Senior, Stop Pretending to be an Alpha - Chapter 30

Yu Qiao had lunch at Li Yan’s house.

The spread was remarkably lavish, with four dishes and a soup laid out in a mouth-watering display. As they were served, Yu Qiao’s stomach let out an involuntary growl.

Xie Bufei seemed to hear it and let out a soft chuckle. Yu Qiao immediately felt a flush of embarrassment, lowering her head and rubbing the tip of her nose awkwardly.

Sitting across from them, Li Yan looked utterly defeated, his head hanging low and his ears a bright red—the result of being pinched by Xie Bufei moments earlier. Since her arrival, he had acted like a frost-bitten eggplant, completely losing his previous arrogant swagger.

Cheng Yeli brought the last dish to the table and beckoned them. “Eat up! What are you all standing around for?”

Yu Qiao picked up her chopsticks and began to eat quietly. A moment later, a piece of crispy fried pork appeared in her bowl. She looked up to see Xie Bufei winking and smiling at her. “Weren’t you hungry? Eat more.”

A warm current coursed through Yu Qiao’s heart. Her eyes were clear as she whispered, “Thank you, Senior.”

A second later, a slice of braised pork landed in her bowl.

A second after that, a portion of tomato and scrambled eggs followed.

…

Looking at the small mountain forming in her bowl, Yu Qiao quickly waved her hands. “Senior, you don’t need to give me more. It’s too much.”

Seeing this, Cheng Yeli looked speechless. “Why don’t you just dump the whole plate into her bowl and be done with it?”

“That wouldn’t be very polite, would it?” Xie Bufei held her spoon, elegantly sipping a bit of soup with her pinky slightly raised. “I have to leave at least a little for you two to eat.”

Cheng Yeli: “…” So we only deserve a little?!

Yu Qiao silently worked through the mountain of food. Hearing their banter, her cheeks grew hot and her hand trembled slightly. She quickly placed a piece of crispy pork into Xie Bufei’s bowl in return.

“Senior should eat more too.”

Xie Bufei nodded with a smile. “Okay.”

Beside them, Li Yan chewed his rice mechanically. Cheng Yeli, the lone bachelor of the group, rolled his eyes. Good grief, this is annoying. I’m not eating with these two next time.

After eating her fill, Yu Qiao prepared to continue tutoring Li Yan on his math homework.

“I don’t want to do homework. I feel weak all over,” the boy groaned, slumped against the back of his chair with lifeless eyes.

Yu Qiao said flatly, “I saw you eat two bowls of rice just now.”

Li Yan paused, then lowered his voice. “You and Xie Bufei are actually on the same side, aren’t you? She sent you here to spy on me, didn’t she?”

Yu Qiao looked at him and nodded pleasantly. “Yes. And if you don’t write, I’ll report you to her.”

“Terrifying… how can you two be so wicked…” Li Yan looked pained, but he finished the rest of the math worksheet with a soul-crushing sigh.

Yu Qiao took a pencil and checked his work. “I’ll circle the parts you got wrong.”

Li Yan waited nearby, unable to stop himself from stealing a glance. His face turned pale. The entire worksheet was practically covered in circles!

“You… you aren’t allowed to tell Xie Bufei!”

This time, Yu Qiao didn’t refuse. “Alright. If you listen carefully while I explain the problems, I won’t tell her.”

Li Yan breathed a huge sigh of relief, his eyes sparkling as if looking at a savior. “Thanks a lot.”

Yu Qiao wanted to laugh at his “near-death experience” expression. “Are you really that afraid of her?”

“Didn’t you see how scary she was just now?” Li Yan looked around, making sure she was definitely out of the room before sighing boldly. “She’s truly terrifying. Childhood trauma, you know? When I was little, I actually thought she could do magic because every time I said something bad about her, she’d appear right behind me.”

Yu Qiao: “…” That might just be your terrible luck.

She explained the problems to him for a while. The boy wasn’t stupid, but he couldn’t sit still and his mind wandered easily, drifting into games at every turn.

“I’ve seen this formula in Portal!” “Probability? It’s just like when I pull for cards—getting an SSR only on the pity timer is a ‘certain event’.”

“Actually, solving problems is like playing a game,” Yu Qiao said, tailoring her teaching to his interests despite not fully understanding his references. “It’s all about overcoming obstacles.”

Li Yan pouted. “Then… I’d still rather play games.”

Yu Qiao checked her phone; an hour had passed. She put away her red pen and said softly, “I can play a game with you for a bit.”

“Really?” Li Yan’s interest spiked. “What do you want to play?”

Yu Qiao had never really played games before. “Anything is fine.”

Li Yan dropped his pen and rummaged through his things to find two controllers, thinking triumphantly: She looks like a total nerd. Watch me destroy her!

They picked a fighting game. In the first round, Yu Qiao lost predictably. Li Yan laughed loudly, enjoying the thrill of crushing a “noob.” In the second round, she lost again.

Li Yan let out a mock sigh of disappointment. “Forget it, it’s like you don’t even know how to play. Playing with you isn’t a challenge at all.”

Yu Qiao fiddled with the buttons, feeling like she had the hang of the mechanics now. Feeling a bit competitive, she said calmly, “Again.”

Ten rounds later, she was able to take off a full bar of his health with a combo. After twenty rounds, when Li Yan was KO’d yet again, he stopped laughing. Now, he couldn’t even touch her character’s clothes before being locked into a control combo and killed.

“You were baiting me earlier, weren’t you?!” Li Yan yelled, his eyes wide with indignation. “I don’t accept this! Again!”

Yu Qiao checked the time. “Thirty minutes are up. Back to homework.”

Li Yan sighed, clearly wanting more. Yu Qiao added, “If you finish early, I can play with you a bit longer.”

Li Yan: “It’s a deal!”

It took three hours to finish all of Li Yan’s English and math homework. Yu Qiao walked out of the room with her water glass and saw Xie Bufei lying on the living room sofa playing with her phone, her long legs crossed and her white, rounded toes wiggling in the air.

“Finished?” Hearing the familiar footsteps, Xie Bufei immediately put down her phone.

Yu Qiao sat beside her and leaned back against the sofa, her eyes unfocused. “Finished.”

Having stared at the screen and papers for too long, her eyes felt sore. Yu Qiao took off her glasses and pressed her fingers against her temples. A sweet floral scent drifted to her nose as the girl beside her leaned in, placing long, warm fingers on her shoulders. Finding the sore spots with precision, she began a rhythmic, soothing massage.

“Hard work,” Xie Bufei said gently, kneading her neck. “Was the little brat especially hard to handle?”

“It was alright.” The massage was so gentle that Yu Qiao couldn’t help but close her eyes, her throat bobbing. “He’s just a bit rebellious.”

Xie Bufei laughed lowly, her breath grazing Yu Qiao’s ear, feeling burning hot. “Must be hard on you. Rest for a bit.”

She looked down at Yu Qiao. The younger girl had handsome features; with her eyes closed, her eyelashes were long and curled. Her lips were pale but beautifully shaped—a shape very suitable for kissing.

“Qiaoqiao, your eyelashes are so long.”

Tiredness hit Yu Qiao like a wave. she gave a heavy “mm” in response, nearly falling asleep. She didn’t realize that Xie Bufei was currently sitting practically in her lap, one hand draped around her neck, their posture incredibly intimate.

The scent of forest and wood was hazy like mist, while the floral fragrance silently expanded around them like a hunter’s closing net. Their pheromones were entangled, the atmosphere teetering on the edge of being overly suggestive.

Xie Bufei’s expression darkened. Her slender fingers grazed Yu Qiao’s lips almost imperceptibly. Yu Qiao frowned slightly, her nose twitching as if disturbed in her sleep.

Xie Bufei’s gaze lingered on her lips as she murmured silently, “I like you so much.”

I really want to kiss you.

She reluctantly withdrew her gaze with a sigh, picked up a jacket from the side of the sofa, and draped it over Yu Qiao. “Don’t sleep here, you’ll catch a cold.”

Under the dim light of the chandelier, Yu Qiao slowly opened her eyes in a half-dreaming state. Her eyes caught the light as she squinted at her. “Mmm… Senior?”

Xie Bufei was struck by how cute she looked in her dazed state and reached out to pinch her cheek. “Good girl, go back and sleep properly.”

Yu Qiao instinctively rubbed her face against Xie Bufei’s fingers and nodded like a little chick pecking at grain. Five minutes later, she fully woke up, her eyes regaining their clarity. She put her silver-rimmed glasses back on, returning to her usual indifferent self.

Li Yan saw them off downstairs, still grumbling. “Next time you come, I’m picking a different game to crush you in.”

Standing in a patch of warm sunlight, Yu Qiao waved to him. “Okay.”

Xie Bufei crossed her arms. “You actually played games with him?”

Yu Qiao nodded. “I haven’t played before. It was quite a novel experience.”

Xie Bufei smiled. “Then I’ll play with you in the future.”

Yu Qiao made an agreement with Cheng Yeli to help out whenever she was free. The hourly rate was set at 100 yuan for now, with a potential raise once grades improved. Over the next few weeks, she visited Wandong four or five times. Sometimes Xie Bufei accompanied her, sometimes she didn’t. Li Yan grew used to her presence; because Yu Qiao was willing to play games with him and was actually good at them, he stopped targeting her so much.

Back at the dorm, Yao Rudong was on the phone with her parents. Lu Yun was packing her bags to head home, asking, “Are you going home for National Day, Qiaoqiao?”

Yu Qiao didn’t really want to go back, but she remembered her mother’s previous phone call. Her hands hesitated over the keyboard. “I’ll go back.”

On the first day of the long break, Yu Qiao packed her things and boarded the bus to the neighboring county. People were laughing and children were playing in the carriage, but Yu Qiao remained apart from the noise. She looked out the window, holding the quiet ragdoll cat. The scenery retreated, skyscrapers gradually turning into the gray-tiled and white-walled houses of a small town.

Two hours later, she stepped off the station and stood in the quiet streets. The alleys of the old district always smelled of dampness, the colors muted gray, the sky obscured by laundry lines and dense layers of hanging clothes. The path underfoot was wet and slippery, covered in moss. Carrying her luggage, Yu Qiao walked carefully, cradling Curry in one arm as she entered a dilapidated apartment building.

The hallway was cluttered with junk and old bicycles. The sound-activated lights were broken; no amount of stomping would turn them on. Yu Qiao stood at her door in silence for a long time before taking out her keys.

Click. The door opened.

She walked into the living room and looked around; no one seemed to be home. For some reason, she breathed a sigh of relief.

She took her luggage into her bedroom. The bed was covered with a dust sheet, the windows were tightly shut, but the desk and bookshelf remained in their usual places. Yu Qiao ran a finger over the desk—no dust. It seemed someone cleaned it regularly. She unpacked, opened the windows for ventilation, removed the dust sheet, and mopped the floor.

Once finished, she looked out at the sky divided by telephone poles and dialed her mother’s number.

“Hello?” A woman’s gentle voice answered. “Is that Qiaoqiao?”

Yu Qiao gave an “mm.” “Mom, I’m home.”

The background noise on the other end ceased as the woman seemingly moved to another room, her voice filled with surprise. “Really? You’re home today? Good, good… Wait for me to get off work. I’ll go buy groceries and cook something delicious for you…” Her tone was excited, almost incoherent. Yu Qiao listened quietly before saying, “Mom, don’t go to so much trouble. Just a simple meal is fine.”

“You hardly ever come back, how can we be so casual…” her mother insisted. “Just stay at home and wait for me, don’t go wandering off.”

Yu Qiao gave a helpless response. Her mother worked as a clerk in a convenience store; the pay wasn’t high, but it was close to home and an easy walk.

Yu Qiao leaned back in her chair, the sunlight flowing over her face. The cat lay at her feet, sleeping soundly. She watched the birds hopping on the telephone wires, her thoughts drifting. Away from the intense study environment and her friends, she suddenly didn’t know what to do with herself.

She opened her phone and immediately saw the familiar avatar at the top of her list. She thought to herself: Senior should be home by now, right? I wonder what she’s doing.

She waited until 6:30 PM, the sky darkening, with no sign of her mother returning. Curry let out a soft meow—it was time for its dinner. Yu Qiao poured a bowl of cat food and watched it eat.

Suddenly, her phone rang. She answered it.

“Qiaoqiao, I’m so sorry… Mom has to work overtime tonight. There are some dumplings in the freezer, can you boil them yourself?”

Yu Qiao wasn’t surprised. She said sensibly, “Okay, I understand.”

The woman gave her a few more reminders before hanging up. Yu Qiao looked at the dark screen and let out a long breath. Outside, night had fallen. The last light of dusk was disappearing, everything turning into blurry silhouettes. A string of birds flew across the sky, leaving behind a trail of calls.

Sitting in her dark bedroom, Yu Qiao felt a sudden, profound loneliness. She looked at her phone and, for some reason, dialed Xie Bufei’s number.

It rang three times before connecting. Yu Qiao was inexplicably nervous, gripping her phone tight. “Senior, I…”

She didn’t know what to say and lowered her eyes. The other end remained silent, but neither of them hung up. After a long while, a soft sob reached her ear.

Yu Qiao’s eyes snapped open. “Senior?!”

“Qiaoqiao!” Xie Bufei called her name in a low voice, her throat straining to suppress a broken sob. She sounded like she was crying, trying very hard to hold it back.

Yu Qiao sat up straight. “Senior, what’s wrong? Are you okay?”

“Qiaoqiao…” Xie Bufei interrupted her, her voice thick with tears. “I want to see you.”

At that moment, Yu Qiao’s heart throbbed violently.

“Okay,” she heard herself say. “I’ll come find you.”

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