Go Find Your Girlfriend

The sunlight outside the window was bright, and the sky was a clear, deep blue.

Not far to the left stood a towering mountain peak that seemed to pierce the clouds. As far as the eye could see, the dreamy hillsides were almost entirely covered in green.

Only the scattered houses added splashes of other colors. Seen from inside the house, the view looked like an oil painting.

“Wow, what a beautiful view!” Su Yang pulled open both curtains and pushed the window open to let in some fresh air.

“Another beautiful day.” He smiled faintly, turned around, and walked into the bathroom to wash up.

A little over ten minutes later, Su Yang changed his clothes and went downstairs. However, the three girls were nowhere to be seen in the living room.

“Huh? Could they all still be asleep?”

Su Yang walked to the end of the hallway and looked around. All three bedroom doors were still closed, but there wasn’t a sound coming from inside.

He walked up to Li Yuanying’s door and knocked. “Yuanying, time to get up.”

He knocked twice, but no one answered.

Su Yang gently pushed the door open, only to find that the room was empty.

“Huh? No one’s here?” he muttered. He then turned around and knocked on the other two bedroom doors, but neither of them answered either.

“Seriously? Where did those three run off to?”

Thinking this, Su Yang walked to the front door and opened it. A pleasant breeze brushed over him.

He took out a cigarette, lit it, and strolled into the small yard in front of the house. There was still no sign of the three girls.

Just then, his phone rang.

He took it out and glanced at the screen. It was Li Yuanying calling.

“Hey, Yuanying.”

“Su Yang, are you up?”

“Just got up. Where did you girls go?”

“We’re in town buying some things.”

“All three of you went?”

“Mm-hmm. We got up earlier and were chatting when we realized there weren’t many snacks or drinks in the house, so we went into town to buy some.”

“Why didn’t you wake me?”

“We figured you went to bed late last night, so we wanted to let you sleep a little longer. Is there anything you want us to bring back?”

“I don’t need anything. Just buy whatever you want.”

“Okay. Oh, right—the coffee beans are under the bar on the first floor.”

“Got it. Take your time shopping, and be careful.”

“Okay, see you later.”

After hanging up, Su Yang went back inside and walked behind the small bar.

Calling it a bar was a bit of a stretch. It was really just a rectangular black wooden table with a small home coffee machine on top.

The machine could make a few simple milk-based coffees.

Su Yang bent down, took out a bag of coffee beans from the cabinet, tore it open, and poured the beans into the grinder. He then made himself a latte.

He carried the coffee out to the small yard and sat directly on the grass. The entire yard was covered in lawn, so there was no need for chairs.

Su Yang gently set the coffee beside him, then lay down on the grass and started playing with his phone.

A breeze carrying the fresh fragrance of flowers and grass drifted into his nose.

The yard in front of the house was shaded by the building behind him. Even if the sunlight had been shining directly down, it wouldn’t have felt too hot—the temperature today was only sixteen degrees Celsius, making it incredibly comfortable.

“Now this is what life is supposed to be—peaceful and carefree, completely removed from the world. This would be a great place to retire.”

Su Yang sat up, opened his camera, and took a picture of the hillside below the house. Then he lay back down on the lawn.

He was scrolling through TikTok when a WeChat notification popped up at the top of his screen.

“Huh? Mengli?”

He switched over to WeChat.

Zhuang Mengli: “Why haven’t you come back yet?”

“I already told you—it’ll take at least seven days, maybe nine or ten. The time isn’t up yet,” Su Yang typed back.

“You’re probably having the time of your life in Europe, aren’t you? Are you just going to ignore your fiancée?”

Su Yang was speechless. He smiled helplessly and replied, “Stop nagging. I’ll come back when the time comes.”

“Guess where I am right now?” Zhuang Mengli asked.

“How would I know where you are? Don’t tell me you’re still in the capital?”

“I’m in Haicheng.”

“Haicheng? What are you doing there?”

“Looking for your girlfriend~”

“Looking for my…” Seeing those words, Su Yang sat up and typed, “Wait a second. You went to look for Pan Pan?”

“Hahaha, you finally admit Pan Pan is your girlfriend, huh?” Zhuang Mengli replied with a laugh.

“Don’t change the subject. Why are you looking for her? She isn’t even in Haicheng.”

“Who says she isn’t in Haicheng? It’s not like I don’t have her contact information. If she weren’t there, I wouldn’t have gone.”

“What? Isn’t she in Gangcheng? I asked her just two days ago.”

“Fine, fine. You ask your girlfriend instead of your fiancée.”

Su Yang rolled his eyes helplessly. “Enough. What kind of nonsense are you talking about? Just tell me why you went to see her.”

“Want to know? Too bad—I’m not telling you~”

“Fine, don’t tell me. I’ll ask her myself.”

“Don’t bother. She won’t tell you either. The two of us already made an agreement.”

Su Yang couldn’t help laughing when he read that. “Since when did you two become so close?”

“Don’t worry about it. Apart from Pan Pan, none of your other girlfriends—people like Sister Xiaolu, Lingxi, Little Su, and the rest—will tell you anything either.”

“What? No, wait a minute. What exactly are you talking about? What other girlfriends? When did I ever have that many girlfriends? Don’t go making up stories about me.”

“Hmph. Maybe not officially, but who knows what happens behind the scenes? For all I know, you could have three girlfriends with you right now.”

Huh? What the hell? Did this girl install a hidden camera on me?

Su Yang lowered his head and glanced around.

“You haven’t explained what’s going on after all this time. Fine, forget it. If you don’t want to tell me, then don’t.”

Zhuang Mengli replied, “Hahaha, all right, all right. I won’t tease you anymore. I’ll show you a picture.”

“A picture?”

Su Yang waited, somewhat confused.

About ten seconds later, Zhuang Mengli sent him a photo.

When he saw it, Su Yang’s eyes widened. He tapped the image to enlarge it.

The photo had been taken inside a coffee shop. Besides Zhuang Mengli, there were several other people in the picture—and every single one of them was familiar.

In the center of the photo, Zhuang Mengli and Pan Ning were sitting on a sofa. To Zhuang Mengli’s other side sat Lu Yun, Su Qingci, Jiang Xiaotang, and Meng Wenzhou in that order.

On Pan Ning’s other side sat Meng Qianyu, Ren Lingxi, Han So-yeon, Jin Xiangmei, and Liu Bo.

“What the hell?!” Su Yang stared blankly at the crowd in the photo.

Two seconds later, he thought, Oh, they’re probably just having a get-together.

“You’re all having a party?”

“What party? Um… I guess you could call it that. Wait, I’ll show you another picture.”

“Another one? What other picture is there?” Su Yang asked.

“Coming right up.”

After sending that message, Zhuang Mengli went silent.

“Huh? This is interesting. I’d like to see what you’re all up to.”

More than twenty seconds later, Zhuang Mengli sent over another photo.

This time, it was a screenshot. Su Yang opened it and looked at it. The image was filled with densely packed text, but the words “Schengen visa” immediately caught his attention.

At that moment, Su Yang understood everything.

He sighed and laughed. “Hahaha, you made such a big deal out of it. I thought there was some huge piece of news.”

He closed the image and typed back, “I understand now.”

“What do you understand?”

“Yeah, right. They even sent me screenshots of their visas. How could I not know? You’re planning to come to Europe to see me, aren’t you?”

“Tsk, who says we’re coming to see you? Can’t we just take a trip around Europe? It’s not like we’re making a special trip for you~”

“Oh, really? Fine, then. Have your visas been approved?”

“Not yet. We only applied yesterday afternoon. It’ll take at least three more days before we can get everything. Oh, right—turn on your video.”

As soon as Zhuang Mengli finished speaking, she started a video call with Su Yang.

Su Yang tapped to answer. A whole crowd of people appeared on the screen, all waving and greeting him.

“Brother Lao Yang! You went traveling in Europe without inviting us, huh? Wait—where are you? Why does the background look so fake?”

“Holy crap, you didn’t actually leave the country, did you? Did you set up a green screen and use special effects to fool us?”

Su Yang rolled his eyes at Liu Bo. “What are you even talking about? This is a real background.”

……