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

After the four of them finished their meal "harmoniously," they went to the living room.

Su Xiaoyue sat on the sofa with her legs together and her hands on her knees, her posture as obedient as a primary school student.

She would occasionally steal a glance at Jiang Miaomiao across from her, a smile playing on her lips and her eyes shining.

Jiang Miaomiao sat opposite her, her body tense like a fully drawn bow, her hands on her knees, her fingertips unconsciously fidgeting with the seams of her trousers. Her gaze darted back and forth between Su Xiaoyue and Jiang Yi, like a bird trapped in a cage, unable to find its way out.

Jiang Yi sat on the single sofa between the two of them, with Su Xiaoyue on his left and Jiang Miaomiao on his right. This seating arrangement was specially chosen by Su Xiaoyue. She said, "Honey, you sit in the middle so I can see you when I talk to your sister."

Jiang Yi felt that this arrangement was simply a test of his mental endurance.

"Little sister, have some water." Su Xiaoyue picked up the glass that had been prepared on the coffee table and handed it to Jiang Miaomiao with both hands, her movements as solemn as if she were offering a toast.

"I didn't know what you liked to drink, so I had the butler prepare lemonade, orange juice, and this—"

She pointed to several other cups on the table, "Rose tea, my mom says it's good for girls to drink this."

Jiang Miaomiao took the cup, and when her fingertips touched Su Xiaoyue's fingers, she felt as if she had been electrocuted, and almost dropped the cup.

"Thank you." Her voice was dry, as if there was a wad of cotton stuffed in her throat.

Su Xiaoyue tilted her head to look at her, her eyes filled with genuine and undisguised curiosity: "Little sister, you and your brother look so alike, especially your eyes, they're both like that—"

She gestured for a moment, unable to find a suitable adjective, and finally smiled and said, "It's the kind that looks really good."

Jiang Miaomiao held the cup, took a sip of lemon water, and frowned slightly because it was so sour, but she didn't dare to say anything.

Jiang Yi sat beside her, watching his sister's restless expression, and a secret sense of pleasure welled up inside him.

Serves you right for lying, for spending money on Three Kingdoms Kill, for tricking me.

Now you know you're feeling guilty?

"How old are you, little sister?" Su Xiaoyue asked again.

"Twenty-one." Jiang Miaomiao put down her cup, twisting her fingers on her knee. "And you?"

"I'm twenty, a year younger than you." Su Xiaoyue's tone suddenly became a little embarrassed. "Actually, I'm younger than you, but I just called you 'little sister' out of the blue. You don't mind, do you?"

"I don't mind, I don't mind." Jiang Miaomiao quickly waved her hand, thinking to herself that she could call her whatever she wanted, just not "little sister-in-law".

"Are you in school or working?" Su Xiaoyue asked again.

"go to school."

Which school?

Jiang Miaomiao's fingers tightened even more: "It's just... an ordinary school in Kyoto, you wouldn't even know it if I told you."

Su Xiaoyue said "Oh" and didn't ask any further questions.

Her focus was clearly not on Jiang Miaomiao's school.

She glanced at Jiang Yi, the corners of her mouth curving up slightly, then turned back to look at Jiang Miaomiao, her tone tentative and cautious: "Little sister, is your brother... usually this quiet at home?"

Jiang Miaomiao was stunned for a moment, and subconsciously looked at Jiang Yi.

Jiang Yi looked at her expressionlessly, his expression conveying the message: You decide what to say, or I'll deal with you when we get back.

"He... he's alright." Jiang Miaomiao carefully chose her words. "He's quite talkative at home, but maybe... he's a little nervous since it's our first meeting."

"Nervous?" Su Xiaoyue's eyes lit up. She turned to look at Jiang Yi, her voice filled with barely concealed joy. "Honey, are you nervous?"

Jiang Yi picked up his water glass, took a sip, and did not answer the question.

Su Xiaoyue smiled, a smile that wasn't one of smugness, but rather a small, private joy that felt like, "So you're just like me."

She didn't press further, but turned back to Jiang Miaomiao. Just as she was about to say something, Jiang Miaomiao suddenly spoke up.

"You just said you're going to study at Tsinghua or Peking University next semester?"

Su Xiaoyue nodded: "Yes, the international department has already made arrangements."

Jiang Miaomiao's eyes flickered slightly. She glanced at Jiang Yi, then at Su Xiaoyue, her lips moving as if hesitating whether to speak. Finally, she spoke, her voice soft, but each word seemed to be squeezed out from between her teeth:

"Um... my brother..."

"Hmm?" Su Xiaoyue tilted her head to look at her.

Jiang Yi's heart leaped into his throat. He stared at Jiang Miaomiao, his eyes screaming, "What the hell are you going to say?"

Jiang Miaomiao took a deep breath, as if to bolster her courage, and then said in one breath: "My brother is also at Tsinghua or Peking University, in the School of Computer Science."

The living room fell silent for a moment.

Su Xiaoyue opened her eyes wide, turned her head to look at Jiang Yi, her mouth slightly open, her expression changing from doubt to shock, and then from shock to an almost ecstatic, disbelieving joy.

"Honey, are you also at Tsinghua or Peking University?"

Jiang Yi tightened his grip on the water glass.

He didn't look at Su Xiaoyue, but at Jiang Miaomiao.

The meaning in that look was clear: Jiang Miaomiao, are you out of your mind?

Jiang Miaomiao lowered her head, not daring to look at him, but the corners of her mouth twitched slightly.

"Really?" Su Xiaoyue's voice rose a octave. She bounced up slightly from the sofa, knees together, hands on either side of her body, leaning forward toward Jiang Yi, her eyes shining.

"Honey, why didn't you tell me? Didn't you say you graduated from Kyoto Institute of Technology?"

Jiang Yi opened his mouth, his mind racing.

Kyoto Institute of Technology—that's a school Jiang Miaomiao made up, not his school.

Now that Jiang Miaomiao has revealed his real school in front of Su Xiaoyue, how can he cover up this lie?

"I was speaking before—" He had barely started to speak when Jiang Miaomiao interrupted him.

"That's because my brother is an exchange student between the two schools." Jiang Miaomiao's voice was fast and urgent, as if she was in a hurry.

"And the job he told you about before was actually his internship. He's quite outstanding and has been working with a project team, so he's been living off-campus, right, bro?"

She looked at Jiang Yi with a pleading look in her eyes, as if begging him to cooperate.

Jiang Yi looked at his sister's eyes, which were about to burst into tears, closed his eyes briefly, and then slowly nodded: "Yes, it was changed later."

"So that's how it is." Su Xiaoyue had no suspicions at all, or rather, she didn't want to have any suspicions at all.

Her attention was not on "changing the school" at all, but on something else.

"Then we'll be alumni from now on!" Her voice was filled with an undisguised, almost joyful excitement. "I can come to your college to find you, and you can come to find me after class. We can eat together, go to the library together, and—"

She counted on her fingers, then suddenly stopped halfway through. A faint blush slowly rose to her cheeks, and her voice lowered, as if she were talking to herself:

"Going home from school together, going to class together..."

Jiang Yi looked at Su Xiaoyue, who was immersed in her beautiful dreams, and felt as if something was stuck in his throat.

Walk home from school together?

Taking classes together?

He rides a shared bicycle to school every morning; it takes him fifteen minutes to ride from his dormitory to the teaching building.

The housekeeper drives Su Xiaoyue from this villa to school; it takes about twenty minutes if there's no traffic. How will they achieve their "togetherness"?

Thinking about this, he suddenly felt ridiculous.

What time is it? Why are you still thinking about these technical issues?

The problem isn't how they "walked home from school together," the problem is that he shouldn't have had any possibility of being "together" with Su Xiaoyue in the first place.

He is Xia Anmian's boyfriend.

He was lying to her.

"Honey?" Su Xiaoyue noticed he was lost in thought and waved her hand in front of him. "What are you thinking about?"

"It's nothing." Jiang Yi pulled himself out of his thoughts and forced a smile. "I just think... it's quite a coincidence."

"It's not a coincidence." Su Xiaoyue looked at him seriously, her tone as certain as if stating a proven theorem, "It's fate."