The Fake Girlfriend is Online - Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Exposed

It was past 8:00 PM, and the sky had turned completely dark. However, this commercial district in the city center was exceptionally lively. Couples on dates, colleagues dining together, and friends out for the night—everyone carried their own hidden thoughts while walking through the darkness.

Qing Mo Ran finished her mineral water in a few gulps, tossed the bottle into a nearby trash can, and walked away quickly. Turning a corner, she flipped her baseball cap backward over her purple hair and pulled the money she had just won from the dance battle out of her pocket to count it.

The purple-haired girl kept her head down, her smile growing wider as she counted. Behind the bustling commercial streets, such activities existed: young, competitive men and women gathered together, betting their valuables and seeking thrills through street dance or street basketball.

Because she was counting money and not looking where she was going, Qing Mo Ran’s path was soon blocked by a shadow. She moved to the left, and the shadow followed; she moved to the right, and the shadow followed again. Finally, Qing Mo Ran looked up impatiently.

“…” She was about to snap at the person, but the words died in her throat when she saw who it was.

“Yo, little deskmate?” Mu Jinxuan called out with a smile before Qing Mo Ran could speak.

Facing the deskmate she had just met today, Qing Mo Ran expertly adopted the attitude used for strangers: “Little classmate, you’ve got the wrong person, haven’t you?” With that, she tried to brush past her.

Hearing the words “little classmate,” Mu Jinxuan straightened her posture slightly. “‘Little’ classmate?”

The emphasis on the word “little” and the fact that she was at least ten centimeters taller than Qing Mo Ran were both silent protests against the label.

“Heh heh,” Qing Mo Ran replied, making her stance clear.

Normally, if someone you just met caught you in a situation like this, wouldn’t they keep quiet to save face? Why was this Mu Jinxuan kid coming out to expose her?

But Mu Jinxuan was no ordinary person. She was simply bored, didn’t want to go home, and had nowhere else to go. Encountering something this fun, she naturally wanted to poke her nose in.

“Ah, sorry. You really do look exactly like my crippled deskmate. Especially that mole on your left cheek—it’s quite cute, haha.”

Hearing the phrase “crippled deskmate” made Qing Mo Ran want to punch Mu Jinxuan, especially since it reminded her of the embarrassing “leaf on the head” incident at school earlier.

Thinking that since Mu Jinxuan had already noticed the mole, there was no point in pretending anymore, she was just about to put on a smile and admit it when a bad feeling washed over her.

“Boss, she’s over there, and her friend is with her!” Qing Mo Ran’s sharp ears recognized the voice—it belonged to the group she had just battled.

The two turned to see the trendy young men and women from earlier, now each wielding a long wooden club. The group of four was marching toward them aggressively.

Qing Mo Ran hissed a “Crap!” and bolted, not forgetting to signal Mu Jinxuan to run as well.

“D*mn, Boss, they’re running!”

Mu Jinxuan, who had initially thought this had nothing to do with her, cursed under her breath when she heard the guy say “they.” She turned and followed Qing Mo Ran. Using her long-leg advantage, she caught up to her deskmate in no time.

“Student Qing, what’s the deal? Did you offend them?”

“Who knows? They’re just sore losers,” Qing Mo Ran said disdainfully.

“Oh ho, so Student Qing admits you’re my crippled deskmate?” Mu Jinxuan smirked.

The “crippled deskmate” rewarded her with a massive eye-roll.

They kept running until they suddenly realized there was no path ahead. Mu Jinxuan grabbed Qing Mo Ran before she could charge into the dead end and turned to face the panting group of youths.

“Huff… huff… stop… stop running if you’ve got the guts… damn, you run fast,” the lead youth managed to threaten between gasps.

“You… you… you… do you have a stutter?” Mu Jinxuan, who wasn’t even winded after the run, mocked the youth’s tone.

“Crap! I can’t stand her!”

Mu Jinxuan added fuel to the fire: “Is that all you’ve got? You’re pretty pathetic, brother.”

The man, hearing Mu Jinxuan’s insinuation that he was “inadequate” in a certain way, flared up in rage. He raised his club, ready for a life-and-death struggle.

“Whoa, whoa, brother, what are you doing? Murder is against the law. Don’t be impulsive. Besides, with that scrawny frame of yours, can you even lift that club?” Mu Jinxuan continued her trash-talk skill.

Standing aside, Qing Mo Ran watched Mu Jinxuan’s mouth go non-stop, line after line of trash talk flowing out. She wondered if her deskmate’s reputation as a “school bully” was earned entirely through her mouth. She truly couldn’t compete with that.

The group was locked in a verbal war with Mu Jinxuan. Originally, they were just frustrated about losing the dance battle and wanted to vent; they hadn’t seriously planned to fight two girls. But after several minutes of being bombarded by Mu Jinxuan’s insults, they genuinely wanted to beat her up.

“Are you guys going or not? A whole group of people chasing us with sticks—aren’t you embarrassed? If you don’t move, I will,” Mu Jinxuan cracked her knuckles, feigning an attack.

As soon as she finished, one of the boys couldn’t take it anymore. He let out a shout and lunged forward with his club.

Mu Jinxuan moved like lightning. With a mid-air spin and a side kick, she knocked the club out of his hand, then followed up with a knee strike that sent him to the ground. After successfully taking one down, she pulled a fast one.

Looking past the group, she shouted toward the street: “Officer! Over here! We’re being threatened!”

Sure enough, the sound of shouting came from behind them as “police” seemed to be running toward the scene. While the group was distracted, Mu Jinxuan snatched Qing Mo Ran’s hat, set it straight on her head, pulled up her own hoodie, and dragged Qing Mo Ran into a dark side path.

The confused punks were caught red-handed by the approaching officers, while Mu Jinxuan and her companion used the delay to make a clean escape.

The alley they ducked into was lit only by a few flickering lamps. It was only now that Qing Mo Ran had time to notice her surroundings. They had been running for so long that they had left the bustling city center far behind. She had never been to this area before.

Tightly closed doors, old buildings, flickering bulbs overhead, and a maze of crisscrossing alleys—after being dragged around for just a few minutes, she was completely lost.

Qing Mo Ran felt Mu Jinxuan’s slightly cool palm gripping her hand tightly. The cold wind whistled through her unzipped jacket. Just as she was about to ask her to stop, Mu Jinxuan let go.

Mu Jinxuan steadied Qing Mo Ran as she stumbled forward from the momentum and smiled: “Deskmate, you don’t need to be that excited to thank me.”

Qing Mo Ran had lost count of how many times she had rolled her eyes at Mu Jinxuan today.

For a moment, silence fell, and the awkward atmosphere returned. Mu Jinxuan broke the silence by taking off Qing Mo Ran’s hat, reaching out to tidy the hair that had been ruffled by the wind, and then putting the hat back on. Qing Mo Ran stood still and let her do it; aside from the lack of gentleness in the movements, everything felt just right.

“Haha, sorry,” Mu Jinxuan explained. “The alley mouth we were just at was a blind spot for the cameras, but there were cameras nearby, so I had to set your hat straight.”

“Thanks for just now,” Qing Mo Ran smiled back, though she was thinking: Crap, she had such a huge reaction when I tried to touch her head during the day, I should have refused to cooperate just now too.

“No problem.”

“Those people tonight lost to me in the dance battle. They probably weren’t happy about it. I dragged you into this,” Qing Mo Ran said politely. She didn’t explain her “broken leg” or the dance battle further, her tone returning to the gentle one she used during the day.

“Actually, I only stopped you because I saw you dancing. To be honest, I didn’t expect you to be so badass,” the school bully Mu Jinxuan gave her a thumbs up.

Qing Mo Ran smiled slightly, doing her best to look “shy.”

Having seen the cool, provocative expression Qing Mo Ran wore during the battle, Mu Jinxuan found this “shy” look incredibly fake. She changed the subject: “Come on, I’ll lead you out. The terrain here is complex; you’ll get lost if you don’t know the way. So, ‘little kids’ shouldn’t come play here.”

Hearing the words “little kid,” Qing Mo Ran suspected the bully was still holding a grudge over the “little classmate” comment earlier. She felt a cold sweat.

Mu Jinxuan led her in a different direction. Qing Mo Ran followed with total confidence, not worrying at all that she might be led to some pyramid scheme—if it were, the leader would surely be this King of Trash Talk, Mu Jinxuan.

“Actually, I dyed my hair blue-purple,” Qing Mo Ran said, not knowing why she was telling her this. She figured it was a way to thank her for the rescue.

“Hmm? Then why did it look black today?”

“Student Mu, have you ever heard of temporary hair dye?”

Mu Jinxuan curled her lip and let out a single syllable: “Tch.”

Qing Mo Ran tugged a lock of her hair. “It turns black because of that. I have to dye it every day.”

This time, Mu Jinxuan nodded seriously, waiting for the rest of the story, but Qing Mo Ran didn’t speak further, and Mu Jinxuan didn’t ask. Everyone has secrets they aren’t ready to tell. They reached the mouth of the alley in silence.

“Alright, there should still be buses. Are you going straight home?” Mu Jinxuan, hit by the cold wind, coughed and tightened her clothes.

“Of course I’m going straight home.” Qing Mo Ran waved and walked toward the bus stop, only to find her deskmate following her.

“You don’t live here?”

Mu Jinxuan explained: “I used to. Not anymore. These houses are basically condemned now.”

“Then where are you going?”

“I… I’m going to the West District.” She definitely wasn’t going back to “Jincheng” in the East District right now.

“I’m going to the South District, so we’re going different ways,” Qing Mo Ran smiled with a hint of regret—it was hard to tell how much of it was real. “Remember to take some more medicine when you get back. Don’t let that cold get worse from the wind.”

“Yeah, thanks for the medicine today,” Mu Jinxuan pulled a piece of paper from her pocket. “This seems to be yours. It was stuck in the box. Here, I’m getting on.”

With that, Mu Jinxuan shoved the small note into Qing Mo Ran’s arms and stepped onto the approaching bus.

Qing Mo Ran slowly unfolded the note, a sense of dread rising. Before she even fully opened it, she saw the bold words “Warm Reminder.” It was the very note An Xiao Xi had given her that afternoon, with the words “She is a school bully” staring back at her in plain sight.

“Crap!”