Gao Sijin had never been particularly enthusiastic about blind dates, but his coworkers at the office were all “warm-hearted” people.
The result was that almost every month or so, Gao Sijin would end up meeting a completely unfamiliar girl somewhere for a meal.
And every single time, the plot was astonishingly similar.
After arriving at the restaurant, Gao Sijin and the girl would silently pull out their phones in perfect tacit understanding. While casually scrolling through their screens, they would eat food that didn’t quite suit their tastes.
After the meal, they would say goodbye and part ways, becoming strangers forever.
Thinking about it carefully, girls who were this clean-cut and straightforward were actually not bad.
The more outrageous ones would even bring their mothers along to the blind date, creating a mother-daughter double act.
What was the process like?
Basically, it was the same as going to a vegetable market to buy groceries.
Your hairline is a little high, your nostrils are a bit large, your lips are a bit thick, you don’t earn enough money, you didn’t graduate from a 985 or 211 university—whoever enters the blind-date arena becomes a fish on the chopping board. People can handle you however they want, because it makes bargaining easier.
Housewives, in particular, were veterans of this battlefield. Living alone in Bincheng, Gao Sijin would often be inexplicably criticized until he was worth nothing, then he would hurriedly escape.
He absolutely hated that interrogation-like tone.
Sometimes he felt that if those women joined the criminal investigation unit, they would probably solve countless cold cases.
In Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace, Prince Andrei once advised Pierre: never, never get married, my friend.
Gao Sijin believed marriage was a grave. Whether love existed before marriage or not, marriage would inevitably take away many things that could never be recovered.
The most important of those things was freedom.
This time, the destination was a French restaurant.
Based on Gao Sijin’s past experience, girls who chose French restaurants were usually the type with sky-high expectations but little substance, the kind who looked down at people through their nostrils.
Like those women interviewed about how much savings a twenty-five-year-old man should have—women who weren’t even attractive enough to make anyone interested even if they paid you—yet the first thing they said was, “At least eight hundred thousand in savings.”
But once the arrow leaves the bow, there’s no turning back.
In order to avoid being sabotaged at work later by Director Zhang, Gao Sijin had to grit his teeth and go through with it, finish the blind date quickly, and rush home to continue writing.
“Young man, good luck.”
The taxi driver, who had deliberately taken a longer route, gave Gao Sijin a thumbs-up.
Gao Sijin smiled on the outside while cursing inwardly as he paid the fare.
Outside the restaurant were almost all luxury cars, and the European-style architecture made Gao Sijin’s legs feel weak just looking at it.
Although Gao Sijin had barely any money on him, he could always pay in installments. No matter how poor he was, he still had credit available on Huabei.
In this day and age, who isn’t a leek being harvested by capitalism?
Who was he supposed to be ashamed of?
Just as Gao Sijin was about to ask Director Zhang to send him the woman’s WeChat contact, a clear and cold voice sounded behind him. The moment he heard it, the image of a powerful businesswoman instantly appeared in his mind.
“Are you Gao Sijin?”
Gao Sijin turned around and saw her.
The woman standing behind him had sharp eyes like blades, as if a single glance from her could scare away evil spirits. Her nearly perfect S-shaped figure was wrapped in what looked like an expensive women’s trench coat, giving her a heroic and elegant aura.
What was even more remarkable was that in this minus eighteen degree winter, her long, slender legs were still wrapped in patterned black stockings from Balenciaga.
She was tall as well. With black boots on, her height almost matched Gao Sijin’s one meter seventy-eight.
She was practically a queen.
“Why do your eyes look like a dead fish’s?”
“This is Conqueror’s Haki…”
“Hahaha, so you watch One Piece too.”
Hearing Gao Sijin’s muttered words, the woman covered her mouth and laughed softly. In that moment, the sharpness in her eyes melted into something gentle like spring water.
She was a beauty with striking, defined features. Every movement she made carried the aura of a queen marching across a battlefield.
If this were the world of a novel, Gao Sijin would definitely assign her the role of the female lead or at least the second female lead.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t a novel—it was reality.
And Gao Sijin wasn’t the protagonist. He could only play the role of background scenery.
“You look exactly the same as in the photo. There’s this silly aura all over you. Hey, did you just wake up or something?”
She walked gracefully toward Gao Sijin. Compared to her, Gao Sijin suddenly felt painfully insignificant and even had the urge to run away.
“Let me introduce myself. My name is Yu Qingxue, and I’m your blind date today. I’m an international student from the University of Tokyo.”
“You’re the one Director Zhang introduced?” Gao Sijin swallowed nervously and asked in slight panic.
Yu Qingxue smiled and nodded. Then she very naturally grabbed Gao Sijin’s hand, making him instantly feel as if he were wrapped in coldness.
“I bet you really want to run away right now, don’t you? After all, we’re about to eat at a French restaurant, and I heard meals here are pretty expensive. If it’s really a problem, big sister can treat you.”
“Wait a second. How old are you to be calling yourself big sister?”
“I’m twenty.”
“Miss Yu, I’m older than you.”
“I wasn’t talking about physical age,” Yu Qingxue said, blinking charmingly. “I mean psychologically. In terms of mental age, I’m older than you. And right now, you’ve already fallen into big sister’s palm. Just behave and go on this blind date with me.”
And so, like a sheep being dragged away, Gao Sijin was pulled into the French restaurant by this domineering, wolf-like woman.
He didn’t believe such good fortune could exist in the world.
With a beauty like her, the men chasing her probably stretched from Renmin Street all the way to Ziyou Road. Why would she have dinner with someone as insignificant as him?
There had to be something suspicious going on.
As Stefan Zweig once wrote in The Queen of the Scaffold: she was still too young to know that all the gifts fate gives come with a price secretly marked on them.
Gao Sijin worried that before he realized it, some part of his body might be missing afterward.
“By the way, Miss Yu, I just remembered that I might have forgotten to feed Xiao Bai his dog food.”
“At a time like this, you shouldn’t say something so unromantic. You should ask whether I like eating green peppers instead.”
“Then… do you like eating green peppers?”
“I don’t like green peppers. But if you say you like them, then I’ll change my answer and say I like them too.”
“You don’t need to hold my hand. We just met. Men and women shouldn’t touch casually.”
“How could that work? This is a necessary measure to stop you from running away. Besides, I’m a woman and I don’t mind. Why do you mind?”
Yu Qingxue wasn’t using much strength, yet Gao Sijin felt that even if he tried to break free with brute force, escaping her slender, delicate hand would be impossible.
She seemed to have some kind of training.
When they reached the entrance of the restaurant, Yu Qingxue even said something in a foreign language that Gao Sijin couldn’t understand to the doorman.
“Bonjour.”
Could this woman possibly get any cooler?
Gao Sijin felt like he had completely become her accessory, as if he had lost all control over himself.
“What do you think?”
“I think… this might be the luckiest and the worst blind date I’ve ever had in my life.”