Chapter 122: Chapter 85: The Truth Is Completely Revealed, and You Have the Nerve to Talk to Me About First Come, First Served!?

Jiangg Yao was stunned by the shouting. She shrank back, knowing without looking that her sister must be furious right now.

“Can you please use your brain before you answer? A relationship progresses through many stages. Each stage is different, and you should do what’s appropriate for that stage. Do I really need to teach you this?”

Jiangg Ning crossed her arms, her tone reproachful as she lectured Jiangg Yao with a cold expression.

Her words did make sense.

So much so that after a moment of thought, Jiangg Yao didn’t dare to look up, meekly accepting the scolding.

“I…”

“How long have you even been dating? He invites you on a trip and you just agree? Do you think that’s appropriate? Chen Yuan is young and might not know better, but you don’t either?”

“But we dated for over six months before, so what’s wrong with going on a trip together…? Lots of online couples go on a trip when they meet in person for the first time. I don’t think it’s as serious as you’re making it out to be,” Jiangg Yao argued.

“Online dating is one thing, but meeting in real life is a fresh start. You should wait at least another six months before you go on a trip together! At least, I don’t approve of what you’re doing. The way I see it, a woman should always be prim and proper before marriage.”

“Well…” Jiangg Yao lowered her head, aggrieved. Then, as if she’d suddenly realized something, her head snapped up. “Wait a minute! You can be as prim and proper as you want, but what does that have to do with me?! I’m the one going on a trip with Chen Yuan, not you! What are you doing here finding fault with everything!”

Jiangg Yao scoffed a few times, scrambled to her feet, and instantly bristled. “You’re unbelievable!”

She hurried toward the bedroom, not forgetting to grab her phone. She was planning to make a quick escape and then chat with Chen Yuan about the trip details, but Jiangg Ning was right behind her.

She followed, nagging, “Chen Yuan doesn’t know we’re twins right now. He might have been inviting me. There’s no way to be sure.”

“Fine, so he was inviting you. Are you going?”

Turning around, Jiangg Yao asked with her hands on her hips.

“I’m not going.”

“Then that settles it! You don’t go, so I’ll go!” Jiangg Yao clapped her hands, a smile blooming on her face. “It’s settled then. A double blessing, a happy ending for everyone! I get to be happy, you get to be proper, and Chen Yuan gets to be happy too.”

At first glance, her logic seemed flawless.

But Jiangg Ning wasn’t so easily fooled. She said coolly, “I’m not going, and you’re not allowed to go either.”

“They’re my legs,” the younger sister retorted defiantly.

Then, she walked into the bedroom, grabbed a comb, and started to straighten out her long, tangled hair from their earlier scuffle.

Leaning against the doorframe, Jiangg Ning watched her quietly.

After a long moment.

Her older sister’s lips parted.

“Jiangg Yao… Fine. Even if I accept that you genuinely like Chen Yuan, there’s still a matter of first come, first served, isn’t there?” Jiangg Ning took a deep breath, finally letting go of her anger and speaking calmly. “I won’t deny it, and I won’t presume to say whose feelings are more serious—there’s no point in debating that. But I was the one who made the decision to get back together. Then you went behind my back to find Chen Yuan, and you did it using my identity! To put it bluntly, you’re poaching. Do you understand?”

“’First come, first served?’” Jiangg Yao’s face instantly turned cold. She slapped her phone down on the desk with a THWACK. “Come over here and see for yourself who’s the one doing the poaching!”

“Wh-what do you mean?”

…

「Meanwhile.」

Downstairs from the Landa University library, Chen Yuan was not in a good mood.

Actually, he had been feeling even worse half an hour ago, but after his call with Jiangg Ning, things had eased up a bit.

He knew his travel proposal was a bit abrupt, but everything had happened so suddenly, without any warning. Chen Yuan didn’t want to stay in Lanjing all by himself, and he couldn’t just brush off his mom.

He was truly caught between a rock and a hard place.

In the afternoon, not long after his classes ended.

Mr. Chen had called.

He first asked about how life was going. After Chen Yuan assured him that everything was fine, that he was eating and sleeping well, Mr. Chen hesitated for a moment, as if he had something on his mind.

Mr. Chen was also a teacher—a math teacher. He was a particularly open-minded and wonderful father.

He didn’t usually call.

So when Chen Yuan answered, he had a feeling something was up.

A moment later, he understood.

It turned out Jiang Zhengfeng had told Chen Yuan’s mother about him renting an apartment in Lanjing. They had discussed this before, but Mr. Chen had taken it upon himself to keep the rental a secret. In other words, the three of them knew, but Chen Yuan’s mother was in the dark.

He’d hidden it, of course, because he knew Mrs. Chen would definitely be against it.

The result was obvious: after Jiang Zhengfeng revealed the secret, Mrs. Chen went completely ballistic.

She had been yelling since noon, hadn’t even let him eat, and hadn’t stopped right up until he made the call.

’It’s just renting an apartment, is it really that big of a deal?’ Chen Yuan didn’t get it. He knew his mom was a control freak, but this wasn’t a huge issue. She might be displeased, sure, but enough to go ballistic?

“She doesn’t agree with you living off-campus. She thinks the university dorms are safer, and since everyone else lives in them, you shouldn’t be an exception… But now the nature of the situation has changed,” Mr. Chen’s tone was grave; it sounded like he’d stepped out to make the call. “I heard from Jiang that you like the place, so he bought it.”

“He bought it!?” Chen Yuan was astonished. He had no idea.

“Yes, and when your mom found out, she blew up on the spot.”

Mr. Chen repeated his wife’s words verbatim: “He just started university and they’re already buying him a house! What does that mean? The meaning is obvious! They want to keep Yuan away and never let him come back!” “You’ve lost your son, and I’ve lost mine! After we worked so hard to raise him for over a decade, they just snatched him away!”

Hysterical anguish and wailing followed.

Or she would sit alone, wiping her tears, then suddenly cry out, “Buying the house is just the first step! They have plenty of tricks up their sleeves. Before long, they’ll even strip us of our status as his adoptive parents! This is what happens when there’s no blood relation. What did I do to deserve this…? Say something! Chen?”

Just hearing it secondhand was enough for Chen Yuan to picture the scene perfectly. He could just imagine the look on his mom’s face as she said those words.

He said hurriedly, “That won’t happen, Dad. You two worked so hard to raise me for so many years. How could I ever be so ungrateful?”

Mr. Chen, however, was quite calm. He told Chen Yuan not to worry about explaining; he knew his son. The key issue was Chen Yuan’s mother. That’s just how she was—petty and controlling.

She had no major faults, but these minor ones had tormented the father and son for years!

Chen Yuan was still young, after all, and he loved his mom. He suggested that he could go back during winter break to comfort her and that should resolve the issue.

But Mr. Chen firmly rejected the idea.

“Whatever you do, don’t come back. That’s why I’m calling.”

“What do you mean?”

“Why is your mom so furious? It’s not just her personality. More importantly, it’s those colleagues of hers at school. They’re close, so they’ll say anything, just whispering in her ear and fanning the flames!”

To be honest, those staff members at the school, the teachers in the office…

…I can’t speak to their teaching skills, but the workplace atmosphere is absolutely toxic. They’re just as competitive and gossipy, and the occupational hazards of being a female teacher are no joke.

“Is it Ms. Nan?”

“Who else could it be? She’s always telling your mom to keep a tighter leash on you, to not let the son she raised for eighteen years get stolen away. The other colleagues have been talking a lot too. So your mom came up with an idea. She’s decided that around New Year’s Eve, she’s going to throw that school acceptance banquet for you—the one you didn’t have over the summer! And she wants to spend a lot of money to make it even grander, even inviting the principal.”

“Huh?”

Chen Yuan was dumbfounded.

His mind automatically conjured up the scene: him sitting awkwardly at a table, surrounded by a group of his parents’ teacher colleagues—the aunties and uncles—and the principal… Glasses clinking, everyone endlessly praising him while simultaneously comparing their own children and chatting about trivial nonsense.

He shuddered instantly. ’That sounds terrifying.’

He had adamantly refused to have a school acceptance banquet over the summer. It was a custom in some of the smaller northern towns.

Getting into a good school was certainly cause for celebration.

But Lanjing University wasn’t Qinghua University, after all… Chen Yuan felt there was no need for such a banquet. It was too ostentatious and served only to satisfy the adults’ vanity.

Mrs. Chen was digging this up again, undoubtedly because she wanted to show everyone that her son would never run off.

’But isn’t this just making a scene for no reason? I’m not going to run off anyway!’

’Using all this to test my loyalty… it’s just so absurd!’

The way some parents think was truly hard to understand.

“Here’s the plan: find an excuse to come back after New Year’s Eve. That way, the banquet can’t happen. I can’t stand those kinds of events,” Mr. Chen advised.

“What kind of excuse…”

“Just say you’re going on a trip with a classmate.”

“You want me to lie?”

“Why call it lying? You could actually go. I don’t care what reason you find. Son, if you really come back, then I’m going on a trip myself. You know how much I can’t stand your mom’s friends! There’s no way I’m sitting at the same table with them.”

Mr. Chen’s main point was crystal clear: if the son comes home, the father flees.

In short, neither father nor son wanted anything to do with this school acceptance banquet.

The reason behind it was a messy story. Who doesn’t have a few romantic entanglements from their youth?

AHEM—

There was no other choice.

After understanding the whole story, Chen Yuan’s heart was heavy.

Of course, he didn’t want to lie to his mom, so his only option was to turn the lie into reality.

He contacted a few of his roommates one by one, but all three said the same thing: “Dude, it’s the New Year. Who isn’t going home for the Eve? Find someone else to go mess around with.”

He thought it over and over, hesitating several times.

Chen Yuan had no choice but to call Jiangg Ning. It was his only option. Was he supposed to go on a trip all by himself?

’That’d be insane!’

Fortunately, she agreed.

Chen Yuan breathed a sigh of relief, feeling quite touched. Ever since getting back together with Jiangg Ning, the very word “lonely” seemed to have been erased from his life. He could spend time with his girlfriend at school, and they were constantly chatting privately.

’Jiangg is so clingy… She’s online from morning to night, even messaging me back during her classes.’

’What is this, if not love?’

…

「In Lanjing District.」

Jiangg Ning silently swiped through her phone, her face growing paler and paler.

An indescribable emotion flickered in her eyes. She couldn’t believe it…

The secret that had been hidden for so many days was finally laid bare before her, from beginning to end.

The truth has always been cruel, but never had Jiangg Ning felt its cruelty more acutely than at this very moment.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep