Chapter 1

I had always had the face of a good girl.

Only I knew how vicious my mouth could be.

When I was twelve, I got into an argument with someone online and insulted him so hard he cried.

During graduation season, I made plans to meet an online friend I had known for years.

My beautiful roommate, Chloe Evans, sneered when she heard about it.

“It’s 2024. You still believe in online romance? What if you meet him and he turns out to be some two-hundred-pound loser?”

Two days later, our whole class attended a public lecture given by a distinguished alumnus.

Onstage, the speaker was young, handsome, rich, and the youngest CEO of a major gaming company.

When he smiled and showed us the game interface, he accidentally revealed the friend with the highest intimacy level on his account.

It was my game name.

Chloe’s eyes were sharp. She gasped.

“Isn’t that your username? Don’t tell me he’s your online boyfriend.”

I tugged at the corner of my mouth.

Chloe’s eyes lit up.

“With your face? He’ll run the second he sees you. You might as well let me go in your place. Once I land him, I’ll give you two thousand dollars as a referral fee.”

After saying that, she logged into my game account on her phone and rushed backstage to find him.

I did not stop her.

Instead, I looked toward Adrian Vale, who stood onstage looking polished and elegant, and rolled my eyes.

Chloe had no idea that three minutes ago, Adrian and I had still been in-game, viciously insulting each other’s entire family trees.

Backstage was crowded.

I stood at the edge of the crowd with my backpack in my arms and watched Chloe push her way to the front.

She raised the phone logged into my account, “TiraMissU,” and held the screen toward Adrian.

Her voice was sweet enough to make my teeth ache, but it still could not hide her excitement.

“Adrian, it’s me!”

“I’m TiraMissU. I can’t believe I’m meeting you here!”

The moment Adrian saw the name, his whole body stopped.

The polite business smile on his face froze at the corners of his mouth.

The operations director behind him was still going over the next segment, but Adrian clearly did not hear a word.

He stared at Chloe for a few seconds.

Three seconds later, he suddenly walked straight toward her and stopped in front of her.

His throat moved slightly.

Then, in front of everyone, he let out a low laugh.

I stood in the crowd and saw everything clearly.

His eyes were bright in a way that almost looked frightening, as if he had truly stumbled upon the online girl he had been waiting to meet.

“So it was you.”

“I’ve heard a lot about you.”

His voice was calm and even, but the end of the sentence trembled with something almost impossible to notice.

The students around us exploded.

“That was Chloe?”

“Oh my God, Chloe is even good at games?”

“Campus beauty and tech CEO. What kind of dream pairing is this?”

“Chloe, don’t forget us when you’re rich and famous!”

Chloe stood in the center of attention, saying, “No, no, it’s nothing,” while the pride in her eyes was impossible to hide.

At that moment, Adrian’s gaze passed over the crowd and landed on me.

“You’re Stella Brooks?”

“I read today’s discussion materials. The top-ranked paper in your year was yours.”

“The one on ranking systems. Your data structure breakdown was excellent.”

He even smiled slightly and reached out his hand toward me.

I froze for a second and had not yet lifted my hand when Chloe’s expression changed.

She took one big step sideways and wedged herself between Adrian and me, blocking his hand.

“Oh, Adrian, don’t praise her!”

“She’s just a nerd who studies all day. She’s terrible at games. She can’t do anything except take exams.”

“And she’s so boring. You can hit her with three sticks and she still won’t say a word. Talking to her is exhausting.”

“Come on, Adrian, you’re so busy today. Let me introduce you to some of the people from our department.”

She dragged Adrian away without asking and turned back to glare at me.

Her eyes clearly said, Say one word and you’re dead.

I stepped back into the corner like an obedient girl and called after Adrian’s back, “Take care, Adrian.”

On the way back to the dorm, everyone was still surrounding Chloe.

“Chloe, you’re so lucky. You randomly meet someone online, and he turns out to be a CEO.”

I walked half a step behind them and lowered my head to open my phone.

A game notification popped up at the perfect time.

Your friend SouthWindKnows has come online.

I opened the chat, looked at his profile picture, and sneered.

TiraMissU: Adrian Vale, you looked so human today. That stiff smile made you look like expired Botox. My eyes hurt.

Sent.

Not far away, Adrian’s phone vibrated.

He looked down.

His face went dark at once.