Chapter 5 Aesthetic Differences

Chapter 5: Aesthetic Differences

He Angxiao didn't drink much that night.

Most of the alcohol ended up in Chi Luoxi's stomach.

When Yang Zhou and his group left, they were stumbling and leaning on each other, mumbling nonsense. Yang Zhou, in particular, had legs so weak he had to be supported to stand steady.

Only He Angxiao remained untouched from head to toe, not a single hair out of place, his gaze clear and composed. He even transferred two thousand yuan to Chi Luoxi.

In such settings, it was customary for those serving drinks to receive tips, the amount varying by whim.

Chi Luoxi looked at the two thousand and thought, *He Angxiao really is rich.*

He Angxiao considered it payment for what he saw as a moderately entertaining live performance. When Chi Luoxi sat beside him, he was like a warm cloud beside him.

Places like the Chunhui Club were never short of gossip and news.

The next day, practically everyone at Chunhui knew that Chi Luoxi, who had once dislocated a guest's shoulder, had entered a VIP room the night before, sat right next to the guest the entire time, and reportedly had a great chat.

The male escorts and hostesses who had been in the same room gathered to spread the gossip.

"I saw it with my own eyes. That Chi Luoxi was just sitting there like an idiot at first, but then he kept leaning closer to Mr. He, talking softly. And Mr. He didn't even push him away."

"Not only did he not push him away, Mr. He even made him take the drinks for him. Boss Yang was trying to force drinks, and Mr. He just pointed at him to drink, and he actually did, glass after glass."

"And when they left, Mr. He gave him money. I caught a glimpse—it was a transfer, definitely a sizable amount."

"Tsk, who would've thought? He usually acts like an idiot, but it turns out he's going after the hardest target."

When word reached Manager Yang's ears, she said, "So Chi Luoxi isn't really stupid? He's just picky."

That dumb kid won't even touch the ugly ones.

Regardless, in a place like the club, being able to connect with a client of He Angxiao's caliber was a skill.

So overnight, Chi Luoxi's status within the club took a subtle shift. He went from a multi-purpose handyman, shuffled wherever needed, to being quickly promoted to someone worth watching for potential.

Manager Yang specifically called Chi Luoxi into her office, closed the door, and for once, put on an almost friendly expression.

She poured Chi Luoxi a cup of tea and spoke in a sincere, confiding tone.

"Xiao Chi, you did well last night. You have a sharp eye. That Mr. He is no ordinary person—young and accomplished, runs his own tech company. You know the famous Xiaoheng Technology in Jiangzhou? That's his enterprise. A true rising star. His net worth is this much." She gestured with her fingers, her eyes hinting and encouraging. "I heard you added him on WeChat?"

Chi Luoxi held the cup of water and nodded obediently. "Yeah, I added his WeChat."

Manager Yang's eyes lit up. "Good, that's a rare opportunity."

"Since he has a bit of a special interest in you, you need to seize it. Be sweet, be clever, compliment him, make him happy, and get him to come often. As long as he's willing to come, you won't have to worry about your performance. That debt of yours will be cleared soon enough."

Chi Luoxi listened, but there was no joy on his face. Instead, he looked a bit dejected and said quietly, "But he never replies to my messages."

Manager Yang paused. "What did you send?"

"Just... 'Good morning,' 'Good night,' asking if he'd eaten." Chi Luoxi's voice grew softer. "He hasn't replied to a single one."

Manager Yang: "That's normal. Someone like Mr. He has seen it all. It would be strange if he replied to you casually. But the fact that he hasn't deleted or blocked you is a signal—it means he's not averse to you. Keep sending them, persistently. Send more sweet, caring words. Men, no matter how proud, like to be pampered and taken care of."

Manager Yang then gave Chi Luoxi another dose of inspirational talk mixed with manipulation. Seeing the blank look on his face, she knew he hadn't absorbed any of it and sent him out.

Bai Man heard about it. "Well done, you. Quietly pulling off a big move. I heard from Xiaoya that this He Angxiao is really cocky."

She rubbed her chin, considering Chi Luoxi's appearance. "Maybe he's had too much gourmet food and wants to try your raw, unprocessed flavor."

Surrounding him were voices of encouragement, even egging him on to strike while the iron was hot, seize the opportunity, and make the leap.

It was as if before Chi Luoxi lay a mountain shining with gold named He Angxiao, and he stood barefoot on the cold shore, hesitating, while everyone urged him to jump and swim toward the unreachable golden mountain.

Chi Luoxi was surrounded by these voices, but now that he had actually added the contact and the other party wouldn't reply, he didn't know what to do.

Chi Luoxi: "Mana, I think washing dishes is more practical. Mr. He hasn't replied to me at all."

Bai Man looked at his troubled face, clicked her tongue, and reached out her hand. "Give me your phone. Let me see how you've been chatting with him."

Chi Luoxi obediently handed over his phone.

Bai Man opened WeChat, found He Angxiao's chat box, and the first thing that hit her was Chi Luoxi's profile picture.

It was an incredibly impactful image.

The seven Calabash Brothers were stacked in various acrobatic poses, a pyramid of bright, garish colors, set against a background of radiant rainbows and auspicious clouds. Above them, glittering artistic letters spelled out "Brothers united, their strength can break metal."

Bai Man: "…………"

She took a deep breath, feeling her aesthetic sense assaulted. Expressionless, she looked at Chi Luoxi. "...Chi Luoxi, can you not be so abstract? Are you afraid people won't know your brain works differently from normal people?"

Chi Luoxi looked a bit wronged and whispered in defense, "They're my idols."

Bai Man rolled her eyes dramatically and couldn't be bothered to argue about idols.

She opened the photo album, looking for a picture of Chi Luoxi that was presentable enough to replace that shocking avatar.

But the album had only a few club photos, various close-ups of a pot filled with dirt, and a few screenshots of the Calabash Brothers.

Bai Man sighed, raised her own phone, opened the beauty camera, aimed it at Chi Luoxi who was still looking confused, and took a few shots.

She chose a filter that made people look cute and tender, shooting from above. Chi Luoxi looked up, his skin smoothed to a fair translucence, eyelashes long, his eyes carrying an innocent confusion due to the surprise shot. Paired with his soft flaxen hair, he really looked adorable and endearing, with a lethal charm—far more pleasing than the previous Calabash Brothers ensemble.

Bai Man was satisfied with her work and promptly set it as Chi Luoxi's profile picture.

"There, now you look like someone worth chatting with."

She opened the chat history.

He Angxiao's side was completely empty, only Chi Luoxi's one-sided messages.

Bai Man skimmed through the content—just the usual "Good evening, Mr. He," "Good morning, Mr. He," "Have you eaten, Mr. He?" Though a bit clumsy, nothing was fundamentally wrong.

The problem was... the stickers.

Chi Luoxi had gotten chummy with the uncles and aunties in the back kitchen and cleaning department. Those middle-aged and elderly people loved stickers with sparkling effects, flowers surrounding them, vibrant reds, and phrases like "Good Morning, Auspicious," "Good Night, Sweet Dreams," "Good Health."

Chi Luoxi thought these pictures were colorful, with big fonts, looking festive—just up his alley in terms of simple aesthetics. So he had saved quite a few.

Thus, his "Good morning" to He Angxiao was accompanied by a giant, golden sun surrounded by peonies and magpies, with the text "Sunrise, Good Fortune."

His "Good night" came with a crescent moon hanging over willow branches, lotus flowers and mandarin ducks below, reading "Moonlight like water, sweet dreams."

And asking "Have you eaten?" was paired with a table full of steaming feasts, surrounded by abundant grapes and corn, with the text "Bountiful harvest, eat well and drink well."

Bai Man stared at the row upon row of old-person emojis with incredibly high color saturation, cluttered with elements, and a strong 1990s urban-rural fringe style, and fell silent for a full ten seconds.

"...Chi Luoxi, you're beyond saving."

Chi Luoxi didn't understand how he was beyond saving.

He thought Bai Man's reaction was a bit over the top.

Those emoji stickers were so nice—vivid colors, lifelike flowers, and the text was large and clear, full of blessings and festivity.

Chi Luoxi: "I think they're cute..."

Bai Man couldn't be bothered to argue about the age-old problem of differing aesthetics. She took away Chi Luoxi's permission to use those old-person emojis and then pointed him in a clearer direction.

"Just sing. Don't you know how to sing? Don't bother with all that flashy stuff. Just use your voice—send him voice messages once in a while. No need to be long, just hum a few lines, a cappella. Soften your voice a bit, add some feeling. Eh, forget it, just sing normally and don't go off-key. The key is to let him hear your voice and remember you, got it?"

Chi Luoxi didn't really understand most of it, but he understood singing.

That was something he could do.

Back in the mountains, when Grandpa was tired from work or when they were enjoying the cool evening breeze, he would hum a few folk songs with simple tunes and a clear voice. Grandpa always said it sounded good.

At the club, he'd also hum quietly. When Manager Yang passed by and heard him, she did compliment him on his clean voice, though she said the songs he sang were too old-fashioned.

So Chi Luoxi began his daily, unwavering routine of sending voice message greetings, like clocking into work.

Every day, he would open the chat with He Angxiao, whose profile picture was a deep blue lake.

He would first type a standard, proper greeting: "Mr. He, good morning or good evening."

Then he would press and hold the voice button, clear his throat, and start humming.

He didn't really understand what "adding feeling" meant. He just naturally used his clean, clear voice to casually hum a few lines.

He'd hear the pop love songs playing at the club a few times and could sing snippets of them.

The messages were short—ten or twenty seconds each. When he finished, he'd let go.

Send.

Chi Luoxi would add an invitation: "Mr. He, are you free to come over and hang out today?"

Occasionally, he'd express concern: "Mr. He, is your work very busy?"

And that was it.

Chi Luoxi wasn't good at making conversation, and he didn't know what else to say.

He Angxiao's side was silent as the grave.

And so, rain or shine, he persisted for two weeks.

He Angxiao still showed no sign of life—not even a "hmm" or a single character.

Bai Man went from "maybe there's a chance" to "maybe he's busy," and finally to sympathy.

Watching Chi Luoxi clock in every day like clockwork, she consoled him: "Xiao Chi, maybe give it up. I suspect the account you added isn't even the one He Angxiao uses personally. It's probably a burner account for people like us who don't know our place and force ourselves on him. He probably doesn't even bother to look and just blocked you."

Chi Luoxi listened, his face expressionless.

He hadn't really held out much hope anyway.

Those so-called opportunities and chances to turn his life around that Bai Man and Manager Yang talked about were too far away for him.

He Angxiao wasn't his grandpa; there was no reason for him to do anything for Chi Luoxi out of nowhere.

The only reason Chi Luoxi added He Angxiao was that he seemed clean and different from the others. But since he added him and got no response, he stopped expecting anything more.

Chi Luoxi still did all kinds of odd jobs at the club every day, and his debt repayment was a distant dream.

In his free time, Chi Luoxi's greatest entertainment was playing the small, data-free mini-games on his phone.

Simple gameplay, rough graphics, but they killed time.

Sometimes, when he reached a critical point in a game and needed to revive or claim a reward, the game would prompt him to share it with a friend.

The first time, not knowing any better, he casually shared it to the elite work group that Manager Yang had created and that he hadn't been kicked out of yet.

Within a minute, Manager Yang called, chewing him out.

"Chi Luoxi! Do you have a screw loose? This is a work group! A work group! Can't you see the name? Who told you to send these random game links in here? All play and no work! Look at your performance this month—zero! A big fat zero! Dead last! Are you the only one who has it easy here? Still have the mind to play games?! I'm telling you, if you keep being such a lost cause, go scrub dishes for the rest of your life, got it?!"

Chi Luoxi was scolded into silence, and only then did he realize that such behavior was annoying.

After that, he never dared to share randomly again.

He tried sharing with Bai Man, but Bai Man would just roll her eyes and curse at him.

So Chi Luoxi's only remaining sharing target was one person—the Mr. He who never replied, with the deep blue lake as his profile picture.

At first, when he shared game links, he would sheepishly add a "Sorry to bother you." Later, seeing that the other party never responded, he figured it really was a dead account, as Bai Man had said.

One night, Chi Luoxi scrolled back through his chat history and realized he had shared a lot of game links with He Angxiao without even saying hello. Even for a dead account, he felt a guilty feeling.

He thought for a moment, then pressed the voice button: "Mr. He, I'll sing my favorite song for you. I didn't mean to share so many games with you."

"Calabash Brothers, Calabash Brothers, seven calabashes on one vine. Wind and rain, we're not afraid, la la la la..."

He sang with great enthusiasm, even unconsciously swaying his head to the melody. After finishing one verse, still not satisfied, he continued: "Ding dong dang dang, Calabash Brothers, ding dong dang dang, so mighty, la la la la..."

When he finished, he let go of his finger, looked at the freshly recorded forty-plus-second voice message, and nodded with satisfaction. Then, Chi Luoxi casually sent the link to the Snake game he had been playing and needed to share to revive.

But tonight, just as Chi Luoxi was dozing off, about to fall asleep—

His phone, carelessly tossed on the pillow with the screen already dark, suddenly vibrated with a buzz.

Half-asleep, Chi Luoxi opened one eye, reached for his phone. The screen lit up; it was already midnight. On the lock screen, there was a new WeChat message notification.

From: Mr. He.

Chi Luoxi's drowsiness vanished. He couldn't believe his eyes. He unlocked the phone and opened WeChat. The chat that had been silent for half a month, with the deep blue lake as its profile picture, actually had a new message.

Mr. He: I don't like listening to that. It's super childish.

Chi Luoxi's hand trembled, and the phone nearly fell onto the bed.

He Angxiao really had been reading his messages. That meant he had been bothering Mr. He for half a month.

Author's note:

----------------------

Peacock He: Every day I open WeChat, either it's mind-blowing emojis or game revival links, but his singing is pretty nice.

Little Radish: Mr. He must have never registered for Pinduoduo.