A-Xiao, button up

Onstage, He Shuyu was still singing with tender devotion, like a swaying bellflower.

And once Gu Xiao said that, they knew exactly what he meant.

Feng Ji was in a foul mood, all the more annoyed by Ji Chuan's inexplicable behavior. For the sake of one Lu Keyan, he had simply stopped taking any of them seriously.

"I'll call A-Chuan and ask."

With a cigarette between his lips and a dark expression, Feng Ji dialed a number.

The other party picked up quickly. At the noisy clamor in the background, Feng Ji laughed in anger.

"A-Chuan, you're at T-C too?"

Ji Chuan said listlessly, "Yeah. What's up?"

"Then do you know we're here too?"

Ji Chuan fell silent for a moment, then suddenly chuckled. "I didn't, but now I do. Are you coming over?"

That tone made the small flame in Feng Ji's heart burn hotter and hotter.

"A-Chuan, what do you mean?"

"Hmm?" Ji Chuan sounded as though he didn't know why Feng Ji was asking. He drawled, "What? I'm probably a little drunk. You seem pretty energetic. Why can't you come find me?"

Feng Ji bit a deep mark straight into his cigarette. "A-Xiao's here too."

"Yeah, then come over together."

Just how much had this guy drunk?

Feng Ji laughed in anger. "Who's with you?"

"Hmm? Just that scholarship student." There was still a hint of laughter in Ji Chuan's voice. "Did you see the person onstage? He won't accept my advances, yet he keeps fluttering around right in front of me. Young Master Feng, what do you think he's trying to do?"

Feng Ji: "..."

Fuck! Had a lovesick fool actually emerged among them?

Feng Ji nearly smashed his phone. After hanging up, he looked at Fu Huai in disbelief. "Ji Chuan's here too."

He wasn't even calling him "A-Chuan." It seemed even Feng Ji was angry.

Fu Huai glanced at Gu Xiao before saying, "He doesn't want to come?"

Feng Ji struggled to put it into words. "He seems to have suffered... heartbreak, because of He Shuyu."

Fu Huai looked at Feng Ji expressionlessly, even his gaze carrying mockery.

He didn't want to say anything at all.

Heartbreak? Ji Chuan?

What the hell was Feng Ji babbling about?

"What, Ji Chuan really likes He Shuyu?" Gu Xiao, on the other hand, grew interested. "Just as I thought."

Feng Ji pressed unhappily, "What did you think?"

"The trash I threw away not only failed to end up destroyed in a garbage bin, but was carefully placed on a shelf instead." Gu Xiao set his glass down with neither much nor little force, narrowing his azure eyes, which rippled like water. "Who besides Ji Chuan could manage that?"

Fu Huai's head ached. A-Xiao already had quite a grievance against A-Chuan.

But A-Chuan simply didn't dare get close to A-Xiao.

He even drew attention by ostentatiously pursuing one alpha after another, all just to hide those little feelings he had for A-Xiao.

Yet Fu Huai also knew that A-Chuan thought those alphas weren't good enough and wouldn't let them into his bed at all.

A-Chuan had done so much, only to make A-Xiao loathe him.

If keeping his distance didn't work, then he should close in.

"A-Xiao, that isn't what A-Chuan meant." Fu Huai sighed. "His circumstances have been unusual lately, and you're still in your rut. He doesn't dare get close."

That explanation was rather interesting.

His rut as an alpha could affect Ji Chuan, another alpha?

Heh, that was a little funny.

"Fu Huai, do you think I ask too much of Ji Chuan?"

Fu Huai's expression changed, and he hurriedly said, "No, that isn't what I meant."

Unable to stand it anymore, Feng Ji stood up in a huff. "I'm going to find Ji Chuan!"

He refused to believe the bonds between the members of their F4 would crumble over one He Shuyu and one Lu Keyan.

Gu Xiao didn't stop Feng Ji from leaving.

"What's he so angry about?" Gu Xiao didn't quite understand. "Did I say anything?"

Fu Huai felt rather helpless.

This was A-Xiao's third glass. Even light fruit wine had some alcohol in it.

A-Xiao was probably drunk.

Fu Huai watched those crimson lips open and close, occasionally revealing a little glimpse of his tongue, leaving him utterly unable to look away.

He didn't know when it had started, but every move A-Xiao made had become exceptionally alluring.

A casual movement, a lightly spoken remark, the breeze stirred by his steps... all seemed to carry a hook, effortlessly catching his heart and mind.

At nineteen, A-Xiao truly was ripe through and through.

He was a plump, round apple hanging from a tree, his whole body suffused with a rich fragrance.

Everyone wanted a bite; everyone wanted to know just how delicious this apple was.

Fu Huai clenched his back teeth, forcibly suppressing the sudden impulse.

The red mole beneath A-Xiao's collarbone was still so conspicuous.

Fu Huai closed his eyes briefly and said helplessly, "A-Xiao, could you button up your shirt?"

Gu Xiao gave him a baffled look, not understanding why this person would make such an absurd request.

"Why?"

"Because it's cold."

Gu Xiao looked at him as though he were an idiot, unable to understand what nonsense Fu Huai was spouting.

"Sure," Gu Xiao said indifferently. "Button it for me."

Fu Huai froze for a moment, then chuckled. "All right."

They were very close, as though they could kiss at any moment.

There was a thin layer of calluses on Fu Huai's fingers, formed from practicing with guns.

"A-Xiao, who do you think attacked Lin Qi?" Fu Huai calmly introduced a topic. "According to Lin Qi, that person even used a bow and arrows. Should we investigate the clubs on campus?"

Gu Xiao settled back lazily to make it easier for Fu Huai. "I don't know, but more and more people have been provoking me lately."

"...Probably because you'll turn twenty in another year." Fu Huai sighed. "At twenty, you can take over family affairs. They may want to destroy you before then."

Gu Xiao raised an eyebrow and glanced at Fu Huai.

"Your analysis is rather interesting."

Fu Huai lowered his gaze. "A-Xiao, Gu Yun is an adult now too."

"Gu Yun?" Gu Xiao drawled lazily. "As if he's worthy."

Fu Huai's voice remained unhurried. "Although he's only your body double, I'm worried those with disloyal intentions will use him to hold you in check."

"Whatever. They're nothing but a bunch of performing clowns."

Gu Xiao thought for a moment. "Gu Xiao" did indeed have such a body double, an orphan the Gu Family had adopted from an orphanage.

With neither father nor mother, he was a year younger than Gu Xiao and had been raised as Gu Xiao's body double.

As the Gu Family's sole heir, Gu Xiao had faced countless assassination attempts and kidnappings throughout his childhood and beyond.

That "body double's" role was to take calamities in Gu Xiao's stead.

When this had previously been exposed, it caused an enormous uproar. His "body double," Gu Yun, had also gained a legal identity, adopted by the Gu Family's butler.

Gu Yun...

Gu Xiao's eyes darkened. This one was also a member of the universally adored protagonist's harem.

After discovering that "Gu Xiao" was interested in the universally adored protagonist, Gu Yun had also begun pursuing that protagonist, only for the act to become real and for him to fall completely.

That was probably a copycat's just deserts.

"Gu Xiao" and Gu Yun were a year apart in age, but shared the same birthday.

In fact, to serve better as "Gu Xiao's" body double, Gu Yun's silhouette from behind looked extraordinarily like "Gu Xiao's"...