Xie Ling: [He asked you to write him a love letter? ? ?]

Xie Ling: [Why? ? ?]

Pei Xi: [Because who knows where he learned this trick, but he thinks this method will place a psychological suggestion in me to make me fall in love with him.]

Xie Ling: [……?]

Xie Ling: [Such a niche script. Why can’t I understand?]

XIe Ling: [Has he asked someone to hypnotize you or something? Can you organize this script into something I can comprehend?]

Pei Xi: [You can call it sleepwalking without actually being asleep.]

Xie Ling: […..okay.]

Xie Ling: [So did you really write it 200 times?]

Pei Xi: [300 times.]

Pei Xi: [He cooked noodles for lunch, and it took me a long time to eat them since it was difficult to hold the chopsticks.]

Xie Ling: [Pff!]

Xie Ling: [Dear friend, forgive me for laughing out loud.]

Xie Ling: [But this change in perspective is a good thing. At least you’re completely sure that he likes you so much he can’t help himself, right?]

Xie Ling: [Although his train of thought is a little strange. Is this the thinking of a 30-year-old virgin? I’ve never seen such a thing before.]

Xie Ling: [So what are you going to do now? According to his way of thinking, god knows how long it’ll take him to confess to you, ah.]

Pei Xi: [It’s fine.]

Pei Xi: [I’ll make him speak out.]

After replying with this sentence, Pei Xi set down the phone. Ignoring the gaze that kept wandering over him, he slowly spread jam on his toast.

Finally, a certain person couldn’t hold back from checking the results: “Pei Xi.”

Pei Xi: “En?”

He Chuzhou said casually: “It’s a nice day today. How are you feeling?”

Pei Xi: “A cloudy day can’t be considered nice.]

He Chuzhou got stuck for a moment. Then he went with the flow and changed his words: “Yeah, it’s not as nice as yesterday.”

After a while, he asked again: “You don’t feel anything special?”

Knife and fork collided on the plate with a crisp sound. Pei Xi raised his head: “What’s wrong?”

He Chuzhou coughed. His expression remained the same: “I saw a news report yesterday saying that the weather has changed drastically recently, which can easily cause people to suffer from insomnia or nightmares.”

Pei Xi: “I don’t have insomnia.”

He Chuzhou: “That’s good.”

Pei Xi: “But I did have a very profound dream last night.”

He Chuzhou paused as he put a small piece of waffle into his mouth: “Really? What did you dream?”

Pei Xi: “I dreamed that I was back in high school, and my English teacher told us to hand-copy a sample essay 300 times.”

He Chuzhou: “…..Ah?”

He Chuzhou: “Why would you dream about that?”

Pei Xi: “I don’t know, but it did affect my mood. I hope I won’t have this kind of nightmare that affects my sleep quality again.”

He Chuzhou: “…..En, you’re right.”

Expectations dashed, He Chuzhou ate without tasting anything.

When he went to the bedroom to change clothes after breakfast, the view of him from the back revealed a sense of frustration.

Pei Xi stopped watching him from the corner of his eye, and his lips silently curved. He slowly finished eating, and waited until He Chuzhou was almost finished changing before setting down the cutlery and going to the bedroom.

He Chuzhou had already changed into his company clothes.

Pei Xi glanced at him, and deliberately chose a suit of the same style and color from his closet and put it on. Even the pattern of the tie was the same.

He Chuzhou went out halfway through the process. Little Yueliang put both of her front paws in the water when she was drinking, and He Chuzhou dried them for her, then changed out the water and picked up a ball of yarn from behind the cat climbing frame.

It was unknown what he was thinking during all of this. He didn’t have any special reaction when he saw Pei Xi come out, and just said as he stood up: “Are you ready? Come on, I’ll take you to the company first.”

His eyes swept over Pei Xi and away without pause. Then he turned around and opened the entrance door.

Pei Xi: “……”

As they went downstairs, the clean, bright elevator reflected the two people standing side by side. 

Pei Xi glanced at He Chuzhou, seemingly without meaning to.

The latter was looking straight ahead. He seemed to be seeing everything but nothing, and his eyes were out of focus.

Pei Xi: “…….”

They avoided the morning rush hour commute, and the journey went smoothly. Twenty minutes later, the vehicle smoothly parked outside the entrance of Pei Group headquarters.

When Pei Xi opened the door and got out of the car, the person in the driver’s seat still looked absent-mindedly thoughtful, and even his goodbye was perfunctory.

Standing by the door, Pei Xi silently took a deep breath to keep calm, and said in a natural tone: “Chuzhou, give me some water.”

He Chuzhou subconsciously picked up the water with his right hand and handed it over. Pei Xi reached out to take it, and the cufflinks on their sleeves flashed with the same dark color.

But it was regrettable that a certain blind man saw nothing.

Pei Xi slammed the door shut with an expressionless face. The short, muffled thud brought He Chuzhou back to his senses.

But in the next second, his mind floated off to someplace unknown.

The car remained parked on the side of the road for a long while with its hazard lights on. When he finally figured something out, he turned off the engine and took out his phone.

*

*

Pei Xi received a text from Yun Ji on the way back to his office after the morning meeting. The latter asked him whether he had broken up with his cousin.

Pei Xi’s forehead twitched: 

Pei Xi: [What nonsense has he been telling you again?]

Yun Ji: [He didn’t say anything.]

Pei Xi: [Then why are you asking?]

Yun Ji: [Because just now, my cousin suddenly came to me and asked me to add his secondary account to the group.]

Pei Xi: [What group?]

Yun Ji: [The love observation discussion group about you two.]

Pei Xi: [……What?]

Yun Ji: [Ah, Pei-ge, didn’t you know? I thought my cousin told you!]

Yun Ji: [When you first started working together, many people at the company noticed and created a group. They ship the two of you every day, saying that it’s to add some sugar to their miserable working lives.]

Pei Xi: [ . ]

Pei Xi: [Are the people at your company so bored?]

Yun Ji: [No, ah.]

Yun Ji: [There are also quite a few people from your company, Pei-ge. 50/50. grin/grin.]

Pei Xi: [……]

Pei Xi: [Never mind, get to the point. Why did He Chuzhou ask you to add him to the group?]

Yun Ji: [/screenshot]

Yun Ji: [He frantically downloaded The Complete Guide to Rich People’s Views On Love and 108 Methods for a Domineering CEO to Pursue His Wife.]

Pei Xi: [What are those?]

Yun Ji: [Enthusiastic group members have compiled my cousin’s mental journey and multi-layered routines over the years in his pursuit of you. Shouldn’t you know best?]

Pei Xi: [ . ]

Yun Ji: [He was shameless enough to pretend to be a newbie, and asked lots of questions.]

Yun Ji: [That’s why I asked. Did you break up, so my cousin intends to pursue you again?]

Pei Xi: [……No.]

No? 

Then what was with these tricks and love play?

Yun Ji scratched the back of his head. He hadn’t yet figured it out when Pei Xi suddenly pushed a WeChat business card to him.

Yun Ji: [Pei-ge, what’s this?]

Pei Xi: [My other account. Add it to the group. Don’t tell He Chuzhou it’s me.]

Yun Ji: [Ah?]

He didn’t understand the young couple’s train of thought, but still obediently added Pei Xi’s second account to the discussion group.

As soon as Pei Xi entered the group, a bunch of group file notifications popped up in the middle of the screen. He clicked on them, and in addition to the 108 Methods Yun Ji had mentioned, there was also a very eye-catching file called [Knock First As a Sign of Respect.]

One wouldn’t know unless they clicked on it, but the file not only recorded in detail every time he went to see He Chuzhou and every time He Chuzhou picked him up – it also included the suggestive bite mark at the corner of He Chuzhou’s mouth and the unknown hickey on Pei Xi’s neck, and if you scrolled to the bottom, there was the game screen recording that had previously been pinned on the official game blog.

As employees of the two companies, it was easy for them to recognize their bosses’ voices. Moreover, there were employees of the game studio in the group, so nothing was able to remain hidden.

The video file was specially annotated: Character info is for internal use and shall not be disclosed.

The gaggle of gossipers at least knew to protect the two presidents’ faces.

Pei Xi suddenly felt as if he’d been running around naked in front of his employees all this time.

He was speechless for a long while. Just as he was about to close the file, another entry suddenly appeared on the spreadsheet: [Today’s breaking new: President He and President Pei are wearing couple’s outfits to work today. Everything is the same style, from shirts and ties to cufflinks!]

Pei Xi: “……”

The feeling was getting stronger.

He exited the file and entered the chat interface, where he saw a person with a border collie avatar saying: 

[But my crush is a bit aloof, ah, and doesn’t lack anything. Where should I start?]

Pei Xi nearly laughed out of anger.

The person who wouldn’t even open his mouth when a cooked duck flew toward it was standing there foolishly, asking where to start.

Walking around with a big He Xingxing avatar over his head, was he relying on the fact that others didn’t know he had a stupid dog at home?

No, He Xingxing was a smart dog. There was only one stupid dog in the family.

The following person gave him some advice: 

[It’s impossible for a person to lack nothing. If they’re not short of money, they’re short of love. My suggestion is to win their heart first.]

[Being aloof toward people doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be aloof to small animals. You have a dog at home, right? Let the dog run out and find them, then you can pretend the dog was lost and run into them by chance.]

[Do you think you’re filming an idol drama?]

[Pay attention to the question. Border Collie-bro said that he and his crush are friends, not strangers.]

[Friends, ah, that will take some careful consideration.]

[Right, I think you should wait a little longer and not rush to pursue them. Observe the situation first. If something goes wrong, it would be terrible if you’re not even able to stay friends.]

He Chuzhou was terrified by the words “not even able to stay friends.” He gritted his teeth and thought, could it get so dire?

But how long did he have to wait, ah?

Why did these people not feel very reliable?

When he was about to explore further, a person with a paper airplane avatar and a period for a username popped up and told him in a resounding tone: 

[No need to wait. Since you’re friends, you can tell him directly. He’ll definitely agree.]

Perhaps everyone was intimidated by this fierce statement, because the lively group immediately went silent, and nobody responded for a long time.

He Chuzhou was also intimidated.

This person seemed even less reliable than the previous ones.

But…..why was He Chuzhou so moved?

He Chuzhou: [Are you saying you have experience in this, Brother?]

Pei Xi: [En.]

He Chuzhou: [You’re sure it’ll work?]

Pei Xi: [Yes.]

He Chuzhou: [You’re sure he won’t be estranged from me?]

Pei Xi: [He won’t.]

He Chuzhou: [But isn’t it too risky? Should I wait a little longer?]

Pei Xi: [You’ve put it off long enough. How long are you going to keep waiting?]

Pei Xi: [You don’t even notice his continuous hints, so what do you expect to come from waiting longer?]

Pei Xi: [Be decisive. Don’t procrastinate.]

He Chuzhou: [……?]

As He Chuzhou was confused, the onlookers finally reacted:

[No way. Period-bro, are you trying to stir up trouble?]

[Reckless advice will lead to failure. Don’t play tricks on people, ah.]

[Could it be that you failed to pursue your crush and came here to drag others down with you? People who can’t stand to see others doing well won’t be promoted or get wealthier this year!]

[A million times, don’t trust him.]

[Border Collie-bro, listen to me. You need to be careful about this.]

[How about you learn from President He? Antagonize the person first to get their attention, then bid for a bracelet worth tens of millions and start pursuing them that way.]

Pei Xi: [What do you know?]

Pei Xi: [Don’t give him random advice.]

[Hey? Aren’t you guilty of the same thing?]

[When did we give him random advice? If you’re incapable, just quietly eat melons and don’t cause trouble.]

[I’ll say it again! He Chuzhou doesn’t deserve him! A playboy doesn’t deserve him! What’s so good about shipping a scumbag?]

Pei Xi was endlessly vexed by this group of people, and now someone had come out to throw dirty water on He Chuzhou, which made him even angrier.

Seated in his sunny office, his frown could kill a fly: 

Pei Xi: [@ The one who doesn’t like He Chuzhou, who is this? Why is this person in the group?]

Pei Xi: [How could He Chuzhou ever be a scumbag?]

Pei Xi: [I’m warning you, don’t talk nonsense and publicly defame others.]

[This malicious person has sneaked in again with a different account.]

[Kick them out, kick them out, quickly.]

[Wait. Period-bro, ah, judging from your comments, aren’t you…..a President He anti-fan?]

[Period-bro! The words of toxic fans can’t be trusted!]

Pei Xi: [You don’t trust me, but I should trust you?]

Pei Xi: [If you don’t know the situation, just be quiet.]

Pei Xi: [@Shining Xingxing, say something.]

He Chuzhou stared in amazement at this Period-bro who was arguing with everyone in the group. In the end, he touched his chin thoughtfully and didn’t plan to say anything more.

His body and mind were all focused on Xinxin, and he couldn’t be bothered to care about toxic fans.

And indeed, they had no clue about the situation, yet kept encouraging him to go for it. They definitely had bad intentions.

Pei Xi didn’t wait for He Chuzhou to comment, not because he didn’t speak, but because the second after he tagged He Chuzhou, he and the malicious poster were kicked out of the group chat.

He was naturally unaware that not long after he was kicked out, He Chuzhou was also kicked out by the group owner on the grounds that he had made too many off-topic comments.

He Chuzhou was once again dumbstruck. He’d worked hard in the group for a long while, yet achieved nothing.

Pei Xi closed his eyes and rubbed his chest, taking several deep breaths to vent his anger.

As for Yun Ji, who had silently observed this entire process…..he was numb.

*

*

The moment he put down his phone, Pei Xi really intended to give He Chuzhou the cold shoulder for three days.

But when it was time to get off work, he looked out the window at the drizzling sky and resigned himself to his fate. He called He Chuzhou and told him to wait for him at the door after work, and that he would pick him up after booking a restaurant.

It was very close, right next to work. There was no need to drive.

Xiao Gu thoughtfully prepared two umbrellas for him before he left, but Pei Xi took only one.

Pei Xi glanced inside casually when he picked up He Chuzhou at the door, and the heads that had popped up behind the front desk computers quickly retracted.

Pei Xi: “……”

It wouldn’t be a surprise if the group chat was updated again.

As they walked into the rain, the taller He Chuzhou naturally took the umbrella from Pei Xi, and also very naturally tilted it toward him.

The wind blew, and Pei Xi moved closer to him.

A misty curtain of rain seemed to have cast a filter over the entire street. The sound of vehicles rolling over the wet road fit seamlessly with the pattering of rain against the umbrella. Lights on both sides refracted in the rain, twinkling and diffusing.

The atmosphere was near perfect.

Pei Xi raised his hand to support the top of the umbrella handle, half of his palm overlapping He Chuzhou’s.

He could feel He Chuzhou’s free left hand reach around behind him, moving to hug his shoulders several times.

But after a long hesitation, he just gently pulled him inward and moved the umbrella to the other hand, letting his right hand hang by his side.

Pei Xi gave a faint sigh, saying nothing. He Chuzhou immediately noticed and said: “Are you cold?”

Pei Xi inwardly recited three times: Don’t argue with the stupid dog. He shook his head and handed him a black, curved keychain: “This is a new product from the company’s publicity department. I brought one for you.”

When he handed over the keychain, he casually put his own keychain on his index finger, so that the dark blue arc formed a perfect match with the one he gave to He Chuzhou.

But as if he was blind, He Chuzhou didn’t notice this at all. It could be seen that he was just happy that Pei Xi had remembered him even in regard to such a small thing.

“……”

Pei resisted the urge to snatch the keychain back, and instead asked casually: “Do I like this kind of thing when I lose my memory?”

He Chuzhou swung the keychain with a hum. The corners of his mouth rose when he thought of something: “Keychains, ornaments, little gadgets – you like them all very much. When we were abroad, you bought a lot of them.”

Pei Xi: “I like them now too.”

“Hm?” He Chuzhou tilted his head.

Pei Xi calmly met his gaze, telling him through his eyes what he couldn’t say: “He Chuzhou, I just lose my memory, not my personality. What I like when I’m amnesiac, I still like now.”

“Whether I’m amnesiac or in my right mind, I’m still me from beginning to end. You don’t need to split me into two entirely different people.”

He said word by word: “Even if I don’t remember, my mind is still the same. Just like how I enjoy pasta now, I should still like it when I’ve lost my memory, right?”

When he heard the implication in these words, his eyebrows jumped slightly. He seemed to finally understand something.

Damp neon light fell on his eyes, lighting them up sporadically: “Pei Xi, do you…..”

Pei Xi’s hands clenched at his sides. His breathing slowed, and he waited with nervous expectation for He Chuzhou to ask the question he wanted to hear.

He Chuzhou: “Do you want to eat pasta? Does this restaurant have it, or should we go to another one?”

Pei Xi: “…..”

Pei Xi: “……..”

---

Consider donating via Kofi here!

Chapter 61 << Table of Contents >> Chapter 63