It had been two days since the season finale of the divorce reality show aired, yet the online chatter remained white-hot.

Every viewer was utterly dumbfounded, profoundly shocked by the final choices made by the three divorced couples. Even those who had originally tuned in purely for the drama were now wearing masks of agony, abandoning their ironic memes to flood the comment sections in unison—

“Stop messing around! It’s almost Chinese New Year, don’t play with our feelings like this, production team!”

“No wonder the Spring Festival Gala always ends with everyone making dumplings together… I finally get it now! 😭”

“…”

This phenomenon proved two things:

The show was a massive hit, and the “Wushi Couple” was absolutely blowing up.

As a young actor who had been in the entertainment industry for years, Xie Jinghe knew all too well that sudden fame often came accompanied by the danger of being consumed by dark shadows. Overwhelming attention was a double-edged sword—it brought prestige and wealth, but it also placed one under a microscope for the public to scrutinize.

He had firsthand experience with this.

Public opinion was a mix of truth and lies; media rumors were often based on nothing, and none of it could be taken at face value.

Xie Jinghe clicked on a trending topic to find a brand-new account with no profile picture posting several long images. It contained written narratives alongside slightly blurry photos, practically summarizing the first half of the man’s life.

Orphanage background.

Average-to-above-average academic performance, but excelled at acting gentle and playing the good guy.

During college, he publicly pursued the campus belle from a wealthy family and dated her for over a year, sweet-talking his way into receiving numerous lavish gifts. Supposedly, upon graduation, the woman initiated a breakup due to the vast disparity in their family backgrounds, gifting the man an apartment and setting him up with a job at a securities firm.

In the end, the man worked hard at the securities firm for years without making much progress in his career.

At best, he was a low-level manager.

The account owner described it all vividly, adding later that three years ago, the man voluntarily resigned—unclear if it was because he managed to cling to the Movie Star Xie Jinghe, using his money and network to establish a talent agency and putting on a “successful winner” act in front of the camera.

Pure nonsense.

Xie Jinghe indeed lowered his guard around the man, but Shi Linchuan had never touched his cards. That sharp, clear boundary had once kept Xie Jinghe uneasy for a long time. Once, he had even hidden in the bathroom to secretly search his phone for: ‘Does a wife making more money than her husband affect their relationship?’

Later, seeing that he hadn’t come out for a long time, the man came over to knock on the door, his voice gentle and polite with a hint of post-intimacy huskiness, “Xiaojing, are you feeling unwell somewhere?”

“Sorry, was I too rough just now?”

Back then, the man had been exceptionally gentle, considerate, and attentive to details.

…A bit like the description in the exposure post.

They say the hardest lies to unravel are those mixed with truths—truths and falsehoods intertwined, leaving people utterly confused. Xie Jinghe didn’t believe for a second that his partner was the emotion-manipulating hypocrite described in the post, but he couldn’t help staring blankly at one of the attached photos.

It was a candid shot, slightly out of focus.

The setting was inside a large shopping mall, featuring a man and a woman standing on an escalator. The woman’s back was turned to the camera, her face hidden, dressed vibrantly from head to toe. The man revealed half his face, looking very gentle and scholarly, carrying several luxury brand shopping bags in his hands.

The woman was linking arms with him, seemingly chatting and laughing.

Xie Jinghe recognized him instantly.

The man in the photo who felt both intensely familiar and strangely foreign to him…

Was none other than Shi Linchuan.

Shi Linchuan had slept late.

Accustomed to short bursts of highly efficient deep sleep, it was rare for him to sleep all the way until noon in one stretch. He woke up feeling thoroughly refreshed, but as soon as he turned over, he found his arms empty. The sheets and pillows beside him had long since lost their warmth.

Xie Jinghe wasn’t in the bedroom.

Shi Linchuan got out of bed, opening the door first to glance into the living room, only to realize the place looked like it had been meticulously cleaned—spotless and dust-free. He then returned to the bedroom and pushed against the bathroom door, which was locked.

“Xie Jinghe, are you in there?”

A second later.

A response came from inside.

Half a minute passed.

Xie Jinghe slowly pulled the door open, his face showing not a trace of sleepiness.

Shi Linchuan didn’t know when he had woken up. Raising a hand, he pinched Xie Jinghe’s chin, tilting his head left and right to inspect his complexion. “Have you turned into a night owl recently? Or are you trying to apply for a job at the Sichuan Panda Base?”

Strictly speaking, this was the first official day of their relationship after their divorce, so Shi Linchuan tried his best to rein in his sharp tongue, wanting to show a bit of tenderness. But he simply wasn’t the gentle, romantic type and spoke rather abrasively, so he silently wrapped an arm around Xie Jinghe’s waist and pulled him inside instead.

Old habits die hard.

That described him perfectly.

Before Xie Jinghe could even step out of the bathroom, he was pulled over to the sink. The man brushed his teeth and washed his face with one hand while keeping his other hand clamped tightly around Xie Jinghe’s wrist, refusing to let go for a moment as if afraid he would turn and run.

Moments later.

The water tap shut off.

Having finished washing up with his face still damp, Shi Linchuan turned his head and pressed his lips against Xie Jinghe’s. The cool, refreshing mint flavor of the toothpaste gradually diffused throughout the hot, lingering kiss.

“What’s wrong?”

“Who upset you?”

With his lower lip being sucked, Xie Jinghe couldn’t help extending his tongue to respond to the man. Half of him was intoxicated, passionate and fiery, while the other half hovered around a lingering question, not daring to step any closer.

He couldn’t help thinking:

Current life is already wonderful.

Linchuan had confessed to him, and they had started dating again.

Perhaps when facing certain past events that might cause unpleasantness, he shouldn’t dwell on them. After all, the past was in the past; digging it up served no purpose other than adding pointless arguments.

Bringing up old scores was a major taboo between partners.

Over the past three years.

That was how Xie Jinghe had always thought.

Yet for some reason, he felt an itchy restlessness all over right now, completely unable to ignore the indescribable bitterness in his chest. Involuntarily, he used the tip of his tongue to push the man’s tongue out of his mouth.

A silver thread stretched between their lips before snapping.

Meeting the man’s slightly smiling yet subtly probing gaze, Xie Jinghe suddenly felt the grievance that had been building up in his chest surge straight to his throat.

A sentence slipped past his vocal cords.

He asked softly, “Before me, did you ever date anyone or have a girlfriend?”

Shi Linchuan: “…”

What on earth?

Shi Linchuan went silent for two seconds before answering, “Didn’t you ask me that two days ago when my head wasn’t clear? Back then, between you and me…” He paused delicately before continuing, “Given our frequency, I had no reason to cheat, did I?”

After saying this, Shi Linchuan realized something was off.

Xie Jinghe’s question sounded oddly specific.

With a moment’s thought, he understood.

“Did you see some online exposure post about me?” Shi Linchuan probed. “And you cared so much that you stayed up all night cleaning the living room?”

A long silence followed.

Xie Jinghe didn’t speak, merely nodding his head.

Usually, this guy was ridiculously straightforward—whether confessing his love or asking for intimacy, he would blurt it right out. Yet right now, his head hung low, the slightly curly tips of his hair drooping limply over his forehead, obscuring most of his brows and eyes.

Like a child afraid of being scolded.

Or a patient’s family member terrified of hearing bad news.

He looked rather pitiful.

Shi Linchuan pursed his lips, suddenly at a loss for how to explain.

First, he had always disdained making explanations. Earlier on, he had even proactively thrown mud at himself, wishing nothing more than for Xie Jinghe to hate him to the bone and view him as a thorn in his side.

Second, he could roughly guess what kind of rumors were circulating online—nothing more than netizens digging up the ‘scumbag ex-husband’ background that the system had assigned to his body, spinning all sorts of wild speculations and theories, with marketing accounts fanning the flames to chase clout.

Regarding the latter, Shi Linchuan didn’t care in the slightest.

But he couldn’t not care about Xie Jinghe.

…He was, after all, the boyfriend he had just started dating.

Thus, Shi Linchuan stepped forward in silence, cupping Xie Jinghe’s cheeks with both hands to raise his face once more. Applying a bit too much pressure, he accidentally squished his mouth into a pucker, making him look like a big-eyed goldfish blowing bubbles.

Mwah.

He kissed the goldfish mouth.

Pondering what he was about to say next, Shi Linchuan suddenly felt his scalp go numb. But on second thought, he had already said something as uncharacteristic as “Let’s date” to Xie Jinghe…

Saying a few more words didn’t seem to make much difference.

Before formally comforting Xie Jinghe, Shi Linchuan managed to convince himself first.

The next instant.

He cleared his throat silently and spoke in a seemingly casual tone, “You are my first love. If I’m lying to you, I’m a dog.”

Xie Jinghe pursed his goldfish mouth slightly.

His lip lines were faint, and after that recent kiss, his lips were slightly moist and vividly red. Shi Linchuan couldn’t resist kissing him again. Just as he pulled back, he heard Xie Jinghe speak incoherently through his squished lips.

Shi Linchuan didn’t catch it clearly and eased the grip on his cheeks slightly.

“…I don’t believe it.”

“You’re already a total dog, so this oath holds zero credibility.”

Hearing this, Shi Linchuan fell into an inevitable silence.

Honestly, he really couldn’t fathom how Xie Jinghe managed to be so utterly infatuated with him while simultaneously maintaining a strikingly rational understanding of his personality.

Just as people online put it:

Sinking into love with total clarity.

Shi Linchuan lowered his gaze, noticing that Xie Jinghe had indeed been comforted by the first half of his sentence. His hand was now reaching up to grasp Shi Linchuan’s forearm, his pinky trembling slightly, unable to stop.

“…”

Gritting his teeth, Shi Linchuan leaned into Xie Jinghe’s ear, his comforting words sounding more like a threat, “If I was lying to you just now, I’ll go straight out to the street, stand in the middle of a crowd, and shout ‘Xie Jinghe, I love you’ at the top of my lungs ten times in a row, letting passersby record it and put me on the trending searches. How about that?”

Xie Jinghe froze for a moment.

Then, he couldn’t help turning his face away and breaking into a smile.

Shi Linchuan’s washed face was completely ruined by his dark, annoyed expression. As he stepped out of the bathroom, he pinched Xie Jinghe’s side with heavy vindictiveness, causing the other man to clutch his chest and cry out in exaggerated pain, instantly collapsing against him like a dramatic scammer.

“I didn’t even use that much force,” Shi Linchuan grumbled coldly, propping the man up.

Xie Jinghe kept his eyes tightly shut, his eyelashes fluttering frantically—his acting skills at playing dead were appalling to the extreme. His mouth began moving on its own, “You did! Now it’s an injury on top of an injury. Didn’t you mess with it last night? It’s all swollen.”

Shi Linchuan dragged him to the bed and demanded, “So what do you want?”

Xie Jinghe replied instantly, “Pay my medical fees.”

Right after, he pulled up the hem of his shirt.

“…Blow on it for me.”

Hearing this, Shi Linchuan was absolutely certain he was being extorted.

But what choice did he have?

The person rolling around on the bed playing the rogue was his boyfriend.

Shi Linchuan had no choice but to take responsibility as the culprit, leaning down to pay the medical fees requested by the other party—even generously paying double until Xie Jinghe declared it was enough, pressing against his shoulders to beg for mercy.

That day, both of them missed breakfast.

Lunch arrived fashionably late as well.

After the meal, while Xie Jinghe wasn’t paying attention, Shi Linchuan grabbed his phone, intending to contact Pei Yue and the PR department to control the online rumors. The moment he opened WeChat, he saw Pei Yue’s profile picture pinned to the top of his chat list, flanked by several red notification dots.

Shi Linchuan tapped his finger, opening their conversation interface.

【Pei Yue: Boss, what is going on between you and Xie Jinghe right now??】

【Pei Yue: Even though I’m his manager, he actually came to me just to handle the comment section for you??】

【Pei Yue: OK, the post has been dealt with.】

【Pei Yue: Also…】

【Pei Yue: Boss, what on earth is wrong with you and your ex? Can you two look at what time it is right now?! No wonder you two ended up together!!】

Shi Linchuan actually took a look at the timestamp of her messages.

Just past six in the morning.

After thinking for a moment, he typed back a reply:

【Not ex. Boyfriend.】

__

Author’s Note:

Got it, got it, we all know you have a boyfriend now.

(Passerby bird walks past holding an emptied plastic bag)