CH 3

Chapter 3

The moment she saw Jiang Laien’s face clearly, Ye Kehuan felt that the hand holding her became stiff and thousands of stars suddenly lost their color.

Jiang Laien was also shocked. She retracted her hand and stood firmly. “Thank you. If it wasn’t for you, I would’ve fell.”

Ye Kehuan froze for a second before hurriedly letting her go like a hot potato. “Why are you here?” She asked.

When she heard that, Jiang Laien turned and pointed to the small villa where Ye Kehuan lived. “I moved here.”

“What?” Ye Kehuan looked at her incredulously.

“The landlord is my friend. They heard that I was looking for a place, so they told me to stay here.” Jiang Laien’s words weren’t entirely true. She was indeed looking for a house, but she came because she found out that Ye Kehuan lived here.

Ye Kehuan’s back stiffened after hearing this. After a while, she turned her head and said, “Then come in.”

Ye Kehuan took her things after she finished talking, walked quickly with her head bowed, and opened the door first.

Jiang Laien looked at Ye Kehuan’s back, not saying much, only letting out a sigh of relief.

“This place is pretty good,” Jiang Laien spoke a moment later, after asking someone to carry her belongings in.

Ye Kehuan poured a glass of water and held it. She nodded but didn’t answer.

“Yingying, let’s clean up first and then go out for a meal.” Jiang Laien said to her assistant.

“Sure, just the two of us? Or do you want to invite Sister Qi Li? She seems to be Senchuan as well and she’d be very happy if you invited her! After all, you guys so close!” The assistant said.

When she heard this, Jiang Lien smiled and said: “Then I’ll invite her.”

Qi Li? Close? Ye Kehuan listened to their conversation while squeezing her cup and staring at the sofa. She suddenly felt like an outsider, a side character who had long drifted away from Jiang Laien’s world.

So many years had passed. They grew up, and their circle of acquaintances were different from each other. They were no longer each other’s best friend, and these changes were quite uncomfortable.

However, when Jiang Laien picked up the phone and scrolled through her contacts list for a while, she didn’t call Qi Li, but instead took a step towards Ye Kehuan with the intention of asking her if she’d like to have dinner together.

But at that moment, Ye Kehuan suddenly put down her glass of water and turned around. “You all must be busy. I have an appointment, so I’ll head out first.”

Ye Kehuan left.

Jiang Lin looked at Ye Kehuan’s back and swallowed the words that had come up to her lips.

Jiang Laien’s assistant also looked over. She glanced Jiang Lai’en and whispered lightly, “I feel that it’s difficult to get along with Ye Kehuan, she doesn’t seem to have any expressions.”

When Jiang Lai’en heard this, her eyes darkened, and she took a deep breath. “It’s alright.”

“Sister Laien, did you invite Sister Qi Li?” The assistant asked.

After hearing this, Jiang Laien came to her senses and shook her head. “No, it would be too sudden. There’s still work tonight, so let’s invite her another time.”

The assistant scratched her head.

On the other side, after Ye Kehuan left home and got into the car, she pulled on her collar and glanced at the small villa. She slammed her foot on the accelerator without any residual hesitation and drove off to Xingxing Mutton Kebab Grill.

The mutton kebab restaurant was opened for hobby by her friend Chen Lulu, a rich second-generation who didn’t rely on it for income.

When Ye Kehuan went to her private box, she directly ordered the entire menu of kebabs.

“Who upset you? Ordering so many things madly.” Chen Lulu spoke while holding a pen and writing on a small notebook.

“Do I look very upset?” Ye Kehuan asked.

“Yeah, like you’re going to kill someone.” Chen Lulu’s eyes swept at her up and down.

“I’m fine.” Ye Kehuan continued to look expressionless.

“Hey, are you sure you’re fine?!” Chen Lulu pressed on her arm again.

Finally, Ye Kehuan raised her head, her face frighteningly gloomy: “I don’t know what to say.”

“What the hell happened?” Chen Lulu handed off the menu to the kitchen in the back, sat down beside her, and poured herself a cup of tea.

After Ye Kehuan told the story of what happened with Jiang Laien, she continued speaking: “Jiang Laien suddenly came to participate in the same variety show with me and moved to the place I rented? What is she thinking?”

After heading this, Chen Lulu’s face instantly became grave. Finally, she stretched out her hand and pointed at Ye Kehuan’s forehead: “I know! She wants to harm you!”

Ye Kehuan was confused and frowned.

“I’ll stop joking. Then, what about you, what do you think?” Chen Lulu asked again.

Ye Kehuan frowned again. “Me?”

Chen Lulu smiled suddenly. “Yeah. Do you hate her? Do you want to move out? If she doesn’t move, you can move. If you really don’t want to see her, then you move out. Sister Chen can find you a good house in minutes.”

However, Ye Kehuan suddenly stopped talking.

“What, are you going to?” Chen Lulu asked again.

Ye Kehuan shook her head. “Let’s talk about that later. It’s been busy recently.”

Chen Lulu nodded when she heard this and said nothing more.

After eating, Ye Kehuan didn’t feel like staying out for any longer, so she returned home.

No one was in the villa, so it was pitch black.

It seemed like Jiang Laien was not home. After Ye Kehuan went in, she turned on the lights, looked around, and threw the key aside. She changed her shoes for slippers, sat on the sofa, and randomly recalled the previous conversation with Chen Lulu.

After thinking for a bit, Ye Kehuan stood up again and went upstairs to her room.

Ye Kehuan washed up and idled in her room. She thought for a moment, and eventually opened the door again to peek out.

It was quiet. Jiang Laien had not returned.

So Ye Kehuan walked into her room again and closed the door quietly. When she was about to go lie down on her bed, she got a notification from the WeChat group for the program.

Ye Kehuan picked up her phone and opened the group chat.

Member 1: “I’m so excited to be seeing everyone later in the month!”

Member 2: “Yeah, me too! I hope this season gets great ratings!”

Jiang Laien also texted: “We’ve got this! I’ve never participated in such a variety show before, I hope everyone can give me pointers when the time comes.”

As soon as Jiang Laien appeared, everyone in the group immediately became lively, and the more expressive ones even began to flatter each other.

After Jiang Laien stopped talking, the group chat regained its silence and its members went to sleep one by one.

However, Ye Kehuan couldn’t sleep at all and clicked on Jiang Laien’s WeChat portrait.

Because she wasn’t friended, she couldn’t see Jiang Laien’s Moments1 and could only see her account information.

Suddenly thinking of what Chen Lulu said, Ye Kehuan turned around again.

Does she really not want to see Jiang Laien? If she truly doesn’t want to see her, the solution is quite simple. Just move elsewhere. After all, she’s not short of money.

Besides, when she went to the kebab shop tonight, was really because she was angry at seeing Jiang Laien? Or was it because she was angry that she didn’t know what Jiang Laien meant by reappearing in her world once more?

Wasn’t it because of what Jiang Laien’s assistant said? Wasn’t it because she felt like she was so expelled from Jiang Laien’s world that she wasn’t even worth being a dinner companion?

She felt irritable inexplicably.

Ye Kehuan clicked on the group again and clicked on Jiang Laien’s portrait.

Jiang Laien’s profile picture was a kitten with small, blushing cheeks, round eyes, and a cute harmless look.

Ye Kehuan felt an inexplicable urge to add her, but she didn’t have a reason. She felt a little upset.

She threw the phone aside, but decided to turn around and grab it to play on it again.

As a result, she didn’t pay attention and accidentally clicked on “Add”. Almost immediately, and too fast for her to react, the friend request was accepted.

Ye Kehuan looked at Jiang Laien’s profile picture on her list and couldn’t help but be confused.

After thinking for a while, she clicked on her Moments page.

You could say that Jiang Laien’s Moments was a typical business Moments page. Basically, it’s almost all work and shows very little of her daily personal life.

For example, she would forward posts about movies that are about to be started, launched, or finished. She would also post endorsements.

However, while flipping through it, Ye Kehuan suddenly saw that Jiang Laien posted a status last year: “Our Ahuang is too old to walk now, I really want to go back with you to see it.”

Under it, there was a picture of an old cat squatting in the corner with squinting eyes. When Ye Kehuan saw it, she fell silent.

Ahuang was the stray kitten they rescued together at the time. Because their families didn’t let them raise pets at home, they let their neighbors keep it.

After exiting her Moments page, Ye Kehuan looked slightly dejected as she held the phone.

Suddenly, her phone vibrated. There was a message on WeChat. Ye Kehuan raised her head again.

It was Jiang Laien who sent her a message: “Are you still awake?”

Ye Kehuan paused for a moment and replied: “Yes.”

Jiang Laien: “You added me so late at night. Is there something wrong?”

When Ye Kehuan saw her question, she felt a bit hot. After thinking for a while, she made up a reason: “No, it’s just that we’re all doing a show together, so I’m adding everyone’s WeChats.”

“Jiang Laien is typing” prompted on the chat window, disappearing and appearing again. Finally, Jiang Laien asked: “That’s it?”

Ye Kehuan sat on the bed, scratched her head, and pondered for a moment: “Yeah.”

Jiang Laien replied a second later: “Okay, I see. It’s not early now, so go to sleep soon. Good night.”

Ye Kehuan stared at the phone screen calmly, eventually sending a “good night” emoji.

Finally, after sending the “good night” emoji out, she arranged her soft pillow, laid down on her back, and closed her eyes. She doesn’t want to think anymore.

After a while, the notification tone rang again. Ye Kehuan lazily grabbed her phone, only to see the other person respond with “Sleep with you?”

Sleep? Ye Kehuan froze for a second and hurriedly flipped through the chat history.

It turns out that she sent the wrong emoji. She originally wanted to send “good night”, but the one she sent wasn’t that one.

On the emoji that she sent to Jiang Laien by mistake, a large line of text wrote: “Frankly explain, since you’re still chatting with me, do you want to sleep with me?”

Moreover, the characters on this emoji pack flashes and changes color, enough to blind a person’s eyes.

A moment later, Ye Kehuan rubbed her eyes and rubbed her eyes again. She determined at the end that she had sent the wrong emoji.

Ye Kehuan stared at the phone, instantly bouncing off the bed like a frightened bird, and started hurriedly typing to correct it, her face flushed with crimson: “No, that was the wrong message just now, I actually wanted to post this–“

While texting, Ye Kehuan quickly opened her favorite emojis list again, scrolling to the “good night” emoji with trembling hands, and sent it.

However, the moment she sent it, she really wanted to hack herself to death.

That’s right, she sent the wrong one again. This time, it was a panda with a wretched smile. The panda held a Durex in its hand, with two large lines of text beside it, reading: “Sister, buy a condom? I got a dozen here!”

Footnotes:

1: On WeChat, “Moments” is their English translation of 朋友圈 (Friends Circle).

Translator’s Corner:

If I sent those emotes to someone I was awkward with like that I’d simply pass away on the spot lmao