Unmatched Chapter 15
by“Husband”
Dating? Trying it out?
Zhao Shuyi genuinely suspected that the one with poor Chinese comprehension wasn’t Xie Qi, but himself. Since they didn’t like each other, why try it out?
He took half a step back, staring warily at Xie Qi: “What do you mean?”
Xie Qi replied somewhat unnaturally: “The literal meaning, dating. Anyway, we’ve done everything we should have and shouldn’t have done. Every day is awfully boring, so why not find some fun…”
“That’s it?”
“Yeah, what else?”
Xie Qi’s gaze shifted, moving from Zhao Shuyi’s open collar to the clothes rack outside the bathroom door.
His expression was highly suspicious, like he was dodging something, yet he sounded self-righteous.
After sleeping with him last night, Zhao Shuyi had worried: if Xie Qi developed a ‘hatchling complex’ and clung to him, it would be troublesome.
But then he immediately dismissed the thought, feeling he was overthinking it. Xie Qi hated him so much, how could his personality change drastically just because they had sex?
Seeing Zhao Shuyi hesitate to answer, Xie Qi lost patience: “What are you hesitating about? It’s just dating, it’s not a big deal.”
“…” Zhao Shuyi glanced at him, “I just can’t think of any necessity for it.”
Xie Qi stalled.
Zhao Shuyi approached him suspiciously: “You’re sure you don’t like me at all, right?”
“Y-yeah, right.” Xie Qi visibly tensed, then sneered, “Zhao Shuyi, stop being so self-absorbed, okay?”
Zhao Shuyi nodded: “Fine, I understand.”
“…You understand what?”
“The experience last night was great, and you want to continue sleeping with me, right?” Zhao Shuyi saw right through him, “If you want to do it, just say so. Why use dating as a cover? You have such thin skin.”
Xie Qi was silent for a moment. Zhao Shuyi took his silence as agreement: “Move aside first. I’ll talk after I shower.”
Xie Qi stepped aside, clearing a path.
The bathroom had a wet-dry separation design. Zhao Shuyi closed the inner glass door. As the water poured down, his figure became blurry. The rising steam drifted toward the door, carrying a faint scent of shower gel.
Muffled by the sound of the water, Zhao Shuyi’s voice came through: “Xie Qi, do you have a habit of peeking at others showering?”
“…”
Xie Qi scoffed, hitting back: “Who’s peeking at you? I’m thinking!”
“Oh, what have you thought of?”
“I admit, I just want to sleep with you.”
“Oh.”
“Oh what? What about you?”
“I don’t care,” Zhao Shuyi said, “If there’s one time, there can be a second. If there’s a second, there can be a third…”
Xie Qi quickly interjected: “Good, but I’m not finished. If you agree, let’s set the terms now: from now on, you can only sleep with me. You’re not allowed to find anyone else.”
“?”
“You know I have psychological hang-ups. I can’t accept my partner sleeping with other people simultaneously. You can understand that, right?”
“I understand,” Zhao Shuyi paused, thinking: But what does that have to do with me?
Xie Qi guessed the second half of his thought: “It won’t hurt you, will it?”
He suddenly opened the bathroom’s glass door and walked in without even taking off his clothes, standing directly under the spray.
It was a sudden, unexpected assault. Zhao Shuyi was pushed against the wall. Xie Qi’s suit and cold buttons rubbed against his wet skin, feeling a bit rough.
“…What are you doing?”
The body he had been intimate with pressed down heavily. Xie Qi didn’t say a word, deliberately showing off his natural assets, his hips pressed tightly against Zhao Shuyi, rubbing lightly: “I will improve, Zhao Shuyi.”
“…”
“Who you sleep with doesn’t matter, right? Sleeping with me is more convenient, and it’s free.”
Xie Qi looked serious. Zhao Shuyi almost laughed out loud: “True, I can consider it.”
Xie Qi insisted: “Consider it now.”
“You go out first.”
“No, you answer me first.”
Xie Qi scrutinized him like an interrogator, but his face was red. Perhaps the temperature in the bathroom was too high, and wearing clothes made him hot, causing the flush to spread from his face to his ears.
“I’ll count to three. If you don’t refuse,” Xie Qi raised three fingers and shook them in front of Zhao Shuyi, “One, two, three—Good, you agree. From now on, we are dating.”
“?”
A huge question mark popped up in Zhao Shuyi’s mind: “I only agreed not to sleep with anyone else.”
“Is there a difference?” Xie Qi was absolutely certain, as if he were an authority on relationships, “A one-on-one relationship is dating. Is there any other explanation?”
Although Zhao Shuyi disagreed, Xie Qi didn’t give him a chance to object. He quickly backed out of the glass door and slammed the outer door shut with a bang, cutting off all sound.
Zhao Shuyi: “…”
Ten minutes later, Zhao Shuyi calmly finished his shower.
Dating—although he felt it was a bit strange, he wasn’t going to make a big fuss over it.
He suspected Xie Qi was so excited because the novelty of ‘breaking the seal’ hadn’t worn off yet. After they slept together a few more times, the freshness would fade, and everything would be fine.
But Zhao Shuyi soon realized he was wrong. What Xie Qi was most enthusiastic about wasn’t sex, but something else—
“Change my contact name.”
At eleven o’clock that night, they were back in the same bed. Xie Qi pointed at Zhao Shuyi’s WeChat: “We are in this kind of relationship now. It’s inappropriate for you to call me the cold ‘Xie Qi,’ isn’t it?”
“How is it inappropriate? Do you want to take my surname?” Zhao Shuyi mocked, “I’ll change it to Zhao Qi.”
Xie Qi choked. Seeing that Zhao Shuyi was actually going to change it, he immediately lunged for the phone.
After a brief struggle, Zhao Shuyi was pinned to the bed. Xie Qi held the phone high above his head, fiddled with it one-handed for a few seconds, and then handed it back. The WeChat contact name had changed from “Xie Qi” to “Husband,” followed by a pink heart emoji.
Zhao Shuyi shivered with goosebumps: “Are you okay?”
“This is called immersion,” Xie Qi argued confidently, “Even if we’re acting, we have to get into character. Otherwise, where’s the fun? —Oh, I need to change yours too. What name do you like?”
“…”
I like you, my foot.
Zhao Shuyi’s perception of Xie Qi was completely refreshed, changing from “childish” to “extremely childish.”
But it didn’t matter if he didn’t cooperate. Xie Qi unilaterally changed “Zhao Shuyi” to “Wife,” adding a red heart emoji, and then warned: “You are not allowed to change it back. I will check periodically.”
Zhao Shuyi’s response was to turn off the bedside lamp, turn over, and go to sleep.
Xie Qi was ignored, his expression momentarily stiff. But he didn’t mind; his inexplicable excitement for the night wasn’t ruined. Zhao Shuyi only felt a tightening around his waist as Xie Qi’s arm wrapped around him from behind.
“Good night,” Xie Qi said in his characteristic arrogant tone, “You’re truly annoying, Zhao Shuyi.”
“…”
Thanks to a certain young master’s nonsensical antics all night, Zhao Shuyi forgot to take his medication again.
Zhao Shuyi always had nightmares when he slept poorly. Sometimes he was falling from a great height, sometimes it was a car accident, sometimes the Chaoyang White Tower collapsed… More often, they were unforgettable memories from childhood. The dreams contained his mother, demons and monsters, gods and Buddhas.
Today, he dreamed of a stark white mourning hall.
In the center of the hall was enshrined a smiling golden Buddha statue. Beneath the statue lay his father’s memorial tablet. The three large characters “Zhao Huaide” were black and cold, twisting in the dream space.
Zhao Shuyi was six years old again, his body much shorter. Even standing on his tiptoes, he couldn’t reach the altar table where the tablet was placed. The smell of incense wafted down from above, terribly unpleasant.
Suddenly, he heard footsteps outside the door. Having nowhere to hide, he crawled under the altar table.
Two voices, a man and a woman—Qin Zhi and Zhao Huaicheng:
“Why did you drag me here?”
“I miss my elder brother. I never thought… he would meet with an accident. It’s all my fault.”
“Feigning sincerity.”
“Where is Shuyi? Why haven’t I seen him today?”
“He probably ran off to play.”
“He doesn’t know I’m here, does he?”
“So what if he does? He’s just a child…”
The space twisted further. Wreaths of incense smoke obscured his vision. The scene shifted, and Zhao Shuyi was standing outside a door.
It was Qin Zhi’s bedroom.
Zhao Shuyi, who had just finished playing soccer outside, was passing the door with his ball when he suddenly heard strange sounds coming from inside.
The woman was constantly moaning, seemingly in pain, yet perhaps not.
The man said coarsely: “My father favors Big Brother, you know that. If our affair gets out, forget inheriting the company, he’d break my legs, and that would be getting off easy.”
“But now he only has you as a son.”
“There’s still Shuyi.”
“How old is Shuyi?”
“He’ll grow up eventually. He might cause me trouble in the future…”
Qin Zhi didn’t reply. Zhao Huaicheng pressed her: “If that day truly comes, are you planning to help me, or help your son?”
Qin Zhi still didn’t answer. But human nature is like animal instinct; people are often irrational during passion, and in the heat of the moment, they often speak carelessly. Qin Zhi wouldn’t submit, so Zhao Huaicheng wouldn’t let her go.
Young Shuyi listened to the sounds, his mind hazy, unable to imagine what they were doing, only hearing Qin Zhi suddenly say, “I’ll help you.”
Zhao Huaicheng said excitedly: “Why don’t we send Shuyi to live with my father? You give birth to a younger one for me. Then we… no one will know it’s yours…”
Zhao Shuyi’s face was pale. He didn’t dare make a sound. He returned to his own room and closed the door.
The nannies were nowhere to be seen, likely having been dismissed beforehand.
He put down the soccer ball, picked up the landline phone, and dialed Zhao Fengli’s number.
He had wanted to ask for help then, but the person who answered was Zhao Fengli’s secretary, who said the Chairman was in a meeting and asked what was wrong, did he need Grandfather for something?
Zhao Shuyi shook his head, his voice childishly soft: “I miss him.”
The secretary smiled kindly, coaxed him a few times, and said the driver would pick him up in the evening to have dinner with his grandfather.
Sure enough, the driver came. But Zhao Fengli was very busy and had no time to coddle a child. While they ate together, he was constantly listening to subordinates report on work. Unfortunately, something seemed to have gone wrong that day, and Zhao Fengli was furious. Everyone in the room was trembling, no one daring to look up.
Zhao Shuyi sat across from his grandfather, not daring to act spoiled.
Zhao Shuyi returned to the mourning hall again.
Memories were jumbled; he didn’t know which scene was real and which was fake. The Buddha statue on the altar table suddenly came alive, its gilded arm bending and stretching like a poisonous snake, wrapping around his neck. The incense sticks also came alive, spitting sparks and turning into branding irons, burning his eyes.
Zhao Shuyi struggled painfully, helplessly calling “Mom,” but his mother had long since abandoned him and disappeared—
“Zhao Shuyi.”
“Zhao Shuyi!”
Zhao Shuyi woke up abruptly.
In front of him was Xie Qi’s magnified face, his voice filled with concern: “What’s wrong? Did you have a nightmare?”
“…”
Daylight had broken. Zhao Shuyi’s pajamas were soaked with cold sweat, and his face was paper-white. It took him a long time to recover.
“Are you alright?” Xie Qi had never seen him look like this and was a little worried.
Zhao Shuyi shook his head, finally calming down a bit: “I’m fine. You’re up so early?”
Xie Qi said: “I have to go to the company today, there are things to handle.”
He scanned Zhao Shuyi twice and added: “I was going to ask if you wanted to accompany me to the company, but since you’re not feeling well, forget it. Get some rest.”
“I’m not unwell.” Zhao Shuyi didn’t understand, “Why would I go to your family’s company?”
“We’re married,” Xie Qi said, “You are the Ringzhou Group’s young madam. It’s high time you accompanied me to make an appearance.”
“?”