My Online Friend Can't Be This Cute

Why? Why was my online friend a cute girl?

And all those brother-brother jokes he'd usually made with them... Damn, he didn't even want to think about it anymore.

My stomach hurt today, so Haidilao was off-limits.

PS: Going to bed early was a luxury.

Meeting the Twins

"Beef, tripe, tofu skin..."

Each time he named a dish, the waitress wrote it down on her notepad.

"Is there anything else you need?" the waitress asked with a smile.

"No, that's all. See if the two classmates across from me have anything else they'd like to order."

Mo Xiangwen handed the menu back, but to his surprise, after taking it, they simply set it aside.

"Let's leave it at that for now. We can order more later if it isn't enough," Su Mengli said to the waitress with a nod. "This will do for now."

"Alright." The waitress agreed and immediately turned to leave.

Order something. Why weren't they ordering anything?

Once the brief escape from reality brought by ordering dishes ended, he had no choice but to face the enormous pressure brought by the two great emperors again.

He pinched his thigh. The sharp pain helped him pull himself together a little.

"I didn't expect you two to be girls, and such beautiful twin sisters at that." Mo Xiangwen sighed. "Let me introduce myself first."

"Mo Xiangwen. Xiang as in direction, Wen as in literature. Please take care of me."

"Su Mengli. Meng as in Yunmeng Marsh, Li as in glazed glass." Su Mengli looked at his slightly green face with amusement and said softly, "I've finally met you, Xiao Yi."

"Su Mengyao. Meng as in Yunmeng Marsh, Yao as in Jade Pool." Su Mengyao's eyes shone brightly, her smile was dazzling, and her voice was crisp. "Want to guess which one of us is which, Xiao Yi?"

Though she hadn't said it outright, he could roughly tell that she meant for him to guess which group friend each of them was.

"Su Mengli is the guild leader." Mo Xiangwen answered without hesitation. "Then Su Mengyao, you must be Xiaohuo."

Su Mengyao wagged her index finger and teased, "Then you guessed wrong. I'm the guild leader."

Su Mengyao had probably discussed it with Su Mengli beforehand, because Su Mengli merely watched the two of them in silence with a smile.

"No, impossible." Mo Xiangwen spoke with certainty. "Even though you and the guild leader look exactly alike, your personalities are far too different. The guild leader isn't like you."

Su Mengyao blinked, then glared fiercely at him with her large black eyes, trying to pressure him into thinking he was wrong and changing his answer.

But the more she did that, the more certain he became.

That slightly clumsy behavior was something only Xiaohuo could pull off.

"Alright, Mengyao, you can't fool him." Su Mengli patted her silly younger sister's hand, then said to him, "Just as you guessed, I'm the guild leader."

Su Mengyao pouted unhappily without saying anything.

"Oh, right, I almost forgot." Mo Xiangwen suddenly remembered the book and said with a serious expression, "Thank you, Guild Leader, for lending me the book."

"You've thanked me many times already, and you're even treating us to dinner." Su Mengli shook her head slightly. "You kept the book in good condition too, so there's no need to keep bringing it up."

"After all, thanking you by message and thanking you in person are still a little different."

"Alright, alright, we're all group friends." Su Mengli smiled. "Why are you being so serious as soon as we meet? I want to get along with you more casually too, Xiao Yi."

"Just like you said, Sis, Xiao Yi's a shut-in. How could he have any experience dealing with girls?" Su Mengyao teased. "Now that there are two girls he'd never met before right in front of him, of course he'd be nervous."

Su Mengli maintained her proper smile, then secretly reached down and viciously pinched her silly younger sister's thigh.

"Mm." Su Mengyao let out a pained grunt and shot her older sister an angry but helpless glance.

That was a great analysis. Don't analyze it next time.

If she absolutely had to analyze it, then at least she shouldn't say it out loud.

The three of them blinked, looking at one another as an awkward atmosphere drifted across the table.

"Uh..." Su Mengli hesitated before softly saying, "It's just..."

After pondering for a long while, Su Mengli still couldn't think of a suitable explanation. Her face was full of embarrassment, and for a moment, she didn't know what to say.

"It's fine. A shut-in is a shut-in." Mo Xiangwen shook his head and took the initiative. "We've known each other for so long anyway. I don't think it was an attack on me."

Hearing that, Su Mengli couldn't help letting out a sigh of relief and shot her silly younger sister an unhappy glare.

Her silly younger sister was fine around classmates, but whenever she dealt with group friends, she got so uninhibited.

Still, thanks to Su Mengyao putting everything right out in the open, Mo Xiangwen felt much more relaxed now.

They could just act the same way they had when they were online group friends.

If he were really expected to become someone good at dealing with girls, he couldn't do it right away, nor did he want to.

"Exactly, exactly. We play games together and watch new anime together anyway." Su Mengyao said indifferently. "If I'm attacking him, then I'm attacking myself too."

Mo Xiangwen nodded, then put on an extremely serious expression. "Then you're a shut-in."

Su Mengli immediately covered her cherry-red lips with one small hand. Her body trembled as though she were having a hard time holding back her laughter.

Su Mengyao gave him a speechless look, wrinkled her delicate nose, and muttered unhappily, "Xiao Yi is so petty."

"Hello, here are the dishes you ordered." The waitress happened to push her cart over to them and placed the dishes one by one onto the rack beside the table according to the order slip.

Now that the dishes had arrived, there was no need to just sit there chatting.

He didn't know whether the sisters could handle spicy food, so he'd ordered a split hot pot.

But that had been because he was still under psychological pressure at the time. Now that the pressure was gone, he might as well ask directly.

He didn't know whether they would enjoy guessing games, but he definitely wouldn't.

"Can you eat spicy food?"

Su Mengyao nodded. "I'm alright. My sister can't handle it very well."

Mo Xiangwen looked at Su Mengli and saw her nod lightly, indicating that Su Mengyao wasn't joking.

"Then let's make it half and half."

"Hmm, come to think of it, the three of us already make up half the group's members." Su Mengyao suddenly said. "When we came over just now, Baibai and Pigeon were saying in the group that they were openly jealous."

"As for Pigeon, I have no idea what she usually thinks. Maybe she was just repeating what someone else said."

"Baibai probably really wanted to come, though. I wonder if there'll ever be a chance."

"Mm, Pigeon really is a little hard to understand." Su Mengli nodded in agreement. "As for Baibai, I hope I'll get a chance to meet her too."

Mo Xiangwen shook his head and explained on Pigeon's behalf. "Pigeon just likes joking around. She probably wanted to come too."

Although they had never met in person, he and Pigeon had quite a tacit understanding when it came to games. He even felt that Pigeon's personality was probably rather similar to his own.

"Sorry, I'll be gone for a moment." Mo Xiangwen excused himself and went to the restroom.

When he returned, he subconsciously glanced at where Yan Nuoya had been sitting earlier, only to find that she was still sitting there alone.

It looked like quite a few dishes had already arrived, but the others still hadn't shown up.

Wasn't It Your Fantasy?

What should he do? Should he go ask her?

If Nuoya's friends really hadn't come, how should he handle it?

Invite Nuoya over to eat with them? But the first question was whether Nuoya would agree.

As for Su Mengyao and Su Mengli, although he didn't know much about their true personalities, if he said he wanted to invite a friend over, they would probably agree out of consideration for him.

But doing that really wouldn't be good.

Having a meal with group friends was supposed to be a relaxing and pleasant thing, because they already understood each other to a certain degree before meeting.

And it was precisely because they had some understanding of each other and approved of one another that they decided to meet up for dinner.

Abruptly bringing someone Su Mengyao and Su Mengli didn't know over to eat with them would probably only make them feel awkward.

Still... Yan Nuoya counted as his friend too.

If he just left her alone like that, putting himself in her shoes, she'd feel lonely... right?

Would she... really?

Mo Xiangwen furrowed his brow and thought carefully. Apparently, she wouldn't?

If he were eating at Haidilao by himself, it actually seemed pretty great.

Lonely? What was that?

He looked at Yan Nuoya again. She carefully put food into the pot, played on her phone while waiting, and from time to time leisurely picked out a piece, dipped it in sauce, and placed it in her mouth.

Not only did she not look lonely, she seemed completely at ease.

Damn, she was exactly like how he'd imagined himself.

Perhaps because he had stared at Yan Nuoya while thinking for too long, she noticed his gaze at some point and waved at him with a smile.

Was she calling him over?

That was fine. He happened to want to ask about her situation, so he could stop overthinking things on his own all day.

"Come, Xiangwen, sit." Yan Nuoya shifted to the side and lightly patted the spot where she had just been sitting.

"No, thanks. I'm eating with someone else," he said, shaking his head.

"It's fine. Just have a little. I put in too much earlier, so I might not be able to finish it."

With a smiling gaze, Nuoya took out a spare bowl and chopsticks from the side, lightly poked a hole in the wrapping with her chopsticks, then effortlessly tore it open.

He looked at the utensils she had already neatly unwrapped and didn't know what to say for a moment.

Yan Nuoya wasn't in any hurry. She even slowly used a skimmer to put some food into his bowl.

What was with this feeling that he had no choice but to sit down?

"Don't worry, just these two pieces." Yan Nuoya smiled faintly. "It won't delay your meal with the others."

Since she had already said that much, he could only sit down.

Strangely, it felt a little like when they had sat together on the high-speed train while coming to school some time ago.

Come to think of it, he'd been holed up in the dorm playing games with his roommates these past two days. Even his meals had been delivered, so he hadn't seen Yan Nuoya much.

"Are you waiting for your roommates, Nuoya?"

Yan Nuoya chuckled. "I didn't expect you to ask so directly."

"Beating around the bush is too troublesome, and I couldn't think of any other good way."

"Mm, that's true." Yan Nuoya shook her head. "No, my roommates don't know I came here."

"Then it's a friend?"

"Right."

"They haven't come yet?"

Yan Nuoya stopped her chopsticks and turned to look at him. "Are you worried about me?"

"Yeah. We're half-friends at the very least, aren't we?" Mo Xiangwen nodded frankly.

Yan Nuoya looked into his eyes and suddenly laughed. "Is that so?"

"Mm. He had something else planned, but you don't need to worry about me." Yan Nuoya smiled and urged him, "You've finished eating, so hurry back. Don't affect my meal here."

He had been inexplicably invited over, then inexplicably driven away.

Still, she seemed to be in a much lighter and happier mood.

He shook his head and was about to leave when Yan Nuoya suddenly called him back.

He turned around and saw Yan Nuoya blink at him, smiling with a hint of playfulness. "Oh, right. You don't need to agonize over whether to invite me over, because I've already finished eating."

...This woman really had mind-reading powers, didn't she? Too dangerous. He'd be better off staying farther away from her.