I Like Your Pheromones - Chap 43
Duan Jiayan met his gaze.
The boy looked down at him. This close to one another, the aggressiveness of the alpha’s pheromones became even more obvious. Duan Jiayan unconsciously moved backwards a little.
For some reason, he felt embarrassed, unable to look Lu Xingci in the eye. He answered softly, “That request… seems a little difficult to fulfil.”
“Then let’s change it,” Lu Xingci considerately went along with him. “How about a kiss?”
“……” Duan Jiayan, “That request feels like even tougher to fulfil.”
Lu Xingci laughed as he leaned backwards while reaching out a hand to rub the top of Duan Jiayan’s head.
Though the hand on his head was gentle, Duan Jiayan immediately straightened his back. Lu Xingci noticed his stiff reaction and his smile deepened. He answered gently, “Just come to me to clarify any questions you have.”
Before Duan Jiayan could reply, he added, “There is no need to say you like me and I don’t need you to kiss me.”
“……” He was clearly denying those nonsensical suggestions from before but because of his lazy tone, it sounded strangely inappropriate.
“If you want to study, of course I will teach you,” he said. Seeing Duan Jiayan hesitate, Lu Xingci kept his hand back, “What’s wrong? Feeling awkward?”
“No,” Seeing Lu Xingci guessing the crux of his concern, Duan Jiayan instinctively denied and tried to think of an excuse. “I’m just… I’m afraid I’ll be taking you away your own self-study time.”
After he said that, Duan Jiayan felt that his excuse was a weak one.
It really was.
“No it won’t. On the other hand, I’m worried that you’ll be uncomfortable if hang out with me.” Lu Xingci smiled as he looked at him, “As long as you don’t feel awkward, it’s okay.”
Duan Jiayan curled his lips and tried to lower his voice, “How can that be? Whoever tutors me will be my father. So, that makes you the father of all fathers.”
After saying that, the bell rang and Duan Jiayan turned back around quickly, as if he was escaping with his life.
Song Yi had been paying attention to their interaction and more or less had heard what they were talking about. After seeing Duan Jiayan turn around, he bit out word by word, “Xiao! Duan! Explain! Yourself!”
After taking a look at Song Yi’s expression, he knew he wouldn’t be able to brush this off. He lowered his volume and spoke, “At the theme park, he confessed to me but I did not accept him.”
Song Yi wanted to shout out loud but knew it wasn’t a good idea and so just raised his volume a little, “Why didn’t you?!”
Duan Jiayan, “……”
Duan Jiayan glanced in the direction of their teacher, “Lower your voice, or you’ll be called out.”
Song Yi quietened down, “Then what is the situation between the both of you now?”
Duan Jiayan mumbled, “I did not agree, so he’s… just like that.”
Song Yi was very puzzled, “But you’re still looking for him to tutor you? You’re asking for death aren’t you?”
Duan Jiayan was just as puzzled, “What am I supposed to do? If I ask you will you know?”
Song Yi could take it no longer, “Have you heard of someone cooking a frog in warm water?”
Duan Jiayan tsked and thought of his conversation with Lu Xingci. For some reason, his temper flared, “Bullshit. Warm water? Him? He just asked me to kiss him, can he be a little less shameless?”
Song Yi, “……”
Song Yi inexplicably looked at him with pity in his eyes.
According to Duan Jiayan, a kiss is already shameless. If something more were to really happen, that’ll be something to watch.”
Song Yi suddenly remembered something and asked, “When was the last time you were in a relationship? Junior high?”
Duan Jiayan nodded.
After coming to this high school, all the ladies he fancied all liked Lu Xingci. This resulted in him not being in any relationship for more than a year now. The most recent relationship he had was in the second year of junior high.
Song Yi was curious, “Then how far did you get with your ex-girlfriend?”
Duan Jiayan thought about it and ultimately felt a little embarrassed, “It seems… we kissed a bit?”
Song Yi widened his eyes and leaned in, “Where did you two kiss? Did you use your tongue?”
Duan Jiayan immediately shoved him away, “We kissed on the face! Using your tongue… How old was laozi back then? How old was laozi’s girlfriend back then? You pervert.”
Song Yi fell into silence for a long while.
“I suddenly feel… class monitor getting together with you isn’t really a big loss,” Song Yi whispered to himself. “You don’t know anything, quite a pure one huh…”
Duan Jiayan could not make out what he was saying.
Since he had decided to study properly, Duan Jiayan kept his phone away. If he understood what was being taught in class then fine, if not he’ll do his own self-study later. During the night self-study session or after class, he’ll compile the questions he had and bring them to Lu Xingci.
Just like the previous monthly test, Lu Xingci helped him take note of the important points and Duan Jiayan followed what was highlighted to study.
He studied just like this for a week.
Duan Jiayan soon realised the math questions that resembled scriptures to him before were now more or less understandable. Even though he still did not know how to do most of them, but he could now understand the learning points the questions were trying to test.
This was an astonishing improvement to him.
Lu Xingci was helping him look at the steps to solve a chemistry question. He saw the other push his paper towards him and asked nervously, “How is it?”
“The steps are correct, there’s just a small mistake here,” Lu Xingci took a pen to correct the mistake. “Here, your chemical equation was not calculated correctly.”
Duan Jiayan tried the question again. This time Lu Xingci watched as he wrote his solutions down. After he was done writing, Lu Xingci nodded.
Duan Jiayan put his pen down in satisfaction, “I feel like these past few days have been the peak of my high school learning.” He was feeling pretty good after completing the question. He did not think too much as he casually asked Lu Xingci, “Lu-ge, aren’t you tired from studying so much every day?”
The boy spun his pen around as he looked at him, “It’s okay.”
Duan Jiayan nodded, “ I know, for us study scums, learning is considered a tragedy. But you have already entered the realm of a god where learning is just a pastime.”
Lu Xingci could not help laughing, “What is in that head of yours?”
Duan Jiayan was about to reply when someone knocked on the backdoor, “Is Duan Jiayan around?”
Duan Jiayan raised his hand and opened the backdoor, “What is it?”
Once the door was opened, a gush of cold air came rushing in.
The outside was freezing cold, it was in stark contrast to the classroom that was as warm as spring. Standing outside the door was a boy from class seven, someone Duan Jiayan frequently went to the internet cafe with to play games.
“Koala’s looking for teammates,” The boy said the name of the cafe. “We’re missing one player. We’ll wait for you. We know you don’t have an account in Zaun so we’ve prepared one for you. Are you coming?”
In a bit will be the nightly self-study period.
The boy was waiting for him by the door. Duan Jiayan was pretty moved by what he said.
It’s been almost a week since the last time he played. Every day he would just be studying and eating. Last week, Shen Chilie went out to play and after hearing that he wanted to study hard, only crazily laughed at him and did not even ask him out after he was done.
Duan Jiayan glanced at Lu Xingci.
These few days he’d just be working on Lu Xingci’s questions and when he encountered a problem, naturally the first thing he’d do is ask the other for advice, add on to that the fact that he somehow felt a little guilty. Duan Jiayan asked, “I’ll go out to play okay?”
It was like a child asking permission from a parent.
He did not seem to realise something wasn’t right, but the boy outside the door was staring at them weirdly.
What is going on?
You have to ask for permission to go play?
Lu Xingci raised his head to look at him, “Not studying already?”
Duan Jiayan honestly answered, “I want to play, my hands are itching to.”
Lu Xingci gave an ‘en’ before quietly saying, “Can you not go? You can play after the exam.”
Duan Jiayan never thought he would say then and for a moment was in a dilemma on what he should do. The boy could tell and laughed as he told Duan Jiayan, “You can just join us next time, you should listen to your partner.”
Duan Jiayan explained, “He isn’t my partner.”
The boy smiled mysteriously, “Oh? Then why were you asking him for permission just now?”
Behind him were several class seven boys, who were also snickering.
Someone in the bunch said, “After getting together with the campus hottie, Duan Jiayan really became good huh.”
“Who would have thought our Yi Zhong number one bully would ultimately be controlled like this……”
Duan Jiayan saw them making a fool of themselves and cleanly knocked on the backdoor, “That’s right, I listen to my partner. You guys can go play by yourselves, don’t intrude on my time to study.”
The boys from class seven were laughing as they left. They made sure to close the door before leaving.
After they were gone, Duan Jiayan heard someone calling his name as he was about to sit down.
He turned around and saw Lu Xingci looking at him, “What did you call me just now?”
Duan Jiayan touched his nose and did not know what to say.
He did not really think too much before speaking just now. He had only wanted to play along which was why he said that.
Thinking back, it was not only inappropriate for him to say that, it felt like he took things too casually. So much so that it seemed like he did not take Lu Xingci’s feelings into consideration.
“With how we are now, if you crack such a joke,” Lu Xingci’s voice was neither too loud nor too soft, his expression unreadable. He looked him in the eye and said calmly, “I might just take it as facts.”
Now that he said that, Duan Jiayan felt more than ever like he was scum. The words that were originally on his tongue were swallowed back.
Seeing him quietly and anxiously looking at him, Lu Xingci continued, “You should be aware of how much I like you right?”
The air was filled with the scent of lime and greeneries.
Light and crisp, like a warm yet refreshing gust of wind. But it was also filled with an alpha’s innate sense of possessiveness and desire for control.
Due to his feelings, the sort of ** was made even more prominent.
Even though Lu Xingci’s pheromones were not directly suppressing him, it still surrounded him, depriving him of any escape.
Perhaps due to their high compatibility, Duan Jiayan did not really hate his actions, he only felt slightly numb on his back.
It was too intimate.
And too dangerous.
Feeling that Lu Xingci might have really been annoyed by his behaviour just now, Duan Jiayan opened his mouth and hesitated, “I…”
Seeing his nervous look, Lu Xingci burst out laughing.
“I’m kidding,” He smiled. “I quite like listening to you ramble.”
His eyes were filled with amusement, his sharp pheromones were kept away. He seemed to have changed back to his usual gentle and proper appearance.
“The day that I can make that title a reality,” The guy raised an eyebrow and gave him a pointed look. “I’ll like it even more.”
“……”
Before the start of the examination, Zhou Xingchen specially came over to look for Duan Jiayan. He spoke strongly and was very dramatic, “My Duan! How is your studying coming along?”
Duan Jiayan played along, “My Zhou! I feel like my studying is going along splendidly! Ask no longer, if you ask it’ll just be even more splendid.”
Zhou Xingchen, “……Laozi has felt it was weird since the day I met you. How can you be this confident?”
Duan Jiayan, “My confidence comes from my capabilities.”
Zhou Xingchen, “……”
Zhou Xingchen and him were in the last exam hall.
Behind Duan Jiayan sat Heipi. After Zhou Xingchen left, Heipi swatted him, “I heard that you didn’t go play in Zaun as you were studying for my father.”
Duan Jiayan corrected him, “I studied for studying sake, not for your father.”
Heipi said, “My father in my heart is studying incarnate.”
Duan Jiayan, “You can go tell your father that, see if he beats you or not.”
As they were talking, someone beside them poked his head towards them, “Duan-ge, I heard that you’ve been studying hard lately. Can you let me copy some answers later?”
Before waiting for Duan Jiayan’s reply, Heipi replied loyally, “Don’t bother him during the exam. Come look for me if you have any questions.”
Duan Jiayan looked at Heipi’s serious look and nearly burst out laughing.
In the morning, they had their language exam and in the afternoon they had their mathematics exam.
The language exam was still okay, everyone could more or less write some words.
After the math exam, Duan Jiayan felt like his heart had a bottomless pit.
After packing up, the girl beside him suddenly turned her head around and looked in the direction of the door, her eyes beaming.
This girl had started sleeping after coming in, she only woke up after the bell rang to signal the end of the paper. Duan Jiayan was curious about what she was looking at and turned his head too.
Behind the door was a tall boy standing with a straight posture. He had a head of black hair and a heroic-looking face.
Just like a magazine model.
Duan Jiayan saw him and immediately bounded out of the classroom. He hurriedly asked, “Lu Xingci! What was your answer for the last question?”
Lu Xingci saw him running over. His eyes were hooded and the corner of his mouth was raised slightly, “C.”
After hearing him speak, a boy who was standing by the door hollered into the exam hall, “Come brothers! The answer to the last question is C!”
“F*ck I didn’t guess correctly, I’m screwed.”
“I don’t believe it, I was very confident when I chose D. Where did this random answer come from?”
“Random my ass,” Heipi shouted back. “The answer came from my Lu-die, do you think it can be believed or not?”
The boy who was speaking earlier immediately withered, ‘F*ck, then I’m screwed too.”
Duan Jiayan’s eyes brightened, “Then what about the second last question?”
“D.”
Duan Jiayan nearly could not believe his luck. He guessed correctly for both of those questions.
He hurriedly asked, “Do you still remember the answer to the first, second and third major questions?”
Lu Xingci recited the answers one by one.
Duan Jiayan’s head was about to blow, “…Aaaaaa! Lu Xingci! You’re too amazing! The questions you pointed out all came out!”
He was too happy and for a moment, did not know how to express it.
In his excitement, he enthusiastically hooked Lu Xingci’s shoulder. As Lu Xingci was taller than him, Duan Jiayan had to tilt his head up to look at him.
From Lu Xingci’s angle, he could clearly see his pair of bright and sharp eyes, his light eyelashes and his lips.
Duan Jiayan’s lips were a very light shade of pink.
If he were to kiss it, slowly lick and bite it, would his lips become a little redder?
If he were to go a little further and use his tongue……
Realising what he was thinking, Lu Xingci sighed in his heart.
Someone was sharing his joy with him, yet all he could think about was holding the other person down and doing some yellow-coloured stuff with him.
If he were to say his thoughts out loud, Duan Jiayan would most probably run away in fear.
On the surface, Lu Xingci decided to go along with him.
“You are amazing too,” His adam apple rolled up and down as his voice softened. “You remembered everything I said.”
The author has something to say: Wishing Xiao-Lu all the best in what he wants to do.
