Chapter 858: A Heart-to-Heart Conversation

Jiang Ruoxue was being a real bother.

This kind of situation was just too weird.

She was clearly a girl, yet she somehow muscled her way into my life with an attitude that was both pushy and almost like harassment.

Didn't she realize I was a girl too?

No, actually, it was probably a good thing she was a girl. If a guy had acted like this and said these things, I might have used the **Duo Xin Po** technique and sent him crashing into a wall.

But I had no idea how to get rid of her. It seemed like no matter where I went in this city, Jiang Ruoxue would just appear right in front of me.

Like I said, my first impression of Jiang Ruoxue was terrible – she basically triggered every single one of my dislikes.

I didn't like people who talked too much, or people who were overly clingy, or people who constantly tried to dig into my secrets.

So for a long time, I never spoke to her first. I thought that by being cold and distant, she'd eventually back off, but she acted like everything was fine and just kept following me.

She'd randomly start conversations with me, acting as if she was already one of my close friends. But I never responded, so why couldn't she take the hint?

If our roles were reversed, I would definitely know when to stop and never speak to that person again.

Unfortunately, she and I were completely different.

What made it even more annoying was that she was always sticking to me. How was I supposed to carry out the tasks Bai Yang had given me?

"Wife, did you take care of your leg hair before you came?"

Jiang Ruoxue suddenly asked me, leaving me speechless once again.

I gave her a sideways glance and let out a sigh. What kind of world were we in where she was concerned about her leg hair right now?

"I knew I should have dealt with my leg hair before getting caught..." Jiang Ruoxue rolled up her pant leg, revealing her calf, and pointed to the sparse hairs, talking as if she were chatting with a friend. "Look, every time I rebirth, it grows back... it's so frustrating... I just bought new hair removal cream and got stuck here before I could use it. Why can't this place remember my state after shaving? It's driving me crazy..."

She looked up and saw the exasperated look on my face. After a three-second silence, she asked,

"What brand of hair removal cream do you use?"

I couldn't take it anymore!

This person had absolutely no concept of personal boundaries...

Just as I was about to snap at her, a thought suddenly flashed through my mind.

I remembered back in the university dorm, the other three roommates often discussed similar topics.

They would talk to each other as if I wasn't even there, completely bypassing me in their conversations.

I was always out working part-time, and even when I wasn't, I'd be cooped up in the library.

Over time, the three of them became much closer to each other than to me.

There were so many things that girls talk about together, but I had no one to share them with. So, were they good friends? And was I not?

Because I couldn't join them for games or making short videos, and I didn't have the money to travel with them... did that mean we weren't friends?

I kept telling myself that it didn't matter, that I just needed to focus on my own path... but I was still human, after all.

If I truly didn't care, why would I have gotten the "YNA" tattoo?

I also wished I could have a close friend that I could talk to about anything.

"Does hair removal cream... work well?" I asked quietly.

"Ha!" Jiang Ruoxue's eyes lit up the moment I spoke. "If you don't use hair removal cream, how do you usually handle your leg hair?"

"I... I use tweezers."

"Pluck them? That's not a bad way, but it can irritate the skin and even cause inflammation, you know."

That was the first real conversation I had with Jiang Ruoxue, and I never imagined we'd connect over something like "dealing with leg hair."

No, more accurately, I never thought we'd connect at all.

I had always believed that only people with similar personalities could become friends, but now it seemed that wasn't the case. Jiang Ruoxue and I had completely different personalities and ways of thinking, yet I didn't dislike her as much.

Even though my first impression of her was terrible, her subsequent behavior kept winning me over. She said things I wouldn't dare say and did things I wouldn't dare do – she was just that kind of person. And in the days that followed, she continued to be that way, no different from the beginning.

Those days were incredibly fun for me. It was the first time I experienced what it truly meant to talk "no holds barred" – that you could tell her anything, even things you'd never tell your parents.

She felt like a friend who had arrived fashionably late.

"Jiang Ruoxue... you're clearly here to be friends with me, so why do you have zero boundaries? Doesn't your first impression scare most people away?"

"That's not right, wife – the logic is backward." Jiang Ruoxue shook her head. "It's precisely because I knew we would definitely become good friends that I treated you like one from the very beginning."

"You're at it again..." I sighed. "Whose logic is wrong here? Which comes first and which comes second?"

Thinking about it, she did have a point. From the start, she seemed to see me as a good friend, so everything she said and did was as if we were already close, not strangers at all.

"It's definitely your logic that's wrong." Jiang Ruoxue said. "Wife, I'm **Yin Guo** – how could my logic be off?"

"Stop calling me wife. My name is **Yan Zhichun**." I seriously introduced myself to Jiang Ruoxue. "**Zhi** as in 'know,' and **Chun** as in 'spring.'"

"Huh?" Jiang Ruoxue nodded with a smile. "**Yan Zhichun** – that's a great name."

"And what about you?" I said. "Isn't your name nice?"

"**Jiang Ruoxue** – most people probably think of that line from the poem: 'A lone boat, a raincoat and hat, an old man fishing alone in the cold river snow.'" Jiang Ruoxue said with a bitter smile. "Doesn't it sound like a lonely life?"

"If you've read enough ancient poetry, you wouldn't think that way." I shook my head. "In Ma Zhiyuan's 'Shou Yang Qu,' it says: 'The sky grows dark, snow dances wildly, half plum blossoms and half drifting willow fluff. On the river at dusk, a scene worth painting – a fisherman in his raincoat heads home.'"

"Huh..." Jiang Ruoxue nodded slightly, then grinned mischievously and reached out to touch my chest. "Who knew you were so knowledgeable..."

I quickly dodged to the side. Even though she was my friend now, this overwhelming closeness still caught me off guard.

That evening, I took Jiang Ruoxue to the building where I had first appeared. After spending these days together, I felt it was time to tell her about what I was doing.

"Jiang Ruoxue, what I'm about to say might be dangerous. If you hear it and feel uncomfortable, you can leave anytime."