Chapter 9: Name and Crush

Exchanging contact information with athletes is a boon for reporters, so Yun Duo had no reason to refuse. She pulled out her phone and said humbly, "Then, shall I scan your WeChat QR code?" She did not dare to ask directly for their phone numbers — it would be so awkward if that request was rejected.

The four athletes whipped their handphones out.

Yun Duo scanned each phone one by one, starting with Qi Rui-Feng, and then Tang Yi-Bai. After she scanned Tang Yi-Bai's code, she heard him emit a soft hum, tone rising at the end in confusion. It was so soft that she wasn't sure if it wasn't just her imagination.

She lifted her head to look at him and saw that he was looking at her through half-lidded eyes, his lips pressed together in a small smile, as if he were trying not to laugh.

Yun Duo could not see any reason for it, so she could only focus on scanning the code of the next person, Zheng Ling-Ye. And then, Zheng Ling-Ye also gave her a strange look.

She could not help but touch her face. Could it be that there was some dirt on her face?

The last one to be scanned was Ming Tian. When Ming Tian saw the friend request, he finally unveiled the mystery for Yun Duo. "Big sis, your WeChat name is 'Yi Duo Bai Yun' (One White Cloud)一朵白云: I only kept the pinyin here because it is necessary for you all to understand the context for the subsequent lines in this chapter. After this, if her username comes up again, I will just use 'One White Cloud'.? Your name plus big brother Yi-Bai's name? Hehe, you have me and I have you, sticking as close as lacquer and glue ~~ oomph!" He was planning to say more, but his mouth had been muffled.

Tang Yi-Bai's arm had stretched past Qi Rui-Feng to cover Ming Tian's mouth. Without batting an eye, he said calmly, "Good vocabularyActually, the closer translation would be 'you learned your idioms well', but I wanted to keep the rhyme in Ming Tian's speech earlier, so I did not go with an English idiom to replace the Chinese one. As a result, it makes more sense here to just praise Ming Tian on his use of the word 'lacquer'. Seriously, how may 16 year olds would know a word like that? :p."

Qi Rui-Feng looked thoughtfully at Yun Duo, and he suddenly said, "So you also have a crush on Tang Yi-Bai?" Even though he stated it in the form of a question, his expression was one of realisation.

"No!" Yun Duo was so embarrassed. She had already been using this username for a long time, while she had only gotten to know Tang Yi-Bai within the past few days. Besides, who would so blatantly write the name of the person they were crushing on into their social media account handle? Would that still be considered a secret crush?

Still, how could she explain this ...? Yun Duo found her head aching.

Qi Rui-Feng very obviously did not believe Yun Duo's denials. On top of that, from his expression, Yun Duo could read 'I'm so cool, handsome, suave, and amazing and yet you actually choose to crush on Tang Yi-Bai instead of me — you must really have empty sockets for eyes' ... it conveyed a wealth of information.

It wasn't just Qi Rui-Feng — Zheng Ling-Ye and Ming Tian looked like they did not believe her either. They stared inquisitively at Yun Duo, faces filled with the desire for gossip.

Yun Duo fortified herself mentally and said to Qi Rui-Feng, "It really is just a coincidence. I've already used this username for a long time. You also know that I'm your loyal fan, so how can I have a crush on Tang Yi-Bai, right?"

Qi Rui-Feng nodded. "Well, that's true."

As Yun Duo finished speaking, her gaze turned to Tang Yi-Bai. At this time, Tang Yi-Bai had already put down the hand that had been muffling Ming Tian. He wiped his hand several times over Ming Tian's clothes before pulling it back, coolly putting it into a pocket even as he smiled at Yun Duo.

Yun Duo suddenly found herself feeling somewhat annoyed. She really did not feel like seeing Tang Yi-Bai's smile at all right now. She had no way of explaining any further, otherwise she would just be digging a deeper hole for herself越描越黑: The original Chinese phrase is actually '(make things) blacker the more one explains'..

After saying goodbye to the group of four, Yun Duo swiped her thumb over the screen of her mobile phone, contemplating whether she should change her WeChat name. After grappling with the issue for a while, she decided not to change it. If she did, it would just be taken as a sign of a guilty conscience此地无银三百两: The original phrase here translates literally to 'there isn't 300 taels of silver buried here'. This is in reference to a story in which a thief buries some stolen silver and then, out of fear that someone else would come uncover and take his silver away, he foolishly put up a sign marking the spot with this phrase over it., so she might as well just let it go.

And then, she pulled up her friends' list to look at the names she had just added.

Qi Rui-Feng's WeChat name was 'Qi Rui-Frenzy祁睿疯: In Chinese, Qi Rui-Feng's WeChat name is only one character different from his real name (祁睿峰). Both characters are pronounced the same way, but they have different meanings. His real name 峰 can mean 'peak' (as in a mountain peak), while the 疯 in his username means 'mania/frenzy'.'.

Tang Yi-Bai's WeChat name was 'A White Streak Among the Waves浪里一白条: If you all still remember what Tang Yi-Bai's name looks like from the footnote explaining Yun Duo's username, you'll see that the two characters of his given name are also here in his own username.'.

Ming Tian's WeChat name was 'Special Cat Yo'.

Zheng Ling-Ye's WeChat name was 'Zheng Ling-Yeah!Like Qi Rui-Feng's username, Zheng Ling-Ye's username has a different final character than his real name. Meaning should be obvious from the translation, and the exclamation mark is part of the username.'.

Yun Duo's lips twitched. Compared against these people, her name was the most normal of the bunch, wasn't it?

After the closing ceremony, Yun Duo's job here was done. That very night, Yun Duo took a flight back to City-B. She had no interview assignments the next day, so she would have to go in to the office for work.

However, before she could even sit long enough to warm her seat, she received a summons from Director Liu. Yun Duo knew that a summons from this director was sure to be a bad thing.

Sure enough, although it had been quite a number of days since then, Director Liu still bore a grudge over her violation of a taboo. He completely ignored everything she had achieved these past few days, lambasting her without mercy. From her work attitude to her future, from professional ethics to the image of the agency ... and then he sternly warned her to be grateful, telling her that there were plenty of people in line just waiting to take some of those things she did not want ... blah blah blah ...

Yun Duo said nothing throughout, bearing Director Liu's spit in silence, secretly puzzled. Although Director Liu's bad temper was infamous within the agency, he was a very busy man. There were so many things he had to do every day — there was no reason for him to still be fixated on such a trivial thing after so many days, insistent on tearing into her for it. Moreover, with the exception of this issue, her work performance over the last couple of days should have been pretty good. Well, at least good enough to offset some of Director Liu's anger, so why were the results not as she had expected ... Yun Duo was mired in deep confusion.

With great trouble, she finally managed to extricate herself from Director Liu's office. She silently wiped the sweat from her forehead and then went to look for Teacher Sun to report the situation to him. After Teacher Sun heard what she had to say, he looked around to see if the coast was clear, and then he suddenly beckoned Yun Duo closer with a hooked finger.

Yun Duo understood and shifted closer to him, and then Teacher Sun said in a volume that only the two of them could hear, "This matter ... there's an 80% chance that someone has been stirring up trouble上眼药: Interestingly enough, the original phrase here is 'has applied eye drops for you'. When I looked it up on Baidu, the explanation given was that the phrase comes from the idea of how medicinal eye drops, when applied unnecessarily to a healthy patient, can be irritating rather than beneficial. As such, when someone has 'applied eye drops' for you, they are doing things that can cause you discomfort, typically in the form of slander, gossip-mongering, or tattling to a superior. for you.

"Eh?" Yun Duo could not really believe it. "Why?"

Teacher Sun was a little exasperated. "Do you still need to ask? You must've offended someone."

"I've offended someone? Who have I offended ...?" Yun Duo was baffled. She rubbed the back of her head and said, "I'm a newbie, my existence is like that of an ant. Who could I have offended? Who would I have dared to offend?"

"Don't ask me. If I knew, I would have told you long ago. Think about it for yourself. It could be something you did or said normally, maybe even just a look that offended that person."

Yun Duo found herself even more perplexed than before. After thanking Teacher Sun, she quietly went back to her seat for a round of deep reflection.

After a full day of contemplation, she still had not found an answer. After work, she went to look for Chen Si-Qi. It was rare for the both of them to be free, so they went out together for dinner as well as to vent to each other. Chen Si-Qi was Yun Duo's classmate from university. She had leapt into the entertainment industry with great passion right after graduation, doing her part in the grand duty of delivering gossip to the masses.

That's right, she was, at present, an entertainment reporter.

There were many people who felt that being an entertainment journalist was not a proper career. However, in Yun Duo's opinion, Chen Si-Qi was someone with her own ideals. When it came time for the students from their year to look for a job, other than the locals, the rest of them had set 'City-B residence permit' and 'full-time position' as the primary selection conditions in their searches. In particular, the 'City-B residence permit' part had practically became a lingering trauma for the graduates.

Except for Chen Si-Qi.

Chen Si-Qi was from Province-T. Her ambition was to be an entertainment journalist when she entered the first year of university, and when she graduated in year four, her ambition remained the same. For this reason, when she had sent out her resume, she had never troubled herself with thoughts of 'residence permits' or 'terms of contract'. Instead, she had targeted those agencies with great presence in the gossip circles. And now that her ambition had been achieved, she was living her life with great happiness.

If someone had a clear goal and was unwavering in its pursuit, immersed in the joy it brought to them, even if their goal was merely to empty dung buckets, they would still be people with ideals of the highest order.

In contrast, Yun Duo had always wanted to do something related to documentaries, but even before she could step foot into the workforce, she had already been infected by the panic of the others around her. Add to that the pressure from her mom calling her every day, in the end, she had also fallen into the torrent of those 'seeking residence permits' and had been unable to extricate herself.

The results could be considered good — she got what she asked for. Now, she was a full-time employee at a news publication agency, and she had obtained her City-B residence permit. This outcome was an absolute victory among the horde of her peers seeking jobs.

As for the passion she had for her job ... hehe, it was better not to mention it.

Chen Si-Qi was very happy to see Yun Duo. She held onto Yun Duo's arm and chattered on and on about the gossip in the entertainment circles. Ninety percent of girls liked to gossip<.< I wonder where the author is getting her stats from ..., and Yun Duo was naturally no exception. Listening to Chen Si-Qi's endless chatter, Yun Duo's dark mood from her day cleared up considerably. From Chen Si-Qi's descriptions, it seemed like the entertainment industry was populated with demons, ghosts, and monsters ... each with darker desires than the next. Gossip pieces such as 'debutante taken under the wing of a sugar daddy' was not at all up to standards, while 'male superstar took drugs in group orgy' was barely good enough for discussion. As Yun Duo listened, she could not help but exclaim, "Damn. When compared to those in your entertainment circles, our sports arena hunks are all as pure as angels!"

Chen Si-Qi took her phone out to show Yun Duo her work over the past few days. Some of the photos had been taken openly, others covertly. Chen Si-Qi provided Yun Duo with a running commentary as she scrolled through them, pointing out this person whose make-up was so thick she looked like a demon witch ... and that person who looked better in person compared to their photo ... and this other person who had a long torso but short legs, hehehe ...

Yun Duo then also brought out the fruits of her recent labour to share. She did not have many photos. Most of them were proper news images, not at all eye-catching. When she displayed them to Chen Si-Qi, she actually felt ashamed at not being able to provide anything better ...

Chen Si-Qi suddenly exclaimed, "Oh my god!"

This loud cry of hers drew the attention of countless people around them, but she herself was not at all concerned by this. Pointing at the phone, she asked, "This is Qi Rui-Feng, I know, but who's this? He's sooooo handsome!"

Yun Duo had almost been startled by Chen Si-Qi's outburst. However, Yun Duo was very satisfied with Chen Si-Qi's reaction. "This is Tang Yi-Bai."

"Also an athlete?"

"What nonsense are you asking ..." The photo in question was the candid shot Yun Duo was most proud of, and in it, Tang Yi-Bai was dressed in sportswear. Yun Duo then pulled out the group photo she had taken together with Tang Yi-Bai and the others. "His side profile was enough to shock you. I wonder if you'll end up crying from how handsome he is when you see his face from the front."

Chen Si-Qi clasped the phone tightly. "Oh oh oh! So handsome that I can't keep my legs closed!"

Yun Duo sweatdropped. "Hey, some decorum please!"

Chen Si-Qi flipped through the photos of Yun Duo and the four athletes, muttering to herself, "Not just Tang Yi-Bai is handsome, the others are also handsome, but still, my Tang Yi-Bai is the best-looking!"

"Your Tang Yi-Bai?"

Chen Si-Qi was indignant as she added, "Goddammit. I was just thinking why the men in the entertainment industry have all been getting stranger and stranger lately. So all the handsome men have gone to sports, have they?!"

Yun Duo was feeling rather smug. She felt even happier to hear Chen Si-Qi praising Tang Yi-Bai and his friends than if Chen Si-Qi were to praise her.

Chen Si-Qi's gaze settled on Tang Yi-Bai once more, and her expression was salacious to the extreme. "No wonder I thought he looked familiar. This is basically my husband who had been missing for many years!"

"... Hey!"

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Previous: Chapter 8: Long Legs Are Also a Problem
Next: Chapter 10: Teased Again!

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