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

"Are you going to see Su Xiaoyue?"

Jiang Miaomiao's eyes widened, and the chopsticks slipped from her hand, falling onto the table with a crisp sound.

"Brother, are you serious?"

Jiang Yi didn't answer. Instead, he picked up the plum juice on the table and drank it all in one gulp. The icy liquid slid down his throat, but it couldn't extinguish the burning fire in his chest.

Tell me everything that happened between you and Su Xiaoyue, from beginning to end, without missing a single word.

His voice was calm, so calm that it didn't sound like he was angry, which made Jiang Miaomiao even more uneasy.

"Tell her her name, age, where she lives, what her family does, who you've told her, where you work, where you live, where you're from, what your parents do, where you went to university, what you like to eat, drink, and do—everything, all of it, tell her now."

Jiang Miaomiao was startled by his tone, shrank back, and muttered softly, "Brother, you're so scary..."

"Jiang Miaomiao".

Jiang Yi looked up into her eyes, and those usually gentle eyes now held a coldness she had never seen before.

"1.3 million? You lied. Your brother is cleaning up your mess right now. If you won't even tell the truth, I'm leaving now. Go explain to Su Xiaoyue yourself."

Jiang Miaomiao's eyes immediately reddened, and tears welled up in them, but this time she didn't cry.

She took a deep breath, as if making a major decision, then put down her chopsticks and sat up straight.

"Okay, I'll tell you. I'll tell you whatever you want to know."

"Start from the beginning."

"From the beginning... it was more than a year ago that I met her online."

Jiang Miaomiao spoke very softly, as if she were recalling something from a very distant past.

"Back then, I had just started using a social networking app, the kind where you can match and chat with strangers. I didn't intend to lie at first; I was just bored and browsing around."

"Then I came across Su Xiaoyue. Her profile didn't have much content, just a photo of her back, and her bio said, 'I have a birthmark on my face, don't bother me if you don't like it.'"

Jiang Miaomiao paused here, her fingers unconsciously twisting the tissues on the table.

"I thought this person was quite interesting, so I swiped her to like her, and I didn't expect her to swipe me back. Then we started chatting."

"At first, we just had a normal chat, talking about the weather, movies, and games. She didn't talk much; it was mostly me asking questions and her answering."

Later, as we got to know each other better, she told me about the birthmark on her face, saying that she had been teased about it since she was little and didn't have many friends.

Jiang Miaomiao's voice grew softer and softer, as if she were talking about something she found difficult to say.

She said her parents were very busy and she could only see them a few times a year.

The housekeeper accompanied her during her surgery, and even the nanny signed the consent forms on her behalf.

She spoke these words with remarkable calmness, as if she were talking about someone else's affairs.

"But I felt really sad listening to her, so... I chatted with her a little longer. Then she was very touched and said that no one had ever been so kind to her before."

Jiang Miaomiao looked up at Jiang Yi, her eyes red-rimmed: "Brother, I really didn't mean to lie to her. In the beginning, I just... just felt sorry for her and wanted to keep her company."

"And then?" Jiang Yi's voice was flat.

"Then... she asked me what I looked like, so I sent her your picture."

Jiang Miaomiao's voice was barely audible, "I originally wanted to post pictures from the internet, but I felt they weren't authentic and would be easily exposed. Your photos are of a real person anyway, what if... what if..."

"What about later?"

"If we ever really need to meet in the future, you can go in my place." After saying this, Jiang Miaomiao shrank back in her chair, as if afraid that Jiang Yi would hit her.

Jiang Yi took a deep breath and forcefully suppressed the anger that was rising in his head.

"continue."

"Later, she started transferring money to me. The first time was on her birthday. I said 'Happy Birthday,' and she was very happy, saying that this was the first time she had received birthday wishes from anyone other than her parents. Then she transferred two thousand yuan to me, saying it was to thank me for spending time with her."

"I didn't want it, really." Jiang Miaomiao's voice trembled with tears. "I told her I didn't need it, but she insisted, saying that refusing it would be disrespectful to her. I... so I accepted it."

"Once she did it, she did it again. She seemed to think that spending money on me was a particularly happy thing. Every time I chatted with her for a little longer, she would transfer money to me. Later, I... I started to deliberately make excuses, like my phone was broken, I wanted to buy a game, I was having a bad day at work and wanted to buy something to cheer myself up..."

"She gives it to you every single time?"

"She gave it to me every single time." Jiang Miaomiao's voice carried a sense of absurdity that even she found unbelievable. "And the amount she gave kept increasing, from a few thousand to tens of thousands, and later it was hundreds of thousands at a time."

Jiang Yi closed his eyes, feeling a throbbing sensation in his temples.

"One million three hundred thousand, that's how it came about?"

"Um."

"Full-charge Three Kingdoms Kill?"

"……Um."

Jiang Yi opened his eyes and looked at his younger sister, whom he had grown up with since childhood, and suddenly felt that she was terribly unfamiliar.

A girl who was willing to lay her heart bare and give away a million dollars truly regarded "him" as the only light in her life.

Jiang Miaomiao used all the money she got from that beam of light to buy the card game "Three Kingdoms Kill".

"What did you say to her about me? Specifically?" Jiang Yi forced himself to calm down and started asking the key questions.

Jiang Miaomiao wiped away her tears and began to recount everything in detail.

"I told you your name is Jiang Yi, you are 24 years old, and you work as a programmer at an internet company called 'Starry Sky Technology' in Kyoto, with an annual salary of over 400,000 yuan."

"Twenty-four years old? A programmer? Earning over four hundred thousand a year?" Jiang Yi's lips twitched. "Which of those four words do you think I fit?"

"I just made it sound more believable..." Jiang Miaomiao explained softly, "She wouldn't believe it if it were too fake."

"continue."

"Regarding your residence, I mentioned that you rented a one-bedroom apartment in Chaoyang District, near your company, for 8,000 yuan a month."

"Eight thousand a month?" Jiang Yi sneered. "I don't even have enough money to pay a month's rent."

"I never said I'd actually let you stay there..."

"Then where will I stay? Where will I go to see her when she arrives? Take her to my dorm?"

Jiang Miaomiao was speechless at his question, but she quickly spoke up again: "I'll figure out where to stay. I have a friend's house that's currently empty. I can borrow it for a few days."

"A friend's house? What friend?"

"Well... I met a friend in the game who's also in Kyoto, but she's been abroad lately and her house is empty. I'll just tell her, it should be fine."

Jiang Yi stared at her for a few seconds, but ultimately didn't ask any further questions.

"Anything else? Hometown, parents, university, hobbies, tell me everything."

"I told you your hometown is Suzhou, your parents run a small business, and you come from an ordinary working-class family. I told you you studied at Kyoto Institute of Technology, majoring in computer science. As for your hobbies..." Jiang Miaomiao thought for a moment, "I told you you like playing basketball, listening to folk music, and occasionally playing mobile games."

"Mobile game? What mobile game?"

"It was just... King of Glory or something, I was just saying it offhand."

Jiang Yi went through all this information in his mind, making sure he remembered it all, before continuing to ask, "What about her? What's her situation?"

Seeing that he was asking detailed questions, Jiang Miaomiao felt a little more at ease and began to recount all the information she knew about Su Xiaoyue.

"Su Xiaoyue, 22 years old, from Shanghai. Her parents are in the international trade business, and their company is very large. I don't know the exact size, but she mentioned once before that their revenue exceeded 100 billion last year."

Hundreds of billions.

When Jiang Yi heard this number for the second time, it still felt like a dream.

"She's had that birthmark on her face since she was little. She's had many surgeries, and this one was the last one. She's almost fully recovered. As for her personality..." Jiang Miaomiao paused, as if choosing her words carefully, "Well, she's actually a very good person, but she's just too starved for love."

"Did you tell her you like her?" Jiang Yi suddenly asked.

Jiang Miaomiao paused for a moment, then lowered her head, her voice almost squeezed out from her throat: "I told you."

"When did it start?"

"After we'd been chatting for about two months... she was the one who spoke to me first. She said she liked me and asked if I would be her boyfriend. I... I said yes."

"And then she started calling you 'husband'?"

"……Um."

Jiang Yi took a deep breath and felt his blood pressure spike again.

"Anything else? Is there anything else I need to know?"

Jiang Miaomiao thought for a moment, then suddenly seemed to remember something, and her expression changed.

"Oh, right, she mentioned something."

"What is it?"

"She said she has a best friend named Gu Qinghan, who is very capable. From childhood to adulthood, whenever anyone bullies her, Gu Qinghan will fight back for her. The two of them have a very good relationship, and Su Xiaoyue tells her everything."

Jiang Yi frowned: "Gu Qinghan? Which Gu Qinghan?"

"I don't know. She just said it was her best friend, whose family is in business and very wealthy. Su Xiaoyue said that Gu Qinghan might come to Kyoto with her this time."

"Coming together?" Jiang Yi's voice rose. "Two people?"

"I just wanted to let you know so you could be mentally prepared..." Jiang Miaomiao shrank her neck.

Jiang Yi rubbed his temples, feeling that things were getting increasingly complicated.

Su Xiaoyue was already enough of a headache for him, and now there's Gu Qinghan too. How can a poor student like him cope with two rich young ladies?

"Is there anything else?"

"That should...that should be all." Jiang Miaomiao looked at him cautiously. "Brother, are you really going to see her?"

Jiang Yi didn't answer the question. Instead, he picked up the glass of plum juice that had gone cold and took another sip. Then he stood up and picked up his coat.

"Let's go."

"Where to?"

"Didn't you say your friend's house was empty? Take me to see it."

Jiang Miaomiao was stunned for a moment, then quickly stood up, took out her phone and started sending messages.

"I'll contact her right away, wait for me."

She quickly typed a message and sent it, then looked up at Jiang Yi, a smile finally appearing on her face: "She said it's okay, the key is with her assistant, we'll go get it now."

Jiang Yi glanced at her, said nothing, and turned to walk out.

Jiang Miaomiao quickly followed, but after taking a few steps, she turned back, packed up the unfinished dishes on the table, and then jogged after them.

"Brother, wait for me!"