Chapter 8

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio  Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

At 7:00 the next morning, Chen Xu woke up on time as usual. In the timespan of a month, he had morphed into a biological clock.

He heard some movement outside the window, which was out of ordinary. Without having to guess, he knew that it was Luo Xiyun who had just moved in.

After a night’s sleep, his state of mind had stabilized again.

In fact, thinking from Luo Xiyun’s point of view, having a more cautious mindset when staying with a male stranger was entirely normal. It was a form of self-protection.

She just hadn’t taken into account the feelings of others when giving her speech.

Then again, for someone like her, why would she have to care about the feelings of others?

Nonetheless, being able to understand her didn’t mean that he was happy about her behavior. He was still felt stung on the inside by her rejection.

If he knew from the beginning that this “virtual dream” would reach this level of realness, that a person would be exactly the same in both appearance and character, he would never have chosen a woman like Luo Xiyun to come into the dream world with him.

In the company, Luo Xiyun had always been a popular topic.

In private, there was a lot of gossip about her, and the most talked about was her poisonous tongue which had no sympathy for anyone. She had offended many people.

It was said that once, she almost stranded the company’s boss in an embarrassing situation in public. In the end, the boss didn’t reprimand her in any way, but her reputation spread throughout the company.

Now, he finally got a taste of it.

To be honest, there was an instant last night that he had an impulse to do something.

Nevertheless, the thought only stayed within his mind. He couldn’t bring himself to do anything yet.

Although he often told himself that this was just a dream, the longer he stayed here, the less he could think of all of this as a dream.

Out of sight, out of mind.

This was what he had in mind and planned to do.

After eating breakfast, he went over to Luo Xiyun along with a schedule. She lived next door, originally a coffee shop which he later tidied up and furnished with daily necessities. Yesterday, he vacated the space for her to move in.

When he was just about to knock on the door, he noticed that there was a new walkie-talkie doorbell installed on the door. This was specially installed for him. Her intention was also obvious, implying that he should not enter without authorization.

“So, she spent the whole morning installing this?”

With this thought in his mind, he pressed on the doorbell.

“Come in.” The sound from the intercom was a bit distorted.

Chen Xu pulled open the door and walked in.

As soon as he entered, he found that the floor was wet, the items inside were tidied up again, and the tables and chairs were neatly arranged.

Before moving in, there was an office. Now, that room was her bedroom.

The door of the bedroom was open. She was holding a towel, bending over, and wiping the table.

Chen Xu thought that was odd, as it was cleaned just the day before.

Deciding to leave her odd behavior alone, he didn’t raise any questions. He said, “Let’s discuss work distribution.”

Luo Xiyun folded the towels neatly, set them aside, and said, “Let’s talk outside.”

The two went outside and sat down at a table.

Just as Chen Xu took out the schedule, he saw her take out a wet wipe and clean both of her hands assiduously. He was struck, thinking, “She’s a neat freak.” He imagined things couldn’t have been easy for her over the past month.

Of course, that had nothing to do with him. Now, he only wanted to finish the discussion quickly and get out as fast as he could.

“This is the list of daily work that I’ve jotted down. I roughly drafted a plan. This is it. Have a look. If there is no problem, we can further discuss it.”

The plan he made was very simple, heavy physical work for Chen Xu, and work like doing the laundry, cleaning, and tidying up for Luo Xiyun.

Luo Xiyun took the notebook and quickly began reading. After a moment, she asked, “Which areas are included for cleaning?”

“Just public areas,” said Chen Xu, “You don’t have to clean the place I’m living in, including the first floor. I’ll clean those areas myself.”

Luo Xiyun nodded, agreeing to this component of the plan. She continued reading down the list. After a while, she raised several questions, one after another. Chen Xu answered all of them one by one.

Finally, Luo Xiyun finished going through the entire list. She placed the notebook on the table.

Chen Xu collected himself and said, “If there isn’t a problem, this will be our work distribution for the time being. If there are any issues in the future, we can talk about them at that time.”

As he was about the leave, he heard Luo Xiyun say, “I have another question.”

He had to sit down again, “What is it?”

“I don’t remember seeing cooking and dishwashing on the list,” Luo Xiyun inquired. “Are you going to make some arrangements for that?”

“About this,” Chen Xu said, “I thought we’d be better off doing those on our own.”

Luo Xiyun looked at him. After a moment, she asked, “Why?”

Why?

Was that a question?

Chen Xu said directly, “That way, you won’t have to force yourself to interact with me, and I won’t have to awkwardly interact with you.”

Luo Xiyun stared at him and asked with some disdain in her eyes, “Were you triggered by what I said yesterday? You are a man. Can you at least behave like a gentleman?”

A moment of silence.

“Who the hell you think you are?”

After a while, Chen Xu opened his mouth. His voice was faint and his tone smeared with a little sarcasm, “Is it because you are a woman that you can ignore my feelings and say things that will hurt my dignity? While I, as a man, am not allowed to even express myself even when I am upset?”

He continued, “Is it because you’re a woman, born to a rich family, with beautiful looks, and are of a higher position than me at work that I have to always be mindful to respect your feelings, even by hurting myself? If that’s what being a gentleman means, then I’d like to say——”

Chen Xu punctuated each word, “F*ck being a gentleman.”

“You——” Luo Xiyun’s face was a little red. He didn’t know if it was because she was angry or annoyed.

Since Chen Xu had already said so much, he thought he’d be better off getting everything out of his system, “Of course, although I possess none of the characteristics of the ‘gentleman’ that you’ve described, I still know the basic principles of being human. Since you won’t like me at all, you won’t have to worry about me doing anything to you.”

He continued, “However, I am a twenty-six-year-old man who is entirely normal from inside out. So, us not seeing each other, will be good for both you and me.”

After he finished, Chen Xu felt relieved in both body and mind. There were some things that he had been wanting to say for a very long time. However, in the real world, no matter how troubled he was feeling, he had to keep his emotions inside most of the time.

Now, in his own dream world, he would naturally say whatever he wanted to say. He didn’t have to worry about any consequences.

It didn’t matter whether or not Luo Xiyun would get mad over what he said and leave. So be it.

Having lived through an entire month alone, the remaining five months wouldn’t be a problem. Now, having a positive state of mind would, of course, be more important.

Chen Xu turned around and left, not bothering to even have a glimpse at Luo Xiyun’s aghast face.