Faced with the startled expressions of the others, Yun Qi’s face flushed red, and he nearly bit his own tongue.
While there was dead silence on the field, Duan Xingge, the other party involved, shrugged as if nothing had happened: “Practice is the true test of knowledge. It was precisely because I bought hundreds of aprons and discovered there was absolutely no way to stop oil from splashing onto my clothes that I had no choice but to resort to such extreme measures.”
This explanation didn’t clarify anything at all; instead, it directly confirmed Yun Qi’s statement. The viewers, immersed in their shock, instantly couldn’t sit still:
“Ah??? So you really don’t wear anything, you kid??”
“No, wait, high school student + apron play, ah?? You kid were already this good at it back then??”
“Wait a second, didn’t that crazy lady in the Xing-Yun super-topic say something similar last night… Woc, could it be that everything she said was true?”
“A body like Xing-Xing’s wearing nothing but an apron, who can handle this??”
“What kind of erotic plot is this, ahhhhhh? President Yun’s hands are already so sensitive. If he accidentally touches Xing-Xing while serving dishes in the kitchen, wouldn’t that lead directly to major ‘DO’ing’?”
“Seduction, naked seduction!!”
Yun Qi felt like he was about to be burned alive. On the surface, he feigned calmness, opened his phone while hovering over his fishing rod, appearing as if he had business to attend to. In reality, his mind was completely blank, and he didn’t know what he was doing at all; it was purely a subconscious attempt at escape.
Yet, that shameless bastard Duan Xingge continued to chuckle softly behind him, as if intentionally teasing his panic.
Yun Qi’s earlobes burned. To divert his attention, he opened Weibo and scrolled aimlessly a few times. It was only then that he discovered that within a single day, the public perception of A Promise of Mountains and Seas online had undergone an earth-shattering change.
Yun Qi slightly pulled his thoughts back from his distraction, frowned, and scanned through line by line with growing seriousness.
He saw that thanks to “Duan Xingge,” clips of yesterday’s livestream were now flying all over the internet. The Xing-Yun fan faction, which had previously been suppressed, was springing up like bamboo shoots after the rain.
However, the triumphant fans no longer needed the long, analytical posts like the previous “Yun-Jiao” or “Xing-Jiao” factions. They only needed to toss out a couple of livestream clips, and countless people from outside the fandom would instantly fall into the rabbit hole—so smoothly that the CP fans who had been suppressed for the entire first phase almost wanted to cry tears of joy.
The Xing-Yun super-topic had long since rid itself of any trolls, and among the various materials mixed in were the cries of long-time fans and the shock of newcomers:
“Tears, family members, I never thought my CP would have a day where they were the ‘American Empire’ (top tier) QAQ.”
“Wuwuwu, crying tears of joy, thank you, Mom and Dad, wuwuwu. I didn’t even dare to speak during the first phase.”
“Actually, during the first phase, I always wanted to say that it was obvious Xing-Xing was jealous of MJ, and not jealous of President Yun at all… But I really didn’t dare to say it, afraid of being flamed by Jiao fans qwq.”
“??? No, I’m a new fan who joined yesterday. Ah?? Is Xing-Yun so real that we don’t even need to worry about anyone else’s opinion?? Are we watching the same variety show??”
“New fan +1. I thought Xing-Yun had always been a top-tier ship in the industry. Shocked, is there such a backstory? I was wondering why there were weird bullet comments jumping out in the livestream—shocked my whole family.”
Under the bright sunshine, Duan Xingge handed him a skewer of something. Yun Qi took it without looking, continued scrolling while eating, and then discovered an incredibly suspicious ID among them: “Bai Yun Ai Ai” (White Clouds and Snow).
Seeing this familiar ID, Yun Qi’s brow twitched, and an ominous premonition instantly rose within him.
He took a deep breath and clicked on that person’s homepage, and as expected, his vision went black.
The Weibo posts from this blogger could be traced back a month, and the content was exceptionally aggressive. Basically, it was all long-winded bickering with Ming Jiao’s fans; in other words, she had already begun fighting all-out in the Xing-Yun super-topic before the second phase even aired.
The environment in the super-topic at that time was naturally not comparable to the current one. However, facing such a dangerous situation, “Bai Yun Ai Ai” had still fought one against a hundred. To prove that “Xing-Yun” was real, she had posted many “insider revelations” that looked completely unbelievable:
“You don’t know sh*t. Even Xing-Xing’s name was chosen by his wife. Your ‘main idol’ calls him ‘Brother Xing’ every other word, and you have the face to name the CP ‘Xing-Jiao’? You stole someone else’s things and you still have the face to jump around!”
“Xing-Xing loves this name dearly; he even fought people for the sake of this name. Hey, I’m just asking, are you pissed off?”
“Who said 77 (Qi-Qi) doesn’t love him? If he didn’t, how could he have agreed when the ‘Duan Dog’ went crazy as a child and said he wanted to marry him as his wife?”
“Laughing to death, how could they have not kissed? Do you think that kid is some kind of Saint Liu Xiahui? He’s stolen kisses at least eight or ten times, but his wife probably doesn’t know.”
“Who is 77? That’s the nickname his wife gave him. The contact he saved before was even stickier than this—called ‘Wife-Qi’ (Wife-Yun Qi)—but the person himself probably doesn’t know because it’s too ridiculous and he’s afraid of being discovered. Right now, I reckon only the antique phone he keeps in his pocket still has that saved.”
“That antique phone was bought for him by his wife when he was in high school; why else would he treasure it so much?”
“Why is it an antique phone? Because if he had a smartphone, he’d want to call his wife ten times a day. He’d even go to the small classroom on the fifth floor during the big break to call. The dean of students passing by heard his incredibly sticky and coquettish voice and thought it was some pair of puppy-love students. When he pushed the door open, he realized it was someone carrying a mobile phone. He was caught red-handed and reported to the administration office. That’s why he had to change to an antique phone.”
“Why do I know so much? Because Xing-Xing told me himself to show off, of course. Otherwise, do you think I really sleep under their beds?”
With the broadcast of the second phase, countless passersby poured into the livestream room, and the public perception of the dating show underwent a 360-degree reversal. But even for those who were genuinely shipping Xing-Yun, not many really took “Bai Yun Ai Ai” seriously; instead, they regarded her Weibo as a special form of fanfiction.
Especially after the dating show ended at nine in the evening, many people started crying out for more on her Weibo:
“More, more! Teacher Ai Ai, please spread more rumors.”
“Wuwuwu, I’m starting to believe what Teacher said.”
“Xing-Xing was raised by President Yun; something similar must have happened in some parallel universe!! I don’t care! What Teacher Bai Yun said is the truth!!”
“Mom, calling his brother to call him even when taking a phone to school, wuwuwu, the puppy is real, I’m crying to death.”
“Does no one realize that it was the dean who caught President Yun, which is why Xing-Xing was forced to change his phone? Even if he was annoyed by Xing-Xing every day, he never thought about changing it! The mutual pursuit is so good, wuwuwu.”
“Ahhhhh, what kind of peerless sweet cookie is ‘Wife-Qi’!! But I also feel it’s so real, what do I do? I really want to believe it, Teacher Bai Yun, please say more! I’ll pay you!!”
Actually, if it had always been like this, it would be fine; everyone assumed she was just making things up, and “Bai Yun Ai Ai” herself didn’t refute it either.
Those who shared, shared; those who wanted a laugh, laughed. Since the Xing-Yun super-topic no longer had so many Ming Jiao fans, this matter was, at most, considered fan self-entertainment. No one took it seriously.
But the fatal part was that, yesterday evening, because “Bai Yun Ai Ai” got into an argument with someone and got heated, she directly forwarded that person’s comment and replied:
“Duan Xingge doesn’t like wearing suits at all. Who told you he likes wearing suits? When he lived with 77 in high school, he didn’t wear clothes at all. You weren’t even born yet when they were playing naked apron play.”
Such outrageous remarks were simply too ridiculous, so much so that the Ming Jiao fans, who had previously been quiet, couldn’t help but hang this comment of hers in their own super-topic, inevitably attracting a bunch of mockery:
“…What madness is this? Xing-Yun crazy lady.”
“This is the Jiao-bao super-topic; can you stop dumping all this obviously fake trash here?”
“They don’t even use abbreviations, truly awesome. And they dare to use DXG’s full name… previously calling him ‘Duan Dog,’ aren’t they afraid of being sued?”
“Nuts. ‘Xing-Xing’ saved ‘President Yun’ as ‘Wife-Qi’… how is this ‘beautiful wife’ literature related to them, the pure top 1s???”
“…When can the ‘American Empire’ fandom stop being so pungent? Can you stop being the ‘mom’ to our 1?”
They no longer dared to say anything in the Xing-Yun super-topic, only daring to mock her behind her back in their own. “Bai Yun Ai Ai,” however, tagged those comments one by one and replied directly:
“Your ‘Xing-Yun’ sister ate at a state banquet and you guys are this anxious? I advise you not to be anxious yet, or I’m afraid you’ll be anxious to death when my CP gets married.”
“Laughing to death. Do you believe he’s laughing behind the screen right now? Sue me? He’d be too busy kowtowing to me.”
“Yo, isn’t this the former American Empire Xing-Jiao sister? Haven’t seen you in a few days, you’ve become this pathetic?”
Her overly arrogant remarks and outrageous combat power made a bunch of people furious. However, aside from “Bai Yun Ai Ai” herself, it seemed that neither the Xing-Yun fans nor the Ming Jiao fans took her words seriously.
Only Yun Qi, who saw all this without a word, knew that everything was over.
He didn’t even have time to think about what exactly that bastard Duan Xingge had saved him as. When he expressionlessly logged out of this suspicious person’s comment section and turned back, as expected, the follower count of this Weibo account was growing geometrically.
Because of a single slip of the tongue by Yun Qi, those who had previously mocked “Bai Yun Ai Ai” for spreading rumors were now as if they had been slapped on the face. Even the fans who already liked watching “Bai Yun Ai Ai” go crazy never expected that what she said would be true.
After a brief shock, the netizens suddenly realized an even more incredible possibility—what if everything “Bai Yun Ai Ai” said was true?
As a result, the trending search, as expected, exploded.
Yun Qi took a deep breath and logged out of “Bai Yun Ai Ai”’s Weibo homepage, just in time to glance at the two new entries on the trending list: “Bai Yun Ai Ai Prophet” and “Naked Apron.”
Follow-up question: Would you like to proceed to the next chapter, or is there a specific interaction or plot detail you would like to analyze?