When Xiao Su sat down in the cafe, he did not see Jiang Xiaobai’s figure. He got himself a cup of coffee and out of courtesy, he ordered a cup of milk tea for Jiang Xiaobai. Then, he sat down and waited. One minute, two minutes… Five minutes… Ten minutes had passed, but Jiang Xiaobai had not appeared.
Xiao Su raised his eyebrow slightly and looked down at the time on his watch. Could it be that he was being fooled? Was that woman seeking to avenge herself? However, after thinking about it, it did not seem likely. Her tone had sounded quite anxious, so there had to be something that she needed his help with.
While thinking about it, a figure came into the cafe like a swift wind while looking around the place. Xiao Su recognized her to be Jiang Xiaobai at a glance. She looked messy in her big, white T-shirt and long trousers while her hair was tied up lazily.
This was the first time Xiao Su saw such a woman, who did not take her image seriously. Generally speaking, there were a lot of girls who did not care about their image. However, probably only Jiang Xiaobai would not care about their image regardless of the occasion.
When Xiao Su was looking at her, Jiang Xiaobai had already spotted him and quickly ran toward him. She then pulled out the chair in front of her and sat down. “Hi, Mr. Xiao. You’re early.”
Xiao Su pursed his thin lips and said coldly, “You’re 11 minutes and 20 seconds late.”
“Huh?” Jiang Xiaobai tilted her head awkwardly. “There was heavy traffic on the road; I’m sorry.” She did not make up excuses for her tardiness and instead immediately apologized to Xiao Su in a sincere manner. After apologizing, she sat down and picked up the cup of milk tea. She asked, “Is this for me?”
Xiao Su nodded without saying a word. “If it’s not to your taste, you can order another cup.”
“No, no; I quite like milk tea. Thank you.” It was just nice as the current weather was stuffy, and Jiang Xiaobai was already feeling hot all over after rushing here. She took several sips of the milk tea.
“Why are you looking for me?”
“Hmm? About that…” Jiang Xiaobai found that she had difficulty saying it out. In the past, she used to speak carefreely, but now, she was looking for someone to pretend to be her boyfriend. For her to make this request to a man whom she had only met a few times and was not particularly close to was… hard, to say the least. But since things had escalated to this stage, Jiang Xiaobai had no choice but to take action. It was not her style to act embarrassingly, so she went straight to the point. “About that, I hope… that you can pretend to be my boyfriend.”
Upon hearing this, Xiao Su frowned. Jiang Xiaobai quickly said, “Don’t get me wrong. It’s just part of a pretense. It’s not real!”
Xiao Su frowned deeper as these words sounded extraordinarily absurd. What did she mean by pretending to be her boyfriend? He stared at Jiang Xiaobai’s fair and pale face with a displeased expression. “Miss Ghostwriter, you must be out of your mind; are you kidding me?”
“No, no.” Jiang Xiaobai waved her hands awkwardly. “I’m genuinely asking for your help with this. My mom keeps pushing me to go on blind dates, but I don’t want to, so I hope that you can pretend to be my boyfriend to lie to her. That way, she won’t make me go on blind dates anymore.”
After the explanation, Jiang Xiaobai noticed that the other party’s eyebrows were furrowed deeply. “What you mean is, you want me to work with you to deceive the elders?”
Jiang Xiaobai did not know what to say to this. Damn, this man is really… Does he have to be so loyal and straightforward?! “Mr. Xiao, how can this be called deceiving the elders? Everything has its own degree of seriousness; this can’t be considered deception.”
“This isn’t considered deception? Then, what is considered deception?” Xiao Su asked seriously, staring into the other person’s eyes.
Jiang Xiaobai was suddenly asked this and continued to sit there in a daze for a long while before saying helplessly, “Alright, even if it is deception, so what? I don’t want to go on blind dates, so I can only come up with this to protest it. You’ll merely pretend to be my boyfriend for a while before we ‘break up’, so I don’t see anything wrong with this plan. It’s because all my male friends are already married, so I can’t look for them for this favor. Meanwhile, I’m worried about getting scammed if I look for strangers. That’s why I’ve come looking for you instead.” She just did not expect Xiao Su’s reaction to be so big. Although she had already expected Xiao Su to disagree due to the label of ‘boyfriend’, she did not think that the reason would be because he did not want to deceive the elders.
Sure enough, after Jiang Xiaobai finished speaking, Xiao Su said with a serious face, “I can’t work with you to deceive the elders. I’m sorry; you should find someone else to help you with this favor.”
Jiang Xiaobai bit her lower lip lightly, looking embarrassed. “But I really have no one else to find, Mr. Xiao. If you don’t help me, I can only look for a stranger on the streets and ask if they’re willing.”
Xiao Su frowned, saying, “Although I owe you a favor, it doesn’t mean that I’ll help you with anything. Please go find someone else.” After saying this, Xiao Su got up. Jiang Xiaobai saw him going to the cashier to pay before leaving. She then lay on the table like a deflated ball. She did not expect to fail. The other party was unwilling, and she could not force him either. If the matter was exposed in front of her mother, the results would be even worse. Thinking of this, Jiang Xiaobai sighed repeatedly in her heart.
Should she just simply ask around? As such, Jiang Xiaobai looked around and found that there really was a single man sitting there in the cafe, but he seemed to be quite old. He was thin and wearing glasses too. If she went over directly, would it not be too awkward? But what else could she do? Should she really go on the blind date? Jiang Xiaobai knew that if she really did go on a blind date, her mother would force her to marry. If that happened…
Thinking of this, Jiang Xiaobai started to have a headache. She put down the cup of milk tea in her hand and slowly moved toward the thin man. “Hey… Excuse me…” As soon as Jiang Xiaobai said these words out, a figure stood in front of her. She was taken aback. Raising her head to take a look, she realized that it was Xiao Su.
“Didn’t you leave? Why…” Why is he back? Jiang Xiaobai looked at him, astonished.
Xiao Su really did not expect this woman to actually look for a stranger to help her. She said that she was worried about getting scammed if she were to look for strangers, but now she’s taking the initiative to do exactly that? Does she not have a brain?
The tall and thin man with glasses heard the noises. He raised his head to see a man and a woman standing in front of him. He was somewhat puzzled as he asked, “May I know who you are—”
“We’ve got the wrong person,” Xiao Su quickly answered the other man’s question and grabbed Jiang Xiaobai’s wrist. She was still standing there in a daze as he pulled her out of the cafe.
Jiang Xiaobai was pulled out with a look of surprise on her face. It took a long time before she reacted. “Hey, let me go.” Xiao Su released her hand and she immediately rubbed her wrist. “Why are you back here again? Could it be that you’re agreeing to help me?”
“No…” Xiao Su was silent for two seconds, then he shook his head in denial.
“No?” Jiang Xiaobai stared at him like he was crazy. “Then why are you even back? Thanks to you being all nosy, I’ve lost my target!”
“Target? You mean a stranger?”
“So what if he’s a stranger? Maybe he’ll agree? Mr. Xiao, since you refused to help me, just leave this matter alone, okay?”
