After waiting for another few minutes, Xie Ran finally received a reply from the other person: [Is that photo really you?]
“……”
Xie Ran knew that lying was wrong, but considering that He Ruizhe was a scumbag, and thinking about his bet with Xie Xuan, he replied without any hesitation: [Yes, it is~]
As a result, the other person didn’t reply again.
Xie Ran even suspected that “He Ruizhe” was playing hard to get.
Otherwise, why would he show up for just a tiny moment and then disappear again?
Could it be that he was chatting with a lot of other younger girls?
Five minutes later, the other person finally sent a message: [Mediocre.]
Mediocre? This was considered mediocre?
Xie Ran flipped through the chat history, clicked on the leg photo he had sent earlier, and stared at it carefully for a long time, feeling completely unaffected inside.
It actually did look pretty mediocre.
It was just a generic picture picked off the internet.
After a moment, he noticed something wrong, wondering why there was a watermark in the bottom right corner of the picture.
“……”
No wonder the other person’s attitude toward him was so cold; it turned out he knew the picture was pulled from the internet, and had even very tactfully asked, “Is that photo really you?”
Xie Ran began to curl his toes in embarrassment.
Right at that moment on WeChat, his good friend and childhood buddy Wang Wenjing sent him a message:
[Wang Wenjing: Xiao Ran, how is your bet going? Has that scumbag paid any attention to you yet?]
Xie Ran replied: [He paid attention, but it seems he figured out my photo is from the internet.]
[Wang Wenjing: If you are doing online dating, what else are you supposed to use if not internet pictures?]
[Xie Ran: What you are saying makes so much sense, I actually have no way to refute it.]
[Wang Wenjing: However, today I went to help out at the anime club where Weiwei is, and I saw quite a few delicate-looking guys wearing Lolita dresses, JK uniforms, Hanfu, and even cosplaying female characters. Xiao Ran, I think you could buy two sets of women’s clothes to take pictures in.]
[Wang Wenjing: Look at how delicate and pretty you are, with slim arms and legs, a thin waist, and great collarbones.]
Xie Ran fell into deep thought as he stared at the messages on his screen.
[Wang Wenjing: Besides, you do not even have to show your face; you just need to take a picture of your legs or your collarbones and send it to him.]
[Wang Wenjing: If you need clothes, skirts, or anything like that, I can have Weiwei mail them to you. She has a lot of skirts she does not want anymore. Do you want to take a look and pick a couple?]
[Wang Wenjing: You have to risk a sheep to catch a stag. Just think about your camera.]
Xie Ran felt that what Wang Wenjing said made a lot of sense.
Anyway, it was just taking a picture.
As long as he could get the chat logs proving that He Ruizhe was together with him and inviting him to a hotel room, and then secretly snap photos of the guy online dating and flirting with other girls, that would pretty much count as evidence proving the guy was a scumbag.
He replied to Wang Wenjing: [Fine.]
[I will just buy the skirts myself when the time comes.]
Anyway, it was not like he had never worn a skirt before.
The first time is awkward, the second time is easy.
To show his gratitude, Xie Ran casually patted Wang Wenjing’s profile picture.
As a result, a notification popped up:
[You patted “Wang Wenjing”: I said I am Lord Guo Junwang]
Xie Ran: “…..” A fan of Empresses in the Palace?
[Wang Wenjing: Hehe, funny right? Weiwei made me change it to this. Let me show you hers.]
After sending that, he tossed over a screenshot.
[You patted “Baby”: That year the apricot blossoms were not yet Yu]
Xie Ran remained silent, calmly exiting the chat interface.
He completely ignored the series of love story messages Wang Wenjing had sent him regarding Yu Wei.
Come to think of it, all three of them were neighbors who grew up together, and their relationship was so close they practically shared a pair of pants. It was just that Wang Wenjing and Yu Wei had sparked a romance, leaving poor Xie Ran all alone as a single dog.
Both of them were currently studying at a neighboring university, leaving only him to attend Peking University all by himself.
However, Xie Ran didn’t mind it at all, nor did he feel left out because of it. Instead, he sincerely blessed the two of them.
That didn’t mean he wanted to be fed dog food, though.
Exiting the chat interface with Wang Wenjing, he returned to QQ.
Seeing that he had not replied, ‘He Ruizhe’ took the initiative to throw out a question: [What is your name?]
He actually asked for his name? Could it be that this scumbag was suddenly going to bestow his favor upon him?
Xie Ran thought of several cute names, but worried he would not remember them, so he sent the nickname his mother often called him when he was little: [Big Brother can just call me Ranran.]
Back in kindergarten, he was often dressed up as a little girl by Ms. Song, and even the characters in his nickname leaned toward the feminine side.
It wasn’t until Xie Ran entered elementary school that he realized he was a real man, and no matter how much Ms. Song coaxed him to wear dresses, he refused, even hiding all the princess dresses from the family wardrobe and throwing them under the bed to gather dust.
After sending the message over, he didn’t receive a reply again.
Hot and cold, he truly was a scumbag!
Xie Ran always kept a good sleep schedule and liked to rest when the time came.
Glancing at the time, it was almost ten o’clock.
Before going to sleep, he opened Taobao, searched for many sexy and pretty little skirts, and reluctantly spent nearly three hundred yuan to buy two sets of women’s outfits. To complete the whole look, he also bought a trendy milk-tea-colored wig.
After finishing his purchases, Xie Ran routinely sent a good night message before putting down his phone to fall asleep.
Down below, Jiang Xu, who was flipping through a professional textbook, received the message, glanced upward lightly, used a pen as a bookmark wedged in the middle of the book, and closed it.
After turning off the lights, he climbed up to his bunk, lay down, and tucked himself under the quilt.
There were only two sounds of breathing in the dorm room, appearing exceptionally quiet compared to usual.
Jiang Xu wasn’t asleep. He knew the person on the opposite bed was Xie Ran, with only two curtain panels separating the two of them.
He closed his eyes and tried to fall asleep.
Thinking he would remain wide awake as he usually did, he unexpectedly drifted off to sleep gradually and even had a dream.
Xie Ran’s fine arts major appeared a bit busier compared to other majors.
He needed to submit his homework right after the National Day holiday ended, spending every day either attending classes or staying in the art studio.
After being busy for two days, he finally got a chance to catch his breath back in the dorm.
Over the past few days, Xie Ran noticed that the frequency of ‘He Ruizhe’ replying to messages was much higher than last month.
For instance, in the past, whenever he woke up and sent morning greetings to the other person, the guy would never reply from beginning to end. Recently, however, he had broken the habit and actually replied. Even the good night messages at night weren’t missed, with back-and-forth chatting.
The other person remained aloof, basically containing no other content besides words like morning, mhm, okay, and night.
Xie Ran felt this was very good progress.
Actually, he had doubted whether the person on the other end really was He Ruizhe, and had taken the initiative to ask for the other’s name.
The person just typed back a single English word:
[Victor.]
Xie Ran had taken an elective course with He Ruizhe taught by the same foreign teacher in the past. To make it convenient for the teacher to take attendance, sign in, and answer questions, every student needed to have their own English name.
He vaguely remembered that He Ruizhe’s English name seemed to be Victor.
To add a bit of ambiguous charm and draw their relationship closer, Xie Ran directly called him Young Master Wei or Brother V.
He even changed his contact remark to V.
Anyway, he had no shame. Across the screen, the other person had no idea that the person behind the persona of Ranran was an unadulterated male.
Thinking of the women’s clothing he had ordered a few nights ago, Xie Ran opened Taobao to check the logistics and see where the package currently was.
As a result, he found out that the delivery courier was currently out delivering it.
Barring any accidents, he would be able to get the package today.
Right at that moment, Zhang Xuan had just finished a round of Honor of Kings. Seeing that everyone except Xie Ran was absent from the dorm, he called out, “Ran’er, did you eat yet? Do you want to go to the cafeteria together?”
Xie Ran happened to not have eaten yet. He turned off his phone screen, nodded, and replied, “Sure.”
The two of them went together as companions to forage for food in the cafeteria.