Chapter 2

After adding Qi Pei, I reflected on what I had learned from last time.

Men were reserved creatures. You couldn’t come right out and say what you wanted.

You had to be subtle. Witty. You had to leave them helplessly addicted to you.

With that in mind, I confidently opened WeChat and sent the first message in my chat with Qi Pei.

Me: Transferred ¥0.52 to the recipient.

Me: “Oops, my finger slipped. You’re not the materialistic type, are you?”

…

“Typing…” flashed above Qi Pei’s chat box for several seconds, then vanished.

He sent nothing.

What a tease, playing hard to get with me.

Naughty boy.

Never mind. For a maxed-out Daniel Wu look-alike, I could indulge him.

So I launched another offensive.

Me: Transferred ¥1.34 to the recipient.

Me: “I wonder if your proud little finger might accidentally tap ‘Accept’?” [Grinning] [Grinning]

Qi Pei fell completely silent.

Just as I was debating whether to send a third transfer, he finally replied. “What exactly do you want?”

I went straight to the point. “To pursue you, dream guy.”

Qi Pei: “???”

That meant he was shy.

I understood. Men had their little desires, but they were always too embarrassed to admit them openly.

So I considerately took a step back and gave him an easy out. “I could start as your simp instead.”

“Give me a chance. Pretty please.”

Under the force of my sincere campaign, Qi Pei at least refrained from blocking me outright like those other heartless men had.

Meanwhile, wave after wave of tactical operations against him sharpened my practical skills.

Just as my relationship with Qi Pei seemed to be heating up rapidly, I came across a scandalous post on the campus forum linking him with a sweet, innocent junior.

As rotten luck would have it, that junior was also one of my rivals within the family: Xu Ying.

Worse still, Qi Pei and Xu Ying stood side by side in the photo, the very picture of a perfect couple.

Meanwhile, I could only lurk in the shadows of the internet and simp from afar.

I stared at the endless procession of green message bubbles—all mine—in my chat with Qi Pei.

With pain as my teacher, I decided I could no longer hang myself from the single tree that was Qi Pei.

I could simp for Qi Pei, but I couldn’t simp for only Qi Pei.

If I simped for enough men, then kept simping until I crowned myself queen, one of them was bound to bite eventually.

I promptly charged back to the basketball court where I had first met him.

This time, instead of swirling a wineglass, I dangled the keys to a Maybach from one finger.

Within two days, I had expanded my contacts to include a tan athlete, a gentle golden-retriever type, and a refined academic prodigy.

The golden retriever, in particular, was sweet-tongued, cute, and delightful to talk to.

He sent me a photograph almost immediately, complete with a detailed introduction and, at the bottom of the frame, his hand seemingly lifting his shirt by accident to reveal the tantalizing outline of his abs.

I thought I had found true love.

So, bright and early the next morning, I appeared below the dorm of my golden retriever, Xiao Yao, carrying breakfast.

To my surprise, the first person I ran into was Qi Pei, whom I hadn’t seen in ages.

His cool gaze swept over me: burgundy velvet dress, high heels, a ring of keys in my left hand, and a bag of soup dumplings in my right.

His expression said he wanted to speak, then thought better of it, then wanted to speak again.

At last, he seemed to overcome his mental resistance. He stepped forward and raised a hand to take the breakfast from me.

But Xiao Yao rushed out from behind him and beat him to it.

First, Xiao Yao draped a jacket over my bare shoulders. Then he took the soup dumplings from the bag and bit into every single one.

Only then did he turn to Qi Pei in apparent surprise. “Oh, sorry, Pei. Didn’t see you there.”

He shook the bag. “Want some?”

“…” Qi Pei looked rather unhappy now. Ignoring Xiao Yao, he shoved both hands into his pockets and strode coolly past him.

My fickle gaze couldn’t help following his sculpted profile.

I stared until Xiao Yao, his face scarlet, reached out and slapped me hard on the back.

I jumped in alarm. “You don’t have to get this worked up just because you’re jealous of Qi Pei! Your face is as red as Guan Yu’s!”

Xiao Yao thumped his chest, looking as though he couldn’t breathe.

As it happened, he genuinely couldn’t breathe.

He had tried to show off in front of me by stuffing five soup dumplings into his mouth at once.

Then he choked.

Well… a husky puppy was still a puppy.

While Xiao Yao continued pounding his chest, I quietly edged away.

Honestly, I suddenly felt that the two of us together made one magnificent pair of wise fools.

I was the “wise.” He was the “fool.”