Chapter 45: Surprise Delivery

While Fu Rangyi was asleep, his phone vibrated many times. Each time, Zhu Zhixi was startled, afraid it would wake him up. He quietly took the phone and sat up against the bed.

I should turn on Do Not Disturb.

Do Not Disturb…

Suddenly, a text message popped up on the screen. Zhu Zhixi was a little nervous, not daring to read the content, as it was Fu Rangyi’s privacy. But with just an accidental glance, he frowned.

The content was obscene, purely gender-based humiliation and personal attacks.

Something’s not right. Zhu Zhixi’s intuition had always been sharp. He jotted down the number on his own phone, then thought of the incessant calls from just now.

He had to unlock the phone to see the call history. But he didn’t know the password.

And it was rude… Zhu Zhixi looked at Fu Rangyi, who was sleeping soundly. He was still curled up, but facing him, very still. At this glance, his mind suddenly went off track, and he subconsciously leaned down and kissed Fu Rangyi’s hair.

No. He quickly pulled himself back.

Stealing a kiss and peeking at a phone both seemed quite rude, to an equal degree. Zhu Zhixi raised a hand to touch his guilty mouth, and a small spark suddenly flashed in his mind.

Wait a minute, Fu Rangyi secretly unlocked my phone before, and he knocked me to the ground, bit my neck, and chewed on my mouth. That was very rude.

In comparison, he suddenly felt a surge of confidence, as if the phone was already unlocked, completely forgetting the step of entering a password. After being happy by himself for a while, he frowned again and started to think about possible passwords.

Birthday?

Zhu Zhixi recalled the fake marriage questionnaire they had filled out before. August 25th. He tried entering it.

Incorrect password.

Right, how could Fu Rangyi use such a simple password. He was such a cautious person.

But he really couldn’t think of any other passwords.

In a fit of desperation, he entered their wedding anniversary, 1214.

It unlocked?

In the dark room, Zhu Zhixi’s eyes widened. He sat stunned for a long time, his mouth and brain seeming to operate on two different systems. Before he could even react, the corners of his mouth couldn’t be suppressed. So he stole another kiss.

But he didn’t forget the important matter at hand. He went straight to the point and opened the call history. As expected, there were several calls in a row from the same number, and it was indeed the sender of the harassing text message.

While making the chicken soup, he tried calling the number from his own phone, but no one answered. He thought for a moment and sent the number to Zhu Zeran.

[Little Piggy: Bro, help me check this number, please please (heart emoji)]

[Da Zhu: It’s ‘bro’ when you need something and ‘Da Zhu’ when you don’t, right? Why should I help you? Am I your private detective or your personal assistant? Do you know how much your brother is worth?]

[Little Piggy: This person is harassing me.]

The chicken soup had just come to a boil when Zhu Zeran’s call came through.

“This is a virtual number, probably bought specifically for this kind of thing. I’m having someone look into the purchase channels now to see if we can find them. How are they harassing you? Have they followed you? When did you receive it? How many times did they call? Is there anything else…”

“Ah, actually it’s not me, hehe.” Zhu Zhixi smiled, ladled a spoonful of soup, blew on it a few times, and took a sip.

It tastes awful, this salt really won’t come out. He picked up his magic wand and vigorously cast a spell.

“Zhu Zhixi, are you crazy? You’re messing with me! Wait a minute, are you afraid I’d worry…”

Zhu Zhixi: “Yes, yes, let me know when you find the person, most expensive Alpha in the world. Bye-bye, I have to cook.”

“You’re cooking?! Who are you cooking for…” He hung up.

Buying a number to harass someone. This is premeditated. The more Zhu Zhixi thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong. Could it be one of Fu Rangyi’s extreme admirers? Like Yu Heng?

But he had dealt with Yu Heng before, and his intuition told him it didn’t seem like him.

After much thought, the next day, Zhu Zhixi went to the group’s headquarters before work.

He rarely went, and he didn’t have an appointment, so naturally he was stopped. But he still obediently filled out the visitor log. He was only halfway through when he suddenly heard a familiar voice.

“Zhu… Young Master?”

He looked up and waved the pen in his hand with a smile. “Hey, Xiao Lin! Good morning, I’m just registering.”

Xiao Lin almost fainted and immediately led him to the top floor. If his brother-obsessed boss found out he had been held up by the front desk, he would get yelled at again.

“Well, a rare guest.”

“You come to work so early every day?” Zhu Zhixi strolled over to the desk, glanced at the documents on it, and picked one up. “Real estate? Last time Xiao Lin said you were in a meeting about some unfinished building. You’re really getting into real estate?”

Speaking of which, Zhu Zeran pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance. “It’s purely taking over a mess. To get a resource, I took on a rotten stall, and it wasn’t even just taking it, it was snatching it.”

Zhu Zhixi wasn’t interested in these things. He sat down and got straight to the point, asking for the documents on the high school violence incident he had investigated before.

“You made a special trip for this?”

“You’re the expensive Alpha. My hourly rate is cheap, so of course I’m the one to run the errand.” In reality, making the trip showed sincerity, which meant he could ask for more things.

The moment he opened the document, Zhu Zhixi felt a physiological revulsion.

Xiao Xiang. That was the physics teacher’s name.

“You know him?” Zhu Zeran sat in his office chair, studying his younger brother. What’s with that expression? It was the first time he had seen it on the face of the usually cheerful Zhu Zhixi.

After reading, Zhu Zhixi didn’t find much useful information. He put it back and said, “I don’t know him.”

“Then you…”

Zhu Zhixi showed a naive smile. “I just want to chop off his hands and castrate him, that’s all.”

Now it was Zhu Zeran’s turn to be unable to smile.

“What’s wrong with you? Where’s my sunny, big-hearted little brother? Why have you suddenly become so dark and irritable?”

Zhu Zhixi folded his hands on the desk, rested his chin on them, and said with a grin, “This way I’m more like you.”

After some bickering, he still asked Zhu Zeran to help him investigate Xiao Xiang’s current situation. Unlike their father, Zhu Zeran was adventurous and ambitious in his work, willing to do whatever it took to achieve his goals, and had accumulated many connections in gray areas for this purpose. Finding him would be faster than finding anyone else.

He certainly hoped it was just an ordinary harassing text message, unrelated to anyone else.

If it was really as Fu Rangyi’s adoptive father had said, that Xiao Xiang had returned to his hometown and settled down, there was no reason to do something illegal like this. Besides, it had been fifteen years. What took him so long?

But Zhu Zhixi always felt uneasy.

After realizing he had fallen in love with Fu Rangyi, an unprecedentedly strong emotion grew in his heart. He wished he could give him everything he had, but was afraid of scaring him, as if he had instantly returned to the days of his first crush.

He had almost confessed directly. But after learning about Fu Rangyi’s past, this light, uncontrollable love suddenly became heavy.

He realized that he also held a very heavy weight in Fu Rangyi’s heart. Very heavy. So heavy that in the last second before sleep, he would ask him not to mention the word “death.”

Death was a shadow that lay between them.

What was worse, from his physical sensation, the countdown had been moving very fast these past few days. Even though there were plenty of hugs and even kisses, they didn’t do much to slow it down.

He, who had gradually adapted to the countdown, felt as if he had returned to the first day. Looking at the flashing numbers, Zhu Zhixi felt a sense of panic. He wanted to solve this trouble, to stay with the person he loved forever.

Zhu Zhixi was never one to wallow in self-pity or give up on himself. If there was something he wanted to do, he had to act immediately.

[Senior Zhixi: Xiao En, Xiao En, has Xiao Yu recovered any new memories?]

Before long, Liang Yi’en replied. Seeing the crying face emoji, Zhu Zhixi had a bad feeling.

[Xiao En: Sigh, after we parted ways with you that day, he’s been sleeping.]

[Senior Zhixi: Still a little mouse cake?]

[Xiao En: He changed into human form for a bit, but only for one day. The rest of the time he’s been a little hamster.]

[Senior Zhixi: ? But I ran into him the day before yesterday, in the little white dog form I found him in, in a small alley next to You’an Street. I even called out to him, but he ignored me and ran off and disappeared.]

Not long after, Liang Yi’en’s call came through.

“The day before yesterday?”

“Yeah,” Zhu Zhixi said. “I went to a dinner party that evening.”

Liang Yi’en’s tone was very certain. “That’s impossible, Senior. I was with Xiao Yu that day, we weren’t separated.”

“Are you sure? Around four or five in the afternoon, I really saw him. I chased him for a whole street!”

“Really,” Liang Yi’en said. “That time is even more impossible.”

Zhu Zhixi blinked. “Why? What were you two doing at that time?”

Liang Yi’en went silent. After half a minute of silence on both ends, he emphasized soullessly, “…Anyway, it’s impossible for him to have been on You’an Street.”

He was a little confused. “Doesn’t that mean the little white dog isn’t Xiao Yu? Then what about my countdown?”

On the other end of the line, Liang Yi’en comforted him. “You can’t think like that, Senior. Whether it’s the same person or not, what we can be sure of is that Xiao Yu can sense the countdown. When he recovers, he can definitely help you.”

“Alright,” Zhu Zhixi sighed.

“I’ll work hard to help you,” Liang Yi’en said.

“But you don’t have to sell your body for me,” Zhu Zhixi said seriously.

“…Thank you for the reminder.”

“You’re welcome, I’m a veteran. Hehe.”

Although things with the harassing calls and the countdown weren’t going smoothly, a person’s luck is conserved. The exhibition work progressed very well, and Zhu Zhixi left the museum earlier than expected.

He missed Fu Rangyi very much. In the morning, because he had to rush to the group’s headquarters, their routine “check-in” was just a quick holding of hands.

Why isn’t Fu Rangyi’s susceptible period here yet?

How long is the interval between an Alpha’s susceptible periods?

Will he be susceptible during the winter break?

Fu Rangyi, who was grading final exams in his office, sneezed three times in a row.

“Oh my, is someone thinking about our Professor Xiao Fu?” Professor Zhang from the opposite desk teased.

Fu Rangyi calmly opened WeChat, clicked on the pinned chat, no new messages, exited, his finger scrolling the mouse wheel back and forth.

“I caught a cold,” he said faintly.

“Then you should wear more,” Professor Zhang laughed. “Otherwise, Xiao Zhu will be heartbroken.”

Fu Rangyi: “…”

“Hey, Professor Xiao Fu, why did you change your Moments background?” another Professor asked. “Is this a loofah? It’s so cute.”

Professor Zhang continued to tease him. “This doesn’t seem like your style, Xiao Fu. Don’t tell me you were forced to change it?”

“How could that be? It must have been voluntary. Did Xiao Zhu cut it?”

Fu Rangyi couldn’t quite handle it. Should I take my laptop and go grade in the library?

Just as he was planning to do so, a knock suddenly came from the door. The three Professors looked towards the door at the same time.

“Hi!”

Speak of the devil, and he shall appear.

Zhu Zhixi was wearing a light brown duffle coat and a large, dusty blue scarf, carrying a large pile of things in his hands, exuding the aroma of butter and cream.

“Professors, you’ve been working hard! I’m here to deliver afternoon tea.”

Fu Rangyi’s gaze locked onto him from that second on, watching as he walked in with a smile, opened the bags, and took out cakes, cookies, and butterfly pastries to share with his colleagues.

“We were just talking about you two, what a coincidence.”

“Talking about me?” Zhu Zhixi pointed to himself.

Fu Rangyi immediately coughed to interrupt. He felt that Zhu Zhixi probably wouldn’t proactively look at his Moments background and didn’t want to be publicly executed.

“Is your throat uncomfortable?” As expected, Zhu Zhixi’s attention was diverted. “Drink some water, drink more hot water.”

Professor Zhang opened the butterfly pastry packaging. “Haha, thanks to Professor Xiao Fu, we get to have afternoon tea too.”

“Don’t be polite, this bakery’s pastries are super delicious, you should try them.” Being joked about, Zhu Zhixi also grinned. He was generous when responding, but his ears turned red, and the corners of his mouth lifted, then pursed, then lifted again.

“Marriage really changes things, huh. Professor Xiao Fu is so lucky.”

Hearing this, Zhu Zhixi quickly turned his head and mouthed to Fu Rangyi, “Professor Xiao Fu is so lucky.”

Fu Rangyi was a little helpless. After he turned away, he secretly pressed the corner of his mouth with his finger.

The dessert delivery boy sauntered over to his workstation, placed a small cake in front of him, and rubbed his hands on the top of his chair’s backrest, saying softly, “This one is reduced-sugar.”

Fu Rangyi glanced at the strawberry on the small cake, then looked up at him. “Why did you suddenly come?”

“Suddenly?” Zhu Zhixi pretended to be unhappy, pouting his lips, his expression a human version of the loofah emoji. “Got it. So you didn’t want to see me. It was all my wishful thinking. I’ll leave.”

Fu Rangyi immediately reached out and grabbed the ever-dramatic rascal, his voice very low. “I didn’t say that.”

Zhu Zhixi immediately smiled, grabbed Fu Rangyi’s wrist in return, and stopped rubbing the back of the chair, switching to stroking his bracelet instead.

“Xiao Zhu, sit down, I have a chair here.”

“It’s fine, I have one too.” Fu Rangyi got him a chair and put his own lumbar support and cushion on it. “Sit.”

Zhu Zhixi picked up the cushion again. “No need, you use this.”

“It’s too soft, I like a hard backrest.”

A series of “tsk tsk” sounds came from the office, making both of them a little embarrassed.

“You work, don’t mind me,” Zhu Zhixi said, sitting down and leaning on the desk, his head tilted, motionless, just staring at Fu Rangyi. He didn’t make a sound, just quietly blinked his big eyes.

How am I supposed to work?

The answers were already a mess to begin with.

Fu Rangyi stared at the screen, but his mind wasn’t on the students’ answers. For the first time, he found that concentrating was actually a very difficult thing.

Zhu Zhixi’s fingers even secretly crawled onto his knee, moving around. Two fingers performed a silent play under the table.

After more than ten minutes, he sighed helplessly, lowered his head, leaned close to Zhu Zhixi’s ear, and whispered, “Can you help me return two books to the library?”

“Hm?” Zhu Zhixi blinked. “Of course.”

To let him wander around a bit longer and give himself more time to work, Fu Rangyi wrote down a few more book titles. “And help me borrow these books while you’re at it.” They were books that were very troublesome to find.

“No problem, leave it to me.” The little rabbit delivery boy, who had just sat down, took another order and happily went to the library with the books.

And then he disappeared.

Fu Rangyi finished grading the papers as quickly as possible, ate the small cake he had brought, opened WeChat, and sent a message.

[Nian Nian: Where are you?]

Haven’t you found them yet? I should have written down other books.

Receiving no reply, Fu Rangyi felt uneasy. Amidst the teasing of his colleagues, he turned off his computer and called Zhu Zhixi as soon as he left the office.

“Where are you?”

On the other end of the line, Zhu Zhixi sounded out of breath, shouting “Truce, truce!” and then asking “Classmate, where is this?” After a few seconds, he answered loudly with a laugh, “The small square behind Mingde Building!”

How did he end up there?

When he reached the small square, he spotted Zhu Zhixi at a glance. He was running and frolicking in the square full of snow and students, a large snowball clutched in his hand, his smile flamboyant, shouting “Come on—” as he forcefully threw the snow. The snowball flew from his palm, bursting into a flurry of white fireworks.

He was actually having a snowball fight with a group of university students.

Fu Rangyi stood there stunned for a long time, then finally took out his phone, opened the camera, and tapped to record a video.

The person in the lens seemed to suddenly sense something, turned his head, his eyes brighter than the diamond earring dangling from his earlobe. He straightened his arms, waving towards him, his gloves going out of frame. He tilted his face up and shouted, “Professor Fu—come over here—”

There were many of his students here, Fu Rangyi could even name a few of them. He didn’t want to go over directly and even used his phone to block his face.

However, the next second, the sole protagonist in the lens was sneak-attacked. In a fierce battle, distraction is a major taboo. A large clump of snow was thrown over, hitting him full in the face. Zhu Zhixi immediately squatted down, covering his face.

The camera suddenly dropped, shaking unsteadily, capturing only the snowy ground and feet quickly stepping forward through the snow. One step, two steps, faster and faster. Soon, the brown coat and dusty blue scarf also entered the frame.

“Professor Fu?” A student recognized him, unsure, his voice very small.

Fu Rangyi didn’t hear. He squatted down and looked at Zhu Zhixi. “Are you okay?” He took Zhu Zhixi’s hands that were covering his face, put his phone in his pocket, and freed his hands to brush the snow off his hair and face.

“It got in my eyes…”

“Let me see?”

Just as he leaned over, an icy hand reached out and quickly threw a small lump of snow down his collar. Fu Rangyi was stunned by the cold and stood up straight, squinting as he reached in to get the snowball out.

“Hahahaha!” Zhu Zhixi stood up.

“You tricked me again.”

“This is called ‘all’s fair in war’!”

After a while, he finally took out the lump of snow. It was actually heart-shaped, solid, he didn’t know how long it had been squeezed. He had wanted to throw it directly at Zhu Zhixi, but seeing its shape, he decided against it.

But Zhu Zhixi didn’t get to be smug for long. He was sneak-attacked by others again, chased all over the place, and suddenly slipped and fell into a snowdrift. His hair was covered in snow, his cheeks were made translucent by the snow’s light, tinged with a faint crimson. He was clearly a mess, but he was still laughing loudly, his little rabbit teeth showing, like a child.

Suddenly, a student shouted, “Professor Fu! Come join the snowball fight!” And then, a chorus of “greetings” popped up.

“Professor Fu, have you graded our papers yet?”

“Professor Fu, save us…”

“Professor Xiao Fu, if you don’t save me now, you’ll only be able to fish me out of Huanxin Lake in a few days!”

“Save us, professor!”

In all his years as a Professor, Fu Rangyi had never been so embarrassed. It was all someone’s fault.

The culprit was laughing happily, and even extended both hands, mimicking them. “Professor Fu, I can’t get up. Save me.”

---

Author’s Note:

–Little Theater of the Campus Forum–

[Come to the small square for a snowball fight!! Anyone from the Archaeology Department? Quick, quick, quick!]

 [Can you rally people like this?]

 [CS department is coming too!]

 [I’m coming!!! Wait for me to get my gear, I’m bringing a big bag to pack snow]

 [Hey, who’s that handsome guy in the brown coat? Seems like a Beta, he’s so good-looking, like an idol]

 [Got a pic?]

 [This rally post is turning into a manhunt post, huh?]

 [Holy crap, he’s really good-looking, that face is insane]

 [His outfit stands out way too much among a group of guys in black down jackets, doesn’t it? Others are having a snowball fight, he looks like he’s here to shoot an MV. Is he from the art school?]

 [The ruby ring on his hand is so pretty, you can tell it’s dead expensive]

 [Don’t be fooled by his clothes, he fights hard, one sneak attack after another]

 [That’s called tactics! (A simp has no principles)]

 [Wait a minute, why does this handsome guy look so familiar… I feel like I’ve seen him somewhere]

 [omg, guess who’s here?]

 [Who, who, who? Spill it!]

 [FRY from the Archaeology Department… so handsome omg, just standing there like the male lead of an idol drama, I’m shook]

 [What’s up with this snowball fight? Did they put handsome-guy-attracting incense in the snow today?]

 [Ah… I remember now, the rabbit-toothed handsome guy from just now is FRY’s husband]

 [!!!! What!? Help]

 [No wonder he was recording! The moment the handsome Beta got hit, Professor Fu immediately ran over, oh my god, I’m shipping them again]

 [Professor Fu’s husband vibes are off the charts… is this still the expressionless FRY from class every day?]

 [Bad news: Professor Fu got sneak-attacked. Good news: his husband did it]

 [Alright, I’m going to go watch too. I should have gone down just now!]

 [Everyone is asking Professor Fu to save them hahaha]

 [His husband fell in the snow and won’t get up, reaching out to Professor Fu saying “save me,” how is he so cute! Are you two like this in private too!]

 [I can’t believe it… Professor Fu, you’re not usually like this… was it all a lie?]

 [Professor, stop looking at your husband, look at your students, I’m really begging for a pass, I can’t retake again orz]

 [Why don’t we go beg his husband! (lightbulb moment)]

 [You just have to provoke the top Alpha, don’t you… I don’t dare, you go]

 [They’re hugging in public, help…]

 [Before opening the photo: How did you turn our ice-cold professor into this? Tutorial please. After opening the photo: The tutorial is the face. I quit.]