Chapter 1

So what if I’m a boy? Can’t boys get married too?

What century was he living in? How could he still be so old-fashioned?

I ignored Dad, picked all the seeds out of a piece of watermelon, and held it to my sister’s lips.

She lay on the couch scrolling through her phone. Opening her mouth lazily for the watermelon, she spoke up for me.

“Dad, leave him alone. He’s grown up. Until he runs into a wall himself, he won’t give up.”

Dad clutched his chest in anguish. “Have you lost your mind too?”

Seeing how worked up he was, my sister hurried to rub his back.

“Oh, Dad, relax. Jiang Muye is notoriously wild and impossible to win over. All those department beauties and campus beauties have tried and failed. My little brother’s a guy. He’s got even less of a chance.”

She gave Dad’s shoulder another pat.

“Stop worrying. Three days, tops. I guarantee he’ll have dropped the whole idea.”

Dad considered this, let out a long breath, and brightened up again. “You’ve got a point there.”

What kind of logic was that? Just because girls couldn’t do it didn’t mean boys couldn’t.

Hearing them discuss me without the slightest restraint only made me more indignant.

Looking down on me, were they?

Fine. Time to make a scene.

“You don’t have to insult me like that!” I sprang to my feet and headed upstairs.

“Just you wait! I’ll get Jiang Muye to fall for me!”

My sister waved and gave me an encouraging little gesture. “Good luck, my dear little brother.”

…All right. All right. You brought this on yourselves.

Back in my room, I sat down to draw up a strategy.

After thinking about it for ages, I had to admit I had absolutely no experience.

But that wasn’t going to stop me.

I opened Doubao. “Doubao, tell me how to pursue a guy.”

Doubao immediately produced a whole list of suggestions.

It concluded: Don’t seem too eager. Maintain a little mystery…

And here I’d thought it would be difficult. This was so easy! I felt ready to graduate already.

Switching to WeChat, I found Jiang Muye and sent him a message.

“You there? I’m Xia Jingcheng, your future sister-in-law’s little brother. Remember me?”

We’d added each other when our families settled on the marriage, but we’d barely chatted since.

To my surprise, his reply came instantly.

Jiang Muye: “Yeah, I remember. Did you need something?”

Following Doubao’s advice, I typed and sent:

“Do you have a girlfriend? If you don’t, would you mind if I pursued you?”

Then I stared at the screen.

Whew. I was a little nervous. He wasn’t actually going to block me outright like my sister predicted, was he?

Please, no.

Sure enough, he didn’t reply for ages…

Great. I’d really scared him off.

Well, anyone would probably be startled by a confession from another guy.

Forget it. I’d think of something else.

I grabbed some clothes and went to shower.

When I came back, there were more than ten unread messages on my screen.

I swiped them open and froze.

Jiang Muye: “Is this really you?”

“Are you playing truth or dare?”

“Haha, of course, I’m not questioning you.”

“Did you mean what you said?”

“Why aren’t you replying? Are you asleep?”

“I wasn’t ignoring you. I just got too excited.”

“Hey, are you still interested? I’m really easy to win over.”

“Do you think this isn’t really me? I’ll take a video to prove it.”

[Video]

I tapped it.

A gorgeous guy fresh from the shower. Bare chest, a towel wrapped around his waist, eight-pack abs. An incredible body.

Me: …

Jiang Muye: “See? Happy with what you see?”

“Haha, I’m not trying to seduce you or anything. Don’t get the wrong idea.”

“Okay, I am trying to seduce you.”

“Sorry. I should have replied straight away. Give me a chance to make it up to you. Let me pursue you instead.”

“Please reply. I’m begging you.”

Holy shit. What channel had I landed on?

This wasn’t how it was supposed to go.

Wasn’t he meant to be impossible to win over?