“You got it, Year Bro! This is easy to look up. Just leave it to me! Give me ten minutes, and I’ll track down all the details on this guy for you.”
Gu Ming patted his chest in assurance, then turned around and hurried out of the private booth.
Ten minutes later, Gu Ming excitedly and hurriedly stepped back into the room.
“Year Bro, I found it! This jerk’s name is Pei Shuchen, and all his basic information is right here. Take a look!”
Hardly able to contain his excitement, Gu Ming handed a stack of documents over to Si Jinnian.
“What did you just say? What’s his name?”
Hearing the name Gu Ming reported, Si Jinnian felt his head buzz, briefly wondering if he had misheard.
Snatching the documents from Gu Ming’s hands, Si Jinnian quickly flipped through them.
“His name is Pei Shuchen! The residential address on his ID information shows the High-Tech Zone in Nanjiang City, but his current place of residence is at Number 1 Courtyard in the Beichen District right here in Beijing.” Gu Ming blurted out without missing a beat.
Flipping open the documents and seeing the page containing Pei Shuchen’s personal details, Si Jinnian blanked out.
Wasn’t the person in this photo the exact same jerk he had been drinking with last night?
Yet his name was actually Pei Shuchen?
Pei Shuchen?
How could this be?
How could his name possibly be Pei Shuchen?
Si Jinnian widened his eyes, staring fixedly at the three characters “Pei Shuchen” in the name field, and instinctively blurted out, “How is this possible? How could it possibly be him?”
It could have been Zhang Shuchen, or Li Shuchen for all he cared, but why did it have to be Pei Shuchen out of all people!
Seeing Si Jinnian’s reaction, Gu Ming looked confused, staring at him with intense curiosity.
“What’s wrong, Year Bro? Is there something wrong with these documents?”
Swallowing hard, Si Jinnian looked at Gu Ming with a complicated expression. “Are you certain the information you gave me is real?”
Gu Ming was thoroughly baffled by the question, but nodded without a moment’s hesitation. “Of course it’s real! This is just basic card-activation data, so it’s super easy to look up. There’s no reason to fake it at all!”
Hearing Gu Ming’s reply, Si Jinnian felt his head buzz once more, and his entire mind went blank.
If the information was real, then the person he had flirted with last night was none other than his designated fiancé from their arranged marriage.
“Could it really be this much of a coincidence?”
The moment he thought about the possibility that Pei Shuchen was his arranged fiancé, Si Jinnian felt a wave of awkwardness and ungrounded nervousness.
“What’s wrong? Do you know him?” Gu Ming asked curiously.
“I…”
Si Jinnian was at a loss for words. He opened and closed his mouth repeatedly, unable to squeeze out a single syllable.
After a long while, he finally struggled to speak. “Gu Ming, you’d say that meeting two people with the exact same name in the same city isn’t that rare of an occurrence, right?”
“Not rare at all, of course not.”
Gu Ming shook his head, then quickly added, “Did you forget? Back when we were in school, I ran into three different people who shared my exact name. There’s nothing strange about that.”
Si Jinnian figured Gu Ming had a point. With China’s massive population, people sharing the same name were hardly uncommon. Running into two people with the exact name in the same city was practically normal.
“What’s the matter, Year Bro? Have you heard this jerk’s name somewhere before?” Gu Ming asked dismissively, casting a glance at the documents in Si Jinnian’s hands.
Si Jinnian opened his mouth, wanting to say something, when a sudden thought struck him. He whipped out his phone, unblocked his mother’s number from his blacklist, and promptly called her.
The moment the call connected, before Si Jinnian could even utter a word, Li Shuhe’s near-roaring voice blasted through the receiver.
“You brat, you actually dare to call me back! Our Si family’s reputation is completely ruined because of you. Where are you right now? Get your butt back here immediately!”
“You even dared to block my number. I think you really have a death wish!”
Facing his mother’s scolding, Si Jinnian offered an awkward chuckle and shamelessly spoke into the phone. “Mom, don’t get upset yet. Anger harms the body, and it’ll make you age faster. I have something to ask you. Do you happen to have a photo of Pei Shuchen? Can you send me one?”
Hearing this request from her son, Li Shuhe visibly paused, then asked with a hostile tone, “What do you want Shuchen’s photo for? Weren’t you the one who refused to look when I showed it to you before? Why are you suddenly asking for his picture now?”
“It’s nothing, just suddenly felt like looking. Didn’t you want me to marry him? Well, before I get married, shouldn’t I at least take a look at what my future wife looks like?”
Li Shuhe obviously didn’t believe a word of Si Jinnian’s excuse. She let out a cold snort and mocked, “Stop trying to fool me here! Even if I have one, I won’t give it to you, and besides, you don’t even have the qualification to look anymore.”
“Why don’t I have the qualification? That’s my future wife!”
“Because Shuchen already canceled the engagement with you! It’s not a matter of you refusing to marry him anymore; it’s him rejecting you instead.”
As she spoke, Li Shuhe let out a mocking chuckle, sounding thoroughly amused and gleeful about Pei Shuchen canceling the engagement.
“What? He canceled the engagement? Why?”
Hearing this, Si Jinnian sprang up from the sofa, his face painted entirely with disbelief.
Didn’t the Pei family fall into a financial crisis and need his family’s help?
What did it mean for Pei Shuchen to cancel the engagement?
Did he not want to marry into a political alliance anymore and no longer need their family’s help?
“It’s all because you’re such a good-for-nothing. You didn’t want to marry him, and now he looks down on you too. Si Jinnian, you missed out on such a good wife like Shuchen. There will come a day when you regret this, you brat.”
Si Jinnian’s lips twitched a few times. If this Pei Shuchen was that Pei Shuchen, he might actually end up regretting it.
“Mom, do you happen to have his current address then?”
Refusing to give up, Si Jinnian wanted to verify Pei Shuchen’s identity once more.
First asking for a photo, and now asking for an address, Li Shuhe furrowed her brow slightly, sensing that something was wrong with her son.
“You’re asking for his photo, and now you want his address. What on earth are you planning?”
Si Jinnian flashed a grin and fabricated an excuse.
“Mom, I thought about it carefully today, and I think you were right. We can’t be ungrateful wretches. Since this marriage was set by you and the Pei family long ago, if I unilaterally break off the engagement now, people will definitely say our Si family lacks integrity and breaks promises. So, I’ve decided to listen to you guys and fulfill the marriage agreement with Pei Shuchen. What do you think?”
Whenever something unusual happened, there had to be a demon behind it. Li Shuhe was completely taken aback by Si Jinnian’s uncharacteristically cooperative attitude. After a long moment of hesitation, she stammered, “Son, are you alright?”
“You didn’t get your brain scrambled and lose your mind because of what happened this morning, did you?”
“Calm down and listen to Mom. So what if you got stripped naked and hung from a tree? What’s the big deal about that? Who in this world doesn’t come into this life naked and leave it naked? So minor setbacks like this don’t amount to anything.”
“Besides, didn’t you not even go completely bare? Mom saw the video, you still had a piece of fabric covering your modesty. Mom thinks we should just let this matter pass and not dwell on it like a stubborn fool. Be a good boy and stop fixating on it. Where are you right now? Let Mom come pick you up personally, alright?”