After ninety-nine online romances, I finally met my ex in person when school started.

"Who are you? I don't know you."

Shen Tianxi's smile vanished completely, and her tone turned cold.

Wang Kai was clearly unprepared for this reaction. His lips twitched, then he gave a cold laugh.

"Shen Tianxi, are you pretending not to know me at Kyoto University? I've been pursuing you for two years, from Tianjin to Kyoto. Your grandfather even had drinks with my grandfather last year, what are you pretending for now?"

Shen Tianxi slowly and deliberately wiped the corner of her mouth with a tissue.

"My grandfather knows a lot of people, what does that have to do with me?"

Wang Kai's face darkened. His three henchmen stepped forward, making the surrounding tables creak.

His gaze finally fell on Zhu Xunchuan.

He looked her up and down.

From Zhu Xunchuan's ordinary white T-shirt to the two meals from the cafeteria on the table, the final choice was those canvas shoes without any brand logos.

"this one?"

Wang Kai smiled, a smile that exuded a sense of superiority that seemed to seep from his very bones.

"Shen Tianxi, your appetite has shrunk. You've ignored me for two years, just to be all lovey-dovey with some poor classmate who eats cafeteria meals?"

He reached out and flicked the overturned yogurt container on the table, splashing white liquid into the plate of pork ribs in front of Zhu Xunchuan.

"Do you know her? Do you know what kind of tea she drinks, what kind of perfume she uses, or what brand of shoes she wears? Does she only treat people to ribs in the cafeteria? The Van Cleef & Arpels necklace I gave her last Christmas cost 780,000 yuan."

When he said this, he deliberately emphasized the words "780,000".

A crowd had already gathered in the cafeteria. The spoons at the next few tables stopped, and everyone's eyes were on them.

Shen Tianxi frowned, her hands already on the table, preparing to stand up.

Zhu Xun Chuan held her hand down.

Shen Tianxi was stunned for a moment.

His palm was dry and warm, covering her entire back of the hand. His fingers were closed, the pressure just right for her to sit back down.

"I'll do it."

Zhu Xun Chuan picked up a napkin and wiped his mouth.

The movements are very slow.

It's not a tense slowness, but a slowness of not being in a hurry.

He stood up.

His 1.83-meter height cast a long shadow under the cafeteria's fluorescent lights, and when he took a half-step forward, he stood right in front of Shen Tianxi.

Wang Kai unconsciously raised his chin slightly... He had to tilt his head back to meet Zhu Xun Chuan's eyes.

"You're saying I don't understand her?"

Zhu Xunchuan's tone was very flat.

"She likes Keigo Higashino, and her favorite is 'Journey Under the Midnight Sun,' which she has read four times, crying every time. But she hates Osamu Dazai, finding it too depressing; her exact words were, 'I wanted to punch someone after reading it.'"

Shen Tianxi looked up at his back.

"She eats scrambled eggs with tomatoes but not scallions. She picks out every last bit of scallion, but she's too embarrassed to tell others about this habit, afraid they'll laugh at her for being pretentious."

Someone in the cafeteria muttered quietly, "They even know that?"

"Her favorite anime is 'Natsume's Book of Friends' because Nyanko-sensei is round and cute. She has changed her phone case three times, and they are all Nyanko-sensei merchandise."

Shen Tianxi's lips parted slightly.

During her online romance, she sent a message at 3 a.m.: "Brother Chuan, the cat San San is so fat and cute, I want to pet it."

She thought he had long forgotten.

Zhu Xunchuan didn’t stop.

"Her temper gets worse when she has her period, but she doesn't want anyone to notice, so she'll find a corner to hide in and bear it all by herself. She only drinks brown sugar water with three slices of ginger; she thinks any more is too spicy and any less is useless."

Shen Tianxi's fingertips began to go numb.

The entire cafeteria has fallen silent.

Everyone around stopped eating.

"She usually seems all smiles, but there's only one thing she really hates."

Zhu Xunchuan looked down at the plate of ribs on the table, which was covered in yogurt.

"Someone banged on the table while she was eating."

He raised his head and met Wang Kai's gaze.

"You slammed your hand on the table just now and got her ribs dirty."

The tone remained unchanged.

Not fierce, not angry, not excited.

But at least twenty classmates watching nearby simultaneously got goosebumps.

In a corner of the cafeteria, some girls had already started to scream quietly.

"Holy crap, what an amazing boyfriend!"

"How does he even know how many slices of ginger someone's aunt needs?"

"If this man likes me, I'll marry him!"

Shen Tianxi sat in the chair and slowly cupped her face in her hands.

Her eyes reddened.

She thought he had forgotten all those late-night chatter during their online dating days.

But he memorized every single word.

They even got the number of ginger slices right.

Shen Tianxi's nose stung with tears, and she held back her tears.

She took a deep breath, her vision blurred, and looked at Zhu Xun Chuan's back standing in front of her. Suddenly, she felt that his back was so wide, so wide that it could block everything out.

"Brother Chuan," she whispered behind him.

Her voice was nasal and incredibly soft.

Zhu Xunchuan did not turn back.

But he stretched out a hand behind him.

Palms facing up.

Shen Tianxi stared at the hand, stunned for a second.

Then she reached out and touched it with her fingers.

He gripped it tightly.

Their fingers are intertwined.

A collective gasp filled the cafeteria.

Wang Kai's face darkened inch by inch.

He pursued Shen Tianxi for two years, but never even touched her.

The freshman in canvas shoes in front of him held hands.

"You think understanding her is useful?"

Wang Kai lowered his voice, as if he had a fishbone stuck in his throat.

"What's so special about knowing whether she eats onions or not? Do you know her real family background? Do you know who she is?"

Zhu Xunchuan hasn't let up.

He glanced down at Shen Tianxi behind him.

Shen Tianxi's eyes were watery, her nose was pink, her long hair hung down her shoulders, and her floral dress looked like a soft cloud in the afternoon sunlight.

She looked back at him, her eyes no longer probing, no longer sour, no longer those cautious, cat-like claws.

Only one very clean thing remained.

rely.

Unreasonable, complete dependence.

Zhu Xunchuan withdrew his gaze and looked at Wang Kai.

"I don't know, and it doesn't matter."

"No matter her background, she's mine."

At this moment, Zhu Xun Chuan inexplicably felt a surge of possessiveness, and he wanted to assert his sovereignty.

Shen Tianxi buried her face in his arm.

Wang Kai was speechless for two seconds.

Then he laughed.

It's a laugh that makes you "not know what you're talking about".

He took a step back, put his hands in his pockets, and tilted his head to look at Zhu Xun Chuan, his eyes like those of someone looking at an ant about to be crushed.

"Fine, you're awesome."

He enunciated each word clearly, spitting them out one by one.

"Then I'll tell you who she is."

Wang Kai uttered a sentence with a cold laugh.

"She is the granddaughter of Shen Zhenshan, deputy commander of the Tianjin Military Region."

He paused for a moment, then narrowed his eyes.

"Who do you think you are?"

Shen Tianxi's fingers tightened suddenly.