“I never thought after all these years, it would end up back in my hands.”
“Maybe this is fate, tsk tsk tsk!!”
At dusk, inside the rented room, Ji Yuennian leisurely toyed with the silver bell in his hand, letting out a sigh.
He recalled how, back then, his mother had asked him to befriend Jiang Chi.
At the time, he had the silver bell that matched the golden one and planned to give it as a birthday gift, hoping to make a friend.
But who would have thought that brat Jiang Chi was so cold and distant? After receiving the bell, he didn’t recognize anyone, kept to himself, and never joined the small group led by Ji Yuennian.
Add to that some other reasons, and before long, the two had become sworn enemies.
After some thought, Ji Yuennian placed the bell on the table and immediately opened his computer.
It had been two weeks since his last livestream; surely, his small fan group of only two hundred followers must be waiting eagerly.
Uh… or maybe they’d all left by now, and he was completely done for.
First, he sent invitations to his two little moderators, then tagged all the members.
One after another, more than fifty people left the group, leaving just over a hundred.
Ji Yuennian leaned back in his gaming chair, stretching his body.
Then…
Genshin Impact, launch!!
Ji Yuennian’s gaming skills were nothing special—just average at best—but his charm lay in his speech.
He could slam the enemies and at the same time, roast his allies.
Nowadays, the skill aspect mattered less; the livestream was mostly about interaction with fans—in plain terms, talk smack and create entertainment.
【Chi Dragon Baby Loves Bathing sent Bright Moon Pearls x100!】
【Chi Dragon Baby Loves Bathing sent Bright Moon Pearls x100!】
【Chi Dragon Baby Loves Bathing sent Bright Moon Pearls x100!】
…
Suddenly, dozens of reward notifications flooded the screen, densely packed and overlapping; at first glance, one might have thought it was a network lag.
Ji Yuennian was momentarily stunned.
One pearl equals one unit, and sending a hundred at once, happening over ten times, amounted to nearly twenty thousand.
Even with the platform splitting the earnings in half and taxes, he would still get eight or nine thousand from this stream.
Was his little moderator this enthusiastic?
【Embracing Moon: @Chi Baby, you… no network delay, right?】
【Chi Dragon Baby Loves Bathing: Who gave you that bell?!】
Bell? Ji Yuennian blinked, then picked up the silver bell and shook it gently toward the camera.
The crisp, clear ringing echoed through the livestream.
“You mean this one?”
“A friend gave it to me.”
“Chi Baby, what’s wrong?”
Elsewhere, in his bedroom, the boy’s azure eyes fixed sharply on the screen.
If eyes could radiate warmth, then right now, his gaze was melting a big hole in the display.
Listening to the neutral voice clearly processed through a voice changer coming from the livestream, the boy’s blue eyes dimmed.
His slender fingers tapped the keyboard with a “click-clack” sound.
【Chi Dragon Baby Loves Bathing: Embracing Moon, which province are you from?】
【Embracing Moon: Where my mom gave birth to me. That’s reason enough JPG】
The boy’s lips twitched slightly.
Before he could ask more, another message popped up.
【Embracing Moon: Chi Baby, what are you doing? I already said, I’m a guy!】
【Embracing Moon: No offline meetups, definitely no Nantong, and my family is rich. If you want to use money to blackmail me, I’ll refund you in full right now!!】
He withdrew his fingers from the keyboard, deleting the unsent message “Ji Qingchan, is that you?”
Jiang Chi gently pressed his hand against his chest.
His blazing, boiling heart felt tightly gripped by someone, almost suffocating.
Calm down, calm down.
It was just a guess, merely a guess.
The world was vast; what was a silver bell? Besides, this silver bell wasn’t unique—any large mall sold them by the box.
Embracing Moon wasn’t necessarily her.
But… it was only not necessarily…
After a long silence, Jiang Chi quietly typed a line.
【Chi Dragon Baby Loves Bathing: Embracing Moon, send me a gift.】
Ji Yuennian: ???
Inside the rented room, Ji Yuennian scratched his head.
Could his little moderator’s thought process really leap this much? One moment asking which province he was from, the next flat out asking for a gift.
Wait!
A lightning-fast idea flashed in Ji Yuennian’s mind—an extremely bold and twisted suspicion.
He remembered that he had once joined a streamer group chat and heard some twisted top spenders demanding streamers give them personal clothes as gifts, threatening refunds if denied.
Those clothes were rumored to be used for some unspeakably perverted things, rivaling the fetishes from a certain Xue Bingcheng’s foot-smelling milk tea!
Could it be…
Ji Yuennian glanced at the comment in the chat and hissed.
Was he really running into an old pervert from Nantong?
Being kissed by that bastard Jiang Chi while female was one thing—just the cost of future witnessing Jiang Chi’s tears and breakdowns.
But if he was male and got stalked by an old man? Just thinking about it gave him goosebumps.
【Embracing Moon: Uh… gifts are fine, but no clothes.】
No clothes, huh.
The boy hesitated slightly while typing: 【Chi Dragon Baby Loves Bathing: Then I want that silver bell of yours.】
【Embracing Moon: That’s not okay either; a friend gave it to me! It has sentimental value.】
【Chi Dragon Baby Loves Bathing: Then pillows, blankets, sheets, anything from the bed is fine.】
Hiss! The whole bedding set!
Ji Yuennian drew in a sharp breath.
Damn it! Was he really running into the old pervert from Nantong?
【Embracing Moon: No way! I’m very sentimental about my stuff.】
【Chi Dragon Baby Loves Bathing: Then…】
In the end, after a round of bickering, Jiang Chi obtained a desk lamp, and Ji Yuennian hastily ended the livestream—clearly spooked by the “old Nantong” lurking on the other side.
Meanwhile, in his bedroom, Jiang Chi stared at the now-closed livestream for a long time, unable to regain his composure.
Embracing Moon? Qingchan?
Yueming Qingchan?
Could they be the same person?
If so, the boy pulled a photo from his drawer—a picture of “Ji Qingchan” cosplaying as Xiao Qing, taken during the piano recital they had attended.
“Qingchan, if that really is you, then…”
Jiang Chi stared fixedly at the girl in the photo, a hint of manic loneliness curling his lips.
“We really are fated!”
…
As night deepened, the city’s nightlife quietly unfolded.
Inside a bedroom of an apartment building, the boy carefully locked the door.
He put on special headphones, his gaze fixed firmly on the computer screen, which was playing the last video of “Ji Qingchan’s” handiwork.
He had mentioned before that Jiang Chi had filmed the entire session, the camera focusing on the girl’s flushed, enchanting face.
Perhaps because it was filmed like a documentary, the video wobbled slightly, just like the boy’s trembling body at this moment.
He stared intensely at the screen, his eyes dark yet burning like a cold flame flickering in the darkness.
His sharp jaw clenched tightly, his cold and elegant thin lips slightly parted, breathing growing heavier by the second.
Suddenly, a splash of fish breaking the water shattered the night’s silence, the droplets landing on the beautiful girl’s face and her cherry-red lips on the screen.
Then, silence fell again, endless and profound.
The rolling waves hit the shore with a deep, rhythmic sound.