"Oh dear, let me tell you, a while ago, one of our students got scammed in an online relationship," said Teacher Wu.
Sheng Muxi raised her hand to tuck a strand of hair that had blown into her eyes: "What happened? How were you tricked?"
Shi Manwen: "High school? I've never heard of that."
Teacher Wu said, "It was a girl from Class 13 of the first year of high school. She was scammed out of more than 6,000 yuan by an online friend. If the online friend hadn't later demanded tens of thousands of yuan, the girl wouldn't have had that much money. She had to ask her parents for it, and that's when her parents noticed something was wrong."
“I’ve met many students who come to the counseling center. In fact, many of the psychological problems of students at this age stem from their families of origin. For example, many parents are too busy to spend time with their children. This problem is especially evident in boarding schools like ours. Parents can leave their children at our school and apply to stay not only on weekends and holidays, but also during winter and summer vacations. It’s so convenient.”
"Children raised in this environment may not lack material things, but they will have a huge spiritual void. Not to mention minors, even adults find it difficult to overcome this void with reason."
——
Thursday afternoon.
Chai Qianning sat in front of the dressing table, unscrewed the lip gloss and applied a thin layer of lipstick, when the cell phone on the table rang.
She answered the phone, turned on speakerphone, and a middle-aged man's warm and gentle voice came from the other end: "Ningning, haven't you come down yet?"
"Almost there." Chai Qianning hung up the phone, looked in the mirror, buttoned up the top few buttons of her shirt, grabbed her bag, and went out.
Outside the gate of the residential compound.
A Maybach was parked in one place for a long time
Chai Renbo glanced at the time on his wristwatch.
Not far away.
Chai Qianning ran to the car, opened the door, and naturally sat in the passenger seat.
"Dad, let's go."
"Fasten your seatbelt."
Okay.
The car stopped at a high-end building, where sunlight cast a thin layer of gold on the large glass surfaces, subtly shimmering with a dazzling luster.
Chai Qianning followed her father into the building.
Several CEOs came over to shake hands with Chai Renbo as he arrived.
Chai Qianning followed next to Chai Renbo, politely greeted everyone present, and then fell silent.
"Mr. Chai, is this your daughter?"
"Hey, your daughter's all grown up already? Isn't she still in school?"
Chai Renbo replied with a smile, "You mean my youngest daughter? She's still in school."
"Mr. Chai is so lucky to have two daughters."
A bespectacled man asked, "Why isn't Madam Chai here?"
Several other people chimed in, "Yes, yes, isn't Mr. Chai always the one who dotes on his wife the most?"
"Our CEO Chai is known in the industry as a good man; he always takes his wife with him wherever he goes."
Chai Renbo laughed and said, "No, no, Xiaoying had something to do, so she couldn't come."
He Xiaoying is Chai Qianning's mother.
Chai Qianning watched the commotion from the sidelines, and only went inside after everyone had finished exchanging pleasantries.
Chai Renbo wanted to develop his network for Chai Qianning, which is why he brought her along this time.
At first, Chai Qianning would feign politeness and exchange pleasantries with the other party, but after an hour, she began to become perfunctory.
When others offer her a toast, she gives a perfunctory response; when others engage in conversation with her, she offers only a few perfunctory words, her face clearly saying, "I'm not interested at all."
In the end, she simply found a place to sit down.
After dealing with several bosses, Chai Renbo walked over to her and asked, "Qingqing, have you been going to your place for the past few weekends?"
Qingqing is Chai Shuqing's nickname.
Chai Qianning nodded: "Yes."
"Did she get into trouble at school again? Otherwise, why would she keep coming to your place? Is she afraid we'll find out?"
"It's not a big deal, I just overslept once and missed an exam."
Chai Renbo stroked the ring on his finger: "Now that you've settled down, how about letting Qingqing commute next semester and stay with you? You can pick her up every day."
“Sure, but Qingqing might not be willing. Last time, Mom suggested she commute to school, but she didn’t want to, saying that living at school is more flexible.” Chai Qianning shrugged.
"You should try to talk her out of it. If you don't keep an eye on her, she'll become completely out of control."
"She's sitting perfectly fine on the ground," Chai Qianning muttered softly.
"What did you say?"
“No, I said I’ll find some time to talk to her.” Chai Qianning stood up: “Dad, I think I should leave first.”
Chai Renbo called out to her, "Young Master Wen is back from abroad, would you like to meet him?"
"No, no, no," Chai Qianning quickly waved her hand.
"He's young and accomplished, only two years older than you, and his startup is doing quite well..."
"Dad, my ear hurts."
Chai Renbo patted her arm: "You child, you're almost at the age to get married now. Even if I don't say it, your mother will bring it up later. Of course, I'm not forcing you to marry anyone. We'll just meet them, and if you really don't like them, you can just be friends."
"Ah, next time, we'll talk about it later." Chai Qianning picked up the chain of her handbag: "Dad, I'm leaving. Please take care of yourself and don't drink too much."
As Chai Qianning walked to the door, she was met by a well-dressed, elegant young man, who was none other than the young CEO Wen that her father had mentioned.
"Qian Ning?"
Chai Qianning nodded politely.
"Long time no see. I heard you came this time too. My dad just asked me to come over and have a chat with you. I didn't expect to run into you like this."
"Hey, are you leaving?"
"Well, I have something to do, so I have to go back first." Chai Qianning had a faint smile on her face.
"That's such a shame. I was just thinking of having a chat with you. It's been so long since we last saw each other. How about we grab a bite to eat this weekend?"
"Well, I might have something to do this weekend, I'm really sorry."
"It's alright, it's alright." Xiao Wen always knew her place. After chatting for a few minutes, she was afraid of delaying the other person, so she let her leave.
Chai Qianning took a taxi home. After arriving home, she removed her makeup and changed into her pajamas. Just as she was about to cook dinner, Chai Shuqing called.
"Sis, the school's power's out, so I don't have evening self-study. Could you come pick me up?"
Chai Qianning changed her clothes again and went out again.
When she arrived at the school gate, she texted Chai Shuqing to let her know she had arrived, and then waited in the car.
The streetlights at the school gate pierced through the branches and leaves, entering the car and casting shadows on Chai Qianning's fingers resting on the steering wheel.
Between the white light and the black shadows, it seemed as if a layer of cold, soft filter had been applied.
Chai Qianning stared at the light and shadow on her hand for a while, while flipping her phone with her other hand.
From afar, a voice called out, "Hello, teacher."
Chai Qianning half-lifted her eyelids, and the light illuminated her dark eyes.
Students were coming and going outside, and there were also many parents picking up their children. It seemed that the school dormitories were also without power.
She started to space out, thinking that she hadn't seen someone for several days, and there hadn't been a single message on WeChat.
Sheng Muxi and she had completely different schedules, so even though they were neighbors living upstairs and downstairs, they could only bump into each other by chance if they didn't make a point of looking for each other.
But she was clearly unlucky during this period and did not run into Sheng Muxi again.
She opened her phone's camera and took a picture of the hand on the steering wheel.
After thinking for a while, I opened the green social media app and posted a picture of my hand as a status update.
Just then, Chai Shuqing came out as well. As soon as she got in the car, she excitedly told Chai Qianning the good news: "Our school is going to do some kind of project. We have a holiday tomorrow, Friday, which means we have three days off this week."
"Look how happy you are, buckle your seatbelt."
After Chai Qianning posted that update, she didn't pay attention to it anymore. She had set the green app to Do Not Disturb mode, so it wouldn't send any notifications.
She didn't remember it until almost midnight.
Upon opening the app, a ton of likes and comments popped up.
Comments were mostly things like, "It's such a waste not to use my little sister's hands to hit me," or "Does the older sister need a simp?"
Another user with the nickname "I know I'm awesome" commented: "Sister, sister, look at me! I can cook for you so you'll never have to lift a finger. If you say go east, I'll never go west. I'll do whatever you say. I'll live and die for you, sister. As long as you don't leave me, I'll never abandon you."
Chai Qianning felt this was a bit outrageous. Sure enough, on the internet, people don't have to take responsibility for their words, and they can say anything exaggerated.
Bored while waiting for someone's message, she casually replied: "Really?"
The person immediately messaged her privately: "Really, really, sister, I promise it's more real than pearls."
Da Mengyi: [Baby, your profile says you're twenty, but I'm eighteen. Why are you calling me "sister"?]
I know I'm awesome: 【I don't care, I don't care, you're my older sister.】【Older sister, can we have an online relationship? I'll do anything you say, as long as you're happy.】
Da Mengyi: [Oh? Anything is fine?]
I know I'm awesome: [Mmm-hmm.]
Da Mengyi: [How about I show you what it's like to eat poop?]
I know I'm awesome: [Oh, sister, how could you be so mean? I know you were just joking, right?]
Chai Qianning left the "I know I'm awesome" chat box and didn't continue the conversation.
Because of this post, her popularity soared, but among the crowd, she didn't see the fish she wanted.
Just when she thought her "fishing" plan had failed and was about to exit the app, she saw a message from "Forty-Nine Years Old," a very strange question: "Do you really like me?"
Upon seeing the message, Chai Qianning smiled and typed a reply: 【Of course.】
49 years old: [I wasn't telling the truth before; I'm actually 69 years old this year.]
Da Mengyi: [That's okay, true love knows no age.]