Hard to Deceive

At that moment, in the master bedroom.

Wen Yifan stared at the numbers on her phone and remained silent. She felt that it would be much better if the order of the numbers was reversed to ‘250’. However, she was not feeling guilty as she calmly replied: This is the extra money you paid, I’ve transferred it back to you.

—— Failed to send the message.

They were not friends on Alipay. 

The interface immediately popped up a message. ‘You can only start a conversation after sending a verification to become friends.’ 

Meanwhile, Sang Yan sent her a message.

?

“……”

It was a question mark.

Wen Yifan could guess his reaction when he saw the ‘520’.

It was expected.

He didn’t wait for Wen Yifan to reply.

Sang Yan added: What’s the matter?

The number was really misleading, but it was not made up by Wen Yifan. She sat up and decided to explain to him: That’s the balance that I have returned.

Wen Yifan listed out the prices one by one: 9000 for rent, 2500 for deposit, and 400 for the water and electricity bills.

Then, she also sent the invoice for the washing machine: The washing machine was 1190.

Wen Yifan: I’m not good at bookkeeping, so you don’t have to pay me extra. I’ll ask about it when we have to buy something next time.

After a while.

Sang Yan replied with a voice message, “Calculate it again.”

The way he spoke was normally lifeless, but it sounded even colder through the speaker. Moreover, he would unconsciously speak with a provocative note.

It made her have the urge to pick a fight with him.

“……”

But at that moment, Wen Yifan felt a little confused.

What does he mean by this?

Is he saying that I have calculated wrongly?

Looking at the numbers that she sent out, Wen Yifan was doubtful.

It’s.

Impossible.

Right?

She didn’t reply immediately. She opened her calculator and recalculated.

The numbers were ‘505’.

“……”

This was a bolt from the blue for Wen Yifan.

She was unwilling to face the fact. At that moment, she felt that only the correct numbers could prove her innocence. She zeroed the calculator and tried again without giving up.

It was still the same.

Wen Yifan was stunned, thoughts raced through her mind contemplating what to explain next.

Soon, Sang Yan replied with a voice message again, without being surprised.

He lightly smiled, as if he was giving her an out, but he sounded like he was trying to cover up her mistake, “Alright, I understand. You must’ve calculated wrongly.”

“……”

Wen Yifan had never met a person like Sang Yan.

She had finally got the hang of it. She had to act like she didn’t understand what he meant and deliberately shift the situation back on track to deal with someone like him.

Wen Yifan: Yes, thanks for letting me know.

There was no reply.

After about ten minutes.

Wen Yifan added: The extra 15 Yuan I paid…...

Wen Yifan: You can just transfer it to my WeChat.

“……”

After putting things away, Wen Yifan looked at the dust on the floor when she opened the door. She noticed that the lamp in the living room had been turned off and only the lamp in the corridor was on. She went out and headed towards the balcony to pick up cleaning tools.

Wen Yifan washed the mop after cleaning her room and placed it back on the balcony.

As she was going back to her room and passing by Sang Yan’s room.

He suddenly opened the door.

Wen Yifan stopped and met his eyes.

Sang Yan’s hair was half wet, and his black hair was scattered randomly on his forehead. He was wearing casual loungewear, which made him look more down-to-earth than usual. He glanced at her without taking the initiative to speak.

Wen Yifan didn’t say a word. She looked away and walked straight back to her room.

She locked the door along the way.

It was just past eleven o’clock, Wen Yifan could hardly sleep at this hour. She moved her laptop to her desk and wrote a few more manuscripts to feel sleepy. However, she was not used to the new room so she was hardly feeling sleepy. 

Sang Yan was also quiet next door.

Wen Yifan had a magical feeling in hindsight.

She felt that the two of them would not cross paths again in the future.

It should be the kind of relationship where they would stop contacting each other after graduating and wouldn’t nod even when they met each other.

Because their personalities were very different and they both dislike taking the initiative to start a conversation. So, ever since the first day of school when they were both late until being deskmates for some time, Wen Yifan and Sang Yan had no other conversations.

Besides, the time they spent as deskmates didn’t last too long.

It was due to the rumours spread by students.

Which brought them to cross paths again.

The root cause of the rumour was extraordinarily simple.

It was solely because they were both late for the first day of school, and they were both good-looking.

So, they were forced to become a couple in public.

There were several versions of this rumour.

Some said that they were classmates during junior high school and had been together for several years. They had promised each other to enter this school together as a pair of Academically-Excellent couple.

Some refuted the statement and claimed that they did not know each other before this. However, feelings had developed because of the incident of them being late together, and they had started to have a secret love affair.

Some even said that both of them actually fell in love with each other at first sight on their way to school. In order not to miss this Godsend opportunity, they had found a place to express their feelings and confirmed their relationship before arriving at school together.

Wen Yifan was unaware of these rumours at first.

The class was arranged according to their test results; she was not in the same class as Zhong Siqiao and Xiang Lang. Meanwhile, those rumours were only secretly discussed by students from Class 17. Wen Yifan had no close relationships with anyone from that class, so she had no clue about the gossip circulating around her.

Wen Yifan began to know about those rumours because of Su Haoan. 

Because Su Haoan was determined in mentioning the stories to Sang Yan every day.

She recalled that time during recess when she was coming back from PE class at the field.

Wen Yifan went to the water dispenser in the corridor to get water. She was queueing when she heard Su Haoan’s voice in front of her.

Su Haoan was the popular guy in class. He was talkative and easy-going. He had already made good friends with most of the people in the class during the past few days. At that moment, he was laughing hysterically and hitting the man’s chest behind him while talking.

“I got the latest news today, celebrity, do you want to hear about it?”

Wen Yifan subconsciously looked up.

She noticed the man standing in front of her was Sang Yan. His figure was tall and thin, and he was obviously impatient.

“Stop your nonsense.”

“What? Don’t act like you don’t care.” Su Haoan added, “She’s so pretty. You should secretly be happy to be the main character of the rumour around her. I was too shy to talk to her when she came to sit behind me on the first day.

Sang Yan, “What’s wrong with you?”

Su Haoan, “Just tell me! Didn’t you secretly……”

Without completing his sentence, Su Haoan glanced and noticed Wen Yifan behind Sang Yan. He immediately stopped and took a long time to raise his hand. He awkwardly greeted Wen Yifan, “Hi……”

Sang Yan turned and looked at her.

Wen Yifan nodded and smiled as if she heard nothing. Then, she lowered her head to read her vocabulary notes.

After a few seconds.

Sang Yan took the initiative to call her, “Junior.”

Wen Yifan looked up again.

“Didn’t you hear all of it?” Sang Yan smirked, “Or do you just want to pretend that you didn’t hear anything?”

Wen Yifan replied honestly, “I don’t know what you guys are talking about.”

Sang Yan lowered his eyes and said annoyingly, “It was about me being a couple with you.”

“......” Wen Yifan was dumbfounded, “Me? With you?”

“Hmm.”

“I don’t know, no one mentioned it to me.” Wen Yifan didn’t care about these things, “You don’t have to care about it, they won’t gossip for long.”

They seldom interact with each other after all.

There must be hints of proof for the rumour to continue spreading. If there was none, then the rumour would soon die down.

Sang Yan raised his eyebrow and said casually, “That will be the best situation.”

Their relationship back then was just ordinary classmates.

They were not familiar with each other, and they barely talked to each other.

So, Wen Yifan was certain that Sang Yan didn’t like her now. Despite that she was not a self-flattering person, it was also because Sang Yan’s attitude was similar to when she first met him. 

In fact, his attitude towards people he liked and disliked were vastly different.

Sang Yan was extremely arrogant and passionate at heart.

If he liked someone.

Even if it was one-sided, he didn’t mind letting the whole world know.

The next day.

Wen Yifan didn’t get up until ten o’clock.

Wen Yifan got dressed and grabbed a coat from the rack before going out of her room. She saw Sang Yan who was lying on the sofa playing with his phone when she was just out of the living room.

He lazily looked up when he heard the noise and ignored her.

Wen Yifan wanted to politely greet him, but she recalled him saying, “Don’t try to befriend me.” So, she chose to ignore him as well.

She took a bag of instant coffee from the TV cabinet and sat down on the sofa after boiling a pot of water. Wen Yifan unpacked some cookies, tore open the instant coffee sachet and poured it into the cup.

Wen Yifan looked down and turned on her mobile phone.

She found out that Zhong Siqiao had sent her several messages.

Zhong Siqiao: Sis!

Zhong Siqiao: I! Found! You! A housemate!

Wen Yifan blinked and replied: I forgot to tell you.

Wen Yifan: I’ve a housemate now.

The water just boiled when Wen Yifan was going to explain to her. Wen Yifan had to put down her mobile phone to pour water into the cup from the kettle. Zhong Siqiao coincidentally gave her a phone call as she was putting down the kettle.

Wen Yifan picked up the phone while stirring her coffee with a teaspoon.

Zhong Siqiao, “You found a housemate already? Who is it?”

After hearing this, Wen Yifan subconsciously looked at Sang Yan. She decided to skip the second question and mention it in the future. “Yes, I just found a new housemate. But it won’t be long, he will move in three months.

Wen Yifan, “I forgot to tell you, could you help me to apologize to you friend for me?”

“What do you mean by my friend! Okay, I can’t help it anymore.” Zhong Siqiao burst into laughter, and then she seemed to be talking to someone next to her, “Come on, Xiang Lang, don’t just listen and stay quiet! Don’t you feel uncomfortable?”

Wen Yifan was surprised, “Is Xiang Lang beside you?”

“Yes, it’s me.”

“When did you come back?” Wen Yifan smiled, “You caught me off guard, I didn’t recall Siqiao mentioning this.”

“I did!” Zhong Siqiao grumbled and immediately explained, “Didn’t I tell you before that this guy will be back next month? You forgot it yourself.”

Speaking of which, Wen Yifan and Xiang Lang hadn’t seen each other for a long time.

She never went back to Nanwu after moving to Beiyu. Xiang Lang went overseas after graduating from high school, and it had been quite a few years since they had only contacted intermittently. They had seldom contacted each other over the years.. 

Wen Yifan would only hear of Xiang Lang if Zhong Siqiao mentioned it.

“Today is not Monday?” Siqiao, aren’t you going to work?” Wen Yifan asked, “Why are you two together?”

“Our company’s on holiday,” Zhong Siqiao explained, “We just met. This message was sent super early in the wee hours, I wanted to have a drink with you. But you only replied to this message now.”

Wen Yifan honestly said, “I just woke up.”

Xiang Lang was delighted, “I guessed it right.”

“Alright, you should get something to eat, are you going to work later?” Zhong Siqiao added, “I know you won’t have time today, so let’s set a date? Let’s gather together when you’re on your day off.”

“Two days later.” Wen Yifan recalled, “I don’t work on Wednesdays.”

Zhong Siqiao asked again, “How many days off do you have for Chinese New Year?”

Wen Yifan, “Three days.”

“My goodness, ah, our Yifan is too miserable,” Zhong Siqiao went on, “Enough talking, we won’t bother you anymore. We’ll see you again in two days. Remember to bring my bracelet with you.”

Xiang Lang added, “Don’t bail on me.”

Wen Yifan giggled, “Of course not.”

After hanging up the phone, Wen Yifan lowered her head and drank a sip of coffee. She met Sang Yan’s eyes when she looked up. She thought it was just pure coincidence, however, when she looked away, she saw from the corner of her eyes that he was still looking at her.

Just when Wen Yifan wanted to ask him what’s wrong, Sang Yan suddenly mentioned the details from her phone call.

“Wednesday’s your day off?”

Wen Yifan looked at him, “Yes.”

Sang Yan put down his phone, “You plan to have fun outside?”

Wen Yifan nodded and subconsciously replied, “Xiang Lang is back in town, so we’re having a gathering.”

She looked at Sang Yan after answering him and casually said, “Both of you should know each other. I think he told me that both of you were in the same class in senior year.” 

Sang Yan, “Oh, I don’t remember.”

“……”

Wen Yifan didn’t know what he wanted, however, she didn’t bother to give him a reply either.

After a while.

Sang Yan asked, “Have you chosen the venue?”

Wen Yifan, “No.”

“How about my bar?” Sang Yan crossed his legs on the sofa and said slowly, “Since we are housemates, it doesn’t hurt to show some consideration to your housemate’s business, am I right?”