My Online Friend Can't Possibly Be This Cute

"Is there anything you want to eat? My treat." Nuoya finally stopped laughing and asked.

"You don't need to treat me. We can just split the bill."

Mo Xiangwen shook his head. While he wasn't exactly thrilled about being treated like an ATM, he was equally unaccustomed to being randomly treated to a meal.

If it were a college roommate, a brother, or even an online friend he'd known for a long time, it wouldn't matter.

As long as he remembered it, he'd always find a chance to return the favor.

Nuoya's eyes shifted as she curiously asked, "Hey, that delivery order earlier wasn't cheap, was it?"

Mo Xiangwen complained, "Twenty or thirty yuan, even after using a coupon. Prices at tourist spots are ridiculously high."

Thinking about it, his heart still ached a little over that delivery order. He could only comfort himself by thinking that at least giving it to the delivery guy to eat hadn't been a waste.

Nuoya shook her head with a smile. "It won't be easy to find a restaurant where you can spend twenty or thirty yuan."

Mo Xiangwen shrugged indifferently. "That's why you don't need to worry about it. There's nothing I particularly want to eat either. If there's a place you want to try, we can go there."

"Hmm..." Nuoya seemed troubled. "Don't tell me we've come all the way here just to eat at Shaxian Grand Restaurant?"

Mo Xiangwen's body stiffened as memories of being dominated by Shaxian Grand Restaurant and pork trotter rice flooded back.

"No. Anything but that."

PS: Regarding the character design, after I settled on the character settings, I found a picture while looking for references and realized Noah looked very much like the image I had in mind. That's when I suddenly realized I'd probably subconsciously used the appearance of characters I liked as references.

Since I borrowed quite a bit from Noah, I simply used this name here as well. As for her personality, I referenced some parts of Angel-sama. Besides that, I borrowed from quite a few other characters too, so I won't go into every detail. But I still have to remind everyone that they're only references—I didn't directly copy them over.

Sounds Good

Mo Xiangwen stretched lazily on the bed, then turned off the alarm on the phone beside him.

After getting up and pulling open the curtains, he saw that the sky outside was already beginning to brighten. He could vaguely hear a few birds singing as well.

He went to the bathroom, brushed his teeth, soaked a towel in cold water, and wiped his face. That was his simple morning routine done.

As for packing, he only needed to remember to put his charger into his bag.

He wondered whether he should wait for Nuoya downstairs for a while. After all, he'd heard that girls needed a lot of time to get ready from the moment they woke up to the moment they left.

He could only hope it wouldn't take too long. He'd agreed to it yesterday, after all, and it wouldn't be right to stand her up.

As Mo Xiangwen thought about it, he casually picked up his backpack and walked out of his room.

The moment he stepped out, he happened to see Nuoya stepping out of her room as well.

By coincidence, she looked in his direction too.

Yan Nuoya waved at him and greeted him with a smile. "Good morning."

"Good morning." He responded openly as well... probably. At the very least, he still couldn't be as natural as she was.

They'd only met last night. How could she greet him so naturally, like they'd known each other for years?

No, she'd already been perfectly natural last night. He was the one who'd kept holding back.

Uh... he meant during dinner.

After steadying himself, he noticed that Yan Nuoya was wearing a blue athletic jacket today, along with matching long pants.

She looked youthful and energetic, completely different from the quiet girl she'd seemed to be yesterday.

It seemed that even without his reminder, Nuoya knew it would be a little cold climbing the mountain in the morning.

The two walked out of the elevator side by side and went to the front desk to return their room cards and check out.

To his surprise, the clerk on duty at the front desk was still the same young woman from yesterday.

When she saw the two of them standing side by side while returning their room cards, her attitude toward him seemed much better than yesterday, and the smile on her face carried a little more sincerity.

She even warmly told him where to find cheap and tasty breakfast nearby, where it was convenient to catch a taxi, and even roughly how much it would cost to get to the scenic area.

Though he planned to call a ride-hailing car, so he probably wouldn't need that taxi information.

Still, the breakfast place the clerk recommended was indeed relatively affordable.

They each ordered a serving of the local specialty cold noodles, but Nuoya stopped eating after only a few bites. Instead, she propped her chin on her hand and quietly watched him.

Nuoya's gaze made him feel inexplicably guilty. He nearly thought something was wrong with his sense of taste.

Refusing to believe it, he took a few more bites. The taste was indeed pretty decent. After hesitating, he asked, "You don't like this kind of breakfast?"

"Mm, it's okay. I wouldn't say I dislike it, but I don't especially like it either."

"Then why did you stop eating?"

Nuoya rolled her eyes at him, sighed, and complained, "Girls need to watch their figures, okay? It's not like you guys."

Mo Xiangwen blinked. He'd just stolen a glance at her curvy figure beneath her athletic clothes when he met Nuoya's teasing gaze.

He could only cough awkwardly to cover his embarrassment.

"Cough. What I mean is, we'll probably be walking quite a lot while touring the scenic spots." Mo Xiangwen put on a serious expression. "The energy we'll burn should be far more than what this bowl of noodles provides."

"Mm, and?"

As though she'd been waiting for this, the girl quickly followed up with another question.

"Besides, your figure is already great, so there's no need to..."

He'd been about to swallow those words, but Nuoya's sudden prompting made him blurt them out instinctively.

"Is that so? Thank you." Nuoya blinked at him, her smile gaining a hint of slyness and pride.

Mo Xiangwen's face darkened when he realized what had happened. Why did he feel like he was the proper young woman being flirted with here?

Still, perhaps because his words made some sense, Nuoya took a few more small bites of the cold noodles.

They'd left quite early, so there weren't many people when they arrived at the entrance to the scenic area.

Reciting The Road to Shu Is Hard was naturally no difficult task for him, and Nuoya didn't seem like someone who'd be stumped by something like that either.

Sure enough, they easily passed the test. After receiving their tickets, he suddenly remembered something.

Which way should they go?

Before coming here, he'd planned to take the Bird Trail route over the mountaintop so he could better experience the perilous grandeur of Sword Gate Pass—"one man guards the pass, and ten thousand cannot break through."

But now, there was someone beside him.

Although Nuoya was dressed in athletic clothes, she didn't look like a sports enthusiast at all—though neither was he, but his stamina was at least somewhat reliable.

Besides, when he'd looked up guides, he'd found that some online users mentioned needing a reservation to walk the Bird Trail. He didn't know whether that was true, but since he no longer planned to go, it didn't matter.

Taking the sightseeing cable car would be fine too. It would save energy.

"You want to take the Bird Trail route?"

"How about taking the sightseeing cable car?"

Mo Xiangwen paused for a moment, then shook his head. "The Bird Trail needs a reservation. I forgot, so I'm planning to take the cable car now."

Nuoya's purple eyes stared at him for several seconds before she suddenly revealed a captivating smile. "Sure. Then let's take the cable car."

Before taking the cable car, though, they still had to walk for a while. Since they'd come all this way, they definitely had to visit the gate tower.

Chatting as they walked, the two passed through the Sword Pavilion Archway, went past the entrance statues of Jiang Wei and Liu Bei, then crossed Pass-Entry Bridge and arrived at the gate tower.

The gate tower was the famous Sword Gate Pass.

On both sides stood sheer cliffs that plunged thousands of feet, with only a single gate tower standing in the middle.

Only when standing here and looking up at the gate tower and the surrounding cliffs could one deeply feel how small they were.

No wonder people said, "Sword Pavilion rises rugged and towering; one man guards the pass, and ten thousand cannot break through."

Sword Gate Pass was also the most famous attraction in the entire scenic area, so naturally, plenty of people stopped here to sightsee and take pictures.

Mo Xiangwen took two photos of Sword Pavilion. Just as he was about to head to the next attraction, an auntie stopped him.

"Young man, could you help us take a picture?" The auntie pointed at the uncle standing nearby. "My husband and I want a photo together, but we didn't bring a selfie stick, so it's hard to take one."

"Sure." He readily agreed, took the phone from her, and carefully stepped back a few paces.

Once the auntie and uncle stood together, posed with Sword Gate Pass behind them, and were ready, he pressed the shutter. With a click, the photo was done.

"That turned out so well. Thank you, young man! How about I take a picture of you two youngsters together?"

"No... forget it, I'll ask first." Mo Xiangwen had been about to refuse, but he instinctively glanced sideways at the silent girl beside him. After hesitating, he decided to ask, "Want to take one together?"

Nuoya nodded lightly. "Sounds good."

PS: The next chapter will be posted in a little while.

Want to Go to School Together?

"When are you buying your ticket to H City? School's starting soon."

"I'll see if there are any tickets later... Wait, how did you know I was going to H City?" Mo Xiangwen suddenly sensed that something was off.

Nuoya blinked and smiled faintly. "I also know you're a freshman at H University."

Mo Xiangwen fell silent as he looked at the pretty, charming girl before him. He quietly took two steps back. Just from knowing his name, she'd managed to dig up this much information?

Beautiful girls were terrifying.

Everyone, when you're out and about, you absolutely have to be on guard against beautiful girls.

"Don't look at me like that." Nuoya sighed softly. "Quick, check your backpack."

He hurriedly swung his backpack around to the front, only to discover that the outermost zipper had been opened, and more than half of the red admission letter envelope was sticking out.

When had that happened?

He immediately checked the items inside his backpack. When he found that he'd only lost a power bank, he couldn't help letting out a sigh of relief.

Then again, the power bank was the most valuable thing in his bag. He kept his wallet with his documents and money, as well as his phone, on him at all times.

"You didn't lose anything important, right?"

"I lost a power bank, but it's fine as long as my admission letter is okay." Mo Xiangwen shook his head and stuffed the envelope into the innermost compartment.

"That's good. But even if the admission letter went missing, it wouldn't be a problem." Yan Nuoya nodded.

"It still has some significance, though. When did you notice?"

"Just now. I told you as soon as I noticed."

Mo Xiangwen sighed softly, zipped up his bag, and put it back on his shoulders.

"Thanks for telling me. I wouldn't have noticed otherwise."

"Then—want to go together?" Nuoya slightly drew out the last word, as though deliberately trying to catch his attention.

"Go together where?"

Nuoya crouched down, took a red admission letter envelope from her suitcase, and placed it in his hand.

"Go back to school together."

Mo Xiangwen stared at the admission letter envelope in his hand, nearly identical to his own, in astonishment. He didn't know how to react.

Nuoya saw the reaction she'd been hoping for, and her smile became even more captivating.

"Open it and take a look?" Nuoya's voice was like a devil's temptation, sinking straight into his heart.

As though bewitched, he actually did as the girl said and took out the documents inside the envelope.

This admission letter was almost identical to his. The only difference was that the girl's name—Yan Nuoya—was clearly written on it.

Mo Xiangwen silently opened his backpack again, took out his own admission letter, and compared them. He was completely certain that aside from the names, there wasn't a single difference.

Would Yan Nuoya specifically prepare a fake admission letter just to deceive him? Impossible. What would she gain from that?

Even if she were working with a group of scammers, they shouldn't have chosen someone from a poor family like him.

Then the problem was...

What were the odds of randomly running into a beautiful girl on the street who'd gotten into H University the same year as you, in the same computer science major, and even in the same class?

Computer science? A beautiful girl? Seriously?