“Need to, need to,” Jiang Luo said hurriedly.
Gu Shiyue didn’t respond and kept walking forward.
Jiang Luo quickened his pace to catch up, turning his head to look at him with pleading eyes: “Senior, I didn’t say I didn’t want you to come.”
Gu Shiyue still didn’t say anything.
Jiang Luo asked pitifully: “Are you not planning to talk to me anymore, Senior?”
Gu Shiyue turned his head and glanced at him.
Jiang Luo seized the opportunity to act cute: “I really wanted you to come see me, really. I was so happy you came today.”
“Happy?” Gu Shiyue raised an eyebrow. “Weren’t you startled seventy or eighty times?”
Jiang Luo laughed: “I was happy after being startled; I was so happy I didn’t know where I was. Look at how happy I am right now.”
“I can see you’re pretty happy, so excited,” Cheng Jiashu chimed in from the side. Jiang Luo’s excitement in front of Gu Shiyue was like a puppy; if he had a tail, it could be used as a propeller.
“It’s not excessive to be excited on such a meaningful day, is it?” Jiang Luo said.
Cheng Jiashu nodded repeatedly: “Not excessive, not excessive. Nothing you do today is excessive; you could even streak down the street and it wouldn’t be excessive.”
Jiang Luo laughed and scolded: “Get lost.”
Jiang Luo turned his head to look at Gu Shiyue, leaned in close, and whispered: “So, does this mean I’ve successfully coaxed you, Senior?”
“Coaxed who?” Gu Shiyue asked, knowing the answer.
“You, of course,” Jiang Luo smiled, keeping his voice low enough that only the two of them could hear. “Otherwise, who else would need me to coax them? Everything I just said was to coax you. It’s just that I’m not good with words—I keep digging holes for myself, and then I have to climb out and coax people.”
Gu Shiyue thought to himself: You’re not good with words? Who is more eloquent than you?
“So, am I forgiven?” Jiang Luo asked.
Gu Shiyue wasn’t actually displeased, nor did he need coaxing, but it didn’t stop him from enjoying hearing Jiang Luo say these things.
“You are,” he said.
Jiang Luo gave a silly laugh: “That’s good.”
“Were you happy today?” Gu Shiyue suddenly asked him.
“I was, very happy.”
Gu Shiyue nodded: “Mm.”
Both Jiang Luo and Cheng Jiashu were in cosplay today. Afraid that their wigs and costumes would soak up the smell of hotpot, they went back to the hotel to take off their makeup and change clothes first, letting Gu Shiyue and Qi Xueying go ahead to order food. Jiang Chen, as always, followed Jiang Luo wherever he went, so he went back to the hotel with them. When the three of them reached the hotpot restaurant, the food they had ordered was already laid out.
Jiang Luo had a small appetite and was full after eating only a little bit. Like a child, he couldn’t eat much of the main meal, but he always had room for snacks and desserts. The waiter brought out two plates of chocolate-flavored desserts; he didn’t know who ordered them, but they were perfectly to his taste. While everyone else was still eating hotpot, he had already put down his chopsticks and was silently eating his dessert alone.
Qi Xueying asked Jiang Luo with a smile: “Is that cake good?”
Jiang Luo nodded: “It is. Did you order it?”
“No.” Qi Xueying glanced at Gu Shiyue and said with a smile, “Your senior ordered it.”
“Ah…” Jiang Luo was a bit surprised. He looked at Gu Shiyue: “You really know how to order; this is so good.”
“We can order more,” Gu Shiyue said.
Jiang Luo smiled: “No need, no need, I can’t eat anymore if we order more.”
“I didn’t see you eat much,” Qi Xueying laughed. “And you’re already full?”
Cheng Jiashu said: “He’s just like this, he only loves this kind of kid food. If you make him eat a real meal, he can’t take more than a few bites, but if it’s snacks or street food, that’s a different story. Right, Xiao Chen?”
Jiang Chen nodded: “Mm, that’s right.”
Jiang Luo laughed. It was the truth, so he couldn’t argue, but he stubbornly defended himself: “No way…”
Jiang Chen added: “Yes, you do.”
Jiang Luo looked at Gu Shiyue, who was sitting across from him, with an obedient expression: “I don’t, Senior.”
Gu Shiyue replied indifferently: “Why are you telling me that?”
“I want to maintain my image in front of you, Senior.”
“No need to maintain it. Your image in front of me is already quite clear.”
Jiang Luo couldn’t hold back his laughter.
Jiang Luo lowered his head to sip his iced cola. Cheng Jiashu put a plate of live shrimp into the spicy broth. The shrimp twitched a couple of times as they hit the pot, splashing spicy oil everywhere. Jiang Luo got some in his eye; he closed it tight and couldn’t recover for a long while.
He wiped his eye with a tissue, but it still felt burning hot. Jiang Chen saw him rubbing his eye with his head down and asked: “Did spicy oil get in your eye?”
“Yeah,” Jiang Luo said, keeping one eye closed. “It’s fine, it’ll be better in a moment.”
The more Jiang Luo rubbed it, the more uncomfortable it became, and there was a clear sensation of a foreign object in his eye. Gu Shiyue, sitting across from him, watched: “Don’t keep rubbing it.”
Jiang Luo obediently took his hand away. He blinked, his eyeball slightly red. Gu Shiyue frowned, and Jiang Luo mumbled: “I feel like there’s something in my eye…”
“Let me look.” Cheng Jiashu turned around. Jiang Luo faced him and opened the eye that had been splashed by the spicy oil.
Cheng Jiashu leaned in close and discovered a tiny piece of chili skin stuck under the eyelid: “There really is something.”
Cheng Jiashu tore off a piece of napkin, folded it into a thin strip, and tried to help Jiang Luo pick the chili skin out. As soon as the tissue touched Jiang Luo’s eyeball, he instinctively flinched backward.
“Don’t move.” Cheng Jiashu grabbed his neck to keep him from dodging. The two were almost face-to-face, and finally, he managed to get the chili skin out.
Jiang Luo blinked his eyes, finally feeling comfortable.
Qi Xueying picked up the lemonade on the table, took a sip, and joked: “You two are acting a bit ambiguous.”
“Do we need to be ambiguous?” Cheng Jiashu wrapped his arm around Jiang Luo’s neck and smiled mischievously. “We’ve always been inseparable.”
Jiang Luo was long used to him acting crazy and said with a laugh: “Oh, give it a rest. Do you dare say that in front of Lin Yu? Do you feel guilty?”
“Damn,” Cheng Jiashu cursed. “He’s already gone abroad. Who’s inseparable with him? I haven’t thought of that person in ages.”
Gu Shiyue watched them expressionlessly. His phone on the table suddenly rang. Hearing the ringtone, Jiang Luo turned his head to look and met Gu Shiyue’s gaze.
Gu Shiyue lowered his eyes, glanced at his phone screen, and immediately stood up, taking his phone with him as he walked out.
Qi Xueying blinked, curious: “Who is Lin Yu?”
Jiang Luo laughed and pointed at Cheng Jiashu: “His childhood friend.”
After finishing the hotpot, the three of them went back to the hotel. Jiang Luo originally wanted to take Jiang Chen to explore the surrounding area, but Jiang Chen said he didn’t want to go, so they just went straight back.
Jiang Luo originally thought Jiang Chen was too tired and wanted to go back to the hotel to rest, but as soon as they got back, the guy took a shower and sat down to start doing test papers.
“Aren’t you tired?” Jiang Luo asked him with a smile. “You still have the energy to do test papers?”
“All the papers I brought need to be finished; I’ve already calculated the time. There are two left; I’ll finish them tonight.”
“I give up on you,” Jiang Luo laughed and ruffled his hair. “Alright, write away then. I won’t disturb you.”
“Mm.”
Jiang Luo took a shower and flopped onto the bed. He picked up his phone from the nightstand and took a look. Cheng Jiashu had sent a message: What’s Xiao Chen doing?
Jiang Luo: Doing test papers.
Cheng Jiashu: ? ? ? ? ?
Cheng Jiashu: Is this even Chinese?
Jiang Luo: Yes.
Jiang Luo: Why are you asking? Do you need something from him?
Cheng Jiashu: I don’t need anything from him, I’m looking for you. Shall we go to a bar?
Cheng Jiashu: Since Jiang Xiao Chen is a minor, I didn’t mention it just now. Anyway, he’s studying hard, and you’ve got nothing else to do, you coming or not?
Jiang Luo: Not going.
Jiang Luo: Just finished showering, don’t want to go out.
Cheng Jiashu: [Bye]
Jiang Luo rolled over and lay comfortably on the bed. He opened his social media app. Refreshing the homepage brought up videos of his interactions at the signing event today and photos from the scene. As he scrolled down, he was startled to see a photo of Gu Shiyue.
Jiang Luo’s gaze froze.
The title of the post was quite the clickbait—“Is this male fan at Luo C’s signing event for real???”
Jiang Luo clicked into it. The title was indeed using “insulting to praise” tactics for traffic, because the cover photo was too handsome—you couldn’t insult someone while posting such a handsome photo. The content was all praise, a full screen of “ahhhh.”
[Too handsome ahhhhhhhhh, I can’t believe my eyes that I could see such a handsome male fan. Heavens, it was me who saw both Luo C and the high-value male fan today, hahahahahahaha I’m going crazy ahhhhhhh #LuoC #LuoCFirstSigningEvent #Convention#]
Jiang Luo flipped through the photos. There were all sorts of angles—standing, sitting—he was really handsome. The poster used a camera, so the photos were high-definition and had great texture. When he scrolled to the last one, it was a full-face shot of Gu Shiyue. This was taken when Gu Shiyue was getting off stage. Gu Shiyue must have seen someone taking his picture, and his gaze was directed straight at the lens—cold, without a hint of emotion.
This photo was devastatingly handsome. Jiang Luo couldn’t resist sharing the post with Gu Shiyue via WeChat: Senior, I found a handsome photo of you!
After sending the post, he went to look at the comments section.
— [Pinned] Straight from the original camera, no editing at all.
— Who understands the impact the last photo had on me [Petrified][Petrified][Petrified]
— Really, really, really handsome. He looks even better in person than in the photos, the kind of handsome that shocks people! This is from an iPhone original camera [Image][Image][Image]
— Ahhhhhhhhh I was there, the vibe between this handsome guy and Luo Bao is a bit subtle, is it okay to say this?
— Hahahahaha I’m dying of laughter. When this handsome guy got on stage, I felt Luo C was obviously flustered, stunned and confused, it’s so cute, attaching two pictures [Image][Image]
— Their interaction was really so ambiguous…
— It’s really super ambiguous, damn. My gut feeling can’t be wrong. Luo Bao and this male fan definitely know each other!!!!
— No, aren’t you guys reading too much into this? How did a normal interaction become ambiguous? It was clearly a normal interaction, and the interaction time was very short; the person got off very quickly. Don’t look at everyone and think they’re gay, okay? Really speechless.
— It’s really obvious. The moment this handsome guy got on stage, Luo C’s whole state changed, even his reaction was half a beat slow. I blushed just watching them stare at each other [Heart-eyes]
— I was at the scene and was almost dying of excitement, even though they didn’t do anything [Sobbing][Sobbing][Sobbing]
— Hahahahaha when he took a group photo with Luo Luo, I saw Luo Luo’s ears turn red, heating up in a second.
— Whether he’s a male fan or a boyfriend, I have my own conclusions (bushi).
The further down the comments he scrolled, the stranger things got. Jiang Luo sat up with a jolt, clutching his phone and thinking, “Oh, crap.”
Jiang Chen heard the movement and looked back at him.
Jiang Luo quickly exited the app and opened WeChat. If Gu Shiyue saw this comment section, it would be over; it was all people “shipping” them, and the things they were saying were so bold. He didn’t care about himself, but Gu Shiyue would definitely find it offensive—who would enjoy being randomly called gay?
Jiang Luo quickly recalled the post he had just forwarded to Gu Shiyue, along with the message he had sent.
Fortunately, it hadn’t been two minutes yet, otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to recall it.
Jiang Luo breathed a sigh of relief. Just as he put his phone down, it vibrated.
A message from Gu Shiyue popped up on the screen: ?