The Fake Girlfriend is Online - Chapter 14

Chapter 14: Mu Jinxuan Disappears

This afternoon, Mu Jinxuan, who wanted to slip away immediately after class, was blocked at the classroom door by Li Yulan. To top it off, Qing Moran was also kept behind.

“Mu Jinxuan, halt! Where do you think you’re running? Qing Moran will help you tutor physics for forty minutes every day after school,” Li Yulan said, having guarded the door in advance. She then turned to Qing Moran behind her: “Qing Moran, you haven’t been to school for two months either. You should also stay in the classroom for self-study every afternoon. If there’s anything you don’t understand, just come ask me. While you’re at it, help Mu Jinxuan catch up on physics.”

Seeing Li Yulan suddenly appear at the front door, the other students in the class collectively turned toward the back door and slipped away. If she happened to be in a bad mood and kept them behind too, it would be a massive loss.

Li Yulan kept her gaze on Qing Moran, waiting for her to nod in agreement. However, the look Qing Moran received clearly meant “you agree whether you want to or not, no discussion.” She had no choice but to nod, though in her mind, she had already cursed Li Yulan over and over for God knows how long.

Since Li Yulan had personally come to catch them and her deskie had nodded, Mu Jinxuan had to turn back to her seat, slamming her schoolbag down.

A loud “thud” echoed through the classroom. Those who hadn’t left yet were startled by the noise. They stole glances at Mu Jinxuan, watching her pull out her chair with great irritation, the harsh scraping sound grinding against the floor. She looked impatiently at her deskie, who was still standing before Li Yulan. Seeing this, they all simultaneously recalled the rumors about the School Bully Mu; terrified, they packed their things and slipped away quietly.

Li Yulan looked at Mu Jinxuan but said nothing before turning to go back to her office. After all, in her view, getting Mu Jinxuan to stay and study was already a miracle.

“Deskie, let’s get started. What are we studying?” Mu Jinxuan crossed her right leg over her left and casually flipped through the physics textbook on the desk.

Qing Moran looked outside the classroom. Once she was sure Li Yulan was far away, she walked up to Mu Jinxuan and held out her right hand: “Phone.”

“Huh?”

“Add me on WeChat.”

Mu Jinxuan looked at her strangely. For a long time, the two indeed didn’t have each other’s contact information, but saying this now seemed a bit ill-timed.

“What, have a crush on me? Or do you want my contact info to sell it for money?” Mu Jinxuan draped her arm over the back of the chair and leaned back, but she showed no intention of taking out her phone.

Seeing Mu Jinxuan’s lazy demeanor, Qing Moran didn’t waste words. She approached the desk, reached into the drawer, and fished out the phone.

“Holy crap! What are you doing? Xiao Qing, this isn’t right. Outsiders aren’t allowed to touch my phone. Is it possible you want to become my ‘inner person’ (wife)? Besides, you can’t open it without a password.” Despite the quick series of movements, Mu Jinxuan didn’t actually stop her.

Click! To Mu Jinxuan’s utter confidence, she heard the sound of her phone screen unlocking. She stared at Qing Moran in disbelief.

“No way? How do you know my lock screen password?” Mu Jinxuan was genuinely shocked.

Ignoring the shock, Qing Moran quickly opened WeChat, scanned her QR code, and handed the phone back after successfully adding her.

“If Li Yulan comes later, just say I went to the restroom. If anything happens, just message me. I’m leaving first.” Without waiting for a reply, she turned to escape the tutoring session.

“What? Hey! At least pay attention to your image at school. Is it really okay to have the School Bully cover for you?”

“As long as you don’t say anything, who will know? And if someone does find out, at least I’ll know who to look for,” Qing Moran said half-threateningly. “Also, with a password as simple as ‘0000,’ any idiot could guess it just by glancing at your hand movements when you unlock it.”

Hearing this, Mu Jinxuan wanted to challenge her to a duel, but feeling her combat power wasn’t as high as her deskie’s, she could only watch her walk out of the classroom. Only after she left did Mu Jinxuan realize she should have threatened to tell Li Yulan. Now, she was left alone with a physics book she didn’t know how to read.

“Sigh, are all ‘top students’ like this now? Am I behind the trends, or is this ‘cool scholar’ look the new fashion?” Mu Jinxuan muttered to herself as she sat down. She thought back to her own top student image in middle school; she used to listen to the teachers seriously.

Sitting in the chair, she originally intended to browse her phone and then slip away, but after a minute or two, she put it down. She frustratedly ruffled her hair with both hands, fished out the glasses she hadn’t used since the start of the term from the depths of her bag, and put them on. She took out the physics book and swiped a supplementary guide from Hu Hai’s desk to start studying. She had looked for one in her deskie’s desk first, but who knew this deskie wouldn’t even do the “image-keeping” properly—there wasn’t a single supplementary book on her desk.

As Qing Moran walked toward the school gate while replying to messages, she overheard gossip about her seatmate. Truly, a case of walking through school and having “melons” (gossip) fall from the sky.

“Hey, have you heard? Mu Jinxuan from Class 1 is actually being kept by someone.”

“Crap, that’s heavy! Is it true? If Mu Jinxuan hears us, won’t we…” The speaker made a throat-slitting gesture. One didn’t dare spread rumors about the School Bully lightly.

“Look, look! It was posted on the school forum. Someone caught photos of Mu Jinxuan going in and out of luxury stores with a man.”

After a brief silence, the group erupted in exclamations.

“Holy crap, that really is Mu Jinxuan. Who is this guy? His face is pixelated… Wow, there’s more than one photo. The photographer has guts, taking photos of her so openly.”

“Who knows who the guy is? But this gossip is juicy. And from what the OP (original poster) says, they’ve run into them more than once. The photos range from shortly after school started until now.”

“No wonder Mu Jinxuan dares to offend even Li Yulan. If she’s expelled, she’s not without options; she’s got someone backing her.”

“I just wonder what the guy looks like, to actually like someone with a tomboy image like Mu Jinxuan.”

“Haha, but don’t you think Mu Jinxuan is actually pretty handsome?”

As they talked, the topic veered off course.

Having heard the whole thing, Qing Moran curled her lip slightly and muttered “Childish.” She finished replying to her messages but couldn’t help opening the school forum. She searched the keyword “Mu Jinxuan,” and to her surprise, a mountain of posts popped up.

One could see just how much attention the School Bully attracted from the number of “floors” built by the students. Finding the latest post, she felt an urge to laugh at the title:

“Why is Mu Jinxuan so arrogant? This set of pictures takes you into the daily life of a ‘kept’ school bully”

Qing Moran clicked the cover photo. The person was undoubtedly Mu Jinxuan. She was currently holding a man’s arm; the man was quite a bit taller than her, and she was looking up at him, talking. One could see from the photo that she was smiling very happily. Most prominent were the Chanel and Pandora shopping bags in the man’s hands. Though the photo didn’t show what they bought, Qing Moran could smell the scent of money through the screen.

Qing Moran clicked her tongue, but looking closely, she felt the man’s build was very familiar, as if she had seen him somewhere. She tried hard to recall but couldn’t, so she saved the photo. She planned to ask Mu Jinxuan about it the next day; after all, as a “good Chinese seatmate,” it was better to give her a heads-up.

She had intended to show it to Mu Jinxuan at school, but to her surprise, starting from that day, the seat beside her was empty. To be precise, Mu Jinxuan was gone, though her textbooks and the extracurricular books in her drawer were all still there.

By the third day of Mu Jinxuan’s absence, rumors in the grade were flying everywhere. Some said she was too ashamed to come to school after the “kept woman” scandal was exposed and was hiding at home before transferring schools. Others said she couldn’t handle it and tried to take her own life, but was saved by her family and was now locked up.

“Hey, Moran, do you know what happened to Boss Mu?” After class, Hu Hai came to ask Qing Moran about Mu Jinxuan again.

“I don’t know. It shouldn’t be anything major, don’t worry.” In fact, on the second day Mu Jinxuan didn’t show up, Qing Moran remembered she had her WeChat. She had asked her what was wrong, and the reply was two words: “It’s nothing.” There was no follow-up. Qing Moran was certain that Mu Jinxuan was still alive and well, continuing to be a menace to society.

However, by the Monday of the second week, Mu Jinxuan still hadn’t come to class, and Li Fei hadn’t explained her situation to the class committee. Qing Moran suddenly had a bad premonition.

The rumors about Mu Jinxuan in the grade grew more numerous: she was caught by the original wife; the man was a local mob boss who was framed, and she was caught in the crossfire. Stories like these were endless. Qing Moran thought that if Mu Jinxuan didn’t show up soon, the rumors about her could fill a story anthology.

That afternoon after school, Li Fei called Qing Moran to the office.

“Report.” Qing Moran entered the office. Only Li Fei was left, flipping through a small notebook with a frown. His glasses were off to the side, and he was rubbing his temples with his thumb and index finger.

After waiting a moment and realizing Li Fei hadn’t heard her, she walked toward him while calling “Teacher Li.”

Li Fei’s desk was as messy as the first time she visited. Lesson plans and textbooks were tossed in corners, several poetry collections and literary novels were at the edge of the desk, and the surface was covered in papers—specifically, student family background forms. A small diary was placed on top.

“Ah, Moran is here. Have a seat. I want to talk to you about Student Mu Jinxuan.” Li Fei tidied the papers slightly, but it felt like the more he tidied, the messier it got.

“You’ve been Mu Jinxuan’s seatmate for nearly a month now; you should know her fairly well. I wanted to ask if you noticed anything unusual about her last week?”

Qing Moran understood. Li Fei must have been unable to contact Mu Jinxuan as well. “There was nothing abnormal the last time I saw her.”

“I see. Do you know who else is in her family? Or do you have their phone numbers?” Li Fei didn’t explicitly say he couldn’t reach Mu Jinxuan, but he believed someone as smart as Qing Moran would hear the gravity of the situation.

“I contacted her once on the second day she was absent, but she told me she was fine. I tried to contact her today, but I couldn’t get through.”

“Alright. Try to contact her again. If there’s any news, let me know.” It seemed there were no other options.

“Teacher Li, can’t you contact her family?” Qing Moran had wanted to ask from the start. If parents couldn’t reach their daughter, wouldn’t they call the police?

“Well, their family… the situation is a bit special. I haven’t been able to reach her mother these past few days, and the phone of the secondary contact has been off.” Li Fei sounded distressed.

Leaving the office, Qing Moran pulled out her phone and sent a WeChat message to Mu Jinxuan.

MR: You there?

There was no reply for a long time.

Looking down at Mu Jinxuan’s WeChat, she thought her profile picture was strange. What high schooler would use a picture of biological cells as their avatar?

As she walked, Qing Moran suddenly remembered. There was one place she might be able to find Mu Jinxuan. She broke into a run toward the bus that had just pulled into the station, heading in the opposite direction of her own home.