My Online Friend Can't Be This Cute

"Anyway, I've made things clear to you guys. Don't call me a traitor when the time comes." Zhong Taihong sighed. "Just treat what I said over dinner that night as drunken nonsense."

"I was thinking, there wasn't any alcohol in the cola or juice. How did you get drunk and start talking nonsense?" Mo Xiangwen sneered.

Xi Shaojie nodded thoughtfully. "If that's the case, I should hurry up and find someone too."

"So the founder and biggest shareholder of this damn No-Dating Alliance are both traitors, huh?" Qin Yongfeng shot the two of them a look, equally speechless.

"Hey, you guys have never dated a girl before. You don't know how great dating is, so I don't blame you." Zhong Taihong patted Xi Shaojie on the shoulder. "Old Xi, keep it up. Let these two losers be jealous of us."

Xi Shaojie also movedly patted his shoulder. The two of them looked incredibly close.

Along the way, the two clowns loudly discussed their theories without a care for anyone else, until they finally arrived at the classroom.

About half the class was already there, scattered sparsely around the room. Perhaps because no one knew each other well yet, students sat in little groups of three or five from the same dorm.

Using dorms as units, each group sat several chairs away from the others.

Well, guys did warm up to each other more easily, but this was how they treated strangers before that happened.

Except for social terrorists, of course.

Those people were special and couldn't be lumped together with everyone else.

Honestly, the girls' side was doing much better than the guys'.

There were only five girls in the whole class to begin with, so naturally, they had all sat together...?

Why was there still one person sitting alone by the window on the left side of the first row?

"Look, that's the girl with silver-white hair." Zhong Taihong pointed at Yan Nuoya, who was reading by the window in the first row. "Pretty rare, right? You can't see her face clearly from here, but I heard she's really pretty too."

"But she has a boyfriend. She chose to sit alone instead of with the other girls, so if she isn't waiting for her boyfriend, what else could she be waiting for?"

"Really? I wonder who got lucky enough to land a girl on that level as his girlfriend. Damn it." Xi Shaojie sounded indignant.

"No, I mean, is there a possibility that she's simply waiting for a friend?" Mo Xiangwen coughed lightly. "We shouldn't just assume she has a boyfriend right away, should we?"

Zhong Taihong sighed and patted his shoulder. "Old Mo, I know that girl is really pretty. The other girls in class can't even compare to her."

"But when she enrolled, her boyfriend came with her. You should give up on it. Trying to steal someone else's girl would be way too immoral."

"There are plenty of fish in the sea. There's no need to hang yourself from one tree, right?"

Mo Xiangwen's mouth twitched. He decided to make one last effort for the sake of his own life.

"What I mean is, what if—what if—the person who came with her to register wasn't her boyfriend?" Mo Xiangwen tried to explain. "Maybe they were just friends with a pretty good, completely innocent relationship?"

"I heard they acted pretty intimate that day."

"Then maybe whoever saw them got it wrong."

"Old Mo, you really won't give up, huh? Let me tell you, I heard her boyfriend is in our class. If you get beaten to death later, don't blame your brothers for not warning you." Zhong Taihong shook his head, looking at him like a man about to die. "When you die, stay away from me. Don't splash blood on me."

"...I think I can understand Old Mo, though," Xi Shaojie muttered.

Zhong Taihong frowned. "Old Xi, what's wrong with you? Are you going to be a Cao thief too?"

Xi Shaojie let out a long sigh. "I mean, she really is beautiful. No wonder Old Mo can't get her out of his mind."

"What do you mean, can't get her out of my mind? I was just raising a perfectly reasonable possibility, okay?" Mo Xiangwen argued on principle.

"What, have you seen her?" Zhong Taihong asked strangely.

"Isn't she looking over here right now?"

Before Xi Shaojie had even finished speaking, everyone looked over at once. The silver-haired girl wore a charming smile and waved at them.

"...She really is pretty. No wonder Old Mo can't get her out of his mind and wants to be a Cao thief." After a long silence, Zhong Taihong sighed and patted his shoulder again. "But I still think stealing someone else's girl is immoral. You can't do that, Old Mo."

"Definitely immoral. You can't do that, Old Mo." Xi Shaojie nodded in agreement.

"Uh... Old Mo, maybe you should just forget it."

Unexpectedly, even Qin Yongfeng had rarely taken their side.

Mo Xiangwen immediately fell silent. This time, he truly couldn't explain himself.

But in his roommates' eyes, that silence only confirmed their suspicions.

"I wonder why she's waving at us. Could it be..." Zhong Taihong frowned. "Did her boyfriend just walk past behind us?"

"No, I didn't see anyone." Qin Yongfeng shook his head.

"Come on, let's find a corner and sit down." Xi Shaojie urged.

Perhaps because he had gone too long without reacting, Yan Nuoya gave up waving and lowered her head, seemingly doing something.

Then he felt his phone vibrate softly in his pocket.

When he took it out, who else could it be from but Yan Nuoya?

[Come over already. Do I have to go invite you myself?]

[I need to sit with my roommates.]

Mo Xiangwen silently typed out a few words, but as he looked at Yan Nuoya's two messages inviting him to eat together, he couldn't bring himself to send them for a long time.

He just felt a little guilty.

"Come on, Old Mo. Still thinking about doing something bad?" Zhong Taihong and the others seemed to have found seats already and nudged his shoulder.

...Forget it. Old Zhong and the others had three people, while Yan Nuoya looked like she was all alone.

"What I mean is, you three can sit together. I'll sit up front." Mo Xiangwen helplessly shook his head, sighed inwardly, then made up his mind.

"...You really won't give up, huh? I never thought you were this kind of person, Old Mo."

Zhong Taihong's expression darkened. "Don't you know a pair of sisters? They're pretty too. Asking them out would be great, wouldn't it? There's no need to do something like this."

Xi Shaojie also silently shook his head.

Qin Yongfeng tugged at his arm too, desperately signaling with his eyes for him to forget it.

"Although there seems to be some serious misunderstanding here." Mo Xiangwen looked at them, caught between laughter and tears. "Just remember not to beat me to death later."

"Beat you to death? I think we'll be figuring out how to retrieve your remains." Zhong Taihong snorted twice and said nothing more.

Mo Xiangwen couldn't explain much either. He simply patted Zhong Taihong's shoulder in return, then walked forward under the gazes of the three of them.

When the girl saw him approaching, a faint smile appeared on her face again.

When he sat beside her, she showed no sign of dislike or wanting to drive him away. Instead, she seemed quite happy chatting with him.

The three stared dumbfoundedly as he sat beside the girl, talking and laughing with her without any intention of leaving. They were so shocked that it took them a long time to close their mouths.

The three exchanged looks and saw the disbelief in each other's eyes.

"Holy shit, there's a couple."

Chapter 42: I'm Just More Familiar with Myself

Before he had even sat down, he could already feel everyone's gazes stabbing into his back.

This outcome had been within his expectations.

Still, he didn't really care.

After all, he wasn't some social butterfly. He had no strong desire to go around making friends with every classmate one by one.

As long as he wasn't familiar with the other students, he wouldn't have to worry about them digging into things.

His roommates were the troublesome part. He didn't know whether he could still explain things clearly to them.

After all, he wouldn't believe in a pure friendship between a man and a woman if it happened to someone else.

If it happened to himself, though, that was naturally another matter.

"Why aren't you sitting?" Yan Nuoya looked at him curiously.

"Oh, sorry."

Mo Xiangwen sat beside her. The sense of distance between them felt exactly like when they had ridden the high-speed rail together.

"I thought you were really going to make me come invite you over." Nuoya teased with a soft laugh.

"I was thinking about something." He shook his head. "If you came to find me, it would draw too much attention. Better not do that."

Nuoya tilted her head slightly toward him and asked curiously, "Is it something you can tell me?"

"Hm?" It was rare for Mo Xiangwen to see her curious side.

"If it's inconvenient to say, then forget it."

"Rather than whether it's convenient to say, it's more that it was originally something I wanted to ask you." Mo Xiangwen shook his head and explained, "I was just considering whether I should ask."

"Ask. If it's something I can tell you, I'll naturally tell you."

Yan Nuoya smiled and said carelessly, "Even if it's something I can't tell you, I won't get angry."

"What if I ask some stupid question?" Mo Xiangwen joked. "You still wouldn't get angry?"

"If you want to ask, I'll tell you." Yan Nuoya blinked her bright purple eyes. "Do you really want to ask?"

He did, a little, but not badly enough.

More than that, he wanted to know when exactly she had gotten to know him.

This person had seemed strange in all kinds of ways from the very beginning.

She felt both familiar and unfamiliar to him.

"Who exactly are you?" Mo Xiangwen stared at her and asked in confusion. "When exactly did you get to know me?"

She lowered her eyes as though troubled, then said softly, "My name is Yan Nuoya. As for when I met you and where I met you, don't you already know?"

Fine. It looked like this was something she didn't want to talk about.

"Alright, then. If Yan Nuoya doesn't want to say, forget it." Mo Xiangwen hadn't expected her to tell him directly anyway.

"Xiangwen, why do you want to know the answer so badly?" Yan Nuoya asked softly. "Are you worried that I've deceived you?"

That seemed a little harsh.

Both he and Yan Nuoya thought so at nearly the same time. Then they looked at each other, their gazes meeting in the air for a few seconds before separating.

"Because I keep feeling like you knew me even before I got to know you."

Mo Xiangwen frowned. "And you seem really familiar with me too. It's hard not to care about that, isn't it?"

"As for whether you deceived me or not, we're classmates now, so I'm not really worried about that."

"Even though I know you're still worried deep down." Yan Nuoya showed a faint smile. "But this really was the answer I wanted to hear. Thank you."

...This woman was really terrifying.

"What you wanted to ask was why I'm not sitting with the other girls, right?" Yan Nuoya chuckled. "The reason is simple. The four of them are from the same dorm, but I'm not."

Come to think of it, the dorms on this campus were mainly four-person rooms. Having one extra person was indeed awkward.

"So you were assigned to a girls' dorm from another major?"

"Mm, though I wouldn't call it a girls' dorm from another major. Situations where there happens to be one extra person don't only occur in our major or class."

Yan Nuoya shook her head. "Who knows what majors they're from?"

"Even if you aren't dormmates, you could still sit together. It's better than sitting alone."

"I don't really care. Besides, aren't you here?" Yan Nuoya smiled. "You can just come sit with me."

"Uh, I still need to sit with my roommates." He shook his head.

"You have three roommates, while I only have myself." Yan Nuoya chuckled. "I'm your friend too, aren't I? Friends should help each other, right?"

"I think I'd be more comfortable sitting with my roommates." Mo Xiangwen stubbornly insisted for once.

Yan Nuoya smiled but said nothing.

Seeing that she wasn't speaking, Mo Xiangwen could only take the initiative to continue asking, "But they're classmates too. If you don't sit together, won't you lose opportunities to get to know each other?"

"If we don't get to know each other, then we don't. It won't affect anything." Yan Nuoya looked quite unconcerned.

"Wouldn't you have a few fewer friends?"

"Mm, that kind of thing doesn't matter."