Tipping

Xi Ai looked at her, tied her hair up without a hair tie and casually draped it over her right shoulder, and said in a tone that was half genuine and half fake, "Even young ladies can be thrown out by their parents to fend for themselves if they don't like them."

Chu Yiqi didn't believe it. She looked Xi Ai up and down and noticed that her interaction with the boss didn't seem like it was her first time there.

It's rare for me to want to say something but I can't find a way to say it, it's frustrating.

It was quite late when we finished eating and went back, so we walked slowly, as if taking a stroll.

Xi Ai was playing a match-3 game on her phone. Chu Yiqi took a few steps and realized no one was around. He turned around and saw that she was indeed playing on her phone.

Okay, you trust me enough not to lead you astray.

After thinking for a moment, Chu Yiqi also took out his phone and played with a one-stroke drawing game.

Xi Ai noticed that Chu Yiqi was gradually walking alongside her, but she didn't pay any attention, thinking that it was just them playing on their phones, and it wouldn't matter.

I just finished thinking about it. Maybe it's because the young lady always argues with people too much that karma has suddenly come back to bite her.

She missed a step and, despite wearing flat shoes, twisted her ankle and fell to the ground—even if the young lady fell, she couldn't drop her phone.

Xi Ai gripped her phone tightly, not even thinking to pull Chu along to smash it together. But there was no need for that now.

The next moment, Xi Ai saw the person next to her lift their foot and step into the ditch as well.

"No, why is there a ditch here?" Chu Yiqi didn't laugh at Xi Ai's insistence on holding onto her phone, because she instinctively gripped her phone tightly as well...

Xi Ai sat on the ground, rubbing her ankle, and said, "In this old town area, shall we dig up some water pipes?"

She paused, then her tone immediately changed, becoming somewhat angry: "No, who knows about it!"

The two of them, supporting each other, limped to the main road and waited for a long time before they could finally go home.

-

Chu Yiqi looked at Xi Ai with an expression that said, "Then you should think that way." Xi Ai was reminded of this look and suddenly remembered that she had thought the same way last time, at least there was someone to watch where they were going.

Then Chu Yiqi started playing on her phone. She still wouldn't give up, always thinking, "Oh, it's okay."

Xi Ai quickly posted a video and put her phone away.

"If you're going to leave, then leave; if you don't want to look, then don't look."

After they went back and discussed the schedule for the group variety show's live broadcast and some other things they wanted and confirmed, they went to sleep.

Su Luo spoke with righteous indignation: "Don't think I don't know, especially you, Nie Chuiying, what time were you up yesterday reading novels and writing songs?"

Nie Chuiying lowered her head and whispered, "Uh, three o'clock."

Xi Ai slowly raised her hand, looking quite well-behaved, but what she said was anything but pleasing: "I'm reporting her. She called me at four o'clock to ask if the CP she was shipping was real or not. And Yu Nianxi, she started watching videos at 2:30 in the morning and liked my post at 3:20."

Chu Yiqi stared at her, remained silent for a moment, and then calmly asked, "How did you know?"

Xi Ai choked on her breath, held it in for a long time, and then said confidently, "I am, I am watching a drama."

Xi Ai certainly couldn't say that she watched your supertopic and thought the concert videos weren't as good as the ones she recorded last time, and then watched some of her own recordings, for over an hour. Then she went to our CP supertopic and saw them discussing whether you'd be coming to the group variety show, saying she'd watch some of the last group variety show to help her fall asleep, but it didn't work...

How can this not be considered watching a TV series? It has characters and a plot.

The group had been feeling down, but when they heard Chu Yiqi's question that had also made Xi Ai feel down, they suddenly became happy.

Indeed, there is always someone to subdue someone else; the wicked will always be dealt with by the wicked!

Pshaw! Qiqi isn't a bad person at all; she's clearly the best teammate.

Su Luo was speechless for a moment, then gave the four of them an order: "Go to sleep! No sleeping with dark circles under your eyes tomorrow. Leave your phones charging in the living room!"

"oh."

Xi Ai woke up early in the morning—although she had stayed up late the day before yesterday, she had also gotten up very late yesterday.

She got up but didn't bother anyone else. Instead, she went downstairs to send a message to an old man who gets up at seven o'clock sharp.

The old man initially didn't want to reply because Xi Ai had sent a bunch of emojis, but after a while, seeing that she seemed determined not to stop replying, he decided to take a moment to reply.

So the next moment, Xi Ai finally received the news she had hoped for—

A meme of "nothing to do, court adjourns" is accompanied by a brief "imperial edict": I am suspending court for a month, and no messages are allowed to be sent first thing in the morning.

Xi Ai looked at it, smiled slightly, and the next second she saw Su Luojian's message.

[Where is everyone else? Are you the only one up?]

Xi Ai had just started laughing when she suddenly frowned, pressed the voice button while making oatmeal, and said, "Wait, we didn't install surveillance cameras, did we?"

Su Luojian was silent for a moment, then sent a message: "Uh, I forgot to mention, this time I want to let you guys improvise, so you won't feel uncomfortable if someone's around. This space is yours, the camera in front of you. He Yuan is going to get something."

Xi Ai's expression remained unchanged; all her emotions were frozen on her face as she silently switched interfaces to watch the live stream.

Luckily, I washed up as soon as I got up and even put on some light makeup, instead of sitting down in my pajamas with a resentful look on my face...

There weren't many people around, so Xi Ai managed to find some of the comments from earlier.

[Q: Who is our Xiao Ai (AI assistant) chatting with?]

[She just laughed, didn't she?]

[Let me ask you this: Why are you so confrontational with everyone and everything about us?]

Xi Ai stared at the colorful bullet comment that clearly had been paid for and read it aloud again, then turned the tables and said, "No, what about me? Don't you guys have any idea how you've treated me?"

Xi Ai didn't stop and read the next sentence: "Was it Sister Luo who said that? Impossible. Sister Luo is beautiful and kind-hearted. Most importantly, I am sensible and obedient. Sister Luo would never do that. She just makes things up every day."

Xi Ai had just exchanged a few words with them when she heard the door open. The next moment, Chu Yiqi, who had just opened the door, heard Xi Ai's complaint: "What kind of ears do you have? You heard this?"

Chu Yiqi suddenly realized that there were only two possibilities for Xi Ai to talk about others like this: one was her past relationship with him, and the other was her relationship with some fans.

She looked at Xi Ai as if asking a question, and Xi Ai nodded with a very serious expression.

Chu Yiqi turned and left without hesitation, closing the door behind her. Normally, even a simple gift like foundation and lipstick would have been the highest level of courtesy she could offer her teammate, but with the live stream on…

So what does it matter?

Chu Yiqi thought about it and still felt that there was no problem with posting it this way, so Xi Ai quickly received the message: ? You started a live stream?

Chu Yiqi quickly received a reply from Xi Ai: I am the victim, withdraw your slander.

Chu Yiqi: "..."

When Chu Yiqi came out of the room again, the others were all staring at her—except for Yu Nianxi, who hadn't come out yet.

"Who... are you going to kill?" Shi Yunshan almost walked with her hands and feet in unison—she didn't know if it was because Nie Chuiying's room was behind her and her own room was on the second floor, or because she was shocked by the fact that Chu Yiqi had actually combed her hair.

Chu Yiqi hesitated whether to keep it from them, but the next moment she banished the thought from her mind.

Chu Yiqi's appearance in the living room was delayed by another five minutes.

Xi Ai looked up, clearly shocked. She looked at Chu Yiqi and said, "Do you know that what I told them was that you were going to go back to sleep?"

Chu Yiqi stared at her, his face full of black lines: "Are you crazy or am I crazy? Why don't you go?"

At this point, no one except Xi Ai was looking at the comments, otherwise you would have seen the CP fans who had been lying in wait for a long time finally coming out.

[The familiar aroma of food]

[Sure enough, this bickering is so addictive!]

[Those who came before, do you remember they were like this at the beginning? And then, after a while, things changed?]

Xi Ai glanced at it and thought to herself, "Your real partner and I are avoiding each other, so why are you still shipping us?"

After a brief silence, they prepared to counterattack.

[My favorite ship is the best!]

[The host can't use a word like "best," right?]

Xi Ai blinked innocently; this time, she was truly innocent.

Chu Yiqi didn't take the bait. He picked up his phone and suddenly realized that Xi Ai wasn't crazy; she had seriously conspired with him to tell the whole story.

A few minutes ago, Xi Ai said: [You can come out later. You're just spouting nonsense. Say you're going to sleep.]

Chu Yiqi's face went blank for a moment. Xi Ai stood up and relayed Su Luojian's meaning while looking at Chu Yiqi's expression. She immediately looked at her with a hint of provocation, as if to say, "See? You still wronged me."

Chu Yiqi coughed lightly and replied with a message: Didn't see it.

Xi Ai looked at her phone: ...?

Oh, I see.

Xi Ai put down her phone.

Meng Yike checked her phone and saw new comments.

Are you looking at your phones to secretly criticize me behind our backs?

Be confident, yes.

Meng Yike: ...No!

Nie Chuiying read the comments: "Why isn't the youngest getting up yet? Youngest... Hey, maybe we shouldn't tell the youngest, it'll just feel more real."

Xi Ai silently looked up: "Are you trying to put me down by betraying you, aren't you?"

Nie Chuiying was completely innocent, but Chu Yiqi had to chime in: "Then don't change your clothes, it won't look real anymore."

After Chu Yiqi finished speaking, he suddenly felt like he was supporting Xi Ai, so he quietly shrank back and stopped talking, even sitting a little further away from Xi Ai.

"To be honest, your pajamas are really nice. Yesterday it was you..."

Nie Chuiying wanted to cover Xi Ai's mouth after hearing half of what she said, but because she was sitting on the ground, she couldn't get up immediately.

Meng Yike quickly tried to mediate: "Why don't you two stop making fun of each other?"

Shi Yunshan: "Quickly wake up the youngest child, don't tell her anything else."

Xi Ai waited until Chu Yiqi sat down before choosing the seat opposite her without hesitation. Upon hearing this, she switched screens and messaged Chu Yiqi: "[Am I still the best to you?]"

Chu Yiqi looked up at her, nodded, and quietly raised his hand to give her a thumbs up.

[Hey you two, you're plotting behind everyone's back again!]

[Haha, watching Qiqi, I suddenly got confused, so cute~]

[Xi Ai, stop laughing. I really can't hold my head up in front of their CP fans!]

Xi Ai: "Just laugh!"

He Yuan returned after sitting for a while, slightly surprised: "You guys are here so early?"

"Our daily routine has always been this regular."

"Tch." He Yuan opened the door again to leave, "Sister Su left a small speaker to remind everyone of the process, so you'll have to cook your own meals."

None of them said anything, they just said goodbye to her, and then stared at the person on the stairs with ill intent.

Xi Ai quickly messaged Chu Yiqi: [Go and pull her out?]

Xi Ai left without hesitation, but hesitated for a moment when passing Chu Yiqi, and did not stop her.

Chu Yiqi looked at the message but ultimately didn't go.

On the other side, Shi Yunshan quickly turned around and adjusted the camera position, pointing it at the corner where Yu Nianxi would appear.

The screen rotated, and the comments flashed rapidly.

[What happened to not touching the camera?]

Aren't you going to watch?

[Screen recording in progress.]

[Can someone explain to me why Xixi looks good on camera even without makeup?]

Xi Ai grabbed Yu Nianxi's clothes. Yu Nianxi looked helplessly at the captain and found that the captain also looked helpless—actually, he was just enjoying the show.

After a while of commotion, Yu Nianxi changed into casual clothes and came out. Meng Yike was about to call out to her when she suddenly heard Su Luojian's voice.

"Long time no see, let's say hello. Let's start with a group photo, and then... Xi Ai is the first one here today, so she'll go first."

Xi Ai: ...? Huh?

Chu Yiqi saw that trouble was about to befall Xi Ai and suddenly wanted to laugh. He glanced at Xi Ai, then held back his laughter, simply raising his hand to support his head and pursing his lips.

Meng Yike said, "Then... look at the camera?"

"One, two, three, cheese?" Shi Yunshan blinked and replied casually.

Xi Ai glanced at the comments one last time, put down her phone, and looked up.

[No, sis, you're as surprising as ever with your words.]

[Do you guys stay up all night memorizing jokes?]

Meng Yike felt utterly helpless, as no one could understand her. It was only then that she realized a certain tragic couple was much better at communicating.

Chu Yiqi and Xi Ai spoke in completely different tones, but their words were perfectly synchronized: "So you shout 'cheese' and we shout 'For 8'?"

Shi Yunshan: "..."