A Stand-in Alpha Awakens - Chapter 30

Liang Shuang listened to Chu Zishan’s bold declaration and swallowed the noodles in her mouth with a look of utter disbelief. “Chu Zishan, say that again?”

“Say it again?” Chu Zishan leaned back with her arms crossed. “I could say it three times—if you dare make a move on me, I’ll ruin you! Ruin you! Ruin you!”

Liang Shuang had been annoyed by her since the first time they met, and that annoyance had only deepened. Now, hearing Chu Zishan’s blatant disdain for her, she felt a surge of genuine irritation. She glanced around the table, grabbed a milk-flavored steamed bun from an innocent classmate’s tray at the neighboring table, and shoved it toward her.

Cafeteria tables were long but narrow; for Alphas with long limbs, there was no shielding anything.

“You—” Chu Zishan’s mouth had just opened when it was stuffed with the bun. She glared at Liang Shuang, spitting it out with a series of disgusted “pah” sounds. “Surname Liang! You dare use someone else’s leftovers to plug my mouth! I’m not done with you!”

“I plugged it! So what! Who told you to slander me!” Liang Shuang stopped eating her noodles entirely, propping one foot up on her chair as she confronted Chu Zishan.

The innocent student who had lost a bun weakly raised a hand to explain: “I… I hadn’t even had time to bite that bun yet…”

“Excellent!” Liang Shuang’s grim face tilted up slightly. “She bit it, let her compensate you!”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake! You bastard, do you have any sense of logic!” Chu Zishan was going crazy with rage. “You’re the one who snatched her bun! If anyone’s paying, it’s you!”

Liang Shuang’s phoenix eyes narrowed into thin slits. “You’re the one with no logic. I took it, but I didn’t bite it or drop it on the floor. You’re the one who spoiled it, so of course, you pay!”

The cafeteria, packed with thousands of students, was incredibly noisy, but their small skirmish managed to draw the attention of several surrounding tables. The student forced into the middle of it was a socially anxious type who lived for textbooks and avoided drama; she felt like she was about to spontaneously combust under the concentrated stares.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the loud one suddenly reach out. She tried to dodge, but she was a step too slow. Before she could react, she was forcibly dragged into the center of the storm.

Chu Zishan gripped her and asked, “You’re the victim! You tell us—who should pay for this bun!”

The victim: “N-no need to pay… It’s just a small bun, it’s not worth the trouble.”

“No! It must be paid for.” Chu Zishan’s head was buzzing with anger; the more she looked at Liang Shuang’s grumpy face, the more she wanted to dig her heels in.

The red-faced victim was nearly in tears, her voice trembling as her gaze darted between the two. “Um, if that won’t work… then pay me back together…”

“Pay back together? Fine! You wait here, I’m taking her to buy it for you right now.” Chu Zishan let go, kicked aside the chair blocking her path, and shot a sharp look at Liang Shuang. “Did you hear that! Together! Don’t you think you’re dodging responsibility! You have to pay too!”

Liang Shuang rolled her eyes. Fine, pay it is. She hadn’t intended to skip the bill anyway. She followed her toward the window selling the milk-flavored buns.

The cafeteria was too loud for Jiang Lu to hear the argument. Having just bought her yellow rice cakes, she was about to turn toward the pickled fish window when she saw the two of them rushing over fuming. Three question marks popped up in her head.

What’s the deal? A fight? Why are they at the window?

Liang Shuang, face dark, waved her off, implying: None of your business, carry on with what you’re doing.

Chu Zishan caught the small movement and let out a huff. The look she shot Jiang Lu was ice-cold, seemingly saying: What are you looking at? This has nothing to do with you.

Jiang Lu: “…”

She was a little curious, but forget it—now wasn’t the time for gossip. Continuing toward the fast-moving line nearby, Jiang Lu counted the heads in front of her while pulling out the sticky note to confirm the last three dishes.

Bai Yue’s handwriting was very beautiful, quite different from the impression she gave in person. The brushstrokes were sharp, vigorous, and elegant; looking at the writing alone, one might mistake her for a forceful, domineering person. Jiang Lu’s thumb traced the final stroke of the last dish’s name. Thinking of the “perfect” handwriting she herself had practiced—neat but devoid of character—she let her rounded fingernail glide along the ink.

Strangely, in that moment, it felt as if something had glided across the surface of her heart, sending out ripples.

Ahead, seven people became three. At the window not far away, Liang Shuang and Chu Zishan each walked back carrying a bag of buns.

Not many people ate buns for lunch; the stock depended on what was left over from breakfast. There were exactly eight left in the tray when they got there. Originally, the two Alphas intended to buy one each, but after exchanging a look, some wire in their brains crossed, and they stubbornly snatched three more each.

The female student who had lost one milk bun was stunned when eight buns appeared on her tray. Her heart was racing with panic, but her voice was steadier than before: “I… I only need one.”

“One? These are all for you.” Chu Zishan patted her shoulder, her downward gaze carrying a “just try refusing” threat.

Liang Shuang’s gaze was kinder, but her face looked terrifyingly grim. “Eat them. If you can’t finish, take them back as a late-night snack.”

The student’s scalp went numb. Take them back? How is that different from a threat??

“Th-thank you… both.”

All eight buns were accepted. Chu Zishan and Liang Shuang returned to their seats, but their lunch was already stone-cold. Even if it weren’t, after their shouting match, they had no desire to eat. Thinking about the wasted meal, both of their expressions shifted in sync—especially Chu Zishan, who let out a cold snort and stood up again.

“Not eating?” Liang Shuang glared at her. Her peripheral vision scanned the windows but didn’t find Jiang Lu. She instantly straightened her back against the chair.

Chu Zishan laughed with anger. “Fuck, Liang Shuang, are you my supervisor or something? Do you really have a thing for me?”

Liang Shuang avoided her approach, her eyes quickly scanning the cafeteria windows. After spotting Jiang Lu’s back as she left the cafeteria, she immediately activated “mission mode.”

“You just spat in my noodles. Aren’t you going to pay me back a bowl?”

“What?” Chu Zishan was stunned.

Jiang Lu carried the insulated lunch box quickly down the steps. Hearing Bai Yue speaking, she tactfully stopped and didn’t approach.

The flowerbed wasn’t large; the neatly trimmed evergreens couldn’t even hide a person, let alone block sound.

“I’m coming back soon, very soon. I brought you the yellow rice cakes and grass jelly you love.” Bai Yue’s voice wasn’t intentionally lowered; even though Jiang Lu tried to avoid it, she heard every word clearly.

“Mm-hm, I miss you too… Okay, bye-bye.”

Hearing the words “I miss you,” Jiang Lu felt as though the sunlight had flashed in her eyes, causing her to blink rapidly.

“Jiang Lu? Are you back?” Bai Yue’s voice approached from behind the flowerbed.

Jiang Lu cleared her throat, using one hand to wipe her eyes as she adjusted her expression before turning around. “Mhm, I’m back.”

Her expression was a bit unnatural, and her lowered gaze betrayed her internal awkwardness. “Just now… I didn’t mean to eavesdrop.”

“Oh, it’s fine.” Bai Yue smiled as she walked over, her cheeks flushed from the sun. “My mom is waiting for me quite anxiously. She was worried I’d come back too late and miss out on her favorite food, so she called to check. Sorry you had to see that.”

Jiang Lu’s stiff features softened. The small cloud of doubt in her heart vanished instantly at the words “My mom.”

So it was her mother. I thought—

“No, no, it’s fine. You and your mom have a great relationship,” Jiang Lu said, waving her hand with a smile.

Bai Yue took the lunch box with both hands. “I’ve delayed your lunch. Go on in. I need to hurry back, too.”

“Okay.” Jiang Lu nodded, standing in place as she watched Bai Yue disappear at the end of the path leading to the North Gate. She then bent down to pick up the bags of local specialties.

The open paper bags were neatly packed. Before rounding the flowerbed, she couldn’t help but look back once more.

The novel hadn’t introduced Bai Yue’s mother much, only mentioning her briefly through Su Mengrui’s perspective. But based on Jiang Lu’s judgment of Su Mengrui, her credibility was 50% at best. As for which 50%, she wasn’t sure. Only one thing was certain—Bai Yue’s mother was very “different” within the Su family. In a family that prioritized bloodline, gender, and surnames, Bai Yue’s Omega mother had insisted on her child taking the Alpha parent’s surname. Something must have happened between her and the Su family.

Recalling Su Mengrui’s wariness and disdain toward Bai Yue in the novel, along with her frequent, unprovoked sarcasm, Jiang Lu suspected that Bai Yue’s Alpha parent was likely deceased, and her Omega mother’s health probably wasn’t great. Otherwise, Bai Yue wouldn’t feel the need to return every single week.

Carrying the bags back into the cafeteria, students were already starting to leave. Jiang Lu stood in the center of the dining area, spotted Liang Shuang and the focused, rice-eating Shao Shuyi, and after a moment’s hesitation, walked toward the former.

Liang Shuang had pestered Chu Zishan for a while and finally got her compensation: a bowl of beef noodles with extra meat and spice, just like her original one. Chu Zishan, who refused to take a loss, had naturally retaliated by making Liang Shuang pay for a bowl of tomato beef noodles.

Jiang Lu approached and saw they were occupying a four-person table, sitting diagonally from each other. She looked at the two bowls of noodles on the table in confusion.

No buns? No bread?

Then what were they doing at the window earlier?

She set the paper bags on a chair, the rustling sound waking Liang Shuang from her contest with Chu Zishan. “Jiang Lu, you’re here.”

“Mhm. Watch these for a second, I’m going to buy food.”

Liang Shuang glanced at the bags. She couldn’t see what was inside, but that didn’t stop her from nodding. “Okay.”

Chu Zishan eyed Liang Shuang’s cooperative expression, scanned the bags, and finally landed her gaze on Jiang Lu’s back. “I knew it! You like Jiang Lu! You’re an A-A couple!”

Liang Shuang was tired of rolling her eyes. “Chu Zishan, you’re seriously sick! Is there nothing in your head besides romance? Are you that starved for affection?”

“You’re the sick one! You’re the one starved for affection!” Chu Zishan refused to let a single word go. After glaring at Liang Shuang, she stared at the light green paper bags. “Where did Jiang Lu just go? She said she had plans for the afternoon. Aren’t you her best friend? Do you know what she has planned?”

Liang Shuang finished the last of her noodles and wiped her mouth with a wet wipe. “None of your business.”

Jiang Lu returned. Mission accomplished, Liang Shuang didn’t want to look at Chu Zishan’s face for another second. She picked up the bags and moved to a clean table to wait.

“Hey, you—!” Truly asking for it! Chu Zishan slammed her chopsticks down, looking up at the glass railing of the second floor for the hundredth time. If they weren’t under the teachers’ noses, she would have loved to rub Liang Shuang’s “corpse face” into the floor.

Chu Zishan thought with a dark face, then turned to her sister, Chu Ziyan, who was sitting about three meters away. She shrugged and spread her hands in dissatisfaction, then walked away with a pout.

A refusal was a refusal; it didn’t matter how many times you asked. A waste of time and expression.

Chu Ziyan let out a helpless sigh. She had lost a lot of weight lately. Seeing the resentment in her younger sister’s movements, she lowered her head sadly. The barbecue rice in front of her looked exactly as it did when she first set it down.

Jiang Lu was thinking about the specialties Bai Yue had given her and wanted to save room in her stomach. She spent a long time at the window before choosing the smallest portion available: bean flower rice noodles.

Liang Shuang looked on blankly. “That’s all you’re eating?”

“It’s enough.” Jiang Lu broke her chopsticks. She was about to say there were plenty of delicious treats, but she caught sight of Chu Ziyan sitting in the crowd. She quietly withdrew her gaze and lowered her head to eat her lunch.