Chapter 194 - Buzz Cut

“Destined girl?” Little Qingyi didn’t understand how this had anything to do with Zou Mu being a flirt. He thought the other was just trying to distract him, so he stubbornly asked again, “Then why do you have to be a flirt? My teacher said that if a boy likes a lot of girls, then he’s just a big playboy, and playboys will get eaten like carrots!”

“Hahaha…”

Only after laughing to his heart’s content did Zou Mu pick up Qingyi and explain, “That’s because the destined girl isn’t going to come find me herself! If I want to find her, I have to try one by one.”

Although this remark was later deemed thoroughly problematic by Mu Han, who explicitly banned Qingyi from learning such nonsense from Zou Mu, Qingyi remembered it nonetheless. In fact, it was hard not to remember-it had been proven true repeatedly by Zou Mu’s ongoing commitment to living by that statement.

It could be considered another version of “If the mountain won’t come to me, I’ll go to the mountain.”

At this moment, Mu Han’s expression clearly said, “Something entertaining is about to happen,” and the small spark of curiosity in Qingyi’s heart was instantly replaced by a wildfire of gossip-fueled excitement. He shook Mu Han’s arm like a child begging for candy, whining, “Mu Han~ Come on, tell me! I promise not to tell Mu-Ge!”

Qingyi’s whining had always been his go-to secret weapon to get people to cave. Coincidentally, Mu Han rarely had the chance to see Zou Mu so flustered, and his inner schadenfreude couldn’t help but flare up, itching to share the story. After only a second of hesitation, he nodded in agreement.

“Remember when I was recovering in City B? Zou Mu, as my private doctor, stayed there with me for a month. I think it was during that time that he met that girl.”

“What do you mean you think? You’re not being honest~”

“You little rascal.” Mu Han lightly swatted Qingyi, giving him a look that said, “Scoot over.” The room was plenty warm, and sitting so close to him just made it uncomfortably hot. “Your Mu-Ge is so tight-lipped about this whole thing, he hasn’t leaked a single word. What little I do know is from piecing together hints and pestering him until he confessed.”

“Oh~ Mu-Ge knows how to keep secrets? That’s a once-in-a-lifetime event.”

“Yeah, Zou Mu actually did a pretty good job of guarding his secret at first. He stayed in City B for a whole month, and I didn’t suspect a thing. But you’ll never believe this – he, that idiot Zou Mu, went and got a buzz cut!”

“Buzz cut?!” Qingyi was thoroughly shocked by the sudden revelation, his voice practically cracking. “I can’t even imagine Mu-Ge with a buzz cut…”

His voice trembled as he spoke, a clear sign of how rattled he was.

As someone who had personally witnessed Zou Mu transform from a flirtatious little troublemaker into a full-fledged Casanova, Qingyi could confidently say that in all those years, he’d never once seen Zou Mu with a buzz cut.

In fact, forget a buzz cut-even slightly shorter, conventional hairstyles for men were something he’d never seen Zou Mu wear.

Zou Mu, ever since he received his first love letter in kindergarten, had shown a knack for prioritizing his appearance far more than his peers.

It was likely an inherited trait from his mother, an artist, whose fondness for beauty seemed to have passed down to him. From the moment Zou Mu understood the concept of “aesthetic,” he had always been the most meticulous about his looks among people his age. In his own words, this was called “living with refinement.”

Because of this, whenever he was sizing up potential girlfriends, his gaze would inevitably fall on their faces first-he believed a person’s face was the truest “window to the soul.” Naturally, he held himself to the highest standards as well. Beyond his clothes and accessories, his hair was perhaps his most obsessive point of pride-some might even say his devotion to his hairstyle surpassed that of most women.

But now, Zou Mu, who had long lived by the creed “I could lose my head, I could shed my blood, but I will never mess up my hairstyle,” had actually shaved off his precious hair! Qingyi couldn’t wrap his head around it. To him, this was harder to believe than the sun rising in the west.

“Believe it or not,” Mu Han said with a chuckle. Even he found the situation hard to digest when he first learned about it, and his reaction had been far more extreme than Qingyi’s. After all, Qingyi was just hearing about it, but Mu Han had witnessed it with his own eyes. “Here, take a look at this photo.”

Taking the phone and staring at the photo for a full minute, Qingyi finally managed to regain some composure. Pointing at the person in the picture, he opened and closed his mouth several times before any words came out. When he finally spoke, it was with a tone of disbelief: “If it weren’t for those eyes, I wouldn’t have even recognized this was Mu-Ge.”

In the photo, Zou Mu appeared to be resisting the camera. He turned slightly to the side, avoiding a full-face shot, but even so, the changes in him were unmistakable. Gone was the usual dashing and suave appearance. In its place, Zou Mu sported a neat buzz cut. Perhaps because a few days had passed since the haircut, his hair wasn’t completely shaved to the scalp-it had grown out just a little. At first glance, without seeing his face, he didn’t even resemble a monk. Instead, he looked more like an ex-convict freshly released from a labor camp, his expression even carrying a menacing edge.

“He only reluctantly agreed to let me take a photo of him after I said I’d show it to you.” As Mu Han said this, he seemed to recall the moment when Zou Mu, despite fully rejecting the idea, had ended up cooperating with him for the sake of not disappointing Qingyi. Whether it was changing poses or complying with Mu Han’s suggestions, Zou Mu’s begrudging expression at the time flashed through his memory. Mu Han’s lips twitched slightly before he couldn’t hold back a laugh.

However, the smile didn’t last long. Just as Qingyi started laughing along, Mu Han’s tone suddenly turned pensive and tinged with melancholy: “I’ve kept an eye on Zou Mu’s behavior, and from the way he acts… it seems like he has no intention of growing his hair back any time soon. This time… he might really have fallen for someone.”

Qingyi didn’t understand matters of the heart. Throughout his life, he’d received plenty of confession letters, but he’d never felt he liked anyone. All he knew was that Zou Mu’s longtime wish seemed to be on the verge of coming true. That was clearly a good thing, so why did Mu Han seem unhappy about it?

Qingyi was always unguarded around Mu Han, so as soon as the thought came to him, he blurted it out: “Isn’t that a good thing?”

“Well, it’s both good and not-so-good. This whole situation made me realize that guy isn’t as reliable as he looks. Despite all the girlfriends he’s had over the years, he actually doesn’t have much skill when it comes to pursuing someone. He’s been using the same tired tricks forever, and they’re just not effective anymore.”

“Oh~” Qingyi squinted his eyes halfway, a playful smile teasing at his lips. “Did you just spill something? Like, maybe asking Mu-Ge for some tips or something?”

“Not a chance!” Mu Han’s response came loud and firm, with not a trace of guilt in his tone. Raising an eyebrow, he declared righteously, “Look at me, and then look at your Mu-Ge. Do you really think I’d need to ask him for advice?”

To be fair, Mu Han’s statement sounded fairly believable-his sincere expression, paired with the embarrassing bit of Zou Mu’s past that had just come to light, made it seem plausible enough.

But Qingyi’s instincts told him that Mu Han wasn’t telling the whole truth.