Be Good. Go Ahead and Mark Me. - Chapter 3

Since Xiao Shuqing was at the hospital for his follow-up, his two childhood friends had coordinated to pick a healthy, nutritious restaurant nearby for lunch: Hainan Coconut Chicken.

It was barely eleven o’clock when he arrived on the restaurant’s floor. Seeing that it was still early, he headed into the restroom first.

The moment he walked in, he overheard an Omega father and son arguing fiercely in hushed, urgent whispers.

“I don’t like him! He annoys the hell out of me! I’m only seventeen and I’ve barely been differentiated for six months. He’s already in his twenties! Are you insane, trying to push me onto him?”

“What’s wrong with being in his twenties? Your dad is doing this for your own good. You’ll understand when you’re older—an Omega only lives a good life if they marry well. We know everything about his background; he’s grounded, hardworking, capable, and makes good money. Do you have any idea how many Omegas are fighting over an Alpha like him?”

“Pfft—please. He’s barely 170 centimeters tall, basically half-crippled. What is there to fight over? Besides, he doesn’t even have money—isn’t his family drowning in a massive pile of debt? An Alpha who’s ugly, short, spineless, and broke?

What am I supposed to want from him? His advanced age? Or his lack of hygiene?”

It sounded like a seventeen-year-old kid being dragged off to be married off early, fighting tooth and nail against his father.

It wasn’t exactly a proud moment, so when Xiao Shuqing walked in, both of them instantly shut their mouths in guilty synchronization, like people caught red-handed.

Of course, they only stayed quiet for the fleeting second it took for him to pass by.

Immediately after, the father resumed “disciplining” his son in an even lower, raspy whisper:

“Do you have any idea how much money his dad’s illness cost? Seven to eight hundred thousand a year for seven whole years! Not counting the surgery fees, that’s over five million. He earned every single cent of that money himself! Now that his dad’s health is restored, if you get with him, won’t all that money eventually be yours?”

“Don’t think you’re still young just because you’re seventeen. Plenty of Omegas match with an Alpha the moment they differentiate. If you wait until you’re past eighteen to start looking, you’ll be left with everyone else’s leftovers. Once you reach your twenties or thirties, no matter how good-looking you are or how provocatively you dress, nobody will want you!”

As the father spoke, he kept shooting stealthy glances in Xiao Shuqing’s direction.

Xiao Shuqing, who had been praised since childhood for being exceptionally breathtaking, who possessed a head of long, “provocative” hair, and who was fast approaching thirty without matching with an Alpha: “!”

Using a passing stranger as a negative example to “educate” a child was truly the height of bad manners.

But the man seemed to realize he had misspoken. Before Xiao Shuqing could flare up, the father quickly dragged his teenage son away, murmuring under his breath as they bolted.

Consequently, harboring a tight ball of suppressed anger, Xiao Shuqing walked into the restaurant with a face as cold as ice.

By the time he sat down across from his two best friends, he was practically radiating a freezing aura.

“What’s with the face? Who dared to provoke our great Professor Xiao?”

The man lowered his head to wipe his glasses, letting out a mocking sneer. “A total loser. Someone who lives a miserable life themselves, so they pin all their hopes on their child to fulfill what they couldn’t. Insecure, with an abysmally low level of self-esteem. The type who gets instantly triggered and lashes out the moment they see anyone on the street who is clearly superior to them.”

Yin Yu fell silent.

He turned a completely bewildered gaze toward the tall, broad-shouldered Alpha sitting beside him.

Song Qingyun explained deadpan, “Someone was trying to force their child to become a success story, using indirect insults on the street to take a swipe at him.”

Words failed Yin Yu.

He silently flashed a thumbs-up to Song Qingyun. “Only Song Qingyun can translate your riddles. Hey, if you ask me, since you two have such great chemistry, are both in your early thirties, and haven’t settled down, have you really never thought about just making do with each other?”

Xiao Shuqing lazily lifted his eyelids to speak, but the person across from him beat him to it: “I like them cute, submissive, and sensible. Make do with him? Forget Omegas, even Alphas are softer than he is.”

Yin Yu frantically nudged him. “Hey, don’t talk like that! Even though I’m just a Beta, I still possess basic physiological knowledge. How could an Alpha possibly be softer than an Omega?”

The other man gestured with his chin toward the adjacent table. “There’s literally one sitting right next to us.”

Yin Yu fell silent.

Xiao Shuqing followed their gazes and realized that two pairs of fathers and sons had seated themselves at the neighboring table without him noticing. Coincidentally, he recognized all of them.

One pair sat along the same row of tables as them. The father was soft-spoken and elegant, his every gesture radiating impeccable upbringing. The son sat obediently on the inside seat by the window, holding a pitcher of coconut water and carefully pouring it into his father’s glass.

As for the pair sitting opposite them, weren’t they the exact same duo he had just encountered in the restroom, the ones who had bizarrely insulted him? Well, what a small, wretched world.

“How was the checkup today? Everything is fully recovered, right? You can finally breathe a sigh of relief. Xiao Yuan has carried quite a heavy burden on his shoulders all these years. It’s all smooth sailing from here.”

The Omega father from the restroom spoke with a superficial smile plastered across his face.

“Yes, thank you, Uncle Chen. My dad is completely cured now,” the young Alpha replied obediently. Perhaps because he felt incredibly secure sitting right next to his father, his voice sounded even softer and more delicate than it had during their dinner a few nights ago.

The opposite Omega father instantly beamed, his face lighting up like a flower. “Oh, what is there to thank me for? It was the right thing to do. If you run into any difficulties in the future, just tell your uncle. If you’re short on cash, just take it from me. We’re practically family anyway.”

After saying this, his eyes darted subtly, and he seamlessly shifted the topic. “Speaking of which, Xiao Yuan is already twenty-four this year. You’ve delayed your personal life for so many years because of this. Now that things have finally stabilized, it’s about time you start looking for an Omega, right? Sigh, it’s just a shame our baby is still too young, barely seventeen. Otherwise, for an Alpha as wonderful as Xiao Yuan, I really wouldn’t want to leave him for anyone else. It would be perfect if we could just tie our families closer together. Then again, a seven-year gap isn’t actually that big of a difference, is it? What do you think, Xiao Yuan?”

With this single speech, the first half emphasized the favor he had previously granted them, while the second half used a calculated retreat to naturally guide the topic onto his younger son. By framing the primary obstacle as an age gap—first suggesting the age difference was inappropriate and that his own family might be hesitant, only to immediately backpedal and show that he didn’t actually care about the age gap at all—he effectively cornered the young Alpha, stripping him of any polite excuse to refuse.

To Xiao Shuqing, this basic psychological tactic was downright juvenile.

However, the clumsy young Alpha clearly didn’t have that many strategic synapses in his brain. He stepped right into the trap. Freezing up completely, he began to stammer, “Ah? I-I’ve actually been going on blind dates recently.

Chengcheng is still so young; it would probably be better for him to find an Alpha closer to his own age.”

The uncle immediately cut in, “Oh, please! Alphas in their late teens are reckless and don’t know how to cherish someone. It’s much better to find someone a bit older. I was just telling our baby on the way here that when it comes to finding an Alpha, you have to find someone like Xiao Yuan—responsible and family-oriented. Everything else is just superficial fluff.”

He spoke with such profound sincerity and earnestness, as if the person who had just been tearing another family’s financial capabilities and personal hygiene apart in the restroom wasn’t him at all.

Watching the drama unfold from the side, Xiao Shuqing: “?”

Seeing that the pure-minded young Alpha was on the verge of being unable to withstand the pressure, he set his things down and let out a heavy, deliberate click of his tongue.

Then, he brushed off his sleeves and stood up.

Hearing the commotion, Yin Yu looked up, bewildered. “We’re ordering food. Where are you going now?”

Xiao Shuqing replied smoothly, “To champion justice on the road. And conveniently avenge a slight from earlier.”

Yin Yu: “???”

Thus, the Omega—standing at 181 centimeters with a golden-ratio proportion of long legs—swept his long hair behind his shoulder, pushed up the gold-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose, and strolled over to the adjacent table.

“Yu Siyuan? How come you didn’t tell me you were coming to this restaurant for lunch? Is it a family gathering? My friends and I are right next to you; I only realized it was you when I heard your voice.”

The young Alpha clearly hadn’t expected to run into him, let alone have him initiate a conversation. His eyes went wide and vacant. It took him a good moment to process before he bolted upright like a spring. “Professor Xiao?”

Then, gesturing wildly at the person beside him, he launched into a frantic introduction: “I came with my dad—this is my dad. We went to the hospital this morning, not because he’s sick, just a routine checkup and then we came here to have lunch with my uncle.” Finishing that, he hastily turned to point at Xiao Shuqing, introducing him to the elegant Omega beside him. “Dad, this is Professor Xiao. He’s the one I met up with the other night, we—”

Halfway through, he choked up.

He clearly had no idea how to define their current relationship, and a flash of sheer helplessness crossed his gaze as he looked at him.

Xiao Shuqing smoothly picked up the slack: “We are currently seeing each other.”

The beautiful Omega father nodded in immediate understanding, his eyes crinkling into a warm smile as he greeted him. “Shuqing, right? I know, Yuanyuan told me about you. Are you here having lunch with your friends too?”

“Yes, I made plans with some friends to have coconut chicken over here,” Xiao Shuqing said, his eyes drifting pointedly over to the seventeen-year-old Omega across the table.

The atmosphere grew instantly tense, charged with performative energy.

Seeing this, Yu Siyuan’s father assumed Xiao Shuqing had overheard their previous conversation and quickly explained, “We are also having lunch with friends. Yuanyuan’s uncle helped us a great deal in the past, so we invited them out for a meal to express our gratitude. This is their youngest son, he’s seventeen and still in high school.”

Upon hearing this, Xiao Shuqing naturally cast his gaze over to the teenage Omega. His narrow eyes curved subtly, and he let out a highly profound, enigmatic smile. “We actually just bumped into each other in the restroom. What a small world.”

Then, watching the young boy’s face drain of color, he enunciated each word deliberately: “He was busy educating a child.”

As both the father and son let out a visible, trembling sigh of relief, Xiao Shuqing curled his lips, his tone shifting sharply as he added with a soft smirk: “At the time, they even mentioned an exceptionally outstanding Alpha. I was wondering what kind of Alpha could possibly be as amazing as they described. Who would have thought, it turns out to be an Alpha I know intimately.”

Amused by his words, Yu Siyuan’s father pressed the back of his hand to his lips, letting out a gentle chuckle. “Once lunch is over, I’ll have Yuanyuan stay behind to keep you company.”

Of course, Xiao Shuqing wouldn’t actually force Yu Siyuan to stay. Setting aside the fact that he only came over to put on a show because he couldn’t stand the sight of the father and son across the table, Yu Siyuan had accompanied his own father to the hospital for a checkup. There was no way Xiao Shuqing would let the older man travel back home alone just for the sake of “accompanying” him.

When he returned to his seat, his two childhood friends tracked his movement the entire way, their eyes filled with intense, scrutinizing curiosity.

“Since when did you find yourself an Alpha?”

“And he was almost intercepted by a seventeen-year-old little Omega?”

“Song Qingyun, pinch me. Why am I finding this so incredibly hard to swallow?”

The man, however, remained completely unfazed. His fingers flew across his phone screen as he typed at lightning speed.

With a crisp whoosh, the message was sent.

A short distance away at the neighboring table, the young boy who was quietly taking small bites of his food heard a clear, sharp notification ping from his phone.

Xiao Shuqing: I ran into your uncle and his son in the restroom earlier. They were calculating exactly how much money you’ve earned over the years. They mentioned that now that your father’s illness is cured, as long as the son marries you, any money you make in the future will be theirs. Although I know you aren’t interested in Omegas, you should still be careful. When an Omega is determined to secure an Alpha, there are many underhanded tactics they can deploy.

Xiao Shuqing: Additionally, I apologize for abruptly interrupting just now without consulting you first.

The moment the boy finished reading the messages, he gripped his phone tightly inside his palm.