Chapter 41 "I Like You"

Chapter 41

Jiang Xuli's spirits lifted, and she almost blurted out, "No!"

"Oh? Really? You can't lie."

"I'm not lying."

Xu Zhen persisted: "Then you must have a lot of girls chasing after you, right? Don't worry, we're just playing a game, your teacher Jin won't betray you."

Jin Ran's eyes shone brightly: "Yes, yes, I will never betray you."

Jiang Xuli: "..."

Jiang Xuli felt a little itchy as she complained that the revolutionary friendship she had built with her own father was so fragile, crumbling into dust at the slightest touch of gossip. She coldly retorted, "That's the second question."

Truth or Dare only requires answering the first question.

Realizing this, Jin Ran and Xu Zhen, who could not hear what followed, sighed regretfully.

Soon, the second round of the game began.

Everyone was a little nervous, the cards in their hands were like hot potatoes, they were quickly taken and handed out. The girl in charge of stopping the game had just struck the stone when Jiang Xuli had already swiftly stuffed it into the next person's hand.

Wang Chen looked bewildered, holding the Joker card.

Seeing this, Xu Zhen burst into laughter. Wang Chen then realized what was happening and shook his head with a helpless smile, appearing very good-natured: "I choose to tell the truth. I hope everyone will be lenient and spare my words."

Xu Zhen was the one who asked the question again, because everyone felt that her question was sharp and straightforward: "Last time your aunt urged you to go on a blind date, but you refused no matter what. Could it be... that you already have someone in your heart?"

This is incredibly exciting! Everyone perked up their ears in interest.

Wang Chen blushed slightly, glanced at Jin Ran subconsciously, then quickly looked away, and then readily admitted, "Yes, I have someone I like."

The usually sunny and cheerful young man was unusually shy, which caused another round of teasing.

Wow~

"Wow, Xiao Chenzi, you always act so serious, I never imagined you already had someone in your heart."

Witnessing all this, Jiang Xuli sneered inwardly. He knew this person was suspicious. Turning his head, he saw Jin Ran still laughing along with everyone, completely oblivious. His temples throbbed, and he suddenly felt a headache coming on.

Xu Zhen was satisfied with her attempt to probe her cousin's thoughts.

She said that her cousin, who was a complete shut-in, had never been so enthusiastic, helping her get a teaching job and organizing hiking trips. She was sure he had ulterior motives.

However, a girl as pretty and smart as Ranran would be liked by a boy too. Looking at Jin Ran's delicate profile not far away, and glancing at her cousin who could barely be called "handsome", Xu Zhen secretly began to plan. If she could bring this marriage together, she and Jin Ran would be even closer!

The more she thought about it, the more excited she became. She urged impatiently, "Come on, let's continue with the next round!"

What's infuriating is that Jin Ran seemed to be blessed with luck in the next round, perfectly dodging the attacks in several rounds in a row.

On the contrary, Jiang Xuli fell for the trap multiple times, and in the end, she was even forced to answer questions such as "Which teacher do you like the most?" and "What type of girl do you find hard to look away from?"

Of course, his answer was "either way" and "there's no problem with not being able to move it; my eyes don't have any disease."

Finally, in the sixth round, the Joker card fell into Jin Ran's hands.

Seeing this, Jiang Xuli finally breathed a sigh of relief. Better to lose a teammate than himself. He curled up a gloating smile on his lips, leisurely stuffed a piece of sushi into his mouth, and waited to see Jin Ran's flustered appearance when questioned.

On the other hand, the rest of the team were eager to make a move.

Jin Ran was not a member of the mountain climbing club, and people knew very little about her. However, she was beautiful and smart, which made many single young men secretly fall in love with her.

Xu Zhen was rubbing her hands together, ready to speak, when she suddenly heard Jin Ran say with a smile, "I choose dare."

She had already planned it out in her mind—given Xu Zhen's personality, if she chose to tell the truth, she would definitely be asked some embarrassing and private questions. Jin Ran could handle it, but there was also her "adopted son" present. In front of the younger generation, she still had to maintain the image of an elder.

Besides, she had observed the surroundings beforehand and found no other tourists. She was also not familiar with the other teachers in the club, so she figured no one would deliberately make things difficult for her. Comparing the two options, the dare was the safer choice.

Hearing this, everyone felt a little disappointed, and Xu Zhen let out a long sigh, clearly not expecting her to choose a dare.

Fortunately, his eyes lit up and he immediately came up with a new, mischievous idea: "Then send a voice message to the most recently contacted person in my WeChat chat list, except for those pinned to the top!"

"This is good!"

"But what message should we send?"

"A big adventure, a big adventure, we definitely need to post something that counts as an adventure."

Xu Zhen smiled slyly and deliberately dragged out her words: "Hmm, how about just sending 'I like you'?"

When she left in the morning, she used her cousin's phone to make a WeChat call to Jin Ran. If nothing unexpected happens, she will send the voice message to her cousin.

One of them was her cousin, and the other was her good friend. Although she wanted to bring the two together, she also valued Jin Ran's feelings.

If Jin Ran also has feelings for her cousin, this confession voice message would be the best catalyst; if she doesn't, since it's just a game, everyone will just laugh it off and no one will take it seriously.

Xu Zhen felt that she had considered things very thoroughly.

However, they didn't notice that Jin Ran's smile froze for a moment when she heard the details of the dare.

Xu Zhen had planned it perfectly, but what she didn't expect was that after Jin Ran finished her call, she sent Jiang Mingxu a message.

Because the three of them often ate together during this period, she thought she might not be able to get home in time that night and was afraid that Jiang Mingxu would have to wait too long, so she told him in advance that she would eat out.

A warm breeze swept through the mountains, startling the birds on the branches, which fluttered their wings and scattered in all directions.

Jin Ran stared at the deep blue ocean icon for a long time before finally making the difficult decision to press the voice message button and send a voice message to the other end under everyone's intense gaze.

The moment I released my fingertip, the phone made a "whoosh" sound, indicating that the message had been sent successfully.

On the other side, Jiang Mingxu and the group from Qiu Pingshan's project were having a meal in a private room. In a gathering of men, smoking and drinking were naturally indispensable. The room was filled with smoke and the smell of alcohol. He remained calm on the surface, but he was somewhat impatient inside.

Just then, my phone vibrated; it was a message from Jin Ran.

Jiang Mingxu didn't think much of it and casually turned on the voice chat.

The next second, a sweet and bright female voice came from inside the private room.

"…I like you."

Almost instantly, the noisy chatter around them stopped abruptly, as if the entire private room had been muted. The CEOs who had been talking loudly had their mouths open but no sound came out. It turns out that watching gossip is human nature, and even these CEOs who are considered serious and old-fashioned by outsiders are no exception. All eyes turned to Jiang Mingxu.

The latter reacted quickly, immediately turning off his phone screen. He stood up from his seat, and despite the slight creaking of the chair legs on the floor, he remained calm and composed: "Excuse me, my wife needs to see me about something. I'll be leaving for a moment."

After saying that, he turned and left.

The remaining executives exchanged glances. After a while, CEO Xiao coughed and joked with a smile, "No wonder CEO Jiang has been turning down our drinking parties lately. Turns out, someone at home is waiting for him."

The others immediately understood and chimed in, "President Jiang is young and promising, and newly married, so we can all understand this situation."

"I had long heard that Mrs. Jiang was gentle and virtuous, and that the two were very loving. I only know it is true after meeting her today."

"For people like us who are always socializing outside, it's a real blessing to have someone at home who cares about us."

Only President Lin snorted and shook his head in disapproval: "Still too young, can't tell what's important. The most important thing for a man is his career. How can he be held back by love and romance? Once he's successful, he can have any woman he wants!"

Mr. Xiao thought to himself, “She’s so young and already more capable than you. Where else can she go to make a name for herself? Besides, even though Mrs. Jiang’s voice was only a short clip, it was so sweet and charming. What man could resist that?”

If he were Jiang Mingxu, he would want to bring the entire starry sky to win the heart of his beloved!

After leaving the private room, Jiang Mingxu walked to the window, which was wide open. Outside was a lush camphor forest, deep green and verdant, with the cool scent of grass and trees of late summer wafting in, gradually dispelling the smell of smoke and alcohol clinging to him.

He opened the chat window, but there were no other messages besides the voice message he had just heard.

Jiang Mingxu lowered his eyes, his long eyelashes casting a faint shadow in the screen light. He lit a cigarette and held it between his lips before re-opening the voice message.

"I like you."

Jin Ran's voice is very unique.

She has a pure and sweet appearance, but her speech is quite cheerful, making it clear that she is an outgoing girl. Perhaps because we were standing quite close, we could hear her breathing, which was like a summer breeze, continuous yet carrying a damp heat. When she deliberately lowered her voice, it sounded a little coquettish.

He took a deep drag of his cigarette, and as he relaxed, the white smoke from his breath obscured his expression. Then he dialed the number.

On the glass walkway, Jin Ran's cheeks flushed uncontrollably after sending the voice message.

He quickly pressed the bottled water to his face, trying to appear calm: "Okay, okay, I'm done. Let's start the next round."

Xu Zhen, on the other hand, knew something was wrong when she realized her cousin's phone wasn't ringing.

She was a little disappointed, but the disappointment quickly vanished as she remembered she was playing a game: "Hey, don't rush, let's wait and see how the other side responds."

"What's the point of waiting?"

"Hehe, I saw the profile picture. It's an ocean, and it looks like a boy's."

Jin Ran glared at Xu Zhen: "Fine, just don't let me catch you doing anything wrong later."

"Hahaha."

Jin Ran could only hope in her heart that Jiang Mingxu was busy with work and wouldn't see the news.

But this time, fate was not on her side.

The moment Jin Ran saw the familiar profile picture pop up, her heart skipped a beat, and her face flushed even more without her realizing it: "Hello?"

Her voice was soft.

The voice on the other end of the phone sounded no different from usual: "Didn't you say you were going out with friends? Did you lose a bet?"

As expected of a master, he guessed it right on the first try. Jin Ran couldn't help but let out a long sigh of relief, and the blush on her face faded a little. She laughed and said, "Yeah, I lost without even realizing it. They made me send a confession voice message to my newest contact."

Jiang Mingxu hummed in agreement: "Where are we going to play?"

"We're up on the mountain now. There's a glass walkway here that offers a panoramic view of half of City A. It's really beautiful."

There seemed to be a pause on the other end, then a question was asked: "Is it the glass walkway at Qiuping Mountain?"

“Yes.” Jin Ran nodded, and then she heard Jiang Mingxu say, “Perfect timing, I’m here today to inspect some work.”

What a coincidence?

Even after the call ended, Jin Ran was still a little dazed. Seeing the gossipy looks around her, she said helplessly, "He's nearby. He'll probably come over in a bit. You guys don't mind, right?"

"No objection, no objection, it'll be more fun with one more person."

"That's right, it's more fun to bully the newbies!"

"Haha, it's a deal! We won't let him get away with this!"

No one in the club objected until fifteen minutes later, when they saw a tall, handsome man walking calmly down from the cable car.