Chapter 394: How Could My STEM-Brain Brother Possibly Be Dating?
by cnwebnovelsChapter 394: How Could My STEM-Brain Brother Possibly Be Dating?
Central District. Donghai Building Shopping Center.
It was the oldest shopping center in Donghai, the very first the city had ever had. By today’s standards it was nothing upscale, no match at all for the newer malls that had gone up in Donghai over the past several years. But thanks to its location, it was still a landmark in the heart of the city.
Longtime Donghai residents, and people from the surrounding counties and towns, still shopped there out of habit.
It didn’t aim high. Prices were low, and there was plenty to eat and plenty to do.
It wasn’t a weekend, yet the place was teeming, with an especially large share of young people. It was summer vacation, after all. School was out.
The second floor.
Two pretty girls of sixteen or seventeen, each carrying a cute little handbag, were strolling through the mall, browsing as they went. The girl on the left was a little taller, close to five foot seven, in a white top and jeans.
The girl on the right was slightly shorter, though not by much, and slimmer. She wore jeans too, with a short-sleeved sweatshirt.
Both wore canvas sneakers and no makeup. Anyone could tell at a glance that they were students.
Anyone could tell, too, that they were the closest of friends.
Even their bags and shoes matched.
They were Wu Jiao and her best friend and classmate, Chen Xue.
“Xiaoxue, I’m so tired. My feet are aching…” Wu Jiao let her shoulders droop and trudged a few steps, the picture of exhaustion. “Let’s go get something to eat.”
“Hungry already?” Chen Xue turned to look at her. “Didn’t we just eat?”
They had done a great deal more than “just eat.” They had been wandering the mall for hours and hadn’t bought a thing, always saying they’d look around a little more, yet they had eaten plenty: shouzhuabing, boiled tripe, ice cream… Nearly every floor had snack stalls tucked into every nook and corner.
They claimed they had come shopping, but eating interested them a good deal more.
Besides, the essence of shopping was browsing, not buying.
On a limited budget, you had to browse a lot to find something you were really happy with.
Women were like that.
Girls too.
“Come on. Let’s find somewhere to sit for a bit. I’m worn out. We can keep going after…” Wu Jiao said, hooking her arm through Chen Xue’s.
“The fast-food place, then. Third floor…” Chen Xue pointed upstairs.
It wasn’t their first time here. They knew exactly where the good food was and where the fun was.
Arm in arm, they headed up.
Ring, ring…
A phone rang.
“Hang on, call.” Wu Jiao stopped and fished a phone in a bunny-ear case out of her bag. Unknown number.
No idea who it was.
She answered.
“Hello?”
“Are you…” A cold, stern voice. It stopped after only two words. After a moment, it came back much more “pleasant.”
“Are you Wu Jiao?”
“Yes… Who’s this?”
“My name is Li Ruobing. I’m… your brother’s girlfriend!”
“My… brother’s… girlfriend?!” Wu Jiao repeated, spacing out every word, and instinctively turned to glance at Chen Xue.
Her blockhead of a brother was dating someone?
Her STEM-brain brother, who hadn’t had a single girlfriend in four years of college, was dating someone?!
Since when?
How did she not know?
“Here’s the situation. I just spoke with your brother. He said you’d come to Donghai and that he was going to find you, but he’s… tied up with something. I happen to be free, so I’ll come find you instead,” Li Ruobing explained briefly. “Where are you right now?”
“Uh…” Wu Jiao didn’t know what to say.
She honestly had no idea how to answer.
It was too sudden.
Out of nowhere, a woman calls her, says she’s her brother’s girlfriend, says she’s coming to find her, and asks where she is.
It was a little strange.
Wu Jiao’s first instinct was to wonder whether she’d run into some kind of scammer.
Though she couldn’t think what anyone could possibly scam her out of.
“Uh… I’m at Donghai Building with my friend. We were just about to get something to eat…” she said anyway.
“Wait for me. I’m on my way.”
“Uh…”
Beep, beep, beep…
Wu Jiao had been about to say something else, but Li Ruobing had hung up the moment she finished, leaving only the dial tone.
Wu Jiao wasn’t used to that kind of decisiveness, or to that habitual tone of command.
She lowered the phone in a daze.
“Jiaojiao, who was that? What’s wrong?” Seeing her stare blankly, Chen Xue waved a hand in front of her face.
“My brother’s girlfriend. She says she’s coming over.” Wu Jiao looked at her.
“Your brother has a girlfriend?” Chen Xue was startled too. She knew Wu Chen, of course. She had known him since they were little.
“That’s what I don’t get. I had no idea.” Wu Jiao raised her phone again. “I’m calling my brother. I’m going to ask him about her…”
She found the contact saved as “Big Bro” and dialed.
It connected quickly.
“Oh, so you do know how to call me? Mom said you came into the city this morning,” Wu Chen said the moment he picked up.
“Hehe.” Wu Jiao laughed. “I’ve been shopping with Xiaoxue. I figured I’d come find you this afternoon… Oh, right, Bro, I need to ask you something. Come clean!”
“Ruobing called you?” Wu Chen asked.
“Your girlfriend?”
“Yes.”
“Good. I thought I’d run into a scammer… Bro, when did you get a girlfriend?! How come I didn’t know?”
“I have to report to you every time I get a girlfriend now?”
“That’s not what I meant! Hmph! Fine, don’t tell me… Bye, bye. Xiaoxue and I are going to eat.” And she hung up.
Hanging up on her own brother. That casual.
She lowered the phone and immediately burst out to Chen Xue, “She really is my brother’s girlfriend. Hmph, not bad! Four whole years of college without dating, and he lands a girlfriend the minute he starts working!”
“When did they start going out? Did Brother Xiaochen say?”
“No. He’s being all mysterious and won’t tell me…”
“What’s she look like? How old is she?”
“How would I know? We’ll find out soon enough. She said she’s coming…”
Gossiping like the teenage girls they were, they headed upstairs.
It was only idle chatter.
Half an hour later.
The third floor. Golden Gate Restaurant.
Wu Jiao and Chen Xue sat in a corner, looking thoroughly bored. They had ordered egg tarts, fries, and Coke. No burgers or anything like that. Just “snacks.”
They had been nibbling and waiting, and after all this time, no one had shown up.
“Why isn’t she here yet?” Wu Jiao mumbled around her straw.
“Should be soon. Why don’t you call and ask?” Chen Xue suggested.
“Ugh…” Wu Jiao sighed and picked up the phone lying face down on the table. She looked at it, debating whether to call and hurry Li Ruobing along. That seemed a little rude.
Just then.
Ring, ring…
The moment she saw the screen, she perked up.
“She’s here, she’s here.” She answered at once. “Hello?”
“I’m on the first floor. Where are you?”
“Third floor. Golden Gate Fast Food.”
“All right. Wait for me.”
Two lines, and she had hung up again.
“So bossy,” Wu Jiao muttered as she put the phone down. So far her impression of Li Ruobing wasn’t especially good. Not especially bad, either.
Two minutes later.
Li Ruobing, in a blue dress with a handbag on her arm, pushed open the door of Golden Gate Fast Food.
She stopped just inside and looked around.
At the same moment.
“Hey, hey, Jiaojiao, look. That woman’s so pretty…” In the corner, Chen Xue nudged Wu Jiao and whispered, gesturing toward the door.
“Hm?” Wu Jiao turned to look, and her eyes lit up too.
“She looks like a celebrity.”
“She’s prettier than a celebrity. Look at her dress. It’s gorgeous…”
“Her skin is so fair. She’s stunning.”
People always said men loved looking at beautiful women, but women loved it even more. There was admiration in it, and comparison, and a close study of how someone was dressed.
The two girls whispered back and forth, gazing at Li Ruobing with stars in their eyes.
“Huh? She looks like she’s looking for someone. C-could she be your brother’s girlfriend? She should be here by now…” Chen Xue said suddenly.
“No way. My brother’s a total blockhead. He sits in front of a computer all day and has no idea how to chase girls. It’s a miracle he’s got a girlfriend at all. Someone that gorgeous? How could that possibly be?” Wu Jiao said.
“Seriously? That’s how you talk about your brother?” Chen Xue looked at her.
“It’s the truth. Who gets through college without dating these days? My brother did. Somebody even wrote him a love letter, and he still didn’t end up with anyone…” Wu Jiao said, perfectly straight-faced.
Scrape.
A chair slid out across from them.
“Someone wrote Wu Chen a love letter? When was this? He’s never told me about that,” Li Ruobing said with a smile as she sat down opposite the two girls.