Platinum Hair

Fu Liangxia was once again deeply reminded of the fact that Xu Cai was a rich woman. Where ordinary people ordered one male host, she ordered an entire table.

And this was even with her having a specific preference in mind.

Truly a role model for the masses. She silently cast an admiring glance her way.

Perhaps her gaze was too reverent, leading the other to misinterpret it. Xu Cai turned her head and said with an inexplicably proud expression, "Don't worry, there's one for you too."

"But since this is your first time here, I'll let you have Little A today. He's really something else." With that, she gave a suggestive wink.

Fu Liangxia: "..."

Thanks, but no thanks.

After giving the waiter his instructions, Xu Cai pulled her into the private room they had booked earlier. Several Saintland classmates were already seated inside, including the boy and girl from the art appreciation class that day. Seeing them, they called out cheerful greetings.

Fu Liangxia responded with a smile of her own.

The private room Xu Cai had reserved boasted an excellent vantage point, facing the stage where male strippers performed. The crowd around them was buzzing with noise, and with every movement onstage, a piercing scream erupted from below. The atmosphere was electric.

Fu Liangxia noticed that the most enthusiastic shouter among them was the boy who had a keen interest in fashion. Before long, he ran excitedly to the very edge of the stage, where he was lucky enough to be invited up. His face flushed red as he watched the dancer gyrate in front of him.

Absolutely an eyesore.

She averted her gaze after a brief glance and found that the others in the private room were all used to it.

Still, most of these people were unfamiliar faces. Some wore Saintland uniforms, others ordinary high school outfits. When she arrived, they all cast lingering looks her way. But from their relaxed and at-ease demeanor, they were clearly regulars here too.

She just didn't know if they were all Xu Cai's friends.

Fu Liangxia felt that a few of those gazes were dark and oppressive, causing her an inexplicable sense of discomfort.

Just then, the male hosts Xu Cai had ordered all filed in. As they walked in a neat line, it was indeed a dazzling sight for a brief moment.

Fu Liangxia watched them pass with slight appreciation, and Xu Cai, patting her arm, said grandly, "Xiaxia, whichever one catches your eye, pick first!"

...She didn't actually have that intention.

Fu Liangxia was all too aware of what these male hosts were like behind the scenes. Plastic surgery went without saying; plenty would leave with clients for a bit more money, and there were no shortage of those who charmed young girls into spending lavishly, slowly tricking them into taking out loans to support them.

A moment's thought was enough to kill any interest she might have had. Ignoring the flirtatious glances from the two nearest hosts, she said casually, "No need. Didn't you already give me the best one, Xiaocai?"

Xu Cai had been somewhat displeased by the rejection at first—since they were out having fun, why hold back such airs and spoil the mood? Besides, not picking the ones she ordered was practically an insult to her.

But Fu Liangxia's second sentence smoothed over the irritation in her heart, and even gave her a sense of kinship. She said happily, "Exactly! These are all common goods, not worth a second look! After all, what you usually see are... but Little A does have some charm to him."

Fu Liangxia didn't comment. She didn't really think these people were any different in essence from the rest.

After all, anyone who worked in a place like this couldn't be that clean.

She responded vaguely and excused herself to the restroom, leaving the seat without looking back at the scene of revelry that had already erupted around them.

Unexpected but unsurprising, even this bar catering to a high-end clientele was unisex. Fu Liangxia washed her hands at the sink, and as she turned, a dark figure blocked her path.

"Hey, beautiful, are you from Saintland too?"

The person blocking her looked somewhat familiar—seemingly one of the ones who had been sizing her up in the private room earlier. He had a bookish, refined appearance, even bordering on handsome, but the way he looked at people was oily and slick, enough to turn one's stomach.

Fu Liangxia replied flatly, "Isn't it obvious?"

She was still wearing her Saintland uniform.

The other choked, apparently not expecting such a sharp tongue hidden beneath the girl's gentle exterior. After a moment, he awkwardly tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Nice, how I envy you for being able to attend such a good school. I heard the heirs of the four great families are also at your school. You get to breathe the same air as them every day... unlike us, who can only mix with the lowly commoners—"

At some point, the music from the striptease performance outside had stopped, making the restroom area even quieter, so much so that dull thumping sounds from a stall were clearly audible.

"Thud, thud, thud—"

Like something heavy slamming against a door, each hit heavier than the last.

Fu Liangxia's gaze was instinctively drawn there, and she saw the door burst open from within with a tremendous crash.

A tall, handsome white-haired youth stepped out slowly. He wore a mask covering the upper half of his face, and the lips exposed had a beautiful shape. With his exquisitely refined features paired with that silver-black mask, he was stunningly striking.

His gaze swept over the two of them without a trace of emotion. His left hand loosened, and the short, pudgy man whose head he'd been gripping slid from his fingers, collapsing limply to the ground, barely conscious.

Fu Liangxia had never seen that kind of look before. It was like a beast stalking its prey—his eyes held nothing but thick killing intent and nothing else.

She watched in silence as the man passed before her, catching a fleeting glimpse of his eyes beneath the mask, a faint sense of familiarity stirring in her heart. She felt she had seen such a silhouette in the last couple of days.

But where?

Fu Liangxia didn't think she knew anyone with such dangerous eyes.

She also had no intention of poking her nose into other people's business, like stopping the man to ask what had happened to the unconscious middle-aged man.

She'd assumed the guy who'd tried to hit on her earlier wouldn't have the guts either, but who knew where he got his confidence from. He suddenly stepped forward, blocking the white-haired man's path. Inspecting his clothes, he sneered, "You're a male host, aren't you? How dare you lay a hand on a guest."

Male host, white hair again—Fu Liangxia almost instinctively thought of the Little A Xu Cai had mentioned.

"Move." The man, presumably Little A, spat out coldly. The ice in his tone left no doubt that if he didn't move, the next thing meeting his face would be a fist.

The boy's expression twisted at that, and he instinctively stepped back. Then, as if recalling something, he stood his ground again and sneered, "So what if I don't move? Who do you think you are? Just a lowlife, a sycophant who fawns over guests for tips. Who knows what you're really up to behind closed doors—"

"Bang!"

Before he could finish, the sound mixed with the boy's flying teeth as they hit the floor.

Fu Liangxia was momentarily stunned, gaining a new respect for the boy's talent for picking fights.

Clearly, the other guy looked like trouble, yet he still dared to insult him to his face. Was he stupid? Look at him now—from the moment the white-haired man started hitting him, he hadn't managed to fight back once. He was already almost beaten unconscious.

But even in such a sorry state, he still managed to glare at her with wide, furious eyes. "What are you standing there gawking for? Go get help!"

Fu Liangxia: "..."

"Buddy, remember who was looking for trouble with me just a while ago?"

Was she insane enough to help him?

If it weren't for the fact that he hadn't had the chance to provoke her, she'd be stomping on his face two more times right now.

The boy, who had indeed forgotten: "..."

The white-haired man, who had just punched the guy to the ground, glanced up at her instead. There seemed to be a faint flicker of amusement in his eyes, so fleeting that Fu Liangxia nearly thought she'd imagined it.

Still, letting them beat each other like this wasn't great either. If this white-haired man really was the Little A that Xu Cai liked, then working as a male host here meant he probably had no real background. If this guy came after him again later, the trouble would be endless.

With that in mind, she spoke up to advise, "If you keep hitting him, he'll die."

Of course, there was no real intent to dissuade in her tone—it was just a flat, emotionless statement of fact.

"Scared?"

To her surprise, the man actually stopped because of her words. He rose to his feet leisurely, took two steps closer to her, his sharp eyes locking firmly onto her. With the reduced distance, the pressure he exuded grew even stronger.

Yet at that moment, Fu Liangxia was thinking: how is it another wolf cut?

Were wolf cuts this popular this year? Bai Yan, Bai Xin both wore them, and so did the man before her. Though compared to those two, this one's temperament suited the style far better.

But maybe it was because she'd thought of the Bai twins that she suddenly realized where that lingering sense of familiarity came from.

This man looked somewhat like the Bai twins.

It was just that half his face was hidden behind a mask, and she wasn't a fan of those two anyway, so she couldn't tell very clearly.

Perhaps her appraising gaze lasted too long, long enough for the other to lose interest. He slowly stepped back, shoved his hands in his pockets, and turned to leave.

"What are you doing here?"

A low, husky voice sounded from the corridor entrance. Following the sound, Fu Liangxia looked up to see Fu Langshu standing at the intersection directly across from the restroom, appearing out of nowhere.

His gaze swept briefly over the platinum hair of the man beside her, then fell to the two people lying on the ground. He raised a hand, summoning a waiter, and instructed him to take care of the two on the floor. As the waiter hauled them away, the culprit had already vanished without a trace.

Fu Langshu stood at the intersection, watching her. "Came with friends?"

"Mm." Fu Liangxia felt uncomfortable under his strange gaze, so she just asked outright, "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Nothing. Just curious whether someone who dares to stand alone at a bar restroom door with a bunch of guys has more guts than the average person." Fu Langshu waited for her to walk over, signaling he'd escort her back to her friends. "Or are you completely unaware of what you look like?"

Fu Liangxia was stunned for a moment, then looked up at him.

She found no hint of joking on his face.

She was even more confused. Sure, she knew she was decent-looking, but it shouldn't be to the extent Fu Langshu was implying.

If that were really the case, she'd need a chauffeur just to leave the house.

Before she could dwell on it, the man stepped past her and crouched down. He picked up a small, thumb-sized transparent plastic bag from the ground, filled with white powder.

Fu Liangxia wasn't an ignorant child, especially not when it came to the kind of tool that frequently showed up on crime shows. The moment Fu Langshu picked it up, she realized what it was.

And judging by its position, it was exactly where the boy had been pinned down and beaten by the white-haired man.

She fell silent. Fu Langshu beside her gazed at her and smiled, seeing that his warning had hit its mark. He didn't press the topic further, instead shifting gears. "Didn't expect a good student to like this kind of place, or..."

Recalling the man who had just passed with hair color similar to his and Fu Haoyao's, his gaze turned probing, and he said slowly, testing the waters, "Is it for someone here?"

It wasn't paranoia. That shade of platinum hair was rare domestically, and the boy's expressions and gestures even bore a slight resemblance to how Xiaoyao acted around strangers.

—It was hard not to wonder whether she was using one of them as a stand-in.

After all, the second son of the Fu family versus a bar host... it was obvious who was easier to handle.

The man's breath was faint, almost intangible, and as the distance between them closed, an ambiguous heat skyrocketed.

Fu Liangxia stared at the probing hidden in his eyes and suddenly realized he had misunderstood something.

She knew almost instantly what she should say at this moment. "Yes, I like platinum hair. I like platinum... people."

The corners of her lips slowly curved into a smile, and her eyes clearly reflected the sight of the man before her catching his breath at her words.

She really did like Xiaoyao.

The guess was confirmed in that instant, yet in Fu Langshu's heart, there was no joy of confirmation he'd imagined.

Instead, another thought surfaced in that moment—

Since it was all platinum hair anyway, why couldn't it be him?

His blue eyes stared at her, unfathomable, with waves crashing within, as if at any moment they'd sweep her away entirely. The man's normally stoic face blazed with an inexplicable emotion. A broad, ice-cold hand gripped her chin.

The next second, a fierce kiss pressed down upon her.

Fu Liangxia was caught off guard and slammed back against the wall behind her. Lips ground against lips, and she was forced to tilt her head up.

A soft murmur slipped between their lips as he muttered, "Then the person you're thinking of right now... is it me, or him?"

[Fu Langshu Affinity Points +8, current Affinity Points: 37.]