Chapter 44 – The Kiss of Misfortune Comes Flying

Zhou Ziyi also played billiards at the party this time, which seemed to have touched the nerves of a certain social network.

The number of people inviting him suddenly increased.

There was no need to always hold invitations in formal attire. Sometimes, just call for drinks or play ball on X Messenger, that’s all. Zhou Ziyi initially didn’t want to go, but as the invitations increased, he thought it wasn’t necessary to stay at home all the time. After all, it was just for fun, occasionally going out and mingling with people, which wasn’t a big deal.

When Zhou Ziyi decided to go, he would still inform Yan Xiuzhi.

“Hey, Ge, you’re back so early today?”

This evening, as Zhou Ziyi was about to leave, he ran into Yan Xiuzhi coming in: “Have you eaten?”

“It’s nine o’clock. How could I not have eaten?” Yan Xiuzhi glanced at him, “You’re going out now?”

Yan Xiuzhi hadn’t seen the style Zhou Ziyi was wearing today.

The young man was wearing an oversize long-sleeved T-shirt, black, with an English sentence written on it. Yan Xiuzhi took a closer look – Cyberpunk.

Zhou Ziyi was wearing a pair of jeans and black riding boots, which accentuated his long and straight legs. In addition, the young man was wearing a necklace, a watch, holding a hat and sunglasses in his hand. It seemed like an eye-catching combination, but surprisingly it didn’t make people feel too flashy.

Instead, it made Zhou Ziyi look even more youthful and lively.

After previously calling Yan Xiuzhi “Ge,” now if he called him “uncle,” it’s probably wouldn’t sound strange to others.

“Oh, just now Brother Tang called me and asked me to go for a drink,” Zhou Ziyi raised his hand, adjusted his bangs with a cap, and put on the pink sunglasses, “I’m going to the bar, not sure what time I’ll be back, is that okay?”

“Sure,” Yan Xiuzhi didn’t stop him. After all, Zhou Ziyi wasn’t a woman confined to the deep palace, unaware of what he should or shouldn’t do as an adult man.

But when Yan Xiuzhi saw him wearing those sunglasses again, he had a strange feeling in his heart: “You really like these sunglasses so much?”

“This?” Zhou Ziyi hooked the sunglasses with his index finger, lowered his head and looked at Yan Xiuzhi with his eyes, and said with a smile, “Of course, I like it. It’s a gift from my Ge, my favorite.”

Yan Xiuzhi: “…”

A half-joking remark unexpectedly stirred up President Yan’s guilty conscience. Feeling like he was being played, Yan Xiuzhi could only squeeze out two dry sentences: “Don’t be cheeky. Don’t wear sunglasses in the dark, or you’ll fall flat.”

Zhou Ziyi happily exclaimed, “Is this a discussion about the experience of wearing sunglasses in Yan Ge’s previous life experience?”

Yan Xiuzhi replied, “…Get lost.”

With a smile, Zhou Ziyi walked away.

Yan Xiuzhi watched the door close and suddenly had a question. He didn’t know how the young man was planning to leave since he didn’t see Tang Shirong’s car when he came back. But Zhou Ziyi was fast and Yan Xiuzhi couldn’t bring himself to ask, so he had to go along with him.

Yan Xiuzhi went upstairs and changed his clothes.

When he entered the dressing room, he instinctively glanced at the place where the accessories were placed.

Previously, when Zhou Ziyi came up to sleep, Yan Xiuzhi cleared some space for him to put his things, including clearing half of the space in the accessory cabinet. But at that time, Zhou Ziyi didn’t bring many accessories with him, so the place was empty. Now that Zhou Ziyi had left, Yan Xiuzhi was too lazy to put things back, which resulted in the accessory cabinet looking one-third empty.

Yan Xiuzhi didn’t think much about it at the time, but now upon careful recollection, it seemed that he hadn’t seen Zhou Ziyi wear many accessories.

Even watches are rarely worn.

— Is it gone?

Yan Xiuzhi remembered that Zhou Ziyi had sold many things before to repay his debts. If his accessories were valuable, they were probably sold as well.

President Yan stood in the dressing room, gazing at the empty accessory cabinet for a few minutes, with occasional flashes in his mind of Zhou Ziyi wearing pink sunglasses.

Just before he leave, he remembered the scenes of him trying on glasses in the eyeglass store, and him returning drunk that night.

— Perhaps it’s not his preference.

— But because there is no other choice.

Yan Xiuzhi lowered his eyes, took out his phone, and sent a message to Li Fei: [Buy ten pairs of decorative glasses for me.]

Li Fei, the super secretary who always checked the boss’s messages promptly, replied in surprise, “Ha?”

Yan Xiuzhi: [For men.]

Li Fei: “??? What’s going on? Is our big boss turning into a fashionista?”

*
When Zhou Ziyi arrived at the bar, he found that today’s situation was not bad, at least it was in a private room.

As he entered, he took off his glasses and looked around, finding no strange people or suspicious activity, it seemed clean.

“Hey, bro, you’re here?” Tang Shirong saw Zhou Ziyi come in and walked over, casually grabbed a clean cup from the table and poured half a cup, “You look so young and beautiful today, hmm? Going for a rapper style now?”

Zhou Ziyi took the wine: “I can’t do a rap, at most I can give you a poetry recitation.”

“Hahaha, really? I don’t believe it!” Someone joked beside them, “Your English was the best back then, so your rap should be the best too.”

Zhou Ziyi and the others raised their glasses, and everyone followed suit and drank.

After drinking, Zhou Ziyi smiled, “Don’t doubt it, my singing can make you guys burst into laughter.”

“Then I must laugh to death.” The person chimed in, while picking up the song tablet, swiftly selecting a song, “Okay, it’s queued up for you, hurry up and start, open your voice.”

Zhou Ziyi glanced over: Tsk, it really is rap.

He wasn’t afraid, picked up the microphone, twisted his baseball cap backward, and really had a bit of a rapper vibe. Tang Shirong had actually heard him sing before, but had never heard him rap. Seeing him getting ready, he took out his phone to start recording, ready to capture the exciting moment.

However, Tang Shirong didn’t expect it to be truly exciting.

About ten minutes later, Yan Xiuzhi, sitting in his home study, casually checked his social media feed and came across a post that Tang Shirong had just shared.

Tang Shirong: [Hahahaha! The fact proves that nobody is perfect! If you look good, there must be a flaw!]

Below is a video, and from the cover, it’s Zhou Ziyi holding a microphone and singing.

With the baseball cap worn backwards and sporting sunglasses. Especially the way he held the microphone up high, close to his mouth, he looked very stylish.

Yan Xiuzhi didn’t think much about it, and casually clicked to play the video.

Then, to his great surprise, he heard a perfectly enunciated English recitation.

Yan Xiuzhi: ???

He listened carefully to the background music, which had a lively and rhythmic beat. He also carefully distinguished the lyrics of Zhou Ziyi’s recitation, feeling that they were very familiar, but just couldn’t recall from where.

President Yan casually picked up the tablet and searched for the English he had heard.

The search engine popped up a song for him, and it was a globally renowned, highly rhythmic, rap song.

President Yan, who always high, chuckled to himself, “Pfft.”

Zhou Ziyi didn’t drink much today, but he had a little bit of a mixed feeling. Fortunately, it was just a bit of excitement, not dizziness, so it wasn’t as bad as the last time when he fell at home. After getting excited, he became more active. Teaming up with Tang Shirong to play drinking games at the table, he was simply unstoppable, ready to trick anyone. But at least he still had a bit of gentlemanly conduct.

Despite this, Zhou Ziyi still fell for it several times. There were punishments for himself, as well as for others that implicated him. One of the girls lost and was punished with a dare to kiss the opposite sex, and she grabbed Zhou Ziyi and kissed him on the face.

The lipstick mark couldn’t be wiped off.

Zhou Ziyi wiped his face speechlessly: “If I go back and get caught by the one at home, I’ll turn around and deal with you guys!”

The girl giggled. She had long thought that Zhou Ziyi’s looks were top-notch, and if she had the chance to kiss him, it was a win-win situation.

Zhou Ziyi, seeing these people trying to make trouble for him, intentionally broke free from this deadly atmosphere and said, “I’m going to the restroom.”

Tang Shirong glanced at him and said, “Do you want big brother to accompany you?”

“Get lost,” Zhou Ziyi sneered, and then left on his own.

The restroom was quite far from the private room, and Zhou Ziyi followed the signs, turning this way and that, passing various lively private rooms and all sorts of people, before finally finding the restroom.

After using the restroom and washing his hands, Zhou Ziyi was about to make his way back. He didn’t quite remember where his private room was, so he had to struggle to recall the route, looking for the door number to find his way out.

Just as he had turned a corner, a male voice suddenly sounded in front of him.

“Sullivan?”

Zhou Ziyi looked up and was surprised to find that the man walking towards him was actually Sheffield!

— Tsk, of all people to run into, why does it have to be him!

Sheffield was also surprised, and after the previous “blackmail” experience, his expression was no longer purely one of surprise.

“Wow, it really is you.” Sheffield stopped directly in front of Zhou Ziyi, blocking his way, and raised an eyebrow, “Dressed like this, I almost didn’t recognize you. Does your husband know you’re this wild in these kinds of places?”

Listening to his slightly slurred speech, Zhou Ziyi guessed that he had been drinking. Although he didn’t want to talk to Sheffield, being blocked by him, Zhou Ziyi had to respond, “None of your business.”

“That phrase sounds familiar. Can you say something else?” Sheffield sneered, “You took almost a hundred thousand dollars from me, and you’re not even willing to talk a bit more?”

“That’s what you lost to me, no need to be so self-righteous,” Zhou Ziyi said, “Can you move aside, loser?”

Sheffield wasn’t usually someone who got angry easily.

But with the hundred thousand dollars and the slap in the face before, now any instigating, slightly mocking words from Zhou Ziyi easily provoked his anger.

Sheffield’s face suddenly turned cold, taking another step forward, and approached Zhou Ziyi, saying, “I think, repeatedly provoking my anger is not very wise.”

Zhou Ziyi smelled the alcohol on him and felt disgusted, “You provoked me first. Insulting others is not wise either, Sheffield. You’re not a commanding king!”

“I extended an olive branch to you, giving you a chance to be pulled out of the quagmire. I just didn’t expect that you, who has always been clever, would make such a wrong choice,” Sheffield stared at Zhou Ziyi’s face, suddenly raised his hand, and used his finger to touch his cheek, “Actually, you are not loyal to your husband, are you?”

Snap.

Zhou Ziyi forcefully pushed his hand away, “Don’t touch me!”

“I can’t touch you, but the man you married for money can touch you, and other women can touch you, can they?” Sheffield looked at the faint lipstick mark on Zhou Ziyi’s face, his expression dark, “Do you still like women? But for money, you can submit yourself to a man! Anyone, as long as he has money!”

Zhou Ziyi said coldly, “Watch your words!”

However, Sheffield suddenly stepped forward, grabbed Zhou Ziyi’s wrist, and pressed him against the wall, “If your husband can, why can’t I?!”

With that, the man kissed him fiercely.