My Online Friend Can't Be This Cute

Bai Shishi nodded frantically like a pecking chick, afraid he'd leave if she agreed even a second too late.

"Alright, then I'll take Shishi away for a little longer." Mo Xiangwen shook his head with a wry smile. "Sorry to make you wait a bit more, Mengli and Mengyao."

Su Mengyao didn't really mind and nodded indifferently.

"Then come back quickly."

Mo Xiangwen nodded, turned around, and headed downstairs.

Bai Shishi secretly tugged at the hem of his clothes and followed closely behind him.

This couldn't go on.

Though she did have her own reasons for hiding her identity, they weren't exactly convincing.

And she didn't really want to say something like, "I still wanted to observe what the group members were like."

Wouldn't that make her seem like she didn't trust the others?

...Alright, even if it was true, it wasn't something convenient to say in front of them.

How strange. He clearly wasn't the same kind of person as her, was he?

Yan Nuoya sat in her chair, gently turning the plastic cup in her hand. Watching the ice cubes roll around inside the empty cup, she couldn't help letting out a heavy sigh.

What should she do? If she didn't come up with something soon, things would only get worse.

If it really came down to it, she'd just have to explain herself, no matter how awkward it was. If she waited until after today, it would only become harder to explain.

Yan Nuoya stood up, only to see him coming down from upstairs with Bai Shishi.

"Tired of waiting?" Mo Xiangwen winked at her and teased, "Want to come upstairs with me?"

"...I'll leave it to you."

Yan Nuoya pursed her lips. At this point, she understood what he wanted to do.

"I'll properly apologize to you after the gathering."

Mo Xiangwen nodded without committing either way.

In his view, there wasn't really any need for an apology.

To be honest, Yan Nuoya hadn't done anything particularly excessive to him.

Even though she'd hidden her identity for so long, all she'd done during that time was tease him a couple of times.

Still, if she wanted to apologize, then she could apologize. If he didn't let her, she'd probably feel uneasy about it.

Bai Shishi curiously looked between him and Yan Nuoya and asked, "Didn't you have something to do?"

"Yeah, it's done. We can go back now."

"Huh? Alright."

Bai Shishi looked a little confused, but she obediently nodded and turned around to lead the way upstairs.

Mo Xiangwen carefully followed behind her and went upstairs as well.

Yan Nuoya hurried forward and caught up with him.

He suddenly slowed down, putting a little distance between himself and Bai Shishi, allowing Yan Nuoya to catch up beside him.

"Don't worry, I've checked for you," Mo Xiangwen said softly. "You'll get along."

"Mm." Yan Nuoya reached out a finger and lightly poked his back, then nodded. "I believe you."

When he brought Yan Nuoya over, Su Mengyao and Su Mengli looked at him strangely, having no idea what he was up to again.

Could she also be someone from the group? The thought flashed through Su Mengli's mind, but she quickly dismissed it.

After all, this wasn't the first time she'd met the girl, and she was also Mo Xiangwen's classmate.

They'd chatted in the group for so long already. If she were a group member, they should've met long ago.

But Mo Xiangwen had just denied that she and Bai Shishi were relatives. So why had he suddenly brought her over? Was it really just to make up the numbers for a board game?

Mo Xiangwen glanced at the group, each lost in their own thoughts, and lightly cleared his throat to bring everyone back to attention.

"How about this, Nuoya? Why don't you introduce yourself first?"

Since Mo Xiangwen said he'd already checked things out and brought her upstairs, she didn't need to worry so much anymore.

She wasn't like Baibai. She wouldn't get stage fright.

It wasn't that she couldn't do it. She simply didn't want to.

Yan Nuoya looked at the other three and slowly said, "My name is Yan Nuoya."

To her, every unfamiliar person was full of unknowns.

And only after she saw the entirety of that unknown would she be willing to take the first step.

It sounded stupid, and in truth, it was.

If she had to understand every single person, what an exhausting thing that would be.

So as long as she knew him, and them, that was enough.

Though she still hadn't fully figured out what kind of people they were, if he said, "You'll get along,"

then she might as well let down some of her guard and give it an honest try.

At least she had some understanding of what kind of person he was.

Trusting him wasn't all that different from trusting herself.

There was a hint of apology in Yan Nuoya's voice. "I'm Pigeon from the group. I'm sorry I only revealed my identity to everyone now."

"Huh? Huh? Huh?" Su Mengyao and Bai Shishi cried out in disbelief.

Su Mengli only parted her lips slightly before immediately returning to her usual expression.

"Then why didn't you greet my sister and me at the shop a few days ago?" Su Mengyao frowned and asked in confusion. "I even told Xiangwen to call you over so we could sit and chat together, but you never came."

"You didn't tell me you were Pigeon just now either." Bai Shishi's little face showed a trace of grievance.

Yan Nuoya could only look at them apologetically in silence.

"Ahem, that's my fault." Mo Xiangwen interrupted their questions, cleared his throat, and said, "At first, I discussed it with her because I wanted to give Mengli and Mengyao a surprise."

"Then we found out Baibai was coming too, so we decided to wait a little longer."

"Once Baibai arrived, we'd surprise all of you together."

A lie riddled with holes.

Su Mengli silently looked at him, unable to tell what exactly he was thinking.

Mo Xiangwen noticed Su Mengli's gaze and could only wink at her, signaling with his eyes.

For adults, it didn't matter whether a lie was flawless. What mattered was that things could pass smoothly on the surface and not leave everyone in an awkward position.

Besides, no one was perfect, much less a plan.

Su Mengli was smart. There was nothing he could do if she didn't believe him, but she would definitely understand them. At most, she'd secretly message him privately afterward.

For now, it was enough if Bai Shishi and Su Mengyao accepted it.

As for the future, once they became familiar with Yan Nuoya's personality, they'd naturally understand why things had turned out this way.

Well, Yan Nuoya unquestionably bore the main responsibility for this situation, but he had a tiny bit of responsibility too.

PS: Hopefully next chapter.

UNO

Though she had no idea what the two of them were up to, Su Mengli silently nodded, indicating that she wouldn't expose them.

With Su Mengli's tacit approval, he felt much more at ease.

To put it bluntly, this was somewhat like taking advantage of Su Mengli. It was already good enough that she wasn't angry.

Mo Xiangwen silently sighed to himself. He'd have to apologize to her privately later.

Su Mengyao and Bai Shishi's reactions, on the other hand, were much more straightforward.

As for Bai Shishi, less than two or three hours had passed since her first meeting with Yan Nuoya, so she didn't feel much about it yet.

By now, she could even stand beside Yan Nuoya and chat with her happily.

As for Su Mengyao... He looked at her, almost as delighted as she'd been upon seeing Bai Shishi, and couldn't tell what she was really thinking.

After Yan Nuoya reintroduced herself to Su Mengli and Su Mengyao, the five of them moved together to a larger table.

At last, all five members of the group were gathered.

However, in this tiny five-person group, the factions were clearly divided.

As the group's darling, Baibai sat between him and Su Mengyao, on his left.

And naturally, Su Mengyao sat together with her older sister, Su Mengli.

Which meant Yan Nuoya could only sit on his right.

That said, given Yan Nuoya's personality, she would probably choose to sit beside him first anyway.

Because he was the same way. If he could sit beside someone more familiar, he absolutely wouldn't sit beside someone relatively unfamiliar.

Unless he had no choice.

Still, he'd forcibly corrected that habit after starting work.

Where people sat was governed by rules. It wasn't like he could sit wherever he wanted... Being with friends was much more relaxing.

Though they had been online friends for years, apart from Su Mengyao and Su Mengli, none of them were particularly good at conversation, and they weren't all that familiar with one another yet.

After chatting for a few sentences, they struggled to find a suitable topic. Seeing things starting to grow awkwardly quiet, Su Mengli suggested they chat while playing UNO.

UNO was a multiplayer tabletop game, also known as the Friendship Crusher.

UNO cards were divided into number cards, action cards, and wild cards.

The number cards came in four colors: red, yellow, blue, and green. The action cards included Skip, Reverse, and +2 cards.

The wild cards were black and included Wild and +4 cards.

The victory condition was to play all the cards in your hand. When you were down to one card, you had to shout "UNO," or else you'd be penalized by drawing two cards.

And here came the important part.

There were two sets of rules for this game that players generally accepted.

One was the official rule set, which didn't allow stacking. Though everyone acknowledged it, it was actually used far less often.

You could say players acknowledged it out of respect for the official rules, but whether they actually played by them was up to the players.

The other allowed stacking.

+2 and +4 cards could be stacked, though +2 cards could only stack on +2 cards.

If the previous player played a +2, you could play a +2 or +4. If the previous player played a +4, then only another +4 could be used to continue the stack, until the player who couldn't respond had to take all the penalty draws.

That was precisely the main reason UNO was called the Friendship Crusher.

Whether it was because a massive draw penalty had already built up, or because the player after you had already called UNO,

if you had a +4 in hand, it was hard to resist the urge to screw over the next player.

Then you could watch her collapse as she went from having the fewest cards in the game—just one—to drawing until she held more cards than all the other players combined.

In the end, you could let out a pig-like laugh to express the joy in your heart.

The price of laughing once might be a little steep, though. Every time, you might lose a friend.

But that didn't stop college students from loving it. Every night, at First-Grade Tea or other milk tea shops, countless students could be seen playing this tabletop game.

Its popularity had once even rivaled Werewolf.

However, the friendship between him and Bai Shishi seemed a little too solid. Even UNO couldn't shake it in the slightest.

After Su Mengli leisurely placed down a +2, Su Mengyao immediately threw down a +4.

Then Su Mengyao stared eagerly at Bai Shishi, hoping she would, just like her, boldly throw down a +4 and screw over the next player.