After Marrying the Aloof Beauty, I Totally Fell for Her - Chapter 4

Chapter 4 – It’s Really You

After leaving the gym, An Ning had a simple dinner and went to the school bathhouse to shower.

Warm water flowed over her skin, soothing her sore muscles as she washed and thought about Chen Ying’s suggestion.

She truly didn’t have anyone she liked. Over the years, plenty of people had confessed to her, and while she couldn’t say she felt nothing, it was more of a “thanks, but no thanks” kind of emotion.

Gene matching…

As a young adult at the age when feelings begin to bloom, it would be a lie to say she wasn’t at all curious or intrigued.

But could she really be as lucky as Sister Chen? Just happen to meet someone willing to fake a marriage?

Even if it was a fake marriage, they’d still need to register it officially…

During that half-hour shower, An Ning mentally weighed the pros and cons of the whole thing. By the time she came out, towel-drying her hair, she had made her decision—she’d give it a try.

Back in Dorm 302, which housed four people, only Huang Lu was there. She was wearing headphones and typing furiously on her keyboard, so focused she didn’t even notice An Ning’s return.

Huang Lu—nicknamed “Huang Sang”—was lively and eccentric. According to her, her dream was to become an outstanding writer, but her academic scores weren’t high enough, and her athletic abilities were too good, so she ended up in sports instead. She was now the forum moderator for Yun City University’s Sports Academy board. She hadn’t joined any school teams because she didn’t want to pursue a career in sports, which made her the most idle person in 302 and the primary source of gossip in their dorm.

Just from Huang Lu’s current posture, An Ning could tell she was writing. Huang Lu had claimed she was involved in many paid fandom writing circles. Though her reputation was getting worse, she was indeed making good money.

An Ning didn’t disturb her. She quietly closed the door, hung her clean clothes on the balcony, and climbed into bed to rest.

Lying down, she stretched her sore limbs and took out her phone.

It was only 8:30. Today’s training had ended early due to her poor form, and it wasn’t time to sleep yet.

She opened the app store and searched: Gene Matching.

The first result was an app with an icon of two pinky fingers linked together. Underneath, the word “Official” stood out boldly.

Gene Matching was a policy introduced by the government in recent years—a supposedly more scientific and safer matchmaking platform. To promote the app, they even offered perks like exempting users from certain practicum credits.

Even though An Ning had never been in a relationship, she lingered a few seconds on that blue icon before pressing download.

A slogan slowly appeared:
“Gene Matching—A connection on the genetic level.”

After registering, An Ning carefully read the user instructions.

Basically, the government already had gene samples from everyone in the country. However, without personal consent, the data wouldn’t be used, and there were severe penalties for data theft. When doing a gene match, users should specify their preferences as clearly as possible. The system would automatically match them with people who had over a 60% compatibility and met those preferences. If a match was found and both parties agreed to proceed, the system would send the user’s profile to the other person. If they both agreed, their accounts would be connected as friends—what happened next was up to them.

It all sounded… kind of okay.

An Ning wasn’t the type to procrastinate. Since she had decided to try, she wouldn’t hesitate.

Do you wish to proceed with gene matching?

Yes.

Please specify your partner preferences and write a self-introduction. This will greatly affect your chance of successful matching.

The app provided over thirty filter options—gender, age, education, location, etc. It basically covered every aspect of a person.

This is like writing down your dream partner… An Ning gave a wry smile.

But what if you didn’t have a dream partner?

Suddenly, an image popped into her mind—a face that was at once tender and detached, full of languid indifference.

An Ning jerked in surprise and nearly dropped her phone.

Sins, sins, sins!

Professor Mu, I mean no offense! None at all!

She forcibly pushed the image out of her head and wiped the sweat from her brow.

She had to admit—Professor Mu was aesthetically pleasing. Everyone liked beautiful things, and Mu Yan was definitely the most beautiful person An Ning had ever seen.

But she swore to the heavens that her respect for Professor Mu was as sincere as her fear of her—there was absolutely no ulterior motive.

In the end, An Ning only filled in two hard criteria: age and location. She wrote a brief self-introduction explaining her background and reason for using the app, then clicked confirm.

She didn’t hold out much hope. Most people on this platform were probably seriously looking to get married.

Putting her phone away, she heard a sound below. Looking down from her upper bunk, she saw Huang Lu had taken off her headphones and stood up. Their eyes met.

“Eh? Ning Ning, when did you get back?” Huang Lu blinked sleepily.

An Ning smiled and flashed a V sign. “When you were pounding your keyboard like a maniac. You’re working hard, Big Boss Huang.”

She didn’t read fanfiction, but as a mildly famous athlete, she’d occasionally find “dream girl” fics written about her when she googled herself.

Though she didn’t get why people liked imagining relationships with strangers—or why all the love interests in those stories were girls—she respected their interests and quietly scrolled past.

“Ahem,” Huang Lu crossed her arms smugly. “Praise me more, I love it. But actually, I wasn’t writing just now.”

“Oh? Then what were you doing?” An Ning was curious. What else would require such intense keyboard clacking?

“I was arguing on the forum!” Huang Lu snorted. “Some scumbag from the Arts Department was two-timing girls, then came to our Sports board trash-talking one of the girls. No way I’d let that slide—I lit him up until he rage quit!”

“Oh… I see.” An Ning never understood dramatic love-hate situations, but still asked, “Is the girl okay?”

“She’s heartbroken, of course, but she’s fine. The guy’s counselor is getting an earful right now, and the girl went along too.”

Huang Lu took a big sip from her mug, looking thoroughly satisfied with herself.

“That’s good,” An Ning smiled. Just as she was about to keep chatting, her phone vibrated.

She thought it was a WeChat message, but the icon was the linked-hands logo.

Gene Matching? Already?

An Ning tapped the notification and casually asked Huang Lu, “Hey, have you heard of gene matching?”

Since Huang Lu was always browsing forums, she might have some insight.

“You mean for marriage? Of course! It’s basically the most-used ‘marriage-before-love’ trope in fanfics these days. Doesn’t matter if the other person killed your whole family—once you match, poof! All’s forgiven, cue the passionate romance, two kids in three years, happily ever after.” She gave a thumbs-up. “Very effective.”

“Uh…” An Ning scratched her head and skipped the parts she didn’t understand. “What about in real life?”

“There are real cases too. I know couples in our department who met through it. But the matching system’s pretty strict—I see people crying on the forums every day about not getting any matches. Wait, why are you asking this?”

She looked up at An Ning sitting cross-legged in the top bunk—and froze when she saw her roommate’s eyes widen, staring dumbly at her phone like a stunned deer.

“Ning Ning, you okay?” Huang Lu raised her voice in concern.

Snapped out of it by her voice, An Ning slowly turned her phone screen to her.

Her voice was dazed. “I just want to ask… is 99% match rate considered high?”

On the screen, a short message read:
“Your genetic match has been found. Match rate: 99% (Extremely high). Would you like to continue communication?”

Huang Lu looked at the screen, then at An Ning, then back at the screen, then back again.

“You’re the legendary fanfic female lead?!”

An Ning laughed helplessly. “Stop joking. I seriously don’t know.”

“Of course that’s high!” Huang Lu whipped out her own phone, fingers flying. Moments later, she turned her screen to An Ning. “Here’s last year’s Gene Matching summary—only 0.1% of matches scored over 90%. The highest was 95%.”

An Ning looked at the report, then back at her own phone. “So… this means we’re really compatible?”

“Exactly. The 95% couple even had a baby!” Huang Lu nodded. Then suddenly frowned. “Wait—why are you doing this?”

To most college students, gene matching was something desperate singles turned to. But An Ning? She had topped the campus beauty poll with an overwhelming lead. What made it crazier was that the votes were split evenly between men and women—she was adored across the board. Just yelling “I want a date” on the street would probably get her a dozen roses.

Since freshman year, even casual outings together had drawn at least five people asking for her WeChat.

But no matter how lovestruck her admirers were, her response had always been the same—innocent, polite, and unwavering:
“Sorry, I’m not considering that right now.”

Huang Lu had honestly thought she’d sworn eternal loyalty to the god of badminton. Now she suddenly had a match—and such a high one?

“I just wanted to try,” An Ning didn’t mention the real reason—it involved Chen Ying’s privacy. “Since it’s such a good match, should I just accept?”

She didn’t feel nervous. After all, she’d written her reasons clearly in her self-introduction. If the other party didn’t agree, that’d be the end of it.

But if they did agree, she really was curious—who on earth matched her this well?

“Yes yes yes! Even if it doesn’t work out, just seeing them won’t hurt!” Huang Lu nodded frantically, eyes gleaming with gossip. “Did you filter by gender? Is it a guy or a girl?”

“Nope. What do you want it to be?” An Ning clicked “Agree” and stretched. Her thin sleep shirt lifted slightly, revealing faint lines of toned abs.

Huang Lu sucked in a breath. “Girl. Has to be a girl. I want cute girl couple vibes!”

An Ning looked at her overly excited roommate and thought of those fanfics again. She couldn’t help but laugh. “Yeah… I think a girl would be nice too.”

That night, she slept soundly. The next day, she didn’t receive a reply, but didn’t think much of it—maybe the other party just wasn’t interested.

Still, Huang Lu had already shared the news with their other two roommates. The trio formed the “302 Gossip Watch,” constantly pestering An Ning to check for updates.

But after three days with no news, the app remained silent. The girls started to lose hope. Compared to the calm An Ning, they were the ones visibly disappointed.

An Ning was even considering buying them dinner to make up for their broken hearts when, early one morning, still half-asleep, she opened her phone again—and saw that familiar icon.

Before her brain could react, her hand had already tapped it.

Notification:
“Your communication request has been accepted. The match has been added to your friend list. We wish you a pleasant interaction.”

An Ning stared at the new name in her once-empty friend list. The profile picture was the default one. The username was just a single period.

Kinda cold and aloof…

She checked the notification—it was sent at 2 AM.

It was only 7:30 now. The other person probably wasn’t up yet.

Thinking so, she cautiously sent a message:
“Hi.”

Before she could even put the phone down, it buzzed again.

A reply had appeared beneath her greeting:
“Are you free today? Want to meet?”

The next message was an address—a popular café near Yun University.

That escalated fast.

An Ning, confused, sent back a time.

The reply came instantly:
“.”
Just a period, indicating acknowledgment. Then nothing more.

Once her roommates woke up and heard the news, they erupted into cheers and immediately sprang into action to help An Ning get ready for her “date.” The dorm turned into full prep mode—like she was getting married.

“Since it’s a date, of course she has to wear a dress!” said Lu Lin, a member of the university’s Sanda team. Despite being fierce in the ring, Lu Lin loved colorful, sparkly dresses off-court.

She was now holding a glittery pink long dress, arguing fiercely with Huang Lu, who held up a blazer.

“Why a dress? What if the match is a girl and a total princess type? They’ll know it’s a duplicate!” Huang Lu argued.

“That’s so stereotypical! Also, there’s a 50% chance it’s a guy, you know!”

“If the match isn’t a girl, I’ll eat this blazer!”

An Ning walked quietly over to Chen Ying. “Maybe I should just wear what I usually do?”

Chen Ying nodded, looking like she’d seen enough nonsense. “Put on some light makeup. Look presentable. You’re going on a date, not making a fool of yourself.”

In the end, An Ning wore her usual hoodie and knee-length shorts, plus a touch of lipstick gifted by Chen Ying. She left under the disappointed gazes of her two fashion-crazed roommates.

As dusk approached, the heat faded. The setting sun bathed the school paths in red light. The girl pedaled through it on a shared bike, her youthful, pretty face glowing like a vibrant oil painting.

The café was on a small street beside Yun University. In less than ten minutes, she arrived. Elegant in design, it stood out like a crane among chickens next to fried chicken and bakery shops.

An Ning didn’t like coffee and had never been here, but the steady stream of young patrons suggested it was a popular student spot.

I’m here. Where are you?

She sent a message.

The reply came quickly:
“Private Room 7.”

An Ning followed a staff member upstairs past chatting patrons. Each room had a black-gold plaque.

4, 5, 6…

Approaching Room 7, her heart began to race.

The staff member gestured politely and left.

Nothing to be nervous about.

She reassured herself and knocked.

“Come in.”

A low voice came from inside. Clearly a woman’s, even though she’d deliberately lowered it.

A girl? Really?

Shocked, An Ning opened the door.

The room was dimly lit. A slender woman stood by the window, long hair draped over her shoulders as she looked at the traffic below. She wore a sleeveless black knee-length dress and pale floral high-top sneakers. The scattered starlike sparkles on her dress hem made her already-fair legs look even more striking.

Why did she look… so familiar?

A strong sense of dread rose in An Ning’s heart. The greeting she had prepared spilled from her lips reflexively.

“Hello.”

The woman paused, then slowly turned.

An Ning met a pair of sharp, seductive dark eyes.

Her pupils dilated. She froze like a statue. Her mind went blank. Only her mouth, driven by sheer inertia, continued functioning.

“M-M-Mu… Mu Teacher?”

The woman didn’t answer that obvious question. She simply stepped forward, moving from the dark window toward the light above the table. The warm light swept across her soft features and deep eyes. Even the gentle glow couldn’t mask her aloofness. Her delicate brows furrowed as she spoke coldly:

“It really is you.”

An Ning shivered instinctively.

Even though Mu Yan always looked like that.

Still, somehow… An Ning could tell she was angry.