The next day was Saturday. Xiao Zhan 's dad had just returned from a business trip and he'd previously agreed to go home to have a meal together with him. Although he was a bit reluctant because he'd just established a relationship with his boyfriend, his boyfriend was quite sensible and, when he learned about the situation, told him he couldn't not go home.

Before leaving, Xiao Zhan said, "Wait for my vid chat," and Wang Yibo immediately smiled brightly, replying, "Yes!"

Upon returning home, Papa Jiang served him a meal. Xiao Zhan lay down on his bed after eating and checked the time. Noticing that Wang Yibo was probably almost back to the dorm, he made a video call. Wang Yibo quickly answered, but the background wasn't from their dorm.

"Where are you?" Xiao Zhan asked, looking at the dark scenery on the screen.

Wang Yibo 's face was still clearly lit, "At the Astronomy Club. The president said that there might be a meteor shower tonight, so he called everyone together to observe it."

Xiao Zhan recalled that Wang Yibo had been in the Astronomy Club booth on the day of the school festival. He'd never asked him much about his club activities, but right now, his interest was piqued. "You like watching the stars?"

Wang Yibo answered, "The stars in today's sky are so far away from us. The light has been transmitted for centuries or even millennia, but they still reach us nevertheless. As long as you strive hard to shine your own light, one day you'll inevitably be seen by someone too."

Xiao Zhan was a bit confused by this off-topic response, but he still replied, "Mhm."

"Xuezhang really doesn't remember." Wang Yibo let out a bitter laugh. "Those words were what you said to me before."

Xiao Zhan blinked in surprise. He'd made such a grandiose declaration of prose?

"When–" When did we actually meet? Xiao Zhan wasn't able to get the question out before his open bedroom door was knocked on with a *tap tap* and, as usual, Papa Jiang came in bringing an after-dinner plate of fruit.

"Who are you chatting with? Same one as last time?" Papa Jiang asked for the gossip.

Xiao Zhan grudgingly turned the screen in his direction, "Yeah, the one who called you 'dad' last time."

Wang Yibo was still pretty nervous to talk to Papa Jiang, but he did slightly better than last time, respectfully calling out, "Hello, Uncle!

Papa Jiang greeted him with a smile and then looked him over carefully for a while. He asked suddenly, "Last time, I thought you seemed familiar and I kept thinking about it afterwards. Kid, did you come to our house before, to ask which university Xiao Zhan had been accepted to? "

Wang Yibo blushed in embarrassment. "Yes......Uncle's memory is very good."

"Haha, so it's really you," Papa Jiang laughed and said, "I was just glad that my son had attracted such a handsome and young alpha. But in the end, you didn't show up again afterwards. I thought it was hopeless. I didn't expect you to actually go to his university!"

On the sidelines, Xiao Zhan listened to this chat for a while and then said in astonishment, "Dad, when did you meet him?"

Papa Jiang thought back, "It feels like it was just after you passed the exam for T University? I came home and found this child squatting in front of our house. He asked me where you were going for university and said he was going to take the entrance exam for the same place as you. I thought he seemed very sincere, so I told him right away."

Xiao Zhan stared in shock.

When he was a freshman in university, Wang Yibo was in senior high school? He liked him all the way back then?

(t/n: why is he so shocked, he knew WZ is two years younger)

Papa Jiang wanted to talk to Wang Yibo a bit more, but Xiao Zhan reclaimed his phone, "Dad, I have something to ask him about, go ahead and rest."

Papa Jiang rebuked him, "My little bird has spread his wings and left the nest, huh, and won't listen to me anymore." After that scolding, he left feeling like he was the one being reasonable, not forgetting to close the bedroom door.

Xiao Zhan looked back at the person on the screen. Wang Yibo seemed somewhat embarrassed by the past, he was rubbing his nose like he usually did. His brown-green eyes glanced towards Xiao Zhan , "Xuezhang, do you think I'm a pervert? Following you to your house or whatever......"

Xiao Zhan took a deep breath and struggled to keep his expression stern, "I'll be lenient if you're honest."

Wang Yibo panicked, "I-I knew which senior high school Xuezhang was going to, but I didn't know which university you were going to attend. Xuezhang was so famous at school, so I asked around to find out your address...... I'm sorry......"

You knew which senior high school I went to? The timeline has to be pushed back a little further.

"Where did we actually meet? When you said that I helped you once?" Xiao Zhan cut to the heart of the matter and brought up all his questions at once.

Seeing that he wasn't going to ask any more about the address issue, Wang Yibo relaxed and shared the details of the past events from beginning to end.

While listening to the entire description, Xiao Zhan finally remembered the trivial little event that he had forgotten sometime long ago.

At that time, he was just a third year in junior middle school. He wasn't tall and his grades weren't too awful, but he'd already been turning from a little student into a violent Ge. At that time, he'd been even more violent and hot-tempered than he was now. He could still study quietly if no one came to provoke him and live peacefully like an ordinary student, but once anyone messed with him, he wouldn't hesitate to chase that person down for a beating, even if it meant running across half the campus.

As it happened, every time he fought, because after all omegas were a vulnerable social group, it was rare for him to be able to make an alpha beg for mercy. Those alphas that did would lose face, so they didn't dare to make it public. Therefore, almost every time, the major fight would be brushed off as a trivial matter and there would never be any severe penalties.

After rising to his third year, Xiao Zhan was persuaded by his dad to curb his impulses a little bit, but that didn't mean that his temperament improved.

One night, as he was rushing home from his evening self-study and taking a shortcut through a hidden trail that breached the school wall, he just happened to come across two alphas in the middle of bullying a younger student. They were wearing junior middle school uniforms of different colors indicating their grade level, the two tall alphas were obviously in their third year and the one they were surrounding seemed to be a first year.

"Only this much money? Do you know who you're dealing with?" One tall student pushed the younger one and he stumbled back to fall on the ground.

"I today only brought these......" he said timidly, his Chinese pronunciation a bit improper.

(t/n: going to try to trans-literate his awkward grammar)

"Trash." The other third year kicked him, "I've never seen an alpha as weak as you, really making us alphas lose face."

"Aren't you just relying on your looks? No alpha spirit at all, yet you dare to release pheromones to lure in our xuemei1, do you want to die?"

Even though the little student was also an alpha, he let them hit and yell at him without a word, just letting out a groan or two as he was kicked.

Xiao Zhan usually didn't get involved in other people's business and he dreaded another lecture from his dad if he caused more trouble, but he had to go through the path they were blocking if he wanted to get over the wall. So he had no choice but to call out, "Gentlemen over there, I'll trouble you to please let me pass."

As soon as his cold voice sounded out, the two third years stopped and looked back at him. As Xiao Zhan nonchalantly walked by, he glanced at the little xuedi who had fallen on the ground. His face and upper body were dusty and dirty, but the lines of his handsome face and those distinctive brown-green eyes hadn't been covered up yet.

Yo, a mixed-race, so good-looking, no wonder men envy him.

Xiao Zhan went straight past the three of them, not inclined to pay them any mind, and threw his schoolbag casually over the wall. Then he prepared to jump over himself.

Suddenly, one of the third-year alphas whistled, "Would you like some support for your butt?"

The other one followed with a roar of laughter. "That butt looks pretty hot."

The two of them naturally recognized Xiao Zhan , but they'd never seen him fight anyone, so they'd always thought that the rumors were just exaggerated. After all, how could an omega possibly beat up an alpha? Even if he could, he couldn't beat two at once. When they saw that Xiao Zhan had such a naturally good-looking face with fair and clear features and also wasn't too fiendish, these hooligans wanted to harass him. They figured they could use this story later on for bragging rights.

Xiao Zhan froze when he heard those words and turned around, a sinister smile on his face.

The two of them immediately felt nervous deep down.

"Ge will teach you a lesson about why you shouldn't shout at this tiger's backside1."

Ten minutes later, the two alphas, who had been spanked until their butts were about to burst, ran away crying, daring to turn back and yell about vengeance as they ran.

Xiao Zhan didn't take that to heart. He walked over to crouch down in front of the xuedi, "Hey, you're also an alpha regardless, why didn't you fight back?"

The small, pitiful, helpless xuedi replied, "I can't fight......I am too weak. Thanks to you for helping me, Xuezhang......"

Xiao Zhan couldn't bear to listen to this kind of self-pity and self-blame and snorted coldly, "Weak? I'm an omega and I'm able to run them off. Why do you talk about yourself in such a negative way? If you don't put all your effort into it, then don't look any further than yourself for a reason when you get bullied. Sooner or later, you'll get beaten being like this. "

"But I don't know how work hard......" the xuedi explained anxiously in that non-standard Chinese, "The real character of alpha, I don't really have, but I also have other merits. Why does everyone think always alpha must be tough? Really impossible for me......"

Xiao Zhan looked at the distressed, aggrieved little xuedi and let out a laugh. His cold face suddenly became lively, in direct contrast from the cruel expression just now. The xuedi stared blankly at him for a moment.

"The two of us are one who doesn't resemble an omega and one who doesn't seem like an alpha, quite complementary," Xiao Zhan said with a smile, "I wrote something a few days ago, how did it go......oh yeah, something like this. If you look up at the stars in today's sky, which are so far away from us, that light has been transmitted for centuries or even millennia, but they still reach us nevertheless. As long as you strive hard to shine your own light, one day you'll inevitably be seen by someone too."

Xiao Zhan reached out and rubbed the xuedi's messy hair.

"Therefore your merits, someone will see them someday."

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Footnotes:

1. Xuemei (学妹): younger female classmate, equivalent to xuedi ↩

2. Tiger's backside (老虎屁股): wordplay on the idiom 'like a tiger whose backside no one dares to touch', meaning a person not to be provoked ↩

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