“It’s a club activity, a club activity! Everyone has to wear it!” Tan Jingzhi hurriedly shoved the cardboard box in her hands into Wen Xiyu’s arms. “You just need to put it on and stand there for a bit to get six academic credits! Six! Do you have any idea what that means?!”
Having been dragged to the Drama Club for the event right after class, Wen Xiyu looked utterly drained of life. He placed the cardboard box on the table, opened it, and pulled out a black-and-white maid dress along with a cat-ear headband.
Wen Xiyu had followed Tan Jingzhi into the Drama Club back when he was a freshman. He had only joined to gather easy academic credits, usually handling the artwork for the club’s promotional posters without ever performing on stage.
Now, with the new batch of freshmen enrolling, every club was pulling out all the stops to recruit new members. The Drama Club had come up with a novel idea: hosting a Maid Café event. Club members were required to wear maid outfits to recruit at the venue, and in return, they would earn double the usual academic credits.
The temptation of six academic credits was simply too strong, and Wen Xiyu ultimately compromised. After all, he wasn’t the only guy in the Drama Club required to wear a maid outfit; there were others losing face alongside him.
The venue assigned to the Drama Club was quite large, featuring two dedicated changing rooms in the back. Not knowing where Tan Jingzhi had rushed off to help, Wen Xiyu went into the men’s changing room to change.
The size L maid outfit fit him perfectly. The fluffy skirt, reminiscent of a cream cake, spread out over his thighs like a blossoming flower, while the large bow tied at his lower back trailed two long ribbons down.
While the dress fit well, the knee-high socks seemed a bit tight. Wen Xiyu struggled to pull on the pure white lace-trimmed knee-high socks. The elastic edges constricted his calves tightly, squeezing out a slight roll of soft skin.
He neatly folded his clothes and placed them on a chair, then picked up the cat-ear headband and stepped outside.
“Oh my gosh, Xiyu, you look so pretty!”
“Your waist is so slender, and your legs are so slim! How do you do it? Quick, hand over your weight-loss secrets!”
The moment he walked out, Wen Xiyu was surrounded by a crowd of girls from the Drama Club. They fluttered around him in circles, even reaching out to adjust his hair and his bow tie.
Unable to find Tan Jingzhi, he cast a pleading look for help toward the Drama Club president nearby. Smiling, the president walked over to rescue him: “Alright, alright, go set up the venue, everyone. Stop teasing Xiao Wen; he’s shy.”
The girl in charge of makeup gave Wen Xiyu a simple look and braided his hair into a side fishtail: “Xiao Wen, your skin is genuinely so fair, you don’t even need foundation…”
By this time, the others had also finished changing and came out one after another. Apart from Wen Xiyu, the other guys looked bizarre in their own ways. A couple of exceptionally muscular guys looked somewhat like muscular Barbies, sending the other girls into fits of laughter.
“President, won’t they scare away all the new students looking like that!” The girls dragged Wen Xiyu along again. “We should still put Xiao Wen right at the front; he’ll definitely attract a ton of people. And Xiao Tan too, Xiao Tan, come over here!”
In the end, Wen Xiyu and Tan Jingzhi, the two socially anxious introverts, were pushed all the way to the front, left to stare at each other in utter helplessness.
As the recruitment drive officially began, freshmen flooded into the venue in large numbers. Every single one of them was brimming with energy and vitality, filling the dead-inside Wen Xiyu with immense envy.
The Drama Club’s tactic proved remarkably effective, attracting a massive crowd of freshmen. Applications surged in no time, and one male freshman even approached Wen Xiyu timidly with his phone, asking if he could get the senior’s contact details.
Wen Xiyu looked at him in disbelief, lifting his braid to reveal his completely flat chest: “Sorry, I’m actually a guy.”
The freshman departed with a visibly shattered heart.
“You just destroyed another innocent youth’s first love,” Tan Jingzhi commented.
“Xiao Wen?”
A shadow suddenly fell over him. Wen Xiyu looked up, and upon recognizing the person, wished he could bury himself directly into the ground: “Senior? What brings you here…”
Yan Heng looked down at him, his lips curling up slightly: “A friend invited me over to check it out. I didn’t expect to run into you.”
Yan Heng was Wen Xiyu’s senior schoolmate; they had previously worked together on a project, where Yan Heng had helped him quite a bit, so they were on fairly familiar terms.
“I… I’m doing this… for a club activity,” Wen Xiyu explained incoherently. “Just to get some academic credits.”
“I know.” Yan Heng smiled and took a few Drama Club promotional flyers from the table. “You look very pretty. I’ll help promote the club for you in a bit.”
“Thank you, Senior.” Wen Xiyu pressed his hands together in gratitude, casting an appreciative look at him.
After Yan Heng left, the girls next to Wen Xiyu immediately launched into an enthusiastic discussion: “Was that Yan Heng just now? He’s seriously so handsome, a total campus heartthrob! I’m declaring him the official school prince of Jin University.”
Another girl countered: “I don’t agree. I think Ji Jinghan from the Computer Science department is way handsomer than him.”
“When you put it that way, it’s true… but the two are completely different types, right? Yan Heng is the gentle and refined type, while Ji Jinghan looks super cold and distant. I still prefer Yan Heng’s style…”
Wen Xiyu: “…” Why was the frequency of Ji Jinghan appearing in his life getting higher and higher lately?
Fortunately, during the second half of the event, Wen Xiyu didn’t run into any more acquaintances. By the time everything ended, it was already past seven in the evening. During the event, the club president had treated everyone to dinner.
After tidying up the venue, Wen Xiyu went into the changing room to change back into his regular clothes, only to find that his clothes had somehow fallen onto the floor. They looked as though they had been stepped on countless times, filthy to the point of being completely unwearable.
Wen Xiyu: “…” His bad luck streak had struck again.
Too many people had been coming in and out all afternoon, leaving the changing room a chaotic mess, so he could only blame himself for not putting his clothes away properly. There were no spare clothes to borrow either, which meant he would have to wear this dress while riding a bike or taking a taxi back to his apartment.
Wen Xiyu carried his dirty clothes out of the changing room. Luckily, Tan Jingzhi hadn’t left yet. After hearing his complaints, she suggested having her boyfriend drive him back.
“He happens to be taking me home anyway, so it’s pretty much on the way. Let’s go, I’ll tell him to drive over to the entrance.”
Tan Jingzhi’s boyfriend was named Lin Ye, a former high school classmate of theirs who had been dating her for over two years. Wen Xiyu got along well enough with Lin Ye, so he naturally hitched a ride in his car.
Lin Ye didn’t make any comments about his attire and dropped him off right at his apartment building.
Anxious to get back in time to stream, Wen Xiyu hurriedly thanked him and ran up to the apartment.
As he walked upstairs, he felt extremely nervous, terrified that Ji Jinghan might pop out from some corner and ruin his reputation forever. Fortunately, until Wen Xiyu stepped inside his door, Ji Jinghan didn’t show up, and even those 120,000-yuan sneakers at the doorway were nowhere to be seen.
By the time he entered, he was nearly ten minutes late for his scheduled stream. Lacking time to change, and figuring his fans liked seeing him in women’s clothing anyway, he sat down in front of his computer and started the live stream directly.
“I’m so sorry for being late today…” This was his first time being late by so long, so he quickly apologized to the fans flooding into the stream. “I’ll drop some lucky gift bags for everyone in a bit; I’m really sorry.”
However, the chat showed no resentment over being stood up, only pure delight at seeing Wen Xiyu in women’s clothing again:
[Holy shit, it’s a maid outfit! We are saved!]
[yt, it doesn’t matter, streamer! If you dress in women’s clothing every time, it’s totally fine even if you’re late!]
[Wife! [licking the screen] [licking the screen]]
[She’s my wife; none of you are allowed to look! [crying] [throwing punches] She’s my wife; none of you are allowed to look! [crying] [throwing punches] She’s my wife; none of you are allowed to look! [crying] [throwing punches]]
Within just a few minutes of going live, the number of gifts in the stream skyrocketed. Overwhelmed by the sudden affection, Wen Xiyu promptly sent out gift bags to his viewers.
The viewer count in the top right corner was rising faster and faster. In the past, sustaining a viewer count of over a thousand had been a struggle, but now it had jumped to five or six thousand and was still climbing continuously.
Someone gifted him a Carnival gift. Wen Xiyu instinctively thought it was Rain, but looking closely, he realized it was a new username he hadn’t seen before.
“Thank you to ‘Pillow of Starlight Stream’ for the Carnival gift! Thank you to ‘Jasmine Green Milk Tea’ for the Luxury Cruise! Thank you to ‘Xiao Yu Is My Wife’ for the Sports Car…” Wen Xiyu spent nearly five minutes reading out loud before finishing his thank-yous, his tone filled with confusion. “Why are so many people suddenly showering me with gifts today?”
[Because you’re wearing a skirt, of course!]
[Baby, don’t doubt yourself; when you’re dressed like this, both guys and girls love to watch!]
[I’ll send you a sports car; can you stand up and let us see your whole outfit?]
Wen Xiyu: “…” What kind of fetish is that? Liking to watch a guy wear a skirt?
If he had known that wearing a skirt was this effective, he would have started wearing one much earlier.
,
When the notification popped up announcing the start of the stream, Ji Jinghan was having dinner at a rooftop restaurant by Xinghai Bay.
The dinner gathering had been organized by Lu Ming, who had invited several people, all close friends from the same social circle. Ji Jinghan happened to be feeling annoyed, so he had accepted the invitation.
The pop-up notification appeared on his phone’s lock screen. Ji Jinghan cast his eyes down to glance at it, then shifted his gaze away as if he didn’t care.
“What are your plans now that you’re back in the country?” someone asked Lu Ming.
“What plans could I have? I’ll just follow my parents’ arrangements, finish college, and just hang around in the family company.” Lu Ming shrugged. “I’m not like Jinghan, who’s capable enough to start his own business…”
“Ji-ge plans to start his own business?” the person asked back in surprise.
“Mm-hmm.” Ji Jinghan didn’t even raise his head, answering perfunctorily as he picked up the glass beside him and drank it down in one gulp.
“Nothing is set in stone yet, so stop asking. But I’m definitely buying shares… Hey, where are you going?”
“Going out to the terrace to get some air.” Throwing those words to Lu Ming, Ji Jinghan grabbed his phone and walked straight toward the terrace.
The wind on the top floor of the high-rise was cool and quiet, reflecting the fragmented city lights in Xinghai Bay like a flowing river of stars.
Ji Jinghan tapped into that familiar live stream room. On the screen, Wen Xiyu was wearing a maid dress adorned with lace and bows. His hair was braided into a side fishtail resting across his chest, a soft blush flushing his snow-white cheeks, looking innocently at the camera with his moist, beautiful almond eyes.
Silently, Ji Jinghan tightened his grip on his phone, his Adam’s apple bobbing slightly.
“Rain-ge, you’re here?” Unaware of what was happening outside the screen, Wen Xiyu greeted him, “Good evening~.”
Ji Jinghan remained silent, watching as Wen Xiyu immediately resumed chatting with the next comment. When someone sent a gift, he thanked them with a bright smile, his voice soft and sweet.
No matter who it was, as long as they showered him with gifts, could they get his sweet words and a friend request? Ji Jinghan thought with a hint of malice. Truly a master of manipulation; no wonder he had been able to find this way of earning money right after his family went bankrupt.
He watched the live stream with a cold expression for a moment. Finally, as Wen Xiyu thanked someone for a gift for the fifth time, Ji Jinghan opened the gift menu and tapped the Carnival option five times.
“Thank you to Rain-gege for sending five Carnivals~” Wen Xiyu began talking to him in that sweet voice again. “Is Gege in a bad mood? Why haven’t you been talking lately?”
Once money was showered on him, he remembered to call him “Gege” again.
Ji Jinghan let out a cold laugh, thinking with a touch of mockery: if Wen Xiyu found out that the top donor he called “Gege” with every breath was actually him, how would he react? He would probably find it utterly repulsive; after all, he detested him so much.
With a quiet click, a spark lit up in the darkness. Ji Jinghan held a cigarette between his lips and typed a line onto the screen.
[Rain: Yeah, in a bad mood.]
[Rain: Why are you wearing a skirt again?]