RALP Chapter 66.2

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Time flies; it’s already Saturday, the day to eat roast chicken.

They decided to meet up at noon. The auntie has the day off today.

Du You is waiting alone in the living room for Qin Ge, while Ryan is lying on the sofa next to him watching TV.

Ryan is almost all healed up now, without so much as a scratch remaining.

For some reason though, he seems more restless than usual. He can’t stay focused on the TV for long before standing up and pacing about before sitting back down.

Du You is now quite an expert in autonomously ignoring uninteresting stimuli now, plus he has the TV to distract as well.

He’s unaffected, and in fact it’s the system that couldn’t take it anymore.

System [Tell him to stop spinning around! It’s making me dizzy]

Du You then glances over, and asks, “what’s wrong?”

“N-, nothing!” Exclaims Ryan.

That’s odd, but Du You does not push him on the issue further. Instead, he looks back over at the TV.

System [Wait, host, my problem is still unsolved!]

The ED starts playing on screen.

Shortly after, the doorbell rings. What opportune timing.

Du You thinks it’s Qin Ge, but when he opens the door, it’s agent Wu instead.

“Mr. Du, sorry for visiting unannounced,” he seems beaming as he hands over a bag, “it’s nothing much, but please accept this.”

It’s Japanese confectionary. Agent Wu knows that CEO Du enjoyed snacks so he specifically went to queue up at the long, long queue of this shop and bought this extremely popular brand that’s selling like hotcakes due to exploding in popularity online.

“Thanks.”

Du You takes the gift.

He doesn’t know why he’s visiting, but since Qin Ge isn’t here yet, he moves aside, “what brings you here today?”

The agent gestures that he wouldn’t be coming in, “oh, I won’t be intruding,” he continues, “I’ve come today to report that we’ve succeeded in Eve’s audition.”

He already mentioned it on phone the other day but it was of course brief and unceremonious. He came today to answer any questions he thinks the boss might have and to follow up.

“Speaking of, what happened after that day? Was Ryan alright?”

“His wounds are healed now.”

Agent Wu “?!”

Wait, he got hurt too? He just thought Ryan acted odd back then but he didn’t expect anything of such magnitude to occur.

He asks, his tone shaking, “did it leave any scar?”

Du You shakes his head. When he turns his head around though, there’s nobody there.

Normally Ryan would follow him along whenever he’s here to receive someone. He’d change into the doggy if it’s the auntie, otherwise he remains in human form.

Today he’s decided not to do that at all.

So he walks back into the living room only to find Ryan sticking onto the wall, meekly peeking outside.

Du You asks, “what are you doing? He’s here for you.”

“I don’t want to go out there,” Ryan shakes his head, “I don’t like that man.”

He didn’t suppress his voice either, so the man at the door hears it loud and clear, and receives critical damage.

There’s You Haoyu, and now there’s this new celebrity-to-be. Is he really that unlikeable?

Men shouldn’t cry easily, but the agent feels like he’s going to tear up.

Though, what he doesn’t know is that Ryan doesn’t actually hate him specifically, but he can still remember that after he followed this man that day, he lost control of himself on that car as he was bewitched by Xiao Tiantian.

It has caused him to negatively perceive the man’s scent.

Du You tells him, “he said you passed your audition, so do you want to do it?”

“Do what?”

“Make the advertisement; debut.”

“Debut? Advertisement?”

Du You thinks about how to explain then says, “they will take pictures and videos of you and give you money.”

While Ryan is not sure what he meant by ‘pictures’ and ‘videos,’ but he knows about ‘money.’ In the tribe, all males are obligated to hunt outside to bring home prizes. They exchange those prizes, which are apparently called ‘money’ here, and use it to procure supplies for the household.

He yips, “I’m going to earn ‘money’!”

He’s been staying at home all this time, mooching off his lover from food to clothes to places of shelter, even. It is very unbecoming of a male.

“I will earn money for our household!”

Agent Wu actually tears up from being touched hearing that.

It is certainly a touching sight to see the person being kept by his sugar daddy develop such grand resolve as to even make money for him.

Even though, in this case, his salaries are still paid for by the CEO Du here.

Though even if Ryan has made such a proclamation he’s still averse to coming out to see agent Wu, so Du You has to relay that over.

“I’m extremely thankful!” The agent makes a 90-degree bow.

He is sure that Mr. Du has acquiesced perhaps due in no small part to the email he sent.

The email with his grandiose plans for the future of Xinwen Entertainment. It’s highly ambitious, but perhaps he has managed to win over Mr. Du exactly thanks to that genuine passion in it.

Du You, who did not even see the email as it would have been intercepted by assistant Xiao and transferred to the appropriate department, is perplexed by the overly humble behaviour.

The agent then tells him, “then I will be excusing myself now. The shooting will begin the morning the day after tomorrow. I will come here tomorrow to bring Ryan to the company to sign the contract.”

The agent is turning to leave, as a young man walks towards them.

He has seen him before as well, the one who is supposedly Mr. Du’s assistant as well.

He nods in courtesy.

Qin Ge returns it, then looks away, disinterested.

Agent Wu scratches his head a bit as he goes outside.

Qin Ge genuinely smiles when he sees Du You at the door, “let’s go, gege.”

The restaurant picked by assistant Xiao is just outside the CBD.

Therefore it does not have a great amount of customers thanks to them arriving early.

Though the few customers present all seem to be couples, being a pair of man and woman.

There’s a stage in the restaurant on top of which is a jazz band playing a slow, but elegant and noble tune.

Once inside a waiter in suit immediately comes to receive them. He has a white towel placed across his arm.

“Is this Mr. Du and his companion?”

Du You nods.

“We’ve been waiting for your arrival. Please come this way.”

The waiter guides them to a window seat.

Today the sun is rather gentle and warm through a draped veil on the window.

Plates are already placed onto the table alongside two wine glasses atop matte black coasters. Besides the plates are silver knives and forks.

Du You thinks this is quite different from the ‘roast chicken restaurant’ he imagined.

They’re already here though, so of course they won’t leave now.

He starts going through the menu.

The menu in hard leather cover, with elegant, vivid illustrations followed by pictures on each page.

The first page is a steak with a description that goes on and on about how Kobe wagyu is chewy and juicy and…

Then next page features seafood. It is a few more pages before there is a dish named ‘Roast Chicken.’

Unlike what he imagined, it is not a whole chicken with its head removed and glimmering in the light with oil.

Instead, it is a chicken that has already been cut into pieces according to the picture. There’s also sauces and fruits in decoration. It looks extremely high-class.

“This one,” Du You asks the waiter, “is it already cut into pieces?”

The waiter answers humbly, “yes, it is. It is cut into fine pieces that is convenient to eat.”

“Can you not cut it?”

The waiter seems surprised.

Not that it’s not possible, but it wouldn’t look good and it will be quite inconvenient for the customer as well. It is quite uncomfortable if it gets grease over the hands too.

“Can you not cut it?” He repeats.

The waiter seems flustered, “uh, um…”

Customers are always right, and he wipes the sweat off his forehead, saying, “I’ll relay that to the kitchen.”

The restaurant, save for the relaxing, meandering jazz performance, is filled only with intimacy between couples. They sit opposite each other, looking at the other with starstruck eyes.

Du You looks back at Qin Ge, who is similarly staring at him fixedly.

He chcukles, “I didn’t expect it to be this kind of restaurant.”

It is quite suited for a dinner, actually.

Du You didn’t expect it either, but it’s fine.

“They have roast chicken here,” he says.

Qin Ge “…”

He turns to look out the window, speaking softly, “that’s not all I wanted to eat, you know.”

Du You informs him, “I’ve ordered everything on the menu.”

Qin Ge certainly did not mean that. He looks back at Du You, and extends his hand forward, covering Du You’s, and smiles as he requests, “for today, can gege dedicate all your time to me?”

Du You didn’t have plans after this, so he asks, “what do you want to do?”

Qin Ge’s fingers start clasping inwards, touching Du You’s palm, “anything you want.”

Du You looks at the hand dressed in the usual black leather glove.

Qin Ge sure loves physical contact.

While Du You doesn’t hate it, he doesn’t particularly like it either. He pulls his hand back, and says, “then we can go to your university campus.”

It’s what they talked about earlier.

While Qin Ge is fine with anything, he feels like he should tell him this now, “schools are generally boring places. There might not be what gege wants to see.”

Du You asks, “there isn’t a ball?”

“No. Not the one you’ve seen in that show.”

“The competition for the best-looking men and women?”

“No such thing.”

“An authoritative, absolute student council…”

Qin Ge chuckles, “if gege wants to see that, perhaps I should consider running for the student council.”

Reality is quite different from a dramatised story.

But, even without those things, Du You is still interested in seeing the places where students would learn.

As no such thing as ‘school’ exists in the apocalypse.

The dishes quickly make their way here.

As Du You requested, the roast chicken remains uncut, whole in the plate. The many other dishes are stored on a cart by the table for now.

Du You pushes it in front of Qin Ge, saying, “while I didn’t catch this chicken myself, but here you go.”

The roast chicken’s skin is golden and steaming. Qin Ge takes the knife and skillfully plies a piece off, putting it into his mouth.

“How is it?” Du You asks.

“…”

It’s no different to candle wax.

In fact, for Qin Ge, he has no concept of ‘tasty’ or ‘bad,’ so no matter what it tasted like, he can eat just fine.

What is important is his gege; what is important is only his gege.

Qin Ge looks back at him, and answers, “it’s delicious.”

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Buy me a coffee?

TL’s notes: Somehow I get the feeling I’d get thrown right out of such a fancy restaurant if I tried to order like Du You did…