Zhou Che guiltily rubbed his nose.
He said in a small voice,
"Well... that time when you weren't around, I accidentally let it slip during a chat."
"I said all your ex-girlfriends were at the level of campus belles."
"And then Sister Wanwan seemed to lose a bit of confidence."
Hearing this, Yaochuan on the other end of the phone chuckled.
His tone was certain as he stated,
"That's not insecurity."
"Wanwan has sent me her photos. She's very beautiful."
"Even more beautiful than my previous ex-girlfriends. She's just afraid to meet me in person."
"Tell me, have I not given her enough sense of security?"
Zhou Che listened and laughed at him mercilessly:
"Absolutely! Bro, who told you to always be so sarcastic when you talk."
Yaochuan immediately retorted, "My sarcasm is for you guys, not for Wanwan."
Zhou Che didn't understand either.
After all, he was a complete novice who had never even been in a relationship.
How would he know the reason?
Thinking of this, he couldn't help but ask,
"Bro, why hasn't my favorite streamer accepted my friend request yet?"
He chattered on, recounting everything that happened during the livestream today.
Yaochuan was equally merciless in his retort:
"You still can't see through this?"
"Your favorite streamer's tactics are a bit high-level, playing hard to get!"
"If you ask me... this kind of woman is too calculating. You can't handle her, be careful."
Zhou Che was listening seriously at first, but by the last few sentences, he couldn't sit still anymore.
He abruptly stood up.
And started loudly venting into the phone.
"She's different!!!"
"You don't know our Yueyue, you can't say that about her."
"...Yueyue?" Yaochuan was taken aback.
Because his in-game romance partner, Full Moon Wanwan, also had the character 'Yue' (moon) in her name.
It's just that they usually liked to call her Wanwan.
Zhou Che also realized the names were somewhat similar.
He explained,
"My favorite streamer is a singing streamer. Her name is Yi Liuyue. How about it, nice name, right?"
His tone carried undisguised pride.
Yaochuan snorted coldly.
He judged,
"Wanwan's name, Full Moon Wanwan, is still nicer."
"My streamer's name is nicer!"
With that, the two of them, failing to agree, started arguing like elementary school kids.
For this pair of good brothers, it was already a common occurrence.
By the end of the argument,
both of them were tired.
Yaochuan said with a sense of shared misfortune, "We're both pretty pathetic."
"Yeah." Zhou Che nodded.
Suddenly, a ding-dong sound rang out.
It was the sound of a friend verification being accepted.
His voice was filled with unconcealable excitement as he started howling, "Awooo!"
"What are you howling about?!" Yaochuan complained.
"My favorite streamer accepted my friend request~ Hahaha, I'm going to chat with her, goodbye now~"
Zhou Che, being utterly the friend-ditching type when romance was involved, hung up the phone.
Yi Liuyue's profile picture was a very cute little kitten.
Zhou Che clicked into the chat box, his heart thumping wildly. Nervously, he placed his fingers over the input key.
He was agonizing over what would be a natural opening line.
A message popped up in the box.
Yi Liuyue: "Young Master Ye, sorry~ After the stream ended, I went to remove my makeup and take a shower first. I just got back."
Zhou Che: "It's fine, it's fine."
After sending it, he found himself at a loss for words.
No one had ever taught him how to chat with a girl he had a crush on.
Shouldn't he be the one to initiate a topic?
He fell into agonizing again.
Yi Liuyue: "What kind of songs do you like to hear, Young Master Ye? You can send them to me. I'll try to sing them for you during tomorrow's stream."
She also sent a cute emoticon of a kitten tilting its head.
Zhou Che, holding his phone, fell backwards onto his bed like a boy freshly fallen in love, howling "awooo" like a monkey.
Fortunately, he lived in a villa, and the bedroom was large.
Otherwise, the neighbors would definitely complain.
What songs did he like to hear?
Anything his favorite streamer sang, he would like.
No, can't be that eager.
A guy needs to be reserved.
Zhou Che nodded to himself and opened a music app to look for his recently liked playlists.
To be honest, he was kind of a simple guy.
He didn't have any specific favorite singers, nor any specific favorite songs.
He was the type who would just heart a song if it sounded good.
But if Yi Liuyue was going to sing for him,
then he definitely had to pick a good one.
It couldn't be too difficult!
And the lyrics couldn't be too lowbrow either.
That would make his taste seem bad.
So, he adopted the serious attitude he used for reviewing exam questions back in the day, and focused intently on selecting from the music library.
Finally, he settled on a song.
In the dialog box, he typed and deleted, typed and deleted, before finally sending it.
"Can you sing 'As Wished'?"
Yi Liuyue replied quickly:
"I can. I like that song too."
"Then see you in the stream tomorrow, Young Master Ye. I'm going to sleep now, goodnight."
Zhou Che replied with a silly "hehe" and a goodnight too.
Then he hugged his blanket and rolled around on the bed.
The very picture of a big fool lost in a secret crush.
...
Jiang Liuyue got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, then went to the kitchen to pour a glass of water.
The living room lights were off. Suddenly, she glimpsed a shadow sitting on the sofa, lost in thought.
At first, she was startled.
When she got closer, she realized it was Feng Xiaoman.
She couldn't help but ask in surprise,
"Xiaoman, why aren't you asleep so late?"
Feng Xiaoman was holding her phone. The screen's faint glow illuminated her face, revealing dark circles under her eyes.
She looked up, her tone listless:
"Liuyue, I can't sleep."
"What's wrong?" Seeing this, Jiang Liuyue put down her water glass and also sat on the sofa.
Feng Xiaoman let out a very dejected sigh.
She grabbed her hair and let out a muffled groan, then slowly spoke:
"I rejected Yaochuan's invitation to meet. He seemed really disappointed."
"When we were gaming tonight, I was a bit distracted when talking to him."
"He said he was distracted because he was busy with work, but I know that's not it. It's because I refused to meet him for the third time."
"But... I'm scared to meet him."
Jiang Liuyue pursed her lips and nodded very seriously, saying,
"Why? Are you afraid he only likes your soul, not your appearance?"
Feng Xiaoman stayed silent.
It seemed like a tacit admission.
Jiang Liuyue curled her lips slightly and offered a feasible suggestion.
"How about this: maybe you could send him a casual life photo of yourself first? Perhaps he'll be able to accept it?"
Feng Xiaoman looked as if she'd been punched, instantly stunned.
The next moment, a wave of guilt surged in her heart.
Right!
Liuyue probably didn't know that she had used her photos as her own to send to Yaochuan.
She still thought her online romance was one where they hadn't exchanged photos!
Feng Xiaoman felt somewhat awkward, not knowing how to respond.
Jiang Liuyue, thinking she was just conflicted, gently comforted her again:
"Alright, it's okay. After all, you haven't been in this online relationship for very long. The feelings aren't stable yet."
Hearing this, Feng Xiaoman pouted.
She didn't quite agree.
She refuted in a small voice:
"Even though we've only been in-game partners for less than three months, we'd already known each other in the game for over half a year before that. I understand Yaochuan very well."
