Dong Jiaoyan woke up from a hangover with a splitting headache.
She rubbed her head.
Her roommate, from the bed across the room, saw her stir and couldn’t help but complain, “Next time, don’t stay out so late. It’s really worrying.”
Dong Jiaoyan initially wanted to say, “None of your damn business.”
But then she paused, remembering that last night, it was this roommate who had helped her into the dorm.
She immediately changed her tune and said, “Thank you.”
The roommate curled her lip and replied, “Don’t thank me. Thank Qiao Liuyue instead. She went to the bar in the middle of the night to bring you back. That wasn’t easy.”
With that, she turned and left the dorm.
Qiao Liuyue?
Dong Jiaoyan massaged her head as the memories from last night slowly came back.
Yes, it was Qiao Liuyue who came to pick her up. She seemed to have brought her neighbor’s brother along too.
And then?
Oh no! Dong Jiaoyan’s face changed color. She had been caught kissing a stranger.
And Qiao Liuyue had said that her own boyfriend had asked her to come get her.
Would she tell Xie Linchuan?
Thinking of this, she quickly grabbed her phone and called Xie Linchuan via WeChat.
He answered instantly.
“You’re awake? Jiaojiao?”
“Babe, I drank too much last night. I can’t remember a thing. Do you know what happened to me last night?” She tested him deliberately.
She actually remembered everything, but she just wanted to know what Xie Linchuan knew.
“Last night, Qiao Liuyue called me and said you were drunk at the bar. I was really worried, so I asked her to pick you up. How are you now? Not feeling too bad, are you? I’ll order you a hangover tea later,” Xie Linchuan said with concern in his tone.
Dong Jiaoyan asked again, “Is there anything else?”
Xie Linchuan: “A-anything else? What else could there be...”
Hearing the confusion in his voice, Dong Jiaoyan let out a long sigh of relief.
Good, good.
It seemed Qiao Liuyue really hadn’t said anything. When she got back later, she’d have to threaten her to keep her mouth shut!
Otherwise—
She’d make sure she learned her lesson!
“Nothing, babe. My head doesn’t hurt anymore.”
“That’s good to hear,” Xie Linchuan said, his tone relaxing.
But Dong Jiaoyan’s voice turned sharp as she started to shift the blame.
“Good? What’s so good about it? Xie Linchuan, now you tell me—how do you have Qiao Liuyue’s WeChat? Have you two been sneaking around behind my back?”
“I knew it! Men are no good. You were already secretly gaming with other people behind my back, and now you’re privately contacting my best friend? I was so wrong about you!!!”
She spoke quickly and angrily.
Xie Linchuan didn’t even have time to react.
Just a moment ago, he was tending to his girlfriend’s feelings and health, and the next second, she launched a full-on attack at him.
Luckily, Xie Linchuan wasn’t slow with words.
He immediately explained:
“Jiaojiao, you’ve got it wrong! This is all just a coincidence. A buddy of mine started a game companion studio, and I wanted to help out, so I joined.”
“As it turns out, Qiao Liuyue was also in the studio. That’s how I added her.”
Actually, he was lying.
The real reason he added Qiao Liuyue on WeChat was because the two of them had to do a 1v1 PK match.
And he had lost.
It was too embarrassing! Men hate losing face.
So he figured he’d just tell a little white lie.
Dong Jiaoyan was still suspicious after hearing this.
“Who’s this buddy of yours? What game studio?”
Xie Linchuan: “As it happens, my buddy is Chu Xubai! He’s your class monitor. Say, isn’t the world a small place?”
Dong Jiaoyan was taken aback too.
What?
Monitor Chu was actually Xie Linchuan’s buddy.
They knew each other, which led to the connection with Qiao Liuyue.
Dong Jiaoyan then quietly poured poison into his ear.
“Oh, so Monitor Chu is your buddy. Speaking of which, he’s been chasing Liuyue lately. I’m not badmouthing Liuyue, but Monitor Chu’s taste is really questionable.”
“You have no idea—the class belle from the neighboring class and the department belle from another major have both made moves on him, but he acts high and mighty and ignores them.”
“I wonder if he has a thing for ugliness!” Dong Jiaoyan muttered under her breath.
Normally, Xie Linchuan would either stay quiet or just go along with it.
But today, he suddenly retorted,
“You shouldn’t say that.”
“How can you say my buddy has bad taste? He didn’t even look twice at that class belle or department belle!”
“And as for Qiao Liuyue, she’s not as bad as you make her out to be. At least she went to the bar to bring you back last night.”
Dong Jiaoyan blinked hard.
She had to confirm she wasn’t hearing things.
What?
Her online boyfriend was actually defending Qiao Liuyue?
Something was wrong. Something was definitely wrong.
She fumed,
“Xie Linchuan?! What do you mean? Don’t tell me you’ve gone blind too and fallen for Qiao Liuyue?”
“Let me tell you, you’re my boyfriend. You should be on my side! If you keep this up, I’m breaking up with you!!!”
After saying that in anger, she waited for him to come and soothe her.
Usually, every time she threw a tantrum, Xie Linchuan would panic and compensate her twice over.
But not today.
Xie Linchuan didn’t comfort her.
Instead, he asked with confusion, “Jiaojiao, why are you being so unreasonable today? You sound like a shrew.”
Dong Jiaoyan’s eyes widened in disbelief.
“What? You’re calling me a shrew? Xie Linchuan! I’m breaking up with you!”
But before she could hang up, the call on Xie Linchuan’s end suddenly dropped.
When she called back, no matter how many times she tried, it wouldn’t go through.
Dong Jiaoyan panicked all of a sudden. It felt like the well-trained little dog in her hands was suddenly trying to run away. No way!
She had always been the one to dump men, never the other way around!
Maybe she had spoken too harshly just now?
Yeah, Xie Linchuan was a proud person with a big ego. How could he tolerate his girlfriend speaking to him like that?
And he must have been angry about her going to the bar late last night.
Meanwhile, over in his room, Xie Linchuan watched his phone let out a couple of beeps as the battery died. Before he could find a charging cable, the phone went black.
He let out a soft sigh.
He always charged his phone fully before going to sleep every night.
But last night, because he was so worried about Dong Jiaoyan, he had been glued to his phone, only falling asleep after getting a message from Qiao Liuyue confirming she was safe.
So come morning, the battery was at less than ten percent.
Before he could even plug it in, Dong Jiaoyan’s call came through.
They had barely said a few words before they started arguing, both speaking with bitterness.
Honestly, when he had retorted just now, he hadn’t really thought about it.
Xie Linchuan was naturally a laid-back, straightforward person with a strong sense of right and wrong.
Whatever grudges Jiaojiao might have with Qiao Liuyue, the fact that Qiao Liuyue had been willing to go to the bar to bring a drunk Jiaojiao back to the dorm last night showed she was a good person.
