Before going to greet her friends, Zhang Xiyue warned Cheng Mingjiao repeatedly not to be rude.
Cheng Mingjiao thought her concern was completely unnecessary. As a well-educated man, how could he possibly be rude to his future wife’s poor friends?
“Don’t worry. I won’t embarrass you,” Cheng Mingjiao said calmly.
Zhang Xiyue was not reassured in the slightest, but her friends had already arrived, so she could only go over to greet them first. “Hi.”
An'an and Xiaobai were silent for two seconds before suddenly shrieking and running toward Zhang Xiyue.
Zhang Xiyue started shrieking too, hugging and fussing over them.
“Why are you back? I thought you’d never come back again! Wait, how did you leave in the first place? We knew you had to be safe, but we were so worried!” An'an was so agitated that she was nearly in tears.
Zhang Xiyue’s eyes were brimming with tears as well. “I don’t know what happened either. I just went downstairs to buy something to eat, but halfway there, I suddenly went back. And I got the chance to travel between the two worlds twice a year. From now on, I can come see you whenever I want.”
“Ahhh, that’s wonderful!” Xiaobai cried.
Three women nearing thirty hugged and cheered. Their hair and clothes became completely disheveled, but they didn’t care at all.
This was the loud, exuberant Zhang Xiyue Cheng Mingjiao had never seen before. If this had been the Zhang Xiyue he met at the very beginning, he… still would have thought she was adorable.
Cheng Mingjiao recalled the scene of their first meeting: the beautiful ancient temple, the white curtains swaying in the breeze, and the two of them separated by only the slightest distance. One glance, and it had felt like a lifetime.
A faint smile curved his lips.
The moment Xiaobai’s gaze swept over to him, Cheng Mingjiao immediately put away his smile. He nodded solemnly at her. “Hello. I’m Cheng Mingjiao, Zhang Xiyue’s fiancé.”
He placed particular emphasis on the word “fiancé.”
Only then did An'an notice that there was another person present. After exchanging a glance with Xiaobai, she awkwardly greeted Cheng Mingjiao before turning to look at Zhang Xiyue.
Zhang Xiyue confirmed what they were thinking. “He already knows that their world is a fictional world.”
“Rather than saying that our world is fictional, it would be more accurate to call it a parallel world,” Cheng Mingjiao said leisurely. “It just so happens that someone from your world went to a different time period in my world, witnessed some events, and recorded them. Then Zhang Xiyue came to my time and changed the ‘future’ that person had seen.”
Xiaobai blinked and looked at An'an.
Do you understand any of that?
An'an looked utterly confused.
Xiaobai got the message and simply asked Cheng Mingjiao, “So you’re the novel’s male supporting character? You’re… a little different from what I imagined. I thought you’d be a thin, gloomy sort of person, but I didn’t expect you to…”
“He isn’t,” Zhang Xiyue quickly cut in, realizing Xiaobai had mistaken him for someone else. “Their names sound similar, but they’re written with three completely different characters.”
Cheng Mingjiao was a little displeased that Zhang Xiyue’s friend had mistaken him for someone else. But after hearing Zhang Xiyue explain it for him, he reluctantly forgave her.
“That’s right. We’re not the same.”
Xiaobai blinked even faster. “B-but there isn’t another character in the novel whose name sounds anything like yours.”
The moment those words left her mouth, Zhang Xiyue knew things were about to go wrong.
For the center of the universe and emperor of the world, not being the novel’s male lead was a far greater blow than discovering that he lived in a fictional world. It had always been a sore spot in Cheng Mingjiao’s heart.
Xiaobai had brought it up without warning. It was no different from declaring war on the emperor. Zhang Xiyue’s heart leaped into her throat.
Yet Cheng Mingjiao didn’t react much. He merely asked Xiaobai haughtily, “Is this novel very popular in your world?”
Xiaobai thought about it and answered hesitantly, “Not really… I wouldn’t say it’s popular.”
She had read countless novels when she was in school, but she had never even heard of this one. If Xiyue hadn’t told her that she had transmigrated into a fictional world, she never would have bought it.
Cheng Mingjiao’s lips curled into a smile. “Exactly.”
A novel where he wasn’t the male lead—how impressive could it possibly be?
Xiaobai stared at him. “?”
“Um…” Zhang Xiyue hurriedly interrupted. “Have you eaten yet?”
“Not yet,” Xiaobai answered immediately. “An'an and I were planning to come over and clean the house, then go out for a meal.”
“I’ll treat you,” Cheng Mingjiao offered, showing remarkably good social instincts.
Xiaobai raised an eyebrow. At last, he felt a little more like her friend’s boyfriend.
Hmm. She instantly found him less handsome.
And for some reason, she disliked him a little.
He was even wearing a suit.
What a show-off.
An'an, who had remained silent until then, quietly stepped forward. “Should we invite Xiao Mo?”
“Another one of your friends?” Cheng Mingjiao asked.
An'an nodded.
Cheng Mingjiao waved his hand grandly. “Then invite everyone. And call Teacher Lin too.”
An'an’s eyes widened. “You know about Teacher Lin too?”
Zhang Xiyue was also a little surprised.
“Of course,” Cheng Mingjiao said, sounding rather pleased with himself. “Although Zhang Xiyue has only mentioned her once or twice, I remembered it all.”
An'an and Xiaobai exchanged another glance. Their opinion of this visitor from a fictional world improved slightly.
But the next second…
Cheng Mingjiao continued, “After all, my IQ is very high, and my memory is excellent. Even though I’m nearly thirty, my brain is still functioning at peak capacity. It would be difficult not to remember something this trivial.”
Xiaobai: “?”
An'an: “…”
No, seriously—why had he suddenly started praising himself?
Zhang Xiyue was already completely used to Cheng Mingjiao’s little antics and didn’t think there was anything wrong with them. Xiaobai and An'an, on the other hand, vaguely sensed that something was off.
As it turned out, that was only the beginning.
To welcome Zhang Xiyue’s boyfriend, the group went to the best restaurant in the county town. They deliberately chose a beautiful private dining room and ordered a table full of dishes.
Although they had said Cheng Mingjiao would pay, Xiao Mo slipped her card to the front desk as soon as they arrived. She had never intended to let him pay in the first place.
Cheng Mingjiao was touched by the warmth of Zhang Xiyue’s friends. While the women were secretly exchanging information on their phones, he leaned over and whispered into Zhang Xiyue’s ear, “Zhang Xiyue, your poor friends are very hospitable.”
“…Each of them has around twenty million in their bank accounts now,” Zhang Xiyue reminded him flatly.
Cheng Mingjiao paused. His sympathy only deepened. “How pitiful.”
Zhang Xiyue: “…”
She really didn’t want to talk to him anymore.
The friends noticed the two of them whispering together. Xiao Mo teased, “What are you two talking about?”
Cheng Mingjiao had always been an honest man. “We were talking about your…”
Zhang Xiyue immediately reached over and covered his mouth.
Xiaobai: “?”
An'an: “…”
Xiao Mo gave a small cough. “Xiyue, that reaction is going to make us think he was saying something bad about us.”
Zhang Xiyue awkwardly pulled her hand away. “No, no…”
“I wasn’t saying anything bad about you,” Cheng Mingjiao explained proactively. He didn’t want to leave a bad impression on Zhang Xiyue’s friends.
Xiaobai raised an eyebrow. “Then what were you saying?”
Cheng Mingjiao answered, “That you’re poor.”
Xiaobai: “…”
An'an: “…”
Xiao Mo: “…You would’ve been better off saying something bad about us.”
“Why?” Cheng Mingjiao asked, genuinely confused. “You can’t even accept the fact that you…”
“All right, be quiet,” Zhang Xiyue said in a lowered voice.
Cheng Mingjiao paused. Although he felt that Zhang Xiyue had interrupted such a pleasant conversation, he still did as Zhang Xiyue asked.
After all, Zhang Xiyue was his fiancée.
Her friends exchanged quick glances, once again confirming that the boyfriend Xiyue had found was a little strange.
Could everyone in the novel’s world be like this?
Zhang Xiyue stayed at her family home with Cheng Mingjiao for a month. During that time, she took him to visit Teacher Lin and their former neighbors, and often met up with her friends as well.
An'an, Xiaobai, and Xiao Mo quickly grew familiar with Cheng Mingjiao. The more they got to know him, the more difficult they found him to be. He was handsome and had a good figure, but they still couldn’t understand why Zhang Xiyue liked him.
Until one day, after a heavy rain, Zhang Xiyue got the hems of her pants and her shoes and socks wet. Cheng Mingjiao hurried over through the rain, lecturing her about the dangers of getting soaked while helping her dry her feet and change into a fresh pair of shoes and socks.
A fussy, sharp-tongued, cleanliness-obsessed man was crouched on the floor, frowning as he carefully dried Zhang Xiyue’s feet.
In that moment, they suddenly understood Xiyue, though they couldn’t quite put their feelings into words.
In the end, it was Xiao Mo, the most perceptive of them, who summed it up: “Why do I feel like Cheng Mingjiao is Xiyue’s father, mother, and child all at once...?”
It was as if he alone filled every emptiness in Zhang Xiyue’s heart over all those years.
Xiaobai and An'an suddenly understood.
A month later, Cheng Mingjiao and Zhang Xiyue were ready to leave. Their friends came to see them off, reluctance written across every face.
Not Cheng Mingjiao’s, though. Cheng Mingjiao remained completely at ease, as if as long as he was with Zhang Xiyue, it didn’t matter which world they stayed in.
Still, before leaving, he gave gifts to Zhang Xiyue’s friends.
“The currency in my world isn’t interchangeable with the currency in yours, so I can’t transfer money to you directly. But the standards for evaluating gemstones are the same. Take these sapphires. You can have them made into jewelry, or sell them if you don’t want them. Each one should fetch several million.”
Cheng Mingjiao handed out the gemstones one by one, as casually as if he were passing out snack sticks. Then he added, “Since I was able to come to your world, you should be able to come to mine too. I’ve bought several villas in my world. Once your families here have passed away and you no longer have any ties keeping you here, you can come to my world and retire. I have more than enough wealth to give you all a perfect, high-quality retirement.”
Xiaobai: “...That sounds like you’re cursing me, but what do I do if I’m also touched?”
An'an and Xiao Mo said they felt the same.
Zhang Xiyue sighed. “I often feel that way too.”
The friends parted ways, and Zhang Xiyue and Cheng Mingjiao returned to their home in the novel’s world.
The moment they landed on the sofa, Zhang Xiyue kissed him. “When did you prepare those gemstones and villas?”
“I prepared them a long time ago. I didn’t know whether they’d ever come in handy, but it never hurts to be prepared.” Cheng Mingjiao kissed her back. “I was afraid they wouldn’t accept them, so I deliberately waited until we were about to leave. Pretty clever of me, right?”
Zhang Xiyue knew that when he said “a long time ago,” he meant before she had first left the novel’s world.
Back then, he hadn’t even known whether she would return, yet he had already prepared gifts for her friends.
Zhang Xiyue’s eyes grew hot. She opened her arms and gave him a big hug.
Cheng Mingjiao suddenly sighed. “Though, if I’d known they were that poor, I would’ve brought more gemstones.”
Zhang Xiyue: “...I’ll thank you on their behalf.”
Cheng Mingjiao nodded, accepting her thanks without hesitation.
A few seconds later, the corners of his lips lifted. “Zhang Xiyue, I can tell that your friends and teacher really like me.”
Zhang Xiyue laughed too, then hugged him again. “No one could possibly dislike you, Zhuangzhuang, baby.”
