The Popular/Charismatic Beta Always Thinks They Are Universally Disliked - Chapter 27

Chapter 27: Why Don’t You Try Dating Me

“Tighten your core muscles; imagine pulling your abdomen towards your spine.”

“Don’t hold your waist. Keep your upper body vertical. Push off using your glutes and hamstrings, avoiding over-reliance on your knees.”

The older Beta, whom Wen Zhiyi remembered as usually quiet and reserved, was now giving frequent, tireless instructions. Xiao Wen, sweating profusely with a ten-kilogram backpack, stepped steadily onto the stair-climbing machine, following Lin Chang’s rhythm for weighted training.

A ten-kilogram load wasn’t difficult for a healthy adult male, and Wen Zhiyi carried the bag with ease, but climbing stairs with it for a prolonged period was a challenge.

The memory of rushing onto a high plateau two years ago without any training and subsequently collapsing from altitude sickness was enough for Wen Zhiyi to grit his teeth and squeeze out more strength from his exhausted body.

As a high-level member of this gym, Lin Chang had a private training room, and now, only he and Wen Zhiyi occupied the large, empty space.

He keenly sensed why Xiao Wen was reluctant to come to the gym in the morning, finding it both helpless and amusing.

The sensitive self-esteem of a young person.

Lin Chang slowly reached out and held Wen Zhiyi’s knee—he couldn’t quite articulate the meaning—gently adjusting it to the correct angle, then signaled with his eyes, full of encouragement, for the other person to continue.

Xiao Wen, exhausted to the point of mental cloudiness, had no energy to notice Lin Chang’s hand resting on him. He thought his body temperature should have risen from all the sweating, but Lin Chang’s hand on the inside of his knee was hot like charcoal, hotter than he was.

The air conditioner should be on, right?

He drowsily lifted his head to look at the thermostat by the door, not even bothering to wipe the sweat beading on his forehead.

It’s going to drip into my eye…

Wen Zhiyi slowly blinked, and the sweat was diverted by his deep double eyelids, slowly bypassing his eye.

So tired.

Finally getting off the stair-climbing machine, Wen Zhiyi immediately took off his backpack, tugging at his collar due to the heat and leaning against the wall, regulating his breathing rhythm by taking deep, lung-filling breaths.

This level of exercise, which hammered every muscle tissue in his body to the extreme, had been absent from Wen Zhiyi’s life for a long time.

“One last set?”

Lin Chang handed him an opened bottle of mineral water, making the suggestion lightly.

Wen Zhiyi slowly slid down the wall, collapsing like an inadequately pasted poster slowly peeling off. He drank the cool, crisp mineral water in small sips, and for the first time, mentally drew two sinister devil horns on Lin Chang’s image.

To be honest, even if Lin Chang pulled out a whip on the spot, Wen Zhiyi couldn’t move another inch.

He remained silent. A long, spine-tingling soreness started to sweep over his shoulders.

Xiao Wen, gradually catching his breath, put down the empty bottle and subtly gave an excuse: “No, I have to go back and walk the cat. An energetic animal like a cat will destroy the house if not walked for a day.”

?

Lin Chang chuckled softly and sat down on the floor right next to Wen Zhiyi: “Your cat doesn’t look like it gets enough exercise.”

“It’s just vanity fat,” Wen Zhiyi decided to defend the fat cat’s dignity. “It’s only palm-sized when its fur is wet.”

A palm-size belonging to the Hulk is still a palm.

The handsome older man slightly raised an eyebrow. He shifted his gaze to Wen Zhiyi, who was sweating and sitting on the floor with his head tilted back. The exercise shirt, slightly damp with sweat, was like the translucent, crystal candy wrapper of a hard candy. Fortunately, Lin Chang was no longer a young person with an extreme sweet tooth.

“Shoulders, lower back, outer thighs—are they very sore?”

He asked with concern.

Xiao Wen, who always felt sleepy after exercise and sweating, gave a perfunctory “Mhm” from his nose.

He picked up his phone, feeling drowsy, wanting to refresh himself, but remembered he had company. Adhering to basic social etiquette, he didn’t look at his phone, maintaining that awkward posture of holding his device.

Lin Chang observed the tired Wen Zhiyi in silence for a while, then said in a low voice: “If you don’t stretch and massage, you won’t be able to get out of bed tomorrow.”

Tomorrow… let’s worry about tomorrow when it comes.

Xiao Wen used motionless silence to convey his attitude.

It wasn’t until Lin Chang’s hand landed on his shoulder that the semi-shutdown Wen Zhiyi slowly turned his head to look at the Beta massaging him.

“You won’t impose a mandatory charge after the massage, will you?” Wen Zhiyi struggled to pull his lips into a smile, breaking the quiet atmosphere weakly.

Lin Chang’s touch was accurate but his force was heavy, kneading precisely along the meridians into the sore muscles. Under this intensity—which was so sour it shot straight to his skull—Wen Zhiyi still showed little reaction, appearing to accept it well, with a very serene expression.

Actually, he was just too tired to react.

Xiao Wen mentally gave Lin Chang’s service an 8.6 out of 10 because he felt he was about to cry (a pun on the decimal, 1.4 sounds like a common Chinese phrase for crying).

He silently looked up, struggling to hold back the physiological tears welling up in his eyes.

After the evening training session, Wen Zhiyi walked home alone. Lin Chang did not take the opportunity to stay overnight at the Wen brothers’ house again. He seemed to understand moderation, turning and leaving decisively after confirming that Xiao Wen could get home without his help.

Wen Zhiyi showered immediately upon returning home and collapsed onto his bed. He truly had no energy to play with Zhuangzhuang today and had to ignore the fat cat’s mournful glare.

Although it was the weekend, new messages were still popping up in the work WeChat group. Sure enough, not working overtime was just a beautiful fantasy.

He forced himself to sit up despite his sore shoulders and arms, frowning to check the messages. It turned out that the main leader, Xie Lü, had a whim and asked the lawyers under him for a legal research document. Normally, this had nothing to do with the interns.

But if the supervisors were working overtime, how could the interns not?

Shi Xuning asked the interns in the small group if anyone had experience writing legal research, but no one answered. Wen Zhiyi lazily scrolled through other social platforms, occasionally switching back to WeChat to take a look.

This look revealed a problem.

Shi Xuning messaged him privately, roughly saying that Wen Zhiyi’s resume included an internship experience involving securities disputes, so attempting to write a legal research paper on bill discounting shouldn’t be too difficult.

His words were very sincere: “This is a great opportunity to practice. Write it with confidence, ask me directly if you have any questions, and once you’re done, I’ll carefully review it for you, and we’ll submit it to Xie Lü under our team’s name.”

Wen Zhiyi had indeed written legal research before, and he didn’t care whose name was on the document he submitted; it was a basic consensus in the industry for interns to handle foundational text work. What he cared about was the potential destruction of his lovely weekend.

So he thought for a moment, then slowly typed a few words to politely decline.

“I’m out with friends all weekend, and my computer isn’t with me. I’m afraid I’ll have to pass this opportunity to someone else. Sorry, senior brother.”

The opposite side was silent for a while, then sent an “It’s okay.”

About ten minutes later, a poor intern who had unfortunately been selected was crying and wailing in the small group, though not daring to openly complain about Shi Xuning. After all, the law firm circle was small, and lawyer teams between the major ‘Red Circle’ firms knew each other. Gossip spreading behind closed doors could have some impact.

Working overtime is not an option.

Wen Zhiyi smiled slightly at his luck.

His good mood slightly faded upon seeing a new friend request notification, as Li Zan was adding him on WeChat using his work account with a professional photo.

Since it was for work purposes, Wen Zhiyi moved his fingers and accepted the friend request.

“Your relationship with Gu Yansheng must be unusual, right?”

The other side stated their intention right away.

“If it’s not about work, don’t ask.”

Wen Zhiyi replied expressionlessly.

Li Zan raised an eyebrow, excitedly talking to himself: “A cherished old flame? Or a suitor who fell in love at first sight? Gu Yansheng is quite keen on you, specifically placing you in Xie Lü’s team. I heard he even submitted your name for the internal recommendation for permanent employment. It’s the first time I’ve seen him show interest in anyone. You must be quite important to him?”

The more he spoke, the more certain he became of his guess. While perfunctorily dealing with his father’s greetings from overseas, he seriously suggested to Wen Zhiyi: “What do you think of him? How about this: why don’t you try dating me? What expression do you think he’d make if he knew we were together?”

?

Turns out he’s a maniac.

Wen Zhiyi withdrew from the chat interface in disgust and decisively set it to “Do Not Disturb.”

No wonder Li Zan’s father handed over most of his case sources to Gu Yansheng. Given Li Zan’s extremely unreliable behavior, his father (Li Lü) already showed mountain-like fatherly love by helping him become a partner and wait for dividends.

Wen Zhiyi thought for a moment and changed Li Zan’s WeChat name to Adou (a historical figure famous for being useless).

On the other side, Li Zan continued to send messages. He was completely immersed in his own fantasy, sincerely expressing that he could give Wen Zhiyi anything. As long as Wen Zhiyi was with him, he even generously urged Wen Zhiyi to accept Gu Yansheng’s pursuit simultaneously.

Li Zan never spared any effort when it came to disgusting Gu Yansheng.

A Beta stepping on his shoulders to become the “dragon among men” in his father’s words—although Li Zan tried hard to act unconcerned, he was undeniably bothered by it to the extreme.

The more his father earnestly advised him to follow Gu Yansheng’s example, the more Li Zan, who acted like a rogue on the surface, chose to be even more reckless, occasionally blurting out irresponsible remarks that brought Li Lü a few steps closer to death.

Everyone is… why is Gu Yansheng everyone else’s child (the standard)?

Li Zan, completely baffled by this, finally found Gu Yansheng’s “weakness.”

He believed Wen Zhiyi was a weakness he could use to spite Gu Yansheng.

Thus, he maliciously and extremely frivolously proposed the request to date Wen Zhiyi.

It must be said that his intuition was correct to an ineffable degree in some respects: Wen Zhiyi was indeed Gu Yansheng’s weakness. But what he selectively ignored was that—

Wen Zhiyi himself had no weakness.

This young Beta had no weakness because he desired nothing and sought nothing. He needed nothing from anyone, so naturally, he feared no one.

As for Gu Yansheng, he was not the type of person who would become weak because of a weakness. On the contrary, he was a person who became more frantic, more ruthless, and more lacking in bottom lines because of a weakness. Li Zan, oblivious to all this, would soon suffer the biggest setback of his life.