrassment at being caught peeping and gave the two a thumbs up.
“Xiao Zhi, look, even our classmates think we’re a good match.”
Pei Xingzhi didn't want to talk. He clearly saw that the students in the front row had just sent messages to the confession wall.
"Xie Nanyi, is there something wrong with you here?" Pei Xingzhi pressed his fingers to his temples, his expression sincere. "I think you need to see a doctor."
"I've seen a doctor, but he said only Xiao Zhi can cure my illness." Xie Nanyi wasn't lying about this; his illness could indeed only be cured by Pei Xingzhi.
Pei Xingzhi felt uncomfortable listening to Xie Nanyi's corny pickup lines, which he seemed to have picked up from who-knows-when. He couldn't help but frown and give her the middle finger.
"The two students in the back, if you don't want to listen to the lecture, I can dismiss you early."
Pei Xingzhi's middle finger was still raised in mid-air, and the eyes of the students in the front row all turned to him. The gazes of nearly a hundred people made Pei Xingzhi feel extremely uncomfortable. His hand froze in mid-air, unsure whether to put it down or not.
“Teacher, I…” Pei Xingzhi stood up, his mind racing to come up with a reason for himself.
This old professor was notoriously rigid. Pei Xingzhi had already regretted choosing his class; not only were the credits hard to earn, but attending his class was also nerve-wracking.
If he makes a bad impression on him, his scholarship for this semester will be ruined.
"Teacher, I'm not feeling well, and Pei Xingzhi wants to raise his hand to ask for leave for me." Xie Nanyi stood up and took over Pei Xingzhi's words, taking the initiative to complete the reason for him.
The school's teachers knew Xie Nanyi's background better than the students, and naturally, they were also more adept at navigating social situations. The professor adjusted his reading glasses, his previous seriousness vanishing instantly, replaced by a kind and approachable demeanor, like that of the two's grandfather.
"Oh, I see. Xiao Xie, if you're not feeling well, you should go to the hospital to get checked out. Don't push yourself too hard."
"Okay, teacher, then I'll have Xiaozhi accompany me to the hospital."
"Alright, alright, go ahead."
The two worked together, and by the time Pei Xingzhi realized what was happening, Xie Nanyi had already pulled him out of the classroom.
"What exactly do you want to do!" Pei Xingzhi shook off Xie Nanyi's hand and looked at him, puzzled.
"I'm helping you out of this predicament." Xie Nanyi squinted at Pei Xingzhi's wrist, which she had pinched red. Her eyes clearly showed the confidence of a hunter who had spotted his prey about to be caught.
"If it weren't for you, this trouble wouldn't have happened. Can you please stop bothering me? I've said it so many times, we really have nothing to do with each other. You've got the wrong person!" Pei Xingzhi had said similar sentences countless times, but no matter how much evidence he found to prove that he had indeed gotten the wrong person, Xie Nanyi always stuck to her point of view.
“I didn’t make a mistake, Xiao Zhi, you’re getting a little too excited.” Xie Nanyi seemed oblivious to his emotions, coldly grabbing his hand and placing it on the name on her wrist. “Look, this is your name.”
For the first time, Pei Xingzhi didn't shake off his hand. Instead, he raised his head and looked at Xie Nanyi with a look of resentment that Xie Nanyi had never seen before.
"Xie Nanyi, Alphas and Omegas, as sexual minorities in society, have always enjoyed various preferential policies, and the same is true for those who are marked. No one doesn't want to differentiate into those who receive preferential treatment, including me."
But the truth is, I'm just an ordinary Beta. I'm not your imprinter, nor am I anyone else's imprinter. I'm just Pei Xingzhi.
Why is there such a significant difference in treatment between ABOs? Pei Xingzhi had thought about this question before, but no one had ever given him the answer.
As members of the AO minority group, Pei's parents lacked a clear understanding of the differences in treatment between ABOs. In their view, ABOs were identical in every way except for gender. Having never experienced the injustices that come with being "ordinary," they naturally couldn't consider Pei Xingzhi's perspective.
So they sent 7-year-old Pei Xingzhi to a high school with a large number of AO students, and Pei Xingzhi suffered six years of exclusion and bullying as a result.
Pei Xingzhi's memories of elementary school are somewhat hazy, but he always keeps those feelings in his heart.
Why must Betas be inferior to Alphas and Omegas? It's just a difference in gender.
Pei Xingzhi often had to work dozens of times harder to achieve what Alphas and Omegas did. He clearly won the 100-meter race at the school sports meet, but had to finish second to avoid hurting the Alphas' pride; he clearly came in first in the competition, but had to finish second because the Omega, who should have been second, received gender-based bonus points…
Many honors that should have been his were given to others because of the word "gender".
Pei Xingzhi felt this was extremely unfair, so he wanted to break this "unfairness".
Even if someone isn't born special, they can still become special.
He is not anyone's imprinter; he is simply himself.
Although he was just an ordinary Beta, he had no obligation to play along with Xie Nanyi in this charade.
“Xiao Zhi…” Xie Nanyi didn’t understand why Pei Xingzhi was saying these things. What good was it to differentiate into an Alpha or Omega? Being controlled by so-called pheromones every day, just like livestock going into heat at any time, bound by pheromones to be combined with another stranger.
“The Imprinters, like Alphas and Omegas, can also enjoy preferential treatment from the government, so what reason do you think I have to refuse what I've always dreamed of?” Pei Xingzhi calmly expressed his resentment. He thought he could accept it calmly, but it turned out he still couldn't completely let go.
Because of their large numbers, they have inferior genes; because they are suppressed by the pheromones of either Alpha or Omega, they can only be in the lowest position and do the most mundane work; no matter how outstanding they are, they have to do their best to squeeze into the student council, and they have to achieve almost perfect grades to get a scholarship...
He wasn't an Imprinter at all, so why did Xie Nanyi keep making fun of him like this?
"Xiao Zhi..." The familiar pain throbbed through Xie Nanyi's body. He could only see Pei Xingzhi's lips moving, but he couldn't hear what he was saying. His consciousness slowly drifted away from his body, and his instincts compelled him to step forward and hug Pei Xingzhi tightly.
Pei Xingzhi was surprised by Xie Nanyi's sudden action and struggled to get him to let go, but Xie Nanyi's embrace tightened, so much so that he almost embedded Pei Xingzhi into his body.
"Xie Nanyi, let me go!" He had just said all those things to the dog; the man wouldn't listen to a word he said.
"Xiao Zhi...it hurts so much..."
The hot breath on his ear made Pei Xingzhi feel uncomfortable. What made him even more uncomfortable was that Xie Nanyi seemed to be acting coquettishly towards him.
"Xie Nanyi, get up! You're really heavy!"
There was no response from the person on his body. Pei Xingzhi suddenly had a bad feeling. He pushed Xie Nanyi hard, but there was no response except for the sound of steady breathing.
Pei Xingzhi was unwilling to believe this fact, and patted Xie Nanyi's face with resentment. His face turned red from the patting, but the person on top of him still kept his eyes closed.
Xie Nanyi collapsed onto him and fainted.
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