Chapter 40

After that night, Yun Duo did not see Tang Yi-Bai for two weeks. She gradually calmed down, and she slept especially well every night after she changed to use her new sheets and covers. This made her even more convinced that her previous flustered emotions and accelerated heart rate were all just a momentary thing, the kind that would not last for long.

And yet, a corner in the depths of her heart seemed to have become occupied. A corner no one could see clearly, a corner no one could touch.

Sometimes, she really felt like seeing him, just to see his face and maybe chat a little. Yun Duo felt like this was very similar to how one misses an old friend. After all, she also often missed Chen Si-Qi.

One afternoon in late May, after Yun Duo was done with her interviews for the day, she went out for tea with Liang Ling-Chen.

And this was upon the invite of Liang Ling-Chen. Liang Ling-Chen highly suspected that if he did not seek out Yun Duo, Yun Duo would never have thought of reaching out to him on her own. This left him feeling rather defeated. He, Liang Ling-Chen, was not lacking in family standing, looks, education, or character. All this while, he had never been short of suitors. Why then, when it came to Yun Duo, did his charm become discounted?

Yun Duo was swamped with work, and after leaving work, she was still delayed for a bit due to office matters. By the time she arrived at the cafe they had agreed to meet at, Liang Ling-Chen had already been waiting for quite a while. Liang Ling-Chen gave her a cup of tea — it was at the perfect temperature. She was not particular, grandly gulping it down in one go.

Liang Ling-Chen smiled pleasantly.

After finishing the tea, Yun Duo said, "Sorry, big brother Ling-Chen. A newbie newer than me at the office was in some trouble, so I had to do some fire-fighting. Really sorry for keeping you waiting."

Liang Ling-Chen shook his head in response. "No need to be so polite with me. Besides, being late is a girl's privilege."

Frankly, Yun Duo did not like indulging in such privileges. She was always very punctual when meeting others. She stuck out her tongue and asked, "Big brother Ling-Chen, did you need my help for something?"

"Can't I meet you if I don't need any help?"

"Ha, well, it's not like that."

"But I do have something I wanted to tell you today." He smiled and, lifting two fingers, he gently pushed up the frameless glasses resting on the bridge of his nose. "Yun Duo, actually, when I first met you, it was completely just out of respect to the elders. I was planning to just meet with you at least once so I tell them I tried."

Yun Duo scratched her head and said with a grin, "It's about the same on my end."

"But after meeting you, I find that you're really my type, whether it be in terms of appearance or personality."

Yun Duo did not know how to respond, but Liang Ling-Chen pushed forwards and asked, "What about me then? How do you feel about me?"

She could only continue grinning. "Big brother Ling-Chen, you ... you're quite nice ..."

Liang Ling-Chen looked into her eyes, and said with a dry laugh, "So are you handing me the 'nice guy' card right now?"

Yun Duo did not know how to answer. Answering 'yes' or 'no' both seemed inappropriate?

Right then, her phone on the table buzzed twice. Yun Duo rushed to look at her notifications, using this move to defuse the faint awkwardness in the aftermath of the question.

Liang Ling-Chen cradled his teacup as he looked at her carefully. He saw her break into a smile. The smile was warm and bright, somewhat dazzling. But when had she ever turned such a smile on him before? No, never.

He sighed almost imperceptibly and asked, "What is it? Making you so happy?"

"It's Tang Yi-Bai," Yun Duo replied, smiling. She shook her phone. "He said he's going to Australia for training and will be tanned very dark at the beach. So when he comes back, he'll become Tang Yi-Hei唐一黑: As mentioned before, the 'Bai' in Tang Yi-Bai's name literally means 'white'. Here, Tang Yi-Bai is joking that the 'white' in his name should be changed to 'black' to match his tanned skin. Tang Yi-White --> Tang Yi-Black. XD."

Liang Ling-Chen chuckled in amusement as well, but after the amusement passed, he found himself rather surprised. Was this the Tang Yi-Bai he knew? As far as he knew, this younger cousin of his was especially remarkable for his maturity beyond his years, very calm and steady — it was very rare to see this cheeky and mischievous side of him.

Yun Duo put down her phone and Liang Ling-Chen poured her another cup of tea. As he poured, he asked, "Yun Duo, are you afraid that I will confess to you and ask you to be my girlfriend?"

Yun Duo was silent.

Liang Ling-Chen continued, "Don't worry. Before this, I did indeed have plans along those lines, but now, I have decided to give up."

Yun Duo secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Liang Ling-Chen was rather disappointed at her reaction. "Are you not at all curious why?"

"Uh ... why?"

"There's someone else inside your heart. There isn't any room for me for the time being."

Yun Duo gaped, staring at him in shock.

"So, I can only choose to give up before I fully fall for you," he said.

That night, Yun Duo received a message from Qi Rui-Feng.

Qi Rui-Feng: Next month, on the 6th, 4pm in the afternoon, I'll be boarding a flight to Brisbane. At that time, there'll be many fans coming to send me off. You're my fan so I must of course give you a heads up. No need to thank me.

Yun Duo: ..............

Yun Duo: Since I'm your fan, of course I would keep a close eye on your every move, so there's no need for you to remind me!

Qi Rui-Feng: ╭(╯^╰)╮

Yun Duo: Don't worry! I definitely won't go!

Qi Rui-Feng: ..................

Qi Rui-Feng: Tang Yi-Bai's going as well. We're headed for the same club for external training. We just have different coaches.

Yun Duo couldn't stand to see the words 'Tang Yi-Bai' right now — they somehow made her feel guilty. It was all Liang Ling-Chen's fault. Why did he have to be so astute and speak so frankly?! She hesitated, then finally asked Qi Rui-Feng: Why didn't Tang Yi-Bai tell me himself?

Qi Rui-Feng: He's afraid it would disturb your work.

Yun Duo: Aren't you worried about that?

Qi Rui-Feng: No. When it comes to work vs idols, of course idols are more important.

Yun Duo: -_-||| What refreshingly unusual values.

Qi Rui-Feng: So are you coming to send us off or not?

Yun Duo: I'll come! As your loyal fan, how can I not go? For my idol, I must go even if I get fired!

Qi Rui-Feng: Very good. That's how a fan of mine should act.

Yun Duo thought, 'This must be some evil cult ...'

On the 6th of June, Yun Duo went to the airport as promised. In order to emphasize her character as a hardcore fan, she made a sign with 'Qi Rui-Feng dominates the world forever and ever'. The sign was like a turret — not only was it very big, its content was grand and in-your-face. As soon as she took it out at the airport, she immediately attracted a lot of attention. At that instant, Yun Duo felt as if she were a fighter jet among hardcore fans, an existence much like the leader of a cult.

Qi Rui-Feng was not mistaken — there really were many fans here to send him off. However, among the crowd of Feng-fans, there were scattered groups of 'White-addicts' (Bai-fans)白粉儿: The word '粉' has multiple meanings, one of which refers to fans, as in the people who support an idol. So here, combining it with the '白' from Tang Yi-Bai, the created term is meant to refer to Tang Yi-Bai's fans. However, '粉' can also mean powder, and '白粉' (white powder) can be used to refer to drugs, notably heroin. This connotation is important for the upcoming lines, hence this translation. Please comment if you can think of a better alternative.... This sketchy sounding name was the title Tang Yi-Bai's fans had dubbed themselves — heaven knows what they had been thinking. According to senior White-addict Chen Si-Qi, whenever their fan group was shooting the breeze online on forums, they would often receive heavy monitoring and scrutiny from the site administrators. Yun Duo couldn't tell if Chen Si-Qi had been joking or not.

Out of occupational habit, Yun Duo randomly interviewed the two groups of fans before the main leads arrived. When she asked the Feng-fans why they liked Qi Rui-Feng, the fans replied "Because he's stupid" "He's such a Chuunibyou" "Oh, I'm an Mi.e. masochist" ... Yun Duo silently sweatdropped. She then turned to interview the Bai-fans, and the responses were "Handsome" "Handsome" "Handsome" ...

From this, Yun Duo came to a startling conclusion: Tang Yi-Bai was only attracting fans by the power of his face alone, and the one who was truly conquering fans with his personality was Qi Rui-Feng. Oh, heavens ...

They didn't have to wait for very long for the main leads to appear. Flowers, applause, screams, and waving signs — all of this was a given. Yun Duo's sign was the most dominant, and so she was the first to catch Qi Rui-Feng's eye.

Tang Yi-Bai was walking alongside Qi Rui-Feng, so he naturally saw her as well.

He saw the 'Qi Rui-Feng dominates the world forever and ever' sign in her hands. Qi Rui-Feng, Qi Rui-Feng, Qi Rui-Feng ... those words were like needles piercing his eyes.

The two of them stopped in front of Yun Duo, and Qi Rui-Feng nodded with satisfaction. "Well done."

Yun Duo used the sign as a shield before her body; it covered half her face. She did not pay any attention to Qi Rui-Feng, instead secretly sneaking a peek at Tang Yi-Bai. He was still so regal and dashing, his features handsome and refined.

The surrounding fans were very worked up. They pressed in around Yun Duo, making her sway left and right. It was very noisy, but she could still clearly hear the sound of her own heartbeat.

Ba-thump, ba-thump ...

Boo hoo hoo, it wasn't that long ago since they saw each other ... did she need to be so dazzled by him ...

Tang Yi-Bai was also looking back at her. His gaze was a bit resentful. Like a sudden lilt of flute song over a tranquil lake, faintly arresting, deeply plaintive.

Yun Duo kept her face half-hidden behind the sign but greeted him, "Hi."

"Why don't you have one for me?" In the end, he could not stop himself from asking.

Yun Duo cocked her head. "Huh?"

He pointed at the sign with Qi Rui-Feng's name.

"Cough, cough." Yun Duo was a little embarrassed. She explained, "I thought you liked keeping a low profile." Of course, that wasn't the main reason. She would never tell him that she had not made a sign for him out of bashfulness.

Many fans were crowding around them asking for their autographs. At first, Qi Rui-Feng was mainly the one being surrounded, but then the Bai-fans finally managed to squeeze through and swarm Tang Yi-Bai for his autograph.

"Here, here!" said an enthusiastic fan to Tang Yi-Bai, pointing at the notebook he was holding. "Please sign above Qi Rui-Feng."

What kind of strange request was this? Tang Yi-Bai was troubled. Purposefully signing his autograph above someone else's ... it felt like pushing that person down and lording over them? Tang Yi-Bai would never do such a thing to Qi Rui-Feng, so he very conservatively signed beside the other's signature.

Yun Duo giggled and said, "Luckily you didn't do as she asked."

"Why?"

She only grinned in silence. Some things just could not be mentioned. For example, if your name was above Qi Rui-Feng's, then that would become a talisman for the BaiRui shippersFor a recap of what BaiRui means, check out Chapter 22....

Tang Yi-Bai saw Yun Duo's grin and the irritation he had just managed to suppress reared up inside him once again. He shook his head and stretched out a hand towards her. "Give me your hand."

"???" This wasn't very appropriate in public like this, right...?

Seeing Yun Duo zoning out, Tang Yi-Bai went ahead and took her hand.

Swimmers tended to have large palms. Resting on his broad palm, her soft little hand was like a little boat parked on a lake. She ducked her head, her cheeks flushing with a burst of heat.

Tang Yi-Bai signed his name on her palm. When he was done, he said, "Remember, I like being high-profile."

Yun Duo stared dumbly as he turned and walked away. When his back disappeared from sight, she opened her hand and looked down at the three neat black words on her palm. She mused to herself, "Is this a sign that you will never be able to escape from my grasp?"

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Previous: Chapter 39
Next: Chapter 41

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