70 Chapter Sixty-Nine
◎“Who exactly is in Beijing?”◎
Yu Jinyang's cooking skills are better than expected.
On the day he moved in, Li Yingqiao watched him busy in the kitchen for a long time. After he finished packing his luggage, he came out and listened to the clattering of pots and pans in the kitchen. With the thought that "no matter how bad the food is, I will finish it all and praise it so much that he will lose his mind," she sat down with a stiff upper lip.
After all, the landlord himself has been busy lately, and he suddenly became quite popular among the old ladies, with them calling him to go dancing at certain times.
They wanted to watch him roll on the floor, not missing a single day, and they even wanted to learn from him. Since breakdancing was limited, they learned shaved ice. This landlord could do everything and was also very patient.
In addition, with the show recording imminent, Yu Jinyang also needs to intensify his breaking training. After teaching the old ladies, he goes home and practices alone until midnight. Occasionally, he also has to deal with You Xiaofan's entanglements. He goes to bed later than Li Yingqiao and gets up earlier than her in the morning. He has indeed been busier than her lately.
Back then, Li Yingqiao hadn't officially moved in yet. Before she got up, he would prepare breakfast and hang it on her doorknob. After she officially moved in, breakfast was upgraded to a buffet, with Chinese and Western dishes to choose from. This landlord's service, even without an English name, was truly impeccable.
Despite being so busy, the landlord would still appear in the kitchen on time and prepare three meals a day for her without fail.
Although he was rather unassuming, his cooking skills surprised Li Yingqiao. She had assumed that the young master had only learned to cook because he was forced to do so during his years of being a stay-at-home dad, and had just picked up a little bit. But she hadn't expected that he seemed to have studied it seriously.
"I started cooking at eight, became a head chef at ten, and made a Manchu Han Imperial Feast for my mother at eleven..." Yu Jinyang didn't eat a bite himself, but focused on answering her questions while leaning back in his chair. This was in line with Li Yingqiao's stereotype of chefs, as she had never seen a restaurant chef eat openly.
Li Yingqiao, of course, didn't believe him. She glanced at him sideways and said, "Yu Jinyang, how come I never realized you were so good at taking advantage of situations?"
He couldn't help but say again, "Well, well, looks like someone finally gets me."
"Smack—" Someone slammed down their chopsticks and refused to eat another bite.
Yu Jinyang stopped making a fuss and remained silent, but his hands kept moving, silently adding food to her bowl: shredded pork with garlic sauce, stir-fried beef with green peppers—he would glance at her, pick up a piece with his chopsticks, glance again, and silently add another piece: ants climbing a tree. Until the bowl in front of her gradually piled up into a trembling little mountain, the vermicelli could no longer hold on, and it looked like it was about to slip off the rim and fall onto the table.
Li Yingqiao couldn't hold back any longer. She lowered her head and slurped the rice noodle into her mouth. Just as the noodle slid into her mouth, she caught a glimpse of someone trying to suppress a laugh. His chest was rising and falling slightly, but he didn't make a sound. However, his shoulders were shaking like a leaf.
She's still the same; she's never been one to let a single grain of rice fall on the table, especially when eating at Liang Mei's house. Her eagle eyes will watch over everyone to make sure they've eaten everything.
"Yu Jinyang!" She glared at him like a ghost with half a rice noodle in her mouth.
"Yes, yes, yes," Yu Jinyang finally raised his hands in surrender, his hand reflexively reaching under her chin to catch the rice noodles that were about to fall off, cupping them in his hand and smiling as he said, "Okay, okay, I was wrong. Eat what's in your bowl first, and give me what you can't finish."
"What's wrong?"
"Tell me, how am I supposed to know if you don't tell me?" Zhong Su felt wronged. They were just a contractual couple, and when she was given a little leeway, she actually acted like she was doing the opposite of what she was told.
Zheng Miaojia grew even more impatient. She immediately sent a message to Li Yingqiao, saying she wanted to take back her comment that Zhong Su's brain was sexy, calling him a complete blockhead. After sending the message, she slapped her phone on her lap: "This account is mine. We're just collaborators. Whether it's making short videos or interacting, it's all for Xiaohuacheng. That was agreed upon from the beginning. How can you just reply to fans' messages like that? And how could you tell Yu Jinyang that we're fake! I said no one could tell anyone about this. You've violated our contract."
"Then why don't you talk to Sun Taihe? He's also a live streamer. You two are so similar that no one can tell if you're real or fake. You're a perfect match. Why are you looking for me?" Zhong Su was getting impatient. No matter what he said, the other person wouldn't listen. "I told you, I didn't reply casually. He was talking nonsense, so I couldn't help but reply."
"Forget it, you wouldn't understand. What I mean is, you can't tell anyone that we're a fake. What if Yu Jinyang betrays you?"
Zhong Su scoffed: "My dad would sell me, but Yu Jinyang wouldn't. We've been through thick and thin together in Chicago."
"What kind of life-or-death friendship is this?"
"You wouldn't understand, it's a man's secret. Anyway, the two of us did something really awesome in Chicago."
"Did you raid a drug den, or catch a spy?" Zheng Miaojia snorted, too lazy to argue with him. "Don't do it again."
Zhong Su found her behavior baffling and called Yu Jinyang that evening to complain, "I really don't understand Zheng Miaojia. She seems to hate me. Why did she want me to be her Publicity Couple? Isn't Sun Taihe a better fit for her? Besides, does Xiaohua City even need this kind of purely commercial traffic-generating strategy anymore? Once your street dance show airs, you'll have tons of female fans. You won't have to worry about traffic anymore. I shouldn't have drunk with her. I drank too much and made promises I don't even remember. Yu Jinyang? Yu Jinyang? Are you listening?"
Yu Jinyang had just finished dance practice, feeling as if every bone in his body had been ripped apart. Wearing an eye mask, he slumped on the living room sofa, too lazy to even move a finger. He heard Zhong Su's accusations on the other end of the phone. The eye mask had slipped down to his neck, but he didn't care. He felt the difference between people was too great. Looking up at the ceiling with a sense of utter despair, he said in a low voice, "I'm listening. I haven't seen you show the slightest reluctance. If you're so unwilling, why didn't you pull away when someone held your hand? Besides, Sawyer, do you even know what time it is?"
Zhong Su glanced at the time and said, "Damn. It's only one o'clock. Don't you usually sleep pretty late? Wait, why are you suddenly calling me by my English name?"
"Someone in my family has to go to work. If I don't sleep, they still need to sleep."
"Who is it? Don't you live alone in Little Art City?"
He remained silent, and after feeding someone well that night, he went to the pier to teach a few kids to breakdance. A group of elderly women also joined in, moving their hands and feet, creating a particularly heartwarming scene.
You Xiaofan was moved by this scene. He said that for this season's variety show, he planned to create a nationwide breaking trend, and several popular celebrities would come to Xiaohua City to lead the way in attracting visitors and taking photos. When Li Yingqiao heard this, she thought it was incredibly professional and had a huge impact! She was overjoyed and now calls him "President You" whenever they meet, keeping a close eye on the project's progress.
Everyone knew this opportunity was hard-won, so one person brought two, two brought four, and more and more people came out in droves. Men, women, old and young, all gathered at the dock around seven or eight o'clock, waiting for Yu Jinyang to come and teach them the unique square dance of Xiaohuacheng.
After he got home, he still had to practice his moves for the competition, so he wouldn't be able to go to bed until around 1 a.m. Li Yingqiao sometimes went to bed very early; she would fall asleep around 8 or 9 p.m. if she had nothing to do. Yu Jinyang said she might be experiencing carbon monoxide poisoning, because she would wake up in the middle of the night feeling dizzy and find herself being carried back to her bedroom.
After his dance practice at night, he was afraid of waking her, so he let Li Yingqiao sleep in his bedroom while he slept in the guest room for the rest of the night. Moreover, recently, there had been a lot of banging and construction going on along the entire Chuanming Street, making his sleep quality much worse than before. Yu Jinyang even had the doors and windows replaced with soundproof aluminum alloy ones, but Li Yingqiao's sleep still didn't seem to be very good. She would often wake up in the middle of the night, either getting up to get water herself or sneaking into the guest room to find him, snuggling into his bed, hugging him, and kissing him before going back to sleep.
Zhong Su could easily guess, and his tone became meaningful: "Little Li?"
“Li Yingqiao, Yingqiao, either is fine, no need for ‘li’,” Yu Jinyang said.
Zhong Su was incredibly annoyed. No matter what he said, the other person would find fault with him. But he couldn't bear to hang up the phone, since no one else would talk to him except Yu Jinyang, mainly because Zheng Miaojia wouldn't let him tell anyone else.
Yu Jinyang comforted Zhong Su until 4 a.m., but Zhong Su broke down several times because Zheng Miaojia's unpredictable attitude was driving him crazy. Yu Jinyang only asked him if he liked Miaojia, but he stubbornly said no, he was just unhappy with her attitude. Yu Jinyang closed his eyes and said mercilessly: "Then you have a problem with your personality. You don't like her but you care about her attitude towards you. Sawyer, you have a serious personality problem."
Unable to withstand Yu Jinyang's occasional sarcastic remarks, the other person finally let him go to sleep. He was too lazy to move, and since it was already dawn, Yu Jinyang put his eye mask back on and went to sleep on the sofa.
This was after living here for several days, and it was a rare occasion when Li Yingqiao was getting ready to get up for work, but the landlord was still asleep and hadn't prepared breakfast for her.
Li Yingqiao went back upstairs to get a blanket and gently covered him with it: "Meow, I'm going to work."
Half-asleep, Yu Jinyang softly hummed in agreement, then instinctively pulled her close and kissed her before letting her go.
Li Yingqiao was not in a hurry to leave.
Yesterday, You Xiaofan told her about that competition while they were sightseeing. After that competition, Yu Jinyang hasn't participated in any competitions since. It's not that he's afraid of losing, nor is he worried about being talked about. Rather, it's because the original sponsor of that competition never respected any of the breaking contestants. They demanded that the male contestants display sexuality, and even more so, that the female contestants wear sexy clothes and participate in a sexy group dance extra round.
The organizers didn't stop it; they were the big sponsors. So all the female contestants protested, and the sponsor threatened to disqualify all B-girls from the competition if they didn't comply.
This crossed everyone's line. This dance style, which originated in the slums and is popular on the streets, is a cultural dance style that inherently flows with resistance and aims to break down stereotypical gender impressions. Yet, it actually restricts the gender of participants. So Yu Jinyang was the first to tear up his competition certificate and left his own team uniform for other female contestants.
Young people get excited once someone starts something, and one after another b-boys announced their withdrawal from the competition. After things got out of hand, the organizers hurriedly went to negotiate with the title sponsor. Of course, the title sponsor withdrew its investment, but when it left, it came back to ask who the b-boy who was.
People hate no one but him. That's why his perfect score was criticized later. Aren't there other guaranteed spots in so many commercial competitions? Why did his incident cause such a big stir? So he himself knew what he might face in this competition, but he still insisted on participating. You Xiaofan didn't know why at first, but he found out after arriving at Xiaohua City.
He remarked with emotion: "Xiaohua City is like a paradise. If more people could know about it, then all his efforts would be worthwhile. It's just that breaking is too niche, so niche that many, many talented B-girls don't receive the respect they deserve. We are working hard to spread the spirit of this dance form. Breaking isn't just about being tough or cool; it's about equality in all its spiritual meanings, breaking down conventional norms."
You Xiaofan even asked her at the time, "By the way, are you studying in Beijing?"
Li Yingqiao asked him why he asked that.
He said, "Don't you know Yu Jinyang's competition name? B-boys all have a foreign name when they participate. He named himself a train, a high-speed train from Beijing to Shanghai, D321. It confused me. I never knew who was in Beijing."
Li Yingqiao still chuckled when she thought of You Xiaofan's tone. She tugged at his ear and whispered, "Is 321 what you mean? B-boyD321? What an awful name, Yu Jinyang. Couldn't you have chosen a more handsome one?"
He was fast asleep, unresponsive, unaware, and harmless.
Never mind, go to sleep, D321, I will protect you.
She sat on the floor watching him sleep for a while, then finally leaned down and kissed his forehead, covered him with a blanket, and quietly closed the door before going to work.
[Author's Note]
Who in Beijing is even here?! (Sorry I'm so late, I'm kneeling here in despair)
See you the day after tomorrow! 300 red envelopes! I won't be updating daily for now because we're in the final stages. There's still some climax and exciting content to write, and it's still a long way from being finished. But my energy and immunity are low, and I've started getting eczema all over my body. It's incredibly itchy and painful. I'll try updating every other day for now. I don't want to rush the ending, so I need more time and patience. Please understand.
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