Chapter 18: Loving It Extremely
After returning, Xiahou Qian didn’t even wash up. He tossed off his clothes and shoes, flopped onto the bed, and tossed and turned for a while before falling asleep. Chi Shaochen arrived home at nearly 1:00 AM. Fortunately, although he didn’t stay up late often, he exercised well, so this bit of late night was nothing to him.
Since he had already showered at the office, Chi Shaochen didn’t wash again. He simply sat back against the headboard with his phone.
It took Chi Shaochen about ten minutes to open Tianlai, register, and fill out his profile. He selected the singer search in the search bar and typed ‘Xiahou.’
Usernames on Tianlai couldn’t be duplicated, so Chi Shaochen wasn’t afraid of finding the wrong person. After clicking in, he found only one work titled “I Don’t Love.”
He clicked purchase, selecting both online streaming and download, and then entered the payment interface for his linked bank card. Chi Shaochen entered his password, and the purchase was quickly confirmed as successful.
Minimizing the webpage, he double-clicked the text file that had just downloaded to his desktop, copied the string of numbers inside, then opened the encrypted audio file and pasted the content. The file decrypted successfully, turning into a playable format.
“…I don’t love, I won’t love, I’ll just watch you two love each other… I don’t love, and I don’t understand love, watching all the world’s sorrows as a bystander… I don’t love, my love, you don’t love.”
After listening twice, Chi Shaochen opened the webpage and left a comment below.
Huangfu: Very good. (Just now)
You saw that right. Chi Shaochen only left two words. His nickname was ‘Huangfu’âa two-character surname just like ‘Xiahou.’ As for why Chi Shaochen picked this nickname? The reason was simple, meaningful, and quite childish: Xiahou contains the character ‘Hou’ (Marquis), while Huangfu contains ‘Huang’ (Emperor).
Chi Shaochen looped the song several times before stopping.
This song, independently created by Xiahou Qian, was not at all inferior to those popular tracksâit even had its own special charm. It felt different from hearing Xiahou Qian sing in the bar. He had already thought Xiahou Qian was excellent enoughâgood-looking, great singer, and great auraâbut now he realized Xiahou Qianâs musical talent was even better than he had imagined.
Consequently, Chi Shaochen felt he had great taste and great luck; otherwise, how could he have met such a wonderful person? Regardless of how excellent Xiahou Qian was, others could only admire him; Xiahou Qian could only be his.
Despite sleeping late, Chi Shaochen woke up early. Perhaps because he had been moved so frequently lately, Chi Shaochenâs reaction this morning was quite strong. He couldn’t help but think of the scene in the office last nightâXiahou Qianâs appearance at that moment was truly too enticing! When moved, he was completely different from his usual self; that allure seemed to seep out from his bones. He really loved it extremely.
After resolving his physiological needs himself and seeing that it was still early, Chi Shaochen decided to sleep a bit longer.
Xiahou Qian had gone to sleep earlier than Chi Shaochen, but he woke up later. By ‘later,’ it wasn’t referring to Chi Shaochenâs first wake-up, but rather when Chi Shaochen woke up from his second sleep and called Xiahou Qian, waking him up.
At that moment, he groggily fumbled for his phone by the pillow and answered with a sleepy ‘Hello,’ not even knowing who was on the other end.
“Still sleeping? I’m downstairs waiting for you.” Chi Shaochenâs magnetic voice, laced with a smile, came through the receiver. Xiahou Qian was instantly eighty percent awake.
“Alright.” After hanging up, Xiahou Qian thought for about a minute before realizing what Chi Shaochen meant. He immediately got up, brushed his teeth, washed his face, showered, and shavedâthough at his age, he didn’t have much of a beard to shave.
Seeing the purple-red patch on his neck in the mirror, Xiahou Qian touched it and found it stung a bit. He couldn’t help but grimace. Chi Shaochen had always been the unreachable Male God in his heart in his last life, but now he was starting to think, quite irreverently, why this man liked to bite like a puppy!
When Xiahou Qian came out with his things, about twenty minutes had passed since Chi Shaochenâs call.
Chi Shaochenâs car was parked right where he had dropped him off last night, and Chi Shaochen was leaning against the car, smoking. Chi Shaochen was rarely not in a shirt today; he wore a casual, grey-blue, small V-neck top, light grey casual pants, and casual shoes.
His aura was undiminished, yet he had an indescribable new feeling. In short, with Chi Shaochenâs looks, physique, and aura, combined with the quality of his custom-made clothes, there was no way he could look anything but good.
By contrast, Xiahou Qian had just graduated from university. Most of his clothes were bought while he was in schoolâa white T-shirt, jeans, and sneakers. The whole set didn’t cost much, but because Xiahou Qianâs own looks and aura were so good, he made the cheap clothes look like designer brands.
The two had one thing in common right now: the purple-red, swollen marks on their necks.
When Chi Shaochen woke up and washed, he saw the marks at a glance because they were very, very obvious! At the time, he thought about wearing clothes to cover it, but after standing in front of the dressing mirror and changing set after set, he simply gave up. If it were a regular hickey, he could consider an adhesive bandage, but these marks were large and slightly swollen. Since they couldn’t be hidden, Chi Shaochen simply stopped trying.
He opened the car door for Xiahou Qian and then circled to the other side to get in. They closed their doors almost simultaneously.
“Taking you to eat.” Chi Shaochen turned to look at Xiahou Qian, smiling slightly.
“Alright.” Xiahou Qian checked his phone after answering and saw it was already past noon.
Chi Shaochen drove to a place far from the bustle but not too remote. After finding a spot to park, Xiahou Qian and Chi Shaochen got out together. Chi Shaochen walked over and took his hand, leading him toward a certain direction. Xiahou Qian looked up and saw a small sign: [Fangâs Private Kitchen].
Xiahou Qian didn’t ask anything and simply followed Chi Shaochen inside. It was obvious Chi Shaochen had brought him here specifically, and likely came here often. Was the food here very good? Or was Chi Shaochen an acquaintance of the owner?
It was lunchtime, and there were already several tables of people inside. The design was somewhat like a cafĂŠ, with booth seating that offered semi-privacy. Chi Shaochen found an empty spot and sat down with Xiahou Qian. A waiter soon came to ask what they wanted to eat.
Chi Shaochen said to the waiter, “Bring a few of your signature dishesâtwo meat, two vegetable, and a soup.”
“Certainly.” The waiter noted it down and left with a smile.
“Are you very familiar with this place?” Xiahou Qian asked.
“Iâve been here twice. A friend recommended it; heâs quite the researcher when it comes to food.” Chi Shaochen explained in rare detail.
“Oh.” Xiahou Qian didn’t press for details about Chi Shaochenâs friend.
The food didn’t take long. They didn’t plan on drinking and had the waiter serve the rice at the same time.
“Do you like it?” Chi Shaochen watched Xiahou Qian take a few bites and asked with a slight smile.
“Itâs okay.” Xiahou Qian wasn’t a picky eater; as long as the taste wasn’t too strange, he would eat it. But he was also very picky in the sense that it was hard to make him think something was truly delicious.
“What do you like to eat? Weâll go there next time.” Seeing that Xiahou Qian didn’t particularly love the food here, Chi Shaochen pressed, his tone carrying a hint of a coaxing quality. Although Xiahou Qian had agreed to be with him and didn’t reject their intimacy, he always felt that Xiahou Qian was still holding something back from him.
What do I like to eat? Xiahou Qian stopped his chopsticks. In truth, there were very few things he liked. Even the food at big hotels only felt ‘average’ to him. If he had to say he liked something… “The food my mother made was very delicious, but… actually, the food I make myself is okay too. I just don’t like cooking; itâs a hassle.” So heâd rather wrong his own stomach.
Xiahou Qianâs expression allowed Chi Shaochen to keenly sense an issue regarding his mother, but he didn’t ask. He thought about looking it up himself later; it wasn’t some secret. He just didn’t want to make Xiahou Qian sad by asking him directly.
“Then what do you usually eat?” Chi Shaochen lived alone and didn’t have a cook at home. Most of the time he ate out, and when he was too lazy to go out, he ordered delivery. After all, even after staying abroad for many years, he had never learned the skill of cooking. His parentsâ place had plenty of help, but he had moved out long ago.
“Takeout mostly,” Xiahou Qian said before continuing his meal. While eating, Chi Shaochen considered: maybe he should buy a few cookbooks and try it out? With his intelligence, he figured learning wouldn’t be too difficult.
After eating, Chi Shaochen suggested visiting the soon-to-be-established Qianchen Media office. The location had been found, and equipment was being purchased. If things went smoothly, everything would be procured by next week, and the office could be set up. However, staffing would take a bit longer.
The place Chi Shaochen found was a high-end office building not far from AE Group. Qianchen occupied an entire floor. Compared to AE, it was very small, but for a new company, it was spaciousâespecially since Xiahou Qian hadn’t forgotten that Chi Shaochen said he would be the only artist in the early stages.
They left the office just past 2:00 PM. Although Chi Shaochen had taken the initiative to ask Xiahou Qian out, he had only thought about eating together and had no proper plan for the afternoon. But he didn’t want Xiahou Qian to find out, so after a thought, he drove to the parking lot of a large cinema.
“Letâs watch a movie.” Although it was a spur-of-the-moment decision, Chi Shaochen made it seem as if it had been planned all along. Luckily, there were few people at the cinema during the day, so there was no issue with getting tickets.
Chi Shaochen requested two ‘couples’ tickets. It wasn’t a small private booth but a large public hall, though the seats were double sofas with a partition between each pair. It provided a bit of closeness without being too private.
“What movie is it?” Since Chi Shaochen bought the tickets, Xiahou Qian didn’t know which one he chose.
” Love is Coming. We can check in now,” Chi Shaochen said.
Xiahou Qian couldn’t figure out if Chi Shaochen bought these tickets because of the movie itself or just because there was no wait, but he didn’t ask. The main purpose wasn’t the movie itself anyway, but the act of ‘watching a movie’ together.
After going in and sitting down, they found the occupancy rate of the entire hall was less than one-fifth. The seats Chi Shaochen bought were in the exact center of the second-to-last row.
Love is Coming was a modern romance film. From the beginning, the screenwriter poured on the melodrama. Policies had become increasingly open in recent years, and film content had grown more diverse and richer, with more open love scenes. Within twenty minutes, there was already a sex scene. Although it was semi-obscured, it still made hearts flutter.
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