CH 62

On that Friday night, the live streaming of Yu Zhou and Xiang Wan was scheduled for nine o’clock on the Rabbit Tail app, a software designed specifically for live voice streaming.

After applying for an account, they used Yu Zhou’s ID card for real-name authentication before releasing a Weibo announcement.

As it was Xiang Wan’s first live streaming, her fans naturally had high expectations. The comments flooded in with two or three hundred in just a few seconds. Yu Zhou finally noticed that Xiang Wan’s fans had been very active lately, apparently because they had been mentally tortured as Xiang Wan’s fans[1].

However, the total number of fans was still not very high, just over thirty thousand.

At nine o’clock in the evening, they opened the live streaming app on time. As soon as they opened it, about ten IDs popped up and they greeted them warmly: “Good evening.”

Xiang Wan cleared her throat: “Good evening.”

Her voice was sweet, pleasant and very refreshing.

After speaking, she shrugged and smiled awkwardly, wrinkling her nose at Yu Zhou.

How cute she was! She was nervous when interacting with fans in real-time for the first time. Since the fans couldn’t see her appearance, she could show her mental activities with her facial expressions.

It turned out that she often pretends to be an adult but actually she might be sticking out her tongue in her heart.

Yu Zhou laughed at her.

When the fans heard her voice, they were all excited while sending comments on the screen with the words “Wanwan”, “Wanwan”.

“Has Wanwan eaten?”

“Is Wanwan at home now?”

“What did Wanwan do today? Did you go out to play?”

Xiang Wan picked a few questions and answered, “I’m with Chaichai.” Her voice was still a bit soft as her face was pink.

“Chaichai? Is that the author?” Someone asked.

“Yes,” Xiang Wan said.

She looked at Yu Zhou again and Yu Zhou noticed that her ears had turned red again.

This was so funny. So Xiang Wan, who was always quick-witted, was actually subdued by her “mom fans”.

However, Ms. Zhao could be considered Xiang Wan’s first “mom fan”, but Xiang Wan was quite adept at dealing with her.

Did she only get nervous about mom fans online or those who never met before?

In any case, Xiang Wan cued her, so Yu Zhou sat up straight: “Ah hahaha, hello everyone.”

Ah hahaha hahaha, she laughed again in her heart. The two of them sat side by side on the sofa, acting like an official announcement.

Xiang Wan looked at her again as her ears felt like they were bleeding.

“What should I say?” Xiang Wan asked her with a whispering tone.

“I don’t know,” Yu Zhou replied in the same tone.

Whenever they got nervous, they laughed so that their faces filled with laughter.

Yu Zhou suddenly felt her nose was blocked so she wanted to pick her nose, but she felt it was indecent. She sniffled a few times uncomfortably.

At this time, someone asked a question that could be answered on the public chat screen: “Does Wanwan have a nickname? Do you like us to call you Wanwan?”

After thinking for a moment, Xiang Wan answered: “I do have a nickname, it’s called A-Xi.”

“A-Xi? Xiang A-Xi?” The chat was full of questions, wondering if it was “Xi” or “Xi”.

Xiang Wan quickly added, “It’s the ‘Xi’ from ‘sunset’.[2]“

Then someone asked, “Why is there an ‘A’ in the middle?”

Of course, that’s obvious. Yu Zhou couldn’t help but say, “If there wasn’t the ‘A’ in the middle, wouldn’t it be ‘Xiang Xi’? It sounds like pointing in a certain direction.[3]“

“Hahaha, Chaichai is so funny.”

Fans all laughed on the screen.

After hearing that, Yu Zhou thought she was pretty humorous too and chuckled twice with happiness.

Once she was happy, she wasn’t so nervous anymore and then chatted with the chat screen in a casual manner.

After chatting for a while, she felt it was time to get to the point, so she whispered to Xiang Wan, “Wanwan, do you still have the peaches you bought last time? I’ll go and get two.”

“Yes, they’re still in the fridge. Take them out and peel them.” Xiang Wan replied.

“Oh.” Yu Zhou walked to the kitchen and pretended to open the fridge, took out the peaches and sat on the sofa peeling them while reading the chat.

With the sound of the peeling, the chat screen slid by with random comments. Finally, someone asked, “Is Wanwan at Chaichai’s house?”

Oh! Finally! Here you are!

Yu Zhou was excited but pretended to casually repeat the question, “Is Wanwan at Chaichai’s house?”

“Oh yeah, her lease expired and she hasn’t found a new place so she’s been staying with me recently.”

“Right.” Xiang Wan said.

“Oh? Then during the last ‘Shrine’ FT, did we hear Wanwan’s voice?”

A netizen with the ID “Chang Wan Marry at Once, I Will Sit at the Kids’ Table”[4] asked.

That person’s intention can be condemned, why would you use that ID to ask that question? Yu Zhou gritted her teeth and memorized her ID, then sweetly smiled as she said, “Ah? What voice? I didn’t hear Wanwan speak during the last FT.”

She turned to Xiang Wan with a look of confusion.

Xiang Wan, looking at her exaggerated expression, couldn’t help but stifle a laugh.

“Um… I didn’t?” Xiang Wan said.

“It seems like she asked if you wanted to eat peaches,” That person said.

Some netizens in the chat also agreed.

Yu Zhou looked at the number of people, it had reached over 4,000 and was still increasing.

She suddenly realized, “Oh right, right, right, you’re getting the peaches for me to eat, right?”

With a slight nudge to Xiang Wan’s waist, Yu Zhou reminded her to think.

Finding the play a little too much, Xiang Wan maintained her composure. “I don’t remember.”

Yu Zhou raised her hand and gave her a small clap, feeling their coordination was seamless.

It was time to withdraw after their success. Yu Zhou lowered her shoulders in preparation for slouching in a lazy manner.

Suddenly, Yu Zhou heard Xiang Wan make a sound of “Hmmm?”. She leaned over to look at the small screen that was rapidly scrolling.

“Miss Su!” Someone typed.

“Caught!”

“Changchang is here!”

“Aaaaaah, is it Changchang?”

What? “What? What does this mean?” Yu Zhou turned her head to ask Xiang Wan.

Xiang Wan shook her head, leaned closer to her phone and asked the audience, “Is… Miss Su here?”

“Susu has entered the room! There was a notification just now.” The public chat screen stated.

A large number of IDs flooded in as Yu Zhou looked up to see that the viewer count had already surpassed ten thousand.

Damn, what’s going on?

Why did she come and what does the notification mean?

In the midst of the rapid scrolling, another system message appeared: Su Chang has entered the room.

What? She left and came back again? Yu Zhou and Xiang Wan exchanged a glance, hesitant to take any action.

It was only after two or three seconds that Yu Zhou cautiously asked, “Uh, this ID, is it a fake? Or is it actually Miss Su?”

It was only after speaking that she remembered, didn’t they just participate in FT?

Oops, she overreacted and said the wrong thing.

Another system notification appeared: Su Chang has entered the room.

Yu Zhou was angry but also amused by her, what’s with all the entering and leaving?

She gestured to Xiang Wan with her eyes to answer another question, then picked up her phone and sent a WeChat message to Su Chang: “What are you doing? You’ve been entering and leaving our room.”

Su Chang replied quickly: “I don’t know how to turn off the notifications.”

Ah, hmmm…

The chat room was now all about Su Chang, saying that they caught her for “listening secretly” and asking her to come on the mic.

The crowd was going so wild that Yu Zhou and Xiang Wan were not able to play dumb.

So, Yu Zhou politely asked, “Ahhahahaha, I saw Miss Su. Do you want to join the chat, Miss Su?”

Polite words, hoping her remote friends with a brain could hear it.

The distant friend did not have a brain; three minutes later, Su Chang posted a comment: “You didn’t approve my request.”

Yu Zhou was truly speechless because of her anger. She did a silent and dramatic gesture of shouting to the sky. Amidst the constantly flashing “Let our Susu join!” messages, she invited Su Chang to the mic.

A blue avatar appeared on the screen, looking like a sticker on the screen.

Circles of light blue halos flashed as she opened her mic. “Good evening.”

Yu Zhou rubbed her tired eyes that were dazzled by the comments running on screen, while Xiang Wan greeted gently, “Good evening.”

Yu Zhou sneered in her heart, thinking that it was all over, she might have been poisoned by the CP fans, feeling that the two of them saying “good evening” was a perfect match.

Su Chang asked, “Have you had dinner?”

Yu Zhou wasn’t sure who the question was directed towards.

But since they were streaming in Xiang Wan’s livestream room, she felt obligated to answer. Yu Zhou cut in before Xiang Wan could respond, “No!”

Her tone was harsh, causing Su Chang to remain silent for a few moments.

Yu Zhou lit a candle for herself[5] in her mind, realizing she had overreacted. She only wanted to limit the interaction between the two, but now she appeared to be an evil mother-in-law who breaks up couples.

Su Chang was quiet for a few more seconds before finally asking, “Why did you decide to livestream today?”

Xiang Wan didn’t answer but looked at Yu Zhou first.

Yu Zhou decided to take a gentler approach and responded, “Ahaha, we do what we want.”

Really awkward.

Of course, it was to clarify the rumors, but now it turned out to be a disaster because of you. However, Yu Zhou didn’t dare to say.

Su Chang didn’t know what else to say so the three remained silent for a moment.

Yu Zhou awkwardly asked, “How come you have time to listen to our livestream, Miss Su?”

Su Chang explained, “I just got off the car and now I’m waiting for the elevator. I heard from Xiangzhi that you two were live streaming so I came.”

“I see. Since you’re home, are you hungry? Maybe you should make a bowl of noodles to eat?”

Yu Zhou almost muttered the words “You’re not welcome here”.

Su Chang got her hint this time and said goodbye, “Okay, I’m home now. I still have work to do, so have fun everyone.”

After saying their goodbyes, Yu Zhou felt relieved but also disheartened.

Unlike Xiang Wan, who managed to stay calm and spoke gently for a full hour before ending the streaming. The moment she turned off the software, her shoulders finally relaxed. Meanwhile, Yu Zhou stared blankly at the peach on the table, feeling drained and not wanting to say a word.

Yu Zhou despised the livestream format. It seems as if all the excitement of the world has been gathered together for a limited time of revelry, where those who love you express their affection within this finite window. It was easy to form a sense of collective happiness and create the illusion that everyone was smiling and happy.

Upon turning off the screen, gazing at the dark reflection of your disheartened self and the shadows of your surroundings, an overwhelming silence and emptiness multiplies.

That made her have neither the courage nor the strength to open the forum again to see what kind of judgements would appear from places beyond the smiling faces.

She doesn’t want to move anymore and can’t manage it either.

Suddenly, she felt terrible as she buried her head in her knees, letting out a deep sigh.

She was just coming up with terrible ideas.

Her WeChat notification sounded and she thought it was Su Chang. Numbly, she clicked on it, but it was actually from Peng Xiangzhi in their group chat.

She said, “I’m having a problem with changing recording studios.”

As the year-end approached, dubbing work for New Year films was in full swing and the scheduling at recording studios was really tight. Peng Xiangzhi had initially asked a friend to reserve time for her at the Lingyue Recording Studio, but suddenly some big films needed reshoots and time was too tight. Furthermore, there was no concrete confirmation from Peng Xiangzhi, so the studio decided to prioritize the films.

The five days she had reserved were pushed to the end of the month and the time was fragmented, only half a day here and there, piecing together a total of five days for her.

With such a condition, she couldn’t schedule actors, and she still hoped to record continuously to keep the performance consistent.

So she asked Su Chang for her opinion, thinking that if Su Chang’s studio was available, she would use her instead.

Su Chang said, “It’s not quite possible. The studio is expected to be done by next year.”

Peng Xiangzhi sighed, “Then they won’t have any continuous time until December.”

Su Chang asked, “December is okay, what date specifically?”

“Let me check. The dates I was given were… December 18 to 22.”

Su Chang quickly checked her own schedule and said, “I have two projects, one I can move forward and the other with fewer scenes. Let me compare schedules with you and I’ll make it work. You’ll need to check with them again.”

“They shouldn’t have any issues. I’ll ask. Okay.” Peng Xiangzhi replied.

Yu Zhou looked at their conversation and began to think. December… 18th?

How coincidental. She couldn’t go to the recording studio then.