GDRG CH5

Chapter 5: The Green Tea Schemer’s Michelin

The party ended, and both the host and guests were satisfied. After cleaning up, Xing Wei spoke to Xing Jun, who was carrying her things and walking her back to her room. “Brother, what do you think of my friends?”

Xing Jun placed a few bags on the table and casually picked up a box. “They brought you gifts.”

“They’re all pretty nice people… Oh my god! My idol is trending!”

Xing Wei shrieked, muttering things like “trash company.” Xing Jun casually said, “I haven’t been sleeping well in the hotel these past few days. I heard scented candles are good for helping with sleep…”

“Brother, your insomnia is getting serious again?” Xing Wei asked quickly.

“Can I take this candle?” Xing Jun picked up the candle Shi Xueqing had given her. “It’s late today, I probably won’t find any shops that are still open.”

“This… Little Shi put a lot of thought into making this.”

“He gave it to you, so it’s your thing. Besides, I quite like Little Shi too,” Xing Jun said with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.

Xing Wei thought about how her brother had been carrying the family’s burdens for the past few years. Xing Jun was used to shouldering all the responsibility and had never let her worry about family matters, even during the most difficult times. So, she hesitated and nodded. She added, “Then I’ll give him the return gift soon. It’s really embarrassing to re-gift someone else’s present.”

“Since the item is with me now, I’ll be the one to give him the return gift,” Xing Jun said, then paused. “How do you feel about him?”

“Who?”

“Shi Xueqing,” Xing Jun said the three words.

“As a sister,” Xing Wei said hastily, then started shrieking at her screen again. “What a trash company! Trash teammates! I’m going to die of anger!”

Xing Jun: …
Even a sister.

He took the scented candle back to his hotel.

Xing Jun’s room was on the highest floor of the hotel, with a huge floor-to-ceiling window. Looking out, you could see the bustling city on the other side of the river. He placed the scented candle on his bedside table, feeling somewhat irritated.

It must be because that gold-digging man, Shi Xueqing, had ill intentions and couldn’t be driven away.

His fingers traced the musical score carved onto the body of the candle.
Pretentious, Xing Jun thought.

But in his mind, the image of Shi Xueqing carving the candle with a knife unconsciously appeared. In his fantasy, he was sitting on the edge of the bed, right next to him. Shi Xueqing was still wearing the white shirt and beige trousers from the daytime. He was carefully holding the carving knife, carving a bit, then glancing at the $800 price tag of the B&O H95.

Xing Jun: …

As if possessed, he lit the candle. A stuffy fragrance filled the room. Soon, he extinguished the candle.

Shi Xueqing’s scent wasn’t like this.

When he had passed him on the balcony, he had caught a whiff of Shi Xueqing’s scent. It had a hint of rain, like a coniferous forest after a snowfall.

…

After the party, Shi Xueqing went back to working and, seizing every moment, continued to cultivate his artistic persona on social media.

The next time he posted a collage of Hermann Hesse quotes in his Moments, Xing Wei sent him a message.

“Are you free? I can give you the headphones tonight.”

Shi Xueqing thanked her and felt that it sounded like an invitation to dinner. Six o’clock was a bit of a rush, but his shift ended at five, so he had just enough time to go back and change his outfit.

At 4:30, however, the boss came over. “A’He has something on today. You’ll work two more hours tonight.”

Shi Xueqing became a little anxious. Even when he was anxious, his voice was pleasant. “I have something on tonight too.”

“You’re getting paid. Why are you so reluctant to work a little overtime?”

Shi Xueqing argued his case and finally managed to get off work at 5:30. The boss was still being passive-aggressive behind his back. Shi Xueqing changed his clothes, fuming.

There was nothing he could do. For someone like him on a student visa, just finding any job was good enough. Besides the bubble tea shop, he could only find some odd jobs in other stores.

He rushed back to his apartment as fast as he could and quickly changed his clothes. Today, he wore a mint-green silk shirt and dark green trousers. As he was hesitating between a white leather belt and a woven one, a text from an unknown number came to his phone.
“It’s 6:20.”

6:20… Could it be that he had unknowingly made Xing Wei wait downstairs for twenty minutes?

Shi Xueqing hurried downstairs. When he reached the apartment entrance, he saw a white BMW waiting there. When it saw him coming, it flashed its hazard lights.

The person in the car had no intention of getting out. Shi Xueqing thought it was rude to make a girl drive, but he had no choice but to open the passenger door and get in.

As soon as he closed the door, Shi Xueqing heard a word: “Butt.”
??
“Your headphones are under your butt. Can’t you feel it?”

“!” Shi Xueqing almost jumped out of his seat. He stared dumbfounded at the person in the driver’s seat. “H-how is it you?”

The person looked at him with ill intent. “What, you were expecting my sister to personally deliver them to you?”
“N-no.”

Shi Xueqing was stunned. He didn’t even have time to speak to him. He just quickly pulled the box out to see if he had broken the headphones—this was something that cost almost $900 with tax. He held the box carefully, inspecting it from front to back. Xing Jun watched him completely ignore him, only checking the $900 item, and a vein popped on his forehead again.
For some reason, this person, Shi Xueqing, often made him feel very annoyed.

Xing Jun decisively started the car. The seatbelt warning chimed, and Shi Xueqing finally reacted. “Hey… hey… where are we going?”

“To dinner.” Seeing his flustered look, Xing Jun finally felt like he had won a round.

“What…” Seeing a police car on patrol in the distance, Shi Xueqing could only quickly buckle his seatbelt.

The atmosphere in the car was suffocating. Shi Xueqing had never expected that the person coming to see him this evening would not be Xing Wei, but Xing Jun—what was with this guy, why hadn’t he left after three days?
The feeling of sitting next to a large carnivorous animal made his scalp tingle. But Xing Jun seemed to know what he was thinking and said, “I took a ten-day annual leave.”
“…”

“And from now on, I’ll probably be coming up north more often,” Xing Jun said pointedly. “So, whatever crooked ideas you have in your head, you’d better keep them to yourself.”

Shi Xueqing gave a dry laugh. He spoke in a soft and gentle voice, “Brother Xing, what crooked ideas could I have? Is there some misunderstanding between us?”

Xing Jun thought to himself that this Shi Xueqing looked quite cold and detached when he wasn’t speaking, like an artistic youth. But the moment he spoke, his whole “green tea” flavor came out. He said, “I saw you in Seattle with my sister.”
“…”

“I’ve seen many people like you…” Xing Jun said a few more words, then felt it was meaningless and said, “In short, behave yourself.”
Shi Xueqing stopped talking. He silently hugged his $900 headphones, thinking it didn’t matter, he had still scored the headphones today anyway.

Xing Jun saw his little action of clutching the headphones and sneered. “Xing Wei didn’t buy you these headphones. I paid for them. And I took that candle of yours. Don’t think that exchanging a few gifts can bring you closer…”
“So it was Brother Xing who paid. Thank you, Brother Xing,” Shi Xueqing said immediately. “These headphones are so expensive. Brother Xing is so good to his sister’s classmates.”
Xing Jun: …

Shi Xueqing smiled and added, “My candle isn’t worth much. It was mainly the thought that counts. It’s the same whether you like it or my classmate Xing likes it.”

“I lit the candle,” Xing Jun said.

Actually, he hadn’t. He had put the candle away again.

Shi Xueqing: “Did you like the scent, Brother Xing? If you like it, I’ll give you another one next time.”

Shi Xueqing said this without any psychological barrier. He felt that Xing Jun would definitely not want it. And even if Xing Jun did, it wouldn’t matter. It would just be a rebate for the $900 headphones.

Xing Jun: …

On one hand, Xing Jun felt that this Shi Xueqing really knew how to take advantage. On the other hand, he found his words very comforting.
Gentle and refined, but he was a gold-digging man who wanted to get his sister.
The two conditions combined made him feel even worse.

Shi Xueqing’s mood, however, took a wild turn upon arriving at the restaurant. He had never expected that Xing Jun would drive him for over half an hour into the city—and what appeared before him was a Michelin restaurant he had been seeing on Xiaohongshu for a long time.
A Michelin restaurant with a per-person cost of over $300!

Xing Jun watched Shi Xueqing hesitate at the entrance. He glanced at Shi Xueqing’s outfit today. He was dressed in green, clean as a newly grown tea plant.

He had a white belt around his waist, worn loosely, not cinching his waistline.

But his legs were so long.

It wouldn’t be an embarrassment to his, Xing Jun’s, face for him to go in for a meal dressed like this. So what was Shi Xueqing hesitating about?

“Brother Xing,” he heard Shi Xueqing say. “This dinner tonight, are you treating me?”
“…”
So he was hesitating about this all along. Xing Jun had brought Shi Xueqing to a high-end restaurant precisely to intimidate him, to make him understand the gap between them. Seeing that he seemed to be scared by the restaurant’s class, Xing Jun gave a cryptic smile.

But Shi Xueqing lowered his head and fiddled with his phone. Xing Jun lost his patience and asked him, “Afraid to go in?”
“Wait, this filter is suitable,” Shi Xueqing raised his phone. “I’m taking a picture.”
“…”

Shi Xueqing not only took pictures at the entrance but also took a flurry of them after entering the restaurant. For an omakase meal with several courses, he took that many photos. Later, he even started chatting with the chef, his English fluent and eloquent.

Xing Jun had seen some internet celebrity gold-diggers who were just there for show, some of whom couldn’t even speak simple English and just hung out in Chinese circles. He hadn’t expected Shi Xueqing to be quite advanced in the language department. He took a sip of tea and glanced down at Shi Xueqing’s feet, which were tapping on the floor.
His legs really were long.

The Japanese chef was happy chatting with Shi Xueqing and even gave them an extra dish. Xing Jun was busy with his own thoughts and was surprised that Shi Xueqing had this ability. He asked him, “What did you talk to him about just now?”

“We talked about the restaurant’s decor. I told him he has great taste. He said his wife is also an interior designer,” Shi Xueqing said.
Xing Jun was quite surprised for a moment. But Shi Xueqing didn’t even blink when he spoke. Sitting in the dim light, his features were handsome, his collar slightly open. He really did look like an artistic youth who had stepped out of a movie.

Xing Jun went to the washroom to take a call. When he returned, he saw an unsurprising scene.

…Shi Xueqing was striking a pose, chin in hand, asking a waiter to take a picture of him. During the photo shoot, he even specifically asked the other person to include the restaurant’s logo.
“…”

The veins on the hand holding his phone popped out again.
Xing Jun walked over with a grim face, which finally startled Shi Xueqing. He nonchalantly relaxed his pose, took his phone back from the waiter, and even said “thank you” in Japanese.

He even said to Xing Jun, “Brother Xing, do you want to take a picture?”

“I come here often, unlike you,” Xing Jun said sarcastically. “You seem quite happy to have made it here for once, huh?”

Shi Xueqing was originally a little embarrassed, but Xing Jun’s passive-aggressive tone made his mouth run away with him again. “Actually, I was forcing a smile just now. I was a little afraid you would dine and dash.”

He regretted it after he said it. Xing Jun fell silent. Xing Jun looked at Shi Xueqing coldly, as if he wanted to slice him into a thousand pieces.

The two words “hatred” were written in the eyes of the 190cm, ruthless rich guy.
Shi Xueqing truly regretted it. What if Xing Jun made him split the bill? He silently put his phone down, looking very obedient, and placed both hands flat on the table.

Fortunately, Xing Jun wasn’t so classless as to do that. Shi Xueqing watched Xing Jun sign the bill with a flourish, adding a 25% tip, and thought to himself that Silicon Valley’s new money was really different. When he paid for himself, he wished he could just give 10% at every restaurant.

The two got back in the car. Shi Xueqing secretly scrolled through his photo album, feeling that he had gotten some elegant shots today. But just then, Xing Jun said, “Not planning on taking a few pictures in the car too?”

“BMWs are very common, what’s there to take a picture of…” Shi Xueqing said casually, then bit his lip.

The veins on Xing Jun’s hand bulged. He finally couldn’t take it anymore. He got off the highway, but instead of driving back to Shi Xueqing’s home, he drove to the side of a lake and stopped there.

“Shi Xueqing,” he stared at the other’s face and said, word by word, “You know what I mean by coming to find you. Do you understand now? You and we are not from the same world. If you want to play games again, I don’t mind playing with you.”

He patted Shi Xueqing’s face with his car key. “Don’t play dumb.”

Shi Xueqing was about to speak but found that the car key wasn’t for this car—it was probably for Xing Jun’s own car. He looked down at the logo on the key and was shocked.

Ferrari!