"Do you have anything you want to say to me now?" An Xinian pulled him onto the quiet rooftop, his pent-up fury seemingly about to spill out the next second, only to choke on it when he saw Xie Zhuzhou's puzzled gaze.
Xie Zhuzhou blinked his slightly curled lashes and said quietly, "I don't."
His indifferent attitude drove An Xinian mad with anger. He wanted to hit someone.
Xie Zhuzhou had never been like this before!
"You do."
Xie Zhuzhou: ...
In the end, Xie Zhuzhou still had to sort out this relationship. Though it might take some effort, he ought to make things clear. Avoiding him forever was no solution.
He looked at An Xinian, who stood half a head taller than him, and asked in a serious, earnest tone, "Do you like me?"
"Hah, what a joke. Who would like you?!" An Xinian blurted out from habit, then irritation flashed through his eyes. He pressed his brow and said, "What about you? Do you like me?"
The wind on the rooftop was rather strong, roaring in his ears, and Xie Zhuzhou wanted to get this over with even sooner.
"I did, but I only liked your face. If someone even a little more handsome came along, I'd look elsewhere. And think about yourself. Were you really in the right? Was it fun playing dumb and stringing someone along? Can you escape everything by blaming all the mistakes on someone else?"
Xie Zhuzhou questioned him in an even tone, his eyes cold, as though he were describing someone else's affairs.
"If you want to resolve what's happening at school, there are plenty of ways."
An Xinian released his grip on him and gave a self-mocking scoff. Xie Zhuzhou stopped looking at him too, turned, and left, his retreating figure soon disappearing through the rooftop doorway.
Xie Zhuzhou didn't want to deal with what was happening at school either. He felt so busy.
Home-school-dating show-home. Those were his only routes every day.
It was already Wednesday when he returned to the dating show. Xuelai, the girlfriend for a day, had taken the livestream to a concert.
There weren't many people in the villa at the moment. He had only been away for three days, yet it felt like a lifetime.
Director Wang was distressed to see that Xie Zhuzhou's cocky-guy air had grown even stronger. His kindly face was full of exhaustion. "Little Xie! You're finally back!" He felt like the director with the least authority in the world.
"Mm, long time no see, Director Wang."
Xie Zhuzhou curled his lips, intending to convey some genuine sincerity to the director.
But it always had the opposite effect.
At the sight of Xie Zhuzhou's intriguing, villain-like smile, Director Wang stiffened and hastily stammered, "Ah, now that you're back, go help in the kitchen. This week's theme is cooking. From now on, you'll all have dinner here with the production team."
Xie Zhuzhou's face returned to its expressionless state. Thinking of how hard everyone worked on filming while he did nothing and received a million just for eating, he immediately felt he shouldn't refuse.
Director Wang was a hardworking little braised egg. He deserved support.
The cocky guy thought it over and finally agreed.
Once he got back, he called his father to say he would be eating out all week. Ji Wuqiu didn't make things difficult for him and agreed straight away, asking whether he wanted some fresh ingredients delivered.
"Father, the director said the production team would cover it. We don't need any extra ingredients."
Director Wang was dumbfounded. When had he ever said that?! Please, Xie Xiaozhou, don't just make things up!
At that point, Xie Zhuzhou had no idea trouble was coming. After fumbling his way through helping Wang Zhengxiao, he ate dinner quietly and ignored Wen Ruohuai's deliberate attempts to get close.
The next day.
Xie Zhuzhou came over from school and thought he must still be half asleep. He actually saw Qin Fang on the dating show.
He looked at Director Wang with displeasure.
Director Wang: ...
Even with Xie Zhuzhou's titanium-alloy gaze boring into his head, Director Wang still laughed it off. "Let me introduce our new guest, Qin Fang!"
Wen Nan, a major source of buzz, had to take leave for a magazine shoot and then audition for a drama. That nonstop schedule left Director Wang unable to call Wen Nan back.
As it happened, someone else had volunteered-and it was none other than Qin Fang, last year's esports champion.
Qin Fang's girlfriend fans could be said to account for half the esports fandom.
How could the greedy Director Wang bear to pass up this opportunity?!
Xie Zhuzhou's mood only fluctuated for a moment. Never mind. It wasn't as though someone had a knife to his throat.
He had just drawn a clear line with An Xinian. This Qin Fang should be fine, right?
This guy only treated the original owner as a fan, a lackey, and his free assistant outside the industry. The original owner promoted him online, organized his fans, and paid for them to earn him a good reputation. He had even followed him abroad, keeping a certain distance, to watch his matches, quietly staying in some corner to cheer him on.
But in reality, there was still distance between the two. They had never formally met, and their relationship was no different from that of familiar online friends.
And Qin Fang was a carefree straight guy.
At that thought, Xie Zhuzhou relaxed. As long as there were no romantic entanglements, everything was manageable.
"Hello, everyone! I'm Qin Fang. I'm very happy to be on the show! And very happy to meet you all!" Qin Fang was strikingly handsome. Being of mixed ancestry, he had clear, bright, azure-blue eyes. He stood over 1.8 meters tall and carried himself with bold confidence.
The fans in the livestream were startled by Qin Fang dropping in without an official announcement.
[God Qin, why are you here instead of training?!]
[Go back to the base and train! You'll never find a girlfriend in this lifetime anyway!]
[When I saw God Qin, I thought I was seeing things and had entered the wrong stream...]
[Hehe, God Qin, you didn't follow your sugar daddy here, did you?!]
[I don't know the esports scene. Is Qin Fang really good?]
[Not really. Just a champion three years running.]
[Person above, are you humblebragging about your fave?]
[...]
The livestream drew out plenty of Qin Fang's girlfriend fans. They didn't want Qin Fang associated with Xie Zhuzhou, so they absolutely refused to bring Xie Zhuzhou up.
Xie Zhuzhou was very pleased too, and once again slacked off with a clear conscience.
After a warning from his manager, Qin Fang didn't dare act too familiar with Xie Zhuzhou on camera. When the stream finally ended, he happily followed Xie Zhuzhou around like a tail that couldn't be shaken off.
"Xiao Zhou, take off your mask and let me see. I haven't seen you before."
Xie Zhuzhou said, "No. Busy."
Young Master Xie had been forced to roll up his sleeves and work this week. Thanks to his cautious, meticulous nature, he hadn't caused trouble for anyone in the kitchen. Though he couldn't cook, he had learned to chop vegetables.
He was now earnestly slicing winter melon, still rather unpracticed with the kitchen knife. Unexpectedly, Qin Fang leaned closer. His body instinctively dodged away, and at the same instant, the blade cut his finger.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you."
Qin Fang hadn't expected Xie Zhuzhou to be so determined to avoid him. He withdrew his hand, which had been hanging in midair, in disappointment and saw beads of blood welling on that tender, rosy fingertip.
His gaze froze briefly, but he quickly recovered and asked Wang Zhengxiao where the first-aid kit was.
Wang Zhengxiao was simmering soup and pointed beneath the living room coffee table.
Qin Fang walked straight over in a daze, his head filled with the question of why Xie Zhuzhou's fingers were so soft... He was a man, yet his fingers were actually that tender, his fingertips pink and white, without a single callus.
It seemed that whatever those hands did, they would look beautiful and be pleasing to the eye.
After Qin Fang walked away, Wang Zhengxiao told Xie Zhuzhou to rest. He wasn't needed here for the time being.
But the dating show's tyrant hadn't earned his reputation for nothing. Once Xie Zhuzhou decided to do something, he became especially stubborn and utterly hardheaded.
After cleaning his wound, he could still trim vegetables as though nothing had happened.
At first, Xie Zhuzhou hadn't particularly liked this sort of tedious work, but when he saw the results, he actually felt that he could fend for himself too.
Cooking began with preparing the ingredients in the first place. Only by doing this task well could one properly make a complete dish.