Only After I Was Reborn Did I Realize That I Had Childhood Sweethearts

Chapter 184: This Prospective Boyfriend of Yours Is a Big Phony

Due to the need for ancestral veneration during the Lunar New Year, Mei Lixiong’s family would always return to their ancestral home in Baimei County a few days before New Year. They would go with Mei Lijun to pay respects to Mei Fang’s grandparents and other ancestors by sweeping their graves and offering incense.

In previous years, they would stay in the ancestral house they inherited. However, there was a slight change in the situation this year.

The area near Mei Lijun’s ancestral home was undergoing urban redevelopment, and that old house was also part of it. This meant that Mei Lijun would receive a compensation payment for the demolition.

Of course, this event was different from his previous life. In his past life, after Mei Lijun’s failed business venture, he sold his house and moved back into the ancestral home in an area without much development planned. This change was hard not to associate with his current position as the bureau’s deputy director.

However, Mei Lijun always cherished his reputation. He had checked the documents and planning process, and everything was done according to regulations, without any corruption.

Now that Mei Lijun’s family was doing well financially and had no economic pressure, they naturally wanted to share the compensation from the demolition of the old house and discuss the resettlement of the new house with his older brother and younger sister.

His early invitation to Mei Lixiong was also to discuss these matters and see if his family had any thoughts or desires to return to Baimei County.

Adults dealt with adult matters, while the younger generation enjoyed carefree childhoods and passionate youth.

Mei Yue had recently heard from Mei Ya about Mei Fang’s romantic history with his two childhood sweethearts. Being curious, she kept pestering Mei Fang for photos. Helpless, Mei Fang finally sent her a photo taken by Xia Yuan before they left their apartment, capturing the two girls together. It instantly made Mei Yue’s heart explode with excitement.

“I can’t believe you’ve known these two girls for over ten years. You’re quite impressive, Xiaofangzi! How did you manage to keep this a secret and never tell me about it?”

“I didn’t keep it a secret… There just wasn’t any topic that could bring up their names in our conversations.”

Mei Yue carefully examined the photo of Xia Yuan and Lin Youxi.

“Based on the photo, these two girls have their own unique beauty, but personally, I prefer the girl with the radiant smile.”

“You mean Yuan Yuan?”

Mei Yue nodded after learning Xia Yuan’s name. “She seems to be more lively. Xiaofangzi, you’re sometimes too serious. You need a girl who is proactive, sunny, and cheerful to accompany you. Otherwise, even if you grow up, you might not understand anything.”

It seems that Youxi’s dignified image is really deceptive…

“You don’t need to worry about that, Sister Yue Yue. Speaking of which, I already showed you their photo. What about your prospective boyfriend?”

“Alright, since you showed me their photo, here it is.”

Mei Yue showed Mei Fang a photo of a young man on her phone.

Mei Fang nodded, noting that the man in the photo matched the appearance of the scumbag from his memories perfectly.

At first glance, he appeared mature and reliable. His daily photos also seemed to have a sense of style. He often took selfies while drinking coffee, beautiful scenery shots, and with artistic captions.

Of course, looking at it from the perspective of a person from 2022, the information Mei Yue showed could easily make people feel suspicious.

However, in 2012, when the internet was not as developed and idol dramas were still popular, girls like Mei Yue, who came from average families and had just stepped into society, were full of passion, energy, and innocence. They had naive fantasies about love and were unaware of the world’s wickedness. They had just taken their first painful step into a pit.

“How long have you known him, Sister Yue Yue? How did you meet him?”

“It’s been almost half a year. We met at a senior sister’s wedding.”

“At first, I didn’t give him my contact information because he seemed a bit frivolous. But later, we coincidentally met and chatted in a coffee shop near our company. I realized that he’s actually an approachable guy.”

As Mei Yue spoke, her fondness for him became apparent. “He really pays attention to details. Although he’s busy with work, he often checks up on me and asks how I’m doing. We have many common interests, we eat together and watch movies together. When I’m upset, he’s willing to stay up late talking to me…

“The most important thing is that he respects me. We’ve known each other for so long, but he’s never touched me inappropriately. I think that’s great. Xiaofangzi, don’t be handsy with your two childhood sweethearts, okay? I’m telling you, most girls really hate flirty guys.”

Mei Fang thought to himself: “In my case, it’s ‘they’re handsy with me’ and ‘they want me to be handsy with them.’ I guess I don’t fall into the category of being flirty…”

He then asked Mei Yue, “Have you been to his company?”

“Um… No, I haven’t been. He said he works in the tech industry. He studied computer science. You used to like computers when you were young, right? You know, an IT guy.”

Mei Fang shook his head, “IT guys don’t have time to groom themselves so meticulously and be all refined like him. They always look exhausted with thick dark circles under their eyes. They can spend a whole night fixing bugs, unlike him, who looks so radiant.”

“Xiaofangzi, that’s a stereotype… Besides, he’s the boss after all, so he shouldn’t be that busy, right?”

“Starting a business is not easy, and bosses have to work hard to make their ventures successful… Well, maybe I went too far with that statement.”

Mei Fang knew that this kind of persuasion required a gradual approach, and he also didn’t want to come across as just a high school student, so he slightly eased off his offensive.

“I just feel that as a boyfriend, he seems okay. But this guy doesn’t sound busy at all, completely different from what I know about startup company bosses.”

Mei Yue pondered for a moment, “Hmm… I always get instant replies when I message him, and I’ve asked him about it, but he says it’s because he has me set to “Top Priority.” But maybe he’s just not that busy lately? I guess tech companies aren’t busy all year round, are they?”

“Well, this… this guy definitely sounds like a talented IT expert.”

“Mm-hmm! He’s not only the founder of the company, he’s also a skilled programmer. His technical prowess is well-known.”

“Since he has so much time recently, I happen to have some programming issues. There’s a piece of code that I can’t compile, and I can’t find the bug anywhere. I don’t know anyone around me who understands this. Can you help me send it to him to take a look?”

Mei Yue always knew that Mei Fang had a passion for programming since he was young, but she didn’t think much of her cousin’s ten years of coding experience. At best, it was probably just a beginner’s level, so she naturally didn’t take his probing too seriously.

Besides, it seemed like her cousin was somewhat dissatisfied with her prospective boyfriend, which presented a great opportunity for building trust between the two.

“Sure, I’ll help you and send it to him. He always replies to my messages instantly, so I guarantee he’ll help you solve it right away.”

“Okay, no need to rush… Just let me know the solution tomorrow night.”

Mei Fang successfully sent his old code to Mei Yue, which she then sent it to her prospective boyfriend, and since then, Mei Yue had been waiting for a reply from him.

On the following night, she was still staring at her phone anxiously.

Mei Fang leisurely approached Mei Yue, who had a worried expression on her face.

“So, Sister Yue Yue, did that guy fix my code’s bug?”

“Well… he said he could do it quickly, but he hasn’t replied to my messages for the past two days. I’m starting to worry.”

“Maybe he got busy with work?” Mei Fang pretended to remind her.

“How can things be so coincidental, do you think I’m stupid?”

Mei Yue pondered for a moment and then asked Mei Fang, “Did you really write this code yourself? It’s not some difficult coding question you gave him, right?”

“I did write it myself… Because I’m not skilled, I added comments to every line. Since this guy is an expert programmer, he should be able to understand it just by reading the comments, right? If you don’t believe me, you can search it on Baidu. If you can find my code there, that proves I found this code online, right?”

Mei Fang innocently played the role of an innocent and clueless person, while Mei Yue gradually realized that something was off.

“Maybe he really is as you described, and this whole tech company thing is a scam… No, I have to call and ask him.”

Just as Mei Yue finished speaking, her phone suddenly vibrated. She checked the message content and then happily forwarded it to Mei Fang.

“He’s been busy with work these days, fixing bugs overnight, so he forgot to reply to me. Take a look and see if it’s fixed.”

“No need to look, Sister Yue Yue.” Mei Fang waved his hand after hearing that and let out a sigh.

“This prospective boyfriend of yours is a big phony.”