“What’s a more reasonable way? What way?” Du Lulu was puzzled.
“I don’t know,” Jiang Que replied honestly.
He hadn’t yet thought of a good solution, but in these past few days, after meeting with the members of the Anomaly Investigation Department, Jiang Que vividly realized that he was probably different from them in some way.
He didn’t have a clue about the specifics of the differences, but when he saw Du Lulu again, these thoughts suddenly came to him.
After pondering for a moment, Du Lulu didn’t insist further. She simply said, “It’s okay, I’ll go back and convey your thoughts to the department head. We never force anyone to do things against their will.”
“Okay,” Jiang Que said, “If you need help in the future, you can come to me. I’ll do my best.”
He paused and added, “I won’t charge you.”
“Heh,” Du Lulu chuckled, “When did you learn to joke?”
Jiang Que looked at her strangely.
Was that considered a joke? He was clearly being serious and truthful.
Shen Tazhi didn’t intervene throughout, or rather, he had mentally prepared himself for the day when Jiang Que would eventually “resign” from the Anomaly Investigation Department, ever since Jiang Que had pried out everything he didn’t want him to hear. It just so happened that this time they coincidentally met Du Lulu.
The two accompanied Du Lulu to the entrance of the underground passage leading to the Anomaly Investigation Department in the suburbs.
Shen Tazhi hailed a cab, with Jiang Que standing by his side, watching Shen Tazhi’s calm profile. Unable to resist, Jiang Que asked, “Aren’t you going to ask me why?”
Shen Tazhi cooperatively asked, “Why?”
Jiang Que pouted, feeling a bit fooled but continued, “Because I feel like the Anomaly Investigation Department only wanted to recruit me out of courtesy to you.”
Shen Tazhi was genuinely surprised by this revelation, “Why do you say that?”
“The department claimed to value my abilities greatly but didn’t really assign me any tasks, making me feel…” Jiang Que paused, then continued, “They might still be concerned that I might cause trouble in human society using my abilities. However, due to your endorsement and Du Lulu’s strict guarding, they couldn’t directly monitor me, so they wanted to recruit me.”
“What’s a more reasonable way? What way?” Du Lulu was puzzled.
“I don’t know,” Jiang Que replied honestly.
He hadn’t yet thought of a good solution, and he was completely unaware of what Du Lulu mentioned about the “ability to detect the investigators”, let alone when he was included in the range of such surveillance equipment.
Although the Anomaly Investigation Department had agreed to all his requests on the surface, their attitude towards him hadn’t changed much from the beginning.
Shen Tazhi was considering the problem from a new perspective for the first time. He hadn’t delved into it before because he felt that Jiang Que truly deserved the attention from the Anomaly Investigation Department.
How did that saying go again—parental love is always the best?
Jiang Que continued, “So don’t feel sad because I’m leaving the Anomaly Investigation Department. I don’t reject your things, and I’m not mad at you.”
He eagerly looked at Shen Tazhi, waiting for a response.
Earlier, he had only thought about leaving and forgot to consider Shen Tazhi’s feelings. Now, he realized he should have consulted Shen Tazhi’s opinion first.
Shen Tazhi smiled under his gaze, “I’m not unhappy, but what about the containment object you subdued earlier? Is it okay?”
“It’s fine.”
Proudly recounting the incident, Jiang Que seemed a bit boastful. He placed his still translucent tentacle in Shen Tazhi’s hand, saying, “I tripped it with my tentacles before taking action. I’m really skilled!”
“Wow, very impressive,” Shen Tazhi praised him.
After carefully checking Jiang Que up and down to ensure he wasn’t injured except for his slightly disheveled clothes, Shen Tazhi finally relaxed.
Their taxi arrived at this moment, and the two got in, heading back towards the restaurant where they had dinner.
Their car was still parked there.
After the recent commotion, it was now well past ten in the evening. There were few people on the streets, with only the streetlights illuminating the empty road.
The summer night wasn’t too hot, and the location Shen Tazhi chose to get off was just an ordinary street corner. The taxi driver had no idea he was carrying such well-known passengers and didn’t bother turning on the air conditioning. Instead, he just rolled down the windows for some fresh air.
The cool breeze messed up Jiang Que’s hair, and he annoyedly kept trying to fix his bangs with his hand. Turning to see Shen Tazhi in a similarly disheveled state, he couldn’t help but burst into laughter.
Shen Tazhi looked at him helplessly and closed the window slightly.
Curious, Jiang Que peered at Shen Tazhi, who was unusually unkempt, and after a moment’s thought, he leaned into Shen Tazhi’s arms and whispered softly:
“You look good like this, Gege.”
Although Shen Tazhi, always meticulously dressed in suits, was very attractive, this rare disheveled look was also very real.
Shen Tazhi wrapped his arms around him, smiling, “How come you’re getting better at talking.”
Jiang Que replied matter-of-factly, “I’ve always talked like this.”
Good-looking is good-looking, liking is liking. He had always been clear about this. Clearly, it was because Shen Tazhi saw him through a filter that he felt everything he did was an improvement.
The taxi quickly brought them near their residence, and Jiang Que and Shen Tazhi returned to their car.
Shen Tazhi started the vehicle, and Jiang Que looked at him, suddenly asking, “So, why did you suddenly feel that I understand ‘liking’ now?”
He had wanted to ask this question at that time, but hesitated, afraid that Shen Tazhi might change his mind after he asked. So, he had kept quiet.
He had completely forgotten about it until now, after being together with Shen Tazhi. Jiang Que suddenly remembered this question.
He still remembered the heart-wrenching feeling of desperately trying to express his feelings but not being able to.
Shen Tazhi started the car, pondered the question for a moment, and replied, “It was when you pulled me, wanting to share the delicious things you had tried before with me, and then directly telling others that you wanted to be with me.”
“At that moment, I thought I had been too strict with my demands on you. It was clear that this way of expressing ‘liking’ was the most important meaning for you. I didn’t need to insist on trivial details.”
“Life is short. If you like something, just like it. Missing it means there might not be a next time.”
“It’s not short now,” Jiang Que corrected.
He slowly caught on, “So, when you said I didn’t understand, it was actually because you were hesitating?”
Jiang Que accused, “How could you bully me like this.”
Shen Tazhi explained, “No… at first, you really didn’t understand. It was after we came back from the amusement park that I…”
He paused midway, realizing something, sighed, and apologized, “It seems that way. I started hesitating after we came back from that time. You should have pretty much understood by then.”
“Sorry for leaving you in a dilemma for so long.”
Thinking of the amusement park, Jiang Que recalled the beautiful fireworks, Shen Tazhi beneath them, and his slightly embarrassing kiss.
Blushing in the darkness, he murmured, “It wasn’t long ago, just a few days, I suddenly remembered and wanted to ask you, you don’t need to apologize.”
Looking out at the street, with the moon shining above the streetlights, Jiang Que softly said, “Although it’s been a bit winding, it’s good as it is now.”
He had thought this way more than once.
To be able to emerge from the abyss, to be with the person he liked and live a happy life, that was good enough.
The following week passed quietly.
The Anomaly Investigation Department didn’t hold up Jiang Que’s resignation application, approving it promptly. After that, Du Lulu sneakily came to ask Jiang Que about his future plans.
Jiang Que’s response was simple, just three words:
“I don’t know.”
Du Lulu sent him a long string of ellipses but didn’t ask again, only occasionally checking on the progress of Jiang Que’s ring purchase.
Yes, a ring.
This was Du Lulu’s idea after hearing Jiang Que wanted to give something to Shen Tazhi last time. Jiang Que was shocked when he found out what a ring was and decided to choose one following Du Lulu’s suggestion.
He had already picked out a style and even secretly measured Shen Tazhi’s finger thickness while he was asleep. However, since it was a custom-made ring, despite paying for expedited service, it still had over a month left in the production timeline.
Du Lulu oddly paid attention to this matter, always coming to ask Jiang Que about the progress of the ring. Jiang Que felt she had some ulterior motive, but he couldn’t quite pinpoint what was wrong at the moment. So, he could only reply to Du Lulu like this and planned to catch her off guard in the future.
[Du Lulu: So, when are you planning to give the ring? Can you reveal a bit? Can you do a live broadcast? I want to see too.]
[Jiang Que: …No.]
He replied to her message in silence and then fell into contemplation.
The production time for the ring was half a month, which meant that he would be entering the mating season soon. Would it be better to give the ring before or after the mating season began?
“Que Que?”
Just as Jiang Que was pondering, Shen Tazhi’s voice suddenly came from beside him.
Jiang Que directly turned off his phone and casually asked, “What’s up?”
He was sitting on the sofa in the living room. Shen Tazhi had just gone to do his usual exercise routine and wasn’t in the living room.
Even at home, Jiang Que rarely parted from Shen Tazhi. Even when Shen Tazhi was working, he would follow him to the study.
But exercising was different. Jiang Que had only followed Shen Tazhi to the equipment room once, and when he saw Shen Tazhi in a sports tank top, he froze in place.
When Shen Tazhi started exercising and had a thin sheen of sweat on his body, Jiang Que blushed and hurriedly left.
The sports tank top was innocent, the exercise was innocent, Shen Tazhi was innocent.
It was him who was guilty of having impure thoughts.
Shen Tazhi had just finished showering and changed into pajamas. Seeing Jiang Que’s unnatural behavior of turning off his phone, although a bit strange, he didn’t press further, just saying, “It’s not a big deal. My assistant just messaged me that all my news has been cleared up, except for that video with you.”
“Because only that video is left, the views on it have surged again, and various speculations have surfaced. So, I came to ask you how you want to handle it.”
“Oh,” Jiang Que, inexperienced in public relations, didn’t expect that deleting a news article would cause such a big reaction. “Does this affect you?”
“No,” Shen Tazhi sat down beside him, “Who I like is my business, and I don’t need others to meddle in.”
With wet hair and in home pajamas, the casually spoken words carried a hint of authority that he seldom showed in front of Jiang Que.
…So cool.
Jiang Que was momentarily distracted and then continued, “Is it okay to just leave it like that?”
Shen Tazhi responded, “It’s okay.”
After some thought, Jiang Que said, “Then let’s leave it for now? I still want to wait until after we get married to make it public.”
Actually, getting married or not wasn’t the point. The main thing was that he wanted to give Shen Tazhi the ring first. If they made it public now, Shen Tazhi wouldn’t be able to wear the ring Jiang Que gave him to deal with the media and others.
Shen Tazhi didn’t think much about it and agreed before going to give instructions to his assistant, arranging how to use the company’s marketing accounts to set the tone.
As Jiang Que watched Shen Tazhi’s busy figure, he suddenly had a whimsical idea, “Since the media and marketing accounts can influence human emotions, what if all these accounts start posting… you know, content that talks about how great the world is? Would it reduce negative emotions in humans?”
He was still thinking about the future doomsday.
Following Jiang Que’s train of thought, Shen Tazhi pondered for a moment and replied, “That makes sense.”
“However, the natural traffic for these types of accounts might not be as good as those posting negative news. After all, compared to a peaceful and beautiful life, people prefer to follow news that stirs them emotionally.”
Listening to him, Jiang Que remembered the containment officer taken away by Du Lulu some time ago.
This incident had also made the news, and he even saw a short video on social media, but the focus of the video was mostly on the “sudden stabbing incident”, without much elaboration on how the containment officer was subdued.
Perhaps there was some tampering by the Anomaly Investigation Department, but Shen Tazhi’s words were undeniable.
“What about… TV shows? Novels?” Jiang Que tentatively suggested, “Like some of the novels I’ve read are very moving, they’re good too. Can we promote those?”
Shen Tazhi fell silent for a moment before saying, “Everyone’s perspective on novels is different, Que Que. For example, the first novel you read, many people might find it childish and unrealistic, even cringe-worthy.”
Jiang Que sat up straight at his words, “How could that be! It’s clearly cool!! And the villains all get their comeuppance, I like those kinds of novels!”
Shen Tazhi: …
He knew the target audience for these types of novels.
As Jiang Que’s ideas became more convincing, he began using his tentacles to playfully poke at Shen Tazhi, “Gege, can I try to start a film and television company? I’m very sensitive to human emotions and can surely grasp what people like to watch nowadays.”
“Just a try, with my money. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll think of another way.”
“Sure, you don’t have to start your own. The Shen Group has several entertainment companies under it. You can choose one to try, and there will be professional managers to help you.”
Shen Tazhi didn’t refuse.
In these past few days, Jiang Que had been staying at home, spending time with him, learning to cook, reading novels, and occasionally helping out the Anomaly Investigation Department a little. Shen Tazhi had been worried that Jiang Que might get bored.
Finding something for Jiang Que to do these days was quite good, especially since he seemed genuinely enthusiastic about this endeavor.
“Great,” Jiang Que was happy, “Even with your money, I can help you earn a lot!”
Seeing Jiang Que’s confident demeanor, Shen Tazhi couldn’t help but start worrying in advance about how to console him if things didn’t go well.
But then he thought, although Jiang Que was unconventional, he had always been sharp in observing human behavior. Perhaps he didn’t need comforting and might thrive on his own.
With numerous thoughts passing through his mind, Shen Tazhi lightly smiled and agreed, “Okay.”
In any case, he would always have a safety net for Jiang Que.
During these few days, he also took the opportunity to ask Director Wu about the initial intention of recruiting Jiang Que into the Anomaly Investigation Department. Director Wu truthfully admitted that they had initially wanted a reason to continue approaching Jiang Que, who had shown some dangerous potential. In reality, Jiang Que’s combat abilities were not outstanding; what made him formidable was his ability to easily see through and manipulate people’s emotions.
However, a series of events had proven Jiang Que’s harmlessness. Additionally, both the Qi Shan Taoists and the Anomaly Investigation Department weren’t keen on involving Jiang Que in matters he shouldn’t bear, which is why Director Wu promptly approved Jiang Que’s resignation application.
Just like Du Lulu had said before, their efforts were for the happiness of ordinary people, and Jiang Que evidently fell within the scope of “ordinary people” as defined by them.
Yet, Jiang Que clearly didn’t see himself as ordinary and still had plans in mind. Both options were delaying the apocalypse, which wasn’t a bad thing. Letting him try was a good idea.
Jiang Que had already begun eagerly planning on the tablet Shen Tazhi had bought him, writing and drawing:
“I think we can start with short dramas initially. The cost is lower, so if I mess up, it won’t burden you too much, but…”
Shen Tazhi interjected, “Que Que, how about you choose a company first?”
Without lifting his head, Jiang Que replied, “You can pick one for me. The type of company doesn’t matter much… Um, just make sure the agents are professional. I don’t understand the professional aspects.”
As he spoke, he began browsing through books on his tablet’s e-library.
Shen Tazhi, who was rarely ignored by Jiang Que, felt like he had inadvertently relinquished some of his small privileges.
For example, the attention and prompt replies from Jiang Que.
Days passed by one after another, and before they knew it, two weeks had flown by, finally reaching the end of September as agreed upon.
Unexpectedly, the short drama that Jiang Que had overseen was a success. After the first episode was released on the short video platform, it caused a huge sensation and was now in continuous serialization.
The revenue generated from the millions of views and plays wasn’t much for the Shen Group, but considering the total cost of the short drama was only a hundred thousand yuan, with minimal marketing budget, the success far exceeded Shen Tazhi’s expectations.
As he watched the screen, Shen Tazhi felt deeply perplexed by the colorful, long-haired girl who fiercely slapped the male lead and the all-too-familiar plot.
What are people watching on short video platforms these days?
Excitedly showing off the success of the first episode, Jiang Que explained, “This is tapping into a nostalgic trend, with exaggerated Mary Sue elements that easily spark discussions. The actors are some of the active minor actors on this platform, along with a few crew members who are Vlog bloggers. It’s easy to generate a high viewership.”
Shen Tazhi praised him, “Impressive.”
Jiang Que happily wiggled his tentacles, “I also think I’m pretty amazing! Next, I’ll insert some subtle positive content into the exaggerated plot.”
“People tend to resist direct preaching, so if we can subtly convey positive messages in a light-hearted manner, it will be more effective.”
Sighing, Jiang Que continued, “It’s a pity the large array in the northwest is still in the lockdown phase. If only we could know the rate at which malicious intent is increasing or decreasing inside, at least we would have a reference point.”
“But it’s still early days. There are only a few people involved now. Let’s discuss these matters later.”
After speaking to himself, Jiang Que suddenly realized that Shen Tazhi had been silent all this time.
Feeling embarrassed, he looked at Shen Tazhi, who was smiling at him. Jiang Que felt uneasy.
Why is he looking at me like that?
It was a strange gaze, not one of love or any other emotion, just strange.
Shen Tazhi chuckled, “I was thinking about how much you’ve been improving, Que Que. You’re really amazing.”
Realizing it was a sense of relief, Jiang Que found it even more peculiar. Why was Shen Tazhi feeling relieved looking at him?
Blushing, Jiang Que leaned into Shen Tazhi’s embrace, “Don’t use that patronizing tone with me like you’re soothing a child.”
Arching an eyebrow, Shen Tazhi looked at him, “You’re ten years younger than me, so aren’t you a child to me?”
Upon careful consideration, Jiang Que realized it was indeed true. Going by their ages, when Shen Tazhi was in high school, Jiang Que was still in kindergarten.
But he still couldn’t accept it, “But that’s not right. I’m eighteen now, almost nineteen. I’m not eight years old, I’m not a little child anymore.”
Shen Tazhi glanced at him suggestively, “Hmm, indeed not small.”
He hadn’t touched him.
Jiang Que’s face turned bright red in an instant, “Why are you teasing me like this!!”
Shen Tazhi always had no filter under the bed, whether it was the occasional teasing or the drawer of condoms he accidentally stumbled upon. He always managed to make Jiang Que feel embarrassed in unexpected ways.
Shen Tazhi had tried to explain this, feeling that Jiang Que’s points of shyness were quite unusual, as normal people wouldn’t feel embarrassed over such trivial matters.
Jiang Que unilaterally rejected Shen Tazhi’s explanation.
Chuckling under his breath, Shen Tazhi looked at Jiang Que’s blushing face, ruffled his hair, and said, “Alright, it’s time. I’ll go train first, you continue with your tasks.”
As soon as training was mentioned, Jiang Que’s face turned even redder. He nodded slowly, tucked himself into the corner of the couch, and watched Shen Tazhi walk away.
Speaking of which… his mating season was approaching.
Curled up in a ball, Jiang Que stared blankly at Shen Tazhi’s retreating figure.
It should be in these upcoming days. Should he prepare a bit tonight?
The food in the fridge should last for a week, so there was no need to prepare now. The matters regarding the short video project were already handed over to a professional agent.
Blushing, Jiang Que went upstairs, rummaged through the closet for the clothes that Shen Tazhi intentionally placed at the bottom.
Hmm… Hopefully Shen Tazhi remembered the time and had already arranged his work in advance.
