Li Xia felt like her fake “relationship” was on the verge of unraveling.
The first time she showed her family the photo of her Schrödinger’s boyfriend, they all gathered on the sofa like it was a formal council. Heads huddled together, they stared at her phone screen with serious curiosity. Li Xia’s heart pounded.
But just two seconds later, they accepted it without question.
“The guy looks sharp. Not bad at all.”
“He’s got good looks.”
“Your brother-in-law is so handsome!”
“Xia Xia, do you have his birth chart? Grandma can check if you two are compatible.”
…
Li Xia felt a twinge of guilt, but she seized the moment. “Now that you all know I have a boyfriend, stop trying to set me up. I’m not meeting anyone!”
The tactic worked like a charm.
Not only did no unwanted suitors show up at the door, but she could spend all day glued to her phone without getting scolded. Li Dayong and Zhao Xiaolan even assumed she was lost in the bliss of new love and left her alone.
Later on, whenever anyone asked, Li Xia would just flash her phone screen. Easy and efficient.
Sure, it left her heart racing every time, but since nothing went wrong, she secretly breathed a sigh of relief and let it ride.
As time went on, though, Zhao Xiaolan started to notice something was off.
Her daughter went straight from home to work and back again each day. Even on prime weekends, she sprawled across the bed like a starfish. Her feet seemed programmed for only three surfaces: the bed, the floor, and her colorful skateboard.
Finally, Zhao Xiaolan couldn’t hold back. “Xia Xia, how come I never see you heading out on dates?”
It was an easy question to dodge. Li Xia remembered the guy’s latest Instagram post was from abroad. She replied casually, “Oh, he’s out of the country. Work’s crazy busy.”
“Then why no video calls?”
“Time zones.”
Li Xia’s attention was on the Lego set in front of her, and her answer came light and breezy.
By then, she’d fielded plenty of questions about her Schrödinger’s boyfriend. To keep up the lie and buy some peace, she’d patched together a perfect partner one excuse at a time—like building a wall, brick by brick, with a dab of cement here and there.
She didn’t know if Zhao Xiaolan bought it, but Li Xia had hypnotized herself into believing it.
He might be a stranger in person, but he definitely existed.
Zhao Xiaolan trusted her daughter and didn’t press further.
She walked over to the TV stand, picked up the calendar, and flipped to the next page. Then she turned to Li Xia. “Xia Xia, Dragon Boat Festival is coming up soon. Your grandma and I bought fresh bamboo leaves. Why don’t you invite Little Xue over? Does he prefer honey-date zongzi or bean-paste ones?”
Invite him to the house?!
Li Xia’s mind went blank with panic, thunder rumbling out of a clear sky.
When they’d first asked his last name, her brain had short-circuited, and she’d blurted out “Xue.” As in, Schrödinger’s Xue.
Before she could muster a reply, Li Chun burst out laughing. “Sis, I wanna meet Little—Xue—your boyfriend too.”
Li Xia chucked the Lego piece in her hand at Li Chun. It was light and missed entirely. Li Chun just pulled a face, popsicle in mouth.
Li Xia mouthed at her to quit gloating and mouthed a threat: “Silly Li, you still need that stamp for your summer internship?”
Li Chun was a sophomore now, and her school required practice credits every summer—all thanks to Li Xia’s work stamp. She backpedaled fast. “Yeah, yeah, I do!”
Li Xia stifled a laugh. “Then go pick up the piece.”
“Got it!”
Li Xia sidestepped Zhao Xiaolan’s question, letting the matter slide for now.
She was at a tricky part of her Lego build, rummaging through the bags but unable to find the right piece. Losing patience, she tossed it aside and headed back to her bedroom. Li Chun trailed after her quietly, closing the door behind them.
“If you ask me, Sis, you should just come clean,” Li Chun said. She eyed her sister sprawled on the bed, kicked off her shoes, and climbed up. “If you’re too scared, I can tell them for you. Wait till they cool off, then you come back. They won’t be able to lay a hand on you.”
“You’re a real one for that.” Li Xia ruffled her hair.
“Of course! You got me front-row Mayday tickets. I’d walk through fire for you!”
Li Chun had figured out her sister’s “relationship” was fake during a photo swap on the phone. Right then, a message from one of Li Xia’s friends popped up, offering to introduce her to a real guy. Li Chun put two and two together in a second.
She’d leveraged it like a pro, scoring an in-arena concert ticket. She’d been thrilled for ages and happily pledged loyalty to Li Xia’s wallet power. Now she schemed and covered for her sister, determined to help her through the crisis.
Li Xia thought modern college kids were just so pure and adorable.
She flicked Li Chun’s forehead.
“Silly Li.”
“What?”
Li Xia’s expression turned complicated. “Didn’t it ever occur to you that even if you hadn’t kept my secret, I’d still have bought you the ticket?”
“Huh?” Li Chun froze.
Li Xia shot her a look. “The more I call you Silly Li, the sillier you get.”
“Aaaah!” Li Chun was fully conquered now. She squealed and lunged at Li Xia’s face, planting a big smacking kiss. “You’re the most beautiful, kind-hearted sister in the world!”
Deep down, she totally believed Li Xia would do it.
She’d just been too shy to ask outright and wanted to do something for her sister in return.
At that moment, Li Chun chuckled to herself about her sister:
How come she never thought that even without the ticket, I’d have kept her secret anyway?
With the issue still hanging, Li Chun asked, “So, what’s your plan now?”
“No idea.”
The two lay there in the cradle of the night, Li Xia staring unblinking at the ceiling. “It’s not that I don’t want to confess. You’ve noticed it too, right? Mom and Dad have been smiling more because of this. We hardly bicker anymore. Everyone’s just… lighter.”
“Yeah.”
Li Chun curled up her legs and rolled onto her side. She gazed at her sister’s bright eyes and fluttering lashes, listening quietly.
“Now the neighbors all know too. I’ll wait a couple days, find the right moment, and tell them it didn’t work out. We broke up.”
A quick-fix romance that crashed and burned was still better than letting them realize it had all been for nothing, Li Xia figured.
“Then you’ll get nagged to find someone new again,” Li Chun pointed out.
“Yeah. Sigh.”
“If only it hadn’t spread to everyone.”
“Ugh, I never should’ve brushed off Grandma like that. Who knew she’d take my joke seriously?” And spread it all over the neighborhood.
…
What was done was done. No point dwelling.
Li Chun’s brain kicked into gear. “The only fix now is for you to find a real boyfriend.”
Li Xia was speechless. “You think it’s not because your sister wants to get into Tsinghua?”
She’d gone out socializing with friends and met guys her family set her up with.
In the end, when asked what she thought, she could only sum it up in three words: no spark.
No spark. What could she do?
Like Eileen Chang describing a bad kiss—his tongue like a dry cork bung.
Li Xia wasn’t after cheap, dime-a-dozen cork bungs.
She craved the rush of hormones, genuine physical pull, the delirium of dopamine. Anything but numbness or settling.
“Then go find someone like that,” Li Chun said.
“Can’t find him.”
Li Chun snatched the phone from beside her pillow, unlocked it, and shoved the screen in Li Xia’s face. “Isn’t this guy right here?”
“Go chase him. Make him your real boyfriend.”
Li Xia gave her a look like she was talking nonsense. “I don’t even know the guy.”
Apart from the occasional likes and comments on Instagram since they followed each other, Li Xia had no other interaction with this fake boyfriend of hers. If he ever found out she was telling everyone they were dating, he’d probably think she was nuts and demand compensation for the damage to his reputation. Li Xia didn’t dare dwell on it.
“But you like him,” Li Chun said.
“I like his looks.”
Li Chun nodded, her thinking crystal clear. “Sis, you’ve only got two paths right now. One: date some random guy. Two: go chase this one guy in the whole wide world who actually makes your heart skip a beat.”
Li Xia fell silent.
Li Chun pressed on. “I recommend option two. Option one would hurt even more. Option two has a fifty percent shot, plus you’d get to chat with the guy who stirs you up.”
Li Xia was somewhat convinced, but she still asked, “What about option three?”
“Option three: you come clean right now, face the consequences, and keep panning for gold in cork.”
“…”
How brutally practical.
Truth be told, Li Xia’s fake romance wasn’t entirely her fault—it stemmed from a little mix-up. That day, after her shower, Grandma Qu Shuxin told her there had been a call and asked who the guy on her phone screen was.
“Your boyfriend, Xia Xia?”
Li Xia, caught off guard, had just been teasing. “Yeah, what do you think?”
“Nice, nice. Handsome as heck.”
And just like that, Grandma took it seriously.
Now the whole thing had snowballed, and after agonizing for two nights, Li Xia decided it was time to clear the air with Zhao Xiaolan. You couldn’t just like the moon and try to pluck it from the sky. Besides, dragging it out wouldn’t look good.
That very morning, Li Xia sat across from Zhao Xiaolan at breakfast, head down over her food. She mentally rehearsed her speech a few times, then mustered her courage. “Mom, I have something to tell you.”
Zhao Xiaolan’s bowl was nearly empty. “Good news or bad?”
Li Xia hesitated. “Bad?”
Zhao Xiaolan waved it off. “Too early for bad news—it’s bad luck. Tell me tonight.”
Li Xia: “…Fine.”
No sooner had she spoken than Zhao Xiaolan’s phone rang from the hospital. A kid had taken a bad fall and needed attention. Zhao Xiaolan set down her bowl and chopsticks with a tsk. “See? Look what happens.”
As the community doctor, Zhao Xiaolan handled all sorts of minor ailments with ease. Li Xia watched her bustle about, packing her bag this way and that, and decided not to press the issue.
Li Chun looked shocked. “Sis, you’re really going to tell her?”
Li Xia nodded. “Yeah. Rip the band-aid off early.”
By evening, with no sign of Zhao Xiaolan, Li Xia learned she’d pulled an overnight shift. The confession she’d bottled up all day went back down her throat. After walking with Grandma Qu, she found her in the living room listening to a Buddhist lecture. Li Xia retreated to assemble her Lego set instead.
The elderly didn’t hold back on volume. From the phone came soothing Zen music—ancient guqin strings and singing bowls. Then a deep, resonant male voice began the lecture: “The Bodhisattva’s Ten Precepts include four on speech. Do not lie, do not create karma with your words…”
Li Xia didn’t get it and asked her grandma what it meant.
Grandma Qu explained earnestly, “It means people must never lie. The Bodhisattva doesn’t like it.”
…
A chill ran through Li Xia’s soul.
Good thing she wasn’t Buddhist.
No lingering here. Li Xia retreated to her bed alone. After turning off the lights, she switched on a small bedside orange lamp, zoned out for a bit, then groped for her phone and unlocked it.
Unthinkingly, the face on her screen jumped into view.
Li Xia didn’t swipe away. Her hand and eyes froze there.
Even after seeing the photo countless times, intentionally or not, she still paused for him now—tracing his features with her gaze, sighing from the heart.
Finn was really, really good-looking.
Finn was his account name. Li Xia didn’t know his real name and had even forgotten how they’d followed each other on the vast expanse of Instagram.
Call him F for now.
From F’s posts: no pretentious black-and-white filters from artsy guys, no brooding captions feigning depth, no thirst-trap abs shots, no flexing cars, watches, or designer gear.
None of that showy nonsense.
His feed was mostly travel scenery and candid daily snaps. Li Xia could tell his photos had real skill—thoughtful composition, rich colors with texture. Personal shots were rare; the occasional glimpse of clothing, a backpack, or earbuds screamed quality and personal style, pricey but tasteful.
He didn’t have many followers—under a hundred—and he posted sporadically. Comments were always sparse. Li Xia was the most active liker and commenter. She’d drop funny memes to tease him. His replies to others stayed neutral, no flirting.
Simple, low-key, no chasing clout. In the endless online world, he’d stay obscure.
F didn’t seem to care, content as a hidden gem in the ocean.
It was one of his photos that had hooked Li Xia—
Likely F watching a sunrise.
The sun behind him balled up like a glowing orange hard candy, the sky around it a melt of tangerine red. He stood right in that golden-orange sweetness.
His eyes gazed calmly at the lens.
Deep folds at his eye corners curved cleanly; his lashes were soft brushes of faint ink.
No forced expression or pose, no smile. Lips slightly pursed, a tiny gleam on his lower one highlighting a subtle wetness and plumpness.
His bangs fell obediently over bold brows. A white earbud in his left ear matched his white hoodie, the collar revealing a sharp Adam’s apple.
In this bare-faced shot, F exuded natural ease.
You could picture him gazing at the sunrise, quietly savoring the mountaintop breeze.
So refreshingly cool.
Facing the sun directly, it refracted a clear, translucent light.
It was so striking that Li Xia could never forget it.
She immediately set it as her phone wallpaper to give her eyes a cleanse.
Who could blame her? A handsome guy who was oblivious to his own good looks was simply irresistible.
Li Xia admired it carefully for a moment.
Then, all of a sudden, she realized that Li Chun’s suggestion might not be such a bad idea after all.
Just the thought of chatting with a face that perfect made her heart flutter with excitement. And who knew—maybe they’d even do voice chats or video calls. F’s build had to be impressive. Sure, his Instagram photos showed him bundled up tighter than a winter coat, one after another, but Li Xia could still make out those broad shoulders and narrow waist.
His nose was perfectly straight.
…
Why not give it a shot?
What if it worked?
Yes, Li Xia decided. It was time for a change.
She’d once spotted a comment where F mentioned he was single. The idea had tempted her back then, but she’d chickened out and talked herself out of it. Now, after getting a real taste of the world, she only regretted not jumping on it sooner.
With her mind made up, she tapped open F’s profile, navigated to his direct messages, and began typing.
The midnight hour was utterly still, the chat screen a blank canvas. Li Xia could hear her own heart pounding away, bold and insistent, just like the words spilling from her fingertips. That single line of black text she typed was her pebble tossed into the lake.
As for how deep the water ran… well, she’d find out once it sank.
Li Xia didn’t hesitate. She hit send, taking her first real step toward F—
【Hi, looking for a girlfriend?】