Finally, after a brief discussion, the black and white versions of Xu Yinsheng agreed to Zhao Yicheng’s dinner request.
Driving the Masquerade from Xu Yinsheng’s garage, the three of them arrived at a high-end restaurant called “Tianxia.”
It had to be said that a handsome man accompanied by two beautiful women—especially identical twin sisters—commanded a high rate of second glances.
However, the three of them paid no mind to this. They were only there to eat a meal… well, at least two of the three thought so.
Once they were seated, the service staff brought the menu. Zhao Yicheng ordered three dishes and handed the menu to the two women.
Bai Xu Yinsheng reached out to take it, but Hei Xu Yinsheng snatched it away first. She gave Bai Xu Yinsheng a smug look before speaking to the waiter. “Three orders of egg fried rice, three glasses of juice, a cold dish of fish mint, and seaweed soup…”
“My turn.” Before she could finish, Bai Xu Yinsheng snatched the menu back. she flipped through a few pages. “Waiter, cancel everything she just said. I want Red Braised Pork, fresh juice, Sweet and Sour Ribs, and an order of steamed buns…”
“You…” Hei Xu Yinsheng glared at Bai Xu Yinsheng in a fit of rage.
Ignoring Hei Xu Yinsheng’s fury, Bai Xu Yinsheng looked at the waiter again. “And get this lady a glass of hot water. Her period is here, so she’s in a bad mood.”
Seeing that Hei Xu Yinsheng was about to explode, Zhao Yicheng stepped in to play peacemaker. He gave the waiter an apologetic smile and handed over a tip.
“Bring it all out.”
In the end, Zhao Yicheng had ordered three dishes, and the two Xu Yinshengs had ordered ten between them. A total of thirteen dishes soon filled the table, some even stacked on top of each other.
“I want this one.” “Don’t fight me for it.” “This is mine.”
“Food belongs to those with virtue.” “You’re stealing again.” “I’m taking it.”
As soon as the waiter left, the two women, who already couldn’t stand the sight of each other, entered competition mode again. They scrambled to shove food from the plates into their mouths.
“I want this steamed bun.”
“This is mine, mine!” “It’s not like you’re the one paying.”
“If it’s not mine, then it’s not yours either. You aren’t allowed to eat it!”
“You, Zhao! Who do you think should eat this steamed bun?” The two women glared at Zhao Yicheng simultaneously, questioning him in unison.
“…” Zhao Yicheng.
If your mother and your girlfriend fell into the water at the same time, who would you save first?
How was he supposed to answer? No matter who he gave it to, the other party would definitely cause a scene.
‘Maybe I should say, whoever becomes my girlfriend gets to eat it.’
“I’ll order another basket.” He was about to call the waiter for another order of buns, but he was interrupted by the stubborn pair.
“No! I want this specific one!”
“Hurry up, choose one of us.” The two women urged him again.
Finally, Zhao Yicheng picked up the last steamed bun from the steamer basket with his chopsticks.
“I choose…”
Under the watchful eyes of the black and white Xu Yinsheng, the bun was slowly moved into Zhao Yicheng’s own mouth, where he chewed and swallowed it slowly.
“I’ll eat it.”
The two women exchanged a look. With a single glance, they formed a united front.
Hei Xu Yinsheng was the first to speak. “You ordered so many dishes. Did you bring enough money?”
“If you didn’t, don’t expect us to stay behind and wash dishes to pay the debt,” Bai Xu Yinsheng chimed in from the side.
“This fresh juice tastes pretty good.”
“Then you’d better stop drinking it. What if there are sleeping pills in there again?”
“True. I really don’t want to wake up and find myself back in a Cat Cage.” “People with Mental Illness have the least amount of credibility.”
As expected, the best way to resolve internal strife was to find an external enemy. Now that the two Xu Yinshengs were clearly standing against Zhao Yicheng, their previous conflict vanished instantly.
Singing in harmony, they left Zhao Yicheng speechless.
He had originally intended to ease the tension between the two by eating the bun himself, but now he had drawn the fire onto himself. Was this the literal meaning of ‘no good deed goes unpunished’?
Raising his hands, he gave each of them a light knock on the head. The two girls clutched their heads in pain.
“Just eat your food.”
***
Ever since Xu Yinsheng used her Ever-changing Form to become the Black and White Twin Lotus, Zhao Yicheng felt as if she had developed a split personality.
Sometimes they argued incessantly, rolling up their sleeves as if they were about to fight. Other times, they formed a united front, sharing a common hatred and constantly making fun of him. Then there were moments when they hit it off immediately, pinching and playing with each other like a family.
At night, the lights in the villa’s living room were bright.
Zhao Yicheng was writing something on a small blackboard. From time to time, he would look up at the wall clock and then lower his head again, looking extremely focused.
‘Known facts: The current Ever-changing Form is the Black and White Twin Lotus. Personality analysis: Xiao Bai is innocent and simple; Xiao Hei is belly-black and venomous…’ He suddenly paused, frowning.
What should he do to increase Xu Yinsheng’s favorability?
Treat her to dinner? Invite her to a movie? Or give her gifts and buy toys?
Zhao Yicheng liked having a plan. Much like the finance he had studied, he preferred building models, predicting the stock market, raising share prices, or shorting an acquisition.
With a plan came a strategy, and with a strategy came a guide for future actions—knowing how to create public opinion, how to fool retail investors, and how to harvest the “leeks.”
But when it came to feelings, there was no plan to speak of. Not to mention that he was a 30-year-old who had never been in a relationship before and had zero experience.
Regarding the pursuit of women, his level was still stuck on giving gifts and treating them to dinner.
As for sincerity?
Zhao Yicheng felt he had always been sincere, but his sincerity never seemed to click with Xu Yinsheng.
Previously, he had used the Forced Love approach, hoping that time would ferment the love between them and slowly eliminate the barriers.
As for the result…
He spent three months in the intensive care unit and almost died.
Forced Love was truly a case of “try it and you’ll die.”
‘How to pursue Xu Yinsheng normally?’
After thinking for a moment, he wrote these large words on the blackboard and added a line of small text underneath: Step One: Get closer. Completed.
Step Two…
The hand holding the chalk paused. Zhao Yicheng stopped writing. What should Step Two be?
A direct confession? That would be a hundred percent failure.
Continue giving gifts to get closer? At this stage, no matter what gifts he gave, a qualitative breakthrough was impossible.
Thinking about this gave Zhao Yicheng a headache.
No plan meant no strategic solution. To put it nicely, he was letting nature take its course; to put it bluntly, he was leaving it to fate. At this moment, he actually missed the time when his illness would flare up—he could do whatever he wanted without restraint.
His Mental Illness was inherited from his father. His father, Zhao Tianfu, showed symptoms through an intense craving for his career—in short, he was a workaholic.
As for Yicheng, it was a pathological craving to hold onto the first light of his life, never daring to let go.
Over the last two months, Xu Yinsheng had become One Soul Two Bodies, turning into a pair of sisters. With one black and one white, their personalities were subtly opposed, leaving Zhao Yicheng even more planless.
Xiao Bai seemed to have a higher favorability of him, but Xiao Hei was a classic tsundere—saying she didn’t want anything while eating the most every time. Should he pursue them together, or break them down one by one?
Or perhaps he should wait until these two months were over and the black and white Xu Yinsheng merged back into one.
After a moment of thought, Zhao Yicheng raised his hand and continued writing.
Step Two: Create ambiguity…
Waves of sleepiness washed over him. Just as he finished writing the rough outline of the preliminary plan, his upper and lower eyelids began to fight. He rubbed his eyes and nimbly crawled into bed.
‘I’ll write the rest later. For now, sleep…’
His consciousness began to blur, and dreams slowly emerged. Then, past memories involuntarily surged into his mind.
In a haze, Zhao Yicheng saw a white figure sitting in a chair.
“Do you really need to do this?”
“I do.”
His voice was firm and unhesitating.
“I need to suppress my Mental Illness. If I’m still that lunatic who goes crazy every now and then, I’m afraid I won’t be able to enter her life normally.”
“Sigh… fine then. Sign this Hypnosis Liability Waiver first.”