It wasn’t that Chen Luzhou thought too highly of himself; his experiences over the past decade or so had indeed been brilliant and impressive, leading to some reactions becoming second nature. However, he never imagined that he would encounter Xu Zhi at his least impressive moment.
The bar was quite crowded today, with people sitting in small groups. Tables were adorned with colorful glasses and flickering candles, casting an otherworldly light into every corner. Like vibrant flowers, red blooms here, and green clusters there, the ambiance lured urban men and women into mysterious conversations and flirtations.
Perhaps it was the atmosphere, but after hanging up the phone and tossing it back to Xu Zhi, Chen Luzhou took a sip of the cocktail in front of him. He propped up his feet, his shoulders slumping lazily. His eyes didn’t look at her; instead, he lowered his head, pretending to examine the tiger’s mouth area of his hand, though it wasn’t clear what he was checking. He had initially wanted to ask, “Why haven’t you been looking for me lately?” But feeling it might seem too eager, he changed tack and asked, “What have you been busy with recently?”
Xu Zhi sighed. It was a long story, but she summarized it, as “Watching a TV series.”
“Which one?”
“‘Praise Me,’ the one you recommended.”
Chen Luzhou smiled, finally glancing at her sideways. His lips curved upward, his eyes full of mirth. “You watched it?”
Eager to know the ending, Xu Zhi had searched for it and started watching the same night. However, it wasn’t about a major insurance claim case at all, but rather a 100-episode sitcom. She had searched online repeatedly, finding only this one Korean series. Thinking Chen Luzhou might have been referring to a specific episode, she started from the first one and kept going. Before she knew it, she was hooked, staying up for two nights straight to finish the entire series.
“How was it? Stress-relieving?” Chen Luzhou asked with a smile.
Chen Luzhou quite liked this series and would rewatch it annually, especially when he was in a bad mood. The director’s dry humor was natural and niche. If others asked, he might not necessarily recommend it, as he always believed that sharing favorite shows and music, unlike sharing food, was a probe into one’s spiritual world.
Xu Zhi nodded in deep agreement. She realized her taste had been somewhat influenced by Chen Luzhou. Previously, she wouldn’t have watched such sitcoms, finding them boring and plotless. But this director had depth; each episode had its own little story. The characters seemed unrelated at first glance but were intricately connected, with details left for the audience to uncover.
“Do you have any similar recommendations?” Xu Zhi was curious about just how much free time this person had and how many TV shows and movies he had watched to find such an obscure series.
“Yes, I’ll tell you later,” Chen Luzhou thought to himself, why reveal everything at once?
Xu Zhi: “Alright, then what’s the ending of that movie?”
Chen Luzhou sighed and began to explain, “Online, it’s all about her ‘checkered past.’ Even a delivery man came forward to claim that her temper wasn’t good, sometimes being quite rude to them. Similar trivial comments flooded out, to the point where even she began to doubt if she was the kind of person they described. Having been protected too well by her family and husband since childhood, she had never directly faced human nature. In the end, overwhelmed by the pain of losing her husband and her inner struggles, she attempted suicide by taking sleeping pills. The director left an open ending. Just as she was attempting suicide, the police closed the case, confirming her husband’s death was indeed accidental. Her parents rushed her to the hospital, and the final scene of the movie froze on her heart monitor, leaving it unclear whether she survived or not.”
Chen Luzhou had genuinely forgotten the movie’s title. The entire film was quite depressing and not particularly enjoyable, typical of the Korean style. He had just randomly started watching it when he was bored. If Xu Zhi hadn’t brought it up, he wouldn’t have thought of this similar plot.
“Her stress tolerance is that low?” Xu Zhi commented.
“Well,” Chen Luzhou carelessly tossed a peanut into his mouth and said in a low voice, “If you consider the director’s setup, it’s understandable. She grew up protected by her parents, and when she grew up, she met her husband, who was her first love and also always protected her well. You could say she had a smooth sailing life, surrounded by good people. Now, with her husband dead and her parents too old to protect her anymore, when the good people around her turn bad, it’s normal for her to break down.”
“So, do you think it’s better for people to face setbacks or not?” Xu Zhi asked. “Or rather, it seems like we all have a wall in our hearts. I can’t quite explain what this wall is – for some, it’s their parents, for others, it’s their children, and for some, it’s money and power. Hypothetically, if the wall in your heart collapses, what would you do?”
Chen Luzhou thought to himself, I don’t just have a wall in my heart; there’s an impenetrable wall right in front of me.
“Let me think about that question and get back to you,” he said.
“Okay.”
Xu Zhi still seemed perplexed.
Chen Luzhou lifted his chin slightly and asked, seemingly casually, “Your brother just said you’re going down the mountain tomorrow?”
“Yeah, my dad’s urging me,” Xu Zhi asked him, “You’re probably staying for a few more days, right? Contact me when you come down?” Contact you for what?
Then she remembered, oh, her cousin.
“Mm,” he lowered his head, continuing to peel peanuts indifferently, nodding slightly, “We’ll see. I might have to go out of town. Let’s resolve your cousin’s matter before I leave.”
Xu Zhi was curious: “Where are you going? On a trip?”
What are you curious about?
“Why, want to come with me?” Chen Luzhou looked up at her half-jokingly, his eyes filled with a youthful, slightly challenging charm as if to say if you dare say yes, I dare agree.
Xu Zhi looked straight into his eyes, unafraid. At that moment, people often say that youth is ignorant and fearless, but she felt that Chen Luzhou was the kind of youth who was knowledgeable yet still fearless. So she said, “If you’re taking me, I’ll go.”
Hearing this, Chen Luzhou looked at her for a long while, not saying whether it was okay or not. After a long pause, he finally answered off-topic, “Why were you avoiding me a few days ago?”
Xu Zhi quietly finished her cocktail before looking at him and saying, “I wasn’t avoiding you.”
Chen Luzhou: “Then why didn’t you come directly to me about buying the camera?”
Xu Zhi sighed, coughed, and said, “Well, I’ll be straightforward then. Don’t get angry when you hear it.”
Chen Luzhou made a sound of acknowledgment, slightly raising his chin, his gaze very indifferent, meaning go ahead, let’s hear it.
The bar’s music was chaotic as Xu Zhi slowly began to speak.
“Yingying said that Zhu Yangqi might like me, and told me to stay away from both of you. She said being friends is fine, but anything further wouldn’t be okay. She thinks all the boys from your high school are the same, mainly because of the precedent set by Zhai Xiao. Now she’s a bit… you know… when it comes to boys from your school.”
“Zhu Yangqi likes you?” Chen Luzhou was stunned, “What did he do? Did he flirt with you?”
“No, no,” Xu Zhi hurriedly explained, “Actually, I think she’s probably overthinking it. She said Zhu Yangqi often likes my moments on WeChat and comments on almost every post. She also mentioned that you often invite me for drinks, mostly for Zhu Yangqi’s sake. She probably doesn’t know that when we drink, Zhu Yangqi isn’t even there. I mainly didn’t want her to get the wrong idea, and since she just went through a breakup, I didn’t dare to contact you.”
Zhu Yangqi was a well-known sycophant, liking and dutifully commenting on the WeChat moments of any remotely attractive girl.
His motto was — when goddesses post moments, they’re posting for sycophants like him to see. How impolite would it be if he didn’t like them?
Chen Luzhou glumly downed the rest of his cocktail: “Why didn’t Cai Yingying say that I like you?”
Xu Zhi was very candid and straightforward about this, “Oh, don’t worry about that. Yingying said she has plenty of dating experience and has analyzed it carefully. She didn’t suspect you.”
Are you two trying to catch a wanted criminal or what?
Xu Zhi said: “Yingying said that you’re like me, only interested in making money. Mainly because you even swindled money from your brother, which gave her a bit of a misconception about you.”
Cai Yingying had also said that for someone of Chen Luzhou’s level of attractiveness, he must be surrounded by girls. She figured he was probably immune to beautiful women by now, unlike Zhu Yangqi who eagerly approached every pretty girl he saw.
“So you still want to make money with me, is that it?” Chen Luzhou asked.
“What else? We rarely have the same goal,” Xu Zhi finally got to the point, “I have a good idea, want to hear it?”
Chen Luzhou sat on the high stool, still a bit taller than her. Xu Zhi had her hair in a high ponytail today, with some loose strands framing her face, accentuating her full forehead and fine pores. She looked clean, pure, and sharp. Chen Luzhou was shocked at himself; even in this dim light, he noticed a small mole at the corner of her eye. It was tiny and faint, light brown, flickering in and out of view in the wavering candlelight, like a cinnabar mole, like blood from the heart’s tip, like all the illusions that one can’t quite grasp.
Perhaps because his heart was beating too fast, his gaze grew colder as he glanced at her indifferently, “Go on.”
“Have you heard of store exploration?” Xu Zhi slowly explained, “When I was in my first year of high school, I registered a social account on Golden House out of boredom. You know Golden House, right? It’s currently the largest lifestyle-sharing platform. I occasionally share some daily life stuff there. Recently, when Yingying dyed her hair, I recorded a tutorial. But there was a bit of an accident – she originally wanted to dye it blue-black, but it faded to green. That short video suddenly went viral, getting a lot of views on the platform, and my followers suddenly increased. Then people started approaching us for advertisements. But since we’re still students, I don’t dare to accept ads recklessly. I was thinking, why not just do store explorations? Trendy stores, budget-friendly places, anything that works. We just need a photographer—”
Xu Zhi looked at him tentatively.
“Just tell me, how much are you planning to pay me?” Chen Luzhou asked.
Xu Zhi threw the question back at him, “How much do you want?”
It depends on your conscience, Young Master Chen.
As soon as Xu Zhi got back, Cai Yingying, who was cutting her toenails, eagerly asked, “So, did the handsome Chen agree?”
Xu Zhi changed into slippers and said, “He didn’t agree, but he didn’t refuse either. He said it depends on whether he has time, so I’m planning to work around his schedule. He’s going to a nearby city in a few days. What do you think about setting our first store exploration in the trendy street of that city? The owner of one of the stores there just sent me a private message.”
“Alright,” Cai Yingying first nodded in agreement, but then expressed some reservations, “But we’re not bringing that creepy Zhu Yangqi.”
Xu Zhi: “…”
After that, several days passed since Xu Zhi came down from the mountain, and Chen Luzhou hadn’t contacted her. It was as if that mountain was a signal blocker. Xu Zhi once thought that perhaps she had been cut off from his world after leaving the mountain. There was no news at all – no WeChat messages, and no updates on his Moments. Although he wasn’t very active on Moments, to begin with, he would occasionally share a good photo when he took one, like the previous picture of the pheasant.
His Moments updates had stopped at that pheasant photo. He hadn’t even posted about the meteor shower later. Perhaps he hadn’t captured a photo he was satisfied with that night, or for whatever reason, he hadn’t updated his Moments since.
She didn’t know what he had been busy with lately, or why there was no news from him at all. Xu Zhi absent-mindedly watched the television, which was playing “The Dragon Empress.” It was Old Xu’s favorite TV series, which he watched every summer vacation. Xu Zhi would usually change the channel when he wasn’t paying attention, but today, for some reason, maybe the remote was broken, nothing happened no matter how she pressed the buttons.
Witnessing the whole process, Xu Guangji: “…”
“Xu Zhi, are you sick?” Xu Guangji pressed his palm against her forehead. “Can’t you hear the beeping? This is the air conditioner remote. You’ve messed up the air outlet!”
Xu Zhi: “… Oh?”
Xu Guangji wore an expression of a father who knew his daughter all too well. “You’ve got something on your mind.”
Xu Zhi couldn’t quite put it into words. “It’s not exactly a concern, just something… I’m waiting for someone’s call.”
“Chen Luzhou?”
Xu Zhi made a sound of agreement, reaching for the TV remote on the table. She remembered to mention, “Dad, I might need to go to the neighboring city in a few days.”
“With that Chen Luzhou?” His voice rose slightly. Xu Guangji’s attention had completely shifted from the TV, his eyes fixed on his daughter’s slightly flushed face.
Xu Zhi intended to watch the news, wondering if a typhoon had hit, causing a landslide on the mountain that might have buried him. She casually replied, “Sort of. We’re planning to explore some shops together, but it’s hard to explain to you. I’ll tell you more when it’s done.”
Xu Guangji misheard it as:
— We’re planning to go to a hotel.
“Call the police! Call the police!” Xu Guangji, hot-headed, reached for his phone without a second thought.
Chen Luzhou had no idea he was almost reported to the police by Xu Zhi. He was no longer at the mountain resort, having come down days ago. A couple of days after Xu Zhi left, as the number of people at the resort dwindled, Chen Xingqi started making a fuss about leaving. Seeing that the typhoon’s impact was quite significant this year, Fu Yuqing also urged them to come down early, fearing they might get stranded. In case of a landslide, the area could be without water and electricity for ten days to half a month.
He wasn’t contacting Xu Zhi because he had recently experienced a rather embarrassing incident.
The day he came down from the mountain, Zhu Yangqi called a few friends to play basketball, and Chen Luzhou, feeling the itch to play, joined them. Coincidentally, they ran into Tan Xu at the No.1 High School court. This was quite unusual, as students from other schools couldn’t enter the No.1 High School court. The gym was closed during summer, and the backcourt had a fee-charging court that required a school card to access. Moreover, Tan Xu hadn’t returned to No.1 High School since he transferred, avoiding the place like the plague. They never expected to run into him here.
“Why is he here?” Zhu Yangqi was even more confused than Chen Luzhou.
“Don’t know, but I heard he’s planning to repeat a year at No.1 High School,” a friend explained, bouncing a ball. “Although the results aren’t out yet, his parents must have pulled some strings. Even if he needs to repeat a year, they probably managed to get him back here.”
It wasn’t their business. Chen Luzhou had simply come out to play some ball before going back to prepare materials for his overseas interview. Because of Xu Zhi, Chen Luzhou always felt a bit guilty about Tan Xu. He knew that although Tan Xu wasn’t her boyfriend, they had had some ambiguous relationship, just short of making it official.
He had once tried to get information about this from Cai Yingying.
Without Tan Xu’s help over the past two years, Xu Zhi wouldn’t have achieved her current grades. Tan Xu even accompanied her at KFC every week to help her with homework, repeatedly correcting her mistakes. They had watched meteor showers together. To help him relax, Xu Zhi had skipped breakfast for two weeks, saving money to go ice skating with him.
So that day on the basketball court, when some repeating students who knew Tan Xu’s group suggested playing together, Chen Luzhou, leaning lazily against the basketball hoop, directly refused, “You guys play. I’m leaving.”
It was Zhu Yangqi who, as if venting his frustration, slammed the basketball hard against the hoop and shouted at him, red-faced and agitated: “Chen Luzhou, if you dare leave, I’m ending our friendship today.”
The basketball hit the backboard with a loud “BANG,” and the entire basketball hoop rattled like a dilapidated iron board in the silent court.
There weren’t many people on the court, just their classmates. Everyone was stunned, not knowing what drama was unfolding between these two inseparable friends. The basketball slowly bounced to the ground, but no one paid attention or went to pick it up. They all stared blankly at the tense standoff between the two on the court.
Only Zhu Yangqi was losing his temper. Chen Luzhou didn’t even bother to respond, standing with his hands in his pockets, leaning against the basketball hoop, his expression consistently cold as he watched Zhu Yangqi, thinking to himself how incredibly dramatic this guy was being.
Later, they couldn’t hear what the two were saying, only seeing Zhu Yangqi walk over for a private conversation.
“A crush is nothing, what are you afraid of? You’ve never been like this before. Seeing you like this makes me uncomfortable.”
Chen Luzhou quite sincerely hooked his arm around Zhu Yangqi’s neck, pulling him close to whisper in his ear, “My dear Zhu bro, can you give me a break? It’s not that I’m afraid of him. I’ve sprained my ankle playing ball with him before. I have psychological trauma, okay?”
“Bullshit, you just don’t want to face him directly.”
“Fine,” Chen Luzhou admitted frankly, but in the end, he couldn’t resist Zhu Yangqi’s and the others’ goading. He sighed helplessly and stepped onto the court.
So now, he was in the andrology department.
The doctor in charge was a male specialist surnamed Xu. Chen Luzhou glanced at his work badge – his name was Xu Guangji.
Quite a nice name.
Xu Guangji didn’t look at his medical record at first. Seeing a tall, handsome young man enter, he listened to his described symptoms before asking for the medical record card.
“Injured while playing basketball? Elbowed?”
Chen Luzhou wasn’t particularly embarrassed, after all, the doctor didn’t know who he was. He was naturally thick-skinned, and this being his first visit to an andrology department, he looked around curiously. “Yeah, got elbowed while going for a rebound.”
“Any symptoms other than inability to achieve morning erections?” Xu Guangji asked routinely, then lifted the medical record to check the name.
— Chen Luzhou.
Xu Guangji immediately looked up at him: “You’re Chen Luzhou?”
Chen Luzhou was about to say that he seemed to have lost sensation when looking at films too. Hearing Xu Guangji’s familiar way of greeting, he thought, “Damn, even here someone knows me.” Suddenly burdened by his image again, he coughed and said, “Morning erections are still okay, just not as… “
Hard.