The Ultimate Glow-Up Guide for Straight Men - Chapter 5

Two days later.

Shen Zhinan struggled to open his eyes. His entire body felt as if it had been run over by a car; it was achingly sore in a way that defied description. Yet, paradoxically, his body also felt a strange sense of relief.

What had happened? Where was he?

Shen Zhinan propped up his exhausted body to sit up and realized he was sitting on a massive bed. The bedding was in total disarray. He looked down and saw used condoms scattered all over the floor.

One, two, three, eight, nine, ten. Eleven. Twelve.

The air still carried a lingering, musky scent. Even if Shen Zhinan were slow-witted, he should have realized what had happened by now.

“Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap!” A long string of curses flashed through his mind.

Shen Zhinan tried to get off the bed, but his legs went weak and he nearly collapsed onto the floor. Disordered fragments of memory began to replay in his mind: him grabbing someone’s pant leg and begging for help, him straddling someone’s lap to kiss them, and even him taking the initiative to do something involving a certain “fruit.”

Finally, there was a pair of beautiful peach-blossom eyes staring at him, asking: “What is your real name?”

Shen Zhinan remembered that he seemed to have borrowed the name of his long-time pen pal for the occasion. Thank goodness he hadn’t given his real name.

Other people had drunken flings, but how did he end up having a fever-induced fling? A fling was one thing, but why was it with a man? Even though the average person in this world seemed to be gay, Shen Zhinan had lived in a binary society for twenty years. It was difficult to accept that he had gone to bed with a man.

Even though Shen Zhinan was inexperienced in such matters, the pain coming from a certain unspeakable, hidden area made it clear that he was the one who had been “pressed.”

Hearing the sound of running water from the bathroom near the door, he quickly scrambled to put on his clothes. Based on the surviving memory fragments, it appeared that he had been the one to take the initiative.

Shen Zhinan roared in silent indignation in his heart: “Shen Zhinan, oh Shen Zhinan, do you even deserve your name?” (Note: “Zhinan” is a homophone for “Straight Man” in Chinese.)

As he prepared to flee, he felt that since he had slept with the man, it would be wrong to leave without showing some sort of gesture. He felt his jacket pocket; he still had 205 dollars inside. Gritting his teeth, he placed 100 dollars on the nightstand. After walking two steps, he turned back and placed another 100 dollars down.

From now on, may they never meet again in this world!

Fu Yanshi finished his shower. Drying his hair with a towel in his left hand and checking his phone with his right, he walked out of the bathroom: “Li Hua, do you want breakfast?”

The person who had been lying on the bed was gone. Fu Yanshi walked over to the bedside and saw the 200 dollars sitting on the nightstand.

What was the meaning of this? Payment for services rendered?

Fu Yanshi crumpled the 200 dollars in his hand, the veins on his forehead bulging: “Li. Hua.”

Shen Zhinan used the last five dollars he had to take the bus. While on the bus, his phone finally turned on successfully. He checked the time; it was already Sunday morning. He had actually been messing around with a man for two whole days!

Shen Zhinan covered his face, feeling a bit of a breakdown: he was no longer “clean.” Fortunately, his relationship with his roommates was poor, so no one would ask where he had been or why he hadn’t been in the dorm. Zhou Xin had sent him a message saying she was taking Fu Zihan to see his grandfather this week, so the tutoring session was cancelled.

Shen Zhinan replied with an “Okay.” Even if Zhou Xin hadn’t cancelled, he would have had to ask for leave in his current state.

On the bus, he searched the browser and finally understood why he had suddenly “had a fever” two days ago. It wasn’t a fever; it was a “heat.” Omegas in this world have heat cycles, which most experience once every two to three months. A heat can either be mitigated with suppressants or relieved through certain unspeakable acts.

Shen Zhinan bought some suppressants at a pharmacy near the school and headed straight back to the dormitory. Two roommates were in the room. Roommate A, a Beta, saw Shen Zhinan returning after two nights and said nothing because he couldn’t smell anything. Roommate B, however, was an Omega and frowned while looking at Shen Zhinan.

Shen Zhinan didn’t notice his roommate’s reaction and went straight to the bathroom. After stripping off his clothes and seeing the mottled bite marks on his body in the mirror, he felt another wave of despair. His eyes were red, his lips were swollen, and the bite mark on the back of his neck was particularly severe.

Shen Zhinan forced a light smile, shrugged his shoulders, and said with feigned indifference: “Hah, it is just a few bites.” (With a man.) “Hah, it is just a lot of… sleeping.” (With a man.)

He couldn’t keep up the act. He looked at himself in the mirror: “It is fine. We won’t meet again anyway. Just take a good shower and pretend nothing happened.”

As someone who had always been a materialist, Shen Zhinan decided to use idealism to deceive himself at this moment.

Lately, Shen Zhinan noticed that people looked at him strangely when he walked down the street. Actually, his “turn-back rate” had always been high since the original “Shen Zhinan” was a campus figure. But now, the way people looked at him felt subtle and strange.

For example, while getting food at the canteen, he heard someone whispering nearby: “Hey, have you heard? Shen Zhinan seems to be.” “Doesn’t he like the school hunk? How could he!” “Shh, keep it down, don’t let him hear you!”

Shen Zhinan heard several ambiguous conversations like this over the next two days. He wasn’t unaware of the strange gazes, but he had no time to deal with them. He was more concerned about the upcoming midterm exams. The grade point average from these exams would be factored into the scholarship evaluations.

Aside from working, he spent all his time reviewing. Having lost his part-time job at the club, he was living on a tight budget with only the milk tea shop and tutoring money. Tuition at Union University was 12,000 dollars a semester. Summer vacation was approaching, and since students weren’t allowed to stay in the dorms, he had to find a place to live. Everything required money. He couldn’t miss the chance for a scholarship.

Shen Zhinan was only sleeping four hours a day now. He woke up at 6:00 AM every day to claim a spot in the library and read books during his work breaks. He wanted to stay in the library all night, but because a senior student had recently died of exhaustion while studying overnight, the library now closed at midnight.

He didn’t like studying in the dorm. One roommate was always on video calls with a partner, and the other two were constantly playing games. More frustratingly, whenever he studied in the dorm, the roommates who usually ignored him would constantly try to talk him out of it.

The original “Shen Zhinan” had mediocre grades and used to spend all day chasing Gu Yunshen. Now that he was suddenly passionate about studying, his roommates enjoyed being cynical. Shen Zhinan considered renting a place off-campus, but the prices near the school were too high for him to afford. In the end, he had to compress his sleep even further.

On the night before the exam, he stayed up all night. After two weeks of this grueling pace, he ranked first in his major. Shen Zhinan wasn’t surprised; he had felt good while writing the papers. In fact, the final score was slightly lower than he had expected.

While he wasn’t surprised, the news caused a shock throughout the school. Many people on the campus forums hinted that his grades were the result of cheating. It started with random comments until an anonymous user claimed they had personally seen Shen Zhinan wearing special contact lenses and earpieces in the restroom to cheat. The post instantly became a “Hot” thread with thousands of replies.

Shen Zhinan only learned about this while listening to customers chat at the milk tea shop. He wasn’t afraid because he had done nothing wrong, but he was curious about who was spreading such detailed rumors.

The school authorities heard the rumors as well. Since scholarships were at stake, they needed a resolution that would satisfy everyone. Because “Shen Zhinan” had previously been at the bottom of his class, such a massive leap to first place was indeed suspicious.

When the counselor contacted him, Shen Zhinan agreed to cooperate with any investigation. The school checked the surveillance footage for the exam room that day, only to find the camera in that specific room was broken. It seemed to have been broken for a long time, but no one had noticed until now. This was a failure of the school’s maintenance department.

The situation was too coincidental. At this point, the only solution was for Shen Zhinan to retake the exam. He sat alone at a single desk under the supervision of two proctors. This set of papers was even harder than the midterm, yet Shen Zhinan’s score was even higher than before.

With this, all controversy vanished. Everyone began to look at Shen Zhinan in a new light. The professor who wrote the exam was a giant in the industry, usually very serious and rarely smiling. After seeing Shen Zhinan’s paper, he seemed very satisfied and even told Shen Zhinan to come find him if he was interested in graduate school in the future. Shen Zhinan just gave a few polite responses. He had no intention of going to grad school.

Because of this exam, the class monitor from the adjacent class, Lin Xunchuan, was preparing for the ACM competition. He had already teamed up with one classmate and was looking for a third. He actually came to ask if Shen Zhinan was interested in joining them.

Shen Zhinan knew about the ACM competition; it required energy, passion, and talent. It also required constant intensive training. While it was prestigious, the cost-benefit ratio was low. It was easy to work for two or three years for nothing. Shen Zhinan hesitated. If he went all-in on the competition, he would have almost no time to work, and tuition and living expenses wouldn’t just grow out of the ground.

Shen Zhinan thought about it and declined. However, the other party sent someone else to convince him.

One day, as Shen Zhinan was returning to the dormitory, someone suddenly stopped him.

“Shen Zhinan, team up with us.”

A cold voice rang out. Shen Zhinan looked up. It turned out that the teammate Lin Xunchuan had mentioned was Gu Yunshen.