Decency unknown, rises to the challenge

After the chubby man went out, he slammed the door with an earth-shattering bang!

The staff member outside thought, This really is a battlefield!!

She began seriously considering whether to get a few security guards to stand watch, just in case.

Three people remained in the meeting room again. The last to arrive had been the first to leave.

Wei Zisu swept his gaze over the two men before him and said, "I don't like beating around the bush. If either of you minds that I've been engaged before, you can leave."

Once he finished meeting the first batch, he could hurry and have the staff arrange the second. He had to join the crew for additional filming tomorrow and might stay for a month or so. He would try to settle the minor matter of marriage in one day.

Unexpectedly, neither the blond nor the shifty young man got up.

Wei Zisu thought, Looks like we can keep talking, then.

So he asked, "Which of you would like to introduce yourself first? Or do you have any questions for me?"

The shifty young man held a fist to his mouth and was just about to speak when the blond beat him to it.

"You're twenty-seven?" the blond asked.

"Yes," Wei Zisu said.

No kidding. Could I be here if I weren't twenty-seven?

The blond looked faintly disdainful and said, "I'm only twenty-two this year. If my parents hadn't insisted I come, I wouldn't be in any hurry."

"Oh."

Wei Zisu was just about to tell him he could leave, then, when the blond spoke again.

"You're a little old, but at least you're decent-looking. But at my age, I need my freedom. I don't want to get married and have someone bossing me around. I can get engaged to you first, and after we get to know each other for a few years, we can get married if we think we're compatible."

Honestly, Wei Zisu found that proposal very tempting.

They wouldn't have to marry, and after getting engaged, they could each go about their own business without the government pressuring them to marry. That was how things had been with Sun Liang before; having a fiancé hadn't been much different from being single. For that alone, he could overlook the blond calling him old.

But the blond's next words killed that idea.

"Also, there's something I need to tell you beforehand. I have a boyfriend I've been dating for a year. He's an Alpha too. When I go on dates with him, you'll have to cover for me."

Wei Zisu: ??? Why didn't you say you were in an Alpha-Alpha relationship sooner?! So you're here looking for a cover?!

"Even if I marry you later, I won't break up with him. If you don't mind, the three of us could live together. That wouldn't be bad."

Fuck, this guy's even more of an animal than Sun Liang!

Suppressing his anger, Wei Zisu smiled politely and said, "I mind very much. Besides, I don't like immature brats who are much younger than me, so, Mr. Blond, please leave."

As he spoke, he extended a hand toward the door like a gentleman.

The blond scoffed, looking utterly unconcerned, and got up with a slouch before rolling his eyes and leaving.

Wei Zisu heaved a deep sigh inwardly. Ugh, Cui Xiangxiang really called it. What kind of freaks are these? One after another-is there even anyone normal left?

He rubbed between his brows and noticed someone looking at him. When he looked up, the man who seemed relatively normal on the surface immediately averted his gaze and took a tactical drink of water, only to choke from nerves and spill it all over the table. He then scrambled for tissues to wipe it up.

Wei Zisu thought, Fine. There's one left in the first batch. Let's see what kind of genius this one turns out to be.

"You..."

Wei Zisu had barely gotten one word out when the young man opposite him shot to his feet, standing with impeccably proper posture as he announced in a booming voice, "My name is Yin Zhengchuan. I'm twenty-four this year, from Shandong, a hundred and eighty-nine centimeters tall, and eighty kilograms."

Wei Zisu: ...

For some reason, he wanted to laugh, but he held it in out of politeness.

"Sit down," Wei Zisu said. "Don't be nervous."

Yin Zhengchuan sat ramrod straight, not daring to look at Wei Zisu, and shook his head. "No... I'm not nervous."

He said he wasn't nervous, but his ears had gone completely red.

Somehow, Wei Zisu found the tall, strapping Alpha before him a little cute.

To help him relax, he decided to make some small talk and ease the atmosphere. "It's over a thousand kilometers from Shandong to here, isn't it? Do you work here, or did you travel from Shandong?"

Yin Zhengchuan lowered his head and said, "I got a call from the civil affairs bureau yesterday and came straight from Shandong."

A little surprised, Wei Zisu asked, "That must have taken over ten hours on the road, right? Thanks for making the effort."

"It wasn't any trouble, and it didn't take that long," Yin Zhengchuan answered honestly. "Changing rides just held me up a bit."

Wei Zisu understood. He pictured Yin Zhengchuan, travel-worn, constantly rushing from one station to the next to change rides.

He had traveled all night for this meeting, yet remained so even-tempered, without a single complaint. That was rare.

Wei Zisu suddenly felt that, compared with the previous two, this man seemed so normal that he wasn't quite used to it.

Talking to a normal person, he became normal too.

Cui Xiangxiang called it "decency unknown, rises to the challenge," and he thought that made a lot of sense.

"Have you learned everything about my situation?" Wei Zisu asked. "Is there anything else you'd like to ask?"

Yin Zhengchuan cautiously looked up at him, then quickly lowered his head again and said quietly, "I've learned everything. Nothing I want to ask, me. Quite happy, I am, with you."

Wei Zisu: ???

Well, he understood what he meant, but something about it felt off.

Yin Zhengchuan finally summoned the courage to meet his eyes and asked, "Do you have any questions for me?"

Setting his confusion aside for now, Wei Zisu asked, "You don't mind that I broke off an engagement, or that I'm older than you?"

Yin Zhengchuan shook his head like a rattle drum. "I don't mind. I don't mind either! As long as you don't mind that I'm younger."

Wei Zisu remembered that he had just said he didn't like immature brats who were much younger than him.

"Ahem. Three years younger is fine, I suppose," he said, covering for himself.

He added, "I'm away filming all year round, so we might not get many chances to see each other."

"That's all right. I can work around your schedule."

"When I'm filming, there might be hand-holding, hugging, or even kissing."

"I..." Yin Zhengchuan said. "I understand. It's your job."

Wei Zisu raised an eyebrow, considered it for five seconds, then said, "I have no more questions. Mr. Yin Zhengchuan, if you have no issues either, we can record our engagement information downstairs today."

He was as calm as if he were discussing a contract.

Yin Zhengchuan, however, stared wide-eyed, too stunned to speak.

Wei Zisu asked, "Do you... have any other conditions?"

Yin Zhengchuan swallowed, then picked up the bottled water beside him and gulped down the rest in one go.

Then he gathered his courage and asked, "Let's not get engaged. Could ya think on us just registering our marriage straight off?"

"Huh?" Wei Zisu hadn't understood. He was certain that what Yin Zhengchuan had just spoken wasn't standard Mandarin.

It certainly wasn't English either.