CH 5

That text was like a stone sinking into the sea, and from the afternoon to the evening, there was no response.

Pei You may not have been good at socializing, but he wasn’t stupid. He could clearly understand that that was Zhou Qingbo’s answer.

For adults, rejection could be gentle and silent. Pei You didn’t feel angry, just a bit regretful because he genuinely believed that Zhou Qingbo was worth getting to know.

But Pei You had experienced numerous failures in blind dates, and such outcomes were quite common. He didn’t pay too much attention to it. However, Pei Zi, who had been watching the whole process, was not as calm as him and had sighed three times within half an hour.

“I don’t understand,” Pei Zi lay on the couch, watching Pei You while saying with a worried expression, “Brother, what did you do?!”

Pei Zi genuinely couldn’t figure it out. In her eyes, Pei You was good-looking, educated, and had a decent job. According to reason, he shouldn’t have encountered repeated failures in blind dates. Even if the gay community had high standards, he should have at least had one or two successful cases. Why was it so strange that he failed every time?

“Just an ordinary performance,” Pei You said casually, bending down to hang his clothes in the closet, “I did everything as you told me to.”

“Impossible, there must be something wrong,” Pei Zi said firmly, “Next time, just take me along. I’ll give you real-time advice through Bluetooth earphones.”

Pei You paused for a moment as he thought about it and eventually shook his head. “No,” he said, “That wouldn’t be right.”

Seeking advice and having someone else do it for him were two different things. The former was learning from personal experience, while the latter was deception. Pei You couldn’t accept such a “proxy” behavior.

After all, the purpose of “blind dates” was for potential romantic relationships. Even if he won someone’s favor through tricks in the first step, his true self would eventually be revealed during their interactions. It was better to let things happen naturally.

“What should I do then? Without my help, can you find a partner?” Pei Zi looked at him with a worried expression, sighing again, “As a man, you only have a few years in your prime. If you don’t hurry, you’ll be left withered.”

Pei You: “…”

Just as Pei Zi’s voice was about to drop, He Ping entered the room and cut in with a strong tone.

“That’s right,” He Ping said, “I’ve told you before. This time’s blind date was cheerful and lively, and he had some interesting ideas. You should have prepared more topics for young people, but you didn’t listen.”

Pei You: “…”

Cheerful and lively? Interesting ideas? Pei You wondered if they were talking about Zhou Qingbo.

Unable to resist, he turned his head to look at his mother, thinking that blind dates were indeed like Schrödinger’s cat. Mrs. He probably didn’t know much about him and simply invited the person over without knowing the details.

“Mom,” Pei You said helplessly, “If we’re not a good match, let it go. I’m not in a hurry, and you don’t need to be either.”

Pei You actually didn’t mind dating, but in the past few years, he had been busy with studying and then joined a top-notch company in the industry after graduation. He was too occupied with work and had no time to date around.

Besides, unlike heterosexual relationships where you could pursue someone once you had a good impression, for people like them, their potential partners were limited to a small pool of candidates. Whether they fell in love or not, whether they were interested or not, were all hidden under careful consideration.

Pei You wasn’t sure if his radar was not sensitive enough or if there were other reasons, but he had hardly ever recognized a gay person in a crowd. Apart from forced blind dates, he hadn’t met anyone of the same orientation.

On top of that, his blind date experiences were rough and bumpy, with no successes in love but a stack of good people cards. After several times, he had simply developed a nonchalant attitude – if it worked, great; if not, he didn’t feel too bad.

After all, compared to the elusive nature of love, work suited him better.

“And I will be really busy in the coming days,” Pei You said, pushing all kinds of data cables into his computer bag, “The company has taken on a new project, and I have to report on Monday.”

“Another new project?” Mrs. He’s attention was indeed shifted, and she asked quickly, “Will you need to go on a business trip again?”

“Not for the time being,” Pei You said, “It’s a local company, but during busy times, we might stay in hotels together.”

Working locally was good, and Mrs. He nodded. Out of curiosity, she asked, “Which company is it?”

After making a final check of the data cables in his computer bag, Pei You closed the zipper.

“Qingshan,” Pei You said.

………….

At 8:30 AM on Monday morning, in the CEO’s office on the 23rd floor of Qingshan headquarters, Zhou Qingbo sat at the desk, exhausted and listless, as if he had no bones, playing with the hourglass on the table.

The wooden hourglass swayed back and forth in his hands, and the light blue sand inside it danced around the narrow opening. Zhou Qingbo was so engrossed in playing with it that he didn’t even notice when someone pushed open the office door.

As soon as Zhou Cangshan entered, he saw Zhou Qingbo’s lazy appearance and couldn’t help but feel a headache. He took a deep breath and called out in a stern voice, “Zhou Qingbo.”

Zhou Qingbo jumped up as if conditioned reflexively, forced a smile, and waved at Zhou Cangshan. “Hey,” he said, “Big brother, good morning.”

“Did you stay up late playing games again last night?” Zhou Cangshan walked around the desk, sat down, turned on the computer, and scrutinized Zhou Qingbo. “Didn’t I tell you that you have important work today?”

“I didn’t play games,” Zhou Qingbo muttered softly, “I’ve already completed the new game.”

Unfortunately, he couldn’t help but yawn immediately after saying that, making his defense seem unconvincing.

Zhou Cangshan furrowed his brows and asked, “Then did you go to the bar again? I’ve told you many times, you’re not a kid anymore. Focus on your work and stop fooling around all day. Those little games and pranks outside won’t compare to—”

“Brother!” Zhou Qingbo winced at his nagging and quickly sat up straight. He mumbled, “I really didn’t go. I had insomnia last night.”

That was actually true. Zhou Qingbo was forced by Zhou Cangshan to meet potential business partners, which resulted in him not sleeping well for two nights. Every time he closed his eyes, he dreamed that the person he was dealing with was a stern, middle-aged, and meticulous audit fanatic. He ended up tossing and turning all night.

Zhou Cangshan looked at him half-skeptically, unsure how much of that he believed. However, he didn’t have time to argue with Zhou Qingbo about it and decided not to dwell on the matter.

“Never mind,” Zhou Cangshan said, “Qingshan is about to prepare for its IPO, and we need to start internal reforms. When you go back, distribute the work for this quarter and have your subordinates prepare department reports.”

Zhou Qingbo’s head started to ache as soon as he heard about work. With a gloomy expression like a salted fish, he reluctantly nodded.

“Our company has never gone public before, and we have no experience, so we have to start from scratch,” Zhou Cangshan said. “Don’t slack off either. The representatives from the collaborating party will work at Qingshan for a period of time to evaluate the company’s assets and conduct internal audits. Since you don’t have much to do, you can assist them.”

Preparing for an IPO could take anywhere from a year to several years. Zhou Cangshan intended to involve Zhou Qingbo in core work and take that opportunity to familiarize him with the company.

Zhou Qingbo understood his good intentions, even though he was unwilling from the bottom of his heart. Nevertheless, he sullenly agreed.

“That’s settled,” Zhou Cangshan said, “You can go back to work now. When the representatives arrive, I’ll call you over.”

At the mention of the collaborating representatives, Zhou Qingbo reflexively thought of those middle-aged men with faces he couldn’t see clearly in his dreams. He shivered at the thought and silently prayed that they wouldn’t turn out to be cold-blooded fanatics with an iron-fisted approach.

He returned to his office with a devout heart but became more restless the more he thought about it. Unable to resist, he messaged the front desk and asked the receptionist to “investigate” the situation on the front lines.

“Understood, Mr  Zhou,” the receptionist said, “But the representative from the collaborating party has already come upstairs.”

Zhou Qingbo was shocked, and he responded with three exclamation marks, asking, “What kind of person is he? Does he seem easy to get along with?”

“I don’t know,” the receptionist replied honestly, “I didn’t get a good look. It was Mr. Zhou’s secretary who personally escorted the person.”

With the front lines falling ahead, Zhou Qingbo hadn’t received any information. While he hesitated about whether to personally investigate the situation, someone knocked on his office door from the outside.

Before Zhou Qingbo could say “come in,” Zhou Cangshan had already pushed the door open. As Zhou Qingbo looked up, he was surprised to see a familiar face behind his big brother.

“Mr. Pei, this is—”

Before Zhou Cangshan could finish his introduction, Zhou Qingbo exclaimed in astonishment, “Pei You?”

Pei You was also caught off guard by seeing Zhou Qingbo there and was startled by his reaction. He subconsciously answered, “Mr. Zhou…?”

Zhou Cangshan looked puzzled as he glanced at Zhou Qingbo and then turned to Pei You. “This is my younger brother,” Zhou Cangshan said. “Mr. Pei, do you two know each other?”

As soon as he heard the names Zhou Cangshan and Zhou Qingbo, Pei You realized they did sound like siblings’ names.

Fate was indeed mysterious, and even Pei You couldn’t help but find it a bit funny. He had politely said “see you next time” to Zhou Qingbo when they parted before. But now, courtesy had turned into reality, and they actually “met again.”

Pei You didn’t think much about it, but Zhou Qingbo was sweating profusely. He thought to himself that he would have been better off without praying. Even if Zhou Cangshan had brought a difficult, arrogant middle-aged man, it would still be better than the current situation.

Zhou Jianguo and Zhou Cangshan were both old-fashioned, so Zhou Qingbo had always hidden his sexual orientation very well and never exposed it in social circles involving family.

Now, seeing his same-sex blind date right next to his big brother, Zhou Qingbo felt like his hair was going to stand on end.

“We know each other,” Pei You replied politely to Zhou Cangshan’s question. “We met through a blind date event.”

Before he could finish his sentence, Zhou Qingbo swiftly moved forward and covered Pei You’s mouth, attempting to force a plastic smile towards Zhou Cangshan.

“We… We’ve met through a dating… a dating and love alumni association,” Zhou Qingbo said through gritted teeth.