Seeing this relentless attitude, I had no choice but to cave. "Are you mad?"
Xu Da stared at me intently, and after a few seconds, he asked coldly, "So late, where are you going?"
I hesitated, wondering whether to tell the truth.
"If you tell the truth, I won't be mad," Xu Da said.
It seemed I couldn't dodge this after all.
"The smell in that room is too pungent," I said, "and the front desk told me there are no other rooms available, so I wanted to go book a room at another hotel to get some rest."
"In the past, we've stayed in places that smelled much worse when we were drinking together," Xu Da said. "We've even slept right among a floor full of empty bottles until dawn, and I never saw you fussing over anything. Now that you've got amnesia, you've suddenly become so delicate."
I didn't know how to respond. Perhaps men and women had different thresholds for what they considered stinky. For someone like me, it was completely unbearable—a suffocating form of torture.
After another stalemate, Xu Da spoke up. "I came over today, and you only have one bed here, so I booked another room for myself to save us the trouble of crowding together."
"Really?" I said, overjoyed. "What room number is it?"
"Right next door. I'll go get the key."
Upon entering the next room, wow—the contrast! The air was truly fresh, almost carrying a hint of fragrance.
I was very satisfied. "Well, Big Bro, I'm going to sleep right here tonight."
Xu Da looked at me seriously. "Are you Xu Zhi?"
My heart skipped a beat. Could he have seen through me?
Fortunately, he didn't dwell on it. He handed me the room key and went back to the room I had originally booked.
As sleepiness washed over me, I seized the moment to shower and brush my teeth.
Perhaps it was because I had spent the whole day walking around the company, only to be put through the wringer by Xu Da back at the hotel, but my body was utterly exhausted. The moment I hit the bed after washing up, I fell asleep and enjoyed a sound slumber through the night.
Awakening at dawn, I felt a gaze fixed on me.
"Bro, why are you here?" I asked in surprise.
"I woke up bored, so I came over to see if you were up."
"How did you get in? Didn't you give the room key to me?"
"I have two room keys."
"How does one person have two room keys?"
"Well, it's easy to get things done when you have connections."
I felt a massive headache coming on. I had originally planned to map out how to find that person on my own, but with Xu Da lingering around like this, it wouldn't be easy to chase him off.
"That frown," Xu Da remarked, "is this the Young Master unwelcome?"
"The Young Master"? Sure enough, they were brothers.
I let out a long sigh. I wondered if that jerk had successfully reincarnated yet.
Xu Da looked deeply displeased. "Weren't you going to the branch office for training? Is there any trouble with me coming along with you?"
As I brushed my teeth and washed my face, Xu Da shadowed me every step of the way.
"You know, Second Brother," Xu Da said, "ever since you woke up that time, I've always felt like something was off with you."
Here it came again. Just what on earth had this guy noticed?
"What feels off?" I asked.
"Logically speaking, amnesia shouldn't affect your daily habits, right? How many years had those been ingrained?"
"Speak plainly."
"It's just that you feel very girlish."
I took a sip of plain water to suppress my panic. "How am I girlish?"
"You brush your teeth all dainty and proper, and spit the water out in slow motion. If it were the old you, you'd brush with all your might and spray water all over the entire sink."
"In the past when we stayed at hotels, you'd always ask housekeeping for a plastic bag, stuff all your dirty clothes inside, and take them home for Aunt Lu to wash in the washing machine. I've known you for over thirty years, and I've never once seen you wash a single piece of clothing."
"And now? You actually wash them every single day! Even at a hotel."
"And another thing, when I caught a glimpse of you peeing through the crack of the bathroom door, you were actually sitting down on the toilet seat, carefully trickling it out to avoid dirtying the sides. In the old days, the area all around the toilet would be covered."
"And on top of that—how you hold an umbrella, how you shave your body hair, you no longer watch adult films, you no longer steal glances at beauties, you even formed a male model team to go watch their runway shows every day, and you even flick your fingers into orchid gestures..."
So it was just these things; I let out a breath of relief.
As long as there was no concrete, substantial evidence, I had nothing to fear.
"Hey, hey, are you spacing out?" Xu Da demanded.
"No, I'm listening."
"Hmph, that perfunctory look hasn't changed at all."
I: ...
Unable to shake off this lovesick man, I still ended up going to the branch office with Xu Da.
While wandering randomly around the company with Xu Da, I caught sight of the branch general manager, General Manager Shen.
When General Manager Shen saw me, he grew slightly nervous, but the moment he caught sight of Xu Da, he looked as if he were facing a formidable enemy.
Finding this a bit strange, I was just about to walk over when Xu Da pulled me back. Maintaining a distance that was neither too close nor too far, he said to General Manager Shen, "Go back to your work, don't mind us."
Xu Da's tone was stern and menacing, reminding me of how he had aggressively questioned me last night.
I always felt this guy had a bit of a split personality.
Seeing General Manager Shen nod stiffly, Xu Da dragged me away.
Instead of taking me anywhere else to look around, he hauled me off to a speakeasy.
The silent, solemn atmosphere all the way there filled me with an instinctive resistance, as if I sensed a trace of danger.
Yet his strength was monstrous; even with my height of 180 centimeters, I was completely unable to break free.
At that moment, I abruptly realized that Xu Da was a good half-head taller than my 180-centimeter self—he must have been 190.
Upon reaching the speakeasy, Xu Da finally released my hand.
A man who looked like the owner seemed very familiar with him, throwing an arm around his shoulders. "Xu Bai, you bastard actually came to C City? I thought I was mistaken just now, but it really is you."
"Yeah," Xu Da replied, "came to check out the branch office. I remembered you, so I thought I'd drop by for a drink. What, am not welcome here?"
The other man burst into laughter. "Anyone who steps through the door is a guest, let alone you, Young Master Xu. Come on, get Young Master Xu the best wine in the house."
"Got it, Boss. Young Master Xu, please wait a moment."
"And this is?" The speakeasy owner finally noticed me trailing timidly behind Xu Da and looking around.
With its warm yellow lighting, classical decor, softly flowing light music, and customers chatting in low murmurs, this speakeasy felt very comfortable—much more intoxicating than the nightclub in A City that night.
"Him?" Xu Da said. "He's the one I told you about, Xu Zhi, my only younger brother."
Whether it was my imagination or not, when Xu Da said "younger brother," there was a grinding-teeth quality to it.
"So this is the Second Young Master Xu, a pleasure to meet you." The speakeasy owner reached out to me, his gaze full of probing curiosity.
I extended my hand as well, and as our palms met, I could feel him applying pressure.
"Zhi," Xu Da said, "this is Zou Wen, my college classmate and the owner of this speakeasy."
"Hello, Boss Zou," I said.
"Don't be so formal," Zou Wen said. "Just call me Zou Wen, same as your brother."
Later, the three of us drank together at Zou Wen's speakeasy, and while chatting, I discovered that Zou Wen was already married with a child.
That reminded me of how, right after telling Father Xu and Mother Xu that I was coming to C City and getting ready to head back to Xu Zhi's place, Mother Xu had followed me out to talk.
She had given me all sorts of reasons why I really ought to take Changxia along, babbling on about how taking your wife along on a trip counts as a vacation, how the two of them were already well into their thirties so they needed to hurry up and have a baby, and how the old couple were desperate to hold a grandchild, and so on.
It scared me so badly that I hurriedly told the driver to step on the gas and drive straight back to Xu Zhi's house. In the rearview mirror, I could still see Mother Xu impatiently stomping her feet and muttering under her breath, seemingly saying, "This brat, the moment you mention kids, he runs away..."
As a woman, I truly didn't have much inclination to make a baby with another woman I had no interest in. Besides, with only four years and a few odd months left to find that person and complete my mission, my time was running out.
In this limited time, to make Father Xu and Mother Xu abandon their various "curses" urging me to reproduce, I decided that it was better for a friend to die than for me to suffer.
"Bro..." I drew out the single word into countless twists and turns, winding through eighteen bends of a mountain road.