After Getting Pregnant, I’m Divorcing My Alpha - Chapter 13

“Want some fish?” Shen Xiao flipped through the menu. They hadn’t been to this restaurant before, and its signature dish was pickled fish.

“Sure.” An Xiangdi had one hand pressed against the back of his neck, over his scent gland, while the other swiped across the screen as he switched to a piano-playing game.

“What are you playing?” After ordering, Shen Xiao stared intently at An Xiangdi.

“Playing the piano,” An Xiangdi replied casually, his other hand still resting on his gland, lightly tapping it a few times.

For some reason, ever since getting out of the car earlier, his gland had been swollen and aching.

“I heard from Xiao Gu that you signed up for ‘The Stage’?” After the dishes were served, Shen Xiao asked while ladling soup into a bowl for An Xiangdi.

“Yeah, recording starts after the May Day holiday, two episodes.”

“Perfect. I’ll be going to Wucheng around that time to meet an old friend. If you’re free, I’ll take you along to meet them.” Shen Xiao handed him the bowl.

“Old friend?” An Xiangdi’s tone rose slightly. “We’ve known each other for twenty-nine years. How come I’ve never heard of this old friend?”

“Is my social circle that bad?” Shen Xiao joked half-heartedly.

“Mm.” An Xiangdi took a slow sip of his soup.

Shen Xiao didn’t bother correcting An Xiangdi’s perception. It wasn’t so much that his social circle was bad more that he was hard to approach. To this day, An Xiangdi was the only person he’d ever taken the initiative with.

“We’ve known each other for a few years,” Shen Xiao said without elaborating further.

An Xiangdi felt a flicker of curiosity about this so-called “good friend.”

“I told you, it must’ve been Shen Xiao who got me into this!”

“Don’t even bother. I’m definitely going to his place these days to settle the score!”

“What do you mean, let it go? This isn’t something we can just drop!”

An Xiangdi slowly set down his spoon and turned to look through the crack in the door, catching a glimpse of a familiar face. Raising an eyebrow, he walked over.

“Wei Yi.”

Wei Yi, wearing a large black pair of sunglasses and a mask that left only his forehead exposed, froze when he heard An Xiangdi’s voice. Wondering if he was hallucinating from cursing Shen Xiao, he shook his head and kept walking.

Seeing he hadn’t stopped, An Xiangdi called out again, “Wei Dandan.”

This time, Wei Dandan halted in his tracks and glared at An Xiangdi through his sunglasses. “Dizi? What are you doing here?”

“Having a meal. Want to join us?” An Xiangdi extended the invitation.

Wei Yi, hearing there was food, scurried over eagerly. “Ah, you’re the best! How’d you know I came here to eat?”

“What else? To curse Shen Xiao?” An Xiangdi said, closing the private room door behind him.

Wei Yi had intended to laugh it off, but he caught a faint whiff of Shen Xiao’s pheromones and immediately deflated.

“Take a seat,” An Xiangdi said, pointing to an empty spot.

Wei Yi chose the seat farthest from Shen Xiao and sat down, feeling as uncomfortable as if he were sitting on needles. “No, it’s not like I was cursing him or anything.”

“Mm, I heard everything,” An Xiangdi said, continuing to eat his fish while suppressing a laugh.

This time, Wei Yi gave up struggling and silently removed his sunglasses and mask. Since he’d already been caught, trying to explain would just make him look cowardly. After all, he was an Alpha he couldn’t afford to back down!

“So, what did Shen Xiao do?” An Xiangdi finished the fish in his bowl and looked up, fixing his gaze on Wei Yi. He noticed Wei Yi had tanned quite a bit, as if he’d applied a darker shade of foundation.

Wei Yi swallowed nervously, feeling as if he were being interrogated. “Why don’t you ask him what he did!”

“Getting smarter now?” Wei Yi never used to talk like this before; he was always straightforward. An Xiangdi, curious, nudged Shen Xiao with his elbow. “What did you do to make him so obsessed, unable to forget you, thinking of you day and night… though whether he dreams of you at night, I wouldn’t know.”

Wei Yi thought to himself: “Dreams at night” indeed but in those dreams, he was always being pinned to the ground and humiliated. Too embarrassing to mention.

“I didn’t do anything,” Shen Xiao replied.

“Bullshit!” Wei Yi slammed the table and jumped up. “Shen Xiao, tell me the truth! Was it you who got me onto ‘Survival’?”

“Wasn’t it your agent who arranged it?” Shen Xiao maintained an innocent expression. “How could I possibly have access to your schedule? You’re overthinking it.”

“But the production team said you recommended me.”

“I only recommended you because I thought you were a good fit. You signed the contract yourself, didn’t you?” Shen Xiao calmly placed a piece of spare rib in An Xiangdi’s bowl.

Wei Yi was speechless. Hearing it put that way, it did seem like Shen Xiao couldn’t have forced him to sign the contract. But still, a show he had refused had somehow become a confirmed commitment.

“Did anyone from the production team say I arranged for you to go?” Shen Xiao pressed further.

Wei Yi faltered. No one from the production team had explicitly said that; it was just something the directors had casually mentioned during a break.

An Xiangdi finally understood. No wonder Wei Yi had gotten so tanned he had been filming ‘Survival.’

“Besides, didn’t you gain a lot of popularity after the show?” Shen Xiao pointed out the final outcome.

Wei Yi fell completely silent. It was true the show had made him incredibly popular. He was no longer just an ordinary comedian in the eyes of his fans but had also built a tough-guy image.

“So, how were the bugs? Cute?” An Xiangdi deliberately poked at his sore spot.

Wei Yi’s mind was flooded with images of crawling insects, and goosebumps rose all over his body. “An Xiangdi, I’m telling you! Out of respect for our friendship, I’ll let it slide this time, but”

“But you insulted Shen Xiao for no reason, so this meal is on you.” An Xiangdi shoved the chopsticks into his hand. “Eat up, Wei the Brave.”

Hearing this, Wei Yi’s tough-guy image instantly crumbled. As an Alpha, being bullied by this couple made his eyes redden with frustration. “Fine, I’ll eat! You two always stick together! Abandoning friends for love!”

Shen Xiao curled his lips into a slight smile, took An Xiangdi’s hand, and gently scratched his palm right in front of Wei Yi. “My Di is, of course, on my side.”

Hearing Shen Xiao deliberately emphasize the word “Di,” An Xiangdi covered his mouth, wanting to laugh but afraid that Wei Yi might actually throw down his chopsticks and leave. He kindly held back.

After the meal, Wei Yi trudged off to pay the bill, apologized to Shen Xiao for his thoughtless words, and was then picked up by his agent.

Back in the car, An Xiangdi stared at Shen Xiao for a while before saying, “Shen Xiao, Wei Yi is straightforward, but he’s not a bad person at heart.”

Shen Xiao didn’t even turn his head, keeping his eyes on the road ahead. “Not only does he come to our house to freeload meals, but he also complains that your cooking is terrible.”

“Do you like it?”

“If it’s made for me.” The implication was clear: if it’s made for someone else, it might not taste good, but if it’s for him, it’s one of a kind.

An Xiangdi’s heart raced inexplicably at Shen Xiao’s words. This guy always had a way of being subtly charming he was definitely doing it on purpose.

His glands felt swollen again, and An Xiangdi couldn’t help but press his palm against them.

“So you arranged for him to go?”

The answer was already quite obvious, so Shen Xiao didn’t respond.

An Xiangdi curled the corner of his lips and didn’t press further.

On the afternoon of May 1st, An Xiangdi arrived at the recording location of “Stage” in Wucheng by chauffeur car.

The program team held a brief meeting with the scheduled guests and production staff before proceeding to the rehearsal session.

“Stage” was a rather unique music performance program featuring both original compositions and adapted songs, aiming to provide a platform for those skilled in and passionate about music. The songs performed on stage would be evaluated through a combination of online voting and professional judging, with a winner determined every two episodes. The winner would receive promotional resources provided by the official “Stage” program.

An Xiangdi was in excellent form today, completing the rehearsal in one take. As he sat to the side, he received a message from Shen Xiao.

Xiao Xiao: Landed. See you later.

Dizi: Aren’t we meeting tomorrow?

After waiting a while without a reply, An Xiangdi switched to Shen Xiao’s super topic on Weibo. Fan accounts had already posted preview photos of him at the airport. Judging by the crowd around him, he was probably too surrounded to reply.

By 5 p.m., the rehearsal ended. The program team arranged dinner for everyone, and after sufficient preparation, the official recording of the first episode of “Stage” Season 4 began.

Although most of the singers were collaborating for the first time, their individual segments went smoothly. However, the conversations in the waiting room were somewhat awkward. After several attempts to liven things up proved futile, the director decided to give them half an hour to chat and get to know each other.

Thus, the six singers sat in a row. Aside from An Xiangdi, there were two female Alphas, and the remaining three were male Betas.

Perhaps due to gender dynamics, the two female Alphas quickly struck up a conversation, and the three Betas also started chatting among themselves. Only An Xiangdi didn’t join in.

Dressed entirely in white, he resembled a noble prince, especially in that pure white turtleneck sweater embroidered with silver threads, which accentuated his fair, delicate skin that seemed tender enough to pinch hardly looking like someone approaching thirty.

“How do you usually write songs, Xiangdi?” someone asked, unable to resist breaking the ice with An Xiangdi despite hearing rumors about his difficult and eccentric temperament, as the director had encouraged them to get familiar.

“I jot down ideas when they come to me,” An Xiangdi replied without reservation, though he maintained his usual pride when it came to music.

“Could you hum a bit for us?” the person asked, half-expectant.

An Xiangdi casually hummed the chorus of a new song he had recorded just days prior. “This is from a new song I recorded recently. It’ll be released soon.”

“Sounds great!”

“I’ll definitely be the first to listen when it’s out!”

“Hahaha, have you forgotten about Shen Xiao?”

“Oh right, Shen Xiao would probably be the first to hear it anyway.”

An Xiangdi didn’t mind them bringing up Shen Xiao. In fact, because of this, the five guests felt closer to him. When the director asked them to re-record the waiting room segment, the atmosphere was much more natural.

By the time the program team announced they could wrap up, it was already past midnight.

“See you the day after tomorrow, Xiangdi!”

“See you later, Teacher An!”

The guests from today’s recording had grown bold enough to bid An Xiangdi farewell actively. An Xiangdi responded with a calm goodbye and walked past them toward the backstage.

A faint, delicate sweetness drifted through the air, causing the Alpha female guests standing nearby to pause in surprise.

“Huh? Did any of you catch a whiff of something subtly sweet?”

“Seems like it or maybe it’s just my imagination?”