No Girl Can Walk Away Smiling After Checking Her Boyfriend's Phone - Chapter 9

Before going to sleep, I received a WeChat message from Zhou Xuan:

“If it’s the watch that made you misunderstand, I can explain.”

I ignored it.

Ten minutes later, Zhou Xuan sent another message:

“Last month, my mom brought back two watches from abroad. I kept one for myself, a women’s watch. It happened to be Jiang Ling’s birthday at the time, so without much thought, I gave him the other one.”

She quickly added, “Jiang Ling knows too.”

I paused for a moment and typed,

“Are you saying you have a women’s watch that matches his?”

Zhou Xuan didn’t reply again.

The next morning, after a simple packing, I took the same suitcase and, together with Chen Rui, got into a taxi we had booked earlier.

Through the rearview mirror, I saw my mom standing at the door.

She stared at us blankly, her lips seemed to move, but in the end, I couldn’t hear if she said anything.

On the way, Jiang Ling called me several times and sent dozens of WeChat messages, asking where I was.

I simply replied, “We’ve broken up.”

It took Jiang Ling a long time to respond, “Chen Nan, I didn’t agree.”

I directly blocked all his contacts.

Chen Rui’s rented apartment was a small two-bedroom, decorated in a modern minimalist style, very clean, and close to my company.

After a busy afternoon, I finally got everything organized.

Chen Rui collapsed on the sofa, lazily saying, “Sis, you have to treat me to a big meal tonight.”

I laughed and agreed.

While booking the restaurant on my phone, I thought for a moment and asked Chen Rui to invite Yiqing as well, as a thank you for helping me move yesterday.

The traffic was a bit heavy, and it took Chen Rui and me over an hour to reach the restaurant.

Yiqing was already waiting at the table.

He was slightly hunched, one hand resting on his bent knee, the other stirring his coffee, seemingly detached from the noisy world around him.

For a moment, I recalled a high school lunch break when I was startled awake from a nightmare, calming my breath, and accidentally glanced in Yiqing’s direction.

He was working on problems.

Sitting upright, holding a pen and calculating on scratch paper, his nails were neatly trimmed.

Noticing my gaze, he turned to look at me, then handed me a tissue, and continued with his work.

It took me a while to react, wiping my forehead with the tissue, and looking down, the paper was soaked with sweat.

Just as I returned to the present, I heard Chen Rui beside me muttering with his head in his hands,

“Oh no, oh no, late for work and now late for dinner, Yiqing will surely kill me.”

I pulled Chen Rui over and sincerely said,

“Sorry we’re late, feel free to order whatever you want, don’t worry about saving money for me.”

Yiqing looked at me for a moment and then smiled, “It’s okay, I just got here too.”

He then called the waiter and naturally handed me the menu, “Why don’t you order?”

Halfway through the meal, piano music suddenly filled the restaurant.

Only then did I notice a large stage in the center of the restaurant hall, with a white piano on it.

A girl was playing, her back to the audience.

The wall behind her was adorned with many love knots.

Chen Rui coughed softly,

“This is a unique marketing feature of this restaurant. Couples who dine here can go up and play to receive a love knot with their names on it. So many couples come here to check in.”

I was eating and absentmindedly said “Oh,” which led to me choking.

As I lowered my head, coughing softly, I felt someone gently patting my back.

Once I recovered, I saw a bowl of soup pushed in front of me.

Following the slender hand, I looked up and met Yiqing’s dark eyes.

I was stunned.

Yiqing paused slightly, then quickly took Chen Rui’s bowl and served him soup as well.

Chen Rui looked puzzled, “I didn’t choke.”

Yiqing: “…”

The atmosphere suddenly became a bit awkward. Chen Rui glanced at Yiqing, then at me, and quietly went to the restroom.

The piano performance on stage had just ended, and I instinctively looked over.

The girl turned around.

It was Zhou Xuan.

She smiled as she accepted the love knot from the staff, wrote something on it, and then returned to her seat.

Unsurprisingly, I saw Jiang Ling sitting across from her.

The love knot was in his hand, and from a distance, I couldn’t see his expression.

Zhou Xuan leaned over and said something to him.

He suddenly laughed.

Perhaps sensing someone staring intently, he looked up and met my gaze.