Champagne & Pools

Chapter 6-Making the first move

A/N:Hi guys! Many thanks for your patience (although personally, I feel like I've updated enough for the next two weeks)! I didn't have much motivation or inspiration for this chapter but I pulled through! Enjoy <3

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Luo Binghe, Shen Qingqiu, and Shang Qinghua walked into the building as a group. Whether Luo Binghe could actually help wasn't debatable. He could. All he really needed was to know who Shen Qingqiu liked (and if it were someone he didn't know, their personality) to get to work. Shen Qingqiu was actually impressed. In a matter of minutes, Luo Binghe was able to come up with a pretty simple plan.

The plan consisted of more physical touch and asking for more shameless "favours." The favours could honestly be anything as long as the tone was right. Those touches though weren't just friendly. They could be borderline suggestive. He was also warned to not rush things too much, lest he scares Liu Qingge off. However, if those displays of affection weren't enough, Shen Qingqiu would have to come forward about his feelings. Of course, though, it would be hard to not notice someone suddenly clinging more and even doing things they normally wouldn't do.

Shen Qingqiu thanked Binghe and dismissed his tardiness as a reward. He felt like he was accomplished. The rest of the day for Shen Qingqiu felt like it couldn't have gone by faster. His stacks of unfinished paperwork somehow got finished because all that weight was gone.

Shen Qingqiu finished his day in high spirits. His day went so well that he decided to go all out with his reward (because he believes that rewarding yourself every so often is healthy). He decided to do something that he never thought he'd do: cut his hair.

Shen Qingqiu has never cut his hair. Ever. Not even as a child. Of course, he would get his edges trimmed occasionally, but that would be it. He's never dyed his hair, permed it, or done anything that involved harsh chemicals.

As Shen Qingqiu drove, he was slowly coming down from his high. Would he actually be okay with this? He's grown so used to his hair. He loved his hair. He'd grown his hair for years and just on a whim, he would just cut it? Of course, there were some pros to cutting his hair. Like, people would stop assuming he was a woman (though even without his hair, he still had a lot of feminine features)! And then the cons: he loved his hair. Shen Qingqiu thought long and hard before he found himself in front of a barbershop. So he was really doing this?

Shen Qingqiu didn't get out of his car for some time. He contemplated some more. Hell, it was only Monday. He didn't have to do this now. He had a whole week, his whole life to do something this crazy. He couldn't be irrational just because his day went very well! Since he wasn't going to do something that insane, the next best thing was to go contact his favourite person.

On the contrary, Liu Qingge's day had not gone well at all. Yang Yixuan's competition went wonderful, no doubt about it, but god were those people so annoying. Many people complained about Yixuan's winnings. Being the person he was, Qingge didn't allow Yixuan to hear such things, so he dealt with it alone.

The complaints were nonstop. "That's not fair!" "His father is the headmaster of Bai Zhan, they cheated!" "The ruling was unfair. They favour Bai Zhan!" And then, there were the comments about his relationship with Yixuan; "I bet he beats the child." "No wonder that child looks so exhausted and unwell. He surely isn't safe at home!" "He overworks him." Of course, those words were meant to get under his skin, but didn't they think that was too much? Going as far as to say he abused his kid?

Liu Qingge wasn't one to remain calm and collected when he was being slandered. But for the sake of his reputation, and embarrassing Yixuan, he held back. They were childish anyway. Would Shen Qingqiu be proud of that? Liu Qingge scoffed as if he needed the approval of his elder, who just happened to be a bit pretty.