Chapter 17: Holding Hands

Cai Xiaotong and Zhao Dandan only continued to answer several more questions incorrectly one after another and accepted a few more punishments.

They were nothing more than small punishments such as stroking the other party’s head or telling a joke to make a few audience members laugh, which added quite a bit of spectacle to the game.

Before long the two of them attracted many visitors to come and watch. 

The cold and deserted atmosphere at the center of the stage just earlier had completely vanished at this moment.

In the end the two of them also smoothly finished answering all the questions and exchanged for the rewards belonging to them.

Cai Xiaotong chose a standing plaque of a character from Girls Band Cry, while Zhao Dandan selected a flopping plushie.

“Yurou, we’re going to the bathroom first to wash our faces. Good luck.”

After coming down from the stage, Cai Xiaotong first put both her own and her older cousin’s prizes into her own bag, because her older cousin had not brought a bag.

Then she encouraged Bai Yurou. 

She went with Zhao Dandan to the bathroom to wash off the drawings they had just drawn on each other’s faces.

For some reason, Bai Yurou always felt that the “good luck” Cai Xiaotong had just said carried some deeper meaning.

It seemed not like encouragement for her to complete the game, but rather had other deeper implications.

The host big sister saw the audience currently surrounding them and was especially satisfied. 

In order to continue maintaining the popularity on the stage, she hurriedly picked up the microphone and said:

“Alright, next we invite the next pair of big sisters to come up.”

“Let’s go.”

Bai Yurou spoke as she subconsciously took hold of Ning Mu’s hand.

It was still so soft—the palm was soft, the finger joints slender, like holding a ball of warm cotton.

Wrong!

Bai Yurou instantly realized she had somewhat overstepped. Right now she was not Lin Ye, but only Bai Yurou who had just become friends with Ning Mu.

For the former Lin Ye, occasionally holding his little sister’s hand while walking on the road was nothing. 

His little sister would even proactively let him hold it. 

But for the current Bai Yurou, with the current relationship between the two of them, was doing this too abrupt?

She thought Ning Mu would instantly fling her hand away, then use cold words to say to her,

“Miss Bai Yurou, please conduct yourself with dignity.”

Then the friend relationship she had worked so hard to establish would all be reset to zero, and the two of them would once again become strangers.

As a result, unexpectedly, Ning Mu did not fling her hand away as imagined and only allowed her to hold it.

Perhaps for Ning Mu, holding hands between ordinary friends was very normal.

Since Ning Mu had not proactively flung it away, if she suddenly stopped holding it, it would instead make her look like she had a guilty conscience.

Bai Yurou could only continue somewhat awkwardly holding Ning Mu’s hand as she walked onto the stage, then released it under the pretense of acting natural.

Next time I must definitely pay attention. Right now I am only Bai Yurou. Some actions from when I interacted with Ning Mu in the identity of Lin Ye must be restrained.

Bai Yurou secretly made up her mind.

On the other side, the host noticed the two of them’s actions:

“It seems our two big sisters are very good best friends. Do you have confidence in the upcoming challenge?”

Then she handed the microphone to Bai Yurou.

“I’ll do my best.”

Bai Yurou did not deliberately correct the word “best friends” and only gave the shortest answer regarding whether she had confidence.

“I do, because I believe in her strength.”

Ning Mu likewise did not proactively correct it.

“You just said you believe in the other party. Then what about yourself?”

The host big sister continued asking based on Ning Mu’s answer just now.

“To be honest, my knowledge in this area is still very weak, so I can only receive punishments together with her. But in terms of answering questions, I still have to trouble her.”

“Then what about you, big sister? Your good friend trusts you so much. Do you have anything you want to say?”

The host big sister once again guided the question toward Bai Yurou based on Ning Mu’s answer just now.

“I’ll strive to answer every question correctly and not let down my teammate’s trust.”

Bai Yurou did not dare to take an inch and proactively use the word “best friend.” 

The matter of holding hands just now had not yet passed, and she still did not know Ning Mu’s specific attitude. 

So she only formulaically answered, using the word “teammate” to refer to Ning Mu.

“Then let’s begin the game.”

The host saw that the interview segment was about enough. 

Chatting more seemed unable to chat out anything else, so she directly began the game.

“First question: In Demon Slayer, who is the current Water Hashira?”

Bai Yurou answered without thinking:

“Tomioka Giyu.”

Just earlier when she watched Cai Xiaotong and Zhao Dandan’s answering segment, she had discovered that the first few questions of this game were all relatively mainstream questions. 

Bai Yurou had basically watched them all, so answering correctly was not a big problem.

Later it would be some relatively older and niche works. Many of them she had not even heard of.

As she expected, the next few questions were all relatively mainstream works.

“What is the name of the Titan that Eren Yeager transforms into?”

“What instrument is responsible for being played by Kousaka Kumiko in the concert band?”

“In Revue Starlight, what is the name of the revue between Aijo Karen and Isurugi Futaba?”

“What is the song with which μ’s won the championship in Love Live!?”

Bai Yurou had watched all of these works and answered with ease.

“In Detective Conan, what is Amuro Toru’s code name in the Black Organization?”

The moment Bai Yurou heard this question, the answer was about to slip out of her mouth.

However, she forced the answer that had reached her lips back down and only looked toward Ning Mu.

Ning Mu naturally understood Bai Yurou’s meaning. She wanted her to answer.

This question just happened to be the only question whose answer she knew from the moment she went on stage until now.

“Bourbon.”

Ning Mu said.

“Alright. It seems our Nikaido Shiro big sister has also successfully answered the first question.”

The host big sister said with a smile, addressing her using the character Ning Mu was cosplaying as, Shiro.

“Mm. I know the answer to this question.”

Ning Mu naturally knew that Nikaido Shiro was referring to her and normally responded.

After that the questions all returned to being answered by Bai Yurou. 

The difficulty gradually increased, and before long a question that Bai Yurou did not know appeared.

“In Saki, which character possesses the ability of Future Sight?”

Bai Yurou had not watched this anime and could only randomly guess the only Saki character she knew.

“Haramura Nodoka?”

“Wrong. The answer is Sonohara Rei.”

The host big sister secretly rejoiced inside. Finally they had answered wrong.

Such two beautiful big sisters—if they left without doing a single punishment, it would be an enormous loss for this game.

“Next, according to the game rules, the two big sisters must turn the gacha machine and carry out the corresponding punishment according to the slip of paper inside the capsule.”

The host big sister reminded in a black-bellied manner.

Bai Yurou looked toward Ning Mu.

“You turn it?”

Just earlier it had always been her answering the questions. 

Although Ning Mu had answered one, Bai Yurou’s participation in this game far exceeded hers. In order to give Ning Mu more of a sense of participation, Bai Yurou gave the opportunity to turn the gacha to Ning Mu.

“Alright.”

Ning Mu did not say much more. She seemed to understand Bai Yurou’s intention and only walked in front of the gacha machine, gently turning the handle.

Through the transparent cover, one could see the gacha capsules inside rapidly tumbling. In the end a blue gacha capsule dropped out.

Ning Mu picked up the gacha capsule from the opening, twisted it open, and began reading the slip of paper on it.

Then Bai Yurou saw Ning Mu’s face turn a bit red and read out the slip of paper above with a somewhat trembling voice:

“One player kisses the other player’s cheek, lasting no less than ten seconds.”