CH 6

Liang Yu didn’t get up until it was almost noon. He hastily washed his face and walked downstairs wearing a headband. Xiao Luo was chatting with the housekeeper, yammering away. It was as if this place was her own home. She was very at ease.

“Ge.” Xiao Luo happily called out to him when she saw him. “You woke up?” 

Liang Yu’s morning grumpiness hadn’t subsided yet. He was a little annoyed to see the others, so he didn’t respond. He finally paused at the end of the stairs.

Xiao Luo seemed to have just discovered something and asked, “Ge, did you bring this vase with you as well?”

Liang Yu nodded. There were actually flowers within the vase. It could be seen that it had been specially arranged. The flowers had a sort of disorderly elegance about them.

The housekeeper smiled and said, “Mr. Xu got up early this morning to arrange it. He even worried that you wouldn’t like it.” 

Xiao Luo blinked. She gave Liang Yu a glance, her expression clearly revealing her surprise.

Liang Yu didn’t respond. He sat down at the table and instructed Xiao Luo, “Order some takeout.”

The housekeeper found this a little unexpected. “Is Mr. Liang not going to eat at home? Mr. Xu already had me prepare lunch. I was just waiting for you to wake up.”

“…” Xiao Luo awkwardly held her phone in her hand. She couldn’t order takeout like this, but she also couldn’t not order takeout.

Liang Yu was speechless for a moment. Then, he asked, “What’s there to eat?”

The housekeeper: “I simmered some chicken soup and stir-fried some kale. Mr. Xu said that you liked kale. I also skimmed the oil off the chicken soup. I haven’t added salt.”

Liang Yu: “…”

He had been building muscle recently. He had a very strict meal prep regimen. His housekeeper helped him cut up the chicken. The chicken breasts were neatly arranged on a plate and the green kale leaves were placed next to it. He knew better than anyone that it didn’t actually taste that good, but, surprisingly, it didn’t look too bad. 

Xiao Luo took a photo and sent it to Liang Yu’s personal trainer.

Liang Yu looked at her for a second. Then, he suddenly said, “Take a picture for me too.”

“?” Xiao Luo raised her phone and aimed it at his face.

Liang Yu’s expression darkened. “I didn’t tell you to take a photo of me.” 

Xiao Luo found him completely unfathomable. “Then what am I supposed to take a photo of?”

Liang Yu pulled out his cell phone and gestured towards the plate of chicken for a long time. Then, he gave his assistant another order, “Turn on the flashlight. Give it some lighting from the side.”

Xiao Luo: “…It’s already bright enough, ge.”

When Zhu Xiaoxiao first received the Weibo notification, she subconsciously swiped it away after a glance. It wasn’t until she realized that something wasn’t quite right that she finally ended up scrolling back. She found that Liang Yu, whom she had given a special following, had sent out a new Weibo post. 

Ktf qbra kjr mjqalbcfv “Obnf Dfcab” klat j qlmaegf bo mtlmxfc jcv xjif.

“…” Ite Wljbzljb’r tjcv agfwyifv j yla. Vtf qijmfv j tjcv bnfg tfg wbeat jcv oegalnfis uijcmfv bnfg ja We Alcuhtf, ktb tjv tlr fsfr mibrfv. Vtf rtbeafv lc tfg tfjga, “Ktfgf’r cb cffv! Vlg! Tbe vbc’a cffv ab rfii la rb tjgv!” Qtfc rtf gfogfrtfv atf qjuf, atf kbgv “yfcab” tjv wjvf lar kjs bcab atf agfcvlcu ilra, obiibkfv ys j ilaaif ijyfi atja rjlv “fzqibrlnf”.

Zhu Xiaoxiao looked out into the distance. Her eyes were blank. She looked like a statue.

Liang Yu seemed to have set some sort of a precedent. All of a sudden, netizens were all showing off their own lunches. Underneath his original posts, everyone was furiously tagging Xu Jingzhe. It was a good thing he hadn’t redownloaded Weibo. As of right now, he was still blissfully unaware. 

Zhang Man didn’t know how to deal with the current situation. She had no choice but to contact Yang Jierui and get straight to the point, “Does Mr. Liang always do things like this? He won’t even give us a heads-up?”

Yang Jierui didn’t seem to think there was a problem. “Why does he need to give a heads-up for this? He’s just showing off their relationship.”

Zhang Man was incredulous. “But it’s fake.”

Yang Jierui laughed. “So you do know it’s fake. How come you didn’t think of that when Mr. Xu was acting sweet for the camera?” 

Zhang Man: “…”

Actually, it wasn’t just Xu Jingzhe’s team. Liang Yu’s team wasn’t too happy either. They had already agreed that this would be a cooperation for the sake of their mutual benefit. As a result, their cooperation had just started, the management teams hadn’t even done anything, yet their bosses were already competing for employee of the year. One showed off before the media while the other showed off on social media. Are you two for real?! Was a man’s natural desire to win supposed to be used for something like this?!

More importantly, Yang Jierui couldn’t control Liang Yu.

If it was when Liang Yu first started out, Yang Jierui might’ve been able to rely on his experience and his identity as a successful agent to intervene in Liang Yu’s affairs. However, over the past couple of years, Liang Yu had grown a lot. When Liang Yu opened up his own studio, Yang Jierui made up his mind to follow him. Since then, the two of them became boss and subordinate. Aside from working hard, Yang Jierui’s only other job was to listen to Liang Yu. 

Like right now, for example. He was only bold enough to make a phone call.

“Who cares if I posted it.” Liang Yu was picking out the clothes he’d wear this afternoon in the cloakroom. Xu Jingzhe’s villa had a huge upside. There were two cloakrooms. He would get a lot of sponsored clothing from affordable luxury brands every year. He ended up moving them all over. “You just treat it like any other job.”

Yang Jerry sighed. “You really don’t have to work so hard. That photo of you guys—what was it? The ‘Kiss of the Century’? It ended up paralyzing Weibo for an entire day. Now you’re coming out with this again. Can’t you have a little bit of pity for the programmers?”

“There’s also Douban.” Yang Jerry continued to list things off at him. “Your Douban group and Jingzhe’s Douban group were arguing about who had better results. Both fan groups are pretty entertaining. They didn’t bother to argue about whether you two were a match or not. Instead, they went straight for your performances. Xu Jingzhe’s fans want to call the ship name JingYu, but your fans refused. They wanted to call it YuJing. It’s pretty interesting, isn’t it?” 

Liang Yu did seem to think it was quite interesting. He actually laughed out loud. Yang Jerry knew that he would react like this. He couldn’t be bothered to scold him. He persuaded him to please calm down, stop trending every five seconds, and finally hung up the phone.

Xiao Luo’s loud voice rang out from downstairs. Xu Jingzhe had come back as well.

After Liang Yu changed his clothes, he leaned against the second floor railing and looked down. Xu Jingzhe was still standing at the entrance. He seemed to have noticed something and looked up, making eye contact with him.

The two of them hadn’t actually seen each other for a couple of days. Liang Yu had come back really late last night. Xu Jingzhe was someone who stuck to a rigid schedule. So long as he had a job the next day, he absolutely had to go to bed early and get his beauty rest. Therefore, it stood to reason that the two of them could be considered reunited lovebirds. 

“Hi.” Liang Yu raised his hand as a greeting. Zhu Xiaoxiao instantly made herself invisible.

She had just told Xu Jingzhe about Liang Yu’s Weibo post in the car. Xu Jingzhe had only just now redownloaded Weibo.

The housekeeper hadn’t left yet. The two of them would need to continue acting.

“Have you eaten yet?” Xu Jingzhe asked casually. 

Liang Yu: “Wouldn’t I be letting you down if I didn’t?”

The words themselves sounded very flirty, but, when it came out of Liang Yu’s mouth, it took on a strange tone.

Xu Jingzhe let the housekeeper get off work first. Then, he went to the other cloakroom on the second floor to change clothes. They still needed to visit IKEA in the afternoon. The furniture was secondary. Their main goal was to get the photos.

Zhu Xiaoxiao and Xiao Luo were both calmly waiting downstairs. Liang Yu wasn’t so well-behaved. He wanted to go into Xu Jingzhe’s cloakroom. 

Xu Jingzhe felt a little helpless. “You wait outside. I’ll change clothes.”

Liang Yu said lazily, “Your aesthetics aren’t that good.”

“…” Xu Jingzhe was somewhat offended. “Are your aesthetics good?”

Liang Yu pointedly said, “Either way, I wouldn’t have worn those socks that day.” 

Xu Jingzhe stared at him for a while. After thinking about it for a bit, he let him into the cloakroom. Liang Yu looked around, but he didn’t seem to be very satisfied with anything. Finally, he said, “Let’s pick something out from my cloakroom.”

Xu Jingzhe hesitated. “Will they fit me?”

Liang Yu laughed somewhat ambiguously. He looked Xu Jingzhe up and down, his eyes landing on the other man’s neck and shoulders. He circled around him. Then, he withdrew his gaze as if it never happened and said lightly, “I received a few new pieces of clothing, women’s clothing. Why don’t you try it on?”

Many luxury brands made oversized clothing. They could be worn by both men and women. Of course, some designs were softer and prettier than others. Women tended to prefer these designs. 

Liang Yu selected some casual attire from a niche designer for Xu Jingzhe. The top was embellished with lace cuffs, and it was paired with a pair of well-worn jeans. The socks were white this time. Liang Yu glanced at him and, surprisingly, didn’t make any snide comments.

“Is your birthday March 5th or March 6th?” Liang Yu suddenly asked.

Xu Jingzhe: “March 6th.” He was a little surprised. “You know my birthday?”

Liang Yu laughed at him. “Your name sure is convenient.” 

This wasn’t the first time that Xu Jingzhe had been told this. His mentor, Ren Qing, also praised his name. She said that he was born on a good date and given a good name. Before he had debuted, his very first company had even invited a fortune teller to do divinations. His fortune said that he would hit it big and experience a meteoric rise in success, so they didn’t even bother to make up a stage name. Xu Jingzhe straight-up made his debut with his given name.

The two of them had probably stayed in the cloakroom for too long. The assistants downstairs were starting to get restless.

Xiao Luo was a bit more daring and was the first to urge them. “Ge, are we leaving yet?”

Liang Yu stuck his head out with a bit of an impatient look on his face. “What time is it?” he asked. 

Xu Jingzhe took a look at the time. He felt that it was about time to leave, so he stood up and started heading out.

Liang Yu grabbed him once more. “You should wear some accessories.”

Xu Jingzhe asked, “Should I wear a necklace? Or would a ring be better?”

Liang Yu didn’t speak. He glanced at Xu Jingzhe. Then, he took off the watch on his wrist. His movements were a bit rough as he put it on Xu Jingzhe. 

Xu Jingzhe waited for him to fasten the buckle. Then, he raised his arm and said, dumbfounded, “It’s a little big.”

Liang Yu shot back, “You’re too skinny.”

The two of them went downstairs one after the other. Xu Jingzhe went to change his shoes by the entrance. When Zhu Xiaoxiao saw his watch slide down his wrist as he tied his shoelaces, she almost choked on the spot.

She couldn’t help looking up at Liang Yu. He had already put on a pair of espadrilles and was acting as if nothing had happened. He was still talking to Xiao Luo. 

The two of them were speaking in a dialect Zhu Xiaoxiao couldn’t understand. She was still staring at Xu Jingzhe’s watch with a stupefied expression on her face.

Xu Jingzhe didn’t seem to think there was anything wrong. Going out on a trip was just like going to work for him. He instantly entered his “deeply in love” persona. He maintained this performance in the car and off the car, in IKEA and out of IKEA. He even clasped hands with Liang Yu very naturally.

“Let’s switch spots.” Xu Jingzhe suddenly said as he was whispering “sweetly” into Liang Yu’s ear.

Liang Yu was smiling, but his tone of voice was calm and cool-headed. “Why?” 

Xu Jingzhe: “This angle doesn’t really suit me. My left side looks better.”

Liang Yu: “…”