In the audience seats close to the stage, three figures—one very tall, one on the taller side, and one short—sat together. However, the slightly shorter figure had an empty seat between her and the other two.
"Senior ↑ Lin ↓."
"Junior ↓ Xia ↑."
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. I'm seriously jealous..."
Mu Feng imitated Xia Yan's words from earlier in a strange tone, his voice overflowing with envy as he sighed.
"Ah... All the senior girls I've added combined aren't even worth a single strand of Lin Qingyu's hair... Quantity can't beat quality. (Sigh)"
Xiang Guan put down his phone and, like Mu Feng, gazed dreamily at the dazzling person onstage.
Mu Feng: "I'm seriously jealous of Brother Yan."
"He's handsome, capable, loyal, and good at studying??"
Xiang Guan: "I'm jealous too... I'd be happy if I could steal even two points of his athletic talent??... No wonder Senior Lin secretly fell for him. Sigh."
"She's the flower atop the mountain in the Management School, the one who dominates Tieba and the forums... Only Brother Yan is worthy of her. That whatever business heir pursued Lin Qingyu, but she didn't even give him the time of day. Her background is incredibly powerful..."
Mu Feng: "I feel like I've been dumped, but I'm not sad."
Xiang Guan: "I have no objections."
Hua Xin: "I have objections??"
"?"
The two men looked around in confusion, trying to find who had spoken.
As handsome men by nature, they were gifted with the ability to love. Thus, even in the face of such a winner in life, Xia Yan's two best friends praised him from behind without the slightest hint of jealousy.
But the more the girl listened, the more something felt wrong.
(A secret base that a senior girl told him about??...)
(The flower atop the mountain taking the initiative to throw herself at him...)
(How does this not look exactly like the plot of a Japanese anime protagonist's life??...)
No, no, no, no, no...
Could it be that they already knew about Wu Tao??...
"I have a problem with Xia Yan being together with that senior."
The girl forced herself to explain calmly, as if she had forgotten that she wasn't in her little black room and that the people before her weren't online friends.
Her tone was extremely cold (and powerless).
"Ah."
Mu Feng and Xiang Guan both let out a heavy sigh.
"I didn't expect Brother Hua to like Lin Qingyu too. (Sigh)"
"Brother Hua, I understand how you feel. (Sigh)"
They slumped back into their seats again, watching the stage with dispirited expressions.
It seemed Hua Xin wasn't as difficult to get along with as Xia Yan had claimed. Sure enough, topics between men really could bring people closer together.
Hua Xin immediately came back to her senses. Her pretty face, hidden beneath her mask, instantly flushed bright red, while her small hands twisted together nervously beneath the schoolbag she held in her arms.
What had she just said??
What had she just said ahhhhhhh!
Why didn't she think before speaking?
(Deflated.)
The girl lowered her head silently.
"By the way..."
"Hey, Xiang Guan, don't you feel like something's been off with Brother Yan lately?"
Mu Feng carefully watched the pair onstage, who looked like a handsome man and a beautiful woman perfectly matched, and suddenly spoke in a low voice.
Hua Xin pricked up her ears warily???? and shifted her body a little closer to the two men.
"Hm?"
"It does seem a little off."
Xiang Guan hesitated, then glanced unobtrusively at Hua Xin, who was sitting beside them with her head lowered in self-isolation.
They were all brothers. It should be fine, right?
After reassuring himself, he said seriously, "I've seen him smiling at his phone sometimes."
"He used to read books all the time."
"I noticed that too. To be honest, I secretly looked at his phone screen."
Mu Feng shifted his gaze away and tilted his head forty-five degrees toward the sky. "I saw Brother Yan calling someone else 'wife' and 'baby.' I didn't see what came after that, but just those two words are enough to confirm a lot."
"Do you understand? He's never called me 'baby'??"
"There's only one truth."
"He really got together with Lin Qingyu?!" x2
"Ah."
Mu Feng and Xiang Guan suddenly looked at each other and spoke sadly in unison. With Lin Qingyu and Xia Yan chatting and laughing onstage, everything seemed to become clear.
(D-dating??)
The girl raised her head in shock, her eyes involuntarily turning toward the stage.
The man was handsome and the woman beautiful. They really were pleasing to look at together.
Wait.
Xia Yan was dating someone. Why did she care?
Even if he was dating someone, hadn't he still invited her to meals, picked her up and taken her to school, and brought her to the rooftop of the teaching building that served as their secret base...
Something seemed wrong.
Hua Xin silently turned her head away and quickly gulped down some cola. The icy, fizzy stimulation calmed her slightly as her mind raced.
If Xia Yan really was dating someone... then why was he still spending so much time on her? Or rather, why would someone already together with such a beautiful senior continue to care for her so much?
Suspicious.
Extremely suspicious.
The girl's gaze suddenly sharpened. She had discovered the biggest blind spot in her interactions with Xia Yan.
Number One Son Online's words still echoed in her ears.
He was right. No one approached another person for no reason without having some ulterior motive.
Xia Yan really was plotting something. He had deliberately pretended to be a good person to get close to her...
A trace of cold laughter rose in Hua Xin's heart. Sure enough, she had found a clue.
But judging from the current situation, these two beside her...
Uh, one was a deadbeat and the other was an athlete. They apparently didn't know about her relationship with Xia Yan. Perhaps she could get some information out of them by asking indirect questions.
Hua Xin clenched her hands tightly. The trust she had only just built toward Xia Yan gradually turned into a cold suspicion.
(I knew it...)
(You were absolutely pretending!??)
(No one could be perfectly gentle and dependable toward everyone.)
(What exactly is your true purpose in approaching me...)
The scenes that had tormented her in her memories leaped out one after another. At the same time, however, Xia Yan's patience, that ice cream, and today's lunch existed alongside them.
Hua Xin hugged her schoolbag with trembling arms.
There were still leftovers inside, along with half a box of Sweet and Sour Pork Ribs that she had only taken one bite of.
She couldn't understand it.
Why was Xia Yan doing this?
But this time, Hua Xin didn't want to keep enduring things weakly. She didn't want to suffer betrayal again, followed by endless cold looks and ridicule.
She wanted to fight back.
The girl silently watched Xia Yan onstage.
At some point, he had already changed into a handsome suit. He held a stack of speech notes covered in writing, and his face wore the same gentle smile as always, as though he treated everyone that way.
The girl beside him was equally dazzling.
She outshone every other beauty around them.
She really was beautiful.
Hua Xin slowly withdrew her gaze. She glanced at the two men sprawled in their seats and howling in despair, then simply hugged her schoolbag.
"Since you already have such a perfect life, why did you come and get involved with me?"
"I'm not..."
"...stupid enough to believe that someone would really regard me as a friend."
"Since you want so badly to play the friend game with a shut-in, I won't surrender without a fight either."
A trace of coldness flashed through the girl's eyes.
Then let her...
tear off this man's true face!??
Before you continue