How come you're also my ex-girlfriend?

"Yes, I wouldn't exist without you, but I shouldn't have to bear all this. Don't you know why I transferred schools and why I moved back alone?"

"..."

"Stop talking, I'm not interested. If you can pass it, then pass it."

"..."

"So what attitude do you expect from someone who's still a student? Do you think I can solve something that two adults can't? Or are you acting this way because you have me as your daughter?!"

"Clap."

The girl, her face flushed and her eyes slightly red, hung up the phone with such force that it looked like she wanted to poke a hole in the screen.

Her breathing was a little rapid, and her chest heaved noticeably as she gripped her phone.

Suddenly, she gripped her phone tightly and turned around sharply.

Then I saw the boy carrying a trash bag above the stairwell.

Xu Yan's expression was slightly awkward. He noticed the somewhat fierce look in Jiang Yiyao's eyes. That look might not be one of disgust towards him, but rather the exasperation of having something she didn't want others to see exposed.

The boy lifted the trash bag in his hand. "I came to throw away the trash. I didn't hear anything just now."

Seeing Xu Yan's nonchalant expression, Jiang Yiyao's tense expression actually relaxed.

She shook her head. "It's okay if I hear it. I'm used to it."

Xu Yan thought to herself, if hearing that everything was alright, why did she have to walk so far to answer the phone? Actually, when she saw who was calling, she already had a premonition, didn't she?

He didn't say much, just nodded slightly, "Mm."

As he spoke, he was about to walk past the girl downstairs. Jiang Yiyao, who was holding her phone, was looking down, seemingly lost in thought.

The moment the motion-activated light illuminated and intertwined their figures, she heard the boy's voice behind her.

"If you're bored, how about we go downstairs for a walk together?"

Jiang Yiyao turned to look at him. The boy carrying the trash bag was standing at the entrance of the building, seemingly ready to go down at any moment.

Logically, or rather, based on her past personality, she wouldn't want to communicate with anyone at such a time. She felt she didn't need comfort or sympathy, or rather, that comfort or sympathy at this moment would truly hurt her.

But she nodded. "Mm."

"Bang."

The slender boy easily tossed the trash bag into the trash can. Moonlight filtered through the eaves of the tall buildings and the streetlights, merging into the black hair of the boy and girl.

Xu Yan didn't say anything special, and neither did Jiang Yiyao. The two of them walked towards the outside of the residential area in a tacit understanding.

The boy occasionally looked down at his phone, while the girl behind him walked with steps that were sometimes light and sometimes heavy. She would step on the boy's shadow, only to find that when she stepped on the shadow, she was also standing in his shadow.

As the wind blew from across the street, the headlights of a speeding car swept away the two people's shadows.

Xu Yan suddenly stopped and looked at the girl next to him. "I deleted the recording, really."

Jiang Yiyao, who had also stopped, put her hands behind her back, looked up, and seemed somewhat displeased.

Are you pitying me?

No.

"A man's gentleness is a cheap thing; you won't get any girls that way." The girl wrinkled her nose.

Xu Yan glanced at Jiang Yiyao casually, "Don't give me that, just say so. You're the type who responds better to gentle persuasion than force."

"boom."

Jiang Yiyao lightly kicked Xu Yan's shin, but it was practically harmless. She looked up at the boy with a reproachful expression.

“Xu Yan, if you’re only talking to me like this because you pity me, I’ll hate you.”

"Oh."

"Oh, what does that mean?"

"I see."

"Then why are you looking at your phone?"

"I'm trying to find a way to recover the recording."

"You f***ing bastard! No way!!"

Jiang Yiyao lunged forward, determined to get the phone out of the boy's hand, no matter what.

The streetlights illuminated two figures that seemed about to merge into one, gesturing wildly and pushing each other.

"what..."

With her wrist grabbed, Jiang Yiyao successfully snatched Xu Yan's phone, but she was almost pressed against the boy's chest.

The phone screen was shining, illuminating her flushed cheeks.

Xu Yan held his breath, looking closely at her flawless face.

Her heart was pounding, but her hand slowly loosened. The girl who had taken the phone lowered her head, her dark hair trying to hide her blush.

"Huh? It's a movie?"

She looked up in surprise; her phone screen displayed a picture of a successful movie ticket purchase.

Xu Yan touched his face and then looked up at the moon: "Thinking about watching a movie sometime..."

"Then why did you buy two movie tickets? Hmm? You're not planning to go on a date with me, are you?"

With her eyes narrowed, Jiang Yiyao seemed to have regained the initiative and began to exert pressure.

Xu Yan scoffed, "It's just a parent-child activity, what kind of date is that?"

"That's true, since you like playing with tiles. Call me Mom and I'll go with you to see it."

Jiang Yiyao shook her head and swayed her body, her curvaceous figure moving in a very pleasing way, making a "DuangDuang" sound.

Xu Yan could only sigh.

Who ruined Wa's reputation like this?!

"Go if you want, or don't. If you don't want to go, I'll go by myself."

He took the phone, turned around, and left.

"You're just being arrogant. I can see the favorability rating above your head."

"Have you been playing too many out-of-the-way games?"

"Sigh, even so, I still have to remind you that if you fall in love with me, you'll get hurt a lot."

"Then who is it that you bleed every month for?"

"Dare you lower yourself any further?!"

"Jiang Yiyao, you shouldn't love me too much. I'm also a boy who can easily hurt people."

"Tsk, you're just a toy at heart. Don't you know your destiny is to be discarded when you're tired of playing with you?"

"Yeah, you had a lot of fun on the back of my bike this afternoon, didn't you?"

I'll chop you up!

As she cursed, Jiang Yiyao skipped and hopped after the other person's back, giving them a light kick.

He jumped into Xu Yan's shadow.

……

Chapter 40 Unlock Life Achievements!

This wasn't Xu Yan's first time at the movie theater; he had indeed come before with Lin Jia, but Xiao Yujie, that big third wheel, was always with them.

Throughout the entire process, there was basically no intimate interaction between him and Lin Jia; the two girls mostly chatted and chattered away.

At one point, Xu Yan even considered becoming a bystander with an overflowing sense of justice to stand up and tell the two not to make a scene in the movie theater. Looking back, he was just too damn naive.

There weren't many good movies lately, and Xu Yan didn't have the habit of watching bad movies, so he chose an old movie that was being re-released.

Jiang Yiyao sat obediently next to Xu Yan, holding popcorn and drinking cola.

Neither of them mentioned the previous phone call or the deleted recording.

"You just ate a short while ago and you're already showing off your popcorn? Are you made of rice buckets?"

Watching the movie footage and listening to the veteran actors' comfortable lines, Xu Yan said in a low voice.

Jiang Yiyao rolled her eyes at Xu Yan, her eyes glowing in the dim light with a particularly alluring quality. "So what? It's so boring to just watch a movie without eating anything, isn't it? Is this your first time watching a movie with a girl?"

Xu Yan thought for a moment, "That's not entirely true."

"Oh? Is that Lin Jia from before?"

Her beautiful eyes looked over, but Xu Yan's gaze returned to the movie screen.

"Yes, I've only seen it with her."

Jiang Yiyao picked up the cola again, using so much force that she almost squeezed out the bubbling liquid.

"Gurgle, gurgle..."

Xu Yan turned his head away, annoyed. "Drinking a Coke with such force? I thought someone had driven a motorcycle in here."

"What's it to you?" she scoffed. "You just like those low-quality girls, huh? No wonder you don't understand girls at all."

"Low quality...have you seen her?"

"I've never seen her before, but someone you've been bothering for so long can't be a good person."

"Bullshit! We've known each other for so long, and you call yourself low-quality?"

Xu Yan's question startled Jiang Yiyao, and her face seemed to change color slightly in the darkness.

He then narrowed his eyes and launched a counterattack, "I'm different."

"What's different?" Xu Yan asked, amused.