Mr Earnest is My Boyfriend 3

Since they’re now a couple, it’s only natural to continue their date since the night is still young.

Pei Cheng An, who treats everything in his life seriously, has made the proper preparations. He has even come up with a blind date plan. Of course, it’s not the result of his own work as he’s not good with dealing with women and he’s also not sure what women like. Since he has no idea how to follow up after dinner, yesterday he asked the help of an upperclassman who is happily married with children.

The next step is watching a movie.

When he makes that suggestion, Xia Zhen asks, “Do you like watching movies?”

“I won’t say I really like it. But there’s a lot to be learned from watching factual historical movies.”

Seeing Xia Zhen a little dazed, he adds, “I’ve also watched fictional historicals such as War and Peace, Count of Monte Cristo…” He stops adding examples.

Xia Zhen giggles. “Then you must enjoy documentaries?”

Pei Cheng An answers in affirmative.

He’s not sure what she thinks about his preferences. Many people would call him boring. He finds documentaries interesting but he knows most people don’t think so. Xia Zhen unexpectedly smiles. “Then let’s go see a movie.”

“Okay. You can decide what to watch.”

The two of them walk into the parking lot. Pei Cheng An opens the door for her like a gentleman. When she bends to sit in, he even places his hand at the top of the door frame to prevent her from knocking her head.

Very attentive. But for Xia Zhen, he’s overly attentive. None of her friends are like him.

Truthfully, it’s a good thing. She and Pei Cheng An are very different so there’ll definitely be a lot of discords between them. It has become an effortless thing to make him unable to stand her.

Huh, didn’t he want to see a movie? Didn’t he like realistic, rigid things like documentaries? Recently isn’t there a movie so illogical, so shallow, and so unfunny that countless people bashed it on the internet? Let’s just go and see that movie.

Xia Zhen turns towards Pei Cheng An, who’s sitting in the driver’s seat. “I heard of a quite popular movie lately called Marrying The Wrong Husband…”

The sound of a phone’s ringing interrupts her words. It’s Pei Cheng An’s. She stops and motions for him to answer the phone. He apologises, takes out the phones, and presses answer. Yes, press. His phone is a long outdated cellphone. Although it was once a popular item in the past, it’s nevertheless not a smartphone. Few people use such phones these days. She only knows her grandpa uses one. Hm, now she knows another one.

In her mind, she’s still debating the true nature of Pei Cheng An. Before she could come to an answer, he has already finished his call.

He looks dignified but also apologetic as he tells her, “My mentor is hospitalised after suffering a stroke. He doesn’t have any family around so I have to go to the hospital. Today…”

“Go ahead. We can watch the movie next time.” Xia Zhen really doesn’t care. In fact she doesn’t even want to go to the movies with him. She needs to restructure her plan.

Pei Cheng An lightly bites his lower lip. “Then I’ll take you home first. Or if you have any place to be, I’ll drop you off there.” Since he has agreed to go to the movies with Xia Zhen, he now feels the guilt of abandoning her.

Xia Zhen doesn’t have any idea about what he is thinking. If she knows about it, she would tell him, “You think too much.”

“I’ll go home myself. Hurry up and go take care of your old folk.” She only wants to leave him as soon as possible. When he’s beside her, she’s unable to think rationally.

“My mentor is 55 years old.”

Is this to tell her his mentor isn’t an old man but simply a middle-aged man? Fine. Xia Zhen smiles graciously. “Then take care of your mentor. I’ll…” as she says this, she is already opening the door and getting down.

Just then, someone catches her wrist. She turns around and sees the beautiful hand grabbing her hand. She gets a strange sensation. Even though there’s no direct skin-to-skin contact, she still feels uneasy. Usually she and Xue Chen would hug each other’s shoulders and even hold hands very naturally. To be so reserved now means her pretension has gone too far today.

A person’s influence is truly scary. She’s a lively person. She must avoid someone like him.

Pei Cheng An insists on driving her, saying there’s another classmate who is already at the hospital. She nods against her will. Looks like she wouldn’t be able to avoid him before he breaks up with her. She’ll have to endure now so that they’ll never meet again in the future. That’s how she tries to comfort herself.

After Xia Zhen buckles her seatbelt, Pei Cheng An starts the engine. Due to her habit of taking taxis, she gives him the address of the neighbourhood she lives in.

“I know.”

She blanks before vaguely remembering that Madam Tian says she met Pei Cheng An’s mom in a dance class. The two of them got along well and, after more conversation, learned that they both have a silly child at home who doesn’t priorities love. So they decided to set them up.

Dancing class, or whatever. Isn’t it just communal dancing in the square?

Pei Cheng An drives steadily, not at all showing any signs of anxiety. He doesn’t speed either.

Xia Zhen makes him stop at the supermarket outside her neighbourhood, saying she wants to buy something. She really doesn’t want him to know the exact location of her house.

As soon as he’s gone, she returns home carrying a large bag of snacks.

“Why are you back so soon? And you even bought so many snacks?” When Xia Zhen steps inside her home, the Queen begins her interrogation. Tian Xue Fang frowns, already deciding the outcome of the date in her mind. “Did the blind date fail?” Honestly, she has zero expectations. She knows her daughter is only placating her. Nevertheless she still tries to be positive about it. Who knows if the two of them will end up seeing eye to eye? Things like fate can’t be predicted.

However, reality is always cruel. Madam Tian sighs bitterly.

“Hey Madam Tian, your brain power is increasing day by day. Are you going to start sighing about your daughter’s loneliness in her old age?” Xia Zhen places the snacks on the coffee table, throws her bag on the corner of the sofa, and places her butt on the sofa.

Tian Xue Fang stares at her. “It’s fine that you’re not genuine, but you’re also not serious. It’s not strange that people can’t take a liking to you.”

Many people feel pressured by their parents’ deep devotion but Xia Zhen has never felt that way.

“Oh, but something strange did happen today.” She raises her eyebrows and laments. Taking out a pack of potato chips, she skilfully tears it open. Leaning back on the sofa, she adopts a very lazy posture.

After two seconds, Madam Tian becomes convinced she hasn’t heard wrongly. She excitedly asks, “You mean, you’ve made it?”

“What do you mean ‘made it’?” Xia Zhen initially wants to continue teasing her mom but she remembers that she’s supposed to pretend to be infatuated with her date.

“What do you mean by that?” Madam Tian becomes impatient.

Xia Zhen stops arguing with her. Instead, she brings up a very infatuated expression. “I and Pei… Pei Cheng An has confirmed our relationship.”

“A romantic relationship?”

“If not, a sibling relationship?”

Pak! Madam Tian slaps her chip-holding hand. “You’re still eating snacks! Hurry up and lose weight. Be careful that people will look down on you.”

Xia Zhen looks down at her body. “Mom, do you think I still need to lose weight?” Just yesterday her dad told her to eat more meat because she’s too skinny. The difference between parents really is big.

“Didn’t you gain 5 pounds during New Year? People can’t tell much from your clothes now but once the weather turns warm, your love handles will be visible.”

“I don’t have love handles!”

“If not for your waist, I wouldn’t have let you wear a coat today.”

Isn’t the coat to keep her warm? Is she still her biological mom!

“Pei Cheng An said girls losing weight isn’t good. If not for this, I wouldn’t agree… I wouldn’t like him so much.”

“You like him?” Madam Tian looks like she’s found the new world but can’t help but be suspicious.

The lying Xia Zhen doesn’t meet Madam Tian’s eyes. Instead she grabs a cushion and rests her chin on it. “He’s very handsome, 180m and above. Most importantly his hands are beautiful and his temperament is also good.” She bites her lip. There’s a doubt growing in her heart at the same time. Why is such a good man agreeing to a blind date? And why is his previous romantic experience almost zero? Why almost?

Does he have any skeletons in his closets? Any secrets?!

Xia Zhen is stunned by her own thoughts but she thinks it’s possible that some people look very ordinary but in truth… thus those people would think marriage is necessary.

She can’t help but blush at such thoughts.

But she soon remembers that whatever his problems, it’s not hers.

Madam Tian doesn’t understand the ups and downs going in Xia Zhen’s mind. She can only tell her daughter has never looked this shy and girlish before.

But another question pops up. “So why did you come home so soon?”

“We’re supposed to go to the movies after dinner but just after leaving the restaurant, he received a call saying his mentor suffered a stroke.”

“Oh…” Madam Tian isn’t satisfied with the situation but understands it’s an emergency. “This shows that he’s caring and devoted to his people.”

“Why don’t you think that he made an arrangement earlier on with his friends?” This is a very common tactic. “But it doesn’t matter even if he’s not satisfied with me. I’ll try to take him down!” Xia Zhen has a very determined look.

The success of her plan depends on her performance in front of her mom. She wants to establish the impression she’s deeply infatuated with Pei Cheng An and that if she can’t have him, she won’t have anyone else. So when it’s time to break up, she’ll say she doesn’t have desire to love again. No matter how hard-hearted her mom is, she won’t force her to go on blind dates for some time.

“Daughter, mom supports you!” Once her mom finishes, she returns to her room. She doesn’t continue to interrogate Xia Zhen or complain about her eating snacks.

Nestled in the sofa watching TV and eating snacks, she hears her mom’s voice coming from a distance. It’s not clear but it seems like her mom is telling the other person about her blind date being a success. Xia Zhen is satisfied when she hears her mom’s excitement.

Then she returns to her room. Taking out a pen and paper, she comes out with a new plan.

Midway, she answers a call from Xue Chen. He explains that his sister Xue Han is going abroad tomorrow and invites her to her farewell dinner.

Xia Zhen initially refuses. She’s close with Xue Chen but is completely unfamiliar with his sister. Under Xue Chen’s intense persuasion, she finally agrees. Besides, the members of Cabbage band will also be going so there will also be many of her acquaintances there. After dinner, they can also put their throats to practice.

More importantly, she has something important to tell them. She’s practically dying at the thought of how surprised they would be upon finding out.

Xue Chen’s sister Xue Han is a big shot who was accepted into several prestigious universities abroad and later decided on Yale University. Xia Zhen has only met her twice. How should she put it? There’s an undeniable distance between them two― the distance between a top scholar and a study idiot.

In retrospect, she finds that Xue Han and Pei Cheng An are pretty similar.

She figures that there would many more of Xue Chen and Xue Han’s other friends but unexpectedly there are only the Cabbage band members and her. And obviously, Xue Han.

And this time, the way Xue Han looks at her is very odd, always carrying a hint of smile. Even in her eyes… it’s also carrying certain mirth.

What’s going on that she’s not in on?

[illustration by Pride Nyasha]