"Miss Shen, I don't have much luggage, so I'll be moving in shortly. Could you tell me the Wi-Fi password?"
After agonizing over it for ages, Yun Xiaoran finally worked up the courage to send the message. He waited five minutes, but there was no reply.
Oh, right, she was busy.
She must be working right now, right?
Yun Xiaoran stared awkwardly at the message he had sent on WeChat. He had severe social anxiety and wasn't good at interacting with people.
Forget it. I'll just head to her place first.
No. 101, Dragon Lake Blue Shore.
Yun Xiaoran silently repeated the address on the way, then followed the route from the bus stop to the location shown on his map.
He hadn't expected an upscale residential complex. There was even a park and a fountain downstairs, with people of all ages exercising and luxury cars occasionally gliding past.
Yun Xiaoran went upstairs and unlocked the door with the key card the woman had given him.
He had barely stepped into the entryway when-
"Meow~"
A cat's cry broke the silence. Yun Xiaoran looked around and spotted a calico cat watching him from inside.
"Hi."
Smiling, Yun Xiaoran held out a finger to entice the cat over. He had only done it idly, out of boredom.
I'm just a visitor. This little cat is probably waiting for its owner.
To his surprise, the cat slowly approached him, apparently taking quite a liking to him.
"Wow, you're a cute little thing."
Yun Xiaoran stroked the friendly cat, which settled comfortably into his arms and narrowed its eyes in pleasure.
"Prrr..."
At least the resident hadn't rejected him the moment he arrived. That was a good start for Yun Xiaoran. The resident might only be a cat, but at least it meant little animals liked him.
Yun Xiaoran hadn't brought much.
A guitar and a backpack full of odds and ends were all he owned.
"The first season of I Am a Singer is now airing to great excitement.
"The rising star Liu Li is delivering a breathtaking performance onstage. You can hear just how much effort she put into this song.
"She even brought in the renowned Chinese lyricist Chang Wujiang."
"Li Qingxi, hailed as the next Shen Muge, sounds like she's in excellent form today. Let's interview her. Li Qingxi, do you think you can beat Shen Muge this time?"
"I think that depends on how we're both performing, but I feel I'm in excellent form this time."
Onstage.
Li Qingxi wore her signature smile as she answered confidently.
The audience showered her with praise.
Backstage, Shen Jin furrowed her delicate brows as she listened to the host tirelessly work up the crowd and ask pointed questions.
The first season of I Am a Singer had invited many famous performers from across the country.
They all had professional lyricists whose words were worth a fortune, while Shen Jin had been so overwhelmed by her marriage troubles that she had nearly come last in this round of I Am a Singer.
If tomorrow's performance on I Am a Singer went anything like today's, even her status as a diva wouldn't save her from being eliminated by the emerging singers.
"Jin, if you think tomorrow's song is too hard to sing, let's switch to another one. If you underperform again, we could very well be eliminated early."
Sister Hua comforted Shen Jin while trying to think of a solution.
Shen Jin tucked her hair behind her ear and began scrolling through the unread messages on her phone with her long fingernails.
There were invitations from that man who had returned from overseas, messages checking in from her mother, and offers from major directors asking her to act in their productions.
When she reached the bottom, her beautiful eyes settled on Yun Xiaoran's message asking for the Wi-Fi password.
Is this stalker fan already getting impatient? He's lucky I haven't punished him yet, and he has the nerve to ask for the Wi-Fi password? Hah!
She decided to ignore Yun Xiaoran's message.
"Yun, why did that girl I introduced you to come back and give me an earful? Did you upset her?"
Zhou Zeyu sent him a voice message on WeChat. He and Yun Xiaoran had met in a group for novice singers on VA Site. Many newcomers banded together like this to avoid being taken advantage of.
After chatting back and forth, Yun Xiaoran and Zhou Zeyu had become friends.
Although they lived in the same city, neither knew where the other lived, and they didn't intrude on each other's lives.
"Oh, I did get the marriage and divorce paperwork, but I got it with the wrong person! I don't know how to explain it. It's all such a mess."
Even now, Yun Xiaoran couldn't believe he had managed to marry the wrong person in a whirlwind marriage.
"Who knew there were so many people getting fake marriages these days?"
"Oh, whatever. As long as your fake marriage worked and got your family off your back, the rest doesn't matter. Anyway, did you watch that video on VA Site?"
Zhou Zeyu sent Yun Xiaoran another message.
"That video left me stunned. I've never even been in love, but it still broke my heart. If I catch the person who made it, I'll cut them into pieces!"
"Oh, I listened to it too. But the equipment limited that song. It might sound better with different instruments."
Yun Xiaoran gave a sheepish smile and decided to keep it a secret for now that he was the talented singer behind that account.
"That's our Yun! Your ideas about this song sound just like something its creator would say. I also think it'd sound better on piano."
Zhou Zeyu sighed.
"I want to make something of my music soon, too. Otherwise, I'll have to go home and manage the company."
"Keep bragging. If you really had a company to inherit, why would you bother making music?"
"Enough chatting. I'm releasing a new song now."
After sending that last message, Zhou Zeyu went offline.
Yun Xiaoran sat stiffly on the sofa. The apartment was clean and beautiful, with carefully tended succulents on the balcony and a pretty calico cat grooming its fur.
The layout and decor made it clear that a woman lived here alone.
It was quite nice.
"Ding-dong..."
The doorbell left Yun Xiaoran puzzled.
Could she be back?
Out of caution, Yun Xiaoran looked through the peephole first.
There was a security camera, but he couldn't access it. More importantly, he didn't have Wi-Fi, and his phone plan didn't even include mobile data.
He peered through the peephole.
It was pitch-black. He couldn't see a thing.
Yun Xiaoran remained cautious and didn't open the door.
If it were the woman he had just married, she would most likely unlock the door herself.
She certainly wouldn't ring the bell a few times and then fall silent.
He hadn't expected even a wealthy neighborhood to be this dangerous.
Yun Xiaoran sighed. Without Wi-Fi, he couldn't even browse VA Site. All he could do was wait until nightfall for her to return.
But...
Yun Xiaoran began to reconsider.
He hadn't bought groceries yet. If the wife he had just married came home, she might run into danger, too.
After thinking it over for a long time, Yun Xiaoran finally opened the door.
There was no one outside.
Was I just scaring myself?
Yun Xiaoran gave a self-mocking smile, then locked the door and went out to buy groceries.
Their whirlwind marriage might be fake, but Yun Xiaoran still intended to fulfill his responsibilities as a husband.
As for cooking, Yun Xiaoran wasn't helpless or clueless about ingredients. His therapist had also told him that cooking for himself was one of the easiest ways to gain a sense of accomplishment, so he had tried making practically every kind of dish.
Shen Jin returned from the I Am a Singer rehearsal with Sister Hua, her assistant, and the others.
Listless, Shen Jin opened the door, feeling utterly exhausted. The thought of having hastily married a stalker fan who was pursuing her made her newly settled heart churn with irritation again.
She looked toward the living room.
Someone seemed to have been there. Why was there a guitar case on the table?
A hint of confusion entered her beautiful eyes. Shen Jin opened the case and found a guitar inside. It wasn't particularly expensive, but its owner had clearly played it many times.
Sipping a glass of milk, Sister Hua looked at the guitar on the table and asked in puzzlement:
"Whose guitar is this? It looks like it's been played quite a lot."
Shen Jin shook her head, then frowned and replied impatiently:
"I don't know. Maybe it's Yun Xiaoran's."
Then Shen Jin opened WeChat on her phone, scrolled to Yun Xiaoran's profile picture, and tapped their chat.
Oh, so he came over this afternoon.
Seeing that message only reinforced what Shen Jin already believed:
Yun Xiaoran was a stalker fan through and through.
But what infuriated Shen Jin even more was that she couldn't live apart from him. If they separated and Yun Xiaoran disappeared, he would pose an even greater threat to her. Although she disliked him, she could only keep him close.
Sister Hua also checked her phone. After reading a message, she said dejectedly:
"No luck. I consulted a lawyer, and divorces now require a one-month cooling-off period. Since you only just got married, you'll have to put up with him for at least another twenty-odd days."
"What?"
Shen Jin's beautiful eyes widened. She took Sister Hua's phone in her slender hands, and after reading the message, her hopes crumbled into dust, leaving her expression cold.
At a hundred and seventy centimeters tall, she cut an elegant figure standing there. Her dark hair cascaded down like a waterfall, and above her delicate, high-bridged nose sat a pair of striking, peach-blossom eyes. She was a born beauty.
Divorce required a thirty-day cooling-off period. That meant she still had to spend at least twenty more days with Yun Xiaoran.
Before you continue