Online Romance with an Iceberg Professor Backfired - Chapter 6
Chapter 6: Display
Ji Fan returned around 3:00 AM.
Ji Pei had forgotten to lock her bedroom door again. She was sound asleep when Ji Fan, smelling strongly of alcohol, threw herself into her arms, crying hysterically.
Ji Pei could barely distinguish day from night. She patted Ji Fan’s back, trying to soothe her.
“What’s wrong? Didn’t you go to meet your online date? Did the in-person meeting fail?”
Ji Fan choked out, sobbing, “She tricked me! After I met her, I found out she’s a woman!”
Upon hearing Ji Fan’s final wail, Ji Pei’s sleepiness instantly vanished, and she blinked, sensing a juicy piece of gossip.
“What? A woman?”
“Yeah, she’s a woman.”
Ji Fan’s mouth was contorted into a parallelogram from crying. She sniffled, “I just got off the plane in S City and got a call from her. She said she was waiting at the airport, wearing a black hoodie and a red baseball cap.”
“I saw her right away. She had long hair. I thought she was my date’s older sister.”
Ji Pei mentally pictured Ji Fan’s online date: tall, slender, good figure, and likely decent style. Otherwise, how could Ji Fan have spotted her immediately in a crowded airport?
It seems everything is fate.
Ji Pei hugged Ji Fan, stroking her back and hair gently, over and over again.
“What does she look like? Is she pretty?”
Ji Fan sniffled, using a tissue to wipe her tears. “She looks… quite pretty.”
“Well, then it’s settled.”
Ji Pei pulled out a tissue to dab Ji Fan’s tears, tightly pursing her upward-curving lips to hold back a smile, and comforted her, “Gender doesn’t matter. Since you found her pleasant to look at immediately, it means you don’t dislike her. It’s just a slightly bigger difference from your internal expectation.”
Ji Fan bit her lower lip. “A slightly bigger difference? Even her gender changed…”
Ji Pei raised an eyebrow and asked, “Did she pretend to be a man to trick you, or did neither of you clarify your genders at the start?”
Ji Fan was rare to choke on her words. “That… I don’t think I ever actually asked if she was a man or a woman…”
“…”
“Tsk.”
Ji Pei finally couldn’t help but laugh out loud. “What can I say about you? You’re online dating, and you forgot the most important thing! You didn’t even ask if they were a man or a woman. Have you learned your lesson now?”
Ji Fan’s voice was hoarse and thick with snot. “It’s because her profile picture and username were so gender-neutral!”
She opened WeChat, held up her phone to Ji Pei, and said, “Look!”
Ji Pei squinted, reading the screen in the lamp light. “Which one is she?”
Ji Fan belatedly remembered that she had already deleted the person’s contact, and slumped back onto the bed. “I deleted her.”
“She didn’t really do anything wrong.”
Ji Pei took Ji Fan’s phone and immediately received a friend request notification.
Gu Nian requests to add you as a friend.
“Ji Fan, I’m Gu Nian. You left your jacket with me.”
A dramatic background song filled Ji Pei’s mind: “Your online date has a really nice name, Gu Nian.”
Ji Fan’s eyes widened. She pointed at the phone screen and said, “So she really is called that! I always thought it was just her online name.”
Ji Pei: “…”
She truly didn’t know how her sister managed to get into the same university as her with that brain.
Ji Pei’s hand hovered over the phone screen, asking for Ji Fan’s opinion: “She added you as a friend. Should I accept?”
Ji Fan mumbled, too embarrassed to speak clearly. “I… um…”
“This whole thing is just a misunderstanding. It’s not really her fault, especially since you didn’t even ask her gender.”
“Then why didn’t she volunteer the information…”
Ji Pei pinched Ji Fan’s cheek. “You forgot, so others might forget too. Maybe she likes you so much she’s head over heels and forgot to mention it.”
Ji Fan’s nose was red, and she started begging Ji Pei for help. “What should I do? I yelled at her, deleted her WeChat, bought a ticket, and left without a word.”
Ji Pei: “Add her back and apologize.”
Ji Fan ultimately fled Ji Pei’s room with her phone. Ji Pei didn’t know how she would handle it, and she hadn’t expected a simple meet-up to result in such a massive misunderstanding.
It’s a little scary to think about. Ji Pei couldn’t help but start worrying about her own situation.
Winter Sun was a woman. They had voice chatted, and her voice was delicate and pleasant to listen to. Ji Pei felt like she’d heard it somewhere before, probably a voice actor in a TV show. So, Winter Sun couldn’t be a man, but she couldn’t rule out the possibility of the person being transgender.
Ji Pei certainly didn’t want that tiny possibility to fall upon her.
She opened her phone to check the time. It was already 4:00 AM. Ji Fan had been crying and carrying on for nearly an hour.
Ji Pei opened her door and tiptoed to Ji Fan’s bedroom door, pressing her ear against it for a moment. No crying, no yelling, no hysterics. She must have accepted the painful reality.
Ji Pei sighed silently. She was wide awake now and instinctively opened the “Decibel” app, considering bothering Winter Sun. But given the time, Winter Sun must have been long asleep.
She boredly scrolled through short video clips for a while. An ad jumped to WeChat. Ji Pei opened Moments and emotionlessly began liking people’s posts.
Flipping the screen with her finger, Ji Pei suddenly saw a very eye-catching photo. She looked closer and realized the photo was posted by Jiang Xianhan.
Ji Pei had over a thousand WeChat friends, all neatly sorted into groups and labeled. For example, she had categorized Jiang Xianhan into the “Anti-Human Organism” group.
Jiang Xianhan’s Moments were public, unlike those set to three days visibility. Ji Pei could actually see posts she made three years ago. There were various awards, trophies, and photos of her in formal attire at debate competitions. Almost every post had a front or side view of Jiang Xianhan’s face.
Ji Pei scrolled through everything. Thankfully, WeChat didn’t have a viewing history feature; otherwise, Jiang Xianhan would definitely think she was a perverted stalker.
A photo of Jiang Xianhan with her hair tied back for a volunteer event slowly magnified beneath Ji Pei’s fingers. Ji Pei stared at Jiang Xianhan’s expressionless face and clicked her tongue.
No wonder she’s the most popular professor in the entire department. It seemed everyone was drawn to her idol-level looks.
Sure enough, it’s Jiang Xianhan. She seemed completely self-aware of her beauty and charisma. Ji Pei couldn’t detect a single ounce of narcissism.
Perhaps that’s the nature of absolute talent.
Morning.
Ye Wenzhu’s flower shop received another batch of blue hydrangeas.
Two apprentices moved the flowers onto the shelves. Chen Yingying took a deep sniff of the flowers and sneezed several times, choked by the pollen.
Ye Wenzhu heard the commotion and turned around, her eyes curving into crescent moons.
“Good thing you’re not allergic to pollen, or with that lethal amount of dust, calling an ambulance wouldn’t even be fast enough.”
Chen Yingying awkwardly rubbed her nose.
Ye Wenzhu was sitting comfortably in her chair when she suddenly heard the sound of an order being placed near the register.
Chen Yingying wiped her hands and ran over, eyes wide as she exclaimed, “Boss, we have a big deal!”
“What kind of big deal? Have you been watching too many cop movies?”
Ye Wenzhu slowly stood up from the bamboo chair and walked to the counter. “Let me see what big deal has gotten you this excited.”
A buyer named Winter Sun, gender unknown, had placed an order for nine hundred and ninety-nine red roses and requested them to be air-freighted from France. They needed the freshest, most beautiful, most perfect flower buds, with absolutely no flaws.
Just as Chen Yingying had said, this was indeed a huge transaction.
The prices at Ye Wenzhu’s flower shop weren’t cheap. Her shop was located in the heart of the city where land was expensive, and while the store wasn’t large, the quality of her flowers was well-known. Families with modest incomes were deterred by the prices. Her clients were mostly wealthy individuals for whom the flowers weren’t as important as their social status.
Could these flowers be for a proposal?
Ye Wenzhu had previously encountered stingy rich people who would walk away after hearing the price because they felt such expensive flowers weren’t necessary for a proposal.
This was a massive order. Ye Wenzhu pulled out the receipt and examined it carefully. She wanted to know who the person being proposed to was.
Delivery Address: XX District, XX Street, XXXX, A City…
Ye Wenzhu recognized the address; it was considered a high-end residential area in A City, indicating that the couple was of similar standing, and the woman must also be quite wealthy.
She looked at the recipient’s name on the order, lost her balance, and nearly slid off the bamboo chair, almost hurting her back.
Recipient: Ji Pei.
Ye Wenzhu blinked, then rubbed her eyes hard with the back of her hand.
Chen Yingying couldn’t help but ask, “Boss, did you get sand in your eye?”
Ye Wenzhu shook her head silently.
Chen Yingying leaned in for a look and exclaimed in surprise, “Oh? Boss, isn’t this the address we often deliver flowers to? The address of your good friend, Sister Ji Pei!”
The two apprentices exchanged glances, signaling they had stumbled upon some fresh gossip.
Ye Wenzhu rubbed her chin, took a sip of jasmine tea, and began to contemplate.
Who exactly was this Winter Sun? Could he (she) also be one of Ji Pei’s suitors?
Ye Wenzhu had encountered many men and women who bought flowers from her, and they would often ask her to handwrite a postcard. She had written Ji Pei’s name no less than twenty times.
The key was that this person had some nerve, having even obtained Ji Pei’s specific address. She wondered what their intentions were.
Could Ji Pei have given this person the address? That seemed unlikely. Ji Pei was usually a cautious person and wouldn’t give her home address to a stranger.
Unless…
Ye Wenzhu suddenly understood. This must be a gift from Ji Pei’s online date!
She checked the bill. The air freight alone from France would cost a significant amount, not to mention this particular variety of roses.
It seemed this online date came from a wealthy background and must be quite rich.
Thinking this, Ye Wenzhu breathed a sigh of relief. She knew Ji Pei wasn’t so blinded by love that she would sacrifice her financial security.
But then again, what if this unknown entity, Winter Sun, was an ugly monster with a green face and fangs?
Ye Wenzhu almost called Ji Pei, but she stopped herself from overthinking.
Perhaps the two were a perfect match in status and appearance. It wasn’t impossible.
Wait, this Winter Sun should be a woman.
Chen Yingying asked curiously, “Boss, why are you so happy?”
Ye Wenzhu reined in her smile. “My daughter is about to get married! My heart aches, this old mother’s heart. Stop standing around foolishly and hurry up and contact the client.”
As Chen Yingying picked up the phone, a hand snatched it away.
Ye Wenzhu gave a knowing smile. “No, I’m going to contact them myself!”