My Arranged Marriage Partner Is Always Pretending to Be Straight [Transmigrated into a Book] - Chapter 3

Clearly, it was “Qiao Encounter” Bakery—how did it become “Jiao Encounter”?

At ten o’clock the next morning, standing in front of the pastry shop she knew better than anyone, Qiao Mengdi suddenly lacked the courage to approach the automatic glass doors.

Previously, a print advertisement she had designed herself was always pasted right in the center of the bakery’s window.

Mrs. Shi—Shi Yongyun, her mother who ran the shop—had said the poster design was brilliant. She had printed many copies and used them for nearly a year, unwilling to replace them.

Now, Qiao Mengdi had only been gone for three days, yet not only had the shop’s name inexplicably changed, but the advertisement had been replaced as well. The slogan on it—”Jiao Encounter, A Sincere Offering of Happiness and Deliciousness”—was an absolute eyesore.

Everything gave Qiao Mengdi an ominous premonition.

After standing in the sunlight outside the bakery for a few minutes, she summoned her courage and entered.

Seeing that the counters and the organization of the pastries inside were still familiar, Qiao Mengdi breathed a small sigh of relief.

She looked toward the checkout counter. Every weekend, her father, who was a university teacher, and her younger sister, who was still in college, would come to help out.

As expected, the person standing behind the register was her sister, Qiao Mengtian—a girl who looked as quiet and gentle as her name suggested. She was busy packing pastries for a pair of customers who looked like a mother and daughter.

At this time of day, there were few customers. Once the pair had paid and left, Qiao Mengdi became the only “customer” in the shop.

In their shop, unless a customer asked a question, they would never proactively recommend products. To not disturb and to serve customers to the best of their ability was Mrs. Shi’s business philosophy.

Qiao Mengdi was certain Qiao Mengtian had seen her, but that calm, flickering gaze was not the look a sister should have when seeing a sibling who had been missing for three days.

That ominous feeling surged again. Qiao Mengdi didn’t wait any longer. Without even picking up a tray for pastries, she walked empty-handed to the checkout counter.

“Hello, may I help you?” Qiao Mengtian smiled, pressing her lips together.

Yes, it was a polite, professional, and thorough smile.

The words “Hello” and “May I” had already indirectly informed Qiao Mengdi that the girl in front of her did not recognize her.

“Hello, I’m looking for someone,” Qiao Mengdi said, glancing inside. She didn’t see Mrs. Shi or her father, Qiao Leyuan. In the side studio, two pastry chefs were busy decorating cakes.

“Are you looking for someone in our shop? Please, tell me.”

The more polite and professional Qiao Mengtian was, the more uneasy Qiao Mengdi felt.

Qiao Mengdi nodded. “I’m looking for Qiao Mengtian.”

She had originally wanted to say she was looking for Qiao Mengdi, but before she could utter the words, her tongue suddenly refused to follow instructions. No sound would come from her mouth. This sudden physical restriction broke her into a cold sweat, forcing her to change her words.

“What a coincidence!” The professional smile faded, replaced by a look of slight surprise on Qiao Mengtian’s face. “Is it ‘Meng’ as in Mencius and ‘Tian’ as in quiet?”

Qiao Mengdi nodded.

“I’m also called Mengtian, but my name is Jiao Mengtian!” Jiao Mengtian gave Qiao Mengdi a serene smile, then turned toward the wall cabinets and shouted, “Mom! Mom! Come out for a moment!”

Her shout caused Qiao Mengdi’s heart to leap into her throat.

Soon, a woman wearing a chef’s hat and pastry uniform rounded the corner. “Why so loud? What’s the matter?” Her voice carried the concern and tenderness unique to a mother.

It was a voice she knew so well, yet why was she looking right through her?

This scene struck another heavy blow to Qiao Mengdi’s heart.

She had been missing for three whole days. Why was their life still so peaceful? Even the bakery was operating normally, completely unaffected by her disappearance, and naturally, showing not a ripple of emotion at her sudden arrival.

Qiao Mengdi was overcome with a profound sadness. She suddenly understood why “Qiao Encounter” had become “Jiao Encounter.”

At this moment, if she were to rashly claim to be the daughter of the pastry chef and the elder sister of the girl at the counter, they would surely think a madwoman had entered the shop. After all, who wouldn’t recognize their own daughter or sister?

“Are we hiring new staff lately?”

Jiao Mengtian’s question made Qiao Mengdi’s heart tighten again.

“No, why do you ask?”

“Look!” Jiao Mengtian stepped aside and gestured toward Qiao Mengdi. “This beautiful sister is looking for someone with the same name as me, Qiao Mengtian, right?”

Mrs. Shi followed Jiao Mengtian’s gaze to Qiao Mengdi.

Her gentle expression and the way she looked at her like a stranger caused Qiao Mengdi’s heart to shatter instantly.

To answer Jiao Mengtian’s question, she had to quickly suppress her internal grief and feign composure. “Yes, it’s Qiao Mengtian. May I ask… is this lady Shi Yongyun?”

Qiao Mengdi’s face trembled slightly, but the mother and daughter didn’t notice.

Mrs. Shi didn’t find the question strange. The pastries she made were excellent and famous in the area; people often came seeking her by name.

“That’s right, I am Shi Yongyun,” Mrs. Shi said, her voice as gentle as water. “But we haven’t hired any new staff lately, and there is no Qiao Mengtian here. However, my only daughter—there she is—is named Jiao Mengtian. Could you have misheard the surname? Also, may I ask, what business do you have with Qiao Mengtian?”

The only daughter! The only daughter!! Qiao Mengdi felt the world spinning. She instinctively reached out with her right hand to steady herself against the counter, desperately pretending nothing was wrong.

Just by reading a novel, she had been completely erased from her family’s life!

The speech patterns and particles they used, Mrs. Shi’s habitual tenderness, her sister’s identical quiet nature—none of that had changed. So why had she been completely wiped from their world?

The two people in front of her didn’t seem to be acting. Their expressions were utterly sincere.

“Xiaotian, why are you shouting so much? Be honest, did you mess up an order again?”

A middle-aged man walked over as well. It was Qiao Mengdi’s father.

“Sir, do you happen to know—” Qiao Mengdi’s tongue failed her again. No matter how hard she tried, the name “Qiao Mengdi ” would not come out. “Do you know Qiao Leyuan?”

“Aha, sister!” Jiao Mengtian cut in. “I thought it was a coincidence earlier, but now I think my mom is right. You probably misheard. It seems you took ‘Jiao’ for ‘Qiao’.”

“What are you saying? All this ‘Jiao’ and ‘Qiao’ talk.” The middle-aged man spoke to Jiao Mengtian first, then looked up at Qiao Mengdi. His gaze was so warm. In Qiao Mengdi’s memory, she had always believed all fathers should be this warm and dependable.

“I don’t know a Qiao Leyuan, but I know Jiao Leyuan!” He chuckled. “I am Jiao Leyuan.”

Qiao Mengdi had never known what it felt like to have one’s heart pierced, but at this moment, she understood. It felt as if someone was carving into her heart, one stroke at a time.

Her family was right before her eyes, yet there was no way to connect.

They were so close, yet simultaneously infinitely far away.

What exactly went wrong? Qiao Mengdi looked at the three of them, so intimate with one another, and was stung once again by their look of total unfamiliarity toward her.

“Young lady, are you alright?” It was the gentle voice of Mrs. Shi. “Do you feel unwell? Why don’t you take a seat first? I’ll go brew a cup of floral tea for you. You can take your time.” She suddenly realized that the girl before her didn’t seem to be a customer who had come for their reputation.

Qiao Mengdi snapped back to reality at Mrs. Shi’s inquiry. “Oh, I’m sorry! I’m fine.”

As she spoke, her body swayed. Now, all three of them could see how terrible her state was.

Jiao Mengtian was quick to react, immediately coming around from the counter to support Qiao Mengdi and leading her to the seating area.

“You all—” Qiao Mengdi looked at Mrs. Shi and Jiao Leyuan as they followed, opening her mouth but stopping.

She wanted to try and mention a few things their family of four had done together. For example, when her sister got into university and the family visited Disney together, only for Qiao Mengdi to accidentally eat a snack containing pineapple enzymes and nearly go into shock, sending the whole family into a panic. Or the autumn they went to the countryside to harvest rice and made four scarecrows. Or every summer, how the family would take a few days to camp on an island, play in the water, catch crabs, and release them…

But every time she prepared to speak, a mysterious force controlled her tongue, cutting her off just in time.

She could have explained using text, but the reactions of the people before her made her realize that even if she succeeded, they wouldn’t believe her; it would only increase her sorrow.

Ultimately, she changed her story. “I… I recently lost my parents and my sister. I remember my mother once told me that there was a family here with names identical to theirs, so I wanted to come and see.”

Having just recovered a bit of energy after her hunger strike, Qiao Mengdi was wilting again under this blow. Cold sweat covered her forehead.

Her fabricated story was believed wholeheartedly by the three people surrounding her.

Shi Yongyun sat down as well and took Qiao Mengdi’s hand.

Those hands, capable of making such delicious pastries, were so warm—so warm that Qiao Mengdi felt she might be burned by them. Unconsciously, she pulled her hand away from under hers.

“Xiaotian, go brew a cup of rose tea,” Mrs. Shi said.

Jiao Mengtian nodded and left.

Jiao Leyuan and Shi Yongyun stood by Qiao Mengdi. To them, she was merely an uninvited guest, yet their eyes were filled with such genuine concern that Qiao Mengdi had an illusion—that this was just a normal day when she was sick and her parents were worrying over her.

“I’m sorry for coming so abruptly and causing you trouble.” Qiao Mengdi wanted to flee from their caring gazes immediately, but in her current physical state, she had to rest for a moment first.

“Two families, three people with the same names—that is an extraordinary fate. Don’t speak of trouble,” said Jiao Leyuan, who was still standing. “If I may ask… your parents and sister, how did—?” He was naturally a curious man and had clearly been holding back the question for a while.

“I don’t know if you’ve followed the news,” Qiao Mengdi thought of a recent incident involving a missing airplane. “They were on that flight to visit me in the city where I study. The plane went missing at sea and hasn’t been found yet.”

As expected, Mrs. Shi and Jiao Leyuan sighed in grief.

At that moment, Jiao Mengtian returned with the floral tea.

Qiao Mengdi took the tea, placed it on the table, and thanked her.

“Perhaps it’s a bit bold of me, but since we have such a fate, if you don’t mind and need any help, feel free to speak up,” Mrs. Shi said gently. “Oh, by the way, we still don’t know your name.”

“Qiao Mengdi.” The name she couldn’t say before slipped out of her mouth at Mrs. Shi’s question.

After answering, she couldn’t help but be startled. In that instant, she understood: the “Qiao Mengdi ” she had tried to mention before was her former self, but the “Qiao Mengdi ” she could speak of now was the female lead of The Blood and Tears of Marriage. “My father was Qiao Leyuan, my mother was Shi Yongyun, and my sister was Qiao Mengtian.” Surely they wouldn’t pay attention to the list of names of those who went missing with the plane.

“Ah, what a coincidence!”

“If we had a daughter named Jiao Mengdi, it would be just like a parallel world in a TV drama.”

“Old Jiao, please be serious,” Shi Yongyun scolded.

“I think Dad is right,” Jiao Mengtian said, looking at Qiao Mengdi’s chest area. “If I had such a stunningly beautiful sister—it would be wonderful.”

Qiao Mengdi looked down, suppressing a sorrowful smile. In the past, her sister loved to complain about how unfair it was—why did the same parents produce one D-cup and one A-cup? Why create Zhou Yu if you already have Zhuge Liang?

“You father and daughter, honestly—”

“It’s alright.” Qiao Mengdi knew Mrs. Shi was being mindful of her feelings. “I’m very happy to have met you. I won’t disturb you any longer. Thank you for your hospitality.” With that, she took a few sips of the hot tea. The sweet, fragrant floral tea flowed deep into her body, stirring a wave of warmth. “Goodbye.”

Before leaving, she bought some of the pastries Mrs. Shi had made.

They tried to convince her to stay and rest a bit longer, but Qiao Mengdi was determined to leave. They saw her to the door.

Qiao Mengdi stepped down from the threshold, turned to wave at them, looked one last time into their incredibly warm eyes, and smiled. She had always been the glamorous type, but her smile was now haggard.

After leaving, she didn’t look back. She was afraid that if she turned around, she would weaken and be unable to stop herself from trying to make them believe she was their eldest daughter.

All along the way, she thought that she would likely never see them again. She was afraid of disturbing them, and even more afraid of a broken heart.

Therefore, she felt that saying she had “just lost her parents and sister” wasn’t entirely a lie to trick their emotions.

“Qiao Encounter” was in the West District of Luzhou, near the university educational area; whereas the original host’s home and the Yao family were in Eastern Luzhou, a gathering place for officials and the wealthy. The drive between the two was over an hour—practically two different cities.

Unless she made a specific trip, the chance of them meeting again was nearly zero.

With a heart set on a final farewell, Qiao Mengdi quickened her pace.

She wanted to get home quickly and rest. Tonight, she had to meet Yao Chiyue, and she had very important things to say to her.