After My Roommate Dumped His Online Boyfriend on Me - Chapter 3

As soon as I left the dorm building, the comments appeared again.

[That’s what you get for cursing in the comments all day. The system muted everyone indiscriminately for three hours.]

[Not everyone got the same punishment. The worst ones, spewing filthy insults about body parts and people’s parents, got a full day.]

[AAAAH, cannon fodder—no, Mu Shengxia! Watching him roast his roommates was so satisfying! I’m always surrounded by assholes like that too. I wish I could live that freely just once!]

[Taking notes, notes, notes, notes…]

[Baby, baby, baby~ Sorry, couldn’t help breaking into song.]

[I think my roommates are like that too, but it’s subtle. Slamming doors, clicking their tongues, rolling over really hard. Sometimes they make digs at me on Moments, but when I try to talk to them in person, they play dumb. On the surface, we all get along. I really don’t know what to do…]

[Sweetie, have you heard that by the time a little kid says they need the toilet, they’ve usually already pooped their pants? If you can already feel their hostility, it’s overflowing.]

[It’s not your fault, baby. Either have it out with them and solve everything, or have it out with them and change rooms. That’ll solve everything too!]

[What’s cannon fodder doing?]

[Working on his résumé, probably. He’s applying to the male lead’s company, isn’t he—(Spoiler detected. Content blocked.)]

[Keep reporting everyone, why don’t you? Now the rules are so strict I got blocked outright!]

One comment after another refreshed before my eyes.

There weren’t many new ones, but I had no time to read them.

Inspiration required a portfolio of previous work.

The interview accounts I’d found suggested they’d ask plenty of technical questions too.

By the time I’d put all my materials together and sent the email, it was dark outside.

I stretched. Fang Jindong had sent messages to the alt account.

“May I call you Shengxia?”

“It’s all right if you’d rather I didn’t.”

“Okay. I won’t, then.”

“Are you busy?”

[Cute kitten.jpg]

[Kitten suddenly appears.jpg]

“Still not finished?”

[Dejected kitten.jpg]

I couldn’t imagine Fang Jindong sending such adorable reaction images while wearing that cool, refined face of his.

I hurried to reply. “I was working on my application. Right after we talked about it at lunch, Inspiration posted a recruitment notice!”

“You’re my lucky star.”

“Where did you find all these cute reaction images?”

“And yes, you can call me Shengxia.”

He was clearly a slow typist. The “typing” indicator stayed on for ages, but he couldn’t keep up.

In the end, he sent only one line.

“Shengxia.”

He was so cute I could die.

“If typing is too slow, you can send a voice message.”

The typing indicator vanished at once.

A fifteen-second voice message appeared instead.

“My brother sent them to me. He said people like cute reaction images, and I should stop using those ancient emoji.”

“Are you free this weekend? May I take you on a date?”

“My brother would like to have dinner with us that evening. Would that be all right?”

Fang Jindong’s brother.

My heart sank. Wasn’t he the guy the comments said would throw me into international waters to feed the fish?

Whatever came at me, I’d deal with it.

Fine. I’d meet him!

Some of the commenters were even less optimistic than I was about meeting Fang Feng.

[Fang Feng is no sweetheart. He’s completely unhinged when it comes to his brother. Especially since his brother injured his legs protecting him.]

[If he discovers little cannon fodder is an impostor this time, will there be any way out alive?]

[Hard to say. Really hard to say…]

[I watch little cannon fodder over my meals every day. I don’t want to lose my virtual dinner buddy…]

Others were gloating, though there were fewer and fewer of them.

Apparently, a whole bunch had been permanently muted for going too hard on the abuse lately.

[Why won’t this wretched cannon fodder get written out already? Hogging the male lead every day. Disgusting.]

When I actually met Fang Feng, he was nothing like I’d imagined.

He looked like a university student.

He spoke casually too: a completely unguarded, slightly goofy kid.

As we chatted, I discovered he was two years younger than me.

“Hehe. My brother took such good care of me when I was little that I got into university at sixteen. Graduated early too. I was done at twenty-one.”

I ventured, “Your bachelor’s degree?”

“My master’s.”

Seeing my mouth hang open, he waved it off.

“That’s nothing, Xia-ge. I still have to work after graduation. I’m nowhere near my brother. He built everything from scratch. When we were little, we lived in a single-story house. Who would’ve thought we’d be in a big ol’ mansion a few years later?”

He sounded exactly like someone bragging.

So annoying.

Except I knew it was all true.

Which made it even more annoying.

I’d wandered into royalty by mistake.

“After my brother got hurt last year, he shut himself away.”

“It’s thanks to you that he’s coming out again, Xia-ge. My greatest wish in life is for him to have someone he knows inside out by his side.”

I tilted my head to look at him. Such a young kid, and already such an old man.

He met my eyes and gave a little laugh. “So if anyone dares lie to my brother, I’ll take them to hell with me.”

The innocent goofiness was gone. In its place was something venomous and vicious.

I was so startled that the big green mango in my hand fell to the floor.

He immediately bent to pick it up. His expression reverted to the one he’d worn when we first met.

“Xia-ge, this one got a little too ripe when it hit the floor. Want another?”

I nodded automatically. “Y-yes.”

Fang Feng set it down and got me a fresh mango, feeling it first to check how firm it was.

“Have this one. It’s just right.”

I took it with my lips pressed together and lowered my head to peel it with a small knife.

He said nothing. Just watched me in silence.

It made my skin crawl.

I pretended to be calm and avoided looking at him. Just as I was about to put a piece of mango in my mouth, he asked softly,

“Xia-ge, didn’t my brother say you were allergic to mangoes?”

At that exact moment, Fang Jindong finished stir-frying a dish and wheeled out carrying it.

My heart lurched. Now that I thought about it, Ying Chen really was allergic to mangoes.

I was done for.

Completely done for.