A week had passed since Chen Yue started school, and she seemed to be adjusting quite well.
When Chen Jia came home, she was surprised to find an extra girl in the living room. She was about the same height as Chen Yue, with skin tanned a bit dark from the sun. Upon seeing Chen Jia, the girl quickly stood up and politely greeted her with a “Hello, big sister.”
The two of them were sitting in the living room doing homework, and Chen Yue had even taken out the watermelon that had been in the fridge to share with her classmate.
As Chen Jia set down the groceries, she said to the girl, “It’s almost dinner time—why don’t you stay and eat with us?”
The girl shook her head like a rattle-drum. Chen Jia insisted a few more times until Chen Yue chimed in, “She has to go home for dinner, or she’ll get scolded when she gets back.” Only then did Chen Jia realize the girl wasn’t just being polite. Still, as the classmate was leaving, she firmly stuffed two packs of green pea snacks into the girl’s backpack.
Chen Yue began tidying up her textbooks. “Sis, she’s my deskmate. She’s really good at her studies, so I invited her over to do homework together.”
“That’s fine—not just your deskmate. Next time, you can invite other classmates over to hang out too. As long as you clean up the house yourself after they leave. Your sister here works like a beast of burden every day and still comes home to cook for you, so you should handle these things on your own.”
Chen Jia’s tone was blunt, and Chen Yue pouted in displeasure. “I know, I know—aren’t I cleaning up right now? I wouldn’t dare trouble you, dear big sister.”
“Are you adjusting well to the new school? Middle school has so many classes—do you want me to hire a tutor for you?”
In elementary school, Chen Yue usually scored above 90, but with only two subjects, it was hard to tell how well she was really doing. Middle school was where the real divide began.
With more savings in hand now, Chen Jia thought she shouldn’t shortchange Chen Yue. “Don’t you have monthly exams? Let’s see how you score this time. If you fall below the class average, I’ll sign you up for tutoring. Don’t blame your sister for being naggy—if you study well now, you’ll have better job options later and earn money more easily than others. Unlike me, going out early and coming back late every day for just a few thousand bucks. That’s never enough.”
“Money, money, money—Sis, you’re obsessed with money.” Clearly unhappy about the prospect of tutoring, Chen Yue finished clearing the table and ran back to her room.
Chen Jia didn’t want to be one of those killjoy parents, but with their parents gone, she had to take on that role as the older sister. Fortunately, Chen Yue had always been low-maintenance, but Chen Jia didn’t dare let her run completely wild. She thought she was already being pretty lenient, but if Chen Yue’s grades slipped and she wasn’t trying, Chen Jia would definitely step in.
Only when you run a household do you realize how expensive everything is. In the past, Chen Jia had heard her elders tell her to study hard or she’d regret it later—and now she truly did regret it. So she had become that nagging elder from her childhood memories, urging Chen Yue to study hard, and now the disobedient Chen Yue was just like a younger version of Chen Jia herself.
She went to knock on Chen Yue’s door. Chen Yue stayed silent and didn’t come to open it, so Chen Jia stood at the door and said, “If you make it into the top ten in your class on the exam, I’ll take you on a trip—domestic, though. Forget about going abroad. Pick a few places, and I’ll choose one that’s convenient to travel to. If you do poorly, you’re going to tutoring. Got it?”
Previously, the family couldn’t afford it, but now as long as there’s money in her pocket, when it comes to academics, Chen Jia certainly doesn’t want Chen Yue to fall behind others. Now that she knows to hang out with students who do well in school, she should be able to pick up some of their good study habits.
Chen Yue still hadn’t made a sound in her room, and Chen Jia couldn’t be bothered to waste more words. She headed to the kitchen to start cooking.
While waiting for a pot of water to boil, Chen Jia checked her WeChat messages and found that Jiangjun had asked her earlier in the afternoon to borrow her Lun Tianxia game account and password, saying that with the new version update tomorrow, the raid team was short one healer.
Healers were already scarce in this game, and on top of that, Chen Jia was currently ranked fifth on the healer leaderboard. A healer was a crucial factor in whether a new dungeon could be cleared smoothly.
Chen Jia never participated in raid-opening grunt work, because there was no red envelope reward—it was thankless effort that only got you the rewards first. But in this game, getting the rewards first didn’t make them rare at all; they were pretty common dungeon drops.
Seeing that Jiangjun’s tone was sincere, Chen Jia gave him the password.
The two of them ate, with Chen Yue watching cartoons on her tablet. Chen Jia originally wanted to find something on TV to watch while eating, but after searching for a while and finding nothing suitable, she switched to checking the guild group chat. Whether it was a weekend or a workday, the guild group chat always had 99+ unread messages within minutes. Weekend messages were fewer than workday ones, since everyone liked to slack off during the workweek.
When Chen Jia looked, the guild was discussing Xiao Yu Didi leaving the group.
She skimmed through it—basically, Xiao Yu Didi had been getting targeted by Yueliang Chuan’s close friends lately, so she’d directly jumped ship to the top-ranked guild.
There were also various gossip about scumbags and player-players, with so many names and abbreviations that Chen Jia’s head was spinning.
Even though she wanted to enjoy the drama, when there was too much of it, it stopped being fun.
After dinner, Chen Yue washed the dishes while Chen Jia video-called Xu An’an and picked out clothes for tomorrow’s wedding banquet of Wan Suihe.
Xu An’an was staring at Chen Jia standing in front of the wardrobe and said, “That black dress in front of you looks nice.”
“Black is too hot, and since it’s at noon, it’ll absorb heat the moment the sun hits it.” Chen Jia vetoed it.
After going back and forth, Chen Jia still chose a short-sleeved shirt and denim shorts. She held the shorts up against her waist to compare when she heard Xu An’an say from the other end of the phone, “Jiajia, have you been getting thinner lately?”
“Really?” Chen Jia was overjoyed. You see, she was only two pounds away from her ideal figure, but Chen Jia couldn’t control her mouth or get herself to exercise, so she’d never been able to lose the weight.
“Lost your appetite from the summer heat?”
“After cooking meals every day, how could I still have an appetite to eat?”
“How about hiring a dedicated cook? You and Chen Yue don’t come home for lunch anyway, but you should still eat well at dinner.”
Chen Jia initially thought it was too extravagant, but then she thought about the heat of the kitchen when cooking, and now that her wallet could afford it, hiring an auntie didn’t seem like a big deal. “Alright, I’ll call a housekeeping agency one of these days to find one.”
“Most of the ones from housekeeping agencies aren’t great—good aunties are usually kept by their employers. I’ll find one for you. Let me ask my mom.”
Chen Jia didn’t want to bother anyone over such a trivial matter, so she said, “It’s just cooking. My palate isn’t that picky—as long as it tastes good, that’s enough. A housekeeper from the agency will do. Anyway, I won’t keep chatting with you. I’m going to take a shower now. I have to attend a classmate’s wedding banquet tomorrow, so I might not be able to pick up if you call.”
The next day at ten o’clock, Chen Jia changed her clothes, put on some light makeup, put on a mask, and took a cab out.
The moment she got out of the car, she saw Wan Suihe in a red toast dress, standing at the entrance of the hotel on the first floor with her family and the groom’s relatives, greeting guests.
After all, it had been two years since they last met. Wan Suihe seemed to have gained a bit of weight compared to before. Chen Jia took a couple extra looks at her.
Wan Suihe spotted Chen Jia from afar and called out happily, “Jiajia, come over here!”
Chen Jia quickly walked over, smiling as she grabbed her arm. “Wow, long time no see! You look so beautiful today.”
Wan Suihe was naturally a bright and cheerful beauty, and now that she’d run into her best friend from high school, her face was practically blooming with smiles. She patted her belly and said, “It was worth getting up at five in the morning to do my makeup. But then I threw up this morning and barely ate anything, and now I have to stand here—I’m really exhausted.”
Chen Jia followed Wan Suihe’s hand to her belly and asked anxiously, “What’s wrong with your stomach? Did you eat something bad? Should you go get it checked out? Isn’t there a hospital right next door?”
Wan Suihe quickly stopped her. “It’s not a health issue—I’m pregnant! I’m four months along now. Can you even tell yet?”
Chen Jia looked more carefully. “Honestly, I can’t really tell. It just looks like you’ve had a meal. But are you okay standing here? Why don’t you go inside and rest a bit?”
Wan Suihe waved her hand and smiled at her husband beside her. “I’m fine. I’ve gotten used to feeling awful since I got pregnant. Some people I know have zero symptoms during pregnancy, but I’ve had it bad—can’t eat well, can’t sleep well every day. Though since I came back to Anzhou these past couple days, I feel a bit better than before. I have a stool over here, so I sit down whenever there’s no one around. I’m not stupid. This is my husband, and this is my dearest Jiajia.”
Wan Suihe introduced the two to each other. Her husband seemed the opposite of her in personality—a bit introverted. He greeted Chen Jia briefly and didn’t say much more, just standing behind Wan Suihe listening to the two women chat.
“…It’s been so long since we’ve seen each other, you know? Duoduo insisted that her company has an exam today, so she can’t make it.”
Chen Jia remembered the Duoduo Wan Suihe was talking about. Back then, the three of them had been very close, but in a trio, there was always one left out. Wan Suihe and Duoduo lived near each other, so their relationship was closer than with Chen Jia. Because of that, the old Chen Jia had been jealous for years.
Hearing Wan Suihe complain, Chen Jia could only console her. “She didn’t tell me about it—I had no idea. Maybe her company really is hard to get leave from. Good jobs aren’t that easy to come by these days.”
Seeing that Wan Suihe still looked a bit disappointed, Chen Jia was at a loss for words and quickly pulled out the red envelope, placing it in the bag that the bridesmaid carried specifically for holding red envelopes.
The bridesmaid was Wan Suihe’s college classmate. As for why Wan Suihe hadn’t asked her to be a bridesmaid, Chen Jia simply chose not to dwell on it.
It’s just that everyone has changed, gone their separate ways, and the bond has faded. You haven’t even chatted or met up once in a whole year, and you still want to be her bridesmaid?
Chen Jia wasn’t upset either. The older she grew, the more she understood that good friends are only companions for a few years before they become passersby in your life.
She told Wan Suihe about what had been happening recently. “I’m seeing someone now—met them online. He’s really handsome.”
Around noon, most of the guests had already arrived. Chen Jia figured she’d stand by the entrance with Wan Suihe and chat for a bit.
It was no secret that Chen Jia had loved gaming since high school. Back then, she’d been such a good student, but even climbing over the school wall to get to the internet café, she was quicker than the boys.
At the mention of a handsome guy, Wan Suihe got curious. “Got a photo? Let me see.”
After looking, Wan Suihe let out an exclamation. “When did you two get together? He’s way too good-looking.”
“We just met in person a while ago. We’d been together online for a long time before that, video chatting.”
“Where’s he from?”
“City C.”
“That’s not far from Anzhou—just a two-hour drive.”
Just then, a big group of Wan Suihe’s college classmates arrived one after another, and she couldn’t spare another word for Chen Jia. Chen Jia stood there awkwardly for a while, and since there was really nothing to do, she headed upstairs on her own.
As she walked, she couldn’t help envying Wan Suihe’s popularity, and a little pang of sourness crept into her heart.
Her only friend was Wan Suihe, but Wan Suihe had so many, many others.
The thought flickered by and vanished, because Wan Suihe was outgoing by nature—she preferred going out with friends over gaming. As for Chen Jia, she might not have many friends in real life, but she had plenty online.