On Monday evening.
"Chi Xu, do you want to know Jiang Yuan's past skeletons in the closet? If you do, meet me on the rooftop of this building after the elective class. I'll be waiting for you."
The phone in Chi Xu's desk vibrated. He glanced at the lecturer beside the podium, spitting and talking non - stop, then lowered his head and took out his phone.
He saw this unsigned text message.
Chi Xu frowned and read it carefully several times.
Jiang Yuan's skeletons in the closet? What could they be?
Beside him, Jiang Yuan was propping her chin with one hand and concentrating on taking notes in her textbook with a pen in the other.
Chi Xu nudged Jiang Yuan with his elbow, interrupting her train of thought.
Then he placed his phone in front of her.
"My skeletons in the closet?" Jiang Yuan quickly scanned the message, her eyes widening as she mouthed silently.
Chi Xu whispered, "I don't know who sent this. Do you think I should go?"
"Go, definitely go. I don't even know what skeletons I have in my closet," Jiang Yuan curved her eyes, looking nonchalant but there was a hint of excitement in her expression.
"Go and find out for me what my skeletons are."
"What about you? Are you going back first?" Chi Xu asked.
Jiang Yuan thought for a while. It seemed she had come up with a crazy idea. A smile spread from the corner of her mouth to her eyebrows. She tilted her head and gave a playful smile.
"I'll go back and wait for you. But turn on Tencent Meeting on your phone. I want to listen in on everything!"
Chi Xu: "..."
It was a brilliant idea.
He wondered how Jiang Yuan could come up with such a clever plan.
After school, Jiang Yuan watched as Chi Xu turned on Tencent Meeting on his phone and then joined the meeting herself.
She also insisted that Chi Xu wear Bluetooth earphones to keep in touch with her.
Chi Xu pointed at the earphones and said speechlessly, "Aren't you afraid the other person will get suspicious?"
Jiang Yuan smiled enigmatically and said, "Who would suspect? Just say you're listening to music."
Then she waved goodbye to Chi Xu.
Chi Xu lingered in the classroom for five or six minutes before making his way over, climbing the stairs step by step.
When he reached the top floor of the building, he pushed open a door.
A familiar figure came into view.
It was Zhou Xiangmeng.
It was someone he had expected.
From the Bluetooth earphones came Jiang Yuan's excited voice, "Are you there? If you don't answer, I'll assume you are."
"This is so exciting. I'm so nervous. It's the first time I've been able to listen to my own skeletons in the closet so openly. Why am I so excited?"
Chi Xu: "..."
He couldn't respond to Jiang Yuan.
So Chi Xu lifted his eyes to look at Zhou Xiangmeng and took a few steps forward, getting closer to her.
"Zhou Xiangmeng," Chi Xu called her name calmly.
It was to tell Jiang Yuan who had sent the anonymous text message.
"So it's Zhou Xiangmeng. I'm a bit surprised," Jiang Yuan was sitting on the sofa on the other end of the earphone, absent - mindedly stroking Jiao Jiao's chin.
After the nursing home incident, they hadn't spoken at all. They were like strangers.
"Chi Xu, I didn't expect you to really come!" Zhou Xiangmeng was obviously delighted. She trotted to stand directly in front of Chi Xu, just a few steps away.
Chi Xu looked at her and got straight to the point, still speaking calmly, "You asked me to come here. Is it to tell me Jiang Yuan's skeletons in the closet?"
Surprised that the conversation started with Jiang Yuan, Zhou Xiangmeng clenched her fists and forced a stiff smile, "Before we talk about her, can we not talk about her first?"
"Talk about you and me?" Chi Xu stared intently at Zhou Xiangmeng, his gaze as deep as an unfathomable abyss.
Under his intense gaze, Zhou Xiangmeng's cheeks flushed slightly, and her voice involuntarily took on a coquettish tone, "Yes, let's talk about you and me first."
Chi Xu found it ridiculous. He let out a short laugh, but the smile quickly faded, "What's there to talk about with you?"
"Oh, no. There are actually some things about you worth talking about."
Zhou Xiangmeng was overjoyed and looked at Chi Xu in surprise, "What do you want to talk about regarding me?"
"Let's talk about your first..."
Before he could finish his sentence, Zhou Xiangmeng shyly interrupted him. She hung her head and clenched the corner of her clothes, saying very softly, "It's still there..."
"What?" Her voice was so soft that Chi Xu couldn't hear clearly, and neither could Jiang Yuan.
"Oops, you're so direct. Well, that's how it is in the adult world," Zhou Xiangmeng mumbled to herself.
Chi Xu and Jiang Yuan quickly realized that Zhou Xiangmeng had misunderstood.
On the other end, Jiang Yuan was silent for a moment, then burst into uncontrollable laughter, her laughter mixed with Jiao Jiao's meows.
"I can't take it anymore. I'm really dying of laughter. What's Zhou Xiangmeng's thought process?"
"What did you want to say about the first thing? She actually thought you were asking if her virginity was still intact."
"Chi Xu, you're so popular. Does she think you're a gigolo and that you want to sleep with her?"
Chi Xu: "..."
Chi Xu frowned, trying to stop Jiang Yuan's chattering. He said unhappily, "I'm not that kind of person."
"Ah, what? Chi Xu, what are you saying?" Zhou Xiangmeng was suddenly interrupted from her daydream.
She was stunned and asked blankly.
Chi Xu took a deep breath and stared coldly at Zhou Xiangmeng.
"I'm saying the thing worth talking about is your first attempt to frame Jiang Yuan. If you want to keep causing trouble, I can help you achieve that."
Zhou Xiangmeng's face instantly turned pale. Realizing her misunderstanding and thinking about what she had just said, she wished she could find a hole to hide in.
It took her a long time to regain her voice. She said blankly,
"You've misunderstood. How could I possibly frame Jiang Yuan? We're classmates."
"Yeah, Zhou Xiangmeng and I are classmates. But just because of you, she's tried to frame me again and again. How shameless," Jiang Yuan got angry just thinking about it. She was innocent, but because of Chi Xu, things had become like this. Even looking at Chi Xu annoyed her.
"Chi Xu, you have to take full responsibility."
"Classmates? Zhou Xiangmeng, you still remember that you're classmates with Jiang Yuan. The first time, you claimed to accidentally push Jiang Yuan on the basketball court, causing her to be hit by a basketball."
"The second time was during the club recruitment fair. You kindly offered to help her carry the special - shaped KT board but deliberately walked faster, making her unable to keep up. The KT board fell, and she accidentally damaged it a bit. Fortunately, it wasn't serious."
"What about the third time? The third time was at the nursing home. Of course, you didn't do anything directly, but you and your friends slandered and defamed Jiang Yuan at the sink."
"I remember all these things clearly. I'm sure you've said a lot of bad things about Jiang Yuan when I wasn't around."
"Now that you know I dislike and hate you, you deliberately sent me this text message without leaving your name and asked me to come here, saying you'd tell me Jiang Yuan's dirt."
"Now that I'm here, Zhou Xiangmeng, tell me. What's this so - called dirt on Jiang Yuan you want to talk about?"
This long tirade hit Zhou Xiangmeng like a boulder. Her face was even paler than before, and her body swayed unsteadily.
"Jiang Yuan... She once dated a boy!"