YPSSS Chapter 01

The summer holiday in C City was unbearably hot, with cicadas chirping incessantly outside the window.

Xia Shiruan sat quietly at his desk by the window, reading.

The book in his hands was titled “Online Monitoring and Fault Analysis of Photonic Devices,” a thick volume about the width of a palm.

Professor Lu had personally picked this book from his shelf and handed it to him the day before the holiday began.

Professor Lu was one of the leading experts in photonic device research domestically, a highly intelligent Alpha who was both rigorous and witty, making him especially popular among students.

Ever since Xia Shiruan had fortunately enrolled in Professor Lu’s course in his junior year, he had become Professor Lu’s devoted follower. He vowed to join his laboratory for graduate studies.

Three years had passed, and he had successfully achieved this goal, about to become a doctoral student in Professor Lu’s lab.

Before the holiday, Professor Lu had gathered the incoming graduate students for a brief meeting to understand everyone’s research interests.

At the end of the meeting, he had taken this book from the shelf and handed it specifically to Xia Shiruan. He immediately drew envious glares from others. After all, Professor Lu had never shown particular care for any graduate student before.

Xia Shiruan was both flattered and overwhelmed. Feeling indebted, he planned to spend the entire holiday studying diligently, immersing himself in the sea of knowledge.

However, the book was extremely difficult to understand. It was filled with cutting-edge scientific research theories. After reading for an entire day, Xia Shiruan had only managed to understand about twenty pages.

During a break, he went downstairs to get some fruit and milk tea from the refrigerator.

When he came back with the straw between his teeth, Xia Shiruan finally noticed his phone vibrating occasionally on the desk.

He opened it to see the lab’s newly created group chat was buzzing with activity. Despite being on summer break, everyone was quite energetic. They had been chatting from morning until now, with 99+ unread messages.

Xia Shiruan rarely spoke in group chats, but worried about missing important announcements, he hesitated for two seconds before opening the chat and scrolling through from the top.

Most messages were casual banter.

[Liu Yutong: Anyone living in the West District? Wanna play basketball tomorrow?]

[Luo Zhou: 111¹]

[Huang Yun: West District? I live in XX Complex, not far. Count me in.]

[Liu Yutong: Cool. It’s hot out, remember to bring suppressants.]

[Luo Zhou: Pfft… Tong-ge, we should award you the Model Alpha medal.]

[Liu Yutong: Screw off. When a bunch of Alphas play together, if we don’t mask our pheromones well, the smell gets unbearable. I can’t stand it, I’m a clean freak.]

[Luo Zhou: Always wanted to ask, Tong-ge, what does your pheromone smell like? Why do you seem to despise it so much?]

[Liu Yutong: …]

[Huang Yun: …]

[Qi Hongmao: …]

[Luo Zhou: ? What’s with you guys?]

[Liu Yutong: Ahem, well, Zhou-er, I’m not interested in AA relationships.]

[Luo Zhou: ?? Who’s talking about AA relationships?]

[Qi Hongmao: Then why are you asking what his pheromone smells like? Usually asking that means you know what.]

[Luo Zhou: ??? What?]

[Qi Hongmao: Let’s put it this way, asking an Alpha what they smell like is similar to asking how big his dick is.]

[Luo Zhou: … Fuck, that’s not what I meant!]

…

Xia Shiruan scrolled through the group messages expressionlessly. Since several pages contained content he found meaningless, his finger moved faster across the screen.

The Alphas hadn’t moved past the previous topic and were becoming even more unrestrained. Their conversation grew increasingly vulgar. Seeing the discussion heading in an uncontrollable direction, someone hurriedly spoke up.

[Liu Yutong: Damn, can you guys tone it down? There’s a Beta in the group!]

The large group chat suddenly fell silent.

After about ten minutes, someone carefully asked.

[Luo Zhou: Which one is it?]

As the Beta in question, Xia Shiruan’s gaze didn’t linger long on those messages from dozens of minutes ago.

He quickly scrolled down, going through all the chat records. He finally found a notice about an optional online lecture on Sunday, which he bookmarked.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Xia Shiruan was about to put down his phone and return to reading when he saw another message bubble pop up at the bottom of the group chat.

[Liu Mengjia: [Image] Can anyone help me with this problem? I’ve been working on it all day but can’t match the answer!]

Several people quickly responded, mostly teasing about how they were still studying during the hot summer holiday, while a few others said the problem looked too hard and they² should just give up.

Liu Mengjia told them to stop interrupting, saying they were really anxious about it.

Five minutes passed.

[Xia Shiruan: [Image] See if this is correct.]

He sent an image containing seven or eight lines of dense calculation formulas.

The problem was indeed challenging, but Xia Shiruan had seen a similar one a few days ago, so he solved it quickly.

The group fell silent for a few seconds before being flooded with ellipses.

[Liu Mengjia: …Thanks. You solved that so fast. [Thumbs up]]

[Liu Yutong: @Luo Zhou it’s him.]

[Qi Hongmao: That’s impressive.]

[Huang Yun: Study god. [Thumbs up]]

[Shen Chuan: side-eye-laugh.jpg]

Xia Shiruan stared at these messages for two seconds, feeling uncomfortable with their tone, so he ignored them and simply turned off his phone.

–

Xia Shiruan was twenty-three years old and a Beta.

If this brief introduction were placed on a dating profile, about thirty percent of people would likely scroll past it without a second thought.

Because in today’s society, being a Beta was practically synonymous with being “ordinary.”

In the 299th year of the New Calendar, it had been nearly three hundred years since human gender classification changed from male and female to Alpha, Beta, and Omega.

Three hundred years ago, human society experienced its most severe and rapid upheaval in history.

Severe because the source of chaos was unprecedented.

Rapid because those who were selected as the stronger portion of the population quickly mastered the application of their power.

Wealth was swiftly redistributed, power was violently seized, and human society established a new order.

Alphas were naturally endowed with superior physical and intellectual abilities. This innate advantage made them the natural leaders of society, allowing them to seize over 90% of wealth.

Omegas were rare and physically weaker, but their suitability for childbearing and ability to produce high-quality offspring was quickly discovered by the medical community, making them a group protected by social welfare.

Then there were the Betas.

Betas were the largest group with the most ordinary abilities, yet they required the least description, because this major change seemed to have nothing to do with them.

Betas didn’t understand what the so-called “special scent” that appeared overnight was, nor did they know what heat meant.

Strangely, despite being the majority, they seemed to be kept in the dark, bewildered and isolated behind the rapidly advancing wheels of history.

Fortunately, the ancient characteristics of ordinary humans inherited from primates remained etched in their genes, giving them a decent ability to adapt.

Three hundred years later, society had grown increasingly stable, with each gender finding its own place.

Xia Shiruan was the type of person who adapted well to his environment.

He was intelligent, with excellent academic performance.

From a young age, whenever Xia Shiruan participated in any exam, he consistently secured the top position, often leaving the second-place student far behind.

This outstanding performance paved the way for his smooth advancement in education, leading him to the Department of Particle Physics at Science University, known for its rigorous academic standards.

Science University was the country’s best institution for science and technology. Despite being located in C City, away from political and economic centers, its admission requirements remained intimidatingly high.

The Department of Particle Physics was like the highest peak among mountains, visible but seemingly unreachable.

Xia Shiruan wasn’t the first Beta to study in the Department of Particle Physics at Science University, but he was the first Beta to maintain the top GPA for four years, successfully advance directly to a doctoral program, and enter Professor Lu’s laboratory.

This achievement made him something of a notable figure at school, to the extent that people would occasionally glance at him when he walked by.

Photonic devices were one of the country’s leading high-tech fields, with annual research funding to universities alone exceeding ten billion yuan.

However, all the core technology and authority in this field were controlled by Alphas.

This wasn’t surprising. In fact, Alphas dominated positions of power in any promising or lucrative industry.

Yet photonic devices were a special case among special cases. Due to its applications being almost entirely linked to the military sector, earlier admission policies for university photonics departments had strictly limited enrollment to Alpha students only.

This policy was only officially abolished ten years ago.

Xia Shiruan didn’t feel particularly affected by all the attention he received.

Throughout university, he never made many friends, living like an ascetic. His daily routine consisted of moving between just three points: the library, classroom, and home. He occasionally chatted with classmates on his phone, but only about academic matters.

This lifestyle suited him fine, or so Xia Shiruan thought.

Without any unexpected changes, he even planned to continue living this stable life for the next ten years. After all, he was a Beta, and he had already reached an understanding with his parents about his future plans. Research and achievements came first, while dating and finding a partner could wait.