On the way to the infirmary, Su Yunting walked while looking at the chat box on her phone screen.
Her brow furrowed slightly. After she sent that message, there had been no movement from the other side.
Was he… not believing her?
Those photos of He Jiaojiao were all photoshopped using her pictures. Now that the real person was right here, how had she ended up being suspected instead?
Was there any justice in the world?
It was all He Jiaojiao’s fault—if not for her, she would have finished sending her message. If she ended up being suspected, who could she cry to?
Su Yunting cursed under her breath while her fingers flew across the keyboard.
Meanwhile, in another classroom, the phone in Shen Yuli’s pocket began to vibrate.
At first, it was just once.
He ignored it, but after a while, it started vibrating again.
Unlike the first time, this vibration lasted much longer.
It was as if someone was bombarding him with a barrage of messages.
Shen Yuli frowned slightly.
A moment later, as if thinking of something, his brow slowly relaxed.
His gaze returned from outside the window, and the pen spinning between his fingers stopped. He took out the phone that had been vibrating for a while.
It was her, as expected.
Not long ago, someone had sold his WeChat ID, causing a flood of friend requests that annoyed him endlessly.
Shen Yuli was about to turn off friend requests when her request popped up.
Her profile picture was a little orange cat, its head buried in its paws, trying hard to hide itself, giving off a very docile and well-behaved impression.
But the verification message she sent was the complete opposite of her profile picture.
[Hello, I’m your girlfriend.]
Shen Yuli’s fingers paused: Hm?
Girlfriend?
Since when did he have a girlfriend? He didn’t know anything about it.
Soon, another verification message appeared.
[I’m your online girlfriend, Little Sweetheart. I don’t want to use the dating app anymore. May I add your WeChat?]
There did seem to be such a person.
But had she ever been this polite before?
The message she sent inexplicably gave off a well-behaved feeling.
[I can send a photo to prove my identity.]
A photo?
Remembering that photo, Shen Yuli’s finger paused on the “reject” button.
After a long moment, his finger made a detour and pressed “accept.”
The moment he accepted, a photo popped up.
Shen Yuli looked at the photo on the screen.
So what she meant was sending a photo wearing a mask, with only her eyes showing?
In the photo, the girl wore a mask covering most of her face, with only a pair of round eyes visible, like a cute little cat.
Those eyes were very beautiful and very recognizable.
Shen Yuli recognized them.
But even though there wasn’t much difference from the eyes in the previous photo, it inexplicably gave off a different feeling.
That was why he had asked his question afterward.
He hadn’t expected that after he sent his message, there would be no response from the other side.
It happened to be class time, so he didn’t pay it any more attention. But now, the message bombardment had begun.
Shen Yuli lowered his eyes to look at the chat interface.
Strawberry Little Sweetheart: [Is the photo different? Could it be that I’ve gotten prettier?]
Prettier?
Shen Yuli glanced at the photo above.
Only a pair of eyes showing—was that prettier?
This message was sent earlier, and what came after was the source of the message bombardment.
Strawberry Little Sweetheart: [You know, we girls always have to photoshop our pictures a bit when we post them. A few subtle differences are perfectly normal.]
Strawberry Sweetheart: 【I added you on WeChat just to get to know you better, how could you suspect me!】
Strawberry Sweetheart: 【?????Cat not happy jpg.】
Strawberry Sweetheart: 【Why aren’t you saying anything? Are you mad because I didn’t reply to your messages?】
Strawberry Sweetheart: 【I was busy just now, it wasn’t on purpose.】
Message after message.
How fast would someone have to type to send these messages without a single pause?
Shen Yuli could almost see the person on the other side of the screen typing so frantically their fingers were about to fly off.
The emotions shifted from disbelief, to panicked explanation, to blustering bravado, and finally to a weak little “it wasn’t on purpose.”
Shen Yuli raised an eyebrow.
Quite a rich range of emotions.
Chen Che, who had been spacing out beside him, turned his head and saw this scene. He looked as if he’d seen a ghost, eyes wide open.
Not because Shen Yuli was playing on his phone, but…
If his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him, the person Shen Yuli was chatting with right now—that cat avatar—was a girl!
Shen Yuli was actually chatting with a girl!
This was even more shocking than seeing a ghost in broad daylight.
Unable to contain himself, Chen Che nudged him with his elbow, raised an eyebrow, and lowered his voice: “What’s going on? Who’s this?”
Chen Che was incredibly curious, unable to suppress his gossip instinct, and couldn’t help leaning over to take a look.
At the very top were several bold characters—the note he’d given the contact: Strawberry Sweetheart.
Sweetheart?
Why did that name feel strangely familiar?
After a moment, Chen Che seemed to remember something.
Wait!
Sweetheart!
Wasn’t this the online girlfriend Shen Yuli had to add as a punishment after losing at Truth or Dare last time?!
Actually, come to think of it, he was the one who added her.
Back then, everyone was playing games together. Shen Yuli always won, so when he finally lost once, how could they pass up such a perfect chance to prank him?
They happened to see an ad for an online dating app, and Chen Che thought about how Shen Yuli had been single for so many years, always acting like he had no interest in girls, completely desireless.
“I’ve thought of the punishment.” Chen Che’s eyes darted around, and a scheme immediately formed in his mind.
“You have to do online dating for a month!” Chen Che pointed at the dating app ad, declaring it with great gusto.
Just thinking about Shen Yuli looking annoyed with a cold face, but having no choice but to do the punishment and date someone online—how fun would that be to watch?
The more he thought about it, the better the idea seemed. He was this close to clapping his hands in applause.
Forget real life—it wouldn’t be right to drag some other girl into it just to prank his buddy.
But online, it didn’t matter.
Everyone tacitly agreed: if the conversation goes well, keep talking; if not, just say goodbye.
Anyway, no one knows who you are.
Facing Shen Yuli’s cold glare, Chen Che felt no fear or guilt whatsoever—only the excitement of having successfully pranked his friend.
“A bet’s a bet. Or do you want to welch?”
Shen Yuli: “…”
“Hurry up, hurry up.” Chen Che urged.
After a long while, Shen Yuli couldn’t be bothered to do it himself. He unlocked his phone and tossed it to Chen Che: “You do it yourself.”
“Got it.” Chen Che quickly caught the phone and started tapping away.
After careful selection, he finally added an account called “Sweetheart.”
Because this Sweetheart’s profile background photo looked like it belonged to a beautiful girl.
After adding her, he even chatted with her for a bit.
Chen Che was counting on the fact that Shen Yuli would never go back on his word, gleefully dancing all over his bottom line.
Then he handed the phone back to Shen Yuli.
“I know you don’t have any experience chatting with girls. Look, I’ve already finished the opening for you.”
Shen Yuli glanced at the screen. The chat on it was practically a peacock spreading its tail.
“Who says online dating isn’t dating? I’m helping you gain relationship experience.”
Chen Che winked at him, cheekily wagged a finger, and emphasized: “The time limit is one month, and you have to chat every single day.”
In the classroom, Chen Che stared at the WeChat chat page, petrified.
No, wait—his punishment back then was just online chatting, right?
How had it been only a few days, and the progress bar had already accelerated from a dating app straight to WeChat?!
Chen Che looked like he’d seen a ghost.
Could a dare punishment really have made this guy actually start online dating?!
Who exactly was that little sweetheart, to have such charm?
Chen Che’s curiosity was about to explode. He leaned over to look at the chat history.
Before Chen Che could see anything, Shen Yuli grabbed his arm.
Chen Che looked confused. What are you doing?
The teacher on the podium: “Alright, that student who raised his hand, you come answer this question.”
Chen Che: “?”
Huh?
He turned and looked around, bewildered: “Me… me?”
The teacher nodded: “Yes, you.”
Chen Che turned in disbelief to look at Shen Yuli beside him, who was perfectly calm, and ground his back teeth to dust.
If you won’t let me look, then don’t let me look—why drag me into it!
Having been called on, Chen Che had no choice but to stand up despite his reluctance.
With Chen Che no longer bothering him, Shen Yuli turned his gaze back to his phone.
Looking at the long string of messages, he replied unhurriedly.
Su Yunting clutched her phone and poked at the screen.
Where’d he go?
He’s not actually suspicious, is he?
The book seemed to say that at this point he and He Jiaojiao were chatting very well.
Chatting every day.
Could it be that she’d fallen at the first hurdle?
Su Yunting opened the photo she’d sent and looked it over several times, unable to see anything wrong with it.
She pressed her lips together and comforted herself.
It’s fine, it’s fine, don’t scare yourself.
Just then, her phone dinged.
Su Yunting took a look. Her breath caught, and her heart skipped a beat.
L: [I just noticed you were wearing a mask, so I asked.]
L: [You seem very nervous?]