Chapter 7: Impressive Brothers

Their next meeting came sooner than Li Zhiyi had anticipated.

Upon seeing Li Zhiyi at the banquet, Qiao Xingzhou instinctively explained, “Brother, don’t misunderstand. I didn’t sneak in here to follow you, I received an invitation this time too.”

Li Zhiyi thought about it and came to his own conclusion. “Mm, I know. After all, today’s banquet also invited the Qiao family. But why are you here? This place is filled with businesspeople discussing collaborations—are you already handling your family’s business?”

“No.” Qiao Xingzhou only knew that Li Zhiyi would be here; he hadn’t asked anything beyond that.

Then followed an awkward silence, the kind that practically begged for the sound of crows flying by in the background.

“Ahem, well, I’m a bit busy.” Seeing that Qiao Xingzhou seemed a bit uneasy, Li Zhiyi added a reassuring reminder, “You don’t have to pay too much attention to me—just do your own thing.”

“I… actually don’t have much to do.” Before Qiao Xingzhou could even finish, Li Zhiyi had already politely excused himself.

As expected, he was still avoiding him, wasn’t he?

Qiao Xingzhou felt a bit disappointed, though it was within his expectations.

He lowered his head and sat on a sofa in the corner of the banquet hall, quietly sighing to himself, “This is so boring.”

He really shouldn’t have come to something like this, which he wasn’t good at, just to see Li Zhiyi.

And with Li Zhiyi intentionally distancing himself, just the thought of it made Qiao Xingzhou’s eyes glisten with unshed tears.

To hide his slightly reddened eyes, Qiao Xingzhou kept his head down, sitting silently. Before long, a familiar pair of black leather shoes appeared before him.

“Sitting alone is pretty boring, isn’t it?”

“Brother?” Qiao Xingzhou hadn’t expected Li Zhiyi to come back. “Why did you come over again?”

Li Zhiyi himself wasn’t sure why he had come back. He did have plenty of things to attend to tonight, but seeing Qiao Xingzhou sitting alone in the corner made him instinctively walk over.

He’d probably guessed that Qiao Xingzhou had come for his sake, which left him feeling a certain sense of responsibility.

Over the past couple of days, Hu Tianhao had been filling his head with ideas, so whenever he looked at Qiao Xingzhou, his mind conjured up that WeChat note.

…But did mimicking someone really need to reach the level where, wherever the other person was, Qiao Xingzhou had to be there too?

“You’re very dedicated.” After some unknown line of thought, Li Zhiyi said this with utmost seriousness.

“Huh? I don’t even have a ‘career’ yet,” Qiao Xingzhou replied, entirely missing the point.

“Mm, true. After all, you’re not making any profit from this, so it doesn’t really count as a ‘career.’” Li Zhiyi continued on his own line of reasoning, offering advice on the “imitation” issue. “But next time, don’t do this with others. A lot of people don’t appreciate it. For example, if it were Hu Tianhao, he definitely wouldn’t be pleased.”

Qiao Xingzhou, however, was on an entirely different wavelength. Thinking that Li Zhiyi had realized his intentions, he asked anxiously, “Then, Brother… are you okay with it?”

Li Zhiyi already knows I like him! What do I do, what do I do?!

Forget it; first, I need to figure out where Li Zhiyi stands.

—Would Li Zhiyi be willing to be with him?

Li Zhiyi, however, was momentarily at a loss for how to respond.

How could Qiao Xingzhou so calmly bring up this kind of question openly?

“I… I’m generally okay with it, I guess,” Li Zhiyi replied after a moment of thought, regarding the whole imitation issue. “Not particularly willing, but not particularly unwilling either.”

“Huh?” Qiao Xingzhou was completely stunned. “There’s actually a way to be ‘generally okay’ with something like this?”

So, is he agreeing to be with me or not? This guy is just too strange.

Li Zhiyi also felt speechless: It’s one thing for you to imitate me, but now you’re asking if I’m okay with being imitated.

Should I say I’m okay with it, or not? This guy is just too strange.

The two of them somehow ended up on the same bizarre wavelength—both thinking that the other was truly, incredibly strange!

Not daring to continue this topic any further, Qiao Xingzhou let out an awkward laugh and changed the subject:

“Brother, don’t you need to go and socialize?”

“Forget about it for today.” Li Zhiyi had made up his mind. “I’ll keep you company for a chat. Leaving you alone in the corner doesn’t feel right.”

“You’re always this kind, Brother.” Qiao Xingzhou sighed softly. “Keeping it up like this must be hard, right?”

“Is it hard to keep this up?” Li Zhiyi asked, almost without realizing it. “You’re always determined to praise me like this. It seems you’re also quite persistent.”

Qiao Xingzhou smiled. “I praise you, Brother, because you deserve to be praised.”

“I treat you well because you deserve to be treated well,” Li Zhiyi replied softly.

Although… Qiao Xingzhou liked to imitate him, his nature wasn’t bad. If he wanted to imitate, then so be it.

Li Zhiyi finished his internal pep talk.

Qiao Xingzhou was stunned, seemingly not expecting Li Zhiyi to say that.

He smiled. “I thought you were only nice to me out of politeness, Brother.”

“At first, it was,” Li Zhiyi admitted frankly. “But after all your compliments, I don’t know why—I feel a bit of responsibility toward you.”

Qiao Xingzhou nodded. “I see. Then it looks like I should compliment you more.”

“No need. If you have the energy, why not compliment Hu Tianhao instead?” Li Zhiyi, recalling how Hu Tianhao constantly bad-mouthed Qiao Xingzhou, felt a bit of a headache coming on. “He’s cold on the outside but warm on the inside. Try using praise to win him over.”

“Ah, alright! I’ll definitely work hard to compliment Brother Tianhao!” Qiao Xingzhou responded with enthusiasm.

—And thus came the line, “Brother Tianhao, someone as impressive as you… can’t handle a little loss?”