Chapter 238: Irresponsible IF Side Story — When Wu Heng Became a Corporate Drone
“Sorry, I’m not interested in men. Please give up.”
A muscular, well-built mature man wearing a tight tank top and shorts, carrying a gym bag, finally walked up to a thin man in a suit and lowered his voice as he spoke, clearly at the end of his patience.
Wu Heng: “???”
“Excuse me… are you talking to me?”
The man froze for a moment, then fled in embarrassment.
“He thought you had a crush on him,” the café staff explained.
“Because every day after he placed his order, you would order an identical extra-strong iced Americano.”
The employee actually had a very good impression of this customer.
He seemed to work nearby. Every morning without fail, he came in for an iced Americano. Even when the shop was busy, he never rushed anyone—he would just quietly stand to the side and wait.
He was so quiet that he seemed almost melancholic, even out of place.
He always wore a black suit. In summer, he would take off the jacket and wear a white shirt instead, but no matter the season, he only ever drank extra-strong iced Americanos.
The man from earlier did the same.
And because their timings were always one after the other, it led to a misunderstanding.
Love had not yet come into Wu Heng’s life.
Although in university a few girls had confessed to him, he felt nothing for them. He didn’t place much importance on love, because he had never experienced it—but he still believed those girls should date someone who truly loved them.
After graduation, he stayed in this city.
An older senior invited him to help at his company. Their artificial intelligence project happened to ride the wave of the times, and even someone as socially inept and uncharismatic as Wu Heng managed to buy a small apartment and accumulate a considerable amount of savings.
His life was simple.
So simple that it was almost dull.
Most of the people in the company were from his university. In fact, a large portion were his seniors.
They were familiar with his personality, so they never forced him into messy social activities or unnecessary gatherings.
Wu Heng went to work, got off work, and lived alone. He carried no burdens, and had no particular motivation.
But he was still young—not yet in his thirties. He was only twenty-six that year. When he wasn’t wearing a suit, he still looked like a university student.
Yet his eyes lacked vitality. He seemed tired. He was always unhappy—not exactly sad, just… unhappy. Sometimes even that feeling could be ignored.
And so he lived in the city like a quiet wandering ghost.
Until New Year’s, when he kept his promise and went back to have dinner with Lin Mengzhi. He was then dragged into a reunion room by several boys from his high school class—people he had recently refused to attend a gathering with.
Wu Heng hadn’t expected everyone to be there.
Though he couldn’t remember most of them. He only vaguely recalled that a few of them had been quite good-looking.
Lin Mengzhi, unwilling to let him feel awkward, followed him in. But he quickly blended in, singing loudly with everyone else, even more like an old classmate than Wu Heng himself.
Wearing a sweater, Wu Heng sat in a corner.
After half a cup of beer, his face had already turned red.
Someone kept squeezing into the sofa beside him on the left. With no other choice, Wu Heng stood up and moved to another seat on the right.
But when he sat down again—
The surface beneath him was warm and soft.
A muffled sound came from below him.
He had sat on someone.
“Sorry,” Wu Heng quickly stood up. “It’s too dark here, I didn’t see.”
The person beneath him still had a coat draped over his head. He pulled it down, and their eyes met in the shifting light above the room.
For some reason, that lazy, restrained expression felt strangely familiar.
But the other person had already called his name first.
“Wu Heng. Long time no see.”
“Want to go outside for a walk? It’s too noisy in here—my head hurts.”
Xie Chongyi sat up, folding his coat in his hands.
“Are you really going out like that?”
Wu Heng said, “My coat is in the next private room. I’ll go get it.”
“Let’s go together.”
Wu Heng’s overcoat was Klein blue, and his scarf was black.
Xie Chongyi’s outfit was the exact opposite. When he saw it, he couldn’t help but laugh.
“Coincidence.”
“My childhood friend picked it out for me,” Wu Heng said. “He said my wardrobe is full of black clothes, so I should wear something brighter for New Year’s.”
“Then you should’ve worn red,” Xie Chongyi replied.
A look of mild disgust appeared on Wu Heng’s face.
Outside, the air was cold but fresh and quiet. There were few people and few cars on the road. Only rows of red lanterns hung from the trees, glowing warmly. Most shops were closed.
Xie Chongyi went to buy two instant Nestlé coffees for them to warm their hands. As they walked, they talked.
“I remember you didn’t talk much even back in school, and you rarely joined group activities. I didn’t expect you to stay the same after working. Is this your first class reunion?”
“Mm.” Wu Heng glanced at him.
No matter which city it was, no matter how big it was, that face was always striking—rarely seen.
He looked at it again, then again, without hiding it.
“And you? What are you doing now?” he asked.
“I’m in the capital. Office job. Nine to five.”
“I’m also in the capital.”
“That’s good. We can grab dinner after work sometime when we’re free. I know the capital pretty well.”
“How many days off do you have?” Wu Heng asked.
“Until the ninth day of the Lunar New Year. But I’ll leave tomorrow—I don’t have many relatives here.”
“Back to the capital?”
“No. I’m going to New Zealand for a few days, back on the eighth.”
‘How interesting,’ Wu Heng thought.
While he lived a dull life with nothing but work and home, completely unchanged and uneventful, someone else’s life could be so vivid, so full of movement and vitality.
He didn’t speak after that.
He simply lowered his eyes and walked quietly beside him.
Xie Chongyi kept observing him from the side the entire time, but Wu Heng never noticed.
In the man’s eyes, there was a trace of disappointment—so clear that it made him start wondering whether he had ever done something wrong to him at some point.
But there shouldn’t have been.
Xie Chongyi, like everyone else, hadn’t seen him in many years. He looked much healthier and more striking than he had in high school. Back then, his clothes were always wrinkled and outdated, even his school uniform looked dull compared to others.
He must have lived well these past years—but his personality hadn’t changed at all.
There were still many things hidden in his eyes, as if he was constantly suppressing something intense and restless.
“Want to go to New Zealand together? I haven’t planned a route anyway.”
White breath drifted in the cold air as Xie Chongyi spoke.
Wu Heng’s eyes widened slightly.
But he didn’t refuse.
He nodded.
He had money now.
The two of them stood by the roadside, holding their phones, adding each other as contacts on the spot.
When filling in the remark name, Xie Chongyi typed Wu Heng’s name without hesitation.
But then Wu Heng asked, “What’s your name?”
“?”
“??”
“???”
Xie Chongyi forcefully ruffled his hair, then put his phone away.
“Figure it out yourself.”
(THE END.)
**TN
Really, it’s the end. XD
