Chapter 54 ……

Chapter 54 ......

Lu Xingye stared at his brother's message, his head full of question marks.

He reasonably suspected that his brother's account had been hacked.

He tapped the input box and started typing.

No, I won't lend you money. I'm broke.

But before he could send the message, a new message from his brother popped up first.

Brother: I'll put in a good word for you with Mom and Dad about that matter with Teacher Jiang.

Lu Xingye moved his finger to the delete key and erased the words one by one.

Hmm, probably not hacked.

Lu Xingye: Got it, bro.

Lu Xingye: What if Jiang Jiang asks about it?

Brother: Make up any excuse. Don't say I told you to do it.

Lu Xingye: "......"

He's going to be seen as a lunatic by Jiang Jiang, isn't he?

Definitely.

But thinking about what his brother just promised, he closed his eyes.

For him and his wife!

What's face worth anyway?

......

Meanwhile, on the other side, Jiang Jiang had already started copying the AI-generated text into his Moments.

He wasn't friends with many people on this account. Since he wasn't sure if making his Moments visible only to Lu Xingye would affect the task, he simply made them visible to everyone. If anyone asked, he'd just say he lost a dare.

The first Moments post was soon up: "The sunshine is so nice today, perfect for missing someone [sun emoji]"

It was accompanied by a quick snapshot of the view outside the window.

Less than a minute after posting, Jiang Jiang's Moments received its first like.

From Lu Xingye.

Jiang Jiang: "???"

He tapped on Lu Xingye's profile picture to make sure he wasn't seeing things.

This guy actually liked his Moments?

He had already prepared for the worst—if necessary, he'd ask Brother Jiang for help to get Lu Xingye to like his posts to complete the task.

And this speed... it was as if he was camping by his phone waiting for him to post.

Weird.

A few seconds later, Lu Xingye commented with a thumbs-up emoji.

Jiang Jiang stared at that thumbs-up.

This was just too weird.

404 urged, "Why overthink it? Just finish posting the Moments first."

Fine.

Soon, the second Moments post was freshly published.

"The sky is blue, just like my mood right now—also blue."

Post.

Another instant like, again from Lu Xingye.

Jiang Jiang felt something was off.

He thought for a moment and sent Lu Xingye a message.

Jiang Jiang: Was your account hacked?

Lu Xingye: ?

Jiang Jiang: Then why did you like my Moments the second I posted?

Lu Xingye fell silent for a few minutes before replying.

Lu Xingye: I felt like it. Got a problem with that?

The tone was as aggressive as ever.

Jiang Jiang curled his lip. He'd better be.

Ignoring Lu Xingye, he continued his spamming mission.

Third post, fourth post, fifth post...

Jiang Jiang's Moments began to be flooded with his own posts at a rapid pace.

Each one was paired with an AI-generated caption and an irrelevant photo.

And beneath each post, there would be a like from Lu Xingye, along with a comment so brief it was almost negligible, like "Hmm," "Oh," or "Not bad."

Others in his contacts started to get restless.

Li Huaran: Jiang, what's gotten into you? [horrified.jpg]

Zhang Xiaowei: Babe, blink twice if you're being held hostage. [dog head.jpg]

Dong Ranjun: From a behavioral psychology perspective, this behavior of posting similar content in large quantities within a short period may stem from emotional catharsis needs or some external pressure. Need to talk? [pushes glasses up.jpg]

Jiang Huaiyu's comment was the most direct: Jiang Jiang, have you lost your mind?

404 helpfully opened the system task page, blocking Jiang Jiang's view. "Don't look, it's hate."

Jiang Jiang: "......"

He closed the task page and silently deleted Jiang Huaiyu's comment.

Two seconds later.

Jiang Huaiyu: You deleted my comment?

Jiang Jiang tapped his screen.

Deleted.

Jiang Huaiyu: ???

Deleted.

Jiang Huaiyu: You're deleting things that aren't even question marks?

Delete it, delete it all.

Looking at his Moments, finally clean, Jiang Jiang let out a breath.

The next second, a message from Jiang Huaiyu popped up.

Jiang Huaiyu: Jiang Jiang, what are you doing?

Jiang Huaiyu: ???

Jiang Huaiyu: You.......

Jiang Jiang didn't even read the message carefully. After hiding his Moments from his second brother, he blocked him right back.

Out of sight, out of mind. He continued to focus intently on spamming.

Time ticked by.

Jiang Jiang was already on his twenty-seventh Moments post.

The caption read: "The night sky is especially stunning tonight, every star seems to tell a story. [Starry sky pic]"

Send.

The like arrived, just as expected.

But this time, besides Lu Xingye's, there was another person's like.

Seeing that familiar profile picture, Jiang Jiang felt a bit nervous.

It was Lu Nanzhou.

But I thought Lu Nanzhou didn't look at Moments??

When he refreshed, another comment popped up.

Lu Nanzhou: Go to bed early, don't stay up late.

Jiang Jiang breathed a sigh of relief.

It seemed Lu Nanzhou hadn't noticed anything.

He thought for a moment and replied: Got it, going to sleep right now.

Then he continued copying the next caption.

404: "...You call this 'going to sleep right now'?"

Jiang Jiang said defiantly, "I'll sleep after posting this one."

......

Early the next morning, Jiang Jiang was woken up by the continuous vibration of his phone.

Groggily, he fumbled for his phone and opened it to find the family group chat exploding.

Xiao Linxuan: @Jiang Jiang Son, what's going on with your Moments? [Screenshot]

Jiang Zhenglin: @Jiang Jiang Do you need Dad to recommend a psychologist? I know a few good ones.

Jiang Huaijin: @Jiang Jiang If you have any problems, you can come to me.

Jiang Huaiyu: Hahahahaha @Jiang Jiang @Jiang Jiang @Jiang Jiang.

Looking at this string of messages, Jiang Jiang's sleepiness vanished completely.

He opened his Moments. After telling Lu Nanzhou he was going to sleep last night, he had posted over a dozen more. His count had now reached forty-one posts.

Eleven more posts to complete the task.

He took a deep breath and replied in the family group chat.

Jiang Jiang: It's nothing, I just lost a game of Truth or Dare recently and I'm doing the punishment. [Innocent.jpg]

Xiao Linxuan: Really?

Jiang Jiang: Really, really, truer than true!

Jiang Huaiyu: @Xiao Linxuan Mom, Jiang Jiang blocked me on WeChat.

Jiang Jiang: Mom, he's saying I'm nuts [Pitiful.jpg]

Xiao Linxuan: Jiang Huaiyu!

Jiang Huaiyu: Oh, I just got a call, suddenly have something urgent to attend to.

Jiang Jiang snorted at his second brother's message.

He pulled his attention back from the group chat and focused intently on copying and pasting.

Forty-eighth, forty-ninth, fiftieth...

When the fifty-second Moments post was successfully sent, Jiang Jiang let out a long sigh of relief and collapsed onto the bed.

Jiang Jiang opened his latest Moments post.

The caption read: "You always ask me why I stay up late for no reason. It's because I'm thinking of you."

The accompanying picture was a sunset.

He stared at his phone screen, waiting for Lu Xingye's like.

One minute passed.

Two minutes passed.

Five minutes passed.

Lu Xingye’s "like" was still missing.

Jiang Jiang clicked into Lu Xingye’s chat window, ready to ask about it.

Just then, a notification sound for his Moments rang out.

Jiang Jiang refreshed the feed and saw that Lu Xingye had finally given a like.

Not only that, but he had also—unprecedentedly—left a comment longer than three words.

Lu Xingye: You're really something.

Jiang Jiang replied: True.

Lu Xingye: ......

Jiang Jiang ignored him after that and sent a message to Lu Nanzhou.

Jiang Jiang: Like my Moments.

Jiang Jiang: [hand-outstretched emoji]

He knew Lu Nanzhou would never refuse him.

Sure enough, Lu Nanzhou didn't say anything. The red notification badge on his Moments started climbing.

Lu Nanzhou had liked every single one of his posts.

Jiang Jiang: My favorite brother liked my posts, so happy! [heart]

He hit send.

Lu Nanzhou watched Jiang Jiang send the line required by the task, a slight smirk playing on his lips.

Sure enough, he's a little liar, even tricking the system.

Lying down, Jiang Jiang sneezed inexplicably. He sat up. "Who's thinking about me?"

404 didn't answer, instead announcing the result of the task. "Task completed. Rewards have been issued."

On the other side, Lu Nanzhou saw the text confirming the deposit and knew Jiang Jiang had succeeded. This time, he wouldn't be punished.

He opened his chat window with Lu Xingye.

Lu Nanzhou: Well done.

Lu Xingye replied instantly: Bro, can I ask a question?

Lu Nanzhou: Go ahead.

Lu Xingye: Why did you tell me to like Jiang Jiang's Moments? And comment on every single one?

Lu Nanzhou was silent for a few seconds before replying: Helping him with something.

Lu Xingye: What kind of help requires posting so many Moments? And needing me to like and comment on every one?

Lu Nanzhou: Don't ask what you shouldn't.

Lu Xingye: "..."

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Author's Note: Work is busy busy busy.

I'll try my best to finish the main story within two weeks!