Following the server, Gao Sijin and Yu Qingxue walked into the restaurant.

Just like the French restaurants in his imagination, its interior was lavishly gilded. Beneath the dazzling crystal chandeliers, the tablecloths were as white as snow. Expensive-looking paintings hung on the wallpapered walls, and the wine cabinet was stocked with all kinds of top-shelf reds. Almost every corner of the restaurant reeked of capitalism—decadent, yet somehow intoxicating.

Most couples would probably have been swept up in the atmosphere.

But Gao Sijin caught a different scent: the smell of money flowing away like water.

Yu Qingxue had just said she was willing to pay, but on second thought, letting a woman pay for dinner was pretty pathetic. Gao Sijin was a working adult, after all. Even if he had to pay in installments, he couldn’t let a woman treat him.

He touched the phone in his pocket—the same one he hadn’t replaced in three years—and his palm was slick with sweat. He couldn’t say where the fear came from. It was his first time eating at such an upscale Western restaurant, and the thought of spending so, so much money made his heart ache.

“Hey, not bad. You were quite the gentleman back there.” Yu Qingxue chuckled softly. “You even pulled out my chair for me. After that performance, I ought to give you some serious bonus points.”

“I know the basics of table manners.”

Thinking back to the scenes where he’d written his male leads going out for Western food, Gao Sijin had made a point of looking up the etiquette. He’d also recently watched the British series Downton Abbey, where the table manners were enough to make anyone’s head spin. Thanks to that, at least he hadn’t embarrassed himself too badly.

The music drifting through the restaurant sounded like a piano piece by Chopin, though Gao Sijin couldn’t tell which one.

The waiter brought over the menus. Unlike Chinese food, French cuisine was usually ordered individually.

That stumped Gao Sijin. The French names had Chinese translations beneath them, but there were no pictures, so he had no idea what to order.

Meanwhile, Yu Qingxue ordered in fluent French. Hadn’t she gone to Country J? Why was her French so fluent, too?

After ordering, Yu Qingxue gave Gao Sijin a surprised look. Her vivid red lips parted slightly, like a blooming rose.

“Aren’t you hungry? Why haven’t you ordered?”

Gao Sijin looked at Yu Qingxue, then at the waiter standing ramrod straight, and said:

“I’ll have the same as this young lady.”

The waiter respectfully took the menus away.

When Gao Sijin found out that the meal had cost him more than half a month’s salary, his mouth fell open. He couldn’t close it for a long time.

Beside him, Yu Qingxue covered her mouth, apparently trying to hold back a laugh.

Seeing her face turn red from holding it in, Gao Sijin said unhappily:

“That’s too much. You’re actually laughing at me.”

“Sorry. I’m professionally trained, but your comedic talent is beyond my abilities. I can’t keep a straight face. You’re such a fun guy—you wear every thought on your face. You don’t seem like an adult at all.”

Watching the girl laugh until she was nearly in tears, Gao Sijin felt pretty embarrassed. But since she looked so lovely when she laughed, he decided to show mercy and forgive her.

“Miss Yu, there’s something I’d like to ask you.”

While they waited for their food, Gao Sijin spoke first.

“Qingxue.”

“Hm?”

“Don’t call me Miss Yu. If you’re going to call me anything, call me Qingxue. Why are you acting so formal? Are you some CEO from an eight-o’clock soap opera?”

Gao Sijin felt completely at ease around Yu Qingxue. He’d assumed most girls who went on blind dates at French restaurants would be arrogant little princesses with their noses in the air. But everything Yu Qingxue said and did was so genuine, without a trace of pretense.

So far, this was the best blind-date experience Gao Sijin had ever had.

“I wanted to ask you—why did you come on a blind date?”

“What? Is there some special rule in this country that says a girl like me isn’t allowed to go on a blind date?” Yu Qingxue rested her chin on her hand, smiling with amusement in her eyes.

“It’s not that. It’s just that you’re only twenty. You’re so young; there’s no rush to get married. And you’re an international student at the University of Tokyo. You’re so beautiful it makes me feel insecure. Someone as perfect as you can’t possibly be short on people chasing after you.” Gao Sijin frowned. “In my experience as a working adult, almost everyone who goes on blind dates is a reject like me, someone who can’t find a partner and is just looking for someone to get through life with. But you don’t seem like a reject at all. So why are you here?”

Just then, the waiter brought over a bottle of fine red wine that had been allowed to breathe and poured it into Gao Sijin and Yu Qingxue’s wine glasses.

Yu Qingxue held up her glass and narrowed her eyes slightly.

“Sijin, have you ever heard that curiosity killed the cat?”

“So just asking gets me killed?”

“All right, I’ll tell you the truth. I went on this blind date to kidnap you and take you overseas. Happy now?”

Yu Qingxue tied her napkin around her neck and took a sip of red wine.

Gao Sijin froze. He really hadn’t expected her to answer like that.

“It’s a deadpan Japanese joke I learned overseas. Don’t take it seriously.”

“Of course I won’t. How could a twenty-year-old girl kidnap a working adult like me? I never lost a fight in high school.”

For the record, that was true.

Because Gao Sijin had never gotten into a fight in his life.

Yu Qingxue chuckled.

“True. Usually, girls are the weaker party.”

Just then, the waiter brought out the appetizer. Yu Qingxue expertly cut off a small piece of foie gras and put it in her mouth.

“Mm, this is good. I didn’t expect Bincheng to have such authentic French food. Try some, Sijin. The foie gras has a lovely richness from the rum, and the flavor lingers.”

Gao Sijin tried some foie gras, too. He thought it tasted a little gamey.

Maybe his palate was better suited to barbecue and mala tang.

He took a sip of red wine and felt it going to his head.

“I mainly go on blind dates to observe humans. You’re one of my subjects, too. Everything you do is so interesting—it’s enough to keep me entertained when I’m bored.”

“You’re pretty chuunibyou. But funny enough, my reasons are more or less the same as yours.”

One of Gao Sijin’s reasons for going on blind dates was to humor Director Zhang. But he had another reason, too: research for his writing.

Most of his stories were set in worlds of swords and magic, where blind dates barely existed. The boys usually had a houseful of wives and concubines before they turned twenty, with kids already three and a half years old.

Getting to know girls and understanding what they thought, their vanity and their everyday concerns—that was valuable material for Gao Sijin’s writing, too.

That was what it meant to draw inspiration from life.

The main course was an M9 tomahawk steak, aged for twenty-one days.

During the meal, Yu Qingxue never asked Gao Sijin where he worked, what school he’d graduated from, or how much he earned. She only brought up topics about their interests.

As they talked, Gao Sijin learned that she had a rich life outside of work.

The seas of Stockholm, the mountains of Yunnan, the winds of the Pampas, the snow of Hokkaido—she’d been to just about every place she could go. She was the kind of rich girl who lived a picture-perfect life on social media.

By contrast, Gao Sijin’s life had long been confined to the commute between home and work. He was either at the office or writing novels at home.

The gap between their lives made Gao Sijin realize they were on two parallel lines: she was on the upper one, and he was on the lower one.