After The Honest Person Was Discovered For Simultaneously Pursuing Three People - Chapter 46

Chapter 46: The Sender’s Note Was “Old…”

After returning to the dorm, Tao Ning used the dorm’s public phone to call Tao Yuan and told her to pick up a package promptly. Tao Yuan’s rough voice came from the other side of the phone: “You brat, what did you send back again?”

And then there was Xiaomeng’s crying voice: “Uncle! I miss you so much.”

Tao Ning’s voice softened: “Xiaomeng, I miss you too… Sis, I sent a gold bracelet back.”

“What?!” The voice on the other end of the phone suddenly became higher: “Tao Ning, where did you get a gold bracelet? Was it from that dog man surnamed Zhao again?”

Xu Jun, who was reading nearby, keenly heard words like “again,” “surnamed Zhao,” and “dog man.” The hand turning the page paused. Tao Ning quickly lowered his voice and said with a bit of a grievance: “Sis, he didn’t give it to me. I haven’t been in contact with him.”

After hearing this, Tao Yuan began to lecture him for half an hour about “the dangers of men,” “you should focus on your studies,” and other such admonitions.

Tao Ning lowered his head, revealing his soft, fair nape, and nervously tugged at the corner of his clothes while agreeing with her. It wasn’t until Xu Jun said blandly from behind him: “Tao Ning, the hot water is ready.”

The bathrooms at Oksen College didn’t need to heat water. Hot water was available 24/7. Tao Ning was confused and looked over blankly. Tao Yuan on the other end of the phone, hearing that there was another unfamiliar man next to her brother, instantly exploded and questioned: “Who is this man? Ningning, you…”

Tao Ning hurriedly explained: “It’s not that, Sis. He’s my roommate.”

“Roommate?” The other end of the phone was half-skeptical.

Xu Jun, in a circular motion, approached Tao Ning’s right shoulder. His gentle breath slowly came out, spraying on the delicate and small earlobe of the person in his arms. “Hello, I am Xu Jun. Xu, as in ‘gently approaching breeze,’ and Jun, as in ‘admonitory sayings.’ Tao Ning’s roommate. The gold bracelet was a gift from the Song family to encourage Tao Ning to study. I saw it with my own eyes, so you don’t have to worry.”

Tao Yuan’s education level was only up to the third grade, so she didn’t understand his explanation of his name. But Xu Jun’s voice was gentle and unhurried. He could explain things clearly in just a few simple sentences, which made people feel good about him.

She said a long “oh—” but perhaps because Zhao Jingqun’s matter had a huge impact on her, Tao Yuan still asked him some other things, such as his family background and how he got along with Tao Ning.

Xu Jun’s tone was gentle, and he answered them one by one in an orderly manner. He even said blandly in the end: “Your voice sounds very young. I thought you were one of Tao Ning’s female classmates. However, your voice is slightly hoarse. Have you caught a cold recently? If so, I suggest you drink pear water boiled with ginger and rock sugar. My maternal grandfather’s family happens to produce pears. I’ll send you three jin another day.”

The men in the Tao family were all silent and boring. The man Tao Yuan married was also away from home all year round. It was her first time seeing someone talk in such a coaxing manner. She couldn’t resist it and was so happy that all her suspicions vanished instantly. She praised Xu Jun for being a good kid and a good roommate.

Until it was almost time to hang up, she didn’t forget to tell Tao Ning to get along well with Xu Jun and to bring him back to visit during the holidays.

Tao Ning: “…”

He didn’t get a chance to interrupt at all. At the same time, he was a little dumbfounded. Xu Jun didn’t seem to be as gentle as he thought. At the very least, he could lie without changing his expression, such as saying that he saw the Song family give him the gold bracelet, which was a baseless lie.

What made Tao Ning even more helpless was that Xu Jun seemed to have seen through his thoughts. He slightly curved his lips and explained: “It’s the best way to get your sister to stop worrying.”

People are easily wary of unfamiliar things they have never had, but if this thing is linked to an ‘acquaintance,’ the probability of them being suspicious of it will be greatly reduced.

Tao Ning said “oh” and fell silent. Xu Jun went to tidy up his pajamas for him and handed them to him. “The hot water is ready.”

Tao Ning took a shower and came out to sit on a stool. Xu Jun would blow-dry his hair. Although he always felt a little awkward about it, Xu Jun said that this was what good friends should do. And Tao Ning lacked experience in making friends, so he believed him.

His five fingers slowly moved through the wet hair. His eyes behind the gold-rimmed glasses narrowed slightly. Xu Jun really enjoyed the feeling of controlling everything about Tao Ning. But he might have been a little too eager today. The little lemon seemed to be suspicious of him.

But with one uncontrollable thing after another appearing, the sense of crisis Xu Jun felt grew stronger. For example… who was the “dog man” his little lemon’s sister mentioned? Was he surnamed Zhao? Was he the one who gave Tao Ning the first phone? Judging from his sister’s tone, this man surnamed Zhao seemed to have a significant relationship with the little lemon, which was why she was so wary of him.

Then what kind of relationship was it…?

Xu Jun’s expression was calm. After he finished blow-drying Tao Ning’s hair, he, as usual, accompanied him to do practice problems. But this time, Xu Jun switched the math competition problems to a physics book. As expected, Tao Ning’s clear eyes widened, and he said softly: “Are we doing physics problems today?”

“Yes,” Xu Jun said blandly.

Tao Ning didn’t ask any more questions. The two of them started to do the problems in silence. An hour later, Xu Jun asked him for help with a problem. The problem was about a phone whose battery was damaged from being turned off for a long time and to use other conditions to calculate its original operating power.

The problem wasn’t difficult, but Tao Ning looked at it a few more times. His heart couldn’t help but skip a beat because he happened to have a phone that had been turned off for a long time, which was the one Zhao Jingqun had given him. He was a little flustered. After all, he wasn’t familiar with electronic products. What would happen if it really did damage the phone?

He did the calculations distractedly and explained the problem to Xu Jun.

When they turned off the lights and went to sleep, Xu Jun closed his eyes and said in a hoarse voice: “Good night.”

“Mmm… good night.”

Tao Ning couldn’t sleep at all. His mind was full of that physics problem from before he went to bed. He tried his best to stay awake. At about one in the morning, he quietly called out: “Xu Jun?”

He put on his clothes and tiptoed to the man’s bed. He called out again: “Xu Jun?” But the person on the bed was breathing evenly and didn’t respond. Tao Ning was relieved now. He secretly found the charger, took out the phone that hadn’t been turned on for a long time from under his pillow, and plugged it in to charge.

After he had done everything, Tao Ning sat there with the phone. Sleepiness came over him like a tide. He nodded like a chicken pecking at rice. After a while, he rubbed his eyes and felt that the phone should be fully charged.

His soft palm was sweating a little. Tao Ning carefully held the almost brand-new phone and turned it on. The blinding light from the phone instantly reflected his trembling eyelashes. When the main screen lit up, after a moment, the phone, as if it was stuck, slowly showed “99+” for calls and messages.

There were 99 missed calls and 99 unread messages.

Tao Ning was startled and quickly turned the phone’s brightness down to the lowest setting. The sleeping Xu Jun was right behind him. The phone in his hand, however, was given to him by Zhao Jingqun, whom he considered his first love. At that time, he didn’t know anything and really listened to the system, and dumped Zhao Jingqun.

But if he didn’t dump Zhao Jingqun, he wouldn’t be able to pursue Xu Jun and Song Yuceng. You could say Tao Ning was caught in a dilemma.

So now, he felt a little guilty.

He opened the messages. Tao Ning secretly took a look. The most recent one was from “Husband” from two days ago—

I hate you, Tao Ning.

Tao Ning’s heart jumped. He was a little sad again. Maybe, as the system said, he really had become a bad person, wanting Zhao Jingqun to love him and also wanting to pursue Xu Jun and Song Yuceng… He was too greedy.

Shaking his head, Tao Ning threw away these strange thoughts completely. Because they were just his missions. After the missions were completed, he would have a healthy body, and then he would have nothing to do with these three people.

But he couldn’t help but feel guilty. Tao Ning hesitated for a moment and finally trembled as he sent a message back:

I’m sorry.

Then he quickly turned off the phone and put it back under his pillow. Tao Ning tossed and turned before falling asleep. So he didn’t know that the moment the phone’s light went out, Xu Jun’s eyes suddenly opened, and there was no hint of sleepiness in them.

He thought, his little lemon had taken the bait.

The next morning, Tao Ning had two dark circles under his eyes. Xu Jun held his hand and led him to the classroom in a daze. But just like before, Xu Jun seemed to have endless troubles to deal with. After taking a few calls, he frowned. However, he still watched Tao Ning take his medicine, gave him a few candies to coax him, and then left in a hurry.

Tao Ning was so sleepy. After he left, he lay his head on his desk and fell asleep, his mind in a state of confusion. It wasn’t until the foreign teacher called on him to answer a question again that the surrounding students looked on, ready for a show.

Tao Ning was a little confused and forgot the pronunciation Song Yuceng had taught him. He spoke English with a stutter. As expected, as soon as he finished, a few subtle laughs came from the classroom.

“Pfft, why is this country bumpkin’s pronunciation so strange?”

“Shh—keep your voice down. Didn’t you see that Xu Jun led him in by the hand? It’s confirmed. Xu Jun’s unlucky roommate is this country bumpkin, but they seem to have a good relationship.”

“Don’t say that. This country bumpkin looks a little familiar. I think I saw him in a newspaper.”

“Him? In a newspaper? You must be joking!”

Whispers and murmurs came from all around. Tao Ning’s fair face was flushed. He lowered his head. His timid and cowardly appearance made the foreign teacher’s heart soften. He encouraged him: “Tao, you’ve improved this time. Keep up the good work next time. I look forward to you getting better.”

Hearing this, Tao Ning was a little relieved. But he started to think that he still needed to improve his spoken English. He thought of Song Yuceng. But he was really angry that day. If Song Yuceng didn’t apologize and there was no mission given, he wouldn’t take the initiative to ask Song Yuceng to teach him spoken English.

Because Tao Ning had his own pride.

Targeting three men at the same time was already the most shameless thing he had ever done.

After school, there was still no news from Xu Jun. Tao Ning was about to send him a message using the phone he had bought for himself, but a clear voice sounded next to him: “Tao Ning, want to go play basketball?”

He raised his beautiful eyes and saw that it was Lu Jue, who had helped him a few days ago. He was holding a basketball and smiling at him. Tao Ning softly declined: “I’m sorry, I don’t know how to play.”

“Okay,” Lu Jue said regretfully. He was about to leave when the person behind him suddenly tugged on his shirt. He turned around and saw the boy asking him in a soft voice: “Do you… know where there are a lot of foreigners at school?”

“Foreigners?”

“Yes.”

Lu Jue had a good impression of this gentle new student. He also thought that everyone else was blind for thinking he was country. The new student was clearly very pretty. He just thought there was something wrong with their eyes since they hadn’t seen him up close. He thought for a moment and told him: “There’s an English corner at Sunset Square. There are a lot of foreigners there. You can go check it out.”

Sunset Square was the largest square at Oksen College. Tao Ning made a mental note of it. “Thank you.”

“It’s no problem at all. If you ever need anything, you can come find me,” Lu Jue said, scratching his head in embarrassment, and left with the ball.

Tao Ning lowered his head and sent a message to Xu Jun:

Are you okay?

At the same time, the lights were off in the dorm. Xu Jun’s usually impeccable clothes were a little messy. He had a blank expression on his face. In his hand was the phone that Tao Ning had charged last night. The dim light fell on his glasses, reflecting a cold and dark arc.

He didn’t hesitate to turn on this phone filled with secrets. Tao Ning hadn’t set a password. He immediately entered the main screen. The blinding light of the 99+ messages and calls came into view. Xu Jun opened them with a cold look. Countless ambiguous chat records appeared.

And the sender’s memo was “Husband.”

He suddenly clenched his fist. Xu Jun had actually already guessed this result, but he still held a glimmer of hope that everything wasn’t true. But now that he saw it with his own eyes, these glaring chat records, countless “dummy,” “I miss you,” and Tao Ning’s “Husband” all turned into slaps, hitting his always-indifferent face hard.

It really hurt.

It felt as if a huge rock was pressing down on his chest. Xu Jun was so pained that he couldn’t breathe. It was as if Tao Ning was in front of him, holding a knife, cutting the flesh from his heart piece by piece, telling him clearly: I already have someone I love.

Xu Jun felt like he was being soaked in overflowing acid water. The jealousy was almost enough to make him unable to hold his phone steady. His hands began to tremble non-stop. But he still acted like a masochist, like a rat in a gutter, peeking into Tao Ning’s intimate past with this man from the chat records—

How far did they go? Do they hold hands all day like I do with him? Do they hug? Do they kiss?

Or… did they make love?

Just the thought of these things made his insides feel like they were being torn apart. Xu Jun took countless deep breaths until his phone rang. It was a message from Tao Ning. He didn’t reply. Instead, he scrolled all the way down to the bottom of the chat records.

Last night, the little lemon sent this man “I’m sorry,” combined with the past chat records. Xu Jun calmly analyzed it. They should have broken up, so he still had a chance.

Even judging from Tao Ning’s attitude toward this phone, he knew that Tao Ning still had an unconscious affection for this strange love rival.

But it didn’t matter. Xu Jun thought coldly. He would make Tao Ning love him.

He expressionlessly typed a few words—

I will not get back together with you. I hope you can completely disappear and not call or text me again. And don’t ever appear in my life in the future.

Xu Jun then calmly replied to Tao Ning: I’m fine.

He was about to delete the chat history, but the other side sent a question:

Who are you?

Xu Jun expressionlessly deleted it.

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