If a poll were held to determine the most irrational group of people in the world, drunkards would undoubtedly take the top spot.
As a torrent of abuse spewed from the men across from them, Jiang Wei’s gaze shifted between the retreating backs of the girls and the cursing thugs charging toward them. Once he was certain no lecherous drunk intended to use the chaos as a chance to pursue the girls, he couldn't help but steal a glance at Tang Zihe.
In the middle of a group of people at each other's throats, a boy in a school uniform holding a bowl of wontons and eating them one by one was incredibly eye-catching, even if he was standing behind everyone else.
For some inexplicable reason, Jiang Wei felt he should have taken a few more bites himself. Watching him eat like that really worked up an appetite.
However, he wasn't given much time for such stray thoughts. The pheromones—emitted either accidentally or intentionally as the drunks approached—mingled and swirled in the air, filling his nose and sending a sharp wave of nausea through him.
So, when a man as thin as a rail brandished his weapon—a beer bottle scavenged from the ground—and lunged straight for him, Jiang Wei didn't hesitate. He reached out, caught the empty bottle mid-air, used the momentum to yank the man to the side, and then delivered a sharp kick to the man's abdomen, sending him flying.
That kick carried significant force. The man was thrown several meters back and collapsed, clutching his stomach; it didn't look like he’d be getting up anytime soon.
*My bad, my bad,* Jiang Wei apologized silently in his head. *You only have yourself to blame for having pheromones that smell like rusted iron. A few seconds of that was enough to set my teeth on edge, so I had to use a bit of "tough love" to keep you at a distance.*
He took a moment to glance sideways. Ye Feiyang’s situation was far more intense than his own. Since Ye Feiyang was the one who had initiated the provocation, the insulted hoodlums naturally targeted him as their primary objective.
Excessive alcohol consumption causes pheromones to leak out unconsciously. These men were so drunk they were practically delirious, so they felt nothing themselves. But for Ye Feiyang, who was in the thick of the fight, this small area was now a toxic soup of at least six different pheromones. Even as an Alpha, being in such an environment caused immense discomfort, triggering an instinctive urge to release his own pheromones to suppress the others.
But he glanced toward Jiang Wei and silently suppressed the thought.
*Dammit,* Ye Feiyang cursed inwardly. If he wasn't afraid of accidentally killing someone by cracking their skull open with a bottle, would he really be holding back like this? It wasn't like he couldn't win.
Jiang Wei felt the veins in his temples throbbing violently, a sensation even more intense than during the monthly exams. Perhaps due to the cool weather, he didn't feel like his nose was about to bleed this time, but his entire body pricked with needle-like pain. His limbs felt as heavy as if they were shackled by kilograms of iron chain, and his movements were visibly failing to keep pace with the commands of his brain. Because his reactions were a second too slow, he barely dodged two bottles thrown his way, only to lose his balance and stumble back two steps—right next to Tang Zihe, who had been occupying the "VIP Spectator Zone" the entire time.
Even though Tang Zihe’s head was down as he scooped a wonton, it was as if he had eyes on the top of his head. He stepped to the right in advance, casually avoiding a bottle flying toward him.
The sound of glass shattering against the pavement was as crisp as ever, but this time it was accompanied by someone else’s roar.
"Tang Zihe, stop eating!"
When Jiang Wei saw the bottle graze past Tang Zihe, his heart skipped a beat for no reason. Now, meeting the other's innocent gaze, a spark of nameless fury ignited in his chest, spreading with the speed of a wildfire.
He didn't even have time to wonder if he would have regretted dodging if that bottle had actually hit Tang Zihe. Instead, he turned and uncharacteristically cursed at the men opposite them: "Are you motherfuckers blind from the booze?! Or do you really think you're some kind of goddamn long-range pitchers?! If you're gonna fight, keep your damn eyes open and see who you're aiming at! If you aren't gonna use those useless eyeballs, donate them—though nobody would want them anyway! I'm gonna gouge them out today and see exactly what's wrong with them!"
As he shouted, Jiang Wei pushed up his slightly dusty school uniform sleeves, revealing a stretch of fair skin. He shook out his wrists as the opponent charged, then landed a precise, ruthless punch squarely on the man's face.
It was a blatant act of retaliation.
The man clutched his face and let out a pathetic wail of pain, drawing Ye Feiyang’s attention.
Ye Feiyang had mostly finished things on his end. Three or four men lay sprawled on the ground in various states of disarray. He was nonchalantly brushing the dust off his school trousers.
All in all, the title of "School Bully" was well-earned.
"Shut your mouth! What are you screaming for? Trying to summon a ghost?" Jiang Wei threatened, tapping the man's face with the side of the beer bottle he had snatched away.
At this point, even the most intoxicated person would have regained a sliver of lucidity. Driven by survival instinct, the man trembled and obediently shut his mouth.
Seeing that his intimidation was successful, Jiang Wei nodded in satisfaction.
"Wait, that's not right," Ye Feiyang said, counting the bodies on the ground. He called out to Jiang Wei, "We're missing one!"
Jiang Wei froze for a second, then whipped his head toward Tang Zihe. His pupils contracted instantly, and he bolted toward him.
His uniform trousers caught on the jagged leg of a broken plastic chair, letting out a sharp rip and a dull thud of impact.
It turned out that not everyone in this situation possessed a sense of honor.
For instance, a man had appeared behind Tang Zihe, raising a beer bottle high with one hand, ready to bring it down.
His intention was unmistakable.
Jiang Wei screamed Tang Zihe’s name, but the syllables felt as though they were shredded by the night breeze the moment they left his mouth, leaving him unable to even hear his own voice.
*Sploosh—*
The bone-chilling sound he had imagined didn't happen. Instead, it was replaced by the sound of liquid being splashed onto something.
Tang Zihe was faster than the man behind him. He turned and swung his hand, splashing an entire bowl of wonton soup directly into the man's face. Then, using the momentum, he grabbed and kicked, sending the man flying—a sequence of moves almost identical to Jiang Wei’s.
Except he had more strength, and the man flew much further.
Jiang Wei felt like he was about to have a heart attack. He reached Tang Zihe’s side just as the man landed, and because he was running too fast to stop, he slammed face-first into Tang Zihe’s shoulder.
Before he could even catch his breath, the sound of a police siren wailed in the distance.
"What are you standing there for? Run!" Ye Feiyang was clearly the most experienced in this department. His reaction was faster than anyone's; with a single command, he took off.
Jiang Wei and Tang Zihe exchanged a glance and immediately followed suit.
The mess, the shouting, the flailing arms... everything faded behind them with their footsteps and the wind, swept into the night sky and melting into the stars above.
"Don't you get tired after a fight? How can you still run so fast!" Jiang Wei shouted at Ye Feiyang, who was consistently two steps ahead.
"You're not exactly slow yourself, are you?" Ye Feiyang glanced back. They had already crossed a street, and no one was chasing them, so he slowed his pace. "Honestly, you really opened my eyes today. I used to think a guy with thin arms and legs like yours would just be a punching bag in a situation like this. Turns out you've got great legs and an even sharper tongue."
"Right back at you," Jiang Wei panted, leaning on his knees. This bout of high-intensity exercise was probably more than he’d done in the past month. He struggled to regulate his breathing before continuing, "I used to think your 'School Bully' title was acquired through... some unconventional means. Now it seems the title is genuine, not a fake."
All three of them burst into laughter.
"Good thing those idiots lost all their brain cells tonight and didn't use any dirty tricks," Ye Feiyang said as they rested under a streetlight, examining a scrape on his arm. "Otherwise, my two precious arms wouldn't be in such good shape."
Jiang Wei suddenly winced as if he had a toothache. "You? Precious?"
Without waiting for a rebuttal, he turned to the other side. "What about you? Are you hurt anywhere? Fuck, that bastard swinging the bottle scared the life out of me."
Tang Zihe looked at him, about to say he was completely unharmed, when his eyes caught a patch of red on Jiang Wei's clothing.
His expression changed instantly.
Jiang Wei knew he hadn't hidden it well enough and quickly moved his left leg back.
But Tang Zihe was faster, pinning his shoulder down and saying in a low voice, "Don't move."
Jiang Wei instinctively froze as Tang Zihe knelt down.
The school trousers were deep blue with two thin white stripes down the side. Unless a liquid hit the white stripes, the color was hard to notice.
But was Tang Zihe an ordinary person? Clearly not.
The "extraordinary person" rolled up Jiang Wei’s pant leg, layer by layer, quickly revealing the wound.
It had been caused by the plastic chair snagging his trousers when he was running frantically. The cut wasn't very deep or long; in fact, most of the blood had already dried, sticking the fabric to the wound. When Tang Zihe lifted the fabric, Jiang Wei winced and took a sharp breath through his teeth, but didn't dare make a sound.
Because Tang Zihe’s expression was currently scarier than his own. It was so grim that Ye Feiyang took one look and was intimidated, half-expecting that Jiang Wei had actually been stabbed without realizing it and was currently dying.
And so, this "brother-in-arms" who had just been "roaming the world" with them stammered out a excuse about his homeroom teacher wanting to talk to him after self-study and bolted.
*Traitor,* Jiang Wei cursed in his head.
Tang Zihe’s brows were knit tight. He pulled the pant leg up above the knee before slowly standing up. "Care to explain?"
Jiang Wei swallowed, thinking for a few seconds before speaking. "I don't think the injury is serious, really. Look, I was running faster than you just now, practically flying—"
"That was the effect of hormones while you were in motion," Tang Zihe interrupted coldly.
Jiang Wei suddenly realized that the explanation the other wanted was definitely not that one.
He had given the wrong answer.
A wrong answer meant that the night breeze was no longer just a breeze; it was the horn of death, a somber wail of mourning.
He was about to try and salvage the situation when the "Reaper" who had sounded the horn knelt down again—only this time, his back was turned.
"Get on. We're going to the pharmacy."
So said the Reaper.
***
