Forced Me to Regress, Huh?

After finishing the KFC meal, Cheng Zhu parted ways with Yezi.

When he got home, he started editing the photos.

Currently, the entire e-commerce team consists of only him and Wang Anquan.

This meant that he needed to take care of many tasks personally.

Fortunately, he had plenty of free time now.

Moreover, he didn’t plan to train Wang Anquan’s skills in this area.

A teenager tasked with editing product photos? His efficiency would undoubtedly be low, and he’d probably look exhausted the next day.

Cheng Zhu enlarged a picture and carefully observed the gullies and ravines in it while meticulously editing it. I’ll shoulder this burden myself.

Once he completed the first photo, he immediately sent it to Yezi.

“I’ll edit the rest following the same standards,” he said on WeChat.

“Sure,” Yezi replied and even saved the photo, thinking it was at the quality of a professional photo shoot.

“You know a lot,” Yezi typed.

“Having many skills never hurts. This is nothing,” Cheng Zhu said pretentiously.

“I just took another look at the details of your photo editing. Do you think my butt isn’t perky enough?” Yezi suddenly sent another message.

Cheng Zhu was slightly stunned and mumbled, “Women’s minds are so troublesome!”

Instead of addressing her comment directly, he sent a confused emoji.

Speaking of which, during the photo shoot today, especially when Yezi snatched the cigarette from his mouth, he couldn’t shake the feeling that had stirred within him.

So after she entered the bathroom, Ceng Zhu had immediately lit a cigarette and began puffing heavily.

After all, it’s the age when hormones are going wild, he thought. Good thing I’m a man of virtue.

After all, a boy’s first time is very precious, you know? Can’t just give it away casually.

He felt he should reserve it for goddesses like Shen Qingning and Lin Lu.

As for what happened after that… it didn’t matter!

—A Man of Virtue, But Not Much.

With this thought, he suddenly remembered that tomorrow was Shen Minglang’s birthday gathering.

So he sent Jiang Wanzhou a message. “Did you prepare a birthday present for Cousin?”

“I’m planning to go to the mall later. Want to come?” Jiang Wanzhou asked.

“No, I have something to do tonight. Help me buy one.”

“Ugh, you just love ordering me around.” Jiang Wanzhou even sent three emojis.

“Well, you’re the rich one and live right by the shopping district.” Cheng Zhu didn’t forget to remind, “Make sure not to buy something similar to yours. It’s too half-hearted.”

“Yeah, yeah, got it. So annoying!”

* * *

At 8 p.m., Cheng Zhu prepared to take a break before continuing his photo editing.

He opened WeChat and saw that in the class group, Li Rui was organizing the second round of their class gathering, heading to a KTV.

He tagged everyone in the group, saying if anyone was free tonight, they should come.

Hearing that the plan was to go to a KTV, some classmates who hadn’t gone to the dinner were eager to join.

Cheng Zhu could understand this.

For students, KTVs offered a chance to drink, play drinking games, and socialize with both boys and girls. It was quite lively.

But he didn’t expect Li Rui would suddenly private message him at nearly 11 p.m.

“Cheng Zhu, can you come to the KTV? The room number is 808. I’ll send you the location.”

“No,” Cheng Zhu replied instantly.

“Come on, please. Xinyue’s had too much to drink. She’s crying and refuses to come out of the bathroom. Rongrong said you should come.”

“No. Since she refuses to come out of the bathroom, you guys can go to another room to use the bathroom. All of you are about to be college students. How can you still be so clueless? Don’t you know how to be a bit more flexible?” he replied.

Are you crazy? You want me to go to a KTV for something so trivial?

Warm-hearted guy, who do you think you’re ordering around?

“This isn’t about that. Why don’t you understand?!” Li Rui was still persistent.

Cheng Zhu curled his lips. Of course, he knew exactly why Li Rui wanted him to go. He felt he had seriously underestimated Li Rui’s warm-hearted guy level.

He replied, “You’re not tricking me into splitting the bill, are you? Making me pay for the room and drinks?”

“Of course not! I’ll cover for you and Xinyue!” Li Rui replied.

Cheng Zhu was convinced.

He never expected his high school class monitor to be this kind of person.

I like you, but if you miss him, I’ll call him over to drink and sing with you, and I’ll cover the bill!

Hopeless, absolutely hopeless, Cheng Zhu thought. No wonder Hangzhou’s been so hot lately. Fuck, it turns out it’s because of you, the warm-hearted god!

He sent a message. “Class monitor, you’re quite something.”

“Are you coming or not?”

“No, I’m busy. I’m not replying anymore.”

Cheng Zhu went back to editing photos.

But just a few minutes later, Li Rui sent another message. “Come on, please? Or I’ll get a designated driver to pick you up. I’m begging you. I’ll treat you to dinner tomorrow, okay?”

Although Cheng Zhu was experienced and knowledgeable, he felt that this was really an eye-opener. He immediately deleted Li Rui from his friends list to prevent his horizons from expanding any further.

* * *

The next day, after Cheng Zhu woke up, he went back to editing photos.

Every time he finished a set of product photos, he would upload the product to the store.

He worked nonstop until nearly 5 p.m., when he received a message from Jiang Wanzhou, saying he was on his way to pick him up.

The place they were going to eat at was a Michelin-starred restaurant.

Restaurants like this were not necessarily the best when it came to taste, but Shen Minglang was after prestige.

On the way, Jiang Wanzhou asked, “Have you eaten there before?”

Cheng Zhu looked at him and said, “Actually, it’s often those inconspicuous little shops on the street that make the truky delicious food. And I’ve never eaten in those grand, lavish, flashy restaurants.”

He had lived in Wucheng for a long time, so he hadn’t been to many of the high-end restaurants in Hangzhou.

Upon hearing this, CEO Little Jiang rolled his eyes.

The agreed time was 6 p.m., but Cheng Zhu and Jiang Wanzhou arrived at 5:45.

While Jiang Wanzhou was looking for a parking spot, Cheng Zhu took out his phone and asked in the group chat if Shen Qingning and Lin Lu had arrived.

Lin Lu quickly replied, “Still about five or six minutes.”

After parking the car, Jiang Wanzhou said, “Let’s go in.”

Cheng Zhu shook his head. “Let’s wait for Shen Qingning and Lin Lu.”

“Why?” CEO Little Jiang was puzzled.

“Your cousin must have other friends coming for his birthday. Are you familiar with them?” Cheng Zhu asked.

“I know a few, but I’m not familiar with most of them,” Jiang Wanzhou said.

“That’s good. Once they arrive, we’ll go in and sit together. Otherwise, we might be too scattered.

“We don’t know the other people well enough to even know what to talk about,” Cheng Zhu said.

“True. A few minutes won’t matter. Let’s wait.” Jiang Wanzhou agreed.

Of course, the two of them were willing to wait patiently in the parking lot because Lin Lu was quite sincere. If GPS said there were still a few minutes, she would say exactly that.

Unlike some people who had just left, when they were asked by their friends where they were, they said, “Two traffic lights away. I’ll be there soon.”

When asked a bit later, they would probably respond with, “There’s some traffic.”

People like that weren’t worth waiting for. Once you waited, you could be waiting forever.

Not long after, Shen Qingning arrived in her white Range Rover.

There was an empty parking space on the left of Jiang Wanzhou’s Mercedes-Benz G-Class, so she skillfully reversed her car into it.

As the car was backing in, Lin Lu, sitting in the passenger seat, lowered the window and flashed a smile that showed her cute dimples. Her lively eyes sparkled like crescent moons as she waved at Cheng Zhu and Jiang Wanzhou energetically. “Hello! Hello there!”

Damn, she’s really cute, Cheng Zhu thought.

This kind of adorable girl easily triggered his possessiveness and protective instincts.

If you were my girlfriend, I’d definitely protect you and make sure none of my future girlfriends find out about you.