At this point, Lin Xing hadn’t yet imagined where things might be headed. Xi Jiajia looked so exhausted she seemed ready to fall asleep on the spot, so he simply assumed her confused question was because she was too tired to think straight.
Lin Xing took the initiative to carry her luggage. “Forget it. I think you should just go home and get some proper rest first.”
It wasn’t until that evening, after Lin Xing had taken Xi Jiajia home, that she came back full of energy, sent him a party invitation in their game, urged him to log in, and once again looked completely baffled when he mentioned tagging her, that Lin Xing finally realized something was wrong.
Seasonal Little Xingxing: Did you watch that hilarious video I tagged you in earlier? Hahaha, I laughed so hard my stomach hurt.
Jiajia Eats Watermelon: Tagged me? What are you talking about? I didn’t get any notifications.
Lin Xing was completely confused. At first, he thought the app’s notifications had simply been delayed. After Xi Jiajia insisted she hadn’t received a single notification, he sent her a screenshot showing that he had tagged her account.
Seasonal Little Xingxing: Look! I tag you in tons of videos and comments every day. Is there something wrong with your account? Why aren’t you getting any notifications?
Xi Jiajia’s reply popped up almost instantly.
Jiajia Eats Watermelon: But… that’s not me??? Whose account is that?
There wasn’t the slightest hint that Xi Jiajia was joking.
The vague sense that something was off, which had been lingering in Lin Xing’s mind, finally started blaring warning bells. Even so, he still clung to a sliver of hope.
Seasonal Little Xingxing: Stop messing with me… If that’s not you, then who is it? This is your account, isn’t it?
Jiajia Eats Watermelon: It really isn’t me. No wonder I never got any notifications. While I was over there, I watched videos every day. I noticed you never tagged me once, so I thought you’d ghosted me again, or that you’d uninstalled the app I made you download. I was planning to come back and kill you for it.
Jiajia Eats Watermelon: The person you tagged has the same name as a really famous influencer.
Jiajia Eats Watermelon: Hmm… Doesn’t D App prohibit duplicate usernames?
The more she explained, the more unbelievable it sounded.
Seasonal Little Xingxing: You’re joking, right??
His mind was in complete chaos, filled with one thought after another.
If the person I’ve been tagging isn’t Xi Jiajia… then what must that complete stranger think of me??? And exactly how famous is this “really famous influencer”?!?
Seasonal Little Xingxing: You should recognize your own account! Just admit it already, this is your account!
Lin Xing’s roar practically burst through the screen and lunged at Xi Jiajia’s face. Meanwhile, Xi Jiajia remained perfectly calm. She typed the name “Chi Tong” into the platform’s search bar, and a moment later, the page displayed exactly what she was looking for. She immediately took a screenshot and sent it back to him on WeChat.
Jiajia Eats Watermelon: Look. 【Screenshot】 I told you he’s a really famous influencer on D App. I don’t even watch him that often, but I still know who he is. See if maybe you followed him by mistake, and when you were trying to tag me, you accidentally tagged him instead.
Convinced she had solved the mystery, Xi Jiajia immediately started teasing him.
Jiajia Eats Watermelon: Silly Xingxing, you didn’t tag him in a whole bunch of posts, did you? Hahahahaha. You’re doomed. Your creepy side has been exposed. He must’ve been sitting behind his screen wondering what the hell was wrong with you for ages.
Jiajia Eats Watermelon: Wow, I looked through his videos. He’s ridiculously handsome.
Jiajia Eats Watermelon: Gorgeous influencer be like: Spent the entire summer getting randomly harassed by someone. Time to call the police.
Jiajia Eats Watermelon: Hello? Where’d you go?
Jiajia Eats Watermelon: 【Calling】【Calling】
Lin Xing was busy zooming in and out of the screenshot Xi Jiajia had sent, examining every detail. At the same time, he hurriedly opened the app on his own phone and, for the very first time, actually visited the profile of the account he’d been tagging every single day.
The screenshot Xi Jiajia had sent was genuine. It really was Chi Tong’s profile. The number 1001 didn’t mean 1,101 followers, it meant 10.01 million followers.
Lin Xing’s brain shut down.
He refused to give up. One by one, he opened the posts where he’d tagged Chi Tong and tried several times. Sure enough, tapping the @ mention took him directly to Chi Tong’s profile.
The truth was right in front of him.
All this time, every single @ mention he’d made had been directed at Chi Tong, the D App influencer with over ten million followers.
Seasonal Little Xingxing: 【I’m broken】
Seasonal Little Xingxing: He might actually call the police… I tagged him in so much ***…
On top of that, when Lin Xing remembered repeatedly calling this complete stranger baobei (“baby”), it suddenly sounded incredibly creepy.
He had no idea whether Chi Tong had actually seen any of those notifications, but his thoughts immediately raced toward the worst possible scenario.
Seasonal Little Xingxing: I’ve seen influencers make videos exposing creeps before. Oh no… What if he hasn’t said anything because he’s secretly waiting for me to tag him in even more weird stuff, so he can compile it all into one long video calling me out?
Seasonal Little Xingxing: 【Bursts into loud sobbing】
Seasonal Little Xingxing: I checked his likes and view counts. If he really exposes me, won’t I be socially dead across the entire platform? 【Crying】
Jiajia Eats Watermelon: So… what exactly have you been tagging him in, Little Yellow Star [1]in Chinese, “yellow” means smutty/pornographic jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2795312_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2795312_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });…?
Seasonal Little Xingxing: Things that would make it impossible for me to defend myself if he accused me of sexual harassment…
The kind of things sisters shared in private naturally went far beyond the boundaries of what would be appropriate between strangers. To sum up the content Lin Xing had been tagging Chi Tong in, it was roughly thirty percent cute pets, thirty percent fun videos, and forty percent things that absolutely shouldn’t be shared with someone you don’t know.
Jiajia Eats Watermelon: 【Side-eye grin】 I’ll visit you in prison.
Seasonal Little Xingxing: 【I’m going to strangle you】
After laughing at Lin Xing to her heart’s content, Xi Jiajia finally took pity on him and started trying to comfort him.
Jiajia Eats Watermelon: Oh, don’t overthink it. I’m ninety-nine percent sure he never even noticed your notifications.
Jiajia Eats Watermelon: He’s an influencer with over ten million followers on just one platform. Why would he notice you? He probably gets hundreds or even thousands of people tagging him and saying flirty or outrageous stuff every day. Besides, he’s never replied to you once, has he?
To be fair, Xi Jiajia’s reasoning made sense, and Lin Xing felt a little better.
Seasonal Little Xingxing: 【Praying】 I hope you’re right!
After calming down for a little while, Lin Xing still felt that something didn’t add up.
Seasonal Little Xingxing: But it’s still really weird. How did I end up tagging him in the first place? I only followed that one account.
If Chi Tong was the only account he had followed, then where had the account Xi Jiajia originally gave him gone?
Lin Xing scrolled back through their chat history and found the conversation from that day. He copied the account ID Xi Jiajia had sent him again, returned to D App, and searched for it.
The result that popped up was still Chi Tong’s account.
Meanwhile, Xi Jiajia was still rambling away.
Jiajia Eats Watermelon: That’s why I call you Silly Little Yellow Star.
Seasonal Little Xingxing: Xi Jiajia! Explain why the account ID you gave me back then searches up Chi Tong!
Seasonal Little Xingxing: 【I’m going to strangle you】
Jiajia Eats Watermelon: …
Xi Jiajia went silent for several minutes, presumably checking whether the mistake had actually been hers.
A little while later, she came back.
Jiajia Eats Watermelon: 【On my knees】 Xingxing, I seriously didn’t do it on purpose!! I left out one digit when I typed it. It was supposed to be an eight-digit ID, but I only entered seven. Look.
Jiajia Eats Watermelon: 【Screenshot】 This one’s mine. 【Screenshot】 This one’s his.
Lin Xing took one look and realized it was true. Xi Jiajia’s account ID was one digit longer than Chi Tong’s. She had accidentally left out a digit in the middle, and by sheer coincidence, the shortened number ended up matching Chi Tong’s account.
Seasonal Little Xingxing: 【Death Stare】
Jiajia Eats Watermelon: 【Slides to my knees】【Bows repeatedly】
Jiajia Eats Watermelon: Every bit of this is my fault, Your Highness. Whatever you want to eat or buy, just send me the link and I’ll pay for it.
In the end, it had all been one giant misunderstanding. Although it was completely unexpected, Lin Xing wasn’t really angry with Xi Jiajia. After all, she hadn’t done it on purpose, and thankfully things hadn’t spiraled into an irreversible disaster.
Chi Tong had an enormous following. If things really blew up, it would probably create a world where only Lin Xing died of embarrassment. But Xi Jiajia had a point as well. An influencer with that many followers must receive countless comments and @ mentions every day. It was hard to imagine someone like Chi Tong paying any attention to a tiny account like Lin Xing’s.
And even if one or two of Lin Xing’s notifications had somehow caught Chi Tong’s eye, that didn’t mean he’d lower himself to argue with an ordinary user.
Lin Xing spent most of the day trying to convince himself of that. Yet, just before going to bed that night, he still rolled around on his bed clutching his pillow, then pulled out his phone and dug up every comment he’d left, reading them one by one.
“@Chi Tong, is this position actually possible??? Doesn’t that violate basic human anatomy?”
“@Chi Tong, look at this!! I’ve just gained some very questionable knowledge.”
The kind of things that would have been perfectly normal to send to his best friend suddenly looked painfully awkward when directed at a complete stranger.
On impulse, Lin Xing opened Chi Tong’s direct messages and started typing.
“Hi, I’m really sorry for tagging you in so many posts before!! I mistakenly thought you were my best friend. It’s all been a misunderstanding this whole time. You don’t have to pay any attention to it…”
But before he even finished typing, Lin Xing hurriedly deleted the entire message.
What if Chi Tong had never even seen any of those @ mentions in the first place, but then noticed this DM, followed the trail back, and discovered all of Seasonal Little Xingxing’s “criminal record”? That would be an even bigger disaster.
…But what if he’d actually been waiting for Lin Xing to realize his mistake?
Lin Xing slowly scrolled through Chi Tong’s profile and watched several of his videos. To be honest, whenever Chi Tong’s face appeared on camera, Lin Xing couldn’t help but be impressed.
Lin Xing liked good-looking guys, but he had never really followed appearance-based streamers on D App. At most, he appreciated attractive people in passing. Especially online, a handsome face didn’t necessarily mean much.
Compared to Chi Tong’s exceptionally attractive looks, what caught Lin Xing’s attention first was actually the style of his videos.
Most of Chi Tong’s content documented his everyday life. Sometimes the details were so thorough and mundane that viewers could almost feel as if the handsome man himself were right beside them. Chi Tong also didn’t make much effort to hide information about his school, where he lived, or the details of his daily life, so the comfort and privilege of his lifestyle were evident at a glance.
On top of that, Chi Tong’s videos weren’t sponsored, nor did he chase trending topics. His fans had long been puzzled about why he kept making videos just to share his daily life.
After watching a few of them, Lin Xing figured out that Chi Tong attended a university in the same city as him. Other than that, he couldn’t glean much more. But after seeing how efficient and busy Chi Tong’s life was, Lin Xing felt vaguely reassured.
Someone that accomplished… probably… wouldn’t… care about a few @ mentions from him, right?
Curled up under his blanket, countless thoughts battled in Lin Xing’s head. In the end, his cautious nature and desire to let sleeping dogs lie won out.
He quietly unfollowed Chi Tong, then dragged the D App icon into a folder tucked away in the corner of his phone, hiding it from sight. Looking at his now clean and uncluttered home screen, he pretended nothing had ever happened.
Everything would pass.
Tomorrow would surely be a brighter day.
References[+]