Wen Yifan stared at the message for three seconds, then looked up at Sang Yan across from her. Noticing her gaze, he looked back calmly, still with that arrogant expression, his eyebrow slightly raised.
He looked completely upright as if he didn’t think there was anything improper about his actions.
It made her wonder if she was the one with the problem.
The two private messages together seemed a bit like showing off.
Wen Yifan hesitated, typing “That was sent by my boyfriend” in the input box, but before sending it, she suddenly felt like this sounded even more boastful.
She deleted it all, deciding to ignore it.
Thinking about what she had submitted anonymously, which was all based on the actual situation without any exaggeration, and realizing he had seen it all, Wen Yifan felt curious and brought up the matter again: “Did you see everything?”
Sang Yan put a cup of water in front of her: “What?”
Wen Yifan clarified: “The first submission.”
“Oh.” Sang Yan didn’t cooperate, slowly reciting, “You went to KTV with a friend and got hugged.”
“…” Wen Yifan stared at his pretentious expression and continued her interview based on this, “Then from a male perspective, do you think the actions of my opposite-sex friend were normal?”
Sang Yan looked at her and quickly gave in to the interview: “Generally not normal.”
Wen Yifan paused: “Then what could be the reason?”
“I’m not too sure. But, if this opposite-sex friend of yours is named Sang Yan,” Sang Yan tapped his fingers lightly on the table, chin slightly raised, “I’m more inclined to think that you, the person involved, had ulterior motives.”
“…” After a few seconds of silence, Wen Yifan suddenly called out to him, “Sang Yan.”
“Hmm?”
“I think,” remembering that he once said his name was carefully chosen by his family, Wen Yifan said very seriously, “Your name does suit your personality.”
Sang Yan looked up: “How so?”
Wen Yifan met his gaze and uttered another word.
“Insincere.” (A wordplay on his name ‘Yan’, which means ‘prolonged’, and ‘bu you zhong’, meaning insincere)
“…”
–
After finishing their meal, the two left the shop.
Wen Yifan didn’t know the subsequent itinerary, only knowing that Sang Yan’s main purpose for coming to Yihe was to see Sang Zhi, so she didn’t want to affect his plans too much: “Are we going to see Zhizhi now?”
Sang Yan glanced at his phone: “Do you want to see her?”
“Of course, I want to—” Before she could finish, Wen Yifan suddenly noticed the hickey near his Adam’s apple. She immediately swallowed her words and changed her answer, “Let’s wait until she comes back to Nanwu.”
They hadn’t encountered many familiar people along the way, so Wen Yifan hadn’t been too concerned. But if someone they knew saw them, especially Sang Yan’s sister Sang Zhi, she felt it would be quite embarrassing.
“I have to work the day after tomorrow, I booked a round-trip ticket when I came,” Wen Yifan reported to him. “My flight is at noon tomorrow, I’ll just take the airport shuttle when it’s time.”
Sang Yan hummed in agreement: “I’ll go back with you.”
Wen Yifan was surprised: “You’ve come all this way, aren’t you going to stay for a few more days?”
“I was planning to,” Sang Yan said lazily, “but after seeing that beast, I don’t want to anymore.”
“…”
“Besides, that kid is doing an internship, she’s busy, and she has to juggle dating that beast,” Sang Yan said. “She doesn’t have time for her dear brother.”
Wen Yifan couldn’t help but speak up for Sang Zhi: “Your roommate doesn’t seem much older than Zhizhi.”
Sang Yan: “It’s a different concept.”
Wen Yifan didn’t know what had happened between them, so she didn’t feel comfortable commenting. She looked at Sang Yan’s eye corner again and asked: “Did you get into a fight with Duan Jiaxu?”
“No,” Sang Yan said directly, “I beat him up badly.”
“…”
“Seeing him pitiful,” Sang Yan pointed at his face, drawling, “I let him land one punch.”
“…”
“This beast should have just told me the truth earlier, could I have stopped him? I knew a while ago that he was pursuing someone—” At this point, Sang Yan suddenly remembered something and sneered, “Oh, Qian Fei helped him pursue her.”
Wen Yifan remained silent.
“No wonder he denied it,” Sang Yan said coldly, “impressive.”
She roughly pieced together the situation from Sang Yan’s words.
It seemed that Sang Zhi had known Duan Jiaxu since she was very young.
Later, because Sang Zhi’s university was too far from home, and coincidentally Duan Jiaxu was in Yihe, Sang Yan had entrusted him to help take care of Sang Zhi. When he learned that Sang Zhi seemed to be dating a graduate student recently, Sang Yan had asked Duan Jiaxu to keep an eye on her, to prevent her from being deceived.
Duan Jiaxu had readily agreed.
During this time, Sang Yan had also learned that Duan Jiaxu was pursuing someone, and with the help of another friend, Qian Fei, he had succeeded. He found it curious but didn’t pay much attention to it.
The final result was:
After traveling from Nanwu to Yihe, he discovered that the person Duan Jiaxu was pursuing was Sang Zhi.
And the graduate student Sang Zhi mentioned was Duan Jiaxu.
“…”
Wen Yifan felt he was a bit pitiful for some reason, and didn’t argue with his words anymore. She looked around, noticing the coming and going students, and changed the subject: “So where are we going now?”
Sang Yan glanced at her: “Wen Shuangjiang, this is where you went to university, shouldn’t you choose a place?”
“Then shall we go into Yida and walk around? I haven’t been back for a long time,” Wen Yifan calculated. “It’s been four years since I graduated. After graduation, I worked at the Yihe Daily and moved to another district, so I rarely pass by here.”
Sang Yan smiled: “Alright.”
They entered the campus gate.
Wen Yifan was in a good mood and mentioned to him: “Yida doesn’t have as large an area as Nanda, it only has one campus, but it’s still quite big.” Then, she pointed in a certain direction: “My old dormitory building is over there.”
Sang Yan looked over and nodded: “Mm.”
Night fell as the sunset. On this summer evening, a few stars dotted the sky. Along the way, they could see a small artificial lake, but the breeze still carried a hint of heat.
At this time, there were quite a few students on the campus paths. Most had just finished classes and were preparing to go off campus for dinner or participate in other group activities, making the scene look very lively.
The two walked hand in hand, continuing forward.
Wen Yifan pointed things out as she spoke: “That’s the cafeteria I went to most often, and next to it is our school library. … That’s the auditorium, it was newly built for my class, that’s where we had our graduation ceremony.”
Sang Yan listened quietly, looking where she pointed, occasionally responding.
After walking around for a while, Wen Yifan mentioned feeling thirsty and led him to a milk tea shop on campus.
The queue outside the shop wasn’t long, only two or three people. But at this time, there was only one staff member in the shop, who seemed to be new, taking orders and making drinks slowly.
They waited for quite a while before it was their turn.
Because she needed to use her phone to pay, Wen Yifan instinctively let go of Sang Yan’s hand and looked down at the menu, pondering for a while. The staff was still making drinks and didn’t rush her.
Wen Yifan wasn’t sure exactly what to drink and was about to ask Sang Yan’s opinion when she suddenly heard a commotion beside her.
She turned to look.
She saw that at some point, a sweet-looking girl had come to stand next to Sang Yan. The girl wasn’t very tall and was blushing as she held out her phone to him: “Senior, can I have your WeChat?”
“…”
Sang Yan stood with his hands in his pockets, his expression indifferent. Hearing this form of address, he seemed to recall something and turned his head to look at Wen Yifan, his eyes carrying a hint of playfulness: “Sorry.”
The next moment, Wen Yifan’s hand was grasped by him again.
“I’m dating this junior,” Sang Yan curved his lips slightly, squeezing her fingertips. “It’s not very convenient.”
…
This statement reminded Wen Yifan of how Sang Yan had “deceived” her when they first met. After buying the milk tea, Wen Yifan held it while drinking and brought up that incident: “You’re the same age as me, why did you always call me ‘junior’ back then?”
Sang Yan’s tone was mischievous: “Weren’t you the one who called me that first?”
“At that time, I thought, the class bell had already rung and we were late,” Wen Yifan said honestly, “but you were still arrogantly getting water there, not looking like a new student at all.”
“But if we were already late,” Sang Yan said slowly, “hurrying wouldn’t have changed that fact.”
“…”
Wen Yifan had never met someone like this before.
He was righteous about everything he did as if all the reason in the world was on his side.
But as she listened to his words, she felt that what he said made sense.
Walking around the campus took about two hours.
After walking for a long time, Wen Yifan felt tired, and she was already a bit uncomfortable from last night’s activities. After leaving the campus, she didn’t want to move much anymore. She was led by Sang Yan, their walking pace gradually slowing.
Noticing her state, Sang Yan looked back: “What’s wrong?”
Wen Yifan looked at him: “Tired.”
Their eyes met and locked for several seconds before Sang Yan suddenly understood her meaning. He found it amusing, tugged at the corner of his mouth, then half-squatted down: “Get on.”
Wen Yifan didn’t immediately climb on: “Aren’t you tired?”
Sang Yan: “We’ve barely walked any distance.”
Hearing this, Wen Yifan climbed onto his back without any burden: “Oh.”
The next moment, she heard Sang Yan lazily utter three words: “Delicate flower.”
“…”
Wen Yifan wanted to clarify that normally, she wouldn’t feel tired after walking for two hours. But this wasn’t something she could easily explain, so she wrapped her arms around his neck and couldn’t help but bite his ear lightly.
Her bite was very gentle, but Sang Yan felt ticklish and frowned: “Save the biting for when we get back.”
Wen Yifan laughed: “We’ll have to sleep when we get back.”
“Then continue,” Sang Yan said, “but be mindful of others around.”
Wen Yifan didn’t listen to him and said slowly: “Carry me for five minutes, then we’ll hail a cab to go back.”
Sang Yan: “Why not hail one now?”
Wen Yifan said honestly: “I just want you to carry me for a bit.”
“…”
“Sang Yan, I just showed you around,” Wen Yifan rested her chin on his shoulder and said softly, “Isn’t Yida quite nice?”
“It’s alright.”
“Then after we go back to Nanwu when we both have time,” Wen Yifan also wanted to hear about his college experience, “shall we go for a walk around Nanda too?”
“…” Sang Yan’s eyelashes flickered slightly, and he smiled, “Alright.”
Thinking that Sang Yan had slept later than her last night and woken up earlier, after walking for less than five minutes, Wen Yifan struggled to jump down from his back. Just then, an empty taxi came by, and she raised her hand to hail it.
They returned to the hotel.
The room had been tidied up, with fresh bed sheets, looking neat and tidy.
Wen Yifan lay directly on the bed and played with her phone for a while. Out of habit, she opened Weibo again, and as soon as she refreshed, she saw that the anonymous blog had posted a new Weibo, which was again a screenshot of a submission.
This time, the blog’s caption was very simple, just a question mark.
[?]
The content of the screenshot above was very familiar to Wen Yifan. It was the messages she had sent to this blogger.
— Anonymous: How to pursue someone you’ve offended?
— Slept with them.
There was a gap of almost a year between the two messages.
Wen Yifan felt a chill run down her spine. After preparing herself, she clicked on Weibo to look at the comments. Her view was instantly filled with a sea of question marks, and scrolling down, she could hardly see any other words.
Because of this, one ordinary reply stood out particularly among them.
[Congratulations]
“What are you looking at? Go take a shower,” Sang Yan drawled, enunciating each word, “Ju-nior.”
Wen Yifan put away her phone: “I’ll lie down for a bit longer.”
Sang Yan raised an eyebrow: “Want me to help you shower again?”
Wen Yifan paused, thought about it seriously, and felt this suggestion was quite feasible.
“Can you?”
“…” Sang Yan was taken aback by her response. He lowered his eyes and said with a hint of a smile, “How did your face become so thick?”
Last night she could say she was too tired to move.
Now she was wide awake and could still say such things without any shame.
Wen Yifan moved over to lie on his leg, looking lazy: “You’ve seen everything anyway.”
Sang Yan didn’t say anything.
But Wen Yifan was just saying it casually.
Soon, she sat up and mumbled: “I’m going to take a shower.”
The next moment, Sang Yan pulled her back, holding her with one hand: “Where are you running off to?”
Wen Yifan was a bit confused: “Didn’t you tell me to go take a shower?”
“Didn’t you ask me to help you shower?”
“…”
“Well then, junior,” Sang Yan stood up, directly picking her up, his voice pressing down from beside her ear, carrying a seductive tone, “want to sleep with your senior tonight?”
–
The next day, they both slept until noon before getting up.
After checking out, Wen Yifan took him to have lunch nearby, then they set off for Yihe Airport. By the time they boarded the plane and arrived in Nanwu, it was already five in the afternoon.
It was already dinner time.
After getting into a taxi outside the airport, Sang Yan didn’t go straight home but had the driver take them to a barbecue restaurant near his home.
This restaurant had recently opened, and Wen Yifan had heard Su Tian recommend it many times, but she never had the time to come. She had previously agreed with Sang Yan that they would come together when he returned from Yihe.
After getting out of the car, they entered the restaurant one after the other and were led to a table by a waiter. Wen Yifan hadn’t even had a chance to sit down when she suddenly heard a familiar voice in the noisy environment.
“Yifan?”
Wen Yifan looked in the direction of the voice and immediately saw Su Tian’s face.
The barbecue restaurant was bustling with activity.
Sū Tián sat at a small table for two, facing a stranger. They seemed to have just arrived, and the table was empty, with no dishes yet served. Sū Tián looked at Wēn Yǐfán, her face bright with a smile, clearly surprised to see her here.
“You’re here for a meal too?”
Wēn Yǐfán smiled and nodded. “Yes.”
Sū Tián was about to say more when her gaze shifted and suddenly fell on Sāng Yán, who stood behind Wēn Yǐfán. She immediately fell silent.
Wēn Yǐfán blinked, intending to make an introduction.
Noticing Sāng Yán’s strikingly handsome features, Sū Tián looked back at Wēn Yǐfán. When she noticed their hands were clasped together, the realization hit her, and without thinking, she blurted out, “Yǐfán, is this your ‘king among ducks’?”
Wēn Yǐfán: “…”
Sāng Yán: “?”