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

Su Xiaoyue stood still, her phone pressed against her ear, motionless.

The crystal chandelier in the living room cast a warm yellow light onto her off-white nightgown, enveloping her in a gentle halo.

But at that moment her face turned even whiter than her nightgown, almost transparent.

"What did you say?" Her voice was very soft, so soft that it seemed like a breath could dissipate it.

He has a girlfriend.

The father repeated it, this time pronouncing each word clearly, as if he were delivering a verdict word by word.

"They've been together for over two years. Yueyue, you've been deceived by him."

Su Xiaoyue's fingers were trembling as she held her phone.

The vibration spread from my fingertips to my wrists, from my wrists to my arms, from my arms to my chest, and finally my whole body was trembling slightly and uncontrollably.

"Impossible," she said.

"Yueyue——"

"impossible!"

Her voice suddenly rose, and tears welled up in her eyes, but she didn't let them fall.

"You're lying to me! You don't want me to be with him, so you made up these stories to deceive me! You're just like Mom, you both think I'm still young, that I don't understand anything—"

"Yueyue, Dad has evidence."

"I don't believe it!" Su Xiaoyue almost shouted. "I don't believe any evidence! You don't understand him at all. You don't know what kind of person he is. You don't know how good he is to me—"

She couldn't continue.

Tears finally slid down her cheeks and silently streamed down her face.

She raised the back of her hand to wipe her tears, but more tears welled up and she couldn't wipe them away no matter how hard she tried.

"Yueyue." Her father's voice came through the receiver, carrying a softness she had never heard before, almost pleading.

"Dad begs you, please listen to me just this once. This boy doesn't deserve this, he doesn't deserve it."

Su Xiaoyue bit her lip hard until it turned white, and tasted a metallic sweetness on the tip of her tongue.

She took a deep breath, using all her strength to suppress the surging emotions that threatened to engulf her, and then said, word by word, "Dad, I don't want to talk to you anymore."

"Yueyue——"

She hung up the phone.

The moment the words "Call Ended" appeared in red, the living room became as quiet as if the world had suddenly been muted.

Su Xiaoyue stood there, barefoot on the cold marble floor, her phone still lit up, the screen showing her chat with "Baby".

The last message was one she sent, but hadn't been sent yet—"I'll rent a place off-campus, you move out and we'll live together, and then..."

She stared at the words for a few seconds, then slowly sat down on the sofa.

She placed her phone on her lap, her hands folded over it, her head bowed, and tears dripped onto the screen, spreading into small patches of water on the glass.

She doesn't believe it.

She didn't believe a single word her father said.

He has evidence, and she has evidence.

She has nearly a year's worth of chat history, hundreds of days and nights of companionship, voice messages he sent late at night, hundreds of messages he sent when she was in surgery, the tone of his voice when he called her "baby," "wife," and "darling," and the look in his eyes when he looked at her during video calls.

Those things couldn't possibly be fake.

Those things, no one can fake.

Su Xiaoyue raised her head, wiped away her tears with the back of her hand, took a deep breath, picked up her phone, and opened the chat window with "Baby".

She stared at the pure black profile picture for a few seconds, then started typing.

"Honey, I just got a call from my dad."

He said some things, I don't want to say what they were, but they were things that opposed us being together.

"I don't believe a word he said."

"Honey, tell me you won't lie to me, right?"

After sending out the four messages, she stared at the screen for a long time.

No reply.

Su Xiaoyue held her phone in her hand, leaned back on the sofa, and stared at the ceiling.

The light from the crystal chandelier swayed overhead, making her eyes sting.

She waited a little longer.

The phone remained silent.

She bit her lip, just about to send another message to urge him, when her phone suddenly vibrated.

It wasn't a message, it was a phone call. The caller ID wasn't "Baby," but a number she didn't recognize—a local Kyoto landline number that started with "110."

Su Xiaoyue paused for a moment before answering the phone.

"Hello, are you Ms. Su Xiaoyue?"

A young woman's voice came from the other end of the phone, polite but formal, with a businesslike, emotionless calmness.

"Yes, that's me. Who are you?"

"Hello Ms. Su, this is the Chaoyang Branch of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau. We need your cooperation in an investigation regarding a case involving you. Are you available recently?"

Su Xiaoyue's brain short-circuited for a moment.

Police station? Case? Her?

"What...what case?"

She heard her own voice coming back from a great distance, dry, hoarse, and unlike her own.

"You are a victim in a fraud case. The perpetrator was simultaneously involved in online romances with multiple people and has already obtained millions of yuan in illicit funds."

Su Xiaoyue held her phone, as if she were nailed to the sofa.

"Dad didn't lie to me..."

However, Su Xiaoyue immediately dismissed the thought as soon as it crossed her mind.

"I don't believe it! I don't believe it!"

"How is this possible? How is this possible!"

"I don't believe it!"

"Guards! Guards! Take me to the police station!"