As soon as Xu Zhi spoke, the conversation took a completely different turn, especially among the girls. Chai Jingjing had a strikingly beautiful appearance. Both she and Xu Zhi were considered great beauties, but Chai Jingjing was more aggressive, with a bit of that “red hot lips” vibe and a supermodel figure. She had straight eyebrows and bright eyes, what’s known as a “high-class face.” Her long hair was tucked behind her ears. She held a different opinion and spoke calmly: “I don’t think so. The type of man you’re describing is a poor man. Would a rich man need to rush to the supermarket to fight for eggs when he’s old? So, when I choose men, I generally look at their chest – big and firm, broad. As long as it feels safe when hugged, that’s enough.”
Xu Zhi looked at Chai Jingjing impassively, finding her quite interesting.
Zhai Xiao gave Chai Jingjing a complex look. Although Chai Jingjing was speaking up for him, he didn’t know why, but he just felt uncomfortable.
Cai Yingying immediately said: “That’s one way to choose, but I still prefer men with brains. My mom says to see if a man has brains, you have to look at his forehead. Those with a full forehead are usually smart. If the forehead is short and narrow, it means they’re dumb. I don’t like dumb men.”
— Conversely, this corresponds to men often saying “I don’t like dumb women.” At this moment, Zhu Yangqi and Chen Luzhou exchanged a knowing glance outside the door, not rushing to enter.
Zhu Yangqi’s hand didn’t move: “Are they putting on a show in there?”
Chen Luzhou looked down coldly at the position of his hand, “Move your hand away.”
Zhu Yangqi sheepishly withdrew his hand. The conversation inside continued.
Chai Jingjing looked at Xu Zhi with great interest and said: “Oh, there’s one more thing. Do you know what other advantage there is to men having big chests?”
Xu Zhi replied with equal interest, “Never hugged one, don’t know.”
Chai Jingjing looked at Xu Zhi incredulously, her face full of disbelief, “No way, how could a beauty like you not have men actively pursuing you? Then again, with your looks, you probably have too many admirers. Are ordinary men not good enough for you?”
— Conversely, this corresponds to men often saying, “With your looks, aren’t you worried about women throwing themselves at you?”
Xu Zhi smiled, “It’s alright, I’m not that picky.”
Chai Jingjing nodded and said: “Well, let me tell you, one advantage of men with big chests is that they look especially sexy in sheer suits. Sometimes dating is like that. Facing the same face every day, you’ll eventually get bored. If he doesn’t find ways to please you, who would want to go home?”
Zhai Xiao hadn’t expected a comment about buses to lead to so much backlash, even causing Chai Jingjing to start speaking sarcastically. He had no idea what his problem was; guys always talked like this in private.
Outside the door, Zhu Yangqi glanced at the flat, broad, and firm chest of the ascetic cool guy next to him, which sparked his imagination. He couldn’t help but imagine him wearing a sheer suit to fight for eggs at the supermarket. “…Your future looks grim.”
Chen Luzhou: “…”
Just as Xu Zhi was about to say that it seemed Zhai Xiao had been well-trained by Chai Jingjing, the door of the private room was pushed open, and everyone turned to look at the entrance.
The moment Chen Luzhou entered, the atmosphere in the room visibly stiffened, becoming as lifeless as an unfermented lump of dough, frozen for a moment. Everyone looked somewhat bewildered at the handsome guy who suddenly appeared at the door.
Zhai Xiao recognized him immediately. His face turned ashen, thinking, speak of the devil. “Did you come to the wrong room, Mr. Popular?”
Chen Luzhou walked straight towards Xu Zhi, responding to Zhai Xiao somewhat dismissively, “No, I’m here for her.”
Zhai Xiao then turned his gaze to Zhu Yangqi, as if asking, “What about you?” Zhu Yangqi nodded toward Cai Yingying, indicating he was there for her.
The next second, Zhai Xiao looked coldly at Cai Yingying.
Cai Yingying had no time to deal with him at the moment, looking at Xu Zhi: “…Why did you call these two over?”
Chen Luzhou was one thing, but why did the annoying Zhu Yangqi come too?
Before Xu Zhi could answer, Chen Luzhou directly pulled out the chair next to her, sitting down lazily with his legs spread. He casually picked up the menu from the table, not showing any embarrassment about intruding. He calmly looked through the menu page by page, saying to Cai Yingying: “Not welcome? Fine, we’ll leave. Just reimburse our taxi fare—”
Sitting between them, Xu Zhi quickly stopped him from saying more annoying things, “Don’t be smug after getting what you want.”
Chen Luzhou leisurely looked down at the menu, making an “oh” sound. His usually glib mouth obediently closed.
Zhai Xiao and the guy in the polo shirt looked at each other in bewilderment. The polo-shirt guy seemed to know Zhu Yangqi. They chatted for a bit, and Zhu Yangqi introduced him to Chen Luzhou, “He used to be in the junior high section too, his name is Wang Quan, Feng Jing’s classmate. We’ve played basketball with him a few times before.”
Chen Luzhou finally looked up from the menu, glanced over, and nodded slightly, mostly perfunctory, “Mm, we’ve met.”
Wang Quan then started chatting with Chen Luzhou, “My deskmate attended a summer camp with you. You two were in a group and won an award for an innovative folding bicycle design. She said she was unwell and took half a month off during that time. I heard you completed the entire project alone. We thought her name wouldn’t be on the design proposal, but you still included her.”
Chen Luzhou remembered it was last summer vacation, “Zheng Yuanyuan?”
Wang Quan: “Yes, otherwise she might not have gotten the competition bonus points now.”
“Where has she applied now?” Chen Luzhou asked casually.
Wang Quan said: “B University, just made the cut-off. So her major might need to be adjusted, but she wants to go there. Worst case, she can transfer majors in her sophomore year. The night after checking the results, she kept saying she wanted to find a chance to thank you. If I had known you were coming today, I would have asked her to come along.”
Zhai Xiao hadn’t run into Chen Luzhou much at school. The few times he did, it was when Chen Luzhou was playing basketball with people from his class. He didn’t think Chen Luzhou was that handsome, just average. It’s just that these academic gods like Zong Shan were all hyped up so much, so when a decent-looking one appeared, he was elevated to stardom by everyone at school.
Until just now, Zhai Xiao suddenly realized that Chen Luzhou was indeed special, special enough that even someone like Chai Jingjing gave him a second look. Chai Jingjing was the school beauty and a small-time model. She had seen all types of handsome guys, “fat and thin,” and had plenty of admirers. He had been pursuing her for two years, and he felt that Chen Luzhou wouldn’t even need to pursue; Chai Jingjing would want to hook up with him.
“I heard you sent Zhai Xiao a WeChat message a couple of days ago, is that right?” Chai Jingjing suddenly “confronted” Cai Yingying.
Zhai Xiao was taken aback, feeling smug inside. Sure enough, Chai Jingjing was still jealous.
Cai Yingying’s face turned red then white. That day, after getting drunk with Zhu Yangqi, she was upset and took Zhai Xiao off her blacklist. She sent him a long message, shamelessly saying she hadn’t gotten over him. After sobering up, she regretted it immensely.
Xu Zhi, however, calmly turned to ask Chen Luzhou: “If a guy sent messages to your girlfriend, would you confront that guy or properly manage your girlfriend?”
Chen Luzhou tossed the menu back on the table, picked up a nearby water pitcher, and poured himself a glass. Knowing this topic was a minefield no matter how he answered, but already in too deep, he cooperatively replied calmly, “I’d deal with the girlfriend.”
“Don’t cover for me, you two,” Cai Yingying said, head lowered and face flushed, “I really shouldn’t have—”
“I’m not dealing with you,” Chai Jingjing interrupted her directly. She took out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter from her bag, lit one, and with her slightly upturned eyes that held an indescribable charm and nonchalance, looked at Cai Yingying with a sense of disappointment, “I called you here to show you what’s worth holding onto about this man. From the moment we sat down, have you seen any remorse in his eyes besides self-satisfaction?”
Zhai Xiao was completely stunned: “Chai Jingjing, what do you mean?”
Chai Jingjing didn’t even look at him, flicking her cigarette ash, “It means, congratulations, you’re single again.”
Zhu Yangqi let out a “wow,” thinking the female player was indeed exciting. He couldn’t help but cheer inwardly, “Fight! Fight!”
Only then did Zhai Xiao realize that Chai Jingjing had been acting strange these past few days. He couldn’t get her to go out with him, probably because she had found someone new. “You’ve got someone new, right?”
“Think what you want,” she took a drag of her cigarette, exhaling smoke as she spoke, “Mainly, your performance lately has been a bit poor, no new tricks. I’m indeed a bit bored.” She turned to Cai Yingying and said, “Three-legged frogs are hard to find, but two-legged men are all over the streets. He showed me all the messages you sent him. To be honest, I think it’s not worth it for you. Such pure and full love, he doesn’t deserve it.”
Cai Yingying: “I was drunk at the time…”
Chai Jingjing smiled and said nothing more. She picked up her bag and stood up to leave. As she reached the door, she seemed to remember something and tossed a final comment to the stunned Zhai Xiao—
“By the way, you’ve been fawning over me for so long, haven’t you noticed that Gu Yan and I follow each other on Weibo? She’s my friend, though our relationship is just average. But when you call my friend a ‘public bus’, it’s like calling me a ‘public bus’. Otherwise, our breakup would have been a bit more dignified.”
Zhai Xiao’s face had completely fallen, turning bright red as if he’d just been pulled out of a furnace. After a long pause, he said something that shocked everyone—
“Can’t you give me one more chance?”
Chai Jingjing didn’t even turn back to look at Zhai Xiao. Instead, she gave Cai Yingying a meaningful look, as if saying — Cai Yingying, don’t you think this man is pathetic?
Pathetic, utterly pathetic.
So when Cai Yingying left the barbecue restaurant, she felt terrible all over. There was a churning feeling rising in her stomach. Without a word, she hailed a taxi and headed straight for a nearby tattoo parlor. Xu Zhi couldn’t stop her. When they finally found her in the shop, she was already calmly sitting in front of the tattoo artist, brazenly asking him to tattoo a Heart Sutra on her.
The tattoo artist, clearly a man who had seen it all, calmly sat there, focused on his work, and asked, “Do you want it in Sanskrit or Chinese characters?”
Cai Yingying: “What’s the difference?”
Tattoo artist, quite patiently: “Sanskrit has 148 characters, Chinese has 415 characters, but I usually recommend customers like you just get four characters.”
Cai Yingying: “Which four characters?”
The tattoo artist looked up at her, his experience evident: “Stay away from men. It has the same effect and you’ll suffer less.”
Cai Yingying was instantly convinced: “Okay, let’s go with those four characters.”
Xu Zhi: “…”
Chen Luzhou: “…”
Zhu Yangqi, who had rushed in right after them, was confused: “What is she doing?”
Chen Luzhou glanced down at him and drawled out two words, “Becoming a nun.”
Zhu Yangqi was shocked and asked Cai Yingying: “Tattoo shops do that now?”
…
With Cai Yingying’s mind made up, the three of them just waited in the tattoo shop. Xu Zhi couldn’t be bothered to try and persuade her anymore and decided to just record a video. As she was adjusting the angle, she caught sight of Chen Luzhou and Zhu Yangqi getting up to leave. She instinctively blurted out, “Chen Luzhou, where are you going?”
Zhu Yangqi thought to himself, damn, can’t even walk away for a bit, if they start dating she better not be this clingy. Before Chen Luzhou could speak, Zhu Yangqi tactfully said, “Never mind, you stay inside. You don’t smoke anyway.”
Chen Luzhou made a sound of agreement, and then the two of them exchanged a glance.
Their gazes met briefly in the air, both hiding barely contained emotions. Even the tattoo artist had noticed the hidden, simmering magma beneath the calm surface between them.
The tattoo artist couldn’t help but look up at the two of them and quietly ask Cai Yingying, “Are they a couple?”
Cai Yingying was on high alert and asked back: “Are you trying to do business with them?”
The tattoo artist ran his shop with pride, but seeing these two, it was rare to see such a well-matched pair. Especially the guy – if he was willing to be an advertisement, that would be even better. “If they both get tattoos, yours will be on the house.”
Cai Yingying was displeased and grumbled: “…Why is mine free?”
The shop had many sample tattoos on display, mostly partial photos. One particularly bold customer had tattooed a fierce tiger on his buttocks. The saying goes “You can’t touch a tiger’s behind,” and the tattoo was indeed fierce and lively. But the partial photo was truly eye-searing, looking a bit like Crayon Shin-chan’s round, full, and exaggerated bottom.
Xu Zhi was looking at it with great interest. Chen Luzhou asked her what mindset led her to study this photo for ten minutes. Xu Zhi thought for a moment and said with a straight face that it was probably out of a lofty respect for art.
Chen Luzhou couldn’t be bothered with her nonsense. He leaned against the display cabinet with his arms folded and casually asked, “The owner asked if we want to get tattoos. Do you want one?”
The tattoo shop was playing loud, powerful rock music, so when they talked, Chen Luzhou unconsciously leaned closer to her, lowering his shoulder. Their breathing suddenly drew closer, and that familiar scent of sage shower gel once again invaded her nostrils. The brief, intense sensation from the movie theater slowly crept up from the ends of her nerves again, making her scalp tingle as she looked at him.
His lips were softer than she had imagined, like warm jelly, but his chin was quite prickly.
Seeing that his mouth still had a wound, Xu Zhi casually asked: “Haven’t shaved in a while?”
Knowingly, seeing Xu Zhi’s meaningful look, Chen Luzhou knew what she was talking about. His gaze swept over her mouth intriguingly, “Did it scratch you?”
Xu Zhi: “Mm, very scratchy. When I washed my face just now, it even hurt a bit. I thought my lip had cracked.”
That kiss had been a bit fierce. In the first second, she hadn’t landed on his lips. Due to inexperience and not getting the angle right, she had first touched his chin before moving to his lips for a peck.
It was like she had rubbed against his chin before kissing his mouth. Thinking about it now, her heart was still racing.
The two of them leaned side by side against the display cabinet.
“Was it fun?” Chen Luzhou said, thinking to himself that she was acting wrong now. He leaned back lazily, his gaze flirtatious and cool as he turned to look at her, and asked quite mischievously, “Isn’t kissing without shaving quite thrilling?”
“Ask again and it won’t be fun anymore,” Xu Zhi didn’t take the bait. She picked up a nearby catalog and flipped through it aimlessly. “Are you getting a tattoo?”
“No,” he was quite decisive and straightforward, rarely serious as he said, “My mom works at the TV station, and my dad is a model entrepreneur every year. I can’t get a tattoo. If they found out, they’d probably both be taken in for questioning.”
Xu Zhi hadn’t expected him to be so proper. “Alright, if you can’t get one, then I will. What should I get?”
“Do you have any small goals lately?” he asked casually.
Xu Zhi thought for a long time but couldn’t come up with any small goals. “Make money?”
“That’s a goal too.”
Xu Zhi suddenly had an inspiration.
So, she quietly sat down in front of the tattoo artist.
The tattoo artist was finishing up some cleaning work and asked without looking up, “What do you want tattooed?”
Xu Zhi said: “Cherry.”
The tattoo artist put away his things and prepared to start. As a routine question, he asked, “Does it have any special meaning?”
Xu Zhi held out her hand and, remembering what Chen Luzhou had said about small goals, explained: “I just saw someone walk by with cherries, and it reminded me of my first small life goal as a child, which was to achieve cherry freedom. It’s actually about making money. But I can’t just tattoo ‘make money’, can I?”
“So do you want the abbreviation or the full word?” the artist said. “I suggest you go with the abbreviation, it’s quicker. I just did an abbreviation for your friend too.”
Xu Zhi agreed.
At that moment, Chen Luzhou was on the phone, receiving a work notification from the Northwest. They wanted him to go a day early because the weather might not be good later, so they could finish shooting earlier and wrap up sooner. He agreed and glanced at Xu Zhi, about to ask if she wanted to go play in the Northwest when he heard her obediently lying under the bright white light bulb. The tattoo artist gently explained to her that it wouldn’t hurt too much, just bear with it for a bit, and then confirmed with her once more—
“Just three letters, C, L, Z, right?”
It was only then that Xu Zhi and Cai Yingying realized that the abbreviation for “cherry” was the same as Chen Luzhou’s initials.
Zhu Yangqi and Chen Luzhou entered almost simultaneously, witnessing this heart-wrenching scene. Zhu Yangqi even felt like tearing Chen Luzhou to pieces. You bastard, look at what you’ve done!
How attractive do you have to be to make a girl you’ve only known for a month want to tattoo your name on her hand? You scumbag! How dare you!
Zhu Yangqi looked at him sideways and said sarcastically: “Are you sure you don’t want a tattoo? You scum?”
Chen Luzhou thought to himself, playing around is one thing, but you’ve gone too far.
Author’s Note: Chen Luzhou: Mom, a girl is getting a tattoo for me. I’m shocked about this too, I’ve gone too far in playing around…