YPSSS Chapter 39

When Xia Shiruan returned to the private room, everyone who had been playing cards was gone.

Xie Ji was talking to an Alpha Xia Shiruan didn’t recognize, with his back turned as he lazily propped his face with one hand.

When Xia Shiruan came in, Xie Ji didn’t notice or turn around, as if he’d already forgotten his earlier dark expression when he’d demanded Xia Shiruan take him along again.

Xia Shiruan found an empty sofa to sit on. Before he could get comfortable, Chen Rongxin slid into the spot next to him.

“Um, Xiao Ruan-ge…” He leaned in closer and lowered his voice. Just as he was about to say something, he suddenly gauged the distance between himself and Xia Shiruan with his eyes and muttered, “This shouldn’t count as too close, right…”

“What?” Xia Shiruan didn’t catch what he said.

“Nothing!” Chen Rongxin gave a couple of nervous laughs and said, “Let’s play a game together later.”

“Sure,” Xia Shiruan said.

Chen Rongxin’s eyes lit up. “Great! I was worried you wouldn’t want to play.”

He stuck to Xia Shiruan’s side, rambling about this and that without saying anything meaningful. It seemed like he had other things he wanted to ask but stopped himself several times, unable to get the words out.

The game itself was simple. It was a common icebreaker played at bars and gatherings. They would use a bottle as a spinner, and whoever it pointed to could make a request of the person sitting to their right.

The request could be a prank or asking them a question. If the person on the right couldn’t fulfill it, they had to drink.

That’s why Chen Rongxin had specifically asked if Xia Shiruan wanted to play, because he couldn’t drink alcohol.

But Chen Rongxin quietly told Xia Shiruan that if the bottle landed on him, he didn’t have to drink alcohol. He could have a latte instead. The point was just to have fun.

When everyone came back, Chen Rongxin gathered everyone to sit together.

Xie Ji got up from the sofa on the other side, and Xia Shiruan shifted position. By the time he realized it, he and Xie Ji ended up sitting together.

Xie Ji sat on the sofa to Xia Shiruan’s left, raising an eyebrow at him as he whispered a threat, “Xia Shiruan, you’re done for.”

Xia Shiruan: “…”

Xie Ji had beautiful eyes, naturally narrow and upturned. When he wasn’t smiling, they gave him an imposing aura. When he did smile, they became the kind of eyes you couldn’t help but stare at.

Xia Shiruan didn’t know if others felt the same way he did, but that’s how it was for him.

He couldn’t help wanting to look, yet didn’t dare look for too long, afraid that if he did, something would be discovered.

When Su Mi came in, what he saw was Xia Shiruan quickly turning his head away.

He stood at the doorway for a moment before smiling and walking over to sit directly in the empty spot on Xia Shiruan’s right.

Noticing someone there, Xia Shiruan looked up and met Su Mi’s gaze.

Su Mi’s face was still a bit flushed, as if the effects of alcohol hadn’t worn off. But his eyes were perfectly clear as he pointed to his spot on the sofa, indicating he was sitting there.

Su Mi had just come in and hadn’t heard the game rules. Sitting there was purely by chance and not planned.

He sat there in a daze, his gaze drifting from Xia Shiruan to Xie Ji, never lingering too long on either.

To Shu Jian watching this scene, there was only one feeling: anxious frustration on Su Mi’s behalf.

Shu Jian’s family and Su Mi’s family were old friends. The two had known each other for many years, even longer than they’d known Xie Ji and Chen Rongxin.

It wasn’t a secret among their friend group that Su Mi had liked Xie Ji since they were young, and everyone knew that Xie Ji had rejected his confession.

But Su Mi had high emotional intelligence. Even though they couldn’t be lovers, he had carefully maintained their relationship over the years, never letting things become awkward.

Later, when Xie Ji and Chen Rongxin came to C City for university, among their old friends from S Province, only Shu Jian and Su Mi stayed in regular contact.

Su Mi was a typical well-bred Omega, faultless in every way. He had a good family background and good looks. Shu Jian never understood how Xie Ji could reject him so decisively, as if he did not even need to think about it.

Still, he thought Su Mi might have a chance. After all, they had both been young when Su Mi confessed. Back then, Xie Ji probably didn’t understand what it meant to like someone and wasn’t interested in Omegas. But now that they were older, who knew?

When Su Mi heard about Chen Rongxin’s birthday, he took the initiative to come. But now that he was here, he was not proactive at all, just sitting there in a daze. Shu Jian was practically pulling his hair out from secondhand frustration¹.

Chen Rongxin went to get a bottle, and Shu Jian finally couldn’t sit still anymore.

“Xiao Xia-ge,” Xia Shiruan looked up to see Shu Jian walking over with a smile, “want to switch seats?”

Xia Shiruan currently had Xie Ji on his left and Su Mi on his right, both of whom were Shu Jian’s close friends.

Xia Shiruan guessed he wanted to sit with them to make pranking easier, so ignoring Xie Ji’s dissatisfied look, he stood up without hesitation to give his seat to Shu Jian. “Here you go.”

“Thanks, Xiao Xia-ge!” Shu Jian was so focused on his childhood friend that he completely missed Xie Ji’s disappointed look as he watched Xia Shiruan leave. He thanked him repeatedly and pointed to his own seat, which was a sofa corner near the door. “You can sit in my spot, over there!”

Xia Shiruan nodded and walked straight to the sofa by the door.

After sitting down, the unfamiliar Alpha next to him greeted him with a smile and exchanged names with him. Xia Shiruan responded politely but didn’t say much more.

He saw Shu Jian with one arm around Xie Ji and the other around Su Mi, the three of them huddled together whispering.

The private room was noisy, and Xia Shiruan couldn’t hear what they were saying, but they looked very close.

“Let’s start, let’s start, everyone sit down!” Chen Rongxin came back with others carrying alcohol. This time it wasn’t mixed cocktails but dozens of bottles of baijiu². “Losers drink one bottle each… Omegas can have soft drinks!”

The game officially began.

Chen Rongxin had been making the most noise, but ended up being the target of the first prank.

As the birthday boy, he had to get the worst of it. After some brainstorming, the group came up with a particularly vicious idea: Chen Rongxin had to write a praise essay about Chen Xilin’s good points on the spot, with great emotion and no less than five hundred words.

Ten minutes later, Chen Rongxin stood on the coffee table with a constipated expression, thinking hard before finally speaking slowly, “He’s tall, has a high-level pheromone… well, his face isn’t quite as good as mine but it’s passable… and although his character isn’t great, he occasionally does humane things…”

Someone below threw a napkin at him, laughing, “Do you not feel even a little bit embarrassed? Count how many of those three sentences were actual compliments!”

Chen Rongxin cursed, jumped down from the coffee table, grabbed a bottle and drank straight from it. After letting out a hiccup, he cried out in outrage, “Are you even human? How can you be so cruel to the birthday boy?”

Everyone burst out laughing.

The bottle spun to several more people, some drinking and some doing pranks, keeping the atmosphere lively.

On the fourth round, the bottle wobbled and pointed at Shu Jian.

Shu Jian smiled, grabbed the bottle’s neck, and nodded at Su Mi sitting on his right, playfully winking.

Su Mi spread his hands helplessly, smiling helplessly.

A chorus of “Ooh” filled the room. This was the first time an Omega had been targeted tonight.

Chen Rongxin, who’d been pranked several times already, both jeered and reassured Su Mi, “Don’t worry, Su Mi! If you can’t do it, you can just take a drink!”

Shu Jian cursed at him with a smile, “I haven’t even made my request yet, and you’re already letting them off?”

“Then say it!”

Shu Jian cleared his throat and said, “Alright, here’s my request! The person sitting on my right has to kiss the person sitting on my left!”

When these words came out, the whole room froze.

Chen Rongxin exchanged a shocked look with Pei Hu, silently cursing in their hearts.

Where did this clueless Shu Jian’s eyes see all evening?

The clueless Shu Jian repeated, “Now, do it!”

Xia Shiruan’s breath hitched for two seconds.

The smile on Su Mi’s face froze as he quickly glanced up at Shu Jian.

Xie Ji also looked up at the same time, his expression dark as he stared at Shu Jian.

But Shu Jian seemed completely oblivious and, worried that Su Mi might feel embarrassed, continued, “Just a kiss on the cheek, forget about the lips!”

Except for Chen Rongxin and Pei Hu, many people caught on, realizing this Omega called Su Mi had feelings for Xie Ji and that Shu Jian was trying to play matchmaker. They started cheering them on.

Shu Jian even stood up from the sofa and made room for Su Mi.

The cheering grew louder.

Su Mi looked at Xie Ji, his eyes clearly pleading for help while also brimming with anticipation.

It seemed that if Xie Ji showed no obvious rejection, he would kiss him the next second.

But Xie Ji wasn’t even looking at him. Instead, he was staring through the crowd toward the door, as if deep in thought.

Seeing this, Su Mi bit his lower lip. The lingering effects of alcohol rushed up, giving him courage and strengthening his resolve.

He tugged at Xie Ji’s sleeve and whispered, “Just a kiss on the cheek… okay?”

At the other end of the room, Xia Shiruan suddenly stood up from the sofa. The Alpha next to him turned and asked, “Where are you going?”

After fighting through a suffocating feeling in his chest, Xia Shiruan said, “I’m going to wash my hands.”

The door was only a step away, making it easy for him to escape.

Xia Shiruan left without hesitation.

The door slammed shut behind him, making his breath shudder.

He was afraid that if he stayed any longer, he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from pulling Su Mi away.

But this was just a game, and doing that would make him seem petty. He would be ruining everyone’s fun by not letting others play.

Actually, Xia Shiruan wasn’t afraid of being seen as petty. He just felt he had no right to be petty at all.

The moment the door closed, Xie Ji took a deep breath and stood up too.

Shu Jian froze. “What are you doing… what the hell?”

Xie Ji walked around the sofa to the coffee table, picked up an unopened bottle, forcefully pried it open, and drank the entire bottle in one go while others watched in surprise.

The whole sequence happened so fast that Shu Jian couldn’t even react before the bottle was empty.

It was the strongest bottle there, meant only to intimidate them. Chen Rongxin never intended for anyone to actually drink it.

“Ge…” Chen Rongxin couldn’t stop him and stared in shock. “That wasn’t meant for drinking…”

Shu Jian also caught on and hurriedly said, “Hey, wait, you don’t need to drink. If anyone should drink, it’s Su Mi.”

“I drank Su Mi’s bottle for him. This round is void.” Xie Ji wiped a drop of liquor from the corner of his mouth and said coldly, “If one bottle isn’t enough, add as many as you want.”