Ji Fanyin’s phone vibrated despite being on ‘Do-Not-Disturb’ mode.
She had set her phone such that both her clients and the little reservation app were able to reach her when her phone was on ‘Do-Not-Disturb’ mode.
The vibration showed that she had received a new reservation request on her app.
She glanced into her bag, but she didn’t take out her phone to take a look.
However, her phone continued vibrating for quite a while. She was receiving a whole chain of notifications. It even caught Song Shiyu’s attention.
He turned his head over to look at Ji Fanyin, but he surprisingly chose not to ask anything at all.
Ji Fanyin casually turned around and looked behind them before remarking, “It doesn’t look like he’s following us.”
Though his soul seems to be with us right now.
… It can’t be that Bai Zhou is impulse shopping on the reservation app right now, is he?How many times did my phone vibrate earlier?
Ji Fanyin tried to do the calculations. The earlier vibration seemed to last for a long time.
“I really don’t know how he managed to find us,” said Song Shiyu contemplatively. “Does he know your address? He isn’t be stalking you, is he?”
Regardless of whether it was intentional or not, Ji Fanyin thought that she needed to tread carefully around those words. There was no way she would reveal her address to her clients that easily.
Song Shiyu had a rough idea where her neighborhood was, but he didn’t know the exact address. Bai Zhou shouldn’t know her address yet. As for Li Xiaoxing… he had already dug up everything from the very start.
“How could he not know where the Ji Residence is?” That was how Ji Fanyin chose to answer the question.
“…” Song Shiyu pressed the lift button. “It could be dangerous if he knows where you live. There’s no saying that he might attempt to pull something.”
Ji Fanyin nodded in response. “I’ll be careful.”
Why else do you think I’m hiding my address from you all?
As she looked at Song Shiyu, a wicked idea suddenly surfaced in her mind. She asked, “You’ll come right away at a call if I were to really meet with danger, right?”
Song Shiyu turned over and looked at her with eyes so intense that it looked almost as if he was a sinner repenting to a cross.
“That’s right,” he murmured a promise. “So make sure to look for me first if you ever meet with trouble.”
A few more people came over to wait for the lift alongside them.
Ji Fanyin glanced at the strangers around them before tiptoeing toward Song Shiyu and waving him over with a secretive look on her face. Song Shiyu obediently moved his ear over to listen to whatever she was going to say.
“You’ll definitely be my first choice,” Ji Fanyin whispered quickly. “Because ‘Ji Xinxin’ likes Song Shiyu.”
Those were the exact words that Song Shiyu told her in the bar that day.
Those words made her cringe badly back then, so she solemnly vowed to find an opportunity in the future to stuff those disgusting words back at him.
As she had expected, Song Shiyu’s expression stiffened up right away.
“Ah, the lift is here.” Ji Fanyin pointed to the lift and began making her way over. “Shiyu?”
“… Mm.” Song Shiyu stiffly made his way into the lift.
Ji Fanyin pressed the ‘B2’ lift button while joyfully humming the melody of ‘Loser’.
It’s Ji Xinxin who likes Song Shiyu, so don’t get ‘Ji Fanyin’ involved here, alright?
…
Yuan Yao was a little-known streamer from a small streaming website. She earned her keep by posting videos of her visits to cosmetics stores.
Today, she brought her equipment out to a fairly expensive Western brunch restaurant to review it for her viewers. She had talked to the staff beforehand and promised them not to disturb or film the other customers. After swiftly setting up her equipment, she started her stream.
She had already ordered her food in advance, but she still took the trouble to introduce the restaurant’s specialty to her viewers. After that, she showed them the full menu and the prices.
“… That’s pretty much it for the introduction. We’ll be waiting for the food to come now. I feel like a rich young madame eating a 188 dollar brunch set.” Yuan Yao rubbed her hands together expectantly. “Let’s pray that my 188 dollar brunch set is worth the price. My hard-earned money can’t go to waste!”
While waiting for her Egg Benedicts to be served, Yuan Yao began chatting about her daily life with her fans.
In the midst of her chat, she noticed a couple walking into the restaurant and taking a seat two tables away from her. She couldn’t resist gossiping with her fans, “Ooh, I spotted a handsome guy and a gorgeous babe. They look just like models. What a pity that I can’t film others here, or else we could have eye-candied them together.”
The chat replied to her with “Good things should be shared!” “Lemme see, lemme see!”.
There was no way Yuan Yao could just bring random strangers into her stream—she at least had that much tact. It was one thing for strangers to accidentally appear on her stream on the street, but turning her camera over to film others in a restaurant was way too conspicuous.
Besides, there are two of them there and only one of me here. What if they beat me up?
Humans were naturally drawn to pretty things. Yuan Yao began digging into her Eggs Benedict while providing her fans with real-time reactions, but her eyes wouldn’t stop drifting over to look at the couple.
That guy is good-looking, but that woman is drop-dead gorgeous! How could those stinky men hold a candle to sweet-scented ladies?
Yuan Yao made sure to take her time eating so that she could get a few more looks in. When the couple finished their meal and began taking their leave, she sighed in disappointment.
What happened next was beyond her imagination.
“Oh? Another hottie entered the restaurant. He looked a little young… Holy shit, is that what they mean by love triangle? What an intense atmosphere! Are they going to come to blows?” Yuan Yao whispered with a hushed voice.
The chat: We don’t ask you to show us their faces, but you should at least let us listen to the fresh gossip!
Yuan Yao secretly adjusted her mic toward the couple plus one. She took a casual glance around and saw that many of the customers were looking over as well. The desire for gossip was innate in all humans.
The couple plus one were two tables away, and they weren’t speaking loudly either. Yuan Yao couldn’t tell how much the mic was able to take in, but she did manage to catch everything loud and clear.
How exciting!
Be it the “You shouldn’t cause a scene here” or “What about the time we have spent together?”, Yuan Yao could easily imagine a ten thousand words dog-blooded novel.
Between the old flame and the new lover, which one does her heart truly belong to?
Yuan Yao pricked up her ears, not wanting to miss out on a single word. This dramatic scene was eventually concluded with the couple’s departure.
Messages like “What happened afterward?”, “Did they start fighting?”, and “Damn! I just brought my earpiece over, and the fight is already over?” could be seen flashing across the live stream.
Yuan Yao whispered into the mic with a secretive look on her face, “The other hottie hasn’t left yet. He sat down at the couple’s table. Oof, he looks like he’s going to murder someone. He’s fiddling with his phone right now… Haha, even the waiter doesn’t dare collect the plates… Ey? He gulped down the beverage that the gorgeous babe was drinking earlier… Ah?”
The chat: Looks like your 188 dollars was well-spent.
Yuan Yao: “… I can’t deny that.”
Yuan Yao later edited the love triangle video and uploaded it online. It unexpectedly went viral, becoming one of the recommended videos of the website that very night. Lots of curious netizens enjoyed the gossip fodder and shared it around.
The fighting trio never appeared on camera, but the streamer mentioned that they were two hotties and a babe. That further stoked curiosity about the entire fiasco.
It was such an abrupt test that Ji Fanyin wasn’t able to do her homework beforehand. She could only try her best to rake up whatever knowledge she knew about astronomy from disaster films so that she wouldn’t appear ignorant.
It was fortunate that Song Shiyu wasn’t particularly focused on the stars either. He looked at the winter sky via the telescope and sighed in wonderment, “Beautiful. It’s no wonder you’re fond of the stars.”
Ji Fanyin, who was looking through the telescope adjusted to the North Star, also thought that the night sky was beautiful, though it was really just a layman’s level of appreciation.
“Are you feeling cold?” Song Shiyu asked as he reached out to touch Ji Fanyin’s hand, hoping to feel her hand’s temperature.
Ji Fanyin was still focused on watching the stars a moment ago when she instinctively retracted her hand and looked at Song Shiyu. For just an instant there, she broke out of her working mode.
“What’s wrong?” Song Shiyu looked perplexed.
Ji Fanyin replied with a composed smile, “Nothing much.”
She wasn’t fond of being touched by others, which was why she didn’t like taking public transport. The feeling of repulsion was further exacerbated when it came to Song Shiyu.
I might just be allergic to scums.
There weren’t many people in the observatory due to it being a working day. Ji Fanyin was still feeling a little gleeful at having monopolized this popular telescope for so long, but the earlier event had ruined the mood. Thus, she said, “It really is a little cold here. Let’s go.”
However, Song Shiyu began staring at Ji Fanyin’s face intently instead of walking away, as if he was trying to find something from her.
Ji Fanyin gave it some thought before offering her hand to him. “Do you want to hold my hand?”
She had a sudden recollection.
Ji Fanyin’ was very fond of Song Shiyu. She desired his warmth and intimacy. Even an unintentional brushing of hands while passing over a cup could make her heart go wild.
She would have liked more than anything to hold hands with him, but Song Shiyu, despite seeing her as Ji Xinxin’s substitute, refused to come into physical contact with her.
She was also too meek to voice her thoughts aloud.
Of course, even if Song Shiyu had learned about her humble desire for warmth and intimacy back then, he would have just snorted at her. He wouldn’t cherish what came so easily.
It was ironic how the tables had turned. Song Shiyu was now the one who was greedy for warmth and intimacy. He had become the humble one in this relationship.
I wonder if Song Shiyu has noticed that this is karma yet.
Ji Fanyin smiled at the man who was looking at her with a hesitant frown, her hand still waiting in mid-air.
Let’s see if you’re thick-skinned enough to try it.
She had already thought of a countermeasure if he attempted to grab her hand. She would pull it back and brush him off with a joking ‘But I don’t want to hold your hand now. Heehee.’.
Several seconds ticked by. Song Shiyu raised his hand, only to swiftly pull it back. There was an awful look on his face. He stiffly turned his head away before hurriedly walking past Ji Fanyin, as if he was trying to flee the scene.
Ji Fanyin slipped her hand into her pocket and smiled at Song Shiyu from behind.
Not bad. It looks like you’ve finally managed to find your sense of shame. You finally know just how ugly you were.
But what’s the point of realizing it now?
So many years have already passed. The person you have driven past the edge is no longer here.
Ji Fanyin began following Song Shiyu with leisurely footsteps.
Her boots produced a ‘tak tak tak’ rhythm against the tiles. It sounded like a bell being rung by a monk on the path to redemption.