Nie Xingchao might not be that reliable, but Bai Qingzhou didn’t know any real love gurus. Time was short, so he had no choice but to try whatever might work.
Following Master Nie’s advice, Bai Qingzhou sent Xia Xinghe a message early in the morning on his way to work.
[Bai: Good morning.]
No reply.
Half an hour later, Bai Qingzhou sent a second message.
[Bai: Had fried dough sticks and soy milk.]
Still no reply.
Another half hour passed.
[Bai: Arrived at the hospital. Doing rounds.]
[Bai: Going into surgery.]
[Bai: Writing case reports.]
[Bai: Consultations.]
…
…
According to Nie Xingchao, the biggest problem between them was a lack of communication—so they needed to start with communication.
Bai Qingzhou asked, “How do I communicate?”
Nie Xingchao said, “Whether you have something to say or not, just send him messages—like what you ate today, what you did. It lets him know where you are, helps him feel secure, and also subtly shows you’re single so he starts to feel something…”
The more Nie talked, the more convinced he was of his own brilliance, his eyebrows dancing with enthusiasm. “Just follow my lead—you can’t go wrong. No man can resist this! Ninety-nine percent success rate!”
“…Alright.”
Bai Qingzhou took it seriously and followed through diligently, so by the time Xia Xinghe woke up, he was met with dozens of messages from Bai Qingzhou.
The day before, Xia Xinghe had spent the whole day on a high-speed train, making a long journey back from his hometown. He felt like he’d been tossed into a washing machine and wrung out—completely limp. After finally getting a full night’s sleep, he woke up to find a bunch of WeChat messages, and nearly threw his phone in shock.
Was he dreaming???
Xia Xinghe instinctively pinched himself, then typed out a reply:
[You got hacked?]
No, wait. A hacker wouldn’t go through the trouble of sending so many messages. Xia Xinghe deleted the message and rewrote it:
[Little Bamboo: ?]
[Little Bamboo: Did your phone get a virus?]
[Little Bamboo: It auto-sent a bunch of messages to me.]
After sending that, Xia Xinghe even ran a virus scan on his own phone—just in case.
He thought, This virus is way too powerful. It even knows what people are doing? Zero privacy these days!
Once the scan came up clean, he lay in bed playing on his phone, still thinking about Bai Qingzhou’s messages.
He was certain Bai Qingzhou’s phone had glitched, and he imagined how awkward he must’ve looked when he realized. For once, Xia Xinghe thought with satisfaction, it’s not me being embarrassed. The tables have turned!
But then, another message came in from Bai Qingzhou.
[Bai: It wasn’t hacked.]
[Little Bamboo: ???]
[Little Bamboo: Then why did you send me so many messages?]
And they were all things like “what I ate,” “what work I did”—tedious little updates.
Xia Xinghe’s head was full of question marks. Then, Bai Qingzhou replied again.
Just two characters:
[Bai: I want.]
[Little Bamboo: …]
Okay then. Clearly, us ordinary folks can’t understand the world of Big Boss Bai.
……
After several consecutive days of this “communication,” it was becoming clear that the so-called “99% effective” method didn’t seem to work on Xia Xinghe. Still, Master Nie wasn’t discouraged—instead, he quickly guided Bai Qingzhou to switch to Plan B.
Nie Xingchao said, “Xiao Xia isn’t your average guy. We need a special method to move him.”
Bai Qingzhou asked, “What method?”
Nie Xingchao raised an eyebrow, smiling as he beckoned Bai Qingzhou closer: “Come here, I’ll whisper it to you. Just… do this…”
Bai Qingzhou frowned slightly. “Will this really work?”
Nie Xingchao slapped the table. “You don’t trust your Master? Just go for it! That’s how they do it in the dramas!”
And so, the next afternoon, Xia Xinghe received—not a bouquet—but a truckload of yellow tulips.
999 bright yellow tulips, delivered on an electric tricycle. The vibrant yellow was eye-catching and vivid.
At the time, Xia Xinghe was standing by the balcony admiring the view. The flash of yellow caught his eye immediately. He saw the small tricycle carrying a huge load of flowers downstairs.
“Who’s buying flowers in bulk? Starting a flower shop?”
Curious, Xia Xinghe took out his phone. He had never seen that many tulips in one place. Just as he was about to snap a photo, his phone rang.
“Hello, is this Mr. Xia? Your delivery has arrived downstairs. Please come down and collect it.”
Xia Xinghe said “Okay,” changed clothes, and headed down. Halfway there, he suddenly realized—he hadn’t bought anything recently. As he walked a few more steps, a young man in a florist apron enthusiastically approached him.
“Hello! Are you Mr. Xia?”
Xia Xinghe responded with a suspicious “Mm,” and the guy quickly took two steps back, then hoisted the giant bouquet from the tricycle and handed it to him.
“Mr. Xia, these are the yellow tulips you ordered from our shop. We wish you a happy day!”
Xia Xinghe: “…?”
These were his flowers? Since when?
999 tulips were so many that “hoisted” was no exaggeration. When the delivery guy lifted the bouquet, his whole body practically disappeared behind it, only two arms barely holding it up, looking like he was about to collapse.
Xia Xinghe rushed to help him and put the tulips back on the tricycle.
“I think there’s been a mistake. I didn’t order any flowers,” he said.
The delivery guy blinked. “What did you say?”
Xia Xinghe smiled politely. “I said there might’ve been a mistake—I didn’t place a flower order.”
“You did.”
“I didn’t.”
“You did.”
“I didn’t.”
The two went back and forth a few times before the guy finally started verifying the order.
“Are you Mr. Xia?”
“I am Xia, but I really didn’t order these flowers.”
“Is your phone number ending in 2333?”
Xia Xinghe: “…That’s me, but I swear I really didn’t—”
“You ordered them.”
The delivery guy double-checked the info, then declared with certainty, “These are definitely your flowers.”
Xia Xinghe was at a loss. Trying to reason with him, he said, “I really didn’t order these. Why would a mentally sound single man order this many tulips?”
The delivery guy added helpfully, “Maybe you have some… unusual hobbies.”
Xia Xinghe: “…”
“Forget it,” Xia Xinghe waved his hand. “You guys really messed up. I didn’t buy any flowers. Just take them back and—”
“I get it now.”
The delivery guy looked at him with a suddenly serious expression. “Now I finally understand.”
Xia Xinghe: “?”
“You went through all this just to return them, right?”
The delivery guy said solemnly, “It takes time to package and deliver orders. Our store doesn’t support refunds. We told you that before you bought them, so pretending now is useless.”
His voice was loud. The bright yellow tulips were extremely attention-grabbing. A few aunties out walking around the community started pointing and whispering.
“What’s going on here?”
“Why are there so many flowers? Is someone proposing?”
“Who confesses with tulips? Must be just for decoration.”
“Did this young man buy them? What a huge bouquet!”
…
The onlookers were chattering away, while the delivery guy stood up straight and spoke firmly and clearly: “You look like a successful person yourself. If there’s an issue with the flowers, of course we’ll refund with no conditions. But these are fresh flowers our staff spent the whole day preparing. Please, since you bought them, take responsibility—don’t make things difficult for a humble delivery guy like me.”
“Yeah, the flowers look perfectly fine!”
“Wasn’t easy bringing them over, was it?”
“My daughter used to work in a flower shop. Handling tulips was exhausting. When she took off her gloves, her hands were full of tiny cuts—it broke my heart.”
…
The crowd grew larger. Xia Xinghe, both embarrassed and mortified, his face flushed red, could only accept the bouquet under the delivery guy’s satisfied smile.
The massive bouquet, weighing dozens of pounds, pressed heavily on his arms. Xia Xinghe received many admiring glances from the crowd and wanted nothing more than to bury his head in the flowers!
Seriously, who even gets forcefully gifted flowers these days—and a full 999 tulips at that!
Xia Xinghe was starting to suspect someone was messing with him on purpose.
With all eyes on him, he carried the huge bouquet of tulips upstairs.
A single flower is light, but together they add up. The whole bouquet weighed at least dozens of pounds. By the time Xia Xinghe got home, arms nearly breaking, he dropped the bouquet to the floor and collapsed on the sofa, not recovering for quite a while.
Getting sent flowers out of nowhere was already strange enough, but to be lectured by the delivery guy on top of that for something baseless—it left Xia Xinghe fuming. And then Bai Qingzhou’s message arrived.
[Bai: Did you receive the flowers?]
[Little Bamboo: ?]
[Little Bamboo: You sent the flowers?]
[Bai: Mm.]
[Bai: Do you like them?]
Like them? Like them my foot! His arms were still shaking!
Xia Xinghe sat up with a jolt on the couch and quickly fired off two messages.
[Little Bamboo: What’s with the sudden flowers out of nowhere?]
[Little Bamboo: I’m so mad right now!]
Bai Qingzhou: ???
He… doesn’t like them?
……
8 PM that evening.
The familiar bar. The familiar booth. Nie Xingchao slammed the table, roaring with laughter: “Hahahahahahaha this is tragic! If I were Xia Xia, I’d have blocked you on the spot—HAHAHAHA!”
“…Wasn’t this your idea?”
Bai Qingzhou gave him a cold sideways glance.
Only then did Nie Xingchao slowly rein in his laughter, rubbing his nose awkwardly. “Okay, maybe not entirely my fault. But why didn’t you tell the florist it was meant as a gift?”
The more he spoke, the more justified he felt: “And why tulips of all things? Why not just send roses and make your feelings clear?”
Bai Qingzhou replied, “Too cliché.”
Nie Xingchao was speechless: “Then at least write a message. A confession, or an apology!”
Bai Qingzhou paused. “…I couldn’t come up with one.”
Then added, “Yellow tulips symbolize apology. I thought he’d understand.”
Nie Xingchao: “…”
You expect someone to understand all that when you say nothing at all? No wonder your relationship went up in flames.
Bai Qingzhou furrowed his brows. “So what now?”
“What can you do?” Nie Xingchao shrugged. “Just wait for another opportunity…”
“What opportunity?”
“Like… let me think…”
As Nie Xingchao scratched his head, Bai Qingzhou’s phone lit up.
[Shi Yumin: We’ve pretty much wrapped up negotiations with Xia Xia. Planning to sign the tripartite contract tomorrow.]
[Shi Yumin: Want to come take a look?]
Nie Xingchao suddenly slapped his thigh: “You searched far and wide in vain, only for the opportunity to come right to your doorstep!”
Bai Qingzhou: “?”
Nie Xingchao: “This is the perfect chance to spend time together! Drive him there, pick him up afterward, have dinner in the evening—it’s basically a whole day date! Just the two of you!”
He borrowed a pen again, excitedly laying out his plan for Bai Qingzhou. “You can do this, then this, and this…”
One dared to teach, the other dared to learn. Under Master Nie’s personal guidance, Bai Qingzhou nodded seriously. “What you said makes a lot of sense.”
Tomorrow’s one-on-one date really was something to look forward to.