After dealing with Xia Anmian’s account, Jiang Yi tapped “Switch Account” at the bottom of WeChat.
The interface for his alternate account appeared. There was only one pinned contact, saved under the name “Sleepy Star”—Xia Anmian’s best friend, Su Xiaoyue.
Jiang Yi had been using this account for more than two years specifically to date Su Xiaoyue online.
His reason for approaching her had been simple. She was Xia Anmian’s best friend. Her Moments frequently contained updates about Xia Anmian, and whenever they chatted, she often mentioned Xia Anmian’s preferences and daily life. Jiang Yi had managed to coax quite a bit of information about Xia Anmian out of her.
That information allowed him to behave exactly the right way around Xia Anmian while pretending to be “Ning Gui.” It was precisely why he had been able to win her over so smoothly.
Now that he had already cut Xia Anmian off, however, there was no longer any reason to keep this account.
Jiang Yi opened his chat with Su Xiaoyue.
A long string of unread messages had accumulated. The latest ones had all been sent within the past two days.
“Brother, guess what score I got?”
“You’ll never guess! I scored 712!”
“I’m the provincial top scorer! Aren’t you surprised?”
“Brother, why aren’t you answering me?”
“Are you busy? Then I’ll wait for you to reply~”
“Oh, right, Brother. Remember that best friend I told you about? She seems really upset today. I don’t know what happened, and she won’t tell me…”
“Brother, please talk to me~”
Jiang Yi didn’t bother scrolling any further. He exited the chat, opened the account management page, and selected “Delete Account.”
[Once deleted, this account will be permanently removed and all data will be unrecoverable. Confirm deletion?]
He tapped Confirm.
The screen changed. The progress bar filled completely, the display flickered, and then the login page appeared.
Once that was done, Jiang Yi switched back to his main account. This was the WeChat account he normally used to keep in touch with people he knew in real life.
After finishing everything, he placed his phone facedown on the table, picked up the cup of tea in front of him, and took a sip. The tea had already gone completely cold.
“Son,” Jiang Jianguo said, “your Aunt Xia just messaged me. She said her daughter scored 631. Your scores are pretty close, so maybe you two can attend the same university. That way, you’ll have someone to look out for each other.”
Jiang Yi set down his cup and smiled. “That sounds good.”
The moment those words left his mouth, the private room door was suddenly shoved open from outside.
Before the person even appeared, her voice came booming through the doorway.
“Old Jiang! Sorry I’m late! Goodness, the traffic was terrible. I was about to lose my mind!”
A middle-aged woman in a floral blouse hurried inside.
Her voice was loud and remarkably penetrating, the kind that seemed to have been developed from years of speaking over noisy surroundings. There was an open, hearty warmth to her tone that immediately filled the room.
She carried a red plastic bag in one hand, with half a drink bottle and several packets of snacks sticking out from the top. A somewhat faded black backpack hung from her shoulder. From head to toe, she looked as though she had rushed all the way here without stopping to rest.
Someone followed behind her.
Jiang Yi’s gaze moved past the middle-aged woman and landed on the girl in the pink skirt behind her.
For that brief instant, it was as though someone had pressed the pause button inside his head.
Every thought froze for a fraction of a second.
Only one remained.
‘Xia… It can’t possibly be this much of a coincidence, can it?’
The girl followed behind the middle-aged woman with her head lowered, looking somewhat awkward and uncomfortable.
She clutched her phone in one hand. The screen was still lit, displaying WeChat as though she were anxiously waiting for a message from someone.
Xia Cuihua lightly slapped the girl’s arm, prompting her to finally raise her head.
The moment their eyes met, Jiang Yi saw her face clearly.
It was none other than Xia Anmian.
The online girlfriend he had just dumped.
‘It really is that much of a coincidence?’
“Oh my, you must be Little Yi! What a handsome young man! You look even better than you did in the photos!” Aunt Xia pulled a bright red, bulging envelope from her pocket and stuffed it into Jiang Yi’s hand. “Here. It’s our first time meeting, so take it. Don’t be shy!”
“Thank you.”
Jiang Yi’s gaze drifted past Aunt Xia’s shoulder toward the girl standing behind her.
Xia Anmian was also visibly surprised when she saw Jiang Yi. However, she quickly regained her composure and spoke first, “What a coincidence, Jiang Yi.”
The corner of Jiang Yi’s mouth twitched.
Only then did it occur to him that Xia Anmian had absolutely no idea that he was the person she’d been dating online.
‘What the hell am I nervous about?’
Once he realized that, Jiang Yi immediately relaxed. He forced a smile onto his face, raised a hand in greeting, and said, “Class Monitor, what a coincidence.”
Seeing their exchange, both Aunt Xia and Jiang Jianguo looked surprised. They asked almost simultaneously, “You two know each other?”
Jiang Yi nodded. “Dad, she’s the class monitor of our Advanced Class. I owe a lot of my good exam results to her.”
Xia Anmian took her mother’s hand and glanced at Jiang Yi. After a brief pause, she said, “Mom, he’s one of my classmates. Um… he’s a pretty good person.”
The atmosphere around the dining table suddenly became rather strange after this unexpected discovery that the two of them already knew each other.
Xia Cuihua pushed the red envelope toward Jiang Yi again. This time, Jiang Yi didn’t refuse. He accepted it with both hands and gave her a polite bow. “Thank you, Aunt Xia.”
“Oh, look at you! You’re far too polite!” Xia Cuihua laughed so brightly that wrinkles gathered at the corners of her eyes. She turned around, grabbed Xia Anmian by the arm, and pulled her toward the table. “Anmian, sit here. Sit next to your little brother.”
The moment Xia Anmian was pressed into the chair beside Jiang Yi, her entire back stiffened.
She could feel the warmth radiating from him on her right.
This was the first time she had ever been this physically close to a boy.
Almost instinctively, she shifted her chair slightly to the left. The movement was subtle, but it was still enough for Xia Cuihua to notice.
“Where are you scooting off to?” Xia Cuihua chided her. “He’s your little brother from now on. You two should spend more time together and get closer.”
Xia Anmian’s lips tightened slightly. She lowered her head, picked up a wet wipe from the table, and began wiping her hands. Her response came out muffled and reluctant.
“Mm.”