Married Thrice to Salted Fish

126.

Usually whenever he received similar scam messages, Jiang Xing wouldn’t even take a second look. Him replying with a [?] was already giving the scammer a lot of face. The main reason was that the scammer didn’t ask him to send money; they didn’t say that his wife was hit by a car and was now in the hospital and in urgent need of money. This could simply be a case of mistaken identity, so he considered this ‘?’ reminder as his good deed for the day.

The other party quickly replied to him: [Are you Jiang Xing?]

Very well; the possibility of it just being sent to the wrong number was ruled out. This was a fraudulent message and the scammer had even obtained his information in some way.

Jiang Xing: [I am your father.]

Ke Tang held her mobile phone as if she were holding a hot potato. She glanced at Lin Qingyu and saw that his face had turned cold, his eyes flashing daggers. It made her think they ought to turn up the air conditioner in the stadium.

“Xiao gege, did you remember the number wrong?”

Lin Qingyu sneered. “I didn’t remember it wrong.” This kind of reply that sounded like the person who sent it was asking for a beating; he was sure that it came from Jiang Xing. He could bet Xu Junyuan’s life on it.

Ke Tang’s big eyes were full of question marks. “Ah? Then why is he like this?”

Lin Qingyu shook his head. He didn’t know either. Jiang Xing should have realized he was missing. He should be trying his best to find him, just like he was. After receiving such a message, he should be flying over. How dare he reply to him with a [?]!

Ke Tang tentatively asked, “Xiao gege, are you okay?” She felt that she had solved the case. The young couple must have quarreled and were in the middle of a cold war. The beauty condescended to step down for his husband and asked him to pick him up. But his husband believed they were still trading vicious words and was pretending to be some cold-fucking scumbag, leaving him to fend for himself.

Lin Qingyu thought for a while and said, “As I remember, mobile phones can send photos?”

Jiang Xing thought that saying “I am your father” would be enough to shut up this scammer. He didn’t expect him to become more courageous as his frustrations mounted. He even sent over a photo of his “wife”.

Jiang Xing clicked on it thoughtlessly. A young man in ancient Chinese clothes appeared on his phone screen.

Jiang Xing was stunned.

The fancy clothes they young man had on did not belong to any particular dynasty in their history, yet he found it very familiar. What made him even more stunned was that the young man seemed unreal, as though it’d been taken out of some CGI game.

But this face brought with it such a strong sense of familiarity. When he saw it, his heart unexpectedly raced to 180 beats per minute.

He didn’t wonder even wonder why this swindler was sending him the picture of a man. With that kind of face, a man or a woman, he was the wife everyone dreamt of. Being a swindler nowadays wasn’t easy. With Photoshop skills like this, he ought to be able to open up a treasure store.

Stranger: [Your wife looks like this, are you really not going to come and pick him up???]

From the three consecutive question marks, Jiang Xing got a vague image of the swindler gnashing his teeth in exasperation and jealousy.

You liar, how’d you get so dramatic?

Jiang Xing: [You went overboard with the Photoshop, xiongdi]

The stranger was gradually becoming irritable:

[? ? ? ]

[I didn’t even use a beauty filter! If you don’t believe us, then add me on WeChat. Let’s video call!!! ]

Jiang Xing really wanted to see how the scammer was going to go about this, so he willingly added this phone number on WeChat. Immediately after, the scammer sent over the video call request.

Jiang Xing didn’t intend to reveal his face so he covered the camera. In this way, he could see the other side, but the other side could not see him. Soon, his “wife” appeared in his vision.

That CGI game face suddenly came alive. He could even clearly see the teardrop mole at the corner of the young man’s eye.

As everyone knew, video calls couldn’t be edited.

Lin Qingyu couldn’t see Jiang Xing. He could only see darkness. “Jiang Xing?”

When no one responded, Lin Qingyu called out again, “Laogong?”

Jiang Xing’s Adam’s apple bobbed. “En.”

Just this simple “en” was enough for Lin Qingyu to conclude that it was Jiang Xing’s voice. The heavy stone in his heart finally fell. The most urgent matter was to meet up with Jiang Xing first. He’ll settle scores with him later.

Lin Qingyu asked, “Where are you?”

Jiang Xing replied in a daze, “At my aunt’s house.”

“Come and pick me up. I’m…” Lin Qingyu looked at Ke Tang, “Where are we now?”

Ke Tang said, “I’ll message you the address!”

Lin Qingyu nodded and said to Jiang Xing, “I’ll be waiting for you.”

After hanging up the video, Jiang Xing engaged in an inner struggle at the sight of the address the stranger sent over.

He has common sense, he swears he does. But the super good-looking young man called him ‘laogong’.

The young man’s expression completely didn’t seem like he was lying. Besides, would anyone with looks like that have to sink so low as to commit something like phone fraud? And even if he really did want to swindle him, why choose a place full of security?

Most importantly, he himself felt that he had seen his “wife” somewhere.

Jiang Xing stood up. He grabbed his schoolbag and walked out. As he was heading out, he happened to run into his aunt who was back from grocery shopping. His aunt said, “A’Xing, it’s time for dinner. Are you still going out?”

Jiang Xing said, “I’m going to see a classmate.”

“Then have the driver take you.”

“No, I’ll just take the subway. It’ll be faster.”

Ke Tang, the good Samaritan, decided to see this through to the end. She asked her supervisor for a half hour break and guided Lin Qingyu out of the venue. She then kept him company as he waited for his husband by the side of the road. Not for anything else, she just wanted to know where this beauty’s husband got the confidence to quarrel with his wife, pretending not to even know him. If she had a wife like this, she’d even swear he was her ancestor just to get him to stay. How dare that slag man do him dirty like this!

The great beauty had put on the mask but he still attracted a lot of attention. It couldn’t be helped. The clothes he had on were too luxurious. How could those be considered clothes? He was practically wearing a car.

Lin Qingyu watched as cars galloped past in front of him, their speeds unmatched by any of the Dayu’s thousand-mile horses. Jiang Xing’s hometown was even more bizarre than he imagined. Unfortunately, before he was back with Jiang Xing, he simply didn’t have the heart to appreciate and explore it at all.

Will Jiang Xing drive to pick him up?

Suddenly, Lin Qingyu’s pupils shrank. He pointed at something that was moving and said, “What is that? It’s moving so slowly.”

Ke Tang looked in the direction he was pointing at. “What? What?”

“The thing with the basket in front of it.”

Ke Tang was confused, “You mean the shared bicycle?”

“Oh, my husband is here.” Lin Qingyu narrowed his eyes, “He came on a shared bicycle.”

There were several people coming towards them on shared bicycles but Ke Tang could tell at a glance which one was the great beauty’s husband.

It was a boy wearing a black mask, headphones around his neck, a backpack slung on his back. Riding the bicycle against the wind, his bangs were swept back. His slightly upturned eyes were very charming, brimming with the aura of youth.

Even if she couldn’t see his face clearly, the boy still gave her a “refreshing and handsome” feeling. Was it because of temperament? Or height? Or figure? Maybe the outfit?

But the boys’ clothes were also very simple — a loose T-shirt, black trousers and sneakers, like what most teenage boys wear. It’s strange. Why did he look so sexy in that outfit?

The boy stopped the bicycle in front of them. He looked towards them and asked uncertainly, “Hi?”

Lin Qingyu took off his mask and met Jiang Xing’s eyes.

Jiang Xing’s heart beat faster.

Lin Qingyu walked up to Jiang Xing and ordered, “Take off your mask.”

Jiang Xing paused and though confused, obediently took off his mask.

——It was Jiang Xing; Jiang Xing with short hair, Jiang Xing wearing his hometown clothes, the same Jiang Xing who appeared in both his dreams.

Lin Qingyu thought of Jiang Xing’s excessive “joke” and wanted to slap him on the face. He raised his hand and he was about to let him have it but Jiang Xing seemed to be in a daze and he made no move to dodge.

Lin Qingyu’s hand slowly dropped. How could he be willing to hurt Jiang Xing?

And so, abandoning himself, he threw himself into the young man’s arms.

Jiang Xing’s eyes suddenly went wide. He smelled a light, familiar scent of medicinal herbs.

“Why’d you only get here now?” Lin Qingyu embraced him tightly. “I thought I was going to be separated from you again. I was so scared.”

Jiang Xing raised his hands but in the end, he didn’t touch the handsome boy’s body. He felt something hot roll down the boy’s cheek against his shoulder. He said, at a loss, “Hey…”

Standing to one side, Ke Tang, who was about ready to swoon, received a WeChat message from her supervisor urging her to go back to work. She had to break away from this beautiful scene in before her eyes. “Well, I still have something to do in the exhibition hall.”

Lin Qingyu straightened up. He restrained his emotions and said, “In the future, my husband and I will find a chance to thank you.”

Ke Tang waved her hands again and again, “It’s fine. It’s fine. It’s what I should have done.” As she spoke, she cast another subtle look at Jiang Xing. She shouldn’t have cared about the affairs of these handsome guys, but she really didn’t want to see the beauty being wronged. “Xiao gege, when you get back your phone, can you add me on WeChat?”

Lin Qingyu said, “Sure.”

Ke Tang smiled. “Then I’ll be going first.”

Now that he had returned to Jiang Xing’s side, Lin Qingyu finally felt safe and was ready to settle accounts. “Why did you say you didn’t know me just now?” Lin Qingyu said coldly, “Was it fun playing that joke?”

Jiang Xing’s heartbeat still hadn’t calmed down. But he was very good at pretending. No matter how nervous he was, he could pretend nothing was wrong. “It’s not that, buddy. Should I know you?”

Lin Qingyu’s heart sank. “What do you mean? You’ve already forgotten about me after only an hour apart?”

“What? What?”

Lin Qingyu’s face was frighteningly cold. “Jiang Xing, I’m not any mood to joke around with you right now.”

“No, don’t be angry. I was wrong.” Jiang Xing apologized out of instinct. “Maybe I forgot. Just give me a hint, anything is fine. I will try my best to remember.”

Lin Qingyu said, “Honeymoon, Yuzhang, carriage.”

Jiang Xing frowned. “We were in a carriage together?”

Lin Qingyu: “…”

Judging by Jiang Xing’s expression, he really didn’t remember him.

If his conjecture was correct, Xu Junyuan’s strange stone that had the effect of stabilizing the soul, brought Jiang Xing back to his body in Guangzhou. While, he himself since he had no body in Guangzhou, was sent over with both his soul and original body. The last time Jiang Xing returned to his original body in the Dayu, he was unable to speak for a period of time. His amnesia this time was probably also a side effect of returning to his old body.

But what if he was wrong? If… If the Jiang Xing in front of him has no memory of being in the Dayu at all? And if this Jiang Xing was not that Jiang Xing, then what should he do?

Seeing the beauty in gorgeous clothes frown, his lips pursed tightly, his eyes at a loss, as if he had been bullied and suffered a great grievance, Jiang Xing felt inexplicably panicked and he couldn’t help but say, “But, I really think I’ve seen you somewhere.”

Could he be an elementary school classmate? Impossible, his memory was quite good. If there’d been such a handsome boy among his classmates, how could he not remember?

Lin Qingyu was taken aback. “You think I look familiar?”

“Yes, you give me a very familiar feeling. But I don’t think you could be my wife.” Jiang Xing originally wanted to say that he was a straight and underage. It was impossible that he’d have a male wife. But when the words reached his lips, he changed them again, “I’m not that lucky.”

Lin Qingyu breathed a sigh of relief. Jiang Xing had a vague impression of him, which proved that his conjecture was correct. Jiang Xing’s memory was still there, it just needed a little time to recover. “Let me ask you, do you have a wife now?”

“……No.”

Lin Qingyu was a little more satisfied. “Then I’ll be your wife, okay?”

Jiang Xing: “…”

Calm down, Jiang Xing. No matter how good-looking the other party is, he’s still a stranger from who knows where. Even if you want to bend, you can’t bend so hastily. You’ve got to at least go through some inner struggle and conflict.

Jiang Xing smiled. “Sorry, you’re not my type.”

Lin Qingyu said calmly, “Are you sure? If we’re talking about looks, I should be everyone’s type.”

Jiang Xing looked at the other person’s face, but couldn’t say anything to refute.

Lin Qingyu chuckled softly. “Laogong, I’m hungry.”

Intuition told Jiang Xing that the boy didn’t have the slightest malice towards him and the boy really did seem to know him. Reason told him too that casually believing a stranger was death seeking behavior. But this time, he just wanted to trust his instincts.

Jiang Xing thought it over and said, “If you say you’re not a liar, I’ll take you to eat delicious food.”

Lin Qingyu said, “I’m not a liar.”

Jiang Xing was still not at ease. “Swear it.”

Lin Qingyu was quite speechless. “I swear I’m not a liar.”

“Okay.” Jiang Xing said, “What do you want to eat?”