From Taobao intern to the father of Pinduoduo

Chapter 167: Completely Fooled by a Dead Otaku

Chapter 167: Completely Fooled by a Dead Otaku

After adding each other as friends, Jiang Xiaoming hurriedly typed, "Hi, do you also watch 'Humanoid Angel'? Do you like Icarus?"

The other person sent a question mark and replied, "What is Icarus from 'The Angel'? This profile picture is from my QQ account."

I saw this in a group chat. I thought the winged girl was so cute, like an angel, so I used her as my profile picture. Hey bro, have you seen this anime? Can you tell me what kind of anime it is? I'm really curious.

After a few seconds of pause, the other person sent another message: "Ah, was I too talkative? I'm sorry, that's just how I am, I always love to chatter. I'm afraid of putting too much pressure on others, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." After saying that, they also sent a crying emoji.

Thump-thump, that was the sound of Jiang Xiaoming's heartbeat. He felt as if he had been struck by Cupid's arrow, as if he were about to fall in love.

He hurriedly replied, "It's okay, it's okay. I type slowly, I don't mind."

"By the way, your online name is Kuriboh, right? I'll call you Kuriboh from now on. Kuriboh, where are you from? Speaking of which, I just remembered a monster card from Yu-Gi-Oh! also called Kuriboh. Is your online name derived from that?"

The two quickly struck up a lively conversation. Jiang Xiaoming couldn't help but exclaim: "The internet is a wonderful thing, and WeChat's 'Shake' feature is even better! You can really find a romantic partner on this!"

Jiang Xiaoming couldn't concentrate on class at all that morning. While the teacher was lecturing, he secretly played on his phone and chatted with Chestnut Ball. After a morning of conversation, he learned some basic information about Chestnut Ball.

She is a pure and innocent female college student majoring in art. She usually likes anime and comics and wants to work in an animation company after graduation. However, due to family reasons, she has missed out on reading more anime and comics.

What a coincidence! Jiang Xiaoming happened to have extensive experience reading anime and comics. So, the two became inseparable, spending every day chatting together.

What surprised Jiang Xiaoming the most was that Chestnut Ball would watch every anime or manga he recommended and send him his thoughts afterward.

Meanwhile, on the other side, unbeknownst to Jiang Xiaoming.

A burly man with a beer belly was sitting with his legs crossed, picking at his toes. He picked at his fingers, smelled them under his nose, then clapped his hands with a look of disgust and wiped his fingers with a tissue.

Then, with a wicked grin, he sat down in front of his computer, which was running a mobile phone emulator, multitasking by replying to messages from numerous innocent virgins. He was utterly captivated by the feeling of pretending to be a girl and deceiving people.

These idiots would never guess that behind the girl they were chatting so enthusiastically about, with all sorts of personas, was a burly man like me.

He thought to himself, if lying wasn't illegal, he could easily swindle several thousand yuan now.

Soon, a new message popped up on WeChat. It was Jiang Xiaoming asking if he had watched "Hunter x Hunter." The burly man, who was picking his toes, skillfully chatted with him about the plot of "Hunter x Hunter," secretly chuckling to himself: This kind of innocent young virgin is the easiest to fool. He doesn't need to watch the anime or manga that Jiang Xiaoming recommends at all, because he's already seen them.

In the college dormitory, Jiang Xiaoming was holding his phone, chuckling like a fool. His roommates quickly noticed something was off about his lovestruck state.

"Xiaoming, are you dating someone?" my roommate asked with a gossipy look on his face.

Jiang Xiaoming turned around in a panic, only to find that his roommate had somehow gotten behind him, leaning in and peeking at his phone screen. Startled, he quickly turned off the screen, stuffed the phone back into his pocket, and stammered awkwardly, "I...I didn't!"

"Still saying you haven't?" my roommate exclaimed dramatically. "I saw it all! She's calling you 'little brother,' what else could it be but dating? Come on, tell me the truth: What school is she from? What's her name? Is she pretty? What does her best friend look like? Can you arrange a dorm social event?"

His roommate's barrage of questions left Jiang Xiaoming speechless. He could only awkwardly answer truthfully, "It's still nothing, supposedly from the art school. We met on WeChat's 'Shake' feature."

"Holy crap!" my roommate exclaimed dramatically, "I searched for a girl I liked on WeChat all day and didn't find one, but you actually did! Holy crap, the senior wasn't lying, you really can find those girls on WeChat who'd spend seven nights with you just for a meal of spicy hot pot!"

Jiang Xiaoming was somewhat embarrassed and annoyed. He and Li Ziqiu were pure friends, and his roommate's filthy words were simply defiling their pure relationship!

He declared righteously, "Kuriko and I just like anime and manga; I absolutely never intended to sleep with her!"

His roommate grinned and pointed at his ears, saying, "Look at your ears, they're as red as a monkey's bottom. And you still say you don't have those thoughts?" Jiang Xiaoming touched his ears and found them burning hot. He was speechless for a moment.

Next, Jiang Xiaoming's roommates surrounded him and pressed him for answers, demanding he reveal his dating secrets and explain how he hooked up with female netizens. With zero dating experience, Jiang Xiaoming could only earnestly fabricate his own dating experiences.

After a while, a new legend began to circulate on campus: it was said that a male otaku from the comics club, who loved anime and illustrations, used WeChat's "Shake" feature to find a cute girl who also loved anime and comics. He didn't even buy her spicy hot pot; they ended up sleeping together without even talking.

Suddenly, Jiang Xiaoming became a new legend in the college, attracting attention wherever he went. Boys came up to him asking for advice on picking up girls, while girls looked at him with disdain. This embarrassed Jiang Xiaoming greatly; he had never even seen Chestnut Ball in person, only seen the photos she had posted.

Moreover, his relationship with Chestnut Ball seems to have cooled considerably lately. Jiang Xiaoming's heart sank, and he took out his phone to open Chestnut Ball's WeChat Moments.

WeChat has launched the Moments feature. Unlike QQ Space, Moments is more concise, allowing users to post photos and text only. Users cannot play games or customize their Moments, making it appear quite plain.

Chestnut Ball posted some travel photos on her WeChat Moments. The photos were a bit daring, vaguely revealing a glimpse of her fair skin. Jiang Xiaoming looked at them, feeling extremely jealous.

A few days ago, he told Li Ziqiu directly on WeChat that he was feeling upset and hoped she could take down the photos or take some more conservative ones. Since then, Li Ziqiu's attitude towards him has become noticeably colder.

He wanted to apologize to Chestnut Ball, but he couldn't bring himself to do it; he didn't think he had done anything wrong. But what bothered him even more was seeing Chestnut Ball interacting with other netizens on his WeChat Moments.

The settings of WeChat Moments are quite peculiar: you can see the interactions between your friends and others in Moments, but you can't see comments from friends you haven't added.

It's a strange feeling, like there's something your best friend and a stranger both know, but you don't, and they're chatting away happily, but you can't understand a word they're saying, and you feel incredibly jealous.

Just then, a senior student approached him. This senior student, who looked melancholy, was the legendary figure who had supposedly "tricked" a female online friend seven times with a meal of spicy hot pot.

The senior student cut to the chase and asked, "Did you really sleep with that girl?"

Jiang Xiaoming quickly waved his hand: "That's not true, they're just making things up."

The senior student scratched his head and asked again, "Did that female netizen send you a link to a Pinduoduo group-buying deal?"

Jiang Xiaoming looked bewildered: "Huh? What's that?"