Tan Yinqing’s voice was almost a shriek: “Having an affair?”
“You’re having an affair? Who are you having an affair with? I knew something was up with you lately. Tell me, who did you have dinner with tonight?” Tan Yinqing fired off rapidly from the other end: “Don’t tell me you’re…”
“Just kidding,” Su Xu, amused by Tan Yinqing, interrupted her. “I was dropping a friend home and just passed by.”
Tan Yinqing’s tone dropped again. “Oh,” but she seemed unwilling to let it go. “The friend you had dinner with tonight?”
Su Xu said, “Mhm.”
Tan Yinqing’s voice turned strange again. “You’re only dropping her home now?”
Su Xu said, “She’s still in the car.”
Tan Yinqing instantly calmed down again. “…Oh.”
Su Xu was once again amused by Tan Yinqing. Then, she asked, feigning ignorance, “How did you see me?”
“A colleague sent me a local express delivery, I just came down to get it,” Tan Yinqing said, then asked, “Where does your friend live?”
Su Xu didn’t give specifics, only saying, “We’re almost there.”
Tan Yinqing asked, “Is it close to my place? Want to come up for a bit?”
Su Xu: “No, it’s too late.”
“Alright then,” Tan Yinqing said. “See you tomorrow.”
Su Xu: “See you tomorrow.”
They were indeed almost there. Also, because the sound of an elevator came through Tan Yinqing’s call, Su Xu turned at the next street and parked the car at the entrance of Tan Xingwei’s residential complex.
The car stopped, the doors unlocked, and the two of them smiled at each other with perfect understanding.
“Was that fun?” Su Xu asked Tan Xingwei.
Tan Xingwei happened to want to ask the same thing, so she also said, “Was that fun?”
Su Xu: “It was fun.”
Tan Xingwei’s smile deepened. “It was fun.”
Tan Xingwei swayed from side to side as she unbuckled her seatbelt and opened the car door. “See you tomorrow.”
Su Xu: “See you tomorrow.”
When Tan Xingwei got home, Tan Yinqing was sitting on the sofa, looking through some documents. In the trash can was a torn open package, which must have been the local express delivery she had just picked up.
Seeing Tan Xingwei return, she only lifted her eyes for a moment. “I thought you weren’t coming back tonight.”
Tan Xingwei: “Didn’t I say I was coming back?”
Tan Yinqing: “It’s not like you haven’t said you were coming back and then didn’t.”
Tan Xingwei: “What’s up? Need a favor from me?”
Tan Yinqing scoffed.
But Tan Xingwei didn’t wait for Tan Yinqing to speak, cutting her off directly: “Was the cake good?”
Tan Yinqing had the expression of someone who had been completely choked up.
Tan Xingwei burst out laughing.
“It was good,” Tan Yinqing said reluctantly but sincerely. “Of course the cake my little sister bought was delicious.”
Tan Xingwei gave Tan Yinqing a wink. “As long as it was good. It wasn’t in vain that I went to the trouble of getting a delivery service to buy it for you.”
Tan Yinqing smiled. “Thank you, little sister.”
Tan Xingwei: “You’re welcome, big sister.”
Tan Yinqing added, “I just ran into Ah Xu downstairs. You two must have been one right after the other.”
Tan Xingwei acted puzzled. “She came all the way over here?”
Tan Yinqing: “She said she was dropping a friend home. She had dinner with that friend tonight.”
Tan Xingwei took the opportunity to inquire, “Does she… have something going on lately?”
Tan Yinqing shrugged. “I don’t know. Most of the time, there’s nothing going on.”
“‘Most of the time,’ what does that mean?” Tan Xingwei became a little wary.
Tan Yinqing: “Most of the time she’s the same as before, but sometimes she’s a bit strange. But she holds up well under questioning.” She thought for a moment and added, “Probably not. She has no reason to hide it from us.”
Tan Xingwei relaxed a little.
Who falls in love right after returning to the country!
Just focus on working hard and living well, there are plenty of things to do, so don’t get into a relationship.
Having spent a pleasant evening with Su Xu and successfully handled Tan Yinqing, Tan Xingwei was in an exceptionally good mood. She happily went to brush her teeth and shower, happily returned to her room, and happily flopped onto her bed.
Of course, spending a pleasant evening with Su Xu was the main reason.
In such a good mood, Tan Xingwei felt it was well worth posting an update.
But because it was a young girl’s secret crush, Tan Xingwei didn’t want to post it on her Moments, to avoid too many people asking about it.
She turned her devilish claws to her Weibo, a place that was only remembered when she thought of Su Xu. It fit the criteria and the theme perfectly, and it was a place where Little X was adored by the masses.
She hadn’t logged in for many days, and this time there were many comments and private messages, almost all with similar content.
A fan called Little Scissor had also contacted her, but she didn’t ask about Sister A. She shared her recent life, like how she ate a delicious bibimbap the day before yesterday, with a picture attached. Or how on Monday she ordered a new item from the milk tea shop, also with a picture attached.
Little Scissor hadn’t changed at all. Back when Little X was still active, she would receive updates on Little Scissor’s daily life every time she logged in.
Coincidentally, Tan Xingwei had also tried the new item from this milk tea shop. She quoted and replied to Little Scissor: “I think it’s delicious too.”
Before getting on Weibo, Tan Xingwei had only planned to simply say that she was very happy to have had dinner and watched a movie with Sister A today. But after seeing everyone’s comments eagerly awaiting a follow-up, Tan Xingwei changed her mind.
How about…
She opened her own profile and scrolled down several pages.
After the final installment back then, Little X had posted very, very few Weibo updates. Including the system’s automatic posts, there were less than two pages in total, so Tan Xingwei quickly found that last entry.
The last line of the final entry was “The story, to be continued. Perhaps…”
Although everyone knew she was Little X, her narration wasn’t in the first person.
“Little X heard that a very popular soufflé shop had opened in the South District, so she planned to go there after lunch. It was after lunch again, and a weekend again, but this time was different from the last. Little X would contact Sister A. Little X would buy two servings. Of course, if Sister A wanted to eat more, Little X would buy three, or even four. However many Sister A wanted was fine. And so, after lunch, Little X, filled with the feeling of getting to see Sister A again, set off!”
That was the writing style.
Something written three years ago now seemed a little bit cringey, especially the part where she referred to herself as “Little X.”
A little childish.
This passage described Tan Xingwei’s second visit to Su Xu’s house. Despite the text sounding very sweet, the reality was that Tan Xingwei didn’t give any notice at all and just went directly, and the two soufflés she bought were both in flavors she herself liked.
Su Xu wasn’t even home at the time; she had gone out for something. She only headed back after hearing from Tan Xingwei that she was almost at the complex.
Such an annoying kid. How did Su Xu not kill her back then?
Since she was writing on Weibo, Tan Xingwei decided to continue with her old style, using the third-person “Little X.”
“Little X didn’t expect to see Sister A after work today…”
And so, Tan Xingwei lay on her bed, tap-tap-tapping on her keyboard. She first wrote about seeing Sister A at the mall, taking the opportunity to explain that she had returned to her hometown to work after graduating from university, and that her company was located in the South District.
Then she wrote about them having dinner together, going to Sister A’s house to watch a movie, and after the movie, Sister A driving her home and running into her own sister at the entrance of the complex.
Her treasured sword had grown rusty. It had been too long since she’d written something like this, and it took Tan Xingwei a long time.
Finally, she checked it over, and after seeing no problems, she clicked “send.”
She also let out a yawn.
It was almost two in the morning.
Tan Xingwei thought there wouldn’t be many people online at this hour, but she had underestimated the ability of modern netizens to stay up late.
Almost the very second she posted it, a comment notification popped up.
“What what what what did I just see! Little X you’re back!” “Whoa whoa, I’ll grab a spot first then read, so long so long I love it I love it,” “Ah! What is this!”, “I knew I shouldn’t have gone to bed early on a weekend, of course there’d be something good!”…
She had also underestimated the netizens’ ability to read ten lines at a glance.
Something that took her over an hour to write, they finished reading in two minutes.
In the time that followed, Tan Xingwei watched as the red number in her notification bar jumped up crazily.
Tan Xingwei’s post today contained a lot of information, so once everyone had finished reading, the comments erupted into a massive discussion.
Some said: “Little X came back to work in the South District, is it because of Sister A?”
Some said: “Sister A’s company is also in the South District, is it because of Little X?”
Some said: “What do you mean there’s no future, this is clearly a very bright future.”
Some said: “Just tell me if this isn’t fate. In a South District this big, you work in the same mall and meet on the same day in the same afternoon.”
Some said: “kswlkswl, you two tricking the sister like that, you guys are so good at this.”
…
Others said: “Sister A luring Little X back to her home, it’s hard to say what that means.”
Others said: “Is Sister A really straight? Why would she say ‘having an affair’ to Little X’s sister, huh? Huh? Huh? Do straight girls talk like that?”
Others said: “Sister A watched ‘Meteor’??? No way?? Can she still be a straight girl after that?”
…
As she was reading, she saw Little Scissor.
It really was the weekend, no one was asleep.
Little Scissor was very eager. After posting several comments in a row in the comment section, it still wasn’t enough, so she came to privately message Little X.
As always, she started with a string of “ahhh”s, then she said: “I think what everyone is saying makes a lot of sense!”
Little Scissor: “On what grounds is Sister A straight?”
Little X: “When did I ever say that?”
At first glance, it seemed like she was trying to argue her way out of it, but Tan Xingwei had genuinely forgotten.
Regarding the matter of Sister A being straight, she really couldn’t remember if she had mentioned it, nor could she remember in what context she had mentioned it.
At first, she thought the comments were just speculation, but since everyone was saying it, it was very likely that Tan Xingwei herself had said it.
As formidable as Little Scissor was, she directly threw the evidence at her.
Little Scissor: 【Link】
Little Scissor: “You wrote it yourself”
Clicking the link, it was one of the installments Little X had serialized before, which contained the sentence, “Today I learned from my sister that Sister A is straight.”
Tan Xingwei connected it with the context, and her memory was awakened.
Why did Tan Xingwei always feel that Su Xu was straight? First, there was the matter of proportion. After all, this was still a place with far more straight people than gay people, so the probability of “I’m gay, you’re gay too” was very small.
Secondly, there was a distant impression, an incident mentioned in the text, which came from a conversation she had with Tan Yinqing.
She couldn’t remember the specifics, but it was something like Tan Yinqing saying that many people at school liked Su Xu, and a classmate was currently pursuing her intensely.
As they continued chatting, Tan Yinqing added that Su Xu wasn’t interested in that classmate; her heart belonged to someone else, a very outstanding male senior.
The text in the link sent by Little Scissor wasn’t long. This post was written in her freshman year, while the incident happened during summer break. Even with such a long time gap, Tan Xingwei could still see the slightly hurt feelings from back then between the lines.
Haha, as if she wasn’t heartbroken now.
How great. After that review session, Tan Xingwei’s happy mood from tonight vanished in an instant.
Little X: “Ah right, she should be straight.”
Little Scissor seized on the word: “Should be?”
Before Little X could reply, Little Scissor said again: “I don’t think so.”
Little Scissor: “With my keen sense of smell, straight girls aren’t like this.”
Little Scissor: “Although straight girls can indeed lack boundaries sometimes, it’s not like Sister A.”
Little Scissor: “Sister A’s gay vibe is too strong!”
Little Scissor: “And the magnetic field between you two is also very strange, not quite the same as before.”
Little X asked: “How is it different?”
Little Scissor said: “Ambiguous.”
Tan Xingwei was a little surprised.
Little Scissor: “Let’s put it this way, before, it was us falling in love with Sister A through your writing.”
Little Scissor: “Tonight, through your writing, we’re watching you two push and pull.”
Little Scissor: “Of course, it’s mainly Sister A doing the push and pull.”
Little X: “Huh?”
Little Scissor: “That’s right, it makes so much sense!”
Little Scissor: “Wow, I’m so good at articulating this.”
Little Scissor: “Just admit it, am I right or not?”
Pressing her at every step.
Tan Xingwei, because she couldn’t answer at all, felt.
Incredibly thrilled.
Hahahaha.
So, with an indescribable feeling, she went back and read what she had written tonight one more time.
Was there, really?
