My online dating circle has millions of followers, why would she put a collar on me?

Gu Qinghan walked out of the ward building, found his car in the parking lot, opened the car door, sat down, slumped into the seat, and let out a long sigh.

"I'm exhausted."

She closed her eyes and rested for half a minute before starting the car and driving out of the hospital.

The morning rush hour in Shanghai has begun, with long red lines of traffic jams forming on the elevated highways.

Gu Qinghan moved slowly along with the traffic. A new album by a certain band was playing on the car stereo. She listened to two songs and found it noisy, so she turned it off.

My phone suddenly vibrated.

She glanced at the screen, and her eyes lit up instantly.

Caller ID: Anmian (安眠).

"Feed?" Gu Qinghan answered the call, turned on speakerphone, and placed the phone on the center console.

"Qinghan, I'm going to Shanghai next Wednesday." Xia Anmian's voice came through the receiver, crisp and clear as always.

"Huh?" Gu Qinghan was taken aback. "You're coming too? Next Wednesday?"

"Yes, my flight is at 8 a.m. and I'll arrive at Hongqiao Airport at 10:30 a.m. Could you please arrange accommodation for me? I'll probably stay for two or three days."

Gu Qinghan opened her mouth, her mind racing.

Next Wednesday.

Su Xiaoyue will fly from Shanghai to Kyoto next Wednesday.

Xia Anmian will fly from Kyoto to Shanghai next Wednesday.

One went north, and the other went south.

What a damn misplaced life!

"What's wrong? Are you inconvenient?" Xia Anmian asked when she didn't speak.

"No, no," Gu Qinghan quickly said, "It's just... um... Mianmian, I have something to tell you, please don't be angry."

"explain."

"Su Xiaoyue, that's the best friend I told you about. She's leaving next Wednesday too."

"Where to?"

"Kyoto."

There was a two-second silence on the other end of the phone.

"...Is the online friend she's meeting in Kyoto?"

"Yes," Gu Qinghan answered cautiously.

"Her flight is next Wednesday morning, arriving in Kyoto around 10 AM. So I have to go with her. I was thinking of having you come so the three of us could have dinner together, but..."

"It's alright." Xia Anmian interrupted her, her tone calm. "I'll arrange it myself then, no need to trouble you."

"No, no, no, Mianmian, don't be angry." Gu Qinghan panicked. "If you come, I can have my assistant pick you up. I've booked the hotel for you, you..."

"No need, really no need." Xia Anmian's voice remained calm, but Gu Qinghan, who had known her for so many years, could detect a subtle... weariness in her steady tone.

"You should keep your best friend company. She's probably very nervous about meeting her online boyfriend in person. I'm fine here; I know Shanghai well, so I can manage on my own."

Gu Qinghan bit her lip, a wave of guilt washing over her.

Xia Anmian finally made it to Shanghai, and it's not right for her, as the host, to stand her up.

"Then... how about I ask Su Xiaoyue to change the time?" she asked tentatively.

"Goodbye," Xia Anmian said. "She must have been looking forward to this for a long time, don't spoil her fun. Let's make it up another time."

"Mianmian..."

"Oh, right, there's one more thing." Xia Anmian's tone suddenly changed, becoming more relaxed. "You told me before, how's the tutor your sister hired?"

"You mean Jiang Yi?" Gu Qinghan mentioned this name. The nanny had told her about Jiang Yi and her sister.

He's a young man who remains unfazed even when his sister calls him a "bookworm."

"He's alright. My sister said he's not bad, and he seems to play games too. We get along quite well."

"Okay, that's good," Xia Anmian said. "He's my boyfriend."

"ah?!"

Gu Qinghan almost jumped out of the driver's seat.

"Your boyfriend?! That Jiang Yi?!"

"right."

"Xia Anmian, you actually have a boyfriend?!" Gu Qinghan's voice rose eight octaves.

"And you didn't even tell me?! Are you even my best friend anymore?!"

"I didn't say I wouldn't tell you, didn't I? I've already told you." Xia Anmian's tone remained...

He remained calm, as if he were talking about a trivial matter.

"Besides, you didn't even ask before."

"You—!" Gu Qinghan was so choked that he couldn't speak, and it took him a long time to recover.

"So, the tutor you found for my sister was your own boyfriend?"

"Yes. He's short of money, and your sister needs tutoring, so it's a win-win situation."

Gu Qinghan leaned back in his seat, digesting the information for a few seconds before slowly tasting something different.

"Mianmian, are you feeling sorry for your boyfriend and want to help him earn more money, so you did that..."

"Qinghan," Xia Anmian interrupted her.

"Don't overthink it. He's from Tsinghua or Peking University, his grades are excellent, he's more than capable of tutoring your sister. If you're worried, you can find someone else, I have no objection."

"I didn't say I was worried!" Gu Qinghan quickly said, "I just think...you're too low-key, aren't you? Your boyfriend doesn't even know you're...

"Sparse and cold".

Xia Anmian's voice suddenly softened, as if a gust of wind was blowing from a great distance.

"Promise me you won't tell him."

Gu Qinghan opened her mouth as if to say something, but in the end she just sighed and said, "Okay, I know my limits."

"And one more thing," Xia Anmian said, "what's his current hourly rate for tutoring?"

"It's a little over 1,300 per hour, the one you booked."

"Raise it to two thousand."

"what?"

"I said, raise it to two thousand an hour." Xia Anmian repeated, her tone leaving no room for argument, "Starting next time, two thousand an hour. I'll pay for it."

Two thousand for an hour, that's 3000 for 90 minutes.

"Wait, wait, wait." Gu Qinghan pulled the car over to the side of the road, picked up his phone and held it to his ear. "Mianmian, are you serious?"

"I'm very serious."

"But……"

"No buts. Just say the training institution approved it, and his level allows him to increase his hourly rate. Don't tell him it was me who made the decision."

Gu Qinghan was silent for a few seconds, then suddenly smiled.

"Xia Anmian, you're really something. You could have just given him the money directly, but you had to go through all this trouble, and you're even afraid he'll find out. Are you worried about hurting his pride?"

There was a long silence on the other end.

"Maybe." Xia Anmian's voice was very soft, so soft that it seemed to dissipate in the wind.

"But more importantly, I don't want him to feel that there's anything different between us."

"What's the difference?"

"The difference is that if he knew who I was now, the way he looked at me would change. He would think about whether he was good enough for me, whether he was trying to climb the social ladder. He would think about many, many things that I would never have thought about before."

"I don't want him to be like that."

"I just want him to stay the way he is now, to argue with me when he wants to, to make a scene with me when he wants to, to treat me to a buffet when he wants to, without any pressure."

After hearing this, Gu Qinghan leaned back in the driver's seat and stared at the sunroof for a long time in silence.

Outside the skylight was a gray-blue sky, and the sunset in Shanghai had dyed the clouds orange-red—it was beautiful.

"Xia Anmian, you really like him."

"Mmm." A hint of a smile finally appeared in Xia Anmian's voice. "I like it very much."

"Okay, two thousand an hour. I'll tell the nanny." Gu Qinghan started the car again. "Mianmian, when are you going to tell him the truth?"

"...We'll talk about it later."

"Keep putting it off; sooner or later, problems will arise."

"Maybe."

After hanging up the phone, Gu Qinghan tossed his phone onto the passenger seat, stepped on the gas, and drove into traffic.

It was almost eight o'clock when I got home.

The living room lights were still on at the Gu family villa, and the nanny was tidying up the fruit bowls and snack bags on the coffee table.

"Qinghan's back? Have you eaten?"

"I've already eaten." Gu Qinghan changed his shoes and came into the house, sat down on the sofa, and rubbed his temples.

She spent the whole day running to the hospital, comforting Su Xiaoyue, and answering Xia Anmian's calls; most of her brain cells died.

Gu Qinghan made a phone call to the nanny at the villa in Beijing.

"Auntie, I have something to tell you."

"Please say so."

"The tutor's hourly rate will increase to two thousand starting next time. When you talk to him, tell him that he passed the assessment and that you're giving him a raise."

The nanny was taken aback: "Two thousand an hour? Isn't that a bit high?"

"Not high," Gu Qinghan instructed from the left side of the bed.

"Do as I say."

After saying that, Gu Qinghan hung up the phone and fell into a deep sleep.

On the other end, the nanny hung up the phone and was about to report the matter to the lady of the house.

Just then, the doorbell rang.

The nanny hurriedly went to open the door, only to find that the person who came in was actually Jiang Yi.

"Hello, I'm here to tutor you, miss!"