“Bang!” Ye Xinglan slammed the door shut, leaving Xiaoxi blinking helplessly alone in the room.
Ye Xinglan didn’t completely believe Xiaoxi’s excuse, of course, but she was surprised to find that her first reaction after hearing it wasn’t to judge its truthfulness—it was… feeling a bit wronged and angry.
Why was Xiaoxi hiding this kind of thing from her again? Was she really that untrustworthy in Xiaoxi’s eyes?
Of course, Ye Xinglan also knew that her outburst was somewhat unreasonable.
After all, Xiaoxi had no obligation to report every little thing she did to her, and it wasn’t really about trust.
To put it bluntly… what Xiaoxi did when she went out, who she met, what did that have to do with Ye Xinglan?
But Ye Xinglan just felt uncomfortable. She didn’t like the feeling of Xiaoxi going out to meet other people while keeping it a secret from her, as if she had some strange, unexplained possessiveness over Xiaoxi.
Could it be that I actually like this girl?
Ye Xinglan was startled by the thought that suddenly popped into her head.
—————
Time flew by quickly, and before long it was mid-month. During this time, Xiaoxi’s days were full and busy.
The little vacation the Association gave their team had ended, and Xiaoxi was back to her triple— no, now quadruple— life schedule.
Training Xiao Keke, working unpaid for the Association, serving as a maid, writing novels—Xiaoxi felt like she had become a master of time management.
After that incident, Xiaoxi mentioned to Xiao Keke during training, “Sorry, I think I grabbed the wrong item after bumping into someone that day,” and got Miss L to casually confirm, “Yes, Eternal Star does take supplements during training,” which barely helped smooth things over.
Besides that, there was something else that made Xiaoxi happy during this period—her novel’s stats were rising again!
Ever since she added the storyline Ye Xinglan suggested and kicked off the Blood Moon Witch arc, her novel’s data steadily increased, now even surpassing what it was before!
The Editor gave her a new recommendation and arranged for a recent launch, meaning Xiaoxi would soon be able to earn money from writing novels.
In response, Xiaoxi could only say… sweet! The cold dignity of a magical girl was finally turning into a warm bank balance.
As for Muxingge, she realized her plan to get along well with her teammates had completely failed, and lately Sirius’s attitude toward her had become increasingly respectful.
This left Ye Xinglan very frustrated. How strange—was she really such a fierce person? Why did Sirius always look so guilty and scared when facing her?
Xiaoxi shared this good news with Ye Xinglan, but Ye Xinglan didn’t seem very interested.
Xiaoxi wasn’t sure if it was just her imagination, but ever since she explained that she had been helping Eternal Star, Ye Xinglan’s attitude toward her had cooled quite a bit.
However, Xiaoxi didn’t dwell on it since she had been very busy lately.
Su Ying’s café business was getting better and better, and Xiaoxi had to find time to prepare her novel drafts for launch.
Every day was exhausting.
Until today after work, Su Ying suddenly called out to Xiaoxi as she was about to leave.
“Xiaoxi, your salary from last month has been transferred to your card. Remember to check if it’s arrived.”
Xiaoxi was momentarily stunned—had she really been working at Su Ying’s place for a whole month? She had been so busy lately that she’d lost track of time.
But getting paid was always a good thing. Xiaoxi eagerly opened her phone and saw a notification of 4000 yuan credited to her bank card, letting out a small “Huh?”
“Manager, did you transfer too much? My monthly salary was supposed to be 3100, right?”
“No mistake. Did you forget the agreement we made? Besides the base salary, you get extra commission for maid services.”
“Xinglan used to come by almost every day to see you. Although she hasn’t been coming much recently… but that commission alone adds up to several hundred yuan.”
“Oh, and I set up a Nightingale Café social media account where we often post videos and do promotions. I’m sharing half of the income from that account with you, so the final total is correct.”
Su Ying smiled, “Most of the popular videos are actually of you, so you deserve half of that money.”
Xiaoxi nodded, not refusing. No wonder the café’s business had been improving— seems like the manager really knew her way around business.
What surprised Xiaoxi even more was that her Feng Li Bao royalties were also paid today.
After she got home, her bank account showed another deposit of 2,500 yuan.
Of that, 300 yuan was her contract attendance bonus, and the rest were gifts tipped by Ye Xinglan.
After taxes and platform fees, more than two thousand yuan remained, which meant Ye Xinglan had initially tipped her quite a lot.
Xiaoxi felt like a parched land receiving sweet rain, but thinking it over, almost half of that money seemed to have come from Ye Xinglan’s wallet… so she really hadn’t escaped being spoiled by the little rich girl, had she?
Xiaoxi sighed, sat down at her computer, and did some math. Although her two incomes added up to over six thousand, she still had a lot of debt.
First, she owed Ye Xinglan six thousand yuan for two months’ rent, but after moving in together, Ye Xinglan had halved her share of the rent.
Including this month’s rent, it was a total of 7,500 yuan, plus the money she had advanced for buying her phone…
Looking at the numbers, her monthly salary wasn’t even enough to cover the debt, meaning she would have to repay Ye Xinglan in installments.
Xiaoxi decided to pay Ye Xinglan part of it first. But just as she was in a good mood and pushed open Ye Xinglan’s door, she found the little rich girl passionately gaming.
“Push forward! My ultimate skill is on a two-second cooldown, let’s just fight them directly!”
“Hey, hey, someone’s flanking from the back, defend!”
“Oh, never mind, teammate caught them…”
Ye Xinglan was in the heat of battle. Xiaoxi didn’t want to disturb her and could only wait for her to finish.
The little rich girl’s gaming addiction had only grown stronger lately.
At first, she had started playing this game to beat up magical girls, but recently, she seemed to be fully immersed.
Xiaoxi knew Ye Xinglan had joined a guild in the game.
These days, she mostly played with online friends, chatting excitedly through voice chat for hours on end.
Only after the keyboard clacking and voice chat noises stopped did Xiaoxi re-enter the room.
Ye Xinglan was done playing and now had QQ open on her computer, chatting.
Xiaoxi happened to glance at a couple of recent messages.
“Is tomorrow okay? It looks like everyone’s free then.”
“Tomorrow afternoon works. I’m going shopping with my mom in the morning, so I can bring some small gifts~”
“Okay, then it’s set for tomorrow afternoon. Where should we meet? Any preferences?”
The last message was from Ye Xinglan.
After pressing Enter, she took off her headphones and turned to look at Xiaoxi with a somewhat awkward expression.
“Something on your mind?”