Chapter 53

Su Xingyao chased after the direction Xu Huan had gone for a long time.

But there were so many people at the scene, and Xu Huan had disappeared into one of several large exhibition halls.

Su Xingyao couldn’t figure out which direction to take, so he waited in place for a while, but still couldn’t find Xu Huan. He eventually left reluctantly.

On the way back, he couldn’t stop thinking about the matter.

After carefully considering it, Su Xingyao still felt a strong desire to learn more about the story Xu Huan was going to shoot, so he sent a message to Hermann, asking him to help find Xu Huan’s contact information.

However, after sending the message, Su Xingyao noticed that, unlike usual when Herman replied almost instantly, this time he hadn’t received a response even after several minutes.

Guessing that Hermann was likely still busy, Su Xingyao closed the chat window.

As he closed it, he realized he had missed another message.

The message had been buried among various news notifications and subscriptions, and Su Xingyao, focused on thinking about Xu Huan, hadn’t noticed it earlier.

Now, upon closer inspection of the WeChat interface, he saw that it was from Lu Jiuxu.

Mr. Lu: Will you be back for dinner tonight?

As soon as Su Xingyao saw the message, he replied immediately.

Su Catcat: Yes

Su Catcat: I’m already on my way.

Just after Su Xingyao sent the message, he saw the chat box display 【The other person is typing…】.

Seeing that Lu Jiuxu was online and had replied to him instantly, Su Xingyao couldn’t help but recall that it seemed like every time he sent a message to the other person, it was always replied to almost immediately.

No matter when, and no matter what the other person was doing, he would always get a response.

As Su Xingyao was thinking about this, he saw the 【The other person is typing…】 disappear suddenly.

?

The other person had clearly been typing for a while, but the message never came through.

Su Xingyao was about to type a question when he saw a few words reappear before him.

As he waited again, those words disappeared once more.

It kept happening — appearing and disappearing.

After several back-and-forth cycles, Lu Jiuxu finally sent a single word.

Mr. Lu: Okay.

Su Xingyao had originally thought that the other person had something important to say, which was why it took so long to type.

But this?

One word hardly seemed like it would take that long to type.

But the fact that the message was deleted and edited so many times clearly indicated that there was something else he wanted to say.

Su Xingyao suddenly had a feeling and quickly looked up the time of the last message Lu Jiuxu had sent.

Goodness, it had been over eight hours since then…

And eight hours ago, he had been chatting with Herman, completely engrossed in the conversation.

Then, he had spent the whole afternoon at the film festival.

During that time, he had used his phone, but he hadn’t noticed that Lu Jiuxu had tried to contact him!

He had always received immediate replies to his messages.

But his reply to Lu Jiuxu had been delayed for so long.

Although there were some objective reasons that caused this result, putting himself in the other person’s shoes, Su Xingyao felt like he had been a bit thoughtless as a friend.

A wave of guilt suddenly surged within him, and he immediately explained to the other person.

Su Catcat: There were too many notifications earlier, I didn’t notice.

Su Catcat: Sorry QAQ

Su Catcat: Su Catcat holding face.jpg

Su Catcat: Su Catcat kneeling.jpg

In order to show his sincerity in apologizing, Su Xingyao also added a promise.

Su Catcat: I’ll pin your message.

Su Catcat: I’ll definitely see it first next time.

After saying that, Su Xingyao did exactly that.

After pinning Lu Jiuxu’s message, he sent him a screenshot of the pinned message.

However, after sending the screenshot, there was no response from the other side.

It wasn’t until several seconds later that Lu Jiuxu slowly replied with a 【?】.

???

Su Xingyao didn’t quite understand the meaning of the question mark.

But soon, Lu Jiuxu gave him an answer.

Mr. Lu: So this is how you’ve saved me in your contacts.

As soon as this message was sent, Lu Jiuxu quickly returned the screenshot that Su Xingyao had sent him.

But the screenshot was slightly different from the previous one.

Lu Jiuxu had deliberately used thick red lines to circle the words “Mr. Lu” that Su Xingyao had saved him as in the contacts.

—

This unexpected development and strange attention…

Since the other party was not satisfied, Su Xingyao also made improvements with a good attitude.

Su Catcat: Then I’ll change it.

Mr. Lu: Okay.

Lu Jiuxu replied with the same word, but this time, Su Xingyao felt that the tone of the response was noticeably different from before.

This “okay” seemed to express a bit of satisfaction?

Su Xingyao opened the WeChat profile and started deleting and editing the contact name in the notes section.

After deleting and editing for a while, he still couldn’t come up with a suitable name.

Realizing that he couldn’t think of anything, he returned to the chat interface.

The other side had already started asking.

Mr. Lu: What did you change it to?

Su Xingyao was too embarrassed to reply that he hadn’t changed it, so he steeled himself and asked the other party instead.

Su Catcat: What name did you save me as?

Su Catcat: Can I see it?

Su Xingyao had originally planned to refer to the style of the contact name that Lu Jiuxu had given him and modify it to something similar based on his preferences.

But just after asking, the other party quickly sent a new screenshot.

It was as if he had already prepared it.

Lu Jiuxu sent a screenshot of his WeChat profile.

His WeChat nickname was sssssu, and the contact name displayed was Su Catcat.

Upon seeing these familiar three characters, Su Xingyao had the thought that it was just as expected.

While thinking about whether to change Lu Jiuxu’s contact name to Lu Doggie based on the style of the three characters, he suddenly noticed something different in this screenshot.

In the top right corner, right next to the nickname, there was a very eye-catching small yellow star!

Su Xingyao usually didn’t pay much attention to WeChat functions, and even his contact names were simply his last name + first name.

As for features like “pinning,” he had never used them before.

Today, the first time he pinned something, it was for Lu Jiuxu.

At first, Su Xingyao didn’t know what the star was for, so he went to Baidu to look it up.

Through Baidu, he was promptly educated on the concept of Starred Friends.

After seeing the star next to his name, Su Xingyao silently opened Lu Jiuxu’s profile and tapped the three dots in the top right corner with his finger…

Two seconds later, on Lu Jiuxu’s WeChat message page, a bright yellow five-pointed star appeared next to Su Xingyao’s name.

—

Half an hour later, Su Xingyao returned home.

A table full of delicious dishes had already been set, and Lu Jiuxu was waiting for him.

Aunt Zhang couldn’t eat too late, so she had already eaten earlier.

After washing his hands, Su Xingyao sat down to have dinner with Lu Jiuxu.

“Did you meet someone important today?”

After dinner, Lu Jiuxu’s voice was lazy and relaxed.

But his tone was much lower than usual.

Confused, Su Xingyao asked, “What?”

Lu Jiuxu lowered his gaze, his eyes landing on Su Xingyao’s phone screen.

“You’ve checked your phone twelve times since you came back.”

Such a precise number coming from him made Su Xingyao look at him.

Lu Jiuxu’s face showed no special expression, but Su Xingyao felt that he didn’t seem very happy. He appeared uninterested in the game he was playing.

Though Su Xingyao didn’t know why he was acting this way, he still explained the reason.

“I was waiting for a reply from a friend. I asked him to do something for me earlier.”

Then Su Xingyao told Lu Jiuxu about meeting Xu Huan today and asking Hermann to contact him.

“His short film was pretty interesting. If his new movie script is good, I’d like to try investing in it.”

After saying this, Su Xingyao furrowed his brows slightly in regret. “But he ran off too quickly. I searched for a long time but couldn’t find him…”

“So in the end, I had to ask Hermann to try and get in touch with him.”

Su Xingyao finished speaking and smiled at Lu Jiuxu.

He thought the other would say something in response.

But unexpectedly, the person who always looked at him gently remained silent after hearing all of this, and instead, he stared out the window, rare for him.

Even the game, Su Xingyao, hadn’t noticed when it had been closed.

Su Xingyao didn’t know what Lu Jiuxu was thinking, but he wisely stopped talking.

He looked at him.

Feeling his gaze, Lu Jiuxu soon looked back at him.

Their eyes met in the air, and for the first time in a while, Lu Jiuxu spoke with unusual seriousness.

“Su Catcat.”

The handsome man slightly furrowed his brows, letting out a helpless sigh.

“Why didn’t you try thinking of me first?”

The usually proud person spoke this time with a hint of subtle helplessness and grievance in his tone.

Su Xingyao was left speechless by the question, staring blankly at the other person.

“Find you… what?”

Su Xingyao was a bit confused, but after saying those four words, he seemed to suddenly understand.

Lu Jiuxu’s statement about asking him to think of him first seemed to convey the message that he hoped Su Xingyao would turn to him for help whenever faced with difficulties.

Upon realizing this, Su Xingyao’s heart seemed to be lightly pricked by something, and his chest tightened slightly.

Since childhood, he had always lived independently. When something happened, he usually thought of solving it himself first.

Only when he couldn’t manage it would he consider asking for help.

But after his sister’s passing, for all these years, the only person he could freely ask for help from was his roommate.

Because they were the closest people to him.

However, Lu Jiuxu’s words just now had woken him up.

He lowered his head and asked himself.

Was Lu Jiuxu someone close to him?

Su Xingyao squeezed his palm.

Of course, he was.

He knew this answer better than anyone else.

Lu Jiuxu was one of the few people in the world who treated him with the most sincerity and care.

But Su Xingyao also knew that this situation wasn’t just about whether he and Lu Jiuxu were close or not.

Realizing that the other person might have misunderstood him, for the first time, Su Xingyao spoke up urgently to explain the reason.

“I just thought that since Hermann was at the film festival as a director, it might be easier for him to find someone.”

After hearing this explanation, Lu Jiuxu’s expression didn’t seem to improve noticeably.

Su Xingyao paused for a moment and gave a soft smile.

He leaned slightly forward, closing the distance between him and Lu Jiuxu.

His beautiful eyes sparkled.

In Su Xingyao’s light-colored pupils, at that moment, only Lu Jiuxu’s figure was reflected.

He gently asked him, “Then, Mr. Lu, could you please help me find his contact information?”

His pretty fox-like eyes curved slightly as he softly followed up with, “Would you?”

The soft and gentle words reached his ears.

Lu Jiuxu’s gloomy mood from the entire day was instantly soothed by those light and tender words.

The person in front of him really knew how to act cute!

His fingers, which were holding the phone, pressed much harder than usual.

After forcibly suppressing the darker thoughts in his mind, Lu Jiuxu, who had easily been coaxed, finally returned to his usual self.

“What’s his name?”

Noticing that Lu Jiuxu seemed to no longer be angry, Su Xingyao immediately told him the person’s name.

“Xu Huan.”

Lu Jiuxu nodded, seemingly taking note of it.

But then he raised his eyelids and asked, “Which two characters?”

Thinking there might be a homophone, Su Xingyao was about to describe it more clearly.

But before he could speak, he suddenly saw Lu Jiuxu open his palm toward him.

The man sitting across from him didn’t say anything, but gently tilted his chin, signaling that Su Xingyao could continue.

After a two-second delay, Su Xingyao finally realized.

Lu Jiuxu was asking him to write the name in his palm.

His mind was slow to catch up at that moment, and Su Xingyao was easily led by him, obediently extending his right index finger.

He lowered his gaze and carefully wrote Xu Huan’s name in the palm of his hand, stroke by stroke.

The sensation of his fingertip touching the palm was quite strange.

Even though he was writing on Lu Jiuxu’s hand, Su Xingyao felt a tingling sensation in his heart, as if it were being softly numbed.

He looked up at Lu Jiuxu.

The other man was looking at him too.

For some reason, Lance’s words from earlier suddenly popped into Su Xingyao’s mind.

The phrase “dog man” was a little too offensive to the person in front of him.

Su Xingyao quickly withdrew his gaze and finger.

“Mr. Lu, just these two characters.”

After finishing, Su Xingyao suddenly realized.

These two characters were very common and, logically, shouldn’t have any homophones.

Lu Jiuxu didn’t seem bothered by this request. After a soft “mm”, he picked up his phone and started typing.

Su Xingyao didn’t know exactly what he was typing, but he knew he was likely asking someone to help find Xu Huan’s contact information.

While he was thinking, suddenly, Lu Zhiyun’s voice appeared.

Su Xingyao glanced at Lu Jiuxu, and it turned out that Lu Zhiyun had called him.

“Bro, there’s a level in that game from your company that I just can’t get past. Xiao Liu said you can beat it with your eyes closed. Can you help me out?”

After stating his purpose, Lu Zhiyun switched to a pleading, cutesy, and relentless approach, trying to charm his way into getting what he wanted.

However, no matter how many bows and pleas he made over the phone, Lu Jiuxu on the other end didn’t even blink.

Finally, he coldly tossed out two words.

“Not helping.”

After hanging up, Su Xingyao, curious, asked, “What game is that?”

Although Lu Zhiyun’s desperate plea was ruthlessly rejected by Lu Jiuxu, it successfully piqued Su Xingyao’s curiosity.

“‘Dream Kingdom’.”

After casually mentioning the name of the game, Lu Jiuxu tossed an app to Su Xingyao.

Looking at the notification on the screen, Su Xingyao clicked to download and began installing without a second thought.

A soft, low laugh echoed in the air.

“You’re installing it directly? Aren’t you worried I’ll send you a virus?”

“You wouldn’t.” Su Xingyao smiled too and glanced down at the installation, which was already 15% complete.

“But even if it was a virus, I’d still install it if it came from you.”

There was a brief moment of silence in the air.

Su Xingyao raised his head in confusion, only to see the faint curve of Lu Jiuxu’s lips.

Then he spoke.

“It went live the day before yesterday. Can I trouble Mr. Xiao Su to help us test it?”

The game company was just a small subsidiary of the Lu Group and wasn’t very prominent.

Su Xingyao didn’t really understand why Lu Jiuxu was so invested in this game.

But since it was Lu Jiuxu’s company and he asked for Su Xingyao’s help with the test, Su Xingyao took the evaluation seriously.

After the internal version was installed, Su Xingyao played a few rounds with Lu Jiuxu to get familiar with the game.

While playing, he gave feedback on his experience, and during the final round, Lu Jiuxu took the initiative to speak.

“A new level was added today, but the official version hasn’t gone live yet. Su Catcat, want to give it a try?”

“Sure!”

Su Xingyao had already found the casual game quite interesting during the trial, and now that he could try the new level early, he was naturally excited to play.

In their team room, Lu Jiuxu selected a map from the options at the bottom of the screen.

Soon, the scene switched, and Su Xingyao’s cute character appeared on a beautiful island along with Lu Jiuxu.

The mission for this level was to cross the island and dig up treasure.

The map was beautifully designed and warm, but as soon as Su Xingyao started the level, he realized it was really difficult.

When he reached the third level and jumped over the shark area, Su Xingyao stood across from the sea, watching Lu Jiuxu easily land on the coast in one go and start climbing. He felt a wave of envy and jealousy.

After trying more than ten times and still not being able to get through, Su Xingyao sighed deeply.

No wonder Lu Zhiyun had to ask Lu Jiuxu for help.

He was really impressive.

After failing for the fifteenth time, the man who had been patiently teaching him smiled and asked, “Su Catcat, do you want me to help you?”

Su Xingyao was confused, “Weren’t you already teaching me?”

The man’s eyes curled slightly, and after a soft hum, he moved his fingers gently.

“It could be done another way.”

Hearing this, Su Xingyao looked down and saw that his character was being princess-carried by Lu Jiuxu’s character.

Then, the two characters began jumping gracefully back and forth on the sea.

“You can do it like this too!”

Watching his character being easily carried across to the other shore by the other, Su Xingyao’s eyes showed clear surprise and delight.

With Lu Jiuxu’s help, the areas that Su Xingyao had trouble with were no longer an issue. He simply let Lu Jiuxu carry him through.

Before long, the two of them climbed a very, very long ladder and finally reached the Sky City on the island.

Su Xingyao controlled his character to walk around the highest point of the Sky City.

“Where’s the treasure?”

As soon as Su Xingyao spoke, his character triggered a button.

Immediately, countless fireworks exploded into the sky.

The fireworks in the game changed colors and shapes as they flew through the air.

Finally, they started forming letters.

m… e… i…

Su Xingyao quietly waited for the final clue.

After several seconds, the letters finally formed two words.

“My genius^[1]“My genius” is “Wǒ de tiāncái” (我的天才).”

Su Xingyao read the words aloud and raised an eyebrow.

These words seemed a bit familiar.

After exiting the level, Su Xingyao didn’t play anymore.

It was getting late, so he returned to his room to wash up and go to bed.

After taking a shower, Su Xingyao found that Lu Jiuxu had already sent Xu Huan’s phone number and personal information to his WeChat ten minutes ago.

He originally thought it would take a lot of time to find Xu Huan.

But he didn’t expect Lu Jiuxu to be so efficient.

After receiving the number, Su Xingyao wanted to call right away.

However, considering that it was a bit late and he didn’t want to disturb Xu Huan, he decided to try adding him on WeChat first, intending to call at a more suitable time tomorrow.

After sending the friend request to Xu Huan, Su Xingyao glanced at his WeChat interface.

Then he noticed a new like.

Unable to stand any notifications on his phone, Su Xingyao immediately tapped on it and cleared the little “1” notification.

The latest person to like his post was Lu Jiuxu.

This morning, when Su Xingyao met Hermann, they took a photo together.

In the photo, Hermann looked like a giant cat, smiling as he held Su Xingyao’s shoulder with one arm.

On the other side, Su Xingyao’s shoulder was gently leaned on by Hermann’s thin chin.

Since it had been a long time since they last met, Su Xingyao shared the photo in a specific group.

The like from Lu Jiuxu was specifically for this photo.