The Sickly Beauty is Too Good at Seducing - Chapter 10

Shen Que had left.

Shortly after his departure, Tu Zhizhi walked in. Seeing Shen Congbai’s hollow, lost expression, he couldn’t help but ask, “Did you just have a fight with Big Brother Shen? Why do you look so strange?”

Shen Congbai shook his head listlessly, lacking the energy to respond. He lay on his side, staring blankly at a single spot on the wall as if his soul had left his body.

Tu Zhizhi didn’t know whether to sit or stand. He paced back and forth in the room until he couldn’t hold his breath anymore. He flopped down on the edge of the bed, trying to cheer his friend up. “Xiao Bai, it’s dinner time. Is there anything you want to eat?”

Shen Congbai was lifeless, seemingly indifferent to everything. “Anything is fine. I’m not picky.”

Not picky, my foot! Tu Zhizhi grumbled internally. He suggested, “How about hotpot? We haven’t had that in a long time.”

Shen Congbai shook his head. “You go ahead. I have no appetite; I don’t want to eat.”

Shen Congbai clutched his hollow chest, a flash of confusion in his eyes. Why did he feel so strange watching Shen Que’s retreating back? It was as if his heart didn’t belong to him anymore—it kept draining his soul, leaving him with no sense of reality. He felt like a kite ready to take flight, but with most of its tether snapped, liable to drift away with the wind at any moment.

Didn’t I always hate Shen Que? he thought. I screamed at him until he left; I should be happy.

In the end, Tu Zhizhi forced Shen Congbai out to find food.

The youth wore a high-collared hoodie that swallowed the lower half of his face, leaving only his handsome features exposed. His tall, slender figure was striking enough to draw eyes.

Tu Zhizhi chose a window seat in a hotpot restaurant on the 32nd floor. Looking down, one could see the entirety of Kyoto; the bustling flow of traffic made for a beautiful backdrop.

Since it was the dinner rush, the restaurant was lively and noisy. Shen Congbai seemed to regain a bit of vitality, dipping several slices of meat into the spicy broth until his small face turned a rosy pink.

A couple sat at the table next to them. The woman’s voice was a bit loud, and despite the table separating them, Shen Congbai could hear her clearly: “Can’t you be a bit thicker-skinned? Girls often say things they don’t mean! How can you be so clueless?”

Her boyfriend, wearing black-rimmed glasses and looking quite stiff, stared blankly while holding a cup of milk tea. Finally, he spoke: “I’m sorry, baby. I thought you really wanted to break up with me…”

“Blockhead!” The girl took a sip of the tea. “When I said I didn’t want to talk to you, it was just out of anger! If I really wanted to break up, I’d have fled eight hundred miles away. Why would I waste my mood sitting here chatting with you?”

Listening to them, Shen Congbai unconsciously tapped his chopsticks against the bottom of his bowl. He thought of the cufflink he had lost.

I was so terrible to him back then, why did Feng Yu keep that cufflink? And why did he care so much when I lost it?

Tu Zhizhi had heard it all, too. Seeing Shen Congbai’s dazed look, he tried to counsel him: “Actually, Big Brother Shen might look cold and speak harshly, but he cares about you more than anyone.”

Aiming to help his biggest client, Tu Zhizhi tried to put in a good word for Shen Que. “These years you were abroad; Big Brother Shen was hounded by Feng Yu. Combined with the pressure from the Shen family, he grits his teeth to keep you protected overseas without letting a single word leak out.”

Shen Congbai only processed the name “Feng Yu.” He murmured, “But Feng Yu clearly wants to draw a line between us.”

“Who knows? But I’ve heard that in old families like the Fengs, there are still traditions about near-relative marriages to ‘purify the bloodline.’ It wouldn’t be surprising if Feng Yu’s brain is a bit scrambled.”

Tu Zhizhi took a bite of beef and sighed. “Big Brother Shen is the truly impressive one. He gave up most of the port rights yet still managed to grow the Shen family to this level. He’s much more capable than those second-generation heirs!”

“Don’t talk about Feng Yu like that. He’s very capable,” Shen Congbai protested instinctively.

Tu Zhizhi let out a few “tsk-tsks.” “What’s so good about Feng Yu anyway? Why are you obsessed again the moment you return?”

“I’m not…”

The more Shen Congbai thought about it, the more unsettled he felt. He asked uncomfortably, “In these three years… has Feng Yu really been searching for my whereabouts?”

“Absolutely! He’s a famous madman in Kyoto. From top to bottom, any company that ever collaborated with the Shens has been pressured by him!”

Hearing this, the irritation in Shen Congbai’s heart flared up again. He couldn’t help but pout. It’s all that bad guy Feng Yu’s fault. Why keep a cufflink after a breakup? It’s making me so restless.

Shen Congbai looked at Tu Zhizhi, who was still battling the hotpot, and suddenly declared: “I’m going to find him.”

The meat in Tu Zhizhi’s mouth instantly lost its flavor. He snapped to attention. “Find who?”

Shen Congbai, of course, wouldn’t admit it was himself. He sat up straight and said, “It’s like this. I have a friend.”

“Oh… a ‘friend’.” Tu Zhizhi knew this routine. He teased, “Which friend? Introduce me.”

Shen Congbai glared at him, exasperated. “Are you going to listen or not?!”

“I’m listening, I’m listening,” Tu Zhizhi raised his hands in surrender.

“It’s like this… my friend, well… he and his… ‘friend’ had a fight. Things are a bit tense, and now he wants to ease the relationship, but he doesn’t know where to start.”

“I get it.” Tu Zhizhi sat up. He’s talking about his fight with Shen Que. “Simple! Couples having a tiff is just something that happens in the heat of the moment. Just talk it out.”

Shen Congbai sighed. “They’ve communicated, but the other person is too introverted. He won’t say anything.”

If Feng Yu had just told me sooner that the cufflink was the birthday gift I gave him, I wouldn’t have said those spiteful things.

Tu Zhizhi felt something was off. Big Brother Shen doesn’t seem like the introverted type. But he reasoned that men act differently in front of people they like. He mused, “Maybe there’s a problem with your ‘friend’s’ way of communicating? Why not try again?”

Given Shen Que’s temper, Shen Congbai could probably flip the world upside down, and as long as he dropped two tears and acted spoiled, the man would be wrapped around his finger.

“I don’t want to,” Shen Congbai refused immediately. He had already said so many nice things; he’d gone to find Feng Yu the moment he returned without even eating. Now he was expected to lower his head again? He wouldn’t do it.

“Xiao Bai, you don’t understand. Chatting with people is an art. Some people’s brain circuits just aren’t on the same level as normal people. You have to use more detailed, patient conversation to understand the true meaning of both sides.”

“Really?” Shen Congbai thought his brain circuits and Feng Yu’s usually matched quite well.

Tu Zhizhi declared, “Absolutely!”

Shen Congbai nodded, still a bit uneasy. “What if I go to apologize this time and he still doesn’t accept it?”

“If all else fails, just soften up. Act a little spoiled or something.”

“I don’t know how to act spoiled.”

“…” Tu Zhizhi glanced at him. “Can you cry?”

Shen Congbai nodded. He was an expert at that.

Tu Zhizhi glanced again. “Can you call him ‘Brother’ (Ge)?”

Shen Congbai nodded again. He was very practiced at that, too.

Tu Zhizhi pinched Shen Congbai’s cheek. “Then can you act pathetic?”

Shen Congbai swatted his hand away and nodded. He was also very good at that.

“Then you’re set. You’ve mastered the essence of acting spoiled. Just follow those three points, and he’ll agree to whatever you say.”

Shen Congbai was confused. “But I’m usually like that anyway. It hasn’t been very useful.”

Tu Zhizhi spoke coldly: “That’s because you didn’t put your heart into it! How can an apology work if your heart isn’t in it?!”

“Put my heart into it?” Shen Congbai lowered his gaze, falling into silent thought.

Tu Zhizhi took a sip of soda and asked curiously, “By the way, what did you two even fight about?”

“Nothing much… I just tore his clothes, then lost the cufflink I gave him, but I asked Ge I mean, Shen Que to return a new one to him…”

“Pfft!” Tu Zhizhi sprayed his cola all over the table. Between coughs, he asked in disbelief, “I looked away for one second and you’re out here tearing people’s clothes?!”

Shen Congbai felt inexplicably guilty. “It, it’s not what you think!”

Seeing the guilt on his face, Tu Zhizhi narrowed his eyes. “Wait, whose clothes did you tear?”

“Just…” Shen Congbai fidgeted, not wanting to say Feng Yu’s name. If he did, Tu Zhizhi would launch into another long lecture.

Tu Zhizhi recalled Shen Que’s expression when he left dark and suppressed, as if he were holding back a volcanic rage. He had a sudden realization: “You didn’t tear Feng Yu’s clothes, did you?”

“…”

“And that cufflink… it wouldn’t happen to be that ‘on-sale’ cufflink you gave Feng Yu for his birthday years ago, would it?!”

Shen Congbai’s eyes widened. “How did you know?”

Tu Zhizhi clutched his heart. “So, you’re telling me you told Big Brother Shen that you tore Feng Yu’s clothes, and then you asked Big Brother Shen to help you pick out a new ‘token of love’ to send back to Feng Yu?”

“Shen Xiao Bai, I never realized you were such a scumbag?!”

No wonder Shen Que was angry. What man could endure such a humiliation? It was no different from stepping on two boats right in front of his face.

Shen Congbai: “So… you mean it really was my fault?”

“You weren’t going to say it was his fault, were you?”

Shen Congbai fell silent. While it was true he lost the gift and failed to recognize it, they had broken up; it was normal not to remember.

But then again, he was the one who proposed the breakup.

Looking at it now, everything was his fault. Shen Congbai’s world collapsed.

“Ugh, what do I do? He doesn’t even want to see me now.”

Tu Zhizhi thought for a moment. “Now that you know where the problem is, just explain it clearly and apologize properly. If it doesn’t work, just listen to me: act pathetic. With so many years of history between you, he won’t have the heart to stay truly cruel to you.”

While this advice is a bit unfair to Shen Que, Tu Zhizhi thought, it’s the truth. Even if Shen Congbai stabbed him, Shen Que would probably just smile and praise his aim.

The man was likely just in a fit of pique. Once Shen Congbai acted spoiled, Shen Que would be helpless.

Shen Congbai: “Will it really work?”

“Guaranteed.” Tu Zhizhi was ready to bet his life on it.

“Then… when should I apologize to him?”

Tu Zhizhi was more impatient than him. He shoved the phone in front of the youth and declared: “Call him now!”

Shen Congbai hesitated. “Isn’t it a bit too fast?” He had just agreed to be “even” with Feng Yu yesterday!

“You can’t wait with things like feelings! If you don’t call now, some ‘little vixen’ might snatch him away in the next second!”

Shen Congbai ultimately chose to trust Tu Zhizhi. He held the phone and rehearsed for a long time. Finally, he looked shyly at Tu Zhizhi’s expectant eyes: “Um, I forgot his phone number.”

Tu Zhizhi slammed his head onto the table, metaphorically biting the corner of the wood. Shen Que’s temper is still too good, he thought.

He pulled up Shen Que’s number and, without giving Shen Congbai time to react, hit dial.

Shen Congbai’s heart rate accelerated. The moment the call connected, the words he’d prepared came tumbling out in one breath.

“I’m sorry! I was too impulsive and didn’t consider your feelings. The things I said before were just out of anger; I actually don’t want to be ‘even’ with you at all.”

The other side was silent, as if stunned. Receiving an encouraging nod from Tu Zhizhi, Shen Congbai gritted his teeth and said:

“Can you forgive me?”

“Feng Yu?”