Chapter 59
It was the rush of finals again. Ren Qiao'an had originally planned to review with Jin Xi in the library, but Jin Xi had something urgent to do, so Ren Qiao'an stayed in the library for a while before returning to his dorm early. When he returned to the dorm, it was completely deserted; even the ever-homebody Wu Nianzhi was gone. Feeling somewhat bored, Ren Qiao'an scrolled through his phone for a bit, then, feeling bored, he suddenly started browsing the school's online forum.
Sure enough, upon entering the campus, the featured posts were all about "The Top Ten Campus Beauties of B University," "Eight Weird Things on Campus," "A Few Things About a Department's Campus Prince and a School's Beauty," and so on—all kinds of gossip and anecdotes. Ren Qiao'an wanted to laugh at the exaggerated headlines. Was everyone so bored? After browsing a few, Ren Qiao'an was completely bewildered. Was this really about people and events at her school? How could she have no idea? Suddenly, it occurred to her that Jin Xi was one of the most famous people on campus.
Thinking about it, Ren Qiao'an typed in Jin Xi's name, and a search revealed quite a few results. The most popular article was "Jin Xi, the Four Most Beautiful Girls of the School of Civil Engineering." Ren Qiao'an clicked on it with great interest. Wow, you wouldn't know until you see it. It not only described Jin Xi's stunning appearance, but also detailed her current situation, including her height, weight, blood type, zodiac sign, and hobbies. Even more outrageous, it even listed Jin Xi's likes and dislikes, and surprisingly, it was all correct!
Ren Qiao'an felt it was outrageous, but he quietly saved the pictures in the forum. It must be said that the pictures he took were quite nice.
You are so sick of me, my netizens.
As she was flipping through the pages, Ren Qiao'an came across a post with an even more explosive title: "The Flower in Jinyuan and Her Men."
Tsk, it's obviously a clickbait title. Ren Qiao'an was disdainful in his heart, but he clicked on it honestly. But the first picture he saw was of his old acquaintance "Gao Yu", followed by a bunch of comments saying they were a perfect match, and a few saying Jin Xi was not a good match.
Haha, that’s it.
Ren Qiao'an continued to browse and saw a few familiar faces, Xue Ren and Zhao Guofu. Xue Ren was indeed Jin Xi's ex-boyfriend, but Zhao Guofu seemed to have no connection with Jin Xi at all. What was even more outrageous was that Ren Qiao'an even saw Xu Haoran?
Huh? So netizens think every man around Jinxi is her boyfriend? How embarrassing for Jinxi, her real girlfriend, who appears by her side every day!
Ren Qiao'an felt a little annoyed, especially when he saw some disgusting comments. What right did these people have to talk nonsense? They clearly didn't understand anything, but they maliciously slandered and defamed others.
It's simply disgusting! Ren Qiao'an's mood was sour. Just as he was about to close the page, he was attracted by the latest comment. The comment came with a picture. Ren Qiao'an clicked on the picture and saw Jin Xi and a strange man sitting face to face in a cafe near the school. The most important thing was the date in the lower right corner of the picture was today.
A lot of thoughts suddenly popped up in Ren Qiao'an's mind.
Was the urgent matter Jin Xi mentioned about meeting this man? Ren Qiaoan didn't dare to think too much, but he couldn't help but let his wild thoughts run wild.
…
In the evening, Ren Qiao'an met Jin Xi on the playground, a common activity for the two of them since they got together. However, during their walk today, they were both unusually silent.
When Ren Qiao'an saw that Jin Xi's clothes were exactly the same as the ones she saw in the photos on the forum, her heart was in turmoil, but she didn't know how to express it. "Are you... busy today?" Ren Qiao'an could only greet her dryly. She could see that Jin Xi's mood was not "good".
"Yeah." Jin Xi responded. She was preoccupied and didn't notice anything was wrong with Ren Qiao'an. She just thought he was strangely quiet today. "What happened to your review?"
Noticing Jin Xi's gaze, Ren Qiao'an forced a smile and said, "I'm fine." It was fine until... she felt like browsing the library and accidentally saw... "Jin Xi, don't you have anything else to tell me, such as what you were busy with today?" Ren Qiao'an pretended to speak in a normal tone and cast out the doubts in his heart one by one.
Jin Xi frowned and looked at Ren Qiao'an. Something that made her unhappy did happen today. Ren Qiao'an probably also noticed her unhappiness, but should Jin Xi express it out loud?
"I met someone today." Jin Xi thought of the time when Ren Qiao'an had seen her in such a state of embarrassment, so she could talk about it freely...
"Who?" Ren Qiao'an looked at Jin Xi expectantly, only to see Jin Xi slightly raise her head and stare at the flickering street lights in front of her.
With a hint of sadness in her eyes, Jin Xi said, "A person who once made me look forward to it." A person who once made Jin Xi full of expectations, looking forward to her love.
"..." Anticipation... What a sentimental and humble word. Ren Qiao'an sensed this person must have a special place in Jin Xi's heart. It was precisely because of this importance that she felt lost and sad. So was this person the reason for Jin Xi's unhappiness? Ren Qiao'an couldn't help but wonder. Although Jin Xi didn't say anything, Ren Qiao'an tasted a hint of bitterness, "Did your meeting... not go well?"
However, both of them were immersed in their own emotions.
"I used to think she loved me." Jin Xi felt sad and continued, "Until today, I still naively believed that she came to see me because she loved me. But..." Jin Xi smiled bitterly, "I was overthinking it."
The sadder Jin Xi's expression was, the more depressed Ren Qiao'an felt. "Jin Xi, do you still like him?" Ren Qiao'an suddenly didn't understand.
Jin Xi looked at Ren Qiao'an and nodded subconsciously. Ren Qiao'an looked at her for a few seconds, then lowered his head as if in defeat.
“…”
In the dim light, Jin Xi couldn't see Ren Qiao'an's expression. "Ren Qiao'an, what's wrong with you?"
"Then what am I? Jinxi."
“…Hmm?” Ren Qiao’an’s muffled words left Jin Xi confused.
Ren Qiao'an lowered his head and blurted out his thoughts, "Do you really like me? Or am I just a boring substitute, someone you only think of when you're bored. If there were no one else around you, you wouldn't be with me at all, right? If you find someone better, any new or old love can replace me."
"What are you talking about? Ren Qiao'an. What's wrong with you?" Jin Xi angrily interrupted Ren Qiao'an's complaint. What on earth did Ren Qiao'an want to express!
"Jinxi, I..." Ren Qiao'an didn't know why she had these thoughts, but bad thoughts would always grow wildly in her mind. Ren Qiao'an took out his phone and asked, "Then tell me, is this a photo from today?"
Jin Xi's face was full of surprise, but in a blink of an eye, surprise turned into anger, "Ren Qiao'an, what do you think I was doing today?" Jin Xi didn't know where the photo came from, but it was indeed from today, Jin Xi couldn't deny it.
Ren Qiao'an didn't answer, but the suspicion in Ren Qiao'an's eyes hurt Jin Xi.
Jin Xi laughed at herself: "Blind date? Meeting a man? Looking for an old love?"
"..." Ren Qiaoan said calmly: "You should tell me the answer."
"Okay. I'm just going on a blind date, to meet a man, okay?" Jin Xi said two "Okays" in a row. It seemed like she was going to give up hope when she said it, but she was the one who "ran away" first.
Ren Qiaoan looked at Jin Xi's departing back and shouted, "Where are you going?"
Jin Xi's eyes were red, but her tone was still fierce, "Go home!"
Ren Qiao'an knew that when Jin Xi said "going home", she definitely didn't mean going back to the dormitory.
Looking at Jin Xi's back getting farther and farther away, Ren Qiao'an wanted to chase her, but he was hesitant to take a step.
In the end, Ren Qiaoyuan did not catch up, and the chat history between the two ended that night.
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