Don't Pick Up Boyfriends From the Trash Bin

　　Lift up.

Chi Xiaochi and Song Zhihuai stand side by side, next to Lou Ying, who is invisible to everyone.

Chi Xiaochi, who is bored, stands up on his tiptoes, trying to get level with Song Zhihuai, who is nearly 5’9″, and is pushed down by his elbow.

Ever since she saw Song Zhihuai’s handsome face, Lou Ying’s face has been so cold that frost could form on it.

Chi Xiaochi’s little gesture broke the silence in the lift, and Song Zhihuai had a chance to speak.

He takes off his glasses and gently wipes them with a cloth.

With his glasses off, Song Zhihuai is a little less sassy and a little more suave.

His tone, however, was unusually polite and distant.

”…… for the third time.” Song Zhihuai courteously inquired, “Mr. Ji, are you having a falling out with one of our artists?”

Chi Xiaochi shrugs, “Don’t the Nebula artists like me extraordinarily?”

Song Zhihuai smiled, unconvinced.

Lou Ying was slightly glad that there was more than one person in the place they were going.

Chi Xiaochi sits at the table in the small conference room that comes with Song Zhihuai’s office, takes a cigarette from the translucent black Marlboro case, knocks the shreds on the box, and asks each of the people present for their opinion before lighting up.

The citrusy pale white smoke lingered in his fingers as he picked up the bone china tea set on the table with his cigarette clutching hand and tasted it, “This tea set is in much better condition than the last one.”

Song Zhihuai put on a fake business smile and responded with a shy smile, “Really?”

Compared to Chi Xiaochi’s laxity, the faces of the others on the other side of the table were not so pleasant.

The PR manager deliberated for a while before saying, “Mr. Chi, what do you think about Nina? I’d like to hear your opinion.”

Nina, the one Chi Xiaochi claims she’s going to have a three-year relationship with.

”I’m a person who doesn’t like to think, I like to do it straight away.” Chi Xiaochi says, “Nebula Entertainment’s PR was so slow to follow up that I had to come up with my own way of casually prodding.”

The PR manager took a small breath.

His “whatever” has exploded the entire internet.

”But you can’t ……” run under the marketing numbers and spout nonsense.

The manager settled down and said as politely as he could, “You …… do make it difficult for us.”

Lucas was just about to open his mouth when Chi Xiaochi spoke up again, “Come on.”

Nina’s manager was also present. She had been working on this matter for two or three days and had a black and blue look under her eyes. When she heard Chi Xiaochi’s sarcastic tone, she finally exploded: “July, we are trying to solve the problem now, not make it worse! Do you have any idea how much trouble your message has caused my Nina? All the media are calling non-stop and she’s lost 30,000 live fans! If we hadn’t found a way to control it ……”

Song Zhihuai and the PR manager were too late to stop them and closed their eyes slightly at the same time with an unforgiving look on their faces.

”Ah, did I misunderstand?” Chi Xiaochi puffed on her cigarette and said lightly, “When she bought my trip and hired paparazzi to film me, it turned out she didn’t want to marry me.”

The agent was dumbfounded.

Lucas squeezed Chi Xiaochi’s arm and glared at him playfully.

Chi Xiaochi glanced at him, then at the hand he was holding his own, and shook his head disapprovingly.

Lucas understood and dutifully let go of his hand, but still inevitably stared worriedly at Chi Xiaochi, fearing that he might say something more provocative.

In the silent conference room, Chi Xiaochi exhaled a puff of smoke, rubbed his thumb repeatedly over his soft lips and looked in the hazy smoke at the agent whose face was white and red: “You have your channels and I have my own. Don’t think what you’re doing is so hidden.”

”As for dropping fans, isn’t it because she’s selling the Iron Straight T persona? She ate up the bonuses and sucked in fans before, and now that public opinion is out of control, drawing attention from the top and affecting commercials and new drama airings, she wants to find a male to spread gossip about so she can get through this period and finally clarify that we are in a ‘good buddy’ relationship. It’s a great way to get in and get out, isn’t it?”

At some point, Chi Xiaochi’s face lost its smile in response to the story.

He dusted off his cigarette and lifted his chin slightly, looking across at the agent with a brooding, reticent air in his eyes that had the illusion of a screaming scalp.

”…… The question is, why do you guys think I would go along with playing this game with you.”

Song Zhihuai coughed softly, “That’s enough.”

Chi Xiaochi’s eyes curved beautifully, sweeping away the gloom as he said cordially, “Yes, that’s enough talk. We’ll all listen to Mr Song next. How is this matter going to be handled?”

In the end, they worked out a mutually satisfactory outcome.

Nina’s side issued an official message clarifying their relationship on the condition that Chi Xiaochi never speaks out again on the matter.

”If I hadn’t been free lately, I wouldn’t have bothered with such things.” Before leaving, Chi Xiaochi smiled at Nina’s deathly pale agent, “If you have similar needs, you can get this set next time when I’m in the group.”

Song Zhihuai drops the man off at the lift and, after asking how many floors underground his nanny car is parked on, gently presses the lift for him.

As the door was about to close, Song Zhihuai reached out to block the retractable door again, “Mr Chi, it’s not like we don’t know each other, so next time you’re up to something, could you let me know as a courtesy?”

Chi Xiaochi smiled and said, “Definitely.”

After sending Chi Xiaochi away, Song Zhihuai breathed a clear sigh of relief.

On the side, Song Zhihuai’s assistant laughed, “Mr. Song, you’ve met Mr. Ji so many times, don’t you know him well?”

Song Zhihuai shook his head, “This man is killing me. There’s no way to know what’s going on in his head.”

”It’s also quite interesting.” The assistant joked, “Other than that, you and he look really good together, Mr Song. Won’t you think about it? I heard he’s also ……”

”I won’t be looking in the entertainment industry.” Song Zhihuai’s attitude is categorical, unfastening his cufflinks as he turns back towards his office and says calmly, “Trouble like this is not something I want to bring into my life.”

Lou Ying listened in silence to Song Zhihuai’s conversation with the special assistant before going downstairs to chase Chi Xiaochi.

Chi Xiaochi has arrived on level B2 and is looking for his nanny car.

The vision of Lou Ying followed him, recalling what he had just heard, his palms unconsciously clenched into fists in his pockets.

Lucas and Chi Xiaochi are not of the same height and length, so they had to run after him: “My dear ancestor, we’re here to negotiate, not to start a feud, what did you just do? Do you know that Nina has a big backer behind her?”

Chi Xiaochi asks rhetorically, “What’s wrong with backstage, don’t I have one?”

Lucas: “……” He had almost forgotten that the man in front of him was July Chi, who had made his debut in the top crew of the Chinese film industry and had met all the bigwigs with deep roots.

Lucas said sharply, “Then you can’t offend people to death. What do you want?”

Chi Xiaochi : “Cool.”

Lucas: “……” OK.

Seeing that he couldn’t reach an agreement with Chi Xiaochi on this topic, Lucas changed the subject: “Do you know that handsome guy from earlier?”

Chi Xiaochi and Song Zhihuai were the only two men in the room who could be described as handsome.

”We’ve both met before.” Chi Xiaochi says, “I think it was when I was seventeen, walking a commercial show, and he was on the bottom and I was on the top.”

Lucas: “Wow, bamboo horse.”

Chi Xiaochi looked at him, “Do you know what bamboo horse means?”

”Almost, almost, meant to be.” Lucas’ gossip blazed, “And then what?”

”And then -” Chi Xiaochi glanced at Lucas and subtly changed his tone, “someone introduced us. We met right away, we were so hot and bothered that we threw condoms all over the floor, only for him to pull up his trousers and disown me the next day, leaving me to pretend it never happened and never meet him again.”

Lou Ying gritted his teeth hard to suppress the strong soreness in his chest.

Lucas’ mouth and nostrils dilated together as he listened, “Really?”

Chi Xiaochi : “False.”

Lou Ying : “……”

Lucas: “…… grass.”

Chi Xiaochi found his car and tossed the keys to Lucas: “He’s not interested in people like me.”

Lucas looked regretful: “Really? You two look really good together, when he pulled you into the lift ……”

Chi Xiaochi leans against a wall post and calmly points out Song Zhihuai’s opinion of himself: “He just thinks I’m too much trouble.”

Luca was a bit disappointed, after all, it’s not a good feeling to have a CP fall apart right after you’ve stood up for it.

He pulled the door open for Chi Xiaochi: “So what do you like, I’ll help you find something in the circle later.”

Chi Xiaochi leaned back into the comfortable soft leather seat and closed his eyes, “I don’t like anyone.”

At these words, Lou Ying’s heart, which had just shown a glimmer of joy, suddenly fell into a void.

Lucas said undeterred, “Don’t you have a fantasy object when you’re doing that? That would have given me a template.”

Chi Xiaochi’s eyes are closed and he takes another cigarette out of the box, as if he is missing someone, his expression gradually softening.

He pursed his dry lips over his cigarette and smiled vaguely, “I can’t tell you that.”

The car left in the dust, leaving Lou Ying standing in the same place.

It took another moment of soreness before Lou Ying could barely lift his head and look in the direction where the car had disappeared.

Lou Ying could vaguely guess from the clues over the years that Chi Xiaochi’s orientation towards his lover seemed to be different from most people. So he wasn’t surprised to hear him talk about it in a positive way.

What surprised him was his own reaction.

A soft mass of flesh in his chest constricted uncomfortably, and a strong insecurity wrapped around him, telling him that he could not control himself and wanted to go after him, to sit beside Chi Xiaochi and ask him after what kind of person he really liked and what kind of person he could really like.

It was to curb this unhinged emotion in himself that he chose to stay.

Lou Ying looked at his hands and frowned, thinking, “What’s happening to me?

For a moment he lost sight of his goal and wondered where else he could go.

But it’s a bit silly to stay standing here.

Lou Ying took two steps with his back to the direction of the departing vehicle, wondering with interest whether to go back to the system.

Suddenly, his mind moved, a thought flashed through his head like a lightning bolt, and he couldn’t move his feet anymore.

Lou Ying turned around and looked incredulously in the direction where Chi Xiaochi’s car had disappeared, her heart pounding furiously.

…… can’t be right.

How did he ……

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