novelraw Chapter 153 Hidden Motives
Chapter 153 Hidden Motives
[September 20, 2025, weather: overcast]
[Jiang Ran and Chi Xiaoguo are together almost every day.
I once doubted the nature of their relationship.
A couple—
Or something just short of lovers—
But later, I felt there was nothing especially romantic between them. Instead, it was clean and pure.
Mm, though maybe that’s hard to say for sure.
For Chi Xiaoguo, and really for any girl, Jiang Ran is extremely charming and attractive.
If, in the innocence of youth, Chi Xiaoguo harbors feelings for him beyond friendship, that would be completely understandable.
But Jiang Ran is different.There is someone else in his heart, and someone else in his eyes—
Who is that someone?
Could it… be me?
I once believed it had to be me, and could only be me.
But now.
I’m no longer so confident.
The person hidden in Jiang Ran’s heart, the person reflected in his eyes—
It is me, but not quite me; like me, yet not me.
It feels as though I never understood him as well as I once imagined.
At the very least, there is clearly some secret between him and Chi Xiaoguo, yet he refuses to tell me what it is.
That secret must be in the Film Camera Club.
Sometimes in the morning, sometimes at night, they are always plotting something there.
That should be important.
I’ve decided—I’m going to take a look.]
The dark clouds of the overcast night once again swallowed the moonlight, and the whole world dimmed.
With her back to the window, Cheng Mengxue bent over, narrowed her eyes, and peered into the barrel of the Positron Cannon. “This looks—kind of like an enlarged camera!”
The familiar comparison made Jiang Ran fall silent.
It was a strange sensation impossible to describe—a feeling of overlapping time, revolving time, a closed temporal loop.
On Worldline 0, the first time Cheng Mengxue had seen the Positron Cannon, she had made this exact same remark, saying the thing looked exactly like an enlarged camera.
And in truth, it really did.
The Positron Cannon itself had been modified from a boxy old CRT television, forming a body shaped like a camera, while the hollow mirrored tube mounted on the front—about the size of a volleyball—resembled a camera lens.
[Only a girl as simple-hearted as Cheng Mengxue, still preserving the imagination of childhood, could probably come up with such a vivid comparison.]
By now, Cheng Mengxue had already circled to the other side of the workbench, carefully studying the Positron Cannon.
“What’s this machine called?”
She looked puzzled. “What does it do?”
Chi Xiaoguo pursed her lips tightly, saying nothing, and cast a desperate look toward Jiang Ran.
“Oh, this?”
Jiang Ran stepped forward. “As you can see, it’s just a device shaped like an enlarged camera. Since we’re the Film Camera Club, this shape can be considered a sort of club totem.”
“As for what it’s used for—cough, cough. Even though you happened to discover the surprise we were secretly preparing today, wouldn’t it be better to save the bigger surprise for the welcome ceremony itself?”
“After all, how should I put it… this is something President Xiaoguo and I spent a long time preparing. If the answer gets revealed before the welcome ceremony, we’d definitely feel a little disappointed.”
“Mhm mhm mhm!!”
Chi Xiaoguo transformed into a frantic nodding machine. “Yes, yes! Exactly like that!”
Oh my god—
She couldn’t help marveling inwardly that Senior Jiang Ran was just too smart.
When it came to making up lies, he was silver-tongued to the extreme—seamless, convincing, flawless. Even she, who knew the truth, felt there was absolutely nothing wrong with that explanation.
“I see.”
Cheng Mengxue straightened up and giggled. “Then I’ll really look forward to it~ Don’t worry, I’ll keep it secret from Fang Ze. I just hope the day of the surprise comes soon.”
At this point, there were only a few minutes left before 11:00. The dorms would soon lock and lights-out would begin, so they had to hurry back.
Chi Xiaoguo handed the wedding Caimao she had found in the sofa crack back to Cheng Mengxue, and then the three of them quickly turned off the lights, locked the door, and left the student activity building.
The moment they stepped outside, Chi Xiaoguo bolted.
Because what had just happened was simply too awkward.
Painfully awkward.
She had always thought Jiang Ran’s hint was for her to cooperate and acknowledge some kind of intimate relationship between the two of them—
Wouldn’t that neatly explain why they were meeting in the Film Camera Club every day?
She had already steeled herself, ready to take the blame of being his “girlfriend”—
She had even thought through how she would use even more lies later to keep that lie alive—
But who would have thought!
Senior Jiang Ran had played an even more sophisticated move!
Not only had he fooled Cheng Mengxue, he had nearly reeled her in too!
Whew.
Luckily, in the end, the words she had almost blurted out came half a beat too late and never left her mouth.
Otherwise, instead of merely turning around and fleeing like now—
She’d have had to find a crack in the ground and crawl into it!
“Th-th-th-then, Senior Jiang Ran, Sister Mengxue, my dorm’s this way, I’m heading back first!”
Only after running several meters did Chi Xiaoguo realize she should say goodbye, so she hurriedly stopped and waved at them.
Jiang Ran nodded and threw her a look that said, We’ll talk about this tomorrow.
Chi Xiaoguo squeezed her eyes and shot back a look that said something like, Ababa wulha garbled-garbled sizzling-sizzling-sizzling, as incomprehensible as computer gibberish.
Jiang Ran stared at the completely unpairable Bluetooth connection, the utterly undecipherable eye-message, and could only wave helplessly as he sent off the tiny president.
At that moment, he genuinely missed Qin Feng and Wang Hao.
He could communicate with both of them through eye contact without the slightest obstacle.
Qin Feng was simply too smart, so he could effortlessly “downward-compatibility” himself in any situation. Not only could he easily understand the information hidden in Jiang Ran’s eyes, but his own looks were also perfectly comprehensible in return.
As for Wang Hao, that was pure tacit understanding.
The moment Wang Hao so much as twitched, Jiang Ran would know what color shit he was going to take that day.
After Chi Xiaoguo ran off into the distance, Cheng Mengxue turned back mysteriously and looked at Jiang Ran.
“Speaking of which, I’m actually preparing a surprise too—”
Heh.
Jiang Ran let out an involuntary laugh. “Tonight was already enough of a surprise from you. No, more like a scare.”
“Hey, I’m being serious!”
There wasn’t the slightest trace of joking on Cheng Mengxue’s face. “Next Wednesday night, I’m planning to invite Fang Ze, little sister Xiaoguo, and the others out for a meal. You, Wang Hao, and Sister Xu Yan should come too. You can even help me prepare in advance.”
“Huh?”
Jiang Ran instinctively frowned. “Why? Why are we having a dinner gathering?”
“Are you stupid?!”
Cheng Mengxue immediately grabbed his arm and gave it a vicious twist. “Next Wednesday! September 23rd! Tell me what day that is!”
September 23rd—
The moment he heard the exact date, Jiang Ran suddenly woke up.
September 23rd.
It was Cheng Mengxue’s birthday.
No wonder she had suddenly gotten huffy and reacted so strongly—
In his memories, he had never once missed Cheng Mengxue’s birthday.
Of course, those memories definitely belonged to Worldline 0.
But on Worldline 1, the two of them were still childhood friends who had grown up together, still classmates who had walked the same road all the way here. Other than what had happened over the past two years, the plot of their lives was almost identical.
Logically, there was no way he should ever forget Cheng Mengxue’s birthday.
Because—
This little money-grubber always started dropping crazy hints far in advance, making it obvious, or even outright demanding a birthday present from Jiang Ran, often naming the exact style she wanted.
And Jiang Ran had never minded.
That was simply what a close relationship was like.
Only people truly close to each other could be so unrestrained, treating every bit of “unreasonable troublemaking” as something perfectly natural.
It was just that too much had happened lately, things had become too busy, and Jiang Ran had indeed remained suspicious of Cheng Mengxue’s identity in the current worldline—
So he had neglected the fact that September 23rd, the autumn equinox, her birthday, was almost here.
“So that’s it.”
Jiang Ran rubbed the arm she had twisted sore. “You want to throw a birthday dinner and invite them all.”
“Hmph! I thought you’d completely forgotten my birthday!”
Cheng Mengxue puffed out her cheeks. “Forget a birthday party. No need for anything so troublesome and extravagant. Let’s just find a restaurant off campus, book a private room, eat some cake, blow out candles, and have a perfectly ordinary meal together.”
“Come to think of it, Jiang Ran, you’ve missed giving me birthday gifts for two whole years! No matter what, you have to make up for both years this time, right?”
“You want three gifts?” Jiang Ran said, laughing helplessly.
“Hehe, that’s not necessary.”
A scheming smile spread across Cheng Mengxue’s face. “You can just combine all three years’ worth into one big present.”
“The rice-cooker Caimao! This time you’re not allowed to sell me dreams anymore! Combining three years of birthday gifts into one rice-cooker Caimao isn’t unreasonable, right?”
Ah—
Jiang Ran pressed a hand to his forehead. “You really are the same as ever, asking for gifts so directly.”
It seemed Cheng Mengxue was still deeply fixated on that rice-cooker Caimao she had never gotten.
Back at the start of summer vacation, when Jiang Ran had driven her back to Xu Yan’s house, he had already promised to give her a rice-cooker Caimao as a welcome-back gift.
But later, because of one thing after another, and because of all his suspicions, the matter had never been followed through and had simply faded away.
That was why Cheng Mengxue had warned him, “This time you can’t just paint a pie.”
“Fine.”
He agreed casually.
After all, it wasn’t that expensive—
Well, all right, it was pretty expensive, but compared to the balance in his savings account, it was still pocket change.
“Speaking of which, you also missed my birthday for two years.”
Jiang Ran turned the tables on her. “When are you planning to make up my birthday gift?”
“But your birthday already passed this year.”
Cheng Mengxue spread her hands helplessly. “I remember your birthday clearly—May 15th. But at that time, I still hadn’t returned to the country.”
“If I really am going to make up your birthday present, then I can only do it next year—next year—”
Suddenly, Cheng Mengxue trailed off.
She stood there in the gentle night wind, head lowered, her eyes vacant, and said nothing more.
Hm?
That left Jiang Ran puzzled.
Why had she suddenly gone silent?
An unnatural silence appeared in this starless night, as if, just as always, it foreshadowed—
Those things that should never happen would inevitably still happen.
“Mm, hehe.”
Cheng Mengxue suddenly gave two silly little laughs and lifted her head. “Don’t worry, Jiang Ran. Next year, I’ll make up your birthday gift.”
With that said,
she waved goodbye to Jiang Ran.
Then she turned and jogged away, disappearing into the night.
Jiang Ran watched her departing back, feeling that the moment of hesitation just now had been strangely off.
And—
he could very clearly sense one thing.
[Tonight, Cheng Mengxue’s sudden appearance outside the Film Camera Club window was definitely not a coincidence. It was absolutely deliberate.]
“Xiaoxue would never lose her Caimao.”
Jiang Ran narrowed his eyes at the silhouette vanishing into the darkness.
Of this, he was more certain than anyone.
It couldn’t be said that Caimao was Cheng Mengxue’s life itself, but as an extreme Caimao fanatic, there was no way she would only notice it missing a full hour after losing it.
Not to mention that the wedding Caimao had been hanging from her phone as a charm the entire time.
Given how often modern people use their phones, how could she possibly fail to notice for that long?
And there was another point.
Even if, by some one-in-ten-thousand chance, Cheng Mengxue really had only realized an hour later that the charm was gone—
the correct, rational response would definitely not be to run out alone just before 11:00 p.m., right before dorm lights-out and lockup, to search for it.
She could have called Jiang Ran or Chi Xiaoguo to ask.
She could have checked the club room the next day.
Either option would have been far more realistic than searching for a needle in a haystack at 11:00 at night.
“So—”
Jiang Ran concluded decisively, “Xiaoxue knew perfectly well that the Caimao charm had fallen into the sofa crack in the Film Camera Club room. It was never actually lost.”
“In fact, it’s very possible Xiaoxue secretly removed the charm herself and stuffed it into the sofa crack, staging it as if it had gone missing.”
“The purpose behind doing that was most likely to give herself a surface-level excuse—so she could come to the Film Camera Club room before 11:00 lights-out and see what Chi Xiaoguo and I were really doing.”
That’s right.
Jiang Ran analyzed it rationally.
He and Cheng Mengxue had grown up together since childhood. He knew her too well, and it was easy for him to infer what she was thinking.
Therefore, without question—
[Tonight, Cheng Mengxue deliberately left behind the Caimao, deliberately chose this exact time, and deliberately launched a surprise raid on the Film Camera Club.]
“What exactly is your goal?”
The dim moonlight slowly resurfaced, illuminating the now-empty road.
“Were you simply curious about the sneaky things going on between Chi Xiaoguo and me?”
“Or is it that—”
“you’re hurt?”