Bei Ci returned to the apartment at 10:30 PM after finishing his lessons and having dinner. The apartment was dark as he took off his shoes and walked inside. Just as he was about to turn on the lights, a dim glow from the couch caught his attention. He looked up—
And saw a pale blue, expressionless face floating in mid-air.
The nearly 1.8-meter-tall man immediately grabbed the doorframe for support, his heart leaping to his throat. With a shaking hand, he flipped the light switch, only to realize—
“…Damn it! Brother Chong! What are you doing?”
His heart settled back into place as Bei Ci clutched his chest, his startled appearance reminiscent of a jumpy black cat.
Crouching on the sofa, Shan Chong maintained his position, holding his phone. He had spent three hours and 38.38 yuan reading over 60 chapters of “18 Poses of Otherworldly Cultivation,” reaching the point where the second male lead—his character—appeared.
Calmly swiping his phone screen, Shan Chong observed two new scenes in the latest chapter. After reviewing them, he set down his phone and gazed at Bei Ci.
Bei Ci walked to the refrigerator, grabbed a can of beer, and opened it with a “pop.” After taking a sip, he asked, “You haven’t been sitting on the couch all night reading manga on that pink app, have you?”
“Yes,” Shan Chong replied, “18 Poses of Otherworldly Cultivation.”
Bei Ci spat out his beer.
Amidst the scattered malt and alcohol smell and the loud “puff,” Shan Chong sincerely praised, “It’s good.”
Clutching his beer, Bei Ci searched for tissues, not daring to look back at Shan Chong. He mumbled, “If you like it, keep reading. I’m going to shower—”
“No wonder you read it every day,” Shan Chong said, still crouching on the sofa. He tapped his phone. “I heard the second male lead dies later and then transmigrates into another manga about snowboarding big air.”
Bei Ci: “…”
Shan Chong: “I skipped ahead. The day the second male lead dies happens to be the day I mentioned at a dinner that I liked someone.”
Bei Ci: “…”
Shan Chong, expressionless: “What a coincidence.”
Shan Chong, still expressionless: “Does liking someone mean I should die?”
Shan Chong: “Also, the second male lead buys osmanthus cakes or candied chestnuts for the female lead. I bought tanghulu for all of you—”
Shan Chong: “If she had told me earlier that she knew I bought it for her, why would I have wasted money buying it for everyone else?”
Bei Ci, unable to speak, pointed a trembling finger at the bathroom door, his eyes full of tears, indicating he wanted to shower.
Unfortunately, the man crouching on the sofa ignored him. Shan Chong exited “18 Poses of Otherworldly Cultivation” and entered “A Day in the Snow Country.” Pointing at the person on the cover, he asked, “Let me confirm something in case my eyes are playing tricks on me. Is this me?”
Bei Ci remained silent.
Shan Chong smiled without humor.
“No answer? That’s fine. I’ll ask another question.” He scrolled down and pointed to a comment that read, “Insider here, relevant interests, anonymous. I think the male and female leads can’t be intimate for now; the male lead has broken his back before, so he’s not up for it.” He asked, “Is this you?”
Bei Ci: “…”
Little junior sister, the enemy has effortlessly breached our walls. Our kingdom—
Has fallen.
…
At this time, Wei Zhi was still oblivious to everything. She had even optimistically updated a few new pages that evening.
The next morning, she was awakened by a knock on the door. Rubbing her eyes, she opened it to find a man dressed entirely in black except for his shoes, still carrying the chill of the outdoors.
He stood with his arms crossed, leaning against the doorframe and looking down at her.
“Morning.”
The young woman yawned, covering her mouth, and casually hugged the man’s neck before turning to enter the bathroom to freshen up.
As Wei Zhi washed her face, Shan Chong stood outside, maintaining the same posture as before, staring at her reflection in the mirror until she felt uneasy…
With her toothbrush in her mouth, she finally turned and asked the person behind her, “What’s wrong? Did a flower bloom on my face?”
She was still wearing her pajamas.
Light green, bought from Taobao for 29.9 yuan with free shipping, but of good quality. Dark green straps, and instead of a plain front, it had a layered design reminiscent of a hanfu, tied with strings…
This style exposed a patch of luminous white skin near her collarbone, her rounded shoulders, and the most compelling proof that she was indeed over twenty years old. The thin straps seemed as if they might snap at any moment from the pressure.
The green color made her already fair skin appear milky white, flawless at first glance.
He had touched it before.
It was indeed like that.
Regrettably, that time in the darkness, he hadn’t seen anything.
Now, suddenly seeing her in the abundant daylight, it seemed almost too dazzling.
The man silently averted his gaze.
The pressure of his stare suddenly lifted, and Wei Zhi finished washing up. She turned around to see Shan Chong standing silently behind her. She wiped the water from her face and asked, “Why did you come over directly today?”
“No morning classes,” he answered somewhat irrelevantly, his voice slightly hoarse. “Came to take you for breakfast.”
“Oh, that’s not necessary. Although it’s not very healthy, you don’t eat much for breakfast, and I’m fine with or without it. If you hadn’t come, I could have slept until lunchtime.”
Wei Zhi bent down, rummaging through her skincare products on the table for moisturizer. She looked back at him curiously, “What’s wrong with your voice? Didn’t sleep well last night? Didn’t I tell you to go to sleep when you got back?”
Shan Chong didn’t answer her.
From his angle, he could see a small section of her waist exposed as her clothes shifted, a hint of white skin peeking through the green…
As she bent down, not only her waist but also the fabric under her arms loosened, revealing the fullness beneath that had been previously concealed.
Shan Chong coughed abruptly.
Since entering the room, he had been contemplating discussing her money-making work—
But when the young woman turned around, her almond-shaped eyes looking at him with complete bewilderment, he suddenly abandoned the idea…
For now.
He stepped forward and lifted her into his arms.
Wei Zhi was caught off guard and let out a startled cry. Just as her delicate face, freshly moisturized, touched his, the man turned his head. He first inhaled the scent of her moisturizer, then, satisfied with the smell, planted a kiss on her cheek.
His lips pressed against her face, soft as a ripe peach, as he said nonchalantly, “Change into a different nightgown.”
“Why?” Wei Zhi blinked, her arms encircling his neck as she tried to look into his eyes. “Is it ugly?”
Before she could find his gaze, he replied, “Not ugly.”
In the next moment, he picked her up and pressed her against the wall. One hand supported her while the other covered her eyes. As his familiar scent enveloped her, his lips and tongue followed suit.
“Buying one size larger would work too. This one’s a bit small,” he murmured, his voice growing increasingly muffled as he gently nipped at the tip of her nose.
The sensation was slightly ticklish, a mix between a bite and a kiss. His lips then moved down to meet hers.
She let out a soft “Mmm” as their lips connected. The contrast between her soft nightgown and his comparatively rough sweatshirt created a subtle rustling sound as they pressed together.
As she embraced his kiss, goosebumps rose on her arms, and the tender skin on the inside of her arms reddened from the friction against his clothes. Wei Zhi didn’t notice, but Shan Chong caught a glimpse.
Leaving her soft lips, he moved to her earlobe, placing a light kiss there. He then nuzzled her flushed cheek with his prominent nose, much like a feline would.
He chuckled softly, his chest vibrating as he asked in a husky voice, “So delicate?”
He removed his hand from her eyes. She opened them, dazed from the kiss. Her usually bright eyes were now misty. She sat securely on his arm, her back against the wall, her breathing uneven.
“So early in the morning,” she said, her lips still tingling from his kisses, “what kind of mischief is this?”
“Just waking you up,” the man asked with a smile. “Are you awake now?”
Wei Zhi vaguely felt this conversation was familiar as if she’d heard it somewhere before. She thought hard but couldn’t quite place it—
They say humans seek partners to complement themselves. This was a perfect example.
Shan Chong had an exceptional memory, never forgetting anything he’d seen.
The ACGN-loving wife, on the other hand, had already forgotten the name of the male lead in her short manga from several volumes ago.
So she didn’t dwell on it, instead pouting, “I shouldn’t have let you in.”
“You were the one improperly dressed first.”
“Do you sleep in a suit of armor?”
He set her down.
Watching her wipe her lips with her arm and quickly duck out from between his arm and the wall, Shan Chong turned his head to look. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he quickly averted his gaze.
A moment later, his eyes returned to her.
He moved closer.
Picking up one of the bottles she was fiddling with, he glanced at it, then at her, suddenly asking, “Want me to help?”
Wei Zhi looked at him, hesitating for a moment.
The man raised an eyebrow.
Wei Zhi handed him a bottle of lotion.
He washed his hands, then returned and squeezed some lotion onto his palm. With his other hand, he used his index finger to tilt her chin up, examining her face before starting to apply the lotion.
At first, it was fine, but as he continued, Wei Zhi felt like he was scrubbing her face with steel wool. She hissed and grabbed his wrists, “Never mind, never mind. We can’t pull off this romantic gesture… Your hands are too rough. Do you moonlight at a construction site after everyone’s asleep?”
The man didn’t take offense at her complaint.
Instead, he leaned down to kiss her lips, drawling, “You’ve figured me out. But isn’t it all to earn enough money to come home to you sooner? Right?”
Wei Zhi: “…”
Wei Zhi stared at the “smiling Buddha” in front of her, feeling an indescribable sense of unease—
Had he eaten something weird last night? He was suddenly in such a good mood and exuding…
An overpowering scent of pheromones.
It was as if he was ready to devour her whole first thing in the morning.
Wei Zhi shuddered. “Alright, you can leave now!” The young girl said seriously, “I need to change my clothes.”
…
Of course, Shan Chong didn’t leave.
He sat down in front of Wei Zhi’s laptop, with an attitude that said ‘Do whatever you want, I’m staying right here’… The young girl couldn’t argue with him, so she glumly grabbed her clothes and went to change in the bathroom.
As soon as she closed the bathroom door, the man sat up straighter and reached for her “tools of the trade”—a laptop, a drawing tablet, and a stylus. She treasured these three items and took them everywhere, and now they were scattered messily on the desk.
Just look at this.
Who would have thought?
Such ordinary-looking tools, and a young girl who would blush bright red and jump at the slightest kiss on the ear, but put them together and it was a whole new world, like two negatives making a positive—
Combine these innocuous things with this seemingly innocent girl, and you get a top-tier creator of risqué content, a flag-bearer of the website, and a headline feature on the homepage.
Shan Chong still found it somewhat surreal.
He sat there, examining and fiddling with her equipment, handling everything with care not to damage anything.
When the bathroom door slowly opened, Wei Zhi hugged her nightgown to her chest and peeked out like a cautious groundhog. She saw the man sitting in the chair, his long legs casually stretched out, twirling her stylus between his fingers—
The pen wasn’t particularly thin.
Yet it spun and flipped effortlessly between his long fingers.
Wei Zhi remembered how in school, there were always a few boys who were exceptionally good at pen spinning. If they were also good-looking or studious, they were bound to be popular…
Oh, right.
She wondered what Shan Chong was like in school. He must have already been quite skilled at skiing by then, right?
He was probably the talk of the school, with possibly a whole platoon of girls secretly admiring him.
Lost in these thoughts, the young girl approached him and snatched the stylus from his hand, saying in a spoiled tone, “Don’t play with my work tools. You might break them.”
“…”
He remained seated, merely raising his eyelids to give her a look—his eyes were dark and intense, making her hair stand on end. She froze in the act of grabbing the pen, about to ask why he was staring and if he was thinking of hitting her…
Then she saw him narrow his eyes and curl his lips into a smile.
Shan Chong: “Oh.”
Wei Zhi: “…”
This early in the morning, this guy was being way too creepy.
So passive-aggressive.
Though he was always passive-aggressive.
She grumbled internally, wondering if she should find time to ask Bei Ci if something extraordinary had happened last night. The man pulled her onto his lap and said, “Speaking of your work tools, I heard from Bei Ci earlier that you draw manga, and the manga you draw—”
He felt the person sitting on his lap stiffen like a rock.
The man slowly finished his sentence: “isn’t very popular.”
Wei Zhi: “…”
Damn.
At least Bei Ci knew how to keep some secrets.
Wei Zhi breathed a sigh of relief and snuggled closer to him, saying sweetly, “Mm-hmm, it’s not very popular.”
A manga featured on the homepage, with bold “Hot Series” ads and over a hundred thousand comments, is described as “not very popular.”
… “The Gym Diary” only had fifty-six thousand comments.
What the hell did “not very popular” mean?
The man watched her lie through her teeth but didn’t get angry. He kissed her chin and said, “So I’m suddenly curious. You mentioned earlier that you had savings of 300,000 yuan. Where did that come from, hm?”
Wei Zhi: “…”
Wei Zhi’s scalp tingled.
Wei Zhi: “… New Year’s money from my family, I guess. I saved it for over twenty years.”
The man let out an “Oh” and smiled: “You saved money for over twenty years and were ready to give it all to me without hesitation?”
Wei Zhi: “…”
Take it, take it all, take the next twenty years’ worth of New Year’s money too, just please stop asking so many questions! What is this, Blue Cat’s 3000 Whys?!
Wei Zhi nodded frantically, then once again burrowed her head into the crook of his neck like a groundhog, saying in a muffled voice, “It’s okay. My editor said that as long as I draw well, I’ll become popular someday… Um, talking about this puts me in a bad mood. Let’s change the subject.”
Her acting was superb.
She sounded like an unrecognized talent, a poor little thing who would have starved on her journey to pursue her dreams if not for the 300,000 yuan in New Year’s money.
Out of her sight, the man silently sneered, the curve of his lips widening to reveal his white teeth.
He picked her up in his arms, causing her to cling to his neck in alarm. After taking a few steps, he set her down and gently stroked her soft hair, saying kindly, “If our Zhi Zhi doesn’t want to talk about it, we won’t.”
Wei Zhi: “…”
Good heavens.
Had this man gone crazy?
Why was he so agreeable today?
Shan Chong: “Let’s have breakfast.”
Wei Zhi was so shocked she nearly lost her soul. She just nodded absently and asked, “Where are we going after that?”
“The gym,” Shan Chong replied casually. “Want to go?”
“What for?” She looked puzzled.
“So you can touch me.”
“?”
Wei Zhi thought her ears must be playing tricks on her, or maybe she was sleepwalking in broad daylight. She looked up at him in confusion.
“I promised you last time, remember? When we came to Guangzhou, you could touch me all you want,” he said, his voice sounding nonchalant. “I’m a man of my word.”
As he spoke, he turned to look at her, his dark eyes shining with a particularly serious light.
Wei Zhi: “?”
Shan Chong: “Want to touch?”
Wei Zhi: “…”
So, had aliens secretly invaded Earth last night? Instead of doing anything earth-shattering, they just made her boyfriend go crazy.
… Not that she was complaining about this change or insisting he go back to his old self.
It’s just that next time something like this happens, she’d appreciate a heads-up so she could be mentally prepared (and maybe buy some firecrackers to celebrate), you know?