After I Found Out My Boyfriend Was Pretending to Be Poor - Chapter 2

By the time Huo Yanchuan called, I’d finished my nap. I was refreshed and ready for battle.

The moment I answered, he started wailing.

“How the hell are you pregnant with my child?”

What child?

The memory of Zhou Xinglan’s green face and his eyes on my little belly flashed through my mind.

I was about to speak when I noticed how unnaturally quiet things were at Huo Yanchuan’s end. I slowed down, curled my lips, and put on my most innocent voice.

“Didn’t you say you’d give me and the baby a home?”

“We can’t have the child calling some other man Dad, can we?”

I heard him struggling for breath, as if someone had a tight grip on his throat.

He let out a desperate howl.

“Woman, this is slander! Slander! I’m still a virgin!”

Anyone could say that. Go get a virginity certificate from a hospital, then.

I upped the stakes.

“Baby’s daddy, why are you acting so strange today? Is someone threatening you?”

“Don’t worry. You said love follows the money. You’re the one who really loves me.”

“Zhou Xinglan won’t even spend money on me. Anyone can see he doesn’t take relationships seriously. I certainly wouldn’t pick a jerk like that.”

“Baby, that’s not true. Let me explain. He—”

Zhou Xinglan had barely started sobbing out a defense before Huo Yanchuan interrupted him.

“Lan, don’t let this wicked woman fool you! We’ve been best friends for so many years!”

Still wouldn’t give up, huh?

I immediately made my voice soft and aggrieved.

“Yes, I’m entirely in the right. Make sure you hit my baby’s father.”

“We can’t have the baby born with a dad, can we?”

The next thing I heard was Huo Yanchuan squealing like a pig, accompanied by the thud of Zhou Xinglan’s fists pounding his best friend.

“I treated you like a brother, and you got my wife to have your baby!”

“No wonder you were always bad-mouthing Ranran. You wanted to break us up all along!”

Fight. Go on, fight.

I loved a good catfight between men.

I’d just opened a bag of sunflower seeds, ready to keep listening, when the call ended.

Tsk. As if I couldn’t afford a few cents’ worth of data.

Half an hour later, Zhou Xinglan called several times to beg me to take him back. I blocked every call.

He couldn’t offer anything useful. All he knew how to do was cry. He’d cry away every bit of luck he had.

I’d barely hung up when Huo Yanchuan video-called me.

Zhou Xinglan had beaten him into submission. He lay in a hospital bed with a swollen, battered face, grinding his teeth.

“You scheming woman! You pulled this stunt because you want money, didn’t you?”

“You’re not getting ten million. I’ll give you five hundred thousand yuan. Tell my best friend what really happened.”

Five hundred thousand for a year of my feelings wouldn’t have been a bad deal. Zhou Xinglan wasn’t much of a prize anyway.

But Huo Yanchuan sounded like he was tossing scraps to a stray dog, and that really pissed me off.

For God’s sake, they’d drunk more than a million yuan’s worth of alcohol in a single night. Was he trying to insult me with this paltry sum?

So I agreed, then immediately sent my ex-boyfriend a screenshot of the five-hundred-thousand-yuan transfer.

[He says it’s a gift for meeting his parents. By the way, can you be our best man?]

Zhou Xinglan went quiet for over an hour. Huo Yanchuan’s WeChat messages kept coming for over an hour.

[What have I ever done to you? Why are you doing this to me?]

[My best friend’s about to beat me to death. Are you happy now?]

[I’m telling you, even if Zhou Xinglan kills me, I’ll never admit the child you’re carrying is mine!]

An hour later, the messages stopped.

At the same time, I received a transfer of ten million yuan.

I jumped straight up and counted the zeros over and over. I’d never seen so many in my life.

The transfer note read:

[Sis-in-law, Yan got a little too worked up just now. He’s gone.]

[I have money. I can be the baby’s father.]

I wasn’t moved. Who knew whether he and Huo Yanchuan were setting another trap for me? They were such devoted friends, after all.

Still, for ten million yuan, I added him back on WeChat.

[Didn’t your family kick you out because of me? Where did you get the money?]

[Don’t tell me Yan was right and you’ve been pretending you’re poor to deceive me.]

[No wonder he told me to leave you. So that’s the kind of man you are.]

[The other person is typing…]

The indicator kept appearing and disappearing.

Zhou Xinglan couldn’t bring himself to admit he’d lied about being broke. Confessing now would only push me straight into his best friend’s arms.

Before they had time to compare notes, I video-called him.

At the sight of me, his eyes instantly reddened.

“Baby, I know he’s the one who seduced you,” he said urgently. “I’ll go home and apologize to my family right now. I’ll take you to meet my parents.”

If he loved pretending to be poor so much, he could damn well keep it up.

I interrupted him with a worried look.

“Stop lying to me. Yan says you had a terrible fight with your family over me. Your parents won’t forgive you for at least six months, maybe a year. I’m not good enough for you, and now I’ve dragged you down.”

“He lent you that ten million, didn’t he? You’re right. He really is a good guy. He’s taken such good care of me for you. It’s only right the baby calls him Dad.”

Then, as if I’d suddenly realized I’d said the wrong thing, I hurriedly ended the call.

Go on, man. Let your imagination run wild.

Huo Yanchuan wouldn’t admit the baby was his?

That was fine. Someone else would.

I rubbed the stomach I’d just filled with snail rice noodles, barbecue, and milk tea. My food coma was making me pleasantly dizzy.

Within half an hour, Zhou Xinglan had nearly worn out my phone with his calls. I put it on silent and went to take a shower.

In the middle of the night, Huo Yanchuan’s WeChat account suddenly rose from the dead.

[Xia Ran, just you wait. Don’t let me get my hands on you!]

[You’re finished! I’m telling you, you’re finished!]

I took screenshots, edited the text, and posted them on WeChat Moments.

[Even when he can’t come back, he remembers to tell the baby stories for our prenatal story time.]

[He’ll be a good father, won’t he?]

There. Now Huo Yanchuan was resting a little too peacefully.