Chapter 52: First Meeting

It was close to 1 PM, and Chen Xu had finally left the store after being busy the entire morning. He was feeling famished and wanted to find a fast-food restaurant nearby for lunch.

“Chen Xu?”

He walked a short distance before he heard someone called his name. He turned around and recognized that it was his university friend. Surprised, he said, “Liu Xiaoshang? Why are you here?”

“My company is nearby. What about you? Are you working around the vicinity as well? Why have I not seen you around before?” Liu Xiaoshang was very excited and asked a chain of questions all in one go.

Chen Xu smiled and replied, “I have some work to do around here.”

“Have you eaten?”

“I was just about to find a place to eat.”

“That’s great, let’s go together! My treat. You are not allowed to fight with me on this.”

Chen Xu went ahead since Liu Xiaoshang had been the vice-chairperson in class, and he was always generous. They were also on good terms with each other.

They found a restaurant and started reminiscing over past events.

Chen Xu had been added to the class WeChat, but he had never sent any messages because he did not know what to chat with them about, so he just muted the group.

Occasionally when his close friends sent messages, he would open to read the chat to get to know their current situations.

He knew Liu Xiaoshang had experienced a smooth sailing life after graduation. He had already bought a house and a car on top of having a girlfriend. He had even sent a picture of her into the group chat, and she was quite pretty.

However, this was not something others could achieve with envy in their hearts. Life was unfair. He was born into a rather well-off family and looked dashing.

After chatting for a while, Liu Xiaoshang’s phone rang a few times.

“It’s my girlfriend,” he explained and listened to the voice message that had been sent.

Although the volume was not loud, Chen Xu could vaguely hear the conversation was regarding why Liu Xiaoshang had not replied to her messages.

Liu Xiaoshang sent a voice message whispering, “I am still out.”

Before he put the phone down, a new message was sent by his girlfriend. “On your GPS.” This time, it was louder than before.

Liu Xiaoshang’s hands stopped abruptly, rubbing his fingers on his temples. He sighed and said, “Sometimes, my girlfriend is just too clingy.”

While saying that, he sent his location to her.

Chen Xu smiled. Not knowing how to reply, he picked up the cup and pretended to drink water.

“I am eating out with my friend, my university friend…” Liu Xiaoshang reported to her softly, while taking careful glances at Chen Xu, “a male!”

Chen Xu could only act as if he had not heard anything. He took out his phone, unlocked it, and proceeded to play with the pages of the home screen by swiping it around.

Ding ding dong ding…

Liu Xiaoshang’s phone rang again immediately, this time it was a video call.

Chen Xu could not keep up with the act any more after seeing how Liu Xiaoshang was so embarrassed and did not accept the video call. He said, “Is that your girlfriend? Hurry up and pick it up! I heard you found a really pretty girl. I have wanted to see her for a long time. Don’t tell me you are hiding her from me.”

“Of course not!” Liu Xiaoshang smiled, but it was an awkward smile. He picked up the phone and accepted the video call.

The girl in the video call was indeed very pretty. When the screen was turned to face Chen Xu, he gave her a warm greeting.

“Only the two of you?” his girlfriend asked over the video call after greeting them both.

At this time, Liu Xiaoshang became embarrassed. Without saying a word, he rotated his phone 360 degrees to show her that there was no one sitting in the tables adjacent to them.

“Continue eating with your friend then, and come home earlier after work. Love you.” After saying that, the video call ended.

Liu Xiaoshang did not say anything at all, placed his phone down, and picked up a cup of water.

Chen Xu initiated the conversation, “The two of you are staying together?”

“Yes”

Liu Xiaoshang had lost the enthusiasm he had shown at the start, and only elaborated briefly, “We intend to get married after celebrating the new year.”

“Congratulations.”

Then, Liu Xiaoshang smiled and said, “You must come on the day of my marriage.”

Chen Xu nodded, “Of course.”

“What about you?” Liu Xiaoshang looked at him. “Do you have a girlfriend now?”

Chen Xu said, “No, I had one last year, but we broke up quite quickly. It was too stressful, and we could not handle it.”

Liu Xiaoshang could relate to him and nodded his head, “My girlfriend spends a lot. If I did not earn this much, I would not be able to finance her expenditures.”

Chen Xu laughed, “I can tell that you love her a lot.”

This sentence seemed to stir up feelings as Liu Xiaoshang looked out of the window and said, “I wooed her for two years.”

“I guess you don’t know yet. She was from our school too, but she was in the class after us. At that time, she had a boyfriend. They only broke up after graduation… It was not easy for her to become my girlfriend.”

Chen Xu hadn’t known that they had such a past. It could only be called true love then.

He could understand these feelings. Most people had met someone they were willing to go that extra mile for. However, due to many reasons and difficulties, they would give up. A small portion of people would persevere and end up hurting themselves. Very few people could get what they wanted and be lucky enough to stay together forever.

In this kind of relationship, even if they did not end up together, at least there would not be any regrets.

It felt like the emotions hidden deep in his heart were aroused.

Suddenly, he heard Liu Xiaoshang exclaim, “Wow.”

He raised his head and saw Liu Xiaoshang staring out of the window with shimmering eyes.

“What are you looking at?”

He turned his head, looked out of the window, and immediately knew what he was looking at. A lady dressed in a light-yellow shirt was standing at the side of the road making a call. At first glance, she looked stunning.

“It shall be her,” he thought.

His eyes brightened, and he took a glance at the car parked beside her, it was a foreign car plate number.

“Not a local, perfect candidate,” he thought.

Without thinking twice, he woke up the Virtual Dream Gear, activated scanner, and locked the target as this lady.

Scan successful.

At this point, the lady had finished her call and gotten into her car, leaving quickly.

Chen Xu and Liu Xiaoshang looked at one another and gave each other a knowing smile, but they did not mention anything about the lady. Instead, they chatted about their lives after graduation and their situations.

When working hours were going to resume, they paid the bill and left. They arranged to go for a drink at a later time before parting ways.

Chen Xu had to rush to another shop in the afternoon and worked until after 7 PM before rushing back to the office. He passed the final product to Miss Guo and finally ended work for the day.

He used the shortest route possible to return to his rental house. Throughout the entire afternoon, he had been constantly reminded of the lady in the yellow shirt. The more he thought about her, the more he looked forward to his dream that night.

It was like choosing a mysteriously coded film after looking at the cover. After downloading it, one would find it difficult to contain their excitement to watch it.

While he was looking forward to it, he also had feelings of anxiety. What if it turned out like clickbait?

Some ladies looked perfect from a certain angle, but overall they were very ordinary. This situation had happened to him before.

To Chen Xu, his dream was personal. It revealed his deepest secrets, those that could not be shared. Those were the dirty little secrets that everyone had.

In today’s context, would anyone condemn a man for watching pornography in his room?

Similarly, if he fantasized over a woman in his dream, who had the right to judge his character?