Chapter 24

For the next two days, Ren Qiaoyuan was in a dazed state, as if he was in a sweet dream, neither real nor fake.

Ren Qiao'an never imagined that she would gain such immense happiness from an online friend. Along with the sweetness came worries. The more happiness she felt, the deeper her worries became. Was all this really brought to her by Guiqulaixie?

Or is she indulging in a false, sweet story she has woven herself?

Many times, Ren Qiao'an was deceiving herself. She wanted to know what Gui Qulaixie was really like, but she pretended not to be interested. She cared about Gui Qulaixie's emotional life, but she pretended not to care.

Just like now, Ren Qiao'an was in class, chatting with Gui Qu Lai Xi while absentmindedly listening to the professor's passionate speech. Inwardly, he was struggling with whether to ask Gui Qu Lai Xi for a photo. Until a familiar voice interrupted Ren Qiao'an's wandering thoughts, "An'an, your drawings of the little chicken are so funny."

Ren Qiao'an woke up as if from a dream and cast a glance at Qian Bao'er, "Where?"

Qian Baoer pointed at the textbook between the two people and said, "Here, there's Little White Rabbit and Big Tiger. Hey, is this our team?"

"Yes." This was something she drew for fun when she was bored in class. The strange style of painting and the distorted fonts could be called a "soulful creation". Ren Qiao'an scratched his head a little embarrassedly. It was simply a large-scale corpse-whipping scene.

"Little newbie, little newbie...you wrote so many little newbies, like a spell, haha." Qian Baoer found that there were not only pictures but also texts in the book. It was obvious that he treated the textbook as a graffiti wall.

"Little Newbie..." Little Newbie? Ren Qiao'an repeated Qian Bao'er's words. It was her in-game ID, sure, but why did it feel so strange to be called that? No... it was the person who called her that. Who? Who had called her that ID before? Not her roommate, Guiqulaixi? And... and Jinxi?

Strange...why did she think of Jinxi?

Oh right, it was that party. She was the one who sent Jinxi home. And then, Jinxi seemed to have called some rookie along with her? ?

Jin Xi...

Ren Qiao'an looked ahead at the familiar figure, lost in memories. After many days of communication, Ren Qiao'an was quite familiar with Gui Qu Lai Xi's voice, but why did she suddenly feel that Gui Qu Lai Xi's voice was very similar to someone else's, like... a drunk Jin Xi...

Especially the word "little newbie". Jin Xi's tone that night was exactly the same as when Gui Qu Lai Xi was acting coquettishly to her.

Um…

…what does that mean.

Suddenly, the phone screen on the desktop lit up. Ren Qiao'an swiped it open and saw a message from Guiqulaixi. But Jinxi had been playing with her phone just now, right? From where Ren Qiao'an was, he could see a little bit of Jinxi's profile, so he had clearly seen that Jinxi's hand was on the phone.

…

Ren Qiaoan didn't choose to reply to Gui Qu Lai Xi's message immediately. Instead, she waited until she saw Jin Xi put down her phone and looked away. Then, Ren Qiaoan edited a message and sent it to Gui Qu Lai Xi. Then, coincidentally, when Ren Qiaoan saw Jin Xi pick up her phone again, she received another reply from Gui Qu Lai Xi.

…………

Is this a coincidence?

Suddenly, Ren Qiao'an thought of something. She scrolled back through the chat history and found a photo, a photo Guiqulaixi had sent her. The photo showed Guiqulaixi's hand, slightly clenched into a fist. But Ren Qiao'an couldn't make out anything from just the photo of a hand, zooming in and out.

Qian Baoer, who was standing by, saw Ren Qiao'an staring at his phone screen with a frown on his face, so she took a look at it curiously and said, "Wow, this pinky ring is so beautiful!"

"Do you recognize this ring?" Seeing that Qian Baoer had figured out something, Ren Qiao'an placed the photo in front of Qian Baoer so that she could take a closer look.

"It's a limited edition of Da A Xiao Ba. I also had my eyes on this pinky ring before, but I didn't get it, woohoo." Qian Baoer was deeply impressed by this pinky ring because it was something she didn't get!

“…”

Wait, Ren Qiao'an remembered something. That night, when Jin Xi elbowed her, her face had indeed been scraped by something hard. Could it be the ring? Ren Qiao'an wasn't particularly sensitive to small accessories, so she'd never noticed if Jin Xi wore a ring. A limited edition... meaning the chances of seeing someone wearing the same ring were low. "Bao'er, does anyone at school have this ring?"

“…Hmm…” Qian Baoer tilted her head and thought carefully. She was very sensitive to these little things. She would usually notice some beautiful and shiny accessories on girls. “Let me think, I seem to have seen it somewhere. Where?” Who wore it and it caught her attention at once?

"Who is it?" Ren Qiao'an's heart was in a state of panic. Could it be such a coincidence?

"Jinxi from the dormitory next door..." Qian Baoer uttered a sentence intermittently.

"Are you sure?" Ren Qiao'an didn't believe that there would be such a coincidence.

"Are you sure..." Qian Baoer hesitated. It seemed to be Jinxi, but also seemed to be someone else. Qian Baoer couldn't remember clearly. After all, there were better-looking accessories appearing every day, and that pinky ring was already a thing of the past.

"Why don't you take another look?" Ren Qiao'an needed a definitive answer, so she had an idea. She turned on her phone's camera, pointed the lens at Jin Xi's hand, zoomed in, focused, and snapped several pictures. After successfully capturing the scene, Ren Qiao'an handed the phone to Qian Bao'er, asking her to study it carefully.

"What are you two doing? Who are you secretly photographing?" Yan Yiyi was drawn in by Ren Qiao'an and Qian Bao'er's strange antics. Leaning in closer, she saw a delicate hand on the screen. "Damn, whose hand are you secretly photographing? Are you perverts?" What a bizarre hobby.

"That's it!" Qian Baoer confirmed that this style and appearance were Da A Xiao Ba. "It's the same style as the one on Jin Xi's hand." And... "An An, your hand in the photo also looks like Jin Xi's hand. Where did you get the photo?"

Ren Qiao'an was frightened by Qian Baoer's words. His little hands were shaking so much that he couldn't even catch the phone that Qian Baoer handed over. It fell on the table with a "click".

Oh my God! Don't scare her! This can't be such a coincidence!

Ren Qiao'an had to remain calm, even though he was panicking inside. He had to keep a straight face, as if nothing had happened. "It's from Taobao."

"???" Yan Yiyi looked puzzled. "Ren Qiao'an, you're checking your hands on Taobao? What's wrong with you?"

"Are you going to buy hand cream?" The focus of the photo is not on the ring, so it is definitely not selling rings. As for products related to hands, this is the first thing Qian Baoer thought of.

"Uh..." Ren Qiao'an didn't know how to explain this, so she just said it casually.

"I'm telling you guys, you don't understand, do you?" Wu Nianzhi suddenly joined the group chat. "Looking at hands, maybe... An An is looking at condoms."

“???” Yan Yiyi and Qian Baoer were both confused.

"..." What the hell, Ren Qiao'an didn't look at that thing on Taobao, "Wu Nianzhi, you can shut up now."

Ren Qiao'an sat through the day's classes in a daze, her doubts growing deeper. The personal information Guiqulaixi had given her—24 years old, from M City, university graduate—none of it could possibly point to Jinxi. But what about the identical pinky ring and the similar voice? After much deliberation, Ren Qiao'an could only think of two possibilities: either Guiqulaixi had been lying to her from the beginning, or Guiqulaixi and Jinxi were just coincidental, sharing a few similarities.

Which one is it? Ren Qiao'an hopes it is the latter.

Ren Qiao'an needed the truth. At around 8 p.m., after confirming that Guiqulaixi was free, Ren Qiao'an couldn't wait to send Guiqulaixi a voice call request, which the other party quickly accepted.

"Hello." Ren Qiao'an was very nervous.

"Um...what's wrong?"

Guiqulaixi's voice was a little low, and it sounded very much like Jinxi's voice... the first time he spoke to her, "Where are you?" Ren Qiao'an's tone was very calm.

"…Home. What's going on?"

Guiqulaixie hesitated just now, right? Although it was only for a few seconds, Ren Qiao'an could indeed hear the hesitant tone in his voice. "Can't I talk to you on the phone? I just want to hear your voice, is that not okay?" Ren Qiao'an said these very artificial words in a very calm tone.

“…Haha, sure, sure.”

"Hmph, scum." Ren Qiao'an was also capable of being spoiled and willful. When Ren Qiao'an acted pretentiously, it was not just ordinary pretense. "Did you hook up with the young lady behind my back?"

"Haha, no way."

"Then you stay at home like a lazy fish all day long. What else can you do besides surfing the Internet and hooking up with young ladies?" Guiqulaixie said that she was an unemployed vagrant who had just graduated and stayed at home.

“…I’m not that free.” Jinxi’s schedule has not been leisurely lately.

Guiqulaixi's voice sounded aggrieved, but Ren Qiao'an sensed something was amiss. "Have you studied hard? Didn't you say you wanted to take the civil service exam?"

"Yes. Of course I read books seriously. I'm very busy and don't have time to flirt with others..." Jin Xi said half-truthfully.

"..." Guiqulaixi had never told her that he wanted to take the civil service exam. Ren Qiao'an was just talking nonsense. "Then have you found a job that suits your management major?"

"Well, there are many positions. Let's not talk about this. Are you going to play the game later?" Jin Xi wanted to change the subject.

“…” Ren Qiao’an didn’t know what Guiqulaixi’s major was, but Jinxi’s major was management.

So, Guiqulaixi has been deceiving her all along...

"Sometimes I really doubt whether you are 24 years old." Ren Qiao'an's tone was extremely calm, hiding an anger that she herself was not aware of.

"Ah? Why do you say that?" Jin Xi was confused.

"What 24-year-old is like you, who only knows how to play games every day? What graduate from University A is like you, who stays at home all day, has no ambition, and is obsessed with playing with things."

"...How could I?" Jin Xi wanted to explain but couldn't. To maintain a lie, she needed thousands of lies.

Once again, Guiqulaixi told her that he was graduating from M University. Ren Qiao'an thought that her probing was clear enough.

So, what is real in Return?

What is real between them...

The wind from the balcony made Ren Qiaoyuan blinded and felt very cold.

"No more talking. I won't be playing the game later. You can play it by yourself. I'm hanging up now. Bye."

"..." Jin Xi, who was on the other side of the balcony, was holding a cell phone with an innocent look on her face. She leisurely saw Nanshan talking to her peacefully, only for him to scold her?