Night fell.
Li Xu gazed at the ingredients she had prepared not far away, lost in thought.
The full set of livestream equipment in the Bookroom was on standby.
Her phone buzzed incessantly.
Black-and-White Anime Avatar kept sending her messages.
Zhou Yi: [Where are you?]
Zhou Yi: [We agreed to connect at 6 PM tonight. It’s been ten minutes, and the Livestream Room is packed.]
Zhou Yi: [Wuwuwu, sis, don’t bail on me!]
Zhou Yi was a male internet celebrity she met online during her own livestreams.
A handsome guy, all about his looks.
She had just casually uploaded a few videos of herself eating online, not expecting to become an overnight sensation.
Her refined eating manners and unusually large appetite formed a striking contrast that left viewers stunned.
But with her awkward personality, she couldn’t handle the overwhelming attention from the internet.
Since she always wore sunglasses, never showed her face, and rarely interacted with fans, her followers weren’t very loyal—most just clicked in to watch the hype after her videos went viral.
Zhou Yi was different. His persona was that of a handsome college guy who could dance street dance and looked good doing it, with a dedicated fan club and a Support Group.
He really knew how to work the scene and stir up trending events—last time, when he did a PK and got connected to Li Xu, who was quietly slurping noodles, instead of being shocked or mocking her like other streamers, he gently told Li Xu to eat less and take care of her health after a brief moment of surprise.
That move instantly drew many viewers from Li Xu’s Livestream Room to follow him.
When they checked out his homepage, they saw all kinds of dance and body-revealing videos, and couldn’t help but call him a living male Bodhisattva.
Zhou Yi hadn’t expected that just one offhand comment would bring over more than a thousand new viewers to his Livestream Room.
Usually, he only had about three thousand viewers online.
He made up his mind right then—he had to catch this wave of traffic.
He immediately followed Li Xu’s Moyin account, pitifully begged for a follow back, and even pretended to really like her, saying he wanted to add her as a Wechat friend.
The managed Li Xu was still that insecure, sensitive girl who’d never seen the world, and couldn’t resist Zhou Yi’s combo move—her face flushed as she followed him back and added him on Wechat.
After all, Zhou Yi really was good-looking, and his looks were deceiving. Being gazed at so gently through the screen left her dizzy and dazed.
After adding him on Wechat, Zhou Yi kept coming up with ways to interact with Li Xu.
For example, liking each other’s new videos, flirting in the comment sections.
And often connecting to chat during livestreams.
At first, fans on both sides thought Zhou Yi was just playing around, but as time went on, people started to sense something was off—this high-intensity interaction every day, was there really something going on?
That wouldn’t do.
Catcat Xu and Zhou Yi were a perfect match—hopelessly so.
Catcat Xu was Li Xu’s online name.
If the two really started dating, wouldn’t that be like a flower stuck in a pile of dung? Zhou Yi’s fangirls went berserk, especially some older sisters in the Livestream Room.
They formed groups to insult Li Xu, warning her not to reach above her station and dream of a prince, even accusing her of fake eating, inducing vomiting, and promoting binge eating.
Such vicious comments made Li Xu miserable, so she timidly sought Zhou Yi’s help.
But Zhou Yi just told her—it’s fine, don’t mind it, it’s all for the traffic.
On top of that, he asked if she’d be willing to “act” with him, so both of them could get more exposure. As for Li Xu’s emotional struggles, Zhou Yi was a bit confused.
In his eyes—negative attention was still attention, and Li Xu didn’t have a sticky fanbase anyway, so instead of trying to build positive connections with fans, it was better to grow her numbers—even haters were fans, and black fame was still fame.
After learning Zhou Yi’s true thoughts, Li Xu’s heart shattered. Just as she was about to refuse his proposal, Zhou Yi video-called her, and Li Xu, flustered, grabbed her sunglasses and answered the call.
On the video call, Zhou Yi still gave her that deceptively puppy-like gaze and said, “Sis, are we really going to just let it end like this? Even if we can’t really date, I do like you a lot and think you’re a great girl.”
Those words hit Li Xu right in the heart, and she nodded almost as if bewitched. “Actually, I don’t mind acting. I… admire you too.”
***
After hanging up, Zhou Yi immediately sent her a series of plans for their “performance.”
Including, but not limited to, daily scheduled joint livestreams, offline meetups, and helping Li Xu with Cloud Weight Loss, etc.
And today—the day Li Xu returned—was supposed to be the first day of their stable joint livestreams.
It was now a little past 6:10 PM Beijing time. Their scheduled time was 6 PM.
Li Xu stood in front of her computer chair, thinking for a moment, then picked up her phone, started the livestream, and replied to Zhou Yi: [Don’t rush, I’m coming.]
She hadn’t changed clothes, still wearing a loose black T-shirt.
She put on the black sunglasses from the livestream table, and once the stream loaded, the fan count in the upper right corner quickly jumped from zero to over 100, and kept rising rapidly.
Soon, someone sent a bullet comment.
[Where’s today’s meal?]
[My food’s ready—where’s the streamer’s meal?]
[What are you eating today? I’m having stir-fried pork with green peppers and smashed chili with century egg.]
[I’m having pork trotter rice and classic pearl milk tea.]
[Food, food, food!]
The calls for food grew louder.
Actually, today—she had bought a basket of seafood and planned to make marinated raw seafood. She’d found the recipe online.
If Li Xu hadn’t returned from the novel world, the managed Li Xu would be sitting at the computer desk, eating away with gusto.
“Sorry, I overslept today………….”
She explained with a straight face.
“The shrimp and crabs are still in the kitchen. Dinner’s not settled yet.”
“Go check the kitchen and you’ll see.”
Saying that, Li Xu picked up her phone and headed to the kitchen, switching to rear camera mode. All the ingredients in the kitchen were untouched.
It seemed she wasn’t lying—she really had overslept.
Usually, Li Xu didn’t talk much, but today she was more talkative, and less shy than usual.
“I’ve been eating too much lately, so I plan to eat healthier. What do you all think?”
Her voice was pleasant, a cool and melodious tone that didn’t match her appearance or figure.
Especially now, speaking with a hint of a smile, she seemed calm and at ease, handling this livestream mishap with poise and skill—totally unlike her former timid self.
[Eat healthier? Are you giving up on streaming?]
[No way, I only get hungry watching you eat!]
[When I can’t see your face, your voice is so nice.]
[Fat people always have nice voices, right?]
[You can’t tell someone’s fat just by their voice (crying emoji)]
Li Xu returned to the Bookroom and turned the camera back to herself.
At that moment, a request for joint livestream from Zhou Yi popped up on the screen.
Li Xu didn’t hesitate and clicked accept.
After accepting, the livestream interface split into two screens.
Li Xu was on the left, Zhou Yi on the right.
Zhou Yi really was good-looking—clean and fresh style, handsome features, and with the Livestream Room lighting and Moyin’s beauty filters, his six-out-of-ten face became an eight, and with his outfit and atmospheric BGM, that eight became an easy eight and a half.
[Why is he connecting with her again?]
[No, please, can’t I have Zhou Yi all to myself? Why does he have to flirt with that fatty? I can’t stand it.]
Every time they connected for a joint stream, when Zhou Yi’s screen appeared, Li Xu would freeze for a moment and act so lovestruck it was obvious.
The Livestream Room would always burst into “hahaha” laughter at her, but this time, when the haters and those who just watched for fun were ready to mock her, they realized Li Xu didn’t act smitten at all—she just glanced at Zhou Yi’s screen and calmly looked away.
[Where’s today’s fangirl moment?]
[Pretending to be calm? I bet she’s staring at Zhou Yi under those sunglasses, lovestruck as ever.]
[Catcat Xu and dogs are not allowed near Zhou Yi!!]
Even Zhou Yi was surprised, since he was used to Li Xu silently swooning over him for the first few minutes of every joint stream.
But today, she didn’t.
Li Xu looked at Zhou Yi with composure, waiting for him to speak.
This was different from before.
The old Li Xu would nervously try to make conversation with Zhou Yi, terrified of awkward silences, but not this time.
***
In the end, Zhou Yi couldn’t stand the silence and took the initiative. “Why were you late? And aren’t you eating today?”
He pretended to sound very concerned, but Li Xu raised her eyebrow, catching the insincerity in his tone. “Didn’t you say you wanted to supervise my weight loss?”
Zhou Yi: “Huh? You’re starting now? I was going to make a plan for you.”
Zhou Yi never thought Li Xu was joking—based on their past interactions, Li Xu was never the type to joke with him, more like a boring block of wood who’d even stutter if she spoke.
But as soon as he finished, Li Xu let out a soft laugh.
“Just kidding, streamer. I just overslept.”
“But you sent me so many Wechat messages, I thought it was something urgent.”
Li Xu’s words sent both livestream audiences’ imaginations running wild.
[What’s with all those Wechat messages? Is someone losing their mind?]
[What did he send? So curious. Does Zhou Yi really care about Catcat Xu that much?]
[Hiss, hiss, hiss—no food today, but the romance is so spicy!]
[I’d believe it snows in August before I believe Zhou Yi really likes Catcat Xu. Wake up! As the female lead, can’t you focus on your career? Seriously, I’m speechless.]
Just as she finished, Li Xu’s Wechat chimed.
Sure enough, Zhou Yi sent a message: [?]
Zhou Yi: [Sis, are you talking about me?]
Li Xu simply replied with one word: [Mm]
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