Zhou Le bit his lip, his whole body trembling, though he kept a steady face. “No, I’m not.”
Lu Jingran lightly waved the report. The word “Omega” jumped out at Zhou Le.
Realizing he couldn’t deny it, Zhou Le closed his eyes and blurted out, “This isn’t even my name, Class Rep, look—the character reads as ‘le’*, it’s just a coincidence, nothing to do with me.”
* diff tone
Lu Jingran: “…”
Lu Jingran laughed. “Are you messing with me?”
“No way,” Zhou Le replied with a straight face, pointing to the report. “Class Rep, look, even if it says Class 3, No. 1 High School School, with my name, Zhou Le, and gender as male, that doesn’t mean it’s me.”
“It’s probably mixed up with someone else’s report. These things happen. I’m a Beta; there’s no way I’m an Omega.”
Lu Jingran watched his serious nonsense in silence.
After a while, he couldn’t help but smile, as if he’d finally lost his composure.
Zhou Le’s heart sank as he saw that smile.
It was over—there was no escaping this now.
Without saying anything more, Lu Jingran simply tucked Zhou Le’s report back into the Class 3 pile, picked it up, and said, “Let’s go.”
—
Feeling dejected, Zhou Le followed Lu Jingran back to the classroom with the reports.
As soon as they put down the stack, a group of classmates crowded around.
“Let me see! I want to check if I’ve turned into an Omega… ah, still a Beta?”
“Haha, you want to be an Omega? What, hoping for a genetic mutation?”
“Shut up! Wang Yong wants to transform into an Alpha too. Can’t we have dreams?”
“Hey, where’s mine? Can you find Liu Yu’s for me?”
“Liu Yu? Here it is! Got it!”
“Thanks!”
“Wang Hua? Could someone find Wang Hua’s?”
“Oh, hold on… Wang Hua… Wang Hua’s an Omega… Omega… oh! There’s an Omega here—it’s Zhou Le… hey, Zhou Le, here’s your report—wait.”
Slowly, the person holding the report realized what they were reading, thinking they might have seen it wrong. They took another look. “Omega?”
“Zhou Le?”
“Omega?!!!!”
The person was shocked!
And it wasn’t just them—everyone around them was stunned.
They even forgot they were crowding in front of the podium to look for their own physical exam reports.
“Omega? Zhou Le is an Omega?”
The voice wasn’t too loud, but it was enough for half of the class to hear.
The other half found out in whispers, and the news spread like wildfire.
“Zhou Le is an O!”
“Are you kidding?”
“It’s true; that’s what it says on the report! If you don’t believe me, go check it out in front.”
“Oh my god, it’s really true!”
Lin Xiaoxiao and Xia Linchuan walked in through the front door. “We heard the reports are out?”
Before they could say anything more, someone considerately handed Zhou Le’s report to them.
Lin Xiaoxiao took a look, up and down, and muttered, “Holy cr*p…”
Xia Linchuan squinted at the “Omega” in red ink marked next to “gender: male” and pointed, asking, “What kind of character is that supposed to be?”
Half a second later, they both turned in sync to look at Zhou Le, who wasn’t too far away.
Everyone else followed suit, casting curious looks.
Zhou Le blinked, clutching his report, trying to explain, “This… this is, uh… it…”
But how on earth was he supposed to explain this?!
Zhou Le was going crazy on the inside, but he tried to keep a calm facade.
This was driving him insane.
At that moment, someone seemed to catch onto something and exclaimed, “I get it now!”
“Zhou Le, no wonder you disappear the moment class ends! You say it’s to work part-time, but admit it! You’ve been out there looking for an Alpha, haven’t you?”
Zhou Le: “?”
“Why else would you hide being an Omega? It’s definitely for an Alpha. You just want to sneak around finding one. No wonder so many people have been saying you look better lately—that was the plan all along!”
Zhou Le: “???”
Hey!!! What kind of baseless gossip is this?!
And as if that wasn’t enough, someone went straight to Lu Jingran with Zhou Le’s report and reported, “Class rep, I want to report this—Zhou Le is an Omega! He’s been pretending to be a Beta to charm Alphas with bad intentions!”
Zhou Le: Who’s charming Alphas?! That’s just for delivery convenience!!!
Lu Jingran looked down at the report and calmly said, “This isn’t Zhou Le.”
Everyone: ?
Lu Jingran explained, “It’s pronounced ‘Le,’ as in ‘happy,’ —completely unrelated to Zhou Le.”
Everyone: …
Zhou Le: [facepalm]
—
After a brief silence, the person who’d reported him took the report back, squinting hard at the characters for “Zhou Le” until they practically blurred. “Isn’t it pronounced ‘yue’?”
Someone next to him clicked their tongue, “It can also be ‘Le.'”
Someone else chimed in, “And this says Class Three.”
Another person added, “Exactly.”
With that single comment from Lu Jingran, everyone was starting to question reality.
Zhou Le was practically ready to hide underground.
Amid the confusion, someone suddenly shouted from the hallway, “You’re the Omega! I’m an Alpha! Keep talking and I’ll beat you up!”
The voice sounded very familiar.
Zhou Le: He felt like he’d heard it somewhere before.
And it wasn’t just him; other students in Class Three recognized the voice too.
“Wait, isn’t that Xiao Lan from Class Seven?”
“Yeah, what’s going on?”
Everyone’s attention shifted away from Zhou Le’s report. Some were already opening the door to peek outside.
“I know what’s up!” Someone in the back of the classroom slapped the desk and, with a bit of gossip, announced the fresh news from their phone, “Class Seven’s reports are out too! Xiao Lan’s results say he’s an Omega!”
“What?”
Everyone’s jaws dropped; their minds were blown.
Xiao Lan had long been notorious around the school. Could he really be an Omega? How could that be? There were other Omegas at school, and none of them had sensed his pheromones. How could that intense smell be from an Omega?
It was unbelievable!
“Something happened in Class Two as well—an Omega was misclassified as a Beta!”
“Who in Class Two?”
“Zhuo Rui.”
“Oh, I know him. He’s an Omega. We went to the same elementary school, and he presented pretty early—in the last year of elementary school.”
“Class Nine has issues too; apparently a Beta was identified as an Omega. They’re going to talk to Old Feng about it.”
“Isn’t this the same as Zhou Le’s case?”
“Yeah, right! Zhou Le, you should go find Old Feng and ask about this too. Go with them.”
The report landed back in Zhou Le’s hands.
His classmates enthusiastically pushed him towards the door, telling him what to say to Old Feng about it.
Still processing, Zhou Le was a bit dazed.
Wait… was he… not an Omega?
That couldn’t be right; he could even smell his own pheromones! Could he have suddenly turned into a Beta?
Is that… reversible?
“Zhou Le, what are you doing? Go! I heard Xiao Lan already went to ask.”
“…Oh… okay.” Zhou Le, still half-doubting, was pushed out the door.
As he walked out, he saw Lu Jingran glancing over at him.
A slight smile curved at the corner of his lips.
—
The final result was that the school asked those who questioned the results to submit additional reports from outside testing facilities as evidence.
In other words, they had to get tested by an external agency, just like they had done when they entered high school.
So, Zhou Le went to Dr. Xiao Zhang.
Dr. Xiao Zhang happened to know someone, handing him a business card. “Go to him; he’ll handle the test for you.”
Zhou Le rubbed his hands together. “Um… could you maybe ask him to make the test result come out as Beta?”
Dr. Xiao Zhang looked at him for a few seconds, catching on. “You want me to help you fake the result?”
Zhou Le nodded heavily.
Xiao Zhang: “Sure.”
Before Zhou Le could smile, Dr. Xiao Zhang added, “500 yuan.”
“…”
“Cash only, thanks.”
Zhou Le frowned. “That much?”
Xiao Zhang: “That’s already the friends’ discount.”
Zhou Le: “Can’t you… make it a little cheaper?”
Xiao Zhang: “Nope.”
Zhou Le: “Well… alright.”
In the end, Zhou Le painfully handed over the 500 yuan.
As he handed over the red bill, he could practically hear his heart bleeding, whimpering as it went.
As he was about to leave, Xiao Zhang got serious for once. “Zhou Le, let me tell you, you can’t keep faking your identity forever. Especially for the college entrance exams—if you get caught, it’ll go on your record, and then you’re done for.”
Zhou Le knew this well. He never intended to hide it forever.
At least… at least until college entrance exams were over. He would come clean then.
If he could get into college, he’d have more freedom, and more chances to take on part-time jobs without needing to hide his identity like he did now.
“Thank you, Dr. Xiao Zhang.”
After thanking him, Zhou Le walked out and headed home.
As he walked, he suddenly felt like something was off, like there was…
He turned around! But no one was there.
Puzzled, he turned back around.
His dog Little White had been let out by Zhou’s mom to greet him and was wagging its tail eagerly by the door.
Zhou Le scooped him up and started heading home. “Waiting for me? Such a good boy, Little White. I’ll reward you with a chicken leg when we get back.”
Behind him, Lu Jingran emerged from the shadows.
He watched Zhou Le go upstairs and turn on the lights, his shadow faintly visible through the thin curtains.
A second later, his phone beeped with a message.
Dr. Xiao Zhang: [5,000 yuan, don’t forget to transfer it.]
