Trapped In Paradise
Volume 1 Chapter 52: Not Exactly a Legitimate Hotel!
"It's already eight at night..."
Ning Chu sat wearily on the edge of a roadside flowerbed, lowering his head in utter despair.
"Why... why is nobody paying any attention to me?"
Street promotion was nowhere near as simple as he had imagined. It looked like all he needed to do was get pedestrians to download and register for an app, but in reality, nobody was willing to give him the time of day.
Most of today's quota had been completed by Wen Yang.
It wasn't because Wen Yang was particularly eloquent or experienced. Rather, as a hentai protagonist, simply standing there made him an attractive sight. Once that protagonist aura came into play, several young and pretty girls eagerly approached him.
After not paying attention to Wen Yang for a few minutes, Ning Chu turned his head again and found that two more girls had appeared beside him.
He wearily sighed, slowly got to his feet, and walked over just in time to hear one of the girls excitedly ask:
"If I download and register, can I add you as a friend?"
"Yeah, yeah! Add us as friends and we'll download it!"
Wen Yang repeatedly shook his head, but he couldn't withstand the girls' enthusiasm. Then Ning Chu's voice came from behind them.
"No!"
"If you want to download it, hurry up and scan the QR code. If you don't, then leave. Don't stand here getting in the way!"
Not only did he have to complete the street-promotion job, he also had to make sure Wen Yang didn't get swept away by some enthusiastic girl...
How had he not thought of this from the beginning?
"He already has a girlfriend..."
"So he likes flat-chested girls."
Hearing the two girls' conversation as they walked away, Wen Yang looked somewhat awkward.
He turned toward Ning Chu guiltily, worried that he was about to get another lecture. But Ning Chu merely yawned, apparently not caring in the slightest about what the girls had said.
"Shouldn't we be a little nicer?" Wen Yang tentatively asked. "Like just now, they only wanted to add me as a friend. I don't think it would hurt..."
"We've been at this for so long, and we've only finished a little more than half the quota."
Wen Yang's voice gradually grew quieter, and he avoided Ning Chu's gaze.
Ning Chu rolled his eyes and sighed.
"Let's go back."
"Already?"
"It's past eight. We won't even get back to the dorm until ten." Ning Chu took out his phone and showed him the time. "Put the entire job down as your work. I didn't really do anything anyway."
Only then did Wen Yang remember that Ning Chu was the type who practically never went out at night.
Maybe he had strict parents, or maybe he simply disliked the dark. Either way, when they were at the dorm, Ning Chu usually didn't go outside after eight or nine.
"We're this close, though..." Wen Yang frowned. "It's fine. If it gets too late, we can find a youth hostel and stay there. It'll only be forty or fifty yuan each."
"That way, we can go out and explore tomorrow morning too. It's still better than spending four hours on buses every day."
"A youth hostel..."
Ning Chu hesitated for a moment before shaking his head.
"No."
"Then you go back first?"
Clearly, Wen Yang felt a little rejected.
Ning Chu pursed his lips. He still wasn't comfortable leaving Wen Yang alone outside.
He knew that if he were more forceful, Wen Yang would probably go along with his wishes. But acting like an overprotective parent all the time would easily make Wen Yang resent him.
If Wen Yang really came to dislike him, trying to interfere with the plot in the future would be nothing but wishful thinking.
After thinking it over, Ning Chu remembered that the novel contained no plot involving youth hostels or hotels.
No wonder people in this world liked having outdoor encounters so much. Apparently, the original plot simply had very few hotel scenes in the first place~
"Fine."
Ning Chu reluctantly gave in and picked up the flyers again, returning to the pedestrians.
The buses in this city stopped running punctually at ten. When they finally finished today's work and Ning Chu and Wen Yang ran toward the bus stop, they happened to see the taillights of the last bus disappearing into the distance.
"Well, I guess we have no choice but to stay at a hotel."
Wen Yang wasn't disappointed at all. In fact, he seemed rather happy. Without thinking, he casually put an arm around Ning Chu's shoulders and asked with a smile:
"Want to find a snack street and walk around? We made more than six hundred yuan between us today!"
Ning Chu's body stiffened. His eyes immediately flicked toward the arm around his shoulders, and he shifted uncomfortably, trying to free himself slightly.
"Whatever. You earned almost all of it anyway. I was just dead weight."
"Since I still haven't properly thanked you for what happened last night, I'm paying for everything tonight!"
Now that he had money, Wen Yang immediately put on the air of a wealthy big spender. He had taken the part-time job to improve his life, and the moment he got paid, he was already thinking about how to spend it.
Ning Chu's steps stiffened as Wen Yang kept an arm around his shoulders and led him toward the nearby night market.
He didn't particularly want to have too much physical contact with Wen Yang, but given their current relationship, refusing even something as ordinary as putting an arm around each other's shoulders would probably make him seem overly sensitive.
His hand is so warm...
Wen Yang was noticeably more enthusiastic today than before, and even his gaze toward him seemed gentler.
Could it be that this guy couldn't wait for him to turn into a girl?
The thought sent a chill through him.
It was just after ten at night, exactly when the snack street was at its liveliest. Wen Yang's face was full of excitement as he bought one snack after another from the stalls and stuffed them all into Ning Chu's hands.
Ning Chu, meanwhile, felt as though he were serving a prison sentence. Everything he ate tasted like cardboard.
Why was this guy so excited about going shopping with another man?!
"Ning Chu, let me have a bite of that lamb skewer."
"I already took a bite..."
"I don't mind."
I freaking mind!
Had he accidentally gotten a little too close to Wen Yang?!
But if he put himself in Wen Yang's shoes, if Ning Chu had a clueless roommate who was always ruining his dates, he'd probably wish the guy dead!
Maybe Wen Yang simply had too many options? So he didn't care that much?
With a look of disgust, Ning Chu handed over the lamb skewer. Wen Yang didn't reach out to take it. Instead, he simply bent down and bit a piece of meat directly off the skewer.
"..."
Even if friends who were extremely close did things like this, it couldn't exactly be called gay...
But we've only known each other for a month!
Seeing how happy Wen Yang was, Ning Chu forcibly suppressed his displeasure and tried to pull the corners of his mouth upward into something resembling a smile.
For now, he still needed to maintain a good relationship with Wen Yang. He had to endure it for the greater goal!
Once the novel's plot was over...
Wen Yang chewed on the lamb, his gaze fixed ahead. He pointed at a sign in the distance.
"There happens to be a hotel up ahead. I'll go ask about the price."
"Didn't you say staying at a youth hostel would save money?"
"A double room at a small hotel is only a little over a hundred yuan. It works out to about the same." He quickened his pace toward the hotel. "Besides, I'm paying tonight. Why are you worrying so much about it?"
True...
Ning Chu sighed softly and followed behind at a leisurely pace, watching Wen Yang enter the hotel.
His eyelid suddenly twitched.
Something felt wrong.
Just as he was about to quicken his pace and follow Wen Yang inside, he saw Wen Yang already rushing back out, his face full of panic.
"Quick, let's go!"
Ning Chu didn't even have time to ask why. As he ran, he glanced back at the hotel's glass doors and saw several young women inside gazing at Wen Yang with disappointed expressions.
They ran more than ten meters before reaching a tree planted along the street. Only then did Ning Chu have a chance to ask:
"What happened?"
"It's not exactly a legitimate hotel!"
"???"