Officer, Are You Ready to Go Straight?

[A buttoned-up, self-deluding police officer x a straight-laced young master who thinks they're all just bros]

Jiang Lan, age 28, romantic experience:

None.

His old man was so worried he stopped fishing and playing golf. He was practically ready to set up a stall at the matchmaking corner and holler that nobody wanted his son.

Ask him, and he'll say he's in no hurry. Ask again, and he'll say

"If all else fails, find Huahua a companion."

Huahua was his family's neutered cat.

After getting a good scolding, he obediently went on blind dates. After several of them, there was always something wrong: either he wasn't good enough for the other person, or he wasn't interested in them. When asked what kind of person he wanted, he had just two words: "Chemistry."

Blind dates weren't a solution. His rowdy friends dragged him to a bar to clear his head. After a bottle of booze, they started egging him on: he needed to make the first move, and at least have a one-night stand. "Come on, pick someone here."

Jiang Lan was so drunk he couldn't understand a word. His friends urged him to point at someone, and he did. Only when the guy came over did he realize he was a male escort.

A stranger suddenly approached, and the alcohol instantly wore off halfway. Jiang Lan shoved some money at him and ran.

The next day, after another perfectly ordinary blind date, Jiang Lan was getting ready to head home when

a man sat down across from him.

What was going on? Had his father become desperate enough to find him a man?

Looking closely, the guy seemed to be the escort he'd picked the night before. He'd been too wasted to see his face clearly then, but now he could tell the guy was definitely handsome.

Jiang Lan's kindness kicked in. He earnestly advised him to go straight, and said that if that didn't work out, he could come work as a receptionist at his family's company. It came with benefits, weekends off, and lunch included.

Just as the light of righteousness was about to spread across the land, the handsome man with the sharp brows and bright eyes said:

"Hello. Economic crime division. Please cooperate with our investigation."

Oh, he wasn't an escort. He was a cop.

In his 26 years of life, Fu Shizhe had never met anyone this hopelessly clueless.

The night before, this guy had mistaken an undercover cop investigating a case for a male escort, picked him, then fled. The next day, when Fu Shizhe showed up in uniform, the guy still earnestly advised him to go straight.

He'd apparently thought Fu Shizhe was moonlighting as a cosplayer.

The young master had been looking for an excuse to skip blind dates. The moment he heard he could help with an investigation, his eyes lit up, and he worked even harder than Fu Shizhe.

He couldn't handle the accounting and could only do fieldwork, but the young master was charming, generous, and handsome. With a few words, he could win over anyone, from every walk of life.

For the investigation, he put up money and people, called in connections from the entertainment industry he'd made eight hundred years ago, and relied on his family to call in favors from a long list of business owners. Then he thumped his chest and promised the perpetually underfunded economic crime team:

"With me around, I won't let any of you suffer! All right?"

At the celebration banquet, Jiang Lan drank in Fu Shizhe's place until he was dizzy. Resting his head on Fu Shizhe's shoulder, he grumbled that once the case was over, he'd have to start blind dating again. His parents thought he was too stupid and always wanted him to find someone clever.

Fu Shizhe was silent for a moment, then asked:

"Four certificates, three benefits, and a stable government job. Would that do?"

Before Fu Shizhe left, the police chief prayed to Guanyin for his subordinate's sake, wishing him a smooth evidence-gathering mission. When he heard that Fu Shizhe had found a capable wife after arriving, he was so delighted he couldn't stop grinning.

What a great double celebration!

Then he heard one more detail.

The nearly sixty-year-old police chief: ???

Isn't he the male idol his granddaughter has a crush on?

Theme: Serving the people.