Reborn, my online friend is the real me.

The dinner ended in a friendly atmosphere. Liu Yifei wore a polite smile throughout, while Shu Chang wore a forced smile.

At the entrance of the Anhui cuisine restaurant, the evening breeze in April carried the sweet scent of locust blossoms.

Su Ting took out her phone from her bag and exchanged numbers with Liu Yifei.

Su Ting saved it and added with a smile, "Let's go shopping together sometime. I'm new to Beijing and don't know anyone here, so you can show me around."

Liu Yifei nodded and agreed. Shu Chang stood to the side, her gaze sweeping back and forth between Su Ting and Liu Yifei, the corners of her mouth never leaving her lips.

Su Yu stood a meter away, his hands in his pockets, his toes circling the ground.

As he watched his sister and Liu Yifei exchange contact information, a thought flashed through his mind: This world is developing too fast.

"Su Yu," Liu Yifei called out to him.

Su Yu looked up: "Hmm?"

Liu Yifei opened her mouth, "Thank you, I'll treat you next time."

She pulled Shu Chang and turned to leave. Shu Chang glanced back at Su Yu, and the meaning behind that glance was quite interesting.

Su Yu waved to her, then turned and walked across the street with Su Ting.

Su Ting walked beside him, her steps light and quick, humming a song she couldn't quite place.

Su Yu glanced at her: "Sis, are you in a good mood today?"

"It's great, BJ is more interesting than I imagined."

"Just because we had a meal, you think it's interesting?"

Su Ting smiled but did not answer.

......

Yingtan Residential Area is located southeast of Beijing Film Academy, about a ten-minute walk away.

When Su Yu bought his apartment last year, he bought two units in the same building, facing each other.

He'll live in one apartment and leave the other for Su Ting.

After Li Xiulan found out, she nagged on the phone for half an hour: "Why did you buy two apartments? One for living and one for raising chickens?"

Su Ting entered the room, opened her suitcase, and took her belongings out one by one.

She finished packing her luggage, washed her hands, and went to the living room.

Su Yu was sitting on the sofa, playing Snake on his phone. Su Ting sat down next to him, picked up an apple from the coffee table, took a bite, chewed it a couple of times, and turned to look at Su Yu.

"Xiaoyu, I have a question for you."

Su Yu's fingers paused, the phone resting in his palm: "What?"

Su Ting switched the apple to her left hand, patted his knee with her right, and casually asked, "With so many pretty girls at your film academy, are any of you dating anyone?"

Su Yu's reaction was much more intense than she had expected; he reacted like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.

"What's there to talk about! I'm so busy with classes and filming, where would I find the time?"

Su Ting took a bite of the apple, chewing slowly, her gaze sweeping over his face. "Oh, oh, oh, still pretending. You were even busier in high school, and you still managed to fool some girl."

Su Yu's face flushed instantly, from his neck all the way to his ears: "Don't talk nonsense. When did I ever lie to a girl? We're just classmates."

"A purely platonic classmate relationship?" Su Ting took out a tissue to wipe her hands, her tone unhurried. "Don't think I don't know. After evening self-study, instead of going home, you were hugging and cuddling with someone by the city wall. There are so many mosquitoes by the city wall, don't you get bitten?"

Su Yu opened his mouth, wanting to refute, but seemed unable to find the right words.

I did date someone in my second year of high school, a girl from the next class. She was good-looking and academically excellent.

The two walked along the city wall after school, holding hands—well, more than just holding hands. He always thought he had kept it a secret, that no one in his family knew.

"That...that is..."

"Well, what do you mean?" Su Ting threw the tissue into the trash can and leaned back on the sofa. "You think you can hide it from everyone just because you did it secretly? Mom and Dad know, they just don't care to say anything. Mom even said that the girl was quite pretty."

Su Yu buried his face in his hands, letting out a muffled groan: "Why didn't any of you tell me?"

Why tell you? To embarrass you? Aren't you embarrassed right now?

Su Yu removed his hands from his face, took a deep breath, and tried to look less disheveled: "You were immature before, weren't you? Don't just talk about me, you should date someone too, you're twenty-five."

Su Ting ignored his words, took a sip of water, and changed the subject: "Hey, seriously, that Liu Yifei from earlier, I thought she was pretty good. She's beautiful, speaks confidently, and the way she looked at you..."

"She's only eighteen!" Su Yu interrupted her.

"You're only twenty, the age when your heart is just beginning to flutter," Su Ting said matter-of-factly. "If we don't talk about it at twenty, what about when you're thirty? By then you'll be a big director, and everyone around you will be after your money."

Su Yu stood up, grabbed a cushion from the sofa, and shoved it into Su Ting's arms: "I can't be bothered to talk to you. I'm going back to my room to write my script."

Su Ting hugged the cushion, watching his figure disappear into the corridor, and the corners of her mouth slowly turned up.

She leaned back on the sofa, crossed her legs, and muttered to herself, "Write a script? If you can write even one line tonight, I'll eat this cushion."

Su Yu's voice came from the corridor: "You eat, it's vegetarian."

Su Ting burst into laughter.

.........

Meanwhile, in her apartment in Chaoyang District, Liu Yifei was curled up on the sofa with her legs bent, her chin resting on her knees, and holding a small panda in her arms.

Shu Chang sat next to her, holding a cup of hot milk and slowly drinking it.

"Hahaha..." Shu Chang put down her cup, her eyes crinkling into crescents as she laughed. "You actually got jealous of someone else's older sister? Qianqian, do you know what kind of expression you had back then? Let me tell you, you weren't even that into playing Lin Zhenxin on set."

Liu Yifei buried her face in the teddy bear's belly, her voice muffled: "How would I know that's his sister? He didn't introduce her. Besides, Su Ting is so pretty, who wouldn't misunderstand?"

"So you dragged me from the Foreign Languages ​​Institute to Beijing Normal University by taxi, looked at four restaurants, and finally chose an Anhui cuisine restaurant?" Shu Chang pulled a tissue from the tissue box and wiped away the tears of laughter. "Qianqian, the script for this 'chance encounter' you wrote is terrible. If you were a screenwriter, Su Yu would be out of a job."

Liu Yifei lifted her face from the bear's belly, her hair a mess. "Don't talk to me anymore, what do we do now?"

Shu Chang raised an eyebrow: "What? What should we do?"

"Su Yu knows I'm An Qian now." Liu Yifei lowered her voice, as if she were telling a shameful secret. "He called me directly on the phone that day; I didn't dare answer him and hung up. It's been several months now, and we haven't talked much. He doesn't contact me first, and I'm too embarrassed to contact him either."

Shu Chang picked up her milk glass, took a sip, and licked the milk foam off her lips: "So what are you planning to do? Just leave it hanging like this?"

Liu Yifei flipped the teddy bear over, pinching it from its belly to its ears, then back from its ears to its belly, repeating this several times. She stared at the teddy bear's round face, as if discussing a strategy with it.

"Wouldn't it be too awkward if I went directly to him?"

"meeting."

"What if I pretend I don't know?"

"He's already calling you 'Senior Sister Liu Yifei,' why are you pretending? Pretending to have amnesia?"

Liu Yifei put the teddy bear aside, leaned back on the sofa, and stared at the ceiling. The chandelier twinkled like stars, mirroring her chaotic thoughts at that moment.

"Changchang, what do you think his reaction will be if I confess now?"

Shu Chang crossed her legs, turned to face Liu Yifei, and her expression became more serious: "He might be angry, feeling that you've kept this from him for so long. He might also find it funny that you two have been roasting each other online for almost three years, only to find out that you're roasting each other. There's also the possibility that he doesn't care at all, because what he cares about is you as a person, not your status."

Liu Yifei looked at Shu Chang, her lips moved slightly, as if she wanted to say something.

Shu Chang reached out and patted her head: "Think about it, what did he do after he found out you were Anxi? He didn't call to question you, didn't send you messages to scold you, and didn't even expose you. He just left you there, as if nothing had happened. What does that mean?"

Liu Yifei blinked: "Does that mean he doesn't want to pressure me?"

Shu Chang smiled and tapped her head. "It means he's waiting for you, waiting for you to take the initiative to talk to him."

Liu Yifei was silent for a moment, then hugged the teddy bear back to her arms, resting her chin on its round head. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and slowly exhaled.

"Should I go directly to him?"

Shu Chang thought for a moment and gave her a suggestion: "Send a message first, don't surprise him. Just say, 'Su Yu, shall we talk sometime?' See how he replies. If he replies 'okay,' then you can ask him out. If he replies something else, then you can decide."

Liu Yifei bit her lip: "What if he doesn't reply?"

"He will," Shu Chang said with such certainty, as if the sun were rising in the east. "If he wanted to ignore you, he wouldn't have invited us to dinner today."

Liu Yifei picked up her phone, opened QQ, and found Su Yu's profile picture. Her finger hovered over the screen for a few seconds, typed a few words, deleted them, typed again, and deleted again.

"I think you're really falling in love now," Shu Chang said, laughing uncontrollably as she watched from the side.

"Shut up." Liu Yifei glared at her, took a deep breath, and typed: "Su Yu, are you free tomorrow? I have something I want to talk to you about."

Then, with lightning speed, I pressed send.