I’m Face-Blind, But I Devoted Myself To Three Guys - Chapter 2

Chapter 2: The Simp Truly Holds the Initiative

“Stop staring at your phone,” the shop assistant said with a playful shove to her colleague, “get back to work.”

Qi Xu, standing to the side waiting for his newly ordered milk tea, looked up at the sound. He saw the assistant who had been giggling at her phone.

Coming to her senses, the woman awkwardly tucked her phone away and turned to help with the packaging.

Taking the handed-over milk tea, Qi Xu gave her a polite smile. “Thank you.” The small mole beneath his cheekbone lifted with his smile, and his dark eyes shimmered with light.

The shop assistant froze for a second, then smiled back. “You’re welcome! Please come again.”

As he turned to leave, Qi Xu caught their hushed conversation.

“Stop looking, he’s gone. But you were glued to your phone just now—did you get the tickets?”

The one who was asked immediately grew excited. “Of course! It was worth the wait.”

“I don’t know much about celebrities, but the one you’re following seems pretty popular lately. I hadn’t heard of him before… what was it, Chi Hui?”

Hearing that name, Qi Xu’s footsteps paused at the doorway.

“Yeah, he used to be a model…”

The door of the milk tea shop slowly closed, cutting off the voices behind him.

Qi Xu glanced at the pedestrians on the street, tucked his collar closer, and took out his phone to search for the names of the three male leads.

Unsurprisingly, he only found results for “Chi Hui.”

Originally a model, he had exploded in popularity this year after a cameo in a drama.

Qi Xu didn’t usually follow entertainment news, so this was his first time hearing of him. He checked the man’s current agency—unfortunately, it wasn’t under the “Fenghua” banner.

If it’s a rival company, I wonder if Sister can still help, he thought.

As he was thinking, a message popped up on his phone. It was from his sister: [Why did you go to the hospital today?]

Her tone wasn’t her usual carefree self; the inquiry was laced with suspicion, making Qi Xu’s eyelid twitch.

Before he could deny it, another message arrived: [A friend of mine saw you at the Third Municipal Hospital.]

“…” Qi Xu had been patting himself on the back for his foresight in avoiding the family-owned hospital for his check-up. He hadn’t expected to be caught anyway.

Does Sister have friends everywhere?

But he couldn’t tell his family he didn’t have much time left to live.

Just a minor cold, Qi Xu made up an excuse.

However, the moment he sent the message, a phone call came through.

“Qi Haohao, don’t lie to me,” her voice was unusually serious; clearly, she didn’t believe him. “You took such a long detour to a different hospital just for a minor cold?”

Qi Xu stood at the intersection, watching the blinking red light. His eyes flickered. “Because… I went to see a friend while I was at it.”

Just as his sister was about to press further, the light turned green.

The green light duration was short. To pass quickly, the crowds on both sides hurried their pace. Qi Xu was slower; he hadn’t walked far when he was heavily bumped from behind.

Caught off guard, his phone slipped from his hand. Just as it was about to hit the ground, a hand suddenly appeared, steadily catching the flying phone.

Out of momentum and instinct, Qi Xu grabbed onto the owner of that hand before he could topple over.

Because of his face-blindness, he had been forced to develop the habit of capturing specific physical features of others. Even in a panic, Qi Xu noticed that it was a beautiful and powerful-looking hand.

There was a red mole on the protruding wrist bone.

Qi Xu stared at the tiny mole and blinked.

“Careful.”

The man had a voice that matched his hands.

Qi Xu tilted his head up. His first thought was: This man is so tall.

“Are you okay?” Seeing that Qi Xu seemed dazed, the man glanced at the figure that had bumped into him. “Should we call that person back?”

“It’s okay, I’m fine.” Qi Xu shook his head.

Because they were close, Qi Xu caught a faint, elegant scent lingering on the man. He subconsciously glanced again at the red mole on the wrist.

For some reason, he had a feeling of déjà vu.

Seeing him daze off again, the man moved his arm slightly and gave a helpless reminder: “Can you… let go?”

Qi Xu snapped back to reality, realizing he was still clutching the man’s sleeve.

“Ah, sorry.”

Although the man was dressed quite lightly, his body temperature was much higher than the heavily bundled Qi Xu. Qi Xu withdrew his hand and rubbed his fingertips; they still held the man’s warmth.

Ignoring his small gesture, the man handed the phone back.

“Thank you,” Qi Xu said as he took it.

Unfortunately, the call had ended—the hang-up button must have been accidentally pressed. Qi Xu gripped his phone and pouted, his brow furrowing.

The call had cut off mysteriously; his sister would definitely be even more suspicious now.

While he was worrying, the man suddenly handed him a handkerchief.

Qi Xu looked up, confused.

The man didn’t speak, but simply looked at the paper bag that was still dripping water.

Following his gaze, Qi Xu realized that the milk tea in his hand had mostly spilled during the collision. It was trickling down the side of the bag.

Fortunately, the bag had blocked most of it, so it hadn’t splashed on the man, but Qi Xu’s own clothes hadn’t escaped. Several dark stains were left on his pale yellow jacket, making it look dirty.

“Thank you.” Qi Xu took the handkerchief and thanked him again.

In the time they were delayed, the green light had started its countdown.

It seemed the man was originally going to cross, too, but had been held up by him and missed the window. Qi Xu bit his lip, feeling embarrassed.

He lowered his head to wipe his jacket, still wondering how to repay the favor, when the man suddenly asked: “Have we met before?”

“…Huh?” Qi Xu froze for two seconds before looking up, his eyes full of confusion.

The man was wearing a silver-grey long trench coat, which made his figure look tall and upright. He looked over with a perfectly measured smile in his eyes.

But this question was a bit difficult for the face-blind Qi Xu.

However, the man seemed to have asked casually and didn’t expect a definitive answer. Before Qi Xu could speak, the man gave a light chuckle. “Never mind.”

Qi Xu blinked and tried to search his memory, finally confirming that he had no impression of this man.

The milk tea stains quickly soaked into the fabric. After a few futile wipes, Qi Xu gave up. The handkerchief was now soaked in liquid, too; clutching the soft fabric, he didn’t know what to do with it.

The light turned green again. Just as the man prepared to leave, Qi Xu instinctively reached out.

He had intended to grab the sleeve, but he miscalculated and his hand slipped, grabbing the man’s wrist directly.

Although Qi Xu let go immediately once he realized, from an angle he couldn’t see, the man’s brow furrowed. A flash of displeasure crossed his sharp eyes.

“The handkerchief…”

The man half-lowered his eyes, hiding his emotions as he turned. “It’s not anything important. You can just throw it away when you’re done.”

The coldness that had been quickly masked in the man’s eyes made Qi Xu wonder if he had seen correctly.

While he was dazed, the man had already walked away quickly.

Qi Xu stood in place, holding the handkerchief, and bit his lip as he watched the man’s back. He saw the man pull a wet wipe from his pocket and very meticulously wipe the spot where Qi Xu had grabbed him.

He was being… disliked.

Qi Xu looked down at his own hand. He had just wiped it; it was very clean.

In the end, he didn’t cross the street but went to the next intersection to hail a taxi.

Passing a trash can, Qi Xu hesitated for a moment before throwing the milk tea along with the soiled handkerchief inside.

While waiting for the car, he continued to ask the system for information.

Why isn’t it ‘conquering’ the male leads to get ‘favorability points’ or ‘blackening points’? In the summer after the college entrance exam, Qi Xu had read a few popular “mission” novels, and they all sounded much more dignified than this.

“Simp Points” sounded just as rude as the way these three systems introduced themselves.

Because the simp holds the initiative! It’s much easier to obtain than those passive points!

The system sounded quite proud, but Qi Xu only half-understood.

Bored, he pulled up the system pop-up again. He was just looking casually, but he made an unexpected discovery—

The value next to “Xie Chengyan” had changed to “3.”

“?”

But before Qi Xu could ask, the “3” turned into a “2” right before his eyes.

“???”

Agh, my bad! Too many systems are crowding me, I’m getting lag~

After hearing them so much, Qi Xu could roughly distinguish the voices of the three systems.

This was the first system that had found him. Qi Xu decided to call it “Little One.”

Little One didn’t know it had been given a sloppy nickname. Host, it seems you just met the male lead I’m responsible for~

Qi Xu was stunned.

“Who?” he asked aloud instinctively.

Xie Chengyan~

Thinking back to the person he met after leaving the milk tea shop, a tall figure naturally surfaced in his mind.

It was him.

Qi Xu subconsciously looked back at the intersection where they had met, but the man was long gone.

No wonder the data had changed.

But Qi Xu was curious: he hadn’t done anything, so on what basis were these 3 Simp Points judged?

And why did 1 point mysteriously disappear?

Wow~ Host, you just had physical contact with the male lead, and you even obtained an item belonging to him!] Little One retrieved the background info, sounding very gratified by its host’s results.

Qi Xu: “…”

He seemed to have a more concrete understanding of the system’s explanation now.

The simp truly holds the initiative.

No matter how still you are, I have my own rhythm.

A touch is a gain.

Halfway through his realization, Qi Xu suddenly realized that the 1 point that was retracted was probably because he had thrown the handkerchief into the trash.

Standing before the waist-high trash can, Qi Xu stood on his tiptoes and peered inside. Amidst a pile of trash, he saw that familiar piece of fabric.

Fortunately, it hadn’t been thrown in for long, so it wasn’t too dirty to touch. However, the trash can was a bit deep and hard to reach.

Qi Xu leaned over and tried to grab it but failed. He scanned the area but found no suitable tools. Finally, he had to roll up his sleeves, grab the rarely clean edge of the trash can, and carefully tilt the bin over.

People passing by couldn’t help but stare, but Qi Xu couldn’t afford to be embarrassed.

To survive, I can’t care about losing face.

That’s what Qi Xu thought.

However, in a café dozens of meters away—

“Look at that. That kid rummaging through the trash over there… he might just be one of your fans!”