Xi Boyu spent the whole day wearing that cold, stunningly beautiful expression. Though he was usually icy, today his presence felt unusually oppressive; anyone passing by could sense him struggling desperately to suppress his anger.
Jiang Yue was as quiet as a quail, speaking only when necessary. The tall, 1.9-meter Alpha stood nearby with her brows furrowed and eyes downcast, wishing she could dig a hole and hide herself.
In anatomy class, they worked together, using crowbars to pry open the beetles’ shells, then poking and digging at the keratin beneath the exoskeleton.
The beetle’s shell was extremely hard, about the size of a tank. Its body was entirely black, with a sharp, long horn on its head.
The horn could withstand high temperatures and was incredibly sharp. Even when Xiang Sui struck it with a hot knife, it left only a white mark on the surface.
Because the incident with the blue-eyed millipede had caused such an uproar, the original anatomy teacher had been severely punished, and a female Alpha had taken over the class.
The female Alpha anatomy teacher explained from the podium: “The beetle’s strength is comparable to a Marine tank. Its long horn is incredibly hard and can effortlessly slice you in half, as easily as cutting a piece of cheese.”
“Beetles always appear in swarms. Ordinary attacks won’t even faze them, you need heavy firepower to suppress them. The most annoying thing is that they can fly. They love perching on mechs and tearing them apart with their horns.”
Their current anatomy class was extremely intense. The students rolled up their sleeves, chopping and prying as they gutted the beetles.
Jiang Yue used a chainsaw sword to cut off the beetle’s long horn. When the half-meter-long horn fell to the ground, everyone crowded around to take a closer look.
Wiping the sweat from her forehead, Jiang Yue used the horn to split open a piece of the beetle’s shell.
“This thing is really sharp!”
The six of them dissected the beetles while chatting casually. Jiang Sen, who had a lot of insider knowledge, whispered, “It wasn’t as simple as the original anatomy teacher being punished. There’s a lot more going on behind the scenes.”
Jiang Yue perked up her little ears, eager for gossip.
Bai Wang said, “I’ve heard about this too. He was secretly selling the blue-eyed millipede eggs, and he always had students from poor backgrounds smuggle them for him. That’s where the tragedy started, these students desperately needed money. Song Yang, who was in charge of buying the cooling boxes, purchased a batch of low-quality boxes and pocketed the difference.”
Bai Wang continued, “That’s how the disaster happened. The cooling boxes broke, the eggs inside hatched, and while no one was paying attention, they crawled into the students’ bodies.”
The blue-eyed millipede’s legs contained a neurotoxin, acting like a topical anesthetic, it didn’t cause pain.
A chill ran down Jiang Yue’s back as she whispered, “With something this serious, that anatomy teacher must be in prison, right?”
Xi Boyu said, “Not just prison. Probably the death penalty. This isn’t a simple matter.”
Xi Boyu’s background was a mystery, but no one doubted the reliability of his information.
If he said this wasn’t simple, then it definitely wasn’t.
Everyone perked up and turned to Xi Boyu in unison. Xi Boyu glanced at them and, with his usual icy arrogance, said, “You’ll have the clearance to know once your spiritual power materializes.”
Jiang Yue pointed at herself. “Then I can materialize, so I have the clearance to know, right?”
Xi Boyu gave her a sidelong glance. “Then go ask the instructor yourself.”
Jiang Yue rolled her eyes, was it really necessary to shoot her daggers just because his pheromones were too strong?
After class, they took off their protective suits, disinfected themselves thoroughly, and went to the cafeteria to eat.
Several of their well-born roommates headed to the expensive First Cafeteria, which had comfortable soundproof booths and free chilled drinks. As long as you had money, you could get any food you wanted there.
Xiang Sui had reserved a private booth for the entire year, he was a super VIP Gold Crown member of the First Cafeteria.
Where Xiang Sui ate, there was always barbecue.
With no afternoon classes, everyone lounged on the sofas, skewers in hand. Even the usually restrained and aloof Xi Boyu abandoned all image management.
Jiang Yue, her mouth shiny with grease, held a skewer in one hand and a beer in the other. After a while, she felt the small skewers weren’t enough, so she grabbed a whole roasted lamb leg and devoured it with gusto.
Xi Boyu took a sip of beer and subtly moved a little farther away.
Xiang Sui laughed heartily. The normally bold Northern Alpha now looked a bit lecherous as he winked and gestured at the others. “Jiang Yue really should eat more, every drop of essence costs ten drops of blood. She was running to the bathroom several times last night, you know.”
The other Alphas in the booth erupted in laughter, filling the space with a lively, carefree atmosphere.
Jiang Yue nearly dropped the lamb leg in her hand and stammered, “You guys… didn’t sleep last night?”
Jiang Sen: “Awake.”
Bai Wang: “Your ladder’s a little loose, it creaks, maybe tighten the screws someday.”
Kuri: “Hahahahahahahahahahaha!”
Xiang Sui: “We all understand, it’s the season of reproduction, hahaha!”
Xi Boyu: “……”
Jiang Yue: ……
Xiang Sui slapped Jiang Yue on the shoulder. “Actually, you don’t need to run to the bathroom so many times, just take care of it in bed. We’re all Alphas here, we understand.”
After a deep breath, Xi Boyu ground his teeth and snarled, “Shut up. Everybody take care of it in the bathroom. Whoever fills the dorm with that heather scent, I’ll make sure he has no descendants, and I mean it!”
The other Alphas inhaled sharply; their faces went serious and, without showing it, steered the conversation elsewhere.
Jiang Yue let out a sigh of relief, she didn’t like the smell of heather either; it was far too pungent.
With no afternoon classes, everyone had gotten a little carried away drinking, and out of the six of them, only Xi Boyu remained completely sober.
Jiang Yue staggered back to the dorm and collapsed onto her bed. The space around her rippled in concentric waves, and suddenly a transparent golden eagle appeared within the shimmering ripples, flapping its wings dizzily as it hovered.
As soon as it appeared, the temperature in the dorm instantly dropped. The others shivered, and Bai Wang immediately turned off the air conditioner.
This time, Jiang Yue’s spiritual form separating from her body didn’t make her lose consciousness. She rolled over on the bed and shouted, complaining loudly, “Who set the air conditioner so low? We’re in the North! Isn’t this wasting energy?”
Xiang Sui draped a blanket over himself and yelled, “Jiang Yue, focus! Get that silly bird of yours back, don’t let it fly around everywhere!”
Jiang Yue regained a bit of composure and reached out toward the golden eagle. Obediently, the bird, which had been fluttering about, flew straight into her arms.
The dorm’s temperature finally returned to normal. Everyone else, drunk and drowsy, fell asleep, while Xi Boyu, having only taken a few sips, stayed completely sober, lying on his bed and absorbed in a casual game on his terminal.
Just as he was getting immersed, a female Alpha, deep in sleep, suddenly flopped upright like a carp out of water, lifting the blanket as if feigning death.
Xi Boyu was startled and sat up as well, watching her cling to the wall like a humanoid spider, her ears pressed flat against it, brows furrowed tightly.
Drunk Alphas were really annoying; rough, unpredictable, and completely irrational.
The incomprehensible female Alpha curled her fingers and tapped the wall, looking at Xi Boyu. “Did you hear some strange noises?”
Xi Boyu asked, “What kind of noises?”
“A bit like the rustling of fabric… very faint, coming from inside the wall.”
Jiang Yue’s hearing was extremely, extremely sharp. She always wore earplugs when sleeping. In the neighboring dorm, people often got up at night, and in the quiet hours, even the sound of someone getting out of bed was like a distant thunderclap to her. Knowing how sensitive her ears were, the people in her dorm would move as quietly as possible while she slept.
Xi Boyu pressed his ear against the wall as well, and the sound of a chair being dragged from the next room reached him.
Jiang Yue whispered, “Do you hear it?”
Xi Boyu glanced at her. “The next dorm is dragging chairs again.”
Jiang Yue: “No, it’s not that sound.”
She turned and kicked Xiang Sui, who muttered curses as he sat up. “What’s your problem?”
Jiang Yue pointed at the wall. “There seems to be something in the wall… I’m not sure. The sound is very faint, and it comes and goes.”
Irritated, Xiang Sui pressed his ear against the wall, and the laughter from the neighboring dorm reached him.
Jiang Yue asked eagerly, “Well? Did you hear it?”
Xiang Cuo replied, “I heard it. The neighboring dorm is discussing an Omega with a big chest and a slim waist.”
Jiang Yue: “……”
Maybe it was just her imagination. The other roommates had sharp hearing too, there was no reason she could hear something they couldn’t.
That night, Jiang Yue was woken up by the sound of Xiang Sui turning over in bed.
She touched her left ear and realized her earplug had rolled out somewhere, she had no idea where.
All her roommates were asleep, and she couldn’t very well turn on the light to look, so Jiang Yue just lay quietly.
The night was the quietest time, and many sounds that were inaudible during the day could be heard.
And once again, Jiang Yue heard that faint rustling of fabric.
Rustle… rustle… rustle.
Jiang Yue poked at her ear, wondering if something was wrong with it.
Some people experienced low-frequency tinnitus, and this was supposedly what it sounded like; a faint, scratching noise in the ear.
Jiang Yue raised her hand to cover her ear, and the rustling immediately disappeared.
It didn’t seem to be a problem with her own ear.
Moreover, the sound was three-dimensional, it didn’t come from a single point. Jiang Yue couldn’t pinpoint its source at all; it felt as if the rustling was coming from all directions.
This faint, continuous, and intermittently appearing sound was the most irritating, especially in the quiet of midnight. It made the nerves tense, sent chills down her spine, and stirred paranoid thoughts.
The next day, Jiang Yue went to the medical department and got a stethoscope.
Because the daytime was too noisy, with too many distractions, she only took it out after the lights were out.
Her antics had everyone on edge, even Bai Wang stayed awake. They all gathered in a circle to see if Jiang Yue could detect anything.
Once the dorm building had fallen completely silent, Jiang Yue pressed the stethoscope against the wall.
The moment she put on the stethoscope, the rustling sound became instantly clear.
Rustle… rustle… rustle…
Jiang Yue shivered, her face turning pale in an instant.
Trembling, she handed the stethoscope to Xi Boyu. After listening for a moment, his expression also darkened considerably.
The stethoscope went around the circle, and in the suffocating silence, everyone’s faces mirrored the same grim look.
Jiang Sen’s lips trembled as he took the stethoscope and pressed it against another wall. After a moment, he shivered.
Xiang Sui panicked. “What the hell is that sound?!”
Jiang Yue hugged herself, her teeth chattering. “It’s the same sound… it’s everywhere, all around us.”
Xi Boyu took the stethoscope and went out into the corridor. After listening for a while, his expression darkened even further. He turned to the roommates behind him and said, “The corridor… it’s the same sound out there too.”
Bai Wang, who was a bit claustrophobic, had recently picked up Xiang Sui’s Northern accent. He gloomily muttered, “What do we do now?!”
Kuri scratched his head. “Do you think this sound is only in our dorm, or is it in other dorms too… or the entire building?”
As soon as he finished speaking, everyone’s hairs stood on end.
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Sam Williams On TYMIMA Chapter 152