Who was whose wife?

Only when the basement suddenly fell silent did Tang Yang belatedly realize what he had said, under Jia Jia's shocked gaze.

"I-I meant I wanted him to check my work! I'm not trying to pursue him!" Tang Yang shouted.

Now, never mind his face-even his ears were red.

"I thought you were going all out and trying to steal Brother Ye's wife," Jia Jia blurted out.

As soon as the words left her mouth, she realized something was wrong. She quickly looked toward Nan Zhou and met a pair of eyes filled with curiosity and amusement.

"Wife?" Nan Zhou grinned. "Who's whose wife?"

[Do you even need to ask? Obviously, you're Huo Xingye's wife!]

[What, Nan Zhou? You're a Beta, and you want to turn the whole world upside down and make Huo Xingye your wife???]

[I've been thinking this lead singer was one of us for a while now. Exposed, hahaha.]

Everyone was waiting for Jia Jia and Nan Zhou to continue their conversation. Only Tang Yang was still out of the loop, utterly oblivious to the mood as he tried to salvage his pride on the previous topic. "Besides, even if he gives me suggestions, I won't follow all of them."

Nan Zhou lowered his head and glanced at the sheet music in the notebook. "Having me check your work costs money."

Yue Yang nodded. "It isn't cheap."

Tang Yang gritted his teeth. "Then I'll become your apprentice. You can teach me, right?"

"Trying to get it for free?"

"If you start your own band, I'll play keyboard for you for free."

"I'm not interested in starting a band." Nan Zhou turned to the next page.

Out of options, Tang Yang's voice grew quieter. "I..."

"Your songwriting sucks, but you really are good at the keyboard." Nan Zhou closed the notebook and handed it back to him. "Thought it through?"

"What?" Tang Yang asked, puzzled.

"Stick with me, and you'll miss nine meals in three days. You might even get a steel rod beating now and then."

Going hungry didn't matter.

He was an Alpha. What hardship couldn't he take?

It was just...

Tang Yang quickly looked Nan Zhou up and down a few times.

"With that little frame of yours, you couldn't beat Huo Xingye even with a steel rod, could you?" he couldn't help asking the all-important question.

Jia Jia was dumbfounded. Yue Yang's expression twitched involuntarily, and he looked at Tang Yang as though he were an idiot.

Nan Zhou, on the other hand, burst out laughing.

"With that brain of yours, why are you writing love songs?" He finally managed to stop laughing. Wiping the tears of laughter from the corners of his eyes, he drawled, "A sweetheart is someone you pamper. What decent person could bear to hit their own sweetheart?"

[AAAAAAAH!!!!]

[That counts as a public confession, right?! Nan Zhou likes my Brother Ye so much!]

[Baby, baby, you're my baby!]

[He's Huo Xingye's sweetheart too. Hugs.jpg]

[This idiot is going to make me die laughing, fuck. Where did Pei Feng find this absolute gem?]

[Who says he couldn't bear to? He spanks pretty hard in bed.]

[Girls, have you checked the trending topics on Weibo?]

Among the trending topics about You Make My Heart Flutter on Weibo, one was related to Lu Zhou.

Marketing accounts had taken clips of Lu Zhou returning to the practice room as a trainee during the livestream, along with footage of him dancing, and heavily promoted the popular young idol.

Lu Zhou's fans posted screenshots and videos of his past stage performances under the trending topic and in the comments to promote him, praising him as a handsome, all-round ace who could sing, dance, rap, and even compose music and write lyrics.

The Alpha of Alphas, the finest man alive.

There was nothing wrong with that in itself, but some marketing accounts and fans also took sly digs at Nan Zhou to elevate Lu Zhou, posting unflattering pictures of him looking meek and questioning why the production team had given Nan Zhou the treatment Lu Zhou deserved, just because Nan Zhou was Huo Xingye's CP partner.

"Lmao, what does Nan Zhou have to show for himself? Doesn't he just ride the movie star's coattails?"

"He looks so shifty. Well, his whole persona is stolen. A guitar prodigy? Lmao, why doesn't he think about who he learned from?"

"Everyone knows our Brother Zhou is great at guitar. He was writing and releasing his own songs at seventeen, unlike a certain someone who suddenly knew how after getting hyped up."

Some bystanders couldn't stand the disparaging comparisons and told people under the trending topic to watch edited recordings of last night's livestream, specifically Nan Zhou's performance at the Livehouse.

But Lu Zhou's fans refused to buy it, claiming these were paid shills Nan Zhou had hired to leech traffic off Lu Zhou's trending topic. They said he had no talent except riding coattails: clinging to the movie star on the show and sucking his former teammate dry on Weibo.

"No way, no way. It's one thing for CP fans to enjoy fake romantic moments, but how are you taking a script seriously and actually thinking a certain manipulative little faker is a genius?"

"You say he can sing, but his singing is just so-so. He's miles behind our Brother Zhou. A publicity chaser should stop trying to leech off our professional idol."

"Who writes just one section of a song, without even any lyrics? Lmao, just wait till you're proven wrong."

The dispute over the trending topic caused quite a stir, but the show's guests had no time to look at it.

Jiang Zhen, who had drawn the job of chain coffee shop employee, was busy making coffee. Rows of in-store and delivery orders kept her spinning like a top.

Xu Xiao, working as a gaming companion, was helping his client climb the ranks while still remembering to watch Jiang Zhen make coffee in a small window.

The chat told him to order a cup of coffee made with Jiang Zhen's love. Feeling for her, he said she was already busy enough, and he didn't want to add to her workload.

Meanwhile, Zhang Shi was working as a Taobao shop owner and was in the shop preparing for that evening's sales livestream.

Wen Yu went without saying. His dancing had supplied viewers and fans with a wealth of memes and laughs, and a topic about his arms and legs looking newly installed was still trending.

Only Gu Tang opened the trending list with eager anticipation during a break while changing clothes.

His agent had told him he would specifically select a few flattering photos from today's shoot to post on Weibo for him, then buy a trending topic about his looks and beauty.

But now, nobody was paying attention to his trending topic.

The top comment on the beautiful photos posted to his Weibo was actually "Thanks to Meitu Xiuxiu for sponsoring this," posted by someone looking for a laugh.

Gu Tang was so angry he nearly smashed his phone.

After eating McDonald's, Nan Zhou and the SIXGO band continued rehearsing.

Rather than rehearsing, it was more a matter of teaching Tang Yang to write songs.

Yue Yang also joined in the songwriting. Nan Zhou's brutal teaching, paired with Tang Yang's repeated cycle of resisting with outrageous remarks and being put back in his place, made for an incredibly entertaining livestream.

Viewers looking for laughs even described them as a family of three: a silent father, a short-tempered mother, and an idiot son.

But the Xingzhou CP fans disagreed. They said this was the neighbor's Beta kid, a sarcastic Omega dad, an Alpha father who was always out, and an idiot Alpha son.

But regardless of what people online said, Tang Yang and the SIXGO band felt this free master class was well worth it.

The only thing that left Tang Yang deeply embarrassed was that his idol-turned-master had unconventional ideas and spoke bluntly.

All he had said was something about hitting Huo Xingye with a steel rod, yet his master had decided he had a strange kink and told him to try describing things in that strange direction.

Listening to the X-rated words that popped out of Nan Zhou's mouth from time to time, Tang Yang, a virgin Alpha with no romantic experience whatsoever, was red in the face.

What he didn't know, however, was that while saying these things, Nan Zhou was not as calm inside as he appeared.

Control made him think of the Alpha guiding him with that deep voice beside his ear.

Violence brought back the force of the other man's unyielding grip, the handprints branded on his waist.

Domination made him long for the other man to play him like an instrument, listening to him make sounds he had never imagined.