Discounted Swiss Roll

The excitement of teasing Jia Shugui vanished instantly, replaced by a familiar feeling of suffocation gripping He Yinxin's neck.

That's the shackle that appears and binds him whenever he encounters uncertainties.

Those were the rules and regulations that adults had imposed on him since he was old enough to understand.

He followed the labels they had put on him and traveled on the designated tracks.

If they deviate even slightly from the correct path, the adults will always correct them in time.

The world shrank infinitely before his eyes, eventually trapping him in a world the size of a pigeon coop.

Through the gaps in the cage, he could only see strings of cold data floating around.

He looked at the scene inside the cage; it was still just data.

The world is boring, life is too routine, and I am boring.

It wasn't until he first saw that happy figure gnawing on a pig's trotter in the cafeteria that the machine-made meal, constructed from data, began to smell delicious.

The pigeon coop that confined him developed cracks.

The world built with programs and data began to shake.

He finally mustered the courage to raise his hand, tear off the first label stuck to him, and step into that unknown, vast land.

After that, he would always silently follow in her footsteps.

He always sat far away from her, eating his meal while watching her smiling face.

When he looked down at the food on his plate, he realized that he had finished eating along with her.

Food is no longer data, no longer a tool.

Food is just food.

Food...is that happiness?

After that, he gradually gleaned glimpses of her appearance from snippets of conversation among those around him.

Her name is Jiang Yichun, she is a junior two years younger than me, and she has excellent grades.

She seems to have a passion for food that she finds hard to understand.

He also witnessed her rejecting a boy who expressed his feelings for her in the cafeteria.

She took a few steps back, her eyes filled with fear, like a startled deer, and then resolutely ran away.

He knew she wasn't a little sun; she was the real sun. Anyone who got close to her would be burned, and she would run away without looking back.

Therefore, he could only watch her from afar, remaining at a safe distance.

"Koharu."

"Jiang Yichun".

He called her name softly, suppressing the pounding of his heart.

He took out his phone and opened the notes app.

He opened the memo app at the bottom, which contained some tips from his cousin He Xuexi on how to chat with girls.

That day was yet another unpleasant gathering.

He listened listlessly to the chatter of the other department members, looking down at the strings of data in the bowl.

He rarely touched his chopsticks until he heard Yang Fei chattering about her roommate.

"My roommate Xiaochun is the best! Our dorm has Xingxing and Xiaochun, and I relied on them to help me with my final exams!"

"Xiaochun is also really good at finding good food. Oh, right, I forgot to tell her I'm going out for dinner tonight, so I can't share pig's trotters with her!"

"Oh well, she has evening classes anyway, I'll talk to her later. Come on, have some milk tea..."

Pig's trotters.

Koharu.

These two keywords exploded in his mind like a thunderclap.

The image of Jiang Yichun sitting in the cafeteria eating pig's trotters flashed before his eyes.

I'm craving pig's trotters.

So he opened his phone and opened his alternate account.

After all, using large-sized pig's trotters to make a platter... feels a bit embarrassing.

That alternate account was registered using his ID card by his cousin, He Xuexi, in order to evade the time restrictions for playing games as a minor.

Now that his cousin is an adult, he has long used this account to handle other matters, such as infiltrating online groups.

He looked at his ID, which had not yet been updated.

"Super sweet snow cat".

...

What is He Xuexi really thinking?

He Yinxin changed this shameful ID to "Stata, please let me go" to show her powerlessness in the face of her life as a beast of burden.

As for the profile picture, he thought the cat head was cute, so he didn't change it.

After finishing all that, he still had to hold a group meeting after the party.

On his way back to school, wanting to try some delicious food, he posted in a pig's trotters group ordering group:

Looking for a pig's trotters combo.

He happened to pass by a steaming pig's trotter stall at the school gate, looked up, and his gaze fell on Jiang Yichun in the queue.

She was smiling.

He unconsciously smiled and strode into the campus, looking down at the message on his phone.

A girl with a profile picture of a small dog and the ID "Everything is Easy" came to add him.

[Sisters! Please add Jiang Yichun in your contact information!]

Jiang Yichun?

Xiaochun?

What a coincidence?

Wait, she called me sister?

He rubbed his eyes and took another closer look at the black "Sisters" word on his phone screen.

She admitted her mistake; she was clearly a boy.

But for some reason, perhaps because he had finally found an opportunity to get closer to her, or perhaps because he didn't want her to give up the group order and miss out on the pig's trotters she wanted just because of her gender.

He ultimately went along with her, agreeing to her request and calling her a sister in return.

It was this word "sister" that brought him closer to her, but also dragged him into the abyss of lies.

He tried to find a way out for himself: chatting with her using a fake account and observing her from a distance offline would satisfy him.

But he still didn't expect that fate would play another joke on him.

Jiang Yichun added him to her contacts, seeking academic help, which drew him deeper and deeper into her world.

After the unexpected incident involving the pig's trotters group order, he stayed up all night to catch up with his cousin Xixi. With the help of his cousin and their shared experiences, he was finally able to barely become friends with Jiang Yichun.

Only the alias "XiXi" could barely become friends with Jiang Yichun.

"We're friends now."

Knowing all this, can we still be friends?

He Yinxin felt a lump in his throat and couldn't help but sniff.

He pictured Jiang Yichun glaring at him: "Let's break up, Senior He."

"He Yinxin, you liar!"

The suffocating feeling caused by the uncertainty made it almost impossible for him to breathe, so he could only open the "Jiang Yichun Observation Record" document.

He frowned at the title and changed it to "A Small Matter About Jiang Yichun".

She was no longer just a subject of his sociological experiments; she was his friend.

He began to write again:

We became friends on March 20th.

I call her Xiaochun, and she calls me Lao He.

He frowned, then added another sentence below:

[When the time is right, reveal Xi Xi's true identity.]

It's wrong to lie to her.

My feelings for her should not be built on deception.

He pressed the last period, and just then, a message popped up on his phone.

It was sent by Jiang Yichun.

Everything's easy: [Sister Xixi! Have you had your barbecue yet?]

He Yinxin stared at the message, her fingertips trembling slightly, before replying:

【Mmm, I got to eat it! It's so delicious!】

It was a little cold; my boyfriend might have brought it a bit late.

After replying to the message, he turned off his phone, dragged his weak legs, and plopped down in a chair.

All he could think about were Jiang Yichun's bright, sparkling eyes.

He Yinxin opened her phone again and opened the chat interface between her and her main account.

He pursed his lips and typed in the chat box:

[Xiaochun, I'm sorry. I don't want to lie to you anymore. I'll confess something to you: Yang Xuexi's account is actually mine. It was a misunderstanding.]

He stared at the message for a long time, his fingertips hesitating to press the "send" button.

He thought of the contract he had signed with her, her joking "taking her to court," and the hope that shone in her eyes when she mentioned being recommended for postgraduate studies at University A.

Perhaps now is not the right time to be honest.

I'll be honest with her once she's successfully secured a place in a top-tier university for graduate studies and her calorie addiction symptoms have subsided.

By then, even if she leaves me, insults me, or hates me, we will have achieved our goal.

It doesn't matter if we go our separate ways, right?

Results-oriented approach, this may be the optimal solution.

He took a deep breath, deleted those words, and replaced them with "Have you made plans to study in the library on Friday?"

After sending that message, he felt as if a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders, and he slumped onto the table, gently stroking the little mongrel on Jiang Yichun's profile picture with his fingertips.

"I'm sorry, Xiaochun," he murmured to himself.

The person he was apologizing to was sitting at his desk, staring at the blank Stata interface, biting on a pen.

To prepare for Stata, Jiang Yichun downloaded the software on his computer and downloaded videos from the website to learn step by step.

Her brain was instantly flooded with all sorts of messy code and data.

Jiang Yichun gritted his teeth, tried typing a code on the keyboard, and pressed Enter.

Sure enough, a string of red error messages appeared on the screen.

"Ah!" Jiang Yichun exclaimed, slammed the page shut, and lay down on the chair.

She has been spending all her time in the library since this morning, and until she goes out for barbecue tonight, she has been immersed in advanced mathematics, English, and economics.

Her mind was already overwhelmed; the characters crawling on the screen turned into ants, gnawing away at the little energy she had left.

She let out a long sigh and slumped onto the table.

"Squeak—"

The door behind her was opened, and Zhang Xingxing walked in carrying a large box of Swiss rolls.

"Xiaochun, what's wrong?" she asked softly, placing the Swiss roll on the table.

Jiang Yichun's voice was sticky and muggy: "It's all because of this data analysis software. It's so annoying. It gives an error message as soon as I input anything."

"I studied all day today, and my brain is about to explode."

Zhang Xingxing sighed: "Yeah. It's really tough."

As soon as someone listens to her, Jiang Yichun immediately gets excited and pours out all the bizarre things she encountered at the night market that night.

"Star, do you know, I met a very gentle and kind senior, but... but her boyfriend is really... indescribable!"

"My God, he's so greasy! He has long hair, calls that senior 'baby,' and calls himself some kind of knight. His way of speaking sounds like he's been marinated in anime."

"What did the senior see in him? Was it his greasy appearance, his slovenly looks, or his habit of not showering or washing his hair?"

"Pfft." Zhang Xingxing covered her mouth and chuckled, picking up a Swiss roll from the table. "Alright, alright, let other people talk about their relationships."

"Maybe your senior can see some admirable qualities in her boyfriend that others might miss?"

"I think there's a reason for everything."

"What highlights? She's blinded by the lard that man produced," Jiang Yichun retorted mercilessly.

"Come on, Xiaochun, have a Swiss roll." Zhang Xingxing chuckled, wrapped a Swiss roll in a napkin, and placed it on Jiang Yichun's table. "I went to the supermarket today and saw that Swiss rolls were on sale, so I bought a big box."

"Try it, and you'll have the energy to think after you finish eating it."

The unspoken agreement between Jiang Yichun and Zhang Xingxing since their freshman year was to "feed" each other.

The two also frequently visited supermarkets near the school, lingering in the dessert discount section.

"Thank you, Xingxing, you're the best!" Jiang Yichun's lifeless eyes lit up when she saw the Swiss roll, and she grabbed it and held it in her hand.

The red cake base is filled with pale yellow cream.

Perhaps it had just been taken out of the freezer, because there were still water droplets on the cake base.

Jiang Yichun opened his mouth wide and took a big bite.

The cake base was soft, the cream was fragrant, and it was slightly damp.

With a gentle flick of her tongue, the cake base melted on her tongue, leaving only the milky aroma lingering on her tongue.

Just like that toast tonight, that "we're friends now," it offered some comfort to her weary body.

He Yinxin...we're friends now.

The first male friend I made.

"drop."

The phone rang; it was a message from He Yinxin.

[Have you made plans to study in the library on Friday?]

Jiang Yichun held the soft Swiss roll in her hand, the overflowing cream sticking to her fingertips.

It's sticky and has a faint milky aroma.

She recalled that even after they became friends, He Yinxin still hadn't told her whether he was better suited for dating or settling down.

Is this man deliberately changing the subject?

A strange, sour feeling welled up in her heart.

Jiang Yichun paused, her hand still holding the Swiss roll. She snapped back to reality, her cheeks burning.

Why do I have this strange feeling because he didn't answer that question?

Thinking of this, Jiang Yichun clenched his pajamas at his chest, his heart pounding.

Her gaze returned to the message.

Tomorrow is Friday.

Tomorrow... I'm going to meet him.

Tomorrow, he will sit in front of me, or even beside me, and explain the data analysis software in front of me.

Tomorrow, we can call him Lao He.

Jiang Yichun scratched his head, a smile appearing on his lips, and stuffed the rest of the Swiss roll into his mouth.

A sweet scent filled her heart.

She replied that she had received his message, and then opened the reservation app to look for a study room.

The study room was already full, and the bright red pages hurt her eyes.

Jiang Yichun, thinking about how he and Lao He would have to squeeze into the public library outside and wouldn't be able to communicate, shouted again:

"How awful!"

But the sweet aroma of the Swiss roll still lingered in her heart.

Jiang Yichun stroked the cookie box He Yinxin had given her, her eyes sparkling, and muttered softly:

"Human-machine freak..."