—

Saturday, and from the moment he woke, Xu Ze's brow was furrowed. The hangover sat badly with him; he dragged himself up from the bed, gathered clean clothes, and went to shower.

After washing the reek of liquor off his skin, Xu Ze stood before the mirror brushing his teeth, piecing together the fragments of the night before. Halfway through the brushing, he froze—and the toothbrush slipped from his fingers.

If his memory served, he had, reeking of alcohol, kissed Lu Heyang on the face.

Xu Ze stood rooted, not daring to recall what expression Lu Heyang had worn afterward, or what he had said; he would rather have blacked out entirely. For him, there was no more impulsive, no more foolish way to blow his own cover.

But why on earth had Lu Heyang given him that kind of chance?

Xu Ze did not believe Lu Heyang could have any ill intent—wouldn't be bored enough to toy with him this way—yet he also found it hard to imagine Lu Heyang offering him three chances to do as he pleased out of mere sympathy. That logic would not hold.

He stood where he was, head bowed, spacing out for a long while, before finally picking up the toothbrush and rinsing it clean.

Xu Ze tidied himself and went out, bought breakfast at a roadside shop, finished it before reaching the bus stop. He waited seven or eight minutes; the bus arrived, and he climbed aboard.

He transferred to a second bus midway; an hour or so later, he stepped off, walked a few minutes on foot, and arrived at the gate of the Sanatorium.

Following the main road around the inpatient building, Xu Ze reached the edge of the garden, glancing through the fence as he walked. He went to the entrance to register; the nurse pointed him in a direction: 'Over there. These past few days she hasn't been willing to walk again, she's in a wheelchair, but her legs are fine—you don't need to worry.'

'All right, thank you.'

Entering the garden, the nurse pushing the wheelchair caught sight of Xu Ze, stepped aside, and said softly: 'Call me if you need anything.'

'All right.'

Xu Ze walked to the wheelchair, crouched beside the old woman's knees, and called to her: 'Grandma.'

Ye Yunhua gazed indifferently at the tree swaying in the morning breeze by the fence, and gave no reaction at all.

Of course, this was already the best reaction—at least not the hysteric screaming, not the fists and feet. Xu Ze could not predict what state Ye Yunhua would suddenly become each time she saw him; he could only try to appear as little as possible, and often, when he came, he merely looked at her from afar.

He knew Ye Yunhua would never remember him again—and that outcome was, in part, his doing.

Two years earlier, Xu Ze had just begun to fight, match after match, the wounds on his body scarcely healing before the next; afraid of worrying his grandmother, he had never dared to visit her while injured. But once, when Ye Yunhua had slashed her arm in a suicide attempt, Xu Ze had hurried to the hospital with a bruised and swollen face, and before he could ask the doctor about her condition, Ye Yunhua had suddenly risen from her chair and asked him: 'Who are you?'

'Grandma, it's Xu Ze.' Xu Ze reminded her, as he always did, and tried to look at her wound.

'No.' Ye Yunhua's lips trembled, her gaze utterly alien. 'Our Xiaoguai is very obedient—he would never fight. You're not Xu Ze!'

Xu Ze stood there with limbs gone stiff; the wounds on his body lost all feeling in an instant, turning numb and cold.

'Get out! Liar! Give me back my Xiaoguai!'

Ye Yunhua, hoarse from screaming, clenched her fists and lunged at Xu Ze, only to be held back by the doctors and nurses beside her. The doctor turned and shouted at Xu Ze: 'Get out first, quickly!'

The scene before his eyes was like a silent, fast-moving picture without sound; the nurse pulled Xu Ze from the ward, and the door closed in front of him. Much later, when Xu Ze recalled those few minutes standing in the corridor, looking through the glass at the ward, the only thing in the background was a ringing in his ears—he could hear nothing else.

After that, Ye Yunhua never recognized Xu Ze again—not even for a second or two, intermittently.

'Final exams are coming,' Xu Ze said. 'Once the break starts, I'll have more time to come see you.'

Ye Yunhua's fingers stirred, her gaze softened a little, and she said: 'Our family's Xiaoze is so good. His grades are excellent.'

'Mm.'

Xu Ze fell silent. After a while, he stood and said: 'Let me push you for a walk.'

Before the last class on Monday, the S-Class students were summoned to the meeting room for a short meeting. By the time Xu Ze arrived, the teacher was about to take attendance; he walked with his head lowered to a seat at the edge of the second row, and throughout, never looked anywhere else.

'Today we'll call by student number. When you hear yours, raise your hand and say here.' The teacher looked at the roster. 'Class One, number 9.'

'Here.'

'Class One, number 17.'

No one answered.

The teacher raised his voice and repeated: 'Class One, number 17.'

'Here.'

Unhurried—it was Lu Heyang's voice.

Xu Ze stared at the desk, kept his breathing as light as light could be, as if by doing so he might lose all presence in the room, become invisible to everyone—to Lu Heyang.

He should have had no secrets left at all in front of Lu Heyang: from going into heat in front of Lu Heyang, to Friday's kiss, to today's number 17.

Xu Ze knew almost nothing of Lu Heyang's personal details; he had never made a point of searching or prying, nor was he the type to do such things. He knew only Lu Heyang's name, age, class, and student number.

And so Xu Ze had simply used the number 17, without thinking much of it—much less imagining that one day he would meet Lu Heyang in a smoke-choked Underground Gym, face to face as a fighter called 'Number 17.'

Looking back now, none of his disguises could bear scrutiny. Xu Ze knew Lu Heyang had long since recognized him; but at this moment, Xu Ze realized that this 'long since' might have been a little earlier than he had thought.

The short meeting lasted only about ten minutes. After taking attendance, the teacher briefly introduced the weekend's activity and its schedule, handed out the relevant materials to each person, and asked them to decide by Wednesday whether they would take part.

After the meeting, Xu Ze had never moved so fast. Head lowered, he threaded his way past several empty seats and into the aisle; he had barely taken two steps down when he ran headlong into an Alpha.

He didn't need to look up to know who it was, because Xu Ze caught the very faint trace of Pheromone on him.

'Are you in a hurry?' Lu Heyang had just stepped into the aisle when Xu Ze bumped his shoulder. He looked down at that head, which today seemed especially unable to lift itself, and asked.

From the moment he had entered the meeting room, Xu Ze's gaze had stayed on the floor and on the desk; he had no idea Lu Heyang was sitting in the first row. Had he known, he would have waited until the very end to leave.

'Sorry,' Xu Ze said, and then answered, 'I'm not in a hurry.'

He Wei, beside them, let out a laugh.

Not wanting to seem too strange or too rude, Xu Ze raised his head and glanced at Lu Heyang. He knew Lu Heyang must be looking at him—they were, after all, in conversation—but even with that mental preparation, in the single second of meeting Lu Heyang's eyes, Xu Ze felt a fine sweat break out across his back, and a wave of heat spread, with no corner left untouched, through his brain.

If Xu Ze had known that kissing Lu Heyang that Friday night would mean he could never face him again, he was not sure he would still have asked Lu Heyang to restore the wasted first chance.

Sober, even if Lu Heyang had given him a hundred chances—or only one—Xu Ze was not certain he would have dared to lean in and kiss him.

Xu Ze felt he must look, in Lu Heyang's eyes now, no different from someone who had been stripped bare. He wanted only to vanish from Lu Heyang's field of vision at once—but just as he was about to say I'm leaving, He Wei asked: 'Hey, Xu Ze—are you going to the weekend activity?'

He Wei spoke as he draped an arm over Lu Heyang's shoulder and stepped down the stairs; Xu Ze was forced to walk out with them, but with He Wei between them, he was at last a little less tense and ill at ease. He said: 'Not sure yet.'

'Then you've got a match on Friday?' He Wei lowered his voice. 'It won't be another entertainment match, will it?'

He felt the entertainment matches neither earned money nor showed off Xu Ze's strength—utterly pointless.

'I'll fight,' Xu Ze answered his questions one by one. 'Not an entertainment match.'

He Wei cheerfully snapped his fingers. 'Good!'

Walking out of the meeting room, they happened upon Chi Jiahán, backpack slung over his shoulder, on his way to swimming class. Seeing Xu Ze walking alongside He Wei and Lu Heyang, Chi Jiahán paused; he glanced at Lu Heyang, then looked back at Xu Ze, and asked: 'Just finished the meeting?'

Xu Ze looked at him as though he hadn't recognized him at all, with that gaze that seemed to have no fixed point. After a second or two, he nodded.

'Oh—I'm off to swimming class.' Chi Jiahán understood Xu Ze's absent-mindedness perfectly.

'My next class is swimming too—want to go together?' He Wei asked.

He had never spoken so softly in his life. Since hearing from Xu Ze that Chi Jiahán feared Alphas, He Wei had been very careful in this regard, hoping not to frighten this fragile little Omega.

Chi Jiahán gave him a cold look. 'Better not—I know the way.'

When he had finished speaking, he walked off. He Wei watched Chi Jiahán's retreating back, turned to Lu Heyang and Xu Ze, and said: 'He's so cool and cute. I really like him.'

And then, like some manner of creep, he trailed after him.

Once He Wei had gone, the air fell silent at once. Xu Ze still kept the distance of one He Wei between himself and Lu Heyang as they walked on. After four or five steps, Lu Heyang asked lightly: 'Is your Susceptibility Period here again? Your face and ears are very red.'

Xu Ze let out a soft 'huh?'—and actually, on instinct, reached to touch the back of his own neck, as if to confirm Lu Heyang's question.

But at the same time, he remembered that Lu Heyang clearly knew he had only just had his Susceptibility Period the week before last; there was no way it could have come again so soon.

Xu Ze stopped walking. He didn't know what he was thinking now, either. He said: 'Probably not. I'm going back to class first.'

He turned and walked toward the other end of the overpass. Lu Heyang turned to look at Xu Ze's retreating back; in fact, he quite wanted to remind Xu Ze: you seem to be going the wrong way—your classroom isn't over there.