The afternoon I was about to meet my online boyfriend in real life, Zack went live on Twitch with a special stream. The stream title was painfully eye-catching: [Exposing My “Mega-Size” Online Girlfriend — Donate $1,000 and I’ll take her out for vegan food!] Ten minutes after going live, he pasted a photo of my high school graduation picture in the upper-right corner of the screen. Back then, I weighed 250 pounds, had a face full of acne, and wore a school uniform that looked ready to split open. The chat was instantly buried under a flood of “LMAO” and vomiting emojis. “Zack, are you seriously risking your life for views?” “I’ll bet ten rockets he won’t even be able to squeeze into a standard booth at the diner later.” Zack watched the donation total climb and smiled with obvious smugness. “Guys, don’t blame me for being ruthless.” “Once she shows up and gets stuck in the seat, I’m breaking up with her on the spot.” I was sitting in a high-end nail salon downtown, watching the livestream on my phone. Over the past six months, I had cut out all junk food and sweated it out in the gym. I had gone from 250 pounds to 110, and I had lost more than fat, too, I had also lost the coward who used to bend over backward to please everyone. As the nail technician painted the last bit of cherry-red polish onto my nails, she marveled at how I glowed like a fairy goddess. I casually used my side account to tip ten rockets in Zack’s stream, with a message attached: “You said you were going to break up, so don’t go back on your word later.”
Inside the livestream, the gorgeous explosion effect from the ten rockets instantly wiped the mocking comments clean off the screen. Zack had been lounging back in a sofa chair and playing with his hair, but when he saw the effect, he straightened up at once. He leaned toward the screen and saw my donation message and the profile picture I was using. That avatar was a candid shot from last month, when I had done a fashion shoot for a niche magazine. My side profile looked cool and stunning, my jawline sharp, and my deep eyes hidden in the dim lighting with a strong, aggressive edge. Zack let out a whistle into the microphone. “Wow, thanks to the mysterious rich beauty named S for the ten rockets. Gorgeous, looks like you really support me getting back to single life?” The chat exploded again. “Zack, the rich girl has a crush on you!” “If that avatar is the real person, I’ll eat my keyboard right now. That chin is sharper than Zack’s future.” Zack smiled as he brushed his carefully styled bangs, his tone dripping with the arrogance he couldn’t hide. “Guys, it’s not that I’m cruel. I’ve been in an online relationship with this Selena for a year, and she still doesn’t even dare to turn on video. Every day it’s either those clingy little messages or snacks she sends me.” “My girlfriend, Zack’s girlfriend, at the very least has to be someone I can take out in public, right?” He pointed at the old photo of me from when I weighed 250 pounds in the upper-right corner of the screen. “Look at that build. If I really took her out for burgers today, I’d be worried she’d treat me like a side dish and swallow me whole.” The chat immediately filled with laughing reaction stickers. I stared at the handsome but disgusting face on the screen, calmly picked up my phone, and opened his private messages. Just a few minutes earlier, he had still been messaging me there, sweet-talking me. “Baby, I’m already at the restaurant. I’ve prepared a huge surprise for you today.” “Don’t be scared. No matter what anyone thinks of you, you’ll always be the cutest in my eyes.” This was his so-called surprise, using a gentle, considerate lie to keep me in place and make sure I would show up on time. All while, in front of a hundred thousand people in his livestream, he was shredding my dignity and stomping it into the ground for those ridiculous views and donations. Once upon a time, I really thought he was different. When I first came to the U.S., I gained a ton of weight because I couldn’t adjust to the food and the pressure from school. When I walked across campus, some guys would even deliberately go around me. I met Zack when he added me after we got matched in an online game. He was a huge esports streamer with tens of millions of followers, and he said he liked my voice and my attention to detail. He also said that looks were the most boring shell, and that soul compatibility was the rarest thing of all. For that vague thing called compatibility, over the past six months, not only did I help him edit his gaming videos, I also used the money I earned from part-time jobs to buy him expensive gaming gear. Even after I started that hellish fat-loss phase and was so exhausted every day I could barely lift my arms, I still stayed up late to keep him company through those so-called “low points.” I had once thought that was mutual healing, but now it was just a joke. After the nail tech finished my nails, she led me over to the mirror and interrupted my thoughts. “Honey, take a look. Do you like them?” I looked up at myself in the full-length mirror. The burgundy silk slip dress hugged my waist tightly, my collarbones were defined, and my wavy hair fell over my pale shoulders. That fat girl, wrapped in fat and insecurity, had long since died in countless late nights drenched in sweat. I stood up, picked up the sunglasses on the table, and casually sent Zack a message. “I’m almost there. I hope your surprise won’t disappoint me.”
I pushed open the heavy glass door of Starlight Diner, and a wave of vintage jazz mixed with the smell of coffee rushed at me. It was an old-school American retro diner from the last century, with red leather booths and flashing neon signs setting the mood perfectly. I walked in my high heels to the hidden booth in the far corner and sat down, then ordered a sparkling water with no sugar. In the center of the room, across two rows of seats, Zack’s livestream setup with its ring light stood out like a sore thumb. Zack was talking away at the camera. Today he wore an expensive custom black shirt with two buttons undone at the collar, and the Patek Philippe on his wrist caught the diner lights. Sitting beside him was his longtime partner, Chloe. Chloe was a girl wearing a pure white floral dress, her long blonde hair styled neatly. She covered her mouth and laughed softly at the camera. “Everyone, don’t say that. Selena might just have gotten fat because she’s been sick.” “Zack also chose this classy restaurant with no high-calorie food today just to encourage her to lose weight.” As she spoke, she reached over and patted Zack on the arm. “Zack has always had such a soft heart. Don’t let his harsh words fool you. Once he sees her later, he’ll definitely still take good care of her.” The chat instantly flooded with praise. “Chloe is such an angel. So kind.” “Too bad Zack is blind. He has an absolute bombshell right beside him and still insists on going online-dating a giant.” “Strongly demanding that Zack and Chloe get together!” I watched Chloe’s understanding, reasonable act with cold eyes. She seemed like she was helping me out, but every word she said was really nailing down the label of “fat, pathetic, and deserving of pity” on me. Zack clearly enjoyed being surrounded by adoration. He leaned toward Chloe and raised an eyebrow at the camera. “If she really crushes the booth later, Chloe, you’ll have to cover the damages for me.” The two of them laughed together in front of the camera, and just then, a waiter came over carrying my sparkling water. “Ma’am, your water.” That greeting sounded a little out of place in this section of the restaurant. I took off my sunglasses and set them on the table, then let my gaze drift casually toward the VIP half-booth on the other side of the diner. A dark red curtain half-covered it, and inside sat a man. He wore a perfectly tailored dark gray suit, with a pair of silver-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose. He was holding half an unlit cigar between his fingers, and his gaze crossed most of the restaurant and landed straight on me. That look was razor-sharp, like he was sizing up prey, yet it also carried a coldness that saw through everything. I didn’t know him, but the pressure around him was so strong it even outweighed all the noise in the diner. The eye contact lasted only a second before he lowered his gaze and kept listening to the people opposite him report to him nervously. At the same time, because I had taken off my sunglasses, a lot of people in the restaurant had already started looking at me. Zack also noticed the disturbance. He turned around, and the second his eyes landed on me, his whole body visibly froze. I lifted the glass, my red lips touching the rim as I took an unhurried sip of sparkling water. Zack’s throat bobbed, and he nearly lost his grip on the iced Americano in his hand. He didn’t recognize me at all. He was just instinctively drawn to a completely unfamiliar, aggressively beautiful face. He didn’t even notice that the camera had tilted off to the side. Chloe followed his gaze and looked over, and the smile on her face froze instantly, a trace of fierce, guarded hostility flashing in her eyes. Zack suddenly muted the microphone and leaned toward the camera to lower his voice. “Guys, the giant still hasn’t shown up.” “But I think I just saw a real muse in this restaurant.”
Zack took his drink and left his ring-light livestream spot, walking straight toward my table. He walked with total confidence, even deliberately adjusting his shirt collar, nailing that rich, devoted young-master vibe. “Excuse me, sorry to bother you.” He stopped at the seat opposite my booth and flashed the signature smile that had once won over countless girls on Twitch. “This diner’s AC is always blasting, and I think you need a martini that suits the place better than a boring sparkling water.” “Can I buy you a drink?” I lifted my eyes and slowly moved my gaze from his Patek Philippe to his face. This face had once sent me endless sweet talk through the screen in countless late nights, and now it was using the same expression to hit on a woman he thought was completely strange. I didn’t refuse. I just tapped lightly on the table with my fingers. “Sit.” A flash of triumph crossed Zack’s eyes, and he sat down without hesitation. He took out his phone and deliberately left his obvious million-follower streamer profile visible. “I’m Zack. I usually work in esports investments and streaming. What about you? Here alone waiting for someone?” “Sort of.” I swirled the glass in my hand. “Waiting for my online boyfriend. He said he’d give me a huge surprise today.” Zack visibly paused for a moment, then let out a charming little laugh. “Online dating? Someone like you, a top-tier hottie, still needs to online-date?” He leaned forward slightly, his eyes turning intensely predatory. “That guy must have no idea how lucky he is. If it were me, I’d never let you sit here waiting for more than a minute.” “Is that so?” I looked straight into his eyes. “But I heard you have an online girlfriend too?” “And it looks like you’re over there humiliating her at the next table for views.” Zack’s expression flickered awkwardly for a split second. But he quickly recovered and put on a look that was helpless and deeply affectionate. “You saw that just now? Sorry you had to witness that.” He sighed and leaned back against the booth. “That doesn’t even count as online dating. It’s just a mess I couldn’t avoid.” “She’s been pestering me for a whole year, sending me hundreds of messages every day. I’m just too kind. I never had the heart to reject her.” “Until I found out she wasn’t just a 250-pound fat girl, she’d also been tricking me with fake photos.” Zack spread his hands, his tone full of disgust. “The only reason I did this today was to make her give up for good. I don’t want her clinging to my life like a leech anymore.” I listened to these lies that twisted the truth upside down and only felt sick and amused at the same time. She was sending him hundreds of messages every day? Who was the one calling me over and over at three in the morning when his call wouldn’t go through, forcing me to crawl out of bed and play ranked matches with him? Who was the one who swore after receiving the limited-edition keyboard I bought him that he’d never marry anyone else and would only marry me someday? Just then, the soft sound of high heels approached. Chloe came over carrying her phone. “Zack, the fans are asking where you ran off to.” She stood beside the booth and looked down at the silk slip dress I was wearing, then finally stopped on my face, which had no flaws at all. “This lady looks a little unfamiliar. Is she a new streamer in our circle?” Her smile was extremely deceptive, but her tone was barbed. “Zack is just too warmhearted. He always wants to mentor newcomers when he sees them.” “But miss, Zack’s taste is very picky. Just having a pretty face won’t get you into our circle.” I looked at the pair of them performing in sync. They were still lost in the superiority they had built for themselves, thinking they were the absolute rulers of this game. “He is picky.” I picked up my phone from the table and swiped the screen on with my fingertip. “But I’d like to see just how picky he can really be.”
I pressed the shortcut key I knew all too well on my phone screen. Just two seconds later, Zack’s phone, tucked inside his suit pocket, suddenly rang. It was an extremely childish sweet-girl Japanese song, and under the background of one American jazz song after another, it sounded harsh and ridiculous. He had insisted on setting it as my exclusive ringtone back then, saying it was to prove I was the most special person on his list. Zack’s expression changed instantly. He fumbled to pull out his phone and, without even looking at the screen, hit decline. “Spam call.” He forced out a smile. “These annoying calls really are getting more and more common.” I looked at him, and instead of putting down my phone, I hit the call button again. The familiar Japanese song echoed above the booth once more. This time, Chloe’s eyes fell on Zack’s phone screen. There, in bright letters, flashed a name: [My baby Selena]. Chloe froze. She looked at the phone, then at me across from her, as if she’d been struck by lightning. “You…” Following Chloe’s gaze, Zack finally looked down at his screen. His expression completely stiffened at that moment. All the fake affection, arrogance, and ease he had been wearing vanished instantly. He stared at me so hard his eyes looked like they might pop out. “You’re Selena?” Zack’s voice even changed pitch, and everyone in the restaurant turned to look this way. I tossed my phone onto the table, and the metal case clacked against the glass with a crisp sound. “What? Don’t recognize me anymore?” I leaned back in my chair and looked at him coldly. “Didn’t you just say I was like a leech clinging to your life? Didn’t you say bringing me here for vegan food today was to make me give up for good?” Zack’s chest rose and fell violently. His gaze kept darting over my slim arms, my clearly defined collarbones, and the face that looked nothing like the one in the photo. Right now, he simply could not connect the 250-pound fat girl to the top-tier beauty sitting in front of him, the one he had almost just tried to sweet-talk. The livestream setup that was still running had recorded everything clearly. The chat had already gone insane, scrolling hundreds of messages per second. “What’s going on? That hottie is Selena?!” “The insanely gorgeous girl Zack just hit on is the same giant online girlfriend he was about to publicly humiliate?” “Holy crap, this has to be the biggest reversal of the year. Zack’s peacock routine from just now was all caught on camera!” Zack clearly realized the livestream was still going too, and the reason he usually prided himself on his composure completely shattered. He shot up to his feet, and his handsome face twisted with rage and embarrassment. “You did this on purpose, didn’t you?” He braced both hands on the table and stared me down. “You’ve been thin this whole time, haven’t you? You watched me in the livestream looking like an idiot while you played me like a fool. Did that make you feel accomplished?!” I met his gaze without any fear. “You’re the one who wanted to turn me into your cash cow. Since you dared to set up this bet, then you should be ready to face the consequences of losing everything.” I picked up the martini he had ordered for me, then turned my wrist. The cold liquor splashed perfectly onto Zack’s carefully styled face. “Now it’s you who isn’t good enough for me.” The drink dripped from his chin onto his expensive custom shirt, leaving ugly dark stains. From childhood to now, when had Zack ever suffered such a humiliating insult? His eyes immediately turned red, and after muttering a curse, he reached out to grab my wrist hard. Just as his hand was about to touch me, a large hand with sharp knuckles and a Patek Philippe black-gold watch on the wrist clamped down hard on Zack’s wrist. Then, a cold, deep voice full of absolute authority sounded behind Zack. “Zack, who gave you the guts to touch her with your filthy hands?”
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