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

At seven o'clock in the morning, the room in the budget hotel was still shrouded in dim light. The ray of light that shone through the gap in the curtains looked like a slender knife, stretching from the floor all the way to the foot of the bed.

Jiang Yi had already woken up.

I wasn't woken up by the alarm clock; I hadn't slept much at all.

I spent an hour tossing and turning last night, but I think I did pretty well, and Xia Anmian slept very comfortably.

He quietly got out of bed. Xia Anmian was sleeping soundly, the blanket only covering her chest, revealing a section of her fair shoulder and a strand of long hair scattered on the pillow.

He sat by the bed for a while, looking at her peaceful sleeping face, a complex emotion welling up inside him.

He did remember what happened last night; he remembered every single detail clearly.

Her warmth, her breath, the suppressed gasps in his ear, and the tone in which she buried her face in his chest and mumbled, "Jiang Yi, you bastard," after it was over.

He really is a bastard.

It wasn't because he slept with her, but because he harbored a huge secret in his heart, yet he still couldn't control himself.

Jiang Yi shook his head to suppress these thoughts, quietly put on his clothes, took his room key, and went downstairs to buy breakfast.

There's a breakfast stall downstairs from the hotel, selling fried dough sticks, soy milk, tofu pudding, and tea eggs. A few early-rising elderly people and commuters are queuing in front of the steaming stall.

Jiang Yi queued for five minutes and bought soy milk, fried dough sticks, and tea eggs. After thinking for a moment, he bought an extra cup of hot soy milk and a serving of steamed buns.

When I returned to my room, Xia Anmian was already awake.

She leaned against the headboard, the blanket pulled up to her chin, revealing only her face. Her hair was messy, her eyes weren't fully open, and she looked like a cat that had just woken up, languid yet wary.

"What time is it?" Her voice was hoarse from just waking up.

"7:20." Jiang Yi placed the breakfast on the bedside table and sat down next to her. "I bought breakfast, eat it while it's hot. Your flight is at 8:30, so we can take a taxi to the airport after we finish eating. The timing will be perfect."

Xia Anmian hummed in agreement, but did not move. She remained wrapped in the blanket, leaning against the headboard, her eyes fixed on him.

Jiang Yi felt a little uneasy under her gaze: "What's wrong?"

"Didn't you sleep well last night?" She reached out and touched the area under his eyes with her fingertips. "Your dark circles are even worse than yesterday."

"Really?" Jiang Yi subconsciously touched his face. "I'm alright, I slept for a while."

"How long is 'a while'?"

"...two or three hours."

Xia Anmian paused for a moment, then lifted a corner of the blanket and patted the bed: "Come here, lie down for a while longer."

"Didn't you say you needed to catch a flight—"

"There's still time." Xia Anmian's tone left no room for negotiation. "I've changed my flight to 10:30. No rush."

Jiang Yi was taken aback: "When was it changed?"

"When you went downstairs to buy breakfast," Xia Anmian yawned, "I glanced at the flights. The 8:30 flight was too rushed, so I changed it to 10:30. What, you have a problem with that?"

Jiang Yi looked at her matter-of-fact expression and suddenly laughed.

He took off his coat and lay back on the bed. Xia Anmian immediately leaned in, buried her face in his shoulder, draped one leg over his, and wrapped herself around him like an octopus.

"Jiang Yi."

"Um."

"Was what you said last night true?"

Jiang Yi was taken aback: "What did you say?"

"You said we'd do 'that' after we got married," Xia Anmian's muffled voice came from under his shoulder, "but you didn't wait until we got married. Did you go back on your word?"

Jiang Yi opened his mouth, but was choked and unable to speak.

If we're going to trace who made the first move last night, it was indeed Xia Anmian who kissed him first. But what happened afterward, he didn't refuse, nor could he refuse.

"Well... how about we get our marriage certificate now?" he tentatively suggested.

Xia Anmian lifted her head from his shoulder and glanced at him expressionlessly.

"Jiang Yi, do you think I'm particularly easy to fool?"

No, no.

"You proposed without even a ring? How can you be so shameless?"

"Then I'll be better prepared next time before asking."

"Who asked you to beg!" Xia Anmian buried her face in his shoulder again, her ears turning red for a moment. "Shut up, don't talk, let me sleep a little longer."

Jiang Yi obediently shut up, put his arm around her shoulder, and closed his eyes.

The room quieted down, with only the hum of the air conditioner and the occasional sound of traffic outside the window.

His phone was in his pocket, his pants draped over the back of the chair, about two meters away. Su Xiaoyue's personal phone was also in her pocket, about two meters away.

Two worlds, separated by a distance of two meters.

In this room, on this bed, he is Xia Anmian's boyfriend.

That account that posts emoticons every day and calls others "husband" has nothing to do with him.

He closed his eyes, carefully hiding this brief moment of peace in his heart as if it were something stolen.

Twenty minutes later, the two got up and washed up.

While Xia Anmian was brushing her teeth, Jiang Yi stood behind her and tied her hair up.

He wasn't very good at tying hair, and he tried twice but both times he tied it crooked. In the end, Xia Anmian did it herself and quickly tied a neat ponytail.

"You can't even do your own hair, how are you going to do your daughter's hair in the future?" Xia Anmian looked at him in the mirror.

"Just tie it yourself, I'll hand you the rubber band."

"Jiang Yi, you are so virtuous."

"Thank you for the compliment."

I wasn't praising you.

"Then there's even less reason to worry about it."

Xia Anmian laughed at his words, almost spraying toothpaste foam onto the mirror.

After washing up, Jiang Yi opened the breakfast menu. The soy milk was still hot, but the fried dough sticks had become a little soggy.

Xia Anmian sat on the edge of the bed eating xiaolongbao (soup dumplings), while Jiang Yi stood beside her drinking soy milk. The two chatted casually.

"Message me when you arrive in Shanghai."

"Um."

Jiang Yi straightened her collar, and when his fingers touched the back of her neck, Xia Anmian shrank her neck slightly: "Your hands are so cold."

"Let me warm you up." He placed his hand on the back of her neck, which was so cold that Xia Anmian flinched away.

"Jiang Yi, are you out of your mind?!"

"It's possible I caught it from you last night."

"You—!" Xia Anmian's face flushed red, and she grabbed a pillow and threw it at him.

The two argued for a few minutes before Xia Anmian finally stopped, glanced at her phone, and shouted, "Quick, quick, there's no time! Let's go!"

Jiang Yi helped her carry her bag, and the two went downstairs to check out and hailed a taxi at the hotel entrance.

As the car drove out of the hotel, Jiang Yi suddenly remembered that his phone was still in his pocket.

He took it out and glanced at it.

Su Xiaoyue's messages started at 11 p.m. last night and continued intermittently until after 1 a.m., with the last few being sent at 1:23 a.m.

Little Moon: Honey, I'm going to sleep now. You should go to sleep early too.

Little Moon: Good night, mua(づ￣ 3￣)づ

Then there is nothing.

Jiang Yi breathed a sigh of relief and put his phone back in his pocket.

As the car drove onto the airport expressway, the poplar trees on both sides of the road had just sprouted new buds, a tender green expanse.

Xia Anmian leaned on his shoulder, watching the scenery rushing past the car window, and suddenly spoke: "Jiang Yi."

"Um?"

"Let's have a good talk when I get back from this business trip."

Jiang Yi's heart skipped a beat: "What are you talking about?"

Xia Anmian was silent for a few seconds, then rubbed her face against his shoulder, her voice muffled: "It's nothing, I just wanted to tell you about my family."

Jiang Yi's fingers tightened slightly.

Her family affairs.

Xia Anmian rarely talks about her family.

All he knew was that her family lived in a small city in the south, and that her parents were ordinary wage earners with average family conditions.

But he never asked what exactly constituted "ordinary," and Xia Anmian never mentioned it herself.

"Okay," he replied without asking any further questions.

The taxi stopped at the entrance of the terminal building.

Jiang Yi paid the fare and got out of the car with his bag.

The flight is at 10:30, and it's just past 9:00 now, so there's plenty of time.

Xia Anmian was much more relaxed than usual today. Perhaps last night's events had broken some kind of boundary she had always maintained. The way she looked at him was different.

It's not the restraint of "I care about you but I need to stay calm" from before, but a more direct and undisguised tenderness.

Jiang Yi knew in his heart that this was her way of showing more trust in him.

But it was precisely because of this clarity that the ever-present sense of guilt deepened.

As the two entered the waiting hall, just as Xia Anmian went to check in her luggage, Jiang Yi felt a vibration in his pants.

He took it out and glanced at it—it was a message from Su Xiaoyue, a message from not long ago.

Little Moon: Good morning, honey~ Today is another day I've been thinking of you (✪ω✪)

He glanced at it quickly, confirmed that Xia Anmian was still operating the self-service machine, and quickly stuffed his phone back into his pocket without replying.

"Alright." Xia Anmian walked back with her boarding pass, glanced at the time, and said, "It's 9:10. There's still a little over an hour."

"Shall we find a place to sit for a while?"

"it is good."

The two found a row of empty chairs in the departure hall and sat down.

Xia Anmian put her bag on her lap, leaned on Jiang Yi's shoulder, and started scrolling through her phone.

Jiang Yi also took out his phone, pretending to look at his WeChat Moments, but his mind was actually full of Su Xiaoyue's messages.

He didn't reply to that "Good morning" message. She'll definitely ask again later, "Honey, why aren't you replying to me?"

He was thinking of an excuse to leave and reply to the message when a voice came from the side.

"Miss Xia?"

Jiang Yi looked up and saw a young man in a dark gray overcoat standing a few steps away, dragging a silver carry-on suitcase. He was dressed in a suit and leather shoes, looking like he had just stepped out of a magazine.

It was Liu Ming.

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