I Like Your Pheromones - Chap 40
Lu Xingci’s voice was not very loud, but those around him still heard it loud and clear.
Song Yi’s gaze went from Lu Xingci to Duan Jiayan. The latter looked to be in a daze, before shooting Lu Xingci a smile, “Really? It’s a little embarrassing.”
Even though he said he was embarrassed, there was still a gleeful smile on his face, not at all looking like how someone that is embarrassed should.
Just then, the bell for the night self-study rang.
Duan Jiayan suddenly remembered something and turned to Lu Xingci and Chen Yue.
“Are you free this Friday night? It’s my birthday and I’d like to treat you guys to a meal.” He paused. “There’s a theme park that recently opened up for their winter wonderland, it sounds pretty fun. I’m thinking we can go check it out after dinner, will you guys be free?”
The math teacher entered the classroom and signalled for the students in the class to settle down. He spotted Duan Jiayan chatting with his back turned towards him and was just about to call him out.
“I do.” Lu Xingci reminded him, “The teacher is looking at you.”
Duan Jiayan hurriedly turned around.
Chen Yue, “I do! How old will you be? 17?”
Duan Jiayan nodded and inched his chair backwards, wanting to continue chatting softly.
Chen Yue, “After one more year, you’ll be old enough to get married.”
According to the law, omegas can get married after they reach 18 years old, while alphas will have to wait a little longer and can only get married after they turn 20.
Lu Xingci cut in seemingly nonchalantly, “Why do you need to get married so quickly?”
Chen Yue rubbed his chin, and laughed evilly, “That’s right, no matter what we still have to wait till we’re 20 to be able to consider these big life decisions.”
Chen Yue placed a lot of emphasis on the word ‘wait’, Lu Xingci heard it and laughed along while giving Chen Yue a sidewise look.
Duan Jiayan tilted his head towards the two who were laughing behind him for seemingly no rhyme or reason, “20 years old is pretty early too, it’s better to wait till you’re after 20 to consider.”
Lu Xingci had no objections to that and agreed, “That’s fine too.”
Song Yi, “……”
Song Yi’s feelings were very complex.
For the past few years, Duan Jiayan had always celebrated it with Song Yi and Shen Chilie.
Ever since Fu Yuan remarried, Duan Jiayan has stopped spending his birthday with her. One reason was that Fu Yuan was always busy because of work, the second reason was that with Fu Yuan’s new marriage, celebrating with her would mean having to spend it with He Cheng and He Yunsheng too, and he was not close to his step-father and brother.
What surprised him was that, on the night of his birthday, he received a call from He Yunsheng.
The kid should have just been released from school and was enthusiastically wishing him a happy birthday. Duan Jiayan never thought that He Yunsheng would remember his birthday. He chatted with He Yunsheng for a moment before happily hanging up.
For convenience, when they were close to reaching the theme park, Duan Jiayan found a reputable Hunan restaurant nearby.
Seeing Duan Jiayan ordering the dishes, Zhou Xingchen could not resist asking, “Duan Jiayan, are you a Southerner or Northerner?”
Duan Jiayan asked strangely, “Isn’t Ning City in the North?”
Those sitting at the table would of course be a Northerner.
“Then why do you like spicy food so much?” Zhou Xingchen asked. “I thought you were like Hu Li, a Southerner that moved to the North.”
“Where’s Hu Li from?”
“Qing Zhou,” Zhou Xingchen got excited the moment Gu Li was mentioned. “Have you heard of it? The water village of water villages. The water and soil in a place will raise the same sort of person. One look at Hu Li and you’ll know what is called a Jiang Nan beauty.”
Duan Jiayan wanted to tease him for always trying to show off his affection when Zhou Xingchen changed the topic, “But don’t you like this type of people? You used to like that lady, what is she called? Jiang something?
Shen Chilie casually answered, “Jiang Qinian.”
Zhou Xingchen, “Yes yes yes, the previous campus flower.”
Zhou Xingchen paused for a moment before laughing, “Then let’s interview our Yi Zhong’s number one bully, what kind of person do you like?”
The moment the question left his mouth, Chen Yue who was originally slowly snapping his chopsticks apart stopped his actions.
He sighed in his heart.
Zhou Xingchen really is very disappointing, going to wherever there is danger. It was like a reverse minesweeper.
Duan Jiayan swept his gaze across Zhou Xingchen and thought, “Tall, white, skinny, gentle. It’ll be nice if they look nice in a dress.”
After Duan Jiayan was done talking, Chen Yue side-eyed him before looking at the person beside him.
Not surprisingly, the corners of Lu Xingci’s lips were pressed down, and he was leaning against the back of his chair, looking emotionless.
“That’s your ideal type?” This was the first time Shen Chilie heard him talk about this. He leaned in excitedly, “Isn’t that like the ideal goddess?”
Duan Jiayan thought about it, “Is it?”
He realised Lu Xingci was not talking much and casually included the boy sitting beside him, “Lu Xingci, what is your ideal type?”
Lu Xingci contemplated the question for a moment before raising his eyes.
He had dark eyes and sharp eyebrows. Duan Jiayan caught his eyes and saw him smirking.
“Looks good with fair skin. A little noisy but is adorable when he’s being noisy,” He seemed to be talking as he thought about it, his speech sounding a little slow. “Very good to his friends, very kind, very competitive in what he is good at…… When you’re with him, you’ll feel like every day is a happy one.”
Zhou Xingchen was triggered by the last sentence, and could not resist exclaiming, “Holy heck, where will you go to find this kind of godly partner?”
Duan Jiayan also could not resist chiming in, “Your requirements sure are high.”
Zhou Xingchen tutted twice and said, “What’s wrong with our Lu-ge having high requirements?”
Duan Jiayan also felt like this was logical and played along, “With how good our Lu-ge is, he should have high requirements.”
Zhou Xingchen, “But according to this, wanting someone with an interesting soul and beautiful skin, will Lu-ge need to search for eight hundred years?”
Duan Jiayan, “That can’t do, we have to find a way.”
With them bantering, Lu Xingci was starting to think that this was kind of interesting.
Until Duan Jiayan bit on his chopsticks, turned to him and said vaguely, “Be a little more specific, I’ll take note and help you ask around.”
Facing the pair of crystal clear eyes in front of him, the smile in Lu Xingci’s eyes gradually faded.
“There’s no need for that,” he said calmly. “I already have someone I like.”
His gaze never strayed from Duan Jiayan’s face as he spoke. Chen Yue, who had not interrupted from the start, suddenly laughed, seemingly interested in his words, “Who is that? Do I know him?”
Duan Jiayan was also excited and hurriedly asked, “Who who who? Are they from our school?”
Lu Xingci agreed, “From our school, yes.”
Shen Chilie felt a thump in his heart, “What is their gen—”
Beneath the table, Song Yi aggressively stomped on his foot and the ‘—der” that was on the tip of his tongue was swallowed back into his throat.
Shen Chilie realised that even if Lu Xingci seemed to like Duan Jiayan, ambiguous feelings and saying it outright were still two different things.
However, Duan Jiayan was still asking, “Does she know you like her?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Then this… you have a secret crush?” Duan Jiayan froze slightly, feeling that no matter how he thought about it, it felt unbelievable. “You actually can have a secret crush?”
Duan Jiayan thought of how he used to like Jiang Qinian, while the latter had been going after Lu Xingci and concluded that things like feelings really weren’t easy to predict. He saw that Lu Xingci seemed to be pretty sincere and adjusted his expression, “I feel that if you were to woo anyone, most people will definitely agree to go out with you. Have you confessed to her?”
“I want to woo them,” Lu Xingci Said. “But I’m scared if I fail, we can’t even be friends anymore.”
Hearing this, Song Yi wanted to facepalm.
Seriously.
How is this any different from a confession?
As it turns out, there’s still a Zhou Xingchen and a Duan Jiayan that did not hear the undertones of his sentence and really thought that Lu Xingci liked a lady somewhere out there.
Duan Jiayan was originally very curious but upon hearing that, could not resist laughing, “Even you are afraid of being rejected?”
“After all, there is only one of him,” Lu Xingci replied slowly, feeling a little hopeless. “I’m afraid he’ll run away.”
“What’s there to be afraid of? Even if you get rejected you can still show up in front of her, didn’t you say she was from our school? Then she can’t run all that far.”
Duan Jiayan studied his expression, “Never thought of that?”
Lu Xingci chuckled, “No, I did not.”
Deep in thought, he looked at Duan Jiayan and said softly, “It seems that it’s not entirely impossible.”
Song Yi can no longer watch Duan Jiayan digging himself deeper into this hole and chose to push his cup in front of him, “Xiao-Duan, don’t just keep talking to class monitor, aren’t you thirsty?”
Hearing him say that, Duan Jiayan also felt that he was a little thirsty and so picked up the cup of cola to drink.
Shen Chilie saw that and, in a seemingly casual manner, brought up the school festival and the table’s topic of interest changed again.
As it was a Friday, after it got dark, there was a lot of people coming to and from the theme park, it looked very crowded.
After entering, visitors will see a street lit by long decorative lights, it was as if a warm golden sea was basking its lights on them. Staff wearing mascot outfits were walking around, taking photos with tons of visitors.
One of the key selling points of the place was its gorgeous light effects. Many of the amusement rides were fitted with colourful lights, allowing the visitors to see many multicoloured effects.
Somewhere in the distance, visitors will be able to see the giant outline of the Ferris wheel and roller coaster.
Duan Jiayan roughly studied the map and noted that the roller coaster was at the very centre of the theme park. As there were too many of them and everyone wanted to play a different attraction, hence staying together was not convenient.
Duan Jiayan said, “Shen Chilie and I want to go queue up for the roller coaster, anyone else wants to join us?”
The reason he chose this particular theme park was that it was the only one in the whole of Ning City to have a broken track roller coaster. Shen Chilie mentioned it to him a number of times, saying that its climb up is really exhilarating and his interest got piqued by that.
Song Yi shook his head, politely refusing to sit on anything like a roller coaster.
Zhou Xingchen casually took a photo of the theme park’s map, “I want to queue for the haunted house. I heard Hu Li say that this haunted house is modelled after a haunted school, she said it was quite interesting.”
Chen Yue grinned, “You really do go for all the scary stuff.”
“Then let’s split up here? After two hours we can meet up by the garden?” Seeing no one objecting to his suggestion, Duan Jiayan patted Shen Chilie eagerly and pushed him along, “Xiao-Shen, let’s go! Let’s start tonight’s roller coaster journey.”
Shen Chilie was also very excited, “Go go go! However there is a lot of people over there, we probably will have to queue for half an hour.”
Duan Jiayan turned around and was just about to walk when someone pulled on the hood of his sweater.
It was too cold that night, there was even news that a heavy snowfall might come in the early morning. Even someone like Duan Jiayan who was not afraid of the cold was wearing a white down jacket over his sweater.
He turned around and saw the emotionless Lu Xingci. The latter’s voice was deadpanned as he told the other, “Duan Jiayan’s with me.”
Duan Jiayan paused and turned back, “Then are you also going to play the roller coaster?”
Lu Xingci looked at him before bringing his gaze to Shen Chilie, “I don’t feel like playing that.”
Shen Chilie noted that even though Lu Xingci’s face looked calm, he still did not look very friendly to him.
Even though they were not in a relationship yet, his possessiveness was already so strong. If they were to really get together, then wouldn’t it be even stronger.
Shen Chilie opened his mouth, “Then you—”
Before he could finish speaking, Song Yi tugged on his shoulder and pulled him away, “You come with me, I’ll sit the roller coaster with you.”
Shen Chilie was caught off guard and pulled for a distance before he said, “Don’t you already scream like the dead when sitting on a drop tower? You still can sit on a roller coaster?”
Song Yi did not reply him and Shen Chilie spoke to him quietly, “You can’t just give in to him because he’s handsome. Do you not see the way he looks at my son? It’s like he just can’t wait to devour him.”
Song Yi cannot stand the idiot any longer, “Devour him huh, you must have watched too many movies.”
Shen Chilie stood his ground vehemently, “Alphas know alphas best. No way, they can’t be left alone together—“
Song Yi could not be bothered to argue with him and simply tugged him along.
Seeing Shen Chilie being pulled away, Duan Jiayan figured this worked too. Since it’s all got for fun and games anyway, there’s no difference being with Lu Xingci.
Zhou Xingchen was a little scared to go to the haunted house all by himself. Seeing that the two of them had nowhere in mind, he could not resist inviting them along, “Duan Jiayan, Lu-ge, what are the both of you going to play? Why not let’s go to the haunted house together?”
Chen Yue immediately pulled away the boy who was seeking death, “Come, I’ll accompany you to the haunted house.”
Zhou Xingchen sneered, “You aren’t as fun as Duan Jiayan.”
Chen Yue, “Laozi is begging you to shut up.”
After the rest of them had left, Lu Xingci let go of Duan Jiayan’s hoodie.
He patted Duan Jiayan on the shoulder and pointed in the opposite direction that the others had headed in, “Let’s go there?”
Duan Jiayan studied the map and saw that there was a drop tower and pirate ship there, “Sure, let’s go.”
On the way, there were bright multi coloured lights all around them.
There was a big crowd in the theme park, with many attractions having long queues. Duan Jiayan indicated to the pirate ship not far away, “Let’s ride that?”
Lu Xingci mumbled, “There are too many people.”
When they passed the swing ride, Duan Jiayan asked again.
And got rejected again.
Duan Jiayan thought it over and broke out into an evil smile. He hastened his steps and got closer to Lu Xingci, “You don’t like these attractions?”
There seemed to be something on Lu Xingci’s mind and so he casually agreed.
There were not many people on this stretch of the road. Aside from the occasional visitors, there were only various animal lanterns.
There were lions and deers, and even a shark and swan in the distance.
“It can’t be that you have a fear of heights right?”
“……”
“How can that be Lu-ge, you’re afraid of ghosts and you’re afraid of heights?” Duan Jiayan saw him keeping mum and thought he got it right. “This is such a big difference from your overall image. What is such a situation called again, gap moe?”
Before he knew it, there was only the two of them. Lu Xingci no longer walked forward. Instead, he turned around to face Duan Jiayan. He sincerely studied the other for a moment. His tongue unconsciously dipped out to lick his lips, and his eyes narrowed.
“I have something to tell you.”
Duan Jiayan paused slightly and stopped walking. Seeing the other looking pretty serious, he slowly kept his smile away, “What’s wrong?”
Peng peng peng—
At nine o’clock, the theme park let out its first fireworks.
“During dinner, I said I have someone I like, what did you feel about it?” He was talking in a low voice.
Duan Jiayan held his gaze, vaguely feeling that his own understanding of what happened seemed to be different from what was really going on. Before he could properly think it through, Duan Jiayan said what was on his mind.
“I was a little surprised, but I also feel that it’s a good thing.” Lu Xingci was a little taller than him so to look him in the eye, Duan Jiayan has to tilt his head up slightly. He was still a little curious, “Hey, do I know that person? Which class are they in?”
Lu Xingci looked at him with hooded eyes and smiled slightly, his tone dyed with deep helplessness, “Are you pretending to be dumb or are you really dumb?”
“……”
The boy’s nose was straight, his browbones defined and his eyelids slightly droopy.
It looked a little childish.
But his straightforward actions and words helped give him some aggressiveness.
“It’s you,” Lu Xingci spoke with no hesitation. It was as if he no longer wanted to give Duan Jiayan any ways to retreat. “I like you.”
Fireworks exploded behind his back.
As they were too far away, the explosive sounds were already not too loud on the ears. There were only the bright colours left bursting through the skies, it’s magical light bearing down on the trees and ground, before finally landing on the face of the boy in front of Duan Jiayan.
Everything was lit for a moment before going dark again.
Lu Xingci saw Duan Jiayan frozen on the spot and walked forward a step, closing the distance between the two of them.
He looked very calm.
However, the pheromones floating in the air hinted that he was actually not as calm as he looked.
A herbaceous scent floated over on the wind, along with faint hints of lime, warm yet light.
He watched as Duan Jiayan widened his eyes slightly, “I’ve never liked anyone before so I’ve not much experience. I’ll do my best to study and improve…”
Lu Xingci stopped talking as he switched his tone, muttering to himself, “Actually it seems there’s no need to study, I will be good to you.”
“……”
“Things that I own, it might look like a lot but there are actually not many things that I can honestly consider mine,” Lu Xingci looked at him for a few seconds and his voice softened. “I’ll share them all with you.”
“Since Jiang Qinian has changed schools, I’ll be a little more selfish, since there’s no one you like now.”
“Then can you perhaps… consider me a little?”
“Is that okay?”
The author has something to say: Duan Jiayan, consider this well!
He already became very gentle, our Xiao-Lu.
