December, the weather turned cold, and the cold wind rustleed the dry leaves.
Lin Yuxing, a freshman in the Information Science Department, was sitting in a hidden corner, having his meal.
In front of him was a plate of white rice with stir-fried cabbage and a bowl of free seaweed egg drop soup. With such a simple meal, Lin Yuxing enjoyed it with delight.
After a while, he got up to get another serving of food at the window. He mixed the half-cooled seaweed soup in his bowl and finished it along with his meal.
Lin Yuxing attended C University, which had four on-campus cafeterias. Only the cafeteria in the northern area had the cheapest prices for dishes, and they also allowed one free refill of rice.
After eating his fill, Lin Yuxing happily put on his worn-out backpack and placed his tray in the recycling bin.
As he walked out of the cafeteria, it was already dark outside.
After a busy day, Lin Yuxing rubbed his eyes and involuntarily sneezed due to the cold wind.
His neck felt exposed, and his old turtleneck sweater, which he had been wearing for years, was not enough to withstand the intensity of the harsh winter. He instinctively wrapped his coat tightly around himself.
"Ding—"
At that moment, he received a message on his phone.
It was a friend request with the note: "[Are you available for errands now?]"
Lin Yuxing immediately accepted the request and politely replied: "[Hello, I'm available now. What would you like me to buy?]"
The other person promptly sent him 30 yuan along with a voice message: "Please get me a spicy curry pork chop rice from the South Campus cafeteria for 25 yuan and deliver it to Room 303 in the North Building dormitory. My friend said you charge 5 yuan for cafeteria errands, right? I've added the amount for you."
After listening to the message, Lin Yuxing quickly replied: "[Received!]"
Shortly after, he received an urgent voice message: "Hurry up a bit, it might be sold out soon!"
Lin Yuxing ran all the way to the South Campus cafeteria, which was farthest from their dormitory, and managed to grab the last serving of spicy curry pork chop rice for the day.
He let out a sigh of relief, as the 5 yuan delivery fee was now accounted for.
At the same time, Lin Yuxing's phone received three new messages, all from his roommate Su Li.
Thinking there might be something urgent, Lin Yuxing hurriedly opened the messages. However, he found that Su Li had only sent him a shared link from the university forum's gossip section, along with a bunch of exclamation marks.
Lin Yuxing put away his phone, intending to read it later when he had free time. Holding onto the warm curry pork chop rice so it didn't get cold, he rushed to the North Building dormitory.
Coincidentally, he also lived in that dormitory.
With the cold wind blowing, Lin Yuxing's nose turned red. He stopped in front of Room 303, his eyes shining brightly in the dim hallway light, like a star in the vast galaxy.
He gently knocked on the door twice and said, "Classmate, your pork chop rice is here!"
After waiting for a while, someone slowly opened the door. Warm air rushed out, and it brushed against Lin Yuxing's almost frozen face, causing a slight itch.
Lin Yuxing could vaguely see the arrangement inside the dormitory; it seemed to be a single room.
Due to the lower number of Omega students compared to Alphas and Betas, and the need to separate male and female dormitories, Omega dormitories at C University were usually much emptier than others.
Therefore, the maximum occupancy in C University's Omega dormitories was usually two people sharing a room.
Some lucky ones might even get assigned a single room.
Looking up at the tall Omega student in front of him, who was several centimeters taller than his own height of just over 1.7 meters, Lin Yuxing extended his hand and said, "Here's your pork chop rice, and it's still hot."
His voice was clear and sweet, just like the citrus scent of his pheromones, spreading a hint of sweetness in the winter.
The person was surprised at Lin Yuxing's speed and took the meal box with satisfaction. "Thanks, I'll look for you next time."
That was the phrase Lin Yuxing loved to hear the most. His spirit lifted as he said, "I'm fast, you won't be wrong to look for me!" With that, he took the opportunity to send a price list in the chat box and enthusiastically said, "The prices are all there, I'll handle any errand for you. Just let me know if you need anything."
"Alright, I'll take a look when I have time."
After a perfunctory farewell, the door to the dormitory quickly closed.
Lin Yuxing was in a good mood as he turned and went up to the fourth floor, entering his two-person room. The relatively small space was pitch black, with only the glow of his roommate's computer.
"Why don't you turn on the lights?"
Su Li, with a dejected expression, didn't respond, holding a half-eaten roasted sweet potato in his hand. He had just finished a game and seemed to have lost.
"Su Li?" Lin Yuxing casually turned on the lights.
Upon seeing Lin Yuxing return, Su Li's mood brightened, and he quickly took off his over-ear headphones. "You finally came back! Did you see the message I sent you?"
"I haven't yet, just took a delivery order."
"In that case, take a look quickly. It was posted not long ago, and I sent it to you as soon as I saw it."
"I'll look at it in a bit. First, I'll take a shower." Lin Yuxing brought in a bucket from the balcony. To save water card money, he never took direct showers.
Su Li had a lively personality and was easy to get along with. "Look at it before you shower!"
Unfortunately, Lin Yuxing wasn't particularly interested in other people's gossip. He was tired after a long day and underdressed. Right then, all he wanted was to take a hot shower as quickly as possible and then lie down in bed to rest.
In Lin Yuxing's view, the best weapons against cold and fatigue were warm blankets.
Seeing his lack of interest, Su Li picked up the phone on the table and proactively opened the post, flashing it in front of him. "Doesn't this person look like you?"
Lin Yuxing couldn't see clearly and was confused.
"Look at his back and his clothes. If I didn't know that you would never waste money on buying roses, I would have thought it was you." Su Li glanced at the number of replies and sighed, "I didn't look for a few minutes, and there are already so many comments. Do you want to take a look?"
Su Li directly threw the phone to him.
But when Lin Yuxing saw the post on the screen, his voice immediately rose several degrees. "Why, why is this posted online?! How can they make up things like this?! It's completely different from what's written there!"
With his loud shout, Su Li was startled and almost dropped the sweet potato he had just picked up.
Lin Yuxing almost accepted it as true and anxiously asked, "How do we delete it? Should we send a private message to the poster? The situation is completely different from what they wrote! How can they make such unfound claims?!"
He was not familiar with the internet, especially the campus forum. he was already feeling overwhelmed and fumbling with the phone, not knowing how to handle the situation.
Su Li regained his composure and sat back on the chair, sighing, "Damn, it really is you, huh?"
Lin Yuxing, exhausted, almost bit his tongue and said, "I… it's indeed me, but everyone has the story wrong."
Su Li swallowed and felt that their past few months together had been like a dream. Regardless of any misunderstandings, he quickly put down the sweet potato in his hand.
"Lin Yuxing, I underestimated you. You actually managed to win over the most difficult Alpha school hunk in our school behind my back, without a word?!" Su Li looked at him in disbelief, with a hint of admiration in his eyes. He silently raised his thumb, "A master, a truly modest master."
On Su Li's phone screen, the post had a simple but exaggerated title: "[The Flower of the Highlands x Ugly Duckling: Successful Love Confession on the Basketball Court! Did a Silly and Sweet Novel Come to Life?]"
The first post featured a photo that left Lin Yuxing dumbfounded – it showed Lin Yuxing with his back turned, holding a large bouquet of roses, blushing, standing in front of an Alpha. And that Alpha, who usually had a cold appearance, was now smiling.
Like a graceful flower that bloomed on a cliff after the ice melted.
And it was plucked by someone.
Moreover, it was plucked by an Omega who was relatively unknown in the school.
The post had been up for only half an hour and had already made it to the "hot" section.
Comments began pouring in.
Second comment: "[Confession successful? No way, today is not April Fool's Day, right?]"
Third comment: "[Is it really that easy to pursue Gu, the school hunk? I doubt the authenticity of this matter.]"
Fourth comment: "[Absolutely true! Gu Zhongyi agreed, I was there at the scene. This Omega even pretended to be a delivery person for the flowers. Wow, amazing!]"
Fifth comment: "[Uh, does this Omega look like lin yuxing from the department next door? Could it really be him? He takes odd jobs at school. You give him ten bucks, and he would kneel down and shine your shoes. Can someone like Gu Zhongyi really be interested in him? Isn't it embarrassing?]"
Sixth comment: "[Who is Lin yunxing? I bet he will be dumped soon. Cinderella's light won't shine in reality, hahaha.]"
Seventh comment: "[Seriously? Seriously? You guys are just sour grapes. Also, the title says the ugly duckling made it, right? I can't stand personal attacks.]"
Eighth comment: "[Are you the person in the post?]"
Ninth comment: "[Oh my God, lin yunxing? Last week, a button fell off a classmate's clothes in our building, and he was the one who sewed it back on, and he only charged one yuan. Can you believe that someone still carries a sewing kit around these days…]"
Tenth comment: "[So exaggerated. Isn't Gu Zhongyi famous for being an ice block?]"
…
The post was continuously pushed up in the popular section with an influx of comments.
Each comment wasn't particularly hurtful, but they were highly derogatory. Both inside and outside, it conveyed the sentiment of "this Omega will definitely be heartlessly dumped, this Omega is not worthy of Gu Zhongyi."
Su Li followed along and awkwardly scratched his nose, unsure of what to say.
"You sew buttons for only 50 cents?"
"…The price went up last month."
"And you still do shoe-shining jobs?"
Su Li realized it wasn't the right time to discuss those things and patted Lin Yuxing's shoulder, intending to console him. But what came to his mind was his own gossipy curiosity.
"Um, how about this? First, tell me when you and Gu Zhongyi met."
Lin Yuxing's hand holding the phone trembled, and his head felt as heavy as a thousand catties (Chinese unit of weight equal to 500 grams): "We really don't know each other!"
"Stop it, don't think I don't know." Su Li clearly didn't believe him, "At our department's freshman welcome party, when he, as the senior, went on stage to give a speech, you were staring at him for a long time without moving."
It wasn't impossible for Lin Yuxing to have a one-sided crush on Gu Zhongyi.
Su Li clicked his tongue, folded his arms, and thought to himself.
Considering the current situation, Lin Yuxing having a crush and then it turning into a confessed love, it could be traced back.
Due to this misunderstanding on Su Li's part, Lin Yuxing had to explain in great detail.
Lin Yuxing had no choice but to explain, "I admit that Gu Zhongyi is very handsome, he has a pleasant scent, and he excels in academics. As our senior, he is excellent. So, I couldn't help but look at him… It's… it's just human nature, right?"
Who wouldn't be attracted to outstanding people and things?
But being attracted doesn't mean liking them, and liking someone doesn't mean it has to be expressed.