Chapter 30

Zhou Jingcheng:?

He asked, "Do you also have a need to be walked?"

Shi Jihan glared at him with his dark eyes until Zhou Jingcheng fell silent, then continued, "I heard a pet-friendly amusement park is holding a carnival lately. There's still time to grab tickets." He poked Zhou Jingcheng. "Xiao Zhou, take me with you."

Zhou Jingcheng knew about the carnival. One of the celebrities under his management had even been officially invited to make an appearance.

But wasn't that the kind of place friends, family, and... couples went?

Shi Jihan was inviting him there?

Zhou Jingcheng rubbed his fingertips against the wall of his cup and paused, seemingly searching for the right words. "Just the two of us?"

Shi Jihan said, "? Who else would it be?"

With four people, it would be even more crowded.

It would be hard to cut up, too.

Zhou Jingcheng lowered his gaze, his fingers curling slightly around the cup as he quietly listened to his own heartbeat for a moment.

"Sure," he said. "If you want to go, I'll get the tickets."

The little guy wanted to ask him out.

Then... he would reluctantly go along with it.

Chapter 30

Shi Jihan's problem was solved. Delighted, he told Zhou Jingcheng, "Wait a sec," then pattered upstairs and pattered back down, carrying a little box. He rummaged through it and pulled out a Band-Aid.

Before Zhou Jingcheng could get a good look, Shi Jihan slapped it onto the wound on his cheekbone.

Shi Jihan examined it for a few seconds, then nodded with certainty. "Mm, it suits you."

Zhou Zeyang looked over at that and instantly burst out laughing.

Confused, Zhou Jingcheng picked up his phone and took a look.

He saw the Band-Aid covered in bows and Kuromi.

Zhou Jingcheng: "..."

A dignified, aloof Buddhist prince of Beijing's elite circles could not wear that.

He raised a hand to tear it off.

"Hey, hey, hey, don't peel it off. This thing was expensive," Shi Jihan stopped him. "It was fashionable little trash bundled in with the merch I bought."

Zhou Jingcheng looked at the box in Shi Jihan's hands. Besides the newly opened Band-Aids, it contained all kinds of plastic cards and a pile of nameless junk that looked like it belonged in a trash can. "Shi Jihan, do you collect scraps for a living?"

Thinking of how his merch was always bundled up like a tied crab, Shi Jihan said mournfully, "What's that? I once got bundled with a secondhand rice cooker that cost a fortune."

Zhou Jingcheng:?

"With such a charitable heart," he said, "why not donate some to me?"

Shi Jihan said, "At least I can get a badge from the rice cooker. What would I get from donating it to you?"

Zhou Jingcheng replied earnestly, "A few lessons."

Shi Jihan waved a fist at him threateningly.

After finishing his cake, Shen Qinghuai took out his phone and asked them, "Do you want anything else for afternoon tea? I can order delivery while I'm at it."

Shi Jihan and Zhou Zeyang said in unison, "Yes!"

Shen Qinghuai ordered seven or eight deliveries for everyone. They sat in a circle in the living room, turned on the massive projector, and watched a movie. The afternoon was spent happily and productively.

Life needed moments like this, wasted in idleness.

As he was leaving, Zhou Jingcheng suddenly remembered something. "Why did we gather here today?"

Shi Jihan thought about it. "Hm? I think it was for Second Brother's welcome party."

Zhou Jingcheng asked the question from the depths of his soul. "Then where's your Second Brother?"

Oh, right. Where was Shi Zhongye?

Everyone went from shocked to startled to helpless, their faces full of guilt.

Shi Jihan pursed his lips in a shy smile. "Second Brother has always lived in our hearts."

Shi Bochuan immediately stopped feeling guilty and gave his third brother a thumbs-up. "Bro, you really know how to comfort people."

Zhou Jingcheng's mouth twitched. He could already imagine Shi Zhongye's future days. They were sure to be extraordinarily vibrant, with every one of his emotions toyed with by the Shi Family's absurdists.

He looked up at the giant poster of Shi Zhongye smiling.

Thought your smile looked good? Don't worry. Soon enough, it would just look funny.

Just as he was gloating, someone tugged at the hem of his clothes.

Shi Jihan leaned his head close to Zhou Jingcheng's and poked him with his index finger as he reminded him, "Don't forget to pick me up tomorrow."

And, "You absolutely, absolutely have to bring Pizza."

Looking at the face so close to his, Zhou Jingcheng awkwardly tilted his head to the side and agreed. "All right."

Did he really want to go out with him that badly?

He had even reminded him twice.

Mm, then he should take it seriously too.

After leaving the Shi Family residence, Zhou Zeyang watched his brother go into his bedroom and not come out again until bedtime.

Confused, he knocked on the door and pushed it open to take a look. He found his brother sitting on the sofa opposite the bed, legs crossed, elbows braced on his thighs, staring straight ahead in deep thought.

He thought his brother had encountered a business setback and was just about to offer some comfort—"It's okay if you can't make money; it's already great that you're still alive and breathing"—when he turned and saw dozens of outfits on the bed and a row of shoes on the floor.

"Zhou Zeyang," Zhou Jingcheng called, tapping his chin with a fingertip. "What outfit do you think I should wear to the amusement park tomorrow? I need matching shoes too."

What an enormous problem.

The troubles

of a domineering CEO.

Zhou Zeyang could not understand this kind of trouble. "Just pick any set."

Zhou Jingcheng gave him a cool glance, his eyes full of disdain. "How did I end up with such an aesthetically challenged little brother?"

Zhou Zeyang offered another suggestion. "Then put them all on, take one piece off every minute, and give Xiaohan a hot striptease."

The slipper on his brother's foot immediately came flying at him.

Zhou Zeyang quickly shut the door and activated his evasion skill: XD

There was no other reason. He was simply well-practiced.

After spending all night picking and choosing, Zhou Jingcheng went to pick up Shi Jihan the next day with Pizza.

The moment Shi Jihan opened the car door, the sunglasses blinded him.

He hurriedly shut the door. "Sorry, wrong car."

Three seconds later, he opened it again. He looked at Pizza in the passenger seat, enthusiastically barking werwerwer at him, then looked at the man taking off his sunglasses by hooking a finger around one temple.

Behind the lenses, those familiar phoenix eyes were revealed. The man lifted the corner of his eyes at him. "Get in."

After Shi Jihan climbed into the car with Pizza in his arms, he still had not quite recovered. He stared fixedly at Zhou Jingcheng's profile.

Because Dianjia Bro's outfit today was genuinely gorgeous, and very different from usual.

He was still wearing a shirt, but the style had changed dramatically. The asymmetrical cut gave the black collared shirt a striking sense of design. Subtle patterns threaded with silver lines slashed diagonally across it, while the brooch on his left chest hung with several fine chains of varying lengths. Every link had been polished sharp as a blade, reflecting a cold metallic gleam.

Zhou Jingcheng had a high nose bridge, deep and sharp features, and a smooth jawline. When he sat there without speaking, he somehow gave off a detached, indifferent air.

Especially today, dressed all in black, he seemed even colder.

Shi Jihan lowered his head to look at his own colorful dopamine outfit, as though he had been splashed with buckets of paint, then looked back at him.

A walking color palette and the black shadow behind it. Confirmed.

All of Dianjia Bro's paint had apparently been stolen and dumped onto him.

At first, Zhou Jingcheng pretended nothing was wrong and handed him a bottle of iced water. But after a while, he could no longer endure Shi Jihan's gaze and put the sunglasses he had removed onto Shi Jihan's face. "Stop staring. What are you looking at?"

With more than half his face covered by the sunglasses, Shi Jihan pushed them up and said slowly, "I'm checking whether the sun rose in the west."

Zhou Jingcheng curled his lips. "How absurd. If Newton heard that, he'd flip open his coffin lid, turn it into a glider, and fly over to beat you up."

Shi Jihan could not tell who was more absurd, so he asked, "Why aren't you wearing your beloved authentic suit today?"

"I'm not a real estate agent going out to entertain clients. Why would I dress so businesslike?" Zhou Jingcheng said. "An outfit should match the atmosphere of the amusement park."

Shi Jihan clicked his tongue and said to Zero-Zero-Zero, [Miracle Zhou Zhou. Does this count as expanding Dianjia Bro's wardrobe?]

Before Zero-Zero-Zero could respond, the ignored Pizza shoved hard against his chest in dissatisfaction and licked him. "Werwerwerwerwer!"

Shi Jihan wiped off Pizza's drool. "Don't rush, don't rush. Pizza has pretty clothes too."

Zhou Jingcheng was driving, but he glanced sideways at Shi Jihan as he pulled out a canvas bag. He had wanted to ask earlier what was inside it. The bag was stuffed full.

Then he watched Shi Jihan pull out a voluminous long curly wig with an astonishing amount of hair.

Zhou Jingcheng:?

What the hell was that?

Shi Jihan rummaged some more and pulled out a pet parody version of an emperor's robes, with two little hands tucked inside. There was even a sign on its chest: What crime have I committed?

Shi Jihan put the robes on Pizza. Pizza's head poked out from the collar, while his two front paws emerged from the trouser legs of the outfit.

Mm, now he was a big-haired emperor with his paws tucked in.

The luxury car traced a small S across the road.

The surrounding drivers were scared out of their wits and hurriedly avoided this walking liability.

Zhou Jingcheng asked, "What are you doing?"

"Can't you tell?" Shi Jihan replied. "I'm crowning the Beagle Emperor."

That was exactly why he was asking.

Zhou Jingcheng could not imagine what sort of mental state was required to dress up an emperor Beagle in such a bizarre blend of tacky and fashionable styles.

Shi Jihan turned Pizza around and examined him from behind.

Mm, the effect was good. He was the perfect back-view heartthrob.

He took a photo and sent it to the photographer he had hired. "Remember this silhouette. Take as many pictures as you can, close-ups too. But they have to be extremely blurry close-ups."

The photographer who received the request thought, Extremely blurry close-ups? The photography world's colorful black?

He sent an okay to this slightly unhinged employer, then turned to his roommate. "Bro, lend me your Nikon."

A background sharp as a blade, with the subject melting away like cream.

For such a request, only Nikon would do.

-

They soon arrived at the amusement park.

The summer heat had eased a little by evening. The dopamine paint bucket had struck again, this time splashing orange-red into the clouds and bleeding into a gradient honey color, like caramel melting in the oven.