The Ultimate Glow-Up Guide for Straight Men - Chapter 6

The sun struggled through the clouds, leaving a faint afterglow in the sky. Gu Yunshen, dressed in a dark gray hoodie and jeans with his hands in his pockets, leaned against the wall of the dormitory building.

Half of his face was illuminated in a warm orange glow, while the other half remained shrouded in shadow. As expected of the campus heartthrob, at first glance, he looked like a meticulously composed high-quality magazine cover. Such a chiseled facial structure was undoubtedly a photographer’s dream.

Many passing omegas couldn’t help but whisper to their companions upon seeing Gu Yunshen before shyly walking away.

“Shen Zhinan, join our team,” Gu Yunshen said as soon as he spotted Shen Zhinan. “Me and Lin Xunchuan.”

Shen Zhinan studied Gu Yunshen’s posture for a moment and thought to himself, just say what you need to say. Why the pretentious act?

Shen Zhinan slipped his hands into his pockets as well, strolled over to Gu Yunshen, and subtly rose onto his tiptoes to meet his gaze. His tone was indifferent. “Lin Xunchuan already asked me. I turned him down.”

Gu Yunshen’s eyes flickered with surprise, as if he hadn’t expected Shen Zhinan to refuse his invitation.

Frowning slightly, Gu Yunshen spoke with a tone of reluctant compromise, “I’ll treat you to dinner. Will that convince you to join?”

Huh?

Wait, is having a meal with you some kind of extraordinary privilege?

Then, Shen Zhinan suddenly remembered that, according to his persona, he was supposed to be this campus heartthrob’s admirer.

So… this was a case of using his charm?

Trying to lure him into joining them this way.

Listening to Gu Yunshen’s somewhat arrogant tone and observing his aloof expression, it seemed as though he considered it a great favor to stoop to having a meal with him.

Shen Zhinan rolled his eyes inwardly. Hah, as if you’re the one making a sacrifice.

What kind of heartthrob is this? More like an idiot.

If it were the “real” Shen Zhinan here, he’d probably be acting overly grateful, as if receiving some grand favor.

“No. Way.” Shen Zhinan enunciated each word clearly before turning and heading straight into the dormitory building, leaving Gu Yunshen standing outside, bewildered in the evening breeze.

Over the weekend, while working part-time at a bubble tea shop, Shen Zhinan was surprised to see Lin Xunchuan and Gu Yunshen walk in, each carrying a laptop.

“What would you like to order?” Shen Zhinan asked.

Lin Xunchuan replied, “I’ll have a pearl milk tea.”

Gu Yunshen said, “Watermelon juice.”

After placing their orders, the two found a corner table and sat down.

Shen Zhinan brought their pearl milk tea and watermelon juice to the table. “Enjoy,” he said.

“Hey, Shen Zhinan,” Lin Xunchuan called out to stop him. “There’s a problem I can’t figure out. Could you explain it to me?”

Shen Zhinan glanced down at Lin Xunchuan’s laptop screen. It was a Python practice problem about distributing cookies.

The problem provided some numerical values, with the goal of satisfying as many children as possible and outputting the maximum value.

After thinking for a moment, Shen Zhinan said, “Let me give you the general idea. You can use a greedy strategy: prioritize giving larger cookies to children with bigger appetites and smaller cookies to those with smaller appetites to minimize waste.”

“Then, sort the cookie array and the children’s appetite array in ascending order and compare them sequentially from the beginning.”

The problem still had a certain level of difficulty, but Shen Zhinan only glanced at it briefly before quickly forming an idea.

Lin Xunchuan glanced at Gu Yunshen and smiled slightly.

Lin Xunchuan asked one or two more questions.

Shen Zhinan could almost immediately articulate his approach after just a quick look, speaking at a rapid pace:

“For this kind of interval scheduling problem, the greedy strategy is to always choose the interval that ends the earliest. For the knapsack problem, you need to select the items with the highest value per unit weight each time.”

“Sorry, I really have to get back to work.” Shen Zhinan noticed another customer entering and hurried over.

“See, I told you he could do it.” Lin Xunchuan glanced at Shen Zhinan’s busy figure before turning back to Gu Yunshen. “I once saw him coding in the library his speed was insane.”

“Plus, I saw him in the library every day recently. Honestly, I’m not at all surprised he ranked first.”

“He reads with incredible focus and speed, almost as if he can memorize the content just by glancing at it.”

“With him on our team, I’m sure we can win an award!”

Gu Yunshen could tell that Lin Xunchuan was particularly keen on Shen Zhinan. After a moment of silence, he said, “But I already asked he doesn’t want to join us.”

Gu Yunshen and Lin Xunchuan waited at the milk tea shop until Shen Zhinan finished his shift. The two of them followed behind Shen Zhinan, who glanced back at them but said nothing.

After all, there was only one road back to the school.

Shen Zhinan bought a grilled sweet potato skin and an egg burger at the school gate, planning to treat himself.

Looking at the delicious food in his hands and taking a whiff, he felt quite pleased.

When he turned around and saw the faces of Gu Yunshen and Lin Xunchuan, Shen Zhinan was startled:

“Whoa, damn!”

Why were these two still here?

Shen Zhinan patted his chest, frowned as he scrutinized their faces for a moment, then turned and walked away while biting into his egg burger.

Maybe these two were just craving a bite too.

Shen Zhinan finished the egg burger on his way back to the dorm. As he tossed the plastic bag into the trash, he caught a glimpse out of the corner of his eye Gu Yunshen and Lin Xunchuan were still behind him.

Why were they so persistent?

“Um… you two, is there something you need?” Shen Zhinan’s lips twitched slightly.

“Shen Zhinan, join us,” Lin Xunchuan said with burning intensity. “Do you have any concerns or difficulties? Tell us, and Yunshen and I can help you solve them together.”

This was the third invitation.

Shen Zhinan couldn’t help but recall how Liu Bei only visited Zhuge Liang three times to persuade him to leave his seclusion.

It wasn’t that Shen Zhinan didn’t want to participate.

But the ACM competition required a lot of preparation time. When he did something, he liked to pursue it to the extreme. If he were to join, he would have to give it his all and aim for a prize.

But if he went all in, he wouldn’t have time to work. Without work, he’d have no money, and without money, he’d go hungry.

There were also tuition fees, living expenses, and the upcoming summer vacation, for which he needed to cover accommodation costs.

There were just too many things requiring money.

“As you can see, I have to work. I really don’t have extra time for this,” Shen Zhinan explained.

“If you need money, I can” Gu Yunshen started to say, but Shen Zhinan fixed him with a heavy gaze.

“You can what?” Shen Zhinan’s tone turned icy.

Shen Zhinan’s expression looked quite different from usual, carrying a hint of indescribable aggressiveness in his gaze.

It seemed that if Gu Yunshen dared to utter anything resembling pity, Shen Zhinan would immediately turn and leave.

Gu Yunshen felt slightly unnerved under Shen Zhinan’s piercing stare.

“I can introduce you to a job with a decent salary that’s also relatively easy.” Gu Yunshen swallowed his original words and rephrased his offer.

“What kind of job?”

“My relative owns a five-star hotel that’s hiring service staff. It includes accommodation and three meals a day, with a monthly salary of around eight thousand.” Recalling Shen Zhinan’s earlier expression, Gu Yunshen added, “I’m just making the introduction. Whether you get hired depends on your own interview I can’t influence the decision.”

Shen Zhinan thought for a moment and finally relented: “I can join your team, but I have a few conditions.”

Lin Xunchuan grew excited upon hearing Shen Zhinan’s agreement. “Go ahead,” he said.

“First, I won’t accommodate your schedules. Any joint training sessions must align with my availability.”

“Second, skip the school’s organized training sessions. I’ll design the training regimen. If any of you disagree, we can compete to prove our capabilities. Should I lose, I’ll follow your orders without question.”

“Third, if we win any awards, I want half of the prize money.”

After stating his three conditions, Shen Zhinan tilted his chin up slightly, exuding an air of unspoken pride.

Discussing prize distribution before even winning any awards seemed to imply that, under his training methods, victory was inevitable.

There was a touch of arrogance in Shen Zhinan’s words, yet his resolute gaze and confident tone made it hard not to believe he could truly lead them to championship glory.

“Deal,” Lin Xunchuan said with a smile.

Shen Zhinan then turned to Gu Yunshen, who was looking at him with a strange expression, as if seeing him for the first time.

“Alright,” Gu Yunshen agreed.

From that point on, Shen Zhinan completely reshaped Gu Yunshen’s previous impression of him.

What was Shen Zhinan like before? Just one of many admirers who constantly trailed after Gu Yunshen, employing clumsy, overused courtship tactics that had long become mundane to him.

Truthfully, Gu Yunshen saw no real distinction among these people.

None of them truly understood him they were merely drawn by his appearance or rumors of his family background, flocking to him like moths to a flame.

His particular annoyance with Shen Zhinan stemmed from the omega’s penchant for outrageous behavior that severely disrupted his daily life.

Even after clear rejections, why did he persist in clinging so stubbornly?

It was utterly exasperating.

About two months ago, the frequency of Shen Zhinan’s disturbances finally dwindled significantly, leading Gu Yunshen to believe he had finally given up.

But when they met again, Gu Yunshen sensed that this omega seemed like a completely different person.

The omega had emerged from his previous dazed state, where his sole purpose appeared to be chasing after Gu Yunshen and transformed into someone whose eyes shone with clarity.

He now knew exactly what he was doing, what he planned to do, and what goals he was striving toward.

Especially when discussing ACM competition problems with Gu Yunshen and Lin Xunchuan, Shen Zhinan didn’t just have a sparkle in his eyes; his entire being seemed to radiate brilliance.

Gu Yunshen began to feel that this person he had always looked down on actually had some redeeming qualities.

Just as Gu Yunshen thought Shen Zhinan had finally started acting normal, that notion was instantly shattered literally by Shen Zhinan.

Shen Zhinan had recently bought a bicycle.

The campus of Union University was enormous. Shen Zhinan lived in the southern district, but some of his classes were held in the northern district. When he saw a senior selling a bicycle at a bargain price of just 250 yuan, he test-rode it a few times and found it quite satisfactory, so he bought it on the spot.

Shen Zhinan rode along, humming a cheerful tune. Union University had excellent greenery, and it was the height of April, with lush vegetation and blooming flowers along the path, creating a vibrant and thriving scene.

The air was filled with the fragrance of flowers, and Shen Zhinan closed his eyes to savor it. He couldn’t help but exclaim:

“Ah, so fragrant!”

The teaching building was just ahead. But just as Shen Zhinan was about to brake, he realized the bicycle’s brakes were broken!

Damn! You get what you pay for!

Senior, where’s the trust between people?

“Move! Get out of the way!”

Shen Zhinan spotted two people walking side by side ahead and shouted at the top of his lungs, his voice distorted by the wind.

He desperately squeezed the brake lever, but it went limp without any resistance, pressing against his knuckles. The entire bicycle wobbled uncontrollably.

One of the two turned around, and the moment his eyes met Shen Zhinan’s, his pupils widened in shock.

“BAM!”

After a dizzying spin, the expected pain never came. Instead, Shen Zhinan felt something soft beneath him.

As the saying goes, when you’re enjoying a peaceful moment, someone else is carrying the weight for you.

Shen Zhinan looked down and locked eyes with Gu Yunshen, the one “carrying the weight.”

The other person looked as if he wanted to kill him, his eyes blazing with fury.

Many people around had stopped to watch the scene. These two were frequent topics of conversation among Union University students during their leisure time.

Out of the corner of his eye, Shen Zhinan noticed several camera flashes. He really wanted to say, “Hey, onlookers, your flash is still on.”

“How long are you planning to sit there?”

The icy voice from beneath him reminded Shen Zhinan that someone was still carrying the weight. He quickly ended his “peaceful moment” and offered his apologies to the campus heartthrob: “I’m really sorry, my bike broke. Are you okay?”

Shen Zhinan knew that nothing he said would make a difference at this point, but he still wanted to explain he truly hadn’t done it on purpose.

Though even he didn’t believe it.

After all, Shen Zhinan had quite the reputation. Not long ago, in the crowded cafeteria, he had “precisely” ruined Gu Yunshen’s clothes. And today, while Gu Yunshen was simply on his way to class, Shen Zhinan had run him over.

Honestly, Shen Zhinan couldn’t even blame Gu Yunshen for his reaction. The coincidences were starting to feel eerie.

What kind of twisted fate was this?

It seemed like he only ever targeted Gu Yunshen with full force.

Gu Yunshen wasn’t seriously injured. Ye Zheng helped him up, and he dusted himself off, glaring coldly at Shen Zhinan. “Shen Zhinan, how many times do I have to say it? I don’t like you. I didn’t like you in the past, I don’t like you now, and I won’t like you in the future!”

After final exams ended, Shen Zhinan started working at a hotel owned by Gu Yunshen’s relatives.

This conveniently solved Shen Zhinan’s accommodation issue.

The staff dormitory was a single room, quite spacious about the same size as the dormitories on campus.

At school, we had to squeeze four people into one room, but here one person gets to live in such a spacious room. Shen Zhinan thought to himself that five-star hotels were indeed lavish.

Even the employee dormitories were this well-appointed.

On the day they moved into the dorm, Shen Zhinan said that if they needed to discuss anything, they could just come directly to his room.

As soon as he said this, Lin Xunchuan nodded, but Gu Yunshen’s expression turned slightly odd. He looked at Shen Zhinan and frowned, saying, “I’m an alpha.”

Lin Xunchuan was a beta, so it was no problem for him to come and go from Shen Zhinan’s room. But Gu Yunshen felt that alphas and omegas should maintain some distance.

It took Shen Zhinan a moment to process this before he suddenly remembered the gender dynamics of this world. As an alpha, Gu Yunshen was essentially of the opposite sex to him.

“Do you have feelings for me?” Shen Zhinan pointed at himself.

“Of course not,” Gu Yunshen replied.

“Then what’s the problem?” Shen Zhinan said nonchalantly. “You don’t have feelings for me, and I don’t have any… well, not anymore, for you either. Besides, Lin Xunchuan is here with us. What’s the big deal?”

After spending so much time together, the three of them had grown quite familiar with one another.

Gu Yunshen thought to himself, Yeah, right. I don’t believe a word of it.

He had heard Shen Zhinan say the same thing countless times back in their freshman year that he didn’t like him anymore and they should just be friends from then on.

But every time Gu Yunshen believed him, Shen Zhinan would end up pushing boundaries and doing something strange.

Gu Yunshen was still hesitant, but Shen Zhinan gave him a hearty slap on the back and laughed, “Why so sensitive? We’re all good buddies.”

“Come on in. I prepared a set of problems yesterday. Both of you, come in and give them a try. Show me your answers when you’re done.”

Shen Zhinan used the same training methods on them that he had used with Fu Zihan, but both Lin Xunchuan and Gu Yunshen respected him for it.

Everyone admires strength, and after spending so much time together, no matter how many grievances Gu Yunshen had against Shen Zhinan, he had to admit Shen Zhinan was an absolute genius.