Mr. Earnest Is My Boyfriend Chapter 2

In the face of his compliment, the always narcissistic Xia Zhen couldn’t bring herself to smile. If he tells her that in any other context, she’d be very flattered.

Pei Cheng An doesn’t immediately reply. When Xia Zhen finally looks at him, he says, “Ms Xia, you can just call me my name.” He’s not used to excessive courtesy either.

Pei Cheng An also smiles. “Then I’ll also call you your name.”

She picks up her glass and drinks again. Pei Cheng An follows suit. Before long they fall into silence. Xia Zhen can tell Pei Cheng An is a bad conversationalist. He looks deep in thought. She guesses that he’s thinking what he should say to her.

“I heard you’re working at the institute,” Xia Zhen asks curiously.

“What are you researching?”

Xia Zhen’s eyes is unwittingly drawn to his hands. She’s not a beauty addict but she’s a hand addict. His hands are beautiful and his fingers slender and long. His nails are well-proportioned and neatly manicured. It matches his good looks!

“Oh. Bu jue ming li [an Internet saying meaning that even if I don’t understand what you’re saying, you seem to be very powerful/intelligent].”

In that moment, the waitress comes in with the dishes and the two stop their conversation. The meal is eaten entirely in silence. A few times Xia Zhen wants to speak but gives up after seeing Pei Cheng An eating in earnest.

Even though a person may put a lot of pretensions in the first meeting, including Xia Zhen herself, she can tell when someone’s being sincere. She thinks she’s still good at discerning a person’s character. From Pei Cheng An’s demeanor, it doesn’t seem like he’s pretending. He seems very natural at this.

She who enjoys a festive mood while eating quickly becomes full. She puts down her chopsticks and politely indicates for Pei Cheng An to continue his meal.

She doesn’t worry that she’s not a right match with him because she doesn’t care about that at all. She just needs to follow her plan. Pei Cheng An exceeds all her expectations so she’s going to use the plan she thought she will least likely use: plan A.

No matter what happens, she’ll act as if she’s fallen deeply in love in front of her mom. When everything falls apart, she’ll pretend to be seriously hurt and thus refuse to go on any more blind dates.

To her, blind date is something that is bound to happen thus she has prepared herself to face it calmly. More importantly, if she doesn’t face it properly, her mom Madam Tian will make her life a living hell. So she has to follow her mom’s suggestion and then create some “serious” consequences so her mom can no longer say anything.

Xia Zhen wipes her mouth. She folds her hands above her legs and adopts a solemn appearance.

She first smiles and then begins her practiced speech. “Mr Pei…”

Xia Zhen hasn’t forgotten their agreement but to call his full name is too unfeeling. To call him Cheng An is too intimate. Calling him Mr Pei is just right. If her tone is just right, it wouldn’t sound too polite and will even carry a hint of admiration. Most importantly, that is how she wrote her draft.

She continues,“Frankly, I don’t have any expectations for this blind date. Many people who go blind dates… well, you know how they’re like. But I’ve changed my mind after seeing you. Even though it’s only one meal’s time and it’s very short, I can tell you’re a good person in every aspect. I…” In her draft, this is where she’s supposed to tell him she likes him. But she has never said such words to any man outside her family.

She believes he’s becoming shy.

But why does she think he’s being a little cute? It must be because he has a good-looking face and beautiful hands.

Pei Cheng An smiles gently, his eyes back on Xia Zhen. “I also think you’re very good. I think we can begin dating.”

Aren’t they supposed to get to know each other first? And in that process, she’ll find out his hobby and criticise it. He wouldn’t be able to stand it and they’d go their separate ways, never to see each other again. She’d be so into the relationship that she’ll need a long time to get over her emotional trauma…

She doesn’t even have a response for it because she hasn’t considered such a possibility. She needs to think.

“Okay!” Just one word in an imposing manner.

For Pei Cheng An, he came to this blind date with a positive attitude. He either does it well or doesn’t do it at all. That’s Pei Cheng An’s principle in life.

He’s not surprised that the blind date went well but he didn’t expect that his feelings to be moved, that it’d be a little sweet and itchy. Such a feeling is rather odd. It makes him feel rather dreamy. It has clearly just happened but it’s like he only has eyes for her. Her words still drift in his ears.

Seeing him laugh like that, Xia Zhen will bet that if a bunch of high school girls can see him right now, there would be loud shrieking.

Chapter end