Xu An’an posted the photo Chen Jia had picked out for him on his Moments, setting the visibility to “All Friends.”
His past Moments posts were all scenic photos from other provinces, or car keys. He had deleted all photos of his previous girlfriend. Recently, his Moments had been filled with photos showing off his relationship with Chen Jia.
Chen Jia didn’t like taking photos. Her tolerance level for photos was that if her face was captured, it had to be slightly slimmed down with editing. Xu An’an had now become proficient in a series of photo-editing apps just to post couple photos.
Before posting, he had to show it to Chen Jia and ask, “Can I post this one?” Otherwise, Chen Jia would genuinely get very angry.
Before long, his Moments were flooded with comments from people on his list.
Close friends were saying things like, “Getting married this young? Is this for real?”
Acquaintances were all offering congratulations.
Some people were asking which wealthy family the woman in the photo belonged to. Others were replying to mutual friends, claiming she was some B-list actress or a mixed-race model from some country—each one spinning a convincing story.
Some even called directly to ask about the details.
Seeing how busy Xu An’an was, Chen Jia finished supervising Chen Yue’s teeth-brushing and didn’t know what to do with herself.
The floor had been mopped just yesterday, and Chen Yue had already tidied up the toys at home by herself today. With nothing to do, Chen Yue went to take a shower.
After Xu An’an finished taking several calls, he stole a moment of free time and saw Zhang Zhian asking in the roommate group chat: “Is the person you proposed to that Chen Jia from before?”
He typed back: “Yes.”
He also sent a photo of himself and Chen Jia to the group. In it, the two of them were smiling with their heads leaning together, looking like a deeply affectionate couple. If not for the background being a vast, boundless seaside, it could have been slightly edited and used as a two-inch wedding photo.
Yan Qinggong: “Proposing this soon? Congratulations to you both.”
Qin Yiming: “May you grow old together. When’s the wedding?”
Zhang Zhian: “Brother An, you’re not even 22 yet, right? Getting married this early?”
On the other end, Zhang Zhian stared at his phone screen, his brows furrowed deeply.
Was Xu An’an crazy? Zhang Zhian’s family had a bit of money too, and the few good brothers he knew all came from families with enough wealth to let them squander freely. For them, marriage probably wouldn’t even cross their minds until their forties—or they’d marry into even wealthier families through arranged alliances.
Right now, everyone was switching girlfriends every few months because they had money, and countless beautiful women were throwing themselves at them. Even if Xu An’an was clean-living, why would he need to find such an ordinary woman who couldn’t hold a candle in public and brought no face at all?
Could Chen Jia be one of those novel-style heiresses—a real rich man’s daughter who was swapped out and abandoned?
Thinking about it, he felt stupid. Rich people had plenty of methods; basically, they’d do paternity tests at birth. If anything seemed off, they’d surely have the means to find their biological child. What kind of heiress could Chen Jia be? She was just a useless, ordinary person.
He wanted to vent to Qi Luoxue, but he hesitated.
Qi Luoxue was a top student. Although her family background wasn’t as good as his, she had always been aloof and strongly opposed premarital sex. Zhang Zhian had argued with her about it several times, and Qi Luoxue had started to grow cold toward him.
Zhang Zhian didn’t want to actually get married just to sleep with Qi Luoxue either. He didn’t dare make false promises to coax her into it. Qi Luoxue was Wang Yan’s roommate, and if things blew up, Wang Yan would definitely step in for Qi Luoxue.
Now, if he went to Qi Luoxue to vent, he wondered if she’d end up lamenting that he was far worse than Xu An’an. Thinking about Qi Luoxue’s disdainful look, Zhang Zhian felt a bit intimidated.
So he took the photo Xu An’an had posted in the dorm group—the one where Chen Jia’s face was clearly visible—and forwarded it to a small group of seven or eight guys he often drank with. These were all his close buddies who drank and sang together every day, so he wasn’t worried about them spreading gossip.
Zhang Zhian: Take a look at the real face of Xu An’an’s partner.
a: An-ge is really getting married? When? Is the wedding in C City or abroad?
b: The photo’s pretty nice. They look well matched.
Zhang Zhian: ? Are you blind or am I blind?
Zhang Zhian: This woman is seriously ugly as hell. I think Xu An’an is possessed.
c: So I’m not the only one who thinks so!
b: At first glance she looks decent, but looking closely she’s really plain. Maybe she’s good at something else, hahaha.
d: So who is she? What does her family do?
Zhang Zhian: Just some poor nobody. A total loser chick.
c: Marriage is a shackle for people like us. Aren’t we all committed to being single? Wait until we’ve had our fun before settling down. An-ge will divorce her one day. Just wait and see.
That evening, Xu An’an also sent out nearly a thousand yuan in cash red packets in the game, converted into gold coins that everyone could grab and use as real money to buy various items. Chen Jia grabbed some too, but there were way too many people in the game. Even though Xu An’an was right next to Chen Jia when he sent the red packets, Chen Jia only managed to snag a little over ten yuan even by timing it perfectly.
Unexpectedly, Chen Jia was in a great mood. She came over and hugged him, saying, “My luck is right here. Let me stick to you for a bit.”
Xu An’an let her hug him, feeling incredibly sweet inside.
Chen Jia’s game character and Xu An’an’s character were idling in a sea of flowers. They’d found a server with very few people and switched to the very last channel, so the map had only the two of them.
The characters wore matching couple outfits, quietly holding hands and gazing up at the bright moon in the sky.
Among a pile of blessing messages and private chats from rich players begging for skins, Chen Jia’s in-game master had high intimacy with her because they often teamed up for dungeons, so the master’s message window was pushed to the top.
Liu Shui Chan Chan: You’re marrying Pingbaike (Xu An’an’s game ID)?
Chen Jia: Yes~
Liu Shui Chan Chan: ..
Chen Jia: What’s wrong, Master?
Liu Shui Chan Chan: You… really only see me as your master?
Huh? What else would it be? Chen Jia thought about it and figured she’d never treated her master, who already had a partner, as a backup. She’d been warm and caring in her words, but never with any hint of ambiguity. What did her master mean by that?
Chen Jia: Master, what’s wrong? I don’t understand.
Liu Shui Chan Chan: I didn’t think you’d be so materialistic! Just because Pingbaike puts on more of an act, you got with him? Do you know how much drama surrounds him?
Chen Jia: …… I don’t know what I said that made you think I was interested in you. From start to finish, I’ve only seen you as my master.
Chen Jia: The drama around my lover is all rumors. We’ve been together for a long time already, and we’ve met in person for quite a while too.
Liu Shui Chan Chan: I knew it. You’re not a good person either.
Chen Jia sighed in front of the computer. What kind of unprovoked disaster was this?
Men’s minds were really hard to guess. Her master had only ever mentioned that when he gave his disciples outfits, they stopped playing with him, and Chen Jia had wondered why anyone would be so strange—not knowing gratitude. It turned out the problem was with the master himself. He gave outfits and then assumed his disciple was a romantic interest, right?
When he’d chatted with her before, he’d seemed perfectly normal.
Chen Jia: When I was with Pingbaike, we were both single. Everyone in our guild knew—we didn’t hide it from anyone. Those clothes you gave me, I’ll convert them to cash and pay you back. Send me your bank account number, and I’ll transfer it to you now.
Chen Jia: Don’t spread rumors about me. Look at the chat logs yourself—when did I ever treat you as a backup?
God damn it. Chen Jia had never even thought about doing anything with a married man. Now he was suddenly messaging her all this nonsense out of nowhere. Sure enough, nothing you accepted from others came for free. She’d thought she’d run into a kind rich guy.
The game avatar across from her suddenly went gray, meaning the person had logged off. Her master’s wife wasn’t online either, so Chen Jia had to ask around among her familiar friends to see who had her master’s wife’s WeChat. It took asking three people before Chen Jia got the contact info.
Her master’s wife accepted the friend request quickly and sent a question mark.
Chen Jia: I’m Peach, Liu Shui Chan Chan’s disciple.
Master’s wife: Oh, what’s the matter?
Chen Jia: Liu Shui Chan Chan just messaged me saying a bunch of weird stuff (screenshot).
Chen Jia: I have no other intentions toward Liu Shui Chan Chan. The chat logs are all here, the timeline isn’t edited. I don’t understand why he said these things. The three outfits he gave me—I calculated it’s 628 yuan. I’ll transfer it to you.
Master’s wife: ?
Chen Jia figured her master’s wife was processing the information. In the meantime, she dissolved the master-disciple relationship and left a message saying she’d transferred the money to her master’s wife.
It was a long while before her master’s wife replied: He gave them to you and you just accepted?
Chen Jia: …He was the one who chose to send the gifts. I only received the mail—if I hadn’t, it would have expired in seven days anyway. I only ever saw him as my master. The money has been returned to you. Wishing you both happiness.
Master’s wife: Thank you. I’ll talk to him. I hope you won’t play with him anymore either.
Why was the other person being so passive-aggressive? At this point, Chen Jia figured she’d run into a pair of lunatics. After the other person accepted the transfer, Chen Jia took a screenshot and blocked her.
She went to get Xu An’an to come to bed. When she walked out, Xu An’an had apparently finished his phone call and was sitting on the sofa looking at his phone, his posture tall and straight.
Chen Jia sat down beside him and casually glanced at his phone, noticing he was looking at a chat window titled “Dorm Group.”
She hadn’t planned on mentioning this small matter, but thinking about his dormmates, Chen Jia worried that if Xu An’an found out about this later, it might cause misunderstandings. After hesitating, she spoke up anyway. “My master from the game just messaged me saying a bunch of weird stuff.”
Xu An’an looked up. “What happened?”
“I just screenshotted it on my phone. Let me show you.” Chen Jia opened the images. “It’s really bizarre.”
Xu An’an frowned as he read through them all, then said, “In the eyes of people like him, once you accept his gifts, he assumes you’re with him.”
Chen Jia felt extremely uncomfortable. “I thought he was rich and generous. After all, I had plenty of friends in the games I used to play who exchanged skins, and he rarely chatted with me anyway. His way of speaking seemed normal too. I never expected him to have a screw loose.”
She muttered to herself, then thought about how she had accepted so many things from Xu An’an. She didn’t have enough money herself, and the gifts she gave him were far less valuable than what he gave her. Was he also thinking about how much return he’d get from her? Would he bring it up and start a fight later?
Xu An’an was trying to recall Liu Shui Chan Chan’s usual behavior but couldn’t remember anything specific. That person really had a low presence. Seeing Chen Jia with her head down and a gloomy expression, he smiled to comfort her. “It’s fine. Didn’t you already resolve it? Next time they come looking for you, just tell me, and I’ll go deal with them.”
Chen Jia snapped out of her thoughts and gave Xu An’an a smile.
Since they had already decided to get married, Chen Jia planned to delete all the ambiguous contacts she had from online flings on her phone the next day when she had free time and Xu An’an wasn’t around. Although they hadn’t been in contact for a long time, Xu An’an would inevitably be upset if he found out.
After all, when they occasionally talked about past romantic histories, Chen Jia only mentioned that she had dated two people in real life. She never said a single word about her online flings. Because most of those were just people who were bored, or they’d chat for a few days without even video calling before wanting to meet up in person for a hookup. In Chen Jia’s eyes, those didn’t count as legitimate relationship experiences at all.
Chen Jia still had basic moral principles. Since she had decided to truly be with Xu An’an, she wouldn’t actually cheat on him. That abs guy was just an exception, because back then she and Xu An’an were only playing around anyway. Since Xu An’an was paying for the flight, even if the in-person meeting turned out to be a disaster, she could still go to City C and have fun on her own. She never expected things to go all the way and end up at the point of marriage.