In early autumn, the entire department was still lined with osmanthus trees in full bloom, their fragrance permeating every crevice imaginable. It was the part of the academic year that every student loved, the beginning of a new semester, when there were no exams and no expectations. Therefore, young couples liked to walk hand in hand beneath the fragrant trees, whispering sweet nothings in each other's ears like little birds preening their feathers.

But despite the romantic atmosphere and the pink bubbles that surrounded the entire campus, there was one inconspicuous corner where a cold, black aura swept in waves, prompting anyone who walked underneath Dean Zhao's office to sprint just a little bit faster, afraid that something unholy might latch onto them.

Inside the air-conditioned room, two Betas were looking at each other with suspicion in their eyes, like two lions circling the same juicy prey. Despite the low temperature, Zhao Feng's forehead was drenched in sweat, his jittery body looking like a piece of bread left outside in the rain: white and moist, as he shivered in anger. Next to him, Teacher Shen from the Drama Department was also shivering, but only because she was freezing. Her entire existence was gathered in a corner of the expensive leather sofa they shared, buried underneath three layers of velvet shawls. 

"Is this because of what happened to Little Bai?" she asked, feigning a confused and concerned tone. "I swear I had no idea he was allergic to cornstarch."

"What? No..." Dean Zhao answered just as confused. "Wait, you had something to do with that?!" he asked, viciously glaring at her.

Just last week, Little Bai, the Drama Department's jaded adjunct teacher, ended up in the hospital with massive dehydration caused by an allergic reaction to corn products, something that no one, presumably not even him, was aware he had. Since Little Bai was also a part-time actor in a very reputable local theatre, news started emerging shortly after his hospitalization, ranging from accidental poisoning to attempted murder. To some, it was obviously a case of competing for resources, with the poor young man's enemies eager to make him sick enough to miss the upcoming auditions. After all, nothing felt better than knowing the person you despised was locked up in some toilet somewhere, unable to take even one step outside the stall without soiling his reputation.

But now... It seemed that... All along...

It had been an inside job?!

"Well, if you put it that way, you make me sound like a criminal", Teacher Shen answered in a detached tone, calmly playing with the silk tassels on her shawl. Her branch-like fingers were adorned with countless silver rings, while her pointy red nails left scratches in the velvet, betraying her annoyance with having to deal with an interrogation right when she was about to take her lunch break. 

In her youth, Shen Yan had been a screen goddess, being known as the real-life embodiment of the vivacious heroine in a martial arts series. Her tall, lithe frame, honed by thousands of hours in the dance studio, let her leap from tree to tree like a weightless fairy descending from heaven. However, a split second of inattention and one misstep were enough to ruin both her life and her career, as one accident left her unable to step on her left leg fully. From then on, her body became weaker and weaker, plagued by various ailments. But as the world slowly forgot her, and the cold claws of depression tightened their grip around her slender neck, her childhood sweetheart invited her as a guest lecturer, believing she still had a lot to offer to the world.

In the over forty years they knew each other, Shen Yan and Zhao Feng never spent more than a week without checking on each other's well-being. Even when bickering like mad dogs, they still believed they were soulmates, although their relationship never turned romantic. To put it simply, they were the pot to the other's black kettle, a pair of deranged souls doomed never to escape the other, caught in some twisted form of a karmic debt.

However, maybe because of her increasingly fragile body, Shen Yan had developed an unhealthy obsession with traditional Chinese medicine over the past years, believing that somewhere out there, a magical cure was waiting for her. So she embarked on a weird journey of cooking bogus recipes, preaching to anyone who had ears to listen about the benefits of moonlight water and goji berries. But as one might expect, her "potions" only aided in detoxing your body, the type of detox when you'd be kneeling in front of your toilet bowl, bitterly begging for the rumbling in your stomach to stop.

"You also think Little Bai is too anxious at times, right? Remember when he climbed on top of his desk, claiming 'his enemies were out to get him' or some other type of nonsense... I just wanted to help cool his ambition and quiet his inner drama, nothing more," Shen Yan continued, explaining her reasoning for knowingly poisoning her coworker. 

"So I just served him a harmless cup of tonic tea... But the recipe asked for powdered deer antlers, and who has that in their cupboard? What am I, an ancient healer from the Ming Dynasty?! I just stirred some cornstarch in there, it's not like anyone could tell the difference anyway," Shen Yan's mellodic voice came out of her brightly painted lips, as her beautiful eyes rolled to the back of her head, evident she felt no remorse whatsoever. 

"Oh my god..." Poor Zhao Feng felt his spirit crawling up his throat, eager to come out of his mouth and follow the bright light of reincarnation. For a second, his mind started spinning as his hand gripped his knee, weaving the apology press release their university would have to come up with as soon as Little Bai left the hospital. Of course, they would have to send flowers and gift baskets, conduct an internal investigation to quiet the public opinion, while striving for an under-the-table deal, wondering what kind of bonuses and job perks would be enough to shut that poor young man's mouth...

"Shen Yan, you’re my lifeline, not a public safety hazard! Don't forget, I brought you here to help me, not create more problems for me to fix!" Zhao Feng raged, while the dark aura continued to sweep out of his body, making Shen Yan move even further inside the couch crevice she managed to squeeze her body into. 

"Calm down, not much harm was done," she answered back, one skinny hand emerging from the mountain of clothes she was wearing to pat Zhao Feng's squishy hand gingerly. "You don't look so good. Want me to prepare a tonic for you? I have found one that claims to regulate the liver..."

"No, please stop!" Zhao Feng changed from gripping his own knee to gripping Shen Yan's hand, giving her a hard squeeze. However, he soon realized just how crisp the bones in that icy hand were, changing to lightly patting it. "Just stop cooking weird things, I'm afraid you'll blow up your apartment in the middle of the night..." After all, Zhao Feng still remembered when his friend called him in the wee hours of the morning, complaining about her stove dying and potentially ruining the temperature of her unknown "mixture". And since the sun was just about to rise, and the presence of moonlight was a necessary step, time was tight and not at all running in his favour. To this day, Dean Zhao could still vividly picture his anxious movements, running a couple of red lights as he hurried to fix her stove, barely making it in time.

"That's not why I called you here..." he finally said, completely resigned to his fate. 

Let it be, he thought. Shen Yan was his closest friend, and he would still take her side, even if she managed to actually kill someone one day.

"Oh." Teacher Shen answered calmly, swiftly pulling her hand from Zhao Feng's grip and hiding it under her shawl. Since he no longer needed her comfort, she no longer needed to act like she cared, right?

Zhao Feng: "..."

"Right," he quickly recovered, continuing with a blank expression on his face. "It's about that Young Master Li, his father packed him straight from the airport and dumped him in my lap, acting like I'm running a daycare for wayward Young Masters! But who made him the son of Li Minghua?! It's not like I dare disrespect either of them!"

"But isn't that kind of exposure good for us?" Shen Yan asked with slight confusion. Knowing her friend's personality, that situation should have pleased him immensely. "This could be the big break we dreamed about for years. Imagine associating with Master Li, our Department could soar overnight!"

"That's the thing!" Dean Zhao answered, wiping yet another river of sweat from his forehead. "You think I don't want to do just that?! If it were me, I would do anything to entangle that little boy... Heck, I would even let him bite my ass if I knew he was into middle-aged Betas! But I know nothing about him!"

"You really have a lot of internal heat..." Shen Yan answered, noticing the beads of sweat on his body. "You sure you don't need me to look after your liver?"

"Leave my liver alone! No... Wait... That's not the point?!"

"What is the point then?" Teacher Shen's angelic voice resonated inside the cold office, covering Zhao Feng's damned soul in her benevolent grace. "If you ask me, there’s no problem at all. You don't know anything about Little Li, but does that mean other people don't know either? Since when do you no longer have a big enough mouth to ask?"

"What do you mean? Are you that familiar with Young Master Li?!"

"Of course I am... Li Zhen attended this university for four whole years, yet you claim to have never heard of him?"

Wait...

What?!

Was Li Zhen some sort of internet celebrity that Dean Zhao had never heard of before?! Had he been living under a rock for the past decade?! 

But then again... Zhao Feng was only interested in pretty ladies and fragrant Omegas, so don't judge him for never paying attention to a big, rugged man like Li Zhen... 

And what was there to pay attention to, anyway?!

However, Shen Yan proceeded to rain stones on his parade, continuing in that same, infuriatingly calm tone of voice of hers: "Back when Little Li was a student, he even had his own fan group. There were countless little boys and girls concerned with his movements, to the point where they even blocked the entrance to one of his exhibitions. Some children even built a shrine dedicated entirely to his side profile. How come you don't remember that?"

Unbelievable... Zhao Feng felt he had died and woke up in a parallel universe overnight, surprised to realize that it was only he who didn't remember... 

But wait, you mean to tell me that I stressed so much until now when all along, the answers I was looking for were just in the office next door?!