Joining A Dating Show With Five Exes - Chapter 4

Chapter 4: The Latecomer is the Third Wheel

Xie Zhiqing looked at the scene before her.

For a moment, it was as if she were back many years ago, on a day in middle school.

She and Cheng Shiyuan had argued fiercely. Then, Xie Zhiqing went abroad for a competition. One afternoon after she returned, she saw Cheng Shiyuan, who had left her a message saying “let’s meet when you get back,” being stopped by another person just before running towards her across the street.

Xie Zhiqing didn’t recall her feelings at the time.

But every classmate who passed by looked at her with an expression of regret and pity.

Close friends spoke with slight reproach, yet still with full confidence:

“Oh, why did you take so long to come back? That transfer student has been getting very close to your girl lately, and it looks pretty serious. You’re not going to lose her, are you?”

“But you and Shiyuan grew up together. No one knows her better than you. She couldn’t possibly abandon you for someone else, right?”

Yet, the meeting Xie Zhiqing finally got was Cheng Shiyuan smilingly linking arms with the other person, introducing her:

“This is my new girlfriend, Xia Ziran.”

“Isn’t it a funny coincidence that your names have the same homophone in the middle?”

Heh, a coincidence?

Xie Zhiqing looked at her familiar smile, but read a deeper meaning: Since “Zhizhi” is so hard to coax, I don’t want you anymore. I’ll just find another “Zhi-zhi” who is easier to please and more obedient.

In the darkness, she closed her eyes.

A self-mocking smile surfaced.

She had always known Cheng Shiyuan couldn’t stand loneliness and could never wait honestly in one spot, so why did she always fail to learn her lesson, falling for the same trick again and again?

Pressing down all the surging emotions, when she reopened her eyes, Xie Zhiqing was back to her calm, composed self. She acted as an oblivious passerby, intending to walk past the two of them.

But someone didn’t want to let her off so easily—

“Oh, who is this?”

Xia Ziran acted as if she had just noticed her, looking around her with exaggerated glances. Seeing no other guests, she asked in a faux-friendly manner:

“Why are you here alone? Did you arrive late again, so you couldn’t pair up with a guest, and no one wanted to make a joint appearance with you?”

Xia Ziran, of course, also recalled that afternoon. Xie Zhiqing stood there like an arrogant black swan, taking it for granted that she should possess all good things, and that they should actively fall into her palm.

While all around her, there were annoying, buzzing voices:

“Hey, transfer student. I advise you not to think about Cheng Shiyuan. She’s taken. They grew up together and are a perfect match. Their fights are just a little fun, so don’t be a third wheel, okay?”

A perfect match? A third wheel?

Her smile grew even brighter. She didn’t feel there was anything wrong with swooping in and stealing Cheng Shiyuan back then. She even intentionally helped her rival recall the outcome from that time:

—The person who arrives late is the third wheel, isn’t that right?

Xie Zhiqing’s footsteps stalled, the sole of her shoe scraping against the tile in a jarring sound.

Her dark eyes stared coldly at Xia Ziran, but this time she wouldn’t be frozen in place like before: “Arriving too early doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll last until the end. In a marathon, the one who perseveres to the finish line is the winner.”

To Xie Zhiqing, Xia Ziran was just a fleeting landscape where Cheng Shiyuan, that overly beautiful butterfly, briefly rested during her occasional flights outside the wall.

In the time before Cheng Shiyuan entered the entertainment industry, when she was young and playful, Xie Zhiqing couldn’t count the number of fresh faces that occasionally appeared. If she were to worry about every single one, she wouldn’t have the time.

Many times, when Cheng Shiyuan tired of those people whose names she couldn’t even recall, she would return to Xie Zhiqing’s side like a tired bird returning to its nest.

Xie Zhiqing didn’t quite understand what there was to boast about being chosen only as a source of “novelty.”

She had only dated Cheng Shiyuan once.

Xia Ziran understood her subtext and found that this person was still as arrogant as she had been years ago, letting out a laugh.

Since they were in the same circle, some information would automatically reach Xia Ziran’s ears even without trying, such as the stories of Cheng Shiyuan and Xie Zhiqing’s on-again, off-again relationship over the years. She had been forced to hear quite a lot.

So, looking at this rival, who had been fooled more times than herself and repeatedly stumbled into the same trap, her gaze shed its jealousy and was filled with pity:

“Only fools talk about persistence; only a clumsy bird needs to fly first.”

“An idiot who can’t find a solution will only comfort themselves with platitudes about hard work paying off and persistence being victory.”

Xia Ziran had no intention of becoming prey repeatedly caught in a trap like Xie Zhiqing.

She was the hunter who controlled the trap.

Xie Zhiqing heard the condescending superiority of a “smart person” in her words and sneered. If love were like the math problems she solved, step by step, how would Xia Ziran, the top student, have ended up being dumped by Cheng Shiyuan back then?

She was about to crush the top student’s self-righteousness, when she heard a ruthless sound—

Cheng Shiyuan, who had seemed trapped, instantly slapped Xia Ziran’s hand away, leaving her side and confidently standing in the middle of the two of them, in a spot where both could reach out and touch her.

But she didn’t seem inclined to belong to either side.

“Don’t act like I’m not here, you two. How can you be catching up right in front of me?”

Cheng Shiyuan rubbed her reddened chin. Realizing that this distance was enough to start regenerating her life from Xie Zhiqing, she secretly let out a sigh of relief, then looked left and right:

“Since both of you came this way, there must be an exit ahead. The production team requires a two-person pairing for the debut, but we have three here…”

She blinked innocently: “So, who should we abandon?”

The little brat is just pouring fuel on the fire.

Xia Ziran saw her deliberate attempt to provoke and escalate the competition between herself and Xie Zhiqing, but she refused to play along.

“Come here.”

Her eyes narrowed dangerously as she warned Cheng Shiyuan: “I don’t recall giving you the chance to choose again.”

Cheng Shiyuan smiled brightly, unfazed by the threat. Instead, she moved a step closer toward Xie Zhiqing: “It was too dark just now, and my mind was a little confused. I forgot something very important—I don’t think I like choosing the overly aggressive type.”

Saying this, she actively raised her hand and linked it with Xie Zhiqing’s arm.

Cheng Shiyuan wasn’t one to save the seed and lose the melon. Rather than playing mind games with the unstable Xia Ziran, whom she hadn’t yet “unlocked,” she preferred the already unlocked Xie Zhiqing, who could reliably sustain her life.

She switched her audio equipment, which she had proactively turned off when she encountered the person, back on:

“I believe the production team set up this section of the path so we could have time for full and careful consideration before our debut. I’ve made my choice now. I’ve chosen the guest I want to appear with.”

“What about you, Teacher Xia Ziran?”

Looking at the fickle, promiscuous bad student, who had been tearfully speaking sweet words to her in the darkness just moments ago, and who was now calling her ‘Teacher’ while her body was fully nestled in Xie Zhiqing’s embrace.

The smile completely vanished from Xia Ziran’s face.

Just before she forcefully reached out to pull the person back—

A thought flashed through her mind like lightning.

Since Xie Zhiqing’s arrival, Cheng Shiyuan hadn’t shown an ounce of surprise from beginning to end.

…They had planned this.

Xia Ziran clenched her back teeth, recalling how she had been so foolishly happy and eager to offer herself up after being called “zhizhi” twice, looking like a jumping clown.

Cheng Shiyuan must be so smug, right?

The familiar metallic taste surged up her throat, but Xia Ziran desperately suppressed it. Her pride would never allow her to expose her distress in front of these two.

But that was all she could manage. She simply had no energy left to say another word.

It was as if an extremely aggressive snake had its venom fangs removed and could only curl back into its dark cave, silently awaiting death.

She looks so pathetic, Cheng Shiyuan thought, yet she pulled Xie Zhiqing along and calmly walked towards the exit.

Who said the latecomer is the third wheel?

The person she didn’t choose, the one she didn’t favor, is the third wheel.