Chapter 121

Romantic

"The day at the school — did you deliberately have the driver ask me for directions?"

He turned Xu Chenzhu's hand in his, studying it. Long, carefully kept fingers — the hands of an artwork.

His ear tips went red. "Yes."

"Do you know what I was thinking at the time?" He threaded his fingers through the gaps between Xu Chenzhu's. Their hands clasped. "He has a connection to the principal, and he's asking me where the principal's office is — and the driver is being way too enthusiastic. Something's off."

He finally understood why Zhaozhao had always left so quickly, always giving him nothing but a retreating back.

"I wanted to see you. I was afraid of intruding on your life." He looked down. "I'm sorry — I didn't realize I was making you uncomfortable even then."

He shook his head. His thumb moved slowly across the back of Xu Chenzhu's hand, and something ached in his chest.

Given who and what Xu Chenzhu was, he could have used countless means to enter his life. He hadn't.

In all those years he'd known nothing about, Xu Chenzhu had not intruded. Had not imposed. Had simply, quietly, watched over him.

"Were you there when I competed — all those events and tournaments?"

"I was there."

He went still.

He had never once imagined that on the days he and his friends and classmates were celebrating wins, piling into each other with joy — there was one more person quietly being happy for him.

He didn't speak. Xu Chenzhu grew uneasy. "I'm sorry—"

He reached out and held him tightly. "I'm sorry. I made you wait so long."

He could barely imagine what it had been like — lonely? Sad?

"None of this is your fault." He gathered him in. "I liked you all on my own. You didn't even know I existed — how could you have thought of me?"

"And of all the people who like you — you chose me in the end." A long, settled exhale. "Zhaozhao — I am very lucky. And very happy."

Many people liked Zhaozhao. Only one of them got to be his boyfriend.

Of course he was the luckiest person alive.

He rested his chin on his shoulder. "My mum and dad would like to invite you to dinner tomorrow evening — would that be all right?"

As he said it, he felt Xu Chenzhu's shoulder go rigid beneath him.

"Meet — meet the parents?"

The elegant, composed CEO of Kunlun was, remarkably, stammering.

"I suppose that's one way of putting it." He prodded his cheek. "If you're not ready, that's completely fine — I can go home and explain to them—"

"I'll come. I want to visit your uncle and aunt." Before he could finish, the interruption arrived.

He looked at him with warm amusement. Normally Xu Chenzhu very rarely cut him off. This flustered urgency was a different register entirely — oddly endearing.

"Zhaozhao?" Seeing him smiling without speaking, he gave a helpless laugh. "You're enjoying this."

"Don't be nervous — you're my boyfriend. This is your first time coming home with me. My parents will be warm and welcoming." He knew exactly what the anxiety was. "My parents love me very much. You're someone I care about — they'll extend that to you."

"I know." The tension in his face didn't entirely go. "I also want them to feel comfortable with us being together."

"Here." He produced a small piece of notepaper and pressed it into his hand. "My parents' list of interests. Will this help?"

Compiling a list of a partner's parents' preferences was actually the sort of thing couples generally avoided — it implied one party was supposed to be doing the appeasing. But Xu Chenzhu was different. He'd noticed for some time now that there was an inexplicable insecurity Xu Chenzhu carried in this relationship.

He didn't know why it was there. But he was going to find ways to make him feel more at ease, more and more, the longer they were together.

"Yes." He closed his fingers around the slip of paper. The tension in him visibly lessened.

"Good." He squeezed his arm. "Lunch is still half an hour off — I'm going to check in with the games department."

"Zhaozhao." He caught his wrist, and pulled him close again. He understood what it meant to a partner — being brought home.

"I'm very happy." He bent and kissed his forehead — a light, unhurried kiss, with nothing in it of desire, only care.

Like a worshipper, pressing his lips to the only god he had.

*

Corners that Chao Musheng had never thought twice about were being excavated with enthusiasm by a community of invested strangers online.

[Archaeological expedition: after finishing his university entrance exams, Xiao Chao posted a joke about making it in entertainment. Two months later, Kunlun launched an entertainment division.]

[He said it offhand. One person took it seriously. If that's not a romantic, what is?]

[I found something interesting — in May this year, Xiao Chao helped livestream a product sale for a village. Some articles came up about an arts performance this village hosted — sponsored by Kunlun Mineral Water.]

[That's nothing — someone found that after Xiao Chao enrolled at Jinghua, Kunlun's sponsorship of the university increased several times over. And almost all of the increase came from the boss's personal donations, not company funds.]

[The boss is a full romantic. Also genuinely very wealthy.]

[The funniest part: Xiao Chao originally didn't know who the boss was at all.]

[Which means the boss did all of this without once trying to use it as leverage. He remained a stranger in Xiao Chao's eyes the entire time.]

[I thought people were joking — I genuinely didn't realize this man was actually the romantic the posts describe.]

The PR manager was getting a headache. Viewers everywhere were calling the big boss a romantic, and every time she worked out a plan to manage the narrative, the official social media team ran another giveaway.

She called the social media team directly and asked what was going on. They told her it had come from the president's office.

"Never mind, then." She hung up. The tension left her face. As long as the boss doesn't mind being called a romantic — it's fine.

"The public conversation can't be contained," her colleague said, coming in with a tablet. "Not without pulling the trending topic entirely, or blocking related searches."

"Better to let it flow than to dam it. Let the viewers talk. This kind of topic runs for two or three days at most, then everyone forgets." She yawned. "As long as it's not malicious, leave it."

Her colleague lowered their voice. "Viewers are calling the boss a romantic — is that genuinely not a problem?"

"Not a problem." She shook her head.

Besides — the viewers might not even be wrong.

*

An hour before the gathering began, Chao Musheng changed in Xu Chenzhu's lounge and noticed him putting on that same pair of cufflinks — the ones he'd bought on the cruise.

Matching tie clips. Watches in the same series. And their bowties were the same colour.

He was almost certain Xu Chenzhu had prepared all of this long ago, simply waiting for the right day.

They came out of the office together, and every colleague on the floor was trying very hard not to stare too obviously.

Matching couple accessories.

The boss has dressed to be noticed today. He's basically a peacock in full display.

Secretary Liu accompanied them to the lobby and opened the rear car door.

"Based on my previous experience with this sort of event, I'd expect a chance encounter with Curly Hair." He leaned against Xu Chenzhu and scrolled his phone absently — and found himself reading about himself.

Brilliant and beautiful ordinary person — and his romantic boyfriend?

"Oh my goodness, everyone — I believe in love again—"

The marketing account's voice was breathless, cataloguing every thing the romantic boss had ever done for the ordinary person.

The further in he got, the more complicated his expression became. He took out one earbud and held it out.

"What's wrong?" He looked over. "Do you want to see Curly Hair?"

"Not that." He put the earbud in Xu Chenzhu's ear. "Listen."

"She's not entirely accurate." He listened to the whole thing. "I'm not a romantic. I'm not a domineering CEO. I simply like you."

He laughed quietly. "Right — our Xu Chenzhu is a good and conscientious boss."

Otherwise it would have been very difficult to fall for him.

*

"Ugh." Curly Hair paced back and forth across the player hall without finding any way back into Xiao Chao's world.

The big screen showed no new instances loading. The system prompts had gone quiet. Players moved through the hall in a state of unease, everyone anxious about a future they couldn't see.

She even heard crying — someone wanting to go home, someone naming people they missed.

She smiled bitterly. Main God. What a title. It's a bandit and a trafficker.

"Xiao Juan." The five had noticed her some time ago. When she passed them again, Hua Ba spoke. "What's going on with you?"

"Nothing." She managed a smile. "The Main God probably won't open any new instances for a while. If you have time — go find Er Qiang or Qi Shi. Don't be alone."

"All right." The five exchanged glances, about to ask more — and she vanished in front of them.

She blinked and found herself standing in a run-down alley. A stray cat was perched on top of a bin regarding her with suspicion.

"What are you doing standing between those bins?"

She turned. Recognized the face. And immediately broke into a grin. "Wan You?!"

"It's me." He found her expression strange. "What happened?"

"I need to find Xiao Chao." She took out her phone — no charge, screen black. "Can you help me reach him? It's urgent."

He looked at her briefly, asked nothing about what it was, tossed his rubbish into the bin, and handed her his phone. "Call yourself. Password is 051411."

"That password?"

"May 14th, at approximately eleven in the morning — I passed the Jinghua exchange student examination with full marks." He lifted his chin slightly. "It's a date worth commemorating."

...

Why don't you just have JINGHUA UNIVERSITY tattooed on your forehead and be done with it.

*

When Chao Musheng and Xu Chenzhu walked into the gathering side by side, he felt every eye in the room orient toward them.

A few seconds of quiet — then a wave of people moving their direction.

"Xiao Chao, Mr. Xu — good evening. What an honour."

Xiao Chao first.

The people nearby all looked sideways. Someone put Xu Chenzhu second — have they lost their mind?

The one who'd greeted them this way said nothing, just smiled. He'd checked the trending topics before arriving. Xu Chenzhu is a romantic. Lead with the boyfriend — you can't go wrong.

As for the competitors who couldn't keep up with internet speeds — he had nothing to say to them.