Xie Zhuzhou walked a short distance away, his gaze sweeping over Li Yankai. A chill spread across Li Yankai's back and slowly crept up his spine, and he sheepishly lowered his hand.
Damn Little Xie, he was so cold! He even kept his roommate at arm's length!
Ding.
Xie Zhuzhou took out his phone and saw that the clingy Ji Wangyun had sent him another friend request from a different WeChat account. The man still seemed very interested in him.
If I accept him and ignore him, he should get bored after a while, right?
He accepted the request, then muted notifications.
Li Yankai actually still hadn't recovered from the shock. Thinking it over, something didn't seem right. Just last week, Xie Zhuzhou had happily hovered around An Xinian, trying to please him.
What had happened?
He was dying to know! Could someone please explain it to him?
Xie Zhuzhou looked at his eyes, brimming with curiosity, and ultimately said nothing.
Suddenly, Li Yankai froze as something abruptly occurred to him. He looked at Xie Zhuzhou with a complicated expression. "Y-you haven't really fallen for someone else and started liking Qin Fang, have you? Can you gay guys switch your feelings on and off that easily?"
What do you mean, "you gay guys"?
Xie Zhuzhou wanted to roll his eyes, but the original owner really had played around like that, so it did seem a little difficult to explain.
Watching Xie Zhuzhou fall silent, Li Yankai sucked in a breath and continued walking beside him. "You might be a scumbag, but as a roommate, classmate, and friend, you barely scrape a passing grade."
"Thank you."
"You're welcome."
After a full day of classes, there was no way he wasn't tired. Li Yankai was going home that afternoon, and Xie Zhuzhou had planned to give him a ride as thanks for sticking by him despite his expressionless face.
But remembering that being around him was somewhat dangerous, he had to abandon the idea.
As expected, someone started following his car as soon as he left. A real-life Fast & Furious chase was out of the question. The speed limit up ahead was forty, there was a school farther down the road, and beyond that was a hospital.
Fine, just keep following.
But-
This was what made life interesting, wasn't it?
Taking on twenty people alone like some great martial hero was impossible, and killing was illegal, so Xie Zhuzhou could only behave himself a little.
More than being afraid of getting blood on his hands, he probably didn't want to get himself killed playing around.
Xie Zhuzhou drove unhurriedly onto the ring expressway, shaking off one car after another that had been following at a leisurely pace at the forks of the complicated overpasses.
By the time he returned to the dating show, it was already seven or eight, and Xie Zhuzhou had finally had enough fun. His adrenaline had surged while driving, and he had taken off his jacket and was carrying it in his arms.
The moment he opened the door, he saw Wen Ruohuai glaring fiercely at him, his eyes as red as a rabbit's.
"?"
Xie Zhuzhou couldn't be bothered with him and was about to walk away when Wen Ruohuai said, "Even you think I'm disgusting, don't you?"
Xie Zhuzhou: "?"
Seeing Xie Zhuzhou looking at him with that same lofty, dismissive gaze as always, Wen Ruohuai resentfully looked away and turned to leave. No one followed him.
Actually, Xie Zhuzhou had wanted to say this for a while: Hadn't the plot gone way too far off course?
Wasn't the protagonist gong going to chase after him?
He looked toward Zhang Yin, who was playing Go with Wang Zhengxiao on the sofa. It felt strange, but it was none of his business.
Xie Zhuzhou left with his clothes in his arms, treating the place as nothing more than a hotel to stay in.
Wen Nan had waited all day before finally seeing Xie Zhuzhou return. He wanted to say something, but then felt that he and Xie Zhuzhou had no relationship at all. They hadn't even introduced themselves or exchanged greetings. He really had been presumptuous before.
Remembering his moment of madness back then, Wen Nan no longer dared to look at Xie Zhuzhou, though his ears had already turned bright red.
Director Wang watched with great interest from the back.
These cameras recorded footage, which would later be edited into individual episodes.
The assistant director cracked sunflower seeds beside him. "I never would've guessed Xie Zhuzhou was such a magnet for romantic attention. Both Wen Nan and Wen Ruohuai seem to have some connection to him. We have to make Xie Zhuzhou send an attraction text tonight."
Before joining the dating show, Xie Zhuzhou had clearly written his sexual orientation as: men.
So Director Wang was looking forward to it too!
He immediately slapped the table and decided, "Then give Xie Zhuzhou more screen time from now on, and cut back on the footage of Wen Ruohuai and Wen Nan arguing."
Xie Zhuzhou had no idea he had been targeted. He still thought he was just an obedient background prop.
"Mr. Xie, there's an attraction text segment tonight. The director wants you to send a text to a guest you're interested in."
Xie Zhuzhou answered from inside his room.
"Interested? Can I skip it if there's no one?"
"No. The director said, if you-if you don't send one, you'll have to be a one-day boyfriend again tomorrow!"
Xie Zhuzhou: ...
"Nine tonight! Don't forget!"
Xie Zhuzhou checked the time on his phone. Eight forty-five.
Sending one to anyone seemed a little inappropriate. Who should he pick at random? And what should he say?
Just then, Xie Zhuzhou received a simulation app from the production team on his phone. He opened it and found a virtual number for every guest. They could receive messages from one another through it too, and the texts had to be sent before nine.
Their numbers were hidden from one another, so they wouldn't know who had sent them.
Xie Zhuzhou casually sent one to Yu Wei. Although he didn't know who Yu Wei was, he still sent a line: Nice weather.
Excellent. Very perfunctory. Very Xie Zhuzhou.
When Director Wang saw what Xie Zhuzhou had done, he deeply regretted not telling the staff to require him to write more than ten characters!
Having done the bare minimum for the director, Xie Zhuzhou felt it suited his persona and did nothing more.
After sending his text in his own unconventional way, Xie Zhuzhou received no texts from anyone else, just as he had expected. Afterward, he began grinding down concealed weapons for self-defense in his room.
The Ji Family was an established wealthy family in City A, and its businesses and companies had ranked among the nation's top ten for years.
Although he didn't know what things were like inside the Ji Family, Xie Zhuzhou had to guard against these people. After all, wealthy families had no feelings. Even if he was someone who neither competed nor fought for anything, others would surely think: What an act.
Xie Zhuzhou ground and polished the crescent-shaped piece of iron in his hand. Lightweight, suited to close combat, lethal in one strike.
He would never use it unless he had no other choice.
He also needed to make a few steel needles coated with an anesthetic toxin.
Clever boy Xie Zhuzhou had already begun preparing for a rainy day, immersed in a world where a noob like him could turn the tables and kill multiple experts in a one-versus-many fight. You had to have dreams. What if they came true?
The Ji Family's eldest branch residence
After turning eighteen, Ji Wangchen, Ji Wangyun, and Ji Wangyan had returned to Ji Wuqiu's side.
The family lived together, but apart from mealtimes, the place was never lively.
At ten that night, Ji Wangyun stood behind the sofa with a somewhat guilty conscience, while Ji Wuqiu was holding a meeting.
"Eldest, go bring him home to live. Have the butler prepare a few rooms for him to choose from."
Behind him, Ji Wangyun pressed his lips together to hide a smile. He couldn't imagine what two men of so few words could possibly manage to discuss.
Of course, he couldn't take on the job either. Their youngest brother was doing everything he could to avoid him.
"If he refuses, tell him the consequences. He's an adult, after all. He has the right to make his own choices."
"Of course he can choose, but Father, haven't you considered that coming home would be more dangerous?" Ji Wangchen's gaze swept over Ji Wangyun, the wolf in sheep's clothing, and the gloomy Ji Wangyan.
Neither of these younger brothers was easy to deal with. If the two of them lost their minds, there was really no telling what might happen. After all, neither was normal.
Friday afternoon
Xie Zhuzhou was already sitting in the car of Ji Wangchen, whose face was even icier than his own. There were only two of them in the car, and Ji Wangchen finally spoke just as the atmosphere congealed to the point of freezing.
After identifying himself as the eldest brother, he asked, "Come home or get dragged off by Grandfather into an arranged marriage. Pick one."
Xie Zhuzhou: ...
What century was this?