The Popular/Charismatic Beta Always Thinks They Are Universally Disliked - Chapter 16

Chapter 16: Woof

Upon hearing the news that Wei Yuzhi’s ID card was missing, Wen Zhiyi’s first reaction was suspicion.

He confirmed the fact with He Xin again in disbelief, finally convinced that he hadn’t misheard.

He Xin’s gentle and steady voice was clearly audible despite the transmission across the electromagnetic waves. He watched his boss break the ID card without changing his expression and said apologetically to Little Wen: “…A temporary ID might take around ten hours to process. It’s already 1:30 PM now. If you’re in a hurry, we could ask the registration staff to work an evening shift…”

He knew Wen Zhiyi wouldn’t agree.

Wen Zhiyi indeed rejected the suggestion.

He frowned and chose a different day: “Then let’s make it Wednesday. By then, there shouldn’t be any more problems. Assistant He, you won’t suddenly tell me the marriage certificate is missing then, right?”

He Xin chuckled, about to speak, but the boss took over the conversation, so he wisely chose to keep silent.

Wei Yuzhi’s deep, cold voice traveled clearly and steadily across the distance into Wen Zhiyi’s ear:

“Even if the marriage certificate is lost, it’s just a matter of replacing it.”

So, instead of getting a divorce, we’ll have to get married again?

Wen Zhiyi sneered: “If that’s the case, I really need to think about it carefully. After all, getting another marriage certificate sounds quite unpleasant. Why would CEO Wei choose such a humiliating method to stall?”

Wei Yuzhi closed his eyes silently, no longer looking at the face that was still smiling brightly on the phone screen.

He heard his own calm voice, chillingly frank and seemingly uncaring yet helpless:

“Wednesday afternoon. See you there.”

In that brief moment when Wei Yuzhi closed his eyes and sank into darkness, he thought of countless ways to force Wen Zhiyi to continue the marriage: using money, power, status… using every means Wen Zhiyi couldn’t resist, forcing the other person to stop imagining any possibility of escaping him.

His frantic and unwilling imagination stopped at a sudden, confusing thought—

Why, why was “emotion” the one thing missing from all these methods?

Wen Zhiyi was initially willing to stay by his side precisely because of—

Wei Yuzhi snapped his eyes open. The blinding light rushed into his vision. In this flood of daylight, he vaguely realized that he seemed to have touched a cherished treasure in the darkness.

But it felt like it was too late.

What he touched was an expired lottery ticket—a ticket that clearly promised a jackpot but whose redemption period had passed.

He was bewildered, confused, and angry about this. All the violent emotions, like a caged beast colliding with the bars, ultimately settled on a memory he thought he didn’t care about.

On the night of his second wedding anniversary with Wen Zhiyi, Wei Yuzhi finished dealing with all matters related to his grandmother’s death, including the will, funeral, asset management, farewell ceremony, and a series of trivial and busy things. He had no energy left to think about his own feelings; he just wanted to go home, hold Wen Zhiyi, and fall into a deep sleep.

But when he finally rushed home in the early morning, the news from He Xin was that Mr. Little Wen had made no comment about the luxurious, solemn, yet empty anniversary. He had played a game for a while and then went to bed early. Apart from asking where Wei Yuzhi went, he had no other reaction.

He Xin, following Wei Yuzhi’s prior instructions, answered that he was working late.

Wei Yuzhi sat by Wen Zhiyi’s bed, silently looking at his deeply sleeping face. It wasn’t the first time he had gazed at Wen Zhiyi’s sleeping face, but it was the first time he doubted whether his decision to keep Wen Zhiyi away from everyone in the Wei family was right or wrong.

He knew his grandmother didn’t have much time left, so he didn’t bring Little Wen to see her, saving Wen Zhiyi from future sadness and saving his grandmother an extra concern. Two years ago, Wei Yuzhi believed that care and concern were emotions that made people unnecessarily weak, but two years later, Wei Yuzhi discovered that care and concern could also be a delightful and sweet emotion.

Because that was exactly how he felt about Wen Zhiyi.

Wei Yuzhi, pulling himself away from the memory, lightly tapped his phone screen. The sleeping phone suddenly lit up. He looked at the smiling face on the lock screen and let out an extremely slow, heavy sigh.

…

On the other end, Little Wen, who had hung up the phone, felt as if he had forgotten something that wasn’t major but certainly wasn’t insignificant.

He lowered his head and expressionlessly examined his hands, trying to find inspiration from habitual actions.

However, his moment of contemplation was quickly interrupted by the Fat Cat running track on the floor. Zhuangzhuang, who ran over with thump, thump, thump steps, successfully leaped onto the sofa in mid-air, plummeting into Wen Zhiyi’s arms like a high-velocity cannonball.

Wen Zhiyi groaned under the impact of the Fat Cat firmly planting its paws on his thigh. He swore this Fat Cat must be approaching ten pounds, becoming a charging truck.

He sadly stroked Zhuangzhuang’s soft, warm belly, like reaching inside a hot water bottle and kneading a hot water ball.

So soft, so warm.

Wen Zhiyi carefully observed the Fat Cat’s expression while fondling it, ready to smoothly withdraw his hand the moment the cat turned its head to hiss. Zhuangzhuang, whose fur was ruffled by the petting, squinted back at him with its chubby double chin.

“Bite me and I’ll take you to get neutered,” Wen Zhiyi narrowed his eyes and gently pinched the thin cat ears on Zhuangzhuang’s head.

The green-eyed kitten’s whiskers twitched a few times. Its bright, emerald-like cat eyes showed a humanized degree of vigilance. It stretched its head out to nuzzle the Beta’s snow-white, slender palm ingratiatingly, looking weak, pitiful, but capable of eating.

Wen Zhiyi looked at the cat fur on his hand and belatedly let out an “Ah.” In that flash of inspiration, he finally remembered what he had forgotten.

The wedding ring.

He had to return this to Wei Yuzhi too.

Finally remembering, Wen Zhiyi sighed in relief. He coaxed and pushed Zhuangzhuang out of his arms and began rummaging through the suitcase he had brought from the Wei villa. He remembered putting the ring in the storage layer.

As for why Wen Zhiyi hadn’t left the ring at the Wei residence—

It was because he didn’t realize this leftover item from his marriage to Wei Yuzhi was still on his finger until he was in the taxi, reaching out to open the car door.

This brilliant, beautiful, hard, and cold leftover item had been on his ring finger for two years, and throughout this two-year marriage, it had dutifully stayed tightly bound to Wen Zhiyi’s finger.

It was so hard it seemed to lack any softness, and so cold it sometimes made Wen Zhiyi wonder if snow had fallen on his finger. It constantly pressed against the ring finger, which supposedly had a vein leading directly to the heart, leaving circular red marks on the snow-white, long, and flower-bud-like finger—

The ring was actually a little too small.

And now, as Wen Zhiyi pulled it out of the storage layer and casually stuffed it into his backpack, he lowered his gaze to look at the ring that had been fused with him for so long, and a thought that made him scoff suddenly came to him.

He thought: This ring is like an asshole’s heart.

Cold and hard.

…

The afternoon quickly passed. Wen Zhiyi finally finalized his thesis and, after sending it to his advisor, stretched leisurely. He turned to see Zhuangzhuang, who was chewing on a cat teaser nearby, mimicking his stretch.

The two shadows, one human and one cat, one large and one small, were painted onto the wall by the setting sun.

The sound of the door opening came from the entrance. Elder Wen, who rarely got off work early, was carrying a pile of takeout and shouted for his brother to come out and eat. He had specifically driven dozens of kilometers to pack up Little Wen’s favorite fish. To avoid rush hour, he had also given the entire company an extra hour off.

Even though the entire company consisted of less than ten people.

“Pan-fried Lemon Cod!” Wen Zhiyi cheered, taking the takeout bag marked “Black Pearl Restaurant” from Wen Zhijie’s hand. After tearing it open, he quickly picked up a piece of golden, fragrant cod and popped it into his mouth. Without turning back, he said to Elder Wen: “There’s bayberry juice in the fridge. Get me a bottle too.”

Wen Zhijie, who had just taken off his jacket, was still holding the chilled bayberries he bought for Wen Zhiyi. He rolled his eyes and snapped: “Can’t you let your brother rest for a minute?”

Little Wen, knowing he was at fault, quickly squeezed in another piece of sour, sweet, and fresh fish before his brother could nag him about eating with his hands. After chewing quickly, he vaguely replied: “…How come you’re not working late today?”

The moment he finished speaking, he flinched as a bottle of bayberry juice was pressed against his cheek. The glass bottle, suddenly covered with tiny water droplets due to the temperature difference, was cool and refreshing. Wen Zhijie held the glass bottle in his left hand against his own cheek, sighing contentedly, then maliciously pressed the bottle in his right hand against his brother’s face.

“What’s with all the rules at that Pearl restaurant? You have to pick the fish yourself to order? I strongly suspect the chef is trying to deflect hostility,” Wen Zhijie sat down at the dining table, attempting to criticize the Black Pearl Restaurant. “Didn’t I become the last person the fish saw before it died?”

Wen Zhiyi deftly picked up the bayberries to wash them. After washing, he submerged the basket of plump, pinkish-purple bayberries in cold salt water. While observing the tiny bubbles popping in the salt water, he casually called out to comfort his brother: “It’s okay. The last person the fish saw after it died was me. I’ll take the hostility for you.”

In Elder Wen’s eyes, Wen Zhiyi was good in every way. His only small, non-issue flaw was that the food he liked tended to be troublesome—like all kinds of fish, shrimp, and crab that needed meticulous handling, or fruits that required complicated preparation. He only deigned to eat them after they had been laboriously and finely prepared.

In Wen Zhiyi’s own view, he didn’t have to eat these things; if they were available, he ate them, and if not, no big deal. But the people around him didn’t think that way. No matter how troublesome, they had to be placed in front of Little Wen.

His three ex-boyfriends had reached unprecedented consensus on this point.

Gu Yansheng had loved watching Wen Zhiyi eat since childhood. While watching Little Wen sit opposite him, neatly holding his bowl, he would smile and pat his back to help him catch his breath when Little Wen occasionally ate too fast and choked. This habit continued from kindergarten all the way to high school.

Chen Que precisely eliminated everything Little Wen didn’t like to eat. Wen Zhiyi always suspected that the Alpha’s cleanliness obsession was made up to deceive him. What Alpha with an obsession with cleanliness would naturally clean up other people’s leftover food?

Compared to the previous two, Wei Yuzhi’s desire to feed was quite strange. Not only did he want to feed Wen Zhiyi, but he also happily competed with Wen Zhiyi for food. Only when Wen Zhiyi got annoyed would he curve a barely perceptible smile, content to be thumped by Wen Zhiyi a few times.

Wen Zhijie… Wen Zhijie bit into a skewer and expressed his helplessness to his brother, who was drooling but couldn’t eat spicy food.

“Why did you only buy spicy ones?” Wen Zhiyi criticized seriously.

“Because the non-spicy ones don’t taste good,” Wen Zhijie argued seriously.

“I don’t care. You’re not allowed to eat it,” Wen Zhiyi declared he was going to make a fuss.

Wen Zhijie ignored him and continued to feast, humming dismissively to show he was listening.

He glanced at Little Wen, then suddenly raised an eyebrow and said: “Look at the fish you’re eating now. It looks small on the surface, but it’s actually big. Because the smaller the fish, the smaller the bones, the more flesh, and the bigger the fish. So, the smaller the fish, the bigger the fish.”

Wen Zhiyi took a sip of chilled bayberry juice unhurriedly, thinking that by this logic, the shorter the Alpha, the taller the Alpha.

The two of them chatted and bickered while eating. By the time they finished dinner, it was already eight o’clock. Little Wen, full and content, decided to go for a walk downstairs.

In the evening after the sun had completely set, a gentle, cool breeze slowly blew across the entire complex. Wen Zhiyi, wearing headphones, felt a little tired after walking for ten minutes and sat down casually on the roadside flower bed, not caring if he dirtied his pants.

Magnolia grandiflora was one of the most common trees in this complex. Unfortunately, August was past their flowering season, so Wen Zhiyi, sitting on the flower bed in the tree’s shadow, couldn’t see the beautiful, full magnolia flowers. However, their fruiting season would begin soon.

He looked up through the layers of branches at the vast, boundless night sky. The layered branches projected dappled shadows onto Wen Zhiyi’s face, rippling like water rings expanding on the surface due to the passing breeze. In this silent night, he suddenly felt a long-lost sense of joy and ease. The soft light music flowing through his headphones slowly faded into the background.

There was nothing to fear, and nothing to worry about. No matter how big the problem, it hadn’t stopped him from eating and sleeping, and as long as he could still eat and sleep, no difficulty was insurmountable.

Wen Zhiyi stood up, dusted off his pants, and continued his walk in a good mood. Unfortunately, just as he finished one lap around the complex and returned downstairs, preparing for a second, he noticed a tall Alpha leading a dog standing under the damp halo of the streetlights, staring at him silently and persistently.

Wen Zhiyi chose to ignore the pale, ghost-like ex, but the Doberman at the other’s feet, with its bright black eyes, suddenly cocked its head—

Its narrow, sharp ears twitched subtly.

Wen Zhiyi couldn’t help but take an extra look.

Elegant, noble, obedient, and friendly. What a good dog.

Wen Zhiyi walked past Chen Que and his good dog without looking aside, spending less attention on the former than the latter.

The night breeze, filled with the fresh scent of hollyhocks, suddenly brought a cool, sweet, honest, and gentle faint floral fragrance. The familiar locust flower scent made Wen Zhiyi subconsciously frown. He wondered how he, a Beta, could smell Chen Que’s pheromones.

The burning hot fingers that landed on his wrist answered that question.

Rut.

The moment Wen Zhiyi realized this, the overwhelming, frantically surging scent of locust flowers turned cold and sharp due to its extreme concentration. Like a giant snake finally crawling out of the lake, shedding all its pretense of kindness and gentleness, it softly bared its narrow fangs.

The large dog’s thick, black lead was wrapped around Chen Que’s clearly defined arm. As he raised his arm, the full, solid muscles on his arm instantly bulged, showing an almost brutal sense of strength, as if the rope was meant to confine him, not the elegant, sharp Doberman on the other end.

A rough, long finger lightly hooked Wen Zhiyi’s waist. He hugged the other’s waist from behind, whispering gently and lingeringly in Wen Zhiyi’s ear to seek credit: “Zhizhi, you said you wanted a dog, a real dog. Will you pet it?”

Wen Zhiyi, abruptly embraced, could barely tolerate the scorching, hot breath by his ear. The body temperature of an Alpha in rut was close to 40 degrees Celsius. Just being held for a few seconds, he already felt like he was plunged into a massive furnace.

Before he could reprimand Chen Que, the Alpha, whose eyes were burning red, seemed to suddenly snap back to consciousness. He quickly released the arm wrapped around Wen Zhiyi’s waist and took a step back, but his dark, cavernous eyes never blinked, staring at him unblinkingly.

Chen Que slowly curled a careful smile. He looked at Wen Zhiyi pitifully, even squatting down to look up at the beautiful, ice-cold Beta with the Doberman. He moved closer again, gently clutching the other’s hand with a force Wen Zhiyi definitely couldn’t easily break free from:

“Will you pet it, and pet me too?”

Wen Zhiyi had indeed told Chen Que he wanted a dog.

But that was two years ago, in a distant past.

But Chen Que’s fever-ridden brain couldn’t distinguish the coordinates of time, and even without the high fever of the rut, the continuous psychotropic medication often made his memory erratic. So, he naturally took the Beta who profoundly attracted him to be the Wen Zhiyi of two years ago.

He reached out to the other so naturally, as if Wen Zhiyi was still the person who would fall for this because he liked it.

He whispered: “Zhizhi, I feel so bad.”

He looked fragile, humble, and completely oblivious, as if he had truly forgotten the two years of discord and separation.

From Wen Zhiyi’s perspective, those deep, heavy, dark pupils were like two pools of water where light could not penetrate. They were now staring at him with a chilling intensity.

Wen Zhiyi stood his ground and met Chen Que’s gaze.

Cold, solemn, and unmoved.

Like an indifferent statue that could not be moved no matter what.

Chen Que, whose eyes were bloodshot from his high temperature, maintained this approachable, gentle posture. A look of what could be called confused helplessness even appeared on his handsome, pale face.

He gazed at Wen Zhiyi, perplexed and gently.

And just as Chen Que’s thick, dark brows twitched slightly in a sign of vulnerability, the icy Wen Zhiyi suddenly forcibly shook off his hand and turned to leave, running so fast it was almost a sprint!

That fool has been squatting on the ground for so long; he definitely can’t catch up to me!

He didn’t believe Chen Que’s legs weren’t cramped.

Little Wen mentally patted himself on the back for his quick thinking.

Chen Que’s expression went blank for a moment. The muscular, tall, and obedient Doberman beside him comfortingly stretched out its red tongue and licked its master’s palm.

It clearly felt its master’s excessively high body temperature and extremely unstable emotions.

Zhizhi… doesn’t like this dog?

Chen Que slowly stroked the Doberman’s smooth, muscular back, expressionlessly staring at the night where Wen Zhiyi’s figure disappeared.

The memories, struggling like a trapped beast in a cage, gradually resurfaced. He silently digested the various recollections that he had remembered and forgotten, forgotten and remembered, repeating this process for the umpteenth time.

So, Zhizhi said he wanted a dog two years ago.

So, they were already separated by two years.

And also by a Wei Yuzhi who absolutely refused to divorce.

The tense muscles between Chen Que’s eyebrows suddenly twitched. Unmistakable veins suddenly bulged on his neck. The leash wrapped around his arm also abruptly tightened, leaving circular marks on his skin. Only when he felt the Doberman panting heavily and struggling did Chen Que frown and loosen the leash.

…

Wen Zhiyi, having successfully escaped, thought about why Chen Que had appeared there while taking a shower after returning home.

But perhaps this is exactly in line with his character?

To be honest, Wen Zhiyi had been prepared for the other to cling to him relentlessly. Two years ago, he already knew that the ice-cold figure of the National Academy of Fine Arts was not aloof and reserved on the surface but an extremely stubborn, dark, and unconventional Alpha.

Extreme frankness, gentleness, absolute obedience, and a pathological dependence, clinging, and strong desire for control.

These seemingly contradictory traits constituted the Alpha named Chen Que, and unusually, all these traits were part of his true personality. His excessive frankness caused all his inner emotional fluctuations and needs for affection to be unreservedly exposed to Wen Zhiyi.

That was how Wen Zhiyi had been moved at the time. He couldn’t believe, and confirmed repeatedly, that someone had truly dissected their heart and laid it bare before him.

To what extent did Chen Que act on impulse two years ago?

Wen Zhiyi told him he wanted to adopt a smart, agile, lively, and enthusiastic dog, asking if he had any recommendations for breeds.

The handsome, statue-like Alpha was then casually sketching. His pale, long, hard, and strong fingers suddenly stopped when he heard the question. He raised his eyelids to glance at Wen Zhiyi thoughtfully.

Then, he curved a smile of indescribable meaning and quietly whispered:

“Woof.”