Hard to Deceive

Wen Yifan’s breathing stopped for a while and she looked up at Sang Yan.

“Yihe?” Su Haoan was puzzled, he felt something was wrong, “Didn’t you go on a business trip by plane last time? Or did I remember wrongly? But what were you doing in Yihe when you had nothing to do? When did you go? Why didn’t I know about it?”

Sang Yan turned his head, “How many are you going to ask?”

“Oh, I know.” Su Haoan was even more excited than usual, he was annoyed, “You f*cking went to find Duan Jiaxu, right?”

Sang Yan did not answer.

“Okay, you win!” Su Haoan growled, “If it wasn’t for me failing to be admitted into Nanjing University! You wouldn’t have the chance to be rumoured to have an affair with him!”

“……” Sang Yan said impatiently, “Can you keep your voice down?”

Zhong Siqiao also graduated from Nanjing University, and she immediately understood what Su Haoan said as burst into laughter. She leaned against Wen Yifan and explained to her while smiling, “The Duan Jiaxu that Su Haoan mentioned just now, he was from our school.

Wen Yifan recalled what Wang Linlin said and nodded her head.

“Both of them were in the same faculty, same major, same class, and same dormitory.” Zhong Siqiao added, “Besides, they were extremely good-looking. At first, everyone was secretly gossiping and said that they were the Adonis duo in the faculty of computer science.”

Su Haoan was still grumbling.

Wen Yifan listened quietly to Zhong Siqiao’s gossip, while Xiang Lang also leaned in to listen.

“I forgot when it was, but someone posted in our university’s forum asking if there are any good-looking men in our university.” Zhong Siqiao added, “Then, the post blew up, many people started posting their Adonis from their faculty. The photos were basically taken secretly.”

Wen Yifan, “Then?”

Zhong Siqiao, “Then, Sang Yan and Duan Jiaxu, of course, were nominated. Almost half of the submissions were photos of them. However, photos of Sang Yan would have Duan Jiaxu, and photos of Duan Jiaxu would have Sang Yan.”

 “……”

“And then, everyone was surprised to find out that more than 80 per cent of the photos taken by different people were photos of both of them. This proved that…” Zhong Siqiao paused, “They stick together almost every day.”

 “……”

“Adding on to that, they were not seen getting close to any girl for four years in university.” The more Zhong Siqiao explained, the more she felt it was hilarious, “So, whenever anyone mentioned them, they would address them as the Gay Adonis couple from the faculty of computer science.”

Zhong Siqiao spoke happily without controlling her volume.

As a result, Su Haoan heard it and immediately participated, “They were selectively blind! There were two idiots, Qian Fei and Chen Junwen in the picture too! But they were not as good-looking, so they were ignored!”

 “……”

“Geez, I have nothing now.” Su Haoan suddenly blurted out, “I will never fall in love again.”

 “……”

He looked at Sang Yan and said bitterly, “Bro, we are the best brothers, as long as I have you, it’s enough. You should also regard me as your Number 1 in your heart, alright?”

She had no idea what they were talking about.

However, Zhong Siqiao detected the awkward atmosphere because of the subject of the gossip. She glanced at Sang Yan and wisely changed the topic, “It’s all jokes, there’s not much for us to talk about. Come on, let’s carry on.”

Wen Yifan leaned forward and reached out her hand to roll the dice.

She could see from the corner of her eyes where Sang Yan had no response to what Su Haoan had said. He leaned back and looked at his mobile phone. He suddenly stood up and said casually, “You guys carry on.”

Su Haoan, “Huh? Where are you going?”

Sang Yan casually said, “I’m tired, I’m going back home to sleep.”

Su Haoan, “It’s still early.”

Sang Yan was hardly seen to explain himself, “I slept late yesterday.”

Then, he directly downed three glasses of beer. His lips twitched slightly as he said slowly, “I spoiled the mood today, you guys can carry on playing.”

He looked at Su Haoan, “You can entertain them, the bill is on me.”

Then, Sang Yan didn’t look at anyone, he bent down to pick up the lighter on the table before leaving.

Sang Yan’s mood seemed normal, he even seemed gentle compared with his previous attitude. The others didn’t think anything was wrong, but Wen Yifan felt a little stuffy.

After playing for several rounds, without the presence of Sang Yan, Su Haoan felt that he was out of place among the three people who grew up together.

Not long after, he also made an excuse to leave.

Only the three of them were left.

However, the atmosphere did not become awkward due to the two of them leaving.

But Wen Yifan was somewhat absentminded.

She suddenly yelled as she listened to them chatting, “Qiaoqiao.”

Zhong Siqiao, “Hmm? What?”

“Just now you mentioned Duan Jiaxu.” Wen Yifan asked, “Is he close to Sang Yan?”

“They should be quite close, otherwise, the rumors wouldn’t have spread.” Zhong Siqiao said, “But I’m not quite sure, since I’m not in the same faculty with them. I have a roommate who used to admire Sang Yan, so she had treated Duan Jiaxu as her love rival.”

“……” Wen Yifan asked, “Duan Jiaxu is still in Yihe now?”

“Yes, his hometown seems to be Yihe. He went back there to work after graduating.” Zhong Siqiao blinked, “Why are you suddenly interested in this person?” Have you met him when you were in Yihe?”

Hearing this, Wen Yifan breathed a sigh of relief, “No, I’m just asking.”

The three of them didn’t stay for too long considering the fact that Wen Yifan would have to work the next day.

They left the bar at half-past ten. Xiang Lang was going to pay for the bill but was stopped by Su Haoan. They were warmly escorted to the parking lot by him.

Xiang Lang didn’t drink all night because he had to drive.

Wen Yifan and Zhong Siqiao got into the back seat.

Zhong Siqiao recalled the fact that Wen Yifan was sharing a unit with Sang Yan when they were heading back home, “Hey, Diandian.”

She would occasionally call her nickname, “Are you really alright with sharing a unit with Sang Yan? If you’re not, you can stay in Xiang Lang’s place and he’ll share the unit with Sang Yan.”

Xiang Lang, “I have no objections.”

“What could possibly happen.” Wen Yifan giggled, “We are like strangers at home, we don’t talk much. I’m sure both of you could see that he doesn’t like to interact with people from today. We’re just simply sharing a unit together.”

Xiang Lang replied, “Just let me know if you want to move.”

 ……

Xiang Lang was living close to Zhong Siqiao, so he sent Wen Yifan back home first.

Wen Yifan subconsciously took careful steps when she entered the house as she remembered Sang Yan had said that he was going back home to sleep when he left just now. She noticed the living room was dark, so she paused before reaching out to turn on the lights.

The living room didn’t look like someone came back.

Wen Yifan put on her slippers and walked towards her bedroom. She subconsciously glanced at the second bedroom as she passed by. It was getting late, so she went back to her room and took a quick shower.

She picked up her mobile phone when she came out.

She happened to see the two WeChat messages from Sang Yan.

Sang Yan: I’m not coming home tonight.

Sang Yan: Just lock the doors.

 “……”

Wen Yifan stunned and replied: OK.

Wen Yifan went out and locked the door after sending out the message successfully. She was tired, her hair was still wet but she was too lazy to blow dry it. She sat on the sofa and scrolled through the news for a while and turned on the television to look for something to watch.

As soon as she turned on the city channel on the television, the morning news of <Communication> was being replayed.

The follow-up of the attempted rape case that she handed in earlier just happened to be playing.

The face of the male stall owner was censored, and he still looked honest and kind.

This clip reminded Wen Yifan of the incident where she met Zheng Kejia in the general hospital. She was completely out of her mood, so she picked up the remote control to turn off the television before heading back to her room.

Wen Yifan turned on the computer.

At this moment, Zhong Siqiao sent her a message: Help me to give a like in my moments!

Zhong Siqiao: I’m going to eat barbecue tomorrow! One hundred likes can get a discount of 100 Yuan!

Wen Yifan immediately replied: Okay.

She clicked Zhong Siqiao’s icon to enter her moments and gave her latest post a like. Wen Yifan scrolled down and suddenly caught a glimpse of her post which she had posted on New Year’s Eve.

Zhong Siqiao: Let’s! Go! Watch! Fireworks! Tonight! [/Happy] But, I would have chosen Dongjiu Square if I had known about it. Then I might get to accompany my Fanfan who has to work overtime. [/Cry]

Wen Yifan smiled and gave this post a like as well.

Wen Yifan thought she wouldn’t be tired easily because she woke up late today.

However, it could be the alcohol she consumed that night, it didn’t take long for her eyes to feel heavy after looking at her laptop. Wen Yifan cherished her sleepiness, so she didn’t spend too much time writing manuscripts and went to bed soon after.

Before she slept, she remembered Sang Yan didn’t come back tonight.

But she also felt that it was reasonable when she remembered what Su Haoan had said tonight.

Sang Yan probably wanted to comfort Su Haoan.

Su Haoan probably knew Wang Linlin was cheating on him.

 ……

Wen Yifan dreamt of things that happened in high school that night, probably because they had brought up past memories that night.

When people were starting to get along with each other, Wen Yifan still had no close friends in her class because she was a person who takes time to get along with others. So, she always spent her time eating with Zhong Siqiao and Xiang Lang even after a long time after the first day of school.

There was once.

The club that Zhong Siqiao joined had issues to be solved, so Wen Yifan had dinner with Xiang Lang alone.

Then, she met Sang Yan at the cafeteria.

Sang Yan was popular amongst the boys. Whenever Wen Yifan saw him, he was always surrounded by a group of boys. Only a few of them were regularly around him, the others would change every time.

They seemed to be a lively and noisy group.

The group found a place to sit after eating dinner.

They suddenly noticed Wen Yifan who was having dinner face to face with Xiang Lang.

Sang Yan raised his eyebrows.

The boys began to create an uproar.

But they left very soon.

The self-study session that evening.

The rumors about the two of them that never died down blew up again because of this incident.

A new story was slowly unfolding.

They said Vase Wen actually didn’t like Sang Yan at all. She reluctantly agreed to his pursuit, but she would change her mind when she found a better choice.

Wen Yifan didn’t have to self-study in class like other students. During the evening self-study, she normally would be practising dancing in the dance studio, so she didn’t know anything about the new rumors.

No one in the dormitory would bring up the rumors to the subject of the rumor.

She was slow to figure out the strange atmosphere in the dormitory.

The self-study session the next morning.

Wen Yifan returned to her class and felt that others were looking at her in a strange way. She didn’t think too much at first, she only thought it was a few more unrealistic rumors, so she didn’t take it to heart.

Little did she know, she overheard her classmates talking about her when she went to the washroom.

“I didn’t know Vase Wen was someone like this……”

“It’s quite disgusting.”

“She’s arrogant because she’s beautiful.”

“What’s the benefit of being beautiful when you have a bad personality?”

 ……

Wen Yifan was puzzled, she didn’t know what had happened, and became the ‘disgusting’ person in the class. She came out from the washroom after they left and slowly cleaned her hands.

She thought about what she had done recently.

She couldn’t think of anything.

So she just pretended that she didn’t hear anything, where it went into her left ear and came out from her right ear.

When she was back to her class.

Wen Yifan sat in her seat.

Sang Yan suddenly grabbed a boy by the collar and dragged him to Wen Yifan, “Apologize.”

The situation came all of a sudden.

Wen Yifan was dumbfounded, she thought he wanted her to apologize.

She was weak-willed when she saw him being aggressive and was ready to hit someone at any time. Although she felt like she didn’t do anything wrong, she still wisely apologized, “I’m sorry.”

“……” Sang Yan's lips twitched, “I didn’t ask you to apologize.”

The boy who was held by him by the collar was wearing spectacles and he looked terrified.

Sang Yan looked down at him, “Do I need to teach you how?”

“I was just joking around……” The spectacles boy smiled awkwardly, “I was just kidding, I was not the only one who said it…… Can you let go first?”

“Kidding?” Sang Yan smiled, “Isn’t it shameful for a male to be this gossipy?”

 “……”

“I will stop here, if there’s still someone spreading rumours about this.” Sang Yan looked up, glanced around the classroom and enunciated, “Let’s settle this one by one if I hear any more of this rumour.”

“I’m not interested in anything.” Sang Yan was very arrogant, “My only hobby is to bear grudges.”

After that, Sang Yan let go of his hand that was holding the collar.

The spectacles boy immediately lowered his head and apologized to Wen Yifan, “So, sorry, it was me who told everyone that you’re two-timing. But I don’t have any evidence, I just made it up. I won’t do it again in the future.”

 “……”

Two-timing?

Wen Yifan was dumbfounded.

After apologizing, the spectacles boy was going to head back to his seat.

Sang Yan lifted his leg and placed it on the railing under the table next to him, he reminded, “Am I not the victim?”

 “……”

“Can you consider the actual situation? What do you mean she dumped me when she met someone better than me?” Speaking of which, Sang Yan suddenly caught a glimpse of Wen Yifan, “If there is really this kind of situation where I’d pursue someone…”

Wen Yifan looked up at him.

Half of Sang Yan’s face was against the light, his expression was as arrogant as ever.

“The person would only be fascinated by me, understand?”