What to Do If Beta Cannot Be Marked? - Chapter 37.1

With only a few minutes left before class started, those who had gone to the playground or were playing downstairs should have been preparing to return to the classroom. The hallway was filled with small groups of students walking together. Lu Zhi’s tone was no different from usual, but his words were far from friendly. Those passing by paused slightly upon hearing him, casting curious glances in his direction.

Ren Yiran’s previously smiling expression stiffened abruptly, turning noticeably unpleasant. His hand remained outstretched, as if he had no intention of withdrawing it, or perhaps he wanted to see whether Chi Jinxian would truly be so impolite as to follow Lu Zhi’s lead and embarrass a new classmate in front of so many people.

But he had “overestimated” Chi Jinxian’s sense of propriety. Chi Jinxian had always been one to follow his Lu-ge’s lead without question. He had never and would never contradict anything Lu Zhi said. Expecting him to go against Lu Zhi was a feat even his own father couldn’t accomplish.

Chi Jinxian let Lu Zhi’s hand envelop his own without moving, simply looking at him and asking, “Ge, why don’t I see Jiang-ge? Did you come back alone?” As he spoke, he genuinely glanced behind and beside Lu Zhi, but found no one.

Normally, Lu Zhi and Jiang Jin would return together after playing basketball, but today only one of them was present, which was why Chi Jinxian had asked.

“Mm,” Lu Zhi replied. “He went to return the ball.”

His tone was almost calm by now. If not for knowing he had just been playing basketball during the break, one might not have guessed he had just come from the court.

Lu Zhi’s eyes were pitch-black, devoid of any brightness so dark it was startling, even unsettling.

Yet Chi Jinxian showed no fear or intimidation from his gaze. “Did you run back?” he asked.

After all, Lu Zhi had been slightly out of breath earlier. If he had walked back from the playground, the distance between the court and the classroom building should have been enough to steady his heartbeat.

Lu Zhi didn’t answer. Instead, he released Chi Jinxian’s hand and said, “Take it back. Sit down.” Chi Jinxian let out an almost imperceptible sigh, thinking to himself that he had hoped chatting with his ge a bit longer might distract Lu Zhi, allowing them to hold hands a little longer.

Chi Jinxian withdrew his hand and obediently sat down, his gaze still fixed outside the window.

Their back-and-forth seemed to exclude everyone else, as if the people around them were merely air.

Ren Yiran’s expression had returned to normal the moment it first shifted. He watched the two of them put on their little act with detached amusement, unfazed as he lowered his gaze to idly fiddle with his fingers, no one was shaking his hand, and leaving it outstretched would only make him look worse.

“Lu Zhi, long time no see,” he said, lifting his eyes with a smile that reached them. “Wasn’t what you said just now a bit too much?”

“What do you mean, I’m not a good person?”

Clang! Without even a sideways glance, Lu Zhi decisively shut the window that Chi Jinxian had opened. Then, he turned and entered the classroom, closing the door behind him before pulling out a chair and sitting down.

Only then did Ren Yiran’s expression truly darken.

Though it was unclear what had transpired between these two, Chi Jinxian couldn’t help but feel secondhand embarrassment for Ren Yiran. He also grew anxious about Lu Zhi’s behavior, worried that his ge was being too confrontational. If this escalated tensions with Ren Yiran further, things could get messy.

However, Jiang Baixiao beside him didn’t see it that way. After all, Chi Jinxian’s considerations were all for Lu Zhi, wanting what was best for him, while Jiang Baixiao only cared about Lu Zhi’s actions. Based on Lu Zhi’s performance just now, he thought it was absolutely awesome!

On both school forums, rumors were spreading that Ren Yiran had been hopelessly in love with Lu Zhi for years and finally achieved a good outcome, Lu Zhi had an early romance with him, or so everyone claimed.

Although the two eventually went their separate ways as was inevitable, at least he had once possessed God Lu.

Even before Ren Yiran transferred schools, Jiang Baixiao had been worried about their little cash (Chi Jinxian). Because regardless of whether it was true or not, judging solely from the information everyone was spreading, Ren Yiran and Lu Zhi were childhood friends who had known each other for over a decade. As one of Lu Zhi’s close companions who also had feelings for him, no matter how you looked at it, Chi Jinxian seemed to have no advantage.

But unexpectedly, Lu Zhi stood on little cash’s side!

Jiang Baixiao simply couldn’t contain his excitement. He no longer cared to observe Ren Yiran’s expression and immediately took out his phone to find Class 10 Senior 3’s second group chat.

Alliance Know It All: 【God Lu is just too cool!!】

Their classmates felt the same way, unanimously agreeing.

Ren Yiran remained standing in his original spot, watching Lu Zhi through the window glass, his eyes unreadable.

His lips moved slightly as if he wanted to say more, appearing determined not to give up until Lu Zhi responded to him today.

The reason Lu Zhi, Jiang Jin, and Ren Yiran could be childhood friends was partly because their families lived close to each other, and also because their family backgrounds were quite similar.

Each had their own influence and prestige.

After returning from lunch, Jiang Baixiao brought up Ren Yiran again with Chi Jinxian. Jiang Baixiao mentioned that back then, the relationship between Lu Zhi and Ren Yiran had indirectly affected the relationship between the Lu and Ren families.

Although adults wouldn’t actually cut ties over children’s matters, every parent dotes on their own child, so some estrangement inevitably remained.

Lu Zhi wasn’t the type to care about such things he tended to do as he pleased.

But Chi Jinxian feared the relationship between the two families might worsen further. General Lu might even blame Lu Zhi, yet this was Lu Zhi’s personal matter and what if Lu Zhi felt wronged? If Chi Jinxian spoke up now, it might hurt Lu Zhi’s feelings. After some thought, Chi Jinxian just wanted to ease the current awkward atmosphere and softly called out, “Brother.”

Lu Zhi looked up at him.

Chi Jinxian said, “How about you call Brother Jiang and ask him to come quickly?”

Lu Zhi looked puzzled.

Chi Jinxian added, “Since you don’t want to talk to anyone, Brother Jiang can speak with him. Otherwise it doesn’t look good.”

“Others don’t think it looks bad,” Lu Zhi replied.

Hearing this, Chi Jinxian didn’t understand and turned to look out the window.

Indeed, Ren Yiran’s expression remained normal. Even though passersby were clearly whispering, he seemed completely unfazed, his gaze fixed intently on Lu Zhi.

“Hey, Yiran ” Suddenly, a light call broke the increasingly strange atmosphere no phone call needed, Jiang Jin appeared at the entrance of Class 10 Senior 3.

With a smile on his face, he jogged over and patted Ren Yiran’s shoulder, saying, “Why did you come today? Weren’t you supposed to come tomorrow morning during first period?”

Looking back, few transfer students would arrive in the afternoon, especially during the second or third period. Once their transfer was confirmed, they would coordinate with the school and their assigned class, arriving early the next morning to be introduced by the homeroom teacher during morning self-study or the first period.

But Ren Yiran’s arrival timing was somewhat awkward right during the break, and neither Lu Zhi nor Jiang Jin was around.

Ren Yiran responded with a smile, patting Jiang Jin’s shoulder in return, saying, “Ah Jin.”

Jiang Jin acknowledged with a sound and asked, “Which class are you in? You haven’t told me yet.”

Ren Yiran replied, “Class 11.”

Hearing this, Jiang Jin visibly relaxed, his chest sinking as he let out a sigh of relief.

He looked up with a smile and said, “Good. Teacher Yang’s class is great.”

Seeing this, Ren Yiran chuckled lightly, “Why the sudden relief? Afraid I’d insist on joining Class 10?”

Jiang Jin shrugged it off with a casual smile, “No, not at all.”

Ren Yiran added, “I’m not crazy enough to go out of my way to annoy someone. If he really came at me, I’d have no one to turn to for help.”

It seemed they hadn’t seen each other in a while, or perhaps during their occasional meetings, Lu Zhi wasn’t around, so the atmosphere between them wasn’t as stiff as it was now.

Jiang Jin felt that Ren Yiran’s words were a bit off, and he had no idea how to respond to this last remark. Just as he was worrying about what else to say, the class bell rang, saving him. Jiang Jin immediately brightened up and said, “Class is starting. Does Teacher Yang know you’re here already? If she does, she’ll probably introduce you in the first few minutes. Let’s catch up later, I’m heading back to class now.”

With that, he turned to leave but paused after a couple of steps, glancing down quickly to say, “Let go of what you should let go. You can’t force feelings. Yiran, don’t get too involved with Chi Jinxian. We’re in our final year of high school focus on your studies.”

As Jiang Jin turned to leave, Ren Yiran murmured indifferently, “I just want to see what’s so special about someone who could make an Alpha who despises Betas suddenly change his mind, how good they are, and where that goodness lies.”

Jiang Jin frowned, but the hallway was already empty, all students having returned to their classrooms. He couldn’t stay any longer and had to leave.

Yet, in his heart, he knew clearly: Ren Yiran had come for Chi Jinxian.

He wouldn’t dare come for Lu Zhi directly otherwise, he wouldn’t have deliberately chosen a neighboring high school to avoid Lu Zhi back then. With his grades, he could have gotten into any high school he wanted.

What Jiang Jin could figure out, Lu Zhi understood even more clearly.

Once class started, Lu Zhi only pretended to open his textbook, his eyes half-lowered as if staring at the book or perhaps the desk.

A pen spun rapidly between his fingers, occasionally pausing as his thumb rubbed the tip erratically.

“Brother?”

Lu Zhi jolted, his movements halting abruptly as he instinctively looked up. There was Chi Jinxian, holding a book and turned around to face him.

“What’s up?” Lu Zhi asked, glancing at the math teacher at the front of the class.

Chi Jinxian tapped his materials with his pen and said, “The teacher told us to self-study and work on problems this period. I can’t figure out the third question here.”

He pointed to the third sub-question of the final problem on the page, his expression so serious it seemed as if his eyes held nothing but the question.

No wonder the teacher hadn’t scolded him for boldly twisting his entire body backward.

“Mm.” Lu Zhi reached out his hand. “Give me the book.”

Chi Jinxian released his grip and rested his elbows on the edge of Lu Zhi’s desk.

While the other was intently studying the problem, Chi Jinxian stared unblinkingly at his face.

Since Lu Zhi had his head lowered, the angle naturally allowed Chi Jinxian to look down on him. His gaze almost greedily traced every inch of Lu Zhi’s skin from his hair to his chin, even his neck, or further down,

“Stop staring at me so blatantly, or I’ll mess with you.” Lu Zhi didn’t even bother to lift his head, delivering the warning in a flat, emotionless tone.

Hearing this, Chi Jinxian indeed felt a bit embarrassed and quickly let his eyes dart around restlessly. He raised a hand to touch his hair and muttered under his breath, “Not even allowed to look.”

After muttering, he thought for a moment and then, with a bold curiosity, asked, “How would you mess with me?”

“…”

Lu Zhi lifted his gaze, pausing the motion of having just written a formula on the paper. He put down his pen, maintaining only that one posture.

His eyes were heavy and obscure, but not in a gloomy, unhappy way rather, they held a suppressed madness, as if he wanted to fiercely press the person in his sight into his very bones and blood.

Chi Jinxian’s breath caught under that stare, and he instinctively withdrew his elbows from the edge of the other’s desk.

This small action of his seemed to cross some invisible line. Lu Zhi’s brows suddenly furrowed tightly, and this time, his eyes held a truly fierce light as he looked at him.

He was clearly upset. Chi Jinxian immediately whispered, “Bro, I’m sorry. You wouldn’t mess with me, you wouldn’t, I was just talking, no other meaning.”

As he spoke, he even curved his eyes and deliberately flashed a silly grin at him.

Lu Zhi didn’t respond, only continued to stare at him intensely for a while longer before withdrawing his gaze and lowering his eyelashes again to finish writing the formula below.

“Do you still want to hear the solution to this problem?” he asked.

“Yes,” Chi Jinxian said, “of course I do.”

Lu Zhi tapped the paper with his pen. His hand holding the book didn’t extend forward; he only said, “Then come over here.”

Chi Jinxian immediately let out an “Oh,” placed his elbows on the desk, leaned forward, and moved closer to Lu Zhi.

In previous years, the final math problem had always been quite difficult to solve, with the last sub-question being particularly obscure and tricky. It was easy to fall into a trap, and if one didn’t consider all possibilities, even if they managed to solve it, they wouldn’t get full marks.

Chi Jinxian had these exact flaws when tackling the final problem he often didn’t want to consider more possibilities.

The last sub-question was also related to the previous two. Lu Zhi said, “You’re not even using the result you calculated yourself?”

Chi Jinxian stared wide-eyed at the answer he had worked out for the second sub-question and didn’t dare make a sound.

They were like a proper teacher and student one stern, the other earnest.