Shoutout to Kari for the commission!
The rain was falling even harder, and the young man’s clear, lingering voice was concealed beneath the curtain of rain.
Something seemed to flash through Zhou Shirui’s eyes, but he said nothing.
Le Cheng nervously squeezed the umbrella handle. The more nervous he became, the more he wanted to talk, afraid of an awkward silence, so he simply blurted everything out: “Actually, I don’t mean anything else. It’s just, we’re dating now, aren’t we? I just want to see you earlier. Isn’t even that okay…”
After saying everything, Le Cheng’s earlobes felt somewhat hot, and his head was also completely blank.
He had actually said all those embarrassing lines out loud.
It would have been fine if he had simply said them, but this was completely different from the tone he had imagined!
With nothing left to lose, Le Cheng nervously waited for Zhou Shirui’s reaction.
Zhou Shirui showed little expression. Instead, he slightly lowered his eyelashes.
His gaze fell onto Le Cheng’s fair, soft earlobe.
It was a little pink. The pink seemed to seep out from beneath the skin and flesh, making it look tender and delicate, like a young bud on a tender willow branch, making one want to pinch it.
Zhou Shirui stared for two seconds. After a brief pause, he finally looked away. “Mm, I understand.”
Huh?
He understands, but understand what?
Le Cheng raised his eyes, only to hear Zhou Shirui say, “But I’m very busy.”
The implication was that he couldn’t do it every time. Taking it a step further, it was a polite refusal.
This answer wasn’t surprising either. Le Cheng blinked several times, feeling relieved, yet also a little disappointed.
He was relieved because Zhou Shirui looked very cold, and honestly, Le Cheng was quite intimidated by the thought of Zhou Shirui actually getting angry. Now, although Zhou Shirui was indifferent, his attitude was still quite normal… It looked like he hadn’t annoyed him at all.
But there was nothing he could do. Le Cheng wasn’t naturally the difficult-and-spoiled type, and he even had a special boundary-setting buff from being thin-skinned. He could only honestly say, “…That works too.”
Zhou Shirui didn’t say anything else. When they arrived at the cafeteria, Le Cheng put away his umbrella. It wasn’t actually mealtime yet, so only a few tables in the cafeteria had people sitting at them, most of them young couples.
This feeling was quite strange. In his previous life, let alone dating, Le Cheng had been working himself to death drawing drafts every day. He had never even liked anyone.
But now, he was also one of the many young couples.
Le Cheng secretly glanced sideways at Zhou Shirui. The other man had no particular expression and was shaking the water off the umbrella handle, revealing a section of his long, slender wrist. His wrist bones were clearly defined, and his fingers were very long.
This hand would be quite suitable as a reference for his drawings…
While he was slightly distracted, Zhou Shirui had already cleanly shaken off the umbrella, folded it up, and put it away.
Le Cheng quickly pulled himself together and followed closely behind him. Seeing Zhou Shirui take out his meal card, he was worrying about how to act difficult when inspiration suddenly struck him. He cleared his throat and hesitated. “Um… why didn’t you wait for me? You went to get the food yourself.”
Zhou Shirui raised his eyelids and looked at him.
Le Cheng felt somewhat guilty under his gaze. At the same time, he silently repeated to himself—if Zhou Shirui showed even the slightest bit of impatience, he would immediately stop while he was ahead. That would count as reaching today’s required level of being difficult and spoiled, and he absolutely wouldn’t…
Zhou Shirui’s black eyes were deep and dark, impossible to read for happiness or anger. He neither moved nor said anything. Le Cheng was delighted, then immediately lost his nerve. He was just about to timidly say forget it when he heard Zhou Shirui ask in a low voice, “Window three, okay?”
“Huh?” Le Cheng stared blankly. “Window three?”
“Mm.” Zhou Shirui said, “I want to eat it. Do you?”
Le Cheng: “Oh, oh, sure.”
Zhou Shirui turned around and went to get the food.
Le Cheng stood there in confusion for two seconds before silently sitting down.
Thinking back to what he had just done, Le Cheng closed his eyes again.
…He was too timid. How could he possibly be a drama queen when he was this timid!
Fine. He decided to change himself, to stand tall and toughen up. Window three served stone-pot bibimbap, and he decided that this was where he would make a fuss. He didn’t like carrots. Once Zhou Shirui brought the food over, he would say: “What?! There are carrots in the stone-pot bibimbap! I don’t like eating carrots, hmph! You really don’t care about me at all. You don’t even know that I don’t eat carrots!”
He hadn’t eaten pork, but hadn’t he at least seen pigs run?
Fine. Le Cheng clenched his fingers beneath the table. In a moment, he would definitely say exactly that!
Zhou Shirui soon returned carrying two portions of stone-pot bibimbap. Le Cheng gathered himself and lowered his head to look at the bowl.
…It was colorful. The sausage was glossy, the vegetables were tender green, and the fried egg was a golden orange. It looked so delicious.
Come to think of it, he hadn’t eaten anything for almost half a day…
Le Cheng gulped, forcibly suppressing his mouth that was practically crying out to be fed. Pointing at the stone-pot bibimbap, he asked with great force, “Why are there carrots in this?”
Zhou Shirui raised his eyes to look at him.
The two of them were sitting face-to-face, and without the obstruction of the curtain of rain, they could see each other very clearly.
He hadn’t noticed before, but even with the thin lenses covering them, it was clear that Zhou Shirui’s eyes were quite long, slightly lifted at the corners. The folds of his double eyelids were very deep, and his eyelashes hung halfway down. There was no discernible emotion in them, yet they inexplicably made people feel intimidated.
Le Cheng’s arrogant momentum instantly deflated by half. “…You didn’t know I don’t like eating carrots?”
Zhou Shirui’s voice was very calm. “I didn’t know.”
“Oh, okay.” Le Cheng blinked twice and asked dryly, “…Then… you know now, right?”
Zhou Shirui: “…Mm.”
“…Okay.” Le Cheng lowered his head as if nothing had happened. “Then let’s eat.”
“…………”
The two of them ate their meal peacefully, and Le Cheng followed dejectedly beside Zhou Shirui as they returned to the dormitory together.
The dormitory buildings for their two departments were quite far apart, but a few days ago, the original owner had been sent to a mixed dormitory because of a bad relationship with his former roommates. He had only been there for two weeks and hadn’t even learned all his roommates’ faces yet.
The mixed dormitory was on the third floor of Building Four, while Zhou Shirui was on the second floor of Building Five.
The two buildings were very close to each other, and Le Cheng waited for Zhou Shirui in the lobby on the first floor of Building Five to bring him the cleaning agent.
The second floor was very close. When Zhou Shirui came down with the item, Le Cheng was looking up at the fire safety precautions posted on the lobby wall.
Seen from the side, Le Cheng had thick, long eyelashes, a slightly upturned nose, and rosy lips. He looked quite serious as he read.
Zhou Shirui slowed his footsteps.
He was actually quite unfamiliar with Le Cheng. His only impression of him was probably that he wasn’t very trustworthy, was shrewd, and liked to have a little fun.
The first time Zhou Shirui had interacted with Le Cheng was when he was recruiting a graphic designer on the campus forum. Le Cheng called him and got straight to the point, asking him, “How much can you pay?”
He stated the salary, then listed his requirements and asked whether Le Cheng could do them. Le Cheng stammered for quite a while before hanging up the phone.
Later, when he made inquiries, he learned that Le Cheng was studying Visual Communication and had apparently been short on money recently, looking for part-time jobs everywhere.
Zhou Shirui had already demonstrated a talent for programming in middle school. After teaching himself, he went on to receive systematic training. He was highly gifted and quick-minded. In high school, riding the wave of the times, he made nearly three million yuan through creating web games. After obtaining his first round of funding, he caused quite a stir at school and even made the front-page headlines that year.
Therefore, after entering university, he formed a studio with several friends to jointly develop games.
There were four people in the studio. The game they were polishing needed its UI redone, but all three proposed designs had been rejected by Zhou Shirui. That was when he remembered to recruit an “insider” graphic designer again.
After Le Cheng hung up on his call, Zhou Shirui hadn’t really felt anything about it.
It wasn’t until a few days ago, at a gathering organized by a club, that he inexplicably lost a game and had to start a romantic relationship with the other party for at least one month that he truly began to have some impression of Le Cheng.
He had never considered dating someone of the same sex. Although he had never liked a girl, his sexual orientation had always been naturally stable, and he had never liked a boy either, so he considered himself straight.
Although it was somewhat troublesome, a bet was a bet. Zhou Shirui agreed and set some requirements.
Zhou Shirui had heard about this kind of social gathering in the past. Le Cheng was most likely just curious about the novelty and didn’t like him either. By stating the rules in advance, they could also break up peacefully and quickly.
When the time came, Le Cheng would go his separate way from him, and he would provide compensation. Neither side would suffer a loss, and they could end things with dignity.
Moreover, he didn’t like men. There was no way he would develop any other feelings for Le Cheng.
***
Le Cheng was staring at the thing in front of him, lost in thought.
He felt that he needed to go back and properly research how to be a drama queen, or, better yet, properly research what couples were supposed to do.
He had never been in a relationship before, and facing Zhou Shirui gave him the feeling of a blind bear trying to find its way.
Of course, this wasn’t the most important matter right now.
The original owner’s major was Visual Communication, and he was currently a sophomore. Coincidentally, Le Cheng himself was also a sophomore majoring in Visual Communication.
They both had artistic foundations, which made things more convenient.
Before transmigrating, Le Cheng had already begun taking commissions during his freshman year. His art style was distinctive, and his fundamentals were solid. He also never rested, working himself to the bone, and had already become fairly well-known in the circle. He had even done commercial artwork for games.
He had been adopted by his adoptive parents when he was young. His adoptive parents treated him very well, but he still had a certain dependence on having savings.
Now that he had inexplicably transmigrated into a book, the original owner spent money extravagantly and was also in debt, so he had to reconsider taking commissions.
Nowadays, if he wanted to make a splash in the circle, the way he entered the industry was very important.
Le Cheng frowned hesitantly and decided he would think about it after returning. He still had 2,000 yuan left in his hands. If he saved carefully, it could at least last him a month and a half.
As a matter of urgency, he had to get Zhou Shirui to break up with him as soon as possible.
He would pay the money back to Zhou Shirui later, but if he defaulted because of his debts, then he would really be finished.
Le Cheng frowned worriedly, his genuine anxiety showing on his face. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the light suddenly dim, and when he abruptly turned his head, he discovered that Zhou Shirui had already been standing there for some time.
“You’re down.” Le Cheng quickly smiled and tried to ask naturally, “That was fast?”
“Mm.” Zhou Shirui handed it to him without much expression, his tone flat. “Do you know how to use it?”
“I do.” Le Cheng nodded, then thought for a moment before tentatively asking, “Then I’ll go?”
“Mm.”
“Then…” Le Cheng said quickly, “Bye, boyfriend!”
As he said this, he swiftly glanced up at Zhou Shirui.
Zhou Shirui slightly furrowed his brows, then immediately relaxed them again. With a rather cold expression, he gave an “Mm.”
Oh?
Le Cheng lowered his eyes, showing nothing on his face. He turned around and walked out.
He had just had a brainstorming session and figured that since Zhou Shirui was a straight man, straight men were more or less homophobic. Since, according to the setting, he had agreed to date the original owner only because he had no choice, he definitely didn’t like this relationship in his heart.
He had only tested the form of address just now, and Zhou Shirui had already seemed unhappy. It looked like the book had said—
He was very homophobic.
That made things easy.
As for the difficult-and-spoiled side, he could lean more toward intimate bombardment.
Le Cheng couldn’t help giving himself a thumbs-up for his own cleverness.
After returning to the dormitory, because their classes were different, only one roommate was there, washing clothes in the washroom.
When Le Cheng had transmigrated over, he had already been in the dormitory, but there had been no one there at the time, so he hadn’t met any of them.
His roommate heard the sound of the door opening but didn’t pay any attention to him, probably because they really weren’t familiar with each other.
This was a four-person dormitory, with the standard beds-on-top-and-desks-below layout. Le Cheng’s bed was at the innermost part. He walked over to the desk and sat down, then took out his phone.
He opened WeChat and scrolled through the contacts alphabetically. He quickly found Zhou Shirui’s contact information.
There was no other reason except that he was the only person whose contact name was [Big Brother].
The overly sweet and clingy form of address made Le Cheng involuntarily want to tap into it and see exactly what kind of demon this was.
After scrolling through less than two lines, he saw the name in the chat history and confirmed that this was Zhou Shirui.
Although “Le Cheng” had questionable character, the relationship between the two men was pure. After scrolling through everything for a long time, Zhou Shirui was the only one with such an ambiguous form of address.
Le Cheng opened Zhou Shirui’s profile and casually looked through it. He discovered that Zhou Shirui rarely posted on Moments and only liked to simply update his research progress.
He was quite the straight man.
Le Cheng stared at the form of address “Big Brother” and suddenly imagined: If Zhou Shirui saw this, would it cause a -9999 HP magical attack on a homophobic straight man?
Le Cheng couldn’t help curling the corners of his lips upward.
Hehehe.
After lying on the desk and looking at his phone for a while, Le Cheng finally perked himself up and prepared to formulate a battle plan.
Right now, he had to start taking commissions and making money as soon as possible, while also quickly breaking up with Zhou Shirui.
It wasn’t that he hadn’t considered taking the initiative to break things off with Zhou Shirui, but he was afraid that deviating from the original plot would cause subsequent developments to change, and then he wouldn’t be able to get the money he desperately needed.
So the first step was to search online for how to be a difficult, spoiled boyfriend who would make a straight man hate him.
The search results quickly popped up—
- Have an extremely bad temper and an extremely sharp tongue!
- Make all kinds of unreasonable demands!
- Challenge a straight man’s bottom line!
Okay, Le Cheng decided to start from the beginning and proceed step by step. His ultimate goal was to make Zhou Shirui be the one to tell him they were breaking up!
