Chapter 45 "Xiaoyi, that outfit you wore in the video..."
Four years after graduating from high school, Nan Zhiyi finally understands how her classmates felt when they were caught dating by their parents.
Ms. Nan Kui sat gracefully in the living room on the velvet sofa that You Xin had carefully selected and insisted on bringing home. You Xin produced a cup of brewed tea from who-knows-where, and Nan Zhiyi quickly handed it to him.
The three exchanged pleasantries for a few minutes, mostly about trivial matters such as "Xiao You has grown so tall now" and "How's work going lately?"
After a while, You Xin considerately said that he had some things to do and left the mother and son alone.
As soon as he returned to his workspace, Nan Kui immediately wiped the smile off his face.
She waved to Nan Zhiyi, signaling him to come to her.
Nan Zhiyi took a deep breath, feeling as guilty as a primary school student who had done something wrong and was waiting for a scolding from their parents.
"What? It's back together?" When he stood in front of her, Nan Kui raised her chin at him, and her words were sure to be shocking.
"..." Nan Zhiyi was so embarrassed she wanted to crawl into a hole. "Mom, don't talk nonsense. She's single, okay? We're... friends now."
Nan Kui narrowed her eyes, looked her son up and down, and after a long while, slowly uttered three words: "I don't think so."
Nan Zhiyi felt that even if she jumped into the Yangtze River now, it would be difficult to dispel the other party's suspicions about her.
His mother is a woman who is very focused on her own life; in other words, she knows nothing about the messy online "e-sports circle," "shipping," "selling bromance," and "business."
For her, two people who had been together and then separated are now moving back in together, which is like rekindling old love, like being newlyweds, and like being better off without actually being together.
Nan Zhiyi racked her brains and tried her best to tell the story in language she could understand: "Her fans and the other party's fans were fighting online, the other party was tricked by the club and had no choice but to fight to the death, she was betrayed by her colleague, now the two of them desperately need to show a good relationship to resist external threats together, and they will separate again after this storm passes."
As Nan Kui listened, she picked up her teacup and slowly took a sip.
"You mean, someone is bullying you?" she finally asked.
Nan Zhiyi felt that she had completely missed the point: "Not entirely."
"Was Qiu Cheng involved too? Wasn't he one of the guys in your group who played games?" Nan Kui asked again, her sharpness astonishing. "Didn't you used to live with him? You suddenly moved out without a word."
Nan Zhiyi: "Everything has been explained clearly."
Upon hearing this, Nan Kui sneered and began rummaging through her bag: "I'm afraid I'll have to have a word with Sister Zhao about this..."
Seeing that she was about to take out her phone to send a WeChat message to Qiu Cheng's mother to complain, Nan Zhiyi quickly stopped her: "No, really, there's no need. I've already taken care of it... The private matters have been cleared up, and the public matters can be handled by public relations! There's no need for you to send any more WeChat messages!"
Nan Kui paused in her movements.
After a moment, she sighed, stood up, and stroked his hair: "My son has really grown up. He looks like a big star now, with a public relations team and all that."
The things that people in the industry usually said to mock him and Yux sounded much better coming from her. Nan Zhiyi felt a little embarrassed listening to her: "...Those are from the company, not mine."
“You’re twenty-two this year, and I didn’t know what gift to give you,” Nan Kui said, pulling a red jewelry pouch from her bag and emptying it into a jade pendant. “Here, this is something your mother got for you. It’s a talisman, blessed by a master, to ward off backstabbers. I even went to Longhua Temple to get incense for you yesterday; everyone says it’s effective for career advancement…”
As she chattered on, she hung the amulet around Nan Zhiyi's neck, looked it over from left to right, and was very satisfied. She patted his shoulder and said, "Alright, now no one will dare to trip you up behind your back."
“…………” Nan Zhiyi was both amused and exasperated, but still said, “Thank you, Mom.”
"You have a competition today, right? I won't bother you any longer, I just came to check on you." Nan Kui put away her jewelry bag, grabbed the bag on the sofa and tucked it under her arm. "Take care, I'll hold up a sign to cheer you on at the event."
She's even learned how to hold up a support sign. Nan Zhiyi followed her to the door: "I'll see you out."
"No need, it's just a short walk."
The two of them descended the steps, one after the other. After taking a couple of steps in the front yard, Nan Kui seemed to remember something and stopped.
She turned around and suddenly said, "You treat Xiaoyou as a friend, but does Xiaoyou treat you as a friend?"
Nan Zhiyi was taken aback: "I guess so... I don't think he dislikes me that much."
"..." Nan Kui glared at him with exasperation. "Who asked you that? I was asking if he still likes you."
Nan Zhiyi was so angry at her words that her whole body seemed to stand on end: "Mom! Please stop talking nonsense!!!"
"You've been single for so many years, so stop worrying about our young people's love lives..." Now he just wants to get rid of this big shot as soon as possible.
"Oh, what's this? Starting to give advice on your mother's love life." Nan Kui raised her eyebrows. "I've been single for many years, it's not like I've never seen a man before—I'm leaving now, play well this afternoon, and if I win the championship tonight I'll treat you to something delicious."
Nan Zhiyi forced a fake smile: "Bye-bye, Mom."
He saw his mother off and was about to breathe a sigh of relief when he turned around and was almost startled and took a step back.
—You Xin had already silently appeared on the porch, arms crossed, leaning against a pillar, staring intently at him.
Seeing him turn around, she said, "I came to see Auntie off, I didn't mean to eavesdrop on your conversation."
This is like saying: I heard everything you said, now you'd better think of a way to explain it to me.
"..." Just when she finished dealing with one, another one came along. Nan Zhiyi was completely overwhelmed. "My mom is old and likes to talk nonsense. Don't listen to her nonsense!! She, she..."
He couldn't come up with a clear answer for a while, but then You Xin spoke up: "Auntie didn't say anything wrong."
Nan Zhiyi was taken aback.
“What I said in the car that day was all from the bottom of my heart,” You Xin continued. “You may have some misunderstanding about me—I have never been angry with you, much less disliked you.”
"And also, I..."
Nan Zhiyi stood there, stunned, but no further explanation came for a long time.
“It’s getting late,” You Xin suddenly said. He straightened up and glanced at the time on his phone. “I need to pack the things I need this afternoon.”
He turned and walked into the house. The conversation abruptly ended.
After a while, Nan Zhiyi followed him into the room. He didn't ask any more questions, but a knot formed in his heart: If that's the case, if there was never any "resentment" or "dislike" as I imagined, why haven't you said a single word to me all these years?
-
"—Brother You, you mean your brother is coming to watch our match later?"
In the afternoon, on the way to the venue in the nanny van, Nan Zhiyi, who had been lost in thought the whole way, suddenly snapped back to reality when she heard Xiaoyu's question.
"Yes. He happened to be on a business trip today, so he just stopped by to visit," You Xin said.
Little Fish: "This is the first time I've known you have an older brother... Brother You, you've never mentioned him much."
"I'm not very familiar with them."
"What does your brother do for a living?" Xiaoyu had been following Yux for many years and had only heard that his family was well-off, but no one had ever found out what his family did. At this moment, her curiosity was overflowing.
"Him? He does some business."
The word "as expected" popped into Xiaoyu's mind: "Then he must be about as handsome as you, Brother You. Does he also have the surname You?"
"What kind of question is this?" Nan Zhiyi couldn't help but mutter to herself.
"Hmm, You Yan. The 'Yan' in inkstone." You Xin seemed to have figured out what the other person really wanted to ask. "You can search it online."
Xiaoyu immediately took out his phone. A moment later, after finding something, he let out an undisguised exclamation.
Nan Zhiyi first heard this name from You Xin many years ago. His first reaction was that the name sounded like a domineering CEO, like a business tycoon in a novel, always dressed in a suit and wielding immense power. At the time, he told You Xin about this thought, and after listening, You Xin found him a video titled "Fuguang Group's Production Line Upgrade Completed, Vice President You Yan Appears to Inspect."
He opened the video and pointed to a man wearing a bright red helmet and a yellow reflective vest, who already had a slight beer belly, and said, "This is my brother."
Nan Zhiyi: "…………"
Following his gaze, You Xin took a second look at his elder brother.
"He seems to have gained a bit of weight. Too many social engagements," he commented. "He didn't look like this when I was a child."
At that time, Nan Zhiyi gleaned from this that the relationship between You Xin and his elder brother was still quite harmonious. After all, if the person who grew a beer belly was You Qing, he suspected that the other party could buy the rights to play You Qing's ugly photos on the LED screens of major shopping malls in a loop to celebrate.
As the only child in her family, Nan Zhiyi received all of her mother's love from a young age, making it hard for her to imagine the complex relationships of open and covert struggles among the younger generation in the other family.
The car dropped them off in the ground-level parking lot. Today was the final, and the atmosphere at the scene was much more lively than before. As soon as Nan Zhiyi got out of the car, she saw a huge crowd gathered on both sides of the passageway leading to the venue outside the parking lot, and several security guards were maintaining order at the scene.
Upon catching a glimpse of them, a scream erupted from the crowd.
Nan Zhiyi thought for a moment. Today was his birthday, and many fans must have traveled a long way to see him. So he said, "You guys go in first, I'll chat with them for a bit."
Xiaoyu and Song Meng both nodded in agreement, but You Xin said, "I'll go with you."
Nan Zhiyi: "..." Is she really not afraid of a riot breaking out on the spot?
The four of them carried their peripheral bags and walked into the venue. On the way, Nan Zhiyi, relying on his experience at many comic conventions, tried to distinguish which group of people were his own fans. He spotted a big fan he had seen many times before. The person was holding up his own support banner, and the group of people gathered next to him were all wearing beige accessories. He immediately walked over there.
Unexpectedly, You Xin followed him over, so he had no choice but to give him a subtle nudge and gesture with his eyes for him to go to the other side where there was a large pile of blue support items.
These two groups of fans are separated by a clear divide, practically wearing "we'll keep to ourselves" written all over their faces; they're clearly each other's dedicated fans.
Unexpectedly, You Xin raised his chin and said, "I told you I'd follow you."
"..." Nan Zhiyi had no choice but to pretend that he didn't have this little tail following him and walked straight to his own group of people. His fans saw this and burst into a small cheer, reaching out to give him a high five.
"Happy birthday!!"
Good luck in the game!!!
"Little Yi's mom loves you!!!"
Nan Zhiyi smiled and accepted the blessings one by one. At this moment, a girl in front of him shouted, "Xiaoyi, is that dress you wore in the video really from Yux?"
A moment of silence fell over the crowd, followed by a burst of laughter. The girl who had asked the question was doubled over with laughter.
Nan Zhiyi was taken aback: "Huh?"
"Look... this is it." At this moment, another person held up a phone screen and placed it in front of him.
Nan Zhiyi looked closely and saw that it was a screenshot of a short video he had taken this morning while sitting on the sofa. There was a big red circle next to his face in the picture, and inside was a jacket that You Xin had draped over the back of the sofa.
Nan Zhiyi: "…………"
He didn't notice this at all... How could anyone possibly notice that?! Are these people using microscopes with supernatural abilities?!
"Uh... this." He stammered. If he said yes? How could he explain that Yux's clothes were in his house so early in the morning? If he said no? Then it would mean they both had matching outfits?
Before he could come up with a perfect solution, a voice suddenly came from behind him: "It's mine."
As You Xin spoke, she put her arm around his waist from behind and gently pulled him back to keep him away from the overly excited fans: "We were discussing tactics until too late yesterday, so I left it there."
The fans were taken aback, then belatedly caught the key words in his words and screamed again.
Nan Zhiyi noticed that the big fan he knew was now holding her face tightly, her lips twitching, looking like she wanted to burst out laughing but didn't dare to.
"..."
Now he really suspected that You Xin had attended a "bromance training course" somewhere, as he could easily charm his fans with just a few words.
Shouldn't these be his die-hard fans who only like him?!
Didn't we have a life-or-death fight the last time we met?
The "solo fans" are all holding up their phones to film them right now. This video will probably be circulating all over social media in a minute. Then the marketing accounts will add captions like "The Emperor's New Tactics" or "Luminous BP Notebook". I can't imagine how crazy people will go online.
“Let’s go.” You Xin glanced at their camera, neither agreeing nor disagreeing, then turned to him and said, “They’re still waiting for us.”
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