PTS Chapter 17

Tl: Hua

Chapter 17

The pork stomach and chicken soup restaurant Shen Qianci wanted to eat at was located near an old street scenic area. Though it wasn’t inside the scenic zone itself, the weekend crowds were heavy, so Qin Guanyu found a parking space six or seven hundred meters away.

After getting out of the car, just as they were about to walk over together, Shen Qianci noticed Qin Guanyu reaching a hand out toward him.

But he pretended not to see it, keeping a fist-wide distance between them as they walked along silently.

“What are you doing, Teacher Shen?” Qin Guanyu was highly dissatisfied. “We were holding hands perfectly fine back at the villa, but the moment we stepped outside, you acted like you didn’t know me?”

“That was a specific scenario back there. You asked me to pretend to be your boyfriend, so of course we had to hold hands.”

Shen Qianci laid out the facts and logic for him. “But right now is an unofficial occasion, and there’s no need to act. The contract explicitly states that I cannot hold hands, hug, kiss, or engage in intimacy with you.”

Qin Guanyu was left tongue-tied. He recalled that there indeed seemed to be such a clause in the “Substitute Agreement.”

Seeing his deeply displeased face, Shen Qianci teased him, “Do you really want to hold hands with me that badly?”

“Who said I did!” Qin Guanyu pursed his lips, tilting his chin up. “I didn’t!”

“Right, right, right, you didn’t.” Shen Qianci smiled and urged him on, “Walk faster; I’m starving.”

Shen Qianci had joined the digital queue in advance, and luck was on their side today; their number was called the moment they arrived at the storefront.

At the table, looking at the richly concentrated broth bubbling away, Shen Qianci ate until he was half-full before asking, “Your stepmother looks…”

He carefully weighed his words regarding his elder: “…to have a sort of primitive, unrefined worldliness.”

Qin Guanyu nearly spat out a mouthful of soup, shaking with laughter. “Stupid and malicious, right? Just say it straight; it’s not like she can board a high-speed train to come and beat you up.”

“I used to think that among wealthy families, marriages were always alliances between powerhouses.” Shen Qianci voiced his own “prejudices.”

“Did the Bai family offer your dad a massive amount of leverage back then?”

“My mom was a powerhouse. Both of them had sharp, uncompromising edges, and didn’t they still end up divorced?”

Qin Guanyu lamented, “And it wasn’t the Bai family giving my dad leverage; it was the opposite. My dad gave the Bai family leverage. My dad is quite the traditional patriarch. Maybe after divorcing my mom, he realized he actually prefers the gentle, submissive type like my stepmother.”

Shen Qianci raised an eyebrow in doubt. “Gentle?”

“Hah, she only makes things difficult for people she perceives as a threat. She only fights with my dad because she’s terrified he’ll give the inheritance rights to me and my sister. On a normal day, she’s as soft as water toward him.”

Shen Qianci initially wanted to ask Qin Guanyu if he would eventually help his father, but on second thought, he decided against it. As an outsider, prying into that much wasn’t appropriate.

Having eaten and drunk their fill, the two tacitly agreed to stroll around to digest their meal.

Passing by a massive outdoor digital screen on a shopping center wall, they suddenly noticed a large crowd of young girls taking photos with the display.

Right at that moment, the constantly cycling screen abruptly flashed to Shu Yi’s latest commercial endorsement poster.

A commotion broke out among the young girls, with some even hopping up and down in excitement.

“Quick, quick, quick! I’ll help you take a photo to check in!”

Shen Qianci pointed his chin toward the giant screen and asked Qin Guanyu, “Do you want me to help you take a photo with it?”

Qin Guanyu frowned as he looked at it, appearing somewhat resistant.

“That advertisement only stays up for two or three seconds; what’s the point of checking in? If someone wants to see the real person, can’t they just go directly to Hengcheng?”

Shen Qianci immediately pulled him a bit further away, lest his words be overheard by those young fangirls.

“You can’t look at it that way. Not everyone can just head over to Hengcheng whenever they want like you can. Even if they go to Hengcheng, they might not necessarily camp out and catch a glimpse of their idol. It’s completely normal for people to take a photo and check in when they see a giant advertisement screen of an idol they like.”

“Then I’d better not join the crowd.” Qin Guanyu remained resistant, casting a glance at Shu Yi’s fleeting advertisement poster. “I won’t fight with the young girls for a spot.”

Shen Qianci didn’t say anything more, continuing to walk alongside Qin Guanyu.

“What are we doing now, President Qin?”

Having just seen Shu Yi’s poster, Qin Guanyu put back on that dramatic air of a sugar daddy managing his substitute.

“Shu Yi said in an interview that he likes going shopping, so we’ll keep shopping.”

Shen Qianci gave him a helpless sidelong glance. An interview, an interview, it’s always an interview.

This “sugar daddy’s” entire understanding of his white moonlight actually originated entirely from interviews.

To play the overbearing CEO like this was truly mind-boggling. Did Qin Guanyu actually understand the “art of being an overbearing CEO” at all…

Seeing a fragrance boutique further down the road, Qin Guanyu suddenly halted his steps, unable to resist leaning in to sniff at Shen Qianci’s clothes.

“What are you doing?”

“The last time you came to the hotel to pick me up, didn’t you spray that mint and lemon-scented cologne?” Qin Guanyu frowned and stepped a bit closer, but he still couldn’t smell it. “How come you don’t have it on today?”

“I don’t spray cologne,” Shen Qianci said. “That mint-lime scent you’re talking about is my laundry detergent. Basically, whatever flavor of laundry detergent I buy, that’s the flavor I am. Right now, Teacher Shen is pork-stomach-and-chicken flavored.”

“…” Qin Guanyu found this completely incomprehensible. “I thought you were the type of exquisite person who absolutely has to give themselves two spritzes of cologne before stepping out the door?”

Shen Qianci found it even more incomprehensible. “Where on earth did you get that stereotype?”

“Shu Yi said in an interview that that’s exactly what he does, and he strictly wears woody-toned colognes.”

“If you want me to wear cologne, just say it straight.” Shen Qianci found it bizarre. “The way you put it just now actually makes it sound like Shu Yi has been trying to copy me all along but didn’t do his homework properly and messed it up…”

Qin Guanyu led him straight toward the fragrance boutique. Shen Qianci pouted slightly. “Are you really taking me to buy a woody-toned cologne?”

He let out a rather regretful sigh. “And here I was thinking of opening a fragrance mystery box for myself every month.”

“Why do you keep changing scents?” Qin Guanyu didn’t understand. “Isn’t it said that by sticking to a fixed scent, the person who loves you can know you’ve arrived before they even see you?”

“You’ve been fooled by those perfume ads, haven’t you…” Shen Qianci retorted. “What if everyone in the car happened to be wearing the same perfume? How would you tell?”

As he spoke, he extended two fingers, making a “snuggling close” gesture. “People who love each other naturally generate a resonance. You become aware of their presence because you like them, not because they sprayed cologne.”

Qin Guanyu: “…”

Little President Qin was talked into it yet again. He was even a little romanticized by the “resonance” the other party had mentioned…

Qin Guanyu spun on his heel, dragging Shen Qianci around to head toward the underground supermarket. “Then let’s just go buy laundry detergent.”

The fragrance boutique tragically lost an order.

—

Shopping centers nowadays really know how to drum up business. Just as they were planning to hit the supermarket to buy laundry detergent and some snacks and drinks for tomorrow’s visit from Sun Guanqing and Lu Tiangong, they discovered a cat café had actually been set up in the first-floor atrium.

The two simply couldn’t hold back, committing the error that every cat owner under the sun commits.

They stepped inside and spent over forty minutes cuddling the cats.

By the time they came out, the supermarket was almost closing. They quickly picked up their pace and raided the aisles, pushing their shopping cart along.

Qin Guanyu suddenly panicked a little. “Teacher Shen, when we get back, will Shen Steam Bun smell that we touched other cats?”

Shen Qianci announced mercilessly, “He will.”

“Then what do we do?!”

Shen Qianci wore an expression that said Give up, we’re done for.

“When we open the door at home, turn on your phone camera. Record the footage of Shen Steam Bun getting angry to serve as a constant warning to us not to mess around with stray cats outside.”

“You can’t really call them strays, though. Those cats have legitimate jobs.”

“President Qin, this is no time to be speaking up for other cats. Keep your attitude straight when we get home.”

“Why do you sound so experienced?” Qin Guanyu narrowed his eyes and poked Shen Qianci on the shoulder. “Well, look at you. You look all proper and decent, but you’re actually a repeat offender!”

“I’ve only been there once before, and it was Li Dapeng who dragged me along,” Shen Qianci said. “I told him I wasn’t going, but he insisted.”

“And then you couldn’t withstand the affectionate glances of those café cats, so behind Shen Steam Bun’s back, you stroked other cats and fed them snacks?”

Qin Guanyu put his hands on his hips, shaking his head and sighing, “Shen Qianci, oh Shen Qianci, what am I supposed to say about you?”

“You are an accomplice with me this time,” Shen Qianci said ruthlessly. “Last time, I got scolded by Shen Steam Bun for two hours. This time, I wonder if he’ll jump up and beat both of us.”

—

By the time they drove back to Yunjing Villa, it was nearly midnight.

Shen Steam Bun was still playing on his cat tree. Seeing them return, he made a nimble leap to the floor and ran toward them, meowing loudly.

Qin Guanyu tensed up instantly, grabbed the shopping bags from Shen Qianci’s hands, and bolted.

Looking at Little President Qin, who was pretending to be terribly busy putting drinks in the fridge, Shen Qianci immediately huddled over as well.

Right at that moment, Shen Steam Bun caught a whiff of something amiss.

The two of them lowered their heads in perfect unison, meeting Shen Steam Bun’s round, wide eyes.

For some reason, Qin Guanyu felt as if a bolt of lightning had crashed down, and a tragic, heroic BGM seemed to float through the air…

“Meow—”

“Meow—”

Shen Steam Bun started scolding them. Wherever they walked, Shen Steam Bun followed and scolded…

In the end, the two sat side-by-side on the sofa, accepting Shen Steam Bun’s harsh criticism.

In the intervals of being scolded, Qin Guanyu stealthily turned on his phone camera, recording his feline master’s earnest teachings. He planned to post it on RedNote to keep himself alert at all times.

Who would have thought that the moment he opened the app, a notification bubble reading 99+ made him almost think he was being cyberbullied.

Flustered, he clicked into the comments section, only to find that the “cat video” he had posted last time of him teasing Steam Bun had actually gone viral.

A few of the top comments had thousands of likes, but none of the content was actually about Steam Bun…

[I’m giving you three minutes to tell me exactly what your relationship with “Teacher Shen” is. [smile]]

[Don’t I know my own phone by now? [dog head]]

[I know the answer to this one! City folks call this a “roommate,” but in our village, we call this a “wife.”]

[If you two aren’t doing this just to grow an account, I’m really going to start shipping you. [you sly dog.jpg]]

Qin Guanyu didn’t usually play around on RedNote much; he only knew that posting pet videos would yield more engagement on the platform.

But why did these people keep prying into his relationship with Shen Qianci? Neither of them had even shown their faces in the video.

He scrolled down through the comments, replying to a few regarding the cat.

Suddenly, a few earth-shattering words jumped into his field of vision:

[Damn—this hand of “Teacher Shen” is so well-suited for gripping bedsheets. [face turning yellow with blush]]

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