A So-Called Date

Xuan Zhe's life had been full of initiative and affirmative answers. He figured Wen Shuang must like him a great deal, or he would not have been running around booking seats and buying movie tickets. Wen Shuang knew nothing about this, or he would definitely have grabbed Xuan Zhe by the collar and shaken him twice. "Wake up, sir! I'm just worried that you're so used to being waited on whenever you go out that you'll turn into a level-three cripple the moment you open an app!"

Besides, Wen Shuang had just gotten a few coupons from some group-buying app. He had to make the most of them.

They had Western food for lunch. It was neither upscale nor shabby, but Wen Shuang quite liked the unlimited steak. It tasted a little like processed meat, but it was cooked well. Xuan Zhe only ate one piece, then delicately wiped his mouth with a napkin and casually spat out the last bite he really could not swallow.

Perhaps he had set his standards for Wen Shuang too high in this one-sided pursuit. Dating required money. How much did Wen Shuang make a month? After thinking for a moment, Xuan Zhe mentally slapped two labels onto Wen Shuang, who was wolfing down his food across from him: pitiful!

"Starting next month, I'm giving you a raise." Xuan Zhe took a sip of lemon tea, found it unbearably sweet, and asked a passing waiter to replace it with plain water.

Wen Shuang was so stunned by the pie falling from the sky that stars danced before his eyes. "Huh?" Why had a raise suddenly come up out of nowhere?

"No, why would you give me a raise for no reason?" Wen Shuang asked uneasily. "I don't deserve it."

Right. Xuan Zhe figured that since this man had turned over a new leaf, he certainly would not accept handouts. So he made something up. "Help translate some things. Consider it a bonus."

Wen Shuang beamed. "No problem!"

Wen Shuang paid after the meal. It had cost over two hundred yuan, but after the discounts, it came to one hundred and fifty. The young man was delighted, as if he had gotten away with some enormous bargain, unaware that Xuan Zhe was already deeply worried about his living situation.

Forgive this utterly out-of-touch domineering CEO. He was not showing off; he genuinely did not understand.

The cinema was not far away, so the two walked there to digest their food. Their striking appearances drew frequent looks from passersby. Two young girls holding ice cream cones passed by them. "Hey! Doesn't that guy in white look like Wen Shuang?"

"Really? Really?"

Wen Shuang's sharp ears caught it. Before they could react, he grabbed Xuan Zhe by the wrist and dashed up the steps. Luckily, President Xuan had excellent balance, or he would definitely have taken a fall today.

Xuan Zhe did not blame Wen Shuang. All he thought was, He really does like me. Even in danger, he didn't leave me behind.

"Didn't Zhu Lian teach you how to disguise yourself when you go out?" Xuan Zhe asked.

"Do I need a disguise?" Wen Shuang panted as he took out his phone and scanned the code to redeem their tickets. "I'm just a washed-up nobody."

Xuan Zhe could hardly stand to look at him. This man really paid no attention at all to his online presence. Zhu Lian had opened a Weibo account under Wen Shuang's name, and the follower count had been skyrocketing every day. Cao Nanyu had mentioned it yesterday morning—three million followers. What did that mean? Wen Shuang had appeared on screen for less than half an hour in total, yet even if he had been selling his looks, those numbers were terrifying.

It was bizarre, too. While Wen Shuang went to buy cola and popcorn, Xuan Zhe's phone chimed twice. "Wen Shuang's" Weibo had updated. "He" had followed Jiang Ning. This was the first official interaction between the couple since their CP marketing began, and almost half a minute later, Jiang Ning followed back.

[Holy hell! Those two men just made it official!]

The huge words practically stabbed President Xuan in the eyes.

Xuan Zhe frowned fiercely, tightening his grip on his phone as he immediately sent Zhu Lian a WeChat message: What have you been messing around with under Wen Shuang's name all day?

When Zhu Lian received the message, she was in the middle of scolding a rookie under her wing, spraying spit everywhere. Then she immediately straightened up as though Xuan Zhe were standing right in front of her. Her face lit up with springtime delight, just like those girls obsessed with shipping CPs. After squealing internally for a while, Zhu Lian typed: President Xuan, this was arranged with Jiang Ning's side and the production team. Wen Shuang still has to attend recording next week, after all.

Xuan Zhe: Give the Weibo account to Wen Shuang to manage himself later.

And this would become one of Xuan Zhe's greatest regrets!

Zhu Lian was clever enough to understand why President Xuan had suddenly brought her up. Jealous men were the cutest!

"Here, here." Wen Shuang had Xuan Zhe hold the popcorn while he hugged two cups of cola and rushed toward the ticket checkpoint. "Hurry up, we only have three minutes."

Compared with the sci-fi film next door, the horror movie was clearly much less popular. When Wen Shuang and Xuan Zhe entered, only the seats in the back were somewhat occupied. They found their seats in the middle of the fifth row. Seeing no one around them, Wen Shuang was extremely satisfied.

"Put these on." Wen Shuang pulled out a pair of black glasses from his pocket and handed them to Xuan Zhe.

Xuan Zhe understood. "3D?"

"Yep." Wen Shuang blinked slyly. "Don't tell me you're scared?"

"What are you thinking?" Xuan Zhe put them on.

The movie began with an eerie atmosphere. Since it was hot out, Wen Shuang had bought iced cola, but after only a few minutes, he could not drink it anymore. Xuan Zhe, meanwhile, looked perfectly at ease. Even the way he sipped through the straw seemed especially refined. Then a ghostly face suddenly appeared, and some heroic lady in the back let out an earthshaking scream, startling Wen Shuang into jerking as well.

Xuan Zhe leaned slightly closer, his voice low with a faint trace of amusement. "Scared?"

"No!" Wen Shuang stubbornly denied it. "I watched horror movies all the time in college!" It was just that while watching, he needed to play Makkapakka on his phone for a while to make sure he was still in this warm human world.

Yet this was Xuan Zhe's first time watching one. Under his elite education, there had never been such a thing as relaxing with horror movies. Besides, his starting point was too high; he did not believe in any of this stuff at all. Once the initial shock passed, he only found the ghostly faces ugly and unpleasant to look at.

As the plot progressed, while everyone else was scared half to death by the ghost faces and startling effects, Xuan Zhe was already calmly analyzing the story. He leaned closer again and spoke quietly. "Do you know who the mastermind is?"

Wen Shuang trembled. "A ghost?"

"..." Xuan Zhe said helplessly, "What Chinese horror movie has ghosts? It's human-made."

"Who is it, then?"

"That most inconspicuous old woman tending the fire. People can't see supernatural scenes while fully conscious, and if so many people see them together, they most likely hallucinated. The old woman must have tampered with their food, because she prepared all three meals. Her limp is just camouflage to make herself seem weak. Earlier, they said her son died young, and Master Chen beat a teenage boy to death ten years ago. Put those together."

Wen Shuang: "..." Did this old man seriously analyze it?

So annoying!

It felt exactly like being spoiled!

Wen Shuang took a deep breath. "President Xuan, aren't you scared at all? This... Aahhh!!!" A sudden ghost face made Wen Shuang and the heroic lady behind him scream together, and then the entire theater erupted in shrieks.

Xuan Zhe stared at the movie screen for two seconds. He could see mouths moving but could not hear anything. Great. He had gone deaf.

Xuan Zhe leaned to the other side, too lazy to deal with these lunatics.

The final revelation matched Xuan Zhe's prediction exactly. It was all the old woman tending the fire's revenge.

"But that doesn't make sense." Wen Shuang suddenly leaned over and asked softly, "How do you explain the eldest miss's personality being so inconsistent before and after?"

By now, Xuan Zhe's hearing had returned. He answered lazily, "Dissociative identity disorder."

The moment the psychologist appeared, Wen Shuang found the rest utterly dull. What trash was this? Xuan Zhe had guessed everything!

Even so, when they left the theater, Wen Shuang's back was drenched in cold sweat. Even knowing it had all been human-made, the atmosphere had been so effective that not being scared was impossible.

Xuan Zhe glanced sideways at the young man and suddenly said, "Actually, I think this movie has one good point. When the butler was hanged, the people next door could hear his toes hitting the wall. If you lived alone, just imagining that would... Oh, right. You do live alone. Never mind."

Wen Shuang: "..." You already said it all!

After Xuan Zhe's reminder, Wen Shuang felt awful all over. Xuan Zhe treated him to dinner that evening. It was at the aquarium-themed restaurant where they had met Dilanda last time. The great white shark beneath their feet was still swimming freely, and Wen Shuang was miserable. What kind of date was this? First, a horror movie scared him half to death, and now he had to tremble on top of glass afterward.

This sort of venue was Xuan Zhe's territory, so naturally they ran into acquaintances. Wen Shuang was startled when he saw Lei Wenxu, and when he spotted Yu Feng behind him, he froze completely.

Yu Feng was vastly different from when they had last met. His former gloom and dejection had vanished. The turnaround in his career had put a spring in his step. Dressed in a black suit, he did not look inferior even standing beside Lei Wenxu.

"President Xuan." Lei Wenxu had been getting along well with Jiang Suqing lately, so naturally he could speak with Xuan Zhe too. He discreetly sized Xuan Zhe up. This was the first time he had seen the man dressed like this—casual clothes that made him look several years younger. Then he looked at Wen Shuang, whose style matched Xuan Zhe's well, and smiled. "You two... am I interrupting something?"

"No," Xuan Zhe said calmly.

Yu Feng's expression darkened slightly. He stepped aside and gave Wen Shuang a look. Wen Shuang understood and went over to him.

Xuan Zhe and Lei Wenxu saw their little exchange perfectly clearly, but neither exposed it.

"You!" Yu Feng wanted to curse, but held back because this was not the place. "Is your old habit acting up again? Are you playing a big game this time? Do you know who Xuan Zhe is? Be careful, or there won't even be a body left for you afterward!" Yu Feng thought Wen Shuang had seduced Xuan Zhe by any means necessary.

Wen Shuang understood what Yu Feng meant, and warmth rose in his heart. He explained quietly, "It's not what you think..."

Lei Wenxu glanced over there. "So President Xuan brought his subordinate out to eat?"

Xuan Zhe said flatly, "No. Wen Shuang is pursuing me." He always had to say it again and again with an air of calm indifference, completely unconcerned with how infuriating it was.

Lei Wenxu: "..." His surname suited him quite well.

Yu Feng wanted to say more, but Wen Shuang accidentally caught sight of cracks appearing in the glass beneath Xuan Zhe's feet. The fissures gradually widened and spread, bursting like shattered snowflakes! And that great white shark was swimming over, its tail swishing.

"Xuan Zhe!" Wen Shuang suddenly roared, feeling all the blood in his body turn cold! He rushed forward without a thought and shoved Xuan Zhe away first.

The violent movement frightened Lei Wenxu, who had no idea what was going on, into backing away repeatedly.

A cannonball of a person crashed into his arms, and Xuan Zhe caught him steadily. He had noticed that the young man had been startling at every little thing lately. Looking around, he saw nothing at all.

"What's wrong?" Xuan Zhe gently patted Wen Shuang's shoulder, as if afraid of startling him.

"It cracked!" Wen Shuang said with difficulty. "The floor cracked!"

Xuan Zhe: "..."

"That's a special effect," Xuan Zhe said deeply, with an inexplicable soothing quality in his voice.

Wen Shuang froze, then stiffly turned his head. The floor was as smooth and pristine as ever. Where were any cracks?

Does he really like me that much? Xuan Zhe's eyes shifted slightly.

Wen Shuang had embarrassed himself so badly that he did not dare look at Yu Feng or Lei Wenxu. Instinctively seeking safety, he buried his head back in Xuan Zhe's arms and muttered, "My heart is going to give out sooner or later." It had already been through so much today!

A smile curved Xuan Zhe's lips. "I'm here. It won't give out."

Lei Wenxu narrowed his eyes at the scene, his tone melancholy. "President Yu, should we eat somewhere else?"

Yu Feng also wore an indescribable expression. "I'm full. How about we just drink?"

Lei Wenxu said, "Good idea."