The Popular/Charismatic Beta Always Thinks They Are Universally Disliked - Chapter 23

Chapter 23: The Returning Stray Dog

Chen Que ultimately did not adopt the suggestion of his assistant, Ning Meng.

No matter how desperate he was to win back Wen Zhiyi, he would not agree to a plan that involved manipulating the law, which could potentially bring negative consequences and risks to the latter. However, this suggestion revealed Ning Meng’s unreliability, and he coldly decided to recall Zhu Qiao from abroad.

Zhu Qiao, hastily recalled as the “master strategist,” obeyed his boss’s command. The day he received Chen Que’s instructions, he booked a ticket home. Complicated in his feelings, Zhu Qiao left in a rush. He took a single lacquered, studded backpack, casually tossed a few tank tops and T-shirts inside, and strode onto the plane.

“Is the Young Master completely unconcerned about the studio’s operations? Just calling me back so casually?”

He leaned back in his seat, wearing headphones, his gaze lowered toward the endless flat runway outside the window. He idly fiddled with the snake-shaped silver ring on his finger.

A very attentive flight attendant brought a soft, light blanket. Seeing he was on the phone, she didn’t ask if he needed a drink, but smiled, pointed to the service menu on the tray table, and then left.

Zhu Qiao nodded coolly, setting aside the unnecessary complicated emotions, and continued his conversation with his boss on the other end of the phone.

…When he was dating and enjoying himself, he didn’t call me. Now that he’s broken up and wants to get back together, he suddenly remembers me.

Zhu Qiao snuggled further into the blanket. The cold air from the vent overhead felt like it was directly hitting the gland on the back of his neck. He reached up to adjust the direction of the vent and pushed his slightly slipping sunglasses back onto his head.

Chen Que’s move had a hint of “killing the heart.” Four years ago, Zhu Qiao had also mistaken Wen Zhiyi for an Omega and fallen in love at first sight, but it was Chen Que who successfully started a relationship with Wen Zhiyi. Now, this guy, trying to reconcile, again remembered Zhu Qiao, the only one around him with dating experience.

The silver-haired cool guy sneered, inwardly cursing Chen Que for the umpteenth time.

A few more people gathered near Zhu Qiao’s seat. After his arm resting on the armrest was bumped slightly, Zhu Qiao looked up impatiently at the newcomers. He saw a male flight attendant helping a passenger in the aisle seat with their luggage. The passenger’s backpack seemed heavy; the Omega flight attendant struggled for a long time to lift it onto the luggage rack and eventually even looked to the passenger for help.

The passenger—a female Alpha shorter than the flight attendant—pointed at herself in disbelief and questioned in a tone full of shock, “Are your flight attendants this ridiculous? Can’t even put a bag up and expect the passenger to do it themselves? Why are you even in the service industry if you’re so delicate?”

The flight attendant, relentlessly criticized, seemed to be infuriated, immediately scowling and debating with the passenger. Zhu Qiao, despite wearing headphones, could clearly hear the argument.

Zhu Qiao couldn’t stand the farce any longer. He decisively stood up, picked up the passenger’s backpack, and shoved it onto the luggage rack. At 1.85 meters tall, this action was effortless for him; a slight exertion showed the clear lines of his well-trained arm muscles.

He turned to the stunned passenger and raised his index finger to his lips, signaling silence: “If you have a complaint, file one against him. Stop arguing.”

After that, he glanced at the flight attendant, not bothering to say another word, and returned to his seat with a cold expression.

Zhu Qiao had always been confident in the effect of his cold demeanor. He had sharp features and prominent brow bones, with narrow, chilling eyes that were nearly monolid. Coupled with his strange punk accessories and his silver-white wolf-tail mullet, a normal person wouldn’t want to provoke him.

The world indeed fell silent again.

Just as Zhu Qiao was thinking this, the former flight attendant nervously squatted in front of him, holding his phone, blushing, and asked for his WeChat.

The long-haired man was so exasperated he burst out laughing. He tilted his head down, exposing the back of his neck to the flight attendant, and pointed to his scent patch. His magnetic, indifferent voice, tinged with amusement, said, “Open your eyes and look closely. I’m not interested in Omegas.”

On the other end of the line, Chen Que was uncharacteristically patient, waiting for Zhu Qiao to finish dealing with the situation.

Not interested in Omegas?

Four years ago, Zhu Qiao similarly mistook Wen Zhiyi for an Omega, yet that didn’t stop him from falling in love at first sight and pursuing him relentlessly.

Finally regaining his peace, Zhu Qiao returned to his conversation with Chen Que.

He cleared his throat and explained professionally, “Normally, when trying to salvage a relationship, we must first review the reason for the initial separation in order to apply the right treatment. So, Mr. Chen, why did you and Mr. Wen break up in the first place?”

Although he had witnessed the entirety of Chen Que and Wen Zhiyi’s relationship, Zhu Qiao didn’t know the specific reason for their breakup. He only knew that Chen Que suddenly cut off contact with everyone one day, leaving Wen Zhiyi with no choice but to ask him for information.

But Zhu Qiao couldn’t help. He didn’t know Chen Que’s whereabouts, and the Chen family refused to see anyone inquiring about Chen Que’s situation. The only thing he could tell Wen Zhiyi was that Chen Que was still alive.

—Of course, Chen Que was still alive. How could someone suddenly die in a peaceful, law-abiding society? When Zhu Qiao gave Wen Zhiyi that pale answer, he himself felt confused, but a few months later, when he saw Chen Que with his own eyes, he belatedly realized his description had been accurate.

He saw a Chen Que who had drastically lost weight in a short period, almost emaciated, wearing an electronic tracking bracelet on his wrist, and was more closed off and silent than ever before.

Like a bare tree standing alone in the wilderness, having lost all its leaves, not knowing from where the next hurricane would blow.

His taciturn personality, his pathological resistance to pheromones, his specialness that made him different from his parents… Everything had a logical explanation. It turned out that the mental illness in Ms. Wang’s family lineage was only passed down to male Alphas. This unreasonable genetic inheritance began to express itself fiercely when Chen Que was twenty-one. He first lost his color perception, followed by directional perception, temperature perception, and a series of other sensory abilities. A person who needed the most acute sensory abilities became a walking dead man, duller than rotten wood, in just a few days.

He was indeed alive, but merely alive.

During emergency treatment, Chen Que, unable to control his gland, had an Information Pheromone Waterfall during an emotional outburst. The extremely lethal pheromones of the S-rank Alpha nearly overwhelmed the glands of the surrounding AOs.

Zhu Qiao knew these past events, but he still objectively and rigorously asked Chen Que why he had broken up with Wen Zhiyi in the first place.

—Why could these things be the reason for Chen Que’s unilateral breakup?

While absentmindedly finding the flight attendant’s information on the service menu, giving a negative review in the service evaluation window, he calmly asked the question that had puzzled him for years:

“The Chen family isn’t so poor that they can’t afford to treat your illness, so it’s not like you were burdening Wen Zhiyi. Why did you decide so resolutely to break up with him?”

Why did you escape so cleanly?

Chen Que was silent for a moment, seriously considering, trying to retrieve his mindset at that time from his messy memory.

—Because when Chen Que finally woke up from all sorts of boundless hallucinations, he stumbled into the restroom, nearly losing his sense of direction in the short journey. For the first time in his life, he seriously examined the unfamiliar face in the mirror. The S-rank Alpha’s hearing allowed him to clearly and calmly hear the conversation between the attending physician and Ms. Wang.

In that moment, Chen Que wasn’t confident that Wen Zhiyi loved him enough to accept his illness.

…

Meanwhile, the person occupying both Zhu and Chen’s thoughts, Wen Zhiyi, had smoothly completed his first day of internship. As he hummed a light tune and opened his front door, ready to order takeout, he received the expected news that his older brother, Wen Zhijie, would be working late again tonight.

“I probably won’t be back until after ten tonight. Just eat by yourself, don’t always eat cold stuff, and pay attention to your meat and vegetable balance. Oh, right, I broke your fat cat’s bowl yesterday. I didn’t turn on the light when I got back and accidentally kicked it. Look online for one you like, send me the link, and I’ll buy a new one.”

Wen Zhiyi slapped his forehead: “No wonder I couldn’t find the cat bowl anywhere today. It’s fine, I’ll buy one myself. Drive carefully on your way back tonight, stay safe.”

Hanging up the phone, Xiao Wen rummaged through the kitchen and finally found a clean spare bowl. He quickly rinsed it and used it as a temporary cat bowl, poured half a bowl of cat food into it, and placed it where the cat bowl usually sat.

Hearing Xiao Wen’s return, the fat cat (Fei Mi) poked its round, fluffy head out from behind a potted plant, sitting primly with its paws tucked in, waiting very seriously for Wen Zhiyi to pet its little head.

This is a reward for the human returning from the hunt—it doesn’t matter if they came back empty-handed. It’s great just to return intact.

The little cat thought so.

However, Xiao Wen did not successfully receive Fei Mi’s signal.

He looked at the solemnly seated little cat, raised an eyebrow, and pushed the cat bowl closer to it.

So lazy. At this rate, it will soon become a super fat cat weighing over ten pounds.

Xiao Wen thought so.

Just imagining the impact of a ten-pound cat-truck collision sent a shiver down Wen Zhiyi’s spine, and he decided this couldn’t continue.

Following Wen Zhijie’s advice, he ordered a nutritious meal for himself—with vegetables, protein, fat, and carbohydrates. While waiting for the takeout, he prepared his lesson plan for the coming weekend. Unconsciously, the day for his tutoring session at the Wei family was approaching again.

Thinking of this, Wen Zhiyi suddenly realized he hadn’t taken Wei Xingjiang off his “Do Not Disturb” list yet.

It’s been… three or four days, I think?

Wen Zhiyi wasn’t sure.

He opened his phone, found his chat history with Wei Xingjiang, and discovered that the latter had been consistently sending high-frequency, what he considered extremely boring, messages over the past few days, sometimes even late into the night.

From gossip about the wealthy circles in Beijing to his irritated mood upon waking up in the morning, the eighteen-year-old high school student clearly messaged for the sake of messaging, sending pointless updates. The most recent message was an inquiry about the cat, Zhuangzhuang (sturdy/strong).

…You can stay up so late and still grow that tall.

Wen Zhiyi clicked his tongue, speechless.

He casually scrolled up through the chat history, expressionlessly ignoring most of the messages. He picked the last message about the little cat and slowly replied: “I plan to take Zhuangzhuang for neutering soon. Any thoughts?”

On the other end of WeChat, Wei Xingjiang, who had finally carved out some time to be at a relaxed bar, was slowly sipping a drink. Catching sight of the WeChat notification on his phone screen, he subconsciously sat up straight, unlocked his phone, and clicked on the message. Upon seeing it was from Wen Zhiyi, his eyes widened.

Neutering…? He’s only been adopted by Wen Zhiyi for so long…?

Wei Xingjiang, whose pupils were dilated in shock, nearly choked. He frowned, gripping his phone, and typed out a reply:

“Don’t worry, as this is a major event in Jack’s cat life, I will personally participate.”