Yun Long watched Jin Se’s face shift like an artist’s palette—pale one moment, green the next—and couldn’t help feeling a little curious about how she managed to change colors like that.
But she didn’t ask. Jin Se had a bad temper; if she asked, she’d probably be the one to suffer for it.
“Jin Se-jiejie, remember to do your punishment~”
With that, she ended the voice call and let out a soft sigh of relief. She really was no good at dealing with people.
Just talking to someone she wasn’t familiar with took so much energy.
Watching the messages flashing nonstop across the public chat, Yun Long waved her hand and ended the stream.
[Wait, is the streamer I followed really this quirky? Ending the stream that fast?]
[No way, I haven’t had enough. Her face is a trap.]
[All you babies who like her, drop a follow! The streamer’s schedule is on her profile page—come back tomorrow!]
Yinyin’s stream had closed, but the viewers were still in the room; the screen had simply gone black.
Watching Yun Long end her stream so quickly, some veteran fans took it upon themselves to introduce her to the newcomers, worrying themselves silly over it.
“Finally done streaming.”
Yun Long hugged her little crocodile plush pillow and buried her face in it.
This was her habit—whenever talking to people made her uncomfortable, she would hug a plush pillow when she got home to calm herself down.
“Ring ring, ring ring.”
Just then, Yun Long’s phone rang.
She picked it up and saw it was a call from Wang Quan, the guild’s manager.
Yun Long answered but said nothing, waiting for the other person to speak first.
“Yun Long, the guild spent so long preparing for you—not to watch you fail to even get a top gifter’s contact info. Do you know what people in the guild, from top to bottom, are saying about you right now?”
Wang Quan’s flustered, exasperated voice came through the phone.
“What are they saying?” Yun Long was genuinely a little curious.
“They’re all calling you Little Dazed One. Can’t even get a top gifter’s contact, and you’re wasting guild resources.” Wang Quan’s roar came through the other end of the line.
Yun Long held the phone farther away. The voice was so loud it hurt her ears.
“But… I won the PK.”
Yun Long said softly.
Wang Quan choked. “That mystery guy was obviously some big spender sneaking out to have fun. You can’t hold on to someone like that. You’d be better off clinging to your number-one supporter’s thigh.”
Yun Long blinked. “But I don’t know him well.”
Wang Quan felt a wave of helplessness rise from the bottom of his heart. “Fine. I’ll report to the guild.”
Looking at the disconnected call, Yun Long was a bit puzzled. That was it?
She remembered Wang Quan’s temper not being this mild.
But she didn’t dwell on it. It was already past ten at night—time to wash up and sleep. Too much had happened today; she needed to take it easy.
“Whew.”
At eight in the morning, Yun Long abruptly sat up, hugging the little crocodile to her chest and burying her face in it. She’d had a nightmare.
She’d dreamed that Yun Long had depression and couldn’t sleep night after night, those painful memories replaying over and over in her mind—utterly agonizing.
She couldn’t help curling her fingers, her whole body shrinking into a ball, hugging the little crocodile tighter. Only then did she feel a hint of safety.
That suffocating feeling was too intense. She needed a moment to recover.
It wasn’t until noon that Yun Long finally pulled free of that feeling.
She felt as if a huge boulder was slowly being lifted from her chest.
Grrrrumble—her stomach let out a rumble.
Feeling hungry, Yun Long got up and walked toward the wardrobe. She wanted to freshen up, change clothes, and go out for a meal.
Opening the wardrobe and looking at the clothes inside—each more flamboyant than the last—Yun Long fell into silence.
Only then did she remember: when she left home, she’d been wearing a faded shirt and jeans she had washed herself, without a single penny to her name.
This sixty-square-meter apartment was lent to her by her best friend. Unwilling to owe anyone a favor, she had transferred 10,000 of the 10,000-plus yuan she received last month to her friend as half a year’s rent, keeping only 2,000 yuan for living expenses.
The rest of the money had all gone toward these flashy clothes. Her old jeans and shirt had been thrown away too—a ritual farewell to her past life.
She wished time could rewind so she wouldn’t have thrown those clothes away. Now she had nothing to wear.
Yun Long, on the verge of tears with none to shed, pulled out her phone and silently ordered takeout.
She wasn’t going out. Fine—she just wouldn’t go out, okay?
After browsing the takeout options and checking her balance, she decisively ordered a 14.8-yuan grilled meat rice bowl—tasty, not greasy, and most importantly, cheap.
After dinner, Yun Long started browsing other streamers’ rooms on her phone. She wanted to study how other hosts ran their streams.
After watching for a while, she felt even more dazed. Everything went in one ear and out the other. She felt this was far harder than getting into college.
To stream, or not to stream. To stream, or not to stream. To stream…
Seeing that it was almost her usual streaming time, Yun Long started fussing with the mint plant sitting in the living room.
The thought of so many viewers watching her stream made her nervous all over, and seeing anything with leaves made her want to pluck at it.
In the end, Yun Long gave in and opened her stream right on schedule. She had no choice—she’d signed a one-year contract, and she couldn’t afford the penalty for breaking it.
[Wow, Ai Bo looks so cute today in that pink JK outfit with twin tails. So pretty.]
[Is this the streamer who made Jin Se end her broadcast? Let me see what this is about.]
[Came from the gossip stream. Is this the streamer with no connection to her top-ranked sugar daddy? Truly both beautiful and pitiful.]
Watching her viewer count climb past fifty within minutes, Yun Long awkwardly tugged at the clothes at her waist.
This JK outfit was the most normal thing she could find after rummaging through her wardrobe, but she still felt it was a bit revealing.
“Welcome, everyone, to my stream! If you like what you see, please follow. Here’s a song called ‘A Little Sweet’ for you all.”
“Picking an apple, waiting for you to pass by my door…”
Once she started singing, Yun Long immersed herself in the song and didn’t notice that Ban Yao Er Sheng and the mysterious 9527 had both entered the stream.
When she finished singing, she saw that her viewer count had reached over a thousand, and the chat was scrolling faster and faster.
She swallowed reflexively, her heart rate unconsciously speeding up, her face tightening.
This feeling was all too familiar—she always got nervous at any major speaking event.
Yun Long desperately wanted to do something to change the situation. She accidentally tapped the PK button, and the screen instantly split in two.
The streamer on the other side was a woman wearing a ruqun dress, her hair styled in double-loop buns, exuding the refined elegance of a noble young lady from an ancient aristocratic family.
“Hello there, miss! Would you like to do a PK?”
She urgently needed a distraction, and that impulse drove her to strike up a conversation with a stranger.
Getting randomly matched with such a pretty young lady, Yun Long felt a lot more at ease.
“Sis, I’m a guy, y’know.”
A thick Northeastern Chinese accent snapped Yun Long out of his thoughts.