Chapter 13

His pathetic, cowardly look was practically a one-to-one copy of 000.

Shen Qinghuai entered the project team right after him.

It had been a temporary team to begin with, and now that the project was over, everyone should return to their respective positions. When Shi Jihan entered, he heard them discussing where to gather for dinner over the weekend.

"How about hotpot? A new place opened nearby, and it's fifteen percent off."

"I'd rather have barbecue. Pork belly sizzling with grease, wrapped in lettuce—damn delicious!"

"I'm fine with anything, as long as the desserts are good."

"Then let's have a buffet. That'll satisfy everyone. What do you think, Brother Huai?" Xu Zhiman asked Shen Qinghuai as he walked in. Seeing Shi Jihan behind him, he awkwardly added, "What about you, Carb Master? What do you want to eat?"

Shi Jihan's mouth twitched. "How about you eat one of my fists first?"

A girl in the group wearing Lolita fashion said, "When are we going? Saturday won't work for me. I booked a cosplay commission."

"What's a cosplay commission?" No one present had heard the term, so Xu Zhiman asked on everyone's behalf.

The girl explained, "You hire someone to dress up as a character you like and spend a day dating you. You can think of it as roleplaying a romance. They have to look as close as possible to the person you like."

Shi Jihan's eyes lit up. [000!]

000 instantly understood. [White Moonlight! Host, our mission can still be saved!]

Something like acting naturally had to be left to professionals. Posting a commission was perfect. How was cosplaying White Moonlight not cosplay? He could find a professional young actor with solid acting skills.

Shi Jihan felt like he had found a lead. He immediately sat down at his workstation and posted a casting notice. The main requirements were a barefoot height over 180 cm, handsome looks, good temperament, and acting ability. The fee was negotiable.

He had even thought up the character setting for him: Shi Bochuan's high school classmate. A White Moonlight from their school days would be even more lethal.

000 was faintly worried. [But your eldest brother doesn't know this White Moonlight. What then?]

Shi Jihan looked down on it. [Isn't that easy? You call yourself a novel system, and yet? We'll just have him say—]

He cleared his throat and began acting it out in his head, full of tender passion and misty tears, complete with an English-style dramatic lilt. [Ah, Bochuan~ Back then, your acting when covering up your puppy love was much better than your current act of pretending not to know me. But you still refuse to acknowledge me, and it hurts me so much~ Look, taste it—the tears falling from the corners of my eyes for you are all salty!]

000 was speechless. [Host, I think you just have too much free time.]

Shi Jihan got angry. [Shut up. Isn't this all your fault?]

It didn't matter whether Shi Bochuan believed it. As long as Shen Qinghuai did, that was enough.

A fabricated romance, performed until you cried.

"...This is still so deranged." Shi Jihan wiped his face.

With a ding, a little red dot appeared on his message notifications. He hurriedly opened his direct messages.

The other party readily sent over a selfie and a medical report showing he was 183 cm tall.

Shi Jihan chatted with him for a while and found him highly professional and possessed of proper work ethics. He immediately drafted a thousand-word script outline and sent it over, carefully instructing him, [Act according to this.]

After reading the script and lines Shi Jihan had sent, the other party fell silent for ten minutes. Just when Shi Jihan thought the deal had fallen through, he finally replied slowly, [Okay, boss. I'll strictly follow the character setting.]

After replying, Zhou Zeyang stared at his phone and muttered, "This boss would probably have a lot to talk about with my brother's friend who loves being the shared substitute at aristocratic academies."

A dog's head stretched over, and he shoved it away. "Wait until I make some money and move out of here. Then I'll never help my brother look after you again!"

The Beagle knew this low-ranking poop-scooper was looking down on him. After a second of silence, he barked, "Werwerwerwerwer!"

A Beagle is a fine Beagle! Hurry up and say I'm good at everything! Say it already!

Amid the 3D surround sound, Zhou Zeyang calmly put on his headphones. After thinking it over, he still couldn't resist changing his new boss's name.

[Tacky-Kiss Machine]

He only had one concern now.

If he followed the script, would his boss's brother really not slap him twice and throw him out?

Should he buy insurance first?

Chapter 13

Shi Bochuan rarely slept well that day.

For once, there was no Instant-Noodle Octopus strangling him in his dreams, nor was Hamburger Hero shouting "rnm give me my money back" through a loudspeaker before sitting on him and flattening him into an Angus beef patty.

Still, his eyelid twitched badly when he got up. He felt that the past few days had been too comfortable, too pleasant, and it made him uneasy. After thinking for a long time, he found the root of the problem. "Has Third Brother been a little too quiet lately?"

When a kid went quiet, it was honestly terrifying.

Shen Qinghuai was still half-asleep and mumbled, "Maybe he got promoted after the project ended, so he has more work."

It wasn't just Shi Jihan who had been promoted. Everyone in the project team had either received a promotion or a raise. Shen Qinghuai himself had also been promoted to design director. No one thought he had gotten there through connections; everyone sincerely congratulated him. Despite his busy schedule, Shi Bochuan had even specially booked a revolving restaurant, where they celebrated Shen Qinghuai's promotion with a romantic candlelit dinner.

Thinking of that, warmth rose in Shen Qinghuai's heart. He slowly moved closer to his husband, like a shy snail gradually extending its feelers. He gently hugged Shi Bochuan and raised his neck.

He looked exactly like he was asking for a kiss.

It was an action he had never dared to imagine, much less do.

He felt Shi Bochuan's breathing draw closer and closer, his eyelashes trembling nonstop.

Then Shi Bochuan stopped.

"A-Huai..." He hesitated, then lightly poked his wife.

"There seems to be some eye gunk at the corner of your eye."

One second. Two seconds.

Shen Qinghuai suddenly opened his eyes, flames blazing from those clear eyes as though he wanted to burn Shi Bochuan's entire family to ashes and scatter them across the fields.

His face flushed all the way to his neck as he threw back the covers. "I'm going to wash up!"

Shi Bochuan tried to pull him back to sleep a little longer, but Shen Qinghuai smacked the back of his hand away.

Shen Qinghuai washed his face for ten minutes. Only after scrubbing off a layer of skin did he go downstairs for breakfast.

Shi Bochuan pulled out the chair beside him. "A-Huai, sit here."

Shen Qinghuai went straight around him and sat beside Shi Jihan.

Shi Jihan jolted in fright and hurriedly flipped his phone face-down on the table. With an awkward laugh, he said, "Ahahaha, morning, Brother Huai."

"Morning." Shen Qinghuai inadvertently glanced at it. It seemed to be a photo-editing page, a large group photo with many people in it.

Only after seeing that Shen Qinghuai had not noticed anything unusual did Shi Jihan breathe a sigh of relief. He had just been fabricating evidence of White Moonlight's existence, photoshopping someone into Shi Bochuan's high school group photo.

With Shen Qinghuai here, he didn't dare continue. He obediently lowered his head and drank his porridge.

Shen Qinghuai looked at Shi Bochuan across from him, who was completely out of the loop and innocently met his gaze, and his anger flared again. This time, he dragged Shi Jihan into it. "Xiaohan, if someone said you had eye gunk in the corner of your eye, how would you respond?"

Shi Jihan answered instantly, "You like it? I'll share some with you."

Shen Qinghuai nodded thoughtfully. "Learned it."

If only his brain could work that fast. It would be nice to live as sharply tongued as Xiaohan.

Shi Bochuan was at a loss. "You shouldn't... learn everything..."

When they finished eating and were about to leave for work, Shi Jihan told them, "I have something to do today, so I took leave. Big Brother, remember to approve my leave request. I'll join you for lunch at noon."

Once he had sent the two of them off, he hurriedly began photoshopping.

It was his first time doing this, so he wasn't very good at it. He moved Zhou Zeyang's oversized head around with his finger, rolling it this way and that.

After finally photoshopping the head onto someone else's body, he wondered whether he should make the guy look a little more handsome.

He said, "If we're making him suffer this kind of psychological torment, we should at least provide some emotional value. Let the young actor know that we care about him."

000 praised him. [Host, you've thought this through!]

As he edited, Shi Jihan said, "I think this guy looks a little familiar."

000 stared for a while. [He kind of looks like a younger version of Dianjia Bro... Handsome guys really do resemble each other.]

Shi Jihan pressed his lips together, instinctively wanting to reply, "Him? Handsome?"

In the end, he couldn't bring himself to say it against his conscience.

Zhou Jingcheng... was indeed pretty handsome.

That guy knew he was handsome too, and he was good at dressing himself up.

Even in a suit, he had to wear the whole set—watch, cufflinks, brooch, tie clip. He was like some flamboyant peacock.

Shi Jihan imagined a peacock spreading its tail, then turning around to reveal a bare, featherless butt. He burst out laughing and collapsed onto the sofa, unable to stop.

He sent the edited graduation photo to the young actor, then sent him the restaurant address and time for lunch, reminding him to make sure he brought the props.

[We're not doing anything else today. Just make yourself familiar to them first. I have my own arrangements for what comes next.]

Zhou Zeyang was playing a game. The moment he saw his boss's message, he replied, [Yangzi Fried Rice: Okay, boss [Samoyed smile]]

The restaurant wasn't far from his brother's company either. He could go over and shamelessly mooch some afternoon tea afterward.

His game match happened to start, so he jumped straight in. He charged through the canyon's rapids, fighting bravely and fiercely, without looking at the photo at all.

Then he lost and started another round.

He lost again.

Zhou Zeyang sat up in one motion from the floor.

One more hundred million rounds!

After getting worked up, he stopped noticing any of the messages his boss sent.

Meanwhile, Shi Jihan had already arrived at the restaurant. Shi Bochuan and Shen Qinghuai were ordering in the private room, and the atmosphere between them was a little strange. They looked like they had just argued.

Caught in that atmosphere, Shi Jihan felt like his chair was burning his ass. The messages he sent the young actor had vanished without a trace, and he couldn't sit still anymore. Saying he needed to use the restroom, he went in, shut the door, and sent a barrage of sixty-second voice messages to urge him like his life depended on it.

Bro, please, hurry up and get here!

Do you know how I survived those few minutes without any news from you? The tripe had already swum three laps in the hotpot!

Zhou Jingcheng had originally booked a restaurant near his company that day to discuss an acquisition deal with a client. Halfway through, he stepped out to take a call.

Everything had been fine, but the spot where he took the call was too close to the restroom. Someone inside was chattering away, and he couldn't make out what they were saying through the door, only that it was noisy.

The person on the other end couldn't hear clearly either. Every sentence had to be followed by three questions: "What, President Zhou?" "What did you say after that?" "There's too much background noise on your end."