Evil Love Appears chapter 4

In the taxi, Fu Xiaoyu looked down at the cup of honey lemon water in his hand, able to smell the faint scent of lemons. He knew that besides honey, this kind of drink sold outside definitely had added sugar.

For so many years, he had basically avoided unnecessary sugar intake. He wouldn’t touch popular milk tea or carbonated soda.

But perhaps due to a sudden craving, maybe because of his mating season, he suddenly felt a strong desire for some sugar and, for the first time in ages, took a sip.

It was so sweet.

He immediately frowned as if by reflex.

The car bounced along, causing the night outside to sway.

Fu Xiaoyu held the warm cup and stared out of the window for a while, then lowered his head and cautiously took two more sips before nonchalantly sealing the cup.

Though he was the only person in the car, he still felt a bit guilty.

Three sips were his limit.

As soon as he got out of the car, Fu Xiaoyu threw the rest of the honey lemon into the trash bin. However, strangely enough, those three incredibly sweet sips seemed to have lifted his mood slightly.

Back at home, he quickly took a shower and was in a better state compared to before. While he switched on his computer, he boiled some broccoli, defrosted a few Arctic shrimps, and poured half a glass of red wine on the side.

After preparing his dinner swiftly, he noticed several messages on his phone, all sent by Xu Jiale on WeChat just five minutes ago.

-_-: Are you home?

-_-: Are you there? 1111, are you there?

-_-: reply quickly!

Xu Jiale’s bombardment of messages was somewhat comical, nothing like his usual lazy demeanor.

Wasn’t he supposed to be having hot pot?

Fu Xiaoyu smiled lightly and replied to the messages while typing.

Fu Xiaoyu: Yes, I’m home. Sorry, I just took a shower.

His response was quite formal, not missing a single punctuation mark. After thinking for a moment, he added another sentence.

Fu Xiaoyu: You’re having hot pot, right? Don’t worry about me. Thanks.

-_-: 1

After achieving his goal with a string of questions, Xu Jiale only replied with a “1” and then fell silent.

This abrupt change left Fu Xiaoyu momentarily stunned, and he felt a subtle sense of disappointment. He continued to look at the WeChat messages.

Fu Xiaoyu and Xu Jiale had only ever discussed work-related matters, so even though they were connected on WeChat, they had always communicated through DingTalk.

It was only when Xu Jiale sent him a message this time that he realized Xu Jiale’s WeChat name was actually an expression that looked dispirited, and his profile picture was of Crayon Shin-chan sitting on a toilet.

He couldn’t help but wonder why someone would have such an unattractive WeChat account, and as he thought about it, he clicked into it.

Xu Jiale’s Moments (the equivalent of Facebook posts) were quite sparse, and he hadn’t posted anything in the past month. He had occasionally shared a few news articles before. Fu Xiaoyu scrolled down a bit and saw a photo posted by Xu Jiale on February 14th of this year.

The background clearly showed a Nordic setting(cultures of the northern European region, which includes Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland.), and the beautiful green aurora borealis shone in the night sky.

The photo didn’t show complete individuals, but it captured Xu Jiale’s hand holding another person’s hand high in the air, and both of them were wearing conspicuous Cartier gold bracelets on their wrists.

The caption for this post was a bit silly: “The seventh year.”

Surprisingly, there was a comment from their mutual friend, Wen Ke.

Wen Wen Wen: Show-off, as always!

-_- replied to Wen Wen Wen: Haha, just did it to please him.

Fu Xiaoyu became a bit absent-minded as he read this.

Wen Ke was used the name “Wen Wen Wen,” and he now understood why Han Jiangque had suddenly changed his WeChat name to “Han Han Han” a few days ago.

He had briefly worked with Wen Ke and Xu Jiale on developing a dating app.

But in reality, they hardly communicated privately, let alone chatted on WeChat, which is why he was so late to realize—

Wen Wen Wen and Han Han Han were a couple.

Wen Wen Wen was a close friend of (-_-) Xu Jiale, and six months ago, he had been joking casually about Xu Jiale’s love life.

Back then, Xu Jiale had posted “The seventh year,” and even after his divorce, he had never removed that photo.

On WeChat, they seemed to have a closely-knit little universe where they shared their concrete and real lives.

Meanwhile, his interactions with them were limited to DingTalk, in a series of “File transfer in progress” prompts.

Fu Xiaoyu finished eating his shrimp and broccoli, decided not to scroll further, and quickly opened his MacBook.

He felt that he didn’t have time to waste, especially not on Xu Jiale’s Moments.

Before going to sleep, he needed to come up with a plan to significantly reduce the survey questions. Regardless of how much Xu Jiale disagreed with his suggestions, he had to achieve his goals.

…

On Monday, Fu Xiaoyu drove to work as usual.

He looked a bit tired; these past few days had been busy, and he had given his assistant some time off, so he hadn’t slept well for several nights.

But today was a tough battle—

He had to keep his spirits high.

Fu Xiaoyu bought a cold brew coffee on the way and took a few sips at every red light, finishing the entire cup on the way.

That day’s weather was terrible, with thunderstorms, and despite it being morning, the sky was pitch black. Lightning occasionally flashed across the sky, followed by deafening thunder.

When he arrived at the Gemini Tower, Fu Xiaoyu didn’t go to his own office on the higher floors but headed straight to the third-floor shared workspace.

Wen Ke had rented nearly half a floor there for their small startup company’s office area.

There were already seven or eight colleagues at their desks, and Fu Xiaoyu nodded coldly to everyone before heading to the person sitting furthest inside.

“Xu Jiale,”

Fu Xiaoyu got straight to the point, opening his laptop and placing it directly on Xu Jiale’s desk. He spoke from behind, “Initially, the entire questionnaire had four modules, each with 108 questions, making a total of 432 questions, right?”

Xu Jiale had been lazily leaning back in his chair, reading a newspaper. Fu Xiaoyu’s sudden appearance with work-related matters left him a bit bewildered. He glanced at the computer screen, adjusted his glasses, and said, “Didn’t we delete 20 questions from each module?”

“Not enough.”

Fu Xiaoyu said firmly, “I have to address the questionnaire issue this week because we’re presenting the product proposal to Blue Rain next week. Xu Jiale, I can accept a maximum of ten questions per module, totaling forty. Here’s a list of some questions I think we can retain. Can we complete the entire editing process by Friday?”

“…”

Xu Jiale turned his chair to face Fu Xiaoyu and looked at the assertive Omega in front of him. “Fu Xiaoyu, did we ever reach a consensus on this matter?”

“I have never agreed to the deletion plan like this. I’ve said it before; professional psychological analysis is the essence of this app. If you remove that, what sets us apart from other dating apps? I brought the question bank from M University not to let you randomly come up with a few basic questions that anyone can create for a gimmick.”

Fu Xiaoyu said each word distinctly, “The products under my charge are meant to serve the market. There’s no dating app on the market that dares to set a 400-question threshold for users. With this set of questions, no market evaluation department would approve it.”

Outside, the rain was pouring, almost drowning out their voices.

Fu Xiaoyu had to raise his voice as he continued speaking.

“I don’t care if this app is professional enough or if I’m writing a doctoral thesis here. Xu Jiale, I don’t allow projects I handle to be rejected even in the first round of proposal review. Today, whether you agree or not, I’m going to make this decision.”

“Fu Xiaoyu.”

Under the lenses of his glasses, Xu Jiale’s narrow eyes squinted, showing that he was clearly angry. But when he was angry, his expression strangely remained calm as he spoke slowly, “You’re not the boss, and this isn’t your product. You joined in to handle market planning, in other words, you’re an employee.”

At the mention of those last few words, Fu Xiaoyu’s fingers trembled ever so slightly.

However, he didn’t back down; instead, he took a deep breath and immediately dialed a phone number.

“Wen Ke,”

After connecting the call, Fu Xiaoyu stared directly at Xu Jiale, speaking calmly, “A couple of days ago, you said you were willing to give me shares. Is that still valid?”

On the other end of the phone, An Omega immediately showed signs of excitement. “Of course!”

“Can you come down to the company?” Fu Xiaoyu said, “I have something to discuss with you and Xu Jiale right now.”

“Uh… alright, just wait for me; I’ll be right there.” Wen Ke’s voice sounded a bit weak, hesitating for a moment, but he ultimately agreed.

Wen Ke had just been to the hospital for a check-up not long ago, and his pheromone levels were low. Fu Xiaoyu knew that it wasn’t right to trouble him like this.

Another thunderous roar echoed outside.

Xu Jiale looked at Fu Xiaoyu with an unprecedentedly dark expression.