Xi Luting knew a bit about phone numbers.
In her opinion, an old 139 prefix combined with an AABB pattern and a 6666 suffix should be worth quite a sum.
Maybe even up to six figures?
Using a knockoff Mi 1 phone but having such a good number—who on earth was this enigma?!
As Xi Luting puzzled over this, Yu Yun, from the adjacent bed, suddenly let out an exclamation.
Wang Hongli was the first to look up. "Yun Yun, what’s wrong?"
By the time everyone else looked over, Yu Yun was patting her chest and shaking her head vigorously. "Nothing, I just saw a particularly scary post."
Xi Luting glanced at Yu Yun’s phone screen, which displayed QQ, and immediately understood.
She must have received a message from Han Lie.
That damn man! Asking me to keep it a secret, yet he’s spreading it around himself!
Xi Luting scoffed inwardly and ignored Han Lie.
After all, it’s not like you’re short on people to chat with!
She put down her phone and looked up just as Yu Yun turned her head. Their gazes met.
Xi Luting maintained a stern, aloof, and calm expression, while Yu Yun, lacking such strong mental fortitude, instinctively shied away.
Within two seconds, Yu Yun sent her a message, "Ting Ting, have you added Han Lie on WeChat?"
Xi Luting replied, "I can’t be bothered with him."
Her answer was truthful, but it wasn’t the whole story.
Yu Yun’s understanding was, as expected, skewed, and she felt a secret delight.
Han Lie didn’t even tell Xi Luting his phone number. Obviously, he feels much better about me than her!
Besides, Ting Ting is too cold and proud. I’m gentle, cute, and understanding!
Oh! Should I be more proactive?
A sense of urgency suddenly bloomed in Yu Yun’s heart.
The reason, naturally, was that Han Lie was a bigger catch than she had anticipated.
In her view, that phone number had to be worth tens of thousands of yuan. Regardless of how simple Han Lie’s clothes were or how shoddy his phone was, his family background was definitely not ordinary.
Otherwise, how could he casually possess such a phone number?
As for why he was using a knockoff phone...
That’s all too understandable.
A strict upbringing, raising boys frugally!
The phone number wasn’t cash and couldn’t be sold, so it was given to the child to use. But his living expenses were definitely kept low, to prevent him from picking up bad habits outside.
This kind of scenario wasn’t uncommon at school.
Otherwise, how could Han Lie possess such a strong aura?
Judging solely from his self-introduction, Han Lie was clearly in a league of his own among the boys; his family background had to be substantial!
His family had to be at least a couple of tiers above Duan Xiaoyi’s, right?
This series of incongruous details completely bamboozled Yu Yun.
His performance during the self-introduction, his composure when facing Xi Luting, living in the International Exchange Student Dormitory, being trailed by those young despots calling him "Big Brother," using a phone number worth tens of thousands...
As she thought about it, Yu Yun’s eyes suddenly widened.
Could Han Lie be the heir to some prominent family?!
Indeed, various families and clans existed in the country; it wasn’t unusual. Larger families could make it onto rich lists, while smaller ones might simply be long-established influential families in a county town.
The families in Dream City... should be somewhere in the middle, right?
The fact that Yu Yun didn’t dare let her thoughts wander toward those on the rich lists proved she was indeed smart and clear-headed, not completely misled by unreliable films and literary works.
Nevertheless, she still overestimated Han Lie’s background.
However, she couldn’t really be blamed. Brother Lie was truly an enigma; he left everyone he encountered utterly flummoxed.
Just look at Xi Luting—she was now thoroughly bewildered herself.
Yu Yun felt a surge of excitement and fervently began typing a reply to Han Lie.
"Big Brother Lie, you studied so hard this morning. Make sure you rest well at noon~~~ Otherwise, how will you have the energy for classes this afternoon?"
Little Han is really into studying; I should show him more concern!
Excitedly, she waited for a long time, but nothing came.
Ten minutes later, her eyes aching, she threw her phone onto the bed, thoroughly incensed.
Stupid, oblivious man! What’s the use of having a rich family? You deserve to be single!
Fang Feifei glanced over but said nothing.
Lu Yao asked curiously, "Yun Yun, what’s wrong again? Who made you angry?"
"A dog!" Yu Yun huffed, her cheeks puffed out as she vented her frustration.
Lu Yao sensed gossip in the air and immediately pressed, "Duan Xiaoyi?"
Yu Yun’s heart skipped a beat, and she quickly distanced herself, "What do I have to do with Duan Xiaoyi? We’re just normal classmates, okay! If we bump into each other, we chat a bit. If not, I can hardly even remember what he looks like!"
The other girls in the dorm were all baffled.
At lunch, you and Duan Xiaoyi were chatting so merrily...
So she was just using him to pass the time?!
Among her dormmates, only Xi Luting could guess what was happening.
But she didn’t want to expose Yu Yun. In fact, she even wanted Yu Yun to continue sizing Han Lie up.
For some reason, just thinking about that man made Xi Luting feel uneasy.
Forget it; it was indescribable.
It wasn’t love, nor hate, nor annoyance. It was genuine curiosity mixed with genuine vexation.
If she had the chance, she really wanted to teach that arrogant man a lesson.
The "arrogant man" returned to his dorm, and the first thing he did was log into QQ and search for the group "A Revelry of Crazy Frogs."
The result... nothing?!
He then searched for "A Revelry of Cucumbers," and still, it didn’t exist.
Han Lie was starting to get a major headache over this.
Great, Xi Luting hadn’t even created a group during her freshman year!
So, did she write a new novel during the summer break of her sophomore or junior year and then start a fan group?
Han Lie immediately began searching for the personal ID "A Lonely Frog."
Seeing the search result appear, he finally let out a huge sigh of relief.
Thank goodness, Xi Luting’s alternate ID was already using this name.
Han Lie excitedly clicked "Add Friend."
However, instead of a friend request interface, a question interface popped up.
First question: Who am I?
Second question: Who are you?
Third question: Why do you want to add me?
Han Lie was completely exasperated.
Xi Luting, are you writing novels or conducting some kind of clandestine operation?
Do I need to send you my entire security clearance file, or what?!
Han Lie was indeed bold enough to send it, but he knew it would be utterly pointless.
He knew that unless he was a genuine fan or her editor, there was absolutely no chance of her adding him.
This just went to show Han Lie’s knack for troublemaking. After pondering for a short while, he decisively went to a website and searched for the author name "A Lonely Frog."
He then searched for "A Lonely Cucumber," again with no luck.
Han Lie sighed quietly. As expected, it wasn’t that simple; Xi Luting’s alternate ID wasn’t her author name...
Driven by determination, he resorted to searching for all authors with the word "Cucumber" in their name.
Instantly, a slew of results popped up.
Judging by the number of pages, there had to be hundreds.
After slogging through five pages, Han Lie had certainly seen a lot.
But... they all had something to do with cucumbers; where the hell was he supposed to find Xi Luting in all this?!
Left with no other option, Han Lie meticulously studied the search function, repeatedly adding various filters.
Finally, sorting by date, he focused on novels uploaded after the college entrance exams on June 7, 2013, and which had either gone on hiatus or been completed before September 1st.
Even with the scope narrowed this drastically, he still found six potential targets.
Han Lie bookmarked all six books and skimmed the first three Chapters of each.
He hoped to narrow the field further based on character names.
However, none of the protagonists in these stories had the surname Xi.
Looking at the settings of the stories, two were in Magic Capital, one in Imperial Capital, and three in fictional locations.
He ruled out the one set in Imperial Capital. Xi Luting had never lived there, so it was unlikely she would write an urban novel with that city as a backdrop.
That still left five.
Han Lie rubbed his chin, pondering for a long while, before thinking of another limiting condition—
He then checked the author profiles of the remaining five, immediately dismissing those with more than two published works.
Xi Luting had most likely started writing web novels during the summer vacation immediately following her college entrance exams.
As a novice, failing with one novel in just two months was understandable. Failing with two was a stretch, but three... she likely wouldn’t have had the capacity or the mental fortitude for that.
At this point, only two candidates remained.
One was named "Proud Little Cucumber."
The other was "Bloodstained Cucumber."
Their first novels were both uploaded in mid-June.
The former had written 120,000 words for a single, unfinished story that went on hiatus on August 20th.
The latter had written 80,000 words across two unfinished stories, both on hiatus since August 25th.
Upon examining the "golden three Chapters" of their books, he found that while the basic writing skills were good, the descriptions often missed the mark, plot developments were baffling, and they generated very little anticipation...
Yep, both were definitely rookies.
Han Lie realized that the person he was looking for was very likely one of them.