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

Jiang Yi followed behind Sun Miaomiao, keeping a distance of two steps.

She walked quickly, the hem of her hoodie swaying gently with her movements, her bun bob bobbing slightly behind her head, each step firm and solid, as if expressing some kind of dissatisfaction with the sound of her footsteps.

She walked to the elevator, pressed the up button, then turned around, leaned against the wall next to her, crossed her arms, and tilted her head to look at him.

The numbers above the elevator doors slowly jumped up and down – “6”, “5”, “4”.

Sun Miaomiao's gaze lingered on the slowly changing numbers above the elevator doors for a moment, then returned to Jiang Yi's face: "You still haven't told me what you want to see the boss about."

"It's a private matter," Jiang Yi said.

Sun Miaomiao frowned.

Her gaze lingered on his face for two seconds, as if weighing the weight of those two words, then she shook her head: "No. I won't let you in until you explain clearly."

She took half a step forward, blocking the elevator door with her arms still crossed over her chest, like a wall that, though not tall, was very dense.

"Do you know, I've recently been reading that novel called 'Girl Makes a Million in Online Dating, Why Did She Put a Collar on Me?' There's a scene where after a breakup, the guy comes to the girl, pretending to say 'I want to talk about something,' but he's carrying a knife in his pocket."

She spoke with a serious expression, her eyes carrying a wary look that said, "I've come prepared." "I'm asking you," she said, "what exactly do you want with the boss?"

Jiang Yi looked at her and remained silent for two seconds.

He could sense that Su Xiaoyue's wariness wasn't due to hostility, but rather because she cared about Xia Anmian.

Jiang Yi closed his eyes briefly, then opened them again, his voice lower than before: "My sister... is dead."

Sun Miaomiao's expression froze, as if someone had pressed the pause button. She remained frozen in the position where she was tilting her head and scrutinizing him. "What? Your sister... is dead?"

Jiang Yi didn't repeat that sentence, but looked into her eyes and nodded.

The corridor fell silent for a moment, and the hum of the fluorescent lights became particularly noticeable in that brief quiet.

Sun Miaomiao lowered her hand from her chest and let it hang at her sides, her fingers curling slightly.

Her lips moved a few times, as if she were organizing her thoughts or processing the information, before she finally managed to squeeze out, "Your sister is dead, so why are you looking for my boss?"

"etc!"

Sun Miaomiao suddenly realized something and stared at Jiang Yi in disbelief:

"So...you think it has something to do with the boss?"

Jiang Yi did not answer.

But the way he avoided eye contact at that moment was enough for Sun Miaomiao to understand what was hidden in that silence.

She jerked as if burned, sitting bolt upright, her fingers clenching into fists, her voice booming through the empty corridor: "Get out of here!"

You are not welcome here!

She took a step forward, raising her voice even higher.

"What makes you so suspicious of my boss? How could my boss be that kind of person? You've been dating her for three years, and you don't even know what kind of person she is?"

Jiang Yi did not avoid her gaze, but he also did not refute it.

Her barrage of questions rained down on him, each word carrying the anger and grievance of "How dare you think such a thing?"

She always smiles when she talks about you.

Sun Miaomiao's eyes reddened slightly, but she didn't cry. Beneath the sharp anger in her voice, there was a deeper, more helpless sadness.

Just as she was about to say something, her phone suddenly vibrated in her pocket.

She paused for a moment, as if pulled back to reality by the tremor. She glared at Jiang Yi with some resentment before taking out her phone and glancing down at the screen.

Caller ID: Boss.

Her finger paused on the screen for a moment, then she pressed the answer button and held the phone to her ear: "Hey? Boss?"

She didn't turn on speakerphone, but in the quiet corridor, Jiang Yin could vaguely hear Xia Anmian's voice coming from the receiver. He couldn't make out the exact words because of the distance, but her tone was very calm.

Sun Miaomiao hummed twice, then said "ah," before her expression changed, as if she wanted to say something but was interrupted. Finally, she mumbled, "...Okay."

She hung up the phone, clutched it in her palm, remained silent for two seconds, then looked up at Jiang Yi. Her anger had lessened, replaced by a sense of frustration that said, "The boss told me to let you go up, but I'm not happy about it."

She stepped aside, making way for the elevator doors with obvious reluctance, then nodded her chin towards the elevator: "Let's go up."

Jiang Yi looked at her, and after a moment said, "Thank you for your help, Ms. Sun."

Sun Miaomiao did not respond, but pressed the up key hard.

The elevator doors opened, revealing four stainless steel walls that gleamed coldly under the fluorescent lights, reflecting the shadows of two people.

She followed Jiang Yi into the elevator, pressed the "8" button, then retreated to a corner, put her hands back in her hoodie pockets, and puffed out her cheeks like a sulking pufferfish.

No one spoke as the elevator went up.

Sun Miaomiao's gaze fell on the numbers flashing above the elevator doors, occasionally glancing at Jiang Yi's profile before quickly looking away.

She was furious, but the boss had already spoken, and she couldn't disobey. But she couldn't just let it go.

She pulled a lollipop from her pocket, tore open the wrapper, and popped it into her mouth, crunching it loudly as if she were chewing on Jiang Yi's head.

Jiang Yi stood in the other corner of the elevator, head down, staring at the tips of his shoes, his gaze unfocused.

His mind was still replaying Sun Miaomiao's words—"You've been dating her for three years, and you don't even know what kind of person she is." Those words were harsh, hitting him squarely where he felt most insecure.

He really didn't know.

He had known Xia Anmian for three years, had eaten hundreds of meals with her, watched dozens of movies with her, and talked until dawn on countless nights.

But only now does he know what her family does, why she has a private car to pick her up at the airport in Shanghai, and why she can summon the head of the Public Security Bureau so easily.

She hid from him for three years, keeping it a complete secret.

Is it possible that she is hiding something in a deeper, more unseen place that he has never known?

The elevator dinged and stopped on the eighth floor, the doors sliding open to both sides.

The corridor was covered with a dark gray carpet, which was softer than the light gray floor tiles downstairs, and made almost no sound when you stepped on it.

There were several closed white wooden doors on both sides of the corridor, with numbers marked on the doorplates. The door at the very end had the words "Xia Anmian" engraved on it. The font was small but very clear.

Sun Miaomiao stood in the elevator and did not follow them out.

She chewed on the lollipop and mumbled, "Go downstairs yourself." Then she reached out and pressed the door open button.

As Jiang Yi stepped out of the elevator, before the doors closed behind him, Sun Miaomiao's voice squeezed out from the crack in the door, tinged with hesitation:

"Speak properly. My eldest daughter... is pregnant, you'd better not upset her."

(Please give me a good review, thank you godfathers, QWQ)