The Popular/Charismatic Beta Always Thinks They Are Universally Disliked - Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Little Wen Firmly Decides to Divorce on Day One…

“I never want to see you again for the rest of my life.”

Wen Zhiyi sent this final message to his husband, then decisively blocked the other party.

He sat on his suitcase by the side of the road, his slender fingers tapping rapidly on the phone screen. Golden, clear sunlight filtered through the leaves, dappling him and casting spots of golden light on the asphalt road.

Dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, the young Beta, despite the suffocating heat, resembled a refreshing lime fruit tea, giving anyone who saw him a feeling of a gentle breeze blowing.

The strong natural light made the phone screen appear dim. Wen Zhiyi unconsciously held the phone higher, concluding the chat with an angry flurry of taps on the keyboard.

Suddenly, a hand pulled the phone away.

It was Wen Zhijie.

Wen Zhijie, dressed in a shirt and trousers, looked at his younger brother: “Don’t you want your eyes anymore?”

Reaching out to Wen Zhijie, signaling for help to stand up, Wen Zhiyi mumbled, “Why did the busy man come in person?”

“You’re my only brother, no matter how busy I am, I have to come and see you.” Wen Zhijie handed him a sundae, which he had kept in a car cooler. “Did you make things clear with Wei Yuzhi?”

Wen Zhiyi’s life motto was to just roll over and go back to sleep even if the sky was falling. So, even though he had been arguing about divorce with Wei Yuzhi just a second ago, he could immediately eat his sundae without any psychological burden.

A bit of chocolate sauce stained the corner of his lips, making him look alarmingly sweet, yet the gentle-looking young man often maintained a poker face. In truth, he was mostly just too lazy to make expressions.

Wen Zhijie found it amusing and instinctively moved his brother’s luggage into the trunk. After getting into the car, he pulled a tissue from the storage compartment and handed it to Wen Zhiyi, pointing to the corner of his own mouth as the latter looked confused.

Wiping his lips, the handsome, aloof young man spoke indistinctly, “Anyway, I have to finalize the divorce this month no matter what. I lived at his place for a year during my first year of grad school, but I can’t take the suffering of marriage.”

“You were right initially, I really regretted it.” Wen Zhiyi completely sprawled out octopus-style in the back seat, speaking with resignation. “I was too young back then, hadn’t even graduated from undergrad, no social experience.”

“Is this about social experience? How many college students get married before they graduate? People brought you a potion of confusion, and you, like an idiot, drank it all up, then wiped your mouth and sweetly said thank you.”

Wen Zhijie, who was praised by relatives for being steady and reliable, became verbose the moment he encountered his younger brother. His cool demeanor barely lasted two minutes before his nagging nature secretly revealed itself.

“Back then, your parents and I, who didn’t try to persuade you for ages? What did you say? You said—’You guys just don’t understand me~’ Yes, I admit your parents and I have a generation gap with you. But did Wei Yuzhi understand you? He’s not much younger than me.”

Covering his head with a car pillow, Wen Zhiyi attempted to establish a physical defense against the “magic attack” from his older brother. “Won’t I have experience next time? A stumble is a gain in your stride. Better to suffer losses early than late. I’m still young now; I have a market even if I remarry. It would be miserable to divorce when I’m old.”

Infuriated by his sophistry, Wen Zhijie glanced at the traffic ahead and said fiercely, “Can’t you ever wish good things for yourself? Anyway, next time there’s a major life decision like this, please listen more to me and our parents.”

“Spare me,” the young man in the back seat gazed blankly at the car roof. “If Mom and Dad could understand, they wouldn’t have ended up getting divorced themselves.”

Stunned into silence by that remark, Wen Zhijie had nothing to say and angrily honked the horn a few times, receiving several curses from the driver in front.

“By the way, you know Gu Yansheng is back in the country, right?” After a brief silence, Wen Zhijie decided to change the subject, freely sharing the latest news he had dug up from their parents with his brother. “He’s already received an offer from your university. If all goes well, he’ll be the youngest associate professor in the college’s history.”

Wen Zhiyi, who had been playing dead, immediately perked up, took off his headphones, and exclaimed in shock, “With so many universities in the country, why did he have to come to Jing University?”

Wen Zhijie rolled his eyes at him through the rearview mirror: “Did you forget his parents and our dad are both doctoral supervisors at Jing University? Don’t flatter yourself; he might not be coming for your old history. Just stay calm, and don’t drool when you see him like you did when you were a kid.”

Shamefully collapsing onto the back seat, Wen Zhiyi desperately reminded himself that this was his own brother, his own brother who was currently driving, so he absolutely must not throw the pillow. A wrong move could lead to a two-person accident.

“I will re-emphasize: I was the one who dumped him. And I drooled as a kid because I was losing my baby teeth. You’d better shut up. If this gets out, it’s on you.”

Wen Zhiyi had a secret he had never told anyone: he could read minds.

More accurately, he could see others’ Malice Value towards him.

All the people he had seen since childhood could be divided into two categories: one category was no different from normal people; the other category displayed a progress bar next to them, visible only to him.

His parents, brother, and other relatives all belonged to the former, while his past boyfriends belonged to the latter.

As for why he was so sure it was Malice Value rather than Affection Value, the reason was simple: the top of the progress bar displayed a broken gray heart, and every time the progress bar was maxed out, it was when his ex-boyfriends would break up with him.

As soon as the progress bar went up, those people’s attitudes towards him would become strange—either they would become evasive, or their words would become hesitant.

He understood. They hated him but were too embarrassed to say it, so they could only subtly distance themselves in this way.

As times advanced and people’s manners improved, all his romances that ended without disease concluded gracefully. Wen Zhiyi, who never learned from his mistakes, always thought sweet love had finally come to him, only to see the other person’s Malice Value steadily climb.

His two previous exes were prime examples.

Gu Yansheng and Chen Que were obedient to him from dating until the breakup. However, one left without saying goodbye to study abroad after high school graduation, and the other abruptly broke up with him in his junior year without giving any reason.

Fortunately, Wen Zhiyi was naturally easygoing. After a moment of melancholy, he immediately shifted his attention and got on with his life.

No man in my heart, the sword is naturally divine.

Wait, counting Wei Yuzhi, he now had three exes.

Wen Zhiyi sighed, feeling miserable about his endlessly pending divorce process.

His acquaintance and marriage with Wei Yuzhi were so dramatic that he still couldn’t give his brother a reasonable explanation.

During the summer vacation of his junior year, Wen Zhiyi was rushing from city to city for written tests and interviews to secure a spot for graduate studies. Adding to that, his parents, the warring couple, were stirring up divorce again after many years, leading him to finally decide to escape reality.

So, on the day he received the notice for the excellent camp at Jing University, he didn’t tell anyone, ran off to Tibet alone to be a backpacker. The outdoor novice, Wen Zhiyi, was taught a lesson by the 6,000-meter-high Mount Kailash. However, all altitude sickness was thoroughly cured the moment he saw the sunlight illuminate the golden peak.

Either the body or the soul must suffer.

Wen Zhiyi deeply agreed with this. Between the backaches, headaches, and fever, he had no energy to think about the troubles in his life. While burning up at the sky burial platform, he felt that as long as he got better immediately, who divorced whom was none of his business.

The 360 deities of Bon seemed to have heard his wish, sending him Wei Yuzhi, who came with antipyretics and painkillers, and who would divorce him two years later.

It was effective, but perhaps a little too effective.

The rebellious Little Wen, who was set on achieving something great, met Wei Yuzhi, who was being urged to marry by his soon-to-pass grandmother. The B and the O exchanged knowing glances, hooked up, and, in a moment of impulse, registered their marriage on the very first day they returned to Jing City together.

The day they returned to Jing City also happened to be Wen Zhiyi’s 20th birthday, making him of legal marriageable age.

All the coincidences made Wen Zhiyi feel that it was destiny for him to marry Wei Yuzhi. Even though this man was five years older and looked incredibly cold, he was willing to marry him and build a family with him.

But it seemed only he was trying to maintain this marriage. The Omega named Wei Yuzhi did not even intend to hide his contempt for Wen Zhiyi. Lacking pheromones and the inherent physical and intellectual advantages of the AO sexes, Wen Zhiyi was just an ordinary Beta.

As a typical Heaven’s Favored Son, the strong-willed Omega naturally forgot the feelings he had when he first proposed to Wen Zhiyi.

Wei Yuzhi thought he naturally had control over this Beta.

Over the past two years of marriage, watching Wei Yuzhi’s Malice Value increase daily, the disheartened Wen Zhiyi decided there was no need to continue dragging it out. So, at the start of his second year of grad school, he packed all his luggage and left Wei Yuzhi’s villa. In fact, it was only a few hoodies and jeans.

He didn’t take even a pair of socks of the things Wei Yuzhi had bought for him.

Keeping it would bring bad luck.

When sending the divorce agreement to Wei Yuzhi, Wen Zhiyi was rare glad that he was a Beta. They hadn’t managed to have a child with Wei Yuzhi in two years, otherwise, the divorce would have become complicated.

Having been left to his own devices by his parents for years, he absolutely could not abandon a child, but given the wealth disparity between him and Wei Yuzhi and his status as a student, the court was unlikely to grant him custody.

His second relief was that he was a law student; drafting the divorce agreement cost him nothing, although buying legal services on Taobao wouldn’t cost much anyway.

Yes, the labor of law students was that cheap.

Seeing his thoughts starting to stray into strange territory, Wen Zhiyi immediately stopped himself. Most of life’s troubles came from self-consumption, and he was determined to reject self-consumption.

“What flew out?” Wen Zhijie slammed on the brakes. The Audi A6’s braking system performed steadily, stopping smoothly just before hitting the object that had fallen from the car ahead.

Wen Zhiyi, having been lazy and not wearing his seatbelt in the back, slammed into the back of the front passenger seat when the car abruptly stopped. Clutching his head, he peered out the window, angrily trying to find the culprit.

He then saw a golden-brown, short-legged Golden British Shorthair cat lying on the side of the road, struggling to climb up from the scorching pavement, stumbling as it tried to chase the Maybach that had already sped away in a cloud of dust.

It seemed to have been thrown out of the car window by its owner.

The tiny creature, barely bigger than a palm, looked exhausted. Realizing it couldn’t catch its owner no matter what, it frantically dodged the traffic. Its two cat ears were flattened against the back of its head in an airplane-ear state, indicating it was highly stressed.

The small cat’s coat was glossy and sleek, with a large head, round face, and thick limbs. It was clearly well-fed and cared for, making its owner’s extreme action hard to comprehend.

“That’s really inconsiderate,” Wen Zhiyi lamented expressionlessly, watching the abandoned Golden Shorthair outside the window. “Poor little thing.”

However, completely contrary to his expressionless face, Wen Zhiyi decisively opened the car door and used the spare thin blanket from the back seat to swiftly wrap up the stressed, continuously hissing kitten. His movements were quick and sharp, ensuring the cat couldn’t scratch him while still leaving room to breathe, gently but firmly kidnapping the cat into the car.

His actions were so fast that Wen Zhijie hadn’t even reacted.

“Wait, did less than five minutes pass from the moment it was thrown out to you grabbing it?” Wen Zhijie was greatly astonished. “Are you allowed to keep a cat in your dorm?”

“The cat language for stray cats is: act fast or lose out,” Wen Zhiyi soothed the gradually calming kitten in his arms. “If it comes down to it, I’ll move out. I saved up some money from my internship during the holidays.”

He flashed a smile at his brother in the driver’s seat: “Can I trouble big brother to take us in for a couple of days first?”

Wen Zhiyi’s good looks meant that when he set his mind to pleasing someone, he almost never failed.

He inherited his mother’s slightly rounded almond eyes. Whenever he blinked or smiled, the subtle light in his eyes sparkled like rippling water, full of affection, soft, and delicate. However, his deep double eyelids and straight long eyelashes cast a cool shadow at the corners of his eyes, making him, when not smiling, resemble a soft, frosted fruit formed in a snowy landscape—the sweet juice that bursts out when you bite into it carries a hint of coldness.

At this moment, Wen Zhiyi was smiling with eyes curved like crescents.

Wen Zhijie raised his hands in surrender: “Forget two days, two years is fine. Don’t move out; keep the small bit of money you earned from your internship.”

Wen Zhiyi lowered his head and scratched the Golden Shorthair’s little ear: “Did you hear that? You don’t have to be a stray anymore.”

The kitten felt wonderful to the touch, and Wen Zhiyi couldn’t resist petting it a few more times.

“I think we should skip the school for now. I remember a pet hospital nearby,” Wen Zhijie twisted around from the front seat to look at the cat, muttering, “What will you do if the owner turns around and picks it up?”

Wen Zhiyi paid no attention to his brother’s warning, his mouth already making soft sounds to tease the cat.

“Isn’t that a sound people use to call dogs?” Wen Zhijie tried to make conversation, attempting to pet the kitten when he had a chance. “Please respect its taxonomic classification.”

“I’ve decided to name it Zhuang Zhuang (Strong),” the beautiful-faced youth replied with a smiling non-sequitur.

“Who gave you permission to name it without consulting me—”

A shadow suddenly fell through the window. Wen Zhiyi, caught off guard, looked up, meeting the chilling eyes of an Alpha outside the car, eyes filled with impatience and malice.

The ostentatious high school boy stood outside the car, his face frigid, staring at the handsome youth inside the car. He said word for word, “That’s my cat.”