Chapter 2

Tong Wen raised a hand to cut him off. “Please stop this dangerous line of thinking immediately. If my mom heard you, she’d drop on the spot.”
Dinner ended a bit late. By the time they came out, the sky was pitch-black. The rain showed no sign of letting up, and thunder rumbled through it.
Tong Wen went home with Ji Zhou. It wasn’t his first time, so he slipped off his shoes like he owned the place and sat cross-legged on the sofa.
“If you want something to drink, grab it from the fridge.” Ji Zhou went to the bedroom to fetch pajamas, getting ready to shower.
“Yeah, yeah.” Tong Wen opened his game and asked, “Bro, where’s your charger?”
“On the desk. Look for it.”
Holding his phone, Tong Wen chatted with his girlfriend on WeChat while rummaging across the tabletop.
Ji Zhou’s desk was a mess. Aside from a laptop, it was covered with professional dentistry books and a pile of printed materials and notes. He still hadn’t found the charger when a magazine caught his eye.
The cover was so bluntly bold that Tong Wen could hardly believe his eyes. He flipped through a few pages, snapped it shut again, and couldn’t calm down for a long time.
His girlfriend sent a message urging him: [Why aren’t you online yet?]
Tong Wen: [I’ll find you later. The sky’s falling…]
_
Ji Zhou came out after his shower to find Tong Wen smoking on the sofa, looking troubled. Ji Zhou asked, “Didn’t find it?”
Tong Wen waved a hand and pointed at the magazine on the coffee table. “Bro, you… you’re serious?”
It was a gay porn magazine—two bronzed bodies tangled together in a way that was hard to look at.
“Chen Huai gave it to me,” Ji Zhou said calmly, as if it were nothing.
“Why—why would he give you that?” Tong Wen was so anxious he started stammering. “He wouldn’t be into you… No, wait, I remember he has a girlfriend.”
“He just told me to try it—see if I feel anything for men.” Ji Zhou sat beside Tong Wen and casually flipped through a couple pages.
“Brother Huai is full of terrible ideas. How can you ‘try’ with this?” Tong Wen pressed down on the pages. “This is misleading!”
Ji Zhou smiled. “I’m an adult. I can tell the difference—there’s no such thing as ‘misleading’ here.”
Tong Wen: …
Ji Zhou continued, “I only got halfway through. I’m not really into overly muscular men.”
“No—whether he’s muscular or not, you still can’t like him,” Tong Wen shot back.
After a pause, he added, “No, this can’t go on. Being single too long really does make you perverted.” Tong Wen made a sweeping gesture. “Bro, give me your phone.”
“Hm?”
“Give it to me. Just for a second. I’m not snooping.”
Ji Zhou handed it over.
As Tong Wen fiddled with it, he muttered, “You’re just too socially anxious. You need more contact with women. If face-to-face is awkward, start online.”
Not quite understanding what he meant, Ji Zhou watched Tong Wen lean closer and point at a new dating app—Seek. Tong Wen said, “Bro, online dating is the trend now. Let’s try this—guaranteed you’ll get out of being single.”
As he spoke, Tong Wen tapped in and began registering.
Nickname: Joice
Gender: Male
Height: 189
Weight: 78 kg
Occupation: Dentist
Relationship status: Single
Personality: Slow to warm up
Hoped-for partner: A woman
Ji Zhou: …
Tong Wen filled in the details at lightning speed, not forgetting to praise him. “Bro, you have no idea how popular your type is—textbook abstinence vibe. Girls love that.”
When it came time to upload an avatar, Tong Wen couldn’t find a single selfie in Ji Zhou’s album—nothing but tooth models.
Then he remembered: earlier this year, when they’d gone skiing with a group, he’d secretly snapped a few half-body shots of Ji Zhou.
He hurried to look. Luckily, he hadn’t deleted them.
The photo was taken in the car. Ji Zhou leaned against the window, playing with his phone. Under a cool-toned filter, the snowy scenery outside the window stood out the most. Inside, he wore a black ski suit and a matching knit cap. His goggles were perched on top of his head, and most of his face was buried in his collar. From that side angle, you could only see his high nose bridge and the outline of his body tucked into the dim car—full of atmosphere.
Tong Wen flipped through the rest. There really wasn’t a frontal shot, but wasn’t online dating all about imagining things anyway? If you showed your whole face right away, wouldn’t you lose all the mystery?
With that in mind, Tong Wen sent the photo to Ji Zhou’s phone. He set the first moody shot as the profile picture, then posted another—Ji Zhou’s back in the snow—in the “Show your life” section, the travel-photo share tab, basically like a WeChat Moments feed, so others could learn more.
Once the profile was mostly complete, Tong Wen tapped the match recommendations in the lower left.
He demonstrated for Ji Zhou. “Tap the X to pass, tap the heart to like. If she hearts you back, you match and can start chatting. And this flower—this is a super-like, like lighting her up…”
Ji Zhou said, “You don’t need to explain it so clearly. I can read.”
Tong Wen: …
“Alright, then we begin…”
Before Ji Zhou even understood what he meant by “begin,” Tong Wen’s thumb was already on the like button. He tapped the heart red, and the app immediately jumped to the next profile.
Ji Zhou didn’t even have time to see each person’s photos and details before Tong Wen had liked them all for him.
“Choosing like this doesn’t necessarily suit me,” Ji Zhou said tactfully.
“Bro, you don’t get it—this is probability. Someone you like might not like you back. And look at you—you don’t even have a proper face photo. Your match rate is low. The more people I like for you, the more chances you get.”
Without VIP, there was a daily swipe limit: fifty profiles. After the last one—
the swipe screen locked automatically.
Tong Wen was brimming with enthusiasm. “I’ll buy you VIP. After that you can see visitors and who liked you—your success rate will shoot up.”
Ji Zhou took the phone back. “No need.”
He exited Seek and set an alarm for seven o’clock. “I have an appointment early tomorrow. You should sleep too. There are clean sheets in the guest room wardrobe—make your own bed.”