Chapter 1
Tan Ning was an odd person.
Everyone who had ever interacted with him said so.
He was peculiar in a way that people might tolerate at first glance because of his striking looks, but by the third day, their patience would wear thin.
He kept to himself every day, carrying a gray and white striped backpack, wearing plain, loose-fitting hoodies and jeans. He shuttled between the Law School and the main library. Between these two places lay a wide, tree-lined path where Tan Ning would appear at fixed times, walking at a steady pace, headphones on, eyes straight ahead, undeterred by wind or rain.
On the surface, there seemed to be nothing wrong with this.
If it weren’t for his delicate features that couldn’t be hidden even by his slightly long hair, and his tall, slender build uncommon for a beta, he wouldn’t have attracted so much attention.
With attention came gossip.
Some curious individuals from the north campus would make a special trip just to wait at the entrance of the tree-lined path. As soon as Tan Ning appeared, they’d rush up to ask for his WeChat. Without even slowing his pace, Tan Ning would expressionlessly say, “No.”
If they pressed further, he’d stop and impatiently ask, “Why are you following me?”
The disgust in his eyes was unmistakable.
After this happened once or twice, Tan Ning became notorious throughout the school. Even in his sophomore year, people still pointed fingers at him.
According to insiders, Tan Ning wasn’t just cold to strangers; he treated his classmates and even his roommates the same way.
If he ran into a classmate face-to-face, he wouldn’t greet them. He didn’t participate in any group activities or join clubs. In class, he always sat in the front row, directly facing the podium. Except for unavoidable group assignments, he didn’t interact with anyone.
He spent all his spare time working part-time jobs to earn money.
He couldn’t understand why, just because he immersed himself in his own world, he was labeled a “weirdo.” But he didn’t really care.
What mattered more to him was whether his savings had increased. At six o’clock that evening, he had a tutoring session with a fifth-grade boy, helping him with English and math. Three hundred yuan an hour, for a total of three hours.
The parents were generous, so naturally, Tan Ning took the job seriously. When he returned to the dorm to gather his things, he hadn’t even entered the room when he heard the people inside talking.
Zheng Yu’s voice was loud. He was horsing around with another roommate, shouting, “Don’t mess up his stuff! Watch out, or he’ll glare at you with those dead fish eyes.”
Xu Qingyang sneered, “Glare at me? He doesn’t even look at me! I’m so sick of him. It’s like he’s cursed or something, always creeping around.”
“Yesterday, someone asked me if that Tan Ning in our dorm has autism. And there are still people who want to add him on WeChat!”
“Well, he does look—”
“Look what? I don’t think he’s good-looking at all. His face is as pale as a ghost.”
Just then, the door opened, and Tan Ning walked in.
Zheng Yu and Xu Qingyang immediately shut their mouths, their hearts nearly stopping from fright. But they still stood there stiffly, their eyes darting around.
Tan Ning went straight to his desk, swapped out his textbooks for children’s tutoring books and notes, zipped up his backpack, and turned to leave.
The whole process took less than thirty seconds.
As the door closed, Zheng Yu couldn’t help but kick a chair. “Seeing him just ruins my mood.”
Sitting on the subway, Tan Ning took out his phone to review high-frequency IELTS vocabulary. Next to him sat a boy who appeared to be an alpha. Sensing the boy’s gaze repeatedly falling on his side profile, Tan Ning got up and stood by the door.
Indeed, his side profile was striking.
In class, people often stared at him like this.
His hair had a natural hint of chestnut color and reached down to his shoulders. His skin was porcelain white, and his pupils were a light amber, giving him a fragile, mixed-race look in the sunlight. He habitually tied his hair into a casual, lazy half-bun, revealing glimpses of the skin on his neck.
His entire face was full of contradictions. His delicate, captivating eyes and long, curly eyelashes were like those of a beautiful omega. Yet his high nose bridge and somewhat indifferent thin lips resembled those of an alpha.
Fortunately, a small brown mole at the corner of his left eye adorned these contradictions, giving him a unique, cool aura.
With such looks, he frequently appeared on the school’s confession wall when the semester started.
But Tan Ning was completely unaware of this.
Upon arriving at the child’s home, he displayed his first smile of the day—but it was fleeting. He took out his notes and test papers, trying hard to soften his usually cold voice, and asked, “Did you finish your homework today?”
The little boy was somewhat afraid of him and nodded obediently.
Without wasting words, Tan Ning placed the test paper in front of him. “You have half an hour. We’ll review after you’re done.”
The boy’s cheerful expression immediately fell.
The agonizing half-hour finally ended. As Tan Ning was grading the papers, he heard the boy run out to complain to his mother: “Teacher Tan is so strict! I don’t like him!”
The mother quickly shushed him. “Teacher Tan keeps praising you. Don’t be naughty.”
The boy muttered, “I liked the previous teacher better. I don’t want Teacher Tan.”
The red pen in Tan Ning’s hand didn’t pause as he marked the answers.
He was accustomed to not being likable.
After the tutoring session, Tan Ning discussed the child’s academic progress with the mother. During this time, he received a WeChat message: [Ten o’clock, Tianhe Villa.]
He replied: [Can’t make it.]
*
The next day, as usual, Tan Ning got up at seven, washed up, dressed, and headed to the main library with his backpack.
He had no classes scheduled for the entire day.
While filling his water bottle at the dispenser, he overheard two people chatting nearby. They mentioned a club event in the main auditorium that afternoon, and the Liaison Department had secured sponsorship from Tianhe Group.
Tan Ning was momentarily lost in thought.
“Have you seen the list for this year’s Tianhe Scholarships?” one asked.
“Not yet. My senior got first prize before—one hundred thousand yuan. She got a job with Tianhe Group right after graduation.”
“They’re donating buildings and setting up scholarships. Our school is practically being taken over by Tianhe.”
“Isn’t that a good thing? Tianhe is financially powerful. So many people dream of getting into Tianhe but can’t. We have direct school-enterprise partnerships and guaranteed job placements after graduation, all thanks to their young master.”
“Lin Song’an?”
“I saw him on the basketball court a few days ago. As expected of a top-tier alpha—you can spot him in a crowd at a glance.”
“Because he’s handsome.”
“Haha, alphas are common, but Lin Song’an is rare.”
Just as the hot water was about to overflow his cup, Tan Ning quickly pressed stop. He took his cup back to his seat and continued reading until one o’clock in the afternoon.
His schedule strictly followed his course plan, allowing no deviations. But there were always unexpected events disrupting his plans.
For example, at three-thirty in the afternoon, he received a message from the class monitor: [We’re just missing you for the attendance at today’s joint meeting between the Law and Business Schools.]
Frowning, he wondered when this had come up.
He opened the class group chat, which he’d set to “Do Not Disturb,” and found the announcement for what he thought was an optional event. He replied: [Got it.]
April in Ningjiang had the perfect temperature. Leaves rustled, and sunlight filtered through the trees, scattering fragments of gold.
Facing the gentle April breeze, Tan Ning walked toward the Business School’s conference hall. He didn’t look up at the sky, focusing instead on the light spots on the ground as he walked.
After about seven or eight minutes, he arrived at the Business School.
Unfamiliar with the place and lacking a sense of direction, he studied the directory for a long time before figuring out where the entrance to the conference hall was. Despite his efforts, he still made a mistake.
He should have entered through the back door.
But he opened the front door instead. As he pulled it open, he heard the dean of the Business School passionately speaking on stage about the importance of collaboration between law and business. The creaking door drew everyone’s attention to him.
Ordinarily, anyone would feel mortified in this situation, but Tan Ning was a “weirdo.”
His expression remained unchanged as he turned to close the door. Then, calmly, he walked inside and headed straight to an empty seat on the far right of the second row.
Just as he sat down, he heard someone behind him gasp.
He glanced to his side.
Oh, it was Lin Song’an.
Rumor had it that in his third year, Lin Song’an had already taken on responsibilities in his family business. He often wore dress shirts and drove luxury cars worth millions to class. Today, he wore a finely tailored white shirt and black suit pants that fit perfectly. From where Tan Ning sat, he could see the tip of Lin Song’an’s polished leather shoes—very refined.
A hand reached out from the row behind, passing him a small note that read: [Please don’t sit here. Could you change seats? The seat next to Lin Song’an is usually kept empty.]
It wasn’t that Lin Song’an demanded special treatment; the seat next to him was often reserved for leaders for photo ops during events.
Why did the college events need Lin Song’an in the pictures?
Because any WeChat post featuring Lin Song’an as the cover photo would double in views. The college leaders were also more than happy to take a photo with the future heir of Tianhe Group.
After reading the note, Tan Ning handed it back without a word and remained seated. The classmates behind him were stunned.
Lin Song’an’s friend, Lei Xin, couldn’t stand it any longer and whispered, “Who is he?”
Seeing that Tan Ning didn’t budge, Lei Xin made a move to get up and pull him away. The surrounding students sensed the tension, but only Tan Ning remained as calm as ever. He even took off his backpack and pulled out a copy of IELTS Reading: Achieve Band 9, flipping through it page by page.
The classmates behind were speechless.
“I remember now,” someone whispered. “Isn’t he that autistic guy from the Law School? The one who’s a bit off? He’s doing this on purpose, right?”
Just as Lei Xin was about to stand up, Lin Song’an raised his hand slightly.
Lei Xin understood the meaning of Lin Song’an’s gesture—it was likely a sign to not act impulsively or simply to let it go.
Lin Song’an was someone who was not to be contradicted.
So, Lei Xin begrudgingly backed down.
When studying, Tan Ning didn’t like to keep his arms tucked in. As he flipped through his book, he gradually took over the adjacent armrest. Lin Song’an’s forearm, which had been casually resting there, was nudged off.
“…” Lei Xin’s eye twitched from the side.
Is this guy really autistic, or is he just plain crazy? Does he even know who’s sitting next to him?
He formed a stark contrast with Lin Song’an.
Tan Ning’s drab, loose-fitting gray hoodie looked especially dull next to Lin Song’an’s crisp white shirt. Moreover, he sat with his head lowered and his body hunched, as if trying to shrink into his seat. His fringe covered his face, hiding his features. Aside from being thin, there was nothing else notable about him.
Yet he brazenly sat next to Lin Song’an, his slouchy backpack matching his own sloppiness. It was placed by his feet, teetering and nearly falling against Lin Song’an’s leg.
Under the intense gazes of those around him, Tan Ning finished reading three passages. As soon as the school leaders concluded their lofty speeches and the applause ended, he grabbed his bag, went to the class monitor to sign the attendance sheet, and then turned to leave.
Watching his departing figure, Lei Xin muttered, “Who does he think he is?”
After grabbing dinner at the cafeteria, Tan Ning returned to his dormitory. He didn’t have any tutoring sessions that evening, so he took a shower first. Just after finishing, he received a notification on WeChat.
He picked up his phone and glanced at it.
Setting the phone aside, he continued to towel-dry his hair.
A few minutes later, his phone rang. It seemed he knew who it was without looking. He didn’t answer. Instead, he took the hairdryer into the bathroom. His hair was very fine and soft; he needed to blow-dry it immediately after washing.
Their dorm was a four-person room, but one student had switched majors to the Computer Science Department during their freshman year. So it was just him, Zheng Yu, and Xu Qingyang.
Zheng Yu and Xu Qingyang were both omegas. Dorms were generally assigned based on the three genders, but because there were many betas, they were sometimes placed with low-level omegas. Tan Ning was one of them.
These two low-level omegas were clearly repulsed by Tan Ning, who had the face of a high-class omega.
Among them, Zheng Yu had the biggest issue with Tan Ning—almost to the point where he couldn’t stand being in the same space. That day, as he pushed the door open, he saw Tan Ning changing clothes, putting on an off-white hoodie that was different from his usual attire.
Zheng Yu was momentarily startled. While talking to Xu Qingyang, he sneered at Tan Ning, “Some people are notorious in both colleges and have even offended the young master. Impressive.”
It was as if Tan Ning hadn’t heard him at all. He took out his textbooks from his bag, replaced them with his tutoring materials, and then left the room.
Zheng Yu chased after him and kicked the door shut.
Leaving the school gates, Tan Ning turned right. He passed a long row of street vendors and then walked to the end of the road, where there were significantly fewer people. At the corner of an alley, he saw a black Land Rover. In the dim light of dusk, it appeared inconspicuous and could easily be overlooked.
He walked over and pulled open the rear car door. Before he could let go, someone grabbed him and pulled him inside.
A familiar scent enveloped him.
He hadn’t even had time to take off his backpack before someone embraced him and started kissing him. His lips were first gently held, but after a few seconds, the person seemed unsatisfied. After a brief moment of tenderness, the kisses turned into forceful bites. There was no way for Tan Ning to dodge.
It wasn’t until his shirt hem was lifted that Tan Ning remembered to resist. His fingertips pressed against the person’s chest, then slid along the edge of the shirt collar. His resistance was futile, only fueling the flames.
Slightly tilting his head back, Tan Ning’s breathing gradually synchronized with that of the person causing trouble.
“Why didn’t you answer my calls?”
“I was busy,” Tan Ning replied.
Lin Song’an lifted his head, gazing at Tan Ning in the dim car interior, his eyes fixed straight on him. He pressed, “Busy with what?”
He looked entirely different from the composed figure in the Business School auditorium two hours earlier.
He was looking up at Tan Ning.
“Tutoring,” Tan Ning answered.
Lin Song’an scoffed lightly. “Are you that short on money?”
Without responding, Tan Ning reached into Lin Song’an’s overcoat pocket, took out his phone, and skillfully unlocked it. He transferred two thousand yuan to himself, then put the phone back. Lying down without any resistance, he asked, “Shall we start now?”
*
Author’s Note:
Starting a new story! Please support me~
