Beauty and the Beasts

Since the very beginning, Curtis had never once looked Qin Feiyan in the eye and didn’t even glance her way after he was done speaking. His eyes were only focused on Bai Qingqing and his surroundings, seemingly on his guard.

Qin Feiyan swallowed back her uneasiness and glanced at the application form again. Her red lips gently parted as she said, “Curtis?”

The name Bai Qingqing wrote in the application form was transliterated and sounded vaguely like English.

“An English name? It’s a very good choice for a stage name. But… why is it written in Chinese?” Qin Feiyan looked at her in confusion.

Bai Qingqing replied in embarrassment, “I don’t know how to spell it.” Then, her eyes lit up and she quickly corrected herself. “Change it to ‘Kurt’. What do you think?”

Bai Qingqing looked up at Curtis. She eventually had to help him apply for an identity card. “Kurt” sounded a lot more like a civilian name than “Curtis”.

“Whatever you say,” Curtis said as he looked at her lovingly.

Bai Qingqing stuck out her tongue and pulled on his sleeve.

The corners of Qin Feiyan’s mouth twitched. She was now certain that this man was hiding his identity and didn’t intend to reveal it. But, was it really wise to discuss it in front of her? Weren’t they worried that she would reject him?

They were lucky that she was the one conducting the interview today—otherwise, dealing with this issue would be tricky. Although their advertising agency wasn’t large, they still had strict rules to abide by.

“Okay, let’s go with that.” Qin Feiyan crossed out “Curtis” and gracefully wrote down “Kurt”.

“He can start work this afternoon, but if he already has plans, he can come to work tomorrow,” Qin Feiyan said.

“Tomorrow,” Curtis said simply before grabbing onto Bai Qingqing and turning around to leave.

Bai Qingqing turned back to smile at the accommodating manager before leaving with him.

Just like that, Curtis had been hired for the first time. The entire process was smoother than Bai Qingqing thought.

Looking at the time, it was before two in the afternoon.

“Okay, you need to remember how to get here, because tomorrow, you’ll have to take the bus yourself. I’ll go back to school tonight, and I’ll be there till Friday. That means I can only leave in the afternoon, five days from now,” Bai Qingqing said to him on the bus.

Curtis stood beside her seat. Upon hearing this, his grip on the back of the seat tightened.

Bai Qingqing vaguely heard the sound of something breaking behind her head and stiffly turned back. “Hey!”

When Curtis loosened his grip, cracks could be seen in the blue plastic backrest.

“Why?” Curtis’s voice was lower now and exuded a sense of danger.

Bai Qingqing held his hand and shook it coyly. “It’s like that. Don’t worry. I’ll be very safe in school. I’ll have food to eat and a roof over my head.”

Curtis took a few deep breaths and momentarily dismissed the thought of locking up his mate at home. He said in a deep voice, “I’ll come to look for you at night.”

“Don’t!” Bai Qingqing swallowed back her words of comfort upon seeing Curtis’s eyes suddenly narrow. “I stay in a dormitory. There’s a lot of people living together in one house. You’ll get caught,” she said worriedly.

“I’ll avoid everyone,” Curtis replied.

Bai Qingqing thought about how tightly packed the beds and rooms in the dormitory were and, for the first time, was extremely distrustful of him.

Curtis stroked her head. “I’ll take care of that. Don’t worry.”

Bai Qingqing sighed and replied, “Okay. But you cannot get caught. Otherwise, we’ll be in big trouble!”

Their dormitory had extremely strict rules. A male student was once harshly reprimanded in front of the whole school for entering the female dormitory. Curtis wasn’t a student, so the consequences for getting caught would be much worse, and the unlucky one would be her.