“Try what, exactly?” Chi Zhan couldn’t help but laugh, lowering his voice. “He already has someone he likes. We’re just coworkers—it’s all for show. Don’t go chatting nonsense with him. Better to destroy a temple than ruin a relationship.”
Tao Ran looked utterly devastated, like his favorite ship had just sunk.
“So… are you guys sharing a room now?” he asked.
“No, I’m rooming with Zhou Yanxing. He’s from the entertainment department. We weren’t assigned together.”
Tao Ran was stunned.
“Huh? Isn’t he into you? Shouldn’t you be sharing a room?” Then, with a glint in his eye, he added, “He’s a domineering CEO, right? Isn’t this where the wall-pin, confession, and forceful kiss come in?”
“……”
Well, the wall-pin did happen.
But President Zhou was a man of propriety. Forcing someone into anything just wasn’t his style. Chi Zhan was actually relieved—pride wasn’t always a bad thing.
Still, he couldn’t shake a nagging worry. Zhou Yanxing felt like a balloon, stretched too tight. Would he suddenly just go pop one day from being pushed too far?
The consequences were unthinkable.
When they reached the hotel, Tao Ran went to check in. Chi Zhan was about to head back to his room, but Chu Xingxiao stopped him.
“Can we talk a bit more?” Chu Xingxiao looked at him intently, clearly with something on his mind.
Chi Zhan’s thoughts were still preoccupied with the gift mix-up, making him anxious, but he nodded. The two of them sat on the couch in the lobby.
Chu Xingxiao spoke softly.
“You didn’t answer me earlier.”
Chi Zhan looked confused.
“Answer what?”
Chu Xingxiao pressed his lips together and stared at him, then quietly said, “…I like you.”
I like you, Chi Zhan.
I really like you. A lot.
He’d repeated these words in his heart a thousand times, but now that he finally said them aloud, he was so nervous his ears buzzed.
Then he heard Chi Zhan slowly say, “That line—weren’t you just acting?”
Chu Xingxiao’s face immediately darkened.
“I wasn’t!”
His voice had risen. Realizing it, he lowered it again, sounding almost aggrieved.
“It wasn’t an act.”
Chi Zhan had assumed that line was staged for Zhou Yanxing’s benefit, a little performance to reinforce the illusion of them being a couple. But Chu Xingxiao’s earnestness left him stunned.
He blinked slowly, wondering if he’d heard wrong.
“But I thought you liked your cousin’s…”
Halfway through the sentence, Chi Zhan realized something felt very off.
Very, very off.
“I know about you and Qi Song. But I still like you. Someone like him… he’s not made for relationships. Gege, give me a chance, will you?”
Chi Zhan blinked again—and then secretly pinched himself.
Huh. That didn’t hurt.
“You can pinch me. It hurts,” Chu Xingxiao said with a pout.
“……I need time to think,” Chi Zhan said. He’d never felt like he was slow-witted, but at that moment, his brain was dangerously close to crashing.
“I can wait. Gege, I’ll wait for your answer. If you don’t know how to say it… I can talk to him for you.” He added, “I’ll take care of everything.”
It took Chi Zhan a moment to realize “him” referred to Qi Song.
“Wait.” A sudden realization hit him like lightning. He grabbed Chu Xingxiao by the collar, yanking him forward. “So that night…You didn’t mistake me for someone else?”
Chu Xingxiao’s gaze wavered—just for a moment—but it was enough. Chi Zhan caught it.
“You lied to me?!”
Chi Zhan exclaimed, disbelief written all over his face.
“No—I was drunk! When you came out, I thought I was dreaming. I couldn’t help myself…”
Chu Xingxiao stared at him, eyes drifting to his lips. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed, then asked politely—
“Gege, can I kiss you?”
They were close. Very close. It was the first time Chi Zhan had ever initiated physical closeness with him, and that alone made Chu Xingxiao’s blood surge with excitement.
When the person you like is right there in front of you, who could possibly resist?
His shifting eyes weren’t from guilt—they were from fear.
Fear he wouldn’t be able to stop himself.
There was such a strong, almost predatory intent in his gaze. Just meeting his eyes was enough to make Chi Zhan’s ears tingle. The conversation had shifted so abruptly—how did it go from “you’re Qi Song’s boyfriend” to “I want to kiss you”?
Chi Zhan pulled himself together and forced himself not to be swayed. He leaned back, putting distance between them.
“No.”
Chi Zhan returned to his room in a perfectly normal and composed manner… yeah, right.
He hit the wrong elevator button, went to the wrong door, and only realized it when his key card wouldn’t work. By the time he actually made it back to his room, he’d completely forgotten about the gift mix-up.
Humans just can’t handle two crises at once. Even if both were important, trying to process them simultaneously would definitely cause a system crash.
How in the world did Chu Xingxiao get the idea that he and Qi Song were a couple?
Where did that ridiculous rumor even come from?
It couldn’t have been Qi Song himself, right? That would be too absurd—straight out of a soap opera.
And then there was the confession.
Just moments ago, Chi Zhan had been confidently telling Tao Ran that Chu Xingxiao liked someone else. Not even a minute later, reality came and slapped him across the face.
Were all these love interests going through some kind of collective rebellion? Why were they all falling for such a run-of-the-mill NPC?
He couldn’t make sense of it. No matter how hard he thought about it, the only conclusion was that something had gone catastrophically wrong in the code—so wrong that even the main system couldn’t detect it.
His thoughts were a mess, his heart weighed down. He wandered the room like a ghost, lost in thought, and ended up bumping into Zhou Yanxing.
Zhou Yanxing, dressed in a black shirt, was pouring himself a glass of water. The sudden collision made him think it was a thief. Instinctively, he grabbed the intruder’s shoulder and was about to flip them to the ground when a startled yelp stopped him.
It was Chi Zhan.
