Chapter 27

Secretary Sun thought, What if you ran into the person inside? Could your fragile heart handle that? I'm doing this for your own good. "No."

Pei Mingxuan sneered. "What? Afraid I'll smash up his office?" As he spoke, he tried to force his way in.

Secretary Sun braced himself against the door. "Absolutely not! There's an important meeting going on inside!"

"What meeting could be more important than my PR crisis?" Pei Mingxuan shoved Secretary Sun aside. "Today, I'm definitely going to—"

The door suddenly opened, and he met Shi Jihan's eyes as Shi Jihan was about to leave.

Pei Mingxuan: "..."

He clutched his racing heart, staggered back three steps, and pointed at that face with a trembling voice. "Y-you, why are you here?"

[ Ding, Malice Points +1.54 ]

Secretary Sun glanced at him. See? I told you not to go in, but you insisted.

Shi Jihan's eyes lit up. "Oh, it's you."

Oh-ho, isn't this Mr. High-Frequency Malice Point Emitter?

Was this targeted poverty alleviation? He had come to give him money?

Before Pei Mingxuan could figure out why this devil, Shi Jihan, was at Universe Culture, he saw a second person appear in the open office doorway.

Zhou Jingcheng slapped a stack of A4 paper onto Shi Jihan's head, his tone drifting. "Eight thousand words. Finished. Here."

He looked as if his very essence had been drained dry.

Shi Jihan took it and clicked his tongue. "Too little, but whatever. This is enough for today."

He still had to turn it in tonight.

This time, nothing could go wrong again!

Pei Mingxuan looked at him, then at Zhou Jingcheng, who was silently twitching at the corner of his mouth, and a thought suddenly sprang into his mind.

"Fine, so you two made me part of your play, huh?"

Pei Mingxuan finally got it. He had completely achieved enlightenment.

These two bastard men were in cahoots!

"You two." He pointed at Shi Jihan. "One of you set me up in public and ruined my reputation." Then he pointed at Zhou Jingcheng, advancing step by step. "And the other manipulated things behind the scenes to get me permanently trending, right?!"

Shi Jihan muttered to himself, What kind of nonsense was that? If he wasn't permanently trending, did he think he could get into the random UP pool? Getting picked then wouldn't be luck—it would be bad luck.

He spread his hands, perfectly justified. "Where's the evidence?"

Behind him, Zhou Jingcheng spread his hands too, equally justified. "Where's the evidence?"

Their identical copy-paste response made Pei Mingxuan so furious he nearly keeled over. He pulled out his phone and turned on the recording, aiming the camera at them. "Say all that again if you dare! I'm recording this and posting it online!"

Damn it, they were too arrogant.

Zhou Jingcheng lounged against the doorframe, not taking Pei Mingxuan's words seriously in the slightest. With his arms folded, he said unhurriedly, "My company spent its own money to make him a top star, and you're saying I bought negative trending topics about him? Who would believe that?"

Shi Jihan leaned against the doorframe with one foot touching the ground, arms folded and chin raised. "Exactly. Who would believe that?"

The two stood neatly at the doorframe, one tall and one short. Even the emotional pie charts in their eyes were identical—utterly disdainful and mocking.

Bastard men! Bastard men! Pei Mingxuan raged helplessly. "Did you two click +1 behind each other's bullet comments or something? Can't you think independently? Are you just parrots?"

[ Ding, Malice Points +1.48 ]

That did not hurt Shi Jihan in the least. Listening to the pleasant chime in his ear, he shook his head vigorously. "No no no. You saw right through my essence at a glance. Whenever I see a joke online, I only know how to copy it. I can't produce thoughts of my own. I don't produce garbage. I'm just a transporter of garbage."

Zhou Jingcheng smiled, finding him adorable. He liked that little bit of irritating struggle in him. But after smiling, he realized something was off. He lowered his eyes to look at him, openly demanding, "I'm garbage?"

Shi Jihan sighed. "Xiao Zhou, if that's how you want to think, there's nothing I can do."

Zhou Jingcheng: "..."

Looking at Shi Jihan's round little back of the head, his hands itched a little.

[ Ding, Malice Points +2 ]

"You two are actually chatting now?" Pei Mingxuan was so angry he lost control of his expression. "Is anyone even paying attention to me?" He reached out and grabbed Shi Jihan directly.

Shi Jihan was still leaning against the doorframe on one foot, trying to look cool. When Pei Mingxuan grabbed him hard, he lost his balance and pitched forward.

"What are you doing? Hey!"

He flailed a few times as the whole world tilted. Just as he was about to hit the floor, his first thought was that he had forgotten to buy insurance for his face.

He couldn't be disfigured, ahhh—huh?

A force caught him around the waist, suspending him in midair for several seconds before pulling him back against gravity. His back crashed heavily into stiff suit fabric, and another hand steadied his shoulder, holding him firmly in place.

Shi Jihan caught the bitter scent of rum and tobacco mixed together again. This time, however, there was also the smell of printer ink, lightly brushing against his nose in the air-conditioning breeze.

Zhou Jingcheng had pulled him entirely into his arms.

He could feel the force of the other man's grip around his waist, hard knuckles holding his side. Zhou Jingcheng's body was cool from being in the air-conditioned room for so long, yet it made Shi Jihan shrink back as if burned.

He shifted awkwardly.

Zhou Jingcheng did not let go of him immediately. Instead, he looked at Pei Mingxuan, who had released Shi Jihan in fright. His phoenix eyes were dark and devoid of amusement, black as ink. "Pei Mingxuan, have you had enough?"

He was angry.

Shi Jihan seemed to sense that signal.

But he had no time to care about it.

Because they were too close.

Zhou Jingcheng's breathing, so close at hand, brushed against the side of his neck. Even the faint tremor of his chest when he spoke traveled through Shi Jihan's back.

Shi Jihan could not help pushing him, signaling for him to let go.

Xiao Zhou, no more repaying favors. Let him go already.

Zhou Jingcheng obediently released the hand around his waist, but he did not remove the hand pressing down on his shoulder. Using their height difference, he looked coldly at Pei Mingxuan from behind Shi Jihan.

Pei Mingxuan was clearly frightened by his gaze. He waved his hands and backed away repeatedly, no longer recording. "No, I didn't."

Zhou Jingcheng smiled without smiling, the end of his tone rising. "You haven't had enough?" No emotion could be heard in his voice.

Pei Mingxuan had never seen him like this. Zhou Jingcheng rarely showed this oppressive side of himself. Only then did Pei Mingxuan suddenly realize that his boss was a man who had taken over an entertainment empire before turning thirty and increased Universe's market value twentyfold.

Even his voice trembled, completely unlike his earlier arrogance. "I-I've had enough..." His voice grew quieter and quieter.

The air froze for a second.

Zhou Jingcheng said coldly, "Then get lost."

As Pei Mingxuan fled in a miserable scramble, Zhou Jingcheng swept his gaze around the area.

The employees he looked at all lowered their heads, not daring to meet his eyes. They pretended to be busy, looking at their noses and minds.

Mm-hmm, they were all concentrating on work. They definitely were not listening to gossip.

...Good heavens, an angry boss was terrifying.

The entire floor was so quiet that a pin drop could be heard.

Seeing that things had turned bad, Secretary Sun had slipped away long ago to who knew where.

Only the two of them remained.

Zhou Jingcheng said, "I was wondering why you couldn't even stand properly."

Shi Jihan turned around excitedly. "Holy crap, Xiao Zhou! You were so cool just now!"

Their words came out at the same time.

When Shi Jihan turned around, he knocked into Zhou Jingcheng's chin.

Zhou Jingcheng, who had been speaking, bit his lip at once.

"Hiss..." He frowned and inhaled sharply, his tongue tasting a hint of rust.

He wiped it with his index finger, and sure enough, red stained his fingertip.

Zhou Jingcheng thrust his finger right in front of Shi Jihan's face for him to see. "Second time. You hit me again."

And this time was different. "This counts as a workplace injury. I was injured during your employment." His gaze stayed fixed on the stack of eight thousand words Shi Jihan had yet to put away, clearly meaning: See? Physical evidence. Don't even think about denying it.

"Then... sorry." Shi Jihan looked up, carefully studying the cut at the corner of his mouth as he chose his words cautiously. "I'll buy you ice cream as compensation. Don't be mad, okay?"

Zhou Jingcheng wanted to say, Who wants to eat that? It's cold and cloyingly sweet. But as he looked into Shi Jihan's round, watery eyes, the words at his lips took a strange turn. "Fine."

He could try it anyway.

What was so tasty about that mint chocolate cup that made him guard it so fiercely?

-

After Pei Mingxuan left Universe, he saw many media reporters waiting downstairs. He hurriedly put on a full disguise and secretly slipped away through the back door.

The moment he got home, he sat on the couch and grew angrier the more he thought about it, and thought about it more the angrier he got, until he turned into an instrument.

No! Pei Mingxuan shot to his feet. Why should he suffer this humiliation? He had already fallen out with Zhou Jingcheng anyway, so what did it matter if things got even uglier?

He was not afraid of making a bigger scene. President Wang would definitely pull him out of this; the man had disliked Zhou Jingcheng for a long time.

With that thought, he got up, operated his phone, and uploaded today's video online.

[Pei Mingxuan V: I was set up by these two people [video]]

Heaven above, distinguish loyalty from treachery!

He believed there were still plenty of clearheaded netizens. Someone would surely see through the surface at a glance, recognize that everything had been orchestrated by Shi Jihan and Zhou Jingcheng.

Thinking that, Pei Mingxuan opened the comments, hoping to see netizens besieging those two.

They were indeed besieging someone.

Just in the wrong direction.

Top comment: [Holy shit, bro, I couldn't tell! You're actually a defender of Wu Bai CP's love?]

The attached image was a GIF of Zhou Jingcheng scooping Shi Jihan into his arms.

[Before, I was only focused on the illness. I never expected these two to be so shippable in other ways too.]

[Their CP supertopic suddenly gained thirty thousand followers. Pei Mingxuan, you've done a great service!]

[That fanfic creator who wrote content for Shi Bochuan and his husband last time is here too, hahahahaha. Is that boomerang finally going to hit Shi Jihan?]

[Good, good, good, Pei Mingxuan. We hereby appoint you the lead shipper of Wu Bai CP.]

Pei Mingxuan watched the comments gradually turn into a team-building event: ?

What were they shipping? Wasn't the point to clear his name?!