Chapter 2

Chapter 2

We agreed to meet at a café.

For no particular reason-mainly because I knew the place. I’d been there seven or eight times already.

Every time, I ordered an espresso.

That way, when I looked at the guy across from me while drinking it, I wouldn’t feel like my life was that bitter after all.

When I arrived, there were still five minutes before our scheduled time.

The other party sent a message saying he was already there.

I instinctively looked up and scanned the room.

Based on experience, any man so hopeless that even the matchmaker couldn’t hype him up with a clear conscience would be, if not the most tragic specimen in the whole café, then at least the second most tragic.

I swept my eyes around.

There were two men with Mediterranean hairlines.

Oh my.

And one handsome guy, seen from the back.

He was wearing a black suit, his figure tall and straight.

I was just about to pick one of the two balding candidates when a message popped up on my phone.

Blind Date No. 10: “Table 1. I’m wearing black.”

Table 1?

I looked in that direction.

And saw the handsome man from the back turn his head right at that moment.

His features were extraordinarily refined, his skin a cool, pale white.

Our eyes met.

As if confirming something, he lifted a brow.

Holy crap.

He was this handsome?

I suddenly wanted to grab a handful of shit just to calm myself down.

I silently walked over and sat down.

“Song Shiwei.”

He extended a long, well-proportioned hand for a light shake.

His sleeve was rolled up, revealing a few distinct blue veins along his forearm.

“Chen Huaizhi.”

Warmth brushed against my palm.

My whole body shuddered.

I hurriedly picked up the coffee in front of me and took a huge gulp.

It was so bitter my scalp went numb.

All inappropriate thoughts instantly scattered.

To make him retreat in the face of difficulty-and to shove the blame onto him-I struck first.

I put on an appraising expression.

“What’s your education level? I don’t like men with low qualifications.”

The last guy in a suit and leather shoes had told me he almost graduated from grad school.

I figured a bachelor’s degree was fine too.

Then, in the next second, he said something unexpected had happened and he hadn’t finished elementary school.

It was truly like being cut on the butt with a tiny knife-an eye-opening experience.

Chen Huaizhi sighed. Maybe it was my imagination, but his tone carried a hint of deliberate regret.

“Ah, barely a PhD.”

He even handed over a diploma while he was at it.

Half-dubious, I took it.

When I saw the words “PhD in Computer Science, University of Oxford,” I silently closed it again.

“…”

I’d kicked an iron plate.

I changed the subject.

“How many houses do you own? I have a lot of relatives, and after marriage, they’ll all have to live with us.”

That was outrageous enough, right?

Outrageous enough that even my mom would want to slap me if she heard it.

Three generations of only children-where was I supposed to get all these aunts and uncles from?

“Oh? I love a lively household. I have too many houses anyway. I can’t even live in them all most of the time.”

As he spoke, he pulled a plastic bag out from behind him.

A huge bunch of keys clattered noisily inside.

The whole scene had the disorienting vibe of Lin Daiyu riding a tricked-out scooter.

“…”

Fine. You win this round.

I cleared my throat.

“I only consider men over 180 centimeters tall. The last guy said he was 1.8 meters, but he wasn’t even taller than me.”

If you inflated your height by three centimeters, I could barely understand.

But your 1.8 meters being shorter than my 1.75?

Qin Shi Huang would be so furious he’d crawl out of his grave and unify weights and measures all over again.

At that, the corners of his lips curved up, amusement spilling from his long, narrow eyes.

His sitting posture was languid, yet his entire aura was clean and unrestrained.

“Whether he was 1.8 meters, I’m not sure. But the one sitting in front of you is 1.88.”

“…”

No, seriously, what was going on with the matchmaker?

Had she changed her ways?

She said he was high quality, and he actually was.

I couldn’t find a single flaw in him.

So I could only hurt the enemy a thousand while hurting myself eight hundred.

Gritting my teeth, I wore the expression of a martyr going to her death.

I made something up. “To be honest, I’m infertile.”

That was ruthless enough, right?

Unexpectedly, a flicker of surprise crossed his face.

His tone was lazy, carrying a smile that wasn’t quite a smile.

“Oh? What a coincidence. I’m sterile.”

“…”

I’d met my match.

There was no other way. I had to unleash my ultimate move.

I closed my eyes and took off my coat.

Revealing the Wangzai skin-tight shirt underneath.

All around us, gasps rose one after another.

With a perfectly natural expression, I declared with full emotion:

“Others laugh at me for being too deranged; I laugh at them for not seeing through the truth! Ah, I love Wangzai skin-tight shirts!”

After speaking, I looked at him expectantly.

That was perverted enough, right?

His expression turned a little strange. Then he revealed a handsome yet polite smile.

From under the table, he silently stuck out one foot.

A pair of golden, boat-sized Chelsea boots sparkled brilliantly.

In a clear voice, he said:

“I also love golden Chelseas.”

“…”

I completely lost it.

I was pretending, but he looked real.

No matter how hard you fought, you didn’t have to go this far, did you?

“No, bro, what would happen if you just admitted defeat?”

He seemed to take extreme pleasure in seeing me bristle. A constant low chuckle spilled from deep in his throat.

Then he teasingly spat out two words:

“I won’t.”

I clenched my fists and was just about to grab my bag and run when my phone rang.

My mom’s voice was so loud I didn’t even need speaker mode to hear every word clearly.

“Daughter, how are you getting along with Huaizhi? This boy is outstanding. He’s more than good enough for you, with room to spare.

“When you were little, you always bullied him just because you developed early and were taller. You played Zhu Bajie and forced him to play Gao Cuilan.”

The more I listened, the more wrong it sounded.

The more I listened, the worse my expression became.

From my mom’s tone, it sounded like she knew him?

“Mom, wasn’t he introduced by the matchmaker?”

My mom said in disdain:

“As if. With that woman’s taste in men, even I feel nauseous looking at them. It really wasn’t easy for you to meet that many.

“Chen Huaizhi is Aunt Chen’s son from next door when you were little. He just came back from abroad.”

Dust-covered memories rewound.

The figure in my mind gradually overlapped with the person before me.

After hanging up, I looked up in disbelief.

And happened to meet a pair of playful eyes.

With a smile on his lips, the curve of his mouth slowly rose.

He lowered his voice and said:

“Brother Bajie.”

That long-lost yet unfamiliar form of address made my vision go black.