Chapter 10

The coffee items on the ordering page all had beautiful hand-drawn watercolor pictures, with ingredients clearly labeled in cute fonts in the images.
Shi Zhi wasn't in the mood to carefully choose. She didn't even scroll down, randomly clicked the "plus" button after the first coffee, then placed the order and paid.
She admitted frankly: "I really want to hear about it, since it concerns my decision going forward. But if it's inconvenient for you to say, that's fine too."
Two identical iced coffees were brought up. Fu Xiling took one and leisurely drank two sips: "The one doing something wrong is Shen Jia, not me. Why would it be inconvenient for me to say?"
They made a deal in the coffee shop.
Fu Xiling said he could tell her about Shen Jia's childhood sweetheart, but she also had to answer two questions from him.
Shi Zhi agreed.
Fu Xiling didn't seem to have much talent for telling gossip stories. He only said Shen Jia's childhood sweetheart was called Tao Jia, that Shen Jia and Tao Jia had dated for a while before, and they broke up after Tao Jia went abroad.
The coffee at this shop smelled very fragrant, but Shi Zhi had already lost all appetite listening. She only drank two sips of the iced coffee.
Fu Xiling tapped the table twice: "Look at your phone."
"...What for?"
Just as she asked, her phone vibrated. A WeChat friend had sent her a message, and this WeChat friend's name was "Fu Xiling."
"Don't glare at me. I added it just now using your phone."
Fu Xiling sent her a screenshot.
In the picture was his Weibo message page. In the "messages from non-followers" column, there was an ID called "Taozi tsuki" that he'd circled while editing.
"I'm not that close with them either. If you want to know more, you can try searching yourself. My turn to ask questions."
Fu Xiling asked Shi Zhi two questions.
First, "Haven't decided to break up with Shen Jia yet?"
Second, "Your name is nice. Did you always have this name, or did you change it later?"
Shi Zhi scanned that Weibo ID and memorized it, then looked at the time. It was almost exactly twenty minutes.
She wasn't a particularly honest person either. Having achieved her goal, she was ready to leave.
Therefore, regarding Fu Xiling's two questions, Shi Zhi answered very perfunctorily: "Haven't decided. Never changed."
Only six words total.
Fu Xiling held his coffee cup and listened, then lowered his head and laughed.
"I've paid. Goodbye."
Shi Zhi rushed to the classroom. Most of the class had already arrived.
There were two or three people who had been huddled together discussing something. When they saw her pass by, they shut up and stopped talking.
This class, Shi Zhi didn't listen very attentively.
Without parental care, these years she'd lived more difficultly than other peers, didn't have much time for leisure and entertainment. She didn't have many accounts on apps for surfing the internet.
Shi Zhi registered a new Weibo account on her phone, searched for "Taozi tsuki," clicked in to look at Tao Jia's posts.
The day Shen Jia stood Shi Zhi up for dinner, at around six in the evening, Tao Jia posted a text update—
"Feel so bad. Could I be having trouble adapting to the environment?"
Shi Zhi found Shen Jia in the comments. His ID format was very similar to Tao Jia's: "Shen Jia zane."
He asked Tao Jia, "Where are you?"
Tao Jia replied, "At home."
Shen Jia posted the comment at around six-forty that evening.
At that time, Shi Zhi was already almost at the dinner location. She could imagine that Shen Jia, right after reporting experimental data to his advisor and leaving the teacher's office, had opened Weibo.
Then resolutely went to find the unwell Tao Jia...
The day Shen Jia went to the concert, Tao Jia had also posted.
It was a selfie photo taken late at night.
In the photo, Tao Jia sat in the passenger seat, wearing a mask and a beige knitted fisherman's hat, only showing half her face with smiling eyes.
Behind her was Shen Jia's profile driving, and another male childhood friend of Shen Jia's sitting in the back seat.
That childhood friend Shi Zhi had seen many times, called Li Xinbo. Li Xinbo smiled and gave a "V" sign to the camera.
Shen Jia's presence was still in the photo's comments section.
Tao Jia was replying to another unfamiliar ID's comment. Someone said "Which one is Taozi's boyfriend?" Tao Jia replied "Both hahahaha," and Shen Jia replied to Tao Jia.
He said, "Yeah, both."
The classroom was very quiet, only the teacher's voice explaining probability theory formulas coming through the speakers to the back rows.
Shi Zhi felt chest tightness, dimmed her phone screen, and looked up, taking a deep breath imperceptibly.
The phone in her hand vibrated several times in a row. She let her thoughts drift, as if she hadn't noticed.
When she looked down again, she found the messages weren't from Shen Jia.
It was Fu Xiling.
"Boss Shi really knows how to do business."
"One cup of coffee."
"Six words."
"Has anyone ever said you're wasting your talent studying accounting?"