A Date Tonight

Xie Xiu has a half-brother named Ye Ziyang, the family's precious darling and the apple of his father's eye. His father, a kept man, pampers and flatters Ye Ziyang all day long. What Xie Xiu envies most is that Ye Ziyang has an incredibly wealthy mother. After the college entrance exams, Xie Xiu fell ill and got poor results, leaving him no choice but to quit school and find a job. Ye Ziyang, meanwhile, flew overseas to study with a single plane ticket. From then on, Xie Xiu was like a rat in a gutter. He waited tables by day and delivered food at night. In the early hours, curled up under the covers in his cramped, moldy rental room, he used his phone to spy on Ye Ziyang's wonderful life across the ocean. He envied Ye Ziyang so much that he even dreamed he had become him. Then, during a holiday, Ye Ziyang suddenly brought his partner home. His partner was a man, taller and better-looking than Ye Ziyang, and apparently richer, too. By chance, Xie Xiu found his social media account and discovered that he was also more popular than Ye Ziyang. From then on, Xie Xiu's object of envy and obsession changed. He looked through the man's photos countless times and fantasized about his life. When the man went a long time without posting, Xie Xiu grew anxious and couldn't sleep. Finally, one night when he was feeling especially impulsive, he sent a message from an alt account- * Xu Yu had only gone home with his partner for a visit, but he felt as if a pair of eyes were watching him. Even after he returned to school, he couldn't escape that gaze. Following the clues, he picked out an account from among the many followers on his social media. It had a default username and profile picture and looked like a bot, yet it was unusually active, liking and commenting on every single one of his posts. After watching it for a while, he finally settled on someone back in China: his partner's stepfather's child with his ex-wife. When he returned to China again, he saw that person: quiet, gloomy, and as inconspicuous as part of the background. He stood silently in a corner, his pale face hidden by his shoulder-length hair. Xu Yu felt that familiar gaze on him again. That evening, after attending a dinner with his high school classmates, he may have drunk something along the way. His whole body was feverish, so he simply got a room at a nearby hotel. As he lay there scrolling on his phone, a private message arrived from that bot-like account. [Have you been busy lately?] [You haven't posted anything.] Theme: Love and peace.