Chapter 31
Xia Fengsheng and Qin Buming stood at the counter placing their order as wave after wave of customers entered the shop.
The moment they saw the two suited men at the counter, they all let out the same sound at once:
“Wow~”
The two of them were exactly the type who looked especially good in formalwear—straight-backed, long-legged, handsome and well-built. One had his hair slicked neatly back without a single strand out of place, while the other wore a three-seven side part.
“The one with the red tie is so handsome.”
“I like the one with the upturned eyes.”
“Coming out today was absolutely the right call. We ran into top-tier goods.”
The two top-tier goods were discussing something very seriously, as though they were in the middle of a negotiation.
Clearly they must have been talking about some proper, sophisticated matter ordinary people would not understand.
Qin Buming lifted a finger to his face. “Today, no matter what it takes, we have to make Miss Zhao break up with her boyfriend.”
Xia Fengsheng smiled at the server at the counter. “One hot cocoa, thank you.”
Qin Buming pulled out his phone. “Xiao Sheng, look. Miss Zhao’s boyfriend is called Feng Xiaocheng. Before we came here, I already had someone look into him. Feng Xiaocheng was married once before, and after the divorce all the people he dated were women. There’s no sign at all that he likes men.”
“He works as a salesman at a 4S dealership and he’s got a slick tongue. Miss Zhao met him when buying a car, and after that things spiraled out of control.”
“And recently he’s been photographed going in and out of casinos multiple times. His approach toward Miss Zhao is definitely not pure.” There was absolutely some other motive behind it.
Mr. Zhao was not someone who could not accept that his child was gay. What he could not accept was that Miss Zhao had found someone about his own age, and someone riddled with bad habits besides.
If that man were any older, he could practically have given birth to Miss Zhao.
Qin Buming said, “As long as we settle this, our cooperation deal is eighty percent secured.”
Xia Fengsheng understood.
If it were just an ordinary terrible romance, Xia Fengsheng would have had no interest whatsoever in breaking it up.
But unfortunately, this time he was being paid.
Even if it were a love story for the ages, they still had to separate.
The one thing about this whole matter that genuinely surprised him was that Miss Zhao was actually a man, yet believed himself to be a woman—most likely a case of gender identity disorder.
Once they finished ordering, the two of them turned and strode back toward the booth in perfect step.
Miss Zhao kept glancing out the window from time to time. His boyfriend had texted earlier saying he was on his way, yet half an hour had already passed and there was still no sign of him. His voice carried a hint of anxiety. “Why hasn’t puppy come yet?”
Xia Fengsheng said, “Puppy?”
Miss Zhao smiled shyly. “That’s my boyfriend. He’s very dog-coded.”
People in love really did like calling themselves or their partners little cats and little dogs.
The moment Miss Zhao brought up his boyfriend, his whole face lit up with happiness, his expression practically rippling. His broad shoulders even shyly swayed twice. “The first time I saw him, I was deeply attracted by his charm. The more I got to know him, the more I felt he was like a clingy puppy.”
“A puppy is exactly the type who’s cheerful, lively, and always wants to come play with you.”
Then, as if remembering something, Miss Zhao added, “Right, if you ever meet someone and you’re not sure whether you like them or not, just look at whether they feel like a little animal to you.”
“Because when you like someone, seeing them feels like seeing a little animal.”
Xia Fengsheng said, “Really?”
Miss Zhao replied, “Of course.”
Xia Fengsheng thought:
Then it’s over. Everyone looks like livestock to me.
Since the boyfriend still had not arrived, Miss Zhao stood up. “I’ll go outside and meet him so he doesn’t have trouble finding the place.”
Xia Fengsheng stood as well, all gentlemanly grace. “It’s cold outside. I’ll go meet him.”
This was winter. If they let the client’s daughter stand out in the cold wind freezing, what was the point of talking business at all?
Miss Zhao asked, “Really? You can recognize my boyfriend?”
Xia Fengsheng was extremely confident. “I can.”
Just go pick up the one whose face looks the most like a dog.
Xia Fengsheng draped his overcoat over himself and stepped out of the café. Standing in front of the entrance at one meter eighty-five, in full formalwear, he looked like a life-size standing display.
The moment he stood there, customer traffic instantly increased.
He ignored the gazes that passersby threw at him and instead searched for a dog in the endless sea of people.
Who would have thought that before he found the dog, he first found a roaming dirty hand.
A middle-aged man in a down jacket and glasses wandered around aimlessly in the area, never leaving a one-hundred-meter radius.
He had already been there before Xia Fengsheng came out.
The café sat in a prime location on a central commercial street, and with it being the weekend, the pedestrian traffic today was massive.
The café also marketed itself on Little Red Book. Their pretty, delicious-looking little cakes and photogenic décor often showed up on feeds.
The largest group in the area was young women. Nowadays people dressed freely, and even in winter there were girls who went out wearing skirts.
That middle-aged man had placed his phone on top of his shoe with the camera facing upward. He had covered the phone with a layer of fabric matching the color of the shoe and glued it in place, leaving only the camera part exposed.
From time to time, he would quickly trail behind a young woman in a skirt and slide his foot beneath the range of her hem.
This sort of thing had clearly already happened many times.
Soon, the man spotted a girl in a white puffy skirt walking along the street.
He repeated the same trick and quickly moved toward her again.
Just as his foot was about to slip beneath the range of her skirt, an expensive leather boot came down on top of his shoe.
“Hey. What exactly are you doing?”
A pleasant voice sounded above his head.
The girl in the white puffy skirt had spotted a stylish man in formalwear coming her way from a distance.
Her attention had instantly been seized by his stunning looks.
Those long legs cut through the air as he walked, and as he got closer and closer, the impact of his sharply defined features grew stronger and stronger.
Very soon, the man stopped beside her.
He smells amazing!
So handsome and fragrant too.
So seductive—slurp slurp.
Xia Fengsheng had an overcoat draped over his shoulders, both hands tucked in his pockets. His hair slicked back gave his otherwise refined look a streak of rebelliousness. His upturned eyes looked down at the middle-aged man in contempt, and the force of that gaze made the man forget to move for a moment.
“You! Why are you stepping on my foot?!” The middle-aged man tried to yank his foot free.
But the polished black leather shoe pinned him down hard, immovable. He could not pull it out at all.
Xia Fengsheng lifted a brow and bent down until they were at eye level. “Why do you think I’m stepping on it?”
The corner of his mouth curved into a smile, and with the tip of his shoe he lightly flicked up the cloth covering the phone.
“So what are you doing here, sir? You seem awfully interested in other people’s underwear.”
The middle-aged man was stunned. He had not expected someone who looked so elegant and polished to open his mouth and speak such lewd words.
Because the cloth had been fixed down with glue, it could only be lifted a little, but the phone underneath was already exposed enough for anyone to see.
With the act revealed, the man could not stop himself from feeling guilty. His eyes darted away. “I… I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He hurriedly bent down, trying to grab the phone from his shoe—but the polished black leather shoe kicked it away first.
The phone flew half a meter with a crackling clatter, then landed face-up on the ground. The girl in the white puffy skirt immediately saw that the phone was in video recording mode.
“You were filming up people’s skirts!”
The man hurriedly snatched the phone back up and shoved it into his pocket.
The girl shouted, “He was using his phone to film under girls’ skirts!!!”
The middle-aged man jumped in place. “Who says so?!”
“Don’t you go talking nonsense, little girl.” As he spoke, he even tried to grab at her.
Xia Fengsheng stepped in front of her, using his shoulder to separate them, and looked at the man. “You still haven’t answered my question.”
The middle-aged man was already a little afraid of him. There was something about Xia Fengsheng’s face, as if something unclean clung to him, and the feeling he gave people was uncomfortable too—it was hard to breathe speaking to him.
The man said, “I’m not arguing with you.”
Then he turned and tried to run.
Xia Fengsheng seized his shoulder. “Did I say you could leave?”
A massive force came through that shoulder, as if the bone were about to be crushed. The middle-aged man yelped in pain. People all around them turned to look.
The girl in the white puffy skirt called the police.
Just then, a man dressed in a polished, presentable way stepped out of the crowd and said to Xia Fengsheng, who was still gripping the other man’s shoulder:
“Sir, I think this is all just a misunderstanding. Why make things difficult for him?”
Xia Fengsheng bestowed a glance on him.
A misunderstanding?
He asked, “Were you standing nearby and watching the entire thing?”
The man said, “No, I just got here. I looked over this way and only saw you grabbing him and not letting him leave.”
“Then how do you know it’s a misunderstanding? What if I say I caught him filming up other people’s skirts?”
The man hesitated, then said, “He just doesn’t look like the kind of person who’d do that. Maybe there’s some misunderstanding between you that hasn’t been cleared up.”
Xia Fengsheng did not release his grip. “Normal people don’t rush to make excuses for suspects.”
The man was speechless on the spot.
Xia Fengsheng said, “Do you know what kind of people sympathize with criminals?”
The man asked, “What kind?”
Xia Fengsheng replied, “Criminals who are exactly the same as them.”
The man’s face heated up. He felt humiliated, so he tried to reason with Xia Fengsheng. “I still think you shouldn’t use violence against him. What you’re doing is also a crime.”
Ha.
Xia Fengsheng let go and raised both hands above shoulder level. “Fine. I won’t use violence on him.”
His black eyes turned like those of some cold-blooded creature.
The next second, he grabbed the upskirter’s pants with both hands and yanked them down in one sharp pull.
“AHHHHHHH!!!!”
The pants dropped straight to his feet. The middle-aged man, left with only his underwear on his lower half, fell to the ground covering himself.
The polished-looking man was shocked by Xia Fengsheng’s move. He had never expected him to humiliate someone like this. “You!”
Xia Fengsheng lifted his chin. “Isn’t he very interested in underwear? You seem unhappy. I’m only satisfying his fetish.”
The man looked like he still wanted to say more, but the middle-aged man hugged his leg and shouted, “Stop talking!!!!”
The man: ……
At this point, the middle-aged man wanted to kill him. If the other man kept talking, who knew what Xia Fengsheng might do to him next. Better not speak than anger him further and end up as the one getting carved up.
Clearly, simply being taken away by the police would have been too light a punishment. Xia Fengsheng was very satisfied with the sight of the middle-aged man sprawled on the ground in misery while the crowd photographed him and pointed at him.
Looking down on him from above, Xia Fengsheng said, “Try to be happy. You’re going to be famous very soon.”
His photo and information would spread across the internet in overwhelming waves.
Very quickly, the police arrived. After forcibly checking the middle-aged man’s phone, they arrested him.
At once, the polished-looking man changed his tone. “So you really were doing a good deed. I wrongly blamed you.”
Xia Fengsheng looked at the hand he held out in peace. “You’re Miss Zhao’s boyfriend, right?”
Feng Xiaocheng looked stunned. “You know my lover?”
Xia Fengsheng said, “Sort of a friend.”
Feng Xiaocheng smiled. “Really? Then I’m glad to meet you.”
Inside, Xia Fengsheng sneered.
You’re happy too early. I came here specifically to pick a fight with you.
The man in front of him was clearly no good thing either.
No wonder Mr. Zhao was desperate for Miss Zhao to break up with him.
Feng Xiaocheng asked, “By the way, how did you recognize me?”
Xia Fengsheng replied, “You were easy to recognize. You look kind of like a dog.”
Feng Xiaocheng froze. “What?”
Since the person had been found, Xia Fengsheng turned and headed back without paying him any further attention.
Just then, Qin Buming sent a message.
Qin Buming: “Did you get him? What does he look like?”
Xia Fengsheng: “Got him.”
Xia Fengsheng: “A little rogue-ish, a little seductive. Sort of a rogue-seduct.”
Qin Buming let out a breath of relief.
Since he was not especially good-looking, that put him at ease.
Clearly, though, Qin Buming had underestimated how deeply Miss Zhao was infatuated with Feng Xiaocheng.
Once Feng Xiaocheng arrived, Miss Zhao’s eyes could no longer hold anyone else, as if there were only the two of them left in the entire world and everyone else had become air.
Sitting beside him, Feng Xiaocheng murmured sweet words:
“Your eyes should only look at me.”
“I’ll get jealous if you look at other men.”
Qin Buming pressed his tongue against his cheek while Xia Fengsheng simply curled his lip, both of them speechless.
Because of his gender dysphoria, Miss Zhao had believed since childhood that he was a girl. He was bullied so badly at school that he ended up leaving and staying home for a long time, and during that period he became deeply obsessed with domineering-CEO novels. As a result, he was especially susceptible to that whole overbearing-alpha-male routine.
Feng Xiaocheng had quietly seized hold of that weakness.
Miss Zhao said, “Don’t you love me a little too much? I can’t even look at someone else.”
Feng Xiaocheng proclaimed shamelessly, “Of course. My love for you can be witnessed by heaven and earth. I’ll love you until the seas run dry and the rocks crumble.”
Plop—
A raindrop struck the café window.
Feng Xiaocheng looked surprised. “Why is it raining? The weather forecast didn’t say there’d be rain today.”
He remembered it was supposed to be cloudy.
Xia Fengsheng said, “You must’ve read it wrong. Today’s forecast said there’d be timely rain.”
Feng Xiaocheng: ……
Originally, once Feng Xiaocheng arrived, the group was supposed to go eat at the restaurant that had been booked. But now that raindrops were already starting to fall outside, it looked as though they would have to wait for the rain to stop first.
Xia Fengsheng fiddled with his phone and sent a message:
“You there?”
Shi Ye: ?
Xia Fengsheng: “Free right now? Come out for a meal in a bit. Dress up handsome.”
On the other end, Shi Ye was baffled. Right now? It was raining outside. Rainy days were much better for staying home and sleeping.
Then another message from Xia Fengsheng came through:
“There’s someone in front of me calling himself a puppy.”
Shi Ye: !
Who exactly was stealing his title as the dog-coded boyfriend?!
Shi Ye, who had just been lying in bed watching a movie, sprang up at once.
He still had not completed his revenge on Xia Fengsheng. How could he possibly let Xia Fengsheng start liking someone else during the plan?
Marching into the walk-in closet, Shi Ye’s face darkened.
Just who was out there calling himself a puppy?
Love became distorted when comparison entered the picture. Xia Fengsheng had already seen that most of what Feng Xiaocheng gave Miss Zhao was pure lip service, with only the most trivial of actions to back it up.
Pull any random couple off the street and they could have outperformed him.
Senior brother Qin Buming had said this was Miss Zhao’s first relationship, so naturally he was dizzy and dazzled and easy to fool.
Once there was a comparison, Miss Zhao would naturally come to understand just how perfunctory Feng Xiaocheng truly was.
Soon enough, the rain stopped.
The group left the café and prepared to drive to the restaurant Feng Xiaocheng had booked. Since he was the one who reserved it, everyone could just follow his lead.
Miss Zhao got into Feng Xiaocheng’s BMW.
Xia Fengsheng got into Qin Buming’s Wuling Hongguang.
As they were nearing the place, Xia Fengsheng sent Shi Ye the location.
Inside the car, Qin Buming rallied the team once more, even if the team now consisted of only the two of them.
“If we don’t succeed, we die trying. Sheng’er, do you still remember our slogan?”
Fastening his seatbelt, Xia Fengsheng replied automatically, “Make Miss Zhao break up, no matter what it takes.”
Qin Buming nodded. “As long as Miss Zhao breaks up, I’ll do anything.”
Even if he had to kneel his way all the way to Tibet right now, he would still do it without hesitation.
Unexpectedly, the heater in the Wuling Hongguang was pretty strong. By the time the two of them got out of the car, they were sweating all over. Qin Buming carried his jacket in one hand and wore only a white shirt.
Just after they stepped out, an eye-catching supercar appeared on the street, and within seconds it pulled up beside them.
Shi Ye opened the car door and stepped out. He was wearing a retro baseball jacket on top, loose-cut jeans below, and limited-edition sneakers on his feet. After getting out, he bent into the car to retrieve a carefully matched shoulder bag, which he then slung over himself.
His whole outfit was so sunny and bright that just looking at him improved one’s mood.
The moment he appeared, the whole street instantly turned into a street photography set. It was as if his body carried its own light, with looks like Pan An and a face like peach blossoms, his aura stretching two meters eight.
The moment Miss Zhao saw him, every single joint in his body began to ache faintly.
Had the rain just stopped and already brought on rheumatism?
After parking, Shi Ye walked over to Xia Fengsheng.
Looking at him, Miss Zhao asked, “And this is?”
Xia Fengsheng introduced him lightly. “My boyfriend.”
Miss Zhao was astonished. He had not expected Xia Fengsheng to actually have a boyfriend.
Qin Buming was surprised too. He had no idea Xia Fengsheng was dating anyone.
“Since you’re here, then come eat with us too,” Miss Zhao said warmly.
The restaurant Feng Xiaocheng had booked was a little Mexican place by the roadside. The environment around it was decent, and the street itself was very clean.
To get there, they had to cross the road. Because of the earlier rain, a patch of standing water had formed along the curb, and they would have to step across it.
Feng Xiaocheng held out a hand. “Baby, come.”
Miss Zhao wrapped himself around his arm, and Feng Xiaocheng lifted his arm and swung him over like a child on a swing.
Once safely onto the curb, Miss Zhao looked at Feng Xiaocheng and loved him even more, cheering for him:
“Gege, you’re amazing!”
In Qin Buming’s mind, alarm bells went off wildly. Seeing Miss Zhao sink deeper and deeper into Feng Xiaocheng, he panicked. “What do we do, Xiao Sheng?”
He gestured at the move Feng Xiaocheng had just done. “He swung Miss Zhao over the water just now.”
Xia Fengsheng said, “So what?”
His suitcase got treated like that too.
Xia Fengsheng snorted in contempt at Feng Xiaocheng’s behavior, not seeing anything at all worthy of admiration.
Feng Xiaocheng had long since sensed Xia Fengsheng’s hidden hostility and now gave him a fake smile. “Mr. Xia, are you envious of us?”
Envious?
Xia Fengsheng let out a small laugh as if he had just heard something funny.
Getting swung across a puddle was enough to make someone envious?
He pointed at Shi Ye and said, “My boyfriend would lie down on the ground and let me step across on him.”
Shi Ye, who had come here dressed beautifully: ????
Xia Fengsheng’s thought process had arrived far too suddenly. At which word had it still been Chinese?
Xia Fengsheng turned to Qin Buming. “Senior brother, do you still remember our slogan?”
Qin Buming: “I do. Make Miss Zhao break up, no matter what it takes.”
Xia Fengsheng nodded. Good. As long as he remembered.
Then he turned to Shi Ye beside him and said, “Seeing them flaunt their love is making me very unhappy. We need to be even more lovey-dovey.”
This was exactly the moment for the two of them to put on a performance. Since Miss Zhao liked domineering-CEO novels, the more outrageous their behavior was, the better.
Shi Ye glanced at Xia Fengsheng and made a decision in his heart with lightning speed.
Only with a control group would Xia Fengsheng realize how good Shi Ye was to him. If all he saw were ordinary couples, he would only think Shi Ye’s love was something dispensable. Shi Ye had to outdo Feng Xiaocheng, do even better, make the contrast obvious so that his superiority would shine through and Xia Fengsheng would understand how precious he was.
When that happened, Xia Fengsheng would definitely be unable to stop himself from falling hopelessly in love with him.
Shi Ye: 😀
Watch me make him deeply obsessed with me.
Shi Ye pulled on leather gloves. Without the slightest hesitation, he bent straight down and braced himself at the roadside. “Walk across on me. I guarantee not a single drop of water will touch you.”
Compared to army training back then, this was nothing at all.
Seeing this, Miss Zhao covered his mouth in emotion.
Oh my god.
He had not expected anyone could go so far for their lover. It was exactly like a novel.
He had thought the two of them would only pretend for show.
Who knew Xia Fengsheng actually walked across.
Qin Buming, witnessing the whole thing: Both of them are insane.
He knew Shi Ye had only been brought in by Xia Fengsheng to help. He had not expected the man to be this willing to go all in.
Truthfully, Xia Fengsheng only stepped across in a showy, perfunctory way for Miss Zhao to see. Shi Ye dusted his hands off and stood back up, all long limbs and no water on him at all.
Then he strode back to Xia Fengsheng’s side.
Well? Fallen in love with him yet?
Instead, Xia Fengsheng suddenly pointed at his face. “What’s that on your face?”
Shi Ye looked puzzled. “What is it?”
Xia Fengsheng said to him, “Something seems to have smudged on your face. Let me wipe it off for you.”
As he spoke, his hands landed directly on the back of Qin Buming’s white shirt.
Qin Buming: ?
Riiip—
In an instant, a large piece of face-wiping cloth had been manufactured.
Qin Buming’s back: so… so cold.
A passerby on the street suddenly spotted Qin Buming, eyes widening as they hurriedly took out a phone to complain to their friend.
Passerby: “Shocking! A rogue has appeared on the street.”
Qin Buming turned slightly.
Passerby: “The rogue is wearing a bellyband.”
The friend on the other end was full of question marks.
A rogue wearing a bellyband????
