When Wang Anquan first heard Cheng Zhu's words, he didn't react immediately.
But he wasn't stupid—just a bit emotionally dense. After thinking it over briefly, he understood.
Cheng Zhu recalled things carefully and thought to himself, "Actually, this has a lot to do with the era. It's 2014 right now, and there are still quite a lot of fools when it comes to love."
"Later on, whether because of information overload on the internet or changes in social attitudes, even though fools never really decrease in number, a lot of truths are still understood by everyone."
"Things like simps, 'nice guys,' and backups."
"Of course, for some people: I understand all the logic, but it doesn't stop me from being a little fool in love."
After realizing what Cheng Zhu meant, Wang Anquan said, "Brother Zhu, you mean Rongrong might still be in contact with other guys?"
Cheng Zhu didn't answer directly. Instead, he asked, "What do you think?"
Wang Anquan opened his mouth, wanting to deny it, but in the end he only said weakly, "Maybe… maybe that was the case before."
Then he lifted his head, stubbornness in his eyes. "But this time is different. These past few days, she's been the one reaching out to me all the time. A girl who messages you every day, cares about your schedule—there's got to be something there, right?"
"Something your ass," Cheng Zhu said, looking at him helplessly.
From what Wang Anquan had said when they first boarded the train, Cheng Zhu had already caught an important detail—Chen Rongrong had asked whether he'd gotten on the train yet.
So Cheng Zhu asked, "Did you tell Chen Rongrong that you were going on a trip with me?"
"Uh… yeah," Wang Anquan admitted.
To be fair, Wang Anquan really was an honest guy. He had simply told Chen Rongrong that Cheng Zhu wanted to do e-commerce, and that they were going out together to look at suppliers.
If it were some teenage boys, they might've deliberately dressed it up as: "We're planning to do e-commerce together—two brothers going to check out suppliers."
Borrowing a good buddy's ambitions to flex a little—no big deal, right?
Listening to his reply, Cheng Zhu roughly understood why Chen Rongrong had suddenly started reaching out so often.
The reason was simple. Right after the World Cup final, Chen Rongrong had contacted Cheng Zhu.
At first, she used the excuse of caring about his emotional situation with Li Xinyue.
But after Cheng Zhu warned her not to bring that up again, she smoothly backed off, never mentioning Li Xinyue anymore. Instead, she kept trying to find topics to chat with him, occasionally using what girls her age considered clever little tactics.
For example, suddenly saying something like, "Wait a second, I'm going downstairs to pick up a package. The camisole pajamas I just bought arrived."
A few minutes later, she'd open the package and send him a photo of the style.
If it were a flirtatious situation, a guy might take the opportunity to get suggestive and say something like: Put it on and take a picture.
Some people might remember encountering this kind of person back in school—or maybe even being that person themselves—someone who wants to date their friend's ex.
She was also clearly flattering Cheng Zhu, saying how impressive he was, earning in one night what others made in two years of living expenses.
She even hinted that Yueyue didn't know how to treasure him.
Chen Rongrong's fox tail was showing far too clearly.
Later on, Cheng Zhu couldn't even be bothered to reply to her messages and simply went cold.
Even so, he noticed that every time he scrolled through Moments, he'd see Chen Rongrong posting.
Carefully edited selfies, sharing songs and daily life, complaining that summer vacation was boring and that she wanted to travel—subtle hints everywhere. She posted extremely frequently.
If someone had ill intentions, they could've easily invited her on a trip directly.
Cheng Zhu had always believed that when someone who usually had Moments set to three-day visibility suddenly opened it up, or when someone who hadn't posted for months suddenly started posting all the time—it usually meant something.
So he muted Chen Rongrong's Moments as well.
"Damn it, wasting my data."
What annoyed him the most was that under all those posts, he could always see Wang Anquan's likes and comments.
Out of sight, out of mind.
"I really underestimated her patience. She even went for an indirect route, probing through Wang Anquan," Cheng Zhu thought, almost wanting to roll his eyes like Jiang Wanzhou.
As the train began to move, Cheng Zhu glanced at Wang Anquan and asked one last time, "When she chats with you, does she bring up Li Xinyue?"
Wang Anquan nodded. "Brother Zhu, how did you guess? She brings it up a lot, always saying Li Xinyue's attitude toward you was wrong, that she wouldn't act like that, that girls should understand guys more and shouldn't always act like spoiled princesses…"
The boy kept talking nonstop, but Cheng Zhu had already stopped listening.
"Little girl's got quite a few tricks, even secretly developing a messenger," Cheng Zhu thought. He was almost certain of Chen Rongrong's intentions now.
"If I hadn't already told Wang Anquan not to mention Li Xinyue around me, all this 'self-praise' she's feeding him would've reached my ears long ago."
"She's exactly the kind of person I know she is—half a dozen of one, six of the other with Li Xinyue, if not worse."
"She just figured out exactly what I hated about Li Xinyue and deliberately catered to my tastes."
"An ordinary young guy, fresh from heartbreak—how could he withstand that?" Cheng Zhu thought.
Given his level of green-tea detection, he could only give one verdict:
Mid-tier green tea.
Cheng Zhu opened his backpack and took out a piece of oversized bubble gum.
Wang Anquan wanted one too, but was ruthlessly refused.
"My sister gave it to me. Dream on," Cheng Zhu said stingily.
Chewing on the overly sweet gum, he continued, "Anquan, let's be honest. Ask yourself—do you really think Chen Rongrong is a good girl?"
Wang Anquan's answer actually surprised Cheng Zhu a little. "Not really."
He'd occasionally heard some gossip about Chen Rongrong too.
"Damn, that's some awareness. I underestimated you," Cheng Zhu said, giving him a pat.
Wang Anquan looked even more confused and pointed at Cheng Zhu's phone. "But Brother Zhu, didn't you seriously write this in your memo? 'Don't let down good girls, don't waste bad girls.'"
Hearing this, Cheng Zhu felt a jolt in his heart.
"Damn it, you little bastard—so it's not that your awareness is high, it's that it's way too high!"
He cursed, "That line is for me, not for you. That's my memo, not yours."
"So what, you're planning to 'not waste bad girls' now?" Cheng Zhu almost wanted to stand up and applaud him.
Cheng Zhu had seen far too many guys dig holes for themselves.
Some people start out thinking, 'I'm just playing around,' and end up more invested and obsessed than anyone else.
"Too many. There are way too many people like that."
"If you don't have the ability to pull out at any moment, you'd better be prepared to get played," Cheng Zhu thought.
He truly hadn't expected Wang Anquan to attempt a leapfrog in growth.
So he said earnestly, "You—go have a normal relationship first. At your rank, you're just a stubborn Bronze. You can't even handle Silver matches, and you still want to play in a freebie lobby?"
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup