66: Chapter 66 The Disguise of Social Media: Subtle Flutters of the Heart and Jealousy

A few days later.

After resting for several days, Tang Luochuan finally finished his sick leave and prepared to return to school for classes.

With only seven days left until the October 1st holiday, he glanced casually at the balance on his phone—2.21095 billion—without feeling the slightest ripple of emotion, and drove his BMW X7 toward the school.

As the car entered the campus, he deliberately turned into a small path and parked in a secluded corner, where the branches and leaves of a row of poplar trees perfectly concealed the vehicle.

Just as he got out of the car, he felt a few people watching him.

Tang Luochuan looked closer and saw it was Zhou Ziyu...

"What a coincidence?" his heart skipped a beat: "Could he be giving me another 7 days of leave?"

But these holidays were coming too frequently, which would make the school unhappy. He had only been here for a total of 23 days: seven days of "showing off wealth" leave and 11 days of sick leave.

He hadn't actually attended many classes in total.

"Y-you... hello..." When enemies met, this time there was no intense hostility.

Zhou Ziyu initiated the greeting.

There was no deep-seated hatred to begin with, and now that Tang Luochuan's family background was laid out there—wealthy to a degree that made them feel unreachable—even if Zhou Ziyu and the others felt reluctant, they could only sigh in despair.

Any trace of hatred had long since vanished under the disparity of money and power.

"Hello!" Tang Luochuan also gave a sheepish smile and stepped aside to let them pass first.

When he arrived in class, Jiang Jinyue had already finished one study session.

These freshmen, after getting familiar with the campus environment, discovered that university study sessions were unsupervised.

They didn't even have to attend.

Unlike high school, where teachers enforced discipline.

"You're quite early," Jiang Jinyue said, still wearing that indifferent expression. Even as her boyfriend, he didn't receive any special treatment on campus.

Tang Luochuan walked over silently, ruffled her hair, sat behind her, and began drawing circles on her back.

The girl smiled indifferently and didn't say anything.

Jiang Jinyue turned back, swatted his hand away as he drew circles, and said: "Su Wantang added me as a friend."

"Oh? She added me before, too."

"Why? How come I didn't know?"

"You don't need to know. I covered 2,000 yuan of her medical expenses when she was hospitalized last time, and she was just paying me back. I didn't chat with her about anything."

"Is that so?" Jiang Jinyue couldn't be bothered to check his phone.

Su Wantang had added her as a friend to confirm the Gao Family's scam, but Jiang Jinyue had no way to prove it.

She couldn't exactly ask her father to step in, could she? How could Jiang Deming possibly get involved in something like this?

Even if he did intervene, Jiang Deming would definitely say he didn't know anything about it! Her father, a shrewd man, would never invite trouble for himself for the sake of unrelated people.

Whether others lived or died was none of his business; that was his way of life.

Meanwhile, Tang Luochuan had discovered two interesting things over the past few days. One was that Su Wantang had actually started liking every single one of his posts.

The other was Meng Fanyi; they had been chatting perfectly fine, but suddenly, she stopped reaching out.

But he wouldn't take the initiative to contact her either; after chatting with this girl for a few days, he always felt something was off.

Her intention to make conversation was obvious, yet she could take an awkward beginning and steer it into an extremely natural state of conversation.

Not thinking too much about it, Tang Luochuan prepared to rest for a while.

Jiang Jinyue, meanwhile, looked at the chat on her phone:

Su Wantang: [Hello classmate, sorry to bother you with this request, but I just wanted to ask again about Gao Mingxuan's family situation. Is what you said true?]

Jiang Jinyue replied bluntly: [Whether it's true or false, judge for yourself! I have no explanation, and I don't have the ability to prove it! However, my father did tell me to stay away from him.]

Su Wantang was now lying in her bedroom at home; her foot had long since healed.

But she kept lying that it still hurt, mainly because her parents were pressuring her to get engaged to the Gao Family.

Looking at Jiang Jinyue's reply, Su Wantang lost her mood and opened her social media feed.

The first post was Tang Luochuan's again: [8 AM class people, who understands! Coffee to keep me alive, grinding through practice problems until dawn, fighting hard so I don't fail the midterms.]

The accompanying image was a perfectly staged photo: open textbooks, a steaming cup of Americano, and a hand holding a pen. The background was blurred just right, with only the classroom desks and chairs vaguely visible.

Su Wantang stared at the photo for a long time, her fingertip unconsciously tapping the screen, pressing like once again.

"Is he really this diligent?" the girl thought to herself.

His social media feed was nine times out of ten filled with these kinds of "studying hard" updates—either a sunset at the library with the caption "Today's practice problem check-in."

Or scrawled handwriting on a workbook with the caption "Advanced Mathematics is too hard, my brain is going to explode."

The occasional photos of food and walks also exuded a sense of "stealing leisure from a busy schedule" restraint.

But Su Wantang vaguely remembered his devil-may-care attitude backstage at the Freshman Orientation Gala, and his dramatic performance when he "staged a collision" with Gao Mingxuan; he didn't look like the type who would stay up late grinding practice problems at all.

She scrolled through Tang Luochuan's previous posts and discovered that these "diligent updates" had almost all started after school began, with a stable frequency of one per day, as if he were completing some fixed task.

But... she remembered, hadn't this guy taken sick leave not long ago?

During those days when he was 'beaten' by the bald bodyguard, that guy was still reading in the library until past 10 o'clock? How could that be possible?

Just as she was pondering this, her phone vibrated; it was a message from her mother: [Wantang, is your foot feeling better? The Gao Family is asking again, saying they want both families to meet during the National Day holiday to discuss the engagement.]

Su Wantang furrowed her brow, replied "It still hurts, let's talk later," and tossed her phone aside.

Her mind was now filled with Jiang Jinyue's words and the contrast in Tang Luochuan's social media posts; her heart was in a chaotic mess.

She needed to find an opportunity to confess everything to her parents, but she just wasn't ready to burn bridges yet.

...

In the classroom at Jiaotong University.

Jiang Jinyue looked at Tang Luochuan's social media feed. After accepting Su Wantang as a friend, she realized that the other girl had liked many of Tang Luochuan's posts.

Girls are easily sensitive; this kind of thing made her start to feel a bit suspicious.

"Tang Luochuan, you're really something! 8 AM class? Finished taking the photo? Give me back my coffee!" Jiang Jinyue rolled her eyes at him and snatched the Americano from his desk.

"Oh, give me a break, who wants it! They say people in Shanghai love coffee, but you don't even add sugar to this stuff! It's damn bitter!" Tang Luochuan retorted irritably.

Jiang Jinyue looked at her coffee; clearly, this kid had taken a few sips after grabbing it.

She didn't mind, biting the straw and sipping it slowly, the taste of the boy's lips and teeth still lingering on it.

"Yueyue, does this count as an indirect kiss between us?" Tang Luochuan suddenly asked.

"Cough, cough~~" Jiang Jinyue was immediately choked by the coffee upon hearing this: "What nonsense are you spouting."

"Bring it here, let me have another sip! Hurry!"

The girl pretended to hesitate for a moment, but felt a little excited inside: "An indirect kiss? Sharing a straw? How ambiguous, how romantic."

But when he saw the straw that had been bitten and twisted by Jiang Jinyue, Tang Luochuan suddenly felt disgusted and pushed it back to her: "You'd better keep it for yourself."