Chà Chà Novel

Chapter 169: Su Ke’s “Blind Date”

Ji Shileng wasn’t surprised Su Ke had recognized him. Qin Si had a distinctive voice. It was hard to mistake it for anyone else’s.

“He said he was there to look around as an investor. I didn’t get a chance to ask for details”

Su Ke tossed the fake burn scar into the case with a disgusted slap. “An investor taking a look around? He works in military technology. What’s he doing getting mixed up in something that shady?”

“I don’t know. But from what I know of Qin Si, he doesn’t seem like the type to get involved in this sort of thing.” Ji Shileng rubbed his face. His skin stung a little.

“Looks can be deceiving. You can’t measure the ocean with a bucket.” Su Ke frowned at the rash spreading across Ji Shileng’s face and went back to removing his makeup. “Stop touching your face. It’s red again”

Ji Shileng gave a distracted hum and kept twisting around, making Su Ke’s job harder by the second.

“Will you let me get this stuff off first? What are you squirming for?”

“I’m looking for a mirror. My face stings.” Ji Shileng finally dug one out of the case.

Just as he’d expected, the left side of his face had broken out in a red patch.

“The makeup artist gave us some ointment. Wait until I’ve cleaned your whole face, then put it on”

The Ji family’s makeup studio certainly knew what it was doing. The artist knew Ji Shileng’s skin inside out.

Ji Shileng resigned himself to being fussed over. “All right”

“I’m serious, though. Qin Si…” Su Ke still sounded hesitant. “You trust him?”

Ji Shileng couldn’t blame Su Ke for having doubts. Anyone would have had doubts about Qin Si.

Who just turned up with an investor’s credentials like that?

“Yeah.” Ji Shileng closed his eyes for a moment.

Qin Si was his friend. What was he supposed to do, turn on one of his own for the greater good?

He was hardly a saint himself. Qin Si could do whatever he wanted…

Deep down, though, he believed Qin Si would never get involved in something like this.

And for all his talk about letting Qin Si do as he pleased, could he really stand by and watch a good friend make one mistake after another until there was no going back?

“I’ll ask him.” Ji Shileng took his communicator out of his pocket. Before he could send anything, a message from Qin Si came through.

[Qin Si]: What happened to your face? Are you feeling all right?

Sitting right beside him, Su Ke could see the screen perfectly well.

“Ooh~”

Ji Shileng stepped on his foot, just hard enough to make his point. “Say it properly. Spare me that tone”

Su Ke held up the wet wipe in his hand. “Come on, Shileng. What did I do?”

Ji Shileng ignored him and kept typing, so Su Ke went on. “You know what you look like right now?”

“What?”

Su Ke answered without missing a beat, unconcerned that there were other people in the car. “A two-timing bastard. You’ve already got someone waiting at home, and you’re still out flirting with other people”

Ji Shileng’s fingers paused over the keyboard. He stepped on Su Ke’s foot again, laughing as he said, “Since when are you mine? When did I ever have someone waiting at home?”

He glanced at Su Ke and added in all seriousness, “Don’t let Ji Shifeng hear you say that. He gets jealous over everything. If he hears you, who knows what ridiculous errands he’ll come up with to keep me busy?”

“How am I not yours? Best friends count too, you know!” Su Ke stuffed everything back into the case and agreed with the last part. “Ji Shifeng is petty, though. Hmph”

[Winter Snow Is Cold]: It’s just makeup. Pretty convincing, isn’t it?

[Winter Snow Is Cold]: I feel fine. It was just freezing down there, so I got a little chilled.

[Qin Si]: I’m glad to hear it.

Ji Shileng waited a good while. Qin Si had sent that one reply and asked nothing else.

He’d expected Qin Si to ask why he’d been there.

A little more time passed with no new messages. Ji Shileng was just about to put his communicator away when another message popped up.

Speak of the devil.

[Qin Si]: Xiao Shi, this is dangerous. I don’t want anything to happen to you.

[Qin Si]: A-Kuan isn’t as friendly as he seems. Please be careful and look after yourself.

Su Ke clicked his tongue and handed Ji Shileng the ointment. “You’re not going to ask him?”

Ji Shileng typed back an “Okay” and set the communicator aside.

He squeezed out a little of the clear, cool green gel and spread it over his face with his fingertips. The stinging eased considerably.

“Now isn’t a good time.” Ji Shileng had his own set of principles, however muddled they might sound. “Besides, if he wants to tell me, he will. If he doesn’t, that’s fine too”

He knew exactly where he stood. “We’re just friends. He needs his space, and so do I”

They each had the freedom to do as they pleased. There was no need to interfere in everything.

Su Ke didn’t buy the show of being so understanding. “Oh, give me a break”

As if he didn’t know Ji Shileng.

“You’re waiting for him to bring it up himself, aren’t you?”

“Take a guess”

Su Ke had no intention of guessing. “Fine. Let’s see if he does”

The car took a sharp turn. The driver breathed a sigh of relief, tapped a few controls on the dashboard, and switched the license plate.

“Young Master Ji, Young Master Su, we’ve lost them. Where would you like to go now?”

Ji Shileng looked up at Su Ke. “Where to?”

“Back to your place?”

“If I go home looking like this, my mom will have both our heads,” Ji Shileng said dryly.

There was still a red patch on his face. If Wen Qin saw it, she might go on at him for half the evening.

It would be like listening to Tang Sanzang chant the spell that tightened the Monkey King’s headband. Just imagining it gave him a headache.

Su Ke pictured the same scene and shuddered. “So we’re not going home tonight?”

“Let’s go to the office,” Ji Shileng decided. “We’ll stay there tonight and go home tomorrow morning once the rash has gone down”

“Okay, I’ll message Auntie Wen.” Su Ke was just about to text her when a message from his father popped up.

He’d been so busy soaking up the drama in the car that he hadn’t looked at his communicator once.

Now he was done for. He could feel his father’s fury through the screen.

[Grumpy Old Su]: Your Auntie Liang is in the Federation tonight. Her daughter is waiting for you.

[Grumpy Old Su]: You ungrateful brat. Get your ass to the hotel before six, or see what happens.

Su Ke: “…”

At last, he managed to dredge up who Auntie Liang was from some long-forgotten corner of his memory.

Su Ke went rigid and turned to Ji Shileng for backup. “Shileng, my dad’s summoning me to dinner at a hotel. Want to come with me?”

Ji Shileng screwed the cap back onto the ointment and slipped it into his shirt pocket. The case was too bulky. It was easier to carry the tube on its own.

Seeing Su Ke sitting there in a daze, he glanced at the messages and made it clear there was nothing he could do. “I’ll pass. It’s your blind date. Good luck”

He had no intention of getting involved.

Auntie Liang’s daughter was a pain to deal with. Every time she saw him, she acted like he’d done something to her and went out of her way to pick on him.

For heaven’s sake, he and Su Ke really were just friends… Their friendship was as platonic as it got, without a trace of anything else.