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

On the third floor, Gu Qinghan also has a room.

She leaned her suitcase against the corner of the wall, then flopped onto the bed. The mattress bounced twice, making a comfortable thud.

She lay there with her eyes closed for a few seconds, then turned over and took her phone out of her pocket.

There were several messages on the screen, from her sister Gu Qingying.

Xiaoying: Sister, have you arrived in Kyoto yet?

Xiaoying: Sis, why didn't that tutor come today?

Xiaoying: Sister, can you help me take a look at this person? Does he look familiar?

Gu Qinghan replied casually with a cold expression.

"He's going to take his girlfriend to Beijing this morning. By the way, his girlfriend is Xia Anmian."

The news came from the other side instantly.

Xiaoying: What? That bookworm has a girlfriend? And it's Sister Xia?

Gu Qinghan replied.

"right."

Then he ignored her and took out his phone to open the photo of Jiang Yi and Su Xiaoyue that he had secretly taken.

The moment captured in the photo is precisely when Su Xiaoyue rushes towards Jiang Yi and hugs him.

It was supposed to be a very heartwarming scene, but the more Gu Qinghan looked at it, the more uneasy she felt.

The more I look at Jiang Yi's background, the more familiar it seems.

Suddenly, Gu Qinghan seemed to realize something, hurriedly retreated to the background, opened WeChat, and then clicked on the first chat pinned to the top of WeChat.

That was none other than the photo sent to her by her online boyfriend.

As Gu Qinghan stared at the two figures in the photos, the more they seemed alike.

"Impossible, impossible!"

Gu Qinghan shook his head fiercely.

She sent a message tentatively.

"Baby, what are you doing?"

Soon, news came from the other side.

"I'm in the car now, going out to eat! I'm so tired qwq!"

It also included a photo.

It was clearly a photo of a bus, and the bus even had the time printed on it—it was exactly 1:30 PM.

Upon seeing this photo, Gu Qinghan let out a long sigh of relief.

"Thank goodness it wasn't!"

She thought to herself, but her doubts remained.

Because the people in these two photos look so alike.

"How about we ask someone else to take a look?"

She immediately thought of Su Xiaoyue, but then she thought about how much trouble it would cause if Su Xiaoyue really figured it out.

So she opened Xia Anmian's chat window anyway.

"Mianmian, can you help me check if these two photos show the same person?"

Two photos followed.

However, there was no reply for a long time, and Gu Qinghan realized that Xia Anmian should still be on the plane and had not yet landed in Chengdu.

Just then, there was a knock on the door.

"Miss Gu, my young lady is calling you for dinner..."

……

When Gu Qinghan pushed open the door, she met Jiang Yi's gaze as he walked out of the opposite room.

The corridor was narrow, with less than three meters between the two people. The crystal chandelier overhead cast a warm yellow light, falling on them and casting long shadows.

Jiang Yi's first reaction was to look away.

It's not that he feels guilty; it's that he now feels like everyone he meets is seeing right through him.

Gu Qinghan's eyes were so sharp, so sharp that it seemed they could see through his skin to the riddled lies within.

Gu Qinghan's first reaction was to look away.

But she moved away and then quickly turned back.

She remembered the two photos on her phone, and the chilling guess she had just made.

Her gaze lingered on Jiang Yi's face for about two seconds, sweeping from his eyebrows and eyes to his jawline, and then back again. It was like an appraiser examining an antique of uncertain authenticity.

Those two seconds of eye contact made the air in the corridor suddenly become very quiet.

It was so quiet that you could hear the sound of spatulas hitting iron pots in the kitchen downstairs, and so quiet that you could hear the housekeeper quietly instructing the nanny to set the dishes.

"Miss Gu," Jiang Yi spoke first, his voice soft, his tone polite but distant, "Would you like to go down for dinner?"

Gu Qinghan's lips curved slightly, a smile that was hard to define, or perhaps something else entirely: "Yes, together?"

……

The dining table was very long; it was the kind of long table specially designed for entertaining guests, seating twelve people, with fresh flowers and candlesticks placed in the middle.

Jiang Yi was seated to Su Xiaoyue's right, while Gu Qinghan sat to Su Xiaoyue's left.

The three people formed a small triangle at one end of the long table, while the remaining ten chairs were arranged haphazardly.

The dishes were served and filled the table almost simultaneously.

Jiang Yi roughly counted at least a dozen dishes, each served in white porcelain tableware with gold trim, and the plating was so exquisite that it resembled a work of art.

"Honey, try this." Su Xiaoyue used serving chopsticks to pick up a piece of unidentified cold dish and put it into Jiang Yi's bowl, her eyes crinkling with delight.

"This was specially prepared by the chef by the butler, using sea urchin from Hokkaido. You should like it."

Jiang Yi looked down at the crystal-clear slice in the bowl, the orange-yellow sea urchin on it glistening moistly under the light.

He picked up his chopsticks, grabbed something, and put it in his mouth.

The taste was amazing; the sweetness of the sea urchin melted on his tongue, with a subtle hint of wasabi, making it more delicate than anything he had ever eaten.

"Is it good?" Su Xiaoyue tilted her head to look at him, her eyes full of anticipation.

"It's delicious." Jiang Yi was telling the truth.

Su Xiaoyue smiled with satisfaction and put another piece of pork ribs on his plate: "Then eat more. You're too thin. When I saw your photo, I thought you were quite strong, but you're much thinner in person than in the photo."

Jiang Yi didn't know how to respond to that.

He is indeed thinner than he appears in the photos.

This period has been filled with nightmares, anxiety, and constant running around. Forget about maintaining my figure; I'm lucky if I can even eat on time.

Gu Qinghan sat opposite, quietly eating, occasionally glancing up at Su Xiaoyue, and occasionally at Jiang Yi. She ate very slowly, chewing each bite for a long time, as if savoring the food, or perhaps using the act of eating to conceal the fact that she was observing.

Her gaze lingered on Jiang Yi longer than it did on any of the dishes on the table.

A casual glance, a seemingly random yet sharp scrutiny.

She was comparing the photo on her phone with the person in front of her, comparing the profile in the photo with the face she had just made eye contact with in the hallway.

So alike. Absolutely so.

But it's not the same person.

Gu Qinghan mentally compared the details of the two photos repeatedly.

The photo her online boyfriend sent her had a Luckin Coffee background. The person in the photo was wearing a dark coat, with their face turned to the side. Their jawline was sharper than Jiang Yi's, and their brow bone shape was also different.

Moreover, the person in that photo had slightly longer hair than Jiang Yi, and their bangs were swept to the left, while Jiang Yi's bangs were swept to the right.

But these differences are all too subtle, so subtle that they could be a matter of angle, lighting, or even just time.

A person's appearance will naturally undergo subtle changes at different times.

She needs more conclusive evidence.

Gu Qinghan put down her chopsticks, picked up her phone from the table, and unlocked the screen.

She glanced at Jiang Yi, who was eating the ribs Su Xiaoyue had put on his plate, his head down, not looking at his phone.

She glanced at Su Xiaoyue again. Su Xiaoyue was resting her chin on her hand, watching Jiang Yi eat, a silly smile on her lips that seemed to say, "How can my boyfriend look so good even when he's eating?" She wasn't looking at her phone.

Gu Qinghan lowered her eyes and quickly typed a line on the screen: "Baby, what are you doing? I miss you~"

After sending the message, she turned off the screen, placed her phone face down on the table, picked up her chopsticks again, picked up a piece of green vegetable, put it in her mouth, and chewed slowly. Her gaze seemed to be on the food in front of her, but she was actually observing Jiang Yi across from her out of the corner of her eye.

One second. Two seconds. Three seconds. Five seconds. Ten seconds.

Jiang Yi didn't look at his phone.

He never even touched his phone.

From the moment he sat down to eat until now, his hands have been constantly using chopsticks, holding a cup, and grabbing tissues; he has never reached into his pocket or onto the table.

Gu Qinghan's eyelid twitched.

She glanced down at her phone, which was lying face down on the table; the screen was still dark.

No message came in. Wait, she already sent it; her online boyfriend should have received it by now. Could it be that he didn't check his phone?

She waited a few seconds, and just as she was about to send another message, her phone, which was face down on the table, vibrated.

Hey.

Gu Qinghan picked up her phone and unlocked the screen.

The message has been replied to.

Baby: We're eating! The food just came out, I'm starving! qwq

Baby: Honey, do you miss me? I miss you so much too! (づ￣ 3￣)づ

Attached is a photo. The photo shows a hand holding chopsticks, with a table full of dishes in the background. The dishes look like ordinary home-style dishes, including scrambled eggs with tomatoes, shredded pork with green peppers, and a bowl of soup.

The edges of the photo show half a bowl and a small piece of tablecloth; everything is ordinary and has nothing to do with the incredibly exquisite meal in front of you.

Gu Qinghan stared at the photo for two seconds, then looked up at Jiang Yi, who was gnawing on ribs across from her.

He is eating.

Both his hands were on the table, one holding chopsticks and the other resting on the rim of the bowl. There was no cell phone in front of him, and no sign of vibration or light in his pocket.

It wasn't him.