A Stand-in Alpha Awakens - Chapter 19

In tenth grade, in order to stop Song Wushuang from clinging to Jiang Lu even during class hours, Liang Shuang had volunteered for the role of discipline monitor. By the second semester, due to her reputation for being notoriously iron-faced and impartial, she had accompanied the teachers on duty to patrol the campus after evening self-study countless times.

Knowing the entire protocol, she didn’t wait for the familiar flashlights or footsteps. She pulled Jiang Lu back down to sit. “Trust me.”

Jiang Lu naturally trusted Liang Shuang, but that dark shadow from earlier still tugged at her mind.

These past few days, she had been wanting to find time to check out the administration building, but with the mountain of homework, she simply couldn’t get away. Regarding the “teacher” who collaborated with Su Mengrui, she currently only had the few vague lines from the novel to go on.

The silhouette of that shadow matched her mental image somewhat, but… just guessing like this wasn’t a long-term solution.

Jiang Lu pushed the thought down and packed the freshly made trash into a plastic bag. “Let’s head back. The mosquitoes here are too wild; even repellent doesn’t work. We need to stock up on more next time.”

“Hmm? Really? I didn’t feel anything… Uh, did you forget to use the repellent patch I gave you?” Liang Shuang asked as she stood up.

“What repellent patch? When did you give it to me?” Jiang Lu asked, baffled.

“When we went back to the dorm after dinner. Didn’t I put one on your bed?”

Jiang Lu froze. “That was a repellent patch?”

Liang Shuang: “What did you think it was?”

“I was wondering why on earth you’d give me a scent-suppressant patch out of nowhere. Haha, my mistake.” Jiang Lu laughed and ran ahead a few steps. With a flick of her right hand, the double-knotted plastic bag landed perfectly inside the large, lidless green trash bin.

Liang Shuang: “…”

Back at the dorm, Lin Tingting and Chen Xueyao were brewing cups of hot and sour rice noodles. Seeing the two of them return, they offered an enthusiastic invitation.

Lin Tingting: “Want a taste? It’s pretty good.”

Chen Xueyao: “Eat some with us! We grabbed a lot, there’s even tomato flavor.”

Jiang Lu waved her off. “No thanks, we just ate downstairs. You guys enjoy.”

“Mhm, I’m going to wash up first. Take your time.” Liang Shuang said, heading straight for the bathroom.

Lin Tingting and Chen Xueyao exchanged a look, then sniffed the air around Jiang Lu. They looked back curiously. “You smell really good. Is that perfume?”

Jiang Lu’s hand paused on her drawer. She pulled out the bottle of floral water she’d bought minutes ago and tossed it on the table.

“Floral water?” Chen Xueyao put down her clear plastic fork. “Fresh Odor Removal? Is this a new model?”

“Yep. I meant to buy the mosquito repellent one, but I wasn’t paying attention and grabbed the wrong one.” Jiang Lu lied through her teeth without a hint of a burden.

Lin Tingting immediately offered some helpful trivia: “It’s easy to buy the wrong one if you don’t look closely. Their blue bottle is for mosquitoes, the yellow one is for itching, this purple one is for odors, and there’s a white one for refreshing your mind.”

“Oh! I didn’t even notice.” Jiang Lu realized.

Chen Xueyao was quite surprised. “Tingting, you know so much.”

Lin Tingting gave an embarrassed smile. “Not really. I just saw the shelf when I was buying supplies at the start of term and happened to notice.”

“I heard the odor-removal effect is great?” Chen Xueyao asked.

Jiang Lu said generously, “It’s quite good. When you’re done eating, don’t bother trying to air the room out; just give it a couple of sprays with this.”

“Thanks,” Chen Xueyao said.

Jiang Lu smiled. Hearing the sound of running water from the bathroom stall, she went to the balcony to grab her towel and pajamas, waiting for Liang Shuang to come out.

With about ten minutes left until lights-out, Lin Tingting and Chen Xueyao finished their noodles in a few bites and efficiently cleaned up the mess. There was a large trash bin on every floor of the dorm, which was cleared by staff every morning.

Lin Tingting tied the plastic bag and went out to throw the trash. Passing the stairwell, she heard some people talking excitedly. she slowed her pace to listen.

“Really? Beaten that badly?”

“More than that. I heard if a returning teacher hadn’t happened to run into them, something serious might have happened to that person!”

“Huh? What about the one who did it? Did they get caught?”

“I don’t think so… I don’t know. Sigh, I was actually planning to climb the wall to buy food tomorrow night, but after this happened, forget it. I’ll just keep eating cup noodles.”

“At least it’s safe. It’s almost Sunday anyway; we can go out then and stock up. It’s the same.”

…

Liang Shuang washed up quickly, and Jiang Lu was even faster. By the time Lin Tingting returned from her gossip session, they were already sitting on their beds in their pajamas.

“Huh? Where’s Xueyao?” Lin Tingting stood at the door, her eyes wide with excitement but looking around in confusion.

Jiang Lu pointed to the bathroom. “She closed the door just as you were opening the main door.”

“…Oh.” Lin Tingting closed the dorm door behind her and, seeing it was late, locked it. “Alright, I’ll tell her when she comes out.”

“Tell her what?” Liang Shuang noticed her expression. It was exactly the same as when she and Shao Shuyi gossiped about historical figures. She leaned over her bedrail. “Did you hear something when you went out?”

Lin Tingting looked at Liang Shuang in surprise. “How did you know? Do I—am I that bad at hiding things?”

“Not really. I just have ‘fiery golden eyes.'” Liang Shuang said seriously. Her expressionless face looked arrogant and a bit intimidating.

Jiang Lu was amused by Lin Tingting’s reaction. Looking back at Liang Shuang’s sour face, she tapped the bedrail to remind her. “Hey, stop talking with that face, okay?”

Liang Shuang said nothing, but Lin Tingting gave an awkward laugh first. “It’s okay. Xueyao and I are used to it.”

Jiang Lu: “…” She didn’t see where the “used to it” part was; she truly felt sorry for them.

Liang Shuang spread her hands, as if to say: See? They know I mean no harm; they don’t mind.

“…” Jiang Lu blinked and conceded with difficulty.

Lin Tingting sat in her chair. Thinking it wasn’t a major news item that required a full audience, she summarized it in one sentence: “A sophomore just got caught climbing the wall. They were just brought back, face covered in bruises. Said they got into a fight with some outsiders.”

“Climbing the wall to fight? And lost? And then got caught by a teacher?” Liang Shuang could hardly believe it. How could someone be that unlucky?

Lin Tingting nodded hesitantly. “You could say that.”

Jiang Lu was shocked. “A sophomore? Do we know who?”

“I didn’t hear a name, just that it was an Alpha girl living on the fifth floor… so probably from the regular classes.” Lin Tingting thought for a moment and added, “I think her surname was Song.”

“Surname Song, huh?” Liang Shuang leaned against the wall and turned toward Jiang Lu on the opposite bed. “What a coincidence.”

There were plenty of students surnamed Song in every grade at No. 1 High—if not hundreds, then dozens. Yet, when they heard the name “Song,” the name Song Wushuang surfaced in both of their minds almost simultaneously.

There was no helping it; she was the only “Alpha Song” they both knew. They were looking for a reason to guess anyone else.

Lin Tingting was puzzled. “Coincidence for what?”

“I know a certain Alpha surnamed Song who is stupid enough to do something like that. Same grade, regular class. Isn’t that a coincidence?” Liang Shuang spread her hands.

Lin Tingting was surprised. “That really is a coincidence.”

Jiang Lu looked down at the lines on her palm, harboring no doubt.

—If it wasn’t Song Wushuang, fine. But if it was, the person who beat her was definitely Su Mengrui.

After two days of silence, Jiang Lu had been wondering why a spoiled heiress who didn’t know the meaning of “taking a loss” had actually endured. It turns out she was waiting for this.

It was interesting, though. What kind of leverage did Su Mengrui have over Song Wushuang? Climbing a wall just to be a punching bag… given her personality, even if her brain had been kicked by a mule, she shouldn’t have done such a thing.

“Hey, Jiang Lu, has she paid you back what she owes yet?” Liang Shuang couldn’t help but remember the debt now that Song Wushuang was on her mind.

Jiang Lu had almost forgotten. She tapped her watch notifications, but there was nothing.

Liang Shuang saw her shake her head and glanced at the watch face. “Still nothing?”

“It’s fine, no rush.” Jiang Lu didn’t care much. Her finger was on the side button, about to turn the screen off, when the wallpaper disappeared and a WeChat friend request popped up.

It was the same nickname as before: A White Cat.

Again? Does this person really know me?

Jiang Lu opened the request. In power-saving mode, she couldn’t see the avatar, but her expression was uglier than if she’d seen a horror image.

Liang Shuang: “?”

“Liang Shuang, do you think it’s possible I’ve been ‘doxxed’?” Jiang Lu turned her wrist to show the screen to Liang Shuang. “This cat has added me twice now.”

Liang Shuang looked at the request, not understanding why Jiang Lu was taking it so seriously. “It’s… it’s just two friend requests. You… I mean, is it possible someone made a burner account and wants to add you with it?”

Following that logic, Jiang Lu felt that no one on her list besides Song Wushuang would be this idle. But her intuition told her it wasn’t Song Wushuang.

Excluding Song Wushuang, if she had to find someone who wanted to add her and could get her ID, it was 90% likely to be Su Mengrui.

The novel mentioned that Su Mengrui hated cats, especially white ones. Because Bai Yue liked them, there was no way she would ever use that nickname.

If it wasn’t either of them, who else could it be?

“Why don’t you accept and ask?” Liang Shuang suggested.

Jiang Lu opened the request, looking at the “Decline” and “Accept” buttons below. Her finger hovered over the edge, unable to press down. “Forget it. Let them hang.”

“Suit yourself.” Liang Shuang obviously had no objection.

The watch face went dark. In the darkness, the white numbers slowly lit up: 21:34.

Eight hundred meters away, Bai Yue, who had yet to receive a reply, pouted with melancholy.

It’s break time. Why no reaction yet?

Could it be her phone isn’t with her? Handed in?

Oh—truly a top-tier student. More disciplined than I was back then.

Bai Yue put her phone down. Her pink fingertips applied a bit of pressure as she forked a fried mushroom. Just as she was about to put it in her mouth, there was a knock on the car window.

A hostility-filled Su Mengrui was standing outside the car, her eyes as fierce as a wolf looking for a fight. “Why are you here? Following me?”

Bai Yue bit the mushroom off the skewer. She changed the half-lowered window to fully lowered and looked at her without a word.

Su Mengrui’s eyes narrowed, a dangerous light sparking in her pupils. “Bai Yue! Don’t tell me you—”

The window rose silently for the most part, cutting off Su Mengrui’s words.

“FUCK! Bai Yue!” Su Mengrui was beside herself with rage. “Don’t tell me you came here just to buy that stuff!”

Bai Yue was perfectly composed. “Don’t get excited. Your spit almost landed in my bowl.”

Su Mengrui: “…”